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Vol2 Chapter 6
The God of the Sword
Don let out a great sigh. Rose noticed and said, “They’re still following us huh?”
Tolan said, “Yep.”
After leaving Gelden it took about two minutes to realize that that three men were tailing them, badly. They walked down the path a few meters behind Don’s group and stopped whenever they Don’s group stopped.
However Don was pretty sure they weren’t thieves. Each bore the same equipment and was likely the same class. They seemed in their late twenties to mid thirties and all wore rusty armor and had under-leveled swords. The previous attempts to relieve Don of... something, were done by people who were well funded, they had equipment that matched their level and their parties had diverse members.
Then again Don’s party was not all encompassing either. As a battle priest, Rose relied more on physical damage than magic, so the party had no great magic attacker. Rose did in fact have a spell than increased magic resistance so they could handle the magicians some of the thief parties had as long as they killed them before large spells were cast. If a party was made specifically to defeat their trio, it would have to be several strong attackers. However when a party of seven, made up of two knights, three warriors and two thieves ambushed them two months ago, Don’s artifacts dealt with them. He made a charged wire that was weighed and threw it. It wrapped around and trapped while shocking and paralyzing the target. Of course to throw it he had to make and equip special gloves that would prevent him from being electrocuted.
There hadn’t been an attempt in a while, either because they haven’t assembled a large enough, strong enough party. or because Don’s group lost them some time ago.
Don asked Tolan, “You wanna just confront them already?”
Tolan sighed, “Might as well, they haven’t done anything yet but this is getting irritating. Best make preparations in case they want to fight.” The last bit was to Rose and Don. Rose quietly cast a variety of strengthening buffs and Don got some artifacts out.
The group turned around and walked towards the three men. After getting within earshot, Tolan said, “What do you want?”
One of the three said, “We want to challenge you two to a duel.”
Rose said, “Two?”
One of the other men said, “No offense miss.”
Rose still looked offended.
Tolan said, “Who are you and why do you seek a fight?”
The men introduced themselves one after the other.
“I am Geomchi225.”
“I am Geomchi366”
“And I and Geomchi110”
Don, Rose, and Tolan were stricken dumb. Those were by far the strangest names they had ever come across. But something about them seemed familiar to Don.
Geomchi225 said, “We heard of your strength in combat during the battle and wished to fight you ourselves.”
Tolan said, “What, why?”
Geomchi110 immediately replied, “Because it is the nature of the strong to fight.”
Don started walking forward and said, “Sounds like fun. I’m game.” He found himself smiling at the boldness of the idea to simply fight someone because they seemed strong. Truly a manly course of action, and he would not disrespect them for it.
Geomchi366 asked, “Just you?”
Tolan answered, “I want no part of this, I’m a shield bearer, I fight to protect not to attack.” He emphasized this by raising his tower shield.”
Geomchi225 said, “Hmm, very well.” He seemed disappointed. “Since there are three of us, choose who you wanna fight.”
Don was not surprised that they had intended to fight one on one. As for which to choose, there was only one way to answer manliness. Don said, “Whoever is the strongest, step forth.”
However...
All three stepped forth at the same time. Then they looked at each other and started arguing.
225 said, “I’m the strongest, I have the highest level!”
366 said, “Only by 2! I’m the strongest, my Strength Stat is higher than both of yours!”
110 said, “No, I’m definitely the strongest, my sword mastery is higher than either of yours!”
Don said, “Well, wait a minutes..” The three were arguing louder and Don’s voice didn’t reach them. One said in the last battle he killed more werewolves than the other two, then another said that the ones he defeated were higher level, then the last said that he defeated more of them simultaneously.
Don decided that if he was a manly idiot, these guys were recklessly manly idiots. From the bits and pieces he heard, the three were separately wondering around the mountains and each followed a herd of werewolves to the battle and found each other there. They had killed many werewolves during the battle but had received no recognition, instead, they heard that the city was saved by the three from the church of Lu. They each decided to fight the three themselves, only to find that the other two had the same idea.
Eventually swords were drawn and they stopped moving. A three person battle is different from a one on one. If left there the stand down would continue for a while.
