Chapter 28: Soul Sword

—Flick!

The sound of something cutting through the wind quickly was hidden among the noise.

Paul’s ears twitched slightly.

The next moment, the elf’s ears, which were more sensitive than a human’s, heard the sound of an arrow piercing through thick flesh with a “thud!”

The player, who was hit in the shoulder by the bolt, staggered from the recoil and was then knocked off the ship by another player’s attack.

“Sh*t!”

Splash—!

A huge splash erupted.

“Ooh, that must hurt.”

Paul, having shot it himself, shivered and rubbed the same spot on his own shoulder where the player had just been hit.

‘This should be enough, right?’

He glanced at the system and checked the attack log.

─ ‘Paul’ casts ‘Swift Arrow’.

─ ‘Paul’ attacked ‘???’!

─ Critical Hit!

***

[Current Contribution Ranking]

Kills: 0

Assists: 1

Rank: 20/20th

He was ranked 20th out of 20 people, but the rank didn’t matter.

Paul quickly put away the crossbow he was holding and hid behind Khan.

As he stuck close to the huge Khan, Paul’s smaller and slighter frame was easily hidden.

Stealthily grabbing Khan’s waist with both hands, Paul peeked his face out and watched the first-floor deck, where they were still fighting.

The fighting area was a cramped deck, and since they were in the middle of the sea, they had to be careful with their attacks.

If they weren’t careful, the ship could be shipwrecked.

So, skills with a large impact or wide range were naturally restricted.

Without a big hit, the fight had become sluggish at some point.

“I wonder when it will end…”

But that stalemate ended as soon as Paul’s muttering flowed out.

Clang, clang!

The explorer players who had been stubbornly holding on were all thrown into the sea, their heads and torsos separated by a single person.

“…Khan.”

Paul looked blankly at the broad back standing guard in front of him.

The one who had settled this situation was none other than Khan.

His weapon had appeared on the ship without a sound when Paul had held onto Khan’s waist a little tighter.

Two swords that suddenly appeared in mid-air.

The blades were all jet-black, and a strange pattern of gold, close to white, was drawn on them.

The types of swords were a heavy greatsword and a long-bladed longsword.

The two danced, clashing with each other in mid-air.

Clang, clang!

The sound of blades clashing echoed like a song with a specific rhythm.

At that, the gazes of the people who had been fighting each other naturally turned to the direction where the sound was coming from.

“…Soul Weapon?”

Someone who had identified the source of the sound muttered blankly, as if doubting his own eyes.

Starting with that word, the two swords began to move on their own, as if they had a will.

Clang!

The sight of them moving gracefully, with a cheerful sound echoing in the air, looked like a dance.

At that sight, some people momentarily recalled the person who had been dancing on the deck a little while ago, but they quickly erased it from their minds at the screams that followed.

“Hmm, are you copying me?”

But Paul, who was calmly watching the scene, smiled mischievously and poked Khan’s side with his index finger.

“…Yes.”

While Khan was briefly affirming, on the first floor, his greatsword was flying quickly towards a fleeing player.

Using its wide surface, it strikes the player hard.

Unable to withstand the powerful force, the player fell off the ship.

“Keoheok!”

Splash—!

Once again, a large splash erupted.

But compared to what the longsword did next to it, the person who was hit like a baseball was in better shape.

The longsword moved gracefully and separated the head and body of another target.

In the blink of an eye, one, two, three.

The heads of the explorers who remained on the deck flew off.

They tried to block the flying swords somehow, but the moment the swords clashed, sparks flew, and the next moment, the players’ vision turned gray.

Beyond the darkening vision, the last thing the player saw was the message <System: Equipment is destroyed by a powerful blow!>.

Weapons that blocked the front were destroyed by force, and those who charged recklessly were swatted away with the flat of the blade.

When the longsword moved as if dancing, arms and legs, and finally, necks flew off.

“Ugh…”

At the rather brutal sight, Paul let out a groan and pulled back the head he had been peeking out.

Leaning his forehead against Khan’s broad back, he thought.

‘I forgot for a moment.’

The fact that Khan was a boss monster!

And not just an ordinary level boss monster, but the dungeon boss of Flora!

Paul was reminded anew that he had died to him 30 times in various ways.

And he could also feel that he was going easy on them.

That’s because, as Paul remembered, the swords Khan had were not just those two.

The swords Khan used in the dungeon were a total of five.

