Book 1-5.8 The Current World
“No, that’s not it. According to
my master, there is no end to learning. The moment you think it is done,
something new to learn shows up.”
Luff squatted down next to Yulian and spoke while drawing a weird diagram on the ground.
“Ah!
So that’s how it is. I’ve faced many bottlenecks because my master has
gone on a trip, but listening to Luff-nim, there’s something I’ve
figured out.”
Yulian also started to draw some squiggly lines while responding, and Luff started to smile while looking at the picture.
“Is
there anything else you want to ask? I’ve been here for way too long.
Even when I ask Mai to go out, he says no. But if I go out on my own,
Mai will be in danger. That’s why I cannot go out on my own. So having
you here makes it more fun.”
Because Chun Myung Hoon had not
returned for two years, the progress speed of Yulian’s training has
almost completely stalled, making him frustrated.
For Luff, he had been in the cave already for five years, and was extremely bored.
In
the beginning, Mai wanted Yulian to stay just a few days for Luff. He
thought that Yulian speaking with Luff might help Luff to regain his
memory.
Yulian could not reject Mai’s request as Mai knew how to get out of there.
How things have changed. Now it was rather Yulian who wanted to stay here longer.
The things Yulian could not ask because Chun Myung Hoon was not around, Luff was able to easily answer.
Yulian
got excited as the bottlenecks he had been facing were asked and
answered one by one, and sparring with Luff, he started to realize his
own strengths and weaknesses.
Luff found it to be entertaining and
worked hard to answer as many questions Yulian had as he could, and
that led to the two of them becoming very friendly with each other.
From
the beginning, Mai could not understand what they were talking about,
and even though Haisha knew some of the basics after being taught by
Yulian, the level of discussion was so high that he did not have any
enlightenment.
Thinking that too many days were going by, Yulian
asked Mai to let Haisha return first to make sure the tribe can stop
worrying about them.
Mai created a magic circle to send Haisha
back, and once Haisha was gone, Yulian could finally stop worrying about
the tribe and focus on sparring with Luff to train himself.
About
one month since arriving at this location. Yulian felt the need to
leave. Although he wanted to continue to stay with Luff to spar and
learn more, if he stayed too long, even if he was safe, his family would
be worried, and even Red Storm’s training and situation would be
disturbed.
When Yulian shared his thoughts with Mai, Mai nodded his head as if to say he understood.
“I’m sorry, I kept you imprisoned here for too long for my own greed.”
During
this past month, Yulian had also gotten close with Mai, and since Mai
was close to ten years older than Yulian, he had no problem speaking
casually to Yulian.
“Not at all. I stayed because I wanted to. But Luff-nim still….?”
“He’s gotten much better. Haven’t you noticed that he talks a lot more now? Although that does make me a little more tired.”
Yulian
could see Mai’s face that was slightly smiling was full of fatigue. He
had asked Mai what he was doing countless times over the past month, but
each time, Mai just smiled and avoided the question.
“You look very tired.”
Listening to Yulian’s concern for his well-being, Mai waived his hand no and answered.
“It’s something I do everyday. It’s also something that needs to get done.”
“Just what is it that you are doing in there?”
Mai
was about to avoid answering the question again before something popped
up in his head. If there is such a pathway in the desert, someone else
might show up here making things complicated.
“I have a favor to ask of you.”
“Please ask.”
“The quicksand that you fell through. Is there no way to completely close off that entrance?”
“Truthfully
speaking, the chance of someone falling through there is pretty low.
There are many monsters in the Monster’s Desert, and this is somewhere
with quite a few large monsters as well. As such, you may find one
person who walks through here a month. In addition, since this is a
quicksand that does not flow on the outside, it’ll just look like the
rest of the sand when you look at it. So if we tried to hide the
entrance, it’ll just make it more eye-catching. So you probably don’t
have to worry about anybody else coming in here.”
“If it is meant
to happen, no matter how impossible it seems, it is going to happen. The
people that I am facing against are those type of people. That will end
up a key weakness of this place. Sigh~.”
Yulian was curious about
who Mai was worried about facing, even with all of his magnificent
abilities. He also could not understand what Mai was doing that put him
on the edge like this.
Mai let out a long sigh before looking at Yulian and speaking.
“I said something I shouldn’t have.”
“If it is something I can help with, I want to help you.”
“Hmm……, since you say you are a desert warrior, I may end up being helped by you.”
Mai made up his mind to share at least part of the story with Yulian.
After being with him for a month, he felt that Yulian was both cheerful and serious at the same time.
When
considering the fact that he even considers who he is talking to and is
respectful in his tone, and the fact that he is the successor for a
desert tribe, he might end up a brilliant ally if he shared at least
some of the details.
Mai sat down on the ground and started to draw a picture. Yulian sat in front of him and watched him draw.
Mai’s
hand was drawing some sort of a map. He drew a large lake and some
mountain ranges, then drew the names of the ocean and some large
islands, and then started to draw the borders.
Mai’s memory must be great as he was able to accurately place the names of many places on the map he drew on the ground.
‘Huh……’
Watching Mai who looked like he was moving without thinking, Yulian looked at Mai in amazement.
Mai looked at the picture one more time and smiled at Yulian who was looking at him with amazement.
He was pretty laid-back, as if there were more than just one or two people who looked at him like that.
“This
is the map of the entire world. Well, unless there has been some major
tectonic shifts in the last five years. Where we are should be about
here.”
The place Mai was pointing to the was dead center point of the location labeled as the Red Desert.
Yulian was oddly a bit disappointed that the map did not contain the names of the desert tribes.
However,
since the desert tribes have been at war with each other for the past
hundreds of years, Yulian had a bitter smile on his face as it was
probably impossible to even correctly label where all the tribes were.
“The
situation is extremely complicated, but there’s no reason for you to
know everything, so I will explain it pretty briefly. The current world
is already heading towards the end. What I’m trying to say is, under the
laws of nature, it is time to end this world and create a new world.”
“What?”
“Don’t
ask any question. If you know, it’ll just give you a major headache. If
fate has it be, then you’ll end up hearing it even if it gives you a
headache, but that time is not now. Just listen.”
“I understand.”
At Yulian’s response, Mai started to speak again.
“At
the furthest northern corner, there is a continent we do not know
about. We call this the Ancient Continent. That place is full of
monsters like this desert. That is the continent of the past generation.
On that continent, there is a place known as the Magic Tower which is
about one hundred stories high. It’s made of magic. The people there try
to follow the laws of nature. If you follow the sequence of the world,
then God will not forsake us.”
As Yulian nodded his head, Mai pointed his finger next to a large island below.
“This island is known as Chaos…”