A Slow-Flowing Space
In the languidly flowing space, a long, drawn-out moan escaped her lips.
Lee Yeonhee had already climaxed countless times. She lay face-down on the bed, her peach-like, beautiful hips twitching as she savored the afterglow. I kneaded her ass with both hands, occasionally giving the plumpest parts a light smack with my palm.
The spot I’d struck was noticeably redder than the rest. Yeonhee rubbed the stinging area and pouted her lips at me.
She definitely doesn’t have that kind of inclination like No Hayun does.
I continued massaging her buttocks and thighs a few more times, carefully observing every change in her body.
It’s not as strong as last time, but there’s definitely an effect.
Watching her mana increase in real time, I decided I should put in even more effort. I slid my fingers across her still-dripping entrance, and her body shuddered violently as if she’d been electrocuted.
Keep climaxing. Become happy.
At some point during all this, my Mimicry wore off, but I didn’t stop touching her. Even though her eyes had lost focus, Yeonhee nodded at me as I continued the act. I figured she was saying she didn’t mind anymore. My fingers were too sharp and angular to insert, but caressing her was still perfectly possible. For a long while, I focused on her breasts and the sensitive spots around them.
Yeonhee eventually buried her face completely in a pillow, surrendering everything to my touch. Psst— pssshht— As time passed, I could feel the density of the mana surrounding her growing thicker.
If I did this all day, her mana would probably skyrocket, wouldn’t it?
The ridiculous thought actually crossed my mind. Of course, it couldn’t compare to the various growths gained through real combat. I carried her limp, exhausted body into the bathroom and gently washed her. At first she swayed helplessly under my hands, but eventually she regained some awareness. She covered her face with both hands and shivered with embarrassment.
Clack clack.
There was nothing to apologize for. Honestly, in this life of existing as a skeleton, those thirty minutes with Yeonhee felt like sweet rain—an absolute blessing for me too. Other people might not understand it, but as long as the two of us were happy, that was enough.
After we finished washing up, Yeonhee collapsed from exhaustion and fell asleep. Thankfully, she released my summoning right before closing her eyes.
Clunk—!
The moment I entered the Dark Space, I dashed straight toward Rainy. The closer I got to the tree, the more intense the energy became.
Huh? On the surface, it doesn’t look that different.
(Hello!! You came back again!)
As always, Rainy greeted me warmly. Every time I saw her, she had grown taller, but this time the increase was on another level. She now reached my chest. She lifted one of her branch-arms and compared our heights.
(Still not there yet~)
She spread both branches wide and did a strange, wobbly squid-like dance. I couldn’t help but laugh.
Kk kk kk— What are you doing?
(Just because seeing you makes me happy~! You can’t come every day, right?)
I’m working on it.
(Oh… That sounds kinda nice.)
Really? By the way, your roots have grown a ton. If you bury them that deep into the ground, can you still move?
What surprised me as I got closer wasn’t anything else—it was Rainy’s roots. Until recently, her roots had been above ground like legs, letting her walk around. Now they were firmly anchored deep into the floor.
(Ah, these? They grew a lot, right? I can move the roots whenever I want. If I decide to move, I can!)
I see… That works for now, but once you get bigger, it might get difficult.
(No way! I want to go out into a wider world!)
Then grow carefully so you don’t get tied down in one place. I’m not sure if you’ll be able to control it, though.
(Hehe, got it! So, are we doing that fun sword training again today?)
That’s right. Master probably won’t come today since we agreed to meet every three days—
I’d thought Azamyun wouldn’t show up today because of our three-day schedule. But before I could finish the thought, I sensed him entering the range of my perception and approaching at high speed.
Master!
[Kk kk— So you came again today.]
I had some things to take care of these past few days.
I immediately asked the questions that had been on my mind to Azamyun, who still appeared as a floating orb.
Master. I have a restriction that prevents me from moving more than a certain distance away from my summoner.
[Hm? Of course that would be the case. You are a summoned beast bound to your master, after all.]
Azamyun lightly tapped my head as if to say, “You have a habit of saying obvious things with a serious face.”
Ow! No, that was just buildup to get to the main point— Anyway, is there any way to remove that restriction?
[Tsk…!]
He immediately started smacking my head again, scolding me for always trying to take the easy route when the answer would come if I just thought about it properly.
I did think about it, but I couldn’t come up with anything, so I’m asking you. Since you were a hero, you must know a lot more than I do.
[Useless fool. Ahem— Well, there are a few methods.]
Not just one, but several? My eyes widened.
Really? Please tell me what they are!
The orb spun around me a few times before suddenly stopping in midair.
[If you follow today’s training well, I’ll tell you the one with the lowest chance of success first.]
Not the highest chance, but the lowest? How petty. Still, it was better than nothing.
Ooooh!! Of course! I’ll work hard!
[Kk kk— You really mean it?]
Absolutely.
I accepted his condition without hesitation. It was basically the same training I did every time anyway—what could possibly be new about it?
[Good. First, show me the ten basic movements I taught you.]
Yes!
