Chapter 291: Paranet Enters the Pond...
About two minutes had passed since Paranet entered the pond, and still not a single signal had come from him. Yujun was starting to worry—not for Paranet's safety, but because the pond looked as though it might be considerably deep.
"There's no way Paranet died just because he couldn't breathe.... The link between us hasn't been severed, so it's probably just deep."
"You think?"
Manuela looked puzzled.
The pond wasn't particularly wide. The only remarkable thing about it was that it held the moon; beyond that, there was nothing special about it at all. And yet several minutes had passed since Paranet went in with no word, which meant something was definitely down there.
He didn't pass out from a fear of the deep or anything, did he?
For now, all they could do was keep waiting—until a signal came, or until Paranet was forcibly recalled.
And then it happened.
The presences of the monsters Yujun had been searching for so desperately registered all at once, dozens and hundreds of them.
"What... is that?"
Manuela must have sensed them too. She flinched and whipped her gaze around.
"They're converging here, aren't they?"
"Yeah."
"Get ready."
"Should I just get in the pond?"
"Why?"
"I don't want to get in the way for no reason."
"It's fine. Someone like you, I can protect."
"......"
At the words Yujun had let slip without a second thought, Manuela's cheeks flushed.
"All right.... Thank you."
Yujun closed his eyes and focused on his senses.
Every monster in the forest is swarming this way?
Until now they hadn't shown the slightest intention of coming, and only several minutes after Paranet entered the Moonlight-Drinking Pond had things turned out like this. In a moment that could fairly be called a life-or-death crisis, what ran through Yujun's head was something else entirely.
Should've been like this from the start. This is a perfect mob pull, isn't it?
The number of monsters was no threat to him. If anything, he welcomed them. He'd been wanting to speed up his leveling anyway, and he hoped as many as possible would come.
The monsters pouring in around the pond were a varied lot. Some resembled dinosaurs from ages past, while others had the forms of grotesque alien life he had never seen before. Thoroughly familiar monsters were mixed in among them as well.
If they shared anything, it was that every last one of them possessed appalling power. The goblins from earlier looked laughable by comparison. Their truly frightening quality was their numbers, but even so...
Even in Heaven, where the average player level is supposed to be the highest anywhere, this place is dangerous enough that no one can lay a hand on it. That finally feels real.
He hadn't expected monsters like these to come charging in a horde. He was half-curious where on earth they had even been hiding.
Might as well loosen up.
The situation wasn't immediately desperate, so rather than area magic, Yujun meant to fight mainly with the sword.
This is my chance to properly see just how much my Swordsmanship has changed.
His Swordsmanship rank was GX. There was no need to wear out his tongue explaining how tremendous the power of a GX rank was, and on top of that, Swordsmanship even carried a high-grade trait gem.
Until now, he had rarely met an opponent against whom he could truly feel its effects. His standards were simply too high—but it was also true that no enemy had posed a real threat. Which made this a golden opportunity. Facing a monster host of this scale didn't come around often. This might even be the last time.
He wouldn't aim only at raising his level. He would fold Swordsmanship training into it as well.
Even with the trait rank up, there's a world of difference between something honed in real combat and something that isn't.
He hadn't spent all that long in the Tower of Infinity, but he was confident the fighting he had done in that short span had been dense and intense. He knew perfectly well that checking the performance of traits and skills was essential work.
Still, I'll have to use Sword Unity.
If he had been alone it wouldn't have mattered, but Manuela was at his side. He didn't want her dead, and dragging the fight out with a single sword would be the wrong call.
Twenty swords rose into the empty air. It wasn't only Sword Unity. The rise in his Swordsmanship trait's rank had made controlling the duplicated blades markedly easier, and the swords stitching the sky began to move with a smooth grace. The enemy hadn't arrived yet, but he tuned even the smallest motions and settled into the feel of them.
Dozens of swords moving on their own, and my head isn't overloaded at all.
More than felling a giant or smashing a mountain bare-handed, this was what struck him as uncanny.
If I went back to Earth like this and studied, couldn't I really become anything?
Then again, did he even need to study? If the goal was making money, anything he tried would work.
I don't even dare hope to return to Earth, so please, just let me live long and healthy.
He wanted to go back to Earth badly enough to ache, but when had the world ever moved the way a person wished? A thin, long life was already a lost cause. All that remained was living large, and living long.
A monster was drawing in close—swift four-legged beasts, and far too huge to dismiss as mere animals.
They look like predators, but they charge like buffalo.
Yujun pulled five of the swords from the air and cut down the monsters barreling in with brute force.
Shhk! Slice!
The headless monsters toppled in the exact posture they had been running. The ones that followed were cut down by the swords as well, not a single one spared. A banquet of blood unfolded, and yet not one monster halted its charge. They came on like mad things, as if their families were being held hostage in the pond.
