BOOM. BOOM.
In the place of sound’s origin, there stood an insane man swinging his blade.
Beating on the Max Level trees in certain tempo, Vulcan looked no different from a tree-cutting machine.
There was the skill window in front of Vulcan’s eyes glowing in translucency.
[Novice Magic Swordsman Vulcan]
[102Lv]
[Passive Skills List]
*Weapon Mastery S -> C -> B (Rank Up)
*Evasion Mastery S -> B
……
Fire Mastery S -> B
Cold Mastery B -> D
Necromancy Mastery C -> E
“Oh, weapon mastery rank up. Nice.”
Vulcan smiled big. Even his voice was filled with joy.
However, it was only for a brief moment. Vulcan sighed and looked at the skill list window once more.
‘Let alone S, the skill window is devoid of even one A……’
The skills list use to be full of S and A ranks, but now it was in a pathetic state.
It was sickening.
Unlike practitioners that achieved their levels through normal course, players had no methods to become stronger other than a simple repetitive training.
In other words, the best course was just doing grunt-works.
‘Even so, I thought there might be a way.’
It was true that Filder was the best teacher. Rich in his experience and insightful in his methods, for Filder, who had the best abilities, teaching 90 levelers was easy enough to be considered a chore.
From Filder’s perspective, Dokgo Hoo was just a baby chick level swordsman, and Filder made it possible for Dokgo Hoo to make a breakthrough growth by observing him for a while and providing a little bit of guidance.
Perhaps it was obvious how Filder could do it. Filder said so himself that he had been training newcomers for several hundred years.
When it came to teaching players, even Filder was powerless.
Players got to where they were through auto skill acquisition and level ups, so they had no basic knowledge or understanding for the abilities. Players were like young children with over powered strengths.
Teaching players were like trying to teach high-level calculus to newborn babies. Hence Filder gave up on trying to make players understand the basis for abilities, and instead he had no choice but to select a training method that actively utilizes the system.
“Mr. Vulcan, it looks like your basic mastery levels are pretty good. Other players focus on leveling up, powerful active skills and item acquisition. They ignore basic passive combat skills.”
“From that regard, how about we combine blade technique and magic training together? Maintain three Hellfires and cut down trees with your blade. Is that all right?”
“…… Yes! Of course. Haha!”
Vulcan felt that something bad was about to happen, so he smiled awkwardly.
Since the time when Vulcan understood the SYSTEM’s basic functions and was experienced enough to be no longer called a novice, he had been mindful of the basic passive skills’ mastery levels.
Therefore, Vulcan worked hard on raising the basic passive skills’ masteries at every chance he got, even when he was not hunting. In middle of a battle, instead of just slaying the monsters, he did so in ways that maximized the basic skills masteries. When Vulcan had potions to spare, he accumulated masteries while taking on damage intentionally.
It had been over two weeks since Dokgo Hoo fell into the unconscious world. Meanwhile, Vulcan, excluding one hour of break per day, fully invested all of his time for mastery training.
The potion was so effective that one sip of it fully replenished all three stats. However, that did not make Vulcan feel grateful. Instead, it made him feel more rebellious.
Even though Filder wasn’t saying anything, Vulcan felt as if Filder’s look on his face was saying so, and that was creeping out Vulcan. He always thought Filder’s smiling look was gentle and comfortable, but now it wasn’t so.
Vulcan thought perhaps medieval peasants working under lordships might have been more comfortable than this.
“Excuse me…… Can you please increase the break time a little? I think training so hard while over exerting myself like this may lead to problems……”
“Uh… If I keep pushing myself like this, I can’t focus properly and I think it is reducing efficiency, and ……”
“Ugh……”
Vulcan dropped his head.
Back then, there were people in a similar situation as himself, the video game room laborers. In a workroom, they worked for a boss, mining ores and running same macros whole day, mindlessly. Vulcan used to only look down on them, but now he could understand how they must have felt.
How difficult it must have been. Vulcan’s eyes were watering with tears.
‘This is not training. This is …… This is just a slave labor. A slave labor from hell!’
Vulcan felt sympathy toward the faceless video game room laborers.
Braking Vulcan’s train of thought, Filder spoke.
“It’s really magnificent. Excellent! I believe I have under estimated you, Mr. Vulcan. From now on, I will attack you occasionally. If you increase avoidance mastery at the same time, you can become stronger faster!”
“It’s all fine! If you take my potion, you will fully recover!”
“Ah……”
‘Please let me rest just for a day…… Let me live…… No, just kill me. I will be comfortable at least if I’m dead……’
Vulcan was really envious of Dokgo Hoo who was still just standing there unaware of all this.
A month passed training for Vulcan’s masteries. It started with just cutting down trees, but because Filder added new objectives along the way and increased the difficulty, the training turned into something completely different.
Vulcan was rolling around the ground like a soldier in a battlefield with his life on the line.
