Chapter 56
Chapter 56
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 056
Chapter Title: Simple Training
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"My training is simple."
Sein held a longsword he had crafted himself.
The moment he swung it casually.
"Kieeeek!"
A lizardman's scream echoed.
The place where Sein and the candidates were now was a swamp.
"Fight to the death."
The training Sein had chosen was monster hunting.
In the current world—no, even in the previous Sanctuary—it was the same.
NPCs tended to think that hunting monsters was trivial or unhelpful.
"Is this really effective?"
Someone asked.
"Hey, no questions."
But instead of answering, Sein set off a firecracker from his pocket.
Paaang!
As the firecracker exploded, green magical energy scattered in all directions.
A monster lure available on the market.
Sein had added a few more ingredients to make a special version.
"Kieeeee!"
The monsters went berserk and started charging.
Even without Sein's words, the candidates no longer had time to ask questions.
"Uwaaak!"
They had to exert every ounce of effort just to survive the onslaught of charging monsters.
"These damn lizard bastards...."
But soon enough, the candidates regained their composure.
Lizardmen weren't high-grade monsters.
If they had carried out missions and training in Rasiel and inherited Demorus's blood.
"Kill them!"
They were easy enough to handle.
The tide turned.
The candidates began pushing back against the charging lizardmen.
Thud.
Sein sat down.
Then, propping his chin on his hand, he spoke.
"Let's see how long you can keep it up."
It was one thing to underestimate lizardmen.
But.
"Huh...?"
Underestimating a lizardman horde was another matter entirely.
A few dozen might be fine.
"Uwaa! They're pushing us back!"
"What are you doing over there!"
But when it surpassed hundreds, the battle dynamics shifted.
"Good, keep it up."
Dozens of lizardmen could be handled by one person easily enough, but when it went into the hundreds.
"It's group combat, you idiots."
It turned into group warfare.
Fighting them one by one led to isolation and exposing your back.
No matter how skilled a fighter you were.
Slash!
It was nearly impossible to watch your back throughout the entire battle.
"Ugh!"
Injuries started piling up.
"Damn it, to these mere lizard bastards...!"
The candidates exploded with rage-fueled power.
"But no blessings."
Sein had even imposed a restriction banning blessings on them.
In the end, disaster struck.
Pukeok!
A spear thrust by a lizardman pierced the chest of one candidate.
Fortunately, it missed the heart, but it was undoubtedly a serious wound.
At that moment, the shift was drastic once more.
"Shit...."
The candidates' formation completely collapsed.
Morale plummeted uncontrollably, and that drop in morale directly impacted their combat effectiveness.
They were pushed back repeatedly.
Kwaaa!
Only powerhouses like Balak, who could handle groups even as lone fighters, barely held their ground.
And then.
Slash.
A ripping sound echoed above the candidates' heads.
"......?"
They definitely felt something, but it hadn't affected them.
"L-Look at that."
One of the candidates spoke up.
That was the signal.
"......"
The candidates turned their heads.
Only then did they realize.
They had the leisure to sense something and even talk.
That was.
Pshuuuuk!
The heads of nearly a hundred lizardmen had been severed in a single blow.
"That's enough for now."
And the one who did it was.
"Anyone still have questions?"
Sein Demorus.
That mad bastard.
"......"
Shock and astonishment.
Thus, the first training session came to a break.
*
*
*
Monster hunting continued afterward as well.
Sein kept firing firecrackers relentlessly, as if intent on wiping out every lizardman in the area, and the candidates had to endure the endless monster waves charging at them.
If they kept this up, the dark factions wouldn't have anything to do in this sector for at least a few years.
Taat.
Sis turned his body and thrust his sword.
In the end, Sis and Roberta had decided to join Sein's training.
'Monster hunting.'
Sis grasped Sein's intent.
'The exchange match is essentially a fight between Rasiel and Dante.'
Dante had likely already united their forces.
But Rasiel was different.
Though all the candidates knelt under the absolute existence that was Sein, that didn't mean they were unified among themselves—it was only under Sein.
"Come this way!"
"Huh?"
"Let's form a circular formation and fight."
Sis recognized Sein's intent and began to act.
"We need to stick together."
