Never So Many Swords at Once

He had never handled so many swords at once. He wasn't reaching for the impossible, though. This, too, was a form of training.

Sword Unity was an excellent skill, but it had a drawback: it was fiendishly difficult to put to use. Put plainly, every sword he added multiplied the difficulty several times over.

This was the most basic stage of Sword Unity. Stagnate here, and there was no advancing to the next. Wielding the skill properly demanded endless effort, and he judged that now was the right time.

Monsters filled the field—enormous, powerful giant worms. An ordinary giant worm he could have swept away with a single spell, but these were different. Even their hides were unnaturally hard. It felt less like the natural toughness of a giant worm's skin and more like some interference from the System itself. Only a feeling, of course. Nothing he could be sure of.

It stings my pride, but I have to admit what's true. My magic isn't going to hurt them much.

He would have needed the sword regardless. Yujun kicked off the ground, and the seven swords hanging in the empty air moved with him.

Shhk. Shhk.

The blades moved as one. Of course they did. He was controlling them himself. And yet they were not merely uniform. They moved with a living dynamism, so strongly that they seemed to act on their own, though he had breathed no life into them at all.

The effect was astonishing. The giant worms had no easy answer for blades so fast they never knew where the next would come from—and sharp, how sharp they were. The Planet Destroyer's Sword carried an attack power past eighty-nine million, and Yujun's total attack power ran to dozens of times that. The gaudy, many-colored giant worms could take every buff the System had to offer and still have no means of withstanding that monstrous force.

The instant a sword cut them, those enormous worms laid themselves on the ground with an ease that was almost disappointing. That was the power attack held. No matter how vast the difference in bulk, no matter that the strike missed a weak point, overwhelming attack ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠power could kill outright. Not with perfect certainty, of course. A giant worm never died from a mere graze. Only in the moment the blade buried itself fully in the body could he snuff the thing out.

In a flash, more than a hundred giant worms lost their lives.

And yet—

There are a revolting number of them.

There were far more giant worms than Yujun had thought. They kept erupting from the damp earth without end.

Even using seven swords at once, I can't see the end of them...

Seven was his limit right now. More precisely, seven was the number he could control perfectly. He could form and wield more than that, but the uncertainty was too great.

Then a thought struck him.

Still, I'm training so I can improve. If I only ever take the safe road, what's the point?

Yujun didn't hesitate. He added one more sword.

Eight. Up to here, he didn't feel truly overtaxed. It was simply something he could accept.

He added another. A faint motion sickness stirred in him.

Ten. His stomach began to boil and churn. It didn't hurt. He just felt foul.

I think I've already pushed too far... but the control itself isn't as hard as I expected.

Yujun got greedy. He added one more sword, and the number hanging in the air finally reached ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠eleven.

Now his head throbbed. Fortunately, Equanimity kept his focus from slipping.

"Nnngh..."

This time he knew for certain. His present limit was eleven. He could hold his mind together somehow, but go any further and his efficiency would only fall. The greatest power, the greatest effect—this was as far as it went.

I've been greedy enough, and somehow I pulled it off. I'll just hold this state.

If there was anything to regret, it was that he wasn't gaining a single point of experience. Yujun's mouth parted slightly.

Wow. If this weren't an event and just an ordinary situation, all of that would be experience...

Thought of that way, he couldn't help but feel the waste of it. He shook his head several times and fixed his attention on what was in front of him. There was no room to spare for anything else. Handling eleven swords through Sword Unity was that taxing.

It was the hardest fight he had fought since being dragged into the Tower of Infinity—exhausting in mind and in body alike. In truth, there was no need to cut the giant worms down in a hurry. He had simply chosen the hard road. But he firmly believed that, in time, every bit of this experience would turn into strength. And in truth, Yujun could feel it plainly: he was growing.

I'll use potions without holding back, too.

Chances to face enemies that spawned without end were few, and these were no weak foes. Amid a crisis that never let up, he did not use Super Concentration. In a battle he had to sustain for a long time, that skill could just as easily become poison.

Yujun added one more sword. With that, twelve had been formed in all.

