Skill Mastery

Clack, clack, clack.

Footsteps.

A long, continuous sound of marching.

‘What’s going on?’

After what happened yesterday, she couldn’t help but wonder.

Americano rubbed her eyes, woke up, and opened the window to see prison carriages passing through the streets.

Even as they were being taken away, the imprisoned players were furious.

“Call the GMs!”

“I’m going to sue!”

“How can you not let us log out?!”

The players causing the commotion were arrested by the Knights.

Unable to log out.

The customer service unavailable.

So, the players’ attempts to summon game company employees by causing a ruckus resulted in the dispatch and arrest by the Knights.

Since it was a village where low-level players lived, it seemed the suppression was over in a single night.

Americano sat on the bed, thinking of sleeping more, but,

“Three days.”

She couldn’t sleep after remembering that.

She opened the quest window.

[Main Quest]

[Master a skill to level 2.]

The main quests ‘Climb the 5th floor of the Tower’ and ‘Acquire a skill’ had been cleared sequentially.

This time, a quest to master a skill to level 2 appeared.

Americano had acquired skills while climbing to the 20th floor of the Tower.

[Equipment Enhancement]. A Magical Power skill that improves the defense of equipment.

[Blade Enhancement]. A Magical Power skill that improves the attack power of a blade.

[Body Enhancement]. A Magical Power skill that improves the strength of the body.

She had learned these three.

“Mastery, huh.”

Mastery meant grinding.

It would be difficult with her [Frail] body.

“Haa~am.”

Dragging her drowsy body, Americano stood in the training ground of the training camp.

She swung her sword at the wooden dummy.

She enhanced the sword’s durability with [Equipment Enhancement], enhanced the sword’s attack power with [Blade Enhancement], and enhanced the arm strength for wielding the sword with [Body Enhancement].

Having reached level 20, she had quite a few stats built up through training, so,

[-155]

[Destroys the wooden dummy.]

She destroyed the wooden dummy.

Compared to level 1, the damage had increased more than fivefold.

“I don’t know if this is the right way to increase mastery.”

Originally, she planned to proceed step by step while looking at the strategy sites.

Americano was the type who tried not to use her brain too much in games.

She didn’t prefer hardcore time attacks or puzzle games, let alone min-maxing stats to the single digits, though she was okay with tactics and strategies.

“My arm is sore.”

Even with increased [Strength], the rate at which fatigue accumulated was considerable.

[-160]

[-157]

[-158]

[-159]

She relentlessly beat the wooden dummy.

[Destroys the wooden dummy.]

But there was no sign of the message that she had gained mastery.

Then, she had no choice but to pour everything into the sword single-mindedly. She swung it mindlessly until the skill level rose.

[-160]

[-161]

[-162]

[-163]

The more repeatedly a skill is used, the more experience is accumulated, and when it reaches a certain threshold, the skill can improve its level.

In short, grinding.

Repetitive motion.

Simple labor.

It wasn’t compatible with her [Frail] body, which easily accumulated fatigue.

[-164]

Even so,

[-165]

Since earlier,

[-166]

She felt something in her grasp.

[Destroys the wooden dummy.]

She split the wooden dummy in two, and her mind suddenly cleared.

“Sszzz… Haa…”

She took out a fatigue recovery potion from her inventory and drank it all at once.

The magical properties of the fatigue recovery potion refreshed her body from the accumulated fatigue.

Americano gripped her sword again.

Before she knew it, the sun had risen.

[-167]

[-168]

[-169]

[-170]

[Destroys the wooden dummy.]

“….”

She savored the feeling of wielding the sword as it was.

It might be called enlightenment, but she was a little late in noticing.

‘How would I know if you don’t explain it?’

Full Dive.

This game was one that reflected reality to the extreme.

It was a wrong preconception to assume that the way to build mastery would be the same as in other games.

“Hoo…”

She was a little tired, but,

A new wooden dummy rose.

She raised her sword high and brought it down as it was.

Even though she swung it with less force than before, the strike penetrated the surface of the wooden dummy and split it exactly in half from head to stake.

[-800]

[Skill ‘Equipment Enhancement’ has been raised to level 2.]

[Skill ‘Blade Enhancement’ has been raised to level 2.]

[Skill ‘Body Enhancement’ has been raised to level 2.]

[Skills ‘Equipment Enhancement’, ‘Blade Enhancement’, and ‘Body Enhancement’ have been integrated into the skill ‘Battle Ready’.]

