Chapter 46: Chapter46-Lifting a Sword
Five hours later—
"Come on. Lift. Just lift already."
The words echoed in my mind as I focused every bit of mental energy I had on a single object sitting on the table across the room.
A black sword.
"Move, damn it!"
I pushed harder, straining until I felt the pressure building behind my eyes, but the sword didn’t move. Not even a millimeter. It just sat there, completely unaffected.
Fuck.
Finally, I gave up and collapsed onto the bed.
I was done. Exhausted. Completely tapped out.
Since returning to the mansion and shutting myself in my room, I’d spent the last three hours attempting to lift that sword. The results had been the same every single time. Nothing. Not even the slightest twitch.
When I’d started, I’d been confident I could control five swords at once. That confidence had slowly eroded. Five became three. Three became two. Two became one. Now I was sitting at zero, staring up at the ceiling while a dull, relentless ache pounded inside my skull.
Using Telekinesis felt like getting hit in the head with a hammer. Over and over again.
I glanced down at my watch. 7:12 PM.
Perfect. At this pace, lifting a single sword was going to take hours. Maybe I’d manage it by midnight if I got lucky. Then again, based on how the last three hours had gone, even that seemed generous. The way things were going, I seriously doubted I’d succeed within the next five hours either.
Slowly, I pushed myself upright, ignoring the headache still throbbing behind my eyes.
I couldn’t give up. Not like this. I’d chosen this skill, so it was on me to figure out how to make it work.
I opened my inventory and pulled out an S rank recovery potion. Without hesitating, I drank the whole thing in one gulp and tossed the empty bottle aside.
Within seconds, the headache that had been pounding inside my skull faded completely. My head felt clear again. Refreshed. Ready.
Alright. One more time.
I turned my attention back to the sword sitting on the table and locked my focus on it.
"Lift."
Nothing happened.
The sword stayed exactly where it was.
Or so I thought. A second later, the blade shifted ever so slightly. Barely an inch.
Wait. It actually moved.
The instant I saw it, excitement rushed through me. I felt ridiculously happy, even though the sword had only moved a tiny fraction. It was like I’d just accomplished something real for the first time in hours.
I forced myself to settle down and refocus. "Lift."
***
Six hours later.
"Fucking yes! I actually did itttttt!"
I was shouting at the top of my lungs, not caring about the noise.
The sword I’d been struggling with for hours was floating in the air. Several meters above the table. Actually hovering.
It had happened about a minute ago. For the past two hours, the sword had been shifting erratically across the table, wobbling and twitching without actually lifting off.
I’d kept my concentration locked on it the entire time, trying to steady the movement and get it to rise smoothly into the air.
Then, a minute ago, it had finally stopped wobbling and begun to ascend. Slowly. Steadily.
The moment it lifted off the table, satisfaction and relief hit me all at once. I’d wanted to scream so badly that I quickly asked the system to put up a sound barrier around my room for a few minutes. The system complied without question.
The second the barrier went up, I jumped off the bed and let it all out.
"Holy shit! Let’s gooooooooo!"
I was still shouting, still riding the rush of finally making it work.
After a few more seconds, I forced myself to settle down and looked back at the sword. It was still floating in the air, steady and motionless, exactly where I’d left it.
I dropped back onto the edge of the bed, breathing hard.
"Haa... haa... that was... incredible."
The satisfaction I felt was overwhelming. It was like I’d just aced the hardest exam on the planet. This had to be what it felt like to be rewarded after putting in a massive amount of effort.
I’d heard the saying before: "The fruit of hard work may ripen slowly, but it is always the sweetest." Now I actually understood what it meant.
For the first time, I got why Eden always insisted that hard work was better than shortcuts. He’d been right all along.
I glanced down at my watch to check the time.
***
Name: Michael Frostburne
Total Rules Broken: 0
Time: 1:24 AM
Date: 22nd February
Year: 2130
***
Six hours. One hour longer than I’d originally expected, but still not bad.
I turned my attention back to the sword and concentrated again. I focused entirely on it, blocking out everything else.
"Move."
This time, it worked on the first try. The second I gave the command, the sword shifted and began gliding smoothly toward me.
It actually responded. I could move it now, which meant I could do more than just lift it.
I gave the sword another mental command, directing it to strike the wall. The moment I issued the order, the blade shot forward and stabbed straight through the wall, piercing clean through in a single strike.
The impact was brutal. If one sword could do that much damage, I could barely imagine what five hundred would be capable of. A shiver of excitement ran through me at the thought.
I pulled up my character interface and tapped on the skills option. A virtual screen materialized in front of me, displaying the information I needed.
---
1] Seer’s Eye (SSS)
2] Telekinesis (B+)
---
B rank. It could help me lift five hundred metallic objects. I found myself wondering just how many I’d be able to control if it were SSS rank instead.
Then a thought suddenly occurred to me.
