Chapter 367
Chapter 367
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 367
>Chapter Title: The 31st Horse Overturns the Game Board
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“ Ahem… Still a long way off, huh.”
Shin Hyun muttered while eyeing the passage where Kang Seol came and went.
“Are you turning into a coward, Hyun-ah?”
“Heh heh heh… The older I get, the smaller my guts seem to shrink.”
“Who exactly are you worried about?”
“Huh? What do you mean by that?”
“I’m asking if you’re worried about Shin Yu or Kang Seol.”
“……”
Shin Hyun paused for a moment before saying this to Shin Lip.
“I’m worried about Kang Seol, who might get crushed and despair under the stars, and also about Shin Yu, who might face someone’s despair again.”
“…Hyun-ah. Does Kang Seol look like the type to despair?”
“I know. Brother, the person in this world who understands Shin Yu the best is probably Father, and the next is me.”
Shin Hyun scratched his chin for a bit before beginning his story.
“Brother, have you ever despaired at Shin Yu’s martial principles?”
“Martial principles? Not sword principles?”
“Heh heh heh… Everyone knows he’s gifted in sword principles. But that’s not sword principles—it’s martial principles.”
“…I suppose you could see it that way.”
“He… understands everything about his opponent. Their gait, stride, breathing, posture—all of it. He grasps it all in an instant. Do you know how much despair that inflicts on the opponent?”
Shin Hyun’s tone grew agitated, turning sharp.
“It was… before Gang became his subordinate, right? Probably around the time the family first realized his martial principles weren’t normal.”
“…Oh no.”
Shin Lip could guess what Shin Hyun had done and frowned.
“You showed him?”
“Yes… I wanted to show off my achievements, so with half doubt and half excitement, I performed my sword dance.”
“Kukuku… That sounds just like you.”
“If I’d understood his talent a little deeper, I wouldn’t have made that mistake….”
“Did he replicate it exactly?”
“……”
Shin Hyun shook his head and replied.
“A few days later, he was better than me. No, he was already standing at the end of the path I was trying to walk.”
“…He could perform up to the third stage.”
“That’s right. Heh heh heh… It felt pretty shitty.”
If the lifelong achievement you pursued was nothing to someone else… there was no situation more despair-inducing than that.
“As a kid, I even hated him for a bit. I thought he deliberately crushed his older brother to show off.”
“You were reckless. Shin Yu isn’t that kind of kid.”
“I know. Shin Yu is far from toying with people like that. Well, maybe not now. What I’m worried about is Kang Seol misunderstanding Shin Yu’s test and getting swept up in despair.”
“This vast labyrinth life is all fake. Except for Kang Seol and Shin Yu, that is. If Kang Seol wants to leave the labyrinth, he needs Shin Yu’s approval, and conversely, Shin Yu must help Kang Seol grow.”
Shin Hyun wiped his nose with his finger and replied.
“Shin Yu… might not want to leave.”
“…He has to. A guy with potential can’t stay in the labyrinth forever.”
“That’s our thinking. To him… leaving the labyrinth would feel like abandoning us.”
“Childish notion.”
“That kid’s still young. He’s never grown taller than his brothers, never made a name with the sword. He’s just… lived looking only at us.”
“Yeah, even in death…”
Shin Lip said firmly.
“So we, who are already dead, have to send him off somehow.”
“Heh heh heh… We’re back to square one? In the end, Kang Seol can’t despair…”
“Quiet, he’s coming.”
Thud…
Kang Seol was entering through the passage.
Rustle… He was covered head to toe in dirt and dust.
The Shin brothers felt pity first.
He looked utterly defeated by Shin Yu at a glance.
Shin Hyun’s eyes narrowed.
They thought if Kang Seol said something, they’d make an excuse to cheer him up a bit.
But Kang Seol suddenly lifted his head, looked up at them, and said.
“So you were here.”
“Uh… yeah. Did you see Shin Yu…?”
“I have something to say.”
“Hmm? Say what you need to.”
