Chapter 19
Chapter 19
Rolling Through It
“Waaaaah!”
A week ago, we moved into our new house.
A huge mansion with eight rooms.
It even had a wide garden and a basement.
And honestly…
I’m already starting to want to return it.
Looking at the size of this place alone, it almost felt like I’d become some noble.
But nobles probably don’t crouch down and scrub floors by hand.
And yet here I was, cleaning this enormous mansion all by myself.
“Faster!”
“Gaaahhh!”
My thighs felt like they were about to explode.
“You think someone who can’t even clean properly can inherit Sir Edwin’s class?!”
The one screaming beside me was Pow, Yuna’s familiar.
No.
At the moment, he was Instructor Pow.
The other three had gone into the city to buy snacks.
…They’ll buy mine too, right?
The moment my mind wandered, Pow barked at me as if he had read my thoughts.
“You’re distracted!”
“Sorry, Instructor!”
“Stand up!”
I shot to my feet and shouted.
“Yes, Instructor!”
The Death Knight shoved his face right in front of mine.
“You are less than dust!”
“Yes, Instructor!”
“I’ve never seen such pathetic mopping! If you can’t even mop properly, and you can’t even beat a pile of bones, what use are you?!”
“Sorry, Instructor!”
“Is all that useless flesh on your body just dead weight?! You’re not planning to fight while dragging that around, are you?!”
“No, Instructor!”
The Death Knight kept shouting right into my face.
Is this really training?!
“Build some muscle! Before I scrape off all that useless flesh and turn you into a skeleton!”
“Yes, Instructor!”
“Start again!”
Aaaagh!
This is just making me clean under the excuse of training!
…
The mansion garden.
It hadn’t been maintained at all, making the whole place look messy.
Because of that, the tea table placed in one corner looked strangely out of place.
At the table sat Yuna, Tanya, and Melraim.
Of course, there was no seat for me.
“Let’s begin.”
Melraim’s tentacles spread out in every direction.
I stared at them nervously.
Not long after, they rushed toward me.
Whoosh!
Too easy!
I dodged the first two attacks.
They always come in the same pattern!
But—
Thud.
The tentacle I’d dodged suddenly changed direction and struck me from behind.
“Gah!”
That’s cheating!
I glared at Melraim.
But she didn’t even look at me.
She just calmly sipped her tea.
Damn it!
From the table, I could hear the three of them talking.
Tanya was asking Yuna about “Yuna’s world.”
“So? In your world, there probably aren’t assassins, right?”
“Huh? Assassins? There aren’t… no, wait, maybe there are?”
Melraim took another sip of tea.
“There may not be skills, but surely there are still people who work in such professions. From assassins to prostitutes.”
Yuna’s eyes widened.
“What?! There’s an actual prostitute class here? Wait, then what kind of skill does it even—”
That was an incredibly interesting conversation.
But it would probably be awkward for me to join.
Melraim grinned and asked Yuna,
“Interested?”
“What are you even talking about?!”
Now I’m dying of curiosity.
Tanya smiled brightly and added,
“But living without magic must be inconvenient.”
“No, honestly, this world is more inconvenient.”
“Tanya,” Melraim said. “Even if her homeland is lacking in magical development, don’t insult it.”
Tanya blinked.
“Ah.”
Then she obediently apologized to Yuna.
Meanwhile, Melraim’s tentacles kept attacking me.
Of course, I knew she was holding back.
I’d seen her fight Pow.
If she attacked me at that speed, I’d have holes punched through me.
“Hm… looks like we’re almost out of tea.”
Tanya shook the teapot.
“There’s a little left. Melraim, want some?”
“No. It’s cold already.”
“Then I’ll drink it.”
Tanya poured it into her own cup and drank it in one gulp.
Melraim looked at me and grinned.
“Then let’s wrap this up.”
“Mhm. I’m next, right?”
Suddenly, all of Melraim’s tentacles rose into the sky.
Then they turned, all aimed at me from above.
It’s coming!
The tentacles dove at me like birds hunting prey.
