CH 13

Chapter 13: In Order to be Stronger

Yuto (18)

Level 13

Skill Point: 3 → 0

Skills

Fundamentals

Physical Strength Lv 2

Endurance Lv 2

Magic Lv 1

Agility

Technique

Swordsmanship Lv 2 → 3

Spellcrafting Lv 1

Presence Detection Lv 2

Spells

[LIGHTNING] Lv 1

No matter what skills he chooses, he can only raise one.

Yuto: (In that case…)

Yuto chose what he has relied on the most up until this point - Swordsmanship.

It was only the other day that he acquired the skill, but he has a long history with this longsword.

They say that adventurers lend their lives to their weapons.

Yuto has followed this tradition, and decided to place his life in the hands of his sword who he could call his partner now.

Yuto: “Here I go!”

Yuto feels the adrenaline rush as he pulls out his sword.

He enters the room from the hallway, but before that------.

Yuto: “[LIGHTNING]”

His spell is released.

His lightning strikes the nearest Kobalt King without fail.

Yuto: “[LIGHTNING]!”

He fires one more continuous shot.

He fires directly at the other Kobalt Kings who have become active.

Yuto: “[LIGHTNING]!”

And adds one more shot to the mix.

He notices that his breath becomes very short.

He expended too much magic energy too quickly, and his body is quickly warning him of his limit.

But it’s not so much that he can’t fight.

Through his 24 hour dungeon escapade, Yuto had a rough idea of where his limit stood.

He found that 3 continuous spell casting was still in the manageable range.

If he fires 4, he would not be able to move for a while.

Understanding where his limit stood and stopping right at the line, he was able to stun 3 Kobalt Kings.

They are not dead yet.

They’ve received damage and are currently stunned and immobile.

The remaining 2 Kobalt Kings charge towards Yuto.

Yuto: “UOOOOOOOOOOOOOGH!!”

The room echoes with Yuto’s battle cry, and Yuto swings the longsword with everything he has.

He cuts, stabs, parries, and kicks.

He dodges attacks and counters.

He manages to dodge the Kings’ attack at the last minute and strikes back as he avoids their swords.

His sword moves better than he hoped.

Yuto knew that this was because he raised his swordsmanship to Level 3.

-----This is the sword skills of a C-Rank Adventurer.

Even if it was an attack that barely hit the King, the sword cut off the King’s arm.

Another King attacks Yuto from his blindspot.

But Yuto’s [PRESENCE DETECTION] had grasped the King’s movements.

Yuto was able to easily dodge and swing his sword at the King’s legs.

ZUSHA!! (sfx)

The King loses his legs behind him and falls to the floor.

Blood is pouring out from his wounds.

Yuto finishes off the King on the ground and faces the one-armed King.

The King roars and moves faster towards Yuto than before.

Yuto’s concentration reaches its pinnacle.

1 second stretches into an eternity.

Yuto with light footwork dodges the King’s charge.

As the King goes by, Yuto swings his sword downwards.

------ZASHU!! (sfx)

The King’s head soars through the air.

With his concentration unbroken, Yuto moves quickly and finishes off a King who was still stunned.

Yuto: “.........FWEW!!”

Yuto confirms the death of all 5 Kings and lets out a huge sigh of relief. His breath was hot from his blood pumping and adrenaline rushing.

Today, Yuto fought a formidable enemy.

And he fought 5 at once.

He did not think that he would finish the battle without receiving a scratch.

But as he calmly analyzes the battle, he sees why.

Yuto’s status reached D-Rank.

His sword skill reached C-Rank.

And although they are a strong enemy, a Kobalt King is still classified as an E-Rank monster.

A perfect victory was lucky, but it wasn’t against an enemy that he couldn’t win against.

Yuto: “Thank goodness……”

Yuto feels the tension leave him and almost sits on the floor, but he resists.

If he sits now, it may take some time to get back up again.

Yuto pushes himself and collects the Kobalt Kings’ drops.

He places the magic stones in his inventory, and Yuto notices that something is wrong.

Yuto: “.....Hey, what?! Why isn’t the door open?!?!”

At the far end of the room, there is a door that will open when the dungeon is cleared.

If he goes through the door, he will end up back in the temple.

But that door remained shut.

Yuto: “...huh? Was there something I missed?”

If you defeat the boss, the door will open.

If the door doesn’t open, then that means————

It was at this moment of Yuto’s realization that it happened.

[EMERGENCY QUEST : DEFEAT THE UNIQUE BOSS (0/1)]

Before his eyes, the Skill Board appeared.

