Where the Skill Archive Is...

Wherever a skill archive stood, a hidden dungeon was always waiting with it.

He didn't know why. If he had to guess, an ordinary dungeon simply couldn't bear the weight of a skill archive. There was no evidence for it—only a feeling, drawn from the circumstances.

And this hidden dungeon, like the one that had housed a skill archive before, read the player's level and set its difficulty from that.

This won't be easy.

Yujun had grown incomparably stronger since his first visit to a skill archive, and a high difficulty was all but guaranteed. Even so, he stepped into the dungeon without a moment's hesitation. He had come all this way with his eyes fixed on the skill archive and nothing else. As if some trifling ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠difficulty rating would matter now.

Manuela and Paranet followed him in.

Yujun nodded.

"Ah..."

He had been wondering why the difficulty had come out so low, only to learn that S-Rank wasn't the dungeon's own grade at all. The place itself was deathly quiet. As far as he knew, this hidden dungeon was very small—different from the others, and not an unqualified blessing. Fewer monsters only meant a higher chance of a handful of extremely powerful ones.

S-Rank by my standard. There might be nothing in here but a single boss.

No point in guessing when he could look for himself. Yujun closed his eyes and let his senses unfurl, and the dungeon's entire layout settled into his mind. A higher difficulty, it seemed, had not made the place any larger. It held precisely the structure he remembered, which meant the skill archive would surely be here as well. An artificial dungeon, with only a single passage. Follow that passage to the end, and the boss would be waiting.

They're handing me an S-Rank just to face one monster...

The thought crossed his mind that the enemy might be beyond what he could handle.

"Manuela. Every buff, and the blessing. Now."

"Huh? Right now?"

"Now."

He had his reasons for demanding the buffs and the blessing from her. He couldn't be sure she would have the leisure to cast curses or buff magic once a boss was in front of them, and her buffs didn't fade so quickly that taking them early would cost him anything. More than that, the boss was not waiting quietly in its room. It came flying straight at Yujun's party—the intruders in its dungeon.

BOOM!

Yujun turned the blow aside with a single sword. His eyes raked across the boss in a flash.

Black?

The thing had taken a human shape, and its entire body was lacquered black—pitch-black, through and through. What stood ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠out was the pure-white sword in its hand. It was the same as Yujun's. The Absolute Sovereign's Sword.

The same weapon as mine?

Even the ascent to Transcendence Grade was identical. For the first time in a very long while, he was thrown. The Absolute Sovereign's Sword was originally a Mythic-grade blade. Evolving it with a Transcendent Stone had altered its appearance slightly—and yet his opponent was holding a sword that matched his own down to the last detail.

Don't tell me it copied it.

There were tablets capable of replicating an item's appearance, so it wasn't wholly impossible. But if it were only the look of the thing, the boss's sword seemed far too intact after colliding with his own.

What, some kind of doppelganger?

If he were truly facing someone who possessed power identical to his own, victory would be hard to promise. But that wasn't it.

That thing is only using a copy of my weapon.

Its physical ability differed from his. The gap wasn't enormous, but he was clearly the stronger of the two. Cloaked in Manuela's buffs ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and Goddess's Grace, Yujun moved at once, his body shooting forward like a loosed arrow.

CLANG!

The sword in the boss's hand went spinning away. Durability was guaranteed in a Transcendence-grade Absolute Sovereign's Sword, but the gap in attack power was vast. Yujun's offense did not come from the weapon alone. Strength played its part, yet taken as a whole, his attack power overwhelmed the boss.

And then—

"What the..."

Another sword formed in the boss's hand. Once again, the Absolute Sovereign's Sword. It was absurd, but if that was the creature's ability, there was no point in complaining.

Don't tell me it can use my skills, too.

The thought drained the color from his face. He himself might be the one on the receiving end of Painful Strike. Wouldn't that be horrific? Fortunately, the thing only swung its sword, with no skill behind the blow.

CLANG! CLANG!

Two swords of identical make crashed together without rest. Rather than cut the boss down at once, Yujun focused on turning its attacks aside—not because the fight was too much for him, but because he meant to take the measure of its full strength.

But why is this S-Rank?

The longer they clashed, the clearer it became. The boss had an outstanding weapon, and little else. Yujun activated Super Concentration. The boss's movements crawled to a near standstill. Without hesitation, he took its head—and, on the chance the neck was not a vital point, carved the body apart dozens of times over. The boss fell to pieces. That was the end of it.

