Chapter 159 - Absurdity (3)
Putting all my strength into a strike to the point of tearing every muscle fiber in my body, feeling the pain, and dying.
Again, putting all my strength into a strike, feeling the pain, and dying again.
The ti of endurance repeated itself like that.
That series of processes wasn't particularly more pleasant compared to the situation just before.
That's because, in previous deaths, I could et my end after experiencing pain just once, but since starting this crazy act, I had to suffer terrible pain at least twice.
‘I'm at the point of feeling phantom pain.’
The ti spent feeling pain was longer than the ti spent not feeling it.
Perhaps even if I return to a normal daily life, the pain might remain as phantom pain and tornt .
However, what tornted even more than the pain itself was the uncertain promise.
‘Is this thod really working?’
The basis for the idea of growing through this thod was purely a conjecture derived from my experience.
It ant that no one guaranteed the success of this thod.
When I first started, I had a belief that was close to a conviction, but⋯⋯ well.
[ System : deaths have been overco. ]
When only pain accumulates, and no growth is visible even after nearly 100 tis⋯⋯ a person is bound to feel doubt.
Of course, until now, I had been clumsy at even properly mustering the strength of my whole body, so I had sothing to say for myself, but in terms of no visible results, it was all the sa.
It felt like walking through a pitch-black cave with no visible exit or interior.
The thought that what I was doing was nothing more than a fool's errand.
‘Was it all an illusion?’
Just as I was thinking that I had just gone crazy and had so stupid idea⋯⋯.
[ System : deaths have been overco. ]
What a twist of fate this was.
[ System : Strength increases to [D ]! ]
In the end, a result appeared. Exactly after 100 deaths since I started this ordeal.
“Haha⋯⋯.”
After taking in the window announcing that growth, I couldn't help but form such a laugh on my lips.
Hope showing itself just when I wanted to give up on everything.
It was truly like a deadly drug.
Having thought, 'My actions had aning,' I willingly threw my body into death thereafter.
After that, was it like a blocked vessel had been cleared? Growth occurred at a relatively tight interval.
[ System : deaths have been overco. ]
[ System : Stamina increases to [C]! ]
[ System : deaths have been overco. ]
[ System : Magic increases to [C]! ]
Thinking about it, it was a given. As it was a strike that poured in all the body's stamina, strength, and magic, the growth rate would have been constant for any stat.
‘It ans that if the ranks are similar, the growth rate will rise at a similar speed.’
Anyway, the question was resolved.
Then what was left?
[ System : deaths have been overco. ]
[ System : Strength increases to [C]! ]
Growing, albeit slightly.
Again, putting all my strength into a strike, and dying.
[ System : deaths have been overco. ]
[ System : Agility increases to [B ]! ]
Growing again, albeit slightly.
Putting all my strength into a strike, and dying⋯⋯.
[ System : deaths have been overco. ]
[ System : Stamina increases to [B]! ]
Growing again, albeit slightly.
Putting all my strength into a strike, and dying⋯⋯.
Such days continued.
Of course, the speed wasn't that fast because, for stats, the required growth amount for ranking up increased exponentially as you went to higher ranks.
But the path I was on was right. Because I had that conviction, I did not hesitate.
Was it a long ti? I'm not sure. It took about a minute to die once. Thinking about it that way, it might not have been that long.
Or maybe it was 2 minutes, or was it under 1 minute?
Well.
The contemplation about the thought that suddenly occurred to only led to the conclusion that at so point, I stopped bothering to asure.
[ System : deaths have been overco. ]
[ System : Proficiency increases to [A ]! ]
[ System : Magic increases to [B]! ]
***
Naturally, I didn't just settle for stat growth to escape this loop.
In the first place, to just ‘shake off’ my current opponents—Akmandar, Grændal, Salvatio—with stats alone, wouldn't I have to die at least 2,000 tis by a low estimate?
This also implied that to overwhelm or kill them would require even more than that.
Therefore, my goal was only one.
This ‘departure from this place’.
The eccentric who led the attack on the Exchange eting⋯⋯ Grændal, in disguise, had dragged to a quite remote and secluded forest, but looking at it coolly, the distance from the Exchange eting wasn't that far.
It was a distance that could be reached sohow if I could create an opening in the enemy and maintain my speed.
But the enemy was too powerful.
‘Even if I manage to create a montary opening, I'm much slower than those guys. They'll catch up to in no ti and turn into a piece of at.’
Therefore, I decided to lock down my enemies' attacks and movents.
Just like I did to the assassins when I first fell into the Enlight mansion and repeated death.
Taat-!
The life after one thousand and seven deaths had passed. As soon as the loop resud, I rushed at Grændal.
“Hoh.”
He responded with that dry chuckle I had heard so repeatedly that my ears were about to fall off, and raised his sword.
‘It's coming.’
This was a fixed event. Imdiately after the loop started, if I rushed at Grændal in a ‘perfectly straight line,’ he would always try to strike down vertically.
