Chapter 46

Chapter 46. Self-Feedback

He had a dream.

A dream in which he was eating an extremely delicious pork-and-rice soup.

The pork-and-rice soup restaurant was said to be one of the most famous restaurants on social media, and it was supposedly a truly renowned establishment that had been run by the same family for three generations.

Balun had been so curious that he went there, stood in line for thirty minutes, finally sat down, and took one spoonful. And would you believe it?

It was unbelievably delicious.

Just as he was about to marvel at the deeply rich broth, something unbelievable happened.

The lean pieces of pork grew larger and transformed into black-clad masked men, who immediately came stabbing at him with swords.

The customers fainted in shock, but who was Balun? He was a man thoroughly accustomed to fighting.

Balun beat down all the black-clad men causing the swordfight.

After he subdued every last one of them, peace finally returned to the restaurant, and all the customers cheered while chanting Balun’s name.

“Balun! Balun! Balun!”

He had become a true hero of the people.

Just as Balun was about to savor the joy of victory, a voice tickled his ear.

“Lord Balun. Please wake up.”

“…….”

“Lord Balun? Can you not hear me?”

“Mm…… gah!”

Balun opened his eyes.

He shot upright.

He looked around. He was inside some wooden cabin. He had been lying on a wooden bed, and beside him sat a mage wearing a blue robe.

“Gregory?”

“Oh! You have finally awakened! What a relief!”

“What is this? Where did the pork-and-rice soup go?”

“Pardon? Pork what?”

“Never mind. It was nothing.”

Balun scratched his head.

‘It was a dream.’

Of course. What else could something so bizarre have been, if not a dream?

The more he thought about it, the stranger it seemed.

Lean pork had transformed into people and started stabbing at him.

Into Assassins, no less.

Balun tousled his hair. He thought he had truly had a damned absurd dream.

“Where is this? It does not seem to be the campsite.”

“It is a small city called Essen. It is located about two days away from the campsite. We moved as though our lives depended on it and arrived in one day, though. Ah, and for your information, Lord Balun, you were lying down for more than a full day.”

Balun blinked. Had that much time really passed?

“Hard to believe.”

“We feel the same way. We never thought we would return alive. It was all thanks to you, Lord Balun.”

“Thanks to me?”

“Yes. You dealt with all those Assassins, did you not? If not for that, we would all have been massacred before dawn broke that day.”

“Ah, that.”

Balun nodded. Now that he was fully conscious, the haze cleared, and the bloody battle in the dead of night came vividly back to him.

‘I fought damned hard. I really nearly passed out.’

Ah, he actually had passed out.

To be honest, he had overdone it badly.

That was only natural. He had been struck by blades more than forty times. Several of those wounds had been deep.

There had truly been no part of his body left intact. Yet with that body, he had even chased down every fleeing enemy and cut them down. 

It was almost miraculous that he had not died.

“We had no idea you had gone through so much, Lord Balun. We were too busy dealing with the Assassins who rushed at us. To think you handled that many men alone…….”

“How did you know? Balun fought all over the place.”

He had truly swept through the forest in every direction that night, east, west, north, and south. Thinking back on it now, he did not even know how he had managed it.

It had been the dead of night, and he could barely see.

“We checked everything, of course.”

“All of it?”

“Yes. The area near the campsite was full of chopped-up corpses. Anyone could see that it was your handiwork, Lord Balun.”

“You must have had quite a hard time confirming it.”

“That is true, but how could it compare to what you went through, Lord Balun?”

“That is also true.”

Balun nodded. He had no intention of pretending to be modest. It was true that no one there had suffered as much as he had.

“Anyway, I suppose there were no attacks after that.”

“Yes. Strangely enough, there were not. Thanks to that, we were able to come here comfortably enough.”

“Then overdoing it was worth it.”

“What do you mean, worth overdoing it?”

“As I kept chopping them apart, they started running away. I chased down and killed every man who fled. That is probably why reinforcements could not come.”

Gregory pursed his lips in surprise at those words.

“Ah. So that was it! I did think it was strangely quiet. Those men are not the kind to give up so easily.”

“They must be quite persistent.”

“Yes. Black Moon are men who will somehow succeed at any assassination request they set their sights on. That is why their infamy is so great.”

“I suppose so.”

Balun nodded. They were people who used more than a hundred Assassins as disposable pieces. What would they not do?

“Then are we all right? I do not think those men will give up.”

“We will be fine. Since we have already arrived in the city, we can say that we have passed the crisis. Moreover, I have already reported this to the Blue Magic Tower.”

