NOVEL NEXT Chapter 17
Chapter 18
The academy’s lecture system is fundamentally generous.
If you can handle it, you can cram in as many credits as you want, and if you regularly submit a plan detailing what activities you’ve done to achieve results along with evidence, you can also earn credits for that!
This is likely why club activities are so vibrant. Even if there are fools trying to scam the academy by claiming false activities, such cases are extremely rare, and it ends up saving the faculty time and money.
Yuri’s teachings were no different. The department head himself submits plans stating he will teach students in personal spaces—who would dare to stop him?
All one had to do was roll around in agony during that time and then receive credit…
To be honest, there really isn’t much profit in terms of credits.
“The Three Talents refer to Heaven, Earth, and Humanity.”
Still, I couldn’t help but wonder why I, a student, was learning the Three Talents Sword Technique from a warrior from Alkeion. It felt like something was off.
“That’s a relief. It’s fortunate that you’ve been training both arms from the start. However, if everything besides the downward strike is so pathetic, you won’t even be able to claim you’re using a sword. So, for a while, this will have to do.”
“That’s true.”
“Still, should I show a demonstration? Keep your eyes open.”
Of course, the main reason was that Yeon-woo was thoroughly untalented in swordsmanship, but there was certainly a reason why he was a one-trick pony with downward strikes.
He could swing down easily, but he couldn’t figure out how to position the sword to swing in other directions at all. He didn’t know how to exert force, so his strikes lacked power, and he didn’t know how to hold his stance—which left huge openings.
Right now, thanks to his past life experience wielding a spear, he was just barely mimicking things, but outside of downward strikes, it felt like his swordsmanship resembled spear techniques more closely.
Considering this, the Three Talents Sword Technique was truly a precise remedy for Yeon-woo. With thrusting, horizontal strikes, and downward strikes, he could learn two moves from just one simple technique!
Naturally, Yeon-woo’s eyes sparkled as he looked at Yuri. Yuri was demonstrating thrusting, horizontal strikes, and downward strikes slowly and accurately.
Witnessing that, Yeon-woo gasped, “Ah!”
“…Um, excuse me.”
“What is it?”
“Was thrusting and horizontal striking really that difficult?”
It was far too eye-catching a demonstration to be shown to a disciple lacking talent. Those three movements contained far too intricate techniques. From the moment the sword was drawn, something seemed odd, and halfway through, it looked as if the sword was elongating—you couldn’t see anything…
At least, he managed to understand the stance just by mimicking it.
Yuri looked at Yeon-woo with disbelief.
“This level should be enough to say you’ve swung a sword a bit. I’ll teach you the details separately, so just stay still.”
Ah, he thought, so it’s showing first and adjusting later. Yeon-woo was impressed by this rather master-like approach.
He wondered who spread rumors about Yuri in his previous life. Yeon-woo assumed a position and swung the sword, while Yuri, watching from behind, slapped Yeon-woo’s calf with a twig.
“Ouch!”
“Loosen up.”
He swung. Smack!!
“That hurts!!”
“Here, you need to apply strength.”
Smack, crack, thud, agh, clatter…
For a long time after that, Yeon-woo’s screams filled the personal training space like a field.
He began to understand why the rumors existed…
*
On the surface of the eggshell, Shar rolled and rubbed the reddened spots on Yeon-woo’s body, coated in a transparent, sticky liquid.
[Wow, did you get hit that much?]
“Like I wanted to get hit!”
What Shar was applying was a regeneration potion given by Yuri. Normally, it would be better to leave it alone until healing occurs naturally, but of course, bringing wounds to other lessons could easily lead to strange misunderstandings. Cursed old man, if you knew that, couldn’t you have done it more appropriately?
But it was certainly helpful. While he couldn’t manage the downward strike, he had become somewhat proficient with other swings. Truly, humans learn through pain, don’t they?
Normally, one wouldn’t stay this long in the basic swinging stage, but Yeon-woo was different.
No, how could one tell him to wield a sword with such a talent?
He had been tempted by the idea of splitting the heavens, but now that he thought about it, shouldn’t he have chosen a different weapon?
Yet, saying that, he himself had lingering attachments to the sword. He had swung it for ten years. Repeating the same action every day from five to fifteen years old indicated something beyond mere obsession. This body really is stubborn, he thought.
Once he sighed helplessly, he caught sight of the lively Shar.
Shar’s sleeping time had been increasing. There’s a limit to positively thinking, “Sleep well, my daughter.”
When would the hatching take place? Though he sensed that Shar was reluctant to talk about it, now he really needed to ask.
“Shar, you woke up well past lunchtime today, didn’t you? Would you like to tell me when you think you’ll hatch? I’m worried, even if you pretend otherwise.”
[Oh, um….]
Perhaps Shar had anticipated that the conversation would arise, as her round body bobbed slightly. The sight of an egg barely the size of an ostrich egg floating in front of him was bizarrely whimsical.
