Chapter 152: 17th Floor (4) ————-«
Shhhhhh─!
「Activating the power ‘Blood Demon Hole’ strongly.」
Dam Cheonwoo said this before.
That the Blood Demon Hole will drive the user insane at a duel.
The red filter that Blood Demon Hole creates over the eyes would lead the user into a feral state.
Physical enhancement, regeneration abilities, perception increase, heightened emotions, etc…..
Among many of its effects, he regarded one of them as being far superior than others.
that was…..
「Activating skill ‘Truth-seeker of Blood’.」
its ability to create unlimited amounts of blood using mana.
Of course, Dam Cheonwoo mentioned that Blood Demon Hole was incomplete, so I’d have to learn Blood Demon Spirit techniques to manipulate the blood.…….
‘But that does not apply to me.’
After all,
The blood controlling ability of Blood Demon Hole was not superior to ‘Truth-seeker of Blood’.
Due to my ability to demonstrate a superior Blood Arts than a vampire, the only technique I gained from Blood Demon Hole was an ability to create blood.
But that was plenty.
Kwooooosh……!!
“What on earth?! Blood Demon Spirit techniques!? I thought that Blood Demon was not here?!”
“Why would you insist on creating conflict despite having such mighty power?! Truly an imbecile you are!”
“Kwahahaha! The Demon Arts! Fascinating! I wonder if you can win against our sect’s martial arts!”
Really, it was plenty, more than enough actually, to win against everyone in this place.
The crimson smoke that emerged from my body turned into blood through Blood Demon Spirit techniques.
By controlling Truth-seeker of Blood, I dispersed the created blood throughout the cave.
And
Rumble……!!
The blood droplets that dispersed into gas were manipulated to put pressure onto the enemies.
“Kuh!? What kind of demonic technique is this……? He’s a monster……!”
“Y- You! How much longer do you plan on mocking this place?! Did you forget the oath?!”
“Hahaha! Of course! Oaths were meaningless in the first place!! This is getting interesting!”
They all spoke of things I could not understand, but most of them lost their forms.
「Activating skill ‘Battle Concentration’.」
As if watching a slow motion video, the world slowed down while multiple skills sped me up.
Using techniques like Starlight and Rolling Sword of Blue Sky in such a small cave would prove to be a bad move on my part.
‘That would make things difficult for me.’
So I had to resolve everything using only basic sword techniques.
That’s why I dispersed blood vapors to hold down the enemies. I needed to create a more advantageous situation for me.
‘I’m sure that I won’t lose even without it, but it’s better safe than sorry.’
It’s been a while since I fought an enemy with only techniques, so I was pretty excited.
The first to oppose me was a middle aged person from a buddhist monk background.
They clenched their lips and approached me through the pressure of blood vapor.
‘They’re coming.’
Seeing their advance, I held both of my swords and analyzed the path of the enemy.
But…….
‘What is that now?’
The middle aged person punched the empty air.
No sort of trickery nor mana was detected.
But amidst my confusion, the scenery before me blurred all of a sudden.
Crash!
The sensation of my nose shattering spread through my entire body.
“……!?”
Aura Sense couldn’t even detect any sign of attack, but my face suffered a hit.
「Activating skill ‘Ashy Blood’.」
What’s even more chilling is that I couldn’t figure out what was happening until after I got hit.
If my Tenacity stats were any lower, or if the hit had a little more force to it, the Last Stand would’ve been activated.
―It’s called the Hundred Steps Technique of Shaolin Temple. You’d best be careful. The monks are shady so they use invisible techniques.
With Dam Cheonwoo’s advice, I quickly regained my stance.
And
「Activating the power ‘Flash Steps’.」
「There will be a 10 minute cool down on the power.」
「By using divine power, you can immediately teleport to a location within your sight.」
“Now! We all need to work together to……!?”
Slash!
「You’ve eliminated Trap Fighter.」
「You’ve eliminated a strong opponent」
「All stats raised by +1 temporarily within the 17th floor..」
「Kill every enemy.」
Using Flash Steps, I immediately cut the throat of the monk.
―……Well, it’s good to act fast, but you truly are ruthless.
Dam Cheonwoo spoke as if I was overreacting, but I thought differently.
‘It’d be more embarrassing to die from letting my guard down…….’
I wanted to observe more to figure out the mechanics of the technique, but I didn’t want to risk anything.
The best solution was to prevent anything that would cause difficulty later on.
I was very curious as to how they could attack me without me knowing, but I couldn’t ignore the combined forces of the rest of the opponents.
After all, they could also use similar techniques.
However, I had a premonition that it wouldn’t be too difficult to avoid.
‘Since it could pierce through the pressure of blood fog, I’m sure that they were the fastest of them all.’
The one who could get past the blood fog very first was surely the strongest amongst them all.
‘Which means that from here on, I’d be able to handle any surprise that is brought on me.’
While I was gathering up my mana, an angry shout rang out.
“Youuu! You dare defy the wills of heaven and behave this impudently?!”
Fwoosh!
Followed by a young man wearing a pink robe swinging his sword, full of fighting spirit.
“……?”
For some reason, the sword emitted a strong plum blossom scent, but…….
The skepticism didn’t last long.
I narrowed my eyes at the sword aura that split itself into countless flower petals.
Those were not real.
They exuded a thick presence of plum blossoms fluttering in the wind, but it was a manifestation of mana through will…….
And the only thing that can affect me within that sword aura has already been determined.
And that’s why he decided to manifest a flashy sword aura to hide that.
‘……Ah, I wonder if this is that?”
Change Manifestation.
It was one of the laws of martial arts that White Crane Sword Saint taught me before.
I’ve never seen it up until now, but it didn’t seem that great of a technique.
