The Undying Knight
Jin-soo's words struck Cheon Museong like a thunderclap.
Every time I take an elixir, I can train to set my essence, energy, and spirit back in order. Why did I never think of that?
Cheon Museong had spent his life clawing toward ever-higher realms, driving himself into harsher and harsher conditions. For it he had heard every insult and jeer there was — that he was an eccentric, that he had no sense of dignity, that he was a crazy bastard who didn't even know shame. He had paid none of it any mind. He believed he was in the right, and if anything he had judged the ones mocking him to be the foolish, lacking ones, people who simply did not understand the true savor of training. So he had answered them with a sharp admonition and a proper lesson.
But I was no different. I didn't understand the true savor of training either.
After climbing the Tower, he had branded everything newly laid before him — achievements, level-ups, class advancements, skills, elixirs, items — as sorcery, and he had rejected and guarded against it all. A single remark from Jin-soo had changed everything.
What if they were not sorcery at all, but a heaven-sent fortune, and a training ground besides?
There could be no finer opportunity.
It was not only elixirs. Changing the weapon one used was training. Adapting to the stats that grew through achievements was training. Learning a new skill and coming to wield it with fluency was training as well.
Shift your gaze, and the world looks like an entirely different place...
He had thought everyone but himself a fool, tangled in pretense and rigid preconceptions. Turn the thought around, and he had been the same.
"My Lord. For granting me so great an enlightenment, I offer you my sincere thanks."
Cheon Museong flung himself flat to the ground and gave Jin-soo a full prostration.
What is the old man doing now?
Watching him, Jin-soo's face was nothing but bewilderment. A change in the way he spoke was one thing. A full kowtow on top of it?
Cheon Museong's nature ran to pride. He would sooner have died than show another person a sight like this.
"For now, let's keep hunting."
"Understood, My Lord."
Cheon Museong answered with eyes blazing. Then he drew an elixir from his inventory and popped it into his mouth.
He came around more easily than I expected. I suppose I ought to be glad.
That was the right way to see it, and yet the shift in Cheon Museong's tone and bearing nagged at him all the same.
Well. It can't do any harm.
Having settled the thought, Jin-soo took from his inventory two Demon Spirit Divine Pills he had secured long ago.
"By the way, have you ever taken a Demon Spirit Divine Pill?"
"I have not."
"Then try these."
Jin-soo handed over the two pills.
"Understood."
Without a shred of hesitation, Cheon Museong tipped both into his mouth.
"Ooooh!"
A cry of wonder burst from him unbidden.
"The flow of my internal energy has grown far smoother. To think an elixir so precious existed. You have given me a great gift, My Lord. I am truly grateful."
"It's nothing."
Jin-soo answered shortly and stroked Leo's head.
"Nyaaaaang!"
At that, Leo unleashed a wide-area taunt roar, and monsters came swarming from every side. A heavy drum of footfalls rolled in — no small number of them, charging from all directions at once.
Cheon Museong moved first. He did not wait for the monsters as he had a moment before; he charged them himself. Sword qi streamed from him in thick cords, and the onrushing monsters came apart under it — a rip, a tear, and then a detonation that shook the ground.
I didn't think he'd throw himself in that aggressively.
The hundred-and-eighty-degree turn was a little unsettling, but from Jin-soo's side there was nothing bad about it.
Good is good. Flame Barrier. Flame Storm. Flame Rain. Flame Explosion.
Jin-soo carried the hunt on, loosing magic attack skills into the monsters.
That day Cheon Museong moved aggressively to claim achievements. Not only that — he kept taking elixirs, and he set about learning warrior-type skills. It was possible only because he had accepted Jin-soo's words and come to regard growing stats and skills not as sorcery, but as a heaven-sent fortune and a part of training.
Jin-soo, Shin Sua, and Cheon Museong hunted without missing a single day, clearing the monsters near the Starting City and stacking achievements as they went. Cheon Museong threw himself into earning them, and he cast off every last scrap of resistance to class advancement, skills, and items.
"My Lord, there is a matter I would ask of you. I am in the midst of choosing a class into which to advance. Might you discuss with me which would be best?"
Far from resisting, he was actively seeking Jin-soo's counsel.
"Of course."
Cheon Museong held a dark-attribute warrior class. He had used the low-grade advancement book from his first hunts without much thought.
