Surviving on the Northern Front with Gukbap

Chapter 32 : Perks

Perks

A high-class inn in the busy street.

The blind woman, as soon as she sat down, ordered rye bread, corn soup, and even a large chicken leg steak.

But then,

"The food you made tastes better, boss."

That's what she said after I spent money to treat her.

Of course, I agreed too.

Compared to Burt's garbage pumpkin soup, this was far more edible—but it was still medieval food.

Nowhere near the standards of modern, refined cuisine.

'If I set my mind to it and expanded a franchise, I could probably take over the continent.'

With such daydreams, we left the inn and immediately headed for the blacksmith.

To buy an arming sword that I hadn't picked up in Granfen.

'It's finally time to get a proper weapon!'

Unlike Granfen's blacksmith shop, where the workshop itself was the display shelf, this place was on another level.

Much bigger in scale, way more workers, and a greater variety of blades.

'Which makes it even harder to choose.'

Even among arming swords, the price varied wildly.

Some were dirt cheap, others outrageously expensive.

'If only I could see the stats like in a game, this would be easier.'

In reality, I could size up a kitchen knife at best,

but when it came to battle swords, I had no idea what was good.

"I'll take this one."

In the end, I chose the cheapest 4-shilling arming sword based on the best feel.

'You're supposed to start with something cheap when you're a beginner.'

Like, does someone just starting guitar need to buy an expensive one?

Absolutely not.

Start with something cheaper while you're clueless,

then upgrade as you learn.

'Swords are probably the same.'

This world isn't a game.

I mean... it's not a game, right?

Please.

Since I'd gotten a cheap weapon,

I went for pretty decent armor—a gray gambeson reinforced with demonic beast leather.

After some bargaining, it was 32 shillings.

If worse comes to worst, this thing would protect my body and life, so it was money well spent.

I even had them make fine adjustments to fit my size.

"Come pick it up tonight."

I sold the tunic/gambeson I'd been wearing (formerly Burt's),

and used that money to buy arrows and a quiver for Flaco.

This city's specialty was bows and arrows,

so a gift like this should make him even friendlier with me.

Especially since he'd looked after Naba as well, it was a nice gesture.

'With this, I've achieved all my immediate goals.'

I mentally reviewed the Grey Fortress quests.

1. Sell salt (at a high price).

2. Request a remodeling with the stonemason guild.

3. Eat out with the money I earned.

4. Get my gear at the blacksmith.

That was my pre-departure plan.

But upon arriving at Grey Fortress, new things got added to the to-do list.

"Boss. What are you doing next?"

The blind woman, who looked ready to die of boredom ever since the blacksmith, asked.

"I'm going to the library. Wanna come?"

Plerine's face instantly brightened, and she nodded.

*

Ever since I was summoned to this land until I killed Burt, I was just focused on survival.

But after seeing the bald sergeant major's rapier—

his artifact for the first time—I started getting curious.

'How much time has passed since the game's starting point?'

And how many labyrinths had appeared and disappeared,

which artifacts had been revealed to the world, and so on—I had things I wanted to know as a Belkhazium veteran.

But the soldier customers at the shop only talked about war or swordsmanship.

They knew nothing about labyrinths.

'Artifacts, being unique items, usually belonged only to high-level players.'

But here in Grey Fortress,

I'd finally get my hands on that information I'd been craving.

Because I remembered there was a library here.

Paper and books were extremely rare in this world.

I spent a fortune—1 shilling per person, 2 shillings total—to get in.

The library wasn't as big as I expected,

but there should still be plenty of useful books for me.

Upon entering, Plerine disappeared somewhere right away,

and left alone, I comfortably grabbed a stack of books and sat down.

Let's start with the 'Labyrinth Records of the Lionel Empire and Duchy of Kaischen'.

'First, I need to know exactly what year this is, and where Granfen village is located.'

I opened the cover, and the first page showed a map of the continent.

'Looking at the locations where labyrinths appeared in the Empire and Duchy, I'd say this is toward the endgame, as far as the game goes.'

Labyrinths tended to appear at the same spots in every playthrough.

So I could roughly deduce the current point in time.

'About 40 years have passed since the start of the game.'

Somewhere around Imperial Year 290–300.

Normally, at this point, either the Duchy of Kaischen by the Demon Realm, or the Heroni Federation, would have fallen.

There would be a full-scale war with the demonkin.

'Is this an especially rare peaceful scenario, then?'

It did happen sometimes, but honestly, who cared.

'The real problem is that Granfen village's location is absolutely awful.'

The frontline village of Granfen was in a much worse location than I expected.

'I got a weird feeling as soon as I heard it was near Grey Fortress.'

To Granfen's east was the demonkin nation, the Demon Realm—Yom.

To the west and south, the lands of the beastkin, the Heroni Federation.

Basically, granfen's spirit stone quarry was on a peninsula surrounded on three sides by enemy nations.

'The garrison originally existed to protect the spirit stone quarry, which over time turned into a village.'

In my memories of the game, there was never a spirit stone quarry or village at that spot.

Yeah.

At that location—

'That's where "that labyrinth" appears, late in the game.'

My temples throbbed.

There's already a war raging over the spirit stone quarry,

and if that labyrinth appears here too?

'Shit.'

This might escalate from a local conflict to an all-out war between nations.

This is no time to just focus on shop renovations and business.

'I need to change my top priority.'

If I get swept up in a war, I'd lose both my shop and my life.

I have to get stronger, fast.

Faster and as much as possible, in preparation for imminent disaster.

In other words, now is not the time to be reading history books.

'Let's read martial arts manuals first.'