Don said, “Well, I’m gonna catch up with my party now.” and ran off. Rose and Tolan started walking away after the three started arguing and were already far down the road.
The three geomchis said, “Wait!” And started running after.
Rose, Tolan, Don, and three geomchis walked down the road. The geomchis walked a bit of distance behind the other three and continued arguing over who was the strongest.
Rose sighed and said, “How long are they going to follow us?”
Tolan stared at Don like a child who brought a stray cat home and said, “Well?”
Don said, “I don’t know. I don’t even know how strong they are.”
Rose said, “There swords don’t look like they have a level requirement of more than 100.”
Don shook his head, “But they fought in the heart of that last battle with those weak swords and survived. They must be at least 190, if not more.”
Tolan said, “Not interested. The only swordsman we need to think about is our next target.”
The next god on the list was quite a bit different from the others. He apparently only had one follower at any one time and had an open offer for anyone who wanted to kill him. Lu apparently only put him on the list because the god himself desired to fall at the hands of a worthy warrior.
Rose said, “Lu told me that only Don was eligible to fight, though I’m not sure what that means. That eligibility is the only reason he is on our list.”
The group continued on until noon when the geomchis caught up with them.
Geomchi110 said, “I’ll be the one to fight you.”
Don asked, “Why you?”
“I’m the strongest.” He answered proudly. Only to be knocked on the head by Geomchi225 who said “He won at rock paper scissors.”
Don turned to Rose and Tolan and said, “Can you guys wait a bit? It’s about time for lunch anyways.”
Rose shrugged. The pair took out some of the stored food and set down for a picnic.
Don took out a fully charged light amplifier pendent stored with sunlight and activated it.
“Light of the heavens.”
Solar Buff
+90% Fire Affinity
+45% Strength
It wasn’t quite noon but it was close enough, with the amplifier his strength and fire affinity got a great boost.
The swordsman took a stance and Don got into position. Geomchi110 dashed forward and Don started Fiery Dance with flame extension. Thanks to the increased fire affinity the flames burned hotter and the flaming whips extended longer. Don whipped the flames at Geomchi who instantly cut through the fire and charged forward, Don’s strengthened swords caught Geomchi’s attack but the swordsman revolved his sword, diverting Don’s parry and striking through the defending blade. But Don’s second blade moved to defend as soon as Geomchi started moving through his first. Don turned his body, allowing the strength of the strike to pass to his side. But as Don passed to the side Geomchi’s sword strengthened for an instant, pushing its way through the second blade and gashing through Don’s side.
Don forcefully turned to allow his first blade to strike at Geomchi’s back but after the strike the fleetfooted swordsmen did a second dash beyond the range of the Don’s blade. Even the flaming whip that chased him didn’t make it in time.
The exchange lasted about a second but in that instant Don understood the difference between them. Don’s strength stat was higher, but just barely, and only thanks to his buff. However the Geomchi’s swordsmanship was the real deal, not something that he picked up while playing. He knew the way of the sword.
The only way to defeat real skill was to make it a non-issue. He had to push the fight away from close quarters and keep his opponent from taking the pace. However Don quickly realized both were impossible. The flaming whips of Don’s empowered dance would keep a normal person at a distance but Geomchi110 plowed through them. He did not have a skill that cut through flames, nor did he have high fire resistance, he just didn’t defend against it. Each time he charged through he took fire damage and got burned, and in most of the exchanges he took a piece of Don as well. His skills with a sword also took advantage of any weakness or opening Don gave, without giving any himself.
Cross body parry was useless, even when parried the swordsman left no opening for Don to strike with his second blade. Illusion steps was more useful but each time he used it to dodge or get to Geomchi’s blind spot it seemed less effective, like he was beginning to see through it.
The rest of his skills were dances or craft, he had his artifacts but little opportunity to use them. The only thing he had equipped was a ceramic bracelet artifact that connected its movement to whatever it touched while activated. So if Don activated it while touching it to his sword, he could move the sword telekinetically. Sorta. It was more like there was a string connected from the bracelet to whatever it activated with. So Don could throw his sword and recall it from a distance with a jerk of his wrist. At first he made it because it seemed like a cool idea, but there weren’t many instances where it was that useful. Don figured he would have to get more creative to make the best use of it.
