Chapter 2 : Chapter 2
Chapter 02. Swordsmanship Genius
With the commotion between the bald man and himself coming to an end, the surroundings once again fell into a deathly silence.
Along with Hyunwoo's anxious eyes, his mind began to work furiously.
‘Surviving in the Demon World… Masal….’
Reason told him to stop with the dream-like nonsense, but this was stark reality.
Denying what had already happened was in the realm of emotion, not reason.
Hyunwoo was a rational person.
‘I need to get a grip.’
There was no need for actions like slapping his own cheek or pinching himself somewhere.
Even without the pain in his mouth and the blood spilled on the floor, every sensation he felt awakened him to the fact that this was reality.
Hyunwoo quickly composed himself and began to survey his surroundings.
‘First… where is this place?’
The status window kindly informed him that it was the Demon World.
Since not all neighborhoods in the Demon World were the same, it was important to know where this was.
Humans locked inside a prison.
The shabby scrap metal armor covering their bodies and his own.
The occasional cheers he could hear.
As a result of piecing together the various pieces of information, one place came to Hyunwoo's mind.
‘The Demon World Arena.’
The first thought that came to mind was why?
The thought of why, of all places, it had to be the ‘Arena’ lingered in his mind.
The only plausible reason was that it was the place where he had been running the final test.
‘…Don’t tell me that’s the reason?’
If that reason was correct, it was clearly a shitty situation.
It was true that the Arena was a good environment for growth, but that was for skilled players.
It was by no means a friendly place for someone like himself, who was no different from a newbie here.
Hyunwoo shook his head vigorously.
The sting from the wound he got earlier helped.
‘No. This isn’t the time for such worries.’
Whatever the reason, he had woken up inside the game, and if he stayed like this, the outcome was obvious.
‘I’ll die.’
It wasn't hard to guess how a human slave would be treated in the Demon World Arena.
A mere consumable.
The fate of a human slave was to be used as a disposable plaything.
The smell of blood carried on the cool air within the bars spurred on his bad imagination.
Instead, it awakened him to reality.
He keenly felt the terrible reality that if he just spaced out here, he would be a goner.
Because the probability of an ordinary office worker surviving in the Demon World was nonexistent.
Geuddeuk―
He felt the metallic taste of blood in his tightly clenched mouth.
It was too early to give up yet.
Instead of despairing, Hyunwoo stared intently into the empty air.
‘Status Window.’
⌜Name : Kim Hyunwoo
Title : None
Skill : □
Unique Traits : Swordsmanship Synthesis, Master of Copying, Swordsmanship Genius⌟
To survive here, he had to use the abilities he possessed.
In the unremarkable status window, the only things worth looking at were the three unique traits.
‘Swordsmanship Synthesis, Master of Copying, Swordsmanship Genius.’
Hyunwoo quickly started to wrack his brains.
The fortunate thing was that since these were traits he had made himself, he had already thought about how to utilize them.
He saw the empty skill slot, marked with a □.
Hyunwoo prioritized what he needed to do.
‘The first thing to do is to fill the slot with a swordsmanship skill.’
It was empty now, but it was no different from his lifeline.
As he was continuing his thoughts on how to learn swordsmanship.
“Ugh―!”
A bright light that suddenly shot into his eyes interrupted Hyunwoo's train of thought.
The wall surrounding the bars that imprisoned him was slowly splitting open to the left and right.
A slowly opening gap.
From there, along with the bright light, cheers poured out.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah―!
The cheers signified the start of the show.
‘…Shit.’
Hyunwoo's heart pounded just like the anticipation of the crowd.
It seemed he wouldn't be given any time to prepare himself mentally.
As if swept away, Hyunwoo was mixed in with the others, huddled in front of the open bars.
He squinted to adjust to the brightened surroundings, raising his head while covering his eyes with his hand.
A red light seeped through the cracks between his fingers.
Because the sky of the Demon World was red.
He didn't want to hear foolish questions like how a red sky could exist.
‘If I knew this would happen, I would have made a dating sim instead.’
He was damn grateful for the red sky that drove a wedge, so he would no longer confuse this with reality.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah―!
Cheers poured through the gap in the open wall.
Cheers filled with the base desire to see a scene of blood and slaughter.
The atmosphere was just like that of a festival.
Hyunwoo's eyes grew cold.
‘…As if I’ll let you kill me that easily.’
Just then, someone screamed as if having a seizure.
“Shit! I’m not going out! I’m not going to fight!”
