CH 49

The armor Shakiro gave Siegfried ended up having an interesting function.

[Debuff Armor]

[A magical armor that restricts the user.]

[Type: Armor (Full Body)]

[Rating: Legendary]

[Abilities: Nerf]

[ – Nerf: Scans the user and the enemy’s abilities and nerfs the user until they were 20% weaker than the enemy.]

Siegfried had no idea what kind of pervert made this armor, but the armor nerfed its user rather than buffing them. Moreover, the nerfing process was pretty painful.

Puk! Puk! Puuuk!

The thin thorns that shot out from the bones making up the armor mercilessly stabbed Siegfried’s muscles and nerves.

However, that was not the end of the surprise…

Clack! Clack! 

The mechanical mechanism in the Debuff Armor started to constrict Siegfried’s body.

“Keuk!” Siegfried groaned out in pain before falling down on one knee.

“Puhahahaha!”

“Look at him getting scared! No wonder his name is Weaklingman!”

“Why did you even bother to come out?! Get lost!”

The spectators started mocking Siegfried.

– Ah! Weaklingman seems to have been overwhelmed by his debut match!

The host seemed to have joined in on the fun of mocking Siegfried.

“What a weak pathetic human,” Mickey, his opponent, said before exuding killing intent toward him.

– Then, let the match between Mickey and Weaklingman… BEGIN!

The match started.

“Die!” Mickey shouted as the humanoid wasted no time to open its wings and charge at Siegfried.

‘It’s coming!’ Siegfried reacted and tried to move away.

Sukeok!

A sound rang in his ears and then…

Fwaaaaa!

Blood started spurting out of his arm…

***

‘Damn it! I could have avoided it!’ Siegfried inwardly cursed, seemingly taken aback by what happened.

Siegfried could have easily avoided that attack and even counterattack twice while he was at it. However, he couldn’t do it.

[Alert: Warning! Your stats are 20% lower than your enemy's!]

Siegfried could not overpower Mickey because of his Debuff Armor’s ‘Nerf’ ability.

“You got lucky, human,” Mickey said while licking Siegfried’s blood off of its scythe before it asked, “But do you really think you’ll survive the next one?”

“I’m a bit annoyed right now, so can you please shut up?” Siegfried retorted.

“I see that you have a big mouth,” Mickey said with a grin before it added, “I’ll finish you slowly. I’ll cut your arms off and then slowly rip your legs…”

It seems that Mickey was planning to toy with its prey before finishing Siegfried off.

***

‘You must be frustrated and wronged right now,’ Shakiro thought with a mischievous smile while observing Siegfried from the spectator stands.

‘You won’t be able to use your excellent physique and your skills, but Siegfried… there’s no other method as effective as this when it comes to raising your proficiency with weapons. Not using your mana and skills and relying only on the fundamentals is the most effective and proper way to understand your weapon’s capabilities,’ Shakiro thought.

That was the reason Shakiro brought Siegfried to the arena. The arena was a place where fighters using all sorts of weapons were gathered, but it was not that high-level of a place since it was just a place for gamblers to place their bets. This meant that this was the best place for Siegfried to experience fighting against many different weapon users while solely relying on his basic weapon.

‘You may have always fought with the upper hand, but this place is different. You will have to fight as the underdog in this place,’ Shakiro thought.

However, Shakiro had one misconception about Siegfried. Siegfried had never had the upper hand in his fights; he had always been the underdog in every battle he fought. This fact remained the same whether it was his previous life as the Elemental Mage or his current life as the Debuff Master. Siegfried had always been chasing after a spot higher than where he was currently standing, so he always had to fight against those who were stronger than him.

As such, it didn’t take that long for Siegfried to show what he was truly capable of.

‘Abandon your sense of superiority and start from the bottom…’ Shakiro thought.

However, the next thing that happened took him by surprise.

Sukeok!

The sound of something getting severed could be heard from the stage.

“…!”

The entire arena froze, and Shakiro froze over as well.

‘I-Impossible!’ Shakiro inwardly exclaimed as he doubted his eyes.

“Kwuaaaaak!” Mickey was screaming in agony while holding onto his severed arm.

***

Siegfried struggled against the humanoid.

Slash! Slash!

Mickey unleashed a barrage of slashes with its scythe, cutting Siegfried up all over.

“You little rat!” Mickey cried out in frustration

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It thought that it would be able to easily cut off one of the arms of the weak human called Weaklingman, but the human managed to avoid every decisive blow that it had hurled at the human so far.

‘Let’s calm down and think…’ 

Siegfried calmly ignored Mickey and tried to understand why Shakiro had given him this logic-defying trial.

Siegfried’s current state was the complete opposite of Shakiro’s expectations.

Was he frustrated? Yes, he was, but the frustration wasn’t driving him crazy.

Why?

Had there ever been a time when he had the upper hand against his enemies?

The main buff skill of the Debuff Master was called Contempt for the Strong. The reason for his class’ existence was to beat up those stronger than him, so there was no reason for him to be agitated after getting nerfed a little bit.

‘Shakiro is a Weapon Master… A master of all weapons, he isn’t like some tom, dick, and harry in the streets… I’m sure he has a reason for making me do all these,’ Siegfried thought.

However, something suddenly caught his eye.

Flash!

He noticed that Mickey’s scythes were its arms as well.

‘Isn’t that a blade in a sense…?’ Siegfried discovered something. ‘If we say this bastard’s scythes are blades… Then, I’m currently fighting against a swordsman stronger than me, right?’ 

He had discovered the answer. Siegfried finally understood Shakiro’s motives for forcing him into this arena match.