At first it seemed like Don and Geomchi were, for the most part, evenly matched. That was until Geomchi said, “Alright, warm up is over.”
His sword started glowing and his started dashing with each step. Don’s dance had some variability in speed but it couldn’t increase its speed enough to deal the the heavy fury of blows that came for Geochi110. Power Strike, Thunderous Slash, Rend, Triple Slash, skill after skill was produced by Geomchi’s sword and passed with great skill through Don’s defense.
Don decided to go for broke and threw his sword and charged forward. Geomchi struck the blade into the air and met Don’s sword, pushing it back. Don flung himself sideways, throwing his arm back. He kept himself pushing to distract the swordmen. Neither of the other two geomchis said anything to signal the third what was about to happen. Don’s glowing sword flew backwards and pierced the rusty armor of Geomchi110’s back and stuck there. The force of the geomchi's sword pushing against his own weakened and Don pushed him back.
Geomchi110 took a knee as his life rapidly dropped. Suddenly a glowing white hand enveloped him. Rose said, “Alright, take that outta his back. It’s over.”
Don complied and removed the sword, then offered a hand to Geomchi110 to help him up. The swordsman took it and said, “That was pretty good, I still have much to learn.”
Don could tell he wasn’t acting humble, he actually believed it. Don had to pull out all the stops to keep up with him and had to use a wildcard to beat him. If that had failed Don would've lost, if the sun were lower in the sky, giving him a weaker buff, he would have lost.
Don was used to winning close fights, but this was the first time he fought against someone who had such genuine skill.
Don said, “Please teach me the sword.”
Geomchi110 looked shocked. “What?”
Don repeated, “I want you to teach me the sword.”
Geomchi225 said, “No can do. Only instructors are allowed to teach. None of us are instructors.”
Geomchi110 nodded severely.
Don accepted the truth of their words. He suggested, “Then teach by example, please help me through sparring.”
Geomchi366 said, “You’re not bad for an ametuer, elf, but you would need a whole lot of sparring to get any better.”
Don said, “Then I’ll pay you. No, I’ll buy each of you a new set of armor and a good sword.”
Geomchi110 said, “Each?”
Don answered, “Yes, for any of you who are willing to help me.”
Geomchi225 said, “Such training will require us to beat the crap out of you over and over again, no skills, no fancy tricks, just pure swordplay. Why subjugate yourself to this?” He wasn’t questioning Don’s motive, only his commitment.
Don answered without a thought, “Because it is the manly thing to do.”
He usually didn’t put his motto so plainly out in the open, but he felt a certain kinship to these guys.
They seemed to consider it for a moment before Rose causally said, “You know, women do like a man in shining new armor.”
Almost at the same time, the three said, “Deal!”
Tolan asked Rose to the side, “Why did you encourage them? Now they’ll follow us around like hungry beggars.”
Rose answered, “Hungry beggars who know how to handle a sword. The remaining targets are not easy, and Don needs to get stronger. Besides, if all they need for payment is some equipment they are still cheaper than mercenary escorts. There is still a group out there that seeks something of Don’s.”
Tolan nodded to the logic. Neither of them knew what the bandit groups sought, they asked Don but he simply said that he had a lot of valuable stuff, including the essence of Lu. Apart of their mission was to protect Lu’s essence, so any group that demanded Don hand over all his items was an enemy.
For the next two weeks, (real world,) Don’s party and the three geomchis made their way to the the Sword god’s temple. Tolan and Rose actually traveled at a different pace. They walked normally and the other four ran. Don and one of the geomchi’s would spar until Don yielded, after which they ran until until they caught up with Rose and Tolan, Rose healed Don, and they repeated with another spar.
The entire process reminded Don a little of the training hall, except it was far more painful. While in his worse condition after the fight he ran with all his might until Rose healed him, then he was beaten back to his worse condition again. However the training was effective. Don was able to understand many of the techniques they used on him. He learned how reshifting his weight could provide extra power to an attack midslash, he learned the motion to turn away an opponent’s blade without losing momentum in your attack, and he learned how different parts of the sword could be used in different ways.