The bald man, yelling at the top of his lungs in protest in front of the iron bars.
Looking at him, Hyunwoo smiled bitterly.
‘Like that would work.’
As Hyunwoo was shaking his head, a giant hand came and roughly grabbed the bald man by the scruff of his neck, then threw him to the floor.
“Aargh―!”
The bald man, sprawled unceremoniously on the ground, glared fiercely and looked back.
“Which― bastard!”
A single giant Orc.
He had his arms crossed.
‘Administrator.’
Administrators were those involved in the overall operation of the Arena.
Getting on their bad side would probably only earn one a harsh punishment.
The fact that punishment in the Demon World wouldn't just end with a simple flogging could be guessed just by looking at the hand axe tied to his waist.
“Move. If you don't want to die.”
The Orc pointed outside the iron bars with his chin and slowly looked them over.
The axe blade, catching the light, glinted ominously.
“Uh, uh….”
Where had all his earlier bravado gone? The bald man froze in fear.
Hyunwoo let out a sigh and moved first.
He had tried to avoid standing out as much as possible, but in this atmosphere, he had no choice.
‘If I dawdle, I could be made an example of.’
As Hyunwoo stepped outside the iron bars, the others followed him out.
It was a relief.
For better or for worse, from now on, they shared the same fate.
Hyunwoo carefully chose a sword and shield from those laid outside the iron bars.
The weapons were all worn out and much of a muchness, but since they were his lifeline, he couldn't help but be careful.
‘Clank’―
As he held the sword and shield and stepped into the arena, the crowd's ecstatic cheers roared once more.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah―!
An outer wall surrounding the arena, reaching a height of 10 meters.
Beyond it, he could see the spectators' seats and the residents of the Demon World cheering.
The roars, so loud they made his eardrums feel numb, paradoxically calmed his excitement.
Because he knew that what they wanted was a desperate struggle and death.
As Hyunwoo glared at each and every spectator and swallowed his curses inwardly.
“Hurry up and raise your swords! You bastards!”
The bald man, who had followed him out at some point, raised his sword high in front of them.
As if trying to overcome the fear he felt from the Orc a moment ago, his face was full of tension.
Hyunwoo didn't know much about swordsmanship, but just by seeing that his sword, which was flailing in the air, didn't waver, he could feel that the man had some experience swinging a sword somewhere.
With a calm mind, Hyunwoo looked across the arena.
The opponent who would emerge from there was important.
‘If the opponent is something stronger than an Orc… there’s no chance of winning.’
If it was a being stronger than an Orc, he wouldn't even be able to scratch its skin with a sword like this.
If he had to pick an opponent he could possibly beat, it would be creatures smaller than Orcs.
Just then, the wall on the opposite side began to split left and right, revealing the figures of their opponents.
“Kideuk. Kideuk.”
“Kereuk.”
Green, hunched-over hag-like creatures.
Goblins with thin, short limbs were entering the arena.
‘Alright.’
The first condition was met, at least.
But Hyunwoo's expression was still dark.
It just meant there was a possibility of winning, not a guarantee that he could win.
Unlike him, the others' faces brightened upon seeing the goblins.
“What the. It's just goblins.”
“At this level….”
They wore relieved expressions, as if they had all dealt with such opponents before.
Hyunwoo smiled bitterly at their reaction.
‘It would have been nice if they were normal goblins….’
There was no way the Demon World Arena would have gone to the trouble of procuring weak monsters from the human world for the sake of the humans' victory.
This was the Demon World, after all.
Instead of such a troublesome task, they would have surely just caught the goblins wandering around the Demon World.
Creatures that were far more powerful than the ones seen in the human world.
As the tense Hyunwoo was watching the goblins, someone strode forward.
“Ha! Look at you men― all scared stiff.”
The one who snorted and stepped forward was, as always, the bald man.
“You bastards just stand there and watch. I’ll kill all those damn goblins by myself.”
Confidence overflowed from the man who grinned and stepped forward.
Riding on that atmosphere, the others began to move, following him one by one.
“Th-That’s right! They’re just goblins! Let’s go too!”
“He’s right!”
The excited men all raised their morale.
Hyunwoo quietly followed behind them.
‘I needed time to learn swordsmanship anyway.’
There was no reason to stop those who were stepping forward to become meat shields.
The humans moved, and the goblins on the other side also moved.
The two camps met in the center in an instant.
The bald man at the front threw himself forward with a short cry.
“Ha―!”
“Hwik―!”
