Chapter 50

Chapter 050

A full day had passed since I began thinking over Cultivation Methods.

‘As expected, no answer is coming to me.’

Wondering whether it might be possible to modify it, I had dissected the structure of the White Cloud Mind Method in detail.

If I rebuilt its structure to fit Secret Art: Ethrana, perhaps it might be possible to apply it.

However, after thinking about it all night, I realized that it was impossible.

‘The systems themselves are completely different. If my level were higher, perhaps it might be possible, but......’

I was merely at the 2-Star level. And with a skill level that had only Entered the Method a day ago, it was not even worth considering.

In the end, in order to handle Secret Art: Ethrana, I had no choice but to learn a Cultivation Method that perfectly suited it.

[You look frustrated.]

“There is a Cultivation Method I need, but there is nowhere suitable to learn it.”

[Will the White Cloud Mind Method not work? It should be a fairly versatile Cultivation Method.]

“You know that too?”

[Because Jin Ryeon created it.]

Come to think of it, the two of them had been friends.

As Hyeollyeo said, the White Cloud Mind Method was a fairly versatile Cultivation Method.

Its structure was simple, so while there might be differences in time, anyone could learn it. It was also flexible enough to be used in accordance with other Martial Arts even if one had learned them.

“But my Swordsmanship is an exception among exceptions.”

Secret Art: Ethrana.

This Swordsmanship, created by Ishara, was a Sword Method into which the experience and knowledge she had accumulated through thousands of regressions had been fully melted.

It was a Martial Learning built around the unfamiliar concept of Parrying, something only she and I could handle in this world.

Because it was so abstruse and complicated, no matter how compatible the White Cloud Mind Method was, applying it to Ishara’s Swordsmanship was difficult.

[Can you not ask your master?]

“I cannot meet her.”

[I see.]

Once again, I had run into a Wall.

How was I supposed to solve a technique that I did not even know existed and had no one to ask about?

There was no way Ishara would have left behind a problem with no solution...... but I simply could not see the answer, so all I could feel was frustration.

“I was right, was I not? I knew you would be sitting here moping.”

How much time had passed like that?

Persica and Jin Sohwi came to the Training Grounds where I was.

“It really is just as you said, Persica. It is almost frightening.”

“His behavior patterns are simpler than you would think.”

What was this? Had they come to tease me?

As I stared at them with a sullen expression, Persica spoke.

“You turned White Cloud Castle upside down again, so why do you look like that? Is there something you do not understand?”

“No. I understood the White Cloud Mind Method completely.”

“Then what are you like that for?”

“Well......”

I explained the characteristics and compatibility of Cultivation Methods.

When I said that I could not apply the White Cloud Mind Method to my Swordsmanship, and therefore could not move on to the next stage, both their eyes widened.

“What? Then the reason you said you wanted to learn a Cultivation Method was because of your Swordsmanship?”

“Yes. I thought it might help.”

“Haha. Goodness, to think someone overflowing with that much talent is so utterly ignorant when it comes to basic knowledge.”

“What did you say, you bastard?”

I snapped back bluntly, but I knew it too.

Whether it was Swordsmanship or Cultivation Methods, I knew nothing about concepts that had not existed in the game.

I might know secrets of the dungeon that other people did not, but I was ignorant of the common knowledge everyone took for granted.

“The application of a Cultivation Method, hm......”

Jin Sohwi did not seem particularly displeased that I had used the White Cloud Mind Method as a kind of means.

Instead, he tapped his chin and pondered the compatibility of Cultivation Methods that I had mentioned.

“Maybe something will come to mind if you see the process of how they operate.”

“The process of how they operate?”

“I mean in actual combat. As it happens, there are two separate Cultivation Methods here, are there not?”

Then Jin Sohwi looked at Persica.

Well, it would not be strange for her to have learned one too.

Ortanis, strictly speaking, was also a Sect of Martial Arts.

“Persica. Fight me once.”

“No.”

“Isran is struggling, is he not? As a friend, you should help him!”

