005. Sama Clan
005. Sama Clan
The dazzling sunlight spills through the window. It brightens the darkness, and the chirping birds serve as the alarm clock.
For a martial artist with sharp senses, it's natural for their consciousness to rise from the sea of sleep.
"Is it already morning?"
Dam Cheon, who had risen from his sleeping quarters, looked around the room he was staying in. The room assigned to him was what is commonly called a guest room for honored visitors.
Sleepwear woven from high-quality silk.
A soft sleeping area filled not with cotton but with animal fur.
The breathtaking scenery of Mount Mo visible outside the window.
Even a side room and bathroom attached to the guest room.
'Is having a toilet attached to the room possible through some kind of true law or magic? It's not as good as Earth's civilization, but it's decent.'
The climbers from Earth he met in The Tower. Adopting their culture, the combination of the side room and bathroom used in The Tower—the toilet—was incredibly convenient.
Even though they weren't the kind of freakishly strong mutants that occasionally popped up, Earth-origin climbers were often included in parties, perhaps thanks to Earth's developed civilization.
While their average martial prowess was lacking compared to other dimensions, their level of civilizational development was overwhelmingly superior, making it possible.
'It seems the clan head lady wants something from me. ...Come to think of it, I wonder how that guy is doing?'
A comrade who, despite being from Earth, learned blacksmithing, studied magic, and then created something called an "automaton," a new type of weapon.
He was a climber who created humanoid dolls and used puppet techniques to make them fight in his place.
At one point, he even boasted a quantity-based warfare comparable to the Blood Cult's necromancers. As long as he had money, he could produce automatons and wage a war of attrition—he was clearly a powerhouse.
'He called himself an otaku. He said it means someone who's deeply engrossed in something.'
In that sense, Dam Cheon harbored the idle thought that perhaps all martial world people could be classified as otaku.
He enters the bath, washes his face, and lightly cleans his body.
After that, he briefly practices breathing and energy circulation to dispel even the slightest residual fatigue from his body.
"Phew."
As if exhaling the fatigue with a sigh.
Dam Cheon, who let out a long sigh, lightly stretched and left the guest room.
Even though he didn't know the paths here, his footsteps held no hesitation. If there were places he shouldn't go, wouldn't the servants block his way?
Thus, he walked unhesitatingly toward the place he had sensed with his energy perception.
The place he arrived at was the Sama Clan's training grounds.
"Three-person group, 1st basic technique! Execute!"
"""Execute!"""
Following the shout of what appeared to be the training instructor, about thirty martial artists grouped into threes, assumed stances, and swung their swords.
It was a simple slash, hardly worthy of being called a basic technique. But even the result wasn't simple.
"This time, five-person group, 3rd basic technique! Execute!"
Following the training instructor's shout from the platform, the three-person groups split and regrouped, transforming into five-person groups.
And they all swung their swords together; watching them, one could see it was a coordinated formation suitable for chaotic battles.
Since each individual's martial prowess was weak, they acted as a group, using coordinated formations to fight advantageously in chaotic battles.
While it's a meaningless tactic against a true master, it's sufficiently effective against a group of roughly equal or slightly stronger opponents.
To Dam Cheon, that training gave the impression of a spider's web.
From the start, with thirty people at the core, there were no gaps inside or out, and if one tried to counter from within, the formation would transform in real-time, closing gaps, and one would be helplessly trapped like an insect caught in a spider's web, limbs severed.
"Interesting. It feels like watching a spider's web woven from simple things, woven again, becoming inescapable."
The actions themselves are simple, but one can feel how much headache it must have caused to create such a chaotic-battle coordinated formation with those simple elements.
Perhaps because Dam Cheon himself thought he lacked the qualities of a grandmaster. It felt even more interesting.
"Haha. As expected of Dam Sohyeop."
"Escort Agency Head-nim. Good morning."
"You too."
Since he had sensed the approaching presence, he wasn't startled when the person suddenly spoke.
Geum Wi-un came to Dam Cheon's side, stood shoulder-to-shoulder, and asked with eyes sparkling like a child expecting praise.
"How is it? The ones before your eyes are the pillars who will be responsible for the martial force unit in the future."
"Martial force unit? Right now, it's just simple slashes, thrusts, and blocks, but if that's developed further, they'll deploy coordinated formations with slightly more complex basic techniques. If formation techniques are added to that, wouldn't it complete a force that even the Five Great Clans couldn't ignore?"
"They probably couldn't ignore it. But it would stop there, right?"
"Ahem. Ahem."
Geum Wi-un, whose weak point was struck, let out a forced cough. His reaction suggested it was more than just a little embarrassing.
As Dam Cheon pointed out, if formation techniques were added to such a profound coordinated formation, even a decent mid-to-small sect wouldn't be able to stand against it.
That means it's on a level comparable to the martial force units of the Five Great Clans, but it's literally just mentioned as a comparison level, not a level where they could win.
'To be certain, if there's just one master on the opposing side, they absolutely cannot win.'
No matter how solid the foundation, there are limits when facing masters who have learned transcendent martial arts.
It's not for nothing that martial families' eyes turn toward transcendent martial arts and transcendent internal energy methods.
"The foundation is solid, and weaving it together makes it very sturdy, but if there's just one master on the opposing side, it will shatter helplessly. Even if that is developed further and formation techniques are added, it's difficult to defeat a master with a non-mainstream force."
