Chapter 159 : Chapter 159
Chapter 159 - Absurdity (3)
Putting all my strength into a strike to the point of tearing every muscle fiber in my body, feeling the pain, and dying.
Again, putting all my strength into a strike, feeling the pain, and dying again.
The time of endurance repeated itself like that.
That series of processes wasn't particularly more pleasant compared to the situation just before.
That's because, in previous deaths, I could meet my end after experiencing pain just once, but since starting this crazy act, I had to suffer terrible pain at least twice.
‘I'm at the point of feeling phantom pain.’
The time spent feeling pain was longer than the time spent not feeling it.
Perhaps even if I return to a normal daily life, the pain might remain as phantom pain and torment me.
However, what tormented me even more than the pain itself was the uncertain promise.
‘Is this method really working?’
The basis for the idea of growing through this method was purely a conjecture derived from my experience.
It meant that no one guaranteed the success of this method.
When I first started, I had a belief that was close to a conviction, but⋯⋯ well.
[ System : deaths have been overcome. ]
When only pain accumulates, and no growth is visible even after nearly 100 times⋯⋯ a person is bound to feel doubt.
Of course, until now, I had been clumsy at even properly mustering the strength of my whole body, so I had something to say for myself, but in terms of no visible results, it was all the same.
It felt like walking through a pitch-black cave with no visible exit or interior.
The thought that what I was doing was nothing more than a fool's errand.
‘Was it all an illusion?’
Just as I was thinking that I had just gone crazy and had some stupid idea⋯⋯.
[ System : deaths have been overcome. ]
What a twist of fate this was.
[ System : Strength increases to [D+]! ]
In the end, a result appeared. Exactly after 100 deaths since I started this ordeal.
“Haha⋯⋯.”
After taking in the window announcing that growth, I couldn't help but form such a laugh on my lips.
Hope showing itself just when I wanted to give up on everything.
It was truly like a deadly drug.
Having thought, 'My actions had meaning,' I willingly threw my body into death thereafter.
After that, was it like a blocked vessel had been cleared? Growth occurred at a relatively tight interval.
[ System : deaths have been overcome. ]
[ System : Stamina increases to [C]! ]
[ System : deaths have been overcome. ]
[ System : Magic increases to [C]! ]
Thinking about it, it was a given. As it was a strike that poured in all the body's stamina, strength, and magic, the growth rate would have been constant for any stat.
‘It means that if the ranks are similar, the growth rate will rise at a similar speed.’
Anyway, the question was resolved.
Then what was left?
[ System : deaths have been overcome. ]
[ System : Strength increases to [C]! ]
Growing, albeit slightly.
Again, putting all my strength into a strike, and dying.
[ System : deaths have been overcome. ]
[ System : Agility increases to [B+]! ]
Growing again, albeit slightly.
Putting all my strength into a strike, and dying⋯⋯.
[ System : deaths have been overcome. ]
[ System : Stamina increases to [B]! ]
Growing again, albeit slightly.
Putting all my strength into a strike, and dying⋯⋯.
Such days continued.
Of course, the speed wasn't that fast because, for stats, the required growth amount for ranking up increased exponentially as you went to higher ranks.
But the path I was on was right. Because I had that conviction, I did not hesitate.
Was it a long time? I'm not sure. It took about a minute to die once. Thinking about it that way, it might not have been that long.
Or maybe it was 2 minutes, or was it under 1 minute?
Well.
The contemplation about the thought that suddenly occurred to me only led to the conclusion that at some point, I stopped bothering to measure.
[ System : deaths have been overcome. ]
[ System : Proficiency increases to [A+]! ]
[ System : Magic increases to [B]! ]
***
Naturally, I didn't just settle for stat growth to escape this loop.
In the first place, to just ‘shake off’ my current opponents—Akmandar, Grændal, Salvatio—with stats alone, wouldn't I have to die at least 2,000 times by a low estimate?
This also implied that to overwhelm or kill them would require even more than that.
Therefore, my goal was only one.
This ‘departure from this place’.
The eccentric who led the attack on the Exchange Meeting⋯⋯ Grændal, in disguise, had dragged me to a quite remote and secluded forest, but looking at it coolly, the distance from the Exchange Meeting wasn't that far.
It was a distance that could be reached somehow if I could create an opening in the enemy and maintain my speed.
But the enemy was too powerful.
‘Even if I manage to create a momentary opening, I'm much slower than those guys. They'll catch up to me in no time and turn me into a piece of meat.’
Therefore, I decided to lock down my enemies' attacks and movements.
Just like I did to the assassins when I first fell into the Enlight mansion and repeated death.
Taat-!
The life after one thousand and seven deaths had passed. As soon as the loop resumed, I rushed at Grændal.
“Hoh.”
He responded with that dry chuckle I had heard so repeatedly that my ears were about to fall off, and raised his sword.
‘It's coming.’
This was a fixed event. Immediately after the loop started, if I rushed at Grændal in a ‘perfectly straight line,’ he would always try to strike me down vertically.
