Chapter 230
Chapter 230
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 230
Chapter Title: The Second Hundred Paces Rite (4)
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Thud-!
Another step forward.
‘Thirty… three!’
The pressure surging in from all sides choked his breath.
The moment his vision blurred from lack of air, Yuri bit his tongue to snap himself alert.
Gulp.
He swallowed the blood pooling in his mouth and stared straight ahead through hazy eyes.
‘How much… time… has passed?’
Blood wasn’t circulating properly, dulling his thoughts.
No wonder his sense of time was off.
All he knew was that a fair amount had elapsed.
Ssssh-!
Yuri drew in a deep breath and focused his gaze.
‘I… need to reflect on this.’
He’d been a bit arrogant.
After all his growth over the past year, he’d figured he could at least manage fifty paces…
Deep down, he’d approached this Hundred Paces Rite with a casual mindset.
But Yuri now realized how foolish he’d been.
‘The difference… between one step before and one step after… it’s this vast.’
And he was only on the thirty-third.
Not even half of a hundred paces, yet it was already this intense.
So what must it be like beyond fifty paces, right up to the Sword Lord?
Grit.
Yuri clenched his teeth and instinctively thrust his leg forward.
He tried to take the thirty-fourth step.
But.
Scrrch.
It wouldn’t budge, as if his sole were glued to the ground.
Against the immense resistance, Yuri fiercely summoned his mana.
‘Kuh!’
His mana core, now less than half full.
Yuri steadied his breathing and sharpened his eyes.
‘It’s fine. Still… some leeway left.’
Though the rite’s difficulty exceeded his expectations, Yuri wasn’t afraid.
He trusted.
‘Everything I’ve built up until now…’
All that time he’d layered upon himself would surely carry him further.
As if in answer to that faith, his leg lifted.
That single step forward.
The early days of meeting Teresa in the Cradle, and the countless spars they’d shared.
The relentless perseverance she’d taught him.
The foundational time Yuri first built in the Cradle propelled his thirty-fourth step.
Thud-!
The theories of Reinforcement, Bonding, Fusion, Mana, and Constellation he’d learned in the Cradle.
The time spent researching false constellations, the resolve to defeat Greta Wigen—all that pushed his thirty-fifth step.
Thud-!
Monthly evaluations competing with his peers.
Endless challenges to organ breakthrough quests.
Infinite spars with Teresa, Arin, Poppi, and Gunter forged his thirty-sixth step.
Thud-!
The moment he staked his life to overcome the Demon King.
The time earning through Sekyung’s alchemy led to his thirty-seventh step.
Thud-!
The time filling his foundational gaps through the ranking battles became his thirty-eighth step.
Thud-!
The mana core revived with Johan’s help, the relentless filling of mana—his thirty-ninth step.
Thud-!
Stabilizing the realm of Certified Rank 6, solidifying his foundations—his fortieth.
Thud-!
Thus, every moment Yuri had accumulated allowed him to take forty steps.
“Huff— huff—.”
Yuri gasped in agony.
Forty paces.
To reach here, he’d poured out nearly everything he’d built.
His body ached as if shattering, and less than 10% mana remained in his core.
Yet Yuri had no intention of stopping.
He still had time he hadn’t used.
Relatively recent accumulations.
‘Further… I can go further!’
The union quests from years one through three.
Even up to the Dragonless Great War.
The time clashing with that being, Kunter Rider.
Those moments would propel him onward.
‘This Hundred Paces Rite is my fight… so I’ll reach it with just this one year I’ve walked, the capabilities I’ve stacked! Watch closely from up there… you old coot!’
The instant Yuri vowed, mindful of the lofty skies.
Ziiing-!
Golden light erupted from his entire body.
A subtle glow then spread along his flesh, tracing thin golden lines.
Wuuuung-!
Vitality surged through Yuri’s body, his mind cleared, and his vision sharpened.
Caught in soaring euphoria, Yuri’s lips curved into a long smile.
‘This feeling… it’s incredible!’
He grinned broadly and.
Thud-!
Took his forty-first step.
* * *
Seeing Yuri take his forty-first step, Johan bolted upright.
‘That… no way?!’
Geometric golden lines etched across Yuri’s body.
Though the form differed from what he knew, the essence was strikingly similar.
No, identical.
‘No… way?!’
Something unimaginable had emerged, widening Johan’s eyes.
And Johan wasn’t the only one stunned by Yuri’s transformation.
“……?!”
Kunter leaped forward, instantly reaching the front row of the spectator seats.
It wasn’t just his body protruding—his eyes nearly bulged out.
Unblinking, massively widened eyes.
The black pupils within trembled violently, as if caught in a typhoon.
“No… no, impossible!”
He first denied the reality before him.
But Kunter’s reason relentlessly negated that denial.
It was true.
Exactly what you’re thinking.
‘No way… it can’t be possible… no!’
The golden lines spreading across Yuri’s body.
They resembled too closely one of his family’s— no, the Rider family’s secret techniques.
A technique that elevated physical abilities to inhuman levels.
“…Black Blood?!”
The absolute art named ‘Black Blood.’
* * *
Thanks to the time clashing with Kunter Rider, he’d stolen the secret art, Black Blood.
Drawing on it, Yuri instantly regained not just his body’s vitality but even his depleted mental strength, striding forward powerfully.
Forty-two—thud!
Forty-three—thud!
Forty-four—thud!
The Hundred Paces Rite had begun around noon.
Now the sun dipped west, painting the sky in sunset hues, yet Yuri kept walking.
Slowly but steadily.
And surely toward the Sword Lord.
Thud-!
As he crossed forty-eight, forty-nine, into his fiftieth step.
Wuuung-!
The golden lines on Yuri’s body flickered unsteadily.