"We're already together."
"That's not what I mean."
Sis could fully understand why Sein called the other candidates idiots, but now wasn't the time to dwell on that.
"We need to become a real team."
Beating a group as an individual was hard.
That was.
"We maximize strengths and cover weaknesses."
When the group moved like a single individual.
"Rima, you stand in the center and handle the ones attacking from afar."
For Rima, who used a crossbow as her main weapon, ranged suppression.
"Balak, you be the wall up front. Can you do it?"
"......"
"This is what Sein wants."
"Got it."
When the hell had that guy become Sein's loyal dog?
Even as such thoughts crossed his mind.
Smirk.
Sis realized he was smiling.
"Let's move."
This was it.
The picture Sis had envisioned.
The power to lead and move a group.
Even if that power came from someone else.
"Wipe them out!"
Now, the candidates moved according to Sis's commands, striving to become one.
A very small change.
The resulting outcome was.
"......!"
Dramatic, to say the least.
The number of injured candidates dropped sharply.
Conversely, while they could handle about three lizardmen alone before, in formation, they could manage five.
Up to eight at most.
"......!"
It wasn't just Sis.
All the candidates were experiencing the change and its results.
"Keep it up like this."
They could do it.
Such hope.
Individuals gather to form a group.
The group moves like a single individual.
Only then.
'We might actually win.'
They might actually get stronger.
*
*
*
"Chug those potions. If it's not life-threatening, get lost."
The concept of fatigue barely existed.
"Hey, hey, 'get lost' doesn't mean fly up to the sky."
Rasiel's full support.
Literally, Rasiel provided all supplies Sein needed, including potions.
If injured, drink a potion and continue fighting.
If it seemed like they might actually die.
"Parasite."
Pat pat.
Cecil moved.
Saaah-!
An arm that seemed about to fall off reattached in an instant.
It was a power that had vanished from the current world.
'Holy power.'
Divine power.
Everyone had vaguely sensed it.
Cecil's uniqueness.
And now that uniqueness was on full display, but no one stirred.
"Uh, uh... thanks."
Pretending to know would get you killed.
Cecil was the kid under Sein's protection.
Whatever the story was, exposing Cecil's secret was exposing Sein's.
No one had the guts for that.
It was stipulated in the magical contract as well.
Slash! Slash!
Sis and Roberta had agreed to it too.
The candidates' growth was visibly accelerating.
Among them.
"Roberta's the standout."
Roberta's growth was the most steep.
Top among candidates in combat.
"Roberta! Clear a path!"
If needed, she broke from the formation alone and ravaged the enemy lines.
Slash, slash, slash again.
Roberta's sword strikes, drenched in blood like she'd showered in it, grew sharper with each battle.
'I get why he told us to hunt monsters.'
Roberta truly felt it.
It was a different kind of realization from Sis's.
'Monsters.'
The reason others didn't use monster hunting as training was simple.
The three-way standoff of the dark factions.
Conflicts between organizations.
Power struggles among the elites.
All of it.
'Humans.'
Involved humans.
So while fighting monsters helped to some degree, it wasn't considered a primary training method—that was the consensus.
But there were stories from mercenaries or dispatched fighters.
-Monsters are no different.
Monsters were no different from humans.
-Fight them day and night, and suddenly you feel this way.
-Am I fighting monsters?
-Or humans?
Words that hadn't made sense before.
-There are monster-like humans out there, so what's the difference? Haha.
But Roberta was realizing it now.
'It's similar to the Poruke school's spear arts.'
The lizardmen's spear techniques resembled those of the Poruke family, famed for their spearmanship in the past.
Their movements too.
For Roberta, who was more serious about martial arts than anyone and believed endless training was the only solution, this was a new revelation.
"She seems to have noticed too."
Sein sensed Roberta’s change.
"Of course."
They wouldn't know.
"That many human skills and movements are derived from monsters."
Sanctuary's lore.
The old game skill descriptions explained it that way.
Monsters with superior physiques and abilities to humans.
The primordial martial arts were born from imitating them to counter that.
Therefore.
"Facing all kinds of monsters is akin to facing all kinds of humans. That's the point."
The candidates were growing stronger at a rapid pace.