The Limits of Talent
A person can't be good at everything. This was a problem tied directly to one's stats. Take someone who's exceptional at long jump, for example. They'd naturally possess strong reflexes, powerful lower-body muscles, explosive starting speed, and excellent flexibility. But here's where it gets tricky. How would that same person fare in a different event? They might perform decently, but in most cases their results would fall short of their long-jump prowess. If we need a clearer example, let's look at soccer. Would someone born with the talent of a striker show the same level of performance if you stuck them in defense? Of course not. The act of kicking the ball might stay the same, but the required stats shift completely, producing an entirely different outcome.
Human talent has limits. No matter how gifted someone is, they can't excel in every single stat. The same principle applies to swordsmanship. Everyone is born with an innate direction. Some are gifted with speed, others with tactical insight, some with keen observation, some with patience, and others with raw power. The sword techniques they mastered and the combat styles they developed all changed depending on which stats they were born with. That was why, when facing a swordsman, observation came first. You needed to identify their specialization to respond effectively.
Valion's sword flashed. The red lines stitching through the air were sliced apart by black trajectories as I summoned a swarm of wooden soldiers, jingling my lantern. The red lines poured down in endless curving arcs. The wooden soldiers poured forth as well. With enemies crowding every direction and no room to dodge, Valion swung his blade. A tearing sound ripped through the air, and every flame and wooden soldier was bisected in an instant. It was a swift sword almost impossible to track with the naked eye. So he was confident in his speed, was he? In that case…
I ordered the wooden giant to advance while preparing my next spell. A web of flames connected to the wind core spread out in every direction. As his escape routes gradually vanished, Valion looked up at me and the wooden giant, the corner of his mouth curling into a smirk.
Valion kicked off the ground and shot forward like a bullet. The wooden giant raised its fist. A barrage of flames launched from the lantern to restrain him, followed by the wooden giant's massive fist slamming down.
The impact erupted like a shockwave, ripping across the battlefield. The crushed earth exploded upward in a shower of dirt, forming a small crater. And then—
Crack.
Fissures spiderwebbed across the wooden giant's fist before it shattered. I quickly poured in more mana to repair it, but I couldn't help clicking my tongue. The reason was simple. Valion had met the giant's fist head-on with his sword and was already preparing his next strike without a scratch.
The overwhelming power behind that sword forced me to revise my assessment of him. It seemed he possessed exceptional talent not only in swift swords but in heavy swords as well. So he wanted a contest of pure strength? Fine by me. I didn't think I'd lose in a contest of strength either.
The wooden giant's left fist collided with Valion's sword. The tremendous impact shattered the left fist, but as I restored it, the giant immediately threw its right. That fist shattered too upon meeting Valion's blade, yet the giant simply swung its newly repaired left fist again. It hammered down with enough force to pulverize a mountain. The ground, already turned to mush by the shockwaves, caved in endlessly. Deeper. Even deeper. The wooden giant pounded Valion as if trying to reach the planet's core.
Shatter, restore, shatter, restore. The cycle seemed like it would repeat forever—until Valion moved. His sword met the wooden giant's fist, but the sensation was completely different this time. With a graceful swing, Valion deflected the fist's trajectory. The wooden giant's punch struck the ground instead of its target. The giant staggered, and Valion seized the opening, kicking off the earth and flying straight toward me.
The fluid, almost theatrical sequence of movements made me raise my lantern. Valion, now right in front of me, opened his mouth.
As I spoke, I activated the spell I'd been preparing. The ultra-compressed flames erupted, forming a crimson pillar. It looked like a horizontal red lightning bolt tearing across the sky. Valion, swallowed by the super-compressed flames, flew through the air for what seemed like an eternity before twisting his body and landing gracefully on the ground.
I looked down at him. His clothes were only slightly singed. In his left hand, a black gauntlet fluttered. One of the ideals I'd hammered out internally had manifested in reality. As expected, Valion was a swordsman who had reached the second stage of Refinement magic—Liberation.
Black suggested a dark attribute. The signature ability of darkness was absorption. It was entirely possible that Valion was a swordsman capable of absorbing any attack thrown at him.
A person can't be good at everything. Talent has limits, after all. Therefore, it should have been impossible for every stat to be exceptional. That was the norm.
