Chapter 15
The wyvern, covered in red scales, stared at me.
“Grrr…”
Killing intent poured from its golden eyes.
It looked ready to kill me at any moment.
“Um, Reiya… what is this?”
“What do you mean? It’s your scarecrow.”
“…?”
“Oh, is it a little scary like this?”
She gave me a reassuring smile, then lightly tapped the wyvern on the head with her fist.
It had definitely seemed like a light tap.
-KRAK!
With a sound like something being crushed, the wyvern passed out.
“It’s unconscious, so it’s not scary anymore, right? Come on over.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
…The really scary person was still awake, though.
I held back my trembling and went over to stand beside Reiya.
“Why don’t you take a few swings at the wyvern? Just handle your aura the way you normally do.”
So that was what she meant by a scarecrow.
‘Hmm…’
Honestly, this was ridiculous.
Wyverns were S-Rank monsters, and pretty high-tier ones at that.
‘I probably won’t even leave a scratch.’
If I managed to pierce a wyvern’s scales, I’d have something to brag about over drinks for the rest of my life.
It was, quite literally, almost impossible.
‘I’ll give it a try.’
I drew my sword from my waist.
Even after GreatswordFan had refined its form, there hadn’t been any major changes.
But when I channeled aura into it…
‘Oh?’
It felt a little different from usual.
The aura passed through the sword smoothly, shoo-shoo-shoo, without any resistance.
‘Should I add mass to it, too?’
A little while later, I finished imbuing it with aura much faster and more solidly than usual.
‘Maybe I’ll get to add a new achievement to my life.’
Something like ‘Title—The One Who Pierced a Wyvern’s Scales.’
“Phew.”
I swung my sword, harboring a small hope, and…
-CLANG!
A powerful recoil ran through my body.
“Ugh!”
I watched GreatswordFan, my body trembling from the impact.
“Hmm.”
She looked at me with a complicated expression.
“To start with, the conclusion is… you’re not handling aura properly right now.”
What?!
According to the Swordsmanship Gallery, I had the greatest talent in history, unprecedented and unmatched throughout the ages—and I couldn’t handle aura?
Just as I began to wonder if the Swordsmanship Gallery had been hyping me up for no reason…
“But, in a way, I suppose that’s only natural.”
GreatswordFan continued.
“After getting a feel for the level of your aura, I realized it’s absurdly powerful. Just in terms of its power, your aura is much stronger than mine… No, you’re not even in the same league.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. You’re probably the person with the strongest aura on this continent.”
She came over beside me, draped an arm around my shoulders, and said,
“But the problem is that your aura is too powerful. It’s almost like you’re being dragged along by it. That’s the best way I can describe it.”
“Dragged along?”
“Yeah. In absolute terms, your aura control is ridiculously good, but the power you have to control is far beyond that level.”
Ah, I see.
“I’d like to teach you how to handle aura, but this isn’t something you can learn just from an explanation, you know?”
She pressed close to me and wrapped her hands around the one holding my sword.
“So I’ll give you a rough idea by showing you with your body.”
“…Pardon?”
“I’m going to put my aura inside your body, okay? Then I’ll use it to help you control yours. Got it?”
She was moving so fast that I couldn’t follow what she was saying.
-Nod.
But figuring it would work out somehow, I nodded.
“Then, I’m putting it in?”
-Whooosh!
A transparent energy poured into my body.
Moving like the wind, it swept through my entire body and swirled around inside me.
“All right, try imbuing your sword with aura!”
I drew out the black mist once more.
As I tried to channel aura into my sword the way I usually did…
-Whoosh, whoosh!
GreatswordFan’s aura reacted immediately.
‘What?’
Wrapping around my aura, it began to adjust its direction little by little.
‘…That’s impossible.’
She interfered with each and every movement I made while controlling my aura.
The process was incredibly precise, and sometimes daring.
‘Can she really do this?’
Her ability to control aura was far beyond anything I could imagine.
If everything I’d done up to now had been like learning to walk, GreatswordFan was like flying back and forth to Mars in a spaceship.
…It was a weird analogy, but anyway.
‘This is just absurd.’
The movement of aura was almost beautiful.
As I focused on the aura, half entranced…
“Now raise your sword.”