[Battle Ready (Lv.1)]

Enhances the effects of lower-level skills.

Equipment Enhancement (Lv.2)

Blade Enhancement (Lv.2)

Body Enhancement (Lv.2)

“Integration, huh.”

It was closer to organization than integration.

[Battle Ready] was a folder, and [Enhancements] were files. When she opened the skill window, only [Battle Ready] was neatly placed, making it feel empty yet clean.

She had cleared the main quest, so it wasn’t a bad change.

In the first place, it wasn’t like she was controlling it by pressing hotkeys like in other games, so it didn’t matter.

Americano sat down on the ground.

“Who would have known you had to figure it out yourself.”

Body, sword, and movement became one, unleashing power.

The trick to raising skill levels wasn’t repetitive actions.

It was about catching the glimmer of enlightenment within those repetitive actions.

“How is this even a game?”

She drank a fatigue recovery potion.

Fatigue recovery potions were drugs that forcibly relieved fatigue, so they couldn’t completely relieve the fatigue in every corner of her body.

A lump of fatigue remained, but it wasn’t a problem.

At least, problems wouldn’t arise for the next two days.

[Main Quest]

[Opens upon meeting conditions]

Unopened.

Somehow, Full Dive adopted methods that were different from existing games in many ways, causing confusion.

A main quest that required meeting conditions.

The main quest was the main story.

It was the storyline that formed the backbone of the Full Dive game, so the unopened state, which seemed to interrupt the flow, was a bit absurd.

If the level was insufficient, they should have told her to raise the level.

If the skill was insufficient, they should have told her to raise the skill.

If grinding was necessary, they should have told her to do so, but ‘Opens upon meeting conditions’ seemed to imply that there were branches in the main quest.

“If I had known this would happen, I should have read it in more detail.”

She had been training with the goal of awakening.

The reason was to play Full Dive.

So, she had been visiting strategy sites from time to time to get game information.

Like most players, she hadn’t read any information about the main story or quests.

Americano was the type of player who would say, “I’ll watch it all at once after clearing it,” but would end up not watching it.

Why play a game to see the story?

If you want to see the story, you can read a novel.

Thanks to that, she hadn’t paid attention to the quests either.

“Well, it doesn’t matter.”

Rather, she decided to be satisfied with the fact that she could roam freely without being tied to quests.

She dusted off her butt and got up, leaving the training ground.

While walking down the street.

“Found you, you bitch.”

A middle-aged man blocked her way.

A face she seemed to have seen somewhere.

He had touched up his face with customization, making him awkwardly handsome.

…Or was he ugly?

He had captured the basic features of handsomeness well, but his eyes, nose, mouth, ears, and face shape were all playing separately.

An awkward pretty boy, a term that didn’t feel awkward for a middle-aged man.

It was the typical face of a player who had failed at customization.

“Kuaaaaack!!!!”

“….”

How startling.

He suddenly appeared and reached out his hand roughly.

She reflexively slashed.

The middle-aged man’s wrist fell off.

Polygons hardened like pyrite fell from the severed surface.

Since he was a player, it would reattach if he died or recovered, but it looked very painful.

But the fact that he was enduring it steadfastly was probably thanks to his [Synchronization Rate of 10%]. The pain would be less by the Synchronization Rate.

“You bitch. I paid you to obediently offer your body. Do you know how much money I spent on you?!?!! I spent some money because you were pretty, but you fucking bitch.”

“…?”

Who was he mistaking her for? No, how could he mistake her for someone else with this 100-point beauty face?

She wanted to say something to the ridiculous claim, but even at times like this, the [Outsider] in her made her mouth stiffen.

How troublesome.

‘I’ll let it slide since you seem to have mistaken me for someone else.’

She tried to say that and move on, but her mouth wouldn’t open.

“Haa…”

He was the one who misunderstood and attacked her arbitrarily. She didn’t do anything wrong.

Still, she felt a little sorry for slashing him out of the blue.

But,

“I’ll forgive you if you take off your top and apologize right now, huh? Take off that top. What the fuck is that.”

“….”

Even with blood gushing from his wrist, the middle-aged man’s eyes were clouded with lust.

“Agh. My hand. This is going to be a big problem. How can someone just swing a sword out of nowhere? It’s lucky that it was me. But if you comfort me a lot, I’ll pretend that you didn’t cut off my hand.”

