Chapter 17: Tutorial (17)

“F*ck!”

“Kill him!”

The bandits’ vigilance finally peaked when their comrade’s head went flying. Just a moment ago, they’d seen me as a lunatic. Now, I was the enemy.

“Here’s another one.”

They should have acted like this from the start. Subdue threats immediately, not after issuing verbal warnings.

These amateurs were acting like untrained recruits. Their incompetence was pathetic.

“D@mn it! He’s strong! Fall back! Don’t engage him head-on!”

“Archers! Archers! Shoot him!”

I cut down two more while they panicked. I hadn’t managed clean decapitations, but I was satisfied that they were one-hit kills.

The bandits finally realized the gravity of the situation and called for the archers.

Too bad Yoo Ha-na had already snapped their necks like frozen popsicle sticks.

“Archers! Archers!”

“D@mn it, you !diot! Look behind you! The archers are all dead! He’s not alone!”

“An assassin! An assassin killed them!”

They were finally catching on, but it was too late. And telling each other to look behind them while facing the enemy? Their stupidity was truly impressive.

“Wow, so confident in your skills that you can look away, huh?”

I took out two more, just because they annoyed me. Their shoulders were now decorative.

“Split into two groups! Four of you will take on the swordsman with me! The rest, subdue the assassin!”

“Yes, Boss!”

Our diversionary tactic had worked perfectly. We’d gained every possible advantage. But the chaos didn’t last.

The boss, who’d been sleeping in a separate room, emerged and took command.

We had taken down thirty-two bandits between the two of us, but the remaining nine, including the boss, were still a threat.

“So, it’s a head-on fight now?”

Failing to account for the boss’s intervention was a flaw in our plan. And that single oversight was turning the tide against us.

This was especially disadvantageous for Yoo Ha-na. As a Thief, she excelled at ambushes and surprise attacks.

Direct confrontation was her weakness.

“Watch out for her knives!”

“Keep your eyes on her! She’ll attack the moment you lose sight of her!”

“Call out her position! We’re at a disadvantage if we lose track of her!”

The boss commanded his men while facing me. Because of this, Yoo Ha-na’s attacks were becoming less effective.

“Incoming knife! Block!”

“She’s gone! Find her!”

“She’s at the east watchtower! Don’t let her get away!”

Throwing knives, Hide and Lunge. Her powerful skills were being steadily countered.

Her knives were blocked, and her attempts to conceal herself were foiled.

“Swordsmen, attack from different directions simultaneously! Don’t give him a chance to counterattack!”

I was also struggling. The bandit boss was surprisingly competent, issuing sensible orders.

His men weren’t just charging blindly. They were working in pairs, using hit-and-run tactics. I was constantly expending energy blocking and dodging attacks from two directions.

They were relying on their superior numbers to wear us down.

We were in a stalemate. We needed a drastic measure.

“Ha-na! Use that skill!”

“That skill? But!”

“Just use it!”

I intentionally avoided saying the skill’s name, as it could give away our strategy.

But Yoo Ha-na understood. She put two fingers in her mouth.

And then…

PEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

An earsplitting whistle echoed through the camp.

Whistle Blowing was normally a mediocre skill used to distract enemies.

However, with skill points invested in the Noise Pollution trait, it became something else entirely.

“Aaaaagh! My ears! My ears!”

“I… I can’t hear!”

Noise induced stress. But at this volume? It was an overload. Unbearable stress caused sensory shutdown.

Yoo Ha-na’s Whistle Blowing was effectively an area-of-effect hard crowd control skill. At its current low level, it only caused deafness and headaches. At higher levels, its effects would be much more devastating.

“Ugh! Even when I’m prepared, it’s still awful!”

However, Whistle Blowing had a drawback.

It was a double-edged sword. It affected anyone who didn’t cover their ears, including allies.

Naturally, sound didn’t discriminate between friend and foe.

Yoo Ha-na and I were also affected, temporarily incapacitated.

But since we were expecting it, we recovered first.

“Hah! The tables have turned!”

I immediately decapitated the nearest bandit. Yoo Ha-na, eager to vent her frustration, stabbed another in the gut and vanished with Hide.

“D@mn it! The assassin’s gone!”

“Find her! You have to find her!”

“Gah! A… a knife…!”

A vanished assassin was a terrifying prospect. Now concealed, Yoo Ha-na picked off the remaining bandits one by one with her throwing knives.

“Swordsmen! Focus all your attacks on the swordsman!”

