Chapter 76
Chapter 76
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 76
Chapter Title: What Will You Do?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“What… is this?”
It was a reaction uncharacteristic of Sea.
Her eyes were wide and her lips slightly parted, a testament to her genuine surprise.
Jeez, getting so worked up over this.
“That’s not even half of its original performance.”
*Vwooom—*
A low, gentle hum vibrated through the air.
My siblings, clad in Magic Armor, warmed up around the training grounds.
Their strength and speed were on another level, as if they had all ascended at least one rank in skill.
Even the precision of their movements and their senses were those of entirely different people.
“You’re saying that’s not even half?”
“Yeah. To use the Magic Armor properly, you need to ‘ignite’ it. And for that, you need to be at the level of Dokgeom, where you can use Sword Ki.”
Ignition required communicating with the armor’s spirit.
But right now, only Katrina and Catch had reached that level, so the others were using ‘auto mode.’
“If that’s what auto mode can do… what happens when it’s ignited?”
“That’s what happens.”
I gestured with my chin toward Katrina.
*Fwoosh!*
“Whoa! Whoooa! This is [Dash]!”
She had just used a ‘skill.’
The moment she did, her body shot forward, almost vanishing with a *whoosh!*
It was already impressive on its own, but if she were to use it while kicking off the ground, it would become a charge that even a Sword Master would struggle to react to.
“You can turn skills like that on and off at will.”
“My goodness.”
Of course, that wasn't all.
“Look over there.”
This time, I pointed toward Catch.
He,
*FWOOOSH!*
swung his sword down with tremendous force before nimbly leaping back like a panther with a soft *thump*.
Sea narrowed her eyes.
“It seems like Catch’s enhancement is even greater. Both his strength and speed.”
“Exactly. You can channel the output into specific functions. You can enhance your senses, or focus on reinforcing your strength or speed.”
“That makes a huge difference in a fight, doesn’t it?”
“It does. In auto mode, all stats are fixed at their default values.”
“But if an opponent suddenly puts all their output into strength and strikes…”
“You’d be helpless. That’s why I said the difference is more than double.”
In auto mode, only passive skills like [Shield] and [Inertial Control] were active, and you couldn't turn them on or off at will.
It also consumed mana from the Mana Heart much faster.
But,
even so,
it was an absurd weapon, the likes of which no one had ever seen before.
“And you’re saying it’s this strong even in auto mode. Now I get it. What you said before.”
Sea nodded to herself and continued.
“You said one year for me, one month for you, right?”
“Yeah. Well, we’ll have to see how it actually plays out.”
“With this much power, anything should be possible. But a problem still remains. You can conquer with force, but you can’t win obedience. Without obedience, you can’t move forward.”
A very valid point.
That was my concern as well.
Sea looked up at me intently and asked.
“Do you have a plan? Other than my counter-espionage strategy?”
“Ah, it’s not that I won’t use your plan at all.”
I fluttered the report from Sea that I held in my hand.
“Depending on the situation, I might end up using your plan even more actively.”
“So, what are you planning to do for now?”
“For now…”
I dragged out my words, looking around the training grounds.
My siblings were now almost fully adapted to the Magic Armor.
It wasn't a difficult piece of equipment to get used to in the first place.
That’s what made it a good piece of equipment.
With this, I wouldn't have to worry about them anymore. Since a shield was a default option, they were unlikely to die from most attacks.
And so,
I had power.
A formidable power I could wield without reservation.
What I planned to do with it was,
“I’ll start with a conversation.”
I’d just confront them head-on.
“A very sincere one.”
I’d stand a massive sword behind my back and ask them.
What will you do now?
***
The operation was set for three days later.
In the meantime, I holed myself up in my private training grounds.
For a while, I rested deeply.
I’d reunited with my siblings. I’d stabilized Kinalo.
Now it was time to confront the worries I had been putting off.
“…Did this really protect me?”
What I was looking down at was the completely melted and crumbled ‘Dragon’s Magic Armor.’
The fact that it was broken wasn't strange.
I had pushed its power far beyond its limits.
Just thinking about that time sent a chill down my spine.
Seven heads. A monster that could tear the world apart.
To think I fought something like that.
