Status Window and Sword Practice

A window suddenly popped up in front of me, and I stared at it blankly.

‘Is this not a dream…?’

It was all real.

There was no other way to explain the unrealistic window floating before my eyes.

And there was another problem.

The final sentence that appeared.

Time until the next summoning... [7 days]

No matter how I thought about it, it meant I would be summoned back there in seven days.

‘Ha… what should I do…?’

Honestly, my luck this time had been very good. There was nothing strange about me dying whenever.

And killing that elf bastard was a miracle in itself.

We had been overwhelmingly losing, yet we turned it around.

But there was no guarantee that luck would hold next time either.

‘I need to prepare…’

But how exactly do I prepare?

Should I bring a gun or something?

No. There seemed to be no way to bring one.

And besides, where the hell would I even get a gun in South Korea?

‘For now, let’s rest…’

The physical fatigue was one thing, but the mental exhaustion had been too much.

Fortunately, tomorrow was Saturday.

Tomorrow morning I would think about ways to survive there. And in the afternoon I would head to the gym to work out.

‘By the way…’

Who would be my companion next time?

Would the original members just appear again as they were?

Or would only the survivors show up, excluding those who had died?

The chubby monster must have died…?

What about the doll girl? She didn’t seem like she had died…

Or maybe brand new people would be summoned.

Or maybe I would be thrown in alone.

But how strong would the next opponent be?

If last time had been a tutorial, then from now on stronger guys would appear, right?

As these thoughts kept looping endlessly, it felt like there was no end. So I decided to stop, pee, and go to sleep.

And I headed to the bathroom, lowered my pants.

Whoosh!

“What the hell is this?!”

My precious alter ego had grown to an absurd size.

No, the explanation was a bit off. It wasn’t an erection. It was genuinely just the size that had exploded.

I hadn’t even been summoned originally, but this level of ridiculous size was never possible.

Almost forearm-thick!

‘What the… How did this even happen?’

Maybe I got hit by some curse from this world?

Or did the tutorial pass reward enlarge my penis?

All sorts of wild thoughts crossed my mind, but there was no way to figure it out right now. I couldn’t just go to the hospital to talk about this.

So I decided not to overthink it and just peed strongly.

Splash splash splash!!

The pee stream was so powerful it started splashing everywhere.

‘What a mess, really…’

Pee had splashed all over my clothes and legs.

I took another shower, cleaned the toilet and surroundings, then lay down and fell asleep.

The next day.

When I woke up, I tried to call up the message ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠window just in case.

At the exact moment I thought of the message window in my mind.

Beep!

——

“Eh…?”

The message window had changed.

This was obviously a status window.

Finally, the status window had appeared!

“Oh, there are skills!”

But Wanderer? What the hell was that?

It reminded me of some Seoul station homeless guy.

As I stared at the Wanderer part, another message window popped up.

[Wanderers are not bound to a single world.]

What the hell was that? Was this a tooltip…?

Just reading the explanation, I still had no clue what it meant.

‘But this status window is seriously half-assed…’

Honestly, it was too bare.

A proper status window should at least show numerical stats like strength, agility, and so on. Or at the very least rank them from A to F.

But ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠this bastard of a status window showed almost nothing.

‘No MP…’

So I was apparently the type who couldn’t use magic like the doll girl or the elf.

But wasn’t that just normal for a regular Earth person? The weird ones were them.

I felt a little disappointed but could live with it. Then I looked at the other skill.

“Wait, that must be…?”

Primordial Power.

The name sounded like it had real backbone.

It was basically screaming “this is my cheat skill” in neon letters!

‘But what the hell is Primordial Power?’

As I stared closely at the Primordial Power section, another message window appeared.

[This is Primordial Power.]

“……”

Just in case, I checked the other stats in detail.

First, I looked at the unfamiliar concept of MP.

[MP is the energy that allows you to use magic. When depleted, it slowly recovers by absorbing mana from the surroundings. It can also be strengthened through training.]

Extremely detailed!

It even told me how to strengthen it. HP was explained just as thoroughly.

I looked back at Primordial Power.

[This is Primordial Power.]

“Wait, are you kidding me?”

I could read the name “Primordial Power” perfectly fine!! So what the hell was it then!!!!

‘Wait a second…’

Was the huge size down there related to this skill?

Then did Primordial Power make your dick bigger?

“Sigh…”

Right now there was nothing I could do about it.

As a developer, I knew not to mess with or dig into something when you were completely stuck.

In situations like this, you just kept working on other things and waited for another chance later.

Anyway, I had no choice but to accept the fact that I would be summoned there again.

Now I had to think about how to survive there.

‘First, I need to learn how to handle weapons…’

How was I supposed to learn martial arts?

Should I go to some sword dojo?

I quickly sat up, turned on my computer, and searched for sword schools near my house and office.

‘Ah… this won’t work…’

Money was one thing, but the timing didn’t match.

Adult classes were either morning or evening. Morning was impossible because I had to go to work, and evening was awkward considering quitting time.

‘It also didn’t match my usual workout time…’

I needed at least two hours at the gym.

I couldn’t just give that up. If I couldn’t work out, I would definitely go insane.

‘I couldn’t do sword first and then gym…’

Then my lower body would be dead from fatigue and strength training would be ruined.

‘Then what do I do…?’

Seems like the only option was self-study.

My life’s teacher. My life’s landmark. YouTube.

