Chapter 21
Chapter 21
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 021
Chapter Title: End of the Tutorial (8)
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Couldn't save them. Couldn't save them. Couldn't save them. Couldn't save them. Couldn't save them. Couldn't save them. Couldn't save them. Couldn't save them. Couldn't save them...
Couldn't save my hometown, my city, my country, my people, the world, or the ones I loved.
Couldn't save a single soul. Not one person. Despaired without saving anyone...
I wasn't a hero. Just a clown for those hideous demons. Not a hero...
··················.
············.
······.
A jolt!
Lee Sang-hyun flinched at the influx of memories once more. But there was no time to wallow in pity. He had to move, even 0.1 seconds faster.
Because his instincts were blaring warnings.
Kwaaaang!!
It was by a hair's breadth. A split-second slower, and his head would've been smashed to pieces.
'Now!'
To turn crisis into opportunity, Lee Sang-hyun didn't retreat—he closed in.
Kaang! Kaang! Kang!
Overhead, side slash, thrust. All three attacks were blocked by solid defense, unable to advance.
Still, Lee Sang-hyun didn't give up. He hooked his foot. Or felt like he did.
Whoosh!
'Bones make it agile.'
Like when it charged, the skeleton hero's body snapped back in an instant.
Rattle.
True to its body of pure white bones, the landing was light as a feather.
"······."
Lee Sang-hyun wasted no time, resuming his stance. He waited for the skeleton hero to charge again.
Kwaaaang!
Lee Sang-hyun observed the same motions and reactions countless times. Gradually, he 'adapted'.
Kang! Kaang! Kang!
Movements that were once too much to even chase.
Kaaaang!
But now, he could see them.
'It jumps.'
Every motion of the skeleton hero was visible to his eyes. Still fast, of course. Even after slamming the ground and leaping over a hundred times, it showed no sign of slowing.
Yet now he could see. Motions invisible at first, joint movements, sword trajectories.
They were crystal clear in his eyes.
Thump!
So Lee Sang-hyun didn't flee. He stepped back just one step. Exactly one to evade the skeleton hero's sword.
Kwaaaang!!
The chance for counterattack came immediately. By stepping back with his left foot, his side was open.
Swish!
Of course, the awkward stance prevented a sword swing. But Lee Sang-hyun had his right knee.
A right knee that could snap up quickly now that his left foot was back.
Kwachik!!
The counter, born purely from instinct beyond calculation, shattered the skeleton hero's ribs.
"?!!"
But no time to savor the joy. The skeleton hero's sword came flying in an unnatural arc.
Slaash!!
A rotation impossible for humans—no, any living being. Yet Lee Sang-hyun dodged it. Though a deep gash opened on his abdomen, he didn't die.
'That was close.'
Having created distance, Lee Sang-hyun pressed his abdomen with his left hand, glaring at the skeleton hero.
Rattle clatter.
The skeleton hero, having twisted its upper body 180 degrees, returned to normal as if nothing happened.
A truly grotesque sight.
But for a bare-bones skeleton, it wasn't incomprehensible. No flesh or muscle to hinder it, unlike living humans.
'Internals... fine.'
True to its name, Super Regeneration wasn't hype. The wound healed in mere seconds.
Rattle clatter.
The momentarily paused skeleton hero raised its broken sword to head height.
Lee Sang-hyun watched its actions to the end with calm, cold eyes.
At last, the skeleton hero leaped.
Whoosh!!
After countless exchanges, able to observe every action, Lee Sang-hyun realized.
'It's... holding the iron chain.'
Not bound by the rusted chain—it was gripping it itself.
Clang! Clatter!
The skeleton hero wasn't trapped by the chain. It was holding on voluntarily.
'...Why?'
No leisure to ponder, but the question arose. Why grip the chain?
Why not break free?
Rattle. Clatter.
'...Can't let go?'
The thought struck him suddenly.
Like Tethys, was this hero before him unable to release some 'hope'?
"······."
Forced speculation?
Kwaaaang!!
Maybe. Weakened by visions of the ruined world's suffering, he might be projecting.
Rattle. Clatter.
But somehow, it felt right. No evidence, but it did.
'...If so, only one thing to do.'
So Lee Sang-hyun resolved.
'Fight head-on.'
Even in death... even as bones, to give hope to this hero who hadn't let go.
Rattle. Clatter.
Kang! Kaaang!
Deafening roars and sparks flew everywhere.
The brutal impacts battered Lee Sang-hyun relentlessly. He'd lost count of how many times he'd staggered. Each clash vibrated his bones, screamed through his muscles, and shaved off chunks of mana.
