Chapter 8
Sparring, Day 1.
In the end, I couldn't land a single effective hit on the damn golem.
It wasn't a sparring match; it was more like a one-sided beating show where the golem was the only one doing the beating.
Thanks to that, the levels of several skills rose, but I couldn't exactly feel good about it.
I stopped the golem, which was about to bring its sword down on my thigh one more time, by pressing the white button.
Title : Isn't it too strong?
Author : ㅇㅇ*
-How is a golem with only 30 durability this absurdly strong?
└ Light's Sword) Only its durability is 30; its performance is unchanged. Good work. Could you see any of the sword paths?
└ ㅇㅇ*) Yeah, I'm starting to see them. Getting hit this directly does seem to help me learn faster. But actually performing them seems like a different matter.
└ Heavenly Demon) You shouldn't place too much faith in your own ability to learn.
└ Swamp Sword Saint) You have no choice but to keep rolling around. That's what training is.
└ Talk about a bunch of old fogies.
└ The old men are having a blast now that ‘*’ is rolling around with a sword.
└ I want to give some advice too, but I'd get absolutely roasted for looking down on Easy and Normal… Heheheh. Never mind.
└ Do it. We may not be stronger than them, but do we lack spirit?
Day 3.
The golem I had restarted by pressing the black button came charging at me.
A sword strike came crashing down before my eyes like a bolt of lightning.
I raised my arm.
The movement was a completely instinctive act of defense.
Crack!
I blocked it.
I had been practically forced to learn that this was Drakabani, the third technique of the Dragon-Slaying Sword.
Learning that left pain in my body made knowledge sink in faster.
It was a vertical slash, but there was something distinctive about it that couldn't be expressed with such a simple description.
Heavenly Demon had called that martial principle.
I diligently swung my sword. The sensation of my muscles swelling tautly spread through both my arms and legs.
[‘Strength’ increases by 1.]
The veterans' words that repeatedly pushing past the limits of my body could raise my stats even without leveling up had been proven correct.
[‘Vitality’ increases by 1.]
As expected, the old veterans were right about everything. Of course they were.
And once again, I was beaten.
Sword strikes flashed in from every direction.
After doing nothing but get beaten for two days, I finally began to see something.
An angle I could properly block.
There was no sudden flash of insight that brushed through my mind in an instant.
I watched how the golem's arms moved, and how its legs advanced when it swung its sword.
I quickly read those movements and acted on what I saw.
My first feeling was self-reproach for only realizing something so obvious now.
A pitcher on the mound observing a batter's habits and throwing a pitch to catch him off guard was the most natural thing in the world.
Like breathing.
I blocked Technique 1, the slash.
I blocked Technique 2, the thrust, Hjartagnyr.
I blocked Technique 3.
My eyes grew progressively clearer.
Whack-!
“Ah.”
But then I took a direct hit from an ordinary slash that simply came straight down vertically.
My vision went dark for an instant, and my body tilted backward.
Thud-
I lifted my head and saw the golem striding toward me.
“Don't come any closer, you bastard.”
I picked up a piece of the golem's activation cube from the floor and pressed it.
It stopped dead.
The golem, which had been approaching to beat me some more, stopped in place.
That's enough for today.
I had gained a lot. I decided to use the remaining time to review what had happened.
* * *
Day 10.
Title : Today will be different
Author : ㅇㅇ*
-I had an epiphany yesterday, you know.
└ How many attempts is this bastard on now, after writing that?
└ For realㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ Famous, right) If you've had an epiphany that great, shouldn't you be entering nirvana by now?
└ As expected, Gaepyeong's the one who delivers the killing blow~~
Who the hell was that guy, anyway?
Gaepyeong?
└ ㅇㅇ*) What's Gaepyeong?
└ Heavenly Demon) It means the Beggar's Sect average.
└ Damn it…why is the Heavenly Demon, the pinnacle and leader of all demons, kindly explaining some worthless term like Gaepyeong? The Martial World I know isn't like this. I'm saying there's no way that man is really the Heavenly Demon.