It wouldn't have been strange if I had died, or at the very least, ended up a cripple like before…
No,
‘How did I actually survive?’
That was the strange part.
‘I’m sure I didn’t kill it. There were three heads left.’
So, Lorraine must have been the one to finish it.
That meant she must have unleashed dozens of mana cannon blasts… How did I survive right next to that, with my armor broken, my aura scattered, and having lost consciousness?
“Did the dragon’s lingering will really protect me?”
There was a voice, faint but clear, that had remained in my ears.
[Thank you.]
Was it a memory? Or a delusion?
I didn't know.
But I didn't know, and yet,
‘If it wasn't for that, my survival makes no sense.’
I decided to assume it was true for now.
That the dragon's lingering will had protected me.
But according to the theories of the ancient era, that was impossible.
‘A lingering will is just that—a remnant, not a soul. It possesses only blind obsession, not true volition, and it can never change.’
The ancients considered this proposition to be truth.
So it made no sense.
A lingering will that had been screaming for my death suddenly expressed gratitude to me?
And even acted on its own volition to protect me?
Impossible.
A lingering will, left with only blind obsession, could never change.
It didn't make sense, but…
I decided to assume it happened anyway.
‘There’s something here.’
A gut feeling.
A strong intuition that this mystery might hold the key to reaching Sword-Self Unity.
I sank into thought.
Once again, I used the process of elimination.
I conjured up all sorts of scenarios and erased the impossible ones.
The single possibility that remained at the end.
It illuminated the path before me like a magic lamp lit in the dark of night.
‘Volition. The dragon’s lingering will mixed with my own.’
Clue number one.
Perhaps the dragon, in life, had been killed by something like that ‘Apostle’?
The lingering will, which at first had only screamed blindly for death, changed its tune to ‘Kill that thing for me’ after spotting the Apostle.
I wanted to kill the Apostle, and the dragon’s lingering will also wanted to kill the Apostle.
As a result, my will aligned with the dragon's lingering will, and the two finally merged.
‘That might be why the lingering will changed. A lingering will mixed with volition was no longer just a lingering will; it became something more.’
It vaguely made sense.
Why the dragon’s lingering will suddenly changed its attitude and protected me.
However, my thoughts didn't stop there but traveled even further.
At that moment, the lingering will mixed with my volition and became something different… and that something different was imbued into Vanroah.
Yes. ‘Imbued.’
It was definitely imbued.
The moment I recalled that, the teachings of Grand Duke Laitena flashed through my mind.
[Chunggeom is the art of forging your own sword with your soul. When the sword that begins in your own little universe dyes even the sword in your hand, Chunggeom is complete.]
Chunggeom.
The realm of the ancient Sword Masters.
Those were the words he had spoken so casually, saying he would first show me the destination.
They now echoed in my head.
If ‘forging your own sword’ meant forging my own will, like my own personal blade…
And if imbuing that will into a physical sword was the realm of Chunggeom and the way to create a Sword Kang…
‘In that moment… I had one fingertip on the threshold of the Sword Master’s realm.’
Goosebumps shot down my spine like a lightning strike.
‘That’s why I was able to cut it. That monster.’
This, too, was an intuition.
That thing called an Apostle was likely something of a higher dimension than me.
Just as an arrow in a painting cannot strike a person outside the painting, just as a blade in a dream cannot cut a person outside the dream, a sudden realization came to me that I should not have been able to slay it.
The reason it was possible,
was because, at that moment, I had touched the realm of Chunggeom, even if only by the tip of my finger, the edge of my nail.
‘But how?’
How did I, who was stuck even before Sword-Self Unity—the symbol of a top-tier Expert, let alone the Sword Master's Chunggeom—leap two stages to reach that place?
Even if the dragon's lingering will and my own had mixed to create something new…
‘Ah…!’
There are moments like that.
Moments when revelation upon revelation pours down endlessly like a sudden shower.
[Although it’s classified as a separate realm called Geomtak, it is ultimately nothing more than a process leading to ‘Sword-Self Unity.’]
It echoes again.
The Grand Duke’s voice.
If Geomtak was merely a process leading to Sword-Self Unity,
‘Couldn’t Sword-Self Unity be merely a process leading to Chunggeom?’
