Chapter – 15
This is a story from the 89th day.
From the time at Pungrimhwasan, before meeting Eileen.
The Sword Saint playfully brought his wooden sword down on me.
As if to prove his ease, he even had one hand held behind his back.
The action itself was as light as swatting a fly,
but being on the receiving end, I wondered if this was what it felt like when a great mountain came crashing down.
An intuition that if I resisted, I would be crushed and killed right there.
Facing it head-on was impossible.
Even deflecting it wouldn’t be easy.
I took a step back.
The Sword Saint’s wooden sword seemed to sweep through the air, then suddenly changed direction and came slashing diagonally again.
He was persistent.
Only after I had parried five times and dodged did the sword finally withdraw.
The old man laughed.
“Quite usable now, aren’t you?”
“This?”
“Tsk. Think back to when you first sparred with me. Don’t you remember trying to block and having your sword snap in two?”
As if I could forget.
Hesse nagged me all day long about the broken sword.
Damn it.
That cat-eared lady still busily whines whenever she sees me.
While she never says a word to Kang Juhyeok.
“That’s because Juhyeok has no faults to pick on. Seems you’ve got a lot built up inside you?”
“No faults… Where can you find a fool quite like him?”
“Hoho. If anyone heard that, they’d think you’d been watching over Kang Juhyeok for about ten years. As far as I know, hasn’t Juhyeok ever caused trouble at Pungrimhwasan? If anything, he’s too perfect, which is the problem.”
“…….”
This guy’s mouth runs too much.
Instead of answering, I calmly thrust my sword towards the Sword Saint.
Just as the Sword Saint seemed to meet it with his wooden sword, my sword’s destination strangely shifted to empty air.
I could have forced the attack to continue, but my stance felt too unstable for that.
I withdrew my sword.
With just that one move, my offensive was completely severed.
Even so, the old man seemed quite satisfied with my response.
“Look at this. Truly usable now. It’s your doing, I say. Astonishing, really.”
“What’s so special about this? Your praise is excessive.”
“My eyes have never been wrong. Didn’t I tell you before? None of those I’ve taught have ever deviated from my intuition and the predictions based on it. Not even Kang Juhyeok, the second most outstanding among those this old man has seen, is an exception.”
“The first being the Sword Saint himself, I suppose?”
“We get along well, don’t we?”
The old man laughed again.
“But you are different. To be precise, only you are different. If I teach ten, I’d think, ‘In a few days, they’ll have grown this much.’ Not a single one of those predictions has ever been correct. I can’t say it defies common sense, but I can say it’s special. Is it because you’re an Otherworlder? Hmm. I don’t think that’s it.”
That’s probably because I utilize the hologram support given to Otherworlders to its absolute limit.
I’m the one who didn’t hesitate to act like an eccentric to cultivate even a bit of my own strength.
Practicing my swordplay through torrential rain was just one extreme example among many.
Natives cannot grow just by doing such things,
and among Otherworlders, there is no one who perfectly understands what actions trigger the holograms, so they don’t bother with such behavior.
In this world, I am the only one who systematically plans my growth through the holograms.
The old man’s words must have stemmed from that.
Although it seems I’m gradually hitting a limit with that too.
“Now, let’s stop the idle chatter. Today, I’ll teach you how to dodge. Just try dodging. If you succeed in completely evading my sword ten times until dawn, I’ll give you a gift.”
“Barely dodging five times was hard enough, and you want ten? Aren’t you being too stingy?”
“Hey now.”
* * *
Pungrimhwasan.
It hadn’t even been a month since I left, but it felt like a story from the distant past.
And that story ultimately concluded with me not receiving the gift.
“Damn old man. He went easy until the ninth time, but when it looked like I might dodge the tenth, he got serious.”
The old man, who seemed to find joy in teasing people, primarily targeted me.
I wrapped up my recollection there.
Because right before my eyes was a monster charging like a mad bull.
I’d rather it be a bull.
A monster well over four meters tall felt like having a tank in front of me.
The monster, filled with inexplicable rage, swung its club repeatedly.
A strike coming down, empowered by its charge.
The feeling was somewhat similar to back then.
If I blocked it, my arm wouldn’t survive.
I’d be completely overpowered in a contest of brute strength, leaving a club mark engraved on my head.
So, I dodged.
Sometimes by a margin as small as a child’s fist, other times by a paper-thin difference.
I dodged, and dodged, and dodged again.
『Load.