“….”

“You logged in yesterday, right? You’re a newbie, so when a senior says something, huh? You should loosen your clothes and act demure, but you’re holding your head up high. Are you going to lower your eyes right now?”

“Haa…”

Her desire to apologize vanished completely.

So, there were people like this in the world.

She hadn’t seen this type even in the military.

Even if she had overreacted, this was a game.

Even if he had mistaken her for someone else, it was sexual harassment, so what was this old man saying? He reminded her of a pervert who couldn’t act his age in reality and stalked female part-timers.

Still, wow…

It was absurd.

“A sigh? I’m the one who wants to sigh. Your chest is decent, so start by loosening that chest… huh?”

“Now that I see it, you were a monster?”

She slashed off the shoulder of the hand that was reaching for her breastplate.

As Tang So-hye had said yesterday, it might be a death game, so she tried not to kill as much as possible.

But Americano was [Frail] but also [Hot-Tempered].

When she saw the hand reaching for her chest, her hand went out without thinking.

“Keuheok!!”

[Acquired skill ‘Slash’.]

[Acquired skill ‘Thrust’.]

“Oh.”

Skills she hadn’t obtained even in the Tower.

The Magical Power she had circulated to slash and thrust momentarily had been sublimated into skills.

The middle-aged man stared at her with a dumbfounded expression, not even realizing that his neck had been pierced.

He belatedly grasped the situation.

“You son of a bi…”

Pwaaa, the middle-aged man’s body shattered into countless polygons like assembled Legos.

‘They said they wouldn’t intervene in battles between Heroes as much as possible, right?’

She sheathed her sword and thought about the aftermath.

It was a fight between those who couldn’t die anyway.

It was difficult to legally punish murder between Heroes.

Because even if they killed, it wasn’t really killing.

[Loot]

[Loot] remained in the spot where even the polygons had disappeared.

She opened the [Loot] that floated in the air like a UI and browsed the items the middle-aged man had possessed.

It was full of useless things.

Brothel usage ticket.

Succubus accumulation coupon.

This was… adult supplies?

“Ew.”

Her eyes were tainted.

That human monster, his brain must have been dominated by sexual desire.

Since she was the same gender, she couldn’t completely not understand, but…

“Hmm…”

Still, this wasn’t it.

There was also a photo among the items.

In the photo, which seemed to be a screenshot, a somewhat familiar appearance caught her eye.

When she took it out, a woman with overwhelming volume was standing blankly.

It was Americano.

Was it because she was seeing it from a third-party perspective?

Her chest was incredibly large.

Did it stand out this much?

Americano gently pressed the breastplate that covered her chest.

“I guess it’s better to cover it up?”

It didn’t seem like it would be covered up even if she covered it, but it was too big to leave it alone without doing anything.

She considered herself very weak, to the point where it was difficult to take care of her own body.

“Huh?”

While searching through the [Loot].

[Nine-Tailed Fox Capture Request]

[Rank] [S]

[Content] [A Nine-Tailed Fox lives in the western Gurumi Mountain. Track and capture the Nine-Tailed Fox with an empty fox orb.]

[Reward] [Fox Orb]

Coincidentally, there was also an [Empty Fox Orb] in the [Loot].

[Skill ‘Sacheon Family’s Poison Sword Technique’ has reached a certain level of proficiency.]

[Skill level has increased to 5.]

Tang So-hye vigorously swung a sword that glowed green.

It diagonally cut through the goblin’s chest and left a green aura on the wound.

As she sheathed her sword after slashing the last goblin,

“Goblin?”

“Gororoble.”

“Gobueeee.”

The goblins fell one by one.

They foamed at the mouth and cried out in pain.

The goblin that was slashed first fell, and the goblins fell in the order they were slashed.

As they painfully clutched the wound where the green aura remained, an information window appeared in front of Tang So-hye’s eyes when they were all dead.

[Acquired sub-skill ‘Poison Merchant’.]

“Yes! Finally level 5! I also acquired a new skill!”

“Congratulations. As expected of a game, the acquisition is fast.”

“The mastery accumulates steadily just by using it, so there’s no easier training than this. It seems that technology is good when it develops. Look!”

Tang So-hye used [Poison Sword] to send a faint sword aura flying.

A goblin hiding in the nearby bushes was thinly slashed by the sword aura of [Poison Sword] and ran away.

“You used Thousand League Fragrance.”

