Chapter 306: Gathering Courage
"Good morning to all of you..."
Rock said with a twitching eyebrow.
In front of him, Kevin and Bobby were yawning constantly, as they hadn’t been used to waking up this early.
Aella and Marina also looked quite tired.
Meanwhile, Della and Chaewon were talking with each other, looking to be on very friendly terms.
They didn’t seem as tired as others because Della had gotten used to waking up this early and Chaewon also was a morning person.
"..."
Fang Raon looked at the two beautiful girls, wondering when they got so friendly, since they only met each other yesterday.
’I don’t know how to feel seeing them so friendly. Chaewon is my girlfriend, and with Della I have... ahem.’
He scratched the back of his head.
"Today, Raon, you’ll be spending some time with Maquella with your dance training. The newcomers will come with me to the woods."
Rock said with a chilly smile.
"Dance training?" Kevin and others looked confused and looked at Raon, wondering why he was practicing dancing.
They thought this training camp was for combat training!
"Mm."
Fang Raon nodded.
He hadn’t been training with Maquella for the past few days, as he had spent time with Rock to improve his Read skills.
Therefore.
He was going to spend today with Maquella, and for the next couple days he would be with Rock again.
"What will I do, Grandfather?"
Della asked.
"You’ll be joining us."
Rock said.
Della nodded.
"FOLLOW ME!"
Rock roared, and as he took a single step, he suddenly kicked the air and actually started to walk on the air!
"What the hell is that?!"
Kevin exclaimed.
"If you lose the sight of me, you’ll have to do two thousand one-armed push-ups!"
Rock shouted from the air, and that caused everyone to panic, and they ran after him in a hurry.
He was just walking in the air, going over the trees, while everybody else had to look up towards the sky while running after him.
That caused them to trip over each other and fall to the ground.
"Follow me, guys!"
Della shouted.
She was using Read to sense Rock’s presence, and that was how she was able to run through the woods without getting distracted.
Chaewon and others followed closely behind, wondering how she was able to follow Rock without looking where he was at.
"Heh, it won’t be that easy, my dear granddaughter."
Rock said with a smirk.
Then, he thinned his presence, and suddenly, Della couldn’t locate him anymore, and she visibly panicked.
As she looked up to the sky to locate him, she forgot to look ahead and ran straight into a tree that was directly in her path.
"Are you alright, Della?!"
Chaewon called out, rushing to her side, and saw Della rubbing her forehead with a pained expression.
"Y-Yeah..."
She said, but in that moment, she again panicked.
’Where is he?’
She looked to the sky, and she couldn’t see Rock anywhere, and her heart dropped to the pit of her stomach.
"He is over there!"
In that moment, Kevin shouted and pointed towards the fleeting Rock, who was running towards the north.
"Chase after him!"
"Don’t lose sight of him!"
...
Amidst training, days flew by—for some very slowly, but for Raon, they seemed to pass in the blink of an eye.
Day after day, it was a pretty mundane routine for him.
Wake up, train, eat, and sleep.
For others, it had been nothing but torture, and Kevin and his friends had been non-stop complaining.
They were greatly regretting ever coming here and already wanted to head off to a different floor.
In a couple of days, Della was going to leave, and with her, so would they for the 15th floor, where they would officially join Rose Records.
In another part of Raon’s life, he had been helping Anna with his secondary character and already reached the 14th floor with her.
Whenever he was done helping her, he went back to his first character, as he was still doing the sleep training with Raon.
Since the first night of that training, he had never been woken up by Rock, because he had always failed to hit him.
Raon had often woken up with sore muscles, which could’ve been the result of training day before, but he didn’t think so.
As he had been going to the healing spring lately to rejuvenate himself as Rock suggested for him to do that.
He had been feeling very good after that.
However.
During the night, he had always gotten very sore, for some reason, as he had been doing some harsh training while he was sleeping.
On the other hand.
Chaewon and Della were spending a lot of time together, and it looked like they had become best friends of sorts.