Although he couldn’t completely replicate all of the geomchi’s techniques, he could understand the basis behind them, and that would give him insight to strengthening his own sword skills.
At some point the group made it to their destination. However it was no temple, it was a large Inn. When the group entered, the shaggy Innkeeper said, “Welcome to the Stone’s Throw Inn. Would you like some rooms?”
Tolan looked taken aback. This really wasn’t like any god they had met before. Don asked, “I’m here to kill the god of the sword.”
The three geomchis turned their heads to Don in surprise, they had not known about their destination.
The Innkeeper looked over the group and said, “Hmm, yes. You may fight him if you wish, and you three may come too, but you two do not have the qualifications.
He addressed Don, then the three geomchis, and Tolan and Rose.
Rose pointed to Don and the Geomchis and said, “So, why can they fight but we can’t?”
The Innkeeper said, “Because this isn’t just an Inn, it is a Beginner Training Hall, and you two have not completed the Basic Training Hall Program. These four have. In fact I’m quite certain that those three gentlemen have already completed the Beginner training hall as well.”
Now Don was at a loss. “Excuse me,” he said, “Could you explain what you just said? Beginner training hall?” Don knew of the Basic training hall from a video on the hall of fame and the comments below it, however he had never heard of the beginner training hall.
The Innkeeper said. “You came here without knowing? Very well. The training halls are set up about Versailles to train those who wish it to become stronger, and test them as well. To try your hand at one training hall, you must first pass the ones below it. Below the beginner training hall is the basic. And I can tell you have passed the basic program.”
Tolan seemed to understand all the nuances and asked, “But why would a god of the sword set up a training hall?”
“To attract the strong of course,” he answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
He continued, “Anyhow, come this way if you wish to fight him, you two will have to stay out here.”
Rose seemed to pout as the Innkeeper lead the four men to the back area where he opened a cellar door that lead down.
Don asked Geomchi225, “Why are you guys coming too? You guys already did this beginner training hall right?”
He answered, “No, not this one, with did one in Lavias. And that guy said there was a god of the sword in this one, there is no rule saying we can’t fight him.” The other two geomchis seemed to agree.
Don said, “Alright.”
The cellar was a grand room that fit an entire house inside. The Innkeeper said, “Alright. If you wish to fight the master, you must first pass his trial. My master would be pleased to fight you three as well, but that can only be done after this one completes the trial.”
The three geomchis who had already passed a beginner training hall trial went over to the side of the room and sat down. Don was escorted to the center where he took out his swords. The man said, “Combat skills and activated abilities cannot be used down here.” He said the second part while looking at Don’s ceramic bracelet and continued, “To pass, you must demonstrate you are capable.”
The Innkeeper started to walk away and just as Don was about to ask, ‘capable of what,’ a sword appeared before him and started attacking him. Don struck the sword and it bounced off lightly only to return back like a magnet. He felt a strong slash at his back and rolled forward to get away. He saw that behind him was another floating sword. He saw several more floating around and all coming towards him.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Don started his blade dancing and started striking all the swords around him as the approached, but striking the swords did little but buy time till they came back. He would have to break them to stop the attack but they didn’t appear to be made of metal, and more swords were slowly appearing around him with each passing moment.
The three geomchis sat in the corner and talked.
“Well that’s different.”
“Looks fun.”
“How long till he figures it out you think?”
“Won’t take too long, we did train him after all.”
Don rapid struck the swords as hard as he could to bash them away or break them, but his strikes weren’t sending them very far, and the way they moved after being struck was odd. Don knew what a sword flying thrown into the air looked like, it twirled and bobbed up and down. He had seen it plenty of times while using his ceramic bracelet. But these swords didn’t spin, their orientation didn’t change that much when struck, in fact not a one that he hit ever turned upside down before returning.
Don recognized the movements of the slashes now, they weren’t floating swords that magically struck him, they moved as if they were being held. Don confirmed his suspicion by cutting the air behind one of the swords, his blade felt nothing, but the floating sword dropped, like whatever was holding it dropped it.
Don charged through while slashing the air, several of the swords dropped, but more were appearing with each moment. He had to go back into a defensive dance, something that deflected most attacks while giving few openings. However he could do nothing else. Even if he slashed at every sword body around him, more would take their place in a second.