I quickly skimmed and memorized the key parts of the labyrinth records,

returned all the history books, and picked up a couple of swordsmanship manuals.

'Jeros's teaching was basically amateur and half-baked anyway.'

In the game, if your level and stats met the requirement, you just clicked a skill book to learn the skill,

but in reality, that wasn't the case.

You had to read it, burn it into your brain,

repeat it with your body until it became yours.

Starting tonight, I'd do some serious training with my new arming sword.

*

A quiet clearing behind my inn.

I swung the arming sword.

It had already been an hour.

Whoosh.

I was munching the sugar from the [shop window], keeping my focus and stamina up thanks to the buff.

Since I couldn't cook, I just shoveled it into my mouth.

Whoosh.

The problem was, my sword swings looked clumsy right now.

Even after enhancing my body with mana, this was the result.

Maybe that's why, even with the buzz on my tongue, I just felt annoyed.

"Damn."

Frustration made me curse.

'This isn't the right sense.'

I just couldn't get it.

How had I survived Flaco and beaten Captain Hook's crew with such skills?

Back then, my sword would go exactly where I wanted—distance, position, timing.

I could see and draw the 'sword path' Jeros talked about.

But right now, I couldn't do that at all.

Just like when I borrowed Jeros's sword for training,

or when I swung the commander's artifact,

the feeling was awkward, indescribably so.

The difference was blindingly clear and made me sigh.

"Whew."

Can just switching weapons really have this much impact?

How long would it take to get used to this arming sword?

'Is it because of the difference in weight and length?'

I decided to slide the arming sword back into its sheath for now,

and pulled out the dagger I'd snatched from that bard punk.

'Will this feel different?'

This knife was lighter and swifter than my kitchen knife, so maybe it'd work out.

I swung the dagger, thinking as much.

Whoosh. Shhk!

Damn it.

No different. Still awkward.

It was definitely quicker than swinging the arming sword,

but nowhere near drawing or controlling the sword path.

Honestly, it was worse than the arming sword.

Even though this dagger was lighter than my kitchen knife!

'Why don't I have that feeling I get when swinging the kitchen knife? What's the reason?'

Just then,

I suddenly remembered the perk notification I heard when I crossed over to this world.

[A perk will be given based on your play up to this point.]

Here, 'play up to this point' didn't mean the game,

but my actual life.

My perks were the ability to buy ingredients for my rice porridge shop through the [shop window],

and the game system menu.

So then, could it be—

'Could there also be a perk that gives a swordsmanship buff only on kitchen knives?'

Because my whole life was in that kitchen knife.

This line of reasoning felt increasingly plausible,

so I sheathed the dagger and grabbed a kitchen knife in both hands.

'It's different already.'

A sense I hadn't felt with the arming sword or dagger filled my body.

Until now, I'd only noticed it in desperate moments, so I hadn't realized.

With a strange feeling, I made a cross-slash with my left hand and a horizontal slash with my right, forming a big ten (十) shape.

Shwoosh!

The sound of slicing through air was different than before.

Most of all—

'I can see the sword path.'

That sense of the blade forging its own way forward.

Exactly what I felt when fighting Flaco and Derek's gang.

I swung a few more times.

Perfect, every time.

Yes, this was it.

Even though I was right-handed,

the kitchen knife in my left hand felt as fluid and natural as any limb.

'So the perk really does give me a swordsmanship buff only when using a kitchen knife.'

I thought my only perk was the system menu,

but that wasn't true.

There was another:

A swordsmanship buff just for kitchen knives!

'Is that why I was able to kill Burt that day?'

Unconsciously activating my heightened senses,

unconsciously triggering the kitchen knife–exclusive swordsmanship buff,

that was how I'd been able to kill Burt.

With this realization, I unleashed a flurry of slashes with my kitchen knife.

I could feel even my mana becoming more efficient.

A jolt of pleasure shot through me at the thought that I was finally doing it properly.

'Damn, this is way too much fun.'

It was a joy leagues beyond simply getting stronger as a game character.

While I was at it, I decided to try boosting my strength with rice.

'Shop window.'

I paid 5pt at the [shop window] for a paper cup of rice,

poured it straight into my mouth and chewed.

Not as efficient as actually cooking and eating it, but whatever.

Crunch. Crunch, crunch.

〈 Strength increases slightly. 〉

As soon as the system voice sounded, I once again practiced with the kitchen knife.

I focused on the '3 Basic Sword Forms' I'd seen in the martial art manual at the library.

The foundation of swordsmanship is the Dominating Sword.

From the Dominating Sword come three basic forms:

Flowing Sword, Strong Sword, and Quick Sword.

In the game, these were like a rock-paper-scissors system.

For example, Quick Sword beats Strong Sword,

Strong Sword beats Flowing Sword,

Flowing Sword beats Quick Sword.

A typical game-style system.

'But since this world is reality, I can't expect the concept to work exactly like that.'

I recalled the forms and theories from the manual, slashing with my kitchen knives.

The kitchen knives that Gerald, the Granfen blacksmith, had reforged were heavier and felt more satisfying to swing than before.

I tried the Strong Sword stance, swinging both knives together two-handed;

the Quick Sword, flicking my wrists for speed;

and, finally, the Flowing Sword stance, focusing on defense by deflecting and parrying.

All perfect.

'They say just one of the three poses is enough for 2nd-rank status.'

Amazingly, I was able to pull off all the stances perfectly.

Even in the game, you couldn't learn all three primary forms at the same time.

Confident I'd fully reached the 2nd-rank, I was just starting to feel proud when—

"?!"

A translucent aura began rising from the base of my kitchen knife's hilt.

"Sword Energy!?"