Chapter 45: Beyond the Horizon of Steel
Chapter 45: Beyond the Horizon of Steel
What Sigrid had never realized throughout his endless cycle of dying and reviving within the infinite white space was the subtle, terrifying of the void's mechanism.
When a normal person died, their journey ended. But in this training dimension, death was merely a harsh teacher. Every time Sigrid’s skull was crushed, his chest pierced, or his body torn apart, the system did not simply reset him to a weak, fragile baseline. Instead, it reloaded his physical shell to the precise microsecond prior to his demise.
Every drop of sweat he had shed, every swing of his blade, every micro-tear in his muscle fibers, and every agonizing lesson in pain remained burned into his physiology. His body never went stagnant. Combined with the automatic stat point distributions granted by his non-player Swordsman class, Sigrid’s physical vessel was being continuously sculpted, reinforced, and forced to evolve. The system never summoned random opponents; it calculated his exact physical limits and generated entities tailored to push him to the absolute brink of survival.
He was no longer a frail, starving boy from the slums. He was a weapon forged in a furnace of a hundred deaths.
Sigrid stood tall, resting the iron arming sword lightly against his shoulder. A faint, razor-sharp smile touched his lips as he extended his left hand, curling his fingers inward in a mocking, provocative motion.
"Come on then," Sigrid whispered.
"GRAAAAAAAAAAH!"
The demon let out an earth-shattering roar, its sanity completely erased by the system’s force-override parameters. It kicked off the black-stained glass floor with explosive power, charging toward Sigrid like a streak of dark lightning!
In its unbridled mad state, the demon’s speed was terrifying, but its movements lacked the subtle unpredictability of an intelligent warrior. To Sigrid’s refined reflexes sharpened by dodging thousands of wild strikes from Wyverns, Goblins, and Skeletal Knights, etc the charge appeared almost telegraphed.
Sigrid shifted his back foot half an inch, swaying his torso sideways just as the demon’s razor-sharp claws ripped through the air where his throat had been a split-second before!
SWOOSH!
The gust of air generated by the swipe whipped through Sigrid's messy hair, but he didn't even blink. He pivoted on his heel, floating around the monster's flank with effortless grace, conserving every drop of his physical stamina.
"Woah there," Sigrid taunted softly, stepping out of the demon's immediate line of sight. "You're really throwin' a fit for no reason, aren't you?"
The demon skidded across the floor, its bloodshot crimson eyes snapping back to locate its target. Realizing that a brute physical charge had failed, the instinctual magical knowledge within its demonic bloodline ignited.
The beast spun around, raising its clawed hands in front of its chest. It overlapped its thumbs and index fingers, framing Sigrid inside a tight, square gesture. Its throat vibrated as it muttered guttural, ancient incantations, causing intricate, glowing purple runes to erupt in a floating geometric ring above its hands.
Sigrid’s eyes narrowed. The moment he sensed the sudden spike in ambient mana, his feet blurred into action.
He didn't wait for the spell to finish. He matched the demon’s high-speed dash, closing a ten-meter gap in the blink of an eye!
"Chanting a spell in the middle of a duel?" Sigrid mocked, his voice cold as ice. "I thought you were supposed to be proud warriors!"
SHING!
Sigrid brought his iron arming sword down in a blinding horizontal slash aimed straight at the demon's exposed neck!
CLANG!
Sparks erupted violently into the air!
At the last possible fraction of a second, the demon abandoned its spell structure, thrusting its left forearm upward to intercept the steel blade. Thick, pitch-black scales far denser and harder than wyvern armor covered its forearm, acting like a natural shield. The impact echoed across the void like a hammer striking an anvil, forcing Sigrid’s blade to stop short of breaking flesh.
"GHRRRR!"
The demon growled, the force of Sigrid's blow rattling its heavy frame and knocking it back three steps. Seeing that casting magic was useless against an enemy that closed distances instantly, the demon's crimson eyes flared with absolute fury.
Its demonic body began to warp and mutate.
CRACKLE! CRUNCH!
