One meter. Forty times. Seven minutes.
The numbers seemed so simple.
But Kang Ji-Won realized, staring at the green-lit pile of corpses, that every single one of those forty steps would be a small hell in itself.
No other choice.
He took a shivering breath. Tak... Tak... Tak. His teeth were chattering.
Start.
He placed his hand on the pile of bodies. He focused on the shadow beneath them, and on another patch of shadow one meter toward the cave entrance.
"Shadow Step."
Vwoomp.
The nauseating feeling of dryness. The cold void in his chest. "GhgAAH!" He screamed, but the sound was muffled.
One.
The pile vanished and appeared one meter in front of him.
And now... his turn.
"AAAAAH!"
He placed the crowbar in front of him. Stab.
Pull.
Drag.
One meter of crawling. One meter of dragging his dead, destroyed leg over the stone cave floor. It felt like a full mile. Every inch was torture.
When he finally reached the side of the transported corpse pile, he was panting, cold sweat covering his forehead, mixing with the dried monster blood.
And now... the wait.
... "10 seconds cooldown"...
One...
Tak... Tak... Tak...
Two...
Hurry up, you bastard...
Three...
It was the longest ten seconds of his life. Every second he felt the cold creeping deeper into his body. The tourniquet hurt unbearably.
Ten. (He assumed).
He placed his hand on the pile again.
"Shadow Step!"
Vwoomp.
"GhgAAH!" The feeling was worse this time. The cold void was deeper, as if something were scooping out his insides with an icy spoon.
Two.
The pile vanished, appearing another meter toward the light.
Now. Crawl.
Stab. Pull. Drag.
Another meter of hell.
He arrived. Collapsed beside it.
Wait.
One... two... three...
This became the rhythm of his survival.
Move. Pain. Crawl. Agony. Wait. Cold.
Move. (Vwoomp! "GhgAAH!")
Crawl. (Stab. Pull. Drag. "AAAAAH!")
Wait. (Tak... Tak... Tak...)
Three.
Move. (Vwoomp! "Ahhh!")
Crawl. (Stab. Pull. Drag. "Ahhh!")
Wait.
Four.
By the fifth time, he didn't scream anymore. He didn't have the strength. It was just a dry, choked moan escaping his throat with every Vwoomp.
By the seventh time, he couldn't feel his fingers. They were numb. The cold was intense. Is this from blood loss... or from the "Mana"?
By the ninth time, the light at the cave entrance—the faint blue-green glow of the fungi and the forest—began to look as bright as the sun.
Ten.
Vwoomp.
"Ghgh..."
Stab. Pull. Drag.
With one final, muffled cry, Kang Ji-Won pushed his broken body the last inch, and exited the dark mouth of the cave.
Thud.
He collapsed on his stomach onto the wet blue moss, in the (relatively) open air.
Hah... hah... hah...
He was panting, inhaling the fresh air (the smell of sweet rot) like water for a drowning man.
He did it. He was out of the absolute darkness.
It took... he didn't know. Ten minutes? Twenty? It felt like an eternity.
The pile of corpses was beside him, lit green, like a demonic trash heap.
I did it...
He looked at his leg. The tourniquet was still holding. But the entire leg below it was... dark purple.
That's... not good.
He looked behind him.
The Gate.
The rippling blue tear.
It was still there. Shimmering. Promising salvation.
Thirty meters left.
Thirty... again.
Thirty more times of Vwoomp.
Thirty more times of crawling.
Thirty more times of waiting.
Can... can I do it?
He looked at the cold void in his chest. It felt... hollow.
Do I have 30 more "Mana"?
I don't even know what damn "Mana" is.
Doesn't matter.
"Ghgh..."
He started to place his hand on the pile again.
One... two... three...
The eleventh step.
For Hyun-Soo.