Shadow Monarch: Heroines Could Hear My Thoughts?!

Chapter 166- Serious Power-Up! (Part 2)

'This is really heavy! What the hell?!' Clenching his teeth, Rin used his whole strength to keep pushing the boulder forward.

Because of the steep slope in front of him, pushing it forward took way more strength than Rin anticipated. His fingers dug into the boulder aggressively to keep hold of it and with his two feet, he walked slowly forward.

The journey up has barely started and yet the hardships were present.

One meter, then 5 meters, and then 10 meters, Rin kept going up and up with Elise on the other side keeping up. The two were already sweating from the sheer physical strain on their arms and legs.

But, still, both of them were certain that they will be able to continue up. However, that was their grave mistake.

"Time to add snow," Emilia said as she somehow appeared on top of one of the mountain peaks.

Then, with a swing of her arm, a huge storm of ice manifested in front of her. The moving wind around it carrying ice particles was impressively strong yet also shining beautifully under the light of the sun.

Rin and Elise looked to the side and their faces grimaced visibly. A huge snowy storm was coming right toward them.

'Is master serious?! This is bad even as a joke!!' Rin thought as he felt his hair starting to flap around because of the gushes of air that reached him.

But, that didn't mean that he was going to stop, even if this was going to be hellishly hard, it was all a part of his training. If he was meant to fight against monsters like those from the cult, he needed to evolve and shed everything that linked him to his old self, strength-wise.

So, he took a deep breath before he turned to the boulder and put all of his strength into pushing it. Elise also followed suit.

'Good, you both know what to prioritize in such a situation. Strength comes to those who know what they need to focus on.'

*Swish*

The storm eventually reached them as it swiped away everything unfortunate enough to stand in its way. Rin's felt his body being pushed by the wind as his fingers started losing grip on the boulder.

'Ugh, fuck!' Clenching his teeth, he tried to keep his posture straight and rely on his legs to push forward. The storm, as big as it was, didn't cover the whole mountain chain so if he was able to reach a particular altitude, he was sure to get rid of the annoying wind playing with him.

But, he forgot another aspect that this storm had and it was ice. This particular ice that Emilia used wasn't normal at all, as Rin realized quickly.

'It's… slippery?!' He felt his legs giving out mid-walking so he looked down.

There, he could slippery ice accumulating under him and filling the whole path to the top. The snowstorm was somehow turning into ice the moment it made contact with the ground. It was the result of Emilia's great control and mastery over her element. It was an impressive sight to look at… If the two of them weren't struggling to keep themselves rooted to the ground.

The struggle continued for a while as neither of them made any noticeable progress visible to the eye. Unfortunately, that only drained their strength, and eventually…

*Crack*

Rin's fingers cracked the boulder as they slipped out.

"WOAAAH!!"

Even though he wasn't pulled by the storm, he had another, more pressing problem. Since the boulder is not supported by anything at the moment, it will only go back down the path. Or in other words, two tons of dense stone were about to crush Rin and Elise.

When they tried to jump away, they found their legs slipping so their only choice was to slide down ahead of the stone.

'Goddamit! This is stupid!'

Cursing his bad luck, Rin reached the ground again, followed by the huge boulder.

"Repeat! You won't stop until you push it to the peak! No rest!" Emilia shouted with a stern tone in her voice.

Following that, and for the next few hours, Rin and Elise went through hell and back. They kept pushing the boulder up the hill and then will end up thrown back to the ground by the ice.

The sheer pain they felt in their muscles was agonizing, to say the least. However, because of their mana regenerating constantly, they couldn't stop to rest as their bodies weren't 'completely' exhausted by the training.

During that period, Rin contemplated stopping more than once. He felt his mental strength waning faster than his physical strength. It was really mentally tolling to keep this much focus for hours and hours non-stop.

However, whenever he felt like that, something pops up in front of him that makes him forget the idea altogether.

[Host is exerting a huge amount of strength.]

[Muscle structure improving.]

[Strength is increasing…]

[Strength has increased from E to E+.]

[Agility has increased from E to E+.]

[Dexterity has increased from F+ to E-.]

The system kept telling him that his progress was calculated as a form of motivation or perhaps for another different reason. But, that constant increase in stats made the task, as hard as it was, more possible.

The reason for this explosive increase was that the system rewarded actual training more than the usage of points to increase stats. So, since Rin was doing an extremely hard exercise, the system was able to increase his stats quickly because of the sheer difficulty.

With each attempt they did, the boulders were pushed higher and higher. The progress was slow but noticeable.

Eventually, after an unknown amount of time, the two of them were able to push the boulders beyond the storm. The altitude they reached was so high that the air in that place was so thin and barely even breathable from how cold it was.

However, compared to the storm, this place was a breeze. But, Emilia wasn't going to let them have any easier time in whatever was left for them from the journey.

'I'm doing well! My arms are sore but I can continue! I can reach the peak!' Rin celebrated quietly while keeping his focus completely on the task at hand.

But, suddenly, his body slumped down for a second as he groaned in pain. He felt a new weight pushing down on his whole body.

"T-The suit!"

Because of the intense training, Rin had completely forgotten about the suit that he was wearing. He has even grown so accustomed to it that he barely could discern the weight added on him.

However, now that Emilia had increased it, he realized the huge problem he was in. His body was exhausted already but with that on top, he felt his legs shaking visibly, threatening to stop moving any second.

'No! You dumb fuck!! Come on!' He cursed as he exerted his full power.

His muscles flexed violently as his veins almost popped out of his skin from the tension. But, for better or worse, Rin was able to continue and so was Elise. The two of them knew that getting here was already a great achievement and so they won't let this opportunity slip from their hands.

And that's what exactly happened, with much tenacity, the two of them were able to somehow reach the top. When that happened, both of them slumped down on the ground as they heaved up and down.

Rin felt the world around him rolling as he looked at the sky with a dazed expression. He was extremely exhausted. His arms were numb and his legs were pulsating hard.

'I-I did it…' He thought to himself as he was about to crack a winning smile. But, Emilia appeared beside him out of nowhere and looked down with her usual cold look.

"Good, you two did an amazing job. The first climb was successful." She said.

Hearing that, Rin's eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

"T-The first what?" He asked in total disbelief.

"The first climb out of 100 was great. There are still 99 more to go." Emilia explained casually.

"99?!!"

'No! This must be a joke! Do I have to do that again 99 more times?! Is she trying to kill us!' Rin despaired visibly. His current state didn't help to calm him down.

Now, even though he gained a lot of strength from this, he was certain that Emilia wasn't going to keep the difficulty fixed.

'She must be a sadist! Yes, she's enjoying our suffering!' Rin closed his eyes.

"You have one hour to rest and then we will continue. The training will end when you finish ten more climbs." Emilia added as she looked at the sky. The sun was shining brightly in the middle of the sky.

It was still early afternoon even after everything that happened.

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