047. The Slaughter-Crazed Woman's Swordsmanship Class (2)
047. The Slaughter-Crazed Woman's Swordsmanship Class (2)
After that, the Slaughter-Crazed Woman's basic swordsmanship class continued.
Whoooosh......
Flinch.
This killing intent—I just could not get used to it.
My mental fortitude was being whittled away moment by moment.
Even though the class hadn't been going on that long,
my arm muscles were spasming and trembling, and the strength had drained so completely from my legs they were about to give out.
With constant repetition, I'd at least stopped springing backward like I did at first,
but my body still sensed a mortal threat and kept sending me all sorts of signals.
Whoosh—
I forcibly locked down my ankles, which were trying to scramble backward, and brought the sword down.
Unsurprisingly, the sword path was a total mess.
It wasn't even close to a perfect straight line—I couldn't even draw a curve connecting point to point. The blade wobbled and twisted like an earthworm thrashing around.
'......Is this really doable?'
When the training first started, I'd set my resolve firmly and thrown myself into it.
But after repeated failures, a weak little voice started raising its head inside me.
Then.
Smack—!
"Agh!"
A sudden hot sting erupted on my forehead.
I opened my eyes to find Baek Seol-hee standing there with an expressionless face, holding a tree branch.
"......Did you just hit me, Instructor?"
"I did."
'She hit me with a branch but it felt like I got whacked with a wooden sword....... No, that's not the point right now.'
I rubbed my reddened forehead and glared at Baek Seol-hee.
She just tilted her head as if asking what the problem was.
"Do you have a question."
......Do I have a question?
I do.
No, I have a lot.
I clenched my teeth and opened my mouth.
"Instructor, you clearly said today's class is training to get accustomed to killing intent."
"I did."
"Then shouldn't you not be making actual attacks?"
"......Why would I not?"
Baek Seol-hee asked back like she genuinely couldn't understand.
A surge of irritation flared up inside me, but I reined it in calmly and answered her.
"......Doesn't it get confusing? Whether the killing intent you're sending is an illusion, or whether a real attack is coming."
Baek Seol-hee nodded.
"Right. It does. I'm doing it that way on purpose."
"......Why?"
"This training is a class on continuing your sword even within killing intent."
"Yes, I understand that."
"Good, then that explains it."
"No?"
Baek Seol-hee stopped short again and closed her mouth.
After a few similar exchanges, I was starting to get a vague sense of what this meant.
Right now, she was definitely thinking something inwardly infuriating like, 'He doesn't understand something this obvious?'
She was probably feeling that same suffocating frustration you'd get from having to explain why 1+1 equals 2.
'But I'm a transmigrator from Earth, so how the hell would I know the common sense of you hunter people!'
I waited a moment for Baek Seol-hee to speak.
Soon, she opened her mouth.
"Swinging a sword within killing intent is important. However, that does not mean you should ignore all killing intent."
"......Yes."
"That could make you complacent about danger instead."
Aha.
So in other words.
If you get too used to killing intent, you might not properly recognize the severity of a genuinely dangerous situation, so she teaches it this way?
'No, wait.'
A hollow laugh suddenly escaped me.
"So....... You're saying that while I'm getting accustomed to killing intent, you'll mix in real attacks, and I'm supposed to distinguish between them during my downward strike practice—ignoring some and blocking others?"
She nodded, looking satisfied that her explanation had gotten across properly.
I bit down gently on my lip.
"Isn't that kind of thing normally done one step at a time?"
"This way is faster. Why take the long way around."
Baek Seol-hee answered with a frown.
'......This woman, when it comes to the sword, she is impossible to communicate with!'
Now I understood it clearly.
Why Baek Seol-hee had earned that terrifying nickname, the Slaughter-Crazed Woman (屠殺狂女).
And at the same time, why she was someone acknowledged by the director and the other instructors.
You see them in the military too, don't you.
The type who always does everything by the book, choosing the most efficient and fastest path.
'......A by-the-book instructor.'
The students under this instructor would definitely achieve incredible growth.
Because she's someone who pursues efficiency.
With this method, she could surely finish in three months what other instructors would take a year to complete.
The most grueling instructor, but if you endure, you reap results to match.
People like that usually earn the respect of their fellow instructors and their superiors alike.
'Of course, from a student's perspective, there's no instructor more horrifying.'
Just then, Baek Seol-hee asked me in a stiff, rigid voice.
"......Do you, perhaps, have some complaint about this class. If you do, I would appreciate it if you would speak up."
'Hm, if I voice a complaint here, I'll die.'
"No, nothing."
I lowered my head to her with immaculate posture.
"Hm, as I thought. Then let us resume training."
'Maybe I really should adjust my course registration.'
I couldn't help but give it serious thought.
*
Whatever the case, I had to get through today's class properly.
I closed my eyes again and gripped Moonlight.
'......Right now, I can't see an answer.'
Then suddenly, my thoughts drifted to the trait that kept sending me these danger signals—Intuition.
I paused my sword for a moment and continued mulling over my traits.
As my sword stopped, Baek Seol-hee also halted her killing intent, as if giving me time to think.
'Traits, huh.......'
Traits fundamentally represented each character's disposition.
For example, Gukbap had Will.
Maybe it's the limit of being a base 3-Star.
Where other characters had two or three traits, she only had a single one.
