Level up with swords (272)
For Leon, that awakening was both familiar and unfamiliar.
Overworking your body until your mind and body are in tatters.
All I had was my poison, so I could ignore the screams of my own body. Leon’s mental power rose to the level of a superhuman from that time on, as the two types of spirituality, his natural nature and his acquired character, came together.
He couldn’t even learn the basics of how to use an Auror, let alone arcane swordsmanship, so he broke a thousand wooden swords by repeating a few basic techniques taught at the academy countless times.
A pointless effort.
Worthless pain.
When his scream reached beyond the sky, the penance that should never have been rewarded blossomed.
Cheoyomsangjeong (處染常淨).
Like a lotus flower that preserves its color and scent even if it blooms in a dirty place, the level that Leon stepped into, regardless of his talent or destiny, was a realm that even masters could not dare to disparage.
The origin of salt and its driving force –
“-ah.”
Leon, who regained consciousness, reflexively stood up.
His sense of time was still frozen when he was fighting Sisyphus, and he felt like he was going to grab the hilt of his sword at any moment.
But before I could even stand up, my knees gave out.
“Wow?!”
Just as Leon was about to roll over awkwardly, there was someone supporting his weight from behind.
It looks like a small girl, but its essence is the core of a giant golem.
It was Rodelin who returned in the form of a core body.
“I checked the master’s mood. How are you feeling?”
“Mo, how are you feeling? “Uh, wait a minute.”
Leon, who was momentarily embarrassed by the situation in which she lifted him up, lowered his eyes and contemplated his own body.
More than 30% of the area has ruptured or damaged muscles. There were no cracks in the skeleton, but the ligaments and cartilage were slightly swollen, perhaps due to constant overload.
‘It looks like you recovered a lot while you were down. Since the regenerative power could not be promoted with aura, it is likely that internal injuries would remain.’
Although it could not be said to be a minor injury, Leon was surprised to find that his body was in better condition than expected.
Every time he clashed with Sisyphus, he attacked with his bare body.
It seemed that the other party had also adjusted his strength, but it was impossible for him to survive after colliding with the Grandmaster without raising his Auror.
“are you okay. “It’s not completely healed yet, but if I rest a little more, I’ll be back to normal.”
“Shall we perform a recovery spell? “I used ‘Great Heal’, ‘Cure’, and ‘Refresh’ 13 times, but it is an error in my calculations that it has not yet been completely cured.”
“No, that’s enough. “The reason your recovery magic didn’t work completely was because it conflicted with the power of stigmata.”
The divine power concentrated in the stigmata is stronger than even the high-ranking holy laws.
So much so that even an unconscious Leon could cancel out more than half of the high-level magic activated by Rodelin’s output.
“Sisyphus?”
“It’s over there.”
As I turned my eyes following Rodelin’s pointing, I saw a monster dozing off sitting on a huge rock.
One of the legends of ancient mythology, Sisyphus.
The person in question was dozing off in a pitiful manner.
“master.”
Rodelin said.
“Immediately after the Master lost consciousness, I immediately attempted to avoid engaging with the entity named ‘Sisyphus’ and fled the area with the Master.”
Leon pointed out something unusual in that sentence.
“I tried… “Ramen, are you saying I failed?”
“yes.”
Her hair, flowing as finely as gold dust, bobbed up and down once, following Rodelin’s nod.
She explained that she only looked at Sisyphus with both eyes.
“I, accompanied by the master, executed the flight function and left the current location at a speed of five times the speed of sound. “There were no obstacles or abnormalities in the movement.”
“however?”
“The moment we got exactly 2 kilometers away from the entity name ‘Sisyphus,’ the master and I were back at the starting point.”
“what?!”
Leon, whose eyes were wide in astonishment, looked back at Sisyphus.
That monster, who is still snoring and dozing off, is holding these two people captive?
Rodelin continued to report with an emotionless face.
“Into the air, underground. I tried to break away several times, but they all came back to their original position. Recognizing the futility of the task, I gave up trying to escape and waited for the master to wake up.”
“good job. “What else do I need to know?”
“In my judgment, there is none.”
“Okay,” Leon nodded once and raised himself up on his knees, where his strength had already recovered.
The hilt of the sword hanging at my waist clanks.
As if I was drawn to that metallic sound.
Sisyphus, who was sitting on the rock and nodding his head, opened his eyes.
“… πολεμιστής!”
Sisyphus jumped off the rock with a bright smile and approached Leon in one step.
Even though it’s coming right in front of you, you can’t read its path.
Leon let out a long sigh as he realized once again the enormous difference in level that existed between the two. His memory was a bit hazy, but even in the trance state in which he displayed the best capabilities of his life, in the end he was unable to utter a single scratch.
“Sisyphus.”
“Γιατί?”
“Did you do this?”
Even if it is not possible to communicate through words, it can be conveyed through gestures.
“Are you the one who held us here?”
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He points once at himself and Rodelin, then at his feet, then again at Sisyphus.
Sisyphus, who understood the meaning of the gesture, smiled bitterly.
He then pointed his finger at the rock placed behind me.
“… what? “What’s wrong with that rock?”
Leon just tilted his head because he didn’t know why he was doing that.
[Ah, I see.]
‘What on earth?’
Only El Cid understood the meaning and agreed to it alone.
