After finishing my first training session, my gaze naturally shifted to the other weapons left in the training grounds.
‘No. I shouldn't stop here.’
Without hesitation, I headed for the family's armory.
“Ian! Have you finally finished training?”
“Yes, Brother.”
“I was worried that you might start hallucinating from overtraining. Hurry inside and rest......”
“Brother, I'd like to try using some other weapons too. Would that be all right?”
Cain's expression changed at those words.
“Are you planning to overdo it again? You only came out of your room after a year, so you need to be even more careful with your training......”
“My coming-of-age ceremony is not far off, and I've rested more than enough until now. Since I'm already late, shouldn't I work even harder?”
“You......”
My brother stared at me for a moment as if at a loss for words, then his eyes reddened.
“I had no idea you were thinking that way. I am proud of you. Still, pushing yourself too hard will strain your body, so make sure you get enough rest.”
“Yes. I don't intend to train any more right away.”
The moved look Cain was giving me made me feel awkward for no reason.
I headed to the family armory and immediately began picking up the weapons there.
[The Savior's Standing is insufficient to form a Pact with this weapon.]
As I examined the fine-looking weapons one by one, the same message appeared.
‘As expected.’
I remembered the message saying that the swords I could form Pacts with depended on my standing.
My current standing was Trainee.
Then next was......
[The Savior's current Standing is ‘Trainee’.]
[Trainee ▶ Sword Beginner ▶ Sword User ▶ Sword Expert ▶ Sword Master ▶ ???]
‘These are the standards Last Savior uses to classify martial artists.’
The word Trainee had felt fairly familiar, and seeing the progression laid out like this confirmed it.
Even the fact that there was no fixed path beyond Sword Master matched.
‘So my standing is basically my level itself.’
In that case, as a Trainee, the most I could probably form a Pact with right now was something like a training wooden sword.
‘That's only a guess, though.’
Either way, for the time being, it looked like I needed to grow stronger through repetitive training rather than high-quality weapons.
And when it came to that, I had more confidence than anyone.
“Brother, I'd like to devote myself to training for the time being.”
“Very well. If you need anything, tell me. Anything at all. Just please do not overdo it.”
“Then I'd like to use various weapons. Would that be all right?”
“Of course! Use them as you please. If you want, even the sword Father left me......”
“No, no. This is more than enough for now.”
I moved again, this time heading for the training grounds used by the household soldiers.
The moment I set foot inside, the weapons began clamoring at me.
-Use me too! Me too!
-Thrusting! Thrusting is the romance of a swordsman!
-Ugh, I'm so sad. I haven't been used in ages......
Bundles of Skills, each desperately begging me to use them.
Just looking at them made my mouth water.
‘How am I supposed to resist with all this sitting right in front of me?’
Heh, heh.
Grinning, I began picking up swords with my trembling arms.
“Y-Young Master Ian is......”
“Somehow, he seems a little......”
Even as the soldiers exchanged glances and whispered among themselves, the smile showed no sign of leaving my face.
‘I'll clear it.’
I'm going to see that goddamned true ending.
And I'm absolutely going to survive.
With that resolve, I gripped another sword.
***
After obtaining Pact, I continued training without stopping.
Northern Swordsmanship, the first Skill I'd acquired, was simple enough.
[Northern Swordsmanship (F)]
[Rank : Normal]
[Description : Swordsmanship used by northern warriors. Crude, but weighty.]
‘Even this part is exactly like the game.’
Simple and straightforward.
But among every basic swordsmanship style in the game, Northern Swordsmanship was the sturdiest.
It was only F-grade right now, but once it reached C-grade, even a swordsman of the same level would have a hard time breaking through it.
‘Of course, the setting says it's correspondingly difficult to master......’
Even that handicap meant little to me.
-Just being able to hold a sword for a long time isn't enough.
-You need to swing it with more power!
[Run with a Training Wooden Sword (-) at your waist]
[0/100km]
The reason was simple.
After completing several more Pacts, I'd realized something new.
‘Not every Pact gives a Skill.’
That made sense.
Items too low-quality to even receive a proper rank were not going to keep handing out Skills forever.
Ranks were divided into Normal, Rare, Epic, Legendary, and Mythic.
Among them, a ‘-’ rank meant the item did not even qualify as Normal.
However, completing a Pact increased Skill proficiency.
The more a Skill's proficiency rose, even if its rank was low, the more additional effects it gained.
Normally, raising proficiency required repetitive training, instruction, and even moments of enlightenment.
