Chapter 98: Safe House (2)
A weapon that read and obeyed its master’s command on its own, the Arc Blade.
It was a mysterious sword whose creator, place of manufacture, and even date of creation were all unknown.
All I knew about it was that it emitted a blade made of mana, and that it had been forged using the ‘Ego Engraving’ technique.
〈Who are you, you bastard.〉
The sword spoke to .
At that, I narrowed my brow and muttered.
‘So it really wasn’t my imagination.’
Just as the world knew, the ego engraved into this weapon was by no ans weak.
〈Imagination? What imagination are you talking about?〉
“Hmm…….”
The way it communicated seed similar to Ar, as if it were reading its master’s thoughts.
I examined the sword floating in front of my eyes from various angles and asked,
“How’s your current durability status?”
〈What? I asked first. I asked who you are.〉
“Hmm…….”
〈Why do you keep going ‘hmm, hmm’ like that? If you don’t answer right now, I’ll split you in two!〉
It was a weapon with a seriously nasty attitude.
I knew one very effective thod to use in situations like this.
Shuuuuuk…….
First, I forcibly drained the mana inside the Arc Blade.
Then I lightly gripped the end of the weapon.
〈What are you doing ri—〉
Clang!
I swung it down rcilessly toward the table right beside .
〈Ghk……!〉
Did it actually feel pain?
I wondered if it might be aningless, but I got exactly the reaction I’d hoped for.
〈Hey, you son of a—!〉
“What?”
〈Do you have any idea what kind of body this is—!〉
Clang!
So it still hadn’t been corrected.
tal forging was never sothing that worked with just one hamr strike, after all.
〈Ghuu—! You damn bastard—!〉
Clang!
After gripping the Arc Blade a few tis, one thing beca clear: this weapon was extrely sturdy.
That was probably why it could still chatter away like this even after being subrged in the depths of the Pacific Ocean Trench for decades.
〈Ghk……! You think I’d submit over sothing like this……?〉
“Yeah?”
Clang!
Just as requested, I struck it down much harder than before.
This ti, right onto the sharp edge of the desk.
〈H-Hey……! That’s cheating!〉
Clang!
After going through several rounds of ‘correction.’
〈Heek, heek. F-fine. What do you want.〉
It finally entered a state where conversation was possible.
There were mountains of things I wanted to ask, but for now I asked the most important thing.
“How’s your durability status right now?”
〈……Not very good. After you smashed so crudely just now, even more so…….〉
“Oh, really?”
Seeing through the obvious lie, I grabbed the weapon again.
The Arc Blade hurriedly added,
〈H-Hey! Okay! I get it! I get it! With this level of physical force, I won’t even get scratched! But that doesn’t an I’m completely fine!〉
“What’s not fine, then?”
〈My heart!〉
“…….”
I stared down at it in disbelief, wondering what kind of nonsense it was spouting.
〈I’m serious! More precisely, it’s the pain that cos from the ‘emotion’ of being rejected by my master!〉
“What?”
That ant it already knew I was its master.
When I asked the Arc Blade the sa thing directly, an unexpected answer ca back.
〈That’s because…… you’re not Lee Hamin…….〉
Maybe it understood it with its head but couldn’t accept it with its heart.
It sounded like a line straight out of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, about a general clinging to loyalty.
“Yeah. I’m not Lee Hamin.”
〈…….〉
“But I am your master.”
Perhaps it accepted that, at least a little, because the Arc Blade trembled faintly.
〈Can I ask just one thing?〉
“No.”
〈You’re really picky.〉
“Tell the durability first.”
〈……Alright. Honestly, my current condition isn’t very good.〉
Suddenly, sothing like a graph appeared in front of my eyes.
Judging by the situation, it seed to be a visual signal the Arc Blade was sending to its master.
“Hmm…….”
〈Body durability is at 23%, mana efficiency is roughly 30%. But the more serious problem is…….〉
Among the graphs, the one sitting at the very bottom flickered.
〈Even if I crank the output to the maximum, it doesn’t even reach 4.1%.〉
So right now, it was operating at only 4.1% output?
Then just how strong would it be at full output?
With that thought, I asked,
“How do I fix you?”
〈Wait! You asked one question already! Let ask one too.〉
I hesitated briefly over how to respond, then nodded.
“Alright.”
If I really wanted to, I could have forced it to answer only what I asked.
But thinking about our future relationship, such a one-sided exchange wouldn’t be very good.
Especially when negotiating with an existence that possessed ‘emotions’ like this.
〈Who are you?〉
The Arc Blade asked again the question it had asked at the beginning.
I answered honestly.
“Lee Hamin’s younger brother.”
〈What……?〉
A truth known by only a handful of people in this world.
Hearing it, the weapon muttered in disbelief.
〈Then you’re…… that Lee Hajin?〉
“Yeah.”
〈Huh……. So that’s how it is. Now that I hear it, I can tell. Just like Lee Hamin said.〉
My brother talked about ?
What on earth did he say to get that kind of reaction?
Growing genuinely curious, I asked the Arc Blade.
〈Ah, no. It wasn’t anything special.〉
“What did he say?”
〈……That you had so ‘unique’ traits.〉
“You’re not going to say it properly?”
When I grabbed the sword hilt again, the weapon panicked and blurted out,
〈Fine! I’ll say it! He just said you were kind of rough around the edges!〉
“…….”
〈Like what you’re doing right now!〉
Why would he say that?
Even though I fought tooth and nail with my younger sister every single day, I had never once gotten into a physical fight with my brother.
‘Is that how I looked in my brother’s eyes…….’
