NOVEL NEXT Book 1: Chapter 18
Chapter 18
Suddenly, Tenji was sucked into the 'Book of Enma'.
The Book of Enma completely sucks Tenji, like a vacuum cleaner, and then it falls down, as if it had finished its work.
And only the 'Book of Enma' remained in its place.
† † † †
"Whoa! Owww!"
Tenji thought his body was being pulled hard by something, he felt a strong sensation of stretch. He could not feel his face and body for a while. He was spun around several times that he could no longer tell up from down or left from right. When he felt a little sick, his body was thrown somewhere.
The place where he was thrown out looked like a forest somewhere, and he had to dive his face first into a pile of dead leaves.
He was like, "Bloooop! Something went in my mouth......."
Thinking he was standing in a dungeon looking at the 'Book of Enma', Tenji found himself sticking his head into a pile of dead leaves. He spit the dead leaf debris out of his mouth along with his mouthful of spit.
Then, without understanding why he was here, he slowly sat down on the spot and looked around.
"...... Uh, really, where am I?"
Tenji realized that he was in a forest, but did not recognize which one. The trees, much taller than trees at Fuji, stretched on and on as far as the eye could see, and there was real dense vegetation on the ground, with not even a shadow or sign of a human being.
A thick wonderful scent of nature passed through his nostrils, while the chirping of insects and birdsong echoed from all directions.
Looking up at the sky, there was no form of blue sky there, but a bright red sky.
Yes, the forest was clearly a non-terrestrial place. It was clearly not his home world.
"What? Maybe the...... quest has started?"
[After a while of getting sucked inside the Book, I realized that the quest, the hell quest "Meeting the Red Demon" written in Enma's book, had begun.]
The sudden transition to a place that was clearly not Earth, the bright red sky reminiscent of hell, and the moment he mentioned the name of his quest. All of which, it turned out, had led Tenji to the quest.
And then finally it was time.
[The "Hell Quest" has begun. The time limit is 30 minutes.
Condition #1: Perform 1000 squats.
If the condition is not accomplished in time, this quest will be discarded.]
"What the----- Hell?" (TL : Pun Intended)
A mechanical/robotic female voice echoed in Tenji's head.
[30 minutes! I'm supposed to do a 1000 squats here in 30 minutes or less! If I can't even do that, I will fail the..... quest.]
In a moment's time, Tenji perceived the situation.
Tenji, who is by no means stupid, quickly works backwards through the numbers.
[1000 times in 30 minutes means that I have to keep going at a pace of 1.8 seconds per squat for 30 minutes. How devilish!]
[Of course, I would squat fast at first, but even so, asking me to do one squat at an average of 1.8 seconds for 30 minutes is evil.]
"And I have to do it anyhow!"
It turned out to be a matter of seconds, and Tenji began squatting about 15 seconds after the announcement was made.
As he began, a mismatched-colored (blue) imitation of the 'Book of Enma', like a hologram appeared in front of him and began counting the number of squats.
Looking at the numbers, Tenji worked out his legs single-mindedly.
† † † †
"It's tough....... But 10 more to go!"
About 28 minutes had passed since he had started squatting.
Tenji successfully managed to finish in time, even though he kept blurting out mean words to the trees in front of him over and over again.
Already the imitation of the 'Book of Enma' floating in front of him labeled the squat count to "990".
Since he was sweating all over, he took off his upper body clothes while squatting. This revealed his moderately toned abdominal muscles, and white steam of sweat was bubbling up from his body.
Since he originally wanted to become an explorer, he has never missed muscle training since junior high school. For an explorer, the body is the capital. A body that cannot move will only increase the probability of death.
That said, 30 minutes of nonstop squatting with a body that is not even mature enough for a high school freshman was hell.
"997!!! 998!!! 999!!! Now that's......1000 times!!!"
As soon as the count reached 1000, imitation of the 'Book of Enma' disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Tenji was screaming grandly, pleasantly skipping a sweat.
Then he collapsed on the spot as if he had run out of strength. His legs were shaking unintentionally.
[You have confirmed the completion of condition #1. Thank you.]
"Oh, I'm really tired."
[Then, Complete the condition #2:
2 hours of shadowboxing. If the limbs stop even once, the count will return to zero. If the number of attempts is more than three, this quest will be discarded.]
"What? That's not fair!"
[The count will begin in 10 seconds, 10, 9, 8----]
The imitation of the 'Book of Enma' appeared before his eyes again, and on it was displayed
"Remaining: 7,200 seconds."
At the voice of the announcer, he stood up like a club student who was angry with the coach. He looked at the "Book of Enma" with resentful eyes.
[I really hope you're not going to raise it to a more challenging level by imposing hellish training just because it's a calling related to...... hell. No, seriously.]
[--5,4,3,2,1.] The count finished.
Then Tenji just started shadowboxing with a single-minded focus.
Shuffling and leaking breath with vigor, he alternately swung his arms three times each and did not stop stepping his feet. Observing only this, he began to move mindlessly, as if enlightened.
[I had some experience with shadow boxing training, so I would perform on that.]
"However--".
[Shadows will appear from this point on. Since the shadow's attacks include mental attacks, it is recommended to avoid the attacks.]
A minute into the shadowboxing, the announcer again said something.
Tenji's head tilted back and a question mark appeared before him.
"What? Wait!"
As the 'Book of Enma' glowed, a humanoid doll formed from something that looked like a pitch-black haze. And it began to attack boxing steps in front of Tenji.
That was all Tenji needed to realize.
Shadowboxing is not a voluntary training by oneself, but a real shadowboxing where you shadow box for two hours straight, while avoiding the attacks of real shadows that could cause real harm/trouble.
[Oh, this...... is going to be hell again]
As Tenji expected, The Shadow stepped and attacked. The shadow aimed at only one point, the face.
Tenji hurriedly avoided it, but it snagged his cheek just slightly.
At that moment, Tenji felt the "power" rapidly drain from his heart.
Suddenly, the flame that had been burning in his heart was blown out, and he unexpectedly fell to his knees on the spot.
"Ahhh."
He was dazed from exhaustion and mental attacks.
But by the time he realized it, it was too late.
[Counting has stopped, and will start again in 10 seconds. One count remaining. 10, 9, 8, 7--]
"Ha, ha........ So this is what a psychological attack looks like."
[Having experienced it for myself, I realized for the first time how scary a psychological attack can be.]
[I was unconscious from exhaustion, but when I came to my senses, I stopped it on my own. It was such a mind-draining attack.]
Ha, ha...... this is one I seriously need to avoid all together.]
Tenji understood that even a moment's slackness was unacceptable, and he slapped his cheek with a tightened hand to brace himself once more.
A clink, a dry sound echoed through the air. Two vermilion leaves remained on Tenji's cheeks.
[This is a special class calling "Hell Beast Summoning", huh? I kind of knew that it was a first-class or higher calling, but it also means that there's a price to pay and a big danger. In this case, it's the price of a hellish quest and quest destruction.]
Tenji could not help but wonder what capabilities awaited him after such a hellish experience.
Three, two, one, the count begins.
Once again, the hell quest began.