Compared to that, this was an enormous advantage.
“So basically.”
My proficiency went up just from grinding.
‘Proficiency. My proficiency is going up!’
With that one thought driving me, I kept showing up at the training grounds, and the reactions around me gradually changed.
“He really has been working hard lately.”
“To think he'd improve that much already.”
The biggest change was how people looked at me.
The gazes of the soldiers and servants had changed.
The soldiers especially.
They had even been quietly betting among themselves on when I would quit.
Well, I would have done the same.
Even if ours was only a baron's house on the northern frontier, nobles were still nobles.
And until recently, I'd done nothing but shut myself away in my room.
But after watching me train consistently for days rather than just one or two, they had started talking to me openly.
“Young Master Ian, training again today?”
“Want to run together?”
“May I?”
I'd grown particularly close to the soldiers who shared the training grounds with me.
Maybe seeing me work so hard had motivated them, because I could even see a few of them developing a desire to improve themselves.
“Whew......”
And the other major change was, of course, my body.
-You think being able to hold a sword for a long time is enough?
-You need to swing harder!
[Move rocks while carrying a Cracked Wooden Sword (-)]
[0/1,000]
Basic running and strength training.
As I completed the daily lists given by the Pacts, I gradually felt my strength and stamina improving.
Before I knew it, muscle had filled out my once-skinny body, and even to my own eyes, I looked fairly fit.
‘My hands are in pretty good shape now too.’
The hands that used to split open whenever I swung a sword had long since grown callused.
“Ian, take a break while you train.”
“Brother.”
Cain had approached before I noticed and held out a towel.
He looked exhausted from the succession of difficult duties.
I was about to grip my sword again when he spoke.
“You look quite manly now. Perhaps I should look for a matchmaker again.”
“I'll consider it after you get married first, Brother.”
“Ahem. I am married to this territory, so I am excluded.”
“I hear you're quite popular. You should go first.”
“......”
A brief laugh followed.
Even after handing me the towel, he kept looking at me.
His gaze was proud, yet at the same time, it looked as though there was something he wanted to say.
“Brother, you look very tired.”
“......I am not. These are duties I am meant to bear.”
When he continued looking at me afterward, I slowly lowered my sword.
“Is there something you want to say?”
“No. I was merely...... curious why you changed so suddenly.”
“I told you last time, didn't I?”
“Yes. I understood that you had suddenly matured. What I am asking is why you suddenly matured.”
He still did not look away as he asked the question in complete earnest.
I shrugged.
Then I slowly sifted through Ian Rashid's memories.
His experiences and memories had already become one with mine.
“......There's something I need to see through to the end.”
“Something you need to see through? Did something happen? Why would you not tell me......”
“It's nothing like that. I simply became curious about your future, Brother, and the future of this territory as it develops.”
Ian Rashid had been young.
He had lost both parents at a young age, and the brother he had been close to became the head of the family.
‘So he never really found any motivation.’
Whatever he did, he never tried very hard.
He simply lived moderately, maintaining an ordinary life.
But I could not do that.
“So I decided that rather than despairing, breaking down, and giving up, it would be better to try anything I could.”
If I simply sat still, it would practically be the same as accepting death.
This fucking trash game had three other apocalypses waiting beyond the Northern Great Invasion.
‘Of course, Pact gave me even more motivation too.’
Honestly, it would have been stranger not to feel motivated when I could feel myself getting stronger every single day.
“Ian. You have changed.”
At Cain's serious words, I looked at him for a moment.
Had he noticed the change?
For a moment, worry flickered through me.
“Hahaha! Yes, training is certainly better than sitting still.”
The fatigue seemed to fade somewhat from Cain's expression, and he nodded with a smile.
“I had already been considering it. I would like to assign you a swordsmanship instructor.”
“A swordsmanship instructor?”
“Yes. I hear he is a fairly famous knight in this area.”
A swordsmanship instructor.
I could not help but think it over.
A famous knight from the North.
Several people passed through my mind, but it was too soon to be certain.
“Thank you.”
Honestly, it was exactly the offer I wanted.
Even in the game, training under a good instructor increased proficiency much faster.
I'd been thinking of asking Cain myself, so I was actually grateful that he brought it up first.
‘Proficiency aside, actually moving my body is a different matter.’
If I had to put it another way, this was a chance to put what I'd learned in theory into actual practice.
‘I should be able to lose the Trainee label around now.’
After sinking more than five years into the game, I could tell.
