Ding.
System
Quest information has been changed!
Repeat Quest Fire King’s Inferno Training-1 has been created!
System
Quest Fire King’s Hellfire Training-1 has been completed!
You acquired a substantial amount of EXP!
Level Up!
You acquired 30 Bonus Points!
System
Extreme Training!
Endless effort never betrays you!
Strength, Stamina, and Agility have increased by 1 each!
Muscles and Bones and Sinews and Meridians have increased by 2 each!
System
Quest Fire King’s Inferno Training-1 has been created!
You cannot refuse this Quest!
System
You have taken Fire King’s Special Restriction Pill.
You feel full!
Agility decreases by 100!
Strength decreases by 100!
Stamina decreases by 100!
You cannot use internal energy!
The effects will last for one week!
System
Pressure-Point Strike has worn off!
You awaken from sleep!
I opened my eyes as the System notifications appeared.
The first things I saw were the waves of branches rippling far below in the night wind and the stars scattered across the pitch-black sky. Cold, hard rock pressed against my back.
I’m outside.
I’d expected as much. Even a preschooler could have guessed that Jeok Cheongang wouldn’t lay me down on a soft duck-down bed.
Besides, my body was sturdy enough to sleep anywhere.
Then why does my body feel so heavy?
Had I been pushing myself too hard lately?
System or not, apparently I was still human after all.
Maybe it was the fifteen-day forced march. My body felt as heavy as if I had an iron ball hanging from it…
Clank.
“Huh?”
Clank?
I turned toward the sound.
Manacles had been fastened tightly around my wrists and ankles, with chains connecting each of them to an iron ball.
“…They really are iron balls.”
What the hell was this?
My brain stopped working for a few seconds. Who was I? Where was I?
And why were these ridiculous things locked onto my limbs?
The answer came quickly. It was an easier question than one plus one.
“Fire King!”
The shout burst from me like a thunderclap.
Smack!
“Ah!”
“What an insolent little bastard.”
Jeok Cheongang, who had nailed me in the back of the head with a pebble, ambled toward me with his feet splayed.
“How dare you throw around my epithet in my presence? Am I your friend?”
I sprang to my feet after rolling across the rock in pain.
Clank.
“What is this?”
“That? An iron ball.”
“I wasn’t asking because I didn’t know what it was.”
“Then why ask when you already know?”
“…”
“From now on, these will be your arms and legs. They are training tools passed down through the Fire Gate Clan for generations, so treat them like your own children.”
I was a virgin bachelor who had never even been in a relationship, let alone married, and he was talking about children?
Dumbfounded, I grabbed one of the chains attached to the iron balls and pulled.
Rattle.
I heard metal scraping and felt the tremendous weight behind it.
They were heavy enough that even a decent First Rate martial artist wouldn’t be able to remain standing while wearing them.
“These are training tools passed down through the clan for generations?”
“Did this old man not just say so?”
“How much do they weigh?”
“Not much. About two hundred geun?”1
“…”
“Oh, and that isn’t their combined weight. Each one weighs two hundred geun.”1
Two hundred geun came to 120 kilograms even by modern standards.1
With such monstrous things fastened to all four of my limbs, the total weight was…
About five hundred kilograms.2 Half a ton.
I thought for a moment, then opened my mouth.
“Have you gone senile?”
“…You really will say anything, won’t you?”
I’d said it knowing I would probably get hit, but for some reason, that was the extent of Jeok Cheongang’s reaction.
He stared at me with a complicated expression for a moment before continuing.
“Regardless, you’ll live with those iron balls chained to you from now on. During training, of course, but also while sleeping and eating.”
“Hmm.”
“It’s all part of your training.”
“You’re serious?”
“If you don’t believe me, quit. I won’t bother seeing you off.”
Jeok Cheongang turned away without hesitation, and I hurriedly called after him.
“W-wait!”
“What? I thought you didn’t want to do it.”
“I haven’t even answered yet. You can’t just walk away.”
“So what’s your answer?”
“Well…”
Damn it. This is a serious internal conflict.
But once the initial shock of seeing the iron balls wore off, my mind gradually settled.
It’s not impossible.
I had made it this far after narrowly escaping death dozens of times.
The world wasn’t easy. To receive a reward, you had to pay a corresponding price. That was true in the Murim and in the modern world.