└ You do know there's only one Martial World Earth, right? He's the very same Heavenly Demon you know. No denial or evasion ㄴㄴ
└ The Heavenly Demon is only thinking about getting the climber at the center of the gallery to notice him right now.
└ Famous, right) Heavenly Demon, a thousand years! May ten thousand demons bow before you!
└ That lunatic is a Beggar's Sect member and the Beggar's Sect Leader, so why the hell is he shouting that? Aaargh!!!! My Martial World!!!!!
└ He's just adapted to the modern world. Didn't you even see the Martial Alliance Leader groveling before the Heavenly Demon? It was only a few months ago.
A comment appeared abruptly, seeming to have no interest whatsoever in the comments above.
└ Light's Sword) Don't tire yourself out. Just keep my advice in mind.
He had written a lot, but aside from the sword techniques, none of it was particularly useful.
└ ㅇㅇ*) Why did you write this? ‘Ultimately, the greatest weapon is the sword.’
└ Swamp Sword Saint) That's a fact.
└ Light's Sword) It is.
└ Spear King) Strange things have happened while I was in seclusion. Someday, you will use a spear as well….
└ Heavenly Demon) Ahem, get in line. This venerable one shall teach you the fist first.
└ Spear King) That depends on what the young one wants.
Seriously, what a bunch of sword fanatics.
I was in a situation where I had to become a sword fanatic myself, but I didn't want to join that line.
I closed the gallery and activated the golem.
Flash.
The glow of its red, single eye blinked in the center of its head.
If I keep looking at this thing, I might actually grow attached. Seriously.
I took a step forward.
The golem's right hand, holding the sword, moved.
My right hand moved as well.
Two trajectories collided horizontally.
My sword clashed with the golem's wooden sword.
I did it. Finally.
I countered and canceled out the damn first technique, Þursahǫgg.
My first success.
But they say that starting is half the battle.
The golem followed up by unleashing Techniques 2 and 3, and I countered both of them.
Both my arms trembled.
I had once wondered why Light's Sword had sent me such a brutish golem of all things.
After getting beaten by it for a long time, I naturally realized the answer.
He had sent it to teach me how not to shrink back before an opponent several levels above an Ansranthrope or a goblin.
If Light's Sword says the conclusion I reached is wrong, then Light's Sword is the stupid one.
[Warrior's Movement Lv.1 - Skill acquired.]
[Skill ‘Focus Enhancement’ level increased. Lv.2]
[Skill ‘Danger Detection’ level increased. Lv.2]
Because I had achieved tangible results.
Besides, ‘Warrior's Movement’ was a skill Light's Sword had personally emphasized in the appendix to the sword manual.
He had said it was a skill with many uses.
After responding to those three attacks, I was once again beaten one-sidedly.
After stopping the golem, I practiced moving mana.
When I reached Floor 2 and gained the ‘Mana’ stat, a mana heart had naturally formed within my body.
Light's Sword had written down how to control the 10 mana contained in that mana heart in a slim appendix to the Dragon-Slaying Sword manual.
I sat in a lotus position.
It took me a week just to recognize the ‘mana heart’ itself.
Over the next three days, I managed to slowly circulate mana throughout my entire body.
[Mana Body Enhancement Lv.1 - Skill acquired.]
I still couldn't manifest sword aura, but I had become capable of temporarily strengthening my body during combat.
Even with only 10 mana, whether I could control it or not made a huge difference.
The life-or-death struggle with the golem, along with the sword manual Light's Sword had given me, had taught me the bare minimum foundation I needed to survive in this Tower.
A definite change occurred on Day 13 of sparring.
[Mana Body Enhancement Lv.1 - Activating skill.]
Whoosh!
I slightly twisted my shoulder to avoid the wooden sword that cleaved through the air and came crashing down like lightning.
Then I extended my right foot and stepped on the golem's right foot. It wasn't calculated; it was instinctive.
─Crack
Right up to unleashing Þursahǫgg, the first technique of the Dragon-Slaying Sword.
At last, I had reduced its durability from 30 to 29.
And when the sparring session ended, the golem's remaining durability was 23.