But the Will trait had a pretty damn good effect.
It let her stand firm no matter how unfavorable the situation, even against an overwhelming enemy.
If Gukbap were here, she probably could have gotten through this training much more easily.
Shin Se-hee had Calculation, Honeyed Words Hidden Blade, and Dichotomy.
Her traits were fundamentally specialized for scheming and stabbing people in the back,
but thanks to Dichotomy, which divided people into allies and non-allies, I could rest easy as long as I was on her side.
Lastly, Kang Do-hee had Impatience, Dependence, and Focus.
In Kang Do-hee's case, maybe because her skills were so broken, her traits besides Focus weren't particularly great.
So for her, you had to give detailed orders to suppress her impatience, and it was important to be someone she could depend on.
And finally, me.
Jin Yu-ha.
'I have three traits.'
They were random traits I'd gotten from the Trait Recommendation Letter,
but even so, they wouldn't stray from the character concept of Jin Yu-ha.
Detection—the ability to perceive everything within 100 meters.
Eye Opening—the ability to see at night as clearly as in the day.
Intuition—the ability to give advance warning when a boss monster appears.
All of these were focused on detecting surrounding danger and protecting one's own body.
The Jin Yu-ha from before I transmigrated must have been a pretty big coward.
As I continued mulling over my traits, a thought suddenly struck me.
'Come to think of it, I can toggle Detection on and off—can't I do the same with Intuition?'
The question of activating and deactivating traits filled my head.
'Let's give it a try.'
I recalled the sensation of toggling Detection on and off, and traced the feeling of deactivating Intuition.
Then I brought the sword down again.
"Nngh."
The numbing killing intent began crawling over my body once more.
It was still an energy that threatened my instincts and seemed impossible to adapt to, but it was definitely lighter than before.
'It works......!'
And at the same time, I activated Detection.
Even with my eyes closed, the 100 meters ahead of me was vividly clear.
And in front of me, the sight of Baek Seol-hee slowly raising the branch came into view.
Her arm went up above her head,
and the moment the tip of the branch came lashing down toward my forehead—
Whish—!
Flash—
I snapped my eyes open and swung my sword horizontally.
Slice—
Baek Seol-hee's eyes went round with a startled expression.
I'd witnessed that expressionless face change several times today.
"......Huh."
A smile slowly tugged at the corners of her lips.
Smack—!
"Agh!"
The severed tip of the branch spun through the air and smacked me on the head.
"You must not let your guard down, even at the very end."
Baek Seol-hee spoke to me in a voice tinged with amusement.
"......Still, you did very well in today's class. Honestly, I did not expect you to keep up this far in a single day."
Baek Seol-hee patted my shoulder a couple of times, as if I'd done something commendable.
It was just a single remark,
but a swell of satisfaction rose up inside me.
The acknowledgment of a by-the-book person really was something special.
Hmm—
She looked at me quietly, then spoke.
"The low level of your questions gave me some pause. But as I thought, there's no need to lower the difficulty."
My expression hardened stiff again at her words.
'Yeah. I'm definitely adjusting my course registration.'
As I was repeating that to myself, Baek Seol-hee glanced at me and said,
"If you continue showing proper results in class like today, I intend to give you a certain benefit soon."
I narrowed my eyes at that.
Instructor Baek Seol-hee.
Was she trying to buy me with money right now?
Some ordinary benefit wouldn't be enough to hold me.
As a former Velvetsra Player, I was honestly confident I wouldn't bat an eye at most rewards.
"What is it?"
I asked her in a stiff voice.
"The Subspace Tattoo you were supposed to receive as a reward this time—I noticed one of your party members didn't get it."
'......Guhk!!!'
I bit down hard on my lip.
A Subspace Tattoo.
She was saying that if I took this class, she'd inscribe it on Gukbap too.
I'd already been extremely disappointed that only Kang Do-hee and Shin Se-hee would be getting it.
"From now on....... I look forward to, learning from you......."
I bowed my head deeply, my clenched fist trembling.
......This was too great a reward to refuse.
* * *
After the basic swordsmanship class ended.
I headed straight for the dorms.
Trudge, trudge.
Having endured killing intent the entire class, my mind was barely hanging on—I wasn't in any state to do anything else.
Creeeak—
When I opened the door, the dorm room that had now become my new home welcomed me.
All the various household items needed for daily life were neatly arranged,
and a fresh fabric softener scent lingered in the air, probably thanks to the cleaning magic tool.
A clean room with a modern color scheme blending black and white overall, accented with blue.
It was heaven and earth compared to when I'd first transmigrated.
But I didn't even have the leisure to appreciate the room's scenery—the moment I opened the door, I buried my face straight into the bed.
Sink.
My body sank into the soft blanket.
Haaa.......
I let out an exhausted sigh and rolled over to stare at the ceiling.
"......Status Window."
Ding—♬
It had been a while since I'd called up my status window.
I'd checked it once during basic training,
but there'd been no change in my stats, so I hadn't bothered looking again after that.
Raising stats through training was just that grueling.
I hadn't marveled at Gukbap's growth for nothing.
To be honest, I wasn't expecting much now either—I just felt so wronged about all the training I'd gone through.
I half-opened my eyes drowsily and started reading down the status window.
And then.
My eyes flew wide open.
"......Huh!?"