GreatswordFan whispered in my ear.
At the same time, the aura seeped completely into my sword—
“-Now. Bring it down.”
-KWAANG!
Black mist erupted, cleaving the wyvern’s body in half.
I thought it would stop there, but…
-KRA-KA-KA-KAANG!
My aura kept going, completely tearing up the surrounding land.
Nothing remained where it had passed.
And the result was…
“?”
A massive gorge had opened up in the forest.
It had to be hundreds of meters deep, at the very least.
I looked back at GreatswordFan in shock, but…
“W-what? That’s way stronger than I thought…”
She muttered something to herself, as if she couldn’t believe what had happened.
“I only released aura, and it flew for several kilometers? And it tore up the ground, which had been hardened by mana…?”
I watched her in shock for a moment, then…
‘Ugh, ah…?’
My vision blurred in an instant, and I lost consciousness.
…
It wasn’t an unfamiliar ceiling.
‘Hmm.’
Though it wasn’t a familiar one either, since something was blocking my view and I couldn’t see anything.
There were about two round objects covered in bandages… or something like that.
They looked incredibly soft and squishy.
‘Should I touch them?’
Wondering what they were, I reached out and gave them a squeeze.
“Ah—?!”
At that moment, I heard GreatswordFan’s voice, and my body rolled sideways.
“Ugh!”
I stood up after smacking my head against the wall.
“Ow…”
“Ah, sorry! I got startled when you suddenly touched my body…!”
GreatswordFan hurried over and checked on me, looking worried.
“More importantly, I’m really sorry. I think I forced your power out of you, and that made you pass out…”
“Uh, y-yes… I’m okay.”
My stomach was queasy, but I could manage.
Besides…
‘Thanks to her, I got to experience something incredible.’
I felt like I’d figured out the direction I needed to grow in.
Someday, I’d be able to use an attack like that as a regular move, right?
‘I can’t wait.’
I wanted to start unleashing powerful sword strikes as soon as possible, but…
-Thump.
I collapsed again.
***
My body wasn’t in nearly as good a condition as I’d expected.
For several days afterward, I was bedridden and felt like I was on the verge of death.
‘But I survived in the end, right?’
After a full week of care and hard work from GreatswordFan, I managed to make a complete recovery.
And so, on the morning of my eighth day on Floor 15…
“Ugh!”
I stretched and sat up.
Living here with GreatswordFan didn’t seem so bad, but…
This place was still the Tower, after all.
‘I’ve got to clear it.’
Thinking that, I stared intently into the air.
‘So how am I supposed to clear it?’
I’d waited for the system all week, but it hadn’t given me an objective or even a simple explanation.
I was beginning to wonder if I’d have to kill myself to get out when…
-Ding!
I heard a familiar sound.
[Objective: Hone your swordsmanship in its purest form.]
“Hmm.”
It was good that I’d been given an objective, but it was so vague that I had no idea what I was supposed to do.
‘Is this different from ordinary swordsmanship?’
The swordsmanship on the Swordsmanship Gallery was quite different from conventional swordsmanship.
It was more or less, ‘If you can handle aura, isn’t that swordsmanship? lol’
‘Maybe the system means something else.’
Since it had gone out of its way to add ‘pure,’ that seemed like the right assumption.
Could it mean actually swinging a sword?
‘Well…’
Up until now, I’d only fought by overwhelming my opponents with the sheer power of my aura. I’d never used any real swordsman’s techniques.
‘Maybe that’s exactly why I ended up here.’
Maybe it meant I should start fighting more like a swordsman.
This had to be the part where I learned pure swordsmanship directly from GreatswordFan.
Okay, I think I’ve got it.
‘I’ll bring it up over breakfast.’
Time passed, and it was time for breakfast.
While eating with GreatswordFan at a low table…
“Reiya, could you teach me some swordsmanship?”
I just blurted out my request.
“All of a sudden?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm…”
She seemed taken aback, but set down her chopsticks and answered me.
“As you know, aura is a matter of sensation, right? So I can give you tips, but in the end, you have to reach the next stage yourself.”
She continued with a light laugh.
“Try it on your own while remembering the feeling you had last time. At the rate you’re going, I doubt it’ll take you more than a few years to become a Swordmaster.”