The muscles in the demon's thighs, calves, shoulders, and chest expanded violently, ripping through its dark bone armor. Its obsidian horns grew longer, curving like wicked scimitars, while the black scales covering its forearms spread rapidly across its entire torso and legs.
It abandoned magic completely, shifting its physical biology into a pure, hyper-specialized melee combat form!
Sigrid took a slow step back, letting out a weary sigh as he watched the monster's transformation.
"Seriously...?" Sigrid muttered, adjusting his grip on his iron hilt. "A demon with a physical brawler mode? You've got to be kidding me."
"GUAARHGH!!!!"
The mutated demon roared, its voice vibrating with enough raw pressure to shatter stone!
BOOM!
The floor beneath the demon exploded into a shower of black light particles as it launched forward! Its speed had doubled, leaving behind three distinct speed-afterimages as it appeared directly above Sigrid, driving a massive, scale-armored fist down toward his head!
Sigrid raised his iron blade horizontally with both hands, crossing his left forearm beneath the flat of the steel to form a reinforced double-guard!
KABOOOM!
The physical collision was catastrophic.
"GHK!"
The sheer, overwhelming kinetic force behind the fist crushed Sigrid's guard down, driving the flat of his own sword hard against his chest! The sheer impact blew the air completely out of his lungs, launching his body backward across the void like a stone skipped across water.
SKRRRRRRRRT!
Sigrid’s boots dug deep into the floor, carving two long grooves into the glass before he finally managed to bring his momentum to a stop thirty meters away.
He dropped into a crouch, coughing up a small spray of saliva as he clutched his aching chest. "Ugh... damn it. That power increase after transforming... is a real hassle."
He raised his arm, looking at the simple iron sword held firmly in his right grip. Despite taking thousands of bone-crushing blows, blocking the claws of Wyverns, and tanking the raw strikes of mutated demons, the blade didn't have a single dent, rust mark, or crack.
(Honestly... this simple iron sword is so weird,) Sigrid thought, a faint chuckle escaping his lips. (It's like its durability is completely unbreakable.)
Sigrid slowly pushed himself back up to his feet. He wiped his mouth, setting his feet wide apart in a deep, rooted stance. He lowered his right shoulder, pulling the iron sword back beside his hip, pointing the tip backward at a low angle.
He closed his eyes for a brief second, reflecting on his long, agonizing journey through the white space.
"You know..." Sigrid spoke softly, his voice echoing across the silent void. "After dying dozens of times to that damn Wyvern... and every other high-tier beast that kept flying just out of my reach... I felt so ridiculously frustrated."
He opened his eyes. His dark pupils were no longer hollow; they burned with an intense, concentrated focus.
"I was so pissed off that I couldn't reach enemies in the sky," Sigrid continued, his breathing leveling out into a steady, rhythmic pulse. "So, during my brief breaks between deaths, I spent hours contemplating... 'Can a swordsman cut something beyond the reach of his physical blade?'"
HUMMMMMMM...
The simple iron sword in his hand began to vibrate violently!
Dense, golden-white aura the physical manifestation of his Level 49 soul, refined through a hundred deaths poured out of his palms, wrapping around the unbreakable steel blade. The aura condensed, sharpening into a luminous, razor-thin edge of light that extended two feet past the metal tip.
Sigrid’s lips curled into a confident smile.
"And after dying over and over again... I finally figured out a new technique," Sigrid whispered. "I call it..."
The mutated demon roared, launching itself across the thirty-meter gap in a desperate, bloodthirsty charge!
"...[Crescent Star]."
Sigrid snapped his hips, swinging his iron sword upward in a sharp, blinding diagonal slash!
SHING!
A brilliant, crescent-shaped arc of pure, condensed sword light erupted from the tip of his blade! The golden-white arc tore through the air, traveling across the floor at blinding speed, slicing straight toward the approaching demon!
But Sigrid didn't stop with a single swing.
Relying on his immense physical stamina and perfected sword forms, Sigrid pivoted his torso, unleashing a relentless, unbroken combination of high-speed slashes!
SHING! SHING! SHING! SHING! SHING!
"[Crescent Star]...! [Crescent Star]...!"