“Oh.”

“This news should already have been reported to the Blue Magic Tower headquarters. Not only that, but our Senior Mage has also delivered this news to the Rotenfeld Family. The Rotenfeld Family will likely not sit idle either.”

“That was fast.”

“Rather, they are the ones who should be worried now. They will have to prepare themselves for death.”

It was probably not Balun’s imagination that Gregory’s eyes seemed to be blazing.

“Anyway, where are the others?”

“Well, they are all asleep. I told them to rest well, so they will probably sleep to their hearts’ content all day.”

“I see.”

“You should rest properly too, Lord Balun. We will be leaving after another day or two.”

“Understood.”

Balun nodded and rose. Gregory was horrified and tried to stop him.

“Ah, you must not move. Your body cannot possibly be in good condition.”

“It is fine. It does not hurt at all.”

“Pardon?”

Balun moved his body.

It truly did not hurt.

There were plenty of scars all over him, though.

“Did you not treat me?”

“I did treat you, but those were not wounds that would heal easily just because of that. Moreover, Lord Balun, you should be suffering from the aftereffects of exhaustion.”

Balun tilted his head. The aftereffects of exhaustion?

“I do not have anything like that. Balun is perfectly fine.”

“No, that cannot be…….”

“Anyway, Balun is hungry. I am going to eat. Are you coming too?”

“Ah, um. No. Please go alone. I have already eaten.”

“Understood.”

Balun left at once.

Gregory stared at his back with dumbfounded eyes.

No matter how he looked at him, that did not seem like a human being.

Was it truly normal for someone to become that lively just because he had received a little healing and slept well for a day? He had been in such a wretched state.

‘What kind of body does he have for his recovery to be that good?’

Gregory even wondered whether Troll blood might be mixed into him.

***

The Moonlit Cradle Inn, located on Rose Street in Essen City.

It was the inn where Balun was staying, and it was said to be one of the most famous inns in Essen City. Balun could understand why it was so famous.

The food was excellent.

A well-grilled steak, mashed potatoes, a thick meat stew, and even a mug of beer. After finishing a delicious and hearty meal, Balun’s satisfaction soared to the heavens.

“Innkeeper, where are you?”

“Yes? Did you call for me?”

“Take this. It is a tip.”

“H-Huh! Th-this much!”

Balun gave a generous tip in high spirits, then went to the inn’s back yard. The back yard consisted of a stable where horses were tied and a wide open space. Since there were no people there, it was perfect for losing himself in thought alone.

Balun sat on the bench beside the back door and looked up at the sky. The sunlight was warm, and the cool breeze felt refreshing. With the weather this pleasant and his stomach full, he felt truly good.

He closed his eyes as he felt the wind tickle his hair. The battle from the previous night naturally came to mind. The bloody struggle in the dead of night, when he had fought desperately to survive.

It was a kind of self-feedback, and it was Balun’s habit.

After experiencing a battle, Balun always gave himself feedback. How he had fought, what mistakes he had made while fighting, what he needed to fix, and what direction he needed to take from there.

Even if he did not want to do it, he did it consciously. Because he did not have an inherently fearless personality, it was essential for surviving in that harsh wilderness. After doing it for so long, it had now reached the point where it felt strange not to do it.

‘It was truly terrible.’

His assessment of this battle was the worst.

‘Honestly, I fought poorly.’

Of course, he had been forced into a situation where fighting poorly was inevitable. He had had to face dozens of enemies alone in a dark forest where he could not see even an inch ahead. And those enemies were Assassins, whose stage was darkness itself.

That was an extremely difficult thing to do. However, the fact that something was difficult did not mean he could call poor performance good. Evaluation was meant to be cold. One had to see properly in order to grow.

Balun tried to see himself properly.

What had been the problem?

Why had he fought poorly?

Was it because it was dark? Because there were too many enemies? Because the forest was too dense?

No.

Those things were acceptable. A battlefield shrouded in darkness was difficult, but it was not impossible. Balun had fought in places worse than that.

Even so, the fundamental reason his combat performance had been so poor was……

‘Stamina management.’

He had failed to manage his stamina properly.

‘It must be because I used the Enhancement Art too close to full power.’

He had to use too much strength just to catch a few men. In the end, it had not taken long for Balun to grow exhausted, and from that point onward, he had been forced to endure through sheer willpower.

In other words, he had been struggling desperately just to avoid dying.

Of course, Balun knew it could not be helped.

In order to detect Stealth, he had needed to use the Enhancement Art at full power. Only then could he find enemies hiding with Stealth through his heightened senses.

