novelraw Chapter 41 : Guidance Instructor (3)
Chapter 41 : Guidance Instructor (3)
In the end, I had to sell Yu-jin's name to avoid Lee Ho-seung's suspicion.
"...Has that little Yu-jin already grown this much?"
Lee Ho-seung muttered as if surprised.
"Wielding a sword and teaching it are clearly different. Perhaps she's already achieved greater accomplishments than I suspected. Not bad?"
"......"
Once again, Yu-jin's reputation was unexpectedly rising.
'I feel somewhat sorry.'
Thanks to this, the attention directed at me was being diverted, and although it was intentional, one corner of my conscience was pricking me.
"Well, anyway, that's good. Let's move forward a bit more."
Lee Ho-seung, who naturally had a habit of letting things go with a "good is good" attitude, quickly became enthusiastic and began teaching me footwork and sword paths.
'As expected.'
I observed the movements he showed without missing anything, and furthermore, I recalled memories of watching the character beyond the screen during numerous iterations, absorbing his teachings.
Absorbing teachings like a sponge?
This was not simply that dimension but rather a process that could be called restoring knowledge that had been inherent.
"What the hell is this kid! You're absorbing everything I teach like a sponge!"
And seeing me like this, Lee Ho-seung became not just excited but completely thrilled.
"There are only two possibilities I can think of. Either you've been deceiving me all along, or you're a rare genius!"
Hmm.
If I had to say, it was closer to the former.
"What? It's already this late?"
Lee Ho-seung exclaimed after checking the clock.
Before we knew it, more than half of the scheduled class time had passed.
"I didn't think we'd get this far on the first day."
Lee Ho-seung shook his head.
"As I thought, my intuition is never wrong."
It was quite a spectacle to see that man smiling so happily, something not often witnessed.
"That being the case, hmm."
Lee Ho-seung, rubbing his chin, asked me:
"While we're at it, shall I teach you one more thing?"
"What are you referring to?"
"The technique for manifesting sword energy."
'Sword energy!'
I must have brightened my eyes without realizing.
"Oh my, look at that expression. Were you that eager to learn it?"
"Of course."
"This kid."
Lee Ho-seung chuckled.
"I'll tell you in advance, but no one knows how long this stage will take. It's better to put aside any imagination that you can use sword energy immediately just because you learned some techniques."
"Of course."
"Ah, I'm teaching too much. Should I ask the Vice Principal for extra pay?"
Lee Ho-seung, licking his lips, hardened his expression seriously.
"If sword energy was a realm that could be reached with just a few words, all awakened who handle swords would be pulling out sword energy like dogs and cows."
"That's right."
"It's a different realm from simply having an aptitude for swords. You need aptitude for mana, plus talent and inspiration, proper effort, and sufficient time."
After thoroughly laying the groundwork, Lee Ho-seung grinned.
"But I can certainly provide quite a bit of help."
He placed his palm on my back.
"Through which path, in what order should you send mana? First, you need to know that. It's easy to flow mana through large blood vessels like arteries and veins. But can you do the same for countless individual capillaries?"
"That wouldn't be easy."
"But you must. Think of all those paths as unexplored territory. If you become familiar enough with mana control to pioneer all those places and send mana through them, manifesting sword energy will become that much easier."
"I understand."
"Now close your eyes."
I did as instructed, and Lee Ho-seung's words continued calmly like flowing water.
"Block your vision, and turn the resulting sensory surplus back to your own body."
Observing the body with the mind's eye without relying on vision is a very difficult task for someone not accustomed to it.
Moreover, the extremely developed eyes through Eye Power paradoxically occupied too large a portion of the five senses due to their excellence.
And now, by closing my eyes, senses including touch and hearing were beginning to come alive.
"Quietly observe yourself. Your mind now begins to fully be conscious of muscles that are torn and crying out in pain from intense exercise, lungs that repeatedly inflate and contract without rest, and the air and mana entering and exiting through the respiratory system."
It felt like meditating while listening to quiet music.
