Splash~ splash~!

Some fish jumped from the water, took a quick look at Rock and Raon, and dipped back under the surface.

The waterfall kept flowing gracefully, creating a soothing sound that echoed through the forest, and the rowboat gently rocked back and forth in the calm waters.

"Have you made your decision yet?"

Rock asked.

"...Okay, I will do it."

Fang Raon rubbed the back of his neck.

If he only had to suffer through some pain in order to get strong, he would happily do that without complaints.

"Good."

Rock said with a satisfied nod, and then he continued talking.

"You can’t disable the pain suppression from settings, but instead from the command panel. Say aloud, ’Command panel, disable pain suppression.’"

"Command panel, disable pain suppression."

Fang Raon said.

At that moment, a series of red warning messages appeared in front of him, blinking red.

[WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!]

[Are you sure you want to disable the pain suppression setting?]

[Y/N]

Fang Raon looked at Rock, who nodded, and with a deep sigh, he pressed "Yes," and all the messages disappeared in front of him.

He didn’t feel any different, but then Rock brought forward his hand and flicked him in the forehead.

Smack!

"Ouch!"

Fang Raon rubbed his forehead, where a sudden pain had appeared out of nowhere.

"It seems to be working."

Rock said, and then from the inventory, he brought out a black blindfold and handed it over to his student.

"Put it on."

Fang Raon did as he was told, and he put the black blindfold around his eyes and then tied it tightly behind his head.

He couldn’t see anything.

Which increased the sensitivity of his other senses, and he was able to hear everything quite clearly.

The waterfall, the chirping of birds, the rustling leaves, and the sound of the water splashing against the rocks.

Rock pulled out a wooden baseball bat from his inventory and tapped it hard against his broad shoulder.

"To use Maxima, you need to embrace the pain. Use the pain as a source of strength. Wherever you feel the pain, try to control the sensation of pain and flow it directly into your fist.

"You know that you’ve succeeded when that feeling of pain transfers from one part of your body into that fist of yours."

Rock said.

"Okay, master, I’ll try."

Fang Raon said.

He was still pretty confused about how he should do that and wished that he would give some more instruction.

But it sounded like that was going to be the only instruction he was getting at this time.

"For Read, try to anticipate where my attack is coming. Try to dodge it."

Rock said.

"How can I when I can’t see anything?"

Fang Raon asked.

"Feel the attack, that’s how."

Rock said, and at that moment, he swung the baseball bat behind his head.

He looked at Fang Raon, who was sitting on the rock with the blindfold on, and thought about where to attack.

Then.

He lowered his gaze to Fang Raon’s knee, and he immediately swung the baseball bat towards it.

Fang Raon reacted by pulling his head back.

At that moment.

The wooden baseball bat struck his knee.

Crack~! Something definitely broke.

"Aaaaaarghhh!"

Fang Raon screamed in pain, and he dropped to the ground, and he immediately pulled off the blindfold and grabbed his broken knee.

"Aaaaaarghhhhhhhhhh"

"You can get rid of that pain whenever you want. Just transfer that pain into your fist and punch the pain out of your body."

Rock said.

However, Fang Raon wasn’t listening anymore as he was gritting his teeth while clutching his knee in agony.

This was one of the worst pains that he had felt in all his life.

Sure, he had some broken bones before, but this was something else.

He thought that Rock would take it lightly for starters, but no, he immediately broke his knee instead!

"Fuck!"

Fang Raon screamed.

Rock scratched the back of his head, and he then took out a health potion from his inventory and made Raon drink it.

In that moment, a soothing sensation embraced Fang Raon, and the broken knee healed, and the pain disappeared.

Drinking a health potion while being in actual pain felt much better than he had anticipated, as if he were taking some feel-good medicine.

"Why didn’t you dodge it?"

Rock shrugged his shoulders.

"Haha... My bad, master."

Fang Raon gritted his teeth.

He honestly just wanted to punch him in the face.

