Sword Master With One Strike Kill - Chapter 3

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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 3

Episode 3. Underworld Arena (2)

* * *

VIP Room.

The top floor of the Underworld Arena with a clear view of the arena.

A person wearing an eagle mask was looking down at the arena with indifferent eyes.

His name was Karayan.

He was the owner of the “Ruin Merchant Guild” that dominated the black market, and the headmaster who oversaw this Underworld Arena.

‘A predictable match with nothing worth watching.’

Karayan clicked his tongue.

This match was designed from the beginning so the slaves could never win.

The slaves starved for days in prison. Moreover, all they were given were rusted weapons.

The probability of such slaves surviving against Barbarian the Slayer of Men approached zero.

‘The audience knows this too as they watch the match.’

Underdog effect?

No, there wasn’t a single person among those watching this match who was rooting for the slaves.

What the audience wanted was a one-sided massacre. Here, the slaves’ role was nothing more than living, moving targets.

─4 people! Only 4 slave gladiators remain! How will Barba finish off these slaves….

Kwaaaaaaaaang───!

Was that why?

The moment an unexpected turn of events occurred that no one had anticipated.

─…Huh?

The arena was instantly shrouded in silence.

“What the…!”

Crash-!

Karayan shot up from his seat.

With eyes wide open, Karayan stared at the arena with an expression of utter disbelief.

Dust slowly rising from the sand.

At its center stood a scrawny slave holding a one-handed sword, standing perfectly still.

Drip, drop-.

And one step in front of the slave.

The corpse of Barbarian the Slayer of Men, whose entire upper head had completely disappeared.

Thud.

Thuuuud-!

As the massive body collapsed helplessly onto the dirt ground, the arena froze in an instant.

In this completely unexpected and shocking situation, the spectators couldn’t even let out a breath.

That terrible silence created the illusion that time itself had stopped.

“….”

What on earth had just happened?

No one could understand the phenomenon that had just occurred.

Something had flashed.

A strong gust of wind swept over the arena, and when they opened their eyes that had been shut due to the fierce wind pressure, Barba was already dead like that.

Yes.

That was all there was to it.

In this illogical and unrealistic situation, the spectators looked down at the arena with bewildered expressions.

Roll roll roll.

Thunk-!

Just then, a dull sound echoed hollowly through the arena.

It was the sound of Barba’s head, which had been rolling on the dirt ground, hitting the outer wall of the arena.

“Ah….”

Only then could Karayan accept the current situation.

‘…Barba is dead.’

So futilely. Without being able to react at all.

“….”

Swish-.

Karayan silently turned his gaze toward the slave who had killed Barba.

A gaunt body. Even those hollow, unfocused eyes.

Certainly, in appearance, he was a man no different from any other slave.

However, the movement he had shown just moments ago was definitely not something an ordinary slave could display.

An abnormal speed that created the illusion that his body had disappeared.

That was a movement only a master of the level of a high-ranking knight called a superhuman, or even higher, could show.

‘…But why would such a skilled person be dragged here as a slave to the Underworld Arena?’

It was incomprehensible.

The slaves of the Underworld Arena were debtors who had been dragged here for failing to repay their debts to the Ruin Guild.

Most were vermin who had become addicted to drugs or gambling, borrowed money recklessly without any sense, and ended up ruined.

But that man was different from such trash.

‘A skilled person equivalent to a high-ranking knight.’

With that level of martial prowess, he could secure a position anywhere on the continent.

There was no way such a person couldn’t repay his debts.

No, there was no reason for him to owe money to the Ruin Guild in the first place.

In this world where strength was everything, how could a master of that caliber lack money?

‘And even if, for some reason, that man really did owe money to the Ruin Guild….’

It also made no sense that he would obediently be dragged here as a slave to the Underworld Arena.

After all, a skilled person who killed even Barba in one strike wouldn’t be defeated by mere loan sharks from the Ruin Guild.

‘Then….’

Gulp-.

Karayan swallowed his dry saliva.

What this current situation meant was just one thing.

‘…That man deliberately let himself be dragged to the Underworld Arena.’

