“Cough.”
Immediately after opening his mouth, a bright red fluid mixed with blood gushed out.
It was evidence of internal injuries so severe that his life would be in immediate danger without prompt treatment.
However, Lee Cheon-gi did not care about that at all.
It wasn’t just because he had anticipated such a result from the moment he committed the madness of using 1,000 overlapping skills, pushing the limits of [Overlord].
It was because there was a much more important issue at hand.
“What was that?”
Lee Cheon-gi slowly raised his head.
He stared at Limon, the white-haired man standing before him, with bloodshot eyes and spoke through gritted teeth.
“What exactly was that just now?”
It was what he saw before he collapsed.
It was a power that melted his 1,000 skills—everything he had squeezed out—like dew meeting the morning sun.
A light that was neither fast nor strong, yet impossible to avoid or block.
He was asking for the identity of that trajectory, which was so beautiful it was almost ecstatic.
To Lee Cheon-gi’s question, Limon answered, “It’s the Demon-Slaying Dragon-Killing Sword.”
“Don’t lie to me. There is no such technique in the Demon-Slaying Dragon-Killing Sword!”
Lee Cheon-gi retorted with anger.
Through his [Skill Acquisition], he had learned not only the original Demon-Slaying Dragon-Killing Sword but even some of the techniques Limon had refined.
That was why he could say with certainty: what happened just now was not the Demon-Slaying Dragon-Killing Sword.
There was no such absurd form in that swordsmanship, and it would have been impossible for even Limon to create such a form in that brief moment.
Limon looked at Lee Cheon-gi and sneered as if the situation were absurd.
“Anyone listening would think the Demon-Slaying Dragon-Killing Sword was your own technique.”
“Except for you, I am the one who knows that swordsmanship better than anyone.”
“Well, when it comes to the technical movements, that might be true.”
Limon didn’t particularly deny that fact.
Even if it was thanks to a cheat skill like [Skill Acquisition], it was true that Lee Cheon-gi had properly stolen and learned his swordsmanship.
With a small caveat, that is.
“If we’re only talking about the technical movements, that is.”
“…What do you mean by that?”
Lee Cheon-gi asked again, as if reading the subtle meaning hidden in that answer, even as he coughed up another mouthful of blood.
Limon took a step toward him. He slowly leaned down, picked up the precious sword Lee Cheon-gi had dropped while falling, and spoke.
“Honestly, even I was a little impressed. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen someone steal my swordsmanship after seeing it just once.”
“Are you saying there was someone else capable of that besides me?”
“Look at the ego on this bastard. Did you think you were the only one who could do what others can’t?”
Limon wore a smirk as he watched Lee Cheon-gi, who frowned as if hit where it hurt.
Lee Cheon-gi’s unique skill, [Skill Acquisition], which could steal any technique, was certainly impressive.
But for Limon, having his swordsmanship stolen wasn’t exactly a new experience.
“Well, it’s true that such people are rare. It was only possible for a few among those called geniuses.”
In any era, there were always geniuses who transcended common logic.
Every genius of the sword sought out Limon at least once, and a small number of them had indeed learned the Demon-Slaying Dragon-Killing Sword in an instant.
“So, when you were imitating my swordsmanship, I had some expectations. I wondered how well you could steal the Demon-Slaying Dragon-Killing Sword.”
Before the Constellations appeared in the world.
Back in the era when Sword Masters were the absolute beings.
Many desired to learn the Demon-Slaying Dragon-Killing Sword, and Limon had taught them generously.
It was the duty he carried as the Tower Lord of the Sword Tower, the holy land of Sword Masters.
***
However, after the Age of Iron began, the Sword Tower went bankrupt due to an operating deficit.
Those seeking his teachings also vanished.
It reached a point where even the name of Limon’s swordsmanship, the Demon-Slaying Dragon-Killing Sword, was remembered by few.
Yet a Lord, of all people, used a skill specifically to steal his swordsmanship.
It was truly ironic.
At the same time, it was nostalgic.
It was enough for Limon to temporarily return to his role as the Lord of the Sword Tower and offer a lesson by demonstrating his refined swordsmanship.
Though the result was disappointing.
“Well, in the end, you failed to understand the Demon-Slaying Dragon-Killing Sword until the very finish.”
“What is it that I don’t know about the Demon-Slaying Dragon-Killing Sword?”
“What don’t you know…? Asking it like that makes it sound like you really know everything about my swordsmanship inside and out.”
“Of course I do,” Lee Cheon-gi declared. [Skill Acquisition] was an absolute skill. As long as he had acquired the Demon-Slaying Dragon-Killing Sword through it, there couldn’t possibly be a form he didn’t know.
“Oh, really?” Limon chuckled at that answer. He carefully examined Lee Cheon-gi’s sword and asked casually, “Then do you also know the principles of the Demon-Slaying Dragon-Killing Sword?”
“What principles are you talking about?”
“I’m asking if you know why the Demon-Slaying Dragon-Killing Sword is used with one hand, why learning it allows you to read an opponent’s movements, and the reasons for when and how to grip and swing the sword.”
“That is…”
Lee Cheon-gi felt himself momentarily at a loss for words.
[Skill Acquisition] had told him everything about the Demon-Slaying Dragon-Killing Sword.
But that only extended to which form to use and when.
It didn’t tell him why.
If it were ordinary swordsmanship, he could have analyzed it with skills like [Swordsmanship Theory] or [Polymath].
However, the Demon-Slaying Dragon-Killing Sword was far too complex to be understood by such trivial skills.
“Then what about the significance of the Demon-Slaying Dragon-Killing Sword? Do you know who created this swordsmanship for what purpose, through what history and effort it was completed?”
Once again, he could not answer.