Yuto: “Unique...boss?”

As soon as he finished reading the message…

At the very end of the room…

Right before the door that leads to the temple…

A boss appeared.

Yuto: “What...?...No…..why….?”

Yuto couldn’t stop trembling at the sight.

Yuto: “Why…..why is there a D-Rank Kobalt Lord in an E-Rank dungeon…..?!”

What appeared was a Kobalt Lord.

Yuto could think of only one reason a D-Rank Kobalt Lord would appear in an E-Rank dungeon.

On a very rare occasion, Instant Dungeons drop rare items.

And that monster who drops the rare item is a Unique Boss.

During D-Rank instant dungeon raids, Yuto has seen this happen a few times.

The one who rules all over the Kings -- the Lord.

This is one of the biggest and most difficult obstacles for adventurers trying to reach C-Rank.

The Lord is at least twice the size of a King.

His offense is much higher in comparison to a King too.

There have been rumors that if you misjudge, an adventurer would go too deep, too far in and have his head crushed with one blow.

In fact, within D-Rank instant Dungeons, Yuto has seen many adventurers get badly wounded.

These are D-Rank adventurers -- adventurers that are a tier above Yuto!

Yuto: “I….I can’t win….”

Yuto can’t stop shaking in fear.

Yuto: (I need to run….)

He wanted to, but his body refused to move.

Yuto felt his strength leave him and fell helplessly to the floor.

The Kobalt Lord before him gave him a nasty smile.

The next moment.

Yuto: “-----huh?”

Yuto only saw the Lord’s foot right before his eyes.

In a flash of a second, the Lord closed in on Yuto and sent a kick flying towards his face.

Yuto: “-----GAHA!!’’

Yuto received the kick, and bounced and bounded backwards like a ball.

Thankfully, he did not receive the kick straight on.

At the last minute, Yuto’s body twisted and took a defensive stance.

He didn’t know whether this was because of his skill or just his instinct to survive.

His body ached from rolling and bouncing on the floor.

Yuto hurriedly reaches to pull out the Healing Potion from his inventory.

The Inventory Screen opens, and he reaches towards the Healing Potion icon.

But his fingers shook too much and he couldn’t reach the icon.

Yuto: “Why….WHY?! HURRY!! ….HURRY UP!!!!”

While Yuto was struggling to retrieve the item, the Lord moved near his side.

With the Lord’s fist raised, Yuto looks upon the scene with despair.

The next moment.

In blazing speed, a fist drives hard into Yuto’s face.

Stars explode and bounce around in Yuto’s sight.

The impact shook his brain.

Everything… turned white.

Like a tv screen turning off, Yuto’s consciousness wandered somewhere distant and far away.

・・・

[Hey Yuto, why do you train so much?]

A red-headed girl was swinging her legs as she sat on a box.

The errand girl Mari’s eyes were swollen from crying.

She was scolded by the shop owner again.

[.....Hey. HEY! I’m talking to you!]

Yuto kept swinging his sword without saying a word, so Mari finally shook his shoulders, and Yuto realized that she was talking to him.

[...Huh?]

[I SAID… Why are you training so much? Aren’t you weak?]

[It’s because I’m weak]

[Yuto, you can’t get stronger, right?]

[I could get stronger]

[You might get eaten by a scary monster!]

[Yeah, I might]

[Then why train?! You don’t even know if you’ll get stronger, and all you do is hurt yourself training, and in the end, you’ll just get eaten by a monster! Is that what it means to be an adventurer?]

[No, you’re wrong. I train to defeat those monsters. I train because I don’t want to die, and that’s why I can get through this tough training.]

------The more I train, the harder the training, the stronger I will be some day.

Yuto looked straight into Mari’s eyes and said these words.

If he only did the easy stuff, he would never become stronger.

Even if it hurts, if he can overcome it, then he’ll become stronger someday.

No matter what, he will become someone who never cries.

No matter what, he will become someone who never gives up.

No matter what, he will overcome any obstacle that stands in his way.

And he will become stronger a little at a time each day.

[I WILL become strong]

So he can never cry.

So he never gives up.

So he becomes someone who will overcome.

Mari looks frustrated at his comment, and Yuto resumes swinging his sword.

・・・

Yuto’s consciousness was only gone for less than a second.

In that second, Yuto remembered something important.

He felt cuts all over the inside of his cheeks from the last blow.

The taste of blood fills his senses.

But his body stopped shaking.

The Lord raised his fist once more.

At an unthinkable speed, he swings his fist through the air.

But Yuto dodged it easily.