Title : Hey, Light's Sword. You're lying, right?
Author : ㅇㅇ*
-Weren't you much stronger than this Golem Mk. 2 when you were seventeen?
└ Light's Sword) Oh? Looks like you finally landed one.
└ ㅇㅇ*) One, my ass. Seven.
└ LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Climber, are you really that proud?
└ Light's Sword) The golem had only rusted somewhat.
└ Light's Sword) It isn't weak enough to diminish the value of what you accomplished.
It doesn't seem like it only rusted a little.
Day 15.
The golem's current remaining durability was 16.
There was no more time to drag this out. Considering that I had to clear Floor 2, safely reach the Floor 3 waiting room, and then participate in the exchange gathering, today was the deadline for my sparring training.
I spread the mana in my mana heart throughout my entire body.
[Mana Body Enhancement Lv.1 - Activating skill.]
I'll finish this.
The Sparring Golem Mk. 2, with deep cracks running through its body.
But I couldn't underestimate it in the slightest.
I had been hit by it more than a hundred times.
[Focus Enhancement Lv.2 - Activating skill.]
The golem continued beating me without a care, even as fragments flew from every part of its body.
Pain awakens the senses.
I plunged inside the range of its wooden sword.
A fighter must move like a beast.
That was what Light's Sword had scribbled at the end of the sword manual, and it had become my guiding principle.
It's all right to get hit.
I just had to give up flesh to take bone.
I plunged in with that thought in mind.
But I was able to let it pass through a gap lasting a split second.
I had grown. That certainty sent adrenaline boiling up from the depths of my body.
The sword I swung horizontally struck the golem's head. The head, then the center of its torso.
Crack!
Its side, legs, neck. I drove my sword toward the golem's limbs.
Stone and metal shattered.
Yellow fragments scattered in every direction.
Slash!
The golem's grotesquely bent right arm split perfectly in two.
Fragments scattered across the floor, producing a series of thunderous crashes.
Soon, the golem's head fell to the floor and rolled away.
Thirty.
The golem's durability had been completely depleted.
Its red single eye lost all its light.
I looked at the fragments of the broken golem.
“Thank you.”
I wasn't saying it just to be polite.
I sincerely felt grateful to the broken golem.
Without it, there was no way I could have raised my practical combat sense this much in such a short time without risking death.
Even the pain the golem had given me had been medicine in the long run.
I'm very grateful, but I still need to prove to the Transcendent Gallery users that I broke it.
I took a picture of the wooden sword the golem had used and the broken golem with the terminal.
Title : I broke it.
Author : ㅇㅇ*
-I'm opening the Floor 2 door after eating a bowl of pork gukbap.
Attachment : 99868690.jpg
[A picture of the shattered golem and wooden sword.]
└ Ohㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Are you starting to get the hang of it?
└ Shaman) Hawawa, you should take a picture of the pork gukbap as well and post it.
└ Light's Sword) Well done.
└ Ice Queen) Frozen solid!! That's amazing! Climber!
└ Swamp Sword Saint) You finished within the time limit, contrary to expectations.
└ Elf) You worked hard.
└ Great Mage) Don't let your guard down. Even Hard difficulty is insane starting from Floor 2, and don't forget that you're in Pandemonium.
I'm not letting my guard down.
I only plan to keep throwing myself at it.
I ate the pork gukbap.
Despite desperately wanting a picture, the Shaman posted a feeble comment saying that it looked inedible just from its appearance.
I headed toward the very end of the Floor 2 waiting room.
There was a gray door with a faint light leaking through the gap.
I grabbed the handle and opened the door.
Creak-
『Welcome to the Floor 2 stage of Pandemonium difficulty.』
A scene completely different from the first floor, which had been nothing but a dungeon, unfolded before me.
A massive gray wall, with warriors gathered around it.
Shouts pierced my ears.
What unfolded before my eyes was a castle defense battle.
『Floor 2 of Pandemonium difficulty is quest-based.』い?commentary?
『Floor 2 of Pandemonium difficulty is quest-based.』