As I briefly sank into mories of the past, the Arc Blade cautiously continued,
〈And…… he also said you weren’t very honest with yourself.〉
“……What does that even an?”
〈I don’t know either. I just said it that way.〉
Not honest with myself.
For the first ti in a while, I reflected on myself, then quickly shook the thought off.
“Now I’d like you to answer my question.”
〈It’s obvious what you’re going to ask. How to fix , right?〉
“Yeah.”
A powerful weapon my older brother had used until his final mont.
No matter what it took, I had to restore it to its original state.
However, the answer that ca back from the Arc Blade was far from positive.
〈Right now, it’s impossible.〉
“Why?”
〈Because I’m not an ordinary object…….〉
At the continuation of that answer, I was so shocked I couldn’t even manage my expression.
〈I’m a ‘ghost.’〉
“A ghost…… you say?”
At the completely unexpected information, I frowned and asked.
“You don’t look like one at all.”
〈Of course not. I’m a completely different kind of entity from those other ghost bastards.〉
I recalled the day I first encountered a ghost.
A being of terror that spewed overwhelming ‘hostility’ toward everything around it.
Along with that, I rembered Boss Kim’s explanation about ghosts.
–Alive and dead at the sa ti, having everything yet possessing nothing. Ghosts are paradoxical existences like that.
‘In a way, it does kind of sound like a description of the Arc Blade…….’
As if it had read my thoughts, the weapon said admiringly,
〈That’s a pretty good explanation. Seems like soone who actually knew sothing about ghosts.〉
“Wait. Then what exactly is the Ego Engraving Technique?”
The technique said to have been used to create the Arc Blade.
At those words, the weapon burst out laughing.
〈Hahahaha……! Soone actually believed that?〉
“…….”
〈It sounds pretty convincing, right? Even I think so.〉
So it had been false information fabricated to conceal the Arc Blade’s true nature.
Well, if it beca known that the great hero who saved the world from ghosts was using a ghost as a weapon, all sorts of troubleso issues would arise.
‘The Inquisitors would’ve been the first to go berserk.’
〈Ugh, don’t even ntion those guys. I’m sick of them.〉
Having read my thoughts, the Arc Blade’s body trembled slightly.
“Then there’s no way?”
〈A way to repair ?〉
“Yeah.”
〈Normally, you’d need a special material obtained by killing a ghost. And stuff from lower-grade ones is aningless. The bluish ones are at least sowhat useful.〉
By bluish ghosts, it probably ant Green Breed, a Grade-5 ghost.
A ghost four tiers higher than the White Breed I had dealt with.
‘That’s impossible for right now.’
Maybe there was no need to go that far anyway.
The enemies I was facing now were manageable even with 4.1% output.
At least until proper ‘nightmare-class beings’ started swarming in.
‘Anyway.’
For now, there was no way to fix this weapon.
That ant it was ti to extract sothing just as important as combat power: ‘information.’
“I’ll ask one more question.”
This was a tool that had been used to kill the Ghost of Destruction.
The mories contained within it were worth untold fortunes.
〈You’re a lot more curious than your brother. Fine, ask.〉
With the Arc Blade’s consent, I asked the question I was most curious about.
“What exactly happened to my brother?”
The final fate of the man called the Supre Swordsman.
It was a mystery no one yet knew.
〈Hmm…….〉
The Arc Blade pondered for a long while before answering.
〈Sorry, but I can’t answer that.〉
“Hmm…….”
〈What are you staring like that for? No matter how much you beat , it won’t help. I don’t know either, to begin with.〉
“You don’t know?”
〈Yeah. My mories aren’t intact right now.〉
Not intact mories.
At those words, a hypothesis flashed through my mind.
〈I don’t really know why either. Maybe because I consud too much energy while enduring the depths of the trench, or maybe…….〉
“Soone sealed your mories.”
〈……That’s right.〉
My return to the world.
Perhaps my brother had known that and arranged everything in advance.
‘Were both the mories in my brother’s body and the mories left in the Arc Blade all intentional?’
If so, what was my brother trying to say?
To find that out, I needed information first.
“Tell everything.”
〈Huh?〉
“Every mory you have left. Don’t leave anything out.”
〈Uh……. Alright. I understand.〉
It seed I had found sothing to occupy myself with for the ti being.
The information I could extract from the Arc Blade was less than expected.
Most of it was related to combat, and a large portion overlapped with mories I already had.
‘There’s no way this thing’s mory loss is a coincidence.’
In the end, I arrived at one of two conclusions.
Either my brother had deliberately edited the mories.
Or soone other than my brother had done so.
The two conclusions were different, yet they pointed to the sa result.
‘There’s definitely sothing I’m not supposed to know yet.’
What exactly was it?
In my current state, I couldn’t even properly guess.
‘Still, I did gain one thing.’
The countless sword techniques my brother had trained in the past.
The Arc Blade retained training thods for them.
That was a very worthwhile discovery.
I had never received proper swordsmanship training.
Even though I could fight quite well using only the mories left in my brother’s body, I was starting to see the limits of that.
‘So far, I’ve just been wildly swinging whatever techniques ca to mind…….’
Skill was sothing that could only truly be honed through systematic training.
In that sense, the training thods discovered through the Arc Blade would be of great help going forward.
[Mr. Diesel.]
As I was organizing my thoughts, Kang Da-hee’s voice ca through the communication network.
I stood up from my seat and replied.
[You’re here?]
[Yes. Please wait where you are.]
[…….]
[You’re coming up, right?]
A swordsman of the Brain Dragon Magic Tower and the older brother of the half-dragon Betty Barosi, Tae-oh Barosi.
[Yeah.]
It was ti to go check on a talent who might beco new combat power for the Aguiggun Clan.
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