Before the Regression, Elder Cheon suffered a fair bit because of that.
Orthodox martial arts paired well with holy-attribute classes, and unorthodox martial arts paired well with dark-attribute ones. Cheon Museong, however, had advanced into a dark-attribute class even while training in the arts of the orthodox faction, and it had given him no small headache before the Regression.
Affinity isn't absolute, of course.
Even among unorthodox arts there were internal methods and sword techniques — heavy, solid, defensive in character — that matched a holy attribute. And even among orthodox arts there were internal methods and sword techniques that ran light and swift, specialized for attack, and paired well with the dark.
Unfortunately, the Musang Heart Method is orthodox through and through.
Its internal energy was the defensive sort, standing firm upon a deep-set root, and its affinity with the dark attribute was poor.
The strengths get diluted, and the weaknesses stand out hard.
Jin-soo himself had learned the Musang Heart Method under a dark-attribute class before the Regression, so he had felt that difference with brutal clarity.
The Muhon Heart Method was what I made to overcome that flaw.
Had Cheon Museong not yet advanced, Jin-soo would have steered him into a holy-attribute class.
Too late for that.
So he had to find the best move available now.
As things stand, choosing a dark-attribute class with a defensive bent is the best option.
The one mercy was that ninety-nine percent of the power Cheon Museong possessed came from the martial arts he had cultivated since the Museong Dimension. Power gained through the system — a class, skills — amounted to about one percent.
And even that one percent is being generous.
Until only a few days ago, Cheon Museong had been wary of the power granted through the system, calling it sorcery.
The Musang Sword Art and the Musang Heart Method are supreme-tier martial arts.
If the Musang Sword Art and the Musang Heart Method he had mastered existed in the form of skill books, their price would reach at least tens of trillions of points.
High enough that even high-level Players active on the upper floors would covet them.
They were supreme-tier arts with merit enough that a Player of martial background would spend hundreds of trillions of points to get them in hand. The gulf in caliber between the arts and the class was so extreme that, for now, the mismatch did not show itself much.
But to grow stronger, he needs a proper class.
And the class level would have to rise as well.
Do that, and the strengths will dilute while the weaknesses stand out more and more.
The narrower the gap between the caliber of the art and the caliber of the class, the greater the dissonance was bound to become.
Before the dark-attribute class turns into a serious penalty, I have to pass the Muhon Sword Art and the Muhon Heart Method on to Elder Cheon.
That was the best course available now.
I failed at it before the Regression.
This time, he would not fail.
Meeting him this much earlier gives me plenty of advantages.
Even if Cheon Museong had held a holy-attribute class, Jin-soo would still have taught him the Muhon Sword Art and the Muhon Heart Method.
The Musang Sword Art and the Musang Heart Method have a clear ceiling to begin with.
They were supreme-tier arts that high-level Players would covet, yes.
And that is exactly where the limit of the Musang Sword Art and the Musang Heart Method lies.
They were not of a level that rankers active on the highest floors would use as their mainstay.
Once the Blessing's level rises and the number of Skill Sharing uses increases, I could hand the Muhon Sword Art and the Muhon Heart Method over easily enough...
That was, quite literally, the last resort.
If at all possible, it's best that Elder Cheon grows on his own.
Jin-soo valued efficiency, but he did not ignore the process. Where martial arts were concerned, it was better to offer Cheon Museong a measured hand from the side and let him come to the realization himself than to spoon-feed him directly through Skill Sharing.
His growth will be slower for now, but if I think of the days ahead, letting him awaken to it himself is the better choice.
Only then could Cheon Museong grow stronger still.
Well. If he stops developing, does nothing but tread water, and reaches the point of falling behind, I'll use Skill Sharing...
Jin-soo trusted Cheon Museong's talent and his effort.
Though I wonder whether there's an advancement book of a suitable level.
Jin-soo looked over the advancement books Cheon Museong held out. All of them were dark-attribute warrior classes, things he had earned while hunting up to now.
This one's decent. This one isn't bad either.
Many of the books Cheon Museong had passed over were hard to obtain on the Tower's 200th Floor. To Jin-soo's eye, they were merely passable.
Huh? Why is this here?
Then an advancement book he had never expected caught his eye.
The book that had met his eyes was the Undying Knight. A highest-tier advancement book of which only three or four existed in the entire Tower — and one of the rewards Jin-soo had received for felling the dragon he himself had faced.
