-Aurora: Deep-Sea Escape Log, Day 12. Is There No Way to Get Strong Fast? (Stream)
That was the title of the broadcast I currently had on.
Originally, I had intended to grow stronger slowly, for the sake of survival.
Yes, I had intended to.
But the reason I’d made a stream title like this was…
“I think I’m going to die soon. Thank you for loving me, and goodbye…”
ㄴTruth Scholar: Seriously!?
ㄴHealingIsViolence: This looks fake no matter how you look at it. You’re perfectly fine.
ㄴEducation Master: …What happened?
I glanced at the chat window, then immediately opened my mouth to answer Education Master’s question.
To explain the thing I had seen yesterday.
“Yesterday, I went to scout out the weapons warehouse, and there was a reaper there!”
ㄴTruth Scholar: Is it undead?
“Yes, probably. It was wearing a black hood and even holding a great scythe.”
It looked like something you’d see on the road to the underworld.
Even the skull beneath the hood wasn’t human, but something like a deer’s skull.
ㄴTruth Scholar: If it’s undead, holy power would be best…
ㄴQuickdraw Sword Saint: If you have the strongest sword art, quickdraw, you can instantly kill the likes of undead…
ㄴHealingIsViolence: Don’t listen to the Sword Saint geezer. High-grade undead regenerate in less than a second even if you cut them down with swordsmanship.
ㄴQuickdraw Sword Saint: Then isn’t it fine if you cut them before they regenerate?
ㄴHealingIsViolence: Please stop talking based on your own standards.
Hmm, holy power.
It certainly seemed difficult to defeat the reaper with my current swordsmanship.
And wasn’t holy power the ultimate counter to undead?
If I had something like holy water, maybe there was a chance I could win…
ㄴHealingIsViolence: But you probably can’t use holy power.
“Huh? What do you mean…”
HealingIsViolence answered my question point by point.
ㄴHealingIsViolence: Holy power is like energy left behind by gods.
And most holy power is contained in sunlight.
“What does that have to do with… Ah.”
I was about to ask what that had to do with anything, since the sun was something you could see just by looking up at the sky, but then I realized where I was.
The deep sea, where all I could see was an ancient city and horrifying eyeballs.
There wasn’t even proper light here, let alone the sun…
ㄴHealingIsViolence: Items like holy water probably won’t mean much either. The basic premise is that there’s sunlight.
Well, holy water made by a saintess would be different.
HealingIsViolence’s words were truly violent, just like his nickname.
Because they reminded me once again that my location was the worst possible place…
It was a situation that only made me sigh.
ㄴTruth Scholar: Then can’t you just put off the weapons factory until later?
Is there any reason to kill the reaper right now in the first place?
“I’d like to do that too…”
I let out a sigh.
Of course I wanted to avoid something like a reaper.
But the scanner had blocked off that possibility.
It was yesterday evening.
When I had set out to scout under Asoluzn’s orders.
Normally, I would have gone to the food factory…
ㄴTruth Scholar: Did you not go to the food factory because you got scared?
“Ahem! …That’s true, but still. How am I supposed to enter after seeing that factory?”
After seeing that guard machines were being mass-produced at the food factory,
I changed course to the next area, the weapons factory.
Since it was the next zone, it wasn’t very far, and I soon arrived at the weapons factory.
And then I saw the reaper.
Because of its gloomy atmosphere, I had no choice but to hide behind a building and watch.
It even literally shredded a cyclops that was nearby.
The sight of its great scythe moving at tremendous speed, as if a whip were being swung, could only be described with the word overwhelming.
Seeing it look like the ruler of an entire zone,
I wondered if the prism might not work on it either.
And that prediction wasn’t wrong.
I infused mana into the prism and created a distortion field.
Then I shared a portion of that mana field with a nearby stone.
Now, the stone wrapped in the distortion field…
ㄴHealingIsViolence: You threw it? What were you trusting in?
“Its movement speed itself was slow, so it was worth trying.”
Even when catching the cyclops, it had walked over slowly.
It was just that something you could call sword qi flew out and instantly killed the cyclops.
Even so, the reason I tried it was because I was behind a building.
Strangely enough, even the reaper couldn’t cut through the building.
At any rate, the stone that flew in a straight line headed toward the reaper, and then—
Slice.
It was cut down in midair without the slightest warning.
As expected, it didn’t seem like it would work on an undead with no eyes.
Even after splitting the stone, the reaper showed no interest in my vicinity.
To gain a little more information, I took out the scanner.
It could have charged at me like the cyclops, trying to kill me.
But the current me had enough ability to run away.
So I pointed the scanner at the reaper.
And nothing much happened. Only the scanner’s information appeared.
-Old Reaper
-This entity is one whose n██ur█ was altered due to the ███ incident. Following orders from the past, it takes management as its primary duty. The next management zone is the Third Outer Perimeter.