Skilled Evasion.
Good heavens, are you fearless? Throwing your body into a storm of attacks where a single graze could mean serious injury.
You make the viewers’ hearts pound, and you astonishingly, almost miraculously, succeed in perfectly evading the Troll’s attacks a total of 17 times.
It’s nothing short of incredible enough to make one’s eyes pop out.
Ah, of course, I don’t have things like hearts or eyeballs!
– You feel your feet becoming a little lighter.』
Maintaining an offensive indefinitely isn’t easy.
Because there’s a physical limit to chaining one motion after another from the finish of a previous motion.
Posture is the first reason,
and stamina is the second.
The troll ruined both with its consecutive attacks.
A gap naturally revealed itself.
The first moment of choice when shifting from defense to offense.
Should I pierce its heart?
No, it’s positioned much higher than my head.
I couldn’t assume a posture that would allow me to put power into it.
If I failed to pierce it in one go, there was a high chance I’d get a refreshing club strike to my ribs.
I chose the knee joint instead.
Gripping my sword lightly, I swept it sideways—*swoosh*—and green blood spurted.
Due to the thick hide, tough muscles, and hard bones, completely severing it was impossible.
You can’t get full on the first bite, as they say.
Slowly, but precisely.
That’s how you carry on a fight.
The troll suddenly screamed in pain and flailed its club in all directions.
Once again, I flung my body to just outside the range of the club.
The monster knelt on its left knee and clutched its severed right knee with its hand.
Soon after, when it removed its hand, the flesh and muscle of the severed part grew back with a grotesque, squelching sound.
Its regenerative ability was top-notch.
I could easily guess that in just thirty seconds, the wound would be completely healed.
To finish it, I’d have no choice but to at least behead it or tear out its heart.
It was obvious which side would be at a disadvantage the longer the fight dragged on.
I adjusted my grip on the sword and placed my feet two steps apart.
The sound of the club whizzing past my eyes and the following gust of wind stirring.
I felt my hair flutter.
The troll was still kneeling on one knee.
Thanks to that, the limitation on attack range due to the height difference was somewhat mitigated.
I quickly rushed in and drove my sword into its heart.
No matter how tough the hide and muscles were, they weren’t enough to stop a sharpened sword from piercing through.
Kyaaaaaaa-! A cry that felt like it would tear my eardrums.
Indeed, perhaps living up to the name ‘Troll’.
It didn’t die instantly like the Kobold whose heart I had diced up before.
It even threw away its club and now flailed its bare hands wildly in all directions.
It seemed to have already lost its reason.
I left the embedded sword as it was and hopped back.
No matter how skilled a troll was at regeneration, surviving with a shredded heart and a foreign object stuck in it would be impossible.
『Combat Over!
You have achieved a perfect victory against 1 ‘Yellek Plains Green Tribe Troll’.
You, who did not allow a single attack from the ferocious monster, show not even a hint of fatigue.
There are few Otherworlders who showed such composure in their first battle against a monster more than twice their size. Magnificent!
A seamless series of 21 evasions, followed by landing the most excellent critical hit on a monster that instantly regenerates wounds… I’d almost want to make your actions the textbook for troll hunting.
If only there were a novice swordsman with guts big enough to risk having their head fly off with just one wrong move!
– You feel you will become slightly more adept at gauging your opponent’s movements.
– You feel it will become slightly easier to target your opponent’s weaknesses.
– From now on, when you are in perfect condition, you will feel no fear in fights against the race <Troll>. Limited to one-on-one encounters, however.』
I pulled the sword embedded in the troll’s heart out.
The blade was undamaged, my body was unhurt, and it didn’t take too long.
I could say I handled it simply enough.
Eleven more to go, was it?
“That’s a lie!”
The woman said, looking at me. A lie? About what?
“Six months, my foot! It’s got to be at least six years!”
“I was talking about how long I’ve lived as an Otherworlder. I haven’t lied.”
“Where in the world is there a human who can take down a troll after just six months!”
“Right here.”
“Your unnecessarily slick and overly relaxed attitude, and your sword skills too… Who would think you’re a six-monther? I get you want to show off, but you’re boasting too much!”
“Your voice is loud. If you plan on drawing a horde of trolls, I won’t stop you, but…”
“Urk…….”
She immediately fell silent at my words.
It seemed she knew this wasn’t a safe zone.
At the same time, I sank into thought.
Certainly, among the characters appearing in the Istalanisian Chronicles, none achieved growth as fast as mine.
