Ding. Ding. Ding.
The flood of System notifications was enough to make my ears hurt. I opened my mouth wide and dismissed the message windows filling my vision one by one.
Why are there so many rewards?
Two Level Ups, an increase to all my Stats, and a new Skill for completing an achievement.
Martial Arts Manual Creation?
Ding.
System
Skill Window
Martial Arts Manual Creation
Grade: None
Realm: First Stage
Description: Can create martial arts manuals for martial arts that have reached mastery.
Martial Arts Manuals Available: Jin Family’s Spear Technique, Jin Family’s Manoeuvre Technique
After reading the description, I realized it was exactly what I had guessed.
It’s a Skill, so it’s better than nothing, I suppose…
For now, though, it did not seem particularly useful. I was mostly fascinated that the System would give me a Skill for some kind of production job.
This really does feel like a game sometimes.
There were still far too many things in this world that I had never experienced.
Everything was unfamiliar and unreal. Even now, I was still unsure whether Murim was a game or another reality altogether.
Smack!
“Ah.”
I turned around, clutching the back of my stinging head. Jin Mukyung was looking at me with a contemptuous expression, a wooden sword broken in half in his hand.
“Not concentrating?”
“Seriously. Why do you keep hitting me in the head? It’s annoying.”
“This bastard is slipping back into informal speech again.”
Jin Mukyung narrowed his eyes, but he was not very frightening anymore.
It’s not like this is the first or second time I’ve been hit.
Today marked the tenth day since the hellish training began.
I had realized one important fact right from the start.
I get hit even when I use polite speech!
I had been beaten black and blue. I had even gained the Toughness Stat on only the second day, which said everything that needed to be said. No matter what I did, I was going to get beaten anyway. If so, using informal speech while getting beaten at least let me claim a moral victory.
Smack!
“This much is just a tickle.”
The Toughness Stat had not appeared for no reason.
Just as flowers grew with sunlight and water, my Stats had flourished under merciless violence and hellish training.
Whack!
“Hey, wait. You hit bone. Bone.”
“The spar isn’t over.”
Thud-thud-thud!
While taking hits from the wooden sword as it struck my vital points with practiced precision, I swung my spear as well.
Sshh-shh-shhk! Crack!
Ten days of hellish training.
At last, the Jin Family’s Spear Technique and Jin Family’s Manoeuvre Technique flowed out as naturally as breathing, having reached mastery.
Ding.
System
Time Limit: 2 hours 22 minutes
Ding.
System
Time Limit: 2 hours 22 minutes
“…?”
What the hell? Why did it ring twice?
Sshh-shh-shhk!
Clang!
Blocking the spear pressing in on him, Jin Mukyung swallowed a laugh that was about to escape.
Look at this bastard.
Ten days. It was a short time if you thought of it one way, and a long time if you thought of it another. But if that was how long it took to achieve mastery of a First Rate martial art, the matter was entirely different.
What kind of person is this?
He had thought the same thing dozens of times over the past ten days. Jin Taekyung’s rate of growth was beyond even the saying “hear one, know ten.”
Knowing something and making it your own are different.
To achieve mastery of a martial art meant that one understood it perfectly and could wield it as such. Jin Taekyung had made two First Rate martial arts completely his own in only ten days.
Even taking into account the fact that he had already reached a certain level, this was an astonishing achievement.
So it really is possible.
Jin Mukyung was dumbfounded. What had his initial estimate been again?
One thing was certain: Taekyung had far surpassed his original goal.
I was only trying to cure his habit of throwing out his hands and feet whenever he felt like it and make sure his fundamentals were solid…
But once training began, things had changed.
Fundamentals? Jin Mukyung could not have known it, but Jin Taekyung had trained relentlessly for seven years. Training to become stronger. Struggling desperately to survive.
His palms split open and healed dozens of times, and with each cycle, his spear became faster and stronger. Because of that, there was nothing to criticize in Jin Taekyung’s fundamentals except for a few issues with his posture.
The same goes for everything else.
Horse-stance training would have been nothing more than a waste of time.
Strength, Stamina, Agility—every one of his physical abilities far surpassed those of martial artists at the same level, and they had developed with remarkable balance.