Anyone could see it was precarious.
Then finally.
Shhhh-.
All mana in his core depleted, Yuri’s Black Blood lost its glow and vanished.
But Yuri’s Black Blood fulfilled its role to the end.
Thud-!
The instant the golden light faded, Yuri completed his fiftieth step.
With it came crushing helplessness.
‘Kuhk!’
A skull-splitting headache and exhaustion assaulted him.
Immense pressure, like colossal chains binding his body, crushed him down.
The Sword Lord’s intense aura, sustained for hours, was enough to snuff out Yuri’s candle-like will.
But he didn’t stop.
‘Only… halfway!’
Fifty paces.
To some, half of a hundred— but to Yuri, merely half.
‘I can’t… fall like this!’
Even a bit closer to the Sword Lord.
To Johan.
“Uwaaaaaah!”
Blood streamed from Yuri’s eyes and nose with his roar.
Capillaries burst under the pressure.
Not enough— he vomited blood surging from his guts and desperately thrust his right foot forward.
Toward half, and beyond.
“Kraaaaaaaaah!”
To the point where he wondered if he’d die.
If it had to be this brutal.
Yuri’s form was utterly wretched.
Yet from that wretchedness.
Thud-.
His right foot touched ground.
Then his left followed.
Thud-!
As if declaring “this far,” Yuri’s legs planted firmly.
Precisely in the fifty-first zone.
At the same time, Yuri’s head drooped.
Drip— drip—.
Blood trickled from his face and jaw to the floor.
That instant.
Rustle-.
The Sword Lord rose from his seat.
And in no time, he stood before Yuri.
Feeling the crushing pressure lift, Yuri raised his head.
‘…He’s here.’
In his blood-red vision stood ‘him.’
The era’s absolute sovereign, once seated afar.
Seeing him, Yuri smiled.
‘Heh heh heh!’
The rite’s end.
And drawing the Sword Lord to him once more— immense, irrepressible joy filled Yuri.
Meeting Yuri’s eyes, the Sword Lord spoke.
“You’re not collapsed this time.”
A year ago, in this same setup, Yuri had crumpled at the Sword Lord’s feet.
At those words, Yuri grinned.
“If I fall now, I might not get up.”
A year ago, he’d collapsed and struggled to rise.
Today, a year later, he strained not to fall.
Yet Yuri showed no hint of it, gazing calmly at the Sword Lord with a steady smile.
“I passed… halfway.”
Not just half, but beyond into new realms.
Forty-nine paces remained.
Closing them would demand even fiercer trials.
But Yuri felt no fear.
With burning eyes, he declared to the Sword Lord.
“Next time… I’ll reach you.”
A mere first-year Cradle student boldly proclaiming he’d reach the Sword Lord.
No, this was beyond bold— sheer recklessness.
A pup yapping at a dragon?
Yet to that pup’s bark…
“When you feel the time has come, challenge me anytime. I’ll gladly await you. You… have that qualification.”
The old dragon laid out the stage, inviting more yaps.
The fearless pup hopped on, barking fiercer at the dragon.
“It’s a promise? You’ll accept anytime I challenge?”
Seeing the Sword Lord nod lightly without a word, Yuri…
“Heh heh.”
Let out a low chuckle.
And that was the end.
Yuri lost consciousness entirely, collapsing.
The Sword Lord gazed silently at Yuri toppling backward, then lifted his eyes to the sky.
“…….”
After staring wordlessly at the halted clouds, the Sword Lord’s form vanished like a mirage.
Thus, the Hundred Paces Rite concluded.
The circular arena wrapped in silence.
But in that moment.
“Waaah!”
A single short cheer erupted, spreading like wildfire.
Soon becoming a roar of awe for the boy acknowledged by the Sword Lord as a challenger…
Uwaaaaaah-!
Echoing thunderously, shaking the circular arena.
* * *
Johan, who had locked eyes with the Sword Lord moments before.
He stared in the direction the Sword Lord vanished, face hardening.
And right then.
Uwaaaaaah-!
Cheers resounding even to his high perch drew Johan’s gaze.
At the arena’s center lay Yuri, sprawled in a 대 shape, fainted—the hero of the roars.
‘…That guy.’
Johan’s eyes on the unconscious Yuri brimmed with complexity.
Once barely managing fifteen steps, today he’d taken fifty-one.
‘…Absurd bastard.’
Johan knew Yuri’s monstrous talent well.
Even so, he’d comforted himself with their gap.
But no.
‘Careless of me.’
Today’s rite flipped that thinking.
The demonic arts Yuri seemed to deliberately avoid.
Instead, that bizarre mimicry of Black Blood.
Plus the vicious tenacity rising beyond limits.
Yuri was growing steeper than anticipated.
Of course, this wasn’t the first shock at his pace.
But what chilled Johan: every time he thought “this must be it,” Yuri shattered limits anew.
‘The guy grows daily… no, evolves.’
In a year, where would he stand?
Even Johan couldn’t predict.
“Heh heh…….”
Johan chuckled lowly.
Gazing at fainted Yuri, complexity faded from his eyes, replaced by blazing heat.
‘No time for complacency.’
Slack off, and he’d be devoured not by time, but by the monster Yuri Holland.
Moreover, hadn’t the Sword Lord himself named Yuri a challenger?
That young boy held the qualification.
Flames roared higher in Johan’s eyes.
‘I need to step it up.’
No longer seeing Yuri as a kid to teach…
‘Or I’ll be caught.’
But as a rival.
『#Season.01 – End』
#Season.02 Preview
“Yuri, they say assemble!”
Repetitive peaceful days.
But cracks seeping in.
Because of that…
“Wait a sec, let me take care of this first before we start.”
The sealed monster awakened.