Unlike before, when I had known nothing about swords at all, I could now see the threshold of Sword Beginner.
“Could you arrange it soon, Brother?”
“Yes. By the way......”
I happily accepted the offer, only to see Cain's expression darken.
“Is something wrong?”
“The magical beasts have been acting up lately.”
“Magical beasts?”
That came out of nowhere.
“Yes. It is not serious yet, but they have been causing damage around the territory.”
“Shouldn't they be subjugated?”
“......Winter is approaching.”
Winters in the North were brutal.
Considering that, it seemed they did not have the manpower to spare for a subjugation right now.
“I see.”
“So do not go outside the territory for no reason. Though judging by how much you train, I doubt you have any intention of going anywhere in the first place.”
He chuckled and patted my shoulder.
I nodded.
‘Not yet.’
It was not time.
After that, I continued training.
***
Several days passed.
After acquiring Northern Swordsmanship, most of my Pacts with wooden swords focused on stamina and strength training.
Thanks to that, I was naturally strengthening my body while also......
[You have successfully completed your Pact with the Training Wooden Sword (-).]
[You have successfully completed your Pact with the Cracked Wooden Sword (-).]
[The proficiency of ‘Northern Swordsmanship (E)’ has increased!]
[‘Northern Swordsmanship (E)’ ▶ ‘Northern Swordsmanship (D)’]
I could even raise my proficiency.
With a small realization accompanying the increase in proficiency, my stance became cleaner than before.
As I felt the change for myself, a new message appeared before my eyes.
[The Savior's Standing has increased!]
[‘Trainee’ ▶ ‘Sword Beginner’]
[You can now form Pacts with Normal-grade swords.]
‘My standing went up too.’
Sword Beginner.
Literally, the stage where someone had only just begun using a sword.
‘I've still got a long way to go.’
Even now, I could use a sword to some extent, but I still could not handle one properly.
Something continued to feel lacking.
“Not enough.”
I needed something more if I wanted to grow.
As I seriously considered how I should improve, I noticed someone watching me after I'd finished training.
The swordsmanship instructor who had arrived after my brother's offer a few days earlier.
He was the first knight from outside the family I'd met.
‘I didn't expect him to be the one who came.’
Gray hair, a seemingly expressionless face, and a sharp impression.
The knight simply gave me a brief nod and continued observing my swordsmanship.
But because I knew who he was, I could not exactly complain.
‘Tarian.’
Five years from now, he would be a knight on the verge of reaching Sword Master, recognized by everyone and fairly famous even within the game.
His skill was one reason, of course, but he was also a wanderer who belonged to no organization.
For someone like him to already be famous in the North right now meant......
‘He'll probably stay in the North until the Great Invasion.’
The game had dropped plenty of hints about that.
‘You must not go north.’
‘Another hell is unfolding in the North.’
He had said things like that often.
Because of it, he was widely known in the community as one of the characters who hated the North.
“Good.”
“......?”
After I'd finished what had now become my daily routine of completing a Pact with a wooden sword, Tarian, who had remained silent every day until now, spoke to me.
“I believe you may begin using a real sword now instead of a wooden one.”
“A real sword?”
As he said that, he personally handed me an iron sword.
I slowly accepted it.
-Oh. This one's fairly decent.
-You've built up the basics well.
-How about landing one hit on that guy?
[Successfully land a hit on Tarian with the Old Training Iron Sword (Normal)]
[0/1]
‘Now I can see it.’
Perhaps because my standing had risen, I could hear the iron sword's voice and see its Pact.
And I realized its terms were different from before.
Instead of simple repetition, this one required me to accomplish a specific objective.
‘So I only need to succeed once.’
The problem was that my opponent was Tarian.
It was telling me to land a hit on a knight who had already reached Sword Expert.
By common sense, that was impossible.
‘What a trash game.’
No, in this case, should I call it a trash sword?
I looked down at the iron sword for a moment.
It had gone silent after saying whatever it pleased without even waiting for a response.
‘I'm melting you down.’
Once I finish this Pact, I'm turning you into farm equipment.
While I was thinking that, Tarian continued.
“Northern Swordsmanship is a good style.”
“......”
“But Northern Swordsmanship must be performed with a real sword. A wooden sword cannot fully carry its weight.”
He simply looked at me as he spoke.
I tightened my grip around the hilt.
“Then?”
Without replying, Tarian picked up a training wooden sword.
I immediately understood what that meant.
‘What the......’
No matter how I looked at it, he was telling me to come at him.