I Became a Swordsmanship Genius in the Game

Chapter 24. Hyunwoo's Value

Several days had passed since I became a Silver Gladiator.

The biggest change during that time wasn't the massive quarters.

What had changed was Hyunwoo's status.

The frequency with which sponsors latched onto him had changed.

Creak―!

Van opened the door to the quarters and walked in.

In his hands was a giant box.

Thud―!

Van set the box down in a corner of the quarters and opened his mouth.

"I don't know if I'm an administrator or a manual laborer."

Hyunwoo paid him no mind and continued to swing his sword.

He glanced at Van once and opened his mouth.

"They're one and the same. You've worked hard."

"How long are you going to keep piling them up?"

"How many have piled up?"

"See for yourself."

Thump―

Van kicked the box as if he was fed up.

At that, Hyunwoo let out a smirk― and sheathed his sword.

Then, he checked the 'gifts' he had collected.

They were from the demons who wanted to become his sponsor.

"...Nothing useful. Cheap bastards."

"You'll have to accept a sponsorship to get anything useful."

"I know that."

They weren't sponsorships, but 'gifts.'

There were no particularly good items.

They were just a small token of sincerity.

A display of sincerity to show they wanted to sponsor him.

"No matter how trivial the gifts are, if you just keep accepting them without choosing a sponsor, your reputation will suffer."

"So?"

"...Huh?"

"If my reputation with the sponsors goes bad, what's the problem?"

"Well..."

The gifts they had given him contained the intention of wanting to become his sponsor.

However, openly revealing that was not befitting of a 'demon.'

No one would want to bear the dishonor of being a 'petty demon.'

...Of course, there were occasional exceptions.

Scumbags who didn't care about honor.

'...I didn't accept gifts from those guys in the first place.'

He had already given Van a list of such demons, so there was no chance of their gifts getting mixed in.

After a moment of thought, Van opened his mouth.

"...None. There won't be any problem."

"Do you get it now?"

"You never intended to choose a sponsor in the first place. Is that why you told me which demons to filter out?"

"Correct."

"How on earth did you know which demons to filter out beforehand?"

"That's..."

It was nice that Van was smarter than he thought, so he didn't need a long explanation, but sometimes he asked questions that were too sharp.

Hyunwoo trailed off and changed the subject.

"I need to dispose of the gifts."

"...Right. How do you plan to handle them? Even if you don't care about your reputation, selling them yourself is risky. The same goes for me selling them."

As if he had forgotten the question he had just asked about the demons, their conversation continued naturally.

"Even if you make a move, it'll be easy to find out who sold the gifts."

"Then what are you going to do?"

Whether it was Van or himself, as long as they were in the arena, they couldn't do anything in secret.

He had no intention of being mindful of the sponsors, but it was still better to be as careful as possible.

Therefore, he needed someone who could come and go from the arena but wasn't affiliated with it.

"This works out well. I have something to repay Pierre for."

"Pierre? You mean the black market merchant."

"That's right. Call Pierre for me."

He had sold a 'dream' to him to hunt the Black Whale.

What he had obtained through that were the 'Lad' and the 'lightning scroll.'

Both were items of immense value.

When he did the math in his head, the value of the gifts and the items he had given him were roughly the same.

'But... what I sold him was his 'dream.'

The black market merchant Pierre's 'dream' of becoming a shop owner.

How much was that dream worth?

The scales of value judgment moved busily in Hyunwoo's mind.

The weight of the scale was his to decide.

Hyunwoo grinned―.

Van, who had been watching him quietly, shook his head and headed out of the quarters.

This time, too, he had a feeling that was close to certainty that the Goblin would be ripped off.

* * *

Knock, knock―

A knocking sound he hadn't heard in a while.

Pierre had arrived.

"You were looking for me?"

"Oh, yeah. You came quickly."

"I was always waiting for your call, Hyunwoo-nim."

Although Pierre was pretending to be unfazed, the slight tremor at the end of his words betrayed his anticipation.

The lottery ticket he had picked had won, so it was only natural.

'Is a black market merchant still a merchant?'

He could see his efforts to maintain his composure as much as possible.

It seemed he would have to start by unsettling that composure.

"Have you been well?"

