By Zephyria Incomparably more than when the Eternal Stone touched it, a more tumultuous and distinct wave of light spread than before. As the wave of light receded like an echo and returned, the space containing Yohan wavered.
“Aargh!”
Yohan, clutching his weapon tightly, screamed in surprise at the undulating space. Towards the walls closing in on him, he unconsciously scattered his abilities with all his might. Brilliant light, so bright he couldn’t see, filled and overflowed the space, seeping between the black gravel walls. The walls of black ore that had been constricting Yohan rippled and shook as if startled.
Rumble…! Thump, boom! The sound of rocks and gravel collapsing noisily ensued. Yohan, squeezing his eyes shut, curled up, covering his head. The horrific image of being buried alive and crushed to death took over his mind. However, after a long while, no rocks struck him, nor did he feel any heavy weight.
“Gasp, huff….”
Trembling, Yohan raised his head and blinked. Unbelievably, the suffocatingly tight space had widened dramatically. The terrifying sounds he had heard earlier were merely the noise of the space expanding.
This vast cavern, created in an instant, was large enough for Yohan’s cries to echo. It was also pitch black all around, like a cave made of obsidian. But upon closer inspection, faint light emanated from the gray ore from time to time.
“What in the world happened….”
Yohan muttered in confusion. The common sense of the Abyss was truly different from Earth. He had felt that the Black Mountain was like a living creature, but he never imagined it could move so dynamically…. After sitting frozen for a long time, Yohan belatedly discovered ore that was shining particularly brightly. It was located directly behind him.
The transparent ore, scattering a soft radiance, varied in size, from pieces as small as a thumbnail to others as long and thick as an arm. Fascinated, Yohan stared at them for a long time, then felt a sense of déjà vu. What was it? This familiar feeling… could it be…? He muttered involuntarily.
“Could this be… an Eternal Stone…?”
Startled by his own words, he looked around slowly. Could all these black ores possibly be Eternal Stones?
Eternal Stone. A hard substance, found only in living beings, like a crystallized part that remains untainted and unchanged in any environment. In other words, everything that made up this Black Mountain was entirely, completely….
All the countless things forming the mountain range throughout the entire Abyss were Eternal Stones?
Something rarely found even in particularly strong and massive monsters?
Then, how many living beings had this Abyss absorbed over time?
Yohan stumbled, overwhelmed by the horrific and immense realization as he tried to imagine it. His body trembled with a renewed sense of fear for the Abyss.
“So that’s why the Flood couldn’t easily invade the Black Mountain…”
The Eternal Stone wasn’t named Eternal Stone for nothing. Wasn’t it the hardest ore in the world, untainted, undamaged, and unchanging unless handled by someone with special abilities? It seemed the same applied to the Flood.
Yohan, barely regaining his composure, let out a long breath and curled up. He was glad it wasn’t a suffocatingly narrow space like before, but being alone in such a vast area was also not pleasant. Yohan sat hunched over, utterly dejected. As the shock of the Black Mountain’s true nature began to fade, tears welled up again.
“Hoo-hoo-hoo…. I’m scared…. I really, sob, hate this, sob, so much…. I want to go home….”
Yohan wailed, his tears sparkling like fireflies in the darkness. He didn’t even notice as two or three of the Eternal Stones that caught his tears transformed from obsidian black to transparent crystal. His tears wouldn’t stop, driven by the fear of having to live here forever.
After crying for a long time, Yohan, exhausted, drifted off to sleep. When he woke up, he hesitated for a long time before opening his eyes again, only to find himself still alone in the vast Eternal Stone cavern.
“Sob, huff, huff….”
With swollen eyes, Yohan sniffled and opened the backpack he was carrying. The backpack, prepared for emergencies, contained various items. He sobbed and took out his water bottle to drink. After drinking sparingly, he fumbled and took out his emergency rations.
“Hoo-hoo, sob, hoo-hoo…. Hyun-mook Hyung…”
He cried sorrowfully, calling for Lee Hyun-mook, and ate his emergency rations. He took a large bite, his cheeks puffing out, then cried “Hoo-hoo,” and after another bite, he chewed diligently while sniffling. After finishing one pack of emergency rations, his tears finally began to subside. He felt a glimmer of hope. Lee Hyun-mook’s words echoed in his mind.
‘Yohan, my Negative Reinforcement…….’
The Negative Reinforcement that Lee Hyun-mook possessed, like Yoon Seung-ryong and Joo Ho-young. Thinking about it made Yohan feel an unbearable loneliness, yet paradoxically, it became a great source of strength in his current situation. He choked back a sob and spoke loudly to steel his resolve.