But sometimes—very rarely—a person appeared who truly could do everything. Someone who casually stepped over the boundaries others deemed impossible, shattering the imaginations of ordinary geniuses. A prodigy? No. Someone like that wasn't even a mere prodigy.
Right. If he was going to become the greatest swordsman in the empire someday, he needed to be at least this good even at a young age.
Valion slowly walked toward me. I measured the distance between us. Roughly several dozen meters. Far in normal terms, but in a battle between superhumans, it was a gap that could be closed in just a few steps. I began calculating ways to defeat him, starting with the cards I already held.
Wooden giant, wooden soldiers, ultra-compressed flames, flame bombardment, devouring flames, water ropes, stone spears, Refinement magic, Jeogyeng, flame webs. These were the offensive spells I usually favored. I immediately ruled out the devouring flames. That one was reserved for fights against archmages or very specific situations.
The wooden giant? I'd used it, but it was blocked. Wooden soldiers? Same result—they'd been swept away like straw. The ultra-compressed flames had been stopped without effort, the flame bombardment hadn't even tickled him, and once those two were neutralized, water ropes and stone spears wouldn't be very effective either.
Maybe my application had been wrong? I mentally simulated various creative applications of magic against Valion, but the results were the same. It couldn't be helped. The moment he casually blocked my strongest firepower—the ultra-compressed flames—no amount of clever application was going to produce a significant effect.
There was only one way to solve this. I had to use even stronger magic.
I gauged Valion's limits. Just how much defense did he have if he could remain unscathed after taking ultra-compressed flames at point-blank range? What if no matter how much magic I poured out, I still couldn't break through?
Valion lowered his stance, looking ready to burst forward at any moment. I stopped my thoughts and raised my mana. So what if it gets blocked? It would just be disappointing. Besides, even if he was destined to become the empire's greatest swordsman, blocking this at his current age wouldn't be easy.
Because this was the strongest magic I could use right now.
I thrust my hand forward. An enormous amount of mana drained away as the ground rumbled violently. Trees erupted from the earth. The rising trees wove together, forming a massive body dozens of meters long. It resembled a snake. Countless branches intertwined to create limbs. Incomplete wings sprouted from its back. Half-formed arms grew from its shoulders. A broken horn rose from its head. Nothing was fully realized.
Fwoosh.
Flames ignited along the horn, wings, and arms. The incomplete serpent roared. An Imugi that had tried to become a dragon but fallen into corruption. Steel. Its massive tail lashed out at Valion.
Valion kicked off the ground to dodge the tail, his brow furrowing. Perhaps it was because the creature's enormous size would have triggered the Magic Tower Club's defensive measures the moment it was summoned. His expression had changed slightly. It was the face of someone thinking, What the hell is this thing?
I smiled. If he was making that face before I'd even properly started, what was he going to do later? Steel was an Imugi that had tried to ascend into a dragon but fallen—an enraged monster. The famous legend said that the heavenly flames of rage accumulated within Steel had allowed it to wield fire itself. In other words—
Steel opened its maw. Fwoosh. Flames gathered. The devouring flames burned through Steel's body, blazing fiercely within its throat. They compressed. Endlessly. Without pause. The flames that had consumed and digested Steel's own body to grow larger and larger continued compressing past their critical point.
The compression had exceeded the limits of control, making the flames unstable. Sparks flew wildly in every direction. It was an incredibly dangerous situation, but it was fine. Steel was a monster that had nurtured heavenly flames within itself from the beginning. No matter how violently the flames rampaged inside its body, the damage would never reach the outside.
"Hah."
Valion's short burst of laughter brushed past my ears. I pointed at him with my finger.
Immediately afterward, a red light bright enough to blind a person pierced through the world.
"Monster…."
I ignored the muttering from behind me—the mage who crawled on all fours but had no feet, only hands—and searched for Valion. So, what happened? Did he survive?
CLEAR!
You have conquered the tower!
Apparently not. I nodded at the floating text. If he survived a direct hit from that, he'd be the real monster, not Steel.
I dismissed Steel and walked over to Sepia. She looked up at me. Her eyes were filled with pure astonishment. I calmly made my request.
The virtual world had this problem. Even if you saved them, you couldn't get a single spell. Sigh.