Endless Path : Infinite Cosmos

Though he had already known what to expect thanks to the Law of Identity, Vahn couldn’t help but smile appreciatively as he watched Tarou, wearing little more than form-fitting shorts and a black top, scale a complex rock wall without the use of Shinsu. Her body might be a little ’compact’, but the structure and development of her muscles was top tier. It was clear she had spent much of her life training, but, rather than inhibit her beauty in any way, it had only served to refine her petite figure into a beautiful work of art.

After reaching the top of the 300m artificial rockface, Tarou slapped a buzzer near the top before breathing a sigh of relief as she released her grip. This caused her to fall rather slowly thanks to the pull of gravity only being around 8.3m/s2, but she still impacted the ground with enough force to create a massive explosion of dust and debris. As for the reason, it was entirely due to the fact that the manacles around her wrists and ankles weighed precisely 1000kg each.

A thousand kilograms might not be a lot in a world where people could easily lift millions, but even a small amount of weight could be extremely troublesome under the right conditions. Climbing was just such a condition, as, rather than having solid ground to provide leverage against tremendous weights, success depended entirely on things like grip strength, body control, and the development of your joints, tendons, and ligaments.

Generally speaking, it was extremely difficult to strengthen collagen fibers that made up tendons and ligaments. It required an inordinate amount of resistance training without reliance on things like body reinforcement of Shinsu Enhancement. This was something very few people actually put any effort into, as, rather than focus on strengthening their bodies, the majority of people thought it was better to expand their internal Shinsu reserves and refine their control.

While it wasn’t wrong to focus on increasing your internal reserves and control, those who survived through countless battles quickly learned the importance of strengthening the body and improving your foundation. After all, Shinsu primarily worked as a multiplier for existing parameters, so, when two people with similar reserves and control fought, the one with greater physical parameters had an extreme advantage. There were also numerous situations where you might find yourself unable to use Shinsu; so, more often than not, the centuries following a Regulars transition into a Ranker involved them having to painstakingly increase the strength of their body, a difficult task for those who hadn’t developed the habit while they were young...

After patting herself down and picking away a few bits of debris, Tarou wiped the sweat from her brow as she gazed over at Vahn and said, "I don’t normally give a route demonstration. You’re lucky I’m in a good mood. Now, just as I said before, you have thirty minutes to scale this wall and hit the buzzer near the top. You’re allowed to continue if you fall but if you’ll be disqualified immediately if you attempt to use Shinsu to cushion the impact."

Though he understood the only reason she had given a demonstration was so that she could show off a bit, Vahn still cupped his hands in an expression of gratitude as he said, "It was a privilege to see Lady Tarou’s example. Thank you."

Feeling a little embarrassed by Vahn’s words, Tarou picked a few loose strands of hair from her face, smiling as she said, "Yeah, yeah, whatever you say. Now, put on your weights and get on with it. I’m not exactly busy, but there are better uses for my time. I’ve already indulged you a lot more than I should have."

Chuckling in response to Tarou’s words, Vahn donned the thousand-kilogram manacles without any visible signs of strain as he said, "It’s a shame. I’ve enjoyed our time together quite a bit..." before approaching the rock wall and adding, "I guess I’ll have to wrap this up quickly..."

Without looking back to observe the slight frown on Tarou’s face, Vahn extended his hand towards the first hold. It was a bit smoother than he expected, but, after gaining absolute mastery over his body several hundred years prior, it was a simple matter for him to scale the artificial cliff. He didn’t even have to strain himself in the slightest, surprising the white-haired Ranker quite a bit when he reached the top of the 300m face in less than a minute.

After slapping the buzzer near the top, Vahn repeated Tarou’s action of releasing her hold on the final grip. Rather than impact the ground like a meteor, however, his landing caused a wave of air pressure to emanate from his body, dissipating harmlessly into the surroundings. He had basically done the opposite of Endorsi’s [Stillwalkers], absorbing the impact into his body and dispersing it outward instead of into the ground.

Taking advantage of Tarou’s stupefaction, Vahn repeated his earlier action of cupping his hands, this time bowing slightly as he said, "Your demonstration was very helpful. Knowing the path in advance made things a lot easier."

Coming to her senses at the sound of Vahn’s words, Tarou adopted a potent frown as she asked, "Is this a game to you? I won’t deny that your power and control are remarkable, but do you honestly believe that puts you in a position to show off in front of a Ranker?"

Rather than outright refute Tarou’s words, Vahn shook his head slightly, a relaxed smile on his face as he explained, "I didn’t take into consideration the fact you were a Ranker. I just wanted to show off a bit in front of a beautiful woman. I’m sorry if I offended you. Don’t worry, come tomorrow, I’ll most likely be advancing to the 12th Floor. After that, I’ll be out of your hair."

Though she was still a little nettled, Tarou’s expression changed to one of confusion as she asked, "What? You’re leaving tomorrow? Is that supposed to be some kind of joke? Even skilled teams of Regulars take several weeks to clear this Floor..."

Shaking his head, Vahn affirmed, "It’s the truth. While others might struggle to catch prey several hundred meters beneath the surface, it’s a simple matter for me and my companion. Now that I’ve completed your Special Test, Phae will be able to gather more than enough resources to qualify us for advancement to the next Floor. Go ahead and check in on her using your Terminal if you don’t believe me..."

