“Young Master, now, please......”
“Whew. Already done?”
“W-We cannot keep going......”
After sparring with the soldiers for nearly half the day—
[You have successfully completed your Pact with the Sturdy Northern Iron Sword (Normal).]
‘Right. I should check it now.’
I had been so focused that I had forgotten for a moment.
[You have acquired ‘Cold Heart (C+)’!]
‘This is......?’
It was one of the Skills I had planned to obtain.
Apparently, forming Pacts with northern swords granted Skills related to the North.
[Cold Heart (C+)]
[Rank : Normal]
[Description : A warrior’s heart remains cold at all times. Grants resistance to mental effects.]
I nodded as I read the description.
Just like in the game, it was a Normal-grade resistance Skill.
It was better than nothing, but this was another Skill with a poor reputation.
‘It’ll probably be different once I actually use it.’
Frost Step had been like that.
Northern Swordsmanship had too.
What mattered was not how they performed in the game, but how they worked when I used them for real.
I casually put away my sword and looked around at the soldiers.
“Good work, everyone.”
“Not at all!”
The soldiers answered with smiles despite the wounds all over them.
After training together constantly over the past few days, I could say that I had gotten fairly close to them.
“Oh, really?”
“Y-Yes, that is correct! We worked hard! Please, anything but more sparring......”
Or maybe not.
“Keep working hard from now on.”
“Young Master, I believe it would be perfectly fine for you to take things a little easier as well......”
The moment I gripped my sword hilt at the soldier’s joke, he immediately fled under the excuse of training.
I burst out laughing.
‘Once I can handle magical power......’
Of course, that would be completely different from the training I had done until now.
Moving my body and learning swordsmanship were things that could be done even in reality.
But awakening to magical power was like learning an entirely new sense.
Naturally, the difficulty was on a completely different level.
‘That’s what makes it even more fun.’
Doing something you already know you can do, and succeeding at something thought impossible.
There was no need to say which one gave a greater sense of accomplishment.
I was just about to head toward Tarian to test Cold Heart when—
“Ian.”
“......?”
“There is something we need to discuss.”
My brother suddenly came looking for me.
Seeing the unfamiliar expression on his face, I glanced around.
“Is it urgent?”
“It is something you should know as well.”
“Understood.”
His serious expression made me follow him quietly.
We arrived at the family meeting room.
Inside were Tarian and the captain of the soldiers, both wearing expressions every bit as grave as my brother’s.
“What happened? Why does everyone look so serious?”
“May I explain, Young Master?”
The captain stepped forward.
His explanation was simple.
“So a Dungeon appeared outside the territory?”
“Yes. It appears the recent monster attacks were caused by it.”
“The monsters’ habitats shifted because a Dungeon suddenly appeared?”
“That is correct.”
At the sudden mention of a Dungeon, I glanced at Tarian and my brother.
Both looked troubled.
I thought about it seriously as well.
Then I reached my conclusion.
“Isn’t that actually a good thing?”
“......”
Silence followed.
But I saw an opportunity instead.
‘A Dungeon.’
One of the many types of content in Last Savior.
If you successfully cleared one, you could obtain all kinds of rewards.
‘So this is actually good.’
Among Last Savior’s various content, Dungeons were especially focused on growth.
I knew about several events that would happen in the future, but since this was still five years before the game began, many of them probably had not occurred yet.
On top of that, Dungeons often appeared during the game like this, which made them difficult to locate.
‘And the ones that have existed for a long time have hellish difficulty.’
That was why I thought the appearance of a new Dungeon was actually fortunate.
“Well, it’s true that it’s already causing trouble for the territory, and it’s an unknown space. But all we have to do is clear it successfully, right?”
“Hmm.”
Cain began considering it seriously.
I could understand why.
From my brother’s perspective, there was no way to know what might come out of the Dungeon.
‘That was how they worked.’
No one knew what lay inside a newly formed Dungeon.
There had been plenty of times when my character died while attempting to clear a Dungeon with no information.
Because of that, remembering Dungeons I had visited and looking them up on the community had become a habit.
‘Anyway, a Dungeon in the North.’
I calmly searched through my memories.
Perhaps because of the Great Invasion, the North had certainly contained many Dungeons.
I had to think for a while before I could barely remember which Dungeon gave which reward.
‘Given the location, there’s only one.’
That let me say it with confidence.
“Let’s clear it.”
“Judging by your expression, you want to go yourself.”
He immediately hit the mark, making me feel slightly awkward.
Because he was right.
‘I want to test myself.’
I had trained several Skills until now.
Rather than merely accepting them as Skills, I had practiced them and made them my own.
“Sir Tarian also said I need real combat experience.”
“......”
My brother looked at Tarian as though asking whether that was true.
Tarian continued.