In an attempt to make a fake sword aura look real, a large amount of will needs to be invested into the mana, and it would not work on opponents that are stronger than the user.
I theorized.
‘Wouldn’t it be better to manifest a sword aura that can’t be avoided nor blocked?.’
Just like this.
Woosh!
I immediately swung my sword to demonstrate the techniques of White Sword, and imbued my will into the mana to pull the space itself.
“Wha……! T-the space is……!?”
Crack─!
The splendid array of plum blossoms were crushed by the pull of the space, and only two sword aura remained.
Of course, both of them also dissipated being unable to withstand my sword.
「Activating the Exclusive Skill of ‘Harmonic Soul Demon Sword’, ‘Double Attack’.」
Followed with the activation of skill, the strongly activated will pulled my opponent.
However, due to the ability of my opponent, he wasn’t blindly affected by the skill and did his best to resist it.
“You! Did you think that I’d be defeated that easily?!”
He attempted to resist the spatial pull by dispersing his mana throughout his surroundings.
It was an ability that he could demonstrate because he was a martial artist that trained his will to the limits.
‘He’s strong.’
It was the type of strength that is commonly described in tales of Murim of virtuous warriors.
He must be stronger than the Mudang Demon Sword that died just a moment ago.
As a martial artist that will be my opponent, he was not lacking at all.
However…….
「Activating <imprint skill="" :="" will="" reinforcement(b+)=""> of True Blood Demon Sword..」</imprint>
Victory of this battle was only determined through the level of will alone.
The level of will is determined depending on the level of the user, and with that said will further reinforced by skills, the result of the battle was predetermined.
Slash!
The swordsman wearing a pink robe also fell without his head.
「You’ve eliminated Plum Blossom Swordsman Lee Cheonsoo.」
「You’ve eliminated a strong opponent.」
「All stats raised by +1 temporarily within the 17th floor.」
「Kill every enemy.」
I had nothing to reflect on.
Unlike the other guy, he didn’t use a special technique before death.
And other than the Change manifestation technique that he showed, there was nothing else interesting about him.
But I was not disappointed.
“T-the two of them were defeated even before they could make a move….? M-Monster……!”
“Hahaha……? Small brother disciple? You must also be a demonic practitioner, wo why don’t we talk this out……?”
They all lost motivation, but regardless of their will to fight, I had to give my all.
“Oaths, talks, and whatnot. Can you focus on fighting instead?”
After all…….
“If you stay still, you’re all going to end up dying.”
If not, they will all die just like that.
Seeing the silent opponents, I let out a radiant smile.
“It’d be best if you gave it your all.”
From here on, I should be able to observe every technique slowly.
»————- ★ ————-«
The battle did not last long.
The rest of the remaining opponents were all small frys.
About the same level as the very first guy I killed, Mudang Demon Sword.
They attempted to use every secret technique they had, but those did little to attract my attention.
I did manage to get some things at least.
‘I got to learn more about martial arts.’
Like the piercing sword, and flash sword…….
I finally managed to see the real techniques that I learned from White Crane Sword Saint in writing.
The difference from knowing it in knowledge versus seeing it in battle was huge.
‘Seeing it in person really helped me understand it better.’
Now the understanding of each technique was not as grand as I thought, but that must be because of the capabilities of the users themselves.
If used by more skilled users, then the techniques would prove to be different.
At least, that’s what I thought.
I sheathed both of my swords staring at the corpses around me.
‘……I’m full of energy.’
My body was demonstrating a clear difference after unsheathing my swords.
Every time I killed an opponent, my stats would increase to a total of +7 on each.
‘I know that this is exclusive to the 17the floor stage, but this is really good.’
While I was feeling satisfied at that..
「You’ve passed the Path of Poisoned Parasite of Heavenly Armory.」
「You have met the requirements. Door is opening.」
Rumble!
The walls of the cave opened to a path.
I realized at the point where they raised an entire 7 points on stats…….
‘But this trial will be dangerous too’
Even if it’s not like the trial where the god of battle descended, this trial too would prove to be just as difficult.
‘Oh well, as long as they reward me properly.’
Since I chose this difficulty, I had no issues about it.
After a brief moment of looking into the opened doors, I stepped into the newly created path.
While I was walking through the narrow hallway, I realized that Blood Demon Sword was unnaturally quiet.
He spoke a few times during battle, but it gradually decreased to nothing.
It did not last long though.
―……I remember now.
Dam Cheonwoo suddenly spoke.
―……you remember now? What do you mean by that?
He immediately answered.
―I mean exactly what I said. I remembered. What this place is, and why they gathered the murim people.
A flash of something passed in my mind when he said that.
There’s been a few times that the tower has replicated real events.
Which meant that this bloody duel could’ve been an incident that occurred at Murim.
Which further meant that Dam Cheonwoo, who came from Murim would also know of this event.
‘To think that I’d remember this only now…….’
If Dam Cheonwoo didn’t say it himself, then I would’ve never connected the dots.
Of course, at the current level of the trial, I had nothing to worry about, but it was good to have background knowledge of this setting.
After all, there have been one too many incidences of trial difficulty being adjusted mid-trial.
I asked Dam Cheonwoo a direct question.
―Do you know of this setting?
―About a 100 years ago, Before the tower existed in Murim, it’s said that a Massive Annihilation occurred.
―……?
―Heavenly Armory. An armory said to contain countless secret techniques of Light Swordmaster, the strongest of all, from a hundred years ago. The 17th floor must take place there.
―Which means that the Massive Annihilation is related to the ones seeking those secret techniques.
―Correct. The techniques of strong are always followed with massacre. Especially if it’s the techniques of the strongest person. And that’s the problem.
Dam Cheonwoo spoke with a serious voice.
―Han Sungyeun. You will die here. Brutally.
It was the prophecy of death.
[To be continued.]
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