Chapter 50: 50. Growth That Makes the Labyrinth City Tremble and Neighboring Countries Stare in Shock

Several weeks had passed since I began training under Master and Cheon Hwayeong.

At first, they sealed off my sight.

Unable to see ahead, my other senses sharpened, and I focused on the sounds ringing in my ears.

Then they sealed off my hearing.

The only useful sense left was touch. The feeling of gripping my sword, the rebound when our blades met—it taught me the timing of the next attack.

When my hands began to tingle and the sensation of holding a sword faded, they sealed off my sense of touch too.

All that remained was my sense of smell. This one was truly hard to get a handle on.

Breathing through my nose alone made my heart feel like it would burst, and all I could smell was my own sweat. What the hell was I supposed to do with that...?

Still, I swung my sword through motions ingrained in my body, trying somehow to detect another scent.

As I continued swinging, Master’s fragrance, one I had smelled countless times, began to drift faintly into my nose.

From then on, I felt the energy people gave off spreading through my mind like mist, faintly radiating toward me.

Just as I barely began blocking attacks, they sealed off my sense of smell as well.

Taste was surprisingly easy.

I never knew the air tasted so sweet.

Was it because of the mucous membranes?

It was a strange way to put it, but when an attack came at me, I could taste heat or warmth.

Master’s final attack at the end of a day’s training felt like drinking ice-cold water after eating a mint.

A crisp, chilly sensation.

When that day’s training ended, I felt my world gradually expanding.

I could perceive the tiny changes I had missed in life, and my senses seemed to grow keener by the day.

From the following training session onward, hell unfolded.

Because all my senses were sealed off.

In a silent darkness where I could feel neither sound nor light nor touch—nothing at all.

I could not tell where my hands and feet were, and it felt as though my body were floating... Calling it a sensation did not even feel right.

It was more like I had vanished from this world, with only my soul remaining.

At first, I was simply anxious.

Was I standing properly? Was I really holding my sword? Was I moving straight ahead?

Everything was uncertain and unfamiliar.

Fortunately, I had at least one signpost.

It was...

[You are doing well. Let us resume our sparring.]

Master’s voice, echoing inside my head.

I wondered how she did it, but she said it was still far too early for me, so I let it go.

Anyway, I simply swung my sword.

Honestly, I was not even sure whether I was swinging it.

Without a body, just thinking about swinging a sword would not make it swing, would it?

Having my senses sealed one at a time was fundamentally different from having them all sealed at once.

At first, I was told I had been kicking up clouds of dirt while flailing my sword around.

Then I was told my sword path had been unstable...

But after repeatedly training while taking the [Single-Thought Resonance Pill], Master said I was beginning to look somewhat presentable.

I wished someone would record a video and show me. Since I could not check for myself, I was gradually...

[Focus.]

...My sense of time had dulled, and with every thought echoing loudly in my head, my stray thoughts kept dragging on.

If I did not at least do this, I felt like I would go mad from anxiety...

Like I would never again be able to draw out that feeling I had when I killed the Orc Hero...

I decided to stop thinking.

Brooding like this would only make my sword path unstable.

I simply kept swinging until the image I had seen that day formed in my mind.

I did not know how long I had been swinging.

I was definitely getting hit right now... When this ended, my whole body would be covered in bluish bruises.

I simply took a step forward and thrust my sword.

In my anxiety, I even tried shielding my head.

Did I get it? No, do not doubt it. I must have blocked the attack.

If I blocked it, then I had seized an opportunity.

I thrust my sword toward the image of Master in my head.

My attack was straight and true. I stabbed directly for her throat.

Would she say I did well...? No. Instead of waiting for her voice, keep swinging.

Master probably twisted her neck to evade it. Then would a horizontal slash come? No, it is coming.

Left? Right? Right.

My arm was already extended, so I should pull back and make distance.

She followed. To steal the timing back, I should twist my body and move forward too.

Too close. Faceless Master rolls her shoulder and tries to shove me away.

I endure the shoulder pressing into my solar plexus. Since we are close, use the fist-and-kick techniques Cheon Hwayeong taught me.

The striking point is too close. With my knee, aim for her side, with the force to smash it apart.

Huh? Master frowned... No, that was just my imagination.

Her final all-out strike is coming. I am certain of it.

I will cut down Master as she charges like a swallow with her center of gravity low, using an overhead stance.

I will even use the wind wrapped around her body. Riding the current, my arm will turn into lightning and chop down.

I could not hear or feel anything, but...

‘I cut her.’

At that moment, Master’s voice rang through my mind.

[Spread your internal energy wide. Imagine everything within your domain.]

Qi was not something that could only be poured into a sword.

I released the internal energy I had been containing within my body and using.

It spread outward through that pitch-black world, centered on the ground where I stood.

My internal energy rippled outward like waves, feeding information back to me.

It felt as though I was finally receiving back everything I had sensed until now.

I blankly watched Master slowly approach me.

She poked my body several times with her fingers, then placed a hand over my eyes...

"Gasp!"

When all my senses returned, it felt as if I had been thrown naked into the bitter cold of midwinter.

"Breathe in through your nose, and out through your mouth."

"Hiss... Hoo..."

"Slowly open your eyes."

A light more brilliant than ever before made my eyes ache.

"Urgh..."

Master smiled and firmly held my bloodied hand.

"Draw in your internal energy."

Come to think of it, I was holding a sword.

When I looked down, qi was undulating around the sword in my grasp.

"Ah..."

Master smiled as she gently pried open my hand.

Squelch...

The sound made by blood that had turned sticky on my hand tickled my ears.

When the sword fell from my hand, Master stroked down my back from top to bottom.

"Stop releasing your internal energy. Good."

