Chapter 152: Black Slime Material Delivery (2)

The moment I was about to start hunting, a thought suddenly occurred to me.

Perhaps, among all the power and skills I’ve gained so far, does anything truly exist that I can say I made my own through effort?

Isn’t it just a numerical ability obtained by barely using points?

Perhaps the person Sung Taekyung is still just a pathetic guy, and I’ve just ended up gaining more power than I can handle?

It might sound like complaining born of too much luck, saying this right after defeating an S-rank monster like the Kraken just a few days ago, but when I think about the sparring match I had with Eunyoung Noona not long ago, I couldn’t help but have these thoughts.

Even if the opponent was an S-rank Hunter, a record of 68 losses, 2 wins, and 1 draw couldn’t exactly be called a good result.

Even considering that we didn’t use magic, healing, or any other abilities, it was a record hard to easily comprehend.

At least, purely with just a single sword, I was barely reaching the toes of an S-rank Hunter.

For someone like me, who had lived obsessing over greatsword techniques even before awakening these kinds of abilities, it was quite a shocking sparring result.

Like this, even looking generously, when limited to swordsmanship, I was no different from a mediocre A-rank Hunter.

I merely possessed skill that was perfectly matched to the swordsmanship level raised with awakening points.

That was insufficient.

Just because I became able to handle various awakening abilities didn’t mean it was okay to neglect the individual abilities themselves, obviously.

Because I had already seen many awakened individuals who, calling it multi-awakening, tried to handle several abilities simultaneously, only for all those various things to become mediocre.

To avoid becoming like that, it was the point in time when I felt a meaningful achievement in swordsmanship, which I had learned the most and honed for the longest time, was necessary first.

Because if I couldn’t perfectly grasp this ability to an extent I could accept, then whether I learned magic or healing, everything would end up in a similar state.

I want to become a warrior whose footwork on the battlefield is excellent, rather than whose hip movements are excellent on the bed.

Because that was the wish I had dreamed of since childhood.

Therefore, as soon as I entered the first dungeon of the day, the Tar Pit, I bluntly delivered a sword strike against a Black Slime.

The thing that blocked the first attack immediately manifested the Black Slime’s characteristic, ‘First Attack Resistance’.

If I used fire magic like this, I could easily defeat it. Although the Black Slime’s material would be damaged, requiring me to catch one more.

Therefore, I intended to catch it using only swordsmanship.

Defeating a monster with physical resistance using swordsmanship.

It might sound like a strange statement in a way, but it obviously wasn’t an impossible feat.

Because it was common knowledge that not only S-rank Hunters, but even A-rank Hunters who had reached a certain level could overcome a monster’s attack resistance.

In that regard, the Black Slime with physical resistance was a perfectly good sparring partner to overcome my limits.

If I couldn’t even overcome this much, I wouldn’t even be able to attempt a proper attack against Eunyoung Noona in the next sparring match.

In addition to that, I also had to prepare for the promotion test that would be held soon.

Until now, I had easily handled B-rank requests by combining various awakening abilities, but if you think about it, showing off my multi-awakening abilities in front of other Hunters was quite dangerous.

Maybe if the opponent were trustworthy Hunters like Hye-eun or Sihee, but the examiner for the promotion test was highly likely to be someone I didn’t know.

I wanted to avoid showing my various awakening abilities as much as possible, even to strangers.

If that’s the case, it means I need to reach a level where I can handle the requests I’ve performed to raise my Hunter rank until now with ‘swordsmanship’ alone.

It was the seed I had sown, so now it was my turn to reap it.

‘Fru-rut-!’

The Black Slime jumped its body up towards me from below with a threatening cry.

Instead of responding with fire magic or ice magic against such a thing, I swung my Mithril Greatsword once again and struck its body.

With a ‘Kkakang.’ sound, the greatsword hit something hard and bounced off, and immediately after, the Black Slime and I pulled our distance apart again.

‘Fru-ru-rut-!’

As expected, it doesn’t work well from the start, huh?

No matter how good a greatsword I held, in the end, it was a situation of making a physical attack against an opponent with physical attack resistance, so it seemed it wasn’t working properly.

With a chilling cry, its body approached me again.

‘Fru-t-!’

A ‘Kkaang.’ occurred, the second sword strike.

This time too, although I immediately pulled distance after exchanging just one blow, the distance between the monster and me right after was slightly narrower than before.

It wasn’t because I had struck it down with a different intensity of power.

