Chapter 25. Why I Devour My Kind with Drowsy Eyes (3)

    "Ughhh!"

    While I was sitting on top of the coffin, the creature charged at me, emitting a blue light from its eyes. I stared at it.

    Is it claiming ownership?

    After dodging its attack, I stepped on its shield. Then I pierced its head with my sword, splitting it in half.

    Splurch!

    The creature''s helmet was useless. It couldn''t even keep the split skull together. I didn''t regret the impulse to split it apart.

    Ding!

    [CLEAR!]

    [You have defeated the Leader of the Ossuary.]

    [Rank Evaluation: F+]

    [Difficulty Evaluation: Self-Torture]

    [200% Hero Points added due to difficulty evaluation.]

    [You cleared the dungeon alone.]

    [100% Hero Points added.]

    Clear? Hero... Points?

    I wasn''t a hero. Instead, I was quite the opposite. My goal was to kill heroes, so seeing such messages was odd. This quest window was weird too.

    Before I could think any further, more messages appeared.

    Ding!

    [F+ Rank Clear: 13 points]

    [Difficulty Bonus: 26 points]

    [Solo Clear Bonus: 13 points]

    [You have earned 52 points!]

    Ding!

    [Calculating Shop Access Permissions.]

    [Shop Access Level: Novice

    — Next Level: 52/256]

    [Insufficient Permissions.]

    [You cannot directly access the Hero Shop.]

    — As you level up, your shop access permissions will increase. This restriction is designed to prevent novice heroes from wasting their points. We appreciate your understanding.

    [Automatically purchasing the most optimal benefits. Scanning the environment...]

    [Scanning the player...]

    The screen flickered and the unfamiliar words flickered. Rank evaluation. Permissions. Hero Shop. Points. From start to finish, I could not comprehend anything.

    The message seemed somewhat friendly, but in reality, they were not. They assumed something as a given, while I was deeply perplexed.

    Ding!

    [Auto calculation complete. Points used.]

    [You have acquired Swordsmanship Talent Lv. 1!]

    [Quest: Training has been unlocked!]

    What is this? Talent? Can something like talent be acquired like a level?

    I was left bewildered. Suddenly, more translucent words appeared before my eyes.

    [New quest!]

    [Swing your sword 10,000 times.]

    [0/10,000]

    [Reward: Swordsmanship Lv. 1]

    Just... swing it? Only 10,000 times? If I swing my sword 10,000 times, my swordsmanship level will increase?

    From my perspective, knowing how difficult it was to acquire a proper skill, this sounded absurd. But I started moving, as if hypnotized by something. I picked up the bastard swords that one of the creatures had dropped.

    Whoosh!

    I gripped the sword with both hands and swung it from above, slicing the space in front of me precisely in half. A small window appeared on one side of my vision.

    [1/10,000]

    The number really changed.

    I wanted to check immediately. Maybe it was true that I could increase my swordsmanship level. Swinging a sword about 10,000 times was extremely simple.

    I need to finish this quickly.

    Swish! Swish!

    I swung rapidly and roughly, excited at the thought of mastering a proper skill. I aimed to quickly reach 10,000.

    Huh?

    But the number didn''t rise. It remained at [1/10,000].

    Why isn''t it counting?

    I thought momentarily and then assumed the same stance I used to first swing the bastard sword. I grabbed it with both hands and focused, swinging it from above.

    Whoosh!

    [2/10,000]

    Finally, the number increased slightly.

    Do I have to concentrate while swinging?

    Still, the condition wasn’t too difficult. I decided to focus on this for now. I wasn''t sure how much I could gain through this training, but I had to try.

    Hmm.

    I held the end of the sword handle with my left hand and grasped just below the guard with my right hand. I simply felt like I should do it this way. I swung it down based on my gut feeling.

    Whoosh!

    [3/10,000]

    That was a clean strike. And then I swung again.

    Whoosh!

    [4/10,000]

    ...

    [1,502/10,000]

    The more I repeated my strikes, the more accurate my stance became. I didn''t need to drink, eat, or sleep, nor did I feel fatigued. I just had to keep swinging the sword until my body couldn''t move anymore.

    ...

    [2,998/10,000]

    [2,999/10,000]

    [3,000/10,000]

    Ding!

    [You have completed downward strikes. Change your stance.]

    What stance should I use now?

    Something came to me instinctively. I raised the sword upright at my chest, then stepped forward with my right foot, swinging it horizontally to the side. I then stepped forward with my left foot and swung the sword horizontally in the opposite direction.

    [3,001/10,000]

    [3,002/10,000]

    This was indeed the correct method. My swing count rose by two.

    ...

    How many hours have passed? No, has it been a day? Had two days passed?

    Ding!

    [You have depleted your stamina.]

    [If you move further, you could break your bones.]

    [Remaining Stamina: 1.3%]

    [9,998/10,000]

    I had two swings left.

    I swung the sword two more times.

    Whoosh! Whoosh!

    Fortunately, my bones did not break.

    Ding!

    [Quest Clear!]

    [Training completed.]

    [Reward: Swordsmanship Lv. 1 acquired]

    I felt something and wondered if this was what it felt like to have every bone ache.

    Well, all that can ache are my bones.

    That must be it. I didn''t even have the strength to think. It was a sensation I hadn''t experienced in 20 years. I had never done something so properly or diligently before. Naturally, whatever I did, wherever I went, no matter how hard I tried, I could never receive any proper ”reward.”

