Swordsmanship Training (3)
Having finished his morning training with the usual intensity, Hyun Si-woon was on his way back when—
Thoom. Thoom!
“Huh?”
At the sudden, heavy tremors, Si-woon dropped into a low stance and halted mid-step.
When the ground shook like this, it was one of two things: an earthquake… or a monster appearing.
He drew the Formless Sword from his inventory and went on full alert.
Somewhere over that way.
Even from a distance, a low gurgling roar reached him.
Definitely a monster.
For something to project that much presence, it had to be at least Grade 7.
Normally the correct response was to run as fast as possible.
Yet for some reason, curiosity stirred.
He knew there were climbers who had already ascended past the third floor. They would be out hunting the monsters on the Tower’s outskirts—and he might just get to watch the spectacle.
Risky, sure…
A slightly careless thought, but he couldn’t help it.
For the time being, Si-woon’s life was still infinite.
Deciding that experiencing everything was better, he quickly changed direction and set off.
“You… crazy bastard.”
The curse slipped out of Baek Yeon-ho’s mouth before he could stop it.
He had been debating it until now, but Yu Jae-jun’s latest stunt had settled the matter.
This team ends here.
Was there any reason to keep following a leader who had no real skill, yet never stopped talking, and was stubborn to boot?
Yu Jae-jun always put his own greed and pride above the team.
Trust a leader like that and ten lives wouldn’t be enough.
“What? Crazy bastard? What the hell did you just say?”
Yu Jae-jun’s eyes bulged, but there was no time for a shouting match.
- Gwoooooooar!
A Rupture Fiend was already charging toward them, howling.
“Damn it.”
Yu Jae-jun scowled.
“We’ll talk later—start the moving tank right now!”
The Rupture Fiend was Grade 7, yet its patterns were relatively simple—only three of them.
First: Body Rupture.
Every time damage stacked, the tumors covering its body burst and sprayed area-wide poison damage. The damage was severe enough that no one was supposed to stay in melee. The textbook method was to circle around the fiend, buying time.
Because the Rupture Fiend was sluggish when changing direction, simply running in a wide circle could pin it in place.
“Son of a bitch.”
Baek Yeon-ho realized he had no choice. With things already this far gone, he had to draw aggro to protect his sister, Baek Do-hee.
He sheathed his shield and sprinted.
Watching him, Yu Jae-jun shouted,
“Kang Si-a, shoot!”
“Yes.”
“When I tell you to stop, you stop! Never fire continuously!”
“Yes.”
Kang Si-a was a woman of few words. She simply obeyed the leader without complaint.
Whoosh! Thunk!
Even now her arrows struck the swollen tumors with terrifying precision, bursting them one after another. Her execution was flawless.
“Baek Do-hee, stay next to Si-a and stand by. Geon-woo.”
“Yeah?”
“Get ready.”
“Ready for what?”
“We’re going to do a Rupture cancel.”
Yu Jae-jun muttered the phrase like a secret only veterans knew—the easy way hardcore players farmed Rupture Fiends.
“Look down by its feet. See that yellowish core?”
“Yeah.”
“When it turns red, get in close and stab it.”
That canceled Body Rupture and stunned the fiend. Then they piled on damage until the core turned yellow again, at which point they bailed out. Repeat a few times and the thing went down—simple as that.
All this fuss over nothing.
Yu Jae-jun watched Baek Yeon-ho running circles with a cold stare.
Cocky bastard.
He had definitely heard it. Even if Yeon-ho had muttered it under his breath, he had called him a crazy bastard.
Words he would never have dared if he didn’t already look down on him.
Yu Jae-jun clenched his teeth, fighting down the rage boiling inside. The moment they finished the monster, he was going to teach the kid a hard lesson—
“Berserk Charge timing!”
Baek Yeon-ho shouted.
When a Rupture Fiend’s eyes turned blood-red, it locked onto one target and charged at insane speed—the second pattern, nicknamed the Groggy Charge. One hit and you were knocked flying; for most people that was instant death.
The way to dodge? Simple. Just like a matador, drop your weapon on the ground and run.
“Lucky for us—it’s targeting me!”
Annoyed by Yeon-ho’s constant circling, the fiend had eyes only for the tank.
Clank!
Yeon-ho flung his shield onto the dirt. The Rupture Fiend’s crimson gaze snapped to the shield, and then—
KRAAAASH!
It rocketed forward at terrifying speed. A hit from that would kill even a tank.
And right on cue—
Hmmm!
The fiend’s core began to glow red. Kang Si-a had stacked enough damage.
“Stop shooting!”
“Yes!”
“Now run!”
“Got it!”
Yu Jae-jun and Choi Geon-woo sprinted in for the cancel. Baek Yeon-ho dashed back for his shield.
BOOM!
Choi Geon-woo’s massive mace smashed the core.
- Gwoooooooooar!
The Rupture Fiend froze.
“Now! Hit it! Si-a, recover your arrows!”
“Yes!”
“Baek Do-hee, just keep healing! Standing this close already stacks poison damage!”
“Understood!”
“Keep hitting until the pattern resets!”
