by Virlyce