When Leon, unable to hold back his frustration, questioned, he began to speak in a low voice, as if recalling a very distant memory.
[According to ancient mythology, that man, Sisyphus, fell into Tartarus as a sinner who disrupted the games of the gods and insulted their majesty. I explained it to you last time, right?]
And, said El Cid, who started crying.
[He not only blasphemed the gods, but he also threw the world into disarray by defeating the god of death with his force. The concept of ‘death’ temporarily disappeared, corpses came to life, the boundary between life and death became blurred, and the ecosystem became a mess.]
‘Because Sisyphus overpowered the god of death?’
[maybe. Thanks to this, he acquired immortality and gained an immortal body and an immortal mind, but he could not avoid the wrath of the god king Zeus. On Sisyphus, who played with the gods, Zeus imposed the punishment of having to roll a rock for eternity.]
When Leon heard those words, he looked at the rock that Sisyphus had pointed to.
It is an ordinary stone block.
But that rock is the punishment of the god king Zeus?
[According to the record left by the priest, that rock is said to be the maximum weight that Sisyphus can bear, and if he stops rolling it, it inflicts the pain of being crushed alive. No matter how much you roll, it always returns to its original position.]
This time, Leon, with a puzzled expression, retorted.
“You’re not rolling right now, are you?”
[Look carefully.]
El Cid spoke in a dry tone.
Unlike Leon, his insight was exactly what state Sisyphus was in.
Following that advice, let’s take a closer look at Sisyphus’ body.
… Coo… Knock knock…
The faint screams of flesh being crushed and twisted could be heard from inside the skin tempered like steel.
There was no force actually weighing down the body.
In any case, there was only corresponding pain.
A pain that can only be rolled with all your might, but the weight of a rock crushes your muscles and crushes your bones. Even as he felt this, Sisyphus did not twitch an eyebrow.
[You must already be used to the pain of being crushed alive.]
Only then did Leon think of the word ‘ancient mythology.’
Ancient times.
It refers to the distant past. A past that must be measured not in hundreds of years, but in thousands, perhaps even ten thousand years. In Tartarus, where even the flow of time is greatly distorted, I couldn’t even imagine how much pain Sisyphus must have endured.
[There is nothing to pity.]
El Cid immediately woke him up.
[It’s not a problem you can solve, and you don’t even know how big of a mistake that guy made during his lifetime. It’s not the time to be crazy, and there’s no time to do so. Wake.]
“… … huh.”
[And if the reason you’re tied up here is because of that guy’s punishment, just move with that guy or cut off that binding force. Don’t worry too much.]
El Cid, who showed Leon the path to take, asked.
They were in a situation where every minute and every second was a waste.
[Now, let’s start again. How is your physical condition?]
“I’ve almost recovered as we speak. “Even if the power of the stigmata is reduced, it is much better than not having it at all.”
[good.]
El Cid gave instructions after checking Leon’s physical condition.
[Before you attack Sisyphus, unfold your sword.]
“The power of swords?”
[The memories of writing in a trance will probably remain vague. We need to bring back that blurry image clearly.]
As the saying goes, it increases concentration.
As if time had stopped, all the sounds flowing in from around me and the vibrations I felt through my skin disappeared like a lie.
A silence that borders on loneliness.
Leon, who opened his eyes there, expanded his territory.
With the feeling of pulling your consciousness out of your body.
So that he can cut down the range of the sword, the range of space and time that he can control, with one swing.
‘-what?’
Leon was surprised to realize that the range had expanded several times wider and stronger than before.
Before colliding with Sisyphus, all I could do was concentrate all my mind and maintain control of the sword, but now I was able to completely control a 3 meter radius like the palm of my hand.
This is growth that cannot be assured even with annual training.
[So I told you, it was a coincidence.]
The Grandmaster’s realm is literally like another world.
Bringing out the microcosm built inside you to the outside, creating a world governed by your own laws. That is the power of a Grand Master, a transcendent person qualified to challenge the gods.
Originally, Leon’s sword power would have disappeared immediately as soon as it overlapped with Sisyphus’ domain, and would have had no influence.
However, his transcendent mental power, centered around El Cid, a sword created by the goddess himself, held out until the end like a reef that does not know how to break even in the face of a storm.
[By confronting the Transcendant’s mind, your telekinetic power has advanced incomparably compared to before. It’s normal to die nine times out of ten attempts and become a wreck once.]
I believed that I could definitely handle Leon.
Sisyphus’s power was greatly reduced, but Leon’s mental strength was such that even El Cid had nothing to advise him.
A spirit that has been tempered with self-denial every day.
Willpower that could have been distorted into madness if directed in the wrong direction.
[Let’s move on to step 2, you wonderful disciple.]
‘Step 2?’
[OK.]
El Cid said, chuckling without realizing it.
[The first stage of Mind Sword is to expand one’s cognitive ability by using telekinesis to expand one’s range. So what’s next?]
“Uhm… .”
Leon thought for a moment.
But the answer was simple. I was just hesitant about whether it was the right answer or not. Since I had seen powers that deviate from the laws of physics, such as <Tuhwa>, I couldn’t go wrong.
What the second stage of examination should aim for is probably.
“Establishing your own unique laws.”
After hearing his answer, El Cid smiled with satisfaction.
[This is the correct answer.]