“You just want to Spar. You battle maniac.”

“Haha, did you notice?”

Persica looked at him as though he were pathetic.

He had always been singing the same song about fighting me again and again, and all of this had been part of his plan?

This guy really was something else.

‘Wait......’

Jin Sohwi’s motive was detestable, but I felt that what he said was not entirely absurd. If it was actual combat, I would be able to observe the structure of Cultivation Methods more diversely.

I could Spar myself, but since I had only just Entered the Method, I would not be able to use the White Cloud Mind Method while observing another person’s Cultivation Method at the same time.

Even if it were possible, the efficiency would be extremely poor.

I made up my mind and spoke to Persica.

“To begin with, carelessly showing my Swordsmanship itself would be thoughtless—”

“Persica.”

“—behavior...... Hm?”

“Can you Spar just once?”

I did not know what Cultivation Method Persica had learned.

And to put it another way, this was no different from saying that I wanted to steal a glance at the Secret Art she had learned.

Even if a scolding immediately came flying my way, it could not be helped.

Still, I wanted to try every possible method.

“Ugh, why should I......”

“Please.”

Persica stopped speaking and looked at me with a troubled expression.

She seemed to be hesitating greatly.

After moving her lips with a troubled look on her face, Persica eventually let out a deep sigh.

“Haa...... Just this once.”

“......! Thank you.”

“Ugh...... I am really not this kind of person.”

At her reaction, Jin Sohwi’s face turned extremely sour.

“When I asked, you refused in one stroke, so why does it work for Isran?”

“Be quiet. Pick up your sword.”

“I cannot accept this......”

The two who stood on the Training Grounds took up their weapons.

Persica held her familiar Rapier.

Jin Sohwi held a Saber.

“How do we decide the match?”

“Let us say the first one to wound the other wins.”

“Fine.”

Persica sounded terribly annoyed, while Jin Sohwi looked simply delighted at the thought of being able to fight.

I was the one in charge of signaling the start.

The moment I tapped my sword against the ground, the two of them shot forward.

CLANG!

The two blades collided and let out a clear ring.

As Persica’s Rapier thrust in like a streak of Swift Thunder, Jin Sohwi’s Saber softly drew a circle and brushed it aside.

CLANG! CLANG, CLANG!

Flash Lightning Thunder Sword and the White Cloud Sword Method.

Lightning and clouds vied for supremacy.

Sometimes, the mist would softly cover the lightning that had been shot forth; at other times, streaks of thunderbolt would scatter the surging waves of cloud that came crashing in like a tide.

Amid those passionate yet graceful movements, I kept my eyes wide open and examined the actions of the Core and Energy Channels that the two of them produced.

‘Ah, so that is how it works.’

Watching from a distance, I could see what principle allowed that Swordsmanship and Cultivation Method to achieve Oneness.

Persica’s Core poured tyrannical Mana into a single Energy Channel that was the shortest and firmest, and only for a very brief instant.

Without hesitation, powerfully and passionately.

It was like a streak of lightning racing like a Flash, resembling Lightning itself.

Jin Sohwi’s Core was the exact opposite.

When the Core quietly wove Mana, he linked several strands of Energy Channels in parallel and let it flow gently yet quickly.

It resembled clouds that scattered when approached, filled up again when one drew away, and at times surged like a raging tide to swallow everything.

Watching the two of them, I felt as though I understood what principles the founders of those Swordsmanship styles had placed within them when they created them.

“Ah.”

Suddenly, it felt as though my eyes had opened.

People learned and trained Cultivation Methods as systematized studies.

Having learned from them, I had thought the same.

However, as I watched two Martial Arts clash from one step away...... I realized that this had been the wrong way of thinking.

“So that was not it.”

There was no fixed system or form in a Cultivation Method.

There was only a single principle contained within it.

Look at that.

The White Cloud Mind Method that Jin Sohwi unfolded seemed orthodox, yet it was subtly different.

The Energy Channels he used differed little by little, and the Output that followed also differed.

