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2022-03-08 17:45:35The old man raised his head, exposing his bloodshot eyes. “Freedom… My freedom… A bud of hope has come. For it to find this place… it’s truly a whit of wonder.” He sounded deranged and somewhat mentally-challenged.
“Don’t kill me, please!” Edgar desperately said. He wasn’t in a position to patiently observe this scary, hairy old guy who would perfectly fit a villain in the stories his mother and sister always told him. “I have a lot more things to do in this life!”
“If you don’t want to die,” the old man’s voice was hoarse, “then promise me that you’ll destroy this rock and break these chains for me.”
“Eh?” Edgar was startled. “I’m too weak for that. Look. I’m struggling to peel even a banana.” He showed the banana in his hand which was still unpeeled.
“Fool. You think I expect a weakling like you to break these chains?” he squeezed Edgar’s waist, causing him to howl in pain.
“No! Please! Ah!” Edgar screamed and begged. “Forgive this fool.”
“Hmph!” the old man loosened the grip of his hair. “You’re too weak to break these damned chains. Even if I raise your strength to an extent, it’s still not possible to break these things that have kept me here for years.”
“Then…” Edgar’s voice was trembling, “what do you want me to do?”
“Where’s sir?” he enlarged his eyes, making his eyes look like fiery pits of hell.
“S-Sorry,” Edgar lowered his back. “What do you want me to do, sir?”
“Hmph!” his snort was powerful enough to blow a blast of air in Edgar’s face. “All you need to do is find a person and tell him that I’m being held here.”
“B-But I can’t leave this place. If you don’t already know, we are in the valley of…” as he was saying, the old man narrowed his eyes, and Edgar shut his mouth.
“I know you’re as weak as an ant, no, probably a bit stronger physically,” the old man indifferently said. “But with some training, I can raise your strength to that of an elephant in a year. And if you follow the instructions I give you, then you can get out of this place relatively safely.”
“Really?” Edgar’s eyes lit up.
“This great old saint never lies,” he let go of Edgar. “If you’re willing, then go fill your belly with fruits. If not, then… just get out of my eyes before I change my mind.”
Edgar stood right where he was, while looking at the old man. “Hey, old man, why were—”
He received a blood-curdling glare.
“I mean, sir, why were you sealed like this?” Edgar asked. “Who did this to you? Something so inhumane…”
“That’s not important. Go and eat first.”
“It is important. If you’re a bad guy, and I help you get out, then won’t that make me a bad guy?”
“Hmph! You think you’re in a position to force your opinions on others?” the old man’s hair raised and thrust through Edgar’s shoulder, making him scream in pain. “You have no choice but to listen to me.”
Edgar narrowed his eyes and gritted his teeth.
“What’s with that look?” Some of the hair wrapped around Edgar’s throat and lifted him up. “You thought I’ll be a good mentor because I need you? Beg for your life, and I’ll consider letting you down.”
“So, you’re a bad guy,” Edgar coughed out words as he was being choked. “I’d rather die than help scum like you!”
The old man was startled. (What a strong resolve!) The old man increased the pressure on his throat. “Then die!”
“Gwuha!” Edgar spilled blood, and he felt totally powerless against the old man. Soon, his consciousness faded away.
Some time later.
Edgar woke up only to find himself still breathing. He looked at the old man who was still glaring at him without blinking. “Why didn’t you kill me?” he asked.
“Listen to me carefully, you shitty brat,” the old man stressed his words, adding anger into every word. “I was put here by bad people. They’ve killed my family, my friends, and my people right in front of my eyes. I don’t deserve to be put here. No one deserves to spend eternity in this darkness. This is too much to take.”
The corner of Edgar’s mouth curled down as he could relate to the old man about spending time in the darkness. “Why didn’t they kill you then?”
“That…” the old man sniffled a bit. “They wanted me to suffer forever, that’s why.”
A few seconds of silence passed.
“Alright, old man… Old sir, I’ll believe your story for now,” Edgar was rubbing his throat as it still hurt, “but don’t blame me if I change my mind after I go outside and know about you.”
“I’m fine with that,” the old man seemed to have gained some glow in his face. “So that means, you’ve agreed, right?”
