Chapter 13
Kang Hye-rim was very nervous as she faced the kobold illusion in front of her.
Her lips were dry, and her palms were sweaty as she gripped the sword.
She forced herself to hold on to the sword so that she wouldn’t drop it.
‘Can I do this?’
Kang Hye-rim couldn’t help but feel anxious.
Even after becoming a collector and receiving training, she had never swung a sword before.
She had never fought a monster like that before either.
‘I’m scared.’
The hearts of the collectors who faced the illusions for the first ti were always the sa.
They had no will or determination, while the illusions burned with hostility and malice towards the invaders of this world.
It was natural for the beginners to freeze in fear when they faced them for the first ti.
Moreover, there was more than one pair of eyes watching her.
[The Ruler of Shaldralla licks his lips at your appearance]
[The Drunkard of the Tavern rejoices at your frightened expression]
[The Investigator of Pain anticipates your ruin]
The spirits were like that.
The presence of the spirits was huge for the collectors.
They could earn points by hunting the illusions, but the biggest source of points was from those spirits.
They had to catch the eyes of the spirits.
They had to satisfy the expectations of the spirits.
That thought beca a shackle that held her ankles.
The important first battle, the enormous pressure and tension to make it a success.
Kang Hye-rim felt like her stomach was being stabbed and she wanted to throw away her sword and run away.
She was about to say that she couldn’t do it.
But still, Kang Hye-rim didn’t let go of her sword, and she didn’t run away.
‘He told that I could do it.’
She rembered her eting with Kang Yoo Hyun.
The mysterious young man who suddenly appeared to her, who was nothing.
He told her that she had talent.
He told her that she could succeed.
The narrow room of a shabby boarding house.
She didn’t even know what to do there, wasting her life in vain.
He told her that even soone like her could do it.
He told her that.
‘If I run away from here, I’ll cause trouble for Mr. Kang Yoo Hyun Teller.’
She didn’t care what happened to herself.
But she didn’t want to harm her benefactor.
Fear, dread, tension.
All those things were less than one word: responsibility.
It supported her back and prevented her from running away.
And she wanted to show them.
To those spirits who wanted her to fail.
And to Kang Yoo Hyun who had expectations for her.
That she was not a coward.
‘Hold your sword.’
Kang Hye-rim had never held a sword in real combat before.
She had never swung it once, except for practice.
‘Rember the feeling from then.’
But strangely enough, her mind was calm.
She felt like the rough hilt of the sword in her hand was whispering to her.
You can hold everything, and you can cut everything.
Crack!
The kobold opened its mouth wide and ran towards Kang Hye-rim.
This reptilian creature with a snout like a beast was more than disgusting, it was repulsive.
The dagger in its hand, its sharp teeth.
Either one would hurt and tornt her if she got hit by them.
Kang Hye-rim took in its appearance and felt ti slow down.
In that slow motion, she recalled the feeling of swinging her sword today.
‘As if I beca one with the sword…’
Slash!
The kobold approached her in an instant, and at the sa ti Kang Hye-rim moved.
Her sword tip, which had been fixed in midair all along, flashed with the faint light in the mine.
It was not a simple swing, but a graceful arc that followed her hand with the sword.
It cut through the kobold’s dagger and its shallow body as it passed by.
Squeak!
The kobold scread in pain and fell to the ground.
On the contrary, Kang Hye-rim crossed paths with the kobold without a scratch on her body.
A natural and fast counterattack.
The spirits who saw everything were astonished.
[The Ruler of Shaldralla admires your skill]
[The Drunkard of the Tavern can’t believe this scene]
[The Investigator of Pain…]
The spirits saw Kang Hye-rim as a novice.
She didn’t know what to do, and she didn’t have a proper mindset for combat.
They only imagined Kang Hye-rim running away in fear from a single kobold.
That’s what should have happened.
But Kang Hye-rim betrayed their inflated expectations.
She didn’t need a few exchanges of offense and defense, she knocked down the kobold with a single strike.
It was not a movent that a beginner could show.
‘As expected.’
Yoo Hyun, who watched the whole process from the observer’s room, smiled.
“That’s right, Miss Kang Hye-rim.”
Her sword strike was captivating even to his eyes.
“That’s how you swing a sword.”
Sssss.
The kobold that died instantly turned into white text chunks in an instant.