But now, he only had two out.

Did he judge that it wasn’t necessary to take them all out against them?

“Wow, sh*t… who is that? Who’s the owner of that?!”

“That’s crazy. I’ve never seen a Soul Weapon before…”

“I heard that’s really hard to get!”

At that moment, envious voices erupted from among the players who had switched back to spectator mode.

A [Soul Weapon] was a weapon in which a special soul dwelled in an old weapon, allowing it to move freely with its own will without the user having to hold it directly.

In fact, there was a ranker who used a Soul Weapon as their main weapon, and their fighting style was quite famous in <Arcana Chronicles>.

A video of three swords floating in the air, each moving with its own will and annihilating the enemies in front of them, had appeared on a channel called <Today’s Arcana>.

Paul had also seen it by chance.

The video was so popular that many people started to seek out Soul Weapons, following that ranker.

However, it was later revealed that the player had to control each sword one by one, so no one other than that ranker used them in actual combat.

Even if they did, it was only to the extent of barely moving one sword.

That ranker also couldn’t handle more than three.

He heard that when you equip a Soul Weapon, a new screen appears in the player’s vision.

It was the vision of the living sword.

As the number of swords increased, the screen also increased, and the control method also increased.

Doesn’t it sound difficult to use just from the description?

More than half of the people who got one without knowing what they were doing couldn’t use it properly.

The only good news was that a very simple AI mode function had recently been added to Soul Weapons, perhaps?

But since Khan’s weapons were controlled by the brilliant AI called ‘Khan’ in the first place, they moved naturally, as if the swords really had a will, without any stuttering.

Paul hoped that no one would film this situation and upload it to the internet.

…It would probably be difficult, though.

He was glad that he had put a plain mask on Khan beforehand and covered his clothes.

On top of that, the fog created by the sirens was still there, which helped to hide them.

Thwack!

With a cheerful hitting sound, the last explorer fell into the sea.

Soon after, the sound of the bounty hunt quest being completed and the joyful voice of Roland Pamp were heard.

“Serves them right!”

(TN: Below seems to be a post outside of the game world)

[Title: Isn’t there an ocean city in the northern sea?]

Author: MushroomKiller

(Video)

Sorry. I clickbaited to show you this.

(Video)

Who would win if ZKL and this person fought? I’m choosing the latter. The control is insane. Honestly, wasn’t ZKL not even this good?

[Comments 36]

-F*ck, what am I supposed to be looking at? I can’t see anything because of the fog.

┖ (Author) lol look closely, can’t you see the swords flying around over there?

┖┖ Are the swords flying around right now????????

-What? There’s still someone who uses SW besides ZKL? I thought they all disposed of them in the furnace.

┖ Who’s ZKL?

┖┖ Jacklin, a ranker who uses 3 Soul Weapons, but his personality is f*cking weird.

┖┖┖ Ikr, with 3 SW, he’d have 4 screens, how does he check them all? It’s something no sane person can do.

┖┖┖┖ That’s why ZKL goes silent when you talk to him while he’s fighting lolololololol he absolutely can’t speak.

-But who’s using it? Where is that and why is there a fight like that?

┖ (Author) This was on a ship in the middle of the sea, and suddenly mermaids appeared and an event started. There were some losers who were pathetically begging the mermaids to take them, and it turns out these b*stards had scammed the captain. So at that time, we were in the middle of a hunting quest, and suddenly swords came flying from somewhere. Two swords were dancing around, is this right? I just stared blankly. By the time I snapped out of it, it was all over.

┖┖ Mermaids? M-M-Mermaids????? Do mermaids really live in the north? Don’t they freeze to death?

┖┖So who used it, you don’t know?

┖┖┖ (Author) Yeah

┖┖┖┖ What’s the point?

┖ lolololololol

┖lolololololololololololol

Did the screen suddenly get noisy in the middle? Am I the only one who saw it?

┖ Yeah, you’re the only one who saw it.

┖ I can’t sleep alone tonight~

┖┖ F*ck lol no really, when the screen turned to the 2nd floor, it suddenly got noisy lololol

┖┖ (Author) Right, I was looking at the owner of the sword, and when I checked the video later, it was like that;;

┖┖┖ O_O;;;;

-But he’s really good at using it. I just watched ZKL’s video again, and the smoothness is on a different level?

┖ ikr

┖┖ ikr22222

┖ Maybe he’s not human?