"Hmm."
[This ID has been banned by the Infinite Regression Manager.]
[Ban Duration: 1 hour] / [Reason: Did you think I wouldn’t know!!!]
[Moderator: Not an Eraser]
I’d been purged.
The head mod had caught me stirring things up. They’d figured out my pattern already.
Had I posted too quickly? Or did the head mod have some ability that let them identify people?
‘I can still see the voting results, so it’s not a huge problem, but...’
From now on, I needed to be more meticulous and thorough.
[Everyone, please stop.]
[Author: Not an Eraser🔸]
The Infinite Regression Gallery is a place where we communicate to forget our loneliness.
We’re all in difficult circumstances, and we all know everyone else is struggling too. It’s a place where we can at least have fun and laugh together.
A certain amount of showing off is fine, but putting other people down isn’t.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all get along and laugh together...?
Please make sure there are never any fights or disputes.
If a conflict does arise, please come to me first.
Please keep the gallery clean, everyone!
Because I believe in all of you...!
"..."
I quietly turned my head toward the newly posted thread.
It was only a post, yet simply reading it made shame well up inside me.
The head mod’s sincerity came through so clearly that I felt more guilty than I’d expected.
‘I should avoid using throwaway accounts whenever possible.’
...At least for today.
Swipe.
────
1. Swordsman - 685 votes
2. Mage - 406 votes
.
.
.
────
I looked at the head mod’s post for a moment before checking the voting results.
In just one hour, nearly two thousand votes had been cast.
I’d picked around ten classes, and even that hadn’t been enough—people had written all sorts of other classes in the comments.
‘So it really is swordsman.’
Swordsmen and mages accounted for half the votes.
Maybe it was only natural. I’d expected it, but I still felt oddly dissatisfied.
Even though they were technically first and second place, swordsmen had overwhelmingly more votes.
‘Though that’s really just because there are more of them.’
Considering Espers, necromancers, and classes I’d never even heard of in the comments, the number of votes wasn’t all that important.
I had no intention of following the results blindly, but after reading the comments and new posts, I found myself leaning fairly heavily in one direction.
[Why Swordsmen Are Great.txt]
[Must-read for newbies: Proof that swords are efficient in the tower]
[For men, sword-and-shield is the standard. Yep.]
[Dual swords! Dual swords are the best! Dual swords are the most superior!!]
[Swordsmanship developed to its peak is no different from magic.]
Maybe it was pride in their class, but quite a few posts were written seriously.
‘Honestly, I thought there’d be more posts just tearing other classes down.’
There were many detailed posts giving all kinds of reasons why swords were better.
[Obviously mage, no?]
[It’d be such a waste if that newbie talent doesn’t go into magic]
[Once you reach the upper floors of the Tower of Wisdom, mages are absolutely better for real]
[Why mage is always better even if you can’t reach Ninth Circle]
[Once you get hooked on fire magic, you seriously can’t even look at anything else;]
Some familiar mage usernames had written various posts too, but none of them drew me in as much as the swordsmen’s did.
‘I like being able to just click from range too, though.’
If this were a game, I would have simply picked what I liked. Unfortunately, this was reality.
To avoid dying, to survive, I needed to make a cold-headed choice.
‘Swordsman really does seem better.’
Mages seemed to have a higher ceiling at a glance, but there appeared to be too many restrictions for someone like me, who had to learn from scratch.
Chanting, mana... There were too many concepts I’d never heard of, starting with spirit magic.
For the same reason, rare classes and minority classes looked difficult to learn, and they required a lot of TP as well.
For who I was now, it seemed more fitting to train the simple act of swinging a sword to the absolute limit.
‘And I don’t know what might jump out at me in the Tower of Trials right away.’
Swordsmanship, which I could understand at least a little, would be better.
[Let’s go swordsman~]
[Author: Sword Saint Wiki]
I’ll be asking questions separately later, and someday I’ll send gifts to the people who answer diligently.
[Comments]
Anonymous: Sword. Emperor.
Anonymous: The anguished downvotes from the ranged-clicking scrubs lmao
Baldness Not Stopped Even by a Ninth-Circle Archmage: I’m just deeply disappointed...
dd: Look at this username change lmao
After making a post in the gallery, I checked Starpang again.
I’d decided on my route. Someday, I planned to try magic, other weapons, and other classes too, but I would start as a swordsman.
[Wooden Sword] - 1,000 TP
[A Step-by-Step Guide to Basic Swordsmanship] - 2,500 TP
[Wooden Sword] - 1,000 TP
[Wooden Shield] - 1,000 TP
[『Rare』Basic Parrying Skillbook] - 990 TP
"Hmm..."
I stared at the final option and deliberated.
I had no choice but to exclude things like internal energy and secret manuals.
Martial arts also looked too difficult to master right away.
‘Sword and shield, or greatsword.’
Honestly, two-handed swords and greatswords were undeniably cool as hell.
"It... split a mountain."
That was true, but in any game, one-handed sword and shield being broken was practically a universal rule.
