episode_0016

At first, I thought I had misheard.

He handed me a steel sword, but he himself was wielding a wooden sword and charging at me.

A wooden sword charging at a steel sword. It’s an incredibly foolish act.

Moreover, I am technically blind, with sensory perception, but still, I’m a guy who closes his eyes.

Normally, one would think this behavior is that of a madman, but considering the difference between me and Professor Atra, I arrived at the thought that there must be some meaning behind it.

He is a professor specializing in combat. It’s just an assumption, but at the very least, he must be a skilled practitioner comparable to a high-level hero.

Without hesitation, I drew my sword.

As Professor Atra charged at me, I gripped the sword.

I resisted with all my strength, swinging the sword. Even if I say so myself, the sword I swung should be able to block and evade on its own.

My prediction was correct. The flying sword didn’t even graze Professor Atra.

With mysterious movements, he narrowly evades everything. It seems as though he can see the future, dodging by a hair’s breadth when I thrust, turning his head to avoid it, and not moving a step when I swing horizontally.

After dodging several times, Professor Atra casually raised his wooden sword.

– Clang! Clang! Clang!

“Here, here, here.”

An attack after evasion. As if coming out for a drink, he avoids the sword and approaches, then strikes with the wooden sword all over my body.

Head, shoulders, arms, ribs, thighs, calves… He strikes evenly all over.

I suppressed the urge to scream. If I were to scream once, there is a possibility that a chain of curses could follow.

It’s not really excruciatingly painful, but it’s painful enough to make a grunting sound. Suppressing the scream is torture.

Is this what they call Spartan education?

He avoided everything I swung at him, while giving me instructions on how to swing, approaching smoothly, pointing out openings here and there.

It was a merciless beating without any mercy or tears. I began to suspect that the saying “I have no particular thoughts about special admission” might be a lie.

I looked at him, thinking maybe he doesn’t like me, but his expression was cold and emotionless.

– Clang! Clang! Thwack!

The merciless beating continued.

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In the end, after being beaten by the wooden sword for hours, the lecture came to an end.

“Today’s training ends here.”

As I collapsed in a mess on the ground, Professor Atra approached me.

A water bottle was placed by the head, as if to give some kind of compensation. In the current situation, I reached out with trembling arms, feeling an urgent need for water.

Before I knew it, evening had arrived, and the floor was bathed in a faint orange sunset.

“For the next few weeks, we will proceed with classes in the same format as today.”

Goodness.

I almost choked as I let a little water trickle down my throat and it almost flowed back.

The fact that I had been beaten up for a few weeks made the corners of my eyes tremble.

It felt like tears were about to come out at the thought of having to go through the same thing tomorrow.

My whole body was sore. Yesterday it was the pain from excessive use of my body, but now it was the pain of being beaten up.

“And do not seek recovery or healing from other superhumans.”

Ah… I didn’t like it because I could guess the reason.

“If you rely on the unique abilities of the healing category, your wounds will immediately disappear, but most of today’s training results will be lost, hindering the cultivation of your natural recovery ability. So rely on natural healing as much as possible.”

Physical growth occurs during the process of recovering torn muscles.

The growth of the body is the commitment to grow, promising that the muscles torn by rough exercise will not tear again.

The unique abilities of the healing category are divided into various effects, but most are remembered as ‘instant healing’ or ‘recovery amplification’.

If you tear the torn muscle with instant healing, the muscle recovers before it can grow.

Recovery amplification is similar. It receives less external help than instant healing, but ultimately delays growth.

In other words, I have to return as a bruised person.

“By the way, this schedule was planned under the assumption that your detection ability could replace normal vision. And as I expected, I judged that your detection ability can replace vision, so I will continue the lecture with today’s schedule.”

Professor Artra added an explanation, as if he thought I was wondering.

“Make sure to arrive at my sight tomorrow as well.”

With that, Professor Artra turned his back.

Lying on the ground with my back against it, I felt the wind blowing. I breathed out absentmindedly.

Certainly, the ground was behind me, and even though I was facing the sky, I couldn’t see it. It’s a frustrating feeling.

Once again, I realized the importance of spatial perception.

At first, I was so sorry for underestimating spatial perception. What if spatial perception couldn’t replace vision? I… I didn’t have confidence that I would survive.

No matter how despicable the ability to peek at users from the beginning is, it’s an ability that must not be lost now.

“Ugh.”

I sighed deeply and recalled the recent sparring. This, too, was thanks to the helpful spatial perception.

I’ve rarely wielded a sword in my life. It’s even rarer to have held a sword, except when cooking alone.

This is especially true for battles. Although I’ve been hit many times, I’ve rarely struck someone.

The recent sparring with Professor Artra. I mimicked the movements I saw during the friendly sparring with the sword I wielded.