Edgar slightly nodded and then looked around. “By the way, how did I get here? There doesn’t seem to be any tunnels leading to this place.”
“Ah, actually, I don’t know that either,” the old man said. “When I woke up, you’re here.”
“Eh?” Edgar was slack-jawed. “You don’t know?”
“You worry about practicing, and let me worry about getting you out of here,” assured the old man.
Edgar was pondering, but then his stomach grumbled aloud. His shoulders flailed. “I’m so hungry. Can I go and eat now?”
“Of course. But I’d suggest that you first have some water. Your body needs it more than food.” While the old man was saying, Edgar hurriedly picked up the banana he previously let go of. This time, instead of using his fingers, he used his teeth, and to his relief, his teeth were able to dig through the skin and peel the fruit, though it wasn’t easy. “Well, bananas have some water content, too. So, it’s not a bad start. But if you don’t chew them long enough, you’re going to get hiccups—”
Edgar spat the banana out straight away. “Ew, this tastes like shit.”
The old man didn’t say anything. Those who put him here ensured to give him food to keep him alive, but they also ensured that neither the food nor the water would ever taste well.
Though the fruit tasted horrible, Edgar was too hungry to keep caring about its taste. He bit a big piece and tried to swallow it at once.
Edgar didn’t start to suffer from hiccups, but the big banana piece stuck in his throat, and no matter what he did, it wasn’t coming out or going down. Crying helplessly, he immediately ran to the pool and dipped his face in the water, without even asking if they were drinkable or not. To his luck, the water worked wonders. Every bit of his skin that came into contact with the water absorbed it, and soon, the banana slid down his throat.
The old man faintly snorted in annoyance. “Bright in the heart, but not so much in the brain… These types of people make life tough for themselves and everyone around them.”
Meanwhile, the tunnel that Edgar had fallen through was long closed by some of the old man’s hair and broken rock.
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WHIT 05 - TYRRANICAL TRAINING
“Stop this!” Edgar howled in pain as stones kept smashing him all over his body. Even though he tried to block the stones with his self-made wooden sword, the stones were too fast, and there were too many of them coming from every direction. What’s more, the banana peels were spread out everywhere in the chamber. He had already slipped many times on them and hurt his nose and chin. “How can I fight like this? Forget about fighting, ugh, I might hit my head and die if this goes on!” “Then become a cockroach!” the old man indifferently said. “What?” “A cockroach may fall on its back and stay that way for hours on end, but it doesn’t give up the idea of getting back to its feet. Not that it doesn't know what it means to give up on its life, but it just doesn’t!” “
WHIT 06 - TIRING MONTH
The chamber was quite big, so Edgar had many places to hide, be it behind the boulders or pillars or in the smelly foliage and whatnot. Currently, Edgar was hiding behind a boulder, his back resting against it. He was eating a banana, and his eyes were closing at the same time. He hadn’t slept in a long time. The hairy silhouettes were inspecting potential hiding spots, one by one, so Edgar didn’t get much of a time to hide at one spot. He kept changing places and sometimes he got caught, leaving him with the only option, which was to fight. And every time his location was found out, the old man would laugh mockingly and send all the silhouettes to that location. Then an all-out brawl would break out. Everytime, it ended up with Edgar getting utterly lashed and trounced. The hairy soldiers were anything but weak. Each strand of hair was exceptionally tough an
WHIT 07 - CUTTING THINGS
After striking the banana tree’s trunk for more than a thousand times, Edgar fell back. “This isn't easy.” His palms turned blood-red, and he couldn’t even clench the sword tightly. Though he was tired, he was also afraid that if he let go of the sword, he might not be able to hold it again, so he held onto it. “How can a banana tree be so sturdy?” “Brute force isn’t everything. Cognizance plays a role in success, too,” the old man said, “and so is hunger. It requires the combination of all ingredients to make a curry. For Drive, you need more than just brute strength. And depending on how you use the ingredients, your Drive’s character and range of control will change. And there will be times when you’ll run out of drive, so you’ve gotta rely on other things such as enhancing your base bodily strength and senses or absorbing an elemental ability and what not. The deeper and diverse your pool of power is,