But for what purpose?

“….”

Karayan, who had been pondering for a moment, soon muttered in a quiet voice.

“Roren.”

“…Yes, my lord.”

As soon as Karayan called someone’s name, a figure suddenly emerged from the shadows.

“What did you think of it?”

At that brief question, the man covered in a dark robe hesitated for a moment before answering.

Before long, the man called Roren muttered in a voice tinged with confusion.

“…I couldn’t react at all either.”

Karayan’s expression darkened upon hearing the answer.

Guard warrior Roren.

He was the most skilled swordsman in the Ruin Guild.

He was a skilled fighter who had lasted 4 minutes against the “Violent Dragon Swordmaster,” one of the continent’s twelve Swordmasters, so there was no need to doubt his abilities.

However, even Roren couldn’t follow that man’s speed with his eyes.

“Hah…”

Karayan let out a hollow laugh.

His evaluation of the man who killed Barbarian the Slayer of Men rose dramatically.

After a moment of contemplation, Karayan spoke.

“…Prepare a seat, Roren. It seems I’ll need to have a direct conversation with that fellow.”

* * *

Inside the waiting room after the match ended.

When I glanced forward, I saw a full-length mirror.

On the mirror’s surface, my appearance—which I hadn’t had time to examine until now—was revealed.

Facing my own reflection for the first time, I let out a sigh of relief.

“Phew…”

Dark blue hair that slightly covered my eyes.

Golden pupils that faintly revealed their presence through the strands.

And skin so white it felt pale.

‘Thank goodness I left the appearance customization on default settings.’

It was the basic appearance of the protagonist from the original game’s title screen.

Though I currently looked somewhat unsettling with my gaunt frame and sunken eyes, I knew that as the protagonist, the base template was a handsome face with boyish charm.

Anyway, it was incredibly fortunate that I hadn’t done veteran gamer customization for this playthrough.

If I had customized as usual, wouldn’t I have been mistaken for a monster and killed outright before even being dragged to the Underworld Arena as a slave?

‘Speaking of which…’

I clenched and unclenched my palms with a dazed expression.

‘…That sensation from earlier.’

I could still feel it vividly.

That thrilling sense of omnipotence that had enveloped my entire body right after using the skill.

How should I put it?

It truly felt like I could do anything with a sword.

To the extent that I felt I could cut through everything in this world as long as my will reached it.

…The problem was that the duration was only 0.01 seconds.

━━━━━━━━━━━━

[Active Effect]

While the skill is activated, you reach the ultimate realm.

━━━━━━━━━━━━

‘Anyway, with this I’ve clearly understood the skill’s effect.’

At first, I couldn’t get a good grasp of what the effect was due to the abstract skill name and description.

Soul of the Sword Master, ultimate realm, and such. There was no way I could understand the skill’s effect from those descriptions.

But when I actually used the skill directly, I was able to grasp its effect immediately.

‘While the skill is active, I become a Sword Master.’

Sword Master.

The highest realm a human can reach.

According to the original setting, only twelve people currently exist who have reached this realm.

That’s how rare Sword Masters were.

It was a realm that could only be reached by knights born with talent that appears once in a century, and only after training to the point of death.

━━━━━━━━━━━━

You are the one with the most outstanding talent among tens of millions, no… hundreds of millions of Sword Masters.

━━━━━━━━━━━━

…And I was truly an unparalleled existence even among those Sword Masters.

‘Talent that might appear once among hundreds of millions of Sword Masters.’

It meant that at least during the moment when Soul of the Sword Master was activated, I became the strongest in this world.

The problem was that the duration was only 0.01 seconds… ah, forget it. I’m getting tired of saying this multiple times.

【Lv. 1】

‘…But as expected, killing Barba didn’t level me up.’

Well.

Considering Lost Elder’s ‘setting,’ it was natural.

This game had a different growth system from other ordinary RPGs from the beginning.

To be precise…

Knock knock-.

“…?”

That was the exact moment.

A knocking sound coming from outside the waiting room.

Shortly after, a woman dressed in maid attire carefully opened the door and entered the room.

