An Enlightenment That Came Unbidden

Having gathered up the enlightenment that had arrived without warning, Yujun could only sit there, dumbfounded.

If Resyev attains an enlightenment, do I attain it with him?

At last he had gone beyond inventory synchronization and reached a realm where even enlightenment itself assimilated.

Now that's a windfall…….

It wasn't wildly different from what he already knew, but the insight carried a fresh interpretation, so it was hardly useless.

Resyev has grasped the essence of the horizontal cut.

It went without saying that Resyev had swung a sword far more than Yujun ever had — a number of repetitions beyond any comparison. The enlightenment he gained and the one Yujun had earned before were bound to differ in texture, if only slightly. Resyev's sat closer to the basics, to the foundation, and that was precisely the part of Yujun's Swordsmanship that had been a little lacking. In a sense, Resyev had firmed up the ground beneath him.

Of course, the enlightenment hadn't made Yujun absurdly stronger. It was no more than neatly patching, on the surface, a wall that had already been cracked.

It isn't a huge change, and yet I can grow stronger just from watching scenes in a memory…….

Yujun realized the gifts a Memory Crystal could bring him were endless.

Resyev's memories continued. Having attained enlightenment, he was no longer the man he had been. His equipment hadn't improved in the slightest, and yet he began separating orc flesh from bone with ridiculous ease. In a way, it looked as if he were swinging along the grain — though he wasn't truly cutting with the grain.

When it comes to improvisation and that sort of thing, Resyev seems far better than I am.

His talent for combat was so outstanding that Yujun felt ashamed of having looked down on him at first. Layered with ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a mountain of experience, that talent came into full bloom, and Yujun had no confidence he could have distinguished himself the way Resyev did, placed in the same situation.

Little by little, Resyev recovered his former majesty. He became something close to a specialist on orcs, and even against specimens far larger than himself he claimed easy victories. When he met again the general orc that had severed his arm, he took the creature's life with a single blow utterly empty of emotion.

That was the first time.

For the first time since he was born, Resyev smiled.

Synchronized with his emotions, Yujun felt goosebumps rise over his whole body. A sharp, electric pleasure. As revenge against the one who had cut off his arm and humiliated him, it was strangely bloodless — and yet no triumph had ever felt keener.

The problem was that no matter how wildly Resyev soared, it was impossible for him to put an end to a war that had already lasted hundreds of years. There was a limit to what a single individual could do.

From Resyev's point of view, was that actually for the best?

All he wanted was to fight — a fight whose ending was victory, not defeat. If anything, Resyev hoped the war would never end.

Battle. Slaughter. Victory.

Three hundred years passed that way, and the war came to an end. There was no victory for any one race. It was only a war full of wounds, with nothing but losers left behind.

Resyev had survived even that long and become the sovereign of the sword. No one on the Continent could stand as his match. Renowned mages, and the war god once hailed as the strongest in close combat — all of them had to kneel before him.

Hmm…… if I graded his Swordsmanship, would it come out to about a single S+?

To think that was enough to become the greatest sword on the Continent. And to think that even after hundreds of years of training, he stopped at roughly S+. The difference between having a system and not having one really did seem vast. Of course, even on the present Infinite Tower Continent, there would be almost no one who had raised Swordsmanship all the way to S+. Taking that into account, Resyev's realm was genuinely remarkable. He had climbed to that place on nothing but his own strength.

Still, it's a happy ending.

Yujun had expected the memory to cut off there. It didn't.

Don't tell me it's going to keep showing me everything until he dies?

Until now, whenever nothing much happened, the scenes had been skipped. But if the flow of time had slowed again, that meant something else was about to occur……. Yujun soon learned his guess had been right.

Word reached Resyev's ears that his parents were dead. When he went to confirm it himself, it was not a natural death. It was plainly murder. The corpses had been mutilated so cruelly that their shapes could no longer be recognized.

Having seen his parents' bodies, Resyev questioned the village elves, demanding to know who the culprit was. No one knew. Judging by their faces, they truly didn't.

Resyev killed every elf in the village. Just as had been done to his parents' corpses, he hacked them apart with his blade and left every body mutilated. Whatever wrong could they have done? Resyev hardly thought about it. He couldn't identify the culprit, so he killed them all. That was all.

Afterward he went about gathering information to find the enemy who had killed his parents, and at last learned the culprit was a member of the Darem race's leadership. Using his parents' deaths as justification, Resyev declared war on the Darem.

Alone, it would have been impossible, but in becoming the sovereign of the sword he had gained a great many followers. He already held the largest organization on the Continent under his command, so starting a war was not difficult. The aftereffects of the previous war still lingered everywhere, yet Resyev's influence was immense — and once it became known that his parents had been killed by the Darem, the elves were seething with rage.

And so the age of great war returned.

The war, however, ended unexpectedly quickly, in a mere ten years. With Resyev at their head, the elven race displayed such overwhelming power that they achieved the unification of the Continent. It was an ending he had never wanted. Feeling an emptiness as if his heart had been hollowed out, he announced his retirement and secluded himself in some nameless mountain.

Is it finally over?

Yujun had hammered hundreds of years of Resyev's combat experience straight into his head, and his body itched with it. He wanted to finish this and confirm the change as soon as possible.

In the mountains, Resyev discovered a mysterious crystal. It was not the sort of crystal that ought to have existed on a mountain like this. He didn't know how to use it, but after trying every trick he could think of, he realized he could seal his own experiences inside it.