“It must have escaped to the village. Let’s go.”

“As you wish, young lady.”

The game was convenient.

Especially within the game linked by Magical Power, she could receive assistance from AI.

Originally, it was a dangerous attempt.

Thanks to the safety device provided by the game company, safety was secured, but there were still many unstable factors to attempt in the real body.

But she had been reproducing the skills acquired in this way in her real body.

The Sacheon Family’s Poisonous Energy, reinterpreted by AI, had gone beyond Poison Hand and become Poison Sword, even able to be deployed as sword aura.

Thousand League Fragrance should have volatilized quickly if it was originally implemented with Poisonous Energy, but,

“Haha!”

The smell didn’t stop.

[Poison Merchant] made it possible.

A realm where one could harm people with poison.

Originally, Poisonous Energy was a short-acting poison that inflicted internal injuries like the poison damage in the game, but [Poison Merchant] drastically increased its duration.

“I knew I was right. The words of the old fogeys aren’t always the answer.”

The goblin with Thousand League Fragrance ran away to its village. Tang So-hye followed it and released poison into the goblin village.

Before long, the goblins were poisoned to death in the village.

She was still on level 1, not having climbed the Tower yet.

It was an overwhelming achievement compared to her level.

“But, So-hye young lady.”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Are you okay with this?”

It was about logging out.

“It’ll be okay. If I stay cooped up in the game for days, our strict father will forcibly turn it off. By that time, you’ll be able to wake up too, so don’t worry too much.”

“What I’m worried about isn’t my safety.”

“Isn’t it?”

“You will wake up in three days or even sooner. If you don’t master the skill you learned this time, you won’t be able to access the game again.”

“Oh?”

Tang So-hye looked at Mu Jin-soo, a retainer of her family, with a surprised expression.

“I thought you were against it, but you weren’t?”

“Because times have changed. To be honest, I never dreamed that AI would really understand martial arts.”

The Magical Power-based virtual reality game ‘Full Dive’.

To be honest, she was half in doubt, but she could use Magical Power in the game.

When she saw the skills implemented through Magical Power being used as they were in reality, the existing common sense was shattered.

“I was secretly cheering for you from the bottom of my heart. So, shouldn’t you achieve results that can convince the master? If you continue like this, a ban will be issued.”

“Yeah. Yeah. You’re right.”

Tang So-hye nodded.

She had met an understanding person among her family members for the first time.

That fact secretly pleased her.

“I thought you were one of the people who would oppose it the most, but our Jin-soo, you’re surprisingly flexible?”

“It’s just that the young lady’s insight has opened my eyes.”

Tang So-hye checked the mastery gauge of [Poison Sword Technique].

The gauge that had been reset after reaching level 5 was accumulating even more slowly.

Two days from level 0.

Four days from level 1.

Two weeks from level 2.

One month from level 3.

Two months from level 4.

She had focused on skill growth for almost four months, and thanks to that, she was able to halve the time to reach level 5 compared to the average time.

According to internet research, mastery increased faster when facing enemies of the same level or higher.

So, she hadn’t been leveling up, but,

“It’s time to climb the Tower.”

Because her mastery level was too high, it was difficult to increase mastery by fighting goblins or orcs anymore.

“The party will be me and you.”

Suddenly, the face of a certain woman flashed through Tang So-hye’s mind.

She was pretty.

And she was cool.

The feeling that she was going down the path of the sword was like a lone wolf.

Even Namgung’s youngest daughter, a newbie who had just logged into the game but was already being touted as the next Sword Empress, gave off that kind of feeling.

Someone who hadn’t even held a sword for a year, yet she had a sharp, honed aura.

Her slender body looked like it would break if you touched it, but that only added to her sharp impression. They say the sharper something is, the easier it is to break.

Tang So-hye, who was born into the Tang family but yearned for the sword, liked people who exuded that kind of feeling.

‘Should I offer again?’

She seemed like an ordinary person.

Even if she couldn’t teach her the family’s martial arts, she could teach her a first-rate sword technique at her discretion.

Despite being a daughter of the Tang family, she had collected sword technique manuals and possessed a deeper understanding of swordsmanship than hidden weapon techniques.

She was confident that it was better than most sects’ techniques.

She didn’t want Americano, with that name, to learn miscellaneous sword techniques and remain buried in obscurity.

Tang So-hye sent a whisper to CoffeeAddict on her friend list.