Everyone—not just me—lived through an endless series of Quests.
And…
If this were enough to make me turn back, I never would’ve come this far.
Compared to the fruit I would harvest in the future, this was a bargain.
Having made my decision, I met Jeok Cheongang’s gaze.
“Fine. I’ll do it.”
“I can’t hear you.”
“I said I’ll do it!”
“Ha-ha-ha! Good!”
A smile spread across Jeok Cheongang’s wrinkled lips.
What a sly old man.
He had acted as if he didn’t care either way, but I had known all along that deep down, he wanted me too.
“So what do I start with?”
“You want to begin right away?”
“They say to strike while the iron is hot. If I’m doing this anyway, I might as well start now.”
“You do have a bold streak. But first, you need to eat.”
“What? Why all of a sudden?”
“Do you think training means starving yourself? You need something in your stomach before you can accomplish anything worthwhile.”
I caught the object Jeok Cheongang pulled from inside his robe and tossed to me.
Under the faint moonlight, I peeled away the damp Korean paper to reveal a fasting pill3 with a reddish cast.
“You should’ve given me jerky instead.”
“Stop complaining and eat it. That isn’t an ordinary fasting pill.3 It was made using a secret Fire Gate Clan method.”
“What does it do?”
“It’s superior in every respect, but…”
“This stuff makes my stomach feel so bloated. Just looking at it kills my appetite now.”
“It’s especially good for your virility.”
“Wow. My mouth’s watering just looking at it.”
“…”
“I’ll enjoy the meal!”
If it was good for virility, I had to eat it. Even if I had no immediate use for it, I still had to eat it.
Thinking of the future, I chewed the fasting pill3 thoroughly and swallowed it.
Jeok Cheongang watched me intently before asking, “Finished?”
“Yes, Old Master.”
“Well? Feel anything?”
“I’m not sure. I think my sperm count may have gone up a little…”
Jeok Cheongang frowned at my answer and muttered, “Strange. Has it been sitting around so long that the medicine lost its potency?”
“Huh?”
What the hell was he talking about?
The moment I blurted out the question—
Ding.
“…Huh?”
It happened without warning.
The instant the System notification appeared, strength drained from my arms and legs, and my breathing grew short.
Finally, the internal energy flowing steadily through the minor meridians throughout my body descended into my dantian. Then it became completely immobile, as though something had bound it in place.
“Guh!”
Thud!
With all my strength gone at once, my body, which had somehow been supporting the iron balls, sagged.
The half-ton weight2 pressing down on my entire body made my knees buckle.
“What the hell is this?”
“Heh-heh. The medicine is finally taking effect.”
I stared at Jeok Cheongang, who was letting out a sinister laugh, with my jaw hanging open.
“What the hell did you do, you crazy old man?”
“What did you call me? A crazy old man?”
“Gasp. No, that’s not what I meant.”
“Let’s see… Yes, that should do nicely for your first training exercise.”
As soon as he finished speaking, he extended a wrinkled palm toward me.
An immense flow of qi filled the air. The fierce wind abruptly changed direction and began swirling around him.
A flash of insight struck me.
There’s a cliff below this, isn’t there?
I hurriedly glanced back. The view below the rock was dizzying.
If I fell from here with these insane iron balls attached to me…
“W-wait!”
“Wait for what? Weren’t you the one who said we should strike while the iron was hot?”
“But that was—!”
“Too late.”
Fwoosh!
Compressed air exploded from Jeok Cheongang’s palm. The blast of fist wind, powerful enough to uproot rocks and trees, became a giant’s fist and slammed into me.
Against that powerful wind, even several hundred kilograms of iron balls2 were useless.
Boom!
Ah, shit.
The next moment, the ground vanished beneath my feet, and I was flung into the air.
Through my upside-down vision, I saw Jeok Cheongang waving at me with a broad grin.
“You have one shichen4 to make it back up. If you’re even fifteen minutes late, you fail.”
Ding.
“This is fucking bullsh—!”
Before I could finish speaking, gravity bore down on my entire body.
As I plummeted like a streak of light, there was only one thing I could say.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaah!”
My terrified scream shook Mount Jiuhua, submerged in darkness.
Splash—
Far below the sheer cliff, Jeok Cheongang let out a quiet laugh at the sound of water echoing up from below.
A memory from his youth had suddenly come to mind.