Because I swung a sword strike of the same intensity against the Black Slime even in the second attack.

However, this time, I just attacked by imbuing the sword with internal energy as Eunyoung Noona taught me.

Actually, internal energy is a third power, neither a physical attack nor a magic attack, so if handled well, it can be utilized in either direction.

It helps a melee fighter, who can only perform physical attacks, deal damage to an enemy with resistance to physical attacks.

It also helps a mage Hunter, who can only use magic, fire mana that possesses physical force.

How well one could utilize that was what distinguished a Hunter’s capabilities, and it was a skill I had to acquire someday, as long as I aimed to be the world’s best Hunter.

And now.

I could confirm with the naked eye that the upper part of the Black Slime’s head, where my attack had worked to some extent, was split halfway open.

It didn’t reach a fatal blow with just one sword strike, but it was proof that my attack was properly working at least.

Of course, like a slime, it recovered from this much damage almost immediately, but.

‘…Fru-eut-!’

Whether it was angered by the proper attack landing, the monster let out an even more wicked scream.

It was a terrifying aura, unimaginable for a B-rank monster the size of a small rock to let out.

Greatly angered, it charged towards me at high speed, unlike during the second attack.

Since I was also just gradually getting the hang of it, I responded to the fight with it this time too, without dodging.

This time too, I wrapped the same amount of internal energy around my sword, but I compressed it to raise its concentration and made its form much sharper.

I also had reasonable confidence that it would work in this strike.

With a ‘Tuhwak!’ sound, my sword split the Black Slime’s body straight through.

It was the moment when an attack using only swordsmanship, not a cowardly trick using fire magic, worked on it.

“Fru-eut…!”

Until the end, with a chilling cry, the core popped out from its dead body.

I collected the body fluid from its corpse and put it in a vial for material collection, then stored it in the monster material pouch along with the Black Slime’s core.

「Black Slime Core 1

Black Slime Body Fluid 1」

Now, is it nine more with this?

An expectation was blooming that perhaps I could finish faster than I thought.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

The time when I finished gathering materials, even at the second dungeon, was just past 10 PM.

It seems there was a tendency for delays because of my stubbornness to defeat monsters using only swordsmanship, like last time, without using fire magic and healing skills.

Because the Black Slime materials, and the Skeleton materials from the second visit, were requests that certainly could have been finished much faster if I had only used fire magic and healing skills.

Compared to when I first accepted those requests, my equipment got better and my skill levels increased, so it was natural that they finished much faster in reality too.

Of course, even so, if you ask whether simply using only swordsmanship today was a waste of time, it wasn’t.

Because at least I gained the awareness that I had grown to an extent I could feel directly.

Until catching the tenth Black Slime, I had to exchange about three sword strikes for each one I caught, but.

By the time I caught the fifteenth Black Slime, I became able to defeat them with just two strikes.

When I caught the twentieth Black Slime, the final goal, I could reach the point where defeating them with a single strike was completely possible.

The method of handling internal energy taught by Eunyoung Noona, and the method of overcoming limits with only swordsmanship, were really a great help.

It was the same when dealing with Skeletons in the next dungeon, the Necromancer’s Graveyard.

There, I learned precise swordsmanship that accurately attacked the joints of the complex and constantly moving Skeleton monsters.

To be honest, if I were doing such precise attacks, using a saber or arming sword would have been better than a greatsword, but I had to be able to do it with a greatsword too.

Because at least Eunyoung Noona could do it.

That precise attack, where she swung her sword with unbelievable power and speed in the latter half while accurately hitting the center of gravity of the sword I was holding – you wouldn’t know its power unless you experienced it firsthand.

Although the current me couldn’t imitate everything she does right away, I had to start by imitating at least the movements first.

Supplementing speed and power will be the next step.

It was truly fortunate that Eunyoung Noona regained her awakening abilities as a Hunter.

If she hadn’t been there, there would have been absolutely no teacher to teach swordsmanship, especially the unpopular greatsword techniques.

In effect, it was the same as her passing down everything from her Hunter life, which she had lived for several years.

Someday, if I become able to win against Eunyoung Noona with swordsmanship, I’ll probably get one step closer to my goal then.

If that happens, I’ll probably naturally have to invest time in learning fire magic, my next main skill.

It would be good if I could find someone who will become a master proficient in fire magic, but probably, it won’t go as smoothly next time.

Maybe if I could build even a connection with a retired S-rank Hunter who specialized in fire magic.

There’s no way such an absurd coincidence will happen.