The problem was that if I went with sword and shield and bought the parrying skillbook, I wouldn’t have an offensive skill...
[Total: 2,990 TP]
[Would you like to purchase this?]
‘Screw it.’
I immediately pressed the purchase button on the notification that appeared.
Thinking about it any longer would only make my head hurt.
[Order complete.]
[Remaining delivery time: 5 minutes]
‘Think rationally.’
There was no way a shut-in rice grub like me could read a skillbook and start swinging a sword like it was a game.
To dream about telekinetic sword control or sword aura, I lacked the time to train, weapon specs, and skillbook quality anyway.
Someone like me should carry a shield, hold out even a little longer, and desperately attack whenever I could.
Besides, parrying was cool if you did it well!
Thump. Thump.
"..."
Maybe because I was a guy, my heart was pounding for no reason.
I didn’t know exactly what kind of world this was, but either way, I’d been summoned to another world.
I’d met dependable companions—Wiki—and joined a guild that had my back—the gallery.
And now, thinking about finally getting a proper weapon and setting out to explore made the corners of my mouth rise in anticipation.
The place I would be exploring was a life-or-death gambling den... but that was the same risk I would face exploring this other world anyway.
‘Five minutes is seriously so long.’
It hadn’t felt this long even while waiting for chicken yesterday. I couldn’t wait any longer.
I took little sips of cola and bounced my leg, then, after confirming that one minute remained, left my hideout.
‘Just as I thought, it’s there like it had always been.’
As I stood blankly in the cavern and waited, the items I’d ordered appeared in the center at some point.
Step.
A wooden sword wrapped in cloth, and a round shield large enough to cover my forearm.
And—
‘...Where’s my guidebook?’
The 990 TP parrying skillbook was nowhere to be seen.
I looked here and there, but it wasn’t there.
I blinked several times and even checked whether it was hiding behind the shield, but it simply didn’t exist.
I went back to the hideout just in case, but there was nothing there either.
It was only an empty room, where even the trash from yesterday’s food had vanished once midnight passed.
‘...Fuck, was it a scam listing?’
I didn’t have a single penny left.
If this was the case, I was really screwed.
Thinking that, I opened Starpang with trembling hands, but nothing changed.
There was no way refunds or exchanges existed.
I squeezed my eyes shut, opened them, and collapsed to the ground.
Ding!
[StarWiki Update]
As always, a helping hand of salvation descended from my beloved Wiki.
*
Swipe.
"...Is this right?"
I tilted my head as I looked at the [『Rare』Basic Parrying Skillbook] displayed in Wiki.
I was trying to imitate the stance, but I couldn’t tell whether I was doing it right or wrong.
[Parrying]
-A collective term for deflecting an opponent’s attack to the side using one’s body, weapon, and so on.
-Unlike blocking or evading, parrying redirects an opponent’s attack in another direction, temporarily interrupting a chain of movements.
When I clicked on Wiki’s update, a category called ‘Skillbooks’ had appeared on the left.
Inside it, the parrying skillbook I’d purchased had been organized in an e-book-like format.
It was carefully written in a format convenient for me to view, with content easy to understand.
‘It’s heavier than I thought.’
I steadied my breathing as I looked at the shield in my left hand and the wooden sword in my right.
They certainly weren’t too heavy to carry, but perhaps because I wasn’t used to them, they kept bothering me.
At least it was fortunate that I could use the shield attached to my arm.
[If defense is your goal, the most efficient method is to intervene in the enemy’s attack during its preparation stage.]
[However, if the purpose of parrying is to induce an enemy’s stagger, you must aim for the instant just before their attack reaches its target.]
[The ultimate principle of parrying is to exploit the gap in an attack and completely neutralize the enemy’s strike with minimal force.]
That was roughly the gist of what Wiki said.
I hadn’t expected much from something that cost 990 TP, but it was written more seriously than I’d thought.
I didn’t know whether everything else received explanations of this quality too, but I was honestly satisfied to a surprising degree.
‘There are even clear illustrations of the stances.’
Two-handed swords, one-handed swords, sword and shield.
And beyond that, staffs, bows, daggers, and more... It explained how to parry with every kind of weapon and armor.
Honestly, I wouldn’t have been disappointed even if it had cost twice as much, considering the amount and quality of the content.
"...Though that isn’t really the problem."
If this parrying skillbook had one very minor, tiny issue—
[The most important thing is 『timing』.]
It did not explain in the slightest what that timing actually was.
‘Of course timing is important...’
I knew timing was important for parrying, whether in a fighting game or an RPG.
So how was I supposed to read that timing? If I failed to parry, it was no different from getting hit on top of the weapon I was holding.
[The optimal 『timing』 is the instant the enemy’s attack shines and captures your eye.]
I had absolutely no idea what it meant for an attack to shine and capture my eye.
It felt exactly like reading someone online say, [You’ll figure it out after getting your ass kicked a few times. Yep.]
But if I got hit, I’d die instantly! I couldn’t revive or anything!
