Ch.96Divine Gambler (3)

With only a week left until the God-Challenger Tournament, I decided to learn the Kiryu Second right away.

“Huuuuuup…!!”

I took a deep breath.

It was essentially an application of the First Flash. If the First Flash’s breathing was just a buff used to read the enemy’s breathing, then for the Kiryu Second, I needed to approach it with the feeling of filling my inner energy through breathing.

I was a weeb after all. I roughly understood how this technique worked. Learning techniques ultimately came down to imagination. As a current web novel author, my imagination was not just sufficient—it was overflowing.

Fwooosh-!!!!

With the sensation of oxygen spreading throughout my entire body, my muscles began to swell.

“Ohhh…!! Master… this is…!!”

I just got it instantly. An overwhelming power was flowing through my body.

“Ah, no way… you got it in one try?”

Gonzaemon seemed genuinely surprised. Honestly, even I was terrified by my own talent.

“Master!!!! Overwhelming power is flowing through me!!! Kiyoooooh!!!!!”

Having temporarily reached a realm I couldn’t normally dream of, my tension skyrocketed. I felt like I could beat anyone right now.

“Good. Now try swinging your sword.”

Gonzaemon cleared his throat and continued.

“Here I go!!!!”

I immediately kicked off the ground and charged.

Fwooosh-!!!

I moved behind Gonzaemon at an incredible speed. I was moving so fast that I could barely see my surroundings.

Whoooosh-!!

Immediately after, I swung my practice sword toward the training dummy.

Ping-!!

With a flash of the wooden sword, the blade was suddenly embedded in the dummy.

KWAAANG-!!

An enormous sound that couldn’t possibly be coming from just a sword echoed all around.

Due to my enhanced physical abilities, both the power and speed of my sword strikes increased tremendously. My previous swordsmanship looked pathetic in comparison.

Fwang-!! Chang-!! Pwok-!! Pwak-!!

Excited, I immediately unleashed a series of overwhelmingly fast strikes at the dummy.

However, this state didn’t last forever.

“Ugh…!”

Suddenly, my strength began to drain rapidly.

“What… is… this…”

As my entire body went limp, I collapsed face-first onto the ground.

Hisssss-!!

The steam emanating from my body had disappeared. Yes, the fever time was over.

“That’s right. That is the limitation of the Kiryu Second. Since it temporarily draws out your body’s potential, it puts considerable strain on your body.”

Gonzaemon explained.

Well… honestly, that’s the standard trope. It’s the typical drawback of physical enhancement abilities. Whether it’s the famous pirate manga’s Gear Second or the King of Fighters’ technique, it’s always the same. The “puts strain on the body” setting always follows.

“Even for me, I can only maintain the Kiryu Second for 15 minutes. However, in actual combat, you can’t use the full 15 minutes. If you use it to the limit, you’ll be completely exhausted.”

Gonzaemon said with a gloomy expression.

Gonzaemon could last 15 minutes… I felt like I used it for about 3 minutes? Yet I was already this exhausted.

“Then… isn’t this just a garbage technique?”

I finally voiced the hard truth. Someone who lives only for today might use it… but I couldn’t bring myself to do that no matter what.

“Hey!!! Garbage?! Do you have any idea how amazing this technique is?!!!”

Gonzaemon immediately flipped out.

“I landed a hit on a God with this technique!!! That’s incredibly impressive!!!”

Gonzaemon shouted.

“Hmm… it is certainly powerful…”

It was basically a skill that temporarily granted superhuman specs. That was definitely broken.

“If you learn to use it properly, the problems can be minimized. The condition for exhaustion is simple. Using the Kiryu Second continuously will result in that. Which means… if you turn the skill on and off intermittently, fatigue is minimized. You’ll still be exhausted to the point of death, but you can endure it.”

Gonzaemon explained.

Ah… so you use it like toggling a passive skill on and off. That’s pretty game-like.

“This is what we call ‘Kiryu Second Cancel’!!! Shortened to ‘Ki-Can’!!! Remember it!!!”

Gonzaemon shouted.

Seriously… the naming is so lacking in class. It had the cheapness of fighting game terminology.

Cancel, huh… reminds me of my childhood. Being Korean, I always used Korean characters when playing games. I practiced hard on Kim Kaphwan’s Passion Kick Cancel, or “Pa-Can” for short… anyway.

“Master… next time you create a technique… please let someone else name it. Seriously.”

I gave our master sincere advice. Our entire school might look lame because of these lame names. I had to stop this.

“Why!! It’s good!!!”

Gonzaemon shouted, sounding wronged.

“Dad… it’s honestly lame.”

Umi said.

“Well, he tried to give our daughter a strange name too… he wanted to name her ‘Gon’ after Gonzaemon. Really… it’s fortunate I talked him out of it.”

Asuna-san said.