The illusions made of ‘stories’ turned into the smallest units of text that composed the stories when they died.
So of them disappeared into the air, and so of them were absorbed into Kang Hye-rim’s body.
The text that accumulated in Kang Hye-rim’s body was converted into points and accumulated in her.
[You have defeated the kobold.]
[You have earned 3TP.]
The first monster she defeated and the points she earned.
And the spirits who admired her skill with one strike.
Kang Hye-rim didn’t see any of those things.
All she felt was excitent that made her heart burst.
‘I did it.’
Her hand holding the sword trembled belatedly.
But it was not a tremor of fear or nervousness, but of joy.
‘I really did it.’
Kang Hye-rim couldn’t contain her excitent and suddenly rembered the past.
Her first awakening as a collector.
She entered the training center with high expectations, but all she heard there was criticism.
‘You have brute strength, but why are you so scared?’
‘You’re too timid. You won’t be able to swing your weapon properly against the illusions.’
‘Well. You have good physical abilities, so you can be a tanker at least.’
The pitying gaze of the instructor and the contempt of her peers.
Those things had unknowingly weighed on her mind.
She had given up on her dream of succeeding and being proud, and lived worrying about today rather than tomorrow.
‘But now it’s different.’
If soone saw it, it was nothing but knocking down a single kobold.
It was just a kobold to others, but the glory she gained from her first battle in her life was deeply rooted in her.
Even if no one knew it, this was…
“You did well.”
“Ah.”
No.
There was one person who knew.
Kang Yoo Hyun, who ca out of the observer’s room, nodded his head and told her that she did well.
She felt sothing surge in her chest at that sight.
She was about to say sothing, but Kang Yoo Hyun spoke first.
“But it’s too early to celebrate.”
Keruk! Keruruk!
The sound of the kobold pack ca from the depths of the mine.
The ones inside heard the sound of the previous battle and recognized the presence of the intruder.
Kang Hyerim cald down her excited mind and nodded.
Was it because she held a sword?
She was strangely calr than usual.
Kang Yoo Hyun nodded his head in satisfaction as he saw her.
“Miss Hyerim’s fight is not over yet. And it’s too early to celebrate for sothing like this.”
This world was full of things that Kang Hyerim could celebrate.
She shouldn’t be satisfied and happy here.
She had to be more greedy, more desirous.
“Can you do it?”
“Yes.”
Kang Hyerim answered with confidence in her voice.
“Good. I wish you luck.”
Kang Yoo Hyun finished his words and returned to the observer’s room.
The sound of the kobold pack approaching from afar could be heard.
It was not one like before.
It looked like at least five.
It was not a level that a novice could knock down alone.
But strangely enough, Kang Hyerim didn’t think she would lose.
‘Yeah. It’s too early to celebrate.’
She gripped her sword again.
At the sa ti, the kobold pack erged from the darkness like tearing through a curtain.
They saw Kang Hyerim and ran towards her with hostility and malice.
Kang Hyerim didn’t hesitate either and jumped into the kobold pack.
***
[The Ruler of Shaldralla admires the contractor’s skill.]
[The Drunkard of the Tavern is speechless and opens his mouth wide.]
The spirits who wanted Kang Hyerim to fail were now admiring her performance instead of their initial attitude.
Of course, they didn’t change their stance right away.
They believed that the first fight was just luck, and they tried to find so fault in Kang Hyerim and lecture her.
But as Kang Hyerim swept through the mine and knocked down the kobolds one-sidedly, the spirits gradually beca fascinated by her skill.
‘Really amazing.’
[The Swordmaster of Goryeo Dynasty] was the na of her trait.
It sounded like a joke, but it was a protagonist-level trait.
The original owner of this trait had shown a strength that was among the best among those who wielded swords in human history.
It was just that it had finally shone now.
And Kang Hyerim adapted to her trait more and more as she swung her sword.
‘What a terrifying growth rate.’
As if she had freed sothing that had been suppressed, Kang Hyerim flew around like she had wings.
It was not a sight that could be dismissed as a low-grade collector.
Who cares if it’s a kobold, what are you talking about?
Don’t make laugh.
We’re going to clear this world today.
Boundary line?
Let’s not touch each other and get along?
That’s ridiculous.
Today, this world is ours.
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