Best of Three (3)
Past life memories act as shackles.
Weapon proficiency for non-edged weapons decreases by 99%.
“Huh?”
Before Kim Jeonghyeon could even fully process the status window's meaning, a front paw the size of twice his head came rushing toward him.
“Damn it!”
He quickly ducked forward to dodge the fatal blow, but the guiho's overwhelming weight slammed into him from behind, smashing him into the ground.
Thud!
“Guh!”
“GRRROOAR!!”
The guiho pinned Jeonghyeon down and swung its massive front paw once more.
“Shit...!”
Completely crushed, he couldn't even move to evade.
What saved Jeonghyeon's life was, fortunately, the mace from Philip who'd come along.
A dull crack! echoed, and the shadow of the paw looming over his head vanished.
“Are you alright?!”
The guiho seemed momentarily flustered as it shoved Jeonghyeon aside and retreated a step, growling low while assessing the situation.
“What the hell...! Proficiency drops by 99%...!”
Helped up by Philip, Jeonghyeon gasped ragged breaths, feeling like a few ribs had snapped.
He'd been a sword master in his past life, so he could handle anything decently if just gripping it roughly and swinging.
But precisely because he'd been a sword master, the shackles bound him now.
“Fuck.”
Jeonghyeon muttered a curse under his breath.
Should I pull out the Epic harvesting knife right now and fight? Would that give me a better shot? He debated it, but either way, he needed to raise proficiency to evolve the mace into an Epic Weapon.
Only then could he hand it over to Philip to clear the quest.
“Damn.”
Before he could even reach into his inventory, the guiho charged again.
“You think I'm gonna lose to some shitty guiho like you?!”
Jeonghyeon swung the mace in a wide whoosh, but his form looked just like a teenager wielding a weapon for the first time.
“Krrk!”
Still, the target was so massive that he managed to graze its brow, forcing the guiho back once more.
“Shall I help?!”
“No, stay back. I'll handle it.”
His broken ribs were stabbing his lungs—every breath leaked out raggedly.
The guiho caught that opening perfectly, relentlessly pressing with wide swings to bait Jeonghyeon's big movements.
“What the fuck, why's this guiho so good at reading the situation?!”
The wider the attack range, the faster the enemy reacted—or you had to dodge farther back. His lungs burned to the brink, vision starting to blur.
Whoosh. Swoosh.
After a couple of misses, the guiho swung its paws endlessly, seizing momentum.
“Tch!”
His weapon proficiency had tanked, but his physical stats hadn't regressed. Jeonghyeon poured every ounce into barely dodging.
Even as he evaded several times, seeking an opening, none appeared.
Does low proficiency make attack patterns harder to read...!
From behind his panicked self, Philip's voice rang out.
“Now! Right now! Swing horizontally!”
“?”
No matter how much I'm struggling, I'm not taking orders from you! Before he could yell that, his body reacted to Philip's advice first, sweeping the mace wide horizontally. It perfectly countered the guiho lunging for his face.
“Krrk!”
The mace's spike nailed the guiho's nose dead-center, drawing its first bright red blood as it staggered.
“Aim now! Smash down!”
“Don't order me around!! I know that much!”
Even as he snapped, Jeonghyeon followed Philip's words and smashed the mace down hard.
It cratered the guiho's skull before it could react.
A dull crunch of bone and metal rang out, sending a few teeth skittering across the ground.
“GRRROOAAHH...!”
In that exhausted moment, Jeonghyeon swung the mace three times in rapid succession.
Crack!Snap!Splack!!
A few follow-ups later, the guiho finally stopped breathing.
Jeonghyeon immediately pulled the Blood Dissector from his inventory and sliced into its hide.
With 120% attribute liberation and 100% proficiency, the weapon moved like an extension of his body—worlds apart from the mace.
“What are you...?”
Philip noticed his labored breaths and moved to help, but Jeonghyeon brushed off his hand and kept cutting.
“It's dangerous! Get treated first...!”
“Shut... hah... up...! This... hah... is the treatment...!”
If mana enhancers—'doping potions'—boosted human mana, then the Demon King's enhancers were naturally mana stones condensed with demonic power.
Jeonghyeon neatly extracted the mana stone and chewed it up, swallowing whole.