The blades swept the battlefield, slaughtering the giant worms without mercy. The worms were so immense that, to the eye, it looked like nothing more than pricking them with needles—yet every time a sword sank into a body, another one collapsed in a heavy heap. The giant worms' momentum began to break.

While he commanded the twelve swords in the air, he swung the one in his hand as well. They had been bursting from the ground without pause, but even they had an end. No more giant worms appeared, and those left on the field had dwindled to the single digits.

Somewhere around three thousand, I think.

A staggering number. These weren't ordinary monsters. Three thousand giant worms, each the size of a high-rise...

Once he had finished off every worm that remained, Yujun dispelled the swords in the air.

"Is it finally over?"

"Ah, Dad. If you say things like that..."

Harp jumped in to scold him for the ill-omened words, but fortunately the trial ended there.

Dolf and Paranet were still safely in the Golden Temple.

"Master! I held him fast!"

"Right."

"Would you believe this wretch kept trying to flee? I disciplined him with a few body slams."

"Good work."

Yujun simply stared at Dolf.

"W-wait! No! It's a frame-up! I was only... all this time, trying to find that thing called Chaos..."

"If that isn't running, what is it?"

"Sorry."

"Forget it. Time to find the Golden Race."

There was something to do before that. Check the reward.

"Good grief. What is all this?"

He hadn't expected much. Becoming master of the Golden Temple had sounded like a meager prize. Instead, the rewards came pouring out in a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠flood that even the greedy Yujun found excessive.

Let's sort this out slowly.

First, he could warp to the Golden Temple. That alone made the trial worth taking. And on top of that, a title—not merely Mythic, but past it, all the way to Transcendent grade. As if he could possibly hold back from checking the effect.

Yujun looked up the Transcendent title at once.

Every stat his summons possessed, increased by eighty percent. He liked that very much. He'd already been hoping Paranet would grow further.

But—

Abilities related to gold?

Astonishingly, the rewards didn't stop there.

Don't tell me I'm getting a gold ability here.

He couldn't guess what it would be, but given the title, the odds of a connection were high.

That was when it happened. Messages began exploding through his messenger. The notification chime stacked on itself until his ears hurt, and Yujun's brow creased. A glance at the contents showed congratulations, and questions asking what the Golden Temple even was. It seemed the notice that he had become master of the Golden Temple had been made public to every player participating in the event.

"Does it always just announce things like this on its own?"

"Is this not a matter worthy of celebration? I, for one, am delighted! Now everyone shall learn just how extraordinary Master is."

"And what good does that do..."

At Yujun's rebuke, Paranet flared.

"No! Master is being underestimated even now! Unless you reveal your stats and your items, you will go on being undervalued. Why? Because you are a first-year player! That much, I believe, cannot be helped. But this is an opportunity! A chance to make ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Master known, if only by a hair!"

"Such a fuss."

Yujun let out a short breath of a laugh. If anything, Paranet seemed more excited than he was that people now knew the master of the Golden Temple was Yujun.

Other people's reactions weren't what mattered. The crystal he had touched earlier, to take the trial—the System had said that laying a hand on it would grant him an ability. No reason to drag it out. Yujun set his hand on the crystal at once. A faint blue smoke seeped from it and curled around his fingers.

Golden Mammonism?

The grade was very much to his liking, but the name left him faintly puzzled. Looking at the name alone, he couldn't tell what it actually did. He checked the effect at once.

"...This isn't a trait?"

It felt like a skill in the same vein as Absolute Dominion—the sort that applied at all times, whether he activated it or not. The effect, at least, he liked. The amount of gold he had taken from the Golden Flower Garden was nothing to scoff at. For now, his Magic hadn't changed, because he had yet to offer any gold as sacrifice.

Yujun decided to spend the gold without reservation. However much gold might be worth as money, it couldn't compare to the Magic stat. The method of offering it was simple.

"Offer up my riches as an offering. Fortune for a sacrifice. Yeah... that actually tracks."

Even he thought the wordplay was funny, and he snickered to himself, privately delighted.