The Lord became more cautious after Yuto dodged his attack.

It stepped back and increased the distance between it and Yuto.

Yuto was able to move his body again.

------No, it always moved.

What restricted his movement was his heart.

Because his heart gave up, Yuto made himself think that he couldn’t move anymore.

Yuto remembered.

He remembered all the days he trained.

He remembered why he pushed through and endured so much hurt, pain, and agony through all of his training.

He wanted to become strong.

It was so he can defeat strong enemies.

——Because he wanted to show a certain someone, that people can get stronger.

Right now, there is a strong enemy right before his eyes.

There is no doubt that a Kobalt Lord is a formidable opponent.

Right now, he shouldn’t be thinking about whether he’s strong or weak.

All that matters is how he’s going to climb over that thick wall.

Yuto: “UOOOOOOOOOGH!!”

Yuto belched out an instinctive scream like a wild animal.

With it, he squeezed every droplet of fear left inside of him.

He places his sword in front of him into the his main stance.

As soon as he does so, his heart begins to calm down.

His frayed mental state became stable, and his concentration starts to rise.

He feels each second stretch into eternity.

Yuto inhales deeply.

Yuto sucks in a long breath and holds it.

And in the next moment, Yuto kicks the ground with all his might.

His longsword swings down towards the Lord’s head.

The Lord dodges this.

It circles around Yuto and counters.

Yuto puts on the brakes and dodges this.

He forces his momentum to twist and rotates, and cuts back.

The Lord panics and lowers its head.

Yuto matches its movements and right at that timing...

“-----GYA?!”

Yuto’s toes dig into hits face from below as Yuto kicks upwards.

The Lord’s body stretches upwards vertically.

It looked like it would lose its balance, but the Lord recovered.

-------It’s strong.

The Lord was a lot stronger than Yuto imagined.

That kick was timed perfectly, and connected directly.

Even so, it was not enough to put the Lord off balance.

The Lord’s physical endurance and ability is very high.

Yuto swung his sword towards the Lord from all directions.

The Lord dodged and at times, blocked with his claws.

If Yuto goes in too deep, the Lord is waiting for this moment to attack.

Yuto restrains himself and diligently and carefully keeps cutting away at the Lord.

Countless cuts and wounds start spreading over the Lord’s body.

In comparison, Yuto has only received one below at the beginning and has not received another attack since.

But that was not because it was easy to dodge the Lord’s attacks.

One strike from the Lord will put Yuto off balance.

One strike and Yuto will be in a critical condition.

So Yuto could not afford to receive one blow and dodged with everything he got.

The attacks stack to 20, 30 and continue to stack.

Both sides are not withdrawing or retreating.

Yuto’s attack dig deep into the Lord’s ribs.

The Lord very slightly leans to one side.

------YES!!

Finally, an opening!

Yuto jumped at the opportunity.

But…

Yuto: “..........!!”

The Lord’s lips twist into a cruel smile.

--------It’s a trap.

Yuto tries to stop his momentum from going forward…

But it’s too late.

From his blindspot, the Lord’s claws stretch towards Yuto’s face.

Yuto: “------Ku!!”

But Yuto manages to twist and turn his head away to dodge.

But he could not dodge all of it.

The Lord’s claw barely scrapes Yuto’s cheek.

Moving his neck in such a weird angle, Yuto loses his balance.

It’s apparent that Yuto made a critical error.

The Lord will not let this chance go by.

He continues to reach his left claw towards Yuto.

But before the claws reach…

Yuto: “[LIGHTNING]”

----------TAAAAAAHHHHHNNN!! (sfx)

From the point of Yuto’s sword, the light from a spell cast flashes brilliantly.

The Lord takes the lightning head on, and its muscles converse as it stumbles forward.

Now the tables have turned.

Yuto regains his composure and swings his sword.

But the Lord had not given up just yet.

It steps back using its off balance momentum.

Yuto’s attack misses.

But Yuto is not done yet.

Yuto: “[LIGHTNING]”

-----------TAAAAAAHHHHHNNN!! (sfx)

Another spell strikes the Lord.

The Lord freezes where it stands.

Bringing the longsword to him, Yuto aims the end at the Lord’s chest.

It’s over.

Yuto: “[LIGHTNING]”

------TAAAAAAHHHHHNNN!! (sfx)

Yuto’s 3rd and final shot before he reaches his limit.

At the same time, Yuto pushes his longsword into the Lord’s chest.

>>Emergency Quest Cleared.

>>You have received Clear Rewards

>>Bonuses will be added to the Rewards