Sword Master With One Strike Kill - Chapter 17

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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One-Strike Kill Swordmaster Episode 17

Episode 17. A Moment of Realization (5)

* * *

Gulp-.

Adelia swallowed her dry saliva.

The sight of the Celestial Dragon filling the night sky was overwhelming in itself.

The hand gripping her sword trembled violently. It was the aftermath of facing the monster wave that had just attacked.

‘…In this situation, I’m supposed to hold out against the Celestial Dragon for 10 minutes?’

It was impossible.

Even in perfect condition, her chances of victory would be slim, so how much worse would it be with her exhausted body?

However, Adelia didn’t voice her inner thoughts.

Having decided to receive The Protagonist’s teachings, she had no choice but to follow his orders exactly.

‘I have no idea why a divine beast would attack humans though…’

Divine beasts.

They were the eyes of the Elders and observers watching over this world.

Unless it was something truly significant, divine beasts didn’t interfere in human affairs. At least, that was the knowledge Adelia had learned from her family in childhood.

But now, making a mockery of those teachings, the Celestial Dragon was trying to attack her.

‘…The only thing certain is that this is a serious situation.’

Clench-.

Adelia bit her lip.

A chilling cold ran down her spine. Something was going terribly wrong.

The volatile situation was problematic, but the divine beast’s abnormal behavior meant something had gone wrong with the world’s balance.

‘But…’

Adelia gripped her sword’s handle tightly once more.

‘…Even if I worry about the reason, nothing will change.’

Suddenly, a voice echoed in Adelia’s mind.

It was the first teaching that Gaon had given her.

─A sword strike born from a complicated mind can never be clean. So when you draw your sword, forget your worries and focus only on that moment.

Swoosh-.

Recalling the Swordmaster’s advice, Adelia closed her eyes.

Then she took another breath and cleared her complicated thoughts.

“Whew…”

Right.

The only thing important to her right now was ‘realization’.

So now was the time to wash away complicated worries and focus solely on the enemy before her.

“…”

Step-.

Opening her eyes, Adelia slowly walked toward the Celestial Dragon.

Though she was heading to fight an opponent far stronger than herself, there was no wavering in her steps.

“The Protagonist.”

Adelia’s voice rang out, cutting through the wind.

Despite the raging thunder, her voice was crystal clear.

“I have only brought you disappointment until now.”

The first time she faced The Protagonist, she was paralyzed with fear and could do nothing.

And the moment she nearly collapsed helplessly before Peterpan.

Those humiliating memories flashed before Adelia’s eyes.

“In The Protagonist’s eyes, each of my actions must have looked pathetic.”

She was so pathetic herself.

At the same time, she could realize it. It was because she couldn’t overcome such crises that she couldn’t break through the wall before her.

She wanted to change. She wanted to surpass the limits blocking her path.

This was why she didn’t stop walking despite the Celestial Dragon’s overwhelming presence crushing down on her entire body.

“So this time, I will show you.”

Adelia’s eyes sharpened. The very next moment, a blue-green aura began to envelop her body.

“I don’t know if this is courage or recklessness, but…”

Kieeeek-!

The Celestial Dragon’s massive shadow struck down at Adelia.

Strength entered the hand gripping her sword.

In her eyes, now free of worries, only the Celestial Dragon’s form was reflected.

“…Even if I stake my life, I will prove that I am qualified to receive The Protagonist’s teachings.”

Shing-!

The blue-green sword let out a sharp, fierce cry.

Hold out against the Celestial Dragon for 10 minutes. That was the test The Protagonist had given her.

…This time, she would definitely pass his test.

* * *

In every RPG game, leveling up becomes harder as you reach higher levels.

This is because the absolute amount of experience points needed increases accordingly.

Especially in Lost Elder’s case, that difference was extreme.

The gap between levels 90 and 91 was much greater than the difference between levels 70 and 80.

Kieeeeeek──!

In this situation, telling someone who’s only level 77 to fight the Celestial Dragon? For 10 whole minutes?

It was an absurd command.

Though I had given the order myself, it was truly a reckless act.

It was literally no different from an ant facing an elephant.

