Chapter 43
Chapter 43
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Silver Dragon
Chapter: 43
Chapter Title: Shifting Ranks and Chosen Paths
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The Sword King's act of sharing information.
Was it intentional, or not?
I'd been constantly trying to read his thoughts, but then I noticed his ranking had slipped a little.
From 3rd place to 4th.
This meant either the Lord, who had been in 3rd, or the previous 4th—whose name I hadn't confirmed—had climbed to 3rd.
Fierce level competition.
At the current point in time.
My real competitors, even if I widened the scope, were still just the top 10 rankers.
Uk, the Lord, the Sword King, and so on.
The Sword King reaching level 20 was faster growth than I'd anticipated.
But in just one day, he'd been overtaken again.
The reason was probably the opening of Zone 3, in large part.
And this would shake up not just the Sword King's position, but countless others in the rankings.
Normally, even the top rankers would struggle immensely to take down every monster in Zone 3.
That those uppermost rankers, who would have floundered in Zone 3, could now hunt there with ease... it had to be thanks to their growth inside the tower.
Just as I'd achieved explosive growth in the tower, they too were accelerating their progress in their own ways, building on whatever they'd gained there.
I closed the community window and immediately opened the Soul Shop.
It was essential, both for selecting my specialized skill and for accelerating my growth even further.
As I carefully browsed the skills and items in the Soul Shop with that in mind, I pondered what I could do with my stockpile of Soul Origins.
After learning exactly what he lacked in the tower.
He was gradually getting a feel for how he would fight in the future, and the path his growth would take.
A gaze far colder and more prudent than before.
Having quickly sorted out my needs in my head and settled on most of my choices.
It was during a brief moment of rest.
Gazing up at the stars in the system's artificial night sky, memories of everything that had happened so far flooded back.
And those thoughts extended all the way to the events of today.
Eleventh day since arriving in the Transcendent World?
Hard to believe it was only 11 days.
But 11 days was also around the time when the outlines of who would pull ahead started to emerge.
The day it became truly clear...
...
Tournament.
In just 9 more days, on day 20, the second event—the [Transcendent Tournament]—was scheduled.
This info, announced with the top 100 ranking restriction, was common knowledge among the rankers.
The first stage where they'd directly confront powerhouses from other dimensions.
My competitors were no doubt steadily preparing for the tournament.
Monstrous unique abilities or absurd talents might emerge there, closing the gap right up to my heels.
Fall behind here, and it'd be forever.
So before then, I had to erect a wall they could never surmount.
An absolutely unbreakable wall.
Shuk!
A sharp whistle cut the air as an arrow slammed into the ground right in front of me.
I whipped my head around and yelled at the guy with the shield.
"Hey, goblin archer! ...Forward! Forward!!"
In line with my orders, the one battling a small goblin hurriedly broke off and dashed ahead.
Thankfully, the front group of goblins was nearly wiped out.
While that happened, I sat on a fallen log, pulled a stamina potion from my inventory,
and smashed the glass bottle without even uncorking it before gulping it down.
I reflected on the battles up to now.
Fighting those small green monsters had been utterly grueling.
They endlessly dug traps, launched ambushes, and scattered in all directions the moment things turned against them.
Intelligent group assaults and ambushes that were brutally hard to adapt to.
Traps, poison, their high levels.
Even taking down a single one demanded my full attention.
It was never easy facing monsters that threw their lives into killing humans with such thoroughness.
The odds of losing to goblins were low, but the risk of injury was sky-high.
The painful advance dragged on.
Everyone's exhaustion was plain as day.
Their ragged breaths drowned out even their footsteps.
'Goblins are easy?.. Ha..'
I regretted that community nonsense yet again as I hauled my weary body to its feet.
1-2 at level 10, 4-5 below that? Yeah, right.
I'd trusted the community and formed parties to that scale.
The result?
Five already rushed back to the village with major injuries.