One slash became five! Five slashes became twenty!
An endless, blinding tempest of crescent-shaped light arcs filled the white void, sweeping forward in a terrifying, dense wave of sword aura that covered every single inch of the demon's path!
The mutated demon gasped, its primal instincts screaming a dire warning of absolute death. It skidded to a halt, desperately trying to leap sideways to evade the barrage. But the storm of crescent cuts was far too wide and fast!
Realizing it couldn't dodge, the demon crossed its thick, scale-armored arms over its chest, putting all its faith into its mutated, impenetrable defense.
However, there was one crucial fact the demon did not know.
Sigrid’s [Crescent Star] was not merely a physical wave of compressed air. Born from his absolute desire to cut flying Wyverns through space, the technique carried a unique, defense-bypassing property. It didn't strike the surface of armor it sliced straight through physical mass! Sigrid hadn't even fully mastered the fundamental theory behind it yet, but he knew for a fact that those dense Wyvern scales had folded like wet paper against it.
And a demon's scales were no different.
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
The endless tempest of golden-white crescent arcs collided with the demon's armored body!
The demon’s eyes dilated in supreme, horrified shock. It felt no heavy physical impact, no blunt force trauma, and no crushing pressure. The crescent arcs passed straight through its black scales, flesh, bone, and organs as if its mutated physical form were made of thin air!
"G-GHK...?!"
The demon froze mid-stance.
For a single, silent second, the entire white void fell completely still.
Then, dozens of thin, glowing golden lines materialized across the demon's arms, chest, neck, legs, and face.
SLIDE.
Like a neatly chopped vegetable falling apart on a cutting board, the demon's mutated body severed into dozens of clean, precise sections! Dark crimson blood spattered outward before its entire form, along with its severed limbs, dissolved into millions of pixelated golden light particles that floated gently toward the sky.
DING!
A massive, golden-blue holographic notification panel materialized in front of Sigrid's face, flashing with brilliant, triumphant light:
[CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE SLAIN THE REPRESENTATIVE OF CALAMITY: HIGHER DEMON!]
[EXPERIENCE GAINED! LEVEL UP!]
[ Level 49 ➔ Level 50 ]
[Notice: Non-Player Conversion Active.]
[Stat points have been automatically allocated according to your chosen class: SWORDSMAN.]
[Physical attributes, reaction speed, mental fortitude, and stamina reserves updated.]
THUD!
The moment the notification finished reading, Sigrid’s knees buckled. He fell forward onto his hands and knees against the polished floor, dropping his iron sword beside him.
"Haah... haah... haah...!"
Sigrid panted violently, sweat pouring off his chin like rain. His entire body felt like it was on fire, his muscles quivering from extreme exhaustion.
"Damn it..." Sigrid rasped, letting out a dry, weary laugh. "Unleashing a continuous barrage of [Crescent Star]... is a complete gamble. It drains my stamina like a broken faucet... using it like that is basically suicidal."
He rolled onto his back, staring up at the floating blue screen with a weary, satisfied smile. "I'm definitely... gonna limit how often I use that move..."
DING!
The holographic panel flickered, displaying a final set of glowing golden text:
[TUTORIAL / LEVEL GRINDING TRIAL COMPLETE.]
[MAXIMUM TUTORIAL LEVEL REACHED: LEVEL 50.]
[Initiating Soul Extraction Procedure...]
[In 5 minutes, your consciousness will be transported back to your original physical body.]
[Note: Physical status, stats, and muscle memory will synchronize with your real body shortly after re-entry.]
Sigrid lay flat on his back, staring at the five-minute countdown timer ticking slowly down: 04:59... 04:58...
A single tear slipped down the corner of his eye, washing a streak through the dirt and sweat on his cheek. The hollow, lifeless exhaustion that had weighed on his soul for months finally dissolved, replaced by a deep, overwhelming wave of peace.
He squeezed his fists tight, thinking of the dark, dusty alleyway, the cold rain, and the frail little sister who was waiting for him.
"Finally..." Sigrid whispered, his voice trembling with pure, unadulterated emotion. "Finally... I can go home."