That’s why it was possible.
To leap over two stages.
The stages were a human distinction; the true path was a continuous line from beginning to end.
The performance of the Magic Armor, the dragon's lingering will mixed into my own, my heightened consciousness and concentration—a combination of various coincidences had allowed me to step on the shadow of something standing at the end of that path.
*Saaaa—*
The goosebumps gradually subsided.
My mind was infinitely calm, and now I understood.
As if standing on a high hill, the path I had to walk was laid out clearly before me, stretching far into the distance.
‘Now I finally understand. What you said back then.’
[It can be described less as communion and more as convergence, and then transcendence. The paths up a mountain are all different, but everyone meets at the summit. There, they meet and transcend.]
Convergence.
That signified the realm of a top-tier Expert, Sword-Self Unity.
Transcendence.
That signified the Sword Master, the realm of Chunggeom.
Transcendence after convergence.
Just as the dragon’s lingering will and my own had become one, the first step was to unite the will of the sword and my own will. That was convergence.
To clearly forge the single will to ‘cut,’ and to merge the will of the sword and my own.
That was Sword-Self Unity.
After that came transcendence.
To go beyond the simple will to ‘cut.’
To forge ‘my own sword’ and let it overflow, dyeing even the sword in my hand, and transcending together.
That was Chunggeom.
So this was it.
The realm I had unknowingly stepped into on the day of my metamorphosis.
It was right here.
I drew Vanroah.
I swung it slowly.
No,
I danced with it.
‘To cut.’
I performed a dance that held only that single intent.
Like two different beings meeting at the summit and becoming one.
Vanroah disappeared, and I disappeared.
All that remained was simply the dance of the blade.
A sword dance.
*Vwoooong! Vwong—!*
The deep blue aura began to overflow from Vanroah.
Just like on the day I achieved my metamorphosis, the aura swelled, becoming a whale, a lake, a storm.
Joyful, and so very joyful,
I once again lost track of time.
By the time I came to my senses, it was already night.
The broken moon cast a soft glow over the training grounds.
“Ah.”
I see.
Another truth revealed itself to me.
I had just entered the path of the highest level.
But when the day came that I walked this path to its end and gazed upon the realm of Chunggeom, then…
‘I’ll be able to cut even things that are not of this world.’
Like a Sword Master, despite being a top-tier Expert.
I would be able to imbue my blade with my will, however small and faint it might be.
Because, through a series of coincidences, I had already glimpsed the very edge of Chunggeom.
*Zzzrr—*
A thrill ran through my body.
I stood still, savoring the afterglow.
A time when everything was simply fragrant.
“Teacher!”
A voice suddenly pulled me out of my reverie.
It was Seklan.
“The operation is tomorrow! Shouldn’t you be resting?!”
It’s tomorrow already?
Looks like I spent two full days just swinging my sword.
“Oh, thanks. I was just about to head in.”
I replied, calming the lingering tingle of goosebumps as I turned to leave.
“But Seklan.”
“Yes.”
“How long are you going to keep calling me teacher?”
“Ah? Well… our first meeting was like that, so it’s not easy…”
“Is that so. Anyway, I’ve said my piece. Feel free to speak casually whenever. Like Daisy.”
“Yes! I will when I feel comfortable!”
“Alright, you punk.”
I ruffled Seklan’s hair and headed for my bedroom.
We leave tomorrow, so I should get a good night’s rest today.
***
That night,
before falling asleep, Lansen was struck by a question.
‘I’ve entered the state of Sword-Self Unity now… but I still don’t get that.’
The supreme state of aura that Kain Manus had shown him.
Grand Master.
The path to reach that place was still a complete mystery.
‘I don’t think just cramming my body full of aura now would do it…’
Aura that remained in the air even after being dispersed.
Aura that bloomed from thin air, independent of a sword.
The Soul Blade, the symbol of a Grand Master.
How in the world did one do that?
As he quietly pondered this,
Lansen did not know.
*Snip—*
In the training grounds where he had spent the last two days, a single leaf had just been sliced off its branch.
That a minuscule trace of aura still remained there, floating slowly.
*Snip—*
That wisp of deep blue aura had just cut another small leaf before vanishing.