Chapter 621
However, one cannot entirely escape the cost.
“Hmm.”
Crack.
A sound emanated from Jinseong’s body. It was an ominous sound that should never come from a human body.
Bones twisted, and pain surged beneath skin that seemed as if it had never seen honest exercise. There was a sensation of movement below the skin, like insects crawling, and an urge to peel it all away to extract the bugs inside arose. The thought of tearing at the blood vessels that troubled me and tossing them far away passed through my mind, along with a desire to puncture my skin to spray insecticide on the bugs tormenting me.
With every fleeting thought of this desire, it grew, like a snowball rolling down a mountain, increasingly pressing against my skin in a way I couldn’t ignore.
“Pain is a warning and awareness.”
A phantom pain characteristic of severe drug addiction. An abnormal phenomenon caused by nerve misfiring. Under normal circumstances, it wouldn’t have been strange at all for a person to scratch and tear at their skin until soaked in blood.
Yet, even amidst such sensations, Jinseong wore an unperturbed expression. He smiled as if wearing a mask, and moved his body around to demonstrate that everything was fine.
Crack.
The sound of bending intensified during the process. Following the twisting of bones, the muscles began to writhe as well, and some were pulled tight, nearly to the point of rupturing. Even the ligaments weren’t spared, repeatedly stretching and tightening, seeming to challenge their own endurance limits.
Jinseong closed his eyes amid the disorienting sensations. Then he focused on the ligament movement he felt on his shoulder.
Crack!
He lifted his right arm, dislocating his left shoulder.
The pain from the left shoulder. The distorted joint clearly indicated something was wrong. His left arm dangled, disjointed…
This was an oddly self-destructive action.
Yet, there was a reason for it.
“I’m feeling a bit better.”
He preemptively acted before his left arm could be irreparably damaged. If he had just let his left arm twist and try to pop out, it would have twisted the muscles and torn them, causing injuries, and there was no way to calm the wildly thrashing ligaments. If any issues arose with the ligaments, in the worst-case scenario, he might have had to perform surgery to reconnect the severed ligaments—or it could develop into a shoulder joint disorder.
That wasn’t good. While pain itself was one concern, the rehabilitation time was exceedingly long.
Thus, he acted first. Like establishing a fire line to prevent a raging wildfire from spreading further.
However…
Just as fire behaves, so did this movement, sharing a similar nature.
“Now the right side seems to be acting up…”
If one side becomes blocked, the other tends to make an escape.
Using the surrounding terrain and his right arm, he reset his left joint. The movement was one of considerable skill, almost causing doubts that he was an amateur working in a bone-setting clinic or an athlete.
Crack!
With a cracking sound and a sudden jolt, pain surged violently. Additionally, the area around his shoulder swelled visibly compared to before, and merely brushing against his clothing stirred discomfort, making it evident that bruises were forming.
“Tsk tsk. It used to be no problem at all…”
It was inevitable. Resetting a dislocated shoulder was something Jinseong had grown accustomed to. He had lived as a mercenary, traversing a chaotic world.
How many times had he dislocated or injured his shoulder while fighting? How many times had he performed emergency treatments in dire conditions?
Jinseong’s apparent familiarity with resetting his shoulder stemmed from experience. He learned from mercenary life and had done it countless times himself. He could probably outpace an average clinic in skill.
However, even with experience, one couldn’t completely avoid damage. Especially with Jinseong’s current state of being, it was even more pronounced.
Unlike before, his body was unaccustomed to fighting, and it had adapted poorly to the injuries that inevitably accompanied such encounters. Compared to his seasoned spirit… it could be said that he hadn’t fully trained.
For this reason, even the dislocation of his shoulder tended to elicit an overly sensitive response. Moreover, his poor physical condition contributed to the issue at hand.
The cost of magic doesn’t allow for patience. It doesn’t wait for circumstances and mercilessly imposes even harsher pain without respite.
Jinseong’s situation was exactly that. Because of the magic he had performed earlier, his body’s endurance had significantly diminished. Additionally, his skin and muscles had weakened…
It was hardly strange under such conditions.
No, it rather showed his expertise that things hadn’t escalated further.
Therefore…
Jinseong could dislocate his right arm without hesitation.
He realized his skills hadn’t dulled. And although his condition was far from great, he understood he could still endure.
Crack!
The sound that shouldn’t come from his right arm resounded as it hung limply, just like before with the left. Horrific pain washed over him once more, and the phantom sensations of bugs crawling under his skin continued to torment him.
“I wonder how many times I need to do this before the twisting stops.”
Amidst the pain, Jinseong pondered.
All he wanted was for the cost of his muscles and bones twisting to end quickly.
“I need to get out of here soon… haha.”
So that he could leave this place behind and clean up afterwards.