“The Ruin Guild Master is calling for you.”

Ruin Guild Master.

In other words, the headmaster who operates this Underworld Arena was summoning me.

‘Right. As expected, it’s coming out this way.’

I had anticipated this to some extent.

Standing up from my seat, I followed behind the maid who was guiding the way.

Toward the top floor of the Ruin Guild, where monsters lurked who could take my life with just a flick of their finger.

“…”

Even in this spine-chilling situation, the reason I could maintain my composure was…

━━━━━━━━━━━━

[Passive Effect]

Your ‘Mental Strength’ stat value is permanently set to ‘MAX’.

━━━━━━━━━━━━

…probably thanks to Soul of the Sword Master.

* * *

Perhaps because I had been locked in prison for five days and then engaged in a bloody match?

My condition was worse than a sewer rat.

A terrible smell wafted from my body, covered in dirt and bloodstains.

The maid also judged that meeting the Ruin Guild Master in this state would be unreasonable, so she first took me to a simple bathroom.

Swoooosh-.

After taking a quick shower and changing into clean clothes, I followed behind the maid.

As I walked through the dark corridors of the Underworld Arena, the setting of this game suddenly came to mind.

【Ruin Merchant Guild】

This was the name of those I was going to meet.

They were an illegal guild that dominated the continent’s black market.

Even giving them the benefit of the doubt a hundred times over, the Ruin Guild could never be called good people.

They were a group that engaged in human trafficking, drugs, and various other illegal activities, pursuing nothing but ‘money’.

Just looking at the Underworld Arena operated by the Ruin Guild, you could tell how vicious a guild they were.

‘The headmaster of this guild is someone called Karayan.’

Karayan.

He was a big shot who had seized control of the continent’s black market through his innate insight and business acumen alone.

In the world of LoEl where military power equals wealth, he was also an amazing merchant who uniquely built his power through wealth.

‘That’s exactly the extent of the official setting known to LoEl players.’

Lost in such thoughts as I walked, I soon arrived at my destination.

“We’ve arrived.”

The maid who had stopped walking carefully opened the door.

Creak-.

The door opened with the sound of old hinges. The first thing that caught my eye was a translucent level window.

【Lv.84】

Level 84.

It meant this was one of the top experts on this continent.

I lowered my gaze a bit more.

A person wearing an eagle mask was sitting in a chair, staring at me intently.

“So.”

“….”

“You’re the gladiator who killed Barba.”

A man’s voice flowed out from behind the mask.

At that chilling voice filled with charisma, the servants in the room flinched and trembled.

But why was it?

Despite this being a situation where I should feel tense, my heart was infinitely calm.

Perhaps it was because Karayan was moving exactly as I had expected.

“I have no desire to talk with a puppet.”

“…What?”

As soon as I finished speaking, a bewildered voice leaked from the eagle mask’s mouth.

Regardless, I focused once more on the level window floating above the eagle mask’s head.

【Lv.84】

Didn’t I mention this earlier?

Karayan was a merchant who had risen to the high position of Ruin Guild master solely through his innate insight and business acumen.

‘Karayan’s combat power is definitely not high.’

Karayan’s level was merely that of an ordinary person.

He was able to rise to become the Ruin Guild master thanks to his exceptional sense for reading the flow of money.

Therefore, that level 84 monster sitting there was not Karayan.

‘Judging by the circumstances, it’s probably Karayan’s bodyguard, the shadow knight Roren.’

There was nothing particularly strange about it.

Even in the original game, Karayan always hid behind his puppets.

And more than anything….

“If you’ve called a guest, show the proper courtesy befitting that, Karayan.”

“….”

“Don’t borrow your puppet’s mouth, come out yourself.”

…Having played LoEl for 200 cycles, I knew Karayan’s true identity hidden behind the veil.

Swoosh-.

Finishing my words, I turned my head toward my back.

More precisely, toward the ‘maid’ who had guided me here.

“Surely you’re not planning to just stand there and play dumb after I’ve said this much.”

“…!”

“…!”

As soon as I finished speaking, the pupils of everyone in the room began to shake.

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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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