Gulp—.
Adelia swallowed dryly.
The Celestial Dragon Bird filling the night sky was overwhelming in itself.
The hand holding her sword trembled. It was the aftereffect of fighting the Monster Wave that had surged in only moments ago.
‘......In this situation, he is telling me to hold out against the Celestial Dragon Bird for ten minutes?’
It was impossible.
Even in perfect condition, her chances of victory would have been slim. How much worse would it be with her body so exhausted?
But Adelia did not voice her inner thoughts.
Having decided to receive Sir Gaon’s teachings, she had no choice but to follow his orders exactly.
‘I do not know why a Divine Beast is attacking humans, but......’
Divine Beasts.
They were the Elders’ eyes and the observers who watched over this world.
Unless something truly grave occurred, Divine Beasts were said not to intervene in human affairs. At least, that was what Adelia had learned from her family as a child.
Yet now, in defiance of that teaching, the Celestial Dragon Bird was trying to attack her.
‘......There is no doubt that this is a serious situation.’
Clench—.
Adelia bit down hard on her lip.
A cold chill ran down her spine. Something was going terribly wrong.
The hair-trigger situation was troubling enough, but a Divine Beast’s abnormal behavior meant that something had gone wrong with the world’s balance.
‘But......’
Adelia gripped her sword’s hilt tightly once more.
‘......Even if I think about the reason, nothing will change.’
Suddenly, a voice rang through Adelia’s mind.
It was the first teaching Gaon had imparted.
─A sword strike born of a complicated mind can never be clean. Therefore, when you take up your sword, forget your worries and focus only on that moment.
SHIIING—.
Recalling the Swordmaster’s advice, Adelia closed her eyes.
Then, taking another breath, she cleared the complicated thoughts from her mind.
“Whew......”
That was right.
What mattered to her now was only ‘insight.’
So now was the time to wash away her tangled worries and focus solely on the enemy before her.
“......”
Step—.
Adelia opened her eyes and slowly walked toward the Celestial Dragon Bird.
She was heading to fight an opponent far more powerful than herself, but there was no wavering in her steps.
“Sir Gaon.”
Adelia’s voice rang out as it cut through the wind.
Even amid the rolling thunder, her voice was exceptionally clear.
“Until now, I have brought you nothing but disappointment.”
The time she had been frightened into doing nothing when she first faced Sir Gaon.
And even the moment she had nearly collapsed helplessly before Peterpan.
Those humiliating memories passed before Adelia’s eyes.
“In your eyes, every one of my actions must have seemed pathetic.”
She found herself utterly pathetic.
At the same time, she realized that it was because she had failed to overcome crises like this that she could not break through the wall before her.
She wanted to change. She wanted to transcend the limits that blocked her path.
That was why, even as the Celestial Dragon Bird’s overwhelming presence pressed down on her entire body, she did not stop walking.
“So this time, I will show you.”
Adelia’s gaze sharpened. At the very next moment, turquoise Aura began to envelop her body.
“I do not know whether this is courage or recklessness, but......”
KIIYEEK—!
The Celestial Dragon Bird’s massive shadow descended upon Adelia.
Strength entered the hand holding her sword.
In her eyes, now free of all distractions, only the Celestial Dragon Bird was reflected.
“......Even if I must risk my life, I will prove that I am worthy to receive Sir Gaon’s teachings.”
SHING—!
The turquoise sword let out a sharp, chilling scream.
Hold out against the Celestial Dragon Bird for ten minutes. It was the Trial Sir Gaon had given her.
......This time, she would surely pass his Trial.
***
In every RPG, leveling up becomes more difficult the higher your level gets.
That was because the absolute amount of experience required increased accordingly.
In Lost Elder’s case, that difference was especially extreme.
The gap between level 90 and 91 was far greater than that between level 70 and 80.
***KIIYEEEEEK—!***
In a situation like this, I was telling a girl who was only level 77 to fight the Celestial Dragon Bird? And for ten whole minutes?
It was a preposterous command.
I had given the order, but it truly was a reckless act.
It was literally no different from an ant facing an elephant.