The world, which had felt so clamorous, grew quiet.

But...

"How do you feel?"

...

"Amazing."

[Status Window]

Name: Jang Ryu-o

Class: None

Title: [Transmigrant]

Level: 21

HP: 76/850 MP: 30/700, 580/580 Strength: 32 Agility: 30 Stamina: 25 Intelligence: 23 Luck: ¿? 9

Remaining Points: 4

Trait: BUG

Skills: [LV.MAX Slime Body], [LV.1 Intermediate Swordsmanship], [LV.5 Qi Circulation and Meditation], [LV.3 Cloud-Treading Phantom Step], [LV.1 Water Resistance], [LV.3 Poison Resistance], [LV.2 Night Vision], [LV.2 Heavenly Demon Divine Art], [LV.2 Hardening], [LV.1 Mimicry], [LV.3 Warrior’s Charge], [LV.1 Qi Sense]

Inventory

Basic Swordsmanship had become Intermediate Swordsmanship, Cloud-Treading Phantom Step had leveled up, and taking medicinal pills had raised my Poison Resistance...

This really was the best.

**

In just three weeks, I had achieved growth enough to make the Labyrinth City tremble and neighboring countries stare in shock.

Having finished training, I was heading to Cheon Hwayeong’s house.

Using footwork and [Warrior’s Charge].

The essence I ate before training began had given me [Warrior’s Charge].

Normally, it was a skill that let you slam into someone shoulder-first with tremendous momentum, but...

Whoosh—swish!

I was using it like a booster in midair.

It consumed 50 MP.

And I could even use Charge in the air while tracing curves.

At first, I had wanted a strength enhancement, but the more I used it, the more relieved I was that I had gotten [Warrior’s Charge].

After all, my speed in the air had increased by at least one and a half times.

An incredible ability, certain to catch opponents off guard.

Now that I could run along walls too, I was personally putting into practice the rooftop-running I had only ever seen in anime.

‘This feels fucking incredible...’

Leaping over buildings, I soon arrived in front of Cheon Hwayeong’s house.

Just as I was about to open the front door...

Creak!

"Ngh...!"

"Sis?"

She opened the door first and greeted me like this.

Cheon Hwayeong spoke in a brusque voice.

"...You are here."

Cheon Hwayeong had been like that ever since that day.

The kind of state where she would move her lips and shoot furtive glances at me.

Seeing her act that way for no reason made me feel awkward too, somehow.

Even now, seeing Cheon Hwayeong rub her ass like that made me think of something...

[There... no...♥ Hnghh...♥]

[Haa, Sis...]

Smack!

"? Has demonic energy corrupted your brain?"

I rubbed my stinging cheek and went inside.

Cheon Hwayeong glared at me, then her eyes widened.

"...? You fucking lunatic."

"What? Why are you suddenly swearing at me?"

"Do you eat every beneficial thing all by yourself? You are on another level from yesterday again."

Honestly, every time these masters saw through me like this, it amazed the hell out of me.

"No, Sis, how did you know? Can masters see something?"

Cheon Hwayeong gave a snort as though I were ridiculous.

"Ha. An ant has become a stag beetle. Of course I would be surprised. I can see it all."

...I really wanted to teach her a lesson.

Seeing my expression, Cheon Hwayeong pointed at her ass and glared at me.

"Y-you lecher! I told you to forget it!"

"I did not say anything, though?"

"Tch, enough. Go sit down."

I followed Cheon Hwayeong and sat on the bed.

"Come to think of it, what level am I at? You know, third-rate, second-rate, and all that."

Cheon Hwayeong looked at me with a puzzled expression.

"Did your master not tell you?"

"No."

"Come to think of it, did you say you had not lived in the Eastern Continent for long? Tch..."

Cheon Hwayeong nodded and began explaining.

"Third-rate is the starting point for martial artists, the lowest realm. It is the level where one relies on the senses and has barely formed a dantian. Originally, it referred to people of the lowest status."

"Oh, then I am not third-rate."

Cheon Hwayeong looked at me as if I were absurd.

"How did the heavens grant such talent to a lecher...?"

"...Ahem. What comes next?"

"Second-rate is the level where one knows how to use qi. Though it is questionable whether they can truly be said to wield it. It is when one awakens to the senses."

I expected her to call them all trash, but she explained it remarkably well.

"First-rate is the realm where one can be considered to have succeeded in a field of martial arts. One knows how to wield qi and does not rely on the senses."

Cheon Hwayeong stared steadily at me.

"Do you know what efforts martial artists make to become first-rate?"

I shook my head.

"No. I have never seen anyone else train."

"Hoo... Usually, twenty years. Twenty years. Becoming the foremost in any field—that is what the first-rate realm means."

I had encountered the term first-rate plenty of times in subculture media.

Was that not a fairly common realm?

"Aren’t there quite a lot of first-rate martial artists? Becoming the foremost means...?"

"It means it requires that much effort and resolve."

Looking into Cheon Hwayeong’s steadfast eyes, I found it unexpected.

"That is surprising. I thought you would say they were all weaklings?"

"Of course, from my level, they all look much the same. Like the ant becoming a stag beetle I mentioned earlier."

"Then?"

"I simply do not dismiss the effort it took for an ant to become a stag beetle."

Ah... Now that I thought about it, evolving from an ant into a stag beetle was incredible, was it not?

Cheon Hwayeong... I did not realize because she was always grumbling, but she had respect for martial arts, at least.

Cheon Hwayeong looked at me and smirked.

"You presumptuous stag beetle... First-rate. That is the realm you have attained. Apologize to the heavens—you attained it while looking down upon them."

With nothing to say, I merely shot a glare at Cheon Hwayeong as she repeatedly pressed her fingers against my forehead.

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