It was not that he had learned it incorrectly. The technique had changed according to his habits and disposition.

The same was true of Persica.

I did not know the Cultivation Method she had learned, but because I knew what the principle and significance of a Cultivation Method were, I could infer the balanced form it ought to have.

Because of that, I could tell that Persica had also deviated from the standard.

It was not standard.

They had deviated from the Orthodox Path, yet there was not the slightest inferiority in their Swordsmanship.

No, rather, it was even more complete than the standard.

Because that, in itself, was the correct answer.

A Cultivation Method was not about learning something fixed.

It was the power to interpret a single principle in one’s own way, use it as an axis, and complete it oneself.

‘To think I believed that Cultivation Methods were hard to master because there were too many possible cases...... What a foolish idea.’

Handling Mana meant handling Thought-Force.

Cultivation was difficult because it was the process of coming to know oneself.

Because the most difficult thing in the world to understand was oneself.

Just like the words she had once whispered to me.

That one day, I would fully learn the emotions I had forgotten.

That I would be able to sincerely laugh, cry, grow angry, feel joy, and also love.

This was the process of coming to know “me.”

‘Is that right, Ishara?’

Suddenly, I saw an illusion of her sitting across from me.

It felt as though she had smiled softly, as if to say that was correct.

The flow of Mana changed.

Although I had not established an axis, I could feel my Mana, having realized the meaning of Cultivation, gradually trying to take on a single form.

If I could establish only the axis, I became certain that this Mana would evolve into a certain form.

I felt as though I knew how to Enter the Method of the Second Chapter of Secret Art: Ethrana.

“I was supposed to create it myself.”

What was for me could only be found within me.

I.

Ishara.

The answer already lay in the journey we had walked for so long.

A single Martial Learning contained a single principle.

It had to be shaped using the form of Mana woven from Enlightenment as its axis.

However, I had no grand philosophy or Enlightenment, and naturally, I also had no form of Mana to weave.

To begin with, there was no way someone like me, who was neither a Master nor anything close to one, could accomplish such a thing.

But this place was the dungeon, where countless Miracles slept.

And I possessed the “experience” of roaming that dungeon.

“Then again, this suits us best.”

The countless experiences and time accumulated while roaming the dungeon.

Was that not the most fitting thing to use as our principle?

Of course, it was not something that could be woven into a form, but that was not what experience in the dungeon meant.

‘I just need to obtain a Skill that can substitute for it.’

I could acquire the Skill that seemed most suitable, analyze the way that Skill operated, and establish it as the axis.

And there was exactly one fitting target.

A Mysticism-Type passive that increased the operation of Mana and Traits, one that was obtained and used around this time.

“I need to go to a Demonic Region.”

The answer had been decided.

At the same time, the Sparring came to an end.

CLANG, CLANG!

With the sound of the air being split, the two of them stepped back.

After glaring at each other for a moment, Persica and Jin Sohwi simultaneously lowered their swords.

I could see wounds on the backs of their hands and forearms.

It was a draw.

“Wahaha! That was fun! You are strong, Persica Ortanis!”

“I feel gross...... I want to hurry up and wash.”

“It is still not enough! One more time! Cross blades with me just one more time......!”

As Jin Sohwi ran over without his heat having cooled, Persica took one step away and cast a chilling gaze at him.

The killing intent that hung over the darkly shadowed gleam of her eyes.

It was a gaze of absolute disgust.

“Do not come near me.”

“Ahem......”

I chuckled and approached the two of them.

Thanks to them, I had found the answer.

No amount of thanks would be enough.

“Thank you, Jin Sohwi. Thanks to your suggestion, I found the answer.”

“Good! Then fight me once later too!”

“All right. I definitely will.”

Then I looked at Persica.

“Thank you very much for granting my request.”

“N-No...... It is fine. More importantly, I smell like sweat......”

Persica looked slightly flustered, but she did not avoid me.

Jin Sohwi, who had been watching, looked sour again.

“I cannot accept this......”

***

One hour later.

I met Persica again after she had washed.