‘But......’
【Lv. 78】
‘......If that person is Adelia, it is a different story.’
Lv. 78.
In that short time, Adelia had risen by one level.
By facing the brink of life and death over and over against the Celestial Dragon Bird, she had surpassed her own limits.
‘I can see her growing moment by moment.’
At first, she had barely been able to evade the Celestial Dragon Bird’s attacks.
But as time passed, Adelia’s movements became more precise, and at times, she even seized chances to counterattack.
Adelia advanced through the storm created by the Celestial Dragon Bird’s beating wings. The sight of her deflecting lightning with her turquoise sword was truly wondrous.
‘As expected of the character with the greatest potential in Loel.’
RUMBLE, RUMBLE—!
I had moved outside the Celestial Dragon Bird’s attack range early on.
Even with lightning striking everywhere, finding Safe Zones was a piece of cake.
Thanks to the experience I had built over 200 playthroughs, I knew practically ‘everything’ about it. Every pattern, weakness, and ability of the Celestial Dragon Bird.
But I can’t make use of that immediately.
......For now, all I can do is wait for the cooldown of 【Ritardando: True】 to end.
‘Of course, there isn’t much time left to wait.’
KRAAAASH—!
At that moment, the Celestial Dragon Bird’s tail struck Adelia.
She barely blocked the attack, but unable to endure the recoil, she was launched through the air and slammed into the ground.
“Urgh, urgh.”
Adelia rose like a roly-poly toy.
Grinding her teeth, she rushed toward the Celestial Dragon Bird once more.
......No, to be exact, she tried to.
‘She has reached her limit.’
Her movements were visibly slowing.
Her breathing had grown rough, and the hand holding her sword trembled without end.
Likewise, the turquoise Aura was gradually fading.
“......Ah.”
Thud—.
As expected, Adelia fell after taking only a few steps.
Her face caked in blood and dirt, she barely raised her upper body.
She tried to stand by pressing against the ground, but her legs refused to obey her.
KIIYEEEEEK—!
The Celestial Dragon Bird roared and prepared its final strike.
Adelia clenched her teeth.
Then, as though hypnotizing herself, she muttered.
“It is not...... It is not over yet......”
Step—.
I walked forward.
Adelia, who had been murmuring to herself as if possessed by something, suddenly raised her head.
Then she stared intently at me as I passed by her.
The storm made the surroundings unbearably loud, yet it was as though my footsteps were clearly echoing from every direction.
“I-I......!”
“That is enough.”
I cut off Adelia’s words.
“You held out well for ten minutes.”
“......!”
At those words, Adelia’s eyes widened.
“Th-then......”
Adelia’s lips moved again and again.
Her expression was one of emotions that had knotted in her heart rising all the way to her throat.
“Then...... Do I have the qualifications......?”
“You proved your qualifications yourself, from the very day we first met.”
I remembered the time I had first met Adelia.
─Even if I lose an arm. Even if one of my legs is cut off.
─......
─If I can only gain insight and advance to the next realm...... I am ready to give everything.
It was a line I had never heard even once in 200 playthroughs of Lost Elder.
But......
That was why Adelia’s words touched my heart all the more.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
【Ritardando: True】
(Available)
━━━━━━━━━━━━
“You said it would be all right to lose an arm.”
Step—.
I approached the Celestial Dragon Bird.
It merely stared at me blankly with a rather dumbfounded expression.
That was understandable.
How absurd must it be to see a paltry level 1 human approaching without a shred of fear?
It had not even finished killing Adelia, yet it would not find someone like me worth its attention.
“And you said it would be all right to lose a leg as well.”
More than anything, the Celestial Dragon Bird had one habit.
Unless a certain territory was invaded, it did not attack small creatures first.
......And level 1 was more than low enough to be called a small creature.
In other words, I could approach the ‘safe distance’ I knew without being attacked by the Celestial Dragon Bird.
“I have seen your resolve well.”
Step—.
As I walked, I gripped the Feather Sword’s hilt tightly.
Blue veins began to rise along my thin forearm.