‘A greatsword is more inclined toward slashing rather than stabbing, and it would also be a big deciding slash instead of an average one. A blade can be single-edged, but a greatsword is double-edged. Let’s see if I can use that to my advantage,’ Siegfried thought as his movements started changing.

‘What the hell is this bastard? Why does it feel like he suddenly became stronger?’ Mickey thought, taken aback by Siegfried’s sudden change.

And it resulted in…

Clang! Clang! Clang! 

Siegfried’s greatsword continuously blocked Mickey’s attack.

The spectators burst into laughter at the scene unfolding before them.

“Puhahahaha!”

“Look at that bastard!”

“Look at him squirm! Haha!”

“Way to go… way to go! Just fuck off bastard!”

Siegfried’s movements looked like a joke to the spectators since his body wasn’t perfectly reacting the way he wanted it to react thanks to the Debuff Armor, and it looked like he was barely hanging on for dear life while trying to awkwardly defend himself from Mickey’s attacks.

‘Shwik! This bastard! His swordsmanship is improving!’ 

However, Mickey was flustered by the sudden improvement in Weaklingman’s swordsmanship.

Clang!

When Siegfried parried Mickey’s scythe with his greatsword…

Woosh…!

He suddenly spun in place and shifted his weight.

‘Ah! No… no…!’ Mickey inwardly exclaimed after realizing the danger it was in.

But it was too late.

Whoosh!

Siegfried swung his greatsword in a big arc.

Thud…!

Mickey’s right arm fell to the ground.

It didn’t take long for Siegfried to be enlightened by the trial Weapon Master Shakiro had set up for him.

***

‘H-How did he…?!’ Shakiro was astonished. ‘Oh my god! I never expected him to realize it so quickly! This guy… how fast does his mind work?!’

Shakiro didn’t expect that Siegfried would quickly understand the purpose of the trial he gave the latter, but there was something else that greatly surprised the Weapon Master.

‘He was neither shocked nor frustrated by the nerf he suddenly received. And he did not shrink back after realizing that his enemy was stronger than him. How is that even possible? Geniuses like you should have always enjoyed having the upper hand in a battle… How did you maintain such calmness that can only be found in a veteran who had fought tens of thousands of battles?!’ Shakiro thought in awe. He was awed by how quickly Siegfried had analyzed, understood, and grasped the situation.

However, this was all Shakiro’s misunderstanding because of his ignorance of the path of agony and shame Siegfried had to walk to reach where he was.

***

– The winner is…! Surprisingly! The winner is Weaklingman!

The host screamed out loud.

In the end, Weaklingman had a successful debut thanks to winning his debut match.

“Wow! That was crazy!”

“Look at his luck… It’s almost as if…”

“Hey! Weaklingman, you bastard! Go and buy the lottery! You got that?!”

“I lost all my money because of that bastard!”

“Damn it! Isn’t this manipulation?! Ha?! How can Weaklingman win against Mickey?!”

“Holy cow! How much did I win?!”

The spectators went ballistic at the result since most of them had bet on Mickey’s victory, yet Weaklingman ended up winning the match.

However, Siegfried paid no heed to them as he silently walked toward the waiting area.

Step… step… step… 

The arena was a place for him to raise his proficiency with weapons—nothing more, nothing less.

“You’re here?” Shakiro welcomed Siegfried to the waiting area and said, “Good job.”

“Thank you,” Siegfried sincerely expressed his gratitude toward Shakiro, and then he said, “I have finally realized what Shakiro-nim wanted me to learn from this place.”

“I’m surprised.”

“Why were you surprised?”

“I thought that you were just someone born with an excellent physique when I first met you, and I thought that you were just someone fortunate enough to be born with that physique and to train under an excellent master.”

“Hmm…?”

“But I realized I was wrong when I saw your match just now,” Shakiro said while staring intently at Siegfried.

“What did you realize?” Siegfried asked, seemingly confused.

“You’re a genius.”

“What…?” Siegfried muttered with a face that seemed to say, ‘what bullshit are you spouting?’

“Me? A genius…?” Siegfried asked while pointing at himself.

“Yes...” Shakiro nodded.

“No, that is impossible.”

“What do you mean, impossible?”

“How am I a genius? I am just trash,” Siegfried said with sincerity in his voice.

“You’re trash. A useless piece of trash. Am I wrong?”

He had to endure being called all sorts of dehumanizing insults such as trash, useless trash, useless fool, talentless fool, a talentless, useless fool, etc, by his master, Deus.

“Tsk… Being too humble can be a flaw, too…” Shakiro said with a grimace.

“I’m not being humble, though,” Siegfried retorted.

“I have never seen anyone with such a level of comprehension other than you. People mostly refer to my disciples as geniuses,” Shakiro said.

“Well, they are definitely geniuses considering they’re Shakiro-nim’s disciples—” Siegfried muttered.

However, Shakiro cut him off and said, “You are greater than all of them.”

“What?!”

“Your level of comprehension is far greater than anyone else I have taught, and your passion for greatness is far above any of them. You are born with a talent beyond anyone else, and your humble temperament is the perfect temperament to pursue the path of martial greatness,” Shakiro explained.

“Ah… Why are you doing this to me…” Siegfried mumbled. He wanted to dig a hole and hide in it after hearing Shakiro’s cringey words.

He had never imagined that someone would call him a genius, and it seemed that all sorts of things would really happen to people as long as they lived long enough.

“I’m glad to have met a junior like you in my final—”

Cough!

Shakiro was smiling when he suddenly vomited blood.

Bleugh…!

His dark blood covered the floor of the waiting area.

“Shakiro-nim!” Siegfried exclaimed as he hurriedly rushed over toward Shakiro.