"Put the blindfold back on. We’re not done just yet."

Rock said with a cold smile, and he tapped the hard wooden bat against his hand, and Raon felt a cold chill run down his spine.

He stood up, grabbed the black blindfold from the ground, and put it back on.

’This is no different from when I was blind. I’ve lived over ten years as a blind person, so why am I struggling now? I’ve gotten far too comfortable to use my eyes.

’I need to regress back to my former self. To my blind self. If I do that, I will be able to dodge his attacks.’

Fang Raon thought with certainty.

In that moment, Rock whipped the baseball bat back, waited a couple seconds, and then swung it again with force.

’It is coming!’

Fang Raon thought, and he took a quick step back.

The baseball bat whizzed past his head. It nearly hit. If it had, he would’ve most likely crushed his skull.

’Hmph. It is easy to keep dodging if you just keep stepping backwards. But that is a mistake if you do that.’

Rock smirked, and he kept swinging the baseball bat, and Fang Raon just kept stepping backwards.

In that moment, he took one more step backwards, but he noticed that his foot didn’t land on anything solid, and he started falling backwards.

SPLASH!

He dropped into the lake and got drenched from head to toe, and since he was still wearing the blindfold, he felt very disoriented.

’I can’t swim! Shit!’

Fang Raon felt like he was sinking deeper and deeper, and he tried flailing his arms and kicking his feet, but nothing seemed to work.

In that moment.

An arm broke through the surface of the water, grabbed Raon by his hair, and pulled him straight out of the water.

"COUGH! COUGH! COUGH!"

After landing back on the ground, he coughed water out of his lungs, still gasping for air.

"You really need to learn to swim, brat. It would be quite a tragedy if your death were a result of your inability to swim."

Rock said.

"Yeah... I’ll put that in my to-do list."

Fang Raon struggled to speak but managed to utter those words, and he then climbed back to his feet.

"Sit back on the rock."

Rock said.

With a tired nod, Fang Raon sat down with his clothes drenched, and he even felt his underwear being uncomfortably wet.

Rock put the baseball bat to lean against a tree, and he then picked up several small pebbles from the ground.

"I’ll be throwing some rocks at you. All you need to do is catch them. Simple, right?"

Rock said.

"...Simple, sure..."

Fang Raon’s lip twitched, and he then put his hands in a catching stance.

Rock tossed one of the pebbles into the air, and he then quickly caught it and hurled it at Fang Raon.

The pebble was flying through the air at an insane speed.

It went right between Fang Raon’s hands, and hit him directly in the solar plexus, and the air got knocked out of his lungs.

"UUURGHH"

Fang Raon grabbed his chest, and he dropped to his knees, as he had a very hard time breathing.

He thought that it was just some harmless pebbles that he was going to throw, but it felt like he was hit by a sledgehammer!

’I-Is it because he threw that pebble with such strength? He is crazy, crazy, I am telling you!’

Then.

He remembered the teachings of the Maxima and focused his concentration on the pain in his chest.

The instructions made it sound pretty easy. Just focus on the pain, transfer the pain elsewhere, and then remove it from your body.

However.

He didn’t understand how he could transfer the pain.

He tried to make the pain move to his fist, but literally nothing happened, and he felt like he was smashing his head into a wall, expecting a different result.

’It is better to keep instructions vague when it comes to Maxima. Everyone has a different way of transferring the pain.

’It took even geniuses of Dead Redemption months to learn how to do that, and then another month to learn how to remove the pain altogether.

’Raon is not more talented than they are. All he has to do is work extremely hard.’

Rock thought to himself.

He moved the pebbles in hand, and then out of nowhere, he shouted, "I am throwing the rest now. Good luck!"

"Huh, what?"

Fang Raon lifted his blindfolded face, and at that moment, Rock threw the rest of the pebbles at him.

Dozens of them.

SMACK~! SMACK~! CRACK~! CRACK~!

"Aaaaaarghhhhhhh!"