Moon Spirit Ginseng (2)
In the silence.
Ssssss……!
At last, Hyun Si-woon completely absorbed the energy of the Moon Spirit Ginseng.
You consume the Moon Spirit Ginseng.
Your stats permanently increase.
Vitality increases from 19 → 22.
“Hoo.”
Hyun Si-woon ceased the circulation of his divine art.
Vitality 22, huh.
A hollow laugh escaped him.
To think he had already come this far.
Even back when he had played Tower of Despair, he barely pushed past the 20-stat mark after clearing the tenth floor. The game had no concept of tempering one’s body, after all, which only made the gap more pronounced.
If he were to reorganize what he knew about stats……
The average for a healthy woman sat at 5.
An ordinary man averaged 7.
Someone who worked out a bit could hit 8.
Elite athletes reached 10.
Every so often a freak of nature cracked 12 or higher.
Thirteen and above was probably the first wall separating ordinary people from climbers.
Things really changed from that point on.
Falls from decent heights barely registered. Fatigue came far more slowly. Heavy objects lifted with ease. In the eyes of ordinary people, it was nothing short of superhuman.
But even in the world of climbers, another wall waited.
The wall of 20.
If 13 was the line between human and superhuman, then 20 was the boundary between superhuman and monster.
How did he know?
Because the characters in Tower of Despair had been like that. Past the 20-stat threshold, their performance became absurdly good.
And now—
The energy I feel is completely different too.
Hyun Si-woon rose from his seat and stepped out into the training ground.
Shrring!
The Formless Sword slid free.
- Heh heh heh. So the brat made it through in one piece after all. Reaching the Heart Lake realm, and the first thing you want is to swing a blade?
Hyun Si-woon answered by lightly swinging the sword.
Whoosh!
A sensation utterly unlike before. The sound of the blade cutting air rang far clearer and sharper. It felt as if arm and sword had become a single unit.
- Tch tch.
Yet Ha-wol clicked her tongue and shook her head.
- That is not how you swing it. Reaching the Heart Lake realm means your heart is finally ready to reflect the true meaning of the sword. The time has come. It is time you learned the real foundations of Moon Spirit Swordsmanship.
“……!”
Hyun Si-woon’s eyes flew wide.
Finally?
Until now, Ha-wol had kept her mouth firmly shut about swordsmanship. Using the excuse of a shaky foundation, or that the vessel had not yet been prepared, she had forced him to train only Moon Spirit Divine Art and Moon Spirit Footwork. Because of that, Hyun Si-woon had always felt a constant thirst. Even just now, he had been swinging the blade raw, without any proper system of technique.
- Hoho. Why so pleased?
“If you’re going to teach me, just teach me already.”
- Tch. The way you speak to your master……. Well, I suppose that’s just like you.
Ha-wol grumbled as if she had never expected better, then her spirit form drew a sword of its own.
- Listen carefully. Every variation of Moon Spirit Swordsmanship springs from three fundamental forms—the Three Talents. They represent the most basic movements of the sword: point, line, and plane. Before you learn the seven ultimate techniques known as the Seven Severings, you must first perfect these three forms.
As she spoke, Ha-wol thrust her blade forward with a sharp whoosh!
- Follow along with your sword in hand. The First Talent: Moon Point. This is the pinnacle of the thrust. The thrust you know is nothing more than shoving the blade forward with force. True Moon Point does not begin by adding power—it begins by removing it.
Hyun Si-woon loosened his grip according to her words. The sword grew so light in his palm it felt as if it might slip free.
- Think of the moon in the night sky. It simply hangs there in stillness, yet its mere presence overwhelms every star. Moon Point must be the same. Minimize movement. Focus every shred of your consciousness on a single point at the tip of the blade.
Swish!
Hyun Si-woon slowly extended the sword. Toward a single point of empty air before his eyes, the tip glided forward. No force went into it, yet every fragment of awareness reflected upon his Heart Lake poured into the blade’s tip.
With a clean shuk!, a thrust incomparably faster and more precise than anything before cut through the air.
Like this?
- Well, that is the feeling. Not bad for a first attempt, but still extremely crude.
Okay.
No one was perfect from the start. If he was crude, he simply had to drill it until he wasn’t—and that was the thing Hyun Si-woon did best.
- Next is the Second Talent: Moon Line. This is the principle of the cut. Most think cutting means severing the opponent with strength, but Moon Line is different. Can you cut flowing river water with a blade? Moon Line is not about cutting—it is about riding the flow.
Ha-wol’s sword traced a soft arc. Hyun Si-woon mirrored the motion, drawing a fluid line through the air with his own blade.
- When the opponent’s sword comes at you, do not meet it with force. Receive it upon the line of your blade, twist the direction of that power, and let it slide away. Then place your own strength atop the force that has already flowed past and return it.
Whoosh!
Hyun Si-woon’s sword described a far smoother circle than before.
- Good. Last, the Third Talent: Moon Face. This is the sweeping parry. The core is to remain as unshaken and solid as the surface of the moon itself.
Ssshk.
Watching Ha-wol’s movement, Hyun Si-woon raised the flat of his blade into a guard.
- Point, line, plane. These three are the beginning and the end of Moon Spirit Swordsmanship. The grade of your sword will be decided by how deeply you understand and master these Three Talents.
“Got it.”
A new horizon had opened.
Hyun Si-woon felt it clearly. Only when he completely mastered these three forms would he be able to unleash the true essence of Moon Spirit Swordsmanship—its ultimate techniques.
When that day comes……
Wouldn’t the Tower’s difficulty become far easier than it was now?
The next day.