“Master! Save me!”
“I’m counting to three. Let go. Three.”
“Please! If I fall from here, your Disciple will die!”
“Two.”
“Master!”
“One.”
His Master had been merciless—harsh enough to seem excessive toward a child who still had baby fuzz on his face.
But without such harsh instruction, neither the Fire Gate Clan of today nor Fire King Jeok Cheongang would exist.
I’ll put you through exactly what I endured… No, I’ll push you even harder.
Jin Taekyung didn’t know it, but Jeok Cheongang did.
They did not have much time.
There was no time to teach him everything gradually, one step at a time.
The heavenly patterns5 Hong Dao had foreseen told him as much, as did Jeok Cheongang’s current condition.
Hold out until then. This old man will do his best as well.
Jeok Cheongang gazed down the mountain for some time, his eyes unfathomably deep. Then he suddenly muttered, “…Perhaps I shouldn’t have put the iron balls on him.”
He had never imagined that the object meant to restrain criminals of the Fire Gate Clan would be used for something like this.
“Hngh. Hnnnngh!”
Grrrnk. Grrrnnngh.
With every step I took, the ground that had only just begun to thaw sank beneath me. Deep trenches formed in my wake.
But I was used to it by now. Sweat poured off me as I continued up the steep mountain path.
“Huff, huff.”
Ding.
Even a drizzle will soak you through eventually, so these stat increases, though small, helped more than you might think.
If only I didn’t have these fucking iron balls! If only it weren’t for that damn restriction pill!
Without either one, I would have completed the Quest long ago.
But my most important internal energy was restricted, my physical stats had each dropped by 100, and the tremendous weight had been added on top of that. I had no way to endure it.
To top it all off, the time limit was only one shichen.4
Shit. Mount Jiuhua isn’t some little hill behind the neighborhood.
It was so grueling that I had even considered breaking the chains connecting the iron balls.
That was before I learned they were made of Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron.
They used this stuff for chains? Were they insane?
In the end, I had no choice but to keep going through sheer stubbornness and grit.
One day, two days, three days, four days…
And finally, today—ten days later.
Ding.
With about fifteen minutes left before the deadline, I finally reached the summit.
Thud!
“Yaaaaaah!”
I let the heavy iron balls crash to the ground and released a roar from the depths of my lungs.
The sound startled Jeok Cheongang, who had been nodding off against a rock. He jolted awake.
“W-what happened?”
Damn old man. He was always going on about how martial artists shouldn’t waste time sleeping, yet he slept like a baby while I was going through hell?
Grinding my teeth, I walked toward him.
“Can’t you tell by looking? I climbed Mount Jiuhua within one shichen.4 I succeeded!”
“Huh? Why are you climbing Mount Jiuhua?”
“What?”
Jeok Cheongang blinked, then hastily shook his head.
“Ah, no. You did pretty well.”
“And?”
“It seems you’re ready for the next stage. I’ve already made the preparations, so take care of it yourself.”
I turned my head toward where his finger was pointing.
Propped against a massive rock was a vest—a huge, incredibly thick vest made of iron.
My fingertips began to tremble despite myself.
“…Is this what I think it is?”
“What were you thinking?”
“That I’m supposed to put this on and repeat exactly what I’ve been doing until now.”
“You rascal. What a joke.”
“Right? Wow, you scared the hell out of me.”
“Ha-ha. What an adorable imagination you have.”
Jeok Cheongang chuckled with the amiable smile of a kindly neighborhood grandfather, then continued.
“If you’ve managed one thing, you should accomplish at least two the next time. Come to think of it, one shichen4 was far too generous.”
“What?”
“I’ll give you half a shichen.4 Hurry up, pick it up, put it on, and get back here.”
“…”
Ding.
Footnotes
-
A geun is a traditional Korean unit of weight equal to about 600 g (1.32 lb). Two hundred geun is about 120 kg (265 lb). ↩ ↩2 ↩3
-
The four iron balls weigh about 500 kg (1,100 lb) in total. ↩ ↩2 ↩3
-
A fasting pill, or byeokgokdan, is a food-substitute pill in martial arts fiction. ↩ ↩2 ↩3
-
A shichen is a traditional time unit of approximately two hours; half a shichen is about one hour. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5
-
Heavenly patterns refers to celestial patterns studied for signs of major changes and omens. ↩
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