Jin Sohwi had said he was bored and trained by swinging his sword, and when Persica saw him drenched in sweat, she looked utterly disgusted and stuck close to my side.

But I had not washed yet either.

“By the way, why did you ask to see me?”

“Enlil’s Pilgrimage Route. Let us go do that.”

I told her that I was going to create a new Cultivation Method, and that I would go to a Demonic Region to find the Skill that would serve as its material and axis.

Since we had to visit a Demonic Region eventually as long as we were following the Pilgrimage Route, Persica did not object.

However, she seemed half-doubtful about the part where I said I would create a Cultivation Method.

“You are going to create a new Cultivation Method......? Even for you, that will be difficult. My Cultivation Method, the ‘Phantom Thunder Art,’ was also created by an ancestor who was a Master in the distant past.”

She was not looking down on me. She was saying that, by common sense, it was difficult.

A mere 2-Star Adventurer could not do something that only someone at the Master level could create.

The difference in realm was so vast that even calling it the distance between heaven and earth was insufficient.

“Well, that might be true.”

Persica’s thoughts were reasonable.

However, just because common sense said so did not mean there was any reason I should not try.

“Still, I am going to try.”

Ishara trusted me and left me this task.

And I trusted Ishara.

There was no way she would have left me a problem I could not solve.

“Well...... In any case, we have to go to a Demonic Region eventually. So which Demonic Region are we going to?”

“The Forest of Returning Souls.”

A Demonic Region located fairly far out even on the Second Floor.

It was quite a distance from White Cloud Castle, and because Undead-type monsters appeared there, the difficulty was fairly high.

We looked at Jin Sohwi at the same time.

Given White Cloud Castle’s current situation, we could not simply go there on our own arbitrary decision.

“The Forest of Returning Souls, hm...... I will need to hear what the Head of the House says first.”

“You are part of the Direct Line of the clan, so your decision is not enough?”

“The situation is unsettled because of the Downfall Order and South Spirit Mountain, is it not? If I cause another incident in the middle of all this, that will truly be the moment I become something that used to be Jin Sohwi at the Head of the House’s hands.”

Did that mean he would die, or that he would be beaten within an inch of death?

If it was the latter, I wanted to suggest we just try it.

“Let us go ask for permission first.”

We immediately headed to the Meeting Room where Jin Baek would be.

When he heard that we wanted to go to a Demonic Region, he raised his eyes.

“What? The Forest of Returning Souls?”

His reaction was a little sharp.

Just as I swallowed dryly, wondering whether he was going to forbid it, he spoke in a displeased voice, as if the timing was oddly coincidental.

“Well, now...... How strangely timed this is.”

“Pardon?”

“As it happens, something has come up that requires me to send people to the Forest of Returning Souls.”

“You need to send people?”

Had something happened?

Jin Baek clicked his tongue as though something displeased him.

“They say some half-wit from the surface was stranded in the Forest of Returning Souls. Since South Spirit Mountain disappeared, he apparently came to investigate the site...... and it seems he tried to take the fast route by cutting straight through.”

“......Why would he go out of his way to cut across a Demonic Region?”

“They say the Second Floor entrance he opened is nearby. He said it was the easiest place to clear.”

“......”

So he had broken through to the Second Floor through the easiest Boss Room, and in order to go straight to South Spirit Mountain, he had cut across the Forest of Returning Souls that lay between them......

‘What is he? An idiot?’

What kind of confidence did he have when he had broken through the easiest Boss Room?

On top of that, if Jin Baek, the Lord of White Cloud Castle, was considering rescuing him, that meant his status was not mediocre.

Jin Sohwi seemed to have thought similarly, because he opened his mouth.

“Which family is he from that you are doing this? If he is nothing special, let us just ignore him. It seems like dying there would be his fate.”

“Tsk...... I am saying this because we cannot do that.”

When Jin Sohwi asked, Jin Baek answered with a bitter expression.

“Lorentze.”

He let out a sigh.

“It is one of Trinity’s three Houses.”