‘I should just practice the stances...’
There was nothing I could do now that I’d bought it. I only had around 500 TP left.
All I could do was familiarize myself with the stances as much as possible and build up whatever basic fitness I could.
*
[Day 1]
I picked up the shield. It was heavier than I’d thought.
I swung the wooden sword. My wrist hurt.
"...Am I really supposed to do it like this?"
I was definitely following what it showed, but even though I wasn’t blocking anything or actually hitting anything, my body hurt even more.
[Day 3]
No matter how I thought about it, something was strange. I simply couldn’t feel my stance improving.
Unable to help it, I uploaded a picture to the gallery.
A picture of myself awkwardly holding sword and shield as I stood before an imaginary enemy.
[How’s this stance?]
┗Two Hundredth Swordmaster: Swing it like that and you’ll break your wrist.
┗Anonymous: Where’d you even get that sword? Lmao
┗Anonymous: Stance? If that’s a stance, then lying down and picking your nose is a stance too lmao
"You bastards..."
Couldn’t they put it a little more kindly?
[Day 5]
I’d gotten a little used to it. Sweat dripped down, and I was out of breath.
There was no proper reward, and my arms and legs felt like they were about to break, but I was definitely better than when I started.
[Video]
┗Anonymous: You have no talent.
┗dd: No, don’t do it like that; hold on, I’ll write a post, so follow that.
┗Anonymous: Did you fuck around instead of practicing? You haven’t improved at all.
"...Am I not?"
It looked like I’d improved quite a bit to me, but apparently the Infinite Regression Gallery users didn’t think so.
*
[No, what the fuck is that newbie’s stance;]
[I’ve told him fifty million times not to hold the sword like that]
[How the hell did that guy make it to the tenth floor?]
[It’s not too late. Go be a mage instead]
[Lmao, this is so fucking funny. Did you see the newbie fall over in the video?]
"Assholes..."
A week had passed since I bought the wooden sword, shield, and parrying skillbook.
Since the day I bought them, I had done nothing but train alone in the cavern without climbing the tower again.
-1-
[Apocalypse 355:12:30:45]
[Section 4:12:30:45]
[ 40 / 14 ]
Today marked my tenth day in the tower.
Honestly, I still had plenty of time to train, but my body was starting to demand dopamine.
The survival instinct that had screamed at me to train was ultimately pushed down to second place.
‘Let’s just get a little taste.’
Training was all well and good, but all I was doing now was flailing at thin air.
And not even attacking—defending.
Blocking and knocking away the attacks of an imaginary enemy was more embarrassing than I’d expected.
[Still, he’s better than he was on day one. Yep.]
[He’s probably got about the same level of talent as my dog Poppy]
[What’s funnier is that he’s holding a weapon on his first run and nobody questions it lmao]
[Dual swords!! I’m telling you, switch to dual swords!!]
I had been getting advice through the gallery about things like my attacking posture.
It was embarrassing to take pictures and videos of myself, but I had to live first.
I cropped out my face perfectly anyway, so it wasn’t a big deal.
Compared to uploading pictures of my body now, the attention I’d drawn over the past few days was far more powerful.
[Masters, please read this.]
[Author: Sword Saint Wiki]
This unworthy newbie will climb the tower again starting today.
I will never forget my masters’ teachings...
I will surely reach the top of that tower, call out my masters’ names, and prove my growth.
Please watch over me from the heavens.
[Comments]
Anonymous: That’s a death flag, isn’t it?
Anonymous: This guy couldn’t hold back and is just going off to die.
Two Hundredth Swordmaster: I’ve never had a disciple like you;
Anonymous: Hand out cola before you die@@@@@@
dd: Fuck, who gave you permission to say we’re watching from heaven? We’re not dead yet.
‘Fuck, not a single person is worried about me.’
I clicked my tongue at the gallery and shoved my phone into my pocket.
The head mod was asleep right now. They’d left a comment in the sleep room before disappearing.
Normally, they would have been among those comments, worrying over me with, "Good luck...! You have to be careful...!" Today, I found myself missing the head mod.
Not that they were dead or anything.
Swipe.
I strapped the shield onto my left arm and held the sword in my right hand.
I had tried holding the shield directly too, but it was difficult with this stamina-starved body.
And for parrying, deflecting with the sword seemed to suit me better than using the shield.
‘Though I’ve only deflected things in my imagination.’
Rumbleeeee—
I swallowed hard as I looked at the tower I was returning to after a week.
The way back vanished. Once I went inside the tower, even the door probably wouldn’t open.
‘Still, I worked hard without doing anything else.’
Wouldn’t it work out somehow?
Besides, I still had Wiki’s walkthrough.
In other words, I wasn’t relying solely on my body, this wooden sword, and this wooden shield.
Ding!
So I checked Wiki to look at the cheat-level guide made just for me—and then—
[StarWiki]
-Skillbook: 『Parrying』 automatically activated.
"...Huh?"
I blinked blankly at the mysterious notification that appeared before the walkthrough.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register