So surviving until now wasn’t simply a matter of luck.
Look at his tall, lanky frame and long limbs. At his lean, solid muscles. Was this really the same skinny brat who had built abdominal muscles three years ago to impress courtesans?
Damn, was he some kind of heavenly martial physique?
Jin Mukyung was feeling dumbfounded all over again when it happened.
Swoooosh!
A spear thrust forward with powerful momentum.
Jin Mukyung stepped back using his footwork, but Jin Taekyung tenaciously followed and continued his attack.
Sshk! Sshh-shh-shhk!
Even the same martial art changed depending on who wielded it and how they wielded it. Every move carried the wielder’s temperament and disposition.
The Jin Family’s Spear Technique Jin Mukyung was using now was no different.
Was this what the Jin Family’s Spear Technique was supposed to be?
Martial artist and wandering martial artist. Movements that had been awkward and uneasy in some indefinable way were gradually beginning to harmonize.
He’s already made it his own.
Ten days ago, Jin Taekyung had been half-finished, but the change had already begun. Jin Mukyung was proud of his younger brother’s achievement. At the same time, heat began to build in his stomach.
This feeling…
It was an emotion he had felt once before, toward someone else. He had never imagined that Jin Taekyung would become its object.
Jealousy. And fighting spirit.
Jin Mukyung froze in place.
Toward that momentary opening, the final form of the Jin Family’s Spear Technique, Sky-Piercing Strike, shot forward.
“Haap!”
Whoooosh!
The wind spiraling around the spear swallowed Jin Taekyung’s shout. At the moment when it seemed the spear was about to pierce straight through his chest, Jin Mukyung’s hand seized his sword hilt.
Fwoosh!
A flash erupted from his waist and cleaved through the wind.
At its end stood Jin Taekyung.
Sshk!
With a short rush of wind, my upper body suddenly felt breezy. Starting from my right waist and ending at my left shoulder, my martial arts uniform had been sliced cleanly apart, and the chilly air of the underground training hall seeped through the gap.
Only after confirming that I had not been injured did I let out a relieved sigh.
“Whew.”
A Sword Energy attack out of nowhere? My heart had nearly jumped out of my throat.
“Crazy. You said you weren’t going to use Sword Energy.”
“……Only an idiot would take that at face value.”
Jin Mukyung answered with a distinctly uneasy expression and sheathed his sword.
“Training ends here.”
Ding.
System
Jin Mukyung has declared the training complete.
The remaining Time Limit has vanished.
Quest success will be determined according to Jin Mukyung’s evaluation.
Success? Or failure?
With my eyes shining expectantly, he opened his mouth.
“You’re nowhere near good enough.”
“Ah.”
“To think this is all you managed to keep up with me after ten days. What a waste of my ti—”
Jin Mukyung stopped speaking and made a sour face.
“What’s with that expression?”
“Huh? What expression?”
“That bizarre expression you’re making right now!”
“I’m not making one. I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
But Jin Mukyung was right.
I had to make a tremendous effort to hide the corners of my mouth, which kept trying to rise. The reason was the System message floating in the air.
Ding.
System
You have fulfilled the conditions for quest success!
Quest Training? Trial! has been completed!
Level Up!
The Quest completion Reward has been moved to your Inventory!
Excellent work. An additional Reward will be granted!
“Hm. You’re a shy child, aren’t you?”
Jin Mukyung. An honest young man.
“You bastard! What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“No, forget it. At twenty-three, you’re still at the age when you get embarrassed easily.”
“You little—”
Jin Mukyung’s eyes went wild, and he was just about to charge at me.
At that moment—
Creak.
The door leading to the surface opened, and a servant cautiously poked his head inside.
System
Level 12: Jang Childeuk
“Um, Young Masters?”
He was the servant who had brought us meals regularly until about three days ago. Something had clearly happened while we had not seen him. His face was covered in bruises, and four or five of his teeth were broken.
He continued speaking through his damaged mouth.
“The Lesser Family Head is looking for you.”
“……Damn it.”