His sword swung, aiming for the neck of the goblin at the very front.
“Kereuk―!”
The goblin sneered and quickly retreated backward.
The bald man's attacks followed in quick succession.
At the same time, battles began to break out all around.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah―!
The battle cries, the cheers of the crowd, and the sound of various weapons being swung filled the surroundings.
Hyunwoo discreetly stepped back and carefully watched the swordsmanship the bald man was displaying.
A trait that activated when one watched a swordsmanship being performed for a certain amount of time.
Master of Copying.
It was a trait that had the ability to steal another's swordsmanship.
A moment later, the skill window he had been waiting for appeared.
Common Swordsmanship of the Northern Mercenaries (1-Star)―A swordsmanship primarily used by mercenaries in the northern regions. The creator is unknown. If you master it completely, you will be able to use the practical swordsmanship of the bleak northern lands.
Proficiency : 31%
Traits : None
Along with the details of the bald man's swordsmanship, a system voice was heard.
⌜Common Swordsmanship of the Northern Mercenaries (1-Star) is a copyable skill.⌟
⌜Would you like to acquire it?⌟
He had confirmed that acquiring the swordsmanship was at least possible.
Instead of accepting right away, Hyunwoo waited.
‘I only have one skill slot.’
He couldn't hastily fill the one and only slot.
Since the battle situation wasn't urgent yet, Hyunwoo leisurely examined the swordsmanship of the slaves.
But the results were below expectations.
⌜Hans's Messy Swordsmanship (1-Star)⌟
⌜Bruno's Lowest-Grade Swordsmanship (1-Star)⌟
It was all just swordsmanship at the level of randomly swinging without any distinct features.
⌜Nameless Grunt's Swordsmanship (1-Star)⌟
⌜Failed Knight Squire's Swordsmanship (1-Star)⌟
‘Why is it all like this?’
Just by looking at the prefixes, he could quickly grasp that these were not proper swordsmanship styles.
In the end, his options returned to square one.
⌜Common Swordsmanship of the Northern Mercenaries⌟
The swordsmanship the bald man possessed was the better choice, relatively speaking.
Although even he was being pushed back by the goblins.
In the meantime, the tide of battle was slowly turning.
The fight between the humans and goblins, which seemed evenly matched at first.
Their superiority was quickly decided.
“Sh-Shit―! Why are these things so strong!”
The bald man cried out as if screaming.
The unfortunate thing was that being in a state where he could at least scream was a relatively better situation.
“Keoheok―!”
“Keuk―!”
Because most of the others were dying with a hole pierced somewhere in their bodies, along with the sound of air escaping their lungs.
He had to move while the others still had the will to fight.
He once again watched the bald man swing his sword carefully, and the system voice was heard.
⌜Would you like to acquire it?⌟
“I will acquire it.”
⌜Common Swordsmanship of the Northern Mercenaries (1-Star) has been acquired.⌟
⌜Name : Kim Hyunwoo
Title : None
Skill : ■Common Swordsmanship of the Northern Mercenaries (1-Star)―0%, ⊠
Unique Traits : Swordsmanship Synthesis, Master of Copying, Swordsmanship Genius⌟
‘Hoo’―
Hyunwoo let out a short breath and raised his sword.
The movements of the swordsmanship naturally flowed into his mind.
As he followed those movements, his awkward posture quickly transformed into that of a skilled swordsman.
‘Shwiik’―
A sharpness was embedded in the tip of the sword he swung as a test.
A natural swordsmanship that was unthinkable for a beginner swinging a sword for the first time.
That wasn't all.
⌜Common Swordsmanship of the Northern Mercenaries (1-Star)―1%⌟
Swordsmanship proficiency that rose with just one swing of the sword into the empty air.
The swordsmanship proficiency of the bald man, who was fighting multiple goblins at once, was 31%.
Theoretically, he could reach it in 31 swings.
If actual combat was added, he might be able to reach his level even faster.
And if he were to surpass even that.
‘It’s… worth a try.’
Hyunwoo, gripping his sword tightly, clenched his teeth.
A battlefield where blood splattered.
Honestly, he was scared.
But to live, he had to move forward.
Hyunwoo hypnotized himself as if to push away the fear.
‘Swordsmanship genius, swordsmanship genius, swordsmanship genius….’
He had to believe in the settings he himself developed.
“I am a swordsmanship genius.”
After finishing his self-hypnosis, Hyunwoo's eyes shot open.
Then he charged towards the goblin in front of him.