Only the protagonist, Kang Juhyeok, might be somewhat comparable.
But he still lacks the resolve to kill.
If we were to fight to the death right now, I would undoubtedly be the winner.
I could be sure of it.
Because, in fact, that’s how it was.
A certain sparring match that happened at Pungrimhwasan had ended with my victory.
But I didn’t become arrogant.
What was my goal?
Was my goal to gain an upper hand against the immature protagonist before the second chapter, the ‘Royal Throne Recovery’ episode, began?
Hmph, I’m not even interested in that.
What I desire is to correct this twisted world and protect my own safety.
I will have to face powerful enemies that transcend the realm of the inhuman in the future; if I grow arrogant with just this much, even a hundred lives wouldn’t be enough.
“If what you’re saying is true… How are you so strong?”
“Instead of pointless talk, let’s collect the Troll’s Blood.”
Troll’s Blood actually refers not to the green blood flowing in the troll’s body, but to one of its internal organs.
A vital organ connected right below the heart, responsible for the troll’s endless regenerative ability.
Depending on the added ingredients, it can have effects like instantly healing wounds or amplifying magical power, and its uses are endless.
The woman pulled out some tools from her bosom, cut through the troll’s hide, and pulled out a palm-sized organ.
Its still-twitching appearance was somewhat gruesome.
The woman pouted and refused to speak.
“Are you sulking?”
“No.”
“You are sulking, aren’t you?”
“I’m not sulking!”
I took a fresh look at her appearance.
A large brimmed hat that covered down to her eyebrows, connected to reddish-brown hair,
Eyes the same color as her hair,
Pale, sun-deprived skin, and freckles dotted on her cheekbones.
Seeing her again, she didn’t seem to be a character from the Istalanisian Chronicles.
Although she was an Otherworlder, by the time Kang Juhyeok and I were summoned, there were already twenty-five thousand Otherworlders living in this world.
So that wasn’t particularly special to me.
Rather, it was more special that she, an Otherworlder mage, was this untalented at spell incantations.
Although I used the word ‘special’, ‘lacking’ would be a more appropriate expression.
I felt a slight pang of pity.
So I asked.
“What’s your Trait?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Then I can tell you how to get stronger.”
“…That’s a bit hard to tell you.”
A natural reaction.
For an Otherworlder, a Trait is an ability directly connected to their wish, and it could be their trump card or, if discovered, their worst weakness.
An Otherworlder revealing their Trait means they trust the other person that much.
And it wasn’t something to tell a suspicious person they’d only known for two days.
But if that’s the case, then I couldn’t offer help either.
My intention to help her was, after all, largely from a charitable standpoint.
She’s a woman who’s been rolling around Istalanisia for eleven years.
She must have seen countless others push forward.
But if the charity box is closed, even if I want to insert a coin, I have no intention of forcing the box open to put one in.
That would be too troublesome.
I turned around.
To find the next troll.
The woman grabbed the hem of my clothes as I turned.
Her droopy eyes, just like when we first met.
She couldn’t meet my eyes and just stared at the ground.
I let out a sigh.
What a headache.
I finally opened my mouth.
“Listen carefully. An Otherworlder’s talent is generally based on their Trait.”
“Yes!”
Her face looked up as soon as I uttered the first word.
If she had a tail like Hesse, wouldn’t it be wagging softly right now?
Her brown eyes, tinged with a hint of crimson, sparkled with vitality.
I can’t bring myself to dislike her.
A puppy-like woman.
“You’re not utilizing your Trait at all, are you? Or is it a Trait unsuited for the Mage profession?”
“How did you…?”
“It’s obvious. If you were utilizing it in a field suited to your Trait, there’s no way you would have remained such a half-baked mage.”
“…….”
“If you want to get stronger, you need to utilize it. If it’s a Trait unrelated to magic, then quitting being a mage would be a good method.”
“But how……”
“I don’t know what your Trait is, so I have no way of telling you ‘how’. Figure out the rest yourself.”
“Okay.”
“Before that, don’t forget the deal we made. The one about you getting me to meet the Head of the Phoenix Brigade.”
“…Okay.”
“Don’t forget about giving me all your possessions either.”
“…….”
“If you don’t like it, I’m going back.”
“I said okay! Let’s quickly find the next troll!”
The way she comically swiveled her head with the back of her hand placed above her eyes was quite a funny sight.
I laughed out loud for the first time in a while.