Shin Hyun and Shin Lip were a bit surprised that Kang Seol, whom they expected to be downcast, was instead proactive.
And they were even more surprised by what he said next.
“I want to learn the sword.”
“…The sword, huh.”
“It’s about time. So you’ve chosen that path after all?”
Nod…
As Kang Seol nodded, Shin Lip and Shin Hyun smiled and said.
“Good. It might be slow, it might be confusing. But if you diligently pursue the sword, someday…”
“It’s not me.”
“…Huh? Heh… what did you just say…?”
“I’m not the one learning the sword.”
Shing-!
Sss…
Dark Shade, shrunk to the size of an adult male, was summoned in front of Kang Seol.
“He just caught fire. This guy did.”
“……”
“You said to ask anytime if I needed help, right?”
Shin Lip turned and walked toward their dwelling, muttering.
“…Crazy bastard.”
* * *
Kang Seol had grasped the clue to the next step from Dark Shade’s characteristics.
The clue was Dark Shade’s rapid learning speed.
‘It’s not telling me to become a supreme swordsman.’
The chance Dark Shade suddenly becomes a peerless swordsman? If that happened within 1-2 years, he’d believe it and charge straight ahead stubbornly.
But it probably wouldn’t happen that way.
To become a swordsman on the level of Shin Yu, Shin Lip, or Shin Hyun would take that much time.
‘But imitation?’
He thought maybe it could imitate a great sword tiger in a short time.
‘Implanting Foresight was the right answer.’
In that flashing moment, as Dark Shade faced Shin Yu’s sword, it saw how his sword moved.
It just couldn’t imitate it properly yet.
But this was the perfect opportunity.
‘If it were me, even seeing the slash, I couldn’t do anything about it.’
To engrave it in an instant and at least attempt to mimic it meant Dark Shade’s potential was that vast.
“Ahem… Just one month, you say?”
Anyway, Shin Hyun and Shin Lip rolled up their sleeves at Kang Seol’s absurd plan.
First, Shin Hyun explained about the Shin family.
“The Shin family brothers, excluding Gang, were each born with special traits.”
He knew that already.
But telling his teacher that would kill the momentum, so he listened quietly.
“Brother was born with divine strength that can lift ten thousand catties, so he wields the Thunderclap Sword. I was born with lungs unlike others, so I mastered the Rainfall Sword. As you know, Shin Yu was born with that flashing intuition.”
He knew that too, so he didn’t plan to ask questions.
‘Ah, no. There is something I’ve been curious about….’
Kang Seol threw out a question he’d harbored for a long time.
“But why do brothers practice different swords?”
“That’s because they branched off from the sword of our progenitor who founded the Shin family.”
“Progenitor?”
“Yeah. The progenitor made his name across the continent with one sword art. Its principles were perfect, but lacking talent, he couldn’t complete it. Well, parts were battle-tested, but the completion was lacking, so our ancestors split it into various branches and rebirthed them as multiple sword arts.”
“Wouldn’t that reduce efficiency?”
“No. Each sword art holds perfect principles of its own, unmatched by any other.”
Fair enough.
Kang Seol felt he couldn’t beat even one form each from Shin Lip and Shin Hyun right now, so maybe sword arts weren’t that important.
‘No, they are, but Shin Lip and Shin Hyun are beyond that realm.’
A craftsman doesn’t disdain tools.
A craftsman trusts the tools he uses.
So he listened quietly without arguing.
“Ahem… The Rainfall Sword isn’t an ordinary sword. It extends breathing to the limit, pouring strikes on the opponent like rain. Everyone else dropped out but me.”
“Yes.”
“I won’t show the third stage. You wouldn’t understand it anyway—it’d just hinder you. You… that… guy needs to repeat and master the first stage.”
“Yes.”
“Beginning.”
Hoo…
Pak-!
Pak-!
Pak-!
After steadying his breath once, Shin Hyun demonstrated three thrusts.
Thrusts at constant speed.
Ordinary motions.
“That’s it?”
“Kid, watch closely.”