According to the community, the real fight started once you reached their base.
So far, the goblin packs we'd seen topped out at 10-20.
But at the base, over 100 guarded it—at least according to reports—with most being the big ones.
If that was true, we wouldn't stand a chance even if we reached it.
Still, I pressed on. As the vanguard.
Soon, the village's true heavy hitters would take the stage.
When they arrived, I'd hand off the intel and head back to the village.
Would another job have made this easier?
I immediately shoved that thought aside.
No regrets about my job choice.
The job I'd picked was Warrior.
The most common basic job.
And among those basics, the most common of all.
That inherent romance of the "basic" got my blood pumping.
I had no unique ability to speak of,
and right now, only skills like [Heavy Strike 1st Grade] and [Swordsmanship Reinforcement 1st Grade],
but someday I'd claim the ultimate warrior skills and become the strongest warrior.
With that vow burning in me, I regripped my sword and charged the goblins once more.
One man was learning a sword-thrusting stance from a middle-aged guy in the village.
"Grip it tight—tight!"
"Put more power into this side! ...Whoa, just a bit more—a little!"
At that noisy voice, Geumrun frowned as he adjusted his stance.
Feeling his patience hit its limit, he spoke up.
"Hey, can't you quiet down a bit?"
"Huh?"
"I was concentrating. Why are you so damn chatty?"
"What's your level?"
Rebuked by a youth who looked far younger, the middle-aged instructor panicked and floundered.
"Ah... sorry. It's just a habit from teaching students back at the academy..."
After that, the man kept bowing and apologizing nonstop.
Geumrun ignored the apologies and regripped his sword.
The middle-aged man's chatter dropped off sharply from then on.
He had no exceptional talent for swordsmanship and had never trained systematically in any martial art.
In the Transcendent World, weapon-handling skills were essential, so he'd been looking for someone to teach him.
A newbie with a solid reputation in swordsmanship happened to fit the bill. The man had initially refused Geumrun's request.
But because Geumrun's level was higher, the middle-aged guy ended up as his reluctant master.
A little later,
Geumrun took a short break and opened the community window.
His current level was 16.
First place in Dimension 18.
He immediately checked his overall ranking.
49th.
Oh.
Inside the top 50.
After confirming his rank, he browsed the community.
Unlike before, job-sharing comments were only popping up in two posts.
He was waiting for info on his own job: Swordsman.
Swordsman was a hybrid job, but the most popular hybrid by far.
Of course, still a minority compared to all jobs overall.
Swordsman.
Main stats: Strength and Agility. Initial skills:
[Sword Aura 1st Grade], [Swordsmanship Reinforcement 1st Grade].
This was effectively public knowledge, learnable from the Hall of Revelation.
What he sought were insights and tips from those who'd actually used the skills.
But such valuable shares were few and far between.
Another comment dropped.
Please be Swordsman info this time.
And at last, the info he'd been waiting for appeared.
Someone had posted about Swordsman.
Every comment's value hinged on the poster's rank.
He checked the nickname and ranking.
4th... Sword... Sword King?
The real Sword King had shared info.
He dove into the comments right away—stunning details filled them.
In-depth on three skills.
His personal realizations and sensations with Sword Aura.
Differences in direction between Earth's swordsmanship and this world's, and more.
He'd even shared minutiae that didn't need mentioning.
Chain Strike. So my next skill is Chain Strike.
As Geumrun read the Sword King's comment, he clenched his fist without realizing.
I'll catch up. To the Sword King.
He had a gut feeling that he'd walk that path himself someday.
Geumrun's eyes ignited with a fighting spirit beyond compare to before.
He didn't believe he lacked talent in swordsmanship.
He believed effort was talent.
Geumrun regripped the sword he'd set aside for rest.
Looking around, the middle-aged man was diligently practicing too.
Geumrun had never once seen the man before him as a true master. He was just a stepping stone for his growth.