"Yes. Thanks to you. I could hear rumors of you wherever I went, Hyunwoo-nim. Congratulations."

Pierre bowed― deeply.

Hyunwoo approached him and put an arm around his shoulder.

"What's with the formalities between us. Make yourself comfortable."

"Yes? Yes, yes..."

"We have something to settle, don't we?"

And Hyunwoo naturally led him to the mountain of gifts that had piled up.

Although he had declared them to be useless items, it would be different for the black market merchant Pierre, who had only ever frequented the Bronze district.

He had never seen such a large quantity of items before in his life.

Pierre's eyes widened.

Hyunwoo pointed to the mountain of gifts and opened his mouth.

"I was going to settle it right away... but as you can see, I've been a bit busy."

"Yes, yes... I understand..."

The end of Pierre's words trembled noticeably.

His efforts to maintain his composure had long been disarmed in front of the mountain of gifts.

It was just as Hyunwoo had thought.

He grinned― and opened his mouth.

"You remember what our deal was, right?"

"...Yes? Ah. Yes! Of course!"

"I was supposed to get you a spot in the market, wasn't I?"

"That's right! Yes, yes!"

"If you sell all this, you'll easily get a spot in the market. Right?"

"Yes, yes! Of course!"

He poured desire into his greedy heart.

Seeing the excitement already filling his eyes, it seemed he didn't need to drag it out any longer.

Hyunwoo spoke to him insinuatingly.

"But you see."

"...Yes?"

"You haven't done anything for me yet."

"What does that...?"

"Pierre. Remember our deal carefully. What was our deal?"

"...I brought you the Lad and the lightning scroll."

"No. You're wrong."

"......!"

Pierre's face flushed as if it would explode at any moment.

"If you're thinking of passing this off with a play on words, I won't..."

"Now, look. You bet your 'dream' on me. A market shop. Right?"

"That's right."

"What of mine did you buy?"

For a moment, Pierre's eyes darted― around before he slowly opened his mouth.

"...Future value."

"That's right. My 'future value.' The value of mine that you're trying to buy is 'just' a Rookie Silver Gladiator. Is that right?"

"......"

Hyunwoo's words slowly began to sink into Pierre's head.

Rookie, and Silver Gladiator.

It wasn't a combination that suited the word 'just.'

However.

The path the human named Hyunwoo had walked so far proved those words.

A gladiator who became a Rookie in his debut match and caught the 'Black Whale' for the first time in hundreds of years.

In his future, this current moment could only be 'just' a part of it.

Therefore, it was only natural that he began to be swayed by Hyunwoo's words.

"If you want to buy my future value now, I won't stop you. A market shop? I can get you one right away."

"Ah, no..."

"I will become a demon."

"A... demon...?"

At Hyunwoo's sudden declaration, Pierre's startled heart sank deeply.

If having a a market shop was the dream of his lifetime, the existence of a 'demon' was something from another world, something he couldn't even dare to approach.

The human gladiator, Hyunwoo, who said he would become an existence he had never even imagined.

His confident expression made Pierre's heart start to race again.

If he really became a demon, the things he could gain...

The mountain of gifts before him no longer caught his eye.

"What will you do. Will you take your payment now? Or will you wait a bit longer?"

"......"

The speechless Pierre nodded his head as if possessed.

Even without words, his intention was clear. ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs, ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴠɪsɪᴛ novèlfire.net

His unfocused eyes were no longer on the gifts.

Instead, they were looking at something beyond them.

Therefore, the meaning was clearly the latter.

Grin―

Hyunwoo smiled and patted Pierre's shoulder.

This time, too, it was easy.

* * *

A few days passed.

In the meantime, the quarters had changed.

The gifts he had received had been turned into furniture for the quarters instead of Pierre's shop.

He gave him a reasonable amount of mana stones from the sale of the gifts as a commission.

He couldn't work a guy who was investing in an abstract product like 'future value' for free.

'I have to use him for a long time.'

To continue using Pierre in the future, this kind of relationship was appropriate.

A sound at the door interrupted Hyunwoo's thoughts.

Creak―

Van, who entered the quarters casually, plopped down on the antique sofa.

The sofa, into which his giant butt had squeezed, sank deeply.

At that sight, Hyunwoo frowned.