The area around him was filled with the sound of swords against swords in an endless cacophony of random noise. But it wasn’t random. Strange as it was, but Don somehow heard a rhythm in the striking swords. Like a complex song, it had a pattern. If not for the fact that he had written a few songs he would not have noticed, but now he could hear a distinct rhythm in the striking of the swords. Don let himself concentrate on the rhythm, following it, feeling it out.
Don moved forward and struck the air where the sword holding bodies of the seven swords existed. He still felt nothing on his blade, but the swords around him dropped. He did it easily, each sword fought with the same rhythm, and after hearing it in its entirety, he knew which chord came next, which attack pattern followed the previous one, he knew how the swords would move before they actually did.
The geomchis nodded.
“Looks like he’s got it.”
“Yea, an army of the same guy is easy to fight once you get the feel of him.”
“Its different from the one we did but looks like you beat it the same way.”
Geomchi110 said, “But these are so much weaker than the steel barbarians we had to defeat." He turned to the Innkeeper and asked, “How many does he have to defeat?”
The Innkeeper causally said, “About twentyfive hundred.”
---------------------------
Three hours later Don still swung his swords. Knowing how to defeat them it seemed was the easy part. The true trial was keeping up the concentration to continue to predict attacks while avoiding them and attacking the endless horde. And by far the hardest part was that he had no idea when it would end. The Innkeeper said the test was to prove you were capable, but didn’t specify how that was determined. He felt like he had been fighting for a week straight. Time lost all meaning as the endless stream of swords threatened to overwhelm him.
However this was quite similar to the geomchi’s training. Fighting, running, more fighting. Although he didn’t have Rose to heal him, the mental fatigue alone was just as heavy.
However as the next group he struck fell, he noticed that there were no more. He found that after realizing the fight was over, he was on the floor before he noticed he sat down.
The Innkeeper came up to Don and said, “You have done well. Now for your reward. Whatever action you take, a new skill will be created for you.”
Don thought about it and wondered what skill he should make. He already had the ability to create skills as blade dances so it shouldn’t be something he could make himself. He decided to try to make a buff that didn’t require him to dance to activate it, but he wasn’t sure how to do it. In the back of his head, an image formed, an image of a person praying. Don smiled at the idea.
Don got up, put his hands together, closed his eyes, lightly bowed his head, and thought, ‘Please grant me strength in my times of need.’
You have learned a new Skill: Pray
The act of speaking to the gods, offering gratitude or requesting assistance.
Effect: Random buff dependent on whichever god decides to answer your prayer.
Chances of success determined by divine affinity, effect strength determined by faith stat.
New Stat generated: Faith.
Current Faith: 163.
You have acquired a quest from Lu. +21.
You have killed evil gods. +101.
You have hunted many of the followers of evil gods. +41.
The skill turned out to be another wild card. Don silently thought to himself. ‘Is this a race thing or am I just unlucky?’ He wanted to try it out, but the cellar prevented the activation of skills so he would have to wait till he was done. At least he got a new stat. And it seemed that actions that would have raised the faith stat had been recorded this whole time, like a saving account he couldn’t access until just now.
The Innkeeper said, “Well. Do you still wish to fight the sword god?”
Don said, “Yes, absolutely.”
“Us too!” The geomchis shouted.
The Innkeeper said, “Very well.” He looked over his shoulder to the pile of a hundreds of swords that were all over the floor. They all started floating again. They started flying to the center of the room
Don turned towards the coalescing mass and felt the familiar presence of the divine, He hadn’t felt it before because it was too weak, but now he could feel the god of the sword. A small thought made him wonder if having a high divine affinity had any effects other than sensing the presence of gods.
The sword became a single sword, and a person slowly appeared grasping it. When his form stabilized, he looked at the four swordsmen and said, “Four on one eh? Maybe now I can finally sleep.”
The geomchis looked insulted. They said, “We fight one on one only!”
The god of the sword looked amused and said, “Really? I can do that.”
He walked forward, then turned left, and right, while continuing forward. He walked into three directions and split into three people. Then the one who was walking forward walked left, and right, splitting once again into two, for a total of four.