The sparring between Katsuki Yusei and Hong Yeonhwa. Both used wooden swords, and their magic remained at the level of physical enhancement. They also did not use their unique abilities.

It was almost the same rules as just now.

I compared my recent movements with those of Hong Yeonhwa and Katsuki Yusei.

“Hmm…”

The internal evaluation result was a mess. Something that couldn’t be put on the same comparison level…

Side by side, when I concentrated and compared, it was unbelievably amateurish.

Katsuki Yusei’s movements were as smooth as flowing water.

Although it was a situation where she was being overwhelmed by Hong Yeonhwa, the connection of her sword did not break, and it resulted in blocking Hong Yeonhwa’s sword at every moment.

Hong Yeonhwa had a cheerful and bold posture, as if her personality was coming out.

Each movement was filled with strength, making it burdensome for the opponent to defend. Yet the movements were not clumsy, making it difficult to evade the attacks.

The movements looked big and flashy, seeming to have many openings, but they were all traps, and rushing in carelessly would lead to disaster.

As a result, using defensive swordsmanship, Katsuki Yusei got caught up in Hong Yeonhwa’s flow and ended up losing.

The mastery of the sword itself was uneven, but perhaps the compatibility was not good. The difference in specs itself was more significant than skill.

Hong Yeon-hwa is at the level of solo subjugation of a 5th-rank monster. Although the weight of fear was significant, dodging the monster’s attacks and hitting the fear was Hong Yeon-hwa’s skill.

In contrast, I…

The sword snapped. The river water dripped from the half-closed faucet like droplets.

As I couldn’t follow up from one strike to another, in the meantime, Professor Atra smoothly stepped in. Even if I had managed to parry, his skill would have allowed him to step in.

Professor Atra’s fault also lay in breaking my flow.

When I tried to adjust my stance, he pushed in. Before I could lift my sword, he thrust in, causing me to stagger. Even if I succeeded in attacking, I suffered damage, and before I could readjust my stance, he tore into me with an attack.

I didn’t have powerful attacks like Hong Yeon-hwa. My own specs were at rock bottom, and I lacked the ability to sense and exploit weaknesses like Hong Yeon-hwa.

In short, my score was zero.

And Professor Atra?

Clearing the images I had conjured so far, I recalled Professor Atra’s image observed throughout the sparring.

…Professor Atra had no distinctive features.

He firmly took his stance. He came in just right, blocked my flow before I could attack, and abruptly cut it off. Once the flow was broken, he struck.

When an attack came, he narrowly evaded it. It wasn’t an unexpected move, but a natural posture to evade. It was a response anyone could think of.

And then he followed up with an attack.

It was textbook movement. Most of the moves I saw were from the swordsmanship books I had skimmed through. Overall, it was refined.

In other words, I could do it too.

I kept recalling. The data overflowed. Over several hours, while taking hits, Professor Atra’s movements continued to be observed and stored.

Katsuki Yusei’s movements. Hong Yeon-hwa’s movements. Professor Atra’s movements… and my movements.

They were put on the same level for comparison and analysis.

The way they tread on the ground, the distribution of breath, the management of distance, the way they held the sword, when they adjusted their stance, the weight distribution of the lower body, the twist of the shoulders, the direction of the pupils, the handling of the gaze, the transition from defense to attack.

Data is processed. It turns into information.

I substitute the information. Fix what needs to be fixed, dissect and reassemble it. Run a simulation in my brain, and if it doesn’t seem right, I tear it apart again.

The result was the same defeat, but in the process, the me in my imagination seemed to be moving forward little by little.

Repeat the imagination in my mind. Based on the spatial perception data, I kept repeating.

As the sun sets and hides behind the earth, the sunset disappears as well. Following that, the starlight spread across the sky illuminated the ground.

At some point, there was a tingling sensation in one corner of my head. It’s a subtle stimulus that can’t be scratched directly, but it’s frustrating and brings a sense of anticipation.

Before coming to the dormitory, it was similar to the signs of change I received while grumbling about spatial perception in my studio apartment.

But this time, it wasn’t spatial perception.

‘A jack of all trades.’

Combat skills, physical skills, martial arts, swordsmanship, spear techniques, crafting, cooking, magic manipulation, etc. A versatile unique ability that gives at least minimal qualifications in all kinds of skills.

I caught the signs of change. I also got a sense of how to grow it.

A proud smile appeared.

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“Oh, review.”

After being absent-minded for a while, I barely remembered.

I hurriedly got up and headed to the dormitory. Thanks to the bus running 24 hours, I could arrive quickly.

That’s how the day ended.

“Who’s there?”

[Who?]

“What the hell… who did this?”

The next day.

The face of Hong Yeon-hwa, whom I met in the classroom, twisted like a demon.

It was so scary that I wanted to run away immediately.