[ System : Skill, 『Mont of Decisive Battle[A]』 has been used! ]
[ Strength : B- > B ]
[ Agility : A > A ]
[ Stamina : B > A ]
[ Intellect : B > A ]
[ Magic : B > A ]
[ Proficiency : A > S ]
I used 『Mont of Decisive Battle』 to match that mont. It was the optimal timing to maximize its usage ti.
And.
As I always had, I gathered all the strength in my body and clashed my sword against the straight path of Grændal's descending blade.
Crunch.
The muscles and nerves all over my body were screaming. That if I poured any more power into this, I would beco combat-incapable.
Therefore, I moderately controlled the power I was emitting. So as not to fall into a state of complete combat disability, so that I could look forward to the next ti. And to the extent that I could withstand Grændal's attack.
That technique of controlling power was a know-how I had gained through repeating hundreds of all-out strikes.
Claaang-!
A situation was created where his executioner's sword and my 『Spellbinder』 clashed and competed in strength.
Tremble.
Naturally, I was at a disadvantage. I an, what's the difference in specs?
But.
‘The power struggle is a fake.’
Unlike his characteristically crude executioner's sword, Grændal's swordsmanship was cunning.
Even if he took a strong tempo at first, from the mont the swords clashed, he would subtly change that tempo.
This was one of his techniques.
‘I can see it.’
Adapted through hundreds of repetitions, what he was trying to do beca so clear it was as if I could grasp it with my hands.
The move where he seed to be trying to smash my sword by striking down even harder, but just before that, with superhuman strength, he would montarily twist the trajectory to deflect my sword and simultaneously cut down.
If I can see it, and if I know what he's going to do, there's nothing I can't counter.
Swoosh-
I twisted the trajectory of my sword at the sa mont, and deflected his sword wide.
“⋯⋯!”
As a result, both my sword and his sword simultaneously deviated from their trajectories and missed, and he seed sowhat flustered by that action.
Even for a monster of Grændal's caliber, who boasts top-tier skills among the pinnacle of knights, the Master Knights, the bewildernt following that one move creates a gap in judgnt.
Therefore.
Thwack!!
I, who had naturally anticipated that result, lifted my leg as smoothly as flowing water and kicked him.
With my original physical abilities, it would have been impossible, but-
“Kuh⋯⋯!”
Shhhk-!
Combining my grown stats with the effect of 『Mont of Decisive Battle』 and the advantage of superior judgnt, I was able to push him back.
Yes. It wasn't even an effective blow, just pushing him back. That was all.
‘As expected, the difference in level⋯⋯.’
The power balance in is broken. This isn't about the power balance between the main characters, but in a world-wide sense.
The strong were boundlessly strong. The weak, even if you gathered a hundred, a thousand, or perhaps ten thousand, could not stand up to one powerful enemy.
Looking at it that way, it might be said to be both natural and desperate that even after repeating death, I couldn't land a single effective blow on that guy.
However, it was quite excellent for buying ti.
‘With this, he's out for a few seconds. Next is⋯⋯.’
Swish-!
When I turned back without hesitation, there were a number of magic arrows flying towards .
That, which was made of Akmandar's spirit arts and took the form of a wolf.
‘Can I deflect them?’
The first process—Grændal's vertical slash—I was used to, and had overco it by repeating it hundreds of tis.
Conversely, it ant that for hundreds of tis, I couldn't even get past that first stage.
But Akmandar's spirit arts were a different story. It hadn't even been a hundred tis since I started facing him.
‘I have to try.’
Chk.
Just before the arrow made of spirit arts was about to hit , I raised my sword and took a stance.
Dozens of arrows, at a rough estimate, with a crazy speed that felt faster than bullets.
Each and every one would be a critical hit for with my low durability.
For this reason, I have to deflect all of them with 『Spellbinder』, which reflects magic.
It's not enough to just block the attacks by deflecting them. I have to read their trajectories accurately and return them to Akmandar.
Only then will an opening be created in him.
Is it possible?
Ting-!
First shot. I deflected it. The trajectory was properly aid at Akmandar.
Ting-!
Second shot. I deflected it. It wasn't as expected, but I sent it flying toward Akmandar anyway.
Third shot.
Ting-!
From this mont on, it was a complete ss. I deflected it, but I couldn't properly send it to Akmandar.
Fourth shot, fifth shot, sixth shot.
And the seventh shot.
Pshk-
That was my limit.
“Damn it!”
As Akmandar's arrow pierced , I muttered such a death-rattle-like scream.
And imdiately after that.
Pshh-!
The remaining dozens of arrows that I failed to deflect all passed through .
“⋯⋯Ah.”
My chest and stomach are pierced, so my body is probably a ss.
While feeling the pain of a huge hole being bored through my body, I also felt a strange sensation as the cool night breeze passed through the wound and swept over it.
“⋯⋯.”
Regardless of my will, my body tilts backward.
The dark night sky cos into view.
There, there was a pitch-black sky, and a single moon.
The moon would probably hang there for a long ti to co.
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