“…Is this the first trial?!”

You crazy bastards!!

Ha-yeon shouted at the approaching meteor and braced herself.

She couldn’t dodge that.

It was almost the same size as the platform, so she had to either block it with pure defense or cut it down.

But she couldn’t block it with just her defense.

No matter how good Derkael’s Immortality was, it couldn’t block that.

‘If only Fallen were here!’

She cursed being alone in this trial and clenched her fists.

Despite her resolve, the impossibility was clear.

There was no chance of surviving this meteor.

[The Constellation, ‘Moon-Cleaving Flash,’ laughs, reminiscing about the time they cleaved the moon.]

“This isn’t the time to be laughing…”

She was about to say something to the Constellation’s sudden message when.

[The Constellation, ‘Moon-Cleaving Flash,’ bestows their unique skill, ‘Vertical Slash (U-SS),’ for 10 seconds.]

“Unique skill?”

She’d heard of it.

It was said that when a Constellation ascended, they received a unique skill that summarized their achievements.

And they could lend that skill to their contractor for 10 seconds a month.

“Then with this…”

She activated Sacred Haze and Sword Demon, raised the Immortal Longsword high, and then activated the skill.

[Skill, ‘Vertical Slash (U-SS),’ is activated.]

Vertical Slash.

A very simple name, but that’s what made it so powerful.

No one in the world could achieve a perfect stance.

Even if it looked perfect on the surface, there was always a flaw somewhere.

A perfect stance was something like that.

Something that could achieve transcendence just by taking it.

She swung the sword vertically forward.

“…!!”

Silently.

The meteor split in half without a sound.

The giant rock falling from the sky split in two and fell beside her.

Bang!

The meteor was still burning, as if the heat hadn’t subsided.

Ha-yeon felt her whole body tremble at the sight.

[You have imitated the ultimate strike.]

[Swordsmanship skill has increased.]

Just imitating it had already greatly increased her swordsmanship, and now it had increased even further.

She was thrilled for a moment.

-Constellation’s help, huh? Well, that’s one of your strengths.

The dragon’s words brought her focus back to the trial.

‘How many more of these do I have to endure?’

How much time was left?

The System had said the trial time was 2 minutes.

It felt like 2 minutes had already passed.

[The Constellation, ‘Moon-Cleaving Flash,’ says there are about 30 seconds left.]

Only 1 minute and 30 seconds had passed?

-The trial time is almost up. 30 seconds…

He said, sitting down on the platform.

-I’ll face you directly.

The giant dragon’s form was enveloped in a swirl of light, shrinking rapidly until it became a boy in an instant.

A blue-haired boy with dragon wings on his back and a dragon tail at his waist.

Was this the Polymorph she’d only heard about?

“You better not let your guard down.”

Just as she was thinking that, the Guardian Dragon of the Sky rushed at her and threw a punch.

“He’s really fast…!”

Barely dodging the boy’s attack and leaping aside, she composed herself and focused on her opponent.

It was only 30 seconds, but it felt like an eternity to her.

“Ranger.”

He said, changing his stance.

It was a stance that looked agile at a glance.

And in an instant, he mimicked drawing a bow.

“Shot.”

As he released the bowstring, an arrow of wind flew towards her.

But she wasn’t defenseless like before; she was in a proper stance, and she dodged to the side with Sacred Haze.

“Parry.”

She pierced the center of the second arrow with One Extreme Flash, extinguishing the wind.

And she crushed the subsequent arrows with Northern Demon Swordsmanship, infused with a crazy amount of mana.

“Oh… you’re quite skilled. It’s only 10% of my power, but you’re extinguishing it.”

Wait, this is only 10%?

Seriously insane.

“Now that there are 10 seconds left, shall we go hand-to-hand?”

Bang!

The boy punched as soon as he finished speaking.

Ha-yeon blocked the punch with the Immortal Longsword in her right hand and deflected the follow-up attack from his other hand with her left, as expected.

‘Wrist!!’

Tears welled up in her eyes at the pain in her left wrist, even though she had deflected it, but she knew it was nothing in a situation where her life was at stake, so she endured it.

She had to block the attacks that were pouring in like crazy after that.

‘Isn’t the Immortal Longsword going to break!’

She blocked all the punches with the longsword.

Before, the attacks came from a distance, so she knew the follow-up attacks would come from far away, but now it was a close-quarters battle, so the point of impact wasn’t much different.

