Chapter 36: Everlast Ruins (3)

[‘You have defeated the Weakened Doll Warrior!’]

[You have obtained a new title: Clumsy Brawler!]

Ha.

Haaah.

In front of the collapsed doll, I was gasping for breath.

The lingering tension and the thrill of accomplishment tangled together, churning wildly in my chest.

Of course, the biggest feeling was…

“Damn, that was hard!”

Anyway, this was my very first ‘defeat’.

It meant I had completely brought down my enemy.

In the end, it turned into a messy brawl…

‘Still, a win is a win!’

It would’ve been great if I could have ended it cleanly with a single technique, like when I dueled the Marquis.

But this time, the secret of Grafting Blossom didn’t show any real effect.

‘Well, the situation changed.’

Honestly, the more you try this trick, the less effective it becomes.

‘Thinking about it, that’s only natural.’

Grafting Blossom.

In other words, ‘transplanting a flower from another tree to bloom again’.

So, if it fails once, it only gets harder to succeed the next time—that was a perfectly reasonable outcome.

Thanks to that, I had to grit my teeth and wrestle with the doll warrior.

And in the end, I smashed its chest completely and succeeded in returning it to the earth like this.

Phew.

After catching my breath, I stood up and approached the remains of the doll.

There was something I needed to check.

If you didn’t just subdue the enemy, but completely defeated it, you could sometimes get extra rewards from its corpse.

Some items peeking out from the broken debris were just that.

[You have obtained 4 Gold Coins!]

[You have obtained Intermediate Mana Stone (Fire Attribute)!]

[You have obtained Doll Warrior’s Crystal Fragment!]

All together, they were worth about 15 gold.

I only took down one, yet I got this much reward.

‘As expected, this is quite the haul.’

But on the other hand, my mind was a tangled mess.

There was something I’d realized from the recent fight.

‘No matter what, I can’t master Haewoo Swordsmanship on my own.’

I urgently needed a teacher to help me make this sword art truly mine.

That was the conclusion I’d come to.

Honestly, my original plan was to naturally pick up swordsmanship through battles during quests.

It wasn’t impossible.

That’s how I always played games.

‘Just like in the Original game, I’ve got the Hit Point System, right?’

So I figured I could master swordsmanship just fine in the hunting grounds.

‘There’s a definite advantage to doing it this way, too.’

If I followed my method, I could raise my swordsmanship just enough and progress through quests quickly.

Plus, the little hunting rewards were a bonus.

But just now, I confirmed that it was simply not possible.

The reason was simple.

‘The game and reality are just too different.’

In the Original, as long as I timed my keyboard and mouse controls right, the sword techniques would unfold.

My ‘Mastery’ would gradually go up in the process, and the swordsmanship would grow.

But now, holding the sword myself, things were a bit different.

Mastery: 1-Star

Skill Proficiency: 2.25%

At the beginner 1-Star stage, it was normal for proficiency to rise very quickly.

But…

‘2 percent? That’s all I got?’

At first, I thought it was 22.5%—the number was so ridiculous.

Even that much only happened because I’d clashed swords once during the duel with the Marquis.

‘Considering the level of the defeated Doll Warrior, it should have gone up at least 8%.’

…Something was running differently from the Original game.

Why?

I wasn’t sure, but I suspected the cause lay in the very concept of ‘Mastery’.

Haewoo Swordsmanship was a ‘composite technique’.

It was very different from the single skills that came with Destiny Cards.

First, its structure.

Haewoo Swordsmanship was made up of 36 techniques, big and small.

Ten sword forms for offense.

Ten sword forms for defense.

Special sword forms, ten of them.

And six body techniques, footwork, and breathing techniques that didn’t use the sword.

So, this composite skill set of 36 techniques was all bundled within the greater framework called ‘Haewoo Swordsmanship’.

Just like being good at throwing punches doesn’t mean you’re good at fighting, each element was interlinked, and together, they produced a synergistic effect.

That’s where the concept of ‘Mastery’ comes in.

‘Mastery’ refers to the ability to organically connect and holistically understand each separated skill.

To put it simply…

‘Haewoo Swordsmanship is the forest. The individual techniques are the trees that make up the forest.’

So I have to explore the forest diligently.

First, grasp the big structure of the forest.

Then, learn which trees are closely planted together.

Only then can I truly make use of the vast forest.

That’s why this bothersome concept of ‘Mastery’ exists.

I was already busy leveling up, so having to care about skill mastery was a real pain.

But where there’s a downside, there’s an upside.

Every time Mastery fills up, a composite technique advances to a new realm.

‘From 0-Star to 9-Star.’

As the achievement rank goes up, the character gets noticeably stronger.

With new functions and techniques appearing, you grow incomparably stronger than before.

This was the complete opposite of Destiny Cards, where you had to leave everything to luck.

‘Here, you get stronger in proportion to your effort.’

Those who reached the pinnacle of the sword path this way were people like Elon Reith, the ‘Swordmaster’.

On the other hand, in the magic system, figures like the Vareshan Emperor or the Five-Colored Spire Lord reigned as ‘Magicmasters’.

They were those who pushed a single power to the utmost extreme.

…Lt?

I was just at the starting line, barely tying my shoelaces.

This guy Gilloshian had maintained perfect innocence toward sword and magic, as if he’d done nothing at all.

Damn it.

What the hell did he do for twenty years?

