Training Is a Continuation of Pain

Training is a continuation of pain.

Hwooong!

The spear coiled around my fingertips blazed with pristine white divinity and tore through the air ahead of me. Its efficiency was beyond anything I'd managed when wielding it as a mere makeshift weapon.

KWAGAGAGAGAGA!

I recalled the outstretched spear. The moment it returned to my hand, its structure and array scrambled and rearranged themselves—and by the time I blinked, a massive war hammer rested in my palm.

The crushing weight settled into my grip as if it had always belonged there. I swung, and destructive force annihilated everything in front of me.

I nodded with satisfaction as I surveyed the wreckage. At this level, switching between forms mid-combat would be no problem at all.

'As expected—they didn't just forge this carelessly.'

"Whoa."

Clap clap clap clap clap clap.

Sre, who had been lying flat on her belly staring up at me, and Yena, who was sitting beside Sre, both started clapping.

"Clap for her, Sre?"

Clap! Clap! Clap!

...I have no idea why Sre suddenly felt the need to join in, but she clapped so hard the entire open field reverberated with it.

"You're back?"

"I'm so jealous. Mythic grade."

Yena wore the expression of someone dying of envy as her gaze darted between me and my new Masterpiece.

It probably looked like Mythic items came easy to me, seeing as I'd collected five of them—but the truth was, Mythic-grade gear was genuinely, brutally hard to obtain. Even after three years as a ranker, Yena had never gotten one. Most Top 100 Rankers owned one or two, or none at all.

"I just got lucky."

"Oh, I'M the unlucky one, huh. Hahahahahaha. So you took down Sgaredo, which means another Mythic for you, right...? Meanwhile I get, what, a sliver of Gold-tier contribution and some pocket-change XP..."

Yena turned monumentally gloomy, muttering to herself as she gouged the bare dirt with her dagger.

When I'd first met her she'd been bursting with confidence, but the lectures and the Mock Siege Battle had knocked a good deal of that wind out of her sails.

Honestly, though? I considered Yena a genuinely talented player. Her combat instincts were sharp. Compared to a prodigy like Leo she was slow, sure, but she had the kind of talent that could close that gap eventually.

"By the way—did you finish your homework?"

"...Almost all of it? I just need a teensy bit more. For reeeeal."

Between the Empire and the World Boss, I'd nearly forgotten: about two months ago, I'd assigned homework to every student attending my lectures.

Infiltrate a condensation stone saturated with my mana and fill your own mana reserves to at least ten percent. More than two months later, the vast majority had completed it. Yena, as of yet, had not.

"......No. That thing is genuinely brutal. I got launched at the golem ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠over five hundred times."

"Hmph."

And yet I had seen potential in her. Faint, but there—the moment she'd imitated Spear's Roar. A technique even Leo hadn't managed to attempt.

Tuk.

"Catch."

"Huh?"

Which was why I wanted to see it one more time.

Yena's eyes went saucer-wide as she caught whatever had fallen from the sky. A blade of green, honed to razor sharpness—

"I-Is this real?!"

"Aaaaahhhh! It's real, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it's actually REAL?!"

"It's a loan. Until I finish collecting all the Masterpieces."

"Wha—AAAAAAAAAH! I love you, Lily!!!"

She bounced up and came hurtling at me, clearly attempting a full-body hug. I blocked her with one hand, but she thrashed on, undeterred.

"Happy, are we?"

Sre scrambled upright as well and abruptly started hopping in place, boing boing boing. What's gotten into you?

"...Please calm down."

"Ah. Hooo. Okay. Composing myself. Sorry."

Clutching the Green Hermit with trembling hands, Yena began taking slow, deliberate breaths. Within seconds, however, the deep breathing curdled into hyperventilation, and just as she was about to spiral back into hysteria, I plucked the dagger out of her grip.

As if a bucket of ice water had been dumped over her head, Yena's frenzy cut off instantly.

"Ah. I'm sorry. I'm really, really, REEEALLY sorry."

"Listen up. Got it?"

"Yes ma'am."

She knelt respectfully, hands folded neatly in her lap. Watching Sre promptly imitate the exact same pose, I let out a laugh of sheer disbelief.

"The terms of the loan: first, you return it when I've gathered all the Masterpieces."

"Obviously. The second you have them all, it's yours back."

"And there's one more condition."

"I am all ears, Professor."

"The first condition is simple. From here on, if you earn at least eight percent of the raid contribution, you pass."

"...Eight percent?"

Yena, who'd looked ready to march into hell itself for a Masterpiece, froze solid.

The monster currently occupying the Snowy Mountain gave less than one percent contribution even to a top-ten ranker decked out in Mythic gear. The strongest among the rest of us, Vlack, sat at a mere three percent. Eight or above belonged to exactly two people: Leo, and me, with our overwhelming damage output.

