The Dungeon Where the Divine Sword is Buried (1)
The Dungeon Where the Divine Sword is Buried (1)
It went without saying, but even after the ritual ended, the King didn't suddenly leap out of his sickbed.
Some people were disappointed, while others breathed a sigh of relief.
Perhaps because the Order had strictly ordered everyone to keep quiet, no further rumors about the ritual were heard.
I returned to my daily routine, and the Grand Archduchess showed up at the Academy the day after the holiday looking perfectly fine.
She seemed curious about the repaired sword, but perhaps because she'd heard that a contract had been made, she didn't ask any more questions.
Neither the Princess nor the other group members asked how the ritual had gone.
With the King's illness showing no signs of improvement, it was difficult for them to bring up the ritual.
Ordinary days passed, but I felt incredibly frustrated, as if time were crawling at a snail's pace.
That was because there was something I absolutely had to verify during my training session with the Duke of Ceuta.
In any case, time went on, and eventually, the day of my training session with the Duke of Ceuta arrived.
On the day of the training, I stood in the center of the private underground training ground, staring at the wall.
It was a thick stone wall reinforced in various ways.
It was a sturdy wall, supposedly capable of withstanding a fair amount of force—even a strike from a mana-infused sword.
The wall stood over ten meters away from me.
No matter how hard I swung my sword from here, I couldn't possibly reach it.
Even if I extended the blade using Mana Materialization, it would still be out of reach.
Unless I threw my sword, I'd have a hard time leaving even a scratch on that wall.
But that had been true only a few days ago.
"Phew..."
I took a deep breath.
Then I awakened my ability and circulated my mana.
Hum.
Mana flowed into the greatsword.
It was a different kind of mana than before.
The mana flowing into the sword had low viscosity. It felt as though it would slip off the blade instantly if I didn't bind it with my will.
This was the new ability I'd recently acquired.
The 'Mana Emission' ability.
I'd obtained it after grasping the Knight's Sword.
With this final ability, all the slots for 'Knight-type Hero Ability User' in my information window were filled.
That meant I'd acquired all the abilities of the Knight-type Hero, Carlos.
I was different from the Twenty-Year-Old Hero Carlos in many ways, of course, but in any case, I no longer had to dig into Hero Carlos's past.
Now, I had to develop the abilities I'd learned.
To do that, I first had to test them.
I acquired the new ability on the night of the ritual.
Unable to contain myself, I went out to the mansion's training ground to test it.
The ability worked perfectly.
The booms echoed through the mansion, so I couldn't use it more than a few times, but the ability itself had no problems.
But I'd only swung it through empty air, so I couldn't gauge its actual power.
Even so, I couldn't just test this kind of ability anywhere.
I could always use the training sword when I needed to train alone.
But since the training sword's Mental World was based on the mind, I couldn't properly use my ability without trying it in the physical world.
In the end, I had no choice but to wait for my training session with the Duke of Ceuta—the only time I could train alone in reality.
That was why I'd arrived at the underground training ground early, before the scheduled training time.
The Duke of Ceuta had rented out the training ground for today.
That meant I could use it all by myself until the Duke of Ceuta arrived.
Since the Knight Commander wouldn't be coming that day, I could test my abilities at my ease.
Taking another deep breath,
I stared at the wall and swung my sword.
At the same time, I released the mana I'd bound to the blade.
Thump!
I felt the mana burst out of the sword. At the same time, the mana inside my body was sucked into the blade.
'Is this osmosis...?'
A scientific concept popped into my head out of nowhere, but before I could dwell on it, a deafening explosion assaulted my ears.
Boom!
My brow furrowed of its own accord.
Surely, it hadn't been this loud when the Twenty-Year-Old Carlos used it.
If the ability had made this much noise every time he used it, I wouldn't have struggled so much to dodge it.
Still, it wasn't just loud.
A thick cloud of dust erupted from the wall.
The mana I'd unleashed had slammed straight into it.
A moment later, as the dust settled, I could see the mark carved into the wall.
A thick line traced the exact path of my sword swing.
The mana I'd discharged had gouged the wall, leaving a long groove behind.
I walked closer to examine it.
The groove I'd made was deep enough to fit a finger inside.
If a standard suit of armor had been standing there instead of a wall, it would have been sliced clean through.
An attack that could cut through armor from ten meters away...
That made it more than viable in real combat.
"But what am I supposed to do about this noise..."
Once more, I swung my sword through the empty air.
Boom!
The boom echoed, and dust showered down from the ceiling.
Only when the dust covered me did I realize I'd made a mistake.
Just then, the old man entered the training ground.
"What on earth is going on here?"
The old man frowned when he saw me covered in dust.
I quickly brushed the dust off with my hands and bowed to him.
But the old man looked around the training ground and shook his head.
"I came early, thinking I might praise you for handling yourself well in the escort Knight Tournament, but seeing this state, I doubt you'll hear any praise."
Instead of praising me, he might as well have just arrived a little later.
"Tsk, tsk. Why did you slash at the wall? Do you have energy to burn? I can't imagine what you were thinking, jumping all the way up there and damaging the building."
Looking at the sword mark carved into the ceiling, the old man grumbled that he couldn't understand what went through a young fellow's head.