During nights, there were few instances when Chaewon tried to sneak into his room to sleep with him, but Rock was like a hawk.
He never allowed that to happen.
Also slowly, Raon had finally started to increase the percentage in the Blade Dance skill and other new Dance Extinction skills that he acquired with the legacy.
It meant that his dance training was finally paying off.
Since he acquired the legacy, even Maquella noticed the strange difference in his body, like it was now much better for learning the Selevian Waltz.
A minor change.
But significant nonetheless.
...
Late at night.
Everyone stood at the doorstep of the sleeping lodge, standing at attention like a good group of soldiers.
They were called to the hallway by Rock, who apparently had something to say.
"What now... My whole body is in pain..."
Kevin groaned.
’They have no idea that the training won’t stop here. Once I am done with training here with Rock, he’ll return to the 15th floor to continue their training.’
Fang Raon thought with a wry smile.
They thought that the pain would end once they left the training camp, but they were very much wrong.
Bang~!
The door slammed open, and like a drill sergeant, Rock entered the building with his arms behind his back.
He looked at everyone with his usual cold, stern gaze.
The yawns stopped. Complaints were shut down. Just absolute silence.
"Tomorrow’s training session has been cancelled."
Rock said coldly.
Nobody reacted, but inside, they were cheering so loudly that they just wanted to kick off into a dance.
They were also wondering why because Rock wasn’t a type of person to cancel something unless it was necessary.
"...Why, grandfather?"
Della asked curiously.
"I have some business to attend to tomorrow. I also won’t be present here tonight. No funny business today, got it?
"I will still have Mikey here to check on you guys if anything comes up.
"Is that understood?"
Rock asked.
"Yes, sir!"
Everyone shouted.
Then, without saying anything more, Rock pulled out his interface and pressed on the log out button.
And just like that, he was gone.
"Wohoo!"
Kevin immediately cheered and high-fived Bobby while Aella and Marina felt like they were on the verge of crying.
They could finally sleep without being afraid to wake up!
’I can also finally catch up to my sleep.’
Fang Raon thought.
"Alright, today then..."
Chaewon whispered something into Della’s ear, and she looked visibly flustered with a deep pink blush.
"I don’t know..."
She whispered back.
"I’ll deal with him..."
Chaewon said with a smile, and Della nervously nodded and then shot a gaze at Raon before quickly looking away.
She fidgeted with her fingers, and she looked so nervous that her heart might pop out of her chest.
"TIME TO SLEEP!"
Kevin excitedly stormed inside his room and immediately slammed the door shut, as he planned to sleep all day.
Then, Raon also entered his own room, closed the door, and relaxed on the futon, stretching his limbs.
With Read, he quickly scanned the nearby area and saw that everybody went to their rooms, except Chaewon.
She was going outside.
’Where is she going...’
...
Clap~! Clap~!
Mikey clapped his hands together three times, and with a salivating mouth, he looked at the plate of food in front of him.
It was steaming and honestly looked incredibly tasty.
"Yummy..."
He licked his lips.
But in that moment—knock! knock!—sounded on the door, and he put the silverware down with a frown.
"Could it be Rock... Maybe he wants to talk more about tonight since I am responsible for everyone while he is gone?"
He said aloud, and then he walked to the door and opened it, but the person outside wasn’t someone he expected.
"Hello!"
Chaewon said with a smile.
"It’s you... Is something wrong over at the lodge?"
Mikey asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah, there is a problem... and that problem is you."
Chaewon said with a smile.
"Uh... excuse me?"
Mikey asked, as he didn’t understand what she meant by that, but then, out of nowhere, Chaewon pressed her hand on his forehead.
"Sleep!"
Mikey suddenly felt his eyelids become heavy, and he fell unconscious. Chaewon took him into a carry and dropped him onto the bed.
"I am sorry. I think you’re a good guy, so I feel bad for doing this, but I can’t let you get in the way of Della.
"She has been gathering her courage to do this, and if you interfere, it will crush her spirit. No bad feelings, okay~."
Chaewon said with a smile.
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