"...There have been those in the martial world who reached the ranks of masters through the Three Talents Sword Technique. How can you be so sure?"
"Those who will achieve greatness through the Three Talents Sword Technique will achieve greatness no matter what they learn. They're just of a different breed, like me."
"......."
For a moment, Geum Wi-un thought Dam Cheon was being annoying.
"If there's someone who will become a master through the Three Talents Sword Technique, they don't need to learn that coordinated formation in the first place. That coordinated formation is for the weak, not for the strong."
"Phew. You're right."
As if the undeniable reality was too bitter.
Geum Wi-un openly wore a bitter smile and slumped his shoulders.
"The Sama Clan has been intelligent for generations, but conversely, their martial arts have grown thinner as the bloodline continued. The clan's hereditary martial arts aren't bad. They're definitely among the good ones... The problem is they can't compare to the divine arts of the Five Great Clans or the Nine Schools and One Sect. The martial arts the clan head learns are on a similar level to the Namgung Clan's Spear Palace Limitless Sword Technique or the Gaebang Clan's Breaking Strike Staff Technique, but even these require martial bone and five natures."
In summary, they are on the same level as martial arts like the Spear Palace Limitless Sword Technique or the Breaking Strike Staff Technique, but they require more conditions to achieve mastery.
If the former two martial arts only require hardware, the Sama Clan's hereditary martial arts require both software and hardware.
Even though the direct descendants of the Sama Clan throughout generations, who lacked martial bone, could easily learn up to a point, achieving mastery wasn't easy, so the clan's power continued to decline.
Trying to obtain other divine arts was meaningless because their martial bone couldn't significantly exceed that of ordinary people.
Even if they obtained and learned others, reaching mastery would be a distant prospect.
"So you tried to fill the lacking parts with medicinal elixirs?"
"That's right. In the past, I did a great favor to the Hwangbo Clan's clan head, so I received it as a reward."
"If you received a medicinal elixir, it must have been quite a big favor."
It wasn't a medicinal elixir but the method to make one, but Geum Wi-un didn't bother to correct him. From obtaining the Cheon-wang-dan recipe to becoming estranged from the Hwangbo Clan's clan head because of it, all of it was a secret to the outside world.
Even the escorts of the Wicheon Escort Agency thought it was a medicinal elixir, so there was no reason for him to tell Dam Cheon, who wasn't even a clan member, the truth.
"That's right. I once saved his life."
"If it's the price of a life, it wouldn't be strange to give away the clan's medicinal elixir. By the way, you were surprisingly quite chivalrous? If it's the Hwangbo Clan's clan head, he must have stood out since his youth."
"It was the rash bravado of youth."
Usually, the savior who saves a life is stronger than the saved one. But even though Geum Wi-un's skills are good, they aren't at the level to save the young master of a Five Great Clan.
The conclusion is that despite lacking the skill, he rushed to help him when he was in danger.
Even though he said it indirectly, it could have been offensive, but Geum Wi-un acted as if he didn't even have that kind of pride, wearing an expression of nostalgia.
"Then, shall I train them a bit for you?"
"Huh? You mean you?"
"Yes. While I'm staying here, besides relieving boredom and going to pleasure quarters to enjoy women's company, what else is there to do? Even if I just give them a little guidance, their attitude when dealing with masters will change, so they'll become much better."
Normally, a master teaching lower-level martial artists is something that only happens within the same sect or clan.
Who would be crazy enough to sacrifice their own training time to do something that only benefits those below?
Although the teacher also learns something through teaching, finding a clue to develop one's own martial arts by teaching those who aren't even disciples is a difficult task.
Nevertheless, since Dam Cheon readily offered first, Geum Wi-un couldn't help but feel grateful while also being half-suspicious.
From their first meeting, he was the type to say he'd save you but ask for a reward, so he thought there was no way Dam Cheon would step forward without wanting anything.
And that guess was correct.
"In exchange, can I meet someone from the Sama Clan who deploys formation techniques?"
"Someone who deploys formation techniques?"
"Yes. I've become interested in those formation techniques. I'd like to talk a bit about them."
"Hmm."
Geum Wi-un didn't know whether he should let the young man before him meet his wife or not.
So, as he was pondering what to do...
[My husband, accept his request.]
Startled.
Sa-ma Ryang's voice transmission.
That she, who should be in the clan head's chamber, could send a voice transmission here wasn't because she was such a master, but because she was the owner who could manipulate the formation techniques laid throughout the entire Sama Clan, allowing her to use a shortcut.
At the very least, even if her opponent was a master like Dam Cheon, she might be able to win.
Even one of the Ten Great Masters of the World couldn't let their guard down against her within the Sama Clan.
'At least within the peak of Mount Mo, my wife is the strongest.'
Having reached a conclusion, Geum Wi-un spoke.
"Dam Sohyeop. Follow me."
"What do you mean?"
"The master of the formation techniques you wanted to see. We're going to meet them now."
Following Geum Wi-un, who began guiding him, Dam Cheon harbored a faint expectation. Just what kind of person achieved such development?
He had planned to leisurely visit pleasure quarters and such for a while to look around, but this wasn't bad either.
And the person at the place they arrived was—
"Nice to meet you, Sohyeop."
"I am Sa-ma Ryang, the clan head of the Sama Clan, and the master of the formation techniques you were curious about."
She was Geum Wi-un's wife.