One of them said, “Well then, is this better? Now, lets start.”
Each of the four rushed to one of them. Don was tired and his body was still heavy, but he met the slash with one sword and turned to counter it with his other. But the strength of the swing was too great, forcing Don to dodge before he could strike. He fought similar to the geomchis but with greater finesse. Each strike was flawless. Don reverted to a defensive dance. Using the appropriate strength to defend against each strike. He planned to keep it up until he found the rhythm of the god of the sword’s movements, but he found he could already hear it. The previous swords were a divided portion of him, and used the same rhythm. Although his was more complex and had greater variability, Don could still feel the base line of the rhythm.
The god told Don, “Don’t get complacent just yet. I’ve matched your level, and my health has split in four, but don’t think that this will be as easy as my trial.” He smiled as he casually walked through Don’s defensive dance.
Don jumped back, feeling like an idiot. ‘Of course,’ he thought. ‘My movement to defend against his pattern has a pattern of its own, and he can easily see through it.’
Now Don realized why this guy hadn’t been defeated since opening this training hall. It was like playing chess against yourself, but the person on the other side of the board had a chessmaster counseling his moves. He can see through you and know how to use what he sees.
Don noticed the geomchis weren’t doing so well either. At least Don already had a basic idea of the rhythm of the attacks to use, they didn’t.
Don decided that his only option was to completely understand the sword god’s pattern before attacking. He had to not only see how the sword god would react to being attacked, but see through how he would see through Don’s attack and re-adjust.
Don simplified his defensive form to become more predictable and also conserve energy. Occasionally the sword god struck for an opening but the simple form could expand in an instant to change itself to the attack. Almost like a swiss army knife, Don used the techniques and tricks he learned from the geomchis to change the form to what it needed to be.
Don tried to listen for the specific rhythm, the complex, music of the sword god’s technique. Even if a technique is flawless, the one using it isn’t. Even a god makes mistakes, or has a tell, or a habit. Or so Don kept telling himself.
He continued to bid his time, waiting to hear the true pattern while defending from the sword god’s barrage of strikes and remain alive. It took about half an hour but eventually Don heard it. He did not know exactly what made him hear it, but he heard three distinct rhythms that came together to form the sword god’s pattern. And somehow he understood what it meant. When attacking, the sword god drew from all three, or some combination of them. He drew from them for each movement, like Don’s swiss army knife but smoother. Don could almost see it, he could almost see the next possible move that the sword god would take, but because he always saw at least three possibilities, he couldn’t use them to attack ahead of the pattern.
It took another hour of fighting for Don to figure out that he couldn’t predict the pattern, it was reactionary, so the act of countering one lead it to change to another. But Don’s sword dancing was similar, he eventually found a pattern of his own that choose which attack the sword god used for him, but still left Don at an advantage.
For the first time Don had struck him and the sword god showed an amazed smile.
Don caught a glance at the geomchis. Two were on the ground and one was still fighting. Don figured they had attacked without regard for their defense and health, though their bodies weren’t grey so they weren’t dead.
Don continued fighting the sword god, using his own reflexes to lead him into openings for attacks. The dance was complex and painstakingly tedious, but slowly Don was able to whittle away at the sword god’s health.
Very slowly.
Two hours later and the third Geomchi had fallen. The other two had woken up but had admitted defeat and sat against the wall, watching Don’s fight. Eventually the sword god stopped fighting and backed away.
“Thankyou.” He said, “Thank all of you.” He smiled and turned to light, the light was absorbed into the sword which fell to the floor.
Quest Update: Slay the Gods
Lu, the god of Light has requested that you kill the lower gods that have encroached upon his territory. Accept and he will offer assistance.
Progress 12/19
You have leveled up!
You have leveled up!
Don walked over to the glowing sword. Usually when a god died it left a glowing sphere which was absorbed when picked up. But this one died willingly and left something else. Don picked up the sword which shattered into light that then entered him.
You have obtained the spirit of the Sword!
Strength increased by 25 (+25 STR)
Agility has increased by 25 (+25 AGI)
Your divine affinity has greatly increased
You have learned a new skill: Divine Blade
You have earned a title: Inheritor of the God of the Sword
Granted to the one chosen by the God of the sword to inherit his skill.