‘But…’

【Lv. 78】

‘…If that person is Adelia, then it’s a different story.’

Lv. 78.

Adelia’s level had already risen by one stage.

By facing the Celestial Dragon and crossing the threshold between life and death repeatedly, she had surpassed her own limits.

‘I can see her growing moment by moment.’

At first, she was busy barely avoiding the Celestial Dragon’s attacks.

But as time passed, Adelia’s movements became more precise, and sometimes she even found opportunities to counterattack.

Adelia pushing through the storm created by the Celestial Dragon’s wing beats. Her figure deflecting lightning with her blue-green sword was truly wondrous.

‘Indeed, she deserves to be called the character with the greatest potential in Roel.’

Kwarrrung, kwarung-!

I had already moved away from the Celestial Dragon’s attack range.

Even with lightning striking everywhere, finding a safe zone was child’s play.

Thanks to experience forged through 200 playthroughs, I knew virtually ‘everything’ about that creature. All of the Celestial Dragon’s patterns, weaknesses, and abilities.

But I couldn’t utilize that knowledge right away.

…For now, all I could do was wait until the cooldown for 【Ritardando True】 ended.

‘Of course, this wait won’t last much longer.’

Kwaaaaang-!

Just then, the Celestial Dragon’s tail struck Adelia hard.

Though she barely managed to defend against the attack, unable to overcome the recoil, she flew through the air and crashed into the ground.

“Kgh, kghh.”

Adelia got up like a roly-poly toy.

Gritting her teeth, she charged at the Celestial Dragon once more.

…No, more precisely, she tried to.

‘She’s at her limit.’

I could see that Adelia’s movements had noticeably slowed.

Her breathing was rough, and the hand holding her sword trembled endlessly.

Similarly, her blue-green aura was gradually fading as well.

“…Ah.”

Thud-.

Sure enough, Adelia couldn’t take more than a few steps before collapsing.

She barely managed to lift her upper body with her face covered in blood and dirt.

She tried to stand up by pushing against the ground, but her legs simply wouldn’t obey.

Kieeeeek-!

The Celestial Dragon roared as it prepared its final strike.

Adelia gritted her teeth.

Then she muttered as if brainwashing herself.

“Not yet… it’s not over yet….”

Step-.

I walked forward.

Adelia, who had been muttering to herself as if possessed, suddenly looked up.

Then she stared intently at me as I passed by her side.

Though the surroundings were incredibly noisy due to the storm, my footsteps seemed to echo clearly in all directions.

“I, I am…!”

“That’s enough.”

I cut off Adelia’s words.

“You held out well for 10 minutes.”

“…!”

At those words, Adelia’s eyes widened greatly.

“Then, then….”

Adelia’s lips trembled several times.

With an expression of pent-up emotions rising to her throat.

“Then… do I have the qualifications…?”

“You already proved your qualifications yourself. From the very day we first met.”

I recalled when I first met Adelia.

─I don’t mind losing an arm. I don’t mind having a leg cut off.

─….

─If I can just gain enlightenment and advance to the next level… I’m prepared to sacrifice everything.

It was dialogue I had never heard even after playing Roel 200 times.

But….

That’s precisely why Adelia’s words resonated even more deeply with me.

━━━━━━━━━━━━

【Ritardando True】

(Available for use)

━━━━━━━━━━━━

“You said you didn’t mind losing an arm.”

Step-.

I approached the Celestial Dragon.

It just stared at me blankly with rather bewildered eyes.

That was understandable.

How absurd must it be for a mere level 1 human to approach without any fear?

When it should be busy finishing off Adelia, it probably didn’t even feel such a creature was worth its attention.

“You also said you didn’t mind having a leg cut off.”

Most importantly, the Celestial Dragon had a particular habit.

It wouldn’t attack insignificant creatures first unless they invaded a specific territory.

…And level 1 was certainly low enough to be called insignificant.

In other words, I could approach the Celestial Dragon without being attacked up to the ‘safe distance’ I knew.

“I’ve seen your resolve clearly.”

Step-.

Moving my feet, I gripped the feather sword’s handle tightly.

Dark blue veins began to bulge on my thin forearm.