I had learned so much from YouTube over the years.

From C ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠language basics to becoming a developer.

As a penniless orphan, I couldn’t dream of PT, so I learned strength training through YouTube.

Of course there had been tons of trial and error, but somehow I had managed to keep it up until now.

‘Then…’

I remembered watching some Western swordsmanship shorts before.

I searched YouTube for sword technique basics.

As expected, the all-knowing YouTube teacher didn’t disappoint and showed various lectures.

I skimmed through the basic videos for both Eastern and Western swordsmanship without discrimination.

‘This should be enough to practice at home.’

From what I saw, it guided me to repeat the basic techniques like cuts and various stances.

This should let me practice for about two hours after my workout.

‘Ha… but would this actually help?’

A sudden thought crossed my mind.

The people teaching this on YouTube had never actually fought to the death.

In a chaotic situation, would those monotonous cuts or low stances even work?

Just practicing the basics, what kind of help would I even get when I was thrown into the real thing?

‘No. Snap out of it.’

Urgency makes you turn back, they say.

There was no such thing as instantly mastering a lethal technique without a foundation. If there was, every dog and cat would be benching 500 pounds easily.

When studying development, you didn’t just throw up “Hello World” and then learn if-statements and for-loops.

‘Whether it works or not, I’ll build a solid foundation first.’

There was no need to doubt the teacher’s qualifications.

Learning the basics and then stacking real-world experience afterward was my job.

All things were like that in the end.

‘Let’s do this right now!’

First I went to the gym, then in the afternoon I started sword training.

I didn’t forget to order a training sword from Coupang.

Today I would just practice with the wooden sword I already had at home.

With that plan set, I chugged a booster and headed to the gym.

The gym.

As soon as I entered, the heavy clanging sounds and metallic smell hit me.

‘Ah, this feels good…’

It felt like all stress was melting away.

When I was in the forest it had been hellish, but surrounded by these iron things my mind felt at ease.

‘Time to start?’

Today’s squats were light—only three reps at 150 kg to loosen up.

I put on my lifting shoes and sleeves, started with an empty bar, did my warm-up, and slowly added weight.

I unracked 150 kg.

‘Eh? What?’

It felt incredibly lighter than usual.

This was way lighter than when I usually hit 100.

‘Has my condition really risen this much?’

Yesterday I had gone through hell, so did that make it feel lighter? No, that didn’t make sense.

I only did three reps and tried to set it down, but it was too light. I probably couldn’t handle it.

So I added more.

160 kg was still too light. I felt like I could do eight reps without any problem.

‘What the…?’

My 1RM had been just over 170 kg. But 160 kg feeling this light didn’t make sense.

Just to be sure, I tried 170 kg, close to my 1RM.

Whoosh!

I braced and went down and up. It was just like a last warm-up set.

‘Did something change after I went there…?’

I was a lifetime natural with no drugs, so there was no way my strength would jump that fast overnight.

Even if I stacked steroids and growth hormone, such a steep growth was impossible.

In the end I adjusted my target weight to 180 kg, which was a big jump over my 1RM.

Then I heard some murmuring from behind.

- Wow, look at this guy’s weight. He’s squatting four plates easily.

- His height is only about 170, but damn.

I really wanted to turn around and glare at whoever was saying that, but I coolly ignored it and finished the rest of the workout.

The following bench press and back exercises also required a big weight increase.

Since my growth had been painfully slow and stagnant for a long time, my performance jumping dramatically felt good.

But it wasn’t all happiness. Since I hadn’t achieved it through pure effort, it felt like some external help had been given, which bothered me a bit.

‘But thinking about it…’

I had grown very slowly compared to the amount of effort I had put in. Maybe now was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠when I had finally stabilized.

From now on I would just lift heavier and chase my limits again.

Just think of it as a lucky break. After all, I had to go back there and fight again. This much growth was necessary to survive.

After finishing my workout, I left the gym without showering.

I got home and took out the wooden sword to start sword training.

‘Are there four basic stances in Western swordsmanship?’

There were more things, but I could compress the truly basic ones into four.

‘Let’s start with these.’

I played the four stances on the monitor repeatedly and tried to follow along as best I could.

Since it was my first time, it felt awkward, but I managed to follow them somehow.

Because the YouTuber made good videos, I could roughly understand in which situations to apply those positions just by watching.

After practicing the stances hard, an hour had already passed.

My arms were getting tired from using muscles I didn’t usually use, but it wasn’t over yet.

I also needed to learn Eastern swordsmanship.

‘This one seems to focus more on attack techniques…’

It was structured around downward cuts, horizontal cuts, upward cuts, and so on.

Western swordsmanship had more techniques for dealing with binding situations—counterattacking the opponent’s attack.

But Eastern swordsmanship seemed to have its foundation in cut techniques.

As I practiced like an idiot, I somehow ended up training for over two hours.

After finishing, I was so tired I devoured chicken breast and rice like a madman, showered, and collapsed into sleep.

The next day was Sunday, so I didn’t go to the gym and instead threw myself into sword training. Now I could use the actual bokken instead of the wooden sword.

That day I focused on memorizing the positions and sequences, and naturally practiced shifting my center of gravity and relaxing my body.

Of course I applied the principles of strength training—moving with power in my arms instead of just using my arms. I also practiced using my scapula and full body.

With training and work repeating, I was starting to feel the fatigue.

Finally the day came.