Build Infusion (2)
‘My techniques were clearly working on Si-han. I was just being overly tense and anxious.’
Adelia Laden wanted to scold herself for making a premature judgment and for doubting her own efforts.
Yet more than that, she felt joy at the fact that her signature skill and the symbol of her hard work—the Dance of Water Flowers—had actually dealt meaningful damage to Si-han, something she had believed was completely ineffective.
Letting go of her excessive tension and anxiety, Adelia Laden prepared to respond to Si-han’s attacks.
Si-han’s spear came crashing down with a Thrust, aiming straight for her.
‘Fast!’
Kaang!
Adelia Laden heightened her focus and carefully deflected Si-han’s spear.
After that, Si-han relentlessly swung his spear, pressing her without pause.
As she repeated the process of dodging, blocking, and deflecting his attacks, Adelia couldn’t help but admire him.
Each strike was so clean and efficient that it demanded her full attention to counter.
There was no hesitation in his movements—he was a true warrior who moved with absolute conviction in every action.
‘As expected, you’re incredibly skilled, Si-han. But I can’t just keep defending like this!’
Realizing that pure defense would lead nowhere, Adelia decided to break the deadlock with sheer force.
‘You said your hands were numb, right? Then…!’
“Haaaaah!”
The moment her blade clashed with the shaft of his spear while she was deflecting and blocking, Adelia poured all her strength into it and sent Si-han flying backward, creating distance.
“Torrent of Blades!”
It was a ranged skill Adelia could use—blades of rain pouring down violently from above the designated target.
Si-han raised the hand gripping his spear upward and spun it rapidly, deflecting the rain of blades falling from above.
‘I can’t believe he blocked it like that… But now he can’t move!’
Surprised by the unexpected defensive maneuver, Adelia didn’t miss the opening.
‘Now it’s my turn!’
“Severing Slash!”
She swiftly sheathed her sword and activated her draw technique toward Si-han.
Just as she kicked off the ground and her blade was about to strike him—
“Absolute Spear.”
“…!”
Absolute Spear
A massive spear fell from above, targeting Adelia.
She hurriedly withdrew her sword and leaped backward.
Kaang!
The heavy spear didn’t embed itself in the training ground floor. Instead, it bounced off with a dull thud and vanished.
‘That’s… the same spear from the evidence photos. It looks a bit smaller, but the shape is identical.’
While Adelia retreated, Si-han finished deflecting the Torrent of Blades and regained his stance.
Adelia also steadied herself and charged toward him once more.
‘I’ll create another opening!’
More than six minutes had passed since the spar with Adelia began.
Her sword was fierce and heavy.
Every time he felt that weight, Si-han was reminded of just how powerful a 5-star close-range character was in the game’s setting—and he was glad he had recruited her into the group.
But—
‘Why isn’t she using her ultimate skill?’
Adelia Laden still hadn’t used her core ultimate skill, the Blessing of Water Record—the so-called field buff skill.
She was only relying on her base swordsmanship and occasional skills to create openings.
Of course, whenever an attack looked like it might land, Si-han had reduced his power and kept Absolute Spear’s Penetration skill deactivated for safety.
Still—
If ordinary skills weren’t working after six minutes, he had expected her to unleash her ultimate to massively boost her damage and go on the offensive. But that never happened.
Well, the longer the fight dragged on, the more he got to enjoy watching Adelia move dynamically as a player. He also got a very active view of her chest—which had claimed the top spot over Yeon-hwa’s—bouncing vigorously throughout the spar. That part was nice.
‘But something still feels off.’
Unable to just watch any longer, Si-han tapped the butt of his spear against the ground with a sharp tung! and spoke to Adelia, who was just regaining her stance and preparing to swing again.
“Adelia Laden.”
“Hoo, what is it? Are we done checking?”
Adelia’s lips were slightly curved upward—she seemed excited from swinging her sword so enthusiastically.
“No. There’s just one thing that doesn’t add up.”
“Doesn’t add up?”
“Yeah. You still have a skill you haven’t used, don’t you?”
“Correct. As expected, someone of your level would notice that I’m holding back a move.”
He had thought she would ask how he knew, but instead Adelia simply accepted his reasoning.
“As you guessed, I do have one trump card left. However, it is a secret technique passed down through the royal family. I cannot use it lightly in a simple spar.”
‘What… did she just say?’
Si-han’s mind went blank for a moment at her words.
She couldn’t use it easily because it was a royal secret technique?
He had never heard of such a setting.
After all, Adelia’s ultimate skill was a mandatory pre-buff that had to be deployed immediately to deal damage. It was the kind of skill you used the moment its cooldown ended when fighting monsters.
Holding back a skill that could instantly turn the tide of battle just because it was a “royal secret technique” made no sense to him.
‘She’s frustrating in a completely different way from Atsbal.’
Atsbal did it for his own image, but Adelia seemed to genuinely believe that royal techniques were too precious to use casually.
In times like this—
“I see. In other words… you’re saying I’m not a worthy opponent for that secret technique.”
The best approach was to nitpick.