“BABABABAM!”
Vulcan dodged the large icicle popping out of the ground and swung his pure lightning blade. A Fireball that came out of nowhere got deflected to the sky after being hit by the blade.
Aiming for Vulcan, who momentarily stopped to deflect the Fireball, Ice Arrows that were circling around Vulcan rained down on him from all directions.
Using Infinite Flame Spheres and Hellfires he prepared earlier, Vulcan intercepted the ice arrows. As for the ones that could not be intercepted, Vulcan moved his upper body to dodge them.
“BOOOM! CHIIIIIIK……”
Ice arrows and Infinite Flame Spheres collided and created a massive amount of steam. In cover of the mist, a skeleton holding a long sphere charged forward.
[Weakened Skeleton King Wreric]
[95Lv]
It was the same bastard that Vulcan was sick of fighting face-to-face for ten days.
The skeleton king’s sphere charged toward Vulcan, piercing through the mist. Vulcan avoided the attack by angling his body. He moved in close to the skeleton king and tilted his head down.
Skeleton king’s wind cutter sliced through the space, aiming toward back of Vulcan’s head. Vulcan, raising his head, spoke the skill activation codes.
“Thunder God’s Strike!”
“CLASH!”
The rapid sword technique cutting across upward from the lower left stroke the skeleton king, but it did not break the protective spell that the summoner cast.
Vulcan cursed inside. He kicked the skeleton king’s head with his left foot and cast spell rapidly.
“Hellfire! Infinite Flame Sphere, Infinite Flame Sphere, Infinite Flame Sphere, Infinite Flame Sphere……”
Without re-generating spent magic spells at every chance he had, Vulcan could be defenseless against magic attacks coming at him constantly from all over the direction. Vulcan’s mouth moved rapidly.
“Infinite Flame Sphere Infinite Flame Sphere Infinite Flame Sphere Infinite Flame Sphere Infinite Flame Sphere Infinite Flame Sphere Infinite Flame Sphere Infinite Flame Sphere Infinite Flame Sphere Infinite Flame Sphere Infinite Flame Sphere Infinite Flame Sphere……”
Vulcan looked ridiculous repeating the same set of words over and over as if he had a form of speech impairment, but it could not be helped.
To overcome this a little, Vulcan cast Haste to his mouth to cast spells. It would have been too taxing to cast Haste on his entire body, so it was a desperate measure for the time being.
In an instant, Vulcan created a Hellfire and over hundred of Infinite Flame Sphere, and he took a dive to the left side. The ground that Vulcan was standing a moment ago already turned into a hazardous area filled with lava.
‘KUAAAAAA! This is too strong! This is insane!’
Vulcan thought to himself. His inner cry could almost be heard. However, for Filder and Berenere, the sight was just an entertaining spectacle like a high-production value action movie.
“Filder, he is blocking the ice magic too easily. How about mixing in more of wind magic that is not very visible? Or use earth magic that would be hard to block with fire spells.”
“Ah right, you said that guy is a player. Kuku. The way he moves so fluently, I thought he was a normal magic swordsman. For a player to move so smoothly, it is quite a curious thing to see, huhuhu.”
His face was full of wrinkles and moles, and his back was so hunched that it looked like he could not stand up without a cane. His appearance made it seem like he could die of old age at any moment, but the sharp and piercing gaze from his eyes overpowered everything else.
The one that lead his own world to the brink of destruction, Berenere the necromancer of pure evil.
Filder continued the conversation with Berenere while not taking his eyes off of Vulcan’s training.
“It certainly is. He is different from ordinary players. Now that I think about it, he had higher mastery levels from the start of the training. I have high expectations.”
“Hum! Having high expectations for a player! They are the kind that came up here without any effort! They may have been parading around as geniuses in the lower dimensions full of weaklings, but up here, they are nothing but talent-less lazy bums!”
Berenere spoke with disapproval. Filder responded with a smile.
“Even so, it appears this kid did not slack off in putting in hard work and effort. It is apparent that he sharpened and polished his skills through continuous training. To start with, the way he uses the skills is quite efficient.”
“……”
“You too, fold your hopes and expectations, and just mind training Dokgo-whatever guy instead. Unlike how he looks, he has an incredible potential.”
Filder responded with silence to Berenere’s negative comments. It wasn’t like Filder disagreed.
They always sought after ways to level up easily, and by the might of the monsters far exceeding the strength of the monsters in lower dimensions, these players lost their lives.
However, the end results were failures.
In the end, it was talent.
System was like a cheat key for those in low levels, but as they approached higher levels, System became a shackle in iron that hindered progress.
But then……
“He could be different.”
“Umm?”
Berenere looked at Filder as if he just made a blunder.
Vulcan was running all over the place to dodge the coordinated attacks from magic spells and Skeleton King. Filder gazed upon Vulcan steadily.
Filder’s hand moved rapidly to cast spells.