Resisting the urge to do just that, Tarou continued to glare back at Vahn, frowning as she said, "You really are treating this as if it were a game...I really hate your type. Tell me, why do handsome guys always turn out to be arrogant or cocky assholes? Seriously. I thought you might have been a little different, but you’re just the same as all the other insincere jerks in the Tower..."

Rather than take offense to Tarou’s accusation, Vahn just exhaled a sigh before shaking his head, yet again, and explaining, "I’m just being honest with you. Nothing I’ve said thus far has been a lie. You really are an attractive woman and the structure of your body is simply amazing. Unfortunately, our paths were only ever destined to intersect for a very brief moment. Just as you are striving to fulfill your hopes and dreams, my own require me to climb the Tower as quickly as possible."

Though she didn’t feel any less annoyed after hearing Vahn’s words, Tarou knew she couldn’t really refute them. This made her feel even more annoyed, as, shortly after their first encounter, a fire had been burning in her body. She had tried to quench it by exercising her body, but, thanks to Vahn’s intrusion, the previously small flame was now blazing like an inferno. It had been several decades since she last encountered a man who tickled her fancy so it was exceptionally annoying to hear he would be leaving the following day.

Realizing that Vahn might just be bullshitting her in an attempt to get into her pants, Tarou snorted loudly before accessing her Terminal and tracing the coordinates of his companion. She wanted to see what made the man so confident in his claim. What she never expected to see was a strange-looking Lighthouse sitting near the bottom of the seabed. What made this scene even stranger was the fact that all Shinheuh in the surroundings had been ’frozen’ in place, clearly under the influence of Reverse Flow Control. This allowed the Lighthouse to approach them, effortlessly capturing even powerful Shinheuh without any resistance whatsoever...

With her mouth slightly agape, Tarou, once again, found herself at a loss for words. Phae’s mastery over Reverse Flow Control was even better than most Rankers. Her ability to handle her Lighthouse was also exceptional, so much so that it was difficult to believe she was actually an F-Rank Regular...

Shifting her attention back to Vahn, Tarou’s expression quickly morphed into a frown as she realized that Vahn wasn’t simply being arrogant. His confidence was backed by actual results, so, after a very brief moment of consideration, she decided to just get straight to the point, asking, "Are you trying to get into my pants, or are you just leading me on?"

Understanding Tarou’s nature and having already made the decision to stop holding himself back, Vahn adopted a marginally more serious expression as he answered, "I won’t deny that the thought has crossed my mind..."

Though she wasn’t fond of such a ’roundabout’ response, Tarou nodded her head in understanding before pulling out a keycard from her Inventory and tossing it toward Vahn. Then, with a somewhat fierce light flashing across the surface of her ruby-red eyes, she stated, "Third floor. Fifth room from the right. Be there in ten minutes."

With those parting words, Tarou immediately teleported back to her room in order to take a quick shower. The thought of doing it then and there had briefly crossed her mind, but, knowing other Administrators would be able to peek in on things, she promptly decided against it. There was also the fact that she was a little self-conscious about the sweat covering her body, and, while it might not matter all that much in the long run, it would be pretty embarrassing if he commented on her stench...

What Tarou never expected was that, immediately after teleporting to her room and stripping off her top, a jolt ran through her body as she heard the locking mechanism of her door deactivate. It hadn’t even crossed her mind that Vahn was the one standing outside the door so she immediately entered a combat-ready stance as several silvery Baangs of Shinsu formed behind her.

Surprising the white-haired woman for the umpteenth time, the door opened to reveal none other than the wryly smiling Vahn, hands raised in a gesture of surrender as he mused, "This isn’t exactly the reception I anticipated..."

Breathing a sigh of relief, Tarou appeared next to Vahn in an instant, yanking him into the room rather forcibly before reactivating the automated locking mechanism. Then, with an incredulous look on her face, she turned to him and asked, "How the hell did you get here so quickly? Didn’t I tell you to arrive in ten minutes?"

Tearing his eyes away from Tarou’s immaculately sculpted and moderately perky breasts, a smile spread across Vahn’s face as he shamelessly answered, "I couldn’t wait. Can you really blame me?"

With a tinge of red bleeding into her cheeks, Tarou instinctually moved to cover her breasts as she averted her eyes and said, "I need to take a shower..." in a surprisingly demure tone.

Reading the mood, Vahn closed this distance between himself and Tarou as if it was completely natural before guiding her to look back at him as he said, "I really don’t mind...if you still insist, let me take a shower with you..."

Feeling the inferno in her body become a fiery tempest, Tarou made the executive decision to just set aside her inhibitions, answering Vahn’s words by linking her arms around his neck and hopping up so that her legs were wrapped around his waist. Then, in a somewhat threatening tone, she said, "You better know what you’re doing. There are no rules preventing Test Administrators from taking action against Regulars within their own chambers. If you fail to satisfy me, don’t expect me to let you walk away so easily..."

Chuckling in response to the woman’s threat, Vahn surprised Tarou quite a bit by grabbing her butt and forcefully massaging it. This caused a powerful tremor to run through her body, a look of sheer incredulity spreading across her face when a girlish moan suddenly escaped her lips. Unfortunately for her, the time for talk had already come and gone. Now was the time for action, so, without any hesitation, Vahn readily demonstrated just how ’capable’ he was...

(A/N: Alternate Titles: ’Vahn be like, "Gimme a minute..."’,’Phae OP~’,’She ded’)