WHIT 08 - BUD OF HOPE
Many months later. His hair fully grown, Edgar was standing calmly, wearing an underwear made from stitching tree roots and leaves, for his clothes long perished in the heat of the battles. In groups, fifty stones came flying at Edgar from different directions. He blocked more than two dozen stones in a streak, but when the stones began to strike his body, his body leaked out a red energy, and his speed increased at once. With a single sweep of his arm, he stopped numerous stones at once coming from many directions, while gyrating on his feet like a dancer. In three simple steps, he destroyed all the remaining rocks before they got to him. However, the dozen hairy soldiers that were in stand by now made their move. A ferocious fight broke out as each part showed no mercy. Unlike in the past, Edgar’s sword was now
WHIT 09 - WALK THROUGH THE VALLEY
Two days later. There was a tiny light deep in the valley, in one of the dark rifts. “I haven’t come across any weapons or dead bodies with rings, or creatures other than worms. What’s going on? Where are the vipers?” As Edgar traveled through a narrow rift between two rocky structures, a python slithered its way through desperately, seemingly looking to eat him. Thanks to that glowing stone he wore as a necklace, he was able to see it coming pretty comfortably. He was no longer holding any food items, and the bronze plate was half stuck in his underwear on the back. “Mm? That doesn’t look like a viper? Is it a python? Looking at its speed, it's taking me for an easy kill…” he readied the sword, but to his surprise, a bigger snake came from behind and swallowed the python bit by bit until it was fully gone. This
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WHIT 11 - BATTLE TO DEATH
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WHIT 12 - A CORE THAT CRIPPLED HIM
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273 - CRAZY BEAUTIFUL GIRL
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272 - CLOSED BOOK
Edgar woke up, only to find himself in a pool of mud. He could feel that he was being healed by fish that were swimming in the mud and were nibbling at his skin.At first sight, it might look like they were eating him, but they were actually taking away the negative energy from his body, though he was not able to feel that.Edgar tried to grab one of those fishes, but they turned into pure mud, pleasantly surprising him.He looked at Fabby who was sitting in the distance, by the cliff. “What are these fishes, sis?”“Elder Gavin made them with his drive. He said they can suck away impurities from your body and make you stronger,” Fabby explained. “He said even your drive will get smoother and faster afterward. Also, the negative effect the beast cores have on our bodies can also be reversed, or so he said.”“Such a thing is possible with drive?” Edgar was both surprised and doubtful. “These fish are biting me, but I don’t feel any pain.”“Yeah. Just stay there until all those fish are
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271 - DAY BY DAY
The eagle brought the siblings to a mountain range and dropped them next to Gavin who was weaving gloves with drive.He wasn’t surprised to see the position the siblings were in.“Here,” Gavin handed the gloves to the eagle, and it put the gloves on its feet and then screeched in happiness.“Haha, you like them, huh,” Gavin smiled. “They are durable as I knit them with my drive. So, don’t lose them.”Scree~!The eagle replied in a confident voice and then began to walk around happily in its new footwear.“They look like gloves, but they should be called socks, I guess?” Gavin wondered. “Ah, well, whatever…”Gavin then looked at the siblings, out of whom only Fabby was still conscious. She was trying to sit up, and it was taking her a while.“You don’t seem to have any external injuries. You are probably tired from using too much energy,” Gavin said. He sent a bullet of energy into her forehead, which didn’t hurt her but went straight into her brain and melted into it. This suddenly ga
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270 - A DIFFERENCE TOO BIG
“Surfing Strike!’ Edgar’s foot viciously struck Ryu’s face and sent him flying high like a rotating paper fan. Any normal person would have had their head separated from their shoulders from that kick, but Ryu’s neck was flexible as well as sturdy as rubber.Ryu grabbed his head and stopped it from spinning before somersaulting and landing in the distance.“Huh?” Fabby was quite shocked by it. “Why is he not dead? Is he even human?”“His body is a bit special, you see,” Anarga smirked and then looked at Ryu. “But, hey, how could you get hit by that brat like that? You should be glad that there isn’t anyone else around, or it would have brought such shame.”Blood leaked from Ryu’s ruptured upper lip. He licked it and faintly smiled. “It’s been a while since I tasted my own blood.” His eyes turned red.“Oh, crap…” Anarga skipped backward. “You guys brought a disaster on yourself. When he goes into that frenzy mode, he’s unstoppable. Even I wouldn’t dare stand next to him because he can