    Clatter.

    I felt ”exhausted” for the first time. The feeling of fatigue enveloping my body was unexpectedly quite sweet.

    Thud.

    Still holding the sword, I collapsed onto the floor. I planned to recover my stamina before taking any further action, but a new set of messages popped up.

    Ding!

    [New Quest]

    [Swing your sword 30,000 times.]

    [0/30,000]

    [Reward: Swordsmanship Lv. 2]

    Well, this is something.

    The screen seemed to be forcing me to get up and start swinging the sword immediately. I stared blankly at the messages floating in the air.

    ***

    I looked back at my past. Over twenty years, while I had been rolling around on the ground, it wasn''t as if I hadn''t thought about wanting to get stronger. But there had been no hope. After passing level 20, leveling up became increasingly difficult. Once a Skeleton Soldier leveling up past 30 felt utterly impossible.

    Even if a Skeleton Soldier leveled up, it wasn''t really anything impressive. Adventurers were absurdly strong and I was absurdly weak. It was because of the difference in skills. Stats from leveling up were important. What made those stats useful was the skill.

    However, no matter how much I imitated humans swinging their swords, there was no improvement. I did acquire skills, but they were ridiculous.

    [Swinging Randomly]

    [Poor Thrusting]

    These were skills with silly names that provided almost no help. Just hearing the names suggested how weak and ineffective they were.

    When was it?Around the fifth year after I rose from the grave?

    It was during the time when humans from the empire and the Free Confederation were waging war against each other, a period when monsters could get slightly less attention from humans. For three years in the mountains, I swung a rusty sword with all my might.

    If I counted, it was about one level per year, which was slow.

    There’s slow, and then there''s something like this.

    My growth rate was terribly slow.

    [Swinging Randomly] only increased from level 2 to 5.

    It was as if someone was scolding me, saying, "How dare you try to climb higher?"

    Even that training, it ended when a passing grizzly bear swatted me with its paw.

    Whack!

    My bones scattered everywhere. I had to struggle for a long time to gather my bones back together. Not that there had ever been a time when I wasn''t struggling, but that time was especially brutal. Most of all, what was humiliating was, against the bear, the skill I had painstakingly acquired by desperately swinging that rusty sword for three years was utterly useless.

    [Swinging Randomly]

    I had learned that pathetic skill excruciatingly slowly. Thinking about that time, the speed at which my [Swordsmanship] skill level was increasing now felt incredibly strange.

    Whoosh!

    [89,999/90,000]

    [90,000/90,000]

    Ding!

    [Quest Clear!]

    [Reward: Swordsmanship Lv. 3 acquired]

    [You have diligently trained in swordsmanship without a single break.]

    [Bonus Reward: Strength +2]

    Clatter.

    I did it again.

    My eyes were drawn to the bonus reward. They gave a bonus just because I had swung my sword without resting even once. I didn''t need to sleep or eat. If I depleted my stamina, I could swing the sword very slowly. That didn''t seem to count as ”resting.”

    Thud.

    After completing the [Quest: Training], I sat down as if collapsing. Swordsmanship Lv. 3. It only took a month to acquire this skill. I focused all my time and dedication on swordsmanship training because it was a chance for me to get stronger.

    Numbers floated in the air.

    [89,999/90,000]

    To change these numbers, I had to have the correct stance and swing with all my strength each time. I had to concentrate and rest carefully whenever my bones were on the verge of overloading.

    Even so, I could easily swing 4,000 times a day. The conditions weren''t particularly strict.

    No, that''s not it.

    It wouldn''t be right to say it like that. Considering the twenty years I had been through, I should say that these conditions were absurdly easy.

    Whoosh!

    After I swung the sword horizontally, I immediately felt a difference from before. The sound of the sword cutting through the air was different. I felt that my stance was much more stable, and I could control my movements.

    After swinging 10,000 times, I acquired Swordsmanship Lv. 1. After 30,000 swings, Swordsmanship Lv. 2. After 90,000 swings, Swordsmanship Lv. 3, and in addition, Strength +2. In the past, no matter how many years I practiced, I could never obtain such skills. If I lived like this, I would have become strong long ago.

    Clatter.

    Before, no matter what I did, there was no hope. Now, just by swinging a sword, it showed up as a number. I could see exactly how far I had come.

    Do humans live like this all along? So conveniently?

    It was almost unbelievable. It seemed I needed to catch a human and interrogate them.

    ***

    Whoosh!

    [269,999/270,000]

    [270,000/270,000]

    [Quest Clear!]

    [Reward: Swordsmanship Lv. 4 acquired]

    [You have diligently trained your swordsmanship.]

    [Bonus Reward: Agility +3]

    I planned to capture a human. But in isolation inside the stone wall, the training was so delightful. Watching the numbers go up one by one gave me satisfaction and joy. I didn''t want to waste a moment. Rather than going out to catch a human and engage in conversation, I wanted to focus on training first.

    However, even if I didn''t go capture a human, there was still one thing I needed to do.

    ***

    Two hours later, I gazed at the skeletons inside the hall for a while. They were all new faces. I had thrown out all the ones who originally occupied this hall.

    It was a form of punishment. I threw the ones who had been hiding deep inside out to the entrance of the dungeon, where they would face the humans. Instead, I picked a few who had been closer to the entrance. I brought them inside the mechanism.

    I started with that struggling doorkeeper. I let it lie in the core of the ossuary to raise its level. Then something amusing happened.