“I only have two bottles of water…. I need to conserve moisture as much as possible.”
Let’s stop crying. Wiping his swollen eyes with his sleeve, Yohan sniffled. Rummaging through his backpack again, he pulled out Joo Ho-young’s Game Console. It seemed Joo Ho-young had entrusted it to Yohan so it wouldn’t get damaged during combat. Turning on the Game Console and playing a few rounds made him feel a little better. He turned off the Game Console, put it back in his backpack, and looked around again.
“…Should I try some more purification?”
Lee Hyun-mook, Yoon Seung-ryong, and Joo Ho-young must be looking for Yohan by now. And if he had to choose between a coffin-like narrow space and a wide cavern like this for them to find him, it would undoubtedly be the latter. Recalling how the space had expanded when he purified it earlier, he reached out to a nearby black Eternal Stone.
“…Ah!”
As one of the Eternal Stones absorbed his purification, its black color drained away. No, more accurately, the dirt clinging to its surface seemed to be washed off. Soon, it became transparent like a piece of ice and emitted a soft blue radiance. It was so beautiful that Yohan forgot his desperate situation for a moment and stared at it in awe. Then, he flinched and stepped back.
“It’s… moving.”
The completely transparent Eternal Stone moved with a grinding sound. It traveled a distance away and emitted a soft glow. Calming his startled heart, Yohan purified another nearby Eternal Stone. This time, it was a brilliant golden hue, as if it contained the sun. It also moved slowly, away from Yohan.
Yohan purified the Eternal Stones as if entranced. Pink, blue, white, green…. The Eternal Stones, holding various colors, sparkled. Watching them, Yohan suddenly realized.
“They seem to be arranged as evenly as possible.”
After purifying until his abilities reached their limit, the purified Eternal Stones were sparkling all around. They lit up the vast cavern in aurora-like colors, shining with different hues, some weakly, some strongly. Yohan forgot his anxiety and fear and gazed at the sight for a long time.
“It’s like stars in the night sky…”
Stars of various colors twinkling in the pitch-black night. He had never imagined he would see such a sight in the Black Mountain, buried alive as he was.
“Ugh…”
Yohan groaned as he woke up. Instead of his usual comfortable mattress, his whole body ached from sleeping on the uneven floor. Groaning, he stretched his stiff body and yawned, then doubted his own eyes.
“Did I purify that much yesterday…?”
About a tenth of the cave was sparkling with Eternal Stones. Last night, they had been scattered like stars, but it was as if they had multiplied while he slept. First, he drank some water, then sat cross-legged and pondered.
‘What exactly are Eternal Stones…?’
They were too peculiar in their properties to be mere byproducts of monsters. They were undamaged, unbreakable, and even seemed to make abilities easier to handle. Making them stronger, or making their control more precise.
Suddenly, he remembered the time he saw an illusion due to the flower garden in the jungle. Two Eternal Stones, no, Adamantine Steels, chattering like miniature versions of Lee Hyun-mook and Yoon Seung-ryong…. He felt as if they were the very essence of some being. Like a soul, perhaps.
‘…Of course, they wouldn’t be souls, would they? But the feeling is quite strange.’
He felt eyes on him, just as he had in the Black Mountain. If he had been lost in an illusion, would he have heard voices chattering from all around? Thinking so, Yohan felt a little less scared.
“When will Hyung-mook Hyung come…”
Whenever he was cornered, he called out “Hyung-mook Hyung” differently from his usual self, but Yohan didn’t consciously notice it. While eating his emergency rations, he suddenly wondered. What if, perhaps… Lee Hyun-mook, Yoon Seung-ryong, and Joo Ho-young also had something like Eternal Stones inside them?
‘Gemstones…? That doesn’t sound right. Do they form like pearls?’
With such miscellaneous thoughts, he ate his emergency rations as slowly as possible. After that, he sat blankly for a while, then mustered his courage and stood up. He slowly walked around the cavern, which seemed strangely wider than yesterday, and began to purify a particularly large and long Eternal Stone.
After spending days, he didn’t know how many, in the cavern, Yohan marveled. After diligent purification, the place that had initially resembled an obsidian cave now emitted a soft radiance like a crystal cave. The colors and hues were ones he would never have dared to imagine seeing in the Abyss, let alone the Black Mountain.
“There’s no feeling of Corruption at all.”
Yohan murmured, stroking the largest ore. The cavern of beautiful Eternal Stones, unseen even on Earth, was dazzlingly gorgeous. While feeling proud that he had created this with his own power, Yohan tilted his head.
“Is this… spreading outwards continuously?”