Damaging the ceiling had definitely been a mistake.
Besides, the Duke of Ceuta had arrived too quickly, leaving me no time to erase the marks on the wall.
Originally, I'd planned to make more scratches on the wall to hide the clean-cut line before the Duke arrived.
But that plan was now completely ruined.
I wondered how much the repairs would cost...
I had plenty of money, but that didn't mean I wouldn't regret spending it on something so unnecessary.
With a sigh, I handed the bracelet to the old man.
Having heard that the Knight Commander couldn't make it, I'd filled the bracelet with plenty of mana, unlike before.
The old man had been grumbling as he fastened the bracelet, but suddenly his expression changed.
With a satisfied look, he said to me,
"Oh, you've brought a tremendous amount this time. Good. If you fight well, I'll pay for the repairs."
Oh? In that case, things had changed.
Besides, I needed to test my enhanced 'Physical Optimization' in addition to 'Mana Emission'.
Originally, I'd planned to test it by sparring with the Knight Commander, but under these circumstances, even if it bordered on elder abuse, I had no choice but to fight seriously.
I raised my greatsword and took a stance.
Although I had to seal a few abilities I couldn't use, I was more than capable of handling an old man who was forcing himself to use abilities with the mana from the bracelet.
With my sword raised, I rushed toward the Duke of Ceuta.
Unfortunately, I didn't manage to defeat the Duke of Ceuta that day.
The Duke of Ceuta was a difficult opponent to defeat when using mana, even if I used all my abilities.
Defeating such an opponent while keeping my own abilities sealed was simply impossible.
Though I could have dragged out the fight until his mana ran dry, neither the Duke of Ceuta nor I wanted that kind of battle.
I fought my hardest and lost fair and square.
The Duke of Ceuta was satisfied with the spar as well.
Instead, he remarked that it was strange how quickly I seemed to be growing stronger.
He would have been even more shocked if he'd seen my true capabilities, but of course, I couldn't show them to anyone else.
Fortunately, the Duke of Ceuta was satisfied, so he agreed to cover the repair costs for the training ground.
Though I was probably wealthier than him by this point, I gratefully accepted the Duke's kindness.
Then my plan to set the destination of our next group assignment to the place the Mana Thread pointed to ran into a major obstacle.
The place the Mana Thread pointed to was entirely unexpected.
A while ago, when I saw the Mana Thread again at the Grand Archduchess's residence, I'd had to hide it from sight immediately.
That was because the royal palace, where royals who could perceive the Mana Thread lived, was nearby.
After returning to the Academy, I tried to pinpoint the exact location the Mana Thread was pointing to.
In my dormitory room, away from prying eyes, I spread out a map of the continent that I'd borrowed from the library and placed the two swords as far apart as possible.
Considering the length of the Mana Thread and the size of the room, it was probably a meaningless gesture, but it was better than doing nothing.
Afterward, I channeled mana into the 'Divine Sword' I'd found at the blacksmith's shop and flipped the switch.
Click.
There was no actual sound, but I could almost hear the click.
The Mana Thread stretched out from the sword. The threads extending from each of the two swords passed through the walls and reached far into the distance, disappearing from sight.
I poked my head out the window to check the Mana Threads.
Two closely aligned threads and another thread originating far away cut across the sky.
I had to finish this before the other royals noticed.
Recalling memories of my past life, I used a tool I'd painstakingly crafted to measure the angles and directions of the two threads, then drew lines on the map on the floor.
Two lines began at the capital, and the third at Marquis Pisen's estate.
As I extended the lines, they eventually intersected at a single point.
Looking at the map, I scratched my head.
"This is a problem..."
The intersection point was far too distant from the capital.
It was outside this kingdom; if I hadn't used a map of the entire continent, I wouldn't even have been able to identify it.
"The Demon King's Seal Grounds..."
The place where the lines met was at the eastern end of the continent—the Demon King's Seal Grounds.
I'd sensed something strange when I saw the threads cutting across the sky side by side, but I'd never imagined that the Demon King's Seal Grounds would be their destination.
If I suggested going to the Demon King's Seal Grounds for our group activity, there was no way anyone would agree.
It was too far and too dangerous.
But I couldn't just not go.
Three Mana Threads were pointing to a single location.
This was completely different from when I'd been searching for the other swords.
The original archetype of the three swords—the superior blade, the Holy Knight's Divine Sword—was bound to be there.
"Even if I give up on the group assignment and go alone... it'd be impossible, right?"
I had no idea how far I'd have to travel across this kingdom, pass through another kingdom, and then trek through the Demon King's Seal Grounds itself.
Unless I used teleportation, it would easily take several months.
"Teleportation... Ah, right! If you're an Academy student, there's a way to get there!"
Not long ago, I'd heard that the first-years had gone to the Demon King's Seal Grounds for a field trip.
It was a field trip I'd also gone on last year.
"Then the practical class must be coming up soon, right?"
I checked the schedule posted on the wall.
The practical class was two weeks away.
That was a long time, if you considered it one.
But it left me with a tight window to prepare.
After turning off the switch, I put the sword back into my relic pouch.
I cleared away the map and immediately lay down on the bed.
If I wanted to search for the 'Divine Sword' separately during the practical class, I had a lot of preparation to do, starting tomorrow.