Ch.46Draisen (4)

“Fuck! Fuck!”

Vroom! Vroom!

The thug spews curses while wildly swinging his sword.

Judging by his somewhat proper stance and his clumsy but recognizable footwork, he probably spent a fair amount of money at a sword guild, but that wasn’t enough to defeat me.

Using Tuta, one of the 12 marks, I easily deflected his amateurish sword strike, then swiftly beheaded him with the longsword in my right hand.

Slash.

Roll, roll…

“Tsk. Such clumsy amateurs.”

I’ve survived being completely surrounded without shedding a single drop of blood.

If I were to get even a scratch from the swords of these pathetic dock gangsters, nothing would irritate me more.

Others might prefer fighting humans to monsters, but I’m the opposite.

Combat should at least involve some minimal give and take. Just getting sliced up whenever a sword comes your way isn’t combat—it’s food preparation.

“Hmph. Nothing worth selling… Worthless.”

It hasn’t been many days since I mastered mark magic, but I could feel the significant increase in the range of power I could wield.

The best among them was undoubtedly Barkal, as the ability to perform double and triple jumps gives a huge advantage in close combat.

Most street thugs might have experience blocking attacks from below, but they’ve never tried blocking a sword dropping from rooftop height.

Even I had done it but never experienced it myself—it was a skill difficult to master unless you were an assassin.

I’d even developed a combo where I’d bind enemies with Blak’s smoke screen, escape their encirclement with a long jump, then annihilate them using Tuta and Ignatus. I realized a simple truth: if precise spell manipulation isn’t possible, the user themselves must move with precision.

Thud… Thud…

Soon, I headed to the Adventurers’ Guild with about seven heads in a sack, and handed the blood-dripping bag to the receptionists to claim my reward.

“Yes, I’ve confirmed the completion of your request. Please wait a moment while I process your payment.”

“Hmm.”

It’s been four days since I arrived in Dreisen.

Thanks to completing many requests during this time, my wallet has become quite thick.

If I stayed here diligently for about a month, earning one gold coin would be quick work.

“Thank you for waiting. Here’s your payment.”

“Thanks.”

I put three silver coins into my spatial storage.

Thinking about it now, comparing street laborers to adventurers, the latter earn much more.

Even straw-rank adventurers, once they have minimal equipment, can start with giant rat extermination and quickly save up a considerable sum.

While anyone with strength could hunt monsters, nobody would pay you for it unless you were a registered adventurer, which is why so many people became adventurers.

Although I’ve now risen to charcoal rank, I’m still far from the steel to gold ranks, known as the backbone of adventurers.

Once you reach metal rank, you handle much more dangerous requests than these trivial ones.

For example, if a request to deal with a thieves’ den comes in, at charcoal rank you’d face skinny bandits waiting in dark caves, while at gold rank you’d confront deserter soldiers occupying a ruined fortress.

“Bandit group…”

Privately, I wondered if I could take down dozens of military deserters alone.

….

Probably impossible.

Military deserters means they belonged to an army, and like it or not, they’re familiar with group combat tactics.

Soldiers have combat abilities far beyond those of bumbling bandits who can’t even gauge the range of their own sword swings. No matter how strong I am, without using Aura, there’s a limit to how many I can take down at once.

Especially since I use dual swords, making powerful thrusts or slashes difficult.

“I need to become stronger…”

I clenched my fist.

My goal.

To visit all the famous sites across the 13 continents, I needed to become much stronger.

With that thought, I headed to the inn.

*

“You have monstrous stamina. Did you get that way from working 240 hours a week, or could you handle 240-hour workweeks because you already had that stamina?”

The staff serving my lunch asked, clicking their tongue.

“Well, if I had to say, probably the former. I wasn’t always strong.”

“That’s exactly what talented people always say.”

“Then perhaps you should spend 240 hours a week contemplating to find your own talent.”

I replied while dipping bread into the spicy stew.

Though not particularly sociable, I needed minimal social skills for work, so I didn’t push away those who approached me.

As a result, I seemed to have become something of a celebrity at this inn over the past four days.

The world is wide and full of crazy people, but apparently I belonged to the category of diligently crazy ones.

“Do you know how many famous sites there are across the 13 continents?”

“Four per continent, so 52 in total.”

The 52 famous sites, four in each of the 13 continents, are collectively known as the World’s 52 Wonders.

Actually, these “famous sites” were designated by connoisseurs rather than being an official classification, but because they were created by connoisseurs, they spread widely among civilians. The 52 classified wonders were truly magnificent, so even now, over 1,200 years into the Age of Mortality, no one denies the World’s 52 Wonders.

The four sites in each continent represent four aspects:

The first site must be a place of historical significance.

The second site must be the most beautiful place across the entire continent.

The third site must be a place of great religious significance.

The fourth site must be a place where great achievements were born.

With 13 continents, that makes 52 sites in total.

Incidentally, the closest wonder to this Dreisen is Paerus Vale.

As the capital of this Paerun continent, it houses the imperial charter of the Adventurers’ Guild, personally written by Nariakira Kenta, the last emperor of the ancient empire.

Naturally, this charter—dividing the contract between the emperor and the four ministers, guaranteeing the rights of the Adventurers’ Guild and its affiliated adventurers—was a historic document. Thus, the Adventurers’ Guild where this charter is kept, and by extension Paerus Vale itself, the capital of the Paerun continent, fulfilled the first condition of being “a place of historical significance.”

An imperial decree densely written by the emperor himself, along with the signatures of the four ministers guaranteeing it.

I was already excited about what magnificent text awaited me.

“Paerus Vale… Another long journey ahead.”

The capital of every continent is located at its exact center.

The reason is simple—the ancient empire decided so because it was easy to remember.

The exact center of a continent is a desert where clouds cannot reach, with varying terrain, but to the ancient empire, literally ruled by the sun and moon, such “minor drawbacks” were merely aspects to be improved for “convenience.”

They dug massive waterways and canals to bring rain and clouds, cut down mountains to create flatlands, and filled valleys to make plains.

While the final years of the Nariakiran Empire weren’t great, it lasted for 300,000 years—350,000 if you count its remnants—and was the most powerful empire in history.

For the empire in its prime, such construction projects were no more difficult than washing one’s feet or brushing one’s teeth.

I suddenly realized why I was so fascinated by the Nariakiran Empire, then pushed the thought away as I spooned up the spicy stew.

“How long will you stay in Dreisen?”

“I’ll leave when my week of lodging ends.”

“Really? Where will you go then?”

“Paerus Vale.”

“Oh. To the capital, eh?”

“Have you been there?”

“Of course not. I’m a Dreisen native. Never been outside the city limits.”

“You must be satisfied living in such a small world.”

I made this veiled insult about his limited perspective, then went up to my room.

I didn’t have many days left in Dreisen.

The Paerun continent where I am is the first discovered continent, and thus its human history is much older than the 13th continent, Centrum, at the very center.

At the pinnacle of that history stands Paerus Vale, the capital of Paerun.

In that massive city of 100 million people, I will see living evidence of history from hundreds of thousands of years ago.

For 16 years, I’ve only seen the World’s 52 Wonders in worn photographs in library guidebooks, but soon I’ll see one with my own eyes, and I couldn’t contain my excitement.