[ System : Skill, 『Moment of Decisive Battle[A]』 has been used! ]
[ Strength : B- > B+ ]
[ Agility : A > A+ ]
[ Stamina : B > A ]
[ Intellect : B+ > A ]
[ Magic : B > A ]
[ Proficiency : A+ > S ]
I used 『Moment of Decisive Battle』 to match that moment. It was the optimal timing to maximize its usage time.
And.
As I always had, I gathered all the strength in my body and clashed my sword against the straight path of Grændal's descending blade.
Crunch.
The muscles and nerves all over my body were screaming. That if I poured any more power into this, I would become combat-incapable.
Therefore, I moderately controlled the power I was emitting. So as not to fall into a state of complete combat disability, so that I could look forward to the next time. And to the extent that I could withstand Grændal's attack.
That technique of controlling power was a know-how I had gained through repeating hundreds of all-out strikes.
Claaang-!
A situation was created where his executioner's sword and my 『Spellbinder』 clashed and competed in strength.
Tremble.
Naturally, I was at a disadvantage. I mean, what's the difference in specs?
But.
‘The power struggle is a fake.’
Unlike his characteristically crude executioner's sword, Grændal's swordsmanship was cunning.
Even if he took a strong tempo at first, from the moment the swords clashed, he would subtly change that tempo.
This was one of his techniques.
‘I can see it.’
Adapted through hundreds of repetitions, what he was trying to do became so clear it was as if I could grasp it with my hands.
The move where he seemed to be trying to smash my sword by striking down even harder, but just before that, with superhuman strength, he would momentarily twist the trajectory to deflect my sword and simultaneously cut me down.
If I can see it, and if I know what he's going to do, there's nothing I can't counter.
Swoosh-
I twisted the trajectory of my sword at the same moment, and deflected his sword wide.
“⋯⋯!”
As a result, both my sword and his sword simultaneously deviated from their trajectories and missed, and he seemed somewhat flustered by that action.
Even for a monster of Grændal's caliber, who boasts top-tier skills among the pinnacle of knights, the Master Knights, the bewilderment following that one move creates a gap in judgment.
Therefore.
Thwack!!
I, who had naturally anticipated that result, lifted my leg as smoothly as flowing water and kicked him.
With my original physical abilities, it would have been impossible, but-
“Kuh⋯⋯!”
Shhhk-!
Combining my grown stats with the effect of 『Moment of Decisive Battle』 and the advantage of superior judgment, I was able to push him back.
Yes. It wasn't even an effective blow, just pushing him back. That was all.
‘As expected, the difference in level⋯⋯.’
The power balance in <Arche> is broken. This isn't about the power balance between the main characters, but in a world-wide sense.
The strong were boundlessly strong. The weak, even if you gathered a hundred, a thousand, or perhaps ten thousand, could not stand up to one powerful enemy.
Looking at it that way, it might be said to be both natural and desperate that even after repeating death, I couldn't land a single effective blow on that guy.
However, it was quite excellent for buying time.
‘With this, he's out for a few seconds. Next is⋯⋯.’
Swish-!
When I turned back without hesitation, there were a number of magic arrows flying towards me.
That, which was made of Akmandar's spirit arts and took the form of a wolf.
‘Can I deflect them?’
The first process—Grændal's vertical slash—I was used to, and had overcome it by repeating it hundreds of times.
Conversely, it meant that for hundreds of times, I couldn't even get past that first stage.
But Akmandar's spirit arts were a different story. It hadn't even been a hundred times since I started facing him.
‘I have to try.’
Chk.
Just before the arrow made of spirit arts was about to hit me, I raised my sword and took a stance.
Dozens of arrows, at a rough estimate, with a crazy speed that felt faster than bullets.
Each and every one would be a critical hit for me with my low durability.
For this reason, I have to deflect all of them with 『Spellbinder』, which reflects magic.
It's not enough to just block the attacks by deflecting them. I have to read their trajectories accurately and return them to Akmandar.
Only then will an opening be created in him.
Is it possible?
Ting-!
First shot. I deflected it. The trajectory was properly aimed at Akmandar.
Ting-!
Second shot. I deflected it. It wasn't as expected, but I sent it flying toward Akmandar anyway.
Third shot.
Ting-!
From this moment on, it was a complete mess. I deflected it, but I couldn't properly send it to Akmandar.
Fourth shot, fifth shot, sixth shot.
And the seventh shot.
Pshk-
That was my limit.
“Damn it!”
As Akmandar's arrow pierced me, I muttered such a death-rattle-like scream.
And immediately after that.
Pshh-!
The remaining dozens of arrows that I failed to deflect all passed through me.
“⋯⋯Ah.”
My chest and stomach are pierced, so my body is probably a mess.
While feeling the pain of a huge hole being bored through my body, I also felt a strange sensation as the cool night breeze passed through the wound and swept over it.
“⋯⋯.”
Regardless of my will, my body tilts backward.
The dark night sky comes into view.
There, there was a pitch-black sky, and a single moon.
The moon would probably hang there for a long time to come.