[Not long now… I think. The goblin hunt made it accelerate a bit. Maybe about a week left?]
“Oh?”
The notion that catching goblins accelerated it was news to him.
[I absorbed mana from the monster’s corpse. You could do it too, but it wouldn’t mean much for you right now.]
“Why wouldn’t it?”
Considering he was already lacking in mana, if hunting monsters could boost his mana, he felt an urge to hunt hundreds or thousands of them. But if it wouldn’t mean anything, why was that?
[The mana from monsters is of very poor quality. The quantity may increase just a whisker, but the quality would drop. For me, it doesn’t matter since I can just convert the mana into nutrients….]
Hmm, thinking about it that way, it did make sense. The most useful thing he possessed now was the immense quality of his mana. Though his swordsmanship stat rose to 2, that was still below average. If he were to sacrifice quality for some minor increase in quantity, that would indeed be imprudent.
“Okay, I get it. But I’d appreciate it if you let me know next time you do something like that. Didn’t you think that Dad would worry?”
[Ugh… Okay, I’ll inform you ahead of time from now on.]
“Great, because neither I nor the hunters know anything about dragons. Apart from you, I have no information source…”
With a beginner dad doing solo parenting and lacking information, things couldn’t get tougher than this. Fortunately, Shar was a child who didn’t require much attention…
Not that she didn’t require attention; she certainly moved about on her own!
So first, it was necessary to organize things chronologically. What should take priority?
Thinking about it, saving Baek In-hwa had to come first. Fortunately, though he may not reach that point, he had some time to spare. So while it was a high priority, there was a bit of leeway. Meanwhile, he had to handle the trivial matters.
Next came Shar’s hatching. She had said about a week was left. Furthermore, hunting monsters would accelerate the hatching. Though he wasn’t sure if accelerated hatching was a good thing.
Third, the large magic stone… but.
This item was honestly a bit ambiguous. Of course, it was true that academy tuition was immense, and considering gear costs, it would make sense to secure it.
If he could obtain it, it would solve all financial issues. It was like an emergency fund.
The only problem was, while he could guess which mine it lay in, the question of “where” within that mine remained.
It might be better for mental health to consider it used up for the initial gate expense and give up if still nowhere to be found.
Fourth, he certainly remembered this from his past life, as it had still been very useful then.
The artifact he had utilized in his previous life, [Relin’s Warehouse].
Although he had originally entered as a porter, he could now enter as a hunter, so he would be able to go alone.
Since it hadn’t even been discovered yet, it would be wise to retrieve it swiftly.
“Still, that gate is supposedly D-grade…”
I want Relin’s Warehouse…
Though I had it for a lifetime, I want more…
[Is D-grade gate really difficult?]
“Gates tend to have individual differences, you see.”
To be honest, the monsters that came from that gate, the one from [Relin’s Archive], were ridiculously weak. Even in his current form, Yeon-woo could chop down about ten of them in an instant.
[And?]
“They come in massive numbers.”
Relin’s Archive was, as the name suggested, in the form of an enormous library. A gigantic library created by the great mage Relin. And every monster that appeared was, without exception, in the form of a book.
[…Perhaps, no?]
“…Yes.”
All the books sticking there were monsters. Each entity was weak, but every last one was filled with magical tomes that shot magic.
*
“Hyah!”
“Alright, alright, you’re doing well. Let’s call it a day for the morning training.”
Yuri said this as he looked down at Yeon-woo sprawled on the ground. The smile on his face was incredibly disturbing.
“Why do you look like that?”
“Because you’re the first one to actually complete what I’ve set for the ninth student of this old man.”
“…?”
“If you were to try to ditch saying you couldn’t do it while moaning about dying, I would’ve reverted to the original menu, but since you managed it decently, I left you be.”
So he chuckled, saying, “And look at you go,” while Yeon-woo, who still appeared to be a boy on the outside, wore a remarkably fitting old man laugh.
“Original menu…?”
Just from that vague explanation, Yeon-woo felt like he had been scammed, and his voice wobbled. Yuri grinned at that expression.
“What’s to be done? It has to be that way. You don’t want to lower your exertion when you’re capable, do you?”
As Yuri turned to leave, Yeon-woo simply stared at him blankly.
“Right, I remember, you’re heading out on a quest. Just be sure to take a real sword when you go into the field. What good is it to take a wooden sword?”
Suddenly recalling something, Yuri turned and tossed a real sword he had pulled from mid-air. Yeon-woo, dumbfounded, muttered out a thanks as he caught it.
That guy, he’s definitely got a nasty personality… Who said he was fine…?
It was me.
“…Hah.”
What could he do? Though he had time until the appointment, the next schedule was a trip to the mine with Baek In-hwa.
If he washed up, got ready, and even ate, he might not have time, so he couldn’t afford to just lounge around. Strapping the sword, already prepared with the belt, to his waist, Yeon-woo stood up.
(To be continued in the next chapter)