Adelia’s expression twisted slightly, clearly displeased.
“N-no, that’s not what I meant—”
“Fine. Then I’ll force you to use that secret technique.”
Until now, he had been holding back and trading blows despite his numb hands to test her skill. From here on, he would change his approach to make her use her ultimate.
With a sharp taak!, he kicked off the ground and swung his spear at Adelia.
“Ugh!”
Kang! The sound of metal clashing rang out.
After that, the usual trajectory lines appeared, showing where he could land a clean hit.
But that wasn’t what he wanted right now.
The moment he consciously decided he wanted to move exactly as he desired, the trajectories shifted to the optimal path aligned with his will.
He followed those new lines.
Kang!
He swung his spear from a different angle to distract the wary Adelia, and the instant his weapon clashed with her sword, he moved swiftly behind her.
“Ugh!”
Facing Adelia, whose face showed panic at being caught from behind—
Paang!
“Kyaaah!”
He struck her rear with the shaft of his spear, producing a satisfying sound.
‘Oh… it’s firmer than I expected.’
A new piece of knowledge was added to his mental database: Adelia’s rear was quite firm.
“W-what are you doing?!”
Adelia asked while rubbing her backside with one hand.
“I hit your rear.”
“Why!?”
“It’s my answer to your ridiculous attitude of claiming you’d show your true skill while not actually fighting seriously.”
“Not seriously? I was fighting with everything I had…!”
“Then use that so-called secret technique. Hiding your strength with pointless stubbornness is an insult to your opponent.”
“Ugh… I can’t just reveal the royal secret technique so easily…”
This time, instead of replying, he immediately moved and swung his spear again.
“Ugh!”
Kaang!
Once Adelia deflected his spear, he circled behind her again and struck her rear.
Paang!
“Kyaaak!”
He repeated this three times.
“Stop…”
Paang!
“Kyaaah! Are you mocking me right now…?”
Paang!
“Kyaaah! Why do you keep hitting only my rear?!”
Paang!
“Aauugh!”
After striking her three more times, he decided it was enough and stopped, speaking to Adelia.
“It’s an old tradition to discipline unruly children with the rod.”
Provocation Resistance has been penetrated.
“Grhh! You called me… a child?”
Deliberately using the word “child” to provoke Adelia—who was already dissatisfied with her father, Forten Laden, treating her like one and being overprotective—proved highly effective.
The most efficient way to make someone fight seriously was to toy with them until they snapped.
Thanks to his Penetrating Mouth Technique, even a light provocation worked wonders.
“Take it back! That word…!”
“If you can’t even show your full strength because you’re too stingy, then you’re no different from a child.”
“Again with the ‘child’…! Fine! I’ll show you! The royal secret technique!”
In that instant, Si-han could feel a massive surge of mana erupting from Adelia’s body.
“Blessing of Water Record!”
A gigantic magic circle spread out with Adelia at its center.
In the game, it had manifested as a wide field centered on the character.
But the field now unfolding before his eyes was far larger than he had expected.
It covered most of the training ground.
‘Just like how the building gaps widened, the field has also expanded to match real combat scale, huh?’
If it had only been the game-sized field, it would have been impossible to switch positions freely like in the game. Party play would have been out of the question—you could only use it in extreme close combat alone.
But at this size, even with seven people keeping some distance, everyone could still fit inside the field.
It was large enough that they wouldn’t have to worry about accidentally stepping outside while attacking.
In other words, this change in field size was an extremely positive development for him.
The Blessing of Water Record was a skill that massively amplified the attack power of all characters within the magic circle.
Its scaling was so broken that Adelia was always the core buffer in any high-damage party composition.
“Prepare yourself! Dance of Water Flowers!”
Empowered by the field buff, Adelia unleashed an even more powerful version of her skill.
No trajectory appeared that would let him deflect or parry the Dance of Water Flowers.
If he tried something like that with his current specs, he could feel that he would lose his grip on the spear.
However, if he simply dodged a technique she had finally used her ultimate for, Adelia would feel empty.
So he deliberately added some flair.
Assuming he would deflect it, he swung his spear to parry Adelia’s sword.
Kakakang! Kaaang!
He succeeded in deflecting the first three strikes, but on the fourth, his spear was finally knocked out of his hands.
His palms were numb, and even his wrists throbbed.
The moment his spear flew from his grip, Adelia’s face lit up with joy.
She had been seething from getting her rear struck repeatedly, so landing a hit on him clearly made her happy.
‘Sorry to burst your bubble, but—’
If he lost his spear, all he had to do was pick it back up.
He kicked off the ground to the side, moved, and grabbed the flying spear.
“Ah…!”
Adelia hurriedly canceled the Dance of Water Flowers and spun around in panic.
“…!”
Thinking he would strike her rear again, she reflexively turned her body—but Si-han hadn’t moved from where he caught the spear. Instead, he pointed it at her neck.
“Let’s end the skill assessment here.”
“…Yes. I lost.”
Adelia declared her defeat with flushed cheeks, clearly embarrassed by her mistake.