He knew that.

But he did not like it.

Think about it.

Someone could use Stealth with one little click, while someone else had to pour in a great deal of strength just to detect that one Stealth?

That was far too poor in cost-effectiveness.

Then what was the answer?

It came to him quickly.

‘I need to be able to maintain the Awakened State for longer.’

The state in which he used the Enhancement Art at full power, compressing his muscles and making his senses extremely sharp.

Balun had named this state the Awakened State.

‘To do that, I will have to train even harder in Mana Cultivation. I will also have to practice using the Awakened State often.’

It was not difficult to derive the answer.

The answer had been inside him from the beginning.

Simply reviewing that day’s battle was enough.

‘That way, even if I encounter Assassins in the future, there will be no problem. On the other hand, if I fail to solve this problem, I will keep struggling against opponents who use Stealth.’

Merely understanding the direction he needed to take made the turmoil in his heart disappear.

If he trained steadily according to that direction, he felt that, at the very least, he would no longer be helpless against Assassins.

‘Anyway.’

Balun took out his axes and stroked them.

The three pitch-black axes had somehow become his companions.

‘The axes definitely vibrated.’

It had happened while he was cutting down the black-clad men for quite some time.

Had it been when he had cut down about fifty men?

He had been gripping hand axes in both hands and hacking wildly, when the axes suddenly began trembling with a low hum.

Not just once, but several times.

He had been too frantic to recognize it properly at the time, but thinking back on it, he felt as though his enemies had been cut down especially well then.

‘Were you awake, children? Were you the ones who helped me?’

Balun tried stroking the axes.

However, the axes gave no response.

He tried speaking to them earnestly, but they remained silent as expected.

“Phew. Of course. There is no way they would respond…….”

Just as he sighed and unconsciously muttered in the Barbarian language, the axes suddenly trembled.

VMM!

“Huh?”

Balun flinched in surprise.

What was that? A real vibration had come.

“Did you answer me?”

VMM!

“Ooh!”

Balun snorted excitedly.

What was this? It truly worked!

“Now, let us try this. If you can hear me, vibrate. Understood?”

“…….”

Huh. Why was there no answer this time?

Was it because he had spoken in the Continent’s Common Tongue?

‘Now that I think about it, I did ask in the Warrior Tongue just now.’

Warrior Tongue meant the language of Warriors, and it was what the barbarian tribes of the Great Plains called their own language.

“Axe. Answer me. Answer. Ahh.”

That was not it.

The Barbarian tongue, Korean, and English all drew only silence.

Even after considering various methods, he could not find an answer, so Balun eventually gave up.

‘Damn it. Why does it not work? Surely it was not a trial-version service.’

What could the reason be?

‘Has the function not been unlocked yet? Do I have to feed them experience points and level them up?’

According to Seria, one normally had to commune diligently with an Ego Weapon for about five years before it might or might not answer.

Perhaps he was not qualified yet.

Thinking about it, aside from the time they had vibrated right after he received the weapons from Seria, they had never vibrated even once.

‘I should ask Seria when I return.’

As Balun added one more thing to his list of tasks, a voice suddenly sounded.

“I wondered where you had gone, and here you were.”

Balun turned his head. Roton was walking over from the opposite side.

“I heard that you had awakened, but you look far better than I expected. I am glad.”

“Are you not resting?”

“I rested before coming here. Anyway, what were you doing here?”

“Training.”

“Training?”

“Yes. Training to survive.”

He could not bring himself to say that he had been talking to his axes.

Well, it was true that it had been training to survive.

***

The expedition team stayed in Essen for two days and reorganized thoroughly.

During those two days, they rested fully and recharged their depleted stamina. They also replenished the supplies that had run out. After completing every possible preparation, they departed for Pordel.

Several days later.

After finishing a peaceful journey that made the bloody battle in the forest feel like a dream, the expedition team finally arrived in Pordel.

Balun was about to stand in line outside the city gate to pass the Inspection, but then he stopped in surprise.

A long formation of soldiers was lined up outside the city gate.

They were arranged in two long rows on either side of the gate, almost like a celebratory procession.

“What is that?”

“No idea.”

“Is some noble making an appearance?”

As the members of the expedition team whispered among themselves, a resounding shout suddenly rang out.

“They are coming!”

“Everyone, attention!”

SNAP!

“Salute the heroes of the expedition team!”

“Salute!”

A storm of salutes and thunderous cries poured out.

Balun could not hide his bewilderment as he received those salutes.

‘What is this?’

Why were they doing that?

‘Heroes of the expedition team?’

Us?