Geumrun spoke to him.
"This time, skip the stance—teach me something else."
The day was bright.
Noon on day 12 was approaching.
I'd just come out of the Hall of Revelation.
After much deliberation, I'd finally selected my level 30 specialized skill.
The robed job NPC had shown a strong reaction, as if my choice was unexpected.
The optimal pick, derived from synergies between my unique ability, Soul Shop items and skills, and detailed job skill info.
The specialized skill I'd chosen was none other than.
Holy Charge.
A Defense stat specialized skill.
The NPC's explanation of it yesterday at the Hall had gone like this:
Description: Instantly charge forward at extreme speed. Upon activation, gain temporary utmost defensive power. Attack power and speed during the charge scale with Defense stat.
Extreme speed. Temporary utmost defense.
Attack power and speed proportional to Defense stat, to boot.
The other specialized skills looked appealing too,
but the biggest reason I picked this one was the synergy with my unique ability.
It said "proportional to Defense stat" in the description, but the power of a Defense stat was defense itself.
This skill was a perfect match for my unique ability that amplified defense.
On top of that, high Defense granted attack power and speed as well.
This skill would turn me into a complete monster.
Of course, I hadn't tested Divine Retribution or Demi-God Release myself.
But in the Transcendent World, raw stats formed the foundation of strength,
so if your stat class was overwhelmingly higher, it'd surely outclass other skills.
That was the system as I'd experienced it so far.
Choosing something else while ignoring my unique ability that elevated my Defense stat class?
That could've been a foolish mistake.
Besides, as a Divine Aspirant, my demi-god power reserves grew with higher Defense stats.
In other words, even without Holy Charge, high Defense already boosted my strength and speed.
That alone eliminated Divine Retribution, which granted Strength on upgrades, and Mana-based options fell short on unique ability synergy too.
Holy Charge stood out as the clear best.
And this conclusion came after thoroughly combing the Soul Shop for new skills and items.
Just tens of minutes ago.
The instant I locked in Holy Charge as my specialized skill, I'd bought one skill from the Soul Shop after some agonizing.
I'd had a total of 53 Soul Origins on hand.
In the end, I'd purchased the general skill Wave Strike, one limited skill, and three items.
It cost a total of 45 Soul Origins.
Truth be told, I'd wanted to snag one more limited skill, but I couldn't.
That said, it let me uncover a crucial secret about skills.
The reason I couldn't buy that limited skill wasn't because someone else got it first—it was because there was a maximum number of skills you could hold based on level.
To be precise, for non-job skills.
One per 10 levels.
So one up to level 10, two from 11 onward, and so on.
This limit didn't apply to skills gained from equipped items.
I'd learned about the skill limit from questioning the Hall of Revelation NPC, not the system.
I'd originally considered stocking up on cheap skills, unaware of this.
Non-job skills rose in proficiency painfully slowly, their drawback, but even 1st Grade ones with good synergy seemed cost-effective.
I felt a wave of relief that it had stayed just a passing thought.
Had I actually gone for it, it'd have been a choice I'd regret.
A system where even limited skills took a backseat to one truly perfect fit for you.
Lucky I hadn't impulse-bought any limited skills.
Now there was no need to prioritize limited skills blindly.
I hadn't expected such a limit, but by sheer coincidence, I'd bought Wave Strike first.
Wave Strike was just a general skill for a measly 10 Soul Origins.
But it was one I'd had my eye on since first opening the Soul Shop.
...Finally mine.
I had high hopes for its synergy.
Domain Shockwave and Wave Strike.
Domain Shockwave was an ability that lashed out with ambient demi-god power like a whip, so it was undoubtedly similar to Wave Strike.
And today, beyond that synergy, I needed to properly test Holy Charge, the new limited skill, and the items.
By then, noon on day 12 had arrived.
I'd already reached the Slime Meadow.
Hunting always began in Zone 1.