“I appreciate the offer, but that’s not what I want to learn.”
“Huh? Then what do you want to learn?”
“How to swing a sword itself.”
“…You mean basic swordsmanship?”
“Probably.”
GreatswordFan looked puzzled.
“Why? If you’ve learned aura, haven’t you already mastered the basics of swordsmanship?”
“I did a lot of studying ahead of time, so I’m really lacking in the basics.”
“Well, I can help with that, but… I don’t know if there’s anything I can teach someone as talented as you.”
After breakfast, we went outside so she could see how good I was.
“A Lycan should be fine, right? Don’t use any weird techniques. Just fight it with your sword.”
GreatswordFan brought over a three-meter-tall werewolf monster and set it in front of me.
‘Wasn’t a Lycan a low-tier B-Rank monster?’
At this level, I was sure we’d have a good fight.
-CLANG! CLANG!
I fought an epic battle with the Lycan for several minutes.
I kept up a close fight, alternating between dodging and attacking.
-Stab!
“Kiee, ehk!”
In the end, I won after a hard-fought battle.
“…Phew. H-How was I?”
I looked at GreatswordFan with a confident expression.
“Wow…”
-Clap, clap, clap.
She applauded me, looking impressed.
Yeah. She must be surprised by my skill…
“You really are terrible at fighting.”
Huh?
***
For the next few weeks, I did nothing but learn swordsmanship.
“Is that really the right stance? Your leg’s going to get cut off like that!”
“There you go again. How many times have I explained this to you?”
“No, don’t do it like that, just…! You have to go swoosh, bang, shwoom, then whoosh, boom!”
As you’d expect from a greatsword fanatic, she sometimes said incomprehensible things, but…
Thanks to GreatswordFan’s instruction, I made incredible progress.
“Raaagh!”
-Slash!
I’d even won a one-on-one fight against an upper-tier C-Rank monster, a High Orc, without using aura at all.
‘Damn.’
Of course, aura naturally flowed through my body and had increased my basic strength. Even so, it was undoubtedly a huge improvement.
“Sion, you’re starting to look pretty decent now.”
GreatswordFan came over to me with a smirk.
“When I first saw you, I thought it’d take years. But you’ve gotten this good in just a few weeks… Your talent really is ridiculous. Were you pretending to be bad?”
“Come on. Absolutely not.”
“Heh, I’m just kidding. What you showed me at first was way beyond anything anyone could fake.”
It stung a little, but I let it slide.
I really had been awful back then.
“Anyway, we can probably stop here with the basic swordsmanship. Instead… I have one last task for you.”
As she said that, she turned and started heading somewhere.
“What’s the task?”
“Follow me and you’ll find out~”
I followed her deeper into the forest.
‘Is this the end of Floor 15?’
My swordsmanship was nearly complete, and GreatswordFan had said she was giving me one final task.
Once I finished it, the stage would probably be cleared, too.
‘That’s kind of sad.’
I’d gotten pretty attached to GreatswordFan by now.
I did have the real GreatswordFan back in the real world… but it still felt a little strange.
‘I guess it can’t be helped.’
Swallowing my regret, I followed behind her.
“All right, here we are.”
She suddenly stopped after we’d walked for about ten minutes.
I wondered what kind of task she was going to give me, when…
“Grrr…”
In the distance, I spotted a wyvern bound tightly from head to toe.
“Um, Reiya…”
“Yeah?”
“…Please tell me it isn’t what I think.”
“…”
GreatswordFan said nothing, only giving me a kind smile before walking toward the wyvern.
And then…
She undid its restraints.
[The stage’s final objective has been issued!]
[Final Objective: Slay one wyvern.]
[An objective deemed impossible for the climber has been assigned!]
[Clear reward adjusted from A-Rank -> S-Rank item!]
-…Ding!
[An objective deemed impossible for the climber has been assigned!]
[Clear reward adjusted from S-Rank -> Legendary item!]
-…Ding!
[An objective deemed impossible for the climber has been assigned!]
[Clear reward adjusted from Legendary -> Mythic item!]
The moment the system window disappeared…
-KABOOM!
The wyvern charged toward me.