That was the boss, wasn't it?

Doubt rose of its own accord, but his senses caught no other enemy. The only life-form the dungeon had held was this one.

"...It's over, right?"

Manuela didn't seem able to believe it either.

"Looks like it."

Yujun's party made for the boss room. Nothing remarkable waited there either—a chamber sealed on three sides by gray walls. Yujun poured mana into his fist and drove it into the wall set before him.

BOOM—!

To the roar of a detonating bomb, an altar etched with a magic circle revealed itself.

The skill archive. The skill archive he had wanted for so long.

It was a welcome sight. It felt like a genuinely long time since he had last seen one, and the smile would not leave Yujun's lips as he looked upon the skill archive.

What he had gained here before was none other than Ancient Magic (EX++). A gem had raised it one grade, true, but obtaining an EX+ skill at the time had been a shocking windfall in itself—and it had not been just any skill, but Ancient Magic at EX+.

Yujun knew that offering several Mythic-grade items as sacrifice would yield an EX+ skill. So he had gathered in his inventory, ahead of time, the Mythic equipment he doubted he would ever use again. Enough for three people, and then some.

If I'm the only one who walks away with something, the efficiency's terrible.

This time, he meant to see that not only Paranet, but Manuela as well, came away with a skill. Paranet was his to call on whenever he pleased, so supplying sacrifice items for his sake was only natural—and the same reasoning held for Manuela. She had never once broken a promise or told him a lie. She had said she would follow him for the rest of her life. Sparing a few items on her behalf was hardly a difficult thing.

Standing before the altar, Yujun began drawing items out one by one. He was not anxious. Slowly, carefully, he stacked them upon the altar, one atop the next. He had waited so long for this moment. A mistake was something he absolutely would not allow.

"Well, now... Master. You truly are a tycoon of items."

"Don't sound so surprised."

"Are these not, every last one of them, Mythic grade? Last time as well, you offered even my share and spent Mythic items without a flicker of regret. I am ever so curious, Master—just how many items does that inventory of yours contain?"

"Beats me. Never counted them all."

Looking at the richly gleaming items heaped upon the altar, he could understand Paranet's curiosity well enough.

"I'll go first."

He had meant to let Paranet choose a skill before him, but the waiting was more than he could stand.

"Hm?"

Yujun tilted his head. Last time, offering about this much had earned him word that he had already hit the cap.

Unlike that first skill archive, the message never came, even once the grade reached EX+.

Because the dungeon's difficulty went up?

The thought arrived unbidden, but it was convincing enough. The sacrifices were still being accepted.

Don't tell me something beyond even EX+ is possible.

Expectation stirred across his face. An unforeseen expense had cropped up, but every piece of Mythic equipment at level 450 and below was all but useless to him now. He had become the skill archive's own giving tree, offering items without holding a single one back.

And then, at a certain moment—

The end had come into view. Only then did Yujun stop setting items upon the altar. The message he had been waiting for followed.

These were not the skills that had appeared when EX+ was the ceiling. Some remained as they had been, but others had changed.

The higher the grade, the better it ought to be.

It wasn't a guess. It was a fact that sat next to truth itself.

Heavenly Demon Divine Art... there it is again.

The art did tempt him. But Heavenly Demon Divine Art was a technique whose true power emerged only when performed with the bare body, not a sword. It wasn't something he had known beforehand—the skill description said so.

A shame.

Judging by the name alone, it seemed no lesser than Ancient Magic. He could put the technique to plenty of use even with a sword, but if going unarmed was actually the more efficient path, then Heavenly Demon Divine Art sat in an awkward place. In truth, only a single skill had caught his eye.

Sword Unity, at EX++.

Reading the description, he found it was bound to the sword—a technique that would greatly raise the realm of his Swordsmanship.

Whatever I pick, it has to be something to do with the sword.

Swordsmanship on its own had always come with no small number of inconveniences, which was why he had shored it up with Ancient Magic. Shored it up, and then some—to a degree that overflowed. So now the time had come to drag his Swordsmanship up to its absolute limit. Sword Unity would be the force that drove him there.

Yujun locked in his decision. Without a shred of hesitation, he chose the skill Sword Unity. There was no choice worth speaking of. Unless he found another skill archive, the chance to obtain Sword Unity might never come again.