A Path Through the Mountain
Thud—! Thud—!
A miner was trying to drive a hole through a colossal mountain.
But his worn pickaxe left nothing more than shallow scratches. It was never going to pierce a wall that vast.
Then I’ll just make it possible for him.
Jinwoo decided to give the man what he wanted.
His goal is to cut a road through the mountain.
To bore a passage straight through this enormous mass of stone.
At a glance, it looks impossible.
Like cracking a boulder with an egg. Smashing a mountain with a single pickaxe?
People would laugh.
Anyone would call it absurd.
But Jinwoo could do it.
One pickaxe won’t be enough.
When one broke, he would make another. When that one broke, another still.
“That’ll do.”
Clang—! Clang—!
Jinwoo hammered the chitin. Flames roared up as he drew out the soul of the Blaze Worm Chitin—and a staggering level of corruption revealed itself.
“Purify.”
Deep Smithing proficiency has increased.
He purged the corruption with Deep Smithing, then immediately carved the material to a razor edge.
What he had forged was a chitin pickaxe. Holding it, Jinwoo stepped up beside the miner.
“Let’s cut a road through the mountain.”
He never asked why the man wanted a path. If the miner wished to open a road, then helping him was enough.
Thud—!
Crack—!
When he swung the chitin pickaxe, he felt the material’s distinctive flexibility. The miner glanced at him.
“You’re… going to help me?”
Watching Jinwoo join in without so much as a question, the miner let the faintest flicker of emotion show.
“Yes.”
Jinwoo held out the pickaxe he had made.
“Two is better than one, isn’t it?”
Then he called his summons.
“And three, four, five is better than two.”
“…….”
Something shifted at the corner of the miner’s expressionless eyes.
“Do… as you like.”
Permission granted, Jinwoo and his summons prepared in earnest to dig into the mountain.
The peak was so immense that pickaxes alone looked utterly incapable of boring through it. But the summons never considered that for a second.
Jinwoo had given the order. And Jinwoo never ordered the impossible. Which meant carving a mountain with pickaxes was possible.
“Pickaxes only.”
He made them stow every other weapon. They didn’t need Orichalcum light swords or World Tree’s Judgment to break this mountain.
The moment the command fell, the summons moved.
Thud—! Thud—! Thud—!
As if racing each other, the four summons tore into the stone in a frenzy. Jinwoo joined them, driving his pickaxe with furious force.
And little by little, the mountain began to yield.
It was something the miner could never have done alone. That impossible labor was slowly turning into something possible.
Thud—! Thud—!
The chitin pickaxe performed more than well enough. But against a mountain this hard, driven by such raw power, its durability plummeted.
Clang—! Clang—!
Scrape—.
Jinwoo kept forging chitin pickaxes. Wear them out, make more. Wear them out, make more.
“It’s working.”
The miner’s hands trembled.
“It’s… opening…….”
Jinwoo pressed harder.
Thud—! Thud—!
Like excavating a cave, the colossal mountain was steadily being carved away.
We can do this.
How many times had he brought the pickaxe down? The hole was clearly larger than before—but still nowhere near enough.
It’s huge.
The mountain standing in their way refused to let a road open so easily. Even for Jinwoo, this was no simple task.
He paused to think. At this pace, the dragon would swallow everything whole long before they broke through.
Or we might not break through at all.
Crack—. Crrrack—.
As time passed, fractures spread across the far edge of that landscape.
There’s a time limit.
If they died here, everything was finished in any real sense.
“We need better efficiency.”
Jinwoo finished several spare pickaxes, then called for Pur.
“Pur.”
“Yes, Master!”
From his coat he drew something out.
Shaaaa—.
It was Basago’s soul. Jinwoo held it out to Pur.
“I’m counting on you here.”
“!”
On the blighted ground, Pur hadn’t had much chance to shine. It hadn’t been deliberate—but the words steeled Pur’s resolve all the same.
“I will see it done.”
Basago’s soul dwells within Pur.
Shaaaaaaa—!
Pur was already a summon forged from the soul of an Avatar of Evil. Adding another Avatar’s soul on top of that—
Tremendous power began to flood into Pur’s body.
Crrrk—.
Crrrrrrrk—!
Before, the grade had been Elite LV 3. Having absorbed Basago’s soul and evolved, Pur was Elite no longer.
“Hero LV 1.”
The Banshee Knight had become a Banshee Lord.