“Aaaagh!”
I raised my sword and struck at them.
But I only managed to knock away one.
The rest tapped against my body—
and then started beating me relentlessly.
Stop for a second!
But I didn’t even have enough breath to yell.
Then Melraim snapped her fingers.
At that exact moment, one tentacle smacked me hard.
I went flying and crashed to the ground.
You didn’t even need to snap…
…
When I opened my eyes, a silver-haired beauty was crouching over me.
…Tanya.
“You’re awake?”
“…Yeah.”
The moment she saw my eyes open, she got straight to the point.
“Good. Then let’s continue what we were doing yesterday.”
Please let me rest.
What Tanya meant by “what we were doing yesterday” was training to rush an opponent and close distance.
It was the technique she used in the Pow Dungeon to kill those green monsters.
When she said she’d teach me, I was honestly thrilled.
Distance control in battle was everything.
Of course, Tanya probably had skill support helping her.
But even if I could imitate it badly, that would still be a huge gain.
Maybe I couldn’t use it to create distance.
But being able to close distance at will?
That alone would be a huge advantage.
The problem was—
Tanya’s training method was way too brutal.
Smiling brightly, Tanya handed me a wooden sword.
Then she pointed at a red mark on the wall.
“You remember what we did yesterday, right?”
“Ugh!”
I sprinted with all my strength.
Mopping.
Dodging tentacles.
And now full-speed running.
This is insane.
I ran to the marked point, swung my sword, and staggered back.
Tanya shook her head.
“Oh, come on. Did you already forget what I told you yesterday? Lower your stance.”
“Ah… right.”
“Let’s try again.”
I squeezed my eyes shut and ran again.
When I came back, Tanya shook her head again.
“Nope. Too slow. You need to sprint faster.”
“Huff… huff…”
Tanya smiled.
“Let’s try again.”
I had no idea how many times I’d heard that now.
And she didn’t even look frustrated.
She just kept repeating it.
With a smile.
Like a golem.
And so I kept running.
At full speed.
To the point where it felt like she was trying to squeeze out every last bit of stamina I had left.
Then—
while repeating her instructions over and over—
something flashed through my mind.
“Huh…?”
I realized something.
A new skill…?
I looked down at the wooden sword in my hand.
“Ha…”
I walked back to Tanya.
This time with confidence.
Tanya noticed the change in my expression and tilted her head.
I never thought this brainless training would actually work.
“Tanya.”
“Yeah?”
“Watch this.”
Tanya nodded, her eyes sparkling with anticipation.
I stood facing the red mark again.
And—
“Charging Slash!”
The scenery of the garden rushed past me.
A speed I could never reach without skill support.
The strain on my body was enormous.
It felt like my legs would shatter.
Though I was already at my limit.
I reached the target and swung.
Before I could even finish thinking,
I’d already arrived.
When I turned around, Tanya was clapping.
I dragged my trembling legs back toward her.
And the moment I reached her—
I collapsed.
“Huff… huff… How was it?”
Tanya answered proudly.
“This time, it was a little better.”
From Tanya’s standards, “a little better” was probably fair.
But even that felt like huge praise.
I grinned at her.
Tanya smiled brightly too.
Then she said,
“But it was still a little slow.”
“…What?”
With the face of an angel, she declared,
“Let’s try again.”
Damn it…
…
As usual, Yuna stood before me with one skeleton.
But today, her position was different.
She was hiding behind the skeleton.
What’s she doing?
The skeleton clicked its jaw like it was talking.
And from behind it, Yuna said,
“Do you want to have a terrible time?”
What is this?
“No… who would want that? Obviously.”
Yuna puffed her cheeks.
“I know. I just wanted to say it once.”
Why would you want to say that?
Seriously, she’s weird.
Yuna looked dissatisfied and suddenly stretched out her hand.
“Start!”
The skeleton charged at me.
It was barehanded.
And I had a sword.
So naturally, I should create distance—
But my legs wouldn’t move!
The skeleton threw a straight punch.