"With this, the preparation is finished. Try to feel and guide the flow of mana according to my words. The beating heart is sending blood throughout your entire body. You will feel the pure mana contained in that blood..."
As he said, the circulation of mana spreading through the blood vessels made me marvel anew.
'Speed and efficiency. Everything is on a different dimension.'
If the previous mana circulation felt like driving on an old two-lane national highway with the pavement peeled off in places, now it felt like driving on an eight-lane national highway covered with the highest-rank asphalt.
'Good.'
I clenched my fist where mana had gathered, smiling subtly.
The fist, made only of bone and flesh, had become something entirely different with firmness and solidity just by that alone.
'But projecting this outward again is extremely difficult.'
To begin with, accepting mana into the body is not an easy task.
Let alone making it flow through the body's channels like blood to strengthen the body, and creating specific phenomena by resonating with one's "characteristic"—there's no need to mention how difficult that is.
But even more difficult than that was the realm of materializing mana by one's will and giving it properties such as hardness and sharpness.
'It might really take a long time to awaken that sensation.'
"Manifesting sword energy is like a child riding a bicycle for the first time, and also like someone entering water for the first time and advancing by cutting through the current with swimming."
Lee Ho-seung's words meant that sword energy becomes extremely natural once you get used to it, but the time it takes to get there varies greatly.
'Unfortunately, this body doesn't have genius-level talent in that area.'
But it wasn't a problem.
Once I break through the initial barrier, I can surpass natural talent differences with training that pushes to the limit.
"Mana that has passed through Baek-hoe is heading toward Pung-bu. Maintain short breaths and that flow..."
Following Lee Ho-seung's voice, I began to descend into the deep, deep parts of my inner self.
❀⋆｡°✿☆❀✿°｡⋆❀
When Su-hyeon opened his eyes again.
Two hours had already passed.
"...This is."
Seeing Su-hyeon staggering with some anemia in his dazed state, Lee Ho-seung spoke without even covering his yawning mouth.
"Oh, finally awake?"
"Was I asleep?"
"Of course not!"
Lee Ho-seung laughed.
"You went really deep."
As he threw a towel, Su-hyeon only then realized his face was covered in sweat.
"No need for long words now. The elevated feeling in your head right now, the floating sensation as if sitting on a cloud. Don't lose that sensation, hold onto it."
Lee Ho-seung gathered his belongings, saying his job was done.
"Swing the sword again and again until that sensation leaves. If you're lucky, the moment when the sword, you, and mana resonate together might come earlier than expected."
He waved his hand casually to Su-hyeon, saying there was no need to see him out.
"I'm worried that I nagged too much at once, but while I'm at it, let me add one more thing."
"Please do."
"Mana is something that can't be touched or seen, and what feels and controls it is not your five senses but your mind. Therefore, when the coordination between mind and mana becomes supreme, mana finally gains substance."
Lee Ho-seung, who recited again the precept he received from Sword God Lee Un-hak, his respected master and still a mountain to overcome, chuckled.
"You don't understand what I'm saying, right? Just take it as such."
"No. I understand well."
'Ha, that guy really is something no matter how I look at it.'
Satisfaction and gruffness appeared and disappeared in succession on his face.
"Good. Then work hard. I'm leaving now."
Lee Ho-seung walked away casually.
"Thank you."
Su-hyeon bowed his head to see him off, then immediately gripped the sword.
Today, he didn't want to think about anything other than the sword.
Forgetting both routines and plans, he wanted to just push himself until his body was destroyed.
"Well then, let's try this."
"Hwook! Hwook!"
Su-hyeon, who had been swinging the sword like crazy while sweating all over his body, checked the time.
'It's been three hours.'
Forgetting meals and not allowing even a moment's rest, he kept swinging, but it was still not enough.
As long as willpower supported it, his body, which could endure even the most burdensome overloads, screamed endlessly but faithfully carried out Su-hyeon's will.
"It's not easy."
Swinging a sword is quite hard labor.