-Increases rate of gained sword mastery
-Increases effectiveness of sword skills
-Increases power of sword skills
Don collapsed again. This time he was certain he was not going to get up. “Can someone get Rose?”
The Innkeeper left to go get her. She came down later, quite mad at how long he took, but healed them all anyways. She said, “What happened?”
The question was understandable. Usually the fewer the followers the weaker the god, and this one had only one, the Innkeeper.
Don said, “Skill and home field advantage. This place prevents skills from being used.”
She said, “But I just healed you.”
The Innkeeper chimed in. “Now that he has passed, this place is no longer a training hall.”
Don decided to try the pray skill. He knelt his head down and silently thanked the the sword god for making him stronger.
Your prayer has been heard.
+5% Strength
+5% Agility
Don smiled. It wasn’t that the buff was earth shattering, it was that it had no timer. It was perpetual, probably until he died or used the buff again.
Don also wanted to check the other skill. “Show skill, Divine Blade.”
Divine Blade [1] 0%
Uses Strength in addition to Faith to add holy power to sword attacks.
Mana Cost: 100 per second.
“Holy crap.” The spell had an enormous mana cost.
Tolan asked, “What?”
Don answered, “The sword god gave me a skill that has a huge mana cost, Divine Blade.”
Tolan raised an eyebrow. “Never heard of it. I know of Holy sword and Sacred Sword, they are techniques that deal holy damage.”
Rose said, “I have a buff called divine might, it changes faith to strength for a bit.”
Don explained the details of the skill. Tolan said, “Sounds pretty overpowered if it uses two stats, no wonder it has such a high mana cost.”
Don opened his stat menu to see how long he could sustain the skill.
Status WindowAvatar DonAlignment LawfulRace Lunar ElfTitle: Inheritor of the God of the SwordLevel 208Class Blade DancerFame 1090Infamy 0Health 8790Mana 6870Strength 542+27Agility 485+24Wisdom 135+80Intellect 181+50Vitality 190Affinity to Nature 69Charisma 205Charm 255Leadership 40Perseverance 254Fighting Spirit 162Endurance 138Concentration 112+30Luck 120Insight 21Faith 163Attack 920Defense 142Magic Resistances None+ Charisma stat is added extra 80 points.
+ Charm stat is added an extra 80 points
+ Enables you to equip certain items specialized for the class.
+ Increases Attack Power while dual wielding swords.
+ Enables you to learn secret skills based on your level in Blade Dancing Mastery.
His mana was high enough to use the skill for about a minute. Don looked again over his strange status window. The slaying of gods had given him hundreds of extra stat points, but they were spread out randomly, the distribution determined by the attributes of the god that was slain. But the stats he gained from leveling up went only to strength and agility. He also gained stats by fighting for long periods at low health and taking strong blows when he could.
Don asked the Innkeeper, “So you gonna be ok?”
He nodded solemnly. “It is the end he wished for. He fought until he was satisfied and left something behind to a worthy swordsmen.”
Don asked, “So you know what Divine blade is?”
He nodded. “It was his original technique.” He smiled at Don and said, “You’ll see.”
The group left the Inn and went continued to the nearest city. Don found the best armorer in the city and bought each geomchi a shining set of armor and a new sword. They had no special attributes but the defense and attack were up to par with their levels. They were also quite expensive, but Don felt obligated.
Even with his larger volume of stats, the geomchis were still stronger. In Royal Road, skill mastery has a greater effect on overall strength than levels or stats and the geomchis likely had a sword mastery several levels higher than Don’s. Don felt they only fell during the fight because of the low level equipment, which wasn’t right.
To confirm it, after they equipped their shiny new armor, he requested one more spar, and was soundly defeated by Geomchi366. (He won the rock paper scissors that time.)
“Well, goodbye Geomchis. It was an honor to train under you.” Don said as they parted.
Geomchi225 said, “You’re not bad for an elf.”
Geomchi366 said, “Keep training, 10,000 practice swings a day!”
Geomchi110 said, “Good luck Don.”
And with that, they separated and left.
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