“It would indeed be a good opportunity, but it will be dangerous.”
“Of course. If I went alone.”
Tarian’s contract was entirely related to my education.
He was not a retainer serving the territory.
He had come purely as a swordsmanship instructor.
“You’re not going to miss your student’s first real battle, are you?”
“......”
“Hmm. Certainly, if Sir Tarian accompanies you, there should be no problem.”
Perhaps realizing that my argument was close to forcing the issue, my brother and the captain watched Tarian’s reaction.
But I was certain he would accept.
‘Stop pretending you don’t enjoy this.’
Honestly, I had sensed it vaguely from the very first day.
Every time I refused to give up and rammed myself against a wall, his eyes lit up.
‘Maybe he’s expecting something from me.’
Frankly, that was none of my concern.
One thing was certain.
He would not refuse.
“We should find out how much I've grown.”
“Understood.”
His tone was blunt, but his answer came quickly.
“Then I will prepare immediately.”
“There is no need to rush that much. We only received the news today.”
“Ah.”
“You have changed greatly after training so diligently.”
My brother looked at me as he said that.
I shrugged.
“Yes. I’ve changed a lot.”
“I told you before, but it is good to see.”
“Then I suppose I’ll have to show you even more from now on.”
“Haha. As I always say, do not push yourself too hard.”
Seeing my brother speak with a gentle smile, I steeled myself once again.
At the very least, I could not allow the Rashid Family to be destroyed.
‘Not that......’
I had any intention of doing so in the first place.
***
Time passed quickly.
Now that I had a new goal, the thought that I could not afford to sit still dominated my mind.
“Whew.”
In the meantime, I kept training.
It was not only training meant to grasp magical power.
I continued testing Northern Swordsmanship, Frost Step, and Cold Heart, all of which I had nearly mastered, while also trying to complete more Pacts.
‘This isn’t easy.’
The terms of the Pacts kept becoming more difficult as time passed.
Even while carrying out Pacts that had begun leaning heavily toward sparring, I refused to neglect my stamina and strength training.
‘At least I’ve built up some real strength.’
I had already felt it for myself, but both my strength and stamina were now enough to overwhelm most ordinary soldiers.
And that was not all.
I continued working on sensing magical power as well.
‘A sensation I’ve never experienced before.’
Mana was something I had only ever seen in games throughout my entire life.
Trying to actually feel it in reality made it difficult to even get a grasp on what I was looking for.
Because of that, sensing mana and internalizing magical power took comparatively longer.
“This isn’t easy.”
“Once you grasp the sensation, you will manage it quickly.”
I shrugged at Tarian, who had recently started looking at me as though I were some kind of monster.
At this point, I was genuinely curious what he thought I was.
“You keep saying I’ll do it quickly. Just how highly are you evaluating me?”
“At your current level, Young Master, you are above most Sword Beginners.”
“I can’t even sense mana yet.”
“You are going to manage it eventually anyway, are you not?”
I chuckled at that.
Sword Beginner.
The stage where someone began using a sword in earnest.
Once you could manipulate mana from there, you advanced one level to Sword User.
And Tarian was a knight at the upper level of Sword Expert.
Honestly, even with his handicaps, it was still hard to believe I had landed an effective hit on him in a single day.
‘Maybe I’m more talented than I thought?’
I entertained the thought, then immediately shook my head.
Getting carried away for no reason was how people ruined themselves.
In the first place, except for a few noble families, the true geniuses were mostly gathered in the central regions.
Just thinking about the proportion of future Sword Masters and Archmages there, not to mention monsters like Sword Masters belonging to the Imperial Family, made that obvious.
So for now, my goal should be to stand shoulder to shoulder with Tarian.
And then surpass him.
“By the way, preparations should be about finished.”
“I heard the personnel selection has already been completed as well.”
“He really is thorough about these things.”
“He is a good lord.”
I nodded readily at Tarian’s assessment of my brother.
Cain Rashid truly was an impressive lord.
A man too capable to waste away in a small northern territory like this.
And across both my past and present lives, he was the only family member who had ever cared for me.
‘So I have to keep him alive.’
The more talented people I had, the better.
So that included Tarian standing in front of me, and I also planned to gather talented people from across the North.
‘Everything is for survival.’
Stopping the Northern Great Invasion and preventing the other apocalypses would require a great deal of preparation.
With that in mind, I calmly thought about what Dungeon was likely to exist around this time.
Since the North would become a demonic realm not long after the game began, I needed to dig deeper into my memories.
‘The Tomb of the Ancient Warriors.’
If I had played the game normally, it was a Dungeon I would only have reached much later.
Which also meant that the Rashid Family had failed to clear it originally.
‘They probably never dared to try. Tarian wouldn’t have been here, and Brother, as the head of the family, would have had a hard time moving personally.’
