The Author's POV

"Kh...Huuu...huuu..."

My chest burned with every breath I took. The pain was unbearable. It almost felt as though I was breathing fire, but...

"Keep breathing."

The familiar voice and hand pressing against my back prompted me to keep breathing in the same manner as before.

It was hard.

Very hard.

In the process of dropping the boulders into the hole, I almost passed out from overexertion.

It would have been catastrophic if Han Yufei hadn't dragged me away and hidden me in a corner to help me. Fortunately, as this seemed to be a common scene, none of the demons took particular notice of me.

"...You're almost there."

Han Yufei's voice echoed out once more. Clenching my teeth, sweat dripped down from the side of my face as it sizzled on the steaming hot ground.

"Ugh."

Despite the pain, I persisted through the pain as I felt myself progressing. A slow but steady increase in strength and recovery was occurring in my muscles.

In spite of the fact that I had no mana inside my body, my body was slowly recovering.

It was nothing short of miraculous.

"Don't lose focus."

Han Yufei's voice once again echoed inside of my head as he helped me master the first stage of his family martial manual.

[Body Hardening.]

Compared to the other two sections, it sounded like the most lack-luster stage of his martial manual, but I begged to differ.

At the moment, I find it to be the most effective method.

There was a simple reason for this.

'With it, I might be able to increase the power and time of my last skill.'

Limit Breaker.

The most ominous skill that I had, but also my biggest reassurance.

With every use, I knew that I would have to follow my other self's arrangements, but I also knew that I would be able to live longer through this skill.

Especially since I was still quite weak compared to my enemies, and I ended up facing enemies that tended to be way above my rank nowadays.

"There are four phases to the [Body Hardening] method. Bronze body, Silver body, Gold body, and Diamond body. You've currently achieved the Bronze body, and you're close to achieving the Silver body. If you keep practicing as I told you, then you won't have any problems breaking through to the next level any time soon."

I slowly turned around as I felt Han Yufei's hand leave my body.

The sensation of cooling that was coursing through my body vanished at that moment.

'A pity...'

I thought as I slowly stood up and stretched my body.

"How's his condition?"

Crouching down next to Jin and Emma who were sitting not so far from where we were, I carefully examined Smallsnake's condition.

"He seems to be fine."

Emma replied as she examined his body carefully. Placing her finger over his wrist, she closed her eyes for several seconds.

"His heartbeat is a bit weak, and his complexion is a bit pale, but for now, he isn't in any danger. He is just exhausted."

"That's good."

I sighed in relief once I heard her words.

As I've said before, it was my responsibility to keep Smallsnake alive.

I couldn't forgive myself if anything happened to him.

"Let's get going."

Jin said as he stood up and looked toward the distance.

"The demons are coming. They won't like it if they see us doing nothing."

"...You're right."

As I looked into the distance, I saw several demons approaching in our general direction and picked up Smallsnake's body. I then placed him over my shoulders.

"...At least they're not overworking us."

Han Yufei commented as he stretched his shoulders.

I nodded slightly as I turned to face his direction.

"Yeah."

Surprisingly, for a labor camp, the demons were rather lax. Or rather, they weren't stupid to the point of overworking the people here.

We were allowed to have short breaks in order to recover our stamina. This was so that they could ensure maximum performance from the people working.

The breaks weren't long, about ten minutes long, but it was still nonetheless something.

As we sat on one of the rocks, some of the people from the other races were also taking short breaks and quietly eating some of the strange goo from before.

'...I guess all the deaths over here are mostly from suicide.'

I thought as I stepped over the corpses beneath me.

The rotten feeling still made my stomach churn, but I simply endured it and headed for the far end where the boulders were.

"Things would've been a lot easier if my mana wasn't blocked."

I muttered as I walked.

If my mana wasn't sealed, I would've been able to finish my task faster and more efficiently, but apparently, the ores inside of the boulders reacted negatively to any form of energy and hence why our mana was sealed.

Kind of bullshit, but it wasn't as though I could do anything about it.

"Haaa..."

Sighing deeply, I walked toward the rocks in the distance with Smallsnake on my shoulder.

"I really want to get out of here."

***

"Has everyone placed their hands on Kevin?"

Melissa impatiently looked at the others and checked whether they had placed their hands on Kevin. It was the necessary condition in order for the teleportation skill to work.

"Yes."

"Yup."

"Ready."

Upon confirming that everyone had placed their hands on Kevin, she patted his shoulder.

"Alright, do your thing."