ㄴTruth Scholar: Is there a problem with that?
“Yes… The zone I’m in is the Third Outer Perimeter.”
The reaper periodically moved from zone to zone, and the place scheduled next was where I was.
And though it said management, in reality, it was closer to sweeping away all living creatures.
Now I had two choices.
Move zones.
Or kill the reaper.
Honestly, at first, I thought I should move zones.
But the other zones had even more dangerous things.
For example, the giant jellyfish zone?
The other zones were similar to that.
So, holding back tears, I had no choice but to kill the reaper.
Because of what had happened, now—
I wanted to become stronger. Fast, at that.
ㄴTruth Scholar: You’re already growing quickly, though…
ㄴQuickdraw Sword Saint: It can’t be helped. I have no choice but to teach you now the sword art I intended to teach you later.
“Really?”
At Quickdraw Sword Saint’s words, I reacted with considerable surprise.
Because the Sword Saint was closer to a teacher who just threw homework at you and told you to figure it out yourself than a passionate instructor.
What I meant was,
Until now, I had only learned the First Form. He hadn’t even brought up the other forms and had only given me homework…
ㄴQuickdraw Sword Saint: We’ll begin immediately. Go outside.
“Yes.”
For some reason, I felt the aura of a master from the Sword Saint.
Ah, of course, my previous impression of him had been that he was someone completely obsessed with quickdraw.
At any rate, I picked up the black blade.
Creeeak.
Perhaps because I had turned the hatch many times, it made less noise than before.
I stood on the sandy ground that had now become familiar.
Whirrr.
“…Are you watching?”
When I looked behind me, the black egg and Asoluzn were there.
They were sitting there openly as if they were watching a spectacle, which made me feel a little burdened.
The Sword Saint began his explanation without paying any attention to such things.
ㄴQuickdraw Sword Saint: I’ll tell you the name of the Second Form first. The name of the Second Form is Chain Slash, 連鎖斬.
Since names indicated the direction of the sword, the Sword Saint tended to name things intuitively.
So, if I interpreted the meaning of that sword art…
“Is it a sword art used in combination with another sword technique?”
ㄴQuickdraw Sword Saint: Correct. It is a bridge that connects not only the First Form, but the other forms as well, so learn it well.
At the Sword Saint’s words, tension ran through me.
Because it might be the most important sword art of all.
After a brief pause, Quickdraw Sword Saint’s chat appeared.
ㄴQuickdraw Sword Saint: Chain Slash is actually a form that strays somewhat from swordsmanship. It’s a sheathing technique.
“…Sheathing?”
ㄴQuickdraw Sword Saint: Isn’t that obvious? Quickdraw swordsmanship can only unleash its power when it begins from the sheath.
It was something I felt like I understood, yet didn’t understand.
So it wasn’t a combination where I simply drew and swung?
As if he didn’t care about my reaction, the Sword Saint continued his explanation.
ㄴQuickdraw Sword Saint: Of course, it isn’t a normal sheathing method. It’s a sword art for chaining techniques together, so we’ll do it in a special way.
“How?”
ㄴQuickdraw Sword Saint: In reverse.
“Excuse me?”
ㄴQuickdraw Sword Saint: Sheathe it with a reverse grip.
Was what I just heard really true?
Reverse-grip sheathing? My head went dizzy at that name, which mixed two inefficient sword techniques together.
ㄴQuickdraw Sword Saint: This is difficult to explain through comments, so I’ll send you a reference book.
[Quickdraw Sword Saint has sent you a gift request.]
Feeling somewhat dazed, I accepted the gift request.
Because I couldn’t picture in my head at all what kind of method it was.
When I received the gift, a single book dropped down.
Its title was “Reference Book.” …How very intuitive.
I picked up the book, which strongly carried the scent of the medieval era.
Just what kind of contents would be inside?
“Uh…”
The moment I opened the book, I couldn’t help but freeze.
The lines were rough, but the human body was drawn accurately, so it wasn’t hard to understand.
It was just that the posture was so alien it made me wonder how any strength could go into it.
The first page, a drawing of drawing the sword.
It was almost exactly the same as the posture I had been using until now.
The second page, a drawing of switching the sword into a reverse grip.
From here, the sense of strangeness began to grow severe. Still, it wasn’t impossible.
The third page, sheathing.
This made no sense. Because I was holding the sword in a reverse grip, I had to turn the sheath as well to put it in.
‘This can be chained?’
A posture so absurd that it made me think that appeared.
As if the Sword Saint understood what I was thinking, he added an explanation.
ㄴQuickdraw Sword Saint: Up to the third page is the Second Form I first thought of.
“Huh? First?”
ㄴQuickdraw Sword Saint: After that, there are thirty application variations. Memorize them all.
“?”
I felt like I was about to dislike the Sword Saint for the first time.