“Did he lure us here on purpose? Interesting, but what does he plan to do alone? Shouldn’t he lure us based on who we are?”
Assassin Burns could not hide his astonishment.
It was said that Hyun-soo was a level 307 blacksmith.
“Even if he wasn’t a blacksmith, we are quite well-known in Ares.”
As if to prove it, they received a notification about an unknown status ailment that had bound them.
[Your high resistance will counteract in 2 seconds.]
Indeed, Hyun-soo’s resistance was faster than he himself expected.
The command that caught the quartet was about to be lifted after merely 5 seconds.
Burns was especially unique.
[Assassin’s Base]
[Resists all status ailments instantly.]
[Controls the skill usage time of the one who caused the status ailment for 10 seconds.]
Immediately unleashing his power, Burns moved.
“Turns out well, that sword looks very precious at a glance. Where did he get such a sword?”
Burns was an exceptional assassin.
Ordinary users around level 300 could hardly react to his attacks.
Especially when their skill usage was disabled for 10 seconds.
‘What was that black stream that was sucked into the sword?’
Regrettably, it was too late to stop a skill that had already been activated.
As Burns plunged into Hyun-soo’s side, he smiled.
‘Gaming is all about control.’
Indeed, it was this very control that had placed him at rank 8 among assassins.
Clang!
Burns’ expression soon turned to dismay.
‘What?’
The man named Hyun-soo lightly lifted his sword to block.
Burns, within his field of vision, created three points of attack and moved accordingly.
Left, left, right.
Swish, swish-swash!
Burns’ expression was filled with confusion.
‘What…?’
He felt an unknown power.
Burns was also a martial arts black belt in reality.
However, Hyun-soo seemed not to have learned real-life martial arts.
Yet, his movements were exceptional.
‘My life-or-death situations have been numerous.’
Hyun-soo realized it.
Before easily blocking Burns’ attacks, he had been worried.
It was his first time seriously fighting against players known as strong.
And he realized it.
‘I have grown.’
Though there was still a long way to go, he had clearly grown.
This growth stemmed from numerous life-or-death experiences unknown to regular users.
The fifth, the fourth Calamity.
The Giant King.
Descendant of Spear Heaven, the Minor World Tree.
‘These have combined to make me who I am today.’
Hyun-soo forcefully swung his sword upward.
Ssskreeek-
[A critical hit has occurred.]
[You have received 54,313 damage.]
“Arghhh!”
Burns, slashed diagonally, was looking at a notification he had never experienced before.
‘Da-damage in the 50,000s…!?’
Burns had indeed met many strong opponents here.
Among them was a swordsman within the top 40 national rankings.
That swordsman’s damage output was in the 20,000s.
[HP falls below 70%.]
‘Even though I’m an assassin, this is…!’
It was beyond common sense. Fortunately, the status ailments of the other three had also been lifted.
Dun, the Mountain Keeper.
[Mountain Keeper]
[Becomes 30% stronger in the mountains.]
In the mountains, he was a force not even top 30 rankers could easily handle.
Especially dangerous in the mountains due to the effect included in his ‘Mountain Keeper’ skill.
[The power of Mountain Keeper instantly attracts nearby monsters.]
It happened in an instant.
All the monsters of the Blessed Ground were pulled in front of Dun as if dragged there.
Of course, he couldn’t freely control the monsters.
But he could at least designate a single target to attack exclusively.
[Target designated.]
[Snowfield’s Etti Lv.331]
[Snowfield’s Orc Lv.325]
[Snowfield’s Ogre Lv.339]
There were about sixty creatures.
And their levels were significantly higher than Hyun-soo, who was in front of them.
Of course, killing Hyun-soo might turn out to be a dangerous move for them too.
But Dun, as the Mountain Keeper, had enough ability to avoid that bad move.
Kukukung, Kukukukung-
And Hyun-soo’s expression was filled with dismay.
“No matter how monstrous your damage output is, you can’t handle this many!”
Dun was a high-ranker.
He could stand in that place because he thought differently from ordinary people.
Dun had seen the unthinkable damage output when Burns was slashed.
He had no doubt it was a momentary power.
Moreover, even if the sword’s attack power had been enhanced, it didn’t mean the physical defense of a level 300 had been enhanced.
Then.
“Kuhooo!”
“Kuaaaa!”
“Kahaha!”
“Kyahaha!”
A horde of about sixty monsters surrounded Hyun-soo.
Creatures ranging from 2 to 4 meters in height were indiscriminately attacking him, centering around him.
And Won and Burns, Bon and Dun used their skills towards Hyun-soo in their midst.
[Tearing Apart]
[Indiscriminate Slicing]
[Throwing Spear Technique]
Using their respective skills, they saw Hyun-soo’s HP drop below 25% within just 3 seconds.
3m.
Suddenly, they laughed maniacally as they broke through the crowd of monsters.
“Crazy fool!”
“To be so arrogant, and to end up like this in less than 10 seconds!”
The quartet couldn’t help but laugh insanely.
Yes, it had only been 10 seconds.
It seemed he had been arrogantly luring them.
They closed the distance even more.
1.5m.
Dun narrowed the distance down to that and anticipated.
‘Thinking of the dying man’s face, I feel good.’
Especially Dun, he had vowed to make him die as painfully as possible.
Still not satisfied, Dun finally faced him through the monsters.
“This damn bird… huh?”
Dun and his companions, who hadn’t seen him due to the tall monsters, were taken aback.
Hyun-soo was being torn apart.