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269 - KNIGHT OF NIGHT
Anarga squeezed Edgar’s chest down, but when Edgar saw Ryu step toward his sister, he uttered, “Thunder Knight…”The ground beneath them cracked, and the air around them crackled. The very cliff itself vibrated in resonance with Edgar’s heartbeat.Anarga lost her balance just for a second. A double-edged lightning spear appeared in Edgar’s hand, and he thrust it right through her abdomen.She thought it would leave a hole in her, but it didn’t. However, it then electrocuted her to the point her clothes were half-burnt, and she looked like a semi-roasted grizzly bear.Ryu immediately clawed through the middle section of the spear and then took Anarga and jumped a few feet away. “How could you be so careless?”Anarga fell on one of her knees. Blood leaked from both corners of her mouth, even though she tried not to leak any blood.“Does it hurt that much?” Ryu asked.She gave him a glare.“I see…” Ryu then looked at Edgar, who was rising off the ground without the use of his hands, as th
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268 - DRAGON THAT DEVOURS ALL FLAMES
Anarga’s body went into the rock, causing cracks all around her to spread for over thirty feet.Ryu’s feet were still locked by the earthen boots that Fabby had created, but he forcefully broke through them and whipped his leg at Edgar. “Dragon Knock!”“Ngh!” Edgar raised his left arm and blocked the kick with his forearm.Ryu’s foot forced its way through Edgar’s flame drive and struck his forearm and hit a nerve, sending a jolt of shock through to Edgar’s brain. On top of that, Edgar’s forearm got dislocated near the elbow.Ryu’s kick still sent a gust of energy over into the distance, which ended up blasting away a part of the cliff, shocking Fabby and Edgar.Fabby’s heart shook at that moment because if Edgar hadn’t deflected that kick, he wouldn’t have just got his arm dislocated. It was Edgar’s hunter-like instinct of parrying the kick at the last second was what saved him from experiencing a crushing defeat.Ryu didn’t even use drive. Whether he could even use drive or not, Edg
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267 - HOTTER THAN FIRE
“Is this the best you can do?” Ryu said disappointedly. “I know you can do better, bald brat.” He treated Edgar as nothing more than a kid because he was much older than him. “Why don’t you show me what you got, or I’ll kill this bald girl.”Edgar, who was bleeding profusely from the chest, felt his soul stirring madly after hearing Ryu’s words.“Don’t listen to him,” Fabby said in a low voice. “We are not their match. Fighting them will only put us at a disadvantage. And there’s no one else here to stop the fight in case things go bad. It doesn’t benefit us in any way no matter how I look at it. Moreover, you are already badly injured.”Fabby’s words made total sense, but there was one thing that she didn’t consider. Edgar just couldn’t digest let alone accept the fact that Anarga Utsav had used her wind attack and pushed Fabby off the cliff. What if Fabby died from that?Edgar utterly disliked Anarga as well as Ryu. He didn’t want them to leave with a sense of victory.“Sis,” Edgar
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266 - PERSONAL MISSION
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265 - LOVE AND DUTY
Coming back to the present.The eagle had no idea who Edgar was, so Fabby had to do all the work except for flying. “Where is he?”She was worried for many reasons.The eagle even flew over the colosseum grounds, and she shouted for him, “Are you there, Eddie?”“Who’s that?” some masters and disciples wondered as she wasn’t clearly visible from below. “How rude of her to be flying over this place when the competition is still going on?”“He’s not here, either,” Fabby told the eagle to keep flying.As she kept looking around, she noticed someone bathing in an open pond. Just when she looked at him, he also looked up. She remembered his face mask. This was the same guy she met in a cave not long ago.Numo was not wearing a shirt right now, and his body was pristine white. It wasn’t muscular, but it still looked athletic and toned. It was very attractive, especially because he was a tall man.“Ahem,” Fabby looked away.After the eagle flew out of his sight, Numo continued rubbing his body