"Their eyes have completely flipped, haven't they?"
"They seem to be under something's control...."
The monsters' eyes weren't aimed at Yujun's party. They were aimed at the pond. Even so, if he stood still or tried to step aside, they would suddenly veer and come for him.
"And what am I supposed to do about that."
Shhk! Shhk! Thud!
A sword tracing a beautiful spiral drove into the head of a cyclops that had been about to hurl a boulder. Two more blades tore through the body of a giant spider the size of a two-story building, while the remaining seventeen darted about, reaping the lives of the smaller monsters.
But small did not mean manageable. If anything they were quicker and more agile, and from Yujun's position—controlling each sword one by one—they were the trickier foes.
Experience came slowly, but he was killing so many monsters that his level rose all the same.
"Wow. They really do keep coming without end."
"We're all right for now, but won't it get dangerous if this goes on? Shouldn't we go into the pond too?"
Manuela spoke with worry written across her face, and Yujun shook his head.
"I set a powerful barrier around us, so we'll be fine for a while. If it really comes to it, I'll use an area attack."
He had Weapon Earthquake, a skill both powerful and vast in reach. He meant to keep it as a true last resort, though, and avoid using it if he could help it. If the skill affected the pond and ruined some item he might otherwise have obtained, he would be pounding the ground in regret. That was why it stayed a last resort.
I'll hold this wave without destroying the area around the pond, as far as I can.
Of course, there was no way it would go as he wished.
Monsters of every gigantic sort came crashing in, tearing through trees and anything else in their path. Yujun cut down the most conspicuous of the giants first, and fast.
Thud!
"Kraaaak!"
Thud! Thwuck!
Swords that passed through nothing but the space between the eyes. To save time, he snuffed their lives in a single stroke.
The ones with the big bodies definitely hand out more experience.
Small monsters were generally weaker than the large ones of the same region, and the gap in experience showed it plainly.
"Catch him!"
"Don't let him use the pond! That belongs to us alone!"
There were even monsters handing out information like that—creatures that looked like an orc and a lizardman mashed together.
"They're Lizorcs. They're supposed to almost never form packs.... I must have had that wrong."
Manuela explained.
"What do they mean, use the pond?"
"Maybe there's some kind of power in it?"
He couldn't go in and check just yet. Far too many monsters were rolling out the welcome.
Yujun stayed where he was and used only the twenty swords. Manuela might still end up in danger, so he intended to remain right here. Besides, Swordsmanship proficiency didn't rise only when he moved his own body. Approached from the system's side, the swordsmanship unfolded through Sword Unity was far more difficult, which meant using it raised proficiency faster. And it wasn't only Swordsmanship proficiency that climbed. Sword Unity's did as well.
In a sense, he was doing the most rational, efficient training available to him.
His level ticked up now and then, too.
And so another thirty minutes or so slipped by. His head began to pound. Honestly, just having held out this far struck him as impressive. Thirty minutes wasn't long, but once upon a time, handling twenty swords for even a brief moment had been impossible.
And then—
"Master!"
Paranet burst out of the pond with no warning at all.
"What. You were alive?"
"Master! You absolutely must enter that pond!"
"Why?"
"Whoa... no. Truly. Whoa. This—this cannot be explained in words. You must go in. You simply must."
"Enough fussing. What's got you like that?"
"I believe that pond holds some unknowable power. One grows stronger. I cannot quite put it into words, and yet one feels the strengthening at once."
"......"
Paranet was thoroughly worked up. Judging by the reaction, there didn't seem to be anything especially dangerous in the pond.
"Good that you got stronger. You go fight too."
"...And what, pray, are all of those?"
"No idea. Looks like they're trying to keep us from using the pond."
"Those monsters knew the pond's power well, I see."
"Then why won't they let me use it? After they've used it all they want?"
"Master is already their enemy, is he not? Now imagine him growing stronger still. From the monsters' point of view, how dreadful a prospect that would be."
"The pond's effect is that good?"
"Yes."
With Paranet going that far, even Yujun couldn't help being curious. The fellow was prone to making a production of things, but the reaction of the monsters swarming in packs was anything but ordinary. He had the feeling Paranet wasn't simply exaggerating.
Manuela seemed to think the same; a faintly excited look had come over her face.
"We'd better finish this quickly."
Once Paranet—perfect bait for drawing the monsters' aggro—was thrown into the fight as well, the time it took to clear them shortened even further.
Paranet really does seem different.
His appearance hadn't changed.
Did he get stronger?
Not only his strength. Speed, reflexes, combat sense—his level seemed to have risen across the board. It felt similar to the last time he had evolved.
The pond is good enough to rival an evolution? From a short soak? I can look forward to this, can't I?
Even so, a thread of unease remained. If a message popped up saying players couldn't use it, just let it try. He would overturn the whole pond.