The enemies inside were exactly what the name suggested.
Ancient warriors of the North.
In the future, I remembered the Dungeon being quite difficult because it had completely transformed into a demonic realm.
‘But that isn’t the case right now.’
This was far earlier than the game’s starting point.
Naturally, the North was still intact.
Which meant I did not need to worry about the Dungeon’s demonic transformation.
In other words, I could clear it now at a lower difficulty than in the future.
‘I can’t pass this up.’
No matter how I thought about it, there was no way I could let an opportunity like this go.
My steps grew lighter as I looked around.
“As soon as the soldiers are ready, let’s leave.”
“Understood.”
With Tarian following obediently behind me, I headed straight toward my brother.
Perhaps because he had suffered even more over the past few days, Cain Rashid’s expression looked darker than before.
Between his already excessive workload and having to suddenly arrange this expedition, he looked exhausted.
My conscience pricked me a little, but I pushed the feeling aside for now.
“Brother.”
I could pay him back for all of it once I harvested the rewards.
The reward from this Dungeon was weapons.
Not just one either, but quite a large number of them.
‘The most important one among them is Frost Fang.’
I knew better than anyone that although I had plenty of weapons for Pacts, I still did not have a proper weapon worth using as my main sword.
My standing might still be too low to form a Pact with it, but there was nothing wrong with obtaining a good sword in advance.
“Ian, you’re here. Are you planning to depart now?”
“Yes. I should.”
“Very well. Please be careful. Do not get hurt.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll come back safely.”
“Please do.”
“When I return, I’ll be expecting a lavish banquet.”
“What? Hah, you brat.”
My brother placed a hand on my shoulder and looked at me.
I could not tell exactly what emotions lay deep within his expression, but there was one thing I knew.
‘I should finish this quickly and come back.’
That way, this man could finally catch his breath too.
“You lot again?”
“If Young Master is going, of course we should follow.”
“There are no soldiers better than us, are there?”
“Captain, you said it was because of the bonus......”
“H-Hey, keep quiet.”
“Really?”
I chuckled as I looked over the soldiers who would be accompanying me.
They were familiar faces.
The ones I had often trained with while practicing Frost Step.
That made me feel more at ease.
“Did you enjoy rolling around with me that much?”
“Ah, well, that is a little......”
“A soldier talking back?”
“My apologies!”
“Do your best.”
We traded jokes as I led them toward the castle gate.
The residents in the outer ward were watching us with worried expressions, so I gave them a brief wave.
‘Well, this is something.’
These were emotions I had never felt while playing the game.
Becoming close to the soldiers.
Accepting Cain as my brother.
Those were things I had never even imagined before.
‘I didn’t think things would change this much in such a short time.’
I thought back to my old life, where I had never had a family.
Back then, I had been in a situation where I had to do whatever it took.
But now it felt a little different.
There were people here who acknowledged me when I succeeded.
“Young Master, you seem to be in a good mood.”
“Well, I don’t feel bad.”
“Is that so?”
Tarian looked at me with faint puzzlement.
I shrugged and quickened my pace.
Winter in the North was cold.
Recently, snow had even begun to fall, making travel by horse difficult.
Naturally, we were in for a forced march.
-Ugh, it’s cramped!
-Hurry up and take me out!
Of course, even during that march, I did not forget my sword training.
Dealing with the Dungeon was important.
But growing stronger was even more important.
That was why I needed to keep fitting training into every spare moment.
“May I ask you something?”
“What is it?”
“You are always switching between weapons. Is there a reason?”
Tarian looked genuinely curious.
I thought for a moment.
“I just haven’t found a weapon that fits my hand.”
“I see. Then we will need to make preparations regarding that as well.”
“It’s fine. Something will work out.”
I waved it off.
There was no need to tell him that I would soon obtain a new weapon anyway.
‘It’d be nice if I could advance to the next stage while I’m at it.’
Every Skill I had obtained until now was Normal-grade.
To acquire the next level of Skills, I needed to raise my standing by another step.
‘I’m not even asking for Epic.’
Even Rare-grade would let me grow at least twice as fast as I did now.
I could only hope this coming real battle would become the stepping stone for that.
“Young Master, a magical beast.”
Before we had even fully left the Rashid Family’s territory, an enemy appeared.
They were magical beasts that looked like enormous hybrids of bears and wolves.
Snowfield Wolfbears.
Pack-hunting magical beasts infamous enough to be called newbie killers.
At least, they were supposed to be......
SLASH—
The moment I casually swung my sword, the Wolfbear’s head flew through the air.
“Why is this so easy?”
-That’s it! Blood! I want more blood!
[Hunt magical beasts with the Blood-Crazed Training Iron Sword (Normal)]
[1/50]
“Why does this thing even have a name like that......?”
It was one mystery after another.