Which meant the Immortal Longsword could block them well enough.

Moreover, she infused Sacred Haze into the Immortal Longsword to make it more flexible and surrounded it with Mana Beam once more to extend its range.

“Last one!”

“…!!”

9 seconds had passed.

The last 1 second.

The Guardian Dragon knew it too, and he threw a punch with all his might.

And the Immortal Longsword that blocked it.

Snapped in two.

“Congratulations on clearing the trial.”

“…..”

“What, can’t you hear me?”

The trial was over, but she didn’t say anything, staring at the Immortal Longsword that had been broken in two.

Why did it break?

‘Well, even if it’s S+, it’s not surprising that it would break if an SS+ monster kept punching it with all its might…’

What about the trials ahead?

She didn’t have any weapons she could temporarily use right now.

And if she fought with martial arts, she didn’t know much about it except for the basics, and her title was ‘Sword Demon,’ so she couldn’t exert her full power without a sword.

“Ha…”

As she despaired at the thought of the situation ahead.

The Constellation’s System window popped up.

[The Constellation, ‘Moon-Cleaving Flash,’ shouts not to worry.]

“Constellation?”

The Constellation told her not to worry.

‘Could it be that they’re going to give me a weapon…?’

No, that couldn’t be.

They had already given her several skills today, and they probably didn’t have much left to give.

As expected, several messages from the Constellation popped up.

[The Constellation, ‘Moon-Cleaving Flash,’ asks if you’re thinking of getting another weapon from them.]

How did they know again?

[The Constellation, ‘Moon-Cleaving Flash,’ advises you to think about why ‘Immortal Longsword (S+)’ has the title of Immortal.]

Immortal?

“Come to think of it…”

Item names weren’t given for no reason.

There must be a reason for it.

To be honest, she thought the Immortal Longsword was just a sword with incredibly high durability.

But it was an S+ weapon with the name Immortal, so would it break so easily after being hit by an SS+ punch?

It was strange when she thought about it.

[The System’s restrictions are partially lifted by the Constellation’s authority.]

[Information about the Immortal Longsword (S+) is released.]

[Record completed.]

[Would you like to view it?]

“…Confirm.”

[Outputting the record of Item Name – Immortal Longsword (S+).]

+++

Item Name: Immortal Longsword

Rank: S+

Type: Cold Weapon (Sword)

Effect: Upon destruction, re-creation with a new attribute.

Attributes – Corruption, Purity, Rage, Pain, Healing

Description: A mythical object created by Derkael, a very large blacksmith in a distant universe long ago.

Derkael named this sword ‘Immortal’ because it was reborn with a new attribute each time it was broken.

A set with his clothing, Derkael’s Immortality (S), which was created with this sword.

Derkael’s Immortality (S) also changes its attribute whenever the sword’s attribute changes.

Current attribute change in progress: Corruption -> Purity

+++

“Attribute change, re-creation?”

The words were incomprehensible just by hearing them.

[The Constellation, ‘Moon-Cleaving Flash,’ says not to worry, as the attribute change will be completed soon and the ‘Immortal Longsword (S+)’ will be restored with a different attribute.]

As the Constellation said, she waited for about 30 seconds.

Soon, there was a reaction.

The two pieces of the broken Immortal Longsword floated in the air, enveloped in a pure white light, and when the light disappeared, they had changed into one shape.

Instead of a jet-black, very dark ink-colored blade.

A pure white blade, untainted and smooth, that would go well with Sacred Haze.

Unlike the Corruption version, which had a black eagle and a red jewel on the hilt, this one had pure white wings wrapped around it and a blue jewel embedded in it.

It was truly a celestial sword.

[The attribute of the item, ‘Immortal Longsword (S+),’ has been changed.]

[The attribute of the item, ‘Derkael’s Immortality (S),’ is being changed.]

Along with the System’s message, the color of Derkael’s Immortality, which she was wearing, changed this time.

Like the Immortal Longsword, the black clothes turned white.

The silver decorations were changed to gold.

The scabbard was also changed to white.

“Image change, huh…”

She was a complete magical girl just now.

[The Constellation, ‘Moon-Cleaving Flash,’ advises that each attribute has different abilities, but Corruption is just a simple increase in combat power, and Purity isn’t that difficult either, so you’ll know if you fight in the future.]

Along with the Constellation’s message.

Light struck her eyes, just like when she first entered this place.