Chapter 42 (1/2)

Training

While waiting for the Senator to contact me, I went around several undiscovered dungeons throughout the United States.

-You’ve met the clear conditions of the dungeon!

-Clear condition: Eliminate all monsters on the perimeter.

-The boundaries of the dungeon are weakened.

I just cleared another one. There was nothing suitable for additional compensation, so I took an A-Rank skill card.

“Well, now…”

I thought about going out of the gate right away, but I changed my mind when I saw the environment. It was a jungle extending to the horizon.

I had just finished off all the monsters, so there was no distraction for a while.

Unlike closed-door dungeons like an ant cave, there was no chance of the groundbreaking or ceiling collapsing even if the sword blast was blown as much as possible, and there was no need to worry about traces remaining like the Earth.

In other words, it was an optimal place for training. I took the magic sword and aimed it at the air, and it immediately realized it.

It was troublesomely quick-witted.

‘Oh! Are you training? Right. Sometimes you need time to unravel the sword movements alone and examine them calmly. Training through real situations is important, but if you have an enemy in front of you, you’re more committed to killing them than thinking deeply about your trajectory!‘

Would I be able to train ‘quietly’ when I was left ‘alone’, all while it was babbling like that?

I swung the sword in the hope that Danton would get the statue as soon as possible.

Boo-boom!

I cut and cut as I felt like doing so. The sword blasts poured like rain and sliced the air.

Instead of thinking and moving, I let my body flow as it went. The amplification of the sword movement was smoother and more sophisticated than in Chicago.

I stopped when I thought this was enough to warm up.

Contrary to previous concerns, the magic sword kept its mouth shut throughout the sword movements.

I thought it was out of the ordinary, but soon I could see the reason. It must have been observing my sword path quietly.

It was not a sword that reacted to the enemy’s movements, but a sword that pulled out the potential in me. It could infer a lot from it.

‘Hm. Now I know for sure. You must have been holding the sword for about 30 years… Or so.’

Wrong, it had been a little over two months.

However, the analysis is not entirely wrong. The sword movement I’ve seen the longest and the most is Randy’s, and it’s all engraved in my head. The sword movement I unraveled was influenced by him unknowingly.

Randy had been holding the sword for about 25 years, so its guess was roughly right.

‘It’s not a short time in terms of the human lifespan, but it’s not enough by absolute standards. But it must have been supported by considerable exposure to hands-on experience. Since your race is human… you must have lived most of your life on the battlefield.’

It was an expression that accurately described Randy’s life.

‘You, like any other Awakened, found a good teacher or a sword that you learned based on your skills in the beginning. However, it seems that the period of learning was not long.‘

Oh, this was indeed kind of creepy. I could guess that it was not a magic sword for no reason. That had been why the previous owners were mesmerized.

‘Another thing, as a whole, the mix of two styles that didn’t harmonize. There is a mixture of ‘rough texture’ that emphasizes bold lines and ‘sharp texture’ that emphasizes precise Mana movement control.’

That was true.

Instead of imitating Randy from my previous life, I tried to mix my strengths that he didn’t have.

‘I’m getting more greedy after finding this out. What do you think? Please help me so that I can help you more reliably and efficiently. Be my true master…’

“Shut your mouth.”

‘It’s because it’s such a waste! There is a limit to telepathic advice… so if you accept my suggestion, I can teach you more efficiently!’

Oh, the bronze statue! When was the statue arriving?

‘With my help, it’s like putting another wing on your back. The wings I’m giving you can lead you to a much higher state than the one you got from the dungeon! Oh, of course, in a symbolic way. You understand, right?’

I didn’t have to threaten it that I won’t be swayed since I was aware of what it was.

Then, it wouldn’t even pretend to listen to me and curse and pour out profanities as I did now to give up the sword. Nevertheless, I should not rely on [The Successor’s Eyes] and agree to become a master.

I began mumbling to myself, ‘It’s not like the devil could force me to sign a contract.’

The devil always sought the ‘agreement’ of his opponent whenever he signed a contract.

Urging one to accept the proposal on free will could be compared to deliberately ruining one self’s immune system in a biological aspect. In the physical part, it was like a Hunter intentionally disabling his Mana Barrier. In my previous life, I had seen a Hunter with a passive skill of [Poison Immunity], temporarily disabling it because he wanted to get drunk. It was practically the same thing.

As I clenched my jaw and was about to swing the sword, it spoke, ‘Oh! I have a good idea. Are you learning any other swordsmanship than the [Sword Mastery]?’

I grinned. Swordsman skills? I had seen a lot of it. It said urgently when I laughed at it without answering.

‘My advice maximizes the effectiveness of your sword skills!‘

Yeah, many hunters who put up with the [Whisper of the Sword] ended up falling for it.

‘Please show me! I’ll be able to give you some meaningful help on proficiency.‘

I meant to test the amplification of the sword movements with the skills. I performed Randy’s mastery skill, [Artha’s Sword Dance], that I could remember.

Whooooooooooh!

Blue Mana that flowed inside the body transferred to the sword, and it transformed into a ‘sword energy’ that could be seen, even if one was not Hunter himself.

The color of the red energy emanated by the sword using the [Artha’s Sword Dance] was dark purple. As soon as I wielded the sword for the first time, the magic sword exclaimed.

‘Ah! This is the sword movement of the King Artha!’

I recalled the movement in my memory.

‘When the proficiency of King Artha’s sword movement is low, it is often underestimated. But if you become truly skilled at it…’

It was Randy’s favorite movement combination. Every time the sword cuts through the air, the purple sword energy remained like an afterimage. I left numerous traces of the sword in front of me, almost as if to fill the void.

‘If you go to that stage, you break down the boundaries between dynamic and static, and you can cross over those at will. What that… means is…’

I spoke, “Like this?”

He went silent for a moment.

‘Yes, like… that.’

In front of me, as I stopped the sword, the trajectory of all the sword movement I had wielded so far did not disappear but richly shone in purple. Web-like lines gathered together to create a wall.

I swung the sword lightly in that state. And as I did so…

Swish!

It was so fast that even my sight couldn’t follow.

The wall of the sword energy that I had made until now condensed both speed energy and destructive power that I made, swept my front.

Ka-ka-ka-ka-kaboom!

When the dust settled, the result was visible. The thickly-wooded jungle was devastated as if a bulldozer passed by it.

‘You’re very skilled, aren’t you?’

I told him, “Do you have anything to add?”

‘Hmm, it’s not flawless.’

The skill entered into the slot through the card was like a ‘Coloring Book’ given to a child who had never drawn a picture.

The system drew the sketch. Hunters just had to paint the right color in the right place, as they were told. They just condensed the Mana along the path that the system told them to.

However, if you were to copy the same page and paint it several times, for example, if you painted a picture of a flower over thousands of times, you might think of this: Why didn’t I add shades on these petals instead of painting them completely red? How many more leaves should I draw on that place? How about drawing a blue sky and clouds on the empty background?

Hunters may experience this process unconsciously or consciously to raise their skill levels. What the system told them was the minimum prerequisite for activating the skill. It relied on a hunter’s own effort to develop it. Just as artisans and masters, who had repeated the same work for decades, find the most efficient and economic movements, so did hunters.

The magic sword’s advice shortened that time.

‘Yes, it’s not… flawless. No, before that. May I ask who your teacher is? There are traces of someone advising on this skill.’

Of course, it would be curious about the identity of my teacher.

This now was the sword movement that melted in the outcome of the previous life’s magic sword’s advice to Randy.