Before acquiring it as a skill, he didn’t even know Limon’s swordsmanship was the Demon-Slaying Dragon-Killing Sword, so there was no way he could know such details.
“Why are you talking about things unrelated to the sword techniques right now?”
Eventually, all Lee Cheon-gi could do was ask a stiff question.
To that rebuttal, which implied he shouldn’t change the subject, Limon replied calmly.
“Because that’s the reason why, despite stealing the Demon-Slaying Dragon-Killing Sword, you couldn’t move beyond the level of a mere imitation.”
“…Are you saying my swordsmanship was nothing more than an imitation?”
“Yes.”
Limon nodded.
Then, as if comforting an injured woman, he slowly stroked Lee Cheon-gi’s sword with his finger and spoke languidly.
“If you had understood the principles of the Demon-Slaying Dragon-Killing Sword, you wouldn’t have needed to repeatedly steal and learn it no matter how many tens of thousands of times I revised the techniques.”
It was just like academia.
No matter how a shape changed, if you understood the formula, you could find the area.
No matter how substances were mixed, if you understood chemistry, you could predict the outcome.
Swordsmanship was ultimately just a form.
If one understood the principles within, a single sword style could take a thousand forms and counter ten thousand techniques.
“And if you could read the intent embedded in the swordsmanship, you would have recognized at a glance that my final strike was the Demon-Slaying Dragon-Killing Sword.”
The first Sword Master.
The Dragon-Killing Sword created by the Sword Emperor to kill seven dragons.
Limon had refined it over long years and completed it after a desperate struggle against the Demon God.
It was the crystallization of a mere human’s desperate determination to shoulder the world’s fate and face transcendental beings, a result of sorrowful resentment and great will.
The Demon-Slaying Dragon-Killing Sword.
Limon sneered as he spoke calmly.
“Swordsmanship without Sword Principle or Sword Intent is ultimately just a shell. So, if that isn’t an imitation, what else would you call it?”
Lee Cheon-gi had certainly acquired the Demon-Slaying Dragon-Killing Sword.
And as a result, he had become much stronger.
But from Limon’s perspective?
It was like giving a smartphone to a primitive man who then used it as a mirror, satisfied and thinking it was amazing.
No, that was too pitiful; perhaps a glowing stone was a better comparison.
Regardless, they were the same in that they didn’t know the essence or principles, nor even how to utilize it properly.
There was such a massive gap between the Demon-Slaying Dragon-Killing Sword filled with Principle and Intent, and the sword techniques stripped of them.
Yet a Lord, an absolute being of this era, prattled on as if he had mastered it all without knowing such a thing.
For Limon, it was nothing short of disappointing.
“Then again, you people are always like this.”
It wasn’t that Lee Cheon-gi was unique. Most Players were the same.
“You think skills are everything while neglecting everything else.”
Instead of learning swordsmanship because they dreamed of being a swordsman, they contracted with a Constellation that gave them a swordsmanship skill.
Even if they felt their swordsmanship was lacking, instead of training by swinging the sword themselves, they looked for ways to obtain better swordsmanship skills.
If they lacked strength, rather than training their muscles, they tried to clear dungeons to find equipment that increased their strength stat or to raise their level.
Believing that skills and levels determined a human’s value, they made obtaining good skills and raising levels their life goals.
They naturally enjoyed what was given to them without wondering where it came from or how it was created.
They took this as common sense and didn’t even try to understand anything that deviated from their standards, mocking it as outdated.
At least, that was how the Players Limon had seen were.
“In that sense, you were at least a flexible bastard.”
That wasn’t sarcasm.
In this era, Limon was treated as a relic.
The fact that a Lord, the pinnacle of Players, even tried to acquire his swordsmanship was quite a bold idea.
Limon chuckled, saying that if others knew, they would think Lee Cheon-gi was an eccentric testing whether dog dung could really be used as medicine.
Watching him, Lee Cheon-gi asked with a groan, “Are you… denying the existence of Players?”
“What’s the point in denying the changing of the times?”
Limon shrugged.
He had no intention of denying skills or Players.
Just as monarchies collapsed for democracy to appear and cars were invented to replace carriages, he saw the appearance of Players as a flow of the times.
If he tried to deny every change like that, living in a folk village somewhere while cutting off high-tech devices and modern culture wouldn’t even be enough.
“I’m just saying you people don’t have the right to blindly ignore old things either.”
They looked down on swordsmanship earned through blood and sweat simply because it wasn’t a skill.
They mocked the Sword Emperor, who sacrificed himself for the liberation of humanity, saying he died because he was weak and wasn’t a Player.
They laughed at the titles passed down for hundreds of years to honor heroes like the Sword Emperor, calling them ‘cringe-worthy.’
They ignored heroes who saved countries and the world multiple times, calling them outdated relics of a bygone era.
In the old days, such things would have overturned a country.
Forget the internet or whatever.
It was an insult that would have been paid for in blood.
Especially if one had to hear similar nonsense hundreds of times to their face.
“If you really want to keep doing that, it doesn’t matter to me.”
However, Limon didn’t do that.
He simply took his finger off Lee Cheon-gi’s sword and continued calmly.
“But if I could say just one thing, even though I know it’ll sound like nothing but an old man’s rambling…”
*Crack.*
The moment Limon spoke, a single crack appeared on Lee Cheon-gi’s precious sword.
As the fracture that began at the tip of the blade covered the entire sword, the beautiful weapon instantly turned into metal fragments and crumbled away.
As if looking at the remains of a pitiful woman who had been discarded after giving everything to protect her lover, Limon gazed at the wreckage of the sword with lonely eyes and finished his sentence.
“I don’t think bastards like you, who can’t even hear the scream of your own sword because you’re busy being swung around by things like skills, have the right to evaluate my swordsmanship.”
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