Then followed with a spinning kick.
“This much is easy!”
I gritted my teeth and kicked off the ground, widening the gap.
Barely.
But I avoided it.
The skeleton was fast.
But not as fast as when I first fought it.
Probably because it was unarmed.
Without a weapon, it wasn’t benefiting from weapon proficiency skills.
Meanwhile, I had my sword.
And my sword proficiency skill.
Weak as I was, I was still a warrior.
So Yuna’s skeleton was fighting with a pretty serious handicap.
“Hyaah!”
Now that I’d figured it out, I destroyed it easily.
As expected…
adventurers live and die by their equipment.
This sword wasn’t just for show.
Its performance was amazing.
I’d spent three straight days getting beaten by skeletons.
And yesterday, I’d finally gotten my first win.
But now that I understood the rhythm, I didn’t think I’d lose anymore.
Today’s victory proved it.
Of course—
that was only when the skeleton was barehanded.
Yuna looked strangely frustrated.
No, wait—
this is my training.
Shouldn’t you be happy?
“Then shall we move to the next stage?”
“Huh?”
Yuna summoned another skeleton.
I thought she might summon two this time.
But that wasn’t it.
I asked nervously,
“Don’t tell me it’s using a weapon now?”
“No. That would be too dangerous.”
Yuna’s skeleton put down its sword.
What?
Then this is the same as before.
Just as I was thinking that,
Yuna pulled out a black orb from her pocket.
Dark energy began to ripple around the skeleton.
Yuna smiled.
“Round two. Start!”
The skeleton charged.
I blinked—
just once.
And lost sight of it.
“Huh?”
Startled, I turned around.
At that moment, I braced for impact.
In my blind spot.
While turning, I saw the skeleton crouching low, already behind me.
“Oh no…”
Thud.
Its spinning kick landed.
And I went flying.
Stage two…
is pretty rough.
…
This training didn’t end until nearly dawn.
After fighting skeletons, there was still Pow’s swordsmanship training.
Surprisingly, Pow had structured and systematic knowledge of swordsmanship.
Training with him felt like learning from a real knight instead of an undead.
“Lower your stance. There’s no weight behind your attacks.”
“Like this?”
Pow frowned.
“That stance is good for attacking, but weak for defense.”
As he said that, Pow lightly swung his wooden sword.
I tried to block with mine—
but his sword simply pushed mine aside like it was an annoyance and struck me.
“Ghk!”
Pow clicked his tongue.
“Adjust your stance according to which hand your opponent holds their weapon in. You must be able to fight against both. If it’s an unintelligent monster, it’s even easier. Identify its preferred direction as quickly as possible.”
Then Pow switched the wooden sword to his left hand and attacked again.
I didn’t even have time to counter.
All I could do was defend.
“A boss monster will have superior physical ability to yours. If you have no technique to close that gap, you have no chance.”
Pow’s attacks grew faster and stronger.
He looked relaxed—
but I couldn’t follow his rhythm at all.
In the middle of his assault, Pow spoke casually.
“Watch your opponent’s rhythm. A skilled swordsman often uses feints.”
Honestly, I’d never understood swordsmanship on that level.
Pow had once sighed and said,
“I can’t believe someone like you has survived this long with a sword.”
But it’s not just me.
Most adventurers are like that, aren’t they?
I thought battles were decided by experience, skills, and physical ability.
But Pow said my so-called experience was only shallow understanding.
And now that I thought about it—
he was right.
I absorbed Pow’s teachings quickly.
I am a warrior, after all.
I have sword proficiency.
And once I understood the basics, the skill itself helped me adapt quickly.
Of course, most of Pow’s teaching still involved beating me up.
Apparently, that was the fastest method.
What could I do?
It worked.
I couldn’t deny it.
Being able to destroy Yuna’s skeletons, even while exhausted and battered—
that was proof enough.
Maybe high-level adventurers all understood the value of knowledge from the start.
Even if they did…
I never had a way to learn.
Who was supposed to teach me this?
Anyway,
my training continued like that for quite a while.