Black aura billowed without end—yet within that darkness, a blue light was mixed. Over the bones that formed the body, muscles of pure black aura took shape, and even a steed of vivid blue aura was born. From a knight’s form, Pur had become a leader of wraiths and banshees.
First and Pur.
Jinwoo’s one-two punch finally had its proper lineup.
“Those eyes look sharp.”
The blue light that had always rimmed Pur’s sockets burned far stronger now. And that wasn’t all. At present, Pur was the only Hero-grade among Jinwoo’s summons.
“A Hero Skill, huh.”
A special ability befitting a Hero-grade summon had appeared.
“Netherworld’s Chill. Bound to be far stronger than an ordinary skill, right?”
Jinwoo looked Pur over—the aura pouring off that frame, and the cold that came with it.
“An undead risen from the underworld itself.”
Overflowing with style, Jinwoo grinned.
“Give me your orders.”
Jinwoo tossed over a pickaxe. The old one was already ruined beyond use.
“Show me your power, Pur.”
“Yes!”
Thud—! KRA-BOOM—! CRASH—!
Pur drove the pickaxe down in a mad frenzy.
Netherworld’s Chill
Netherworld’s Chill rode the pickaxe and began to punch through the mountain itself.
Thud—! Thud—! Thud—!
The power was so overwhelming that even the other three summons were stunned. First, above all, felt a fierce jolt watching Pur.
That strength.
In this moment, the one helping Jinwoo most was Pur. There was no room for doubt. Even so, First refused to yield—refused to lose the place as the Master’s most cherished summon.
Thud—! Thud—!
Matching Pur’s Hero Skill, First swung a pickaxe with equal frenzy.
The hole grew wider. The hole grew deeper. A road began to take shape.
The pace was far faster than before.
We can break through. We can make a road.
With Pur’s reinforcement, the speed at which the path formed became overwhelming.
“Ahh…”
Watching it, the miner’s eyes began to glisten. Then he swung his own pickaxe alongside them.
With every blow he struck, the pitch-black aura wrapping his body—the corruption—began to peel away.
Shaa—.
Shaa—.
He was no longer a slave of the dragon, Shadow Wing. He could break free of those chains completely.
Thud—! Thud—!
CRRRRRRRRRRACK—!
Pur and First, having dug deep, punched through to the far side.
Light poured into the pitch-dark tunnel. From the entrance they had opened all the way to the exit, a straight beam of light cut through.
They had broken through.
They had made a road.
They had carved a mountain with pickaxes.
The impossible had become possible—through Jinwoo and his summons.
Emotion returned to the miner’s face, which had been blank until now. Full to bursting, he stared at the opened path. Then, slowly, he spoke.
“I had to get to the hospital. My child was sick. The fever was so bad I wrapped the little one tight and… carried them on my back.”
But the road to the hospital had been so very far.
“I had to go all the way around the mountain with my child on my back, and…”
By the time he arrived, everything was already over.
From that day on, the miner had carved at the mountain. If only there had been a road straight through. If only he hadn’t had to go around. He would never have lost the one he loved.
That regret filled his mind. In the end, it ruled his life. Day after day he swung the pickaxe—not even knowing whether he was alive or dead. Years of regret had settled into his soul and remained as nothing but motion.
Somewhere in a corner of his heart, he had still believed it: this was impossible.
The miner looked at the road through the mountain. Something else appeared in his eyes.
“It was possible.”
It had been something he could do.
Faced with this absurd sight, the miner set his pickaxe down with a soft thud. Then he looked up at the sky.
A long, deep sigh left him—and with that sigh, every last trace of corruption vanished.
“Thank you. Truly, thank you. Because of you, we could open a road through the mountain. No one else will have to live with a regret like mine.”
The miner bowed to Jinwoo.
From those words, Jinwoo understood the shape of the man’s regret.
The miner offered his thanks and gazed at the finished road.
He’s seeing it.
Right now, he was watching himself—carrying his child, cutting straight through the mountain. Arriving in time.
“It’s all right now……”
If someone fell ill now, it would be fine. There was a road. That kind of anguish would never happen again.
Shaaaaaaa—. The miner’s body simply faded away.
You have cleared the quest.
A soul trapped in deep regret has been saved by you.
Soul Sight proficiency has increased.
Your level has increased.
Nobility Score has increased.
A radiant soul settled before Jinwoo.
A soul purified through deliverance from regret.
“This grade is…!”
Jinwoo checked the rank, eyes wide with surprise.