Chapter 301: Shadow Training
Dark sheets covered the windows. The room was in complete darkness. It was one in the morning.
Fang Raon was sleeping on the futon, like there were no worries in the world, dreaming about another life.
Soft sounds escaped his mouth.
His chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm, and the only thing that could be heard was the gentle pitter-patter of rain against the window.
Creak~!
The sliding door opened. Very quietly. A man stood at the doorstep with a heavy-looking object in hand.
It was a hard-looking stick, shaped like a baseball bat, with a much bigger tip than a normal baseball bat would have.
"..."
Rock quietly entered the room, didn’t bother to close the door, and stood over Fang Raon’s sleeping body.
’So, he didn’t have any trouble falling asleep. My former students couldn’t fall asleep out of nowhere.
’Is he just that fearless, or was he just too tired to stay awake?’
Rock wondered.
’Well, either way, doesn’t matter now. He’s going to regret sleeping so peacefully. This will sting for a while.’
Rock lifted the heavy-looking stick above his head, targeted Raon’s head, and then brought the stick down with force.
It had enough force to split Raon’s head open—if he were just a normal human—but as a level 3 Warrior, he could take some punishment without dying.
However.
It would still hurt like hell.
The heavy stick came down. It was about to hit. But at that moment, Raon’s head jerked to the side.
"?!"
Rock’s eyes widened in a shock, and he stopped the attack before the stick reached the floor, as it would make a lot of noise.
’He was able to dodge this? No first-timer has ever been able to dodge it. Not even Hermes, Leon, or Raizen.
’How was this little shit able to do it? Just lucky? Maybe he just happened to move in his sleep with perfect timing?’
Rock thought with a frown.
’Is he still awake?’
He quickly made sure and used Read on Fang Raon, but no, he was really asleep like a baby.
’He is definitely asleep. He doesn’t have the capabilities to trick my Read. I need to test him again.’
Rock pulled the stick back and immediately swung it down, and this time around, it landed with a resounding thud on Raon’s head.
"OOOOOOWWWWWWWW!"
Fang Raon sat up and clutched his head in agony, as he felt like the inside of his skull was splitting open.
’Huh, he failed to dodge now?’
Rock frowned, even more confused now.
"Fuuuckkkk... Couldn’t you have gone easier? What if you had Instant Kill me accidentally, you brute?"
Fang Raon asked, gritting his teeth, and he saw his health drop under 100 and his screen turned red for a second.
If Rock had used slightly more strength, he would’ve actually died just now, but Rock knew how to control his strength perfectly to keep him alive.
"You should’ve dodged then, you little shit. Drink some healing potion before you fall asleep. I am not done with you yet!"
Rock said.
"W-Wait... You’re planning to attack me again tonight?"
Fang Raon asked with a pale face.
"It’s only one in the morning. We have all night!"
Rock said with a cold smile, and then he stepped out of the room and slammed the sliding door shut.
When he was outside the room, out of Raon’s view, his cold smile disappeared and was replaced with confusion.
’He definitely managed to dodge my first attack with nothing but his instinct, but why didn’t his instinct protect him the second time?’
Rock scratched the back of his head.
...
"It hurts..."
Fang Raon put his head back down on the pillow, but his head was pounding so much that he doubted he could fall asleep again.
’Maybe I should attack him in his sleep. Let’s see how he likes it!’
He thought, but he wouldn’t actually dare to do it, because Rock would just put him through more torture.
’I don’t feel like sleeping now.’
He pulled open the interface and looked at the Aurel’s Blade Massacre skill and saw how tantalizingly close it was to level 3.
So close...
"..."
He sat up, pulled out a sword from his inventory, and then stood up, facing the wall with determination.
In his mind, there was all the knowledge about the Aurel’s Blade Massacre that he needed—and that was the key to learning it.
Aurel’s Blade Massacre was different from the Blade Dance.
It was a purely offensive skill that focused on overpowering the opponent with sheer force and precision.
’It works best with two swords, but luckily, I did receive a training sword from Rock just to learn this skill.’