Couldn’t he split Dark Shade and view from multiple angles? But that interfered with Foresight working properly.
And only night beasts could be split; Dark Shade couldn’t be split even if he tried.
Paaat-!
Paaaah-!
Paaaaah-!
Shin Hyun showed a few clean thrusts.
Kang Seol thought for a moment and said.
“Hmm… I don’t get it.”
Kang Seol honestly felt he didn’t understand.
Maybe because he wasn’t versed in sword principles.
Meanwhile, Dark Shade…
Paaaaak-!
Paaaaaaak-!
Paaaaak-!
Stood up and mimicked the exact motions.
Among learning methods, sometimes blindly imitating comes before understanding.
‘This is exactly that case….’
Kang Seol overthought it, while Dark Shade didn’t think at all and just imitated.
Shin Hyun found it quite intriguing.
“You, widen your stance a bit. Yeah, too much force in the thrust. The motion gets simpler, easier to dodge. Yes, like that.”
Paaaaak-!
Paaaaaaak-!
Paaaaak-!
“……”
“…What the hell is this guy?”
Dark Shade showed off its talent to Shin Hyun, just as it had astonished Kang Seol in the past.
“Now, now, yes. Now, take a long breath here.”
Hoooop…
The moment he inhaled, Shin Hyun’s aura changed.
Ssss…
‘This…’
The scene Shin Yu had shown.
Shin Hyun’s sword pierced the tree.
Paaaaang-!
The tree broken by a single thrust wasn’t a thin one.
“……You’re only showing it once?”
“What are you saying, you punk?”
Shin Hyun retorted to Kang Seol.
“I thrust three times.”
“…Pardon?”
“Look again.”
Paaaaang-!
The same.
‘No, it’s different. It really was three times?’
He had thrust three times at tremendous speed, processing them like one motion.
Pak… Pak pak!
Seeing something in Dark Shade’s clumsy motions, Shin Hyun grew serious.
“Hmm… Second stage is plenty learnable. But performing it, first stage will be the limit.”
“Huh? Why….”
“Better to realize it yourself later. Even knowing won’t let you counter it.”
Shin Hyun and Shin Lip’s sword arts were famous for their simplicity.
Just first, second, and third stages, and even those were short segmented motions.
In other words, each sword art had only three motions. Of course, since wielded by Shin Lip and Shin Hyun, it wasn’t a weakness.
Kang Seol and Dark Shade received instruction from Shin Lip and Shin Hyun for about a month. They performed the same motions daily and learned the sword arts.
Thanks to his efforts in the process, Kang Seol also got a chance to grow.
[Grace of Darkness descends.]
[Intermediate Swordsmanship rises to Advanced Swordsmanship.]
……
And in growing like that, he unintentionally realized one thing.
‘…Dark Shade can’t imitate their sword arts.’
It couldn’t copy the depth exactly, but it knew how to imitate superficially.
No, it couldn’t even do that at all.
‘Physical abilities are different!’
Shin Lip had superhuman strength beyond human limits, Shin Hyun lungs that seemed unbelievable.
Strength had some potential, but lungs needed to be made, like the primordial hide.
He readjusted blood flow to muscles, increasing instantaneous burst strength, and since Dark Shade moved with darkness not air, he crafted lungs for smooth darkness circulation.
[Dark Shade can move faster using the darkness pouch.]
[Dark Shade’s muscles are strengthened.]
[Dark Shade’s instantaneous power output increases.]
……
The original plan was one month, but it actually took over three. To see those messages floating up himself.
And as expected, when conditions were met.
Paaaang-!
Tree exploding from the thrust.
“…Success.”
Dark Shade could imitate the Shin brothers’ sword arts.
He didn’t know if it was as strong as them.
But at least it wouldn’t be caught off guard cluelessly.
Kang Seol hadn’t stopped for a moment.
“Hey. You watching?”
Kang Seol shouted into the empty forest.
“Come out! Let’s fight!”
For the first time, instead of waiting for Shin Yu’s visit, Kang Seol sought him out first.
Thud…
Thud…