Wait. Why don’t I just upgrade it?
I was the son of a multi-billionaire. Surely I could get everything I needed to upgrade a skill. In this case, that meant four skill rank upgrade cards. That shouldn’t be too hard to come by.
Heck, Allen might even have them already. He probably kept a stash of resources like that lying around.
I walked over to the door, pulled it open, and glanced out into the luxurious hallway before calling out. "Allen, come here!"
I didn’t actually need to shout, but I felt like it.
The second his name left my lips, I felt a familiar rush of wind sweep past me. I already knew who it was. I turned around and found Allen standing calmly beside my bed, as though he’d been there all along.
I didn’t waste any time. "Allen, I need four skill rank upgrade cards. Give them to me now."
I held out my right hand, almost like a kid asking for candy.
He glanced down at my hand for a second before his gaze shifted to the left. He was staring at the wall, which had been completely destroyed. The sword was still lodged deep in the plaster, half the blade buried inside.
He looked back at me. "Young master, before I hand over those four skill rank upgrade cards, I’d like you to explain what’s going on here."
As he spoke, he gestured toward the ruined wall.
I lowered my hand. "Uh... how exactly should I explain this?"
Allen’s expression remained completely neutral. "With words. From your mouth."
Right. Obviously.
"Yeah, about that... you see... I..."
Allen cut me off before I could finish. "Get straight to the point."
Damn it.
I took a breath and committed. "Okay, okay. So look, I lied to you. I didn’t actually get the Teleportation skill as a reward from that dungeon. What I really got was something different. I got—"
Before I could finish the sentence, I flicked my fingers in a quick signal toward the sword still lodged in the wall, silently directing it to attack Allen.
The moment I gave the command, the sword wrenched itself free and shot toward him. The entire motion happened in less than a second.
Just as the blade came within inches of his neck, Allen casually lifted his hand and caught it between two fingers. He didn’t even flinch.
His expression remained completely neutral as he examined the blade for a moment before speaking. "Hmm? Telekinesis?"
I nodded. "Yeah. I got Telekinesis as a reward for surviving that dungeon."
I wasn’t particularly surprised that Allen had caught the sword so effortlessly.
Part of me had expected him to do something like that.
A flying sword, even one moving at that speed, wasn’t going to pose a threat to a Master ranker. Not even remotely close.
Allen gently took hold of the blade with his full hand, set it down carefully on the bed, and then turned his full attention back to me. His gaze was steady, assessing.
"Is it a B rank skill?"
The question caught me off guard. I blinked. "Yeah. How did you know that?"
Allen’s expression didn’t change. "Given your personality, it’s not difficult to figure out. Once you acquire a skill, you’ll naturally want to maximize its rank as quickly as possible. That’s the only logical reason you’d be asking for four skill rank upgrade cards."
Damn. Was I really that predictable?
It had only been a few days since I’d started going into dungeons and actively leveling up, yet Allen had already pieced together my intentions with unsettling accuracy.
Then again, I couldn’t really fault him for it. Anyone who paid close attention, even for just a short period of time, could probably have picked up on the same pattern. I wasn’t exactly being subtle about it.
I nodded slowly. "Yeah. That’s exactly why I need those cards. I want to push the skill as far as it’ll go."
Allen studied me for a moment, his gaze settling on my frame before he spoke. "Young master, I don’t think you should upgrade your skill right now."
I frowned. "Why not? Is there a problem?"
Allen’s tone stayed measured. "From what I can see, I don’t believe your body can handle the aftereffects of an SSS rank Telekinesis skill."
Oh.
I stopped and actually considered what he’d said.
He was... right. As much as I wanted to max out my Telekinesis skill immediately, I had to face the reality of my current condition. My body was still weak. Even after climbing two full ranks from zero, I was nowhere near strong enough.
A body this fragile wouldn’t be able to withstand the aftereffects of an SSS rank skill.
I still remembered what had happened with the Teleportation skill.
That had only been S rank, and the aftereffects had been brutal. I’d collapsed the second I used it and spent two full days unconscious in a hospital bed.
If an S rank skill had done that to me, I could barely imagine what an SSS rank Telekinesis skill would do. The thought was genuinely terrifying.
I exhaled slowly. "Yeah, Allen, you’re right. I don’t think my body can handle the aftereffects of an SSS rank skill."
Allen gave a small nod. "I’m glad you understand."
"Thanks." I gestured toward the ruined wall. "Can you fix that?"
"Yes, young master. I’ll take care of it. But first, you should change."
I blinked, then looked down at myself. My clothes were completely soaked through with sweat. A second later, the smell hit me. I reeked. It was honestly impressive that I’d managed to concentrate on the sword at all when I smelled this rank.
"Yeah, you’re right. I’ll shower first, then change."
"As you wish."
Allen vanished without a sound, leaving me alone in my room.
Time to clean up.