Of course, in terms of weight, it couldn't be compared to the barbells Su-hyeon lifted daily, fighting against gravity.
But even those barbells lifted were only about 10 repetitions at a time.
Moreover, weight training is fundamentally an exercise mechanism that provides regular rest and trains various parts of the body for not too long.
In contrast, sword training, which involves swinging thousands or tens of thousands of times without rest and pushing the mind to a distant place, though different in method, placed an enormous burden on the body all the same.
The difference was that it didn't focus on muscle stimulation and physical ability, but solely on the act of swinging the sword itself.
"It seems it won't happen right away."
Su-hyeon muttered while wiping the sword handle that was slippery with his own sweat.
He hoped, but as expected.
There was no sign of sword energy emerging, but he wasn't disappointed.
'There's a method for times like these.'
Two hours of meditation deeply resonating with mana while observing his inner self under Lee Ho-seung's guidance.
And those incredibly high-level sword paths learned from Lee Ho-seung.
If he persevered according to those teachings, he would probably be able to manifest sword energy before a month passed, at the earliest.
'That would be too late.'
But Su-hyeon wasn't satisfied with that.
'There's not much time to be leisurely.'
To prepare for the imminent major event, a spec-up was desperately needed.
And manifesting sword energy was one of the most important conditions.
Therefore, he decided to use a trick here, like the experienced player he was.
[Skill Shop opened.]
'I've been saving points for this.'
Su-hyeon's mouth formed a rare long arc.
"I've waited a long time."
13.3 skill points.
And achievement points amounting to 2625.
Finally, it was time to purchase 'that skill.'
[Converting Achievement Points to Skill Points!]
[Conversion ratio is 1 point per 100 points.]
[Conversion successful! Acquired 26p Skill Points.]
With this, Su-hyeon's skill points totaled 39P.
[Would you like to purchase Mana Shield?]
[The price is 35p.]
'Purchase.'
[Mana Shield purchased!]
[Equipped in the 2nd skill slot!]
Mana Shield is literally a skill that creates a shield by solidifying mana.
'Just looking at the description, it seems too simple.'
However, the game Edge of Gate was one where real gems were hidden among such skills.
'To begin with, surrounding the body with mana to increase hardness is impossible without deeply learning Body Strengthening separately.'
Su-hyeon grumbled that if it were easy, strong characters like Seo Jun-seong or Hwang Ji-su would have easily increased their defense too.
'That's another difficult aspect of EoG, but conversely, it can be utilized as a definite merit if thought of differently.'
In particular, Mana Shield wasn't a skill used solely for defense.
By surrounding fists with Mana Shield for enhancement, it could also be used like knuckles or gauntlets.
'Only with this skill can I finally use the left-hand-right-sword tactics.'
Moreover, it became possible to exert attacking power of a different dimension even in barehand combat situations without using a sword.
A fist with powerful hardness.
While martial artists who dedicate countless years to body part training are as numerous as sand on the roadside, few reach the realm of manifesting fist energy.
'If Instructor Oh Chang-seong had used fist energy during the entrance exam, the body bunker set up by Go Do-il and Kang Geon-woo would have been torn like paper.'
In that sense, Mana Shield was a skill that could be called a cheat, as it allowed easy mimicry of the powerful fist energy.
But above all, the best effect of this skill was something else.
'It's that Mana Shield is a skill that automates the process of 'giving substance to mana'.'
The most difficult final hurdle in the process of manifesting sword energy is awakening that sensation, and Mana Shield served as a role no different from a macro program that manually inscribes that process into the body.
To use a simple analogy.
It was similar to a child who just learned to ride a bicycle pedaling a four-wheeled bicycle with training wheels.
'Even with training wheels, as long as the child remembers the sensation of pedaling forward directly, they can soon ride a bicycle even after removing the training wheels.'
Su-hyeon had discovered this trick in the 33rd iteration and shared it with the community, earning the honor of the month's best post.
People often say there are no shortcuts in swordsmanship.
"That's just what ignorant people say."
If you looked carefully, there were always easier ways to go.