Free Web NovelWhen the Eternal Stone touched the wall, the ripple of light that spread was nothing like before—far stronger, clearer, booming outward and then returning like an echo. The space around Yohan quivered.
“Uwaaaagh!”
Clutching his weapon tight, Yohan screamed as the chamber shook. The walls closed in on him, and in panic he poured all his power outward. A blinding brilliance burst forth, flooding the space until his eyes could see nothing, light seeping into the black stone walls. The enclosing rocks shuddered, as if startled.
Ruuumble...! Boom, crash! Stones tumbled in a deafening cascade. Yohan curled up, arms over his head, imagining himself crushed, suffocated under tons of rock. Yet no impact came.
“Hhhff... hhhnn...”
Trembling, he peeked up. To his disbelief, the suffocating coffin had suddenly expanded wide. The terrifying noises had been nothing more than the chamber stretching outward.
A cavern had opened—vast enough that his voice would echo if he shouted. It looked like an obsidian cave, pitch-dark, though here and there gray stones shimmered faintly.
“What... what is this....”
Yohan muttered, overwhelmed. The Abyss truly followed no laws of Earth. He’d thought the Black Mountain alive, but this—this level of movement—was beyond imagining. Frozen in place for a long time, he finally noticed stones behind him, glowing more brightly than the rest.
They were clear crystals, scattering a faint radiance—some as small as thumbnails, some long and thick as an arm. Staring at them in wonder, Yohan felt déjà vu.
“...Wait. Could these be Eternal Stones...?”
The words slipped out, and he jolted, scanning around. Could all these black rocks actually be Eternal Stones?
Eternal Stone. A substance found only in living beings, crystallized fragments impervious to contamination, never decaying, never changing. Meaning... the Black Mountain itself, the countless ridges sprawling across the Abyss...
...was made of Eternal Stone?
Stones so rare they were only found in the strongest, largest monsters?
If so—how many living beings had the Abyss devoured to create this?
The thought crushed him. His legs shook. Fear of the Abyss swelled new and raw in his chest.
“So that’s why Bumram can’t breach the Black Mountain....”
Eternal Stone was eternal. Without special re-forging, it could never be corrupted, broken, or altered. Even Bumram was powerless against it.
Yohan exhaled shakily and crouched down. It wasn’t a coffin anymore, but the vast emptiness was no comfort either. Worn down, he folded in on himself and wept again.
“Uuuhhhnngh... I’m scared... I hate this, I really... hnngh... I just want to go home....”
Crying like a child, his sobs echoed like fireflies of light in the dark. He never noticed that the stones his tears fell upon shifted from black to crystal-clear, glowing faintly. Fear that he might live buried here forever wrung more tears out of him.
Eventually, exhausted, Yohan cried himself to sleep. When he woke, the cavern was unchanged—still vast, still lonely, still [N O V E L I G H T] filled with glowing stones.
“Hhhhnn... sniff...”
Eyes swollen, Yohan opened his pack. Inside were the usual supplies, emergency-prepared. He pulled out his water bottle, sipped sparingly, then dragged out a ration pack.
“Uuuuhhhn... Hyunmook-hyung...”
He wept as he ate, cheeks bulging with food, sobbing between bites, then chewing doggedly. Only after finishing one ration bar did the tears finally ease. Hope flickered faintly. He remembered Hyunmook’s words.
‘Yohan, my corruption enhancement is...’
Hyunmook’s mysterious ability. Thinking of it left Yohan lonely, but also strangely steadied him. Swallowing a sob, he said aloud, forcing resolve,
“I only have two bottles of water... I’ll have to ration carefully.”
No more crying. He wiped his swollen eyes with his sleeve, sniffed hard, and rummaged again—finding Hoyoung’s game console. Probably left with him for safekeeping during battle. He played a few rounds, his mood lifting, then tucked it away. Looking around at the cavern, he whispered,
“...Maybe I should purify more.”
Surely Hyunmook, Seungryong, and Hoyoung were looking for him. Between a coffin-sized trap and this huge cavern, he’d be easier to find here. He recalled how purification had expanded the chamber. He reached out to touch one of the black stones.
“...Ah!”
As his light sank in, the black coating peeled away—filth burning off, leaving behind a transparent crystal, glowing with a soft blue light. Its beauty stole Yohan’s breath, making him forget his despair for a moment. Then he jumped back in alarm.
“It... it moved.”
The stone scraped forward, shifting with a grinding noise, drifting away, glowing faintly. Stunned, Yohan purified another. This one blazed gold, radiant as the sun, and it too slid away, pulsing with light.
Enchanted, he purified stone after stone. Pink, blue, white, green—shards of living light. Each drifted outward, spreading across the cavern.
“They’re... arranging themselves evenly.”
He kept going until his strength was nearly spent. By then, dozens of purified stones shimmered all around, painting the cavern in an aurora of colors.
“Like stars in the night sky...”
Glistening jewels against the black. To see this—in the Abyss, inside the Black Mountain, buried alive—was something he’d never dreamed possible.
* * *
“Nnngh...”
Groaning, Yohan woke again. Sleeping on jagged stone left his body aching everywhere. Rubbing at his stiff muscles, he yawned—and froze.
“...Did I purify that many last night...?”
A tenth of the cavern glowed. Last night they had been scattered like stars. Now it looked like they’d multiplied.
He drank water, then sat cross-legged, frowning.
‘What exactly is Eternal Stone...?’
Too strange to be just a monster byproduct. Impervious, unbreakable, enhancing power—making abilities sharper, stronger, steadier.
His mind flicked back to the jungle’s hallucination flowers—the tiny chattering figures shaped like Hyunmook and Seungryong. The Eternal Stones that had spoken then, refined into Absolute Steel. It felt like essence itself. Like a soul.
...No, it can’t really be a soul. But the feeling is uncanny.
That sense of being watched—the same as when he’d crossed the Black Mountain—was back. Maybe, if he lost himself in hallucination again, he’d hear chatter from all sides. The thought made him feel a little less afraid.
“When will Hyunmook-hyung come for me...”
Without realizing, he called him “Hyung” again, just as he always did when pressed into a corner. Eating more rations, Yohan wondered idly—what if... maybe Hyunmook, Seungryong, and Hoyoung also had something like Eternal Stones in their bodies?
Like... pearls?
He chuckled weakly at his own thought, chewing slowly to make the food last. Afterwards, he rose and began purifying more stones, picking out the largest ones.
Days—maybe weeks—passed like that. By then, the cavern no longer looked like black obsidian, but like a crystal cathedral. Soft radiance shimmered everywhere. No trace of contamination.
“There’s no corruption in this at all...” ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom
He stroked the largest crystal, awed. Now gleaming with his own touch, the cavern was radiant beyond imagination—something no one on Earth could ever see. Pride welled in him, alongside a frown.
“...Wait. Is it... spreading?”