No matter how strong Yena's Mythic dagger made her, she wasn't going to reach Leo's level—or mine.

"Th-that's impossible."

"Don't like it?"

"I'll do it! Even if I die a hundred times, I'll do it!"

I chuckled at Yena, caught somewhere between tears and laughter. Left to her own devices, she'd probably burn through every asset and every trick she owned just to fill that contribution quota.

Contribution wasn't earned through combat alone—and Mythic daggers were so vanishingly rare on the market that even Yena's entire fortune couldn't buy one.

"Of course, there IS another way. What kind of professor would I be, demanding eight percent just because I handed you a Mythic weapon?"

"R-right? There's something else, right?"

Hope flared back into Yena's face in an instant.

And then it shattered again.

"That technique you used when you drew on Blue-Ring's mana. Execute it perfectly, and you pass."

"...Huh?"

"Spear's Roar... no wait, it's a dagger now, so—Dagger's Roar, I suppose. Mastering that is the second path."

Which effectively meant there was really only one condition, I added with a smile.

If she nailed the second condition, the first would take care of itself. And if it proved truly impossible, she could simply spend her one month practicing instead of grinding the fight.

Yena shook her head rapidly, her face gone ghost-white.

"B-but that one really hurts."

"Training is a continuation of pain. That's the whole point."

Proper training means pushing yourself to half-death. I'd been the same—but unlike me back then, Yena had the system's protection and a body that wouldn't truly die. Her circumstances were far better than mine ever were.

'This much is just the baseline.'

Two reapers—or rather, shadows—fell across Yena's head.

"You'll do it, won't you?"

"I... will? Do... it?"

“......”

Dragged kicking and screaming into acceptance, Yena then attempted to imitate Spear's Roar a grand total of seven times before logging straight out.

There was no dramatic breakthrough, but all things considered—the absence of Blue-Ring's mana, above all—it was respectable progress. Given a month, she could probably reach roughly the level she'd hit that time.

'Assuming she doesn't give up and keeps at it.'

By now she'd be suffering through agony beyond description, but since it was pain of the soul rather than the flesh, her health and life were never in danger. It was something like an extreme case of muscle soreness—agonizing, but nothing more.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

I did offer to craft her a painkiller if it got truly unbearable, but for now I intended to leave her be.

'What matters is etching the sensation into her body.'

This wasn't mere exercise. This was the work of opening a 'door' no human was ever meant to open. Because she was forcing open the impossible, her soul cried out in protest—but only by enduring that protest could she awaken the sensation for herself. Numb the pain and the door slams shut, leaving her stuck halfway forever.

'I'm looking forward to this.'

A technique of the heavenly race, performed by a pureblooded human. What on earth would she make of it?

Carrying that odd sense of anticipation, I checked over the weapon now that its final test was complete.

The White Savior.

The "White" part made sense—my divinity was pure white by nature. But "Savior"... that name gave me pause.

I am not a savior. I may have been summoned to save the world against my will, but I had never once considered what I did to be salvation. At best, it was compulsive behavior driven by self-satisfaction—by the need to remain human.

Or perhaps, simply, the nature of Lily Elbrit.

Other people might be, but I was different.

'I am not a savior.'

As a Masterpiece that takes on the personality and temperament of its chosen wielder, the name "White Savior" didn't fit.

[The White Savior desperately yearns for salvation.]

And yet the Masterpiece's name was the White Savior, and it claimed to be yearning for salvation.

Then why?

"...I suppose I'll find out when I check."

Three days had passed since Yena logged out.

The Snowy Mountain, buried in a raging blizzard. I confirmed that every raider had entered, then took my first step.

Leaving Sre behind as she gazed at what used to be Sgaredo, I shifted the spear into its hammer form. The crushing weight pressed down across my whole body—and my powerful frame bore it.

Faaah...

Pristine white divinity seeped into every last crystal strand of the Metamor. Every particle composing the weapon's shape restructured itself into the configuration most receptive to my divinity—and just as the final preparations fell into place—

I glanced briefly at the chat overlaying part of my vision, then launched myself into the sky.

Not by riding Sre's back, not through Flight—a leap of pure, unaided physical ability.

FAAAANG!

The twin wings of light that finally unfurled at my back amplified the crushing pressure of my strength. The hammer had grown several times its usual size—no, dozens of times—so massive it felt like I was about to tear an entire castle out of the earth and bring it crashing down.

I threw a glance at the camera, then fixed my eyes back on the target.

"As of today—the raid broadcast begins."

KWAAAAAAAANG—!!!

The castle-shaped hammer plummeted toward the monster.