"...I told you to sit carefully."

"You're being fussy. Furniture is meant to be used roughly."

"If I use the administrator too roughly, I'll feel sorry, so should I ask for a different one?"

"......"

Van shifted his posture.

The sunken sofa returned to its original form.

He should have done that from the start.

Van took out a small box from his pocket and placed it on the table in front of the sofa.

"Take it. It's the reward for hunting the Black Whale."

"...This is?"

"You'll know when you open it."

Hyunwoo opened the box and understood what he meant.

A black mana stone and a silver orb.

He examined the black mana stone first. A black mana stone worth 10,000 mana stones. But Hyunwoo's gaze was focused on the silver orb.

He picked up the silver orb and smiled pleasantly.

"I didn't expect to get this so soon."

"I didn't think you'd like that more than the 10,000 mana stones. It's a very rare item, but it's probably not worth more than 10,000 mana stones."

"I suppose so. To those who don't know its value."

The silver orb looked like a beautiful accessory on the outside, but its true identity was the 'Cheonbyeondo.'

Hyunwoo recalled the information on the Cheonbyeondo.

⌜Cheonbyeondo (Thousand Transformations Blade)

A sword forged from the special Demon World metal, Lakon, and the souls of a thousand Demon World slimes. The sword can change its form to a designated shape.

Currently stored forms: None⌟

A transformation weapon with the simple function of being able to change into various forms of swords.

Moreover, it could only store two or three forms at most, but the Cheonbyeondo offered as a prize in this 'Bellatus Arena' was special among them.

'If certain special conditions are met, the 'hidden piece' of the Cheonbyeondo can be activated.'

Hyunwoo carefully placed the Cheonbyeondo on the table.

It was currently in a sealed state.

He placed his own sword next to the Cheonbyeondo.

"You seem to know a lot about transformation weapons."

"This much is common knowledge."

"...You learn all sorts of things in the human world, I see. You won't need an administrator."

"That's true."

"......"

Hyunwoo ignored Van, who was bowing his head and muttering something, and observed the Cheonbyeondo.

After a short while, the Cheonbyeondo, which was in the form of a silver scrap metal, began to undulate and change into a liquid.

The silver liquid coated the adjacent sword as if wrapping around it.

Wiggle― Wiggle―

It looked as if a silver slime was eating the sword.

After being attached for a while, it detached and began to transform into the exact same shape as the sword next to it.

A moment later, there were two swords of the same shape and size.

"This is fascinating."

"You're surprised by strange things for someone who knows everything."

"Knowing and experiencing are different."

Besides, in the game 'Masal,' the transformation of the Cheonbyeondo was never shown.

You just had to click—and wait, and the transformed result would pop out.

Even the parts he hadn't created were filled in by 'plausibility' like this.

Observing this 'plausibility' was always a fascinating thing.

Hyunwoo picked up the transformed Cheonbyeondo.

Swish―

"The weight... is the same."

Hyunwoo was now a respectable swordsman.

He could feel the weight of the sword in his hand with fine detail.

Shiik―!

He swung the Cheonbyeondo in the air.

He felt the exact same sensation as when he had swung his previous sword.

"It's definitely an identical copy."

If the only function of the Cheonbyeondo was to copy other swords and use multiple swords with a single one, he wouldn't have been this satisfied.

'First, I need to awaken it...'

To awaken the Cheonbyeondo, he needed to hunt.

And it had to be a hunt where he caught many monsters of the same species.

Hunting monsters inside the arena was impossible.

'What I need to do now is more like a massacre than a hunt... Is that the only place?'

Therefore, the place he had to go was already decided.

Outside the arena.

He had to go out into the Demon World.

The only way for a gladiator to go out into the Demon World was to receive an external request from the 'Request Center.'

To receive a request, he needed some free time.

"When's the next match?"

"It hasn't been decided yet."

"There's no schedule at all?"

"It's not certain, but... you'll definitely have about a fortnight to spare."

"A fortnight should be enough."

"I'll let you know as soon as a match is scheduled."

With those words, Van left the quarters.

There was still something to do before heading to the Request Center.

Hyunwoo held the black mana stone worth 10,000 mana stones in his hand.

It was time to open a new swordsmanship slot.