‘If I’d played myself, I wouldn’t feel this cheated.’

In the Original Shin B.S.E, each NPC had a hidden stat called ‘Potential’, and over time, they’d gradually reach its expected value.

So I wondered if Gilloshian would grow according to his Potential as an NPC…

‘No. Anything but that.’

I forced myself to believe otherwise.

This body was notorious even in the Empire as a good-for-nothing wastrel and dullard!

So to assume I’d grow according to my Potential was just too cruel.

‘Honestly, I think I’ve already surpassed the point of being called a dullard.’

Gilloshian had obtained S-rank swordsmanship and a C-rank destiny.

…All thanks to my effort.

I was just barely at the starting line, but it felt weird to keep calling Gilloshian a trash character.

‘He’s usable now. He can keep growing.’

Now, I said that Mastery was about seeing the whole of swordsmanship and learning it.

So, if my growth in Haewoo Swordsmanship was slow because I couldn’t see the whole picture yet—

If there was something the Hit Point System was missing—

‘Then I just need someone to help me.’

Support NPCs were made for that.

Teachers, coaches, mentors…

They appear before the player in various forms.

If I could’ve gone down the magic path smoothly, I wouldn’t need to worry about this at all.

‘Because Tirvaen is by my side.’

The 7-Star little witch was already with me, more than enough as a support for growth.

But right now, I wasn’t a mage.

So I needed another NPC for this position.

An NPC who could advise me on sword techniques and raise my swordsmanship mastery through sparring.

…Karls?

Unfortunately, he was out of the question.

Currently, Karls was a 6-Star Imperial Knight and had mastered three sword arts.

Considering his age, he was quite impressive…

‘But Karls’s main technique is the Frontier Sword Art, a slashing style. His Swift Sword Art and Linked Sword Art aren’t even at 5-Star.’

To be a player’s teacher, you needed to be at least 7-Star.

And the compatibility of techniques couldn’t clash.

‘Of course, Karls will probably hit 7-Star soon enough.’

But that’s only for the slashing sword art.

He was still a long way from being able to teach me Haewoo Swordsmanship, which is a swift sword style.

The most effective thing, of course, would be to learn from an NPC who used Haewoo Swordsmanship as their main style.

‘The problem is, this sword art itself is from the Baekseon Clan in the eastern Continent.’

Historically, the Baekseon Clan was destroyed after resisting the Ruxen Kingdom.

So Haewoo Swordsmanship was practically extinct now.

But…

I knew the Baekseon Clan had left behind a tiny number of survivors.

At the Vagrant’s Wharf in the southeast of the Continent.

There, the surviving Baekseon Clan members lived together.

‘Among those NPCs, there’s even an 8-Star swordsman.’

He was a bit cynical, which I didn’t like, but he was a softhearted uncle.

So if I wanted to truly master Haewoo Swordsmanship, I’d have to go there.

‘Still, it’s a relief that it’s not so far from Aurax.’

Once things settle down, I’ll have to visit there.

“…Originally, I wanted to reach 3-Star Haewoo Swordsmanship before heading out.”

But I had no choice but to lower my goal.

‘Let’s at least try for 2-Star.’

Within the next three hours!

I made sure my stamina was fully recovered and started walking again.

Step, step.

‘Still, though…’

After walking for a while, I turned and looked back at the path I’d come.

Staring into the pitch-black darkness, I felt an eerie chill.

And somehow, my steps felt a little heavier.

‘There’s no status effect, though…’

What is this feeling?

It feels like someone’s watching me.

A thick, unbroken darkness.

Five Stone Coffins lay on the fine sand.

All of them were open, empty coffins.

But within each, a strange presence lingered, slow but unmistakably stirring.

Like holy water poured long ago.

Or like deaths forgotten after being blessed.

They quietly shimmered, guarding that place.

Then, one of them suddenly sent out a thought, full of clear meaning, beyond the Stone Coffin.

Ah.

-There’s a visitor.

As if trying to discern what it had observed, the red light in the coffin slowly grew stronger.

Then another coffin glowed blue and responded.

-Hmm, I see. A young man is coming this way.

Another coffin spoke in a green light.

-It’s been a while since we’ve had a look outside. Who is he?

The answer to the green question came from the golden coffin.

-Blood of the Emperor. I sense the right to the throne we passed down in the distant past.

-Oh…

At the mention of bloodline and throne, all fell silent in surprise.

But it didn’t last long.

-Well, it’s not unprecedented. It’s happened from time to time, hasn’t it?

-Right. This place has become a thoroughfare for all sorts, so whoever comes by, it’s not so surprising…

-Hmm? Isn’t that something from another dimension?

Oh, right, that’s true.

The Stone Coffins murmured among themselves.

-…Everyone, quiet.

The one who silenced them was the black coffin at the center.

Surprisingly, the black presence inside that coffin stretched its arm out into the air and raised itself up.

The writhing darkness gathered into a mass.

-This visitor…

It had a human form, but it was a shadow.

Yet, unlike a shadow, it expressed emotion.

-Oh, he’s not just anyone.

It was joy.

-He’s very different. That one’s a special guest. Hahaha…

The shadow let out a deep, joyful laugh.

Then, standing firmly on the ground, it quietly looked back.

-We must prepare a fitting welcome for such a special guest.

And a chilling laughter swirled around the chamber like a vortex.

Hahahaha…