"Kuhk!!"
Yet he didn't fall. He endured to the end, blocking the skeleton hero's sword.
Kaaang!!
Any onlooker would call it foolish. Not testing skill or strength, just stupidly clashing blades.
Kaang! Kang!!
Foolish fit perfectly.
Kwaaaang!!
But it wasn't meaningless.
Because with each clash, fragments of the skeleton hero's memories seeped in.
「······!」
Shattered and broken miserably...
「······!」
Faint and fleeting, like dreams vanishing upon waking...
···Thump!
Yet they lingered in his heart like indelible scars, rippling through him.
···Thump!!
Lee Sang-hyun accepted them all. Every last one, internalized fully.
Kwaaaang!!
Then he saw it. Why the skeleton hero clung to the rusted chain.
'Ail... bern Swordsmanship...!'
Like Tethys, the hero had been waiting. For an heir to inherit his swordsmanship, the 'technique' he'd forged at the end.
To the hero's final act, their eyes saw only pathetic comedy.
Because he'd shackled himself. Staked everything on futile hope.
So they left him. Scoffing, "Go on, keep waiting eternally," and tossed him to the cave's depths.
「······.」
The hero gripped the chain through demons' mockery and jeers.
To pass hope to a future heir. Swordsmanship to fight the hideous demons.
「······!」
And now.
That moment arrived.
Clang!
'The chain...?'
The chain extending from the skeleton hero's left hand wrapped around Lee Sang-hyun's left.
Startled briefly, he soon understood.
The hero intended to pass 'Ailbern Swordsmanship' to him.
'...It begins.'
But the method differed from Tethys. She gave her preserved power; the hero sought to...
Kaang!
Pass his technique. Like a stern master teaching a lacking disciple.
Kaaang!!
Simple downward strikes became lethal blows. Ordinary thrusts turned to flashes of light.
Swish!
The sword's path was free as a sky-soaring bird, yet persistent and vicious as an earth-crawling serpent.
Swoosh!
Beautiful. Utterly fluid technique.
Lee Sang-hyun watched it all and mimicked perfectly. Not missing a single detail.
Kaang!!
Of course, he had no such talent. No genius to replicate after one glance. Coldly, not even prodigy level.
But the Berserker's 'instinct' made it possible. Because he instinctively knew.
That it was stronger.
Superior.
More useful.
So he stole it.
From the skeleton hero. From this stronger being. Took it all without remnant.
Kang! Kaang! Kang!
Pillage, nothing else described it. Ironically, the only way to perfectly inherit Ailbern Swordsmanship.
Because inheriting from a hero long turned to bones was impossible otherwise.
Rattle clatter.
Thus the demons merely mocked. Scoffed at the hero clutching vain hope.
But pillage changed that. Enabled inheriting what was eternally unobtainable.
Chaaeng!!
Beyond even the demons' expectations.
Swinging the sword.
Swinging again and again, until the skeleton hero's sword halted. Its long-dead flesh stilled too.
"······."
Lee Sang-hyun silently gazed at the hero. The red glow in its eyes had faded.
Shhh.
The hero's long-broken sword crumbled. Like a sandcastle, to pale dust.
Then its body slowly followed. Impossible to halt.
It was a miracle it'd held this long. Couldn't resist or reverse.
「······.」
The hero said nothing. No words, just gazing steadily at Lee Sang-hyun. With empty eyes, empty heart.
Yet smiling faintly. As if fulfilled in its final duty.
Shhh...
············.
······.
At last, the hero departed. Passing the swordsmanship he'd chained himself to preserve, heading where he should've gone long ago.
"······."
Lee Sang-hyun didn't dwell. Sent off the hero who'd fulfilled its duty cleanly.
'It's over.'
Exhaling the breath he'd held, he checked remaining time.
No time to dawdle.
So Lee Sang-hyun charged ahead. The cave's end wasn't far.
'That way.'
The pitch-black passage, devoid of light, twisted like a maze.
A final glimpse of vicious malice, but fortunately, the damp wind flowing toward a cliff guided him.
'This way.'
Finding where the wind escaped downward, he raced there.
Moments later.
A faint light glimmered far ahead.
Undoubtedly the exit.
The sole path to escape alive, back to Earth from this prison of the fallen.
"······."
But Lee Sang-hyun didn't rush out. He paused briefly.
Then looked up at the 'sky'.
Because he wondered.
Nameless's purpose, constellation or not.
Why choose him among countless others.
So he asked Nameless.
Why him?
The reason?
What did it want from him?
And Nameless answered.
End