He reached out to his inventory and brought out a training sword, which was pretty dull compared to the sharpness of his usual weapons.
It was fine.
It wasn’t like he was fighting anybody right now.
’Shadow Training.’
Fang Raon closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, there were shadowy figures all around the room.
It was another training method that Rock taught him—Shadow Training—mental training against fake shadow opponents.
It needed a great deal of imagination to pull off, but Raon managed to learn it in just a couple of days.
’Bring out the swords.’
Fang Raon thought.
The shadow opponents pulled out swords—there were ten of them—with each of them carrying one sword.
Ten swords versus two swords.
’FIGHT!’
Fang Raon shouted inside his mind.
In that moment, the shadow opponents closed in on him, making the small room feel very claustrophobic.
Then.
Fang Raon moved, and his right-handed sword blocked three blades coming from the right, and with his left-handed training sword, he blocked a blade coming from the back.
Clang~!
’Aurel’s Blade Massacre.’
Fang Raon’s swords danced through the air and slashed through the throats of the shadow opponents.
Black-blue fire gushed out of the throats of the shadow opponents, and then they poofed into thin air.
But then...
In their place, another ten opponents appeared, and they attacked him right away—ten blades coming straight for him.
Fang Raon twirled the swords masterfully and clashed with the swords with a grace that belied his fear.
The shadow opponents kept coming from him.
Relentless. Never-stopping. Unstoppable force.
Yet.
Fang Raon weaved his swords through the air, striking down each blade that came from them, and never even once allowing one of those blades to touch him.
’Aurel’s Blade Massacre!’
Fang Raon crossed his swords and then slashed them through the air, and a wave of energy surged forward, cutting through the enemy lines like butter.
The shadow opponents poofed like a fart in the wind.
"Huff... Huff... Huff..."
Fang Raon panted heavily.
With Rock’s relentless training, his stamina had increased tremendously, but after only a few rounds with the shadow opponents, he was drained.
Shadow Training was hard not only because it trained physical endurance and strength but also mental ones.
He just summoned twenty shadow opponents, and even Mages, who excel in mental endurance, would find it difficult.
Only High Ranker Mages would be capable of summoning twenty shadow opponents like Fang Raon just did.
Therefore.
What he just did was pretty amazing!
’I am so... exhausted...’
Fang Raon dropped to the futon, too tired to even lift his swords even, and he stored them inside his inventory.
’I need to sleep... I need all the sleep I can get... Even if I will be woken up by that brute in a few hours.’
Fang Raon thought.
But then, out of nowhere, a notification appeared in front of him.
[You have leveled up "Aurel’s Blade Massacre" skill!]
[Congratulations!]
’What?!’
Fang Raon screamed inside his mind.
It was extremely slow to increase the percentage in Aurel’s Blade Massacre skill, and the closer he got to leveling up, the harder it became.
Thus.
It was really shocking that he was able to get the remaining eleven percent from just one training session!
[Aurel’s Legacy is calling for you!]
Fang Raon looked at the message with round eyes.
And then, as the message disappeared, another holographic window appeared in front of him—but it was a different kind this time around.
It was a holographic window of a map.
It was showing a holographic map of a floor, but strangely enough, that floor looked genuinely familiar.
[Floor 12]
And there was a beeping red dot on the map. It was like the map was telling him where to go exactly.
’Wait... This is the map of this floor... Is that where Aurel’s legacy is? We were actually this close to his legacy all this time?!’
Fang Raon cried out.
He had no idea that he was actually so close to the legacy that he had been aiming for all this time!
From the map, he looked for the training camp’s location and then checked where the red dot was at.
’It’s not that far. I was scared it was on the other side of the floor, but it’s not really far. It’s in these mountains, and honestly, it’s around the place where I usually train with Rock.
’Maybe an hour away!’
Fang Raon thought.
His heart raced, and he was certain that with this information in hand, there was no way he could fall asleep now.
’I must get it. The legacy... at last... I must get it if I want to compete against the monsters of the Dead Redemption one day.’
Fang Raon stood up.
He had made his decision—he was going to go get that legacy for himself right now.
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