Though my strength stat was only 2, that was enough. All I had to do was draw a sword lighter than a feather.

Ting-!

〔Available for use〕

…The 12-star skill that had been gray began to shine with brilliant rainbow colors once again.

“This makes it the third time.”

Barbarian the Slayer of Men, Peterpan the kidnapper of Dawnguard.

And now, the Celestial Dragon as well.

Thus, Adelia would be someone who witnessed me using 【Soul of the Sword Master】 no less than three times.

“Watch carefully.”

Though until now she probably hadn’t had the leisure to properly observe my sword.

If Adelia focused all her concentration on this ‘single strike’.

She, more talented than anyone, would surely gain great enlightenment from watching my sword.

“Watch closely and engrave it in your eyes.”

…And those words were meant for myself as well.

I too was someone who had witnessed the use of 【Soul of the Sword Master】 multiple times. No, I hadn’t just ‘witnessed’ it but had directly ‘experienced’ it.

As I mentioned before, Roel has a unique leveling system.

Players can grow through enlightenment gained from repetitive actions, training, or actual combat. It’s a growth mechanism identical to reality.

‘Then why couldn’t I grow?’

Even after investing a whopping 179,312,341 points to max out my 【Sword】 talent.

Even with such talent and experiencing a sword master’s strike twice.

Why couldn’t I achieve any growth at all?

The reason was quite simple.

‘…Well, for a player to take certain actions, there must be a proper ‘foundation’ in place.’

Something I had thought about when customizing this concept play character.

To wield heavy weapons, you need corresponding strength or stamina stats, and to handle magic, you need sufficient mana or intelligence stats as a foundation.

As I’ve said countless times, there was a reason why rankers mainly raised hexagonal characters.

In the Roel world, no matter how high one talent might be, if other stats were lacking, the character couldn’t fully demonstrate their abilities.

━━━━━━━━━━━━

Strength: 2

Agility: 1

Stamina: 2

Mana: 1

Cognition: 1

…

━━━━━━━━━━━━

This is a fact I can understand just by looking at my own case.

With my strength, agility, and stamina only at 2, I can’t wield any weapon other than the Feather Sword.

With my mana at a mere 1, I can only use the Soul of the Sword Master I barely obtained for 0.01 seconds.

Most importantly, with my cognition stat at 1, I can’t even properly perceive the swordsmanship I unleash in an instant, can I?

‘All of this happens because my foundation is lacking.’

But.

What if there was a way to fill my lacking stats, even if just for a moment?

In other words, what if that ‘instant’ of 0.01 seconds could be stretched endlessly?

‘And so….’

Even with my pitiful cognition ability of just 1.

What if I could witness in detail the moment when a 12-star mythical grade skill activates?

Ding-!

〔You have used the Authority Skill: 【True Ritardando】.〕

The moment I passed the safe distance and entered the Celestial Dragon’s ‘attack range’.

With my eyes wide open, I immediately used 【Ritardando】.

Tick-!

Tick-!

Tick-!

Tick-!

The sound of a second hand echoes from all directions.

Blue lightning split the sky.

That lightning could no longer be called a flash.

The beam of light that used to disappear in the blink of an eye was now descending toward me slowly, very slowly.

Whoooosh-.

Raindrops hung suspended in mid-air.

As if someone had scattered crystal beads across the sky, the world was reflected upside down in each of those transparent droplets.

The storm created by the Celestial Dragon’s wingbeats now danced leisurely.

Broken rock fragments floated in the air. Even the sharp cracks along their edges were clearly visible.

A slow heartbeat echoed in my ears. Thump. And only after a long time passed, again. Thump.

Kwarrrrrrrrung──!

The lightning unleashed by the Celestial Dragon approached right before my eyes.

Even within this endlessly confined time, the movement of that lightning was incomparably fast.

However, it wasn’t so fast that I couldn’t react, so I waited calmly while measuring the exact timing.

And the moment the distance between the lightning and me reached within arm’s reach….

〔MP 1/1〕

T

i

i

i

i

i

i

ing-.

〔MP 0/1〕

…Finally, everything about the ‘sword’ began to be captured in my two eyes.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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