I slowly unraveled the sword art that contained the essence of the Forgotten Ancient SwordsmanshipAzamyun had taught me. Starting with a downward slash, the movements flowed gracefully like a sword dance. At the tip of the blade, intense mana gathered, slicing, stabbing, and cutting as if it had a will of its own.
[······.]
For some reason, Azamyun simply stared at me in silence. Even without eyes, I could feel his gaze. Normally he would have already roared at me for any stiffness in the transitions and started beating me. Feeling uneasy, I finished demonstrating the most basic form I had been taught.
Tap tap—
Ah, please stop hitting my head—
[Hmm— What exactly happened while I wasn’t watching you?]
Huh? Nothing particularly… Wait, actually there was one thing.
I summarized the encounter with the Great Calamity, the incarnation of the Seven-Headed Dragon, and the underlings of the Blue Eye cult all in one place.
[How did you survive a situation like that? You must have been incredibly lucky. To meet enemies of that caliber… Did you die and come here?]
No, I didn’t…
I added the story of the colossal being that fell from the sky and how even the Seven-Headed Dragon couldn’t use its full power against it. I still didn’t mention that I was the one who had summoned the Great Being, but even that was enough to make Azamyun extremely excited. He bounced around in every direction.
[That serves him right! So even he isn’t a perfect existence after all! Kk kk kk kk—]
After laughing so hard he nearly split his sides, Azamyun suddenly grew serious again.
[I thought something was off when I smelled a strange scent coming from your body. After watching you perform the sword art, I can confirm you really are my disciple… So that’s what happened. A Great Being, you say…]
Apparently he had made me demonstrate the sword art to test whether I was truly his disciple after noticing I smelled strange. Had someone sneaked into this place before? His wary attitude toward possible intruders disguising themselves as me felt unfamiliar.
Realizing I had noticed his odd behavior, Azamyun let out a hearty laugh and told me not to worry.
[I’ve lived a long time, so I’ve grown overly suspicious. Even though I know it’s impossible, I still need to confirm things to feel at ease. Please understand.]
Yes… But there’s one more thing I’m curious about. The incarnation of the Seven-Headed Dragon that encountered that Great Being ended up in a strange state. It looked like its cognition had become confused.
[Hoo— As expected. Even after transforming into something close to an evil god, it still held that much influence. What a tremendous existence… Is it even possible for a being of that level to manifest physically…?]
He added that the entity might not have intentionally disrupted its cognition.
[When faced with such a colossal being, it’s only natural for a person to want to forget.]
That’s not quite it… Well, I suppose even Master wouldn’t know everything about it.
[In any case, today’s training is going to be quite difficult, my foolish disciple.]
Azamyun told me to perform the basic movements I had shown earlier as slowly as possible from beginning to end. If I made even the slightest mistake during the process, I had to start over from the beginning.
Wow… Looks like I might not even finish once before I have to leave.
I was already terrified before we even started. But Azamyun told me not to worry because there would be plenty of time, then suddenly began spinning rapidly around me.
Hmm?!
After some time passed, a round sphere suddenly formed around me.
[I have slowed the flow of time within this space to an extreme degree. You may train to your heart’s content.]
…?!
Now that he mentioned it, I could only hear Azamyun’s voice. Rainy and the orb looked completely frozen in place.
[Kk kk kk kk—]
For some reason, his laughter sounded as wicked as a demon’s. I had a bad feeling about this, but when I tried hitting the barrier surrounding me, I realized there was nothing I could do about it. It was transparent, yet clearly blocking me.
You really have all kinds of tricks up your sleeve.
The ability to manipulate the flow of time? Did one gain such powers by training in swordsmanship? With those thoughts in mind, I began my training.
Whoosh— Whoooosh—
A bizarre situation where I was moving while the world stood still. It was a sensation I had felt once before, and it was something I had always dreamed of experiencing.
Let’s do this.
The first ten attempts, I couldn’t even complete a single basic movement without being stopped by Azamyun. I figured out that whenever my intent deviated even slightly from the proper path, his roar would come down immediately. Even though the orb was frozen, the moment I shifted my posture even a little, his shout would hit at the perfect timing.
…He’s like a ghost. Just how is this structure set up?
I couldn’t understand it, but at some point I simply accepted it as natural.
[Again!]
[You fool!]
[Tsk tsk tsk— The way your arm opens there is because of your usual habit of only taking the easy path—]
That number reached a hundred, then clearly surpassed five hundred. By the time it felt like a thousand repetitions, so much time had passed that if time had flowed normally, several weeks might have gone by.
Ah— Now I can finally see it a little.
It wasn’t that I could see the correct path. I had become able to see for myself where I was going wrong. The difference between having someone point it out and realizing it yourself was like heaven and earth. Although there were only a few movements, it felt like my head had been cracked open.
Swinging a sword was an act of erasing an existence. I needed to understand the weight of that act more deeply.
And so the swings continued.
────
Thoughtless, egoless.
A deranged training where movements flowed as slow as a caterpillar. The endless period of endurance finally passed. At some point, I no longer knew whether I was swinging the sword or the sword was swinging me.
Whooooosh— Whoooosh—
Slice—!
Clang—!
[······!]
I had sliced through the invisible sphere.