Gon… Gonzaemon-san. You were heavily influenced by Hunter x Hunter… you really love manga. I felt a sense of kinship, but couldn’t empathize. How could anyone try to name their daughter ‘Gon’?

“Kugh…”

Gonzaemon immediately became dejected.

“Well… putting aside your terrible naming sense, please hurry and teach me this Ki-Can thing or whatever, Master.”

I said.

“You… try to sympathize with my sorrow a bit… you psychopath obsessed with training.”

Gonzaemon glared at me as he spoke.

——–

To summarize Gonzaemon’s explanation, it was simple.

You fight in normal form, and when you’re in a pinch, you temporarily activate the Kiryu Second through breathing. After overwhelming the enemy with superior speed and power, you immediately stop the breathing to deactivate the form.

The key point was to catch your breath and fight defensively after deactivating the form to recover your stamina. It might sound like a cool technique, but it was actually quite cowardly. The basic strategy was to press the attack only when advantageous.

In other words, it’s a technique that minimizes fatigue by toggling the Kiryu Second activation on and off according to the situation. It sounds simple when explained like this, but it was actually quite difficult.

“Too slow!! If you’ve used it, deactivate it quickly!!!”

Gonzaemon didn’t miss the opening during my form transition and immediately struck my head.

“Uwaaagh!! That hurts!!!”

I immediately clutched my head and groaned.

The drawback was being defenseless during form transitions. For this technique to be practical in actual combat, the form transitions had to be extremely quick. Ideally, the transition should take only one second.

In other words, I needed to become a master of breathing.

———

For the next three hours, Gonzaemon and I devoted ourselves entirely to training. The other disciples practiced independently. They didn’t want to disturb the two of us training. They were actually pretty nice guys.

“Kiryu… SECONDO!!!”

I immediately launched a series of attacks at Gonzaemon while using the Kiryu Second.

The point was to pronounce “Second” in a weeby way as “Secondo.” This is Japan after all, right? Using that rotten katakana pronunciation was perfectly legal. Somehow using that lame pronunciation made the technique feel more satisfying. Anyway, that’s how it was.

Chang-! Chaeng-! Chaaeng-! Changgeong-!!

Gonzaemon and I exchanged sword strikes at a speed completely invisible to third parties.

“Kugh…!”

As my stamina rapidly depleted, I immediately stopped my breathing.

Hisssss-!!

The steam emanating from my body quickly dissipated.

About 2 seconds.

In just 2 seconds, I returned to my original form.

“Ha!! You’ve shortened it considerably!!!”

Gonzaemon laughed heartily.

Well… it took over 5 seconds when I first learned it. Reducing it this much was truly a talent.

However, the extreme fatigue accumulated from three hours of grueling training was an added bonus.

“Alright everyone, let’s eat.”

Asuna and Umi called us up to the second floor.

“Ah!! I’m starving!! Let’s eat!!”

Gonzaemon said with a broad smile.

“Can I… eat with you too?”

I asked Gonzaemon.

“Do you see me as someone heartless enough to make my disciple train on an empty stomach?”

Gonzaemon said, patting my shoulder.

“Oh no~of course not!! A great man like you, Master, would never do such a thing!”

I immediately buttered him up. Only then did Gonzaemon curl up the corners of his mouth and chuckle. Similar to Umi, Gonzaemon was also extremely weak to praise.

Anyway, I headed to the living room on the second floor.

A traditional Japanese home-cooked meal was appetizingly laid out.

In the kitchen… there were two cutting boards split in half. They were cutting boards that had been split because Asuna-san couldn’t control her strength.

“Aahn~❤”

Umi immediately fed me.

“Umi… I have hands.”

I said while obediently accepting the food like a baby bird.

“No way. Shota is working hard training, right? No using hands today. I’ll feed you properly❤”

Umi said with a giggle.

“Then… my hands are bored.”

I said, looking at Umi.

“Then you should play with them?”

Umi gave a mischievous smile.

Understanding Umi’s subtle permission, I immediately embraced her and fondled her breasts.

“Really… Shota has such bad hand habits.”

Despite saying that, Umi continued to feed me with affection.

Ah… this is healing.

“Honey. Aahn~❤”

Perhaps because the flow of affectionate behavior was already established, Asuna-san also didn’t hold back her affection toward Gonzaemon.

In this scene where even the miso soup seemed to heat up, the Kiryu family continued their meal.

———

After the meal.

“Well… now that we’ve eaten, I’m going to take a nap with Asuna for a bit.”

After finishing the meal, Gonzaemon cleared his throat and said.

I immediately sensed what Gonzaemon was planning to do.

You too? Me too!

“Ah… then I’ll also go to Umi’s room for a bit…”

I said, holding Umi’s hand. Umi, signaling her permission, interlaced her fingers with mine one by one.

Afterward, after enjoying a leisurely siesta time for about 2 hours, Gonzaemon and I returned to training.

Fatigue? That had been completely relieved long ago.