My Strength was only 2, but that was enough. All I had to do was draw a sword lighter than a feather.
Ding—!
〔Available〕
......The twelve-star skill, which had been gray, began to shine once more with a radiant rainbow light.
“This makes the third time.”
Human Butcher Barba, Peterpan, the Kidnapper of Dawnguard.
And now, the Celestial Dragon Bird.
Adelia would be the person to see me use 【Soul of the Swordmaster】 three times.
“Watch carefully.”
Although she had not had the presence of mind to properly observe my sword until now.
If Adelia concentrated all her attention on this ‘single strike.’
With more talent than anyone, she would certainly gain great insight from seeing my sword.
“Watch closely, and carve it into your eyes.”
......And those words were also meant for myself.
I, too, had witnessed the use of 【Soul of the Swordmaster】 many times. No, I had not merely ‘witnessed’ it; I had even ‘experienced’ it directly.
As I had already said, Loel had an unusual leveling system.
Players could grow through the insight gained from repeated actions, training, or real combat. It was a growth mechanism identical to reality’s.
‘Then why have I been unable to grow?’
Even after investing a full 179,312,341 points to raise my talent for 【Sword】 to its limit.
Even after experiencing the Swordmaster’s strike twice with such talent.
Why had I failed to achieve any growth at all?
The reason was very simple.
‘......Because a player needs an appropriate “foundation” in place to take a given action.’
It was something I had considered even when customizing this Gimmick Build character.
To swing a heavy weapon, I needed Strength and Stamina stats to match. To wield magic, I needed Magic Power and Cognition stats as a foundation.
I had said it countless times: Rankers did not make well-rounded characters their mains for no reason.
In the world of Loel, no matter how high a character’s talent in one area was, if their other stats were lacking, they could not fully demonstrate their abilities.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Strength: 2
Agility: 1
Stamina: 2
Magic Power: 1
Cognition: 1
......
━━━━━━━━━━━━
This was evident just by looking at my own case.
My Strength, Agility, and Stamina are no higher than 2, so I can’t hold a weapon other than the Feather Sword.
My Magic Power is only 1, so I can use the 【Soul of the Swordmaster】 I had finally acquired for only 0.01 seconds.
Most of all, my Cognition stat is 1, so I can’t even properly recognize the swordsmanship I perform in an instant.
‘All of it happens because my foundation is lacking.’
But.
What if there were a way to fill in my lacking stats, even temporarily?
In other words, what if the ‘instant’ of 0.01 seconds became endlessly long?
‘And so......’
Even with the disastrous Cognition stat of only 1.
What if I could observe in detail the moment a twelve-star mythical skill was activated?
Ding—!
〔Authority Skill: 【Ritardando: True】 Activated.〕
The moment I passed the safe distance and entered the Celestial Dragon Bird’s ‘attack range.’
With my eyes wide open, I immediately used 【Ritardando】.
* TICK—!*
*TICK—!*
* TICK—!*
* TICK—!*
The sound of second hands came from every direction.
Blue lightning split the sky.
It could no longer be called a flash of light.
The streak of light that had vanished in the blink of an eye was now descending toward me slowly, very slowly.
WHOOOOSH—.
Raindrops stopped in midair.
As if someone had scattered crystal beads across the sky, the world was reflected upside down in every one of those clear droplets.
The storm created by the Celestial Dragon Bird’s wings now danced slowly.
Fragments of shattered rock floated in the air. Even the sharp cracks along their edges were plainly visible.
A slow heartbeat echoed in my ear. Thump. Then, only after a long stretch of time passed, another. Thump.
***RRRRUMBLE—!***
The lightning summoned by the Celestial Dragon Bird had reached right before my eyes.
Even within this endlessly imprisoned time, that lightning moved exceedingly fast.
But it was not too fast for me to react, so I calmly waited and measured the exact timing.
Then, at the moment the distance between the lightning and me became a breath away......
〔MP: 1/1〕
*T*
*I*
*I*
*I*
*I*
*I*
*I*
*ING—.*
〔MP: 0/1〕
......At last, every aspect of the ‘sword’ began to fill my eyes.