"How on earth did you get this?"
Jin-soo put the question to him at once.
"When I first came to the Tower and was looking about, I was drawn into a hidden dungeon. I cleared it, and received this item as the reward."
"A hidden dungeon?"
"Yes. A dungeon in which a black orb spewed undead monsters without end."
"That black orb — wasn't its name the Black Mana Orb?"
"It was. But how do you know that?"
Jin-soo could hardly believe it.
That's the Undead Hidden Dungeon.
It was unmistakably the same dungeon he had cleared with Shin Sua on Floor 100.
Nothing strange about it, really.
On the Floor 100 where Earth-born Players were active, the only Undead Hidden Dungeon was the one Jin-soo had cleared.
The Floor 100 where Players from other dimensions are active is a different matter.
A duplicate Undead Hidden Dungeon on the Floor 100 where Players from the Museong Dimension operated was entirely possible.
The rewards, however, had to differ.
The Dominion Necromancer advancement book and the Reigning Necromancer advancement book were unique-grade.
Even if someone else achieved the same feat as Jin-soo, a different reward of a similar level would appear. They could not obtain the same Dominion Necromancer advancement book and Reigning Necromancer advancement book.
"I cleared an Undead Hidden Dungeon on Floor 100 as well. Did you destroy the Black Mana Orb yourself?"
"Yes, I did. Jiangshi I had never seen before kept appearing, and I found it rather fascinating. Well — from a certain moment no new jiangshi emerged, so I destroyed the Black Mana Orb and cleared the dungeon. And this advancement book came out as the reward."
"I see."
If Cheon Museong had induced the Black Mana Orb to self-destruct, a unique-grade item would certainly have appeared. Jin-soo felt a faint pang of regret.
"Why do you ask?"
Seeing that regret on Jin-soo's face, Cheon Museong asked as if puzzled, and Jin-soo told him of the reward that appeared when the Black Mana Orb self-destructed.
"Hm. So it is. But even had I known, I doubt I would have stayed in that place for so long as a month."
Cheon Museong said it with a face that held not a speck of regret.
Right. That's the kind of man he is.
And for a clear as swift as his, the quality of the reward was remarkably high.
Even if a unique-grade item had dropped, it would have been meaningless if it were an advancement book or a skill book for a class that wasn't warrior-type.
And even if a unique-grade warrior advancement book or skill book had appeared, a holy-attribute one would have been impossible for him to learn directly.
The Blessing really is absurdly broken, I'll give it that.
Thanks to the Blessing, Jin-soo could keep his existing class and additionally learn both the holy-attribute Dominion Necromancer advancement book and the dark-attribute Reigning Necromancer advancement book.
But for ordinary Players, who had to choose a single class and hold to it all the way through, even a unique-grade item was little better than a chicken rib if they could not use it themselves — too good to throw away, and useless to keep.
Looked at that way, Elder Cheon getting the Undying Knight advancement book was tremendous luck.
The Undying Knight advancement book was the next rarest thing after unique grade, and fortunately it belonged to the dark attribute. The one disappointing point was that it was an advancement book for a tank.
But among dark-attribute classes, it's one of the rare ones that pairs well with orthodox martial arts.
Even as a tank book, being dark-attribute, the class held a bruiser-tank position with a measure of offensive power worked in.
The problem is that, tank that it is, its attack skills are sparse and their power is weak.
Because of that, it was also a class with a real chance of turning its bearer into a muddled hybrid, neither one thing nor the other, if handled poorly. For Cheon Museong, though — a dark-attribute Player and an orthodox martial artist who had mastered the Musang Sword Art and the Musang Heart Method — it was the finest option available.
"I strongly recommend you advance into the Undying Knight."
"Understood. Then I shall advance into the Undying Knight."
At Jin-soo's recommendation, Cheon Museong agreed without hesitation.
Jin-soo had been prepared to persuade him somehow if he showed so much as a flicker of reluctance. The ease of it left him a little deflated.
Fwoooosh!
The Undying Knight advancement book became a bright radiance and was drawn into Cheon Museong's body. He had used it.
"Hah—! Wh-what is this..."
The radiance vanished, and in the instant the advancement was complete, the mouth of Cheon Museong — who until then had worn nothing but a calm expression — fell wide open.