Hyun Si-woon guided the party through their own consumption of Moon Spirit Ginseng. Once again all he did was recite Ha-wol’s instructions and help their energy circulate properly. Even in that process, however, his eye for martial arts widened further.
Five different people.
Five different arts.
And five different solutions.
Ha-wol poured out optimized, tailored remedies for each of them as if she could see everything from an omniscient vantage. It seemed her mind held not merely Moon Spirit Swordsmanship but the principles of every martial art under heaven.
How is that even possible?
He had known it already, yet the depth of her knowledge still defied estimation.
Well.
The world Ha-wol had lived in before becoming a Ranker was a place where people did nothing but eat and train martial arts, so perhaps it made sense. Was it similar to the way he himself excelled at every game he touched?
“Haaah, hyung……. I can’t control my strength.”
“Something feels different.”
“Before I could barely sense the energy. Now I think I’ve got a feel for how it should move.”
All of them had reached Vitality 22. Each seemed to have gained something personal during the absorption. Their complexions had brightened dramatically, and the very aura they radiated had changed.
At this level……
They were ready to climb the Tower steadily.
“Everyone, take your stances. It’s time your martial arts advanced to the next stage as well.”
Just as he had learned the foundations of Moon Spirit Swordsmanship, it was time to push the members’ progress forward too.
Ssshk, shhk!
Each of them drew their weapons and settled into stance.
And so several more days slipped past.
Every week the members traveled to the outskirts of Seoul to trade with their partners. Since the partner guilds had not yet accumulated large amounts of TC, they accepted payment on deferred terms for the time being. Today was the day the settlement funds arrived.
The members returned from the deals and handed over the TC.
67,200 TC each!
Every guild had sold cleanly without a hitch. That made this week’s net profit a cool 336,000 TC.
“Nice.”
All preparations were complete.
Time for the fifth floor.
Every route was already organized inside his head. Compared to the fourth floor, the fifth would clear quickly.
It was the floor where people first tasted real despair in Tower of Despair.
The scenery of the fifth floor flashed through Hyun Si-woon’s mind. The ashen city of Avalon. A place infamous for its monstrous difficulty.
But things are different now.
A confident smile curved his lips.
In the old days it had been hard. No—it had been hell itself. He had died thousands of times hunting for clues, forming hypotheses, dying again to verify them. But for the present Hyun Si-woon, who already knew every scrap of information and every route, the fifth floor was little more than child’s play.
That’s just how Tower of Despair works.
Hell when you don’t know. Heaven once you do. And now he even had infinite stamina.
“Everyone, get ready.”
Hyun Si-woon rose from his seat. Not a single note of hesitation colored his voice.
“We leave early tomorrow morning. We’ll ride Pungjo to the vicinity of the Tower. This fifth-floor run won’t take long. It’ll be over within a week, so steel yourselves. Rest well tonight.”
“A week?”
“Oh, this one actually sounds doable!”
The members brightened. Baek Yeon-ho, however, froze in shock.
The fifth floor in a week?
That place was never easy. The world-record clear for Tower of Despair—excluding Hyun Si-woon—might have been the tenth floor, but the number of gamers who had even passed the fifth was vanishingly small. Baek Yeon-ho’s own personal best had been the fifth floor. He had barely scraped through, then smashed his keyboard and quit while playing the sixth.
But still.
The corner of Baek Yeon-ho’s mouth lifted slightly as he shook his head. Who was he to doubt? Their leader was Hyun Si-woon…….
By now he was 100 percent certain Hyun Si-woon was EndSeeker—the existence who had cleared the thirtieth floor and stunned the entire world. If EndSeeker was real, it absolutely had to be Hyun Si-woon.
“Ah, and Noona.”
Hyun Si-woon called out to Baek Do-hee just as she was about to rise. She turned with puzzled eyes at the sudden summons. The other members’ gazes naturally settled on the two of them as well.
“On the fourth floor, Yeon-ho hyung got a hidden skill, right? This time on the fifth floor, it’s your turn. There’s a very important opportunity waiting, so look forward to it.”
“……Huh?”
Baek Do-hee’s eyes rounded. The unexpected words seemed to steal her voice for a moment.
Really?
In truth she had been quietly fretting. No matter how important Healing Light was, its efficacy was not all that different from the potions Lumi sold. In actual combat the cooldown sometimes made it less efficient than potions. The anxiety that her position within the team was growing more and more ambiguous had been a weight she carried in silence, never speaking of it to anyone.
And now an opportunity was being offered to her.
“Whoa, Noonim! Congrats!”
“Insane! What broken skill is it going to be this time?”
At those warm reactions, Baek Do-hee’s eyes grew moist. She beamed and nodded. The chance to increase her presence in the team made her happier than anything else.
After the members returned to their rooms, Hyun Si-woon remained alone and poured himself a glass of whiskey with a soft glug. He gazed at the dark night sky beyond the window and drifted into recollection.
Good.
When he had played Tower of Despair in the past, Hyun Si-woon had built his staff character as a mage rather than a healer. On the second floor he had secretly learned both Fire Bolt and Healing Light at the same time. But that choice had come with a price.
The Saint’s Prayer she’ll learn this time becomes usable only by healers later on.
Back then he had forced himself to look away, claiming the best defense was a good offense. Yet the higher he climbed, the more painfully the absence of a healer had hit him.
The situation is better now than it was then.
The roles were cleanly divided. Hyun Si-woon the mage. Baek Do-hee the healer. The key skill he had once been forced to abandon could now be claimed in full.
Power that the solo player EndSeeker could never possess.
Perfect team synergy.
“Heh.”
Gulp.
Hyun Si-woon swallowed the whiskey with deep satisfaction.