With that, the scenes of memory came to an end.

Yujun opened the eyes he had kept shut.

So the one who stored those memories in the Memory Crystal was Resyev himself.

Which meant there was no way to know what became of Resyev afterward.

Yujun shot to his feet and looked around. Paranet was standing there, staring blankly into space.

"How much time has passed?"

"Pardon? What do you mean?"

"How long was I sitting there with my eyes closed?"

"......Huh. Didn't you only just close them?"

"You're saying only a few seconds passed?"

"Yes. That is correct."

"Fascinating."

That meant the flow of time had felt even slower than when he used Super Concentration. Honestly, while he watched Resyev's memories, Yujun had felt as if a good twenty years had gone by. Even now, stepping into the Peace Contribution Shop felt like something from long ago, and with Resyev's emotions and memories from back then still crammed into his head, the aftertaste refused to fade.

"Paranet. You were bored, waiting, weren't you?"

"Yes! You noticed!"

"Then have a match with me."

"......"

"Don't want to?"

"Why does the conversation turn out that way?"

"Because you're bored?"

"Master, even back when you became a barbarian, I could not withstand you. If we fought now, how could I possibly be your match?"

"I won't use mana. Nor skills, nor traits."

"Even so......"

"Weapons too. I'll fight with one suitably low-level weapon."

"Hoh......"

Paranet seemed to judge that much was manageable, and nodded.

"Very well! I shall fight with everything I have."

With a thunderous crash, Paranet was blasted away. Yujun had kicked him as he closed in. Certain a sword was coming, Paranet took the hit in utter vain and laughed as if he couldn't believe it.

"You use that approach yourself from time to time."

"I did not think Master would."

"Why?"

"You possess such overwhelming power that there is no need to bother."

"It's a spar. End it immediately and there's no point."

"......"

"Come again."

"Understood."

Paranet kicked off the ground, only to be blasted away once more and tumble across the floor. This time the blow landed on the hand opposite the one holding his sword. The force packed into that fist was so great that Paranet's armor caved in.

"......I am no match for you."

"You don't feel pain anyway."

"That is true. But what item did you obtain, that you have suddenly taken to using fists and feet?"

"I didn't mean to use them. They came out on their own."

"...Pardon?"

Because of Resyev, his way of fighting had shifted a little. He hadn't moved his body himself — the memories had only been engraved — and yet he acted, without meaning to, as if he had moved that way for hundreds of years. It couldn't be called a bad thing. It wasn't as if Yujun couldn't control it at all. If he wanted to move as he had before, he could.

The greatest gain from absorbing those memories might be that I've grown adept at improvising.

Swordsmanship had changed a great deal as well. Resyev's rank in the art was surely far lower, and yet he had been moving more efficiently than Yujun. It wasn't a sword art meant for climbing ever higher, but one much closer to real combat.

Blend them properly, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and Swordsmanship might rise another tier.

He even thought it might be possible to peer past GX+ into whatever lay beyond.

And so Yujun passed the time toying with Paranet until Manuela and Yenil finished their shopping.

A crash split the air.

"Guhk!"

Another bang.

"Agh!"

"Annoyed?"

"I am not!"

Word reached the cult's leadership that the Flying Dragon's Tower had been blown apart. It had not merely collapsed. The believers who had been there were dead, and only a few had barely escaped to bring the news.

The Cardinal, who happened to be with the Saintess, asked with a piercing gaze.

"Bishop... what became of the Tower Lord?"

"He did try to withdraw first, but immediately afterward Shin Yujun pursued the Bishop. Since then, his whereabouts have been unknown."

"Dead, then."

"Yes. That is the presumption."

"He faced the bishop and thousands of believers alone...? And the very fellow who went so far as to send me word that he had succeeded in inflicting Evil — that man is dead?"

The Cardinal lamented. Well, inflicting Evil did not neutralize Shin Yujun, so death was possible. And yet the Shin Yujun recorded in the orb looked far too intact. Not one of the signs of having Evil inflicted upon him was there.

"He must have used the Peace Contribution Shop as well? Used it for all it was worth, then brought down the Flying Dragon's Tower?"

At the Cardinal's words, one of the believers nodded, his face bleak.

"Skill is one thing, but the bastard's luck is outrageous. How he learned the location of the Peace Contribution Shop, I cannot begin to guess."

"According to what came out of the recording orb, Your Eminence told him......"

"Do I look like a man who would?"

The Cardinal's voice dropped low, and the believer bowed his head deep.

"F-forgive me."

"Even with the Flying Dragon's Tower destroyed, the odds are high the shop will still manifest in that same place. Commit believers, and have them hold that location."

"Understood."

The believers departed, leaving only the Cardinal and the Saintess. The cult's Saintess, her face veiled in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠thin cloth, opened her mouth for the first time that day.

"Shin Yujun seems to be giving you quite the headache."

"There is no way to stop him for the moment. Ha. The System is truly hateful. So many believers have become nothing but fertilizer so that he might grow."

"Much preparation is still required before His descent."

"I am aware."

"You aren't thinking of leaving Shin Yujun be simply because there is no way, are you?"

"If you and I faced him together, our chances look more than sufficient... What do you say?"

"You know that if I move in person, it will throw the plan into serious disarray. But..."

"But?"

The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Cardinal's eyes glittered.