Jin Mukyung looked back and forth between Childeuk and me, then reluctantly lowered his fist.
We moved according to Childeuk’s directions. Jin Mukyung walked along with a sour expression, staring only at the ground as if everything offended him. Childeuk kept groaning whenever pain shot through him with each step.
“Ow. Good grief. Urgh.”
“……”
What a pain in the ass.
“How did you get hurt?”
“There was a small misunderstanding.”
That seemed like a fairly serious injury for a small misunderstanding.
In the modern world, there were potions, so there was no ailment they couldn’t cure. Murim was different. I clicked my tongue as I looked at Childeuk’s broken teeth.
“That must hurt.”
“It’s all right.”
Childeuk puffed out his chest with stoic resolve.
“A martial artist of the Jin Family of Taiyuan must be able to endure this much.”
“……”
He had been acting like he was about to die from the pain just moments ago.
But wasn’t this man a servant?
Come to think of it, his clothes have changed.
He was wearing the dark navy martial arts uniform worn by martial artists of the Jin Family. I thought he had been wearing a servant’s clothes before.
Noticing my gaze, he smiled shyly.
“Oh. I officially became a martial artist a few days ago.”
“A martial artist?”
Jin Mukyung, who had been walking silently behind us, suddenly spoke.
“Under whose command?”
I might have made a name for myself lately, but I was still nowhere near as famous as Jin Mukyung. Childeuk answered with an awestruck expression.
“I’m directly under the Lesser Family Head.”
“Only specially selected martial artists within our family can serve directly under our eldest brother.”
Jin Mukyung looked Childeuk up and down. His gaze was not contemptuous so much as observant, as though he were estimating Childeuk’s level.
“Your physique is decent, but you don’t seem to have learned any martial arts.”
“Yes. I’m still bewildered myself. I’ve never properly performed even a single form of martial arts.”
Childeuk’s Level, as determined through Sense, was twelve. That was high for a servant who had done nothing but carry food, but he was Third Rate by martial-artist standards.
The First Rate masters directly under Jin Wikyung are at least Level 40.
What was going on? Did he have powerful backing?
Jin Mukyung seemed to have reached the same conclusion. His brow furrowed.
“You must have good connections. What does your father do?”
Childeuk blinked his large, calf-like eyes.
“He died ten years ago.”
“……”
“……”
“He was a famous herbalist, but he was killed by a tiger.”
For a moment, my vision went hazy. As befitted a Peak master, Jin Mukyung was the first to regain his composure and hurriedly tried to smooth things over.
“Whew. He sounds like he was an excellent man.”
“Even now, I remember him as such an innocent man. He and my mother were very loving, too.”
“Then your mother, perhaps? No, never mind.”
“She’s doing well.”
Just as we let out sighs of relief, Childeuk gazed wistfully at a distant mountain.
“I buried her beside my father, so I’m sure they’re both doing well.”
“……”
“……”
What followed was a march of death. I wanted to run away at full speed, but I gave up after hearing Childeuk muttering to himself.
“Oh, I haven’t seen those flowers in a long time. I used to see them everywhere when I went into the mountains with my father.”
“……”
“……”
If we had walked together for another fifteen minutes, Jin Mukyung might have killed himself. Fortunately, after five minutes that felt like five hours, we reached our destination.
“Oh, you’re here!”
Seeing Jin Wikyung waiting in front of the pavilion nearly brought tears to my eyes. We cried out in voices thick with emotion.
“Hyuung!”
“Hyung-nim!”
Childeuk awkwardly clasped his hands in a formal salute.
“As ordered, I have escorted the Young Masters here.”
Jin Wikyung, who had been hurrying toward Jin Mukyung and me, suddenly stopped and embraced Childeuk.
“Jang Childeuk, a man of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom! Is that you, Martial Artist Jang?”
“Yes, sir, Lesser Family Head!”
“You’ve completed a very important mission! Go and rest now.”
What on earth was happening? Jin Mukyung and I stared blankly at the scene.
Then a voice reached my ear through Sound Transmission.
There was, uh, a minor misunderstanding between me and this fellow…
“……”
Somehow, I thought I knew who was backing Childeuk.
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