Kevin's mouth twitched as he felt Melissa's pat.

In a soft voice, he whispered.

"...What am I, a dog?"

"Yes."

Melissa nodded, clearly overhearing his whisper.

Patting Kevin in the head again, she turned to look at the pyramid in the distance and urged.

"Now hurry up. We don't have much time."

"Fine, fine."

With a roll of his eyes, Kevin turned to face the pyramid and pressed the air. His actions caused the others to look at each other with a weird look on their faces. However, it didn't last for long as their vision soon blacked out and they felt a familiar sensation engulf their body.

Their bodies slowly disintegrated into particles, and they vanished from their spot.

***

Clank

What followed after the all too familiar rock grating sound was complete darkness as I found myself back in my room.

"Haaa...Haaa.."

My energy was dwindling as I breathed deeply. My body was completely exhausted and I barely felt any energy inside of my body.

"Shit."

I let out a curse while covering my face with my hand.

"Now is not the time to rest."

After ripping the shirt off my body, I sat cross-legged on the floor. Then I started breathing rhythmically, recalling Han Yufei's previous teachings.

There was a time for everything, and now was not the time for me to relax. I had to train.

'If I persevere through the exhaustion and pain, as Han Yufei said, my body will continue to improve, and I will soon be able to progress to the next phase of the [Body Hardening] method...'

Imagining how much stronger I would be after learning the skill excited me to no end as my eyes closed shut.

"Just you w—"

In that moment, a bright light flashed across the room, forcing me to add more strength to my eyelids that were keeping my eyes closed.

"Are we here?"

"Why is it so dark?"

"Because the lights are off?"

"Where is my cigarette?"

A series of familiar voices echoed after the bright light as darkness returned to the room.

"Huh?!"

My body jumped up in shock as I recognized the voices.

"...What in the world is going on here?"

***

"So you're saying that you haven't seen any humans here?"

Several demons prostrated themselves to the ground, not daring to look up, as a sinister voice reverberated across a vast expanse.

"Y…yes, your highness."

One of the demons replied as his body shook uncontrollably. It had to be noted that the demon was a Duke-ranked demon, and yet he was trembling like a newborn cub.

For him to fear the figure in front of him...it displayed just how powerful the figure was.

"So not on this planet as well…"

Observing a large pyramid-shaped structure in the distance, Magnus massaged the bottom of his chin.

'This marks another planet that has no humans inside…'

Thinking of his majesty's orders, Magnus couldn't help but doubt whether there truly were any humans on any of the mentioned planets, but as his faith in Jezebeth was high, he didn't question his orders.

'I have no choice but to continue to fulfill his orders.'

"I…is there anything else that you would like to know?"

The same demon from before spoke. Lowering his head and carefully scrutinizing the demon, Magnus showed a surprised look.

"Oh?"

A thin smile spread across his face.

"Normally, I don't like it when people talk without my permission, but since I'm in a good mood today, let's see what your next response is."

The surrounding area was enveloped in deathly silence as the demons began to tremble uncontrollably.

Especially the demon that had previously spoken as he felt the humongous presence coming out of Magnus, and heading in his direction.

A thick killing intent permeated through the air as Magnus's eyes shined with a red hue.

"I…I will try to answer to the best of my abilities."

The Duke ranked demon knew from that moment that his next words would decide his life or death as he swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

"Good."

Magnus nodded as he brought his hands behind his back.

"What clan are you from?"

All the demons present froze on the spot following his words. It was especially obvious on the Duke-ranked demon who trembled uncontrollably.

It was a simple question, yet the implications behind it were massive. It had to be noted that killing a demon of Duke rank from another clan was the equivalent of waging war against them.

Magnus was simply threading on a thin wire.

After slowly raising his head to gaze at Magnus, the demon replied.

"I...I'm from the clan of Pride."

"Pride clan?"

Magnus's brow raised.

"You from the Pride clan?"

A chuckle escaped from his lips as he shook his head. It wasn't long before his face twisted.

"Even though you know that you belong to my clan, you behave as if you have no shred of pride inside of your body..."

It became increasingly difficult to breathe as every word he spoke bore down on everything around him, forcing the demon to lower their heads even further.

"Pathetic."

With a swipe of his hand, the Duke-ranked demon turned into dust.

Turning his body to face the distance, Magnus's fingers flicked in the air and a fissure appeared in front of him.

"...Cassaria was it?"

Magnus slowly entered the fissure.

"I hope you won't disappoint me."