No, just by looking at the HP bar floating above his head, he was dying.
But Hyun-soo, being lynched by a crowd of monsters, was standing firm.
Especially his chilling gaze made Dun shrink back.
‘What, what is this…?’
After all, wasn’t he about to die?
But then, seeing them so close, he said,
“Thank you.”
Hyun-soo had been waiting for a certain notification for a long time.
From level 50 to now.
The notification he had been waiting for all this time came at that moment.
***
Hyun-soo and Barad last met when Hyun-soo was elevated from a viscount to a baron.
After receiving his title, Hyun-soo shared stories with Barad from their past.
Among those stories, Bella was particularly impressed by one.
Bella reminisced about their conversation.
‘Your Majesty, the swordsmanship of the Sword King you taught me is indeed incredible, but strangely, it grows very slowly. Is this normal?’
Barad responded with a wry smile.
‘It’s because you are not yet qualified.’
According to Hyun-soo, he has never seen the Sword King’s swordsmanship level up even once.
The swordsmanship skills used by kingdom soldiers and knights typically level up at every 30 levels.
At the very least, they level up once every 50 levels.
But it was ironic that Hyun-soo, having learned it in his 50s and now exceeding level 250, has never leveled up.
“Your Majesty, may I ask you something?”
“What is it?”
“Why doesn’t the Sword King’s swordsmanship of Baron Hyun-soo grow?”
Barad smiled slightly.
“Bella usually isn’t interested in other people’s affairs.”
However, she had a particular interest in Hyun.
Barad repeated the same words he had told Hyun-soo.
“It’s because at that time, Hyun-soo was too weak.”
He was just a level 50 foreigner at the time.
Barely taking his first steps.
“Even if he had grown stronger, his body wouldn’t have been able to withstand it.”
Normally, leveling up would mean reaching level 100.
Using the Sword King’s swordsmanship at level 100 is already against common sense.
“The more you refine your swordsmanship, the more you improve yourself. But having seen Hyun-soo recently, I felt this.”
Barad thought of Hyun-soo at that time and smiled.
“…He has become a magnificent warrior.”
This meant that Hyun-soo was growing.
It also meant that the time for the Sword King’s swordsmanship to grow was approaching.
“Like Hyun-soo said, the growth of the Sword King’s swordsmanship must have felt ridiculously slow.”
By normal standards, other users would have increased their swordsmanship level by at least 5.
“The interesting thing is that this one time will show all the growth that has happened so far.”
“……!”
Bella understood the meaning of those words.
Although much slower than others, once it grows, it would be better than the growth of five levels in other skills.
Bella realized.
‘This is the real essence of the Sword King’s swordsmanship…’
The growth of swordsmanship is finite.
Once you create a level 9 swordsmanship, you can’t grow it further and need to learn a new skill.
But that is not an easy task.
However, though slow, once it grows, its power encompassing five levels of growth allows it to grow longer and stronger than ordinary swordsmanship.
Bella suddenly became curious.
‘Just once.’
She wondered how much power that one growth would have.
***
It was a long-awaited moment for Hyun-soo.
[Sword King’s swordsmanship levels up.]
The skill proficiency, which had been extremely difficult to increase, rose sharply at the moment he reached level 300.
Also, Hyun-soo, surrounded by monsters, was not dying.
It was to fill the 99.1% proficiency of the Sword King’s swordsmanship.
It wasn’t necessary to fill it.
‘The range of the monsters extends well beyond 20 meters.’
Hyun-soo needed a means to catch them all at once.
[You are holding Asnium.]
[HP has fallen below 10%.]
[HP recovers up to 15%.]
So he had waited with a strategy of giving up flesh to take bone.
Level 250.
During that vast leveling up, he felt a thrill from the single level up of the Sword King’s skill.
It was beyond his own satisfaction; it was awe-inspiring.
Dun, the Mountain Keeper, peered through the monsters.
“Thank you.”
“……?”
Dun couldn’t understand what he meant.
What is there to thank for?
“Kill him!”
Kiiiiing-
A piercing cry that numbs the senses.
[The Cry of the Sword]
The essence of the Cry of the Sword lies in its indiscriminate slashing.
[Cuts through enemies 50% faster.]
[Slashes all recognized enemies with 230% additional damage indiscriminately.]
[Even if not directly slashed, it cuts within a 30m radius and ignores all defenses.]
Being faster means it can deal 50% more damage than usual.
Moreover, the usual Cry of the Sword had a critical weakness.
It required multiple movements.
He had to lower his knees, breathe lightly, and draw the sword from its sheath.
‘Not anymore.’
The four people who reached close to Hyun-soo to stab or use skills on him were stunned.
And then, Hyun-soo swung up a supremely enhanced sword technique, over 610% strengthened.
Purluk-
Originally, the sound of the Cry of the Sword was ‘kwakwakwak’.
That sound changed.
Kururururururuk, kwajajajajajak-!
The sound of hundreds of blades being swung.
Dun couldn’t understand.
‘…What?’
The snow-covered mountain.
All the monsters surrounding Hyun-soo were being slaughtered and falling.
‘What am I even looking at…?’
His own allies were turning to ash.
The dozens of split monsters were the same.
Thud-
‘What the hell is this guy!’
Hyun-soo, who pointed his sword at the neck, smiled coldly.
The clear reason why he thanked Dun was now evident in front of him.
[Experience points tripled, drop rate tripled are applied.]
To the sixty-odd monsters, and to the quartet.
An extraordinary notification struck him.
Cliche Novel 