For a self-proclaimed veteran, the hunt was going surprisingly smoothly. A Grade 7 would drop far more TC than ordinary monsters—maybe even a rare weapon or materials.
Heh.
Yu Jae-jun’s lips curled. With this kind of performance he could completely bury the screw-ups from the second floor. Everyone except Baek Yeon-ho would be impressed by his encyclopedic knowledge.
All that remained was the Rupture Fiend’s final pattern, used only when it was near death: Venomous Breath, a cone of deadly poison. Dodge that and killing the beast was only a matter of time.
“After we drop this thing, dinner’s on me tonight, got it? Hyaaaah!”
Yu Jae-jun was furiously stabbing with his rare spear when—
“Um…”
Kang Si-a called out from beside him.
“What!”
“Look over there.”
She pointed.
“Huh?”
Yu Jae-jun glanced over. Confusion flooded his face.
Thoom. Thoom!
A second Rupture Fiend was slowly approaching, reeking of rotten flesh. It was far larger and more grotesque than the one they were fighting. Its tumors were even more swollen, its veins bulging as if ready to burst.
“Oh, fuck.”
All color drained from Yu Jae-jun’s face.
“T-two of them?”
Two Rupture Fiends.
The situation had completely collapsed. The standard strategy only worked when there was a single target. True hardcore players with perfect synergy might handle two, but this group? Absolutely not.
“What did I tell you!”
Baek Yeon-ho shouted, as if he had known all along.
“If we hadn’t overreached, none of this would be happening!”
“Shut up!”
Yu Jae-jun roared.
“You knew two would show up?”
“This is the field, not the Tower! You always prepare for the worst-case scenario!”
“You little shit. Acting so high-and-mighty since earlier—you wanna die?”
“Both of you, stop it!”
Baek Do-hee tried to intervene, but their tempers were already at boiling point.
“Hey, hey, hey!”
Choi Geon-woo’s panicked shout cut through.
“The core’s yellow again! We gotta bounce!”
“Shit.”
Yu Jae-jun barked quickly,
“Fall back for now!”
The heat of their argument cooled in an instant. Lives were on the line. Arguments could wait until they survived.
“I’ll pull both of them for now!”
Baek Yeon-ho raised his shield again.
They said even if you walked into a tiger’s den, you could survive if you kept your wits. That was a lie. No matter how sharp your mind, the moment you met the tiger you died. What actually mattered was luck—the luck of never meeting the tiger in the first place.
Please, God…
Praying under his breath, Yeon-ho charged. Yu Jae-jun watched him for a moment, then leaned close to Choi Geon-woo’s ear.
“Hey. Run.”
“Huh? What are you—”
“Shut up and run. We’re all gonna die. At least we have to live.”
“……Yeah?”
Choi Geon-woo, watching from the side, had already realized the situation was hopeless. Scummy as it was, staying alive came first. Their alliance had always been about survival, never loyalty.
His hesitation lasted only a second. The moment he put distance between himself and the fiends, he broke into a full sprint and fled.
“What the hell…”
Baek Yeon-ho’s mouth fell open in pure disbelief.
“W-where are you going!”
Baek Do-hee’s voice cracked. Shock had frozen her body solid; her brain had simply locked up.
“Ha… fuck.”
Still running, Baek Yeon-ho spat the curse. If those two were gone, it was over. No matter how hard he pulled, there was a limit. They would all die.
So what was the smartest move now?
The answer came fast.
“Noona, run!”
Baek Yeon-ho shouted.
“Shut up! You think I’d leave you behind?!”
“At least you have to live! Kang Si-a! You run too! Go kill those bastards for me—that’s my last will!”
“……”
Kang Si-a stood at a safe distance, bow in hand. She had a choice: abandon Yeon-ho and flee, or stay and fight.
Fleeing was the rational option. They were only a temporary party formed to climb the Tower, not bound by deep bonds. And she had a promise to keep—the vow she made to her parents, who had been killed by monsters. No matter what, she had to survive.
Perhaps her parents were shouting from the heavens right now: Run, Si-a! You have to live!
But…
Her eyes found Baek Yeon-ho. Despite trembling with fear, he was desperately holding his shield and trying to block the fiends. The courage of a man willing to die so others might live shook something inside her.
Maybe she saw her past self in him—the powerless girl who had lost the people she loved because she could do nothing.
Kang Si-a clenched her fists.
“I’m not running.”
Running was familiar. But she no longer wanted to run. This time, she wanted to fight.
Creak—
She drew her bowstring to its limit. The tremor had left her eyes.
And far away, watching every second of their disaster—
What a complete mess.
Hyun Si-woon observed it all. He had come out of curiosity because a monster had appeared… and it was these people again.
Knew Yu Jae-jun would pull something like this. Tch.
He had watched to see how they would handle it and ended up witnessing a human piece of trash in action.
He rolled his shoulders once.
Can I manage it?
Two Rupture Fiends. When he was controlling a character, he could handle ten of them at once without breaking a sweat. But this was his real body.
I’ll manage.
Their method would never kill these things even if they died and came back. That was the way of ordinary veterans.
The way of truly rotten water was on an entirely different level.
Si-woon drew the Formless Sword and began walking casually forward.