Sensing the threat posed by the invisible Yoo Ha-na, the boss switched tactics, ordering an all-out assault on me. He’d decided to eliminate the immediate threat rather than search for the hidden one.

Not a bad decision. But I wasn’t going down easily.

“Die!”

“Die!”

The bandits attacked from different directions, just like before.

But this time, I switched to a one-handed grip, adopting a low stance. I chose one of the incoming attacks and lunged.

“Ha! F0ol! Running headfirst into the guillotine!”

The bandits laughed. But then…

Heavy Sword, Dragon’s Gate.

Like a carp leaping upstream to become a dragon, I swung my sword upwards with all my might. With a clang, the bandit’s sword was knocked aside.

Defense countered by offense, offense countered by greater offense.

That was the essence of the Heavy Sword style. As I gained a better understanding of it, my bloodlust intensified.

“M-Mercy…”

I quickly dispatched the disarmed bandit with Balchosimsa (Cutting the Snake in the Grass) and looked for my next target.

Disable with Heavy Sword, kill with Fast Sword. I was starting to develop my own fighting style. I needed more combat data to refine it…

“Eek!”

“A demon… He’s a demon!”

Fortunately, there were plenty of test subjects here. While most were too terrified to approach, one bandit still burned with fighting spirit.

“Get out of the way! I’ll handle this!”

“I guess the boss didn’t earn his position by playing patty-cake.”

The boss finally stepped forward, tired of watching his underlings get slaughtered. With his massive tower shield, he looked like a walking fortress.

The fortress slowly advanced, closing the distance between us.

“Whoa, the pressure’s intense.”

His seemingly impenetrable defense was intimidating. But I decided to enjoy it.

His tower shield might be a fortress, but my Heavy Sword would be a natural disaster.

Heavy Sword, Landslide.

I raised my sword high and brought it down with force. But I wasn’t satisfied with a single strike.

Again and again. Like a landslide burying everything in its path, I hammered the tower shield with blows from different angles.

“Graaaaah!”

The bandit boss roared, trying to withstand the impact. He was tough, but it was time to end this.

“Let’s finish this.”

After the relentless barrage, I twisted my waist and pulled the sword back, storing power for a final, devastating blow.

Heavy Sword, Maelstrom.

The pent-up energy exploded, my body spinning as I unleashed a whirlwind of three consecutive slashes.

The spinning triple attack finally shattered the boss’s seemingly invincible defense.

“Ugh…”

His left hand trembled from the accumulated impact. He wouldn’t be using that arm for a while.

It wouldn’t be long, but it was more than enough time to switch from Heavy Sword to Fast Sword and finish him.

Jwa-hyeop-su-du (Left Shoulder Beast Head), Hyang-u-bang-jeok (Facing Right, Guarding Against Thieves).

Still carrying the momentum from the spin, I turned and decapitated him. I had started the fight with a decapitation, and I ended it the same way.

Twelve days until the quest deadline.

I had successfully collected all twenty-one hidden pieces on the second floor, based on my memories from the first timeline.

This meant that the powerful figures who would rise in the future would never gain the influence they once had.

“I feel powerful.”

Monopolizing all the hidden pieces felt amazing. I was overflowing with power and confidence.

I felt invincible. Even Go Hyun-joon wouldn’t stand a chance against me now.

“But even with this power, the wolf on the fourth floor is impossible…”

My elation was tempered by a familiar sense of dread. The wolf on the fourth floor, the final stage of the tutorial.

The Storm-Calling Wolf, the werewolf Pungrang (Wind Wolf).

A level 86 boss monster. An insurmountable obstacle for a typical climber who had just reached level 10.

“It wasn’t meant to be fought in the first place.”

The fourth floor of the tutorial was designed to weed out the weak. The quest was completed by avoiding the wolf, reaching a safe zone, and surviving until dawn.

The limited number of safe zones and their capacity meant many would die. But that wasn’t my concern.

“More importantly, I need to focus on the task at hand. To awaken the Revenant, I need to eliminate Go Hyun-joon.”

Thanks to the hidden pieces, I was now stronger than Go Hyun-joon. But I couldn’t kill him myself.

If I eliminated him directly, the Revenant’s vengeance would be directed at me. So, I devised a plan.

The Cerberus trio. I would use them, the future crime lords, to eliminate Go Hyun-joon.

It was the perfect strategy: borrowing a knife to kill and fighting fire with fire.