Its mana seeped into his body, healing his wounds.
By the time he'd devoured the whole thing, his breathing normalized, and his shattered ribs realigned.
“Mana stones... have that function too?”
Seeing Philip's dumbfounded face, Jeonghyeon spoke like a nagging old-timer.
“Don't ever try this...”
It was a desperate gamble inspired by a past-life manticore—a higher monster—that chewed a comrade's mana stone to recover as it died.
With his lungs shredded by rib shards, Jeonghyeon figured he'd die before reaching safe zone anyway.
Luckily, it worked—but as side effect, internal damage made him cough blood.
“Hey, Philip... cough!”
Vowing never to chew mana stones raw again, Jeonghyeon picked up the mace.
“Y-Yes...?”
“How... do you hold and fight with a mace?”
***
Teacher became student. With Philip's help, Jeonghyeon learned mace basics from scratch.
“Maces are generally blunt weapons.”
“Everyone knows th—... No. Yeah. Keep going.”
Philip brimmed with enthusiasm, sweat beading on his eager face. Jeonghyeon felt bad interrupting.
“Yes. Swinging it like a sword feels off because of the weight.”
“I see.”
Philip gripped the mace first, then let it drop low, dragging along the ground.
“So the basic ready stance is like this.”
Something's different from what I know...
Was it Philip's unique style? His demonstration looked off—like a cyclops prepping a massive flail.
“Centrifugal force! You know it?”
“Yeah.”
“You attack using that.”
Philip slowly swung the dragging mace upward.
“And centrifugal force multiplies gravity several times over.”
He released all tension, swinging loosely toward a target.
It barely moved from ready position—yet crack! A thick log pile shattered.
“You can't expect sharp cuts like swords or thrusts like spears. But the advantage is...”
“?”
Philip grinned.
He casually walked to a huge boulder nearby, spun his body without effort, and swung.
BOOM!
A deafening vibration echoed; the boulder crumbled to rubble.
“No other weapon smashes targets whole like a blunt one.”
Vitality gleamed in Philip's eyes—like when he'd first learned swordsmanship.
“Not bad.”
Weapons always felt like extensions of himself, but post-regression, it was like losing ingrained muscle memory—stiff. This helped a lot.
“Lemme try.”
Jeonghyeon dropped the mace like Philip, hoisted it skyward in one motion, then slammed down arm-first.
“Whoa!”
Philip exclaimed.
The rock before Jeonghyeon cracked and shattered.
“That's insanely fast! Took me months just for that!”
It's not that I can't handle weapons—my body already mastered combat itself.
Suppressing the urge to brag, Jeonghyeon grinned sheepishly.
Then, a faint electric tingle in his right eye popped up the status window.
Ding!
You have received basic instruction.
Blunt weapon proficiency increases by 10%.
Sword Master's perk activates.
Proficiency for gripped weapons rises twice as fast.
Mace Proficiency: 10%
“Ha...! So I gotta learn it step by step like this...?”
No intention of handing over an Epic Weapon easy, huh. Fucking Demon King bastard.
Jeonghyeon spent ages smashing rocks.
Left to right, right to left, top down. Luckily, the barren rocky desert had endless targets.
He tested on stray low-rank goblins too, gradually getting the feel for the mace.
“Remember! Maces aren't for killing! Not cruel, ruthless weapons with high lethality!”
“Then?”
“They're for beating until death's edge—leaving them unable to do anything till they drop!”
“That sounds more brutal. Just me?”
“Haha! Not the point...!”
Suddenly, Philip assumed combat stance and swung at Jeonghyeon.
Oh ho. You dare think sparring with the guy who bowed to teach you makes you my equal?
Jeonghyeon casually raised his mace diagonally to block.
“Ha! Such a predictable attack...!!”
BOOM!
Then a clang reverberated through his body.
The shock hit his flesh and bones all at once.
Like a shockwave.
“Guh!”
Jeonghyeon reeled, dropping to one knee, vomiting red blood.
Philip looked down, offering a hand.
“That's the difference between swords and blunts. Blunts don't need precise vitals or weak points. Hit anywhere nearby—the shock transfers anyway.”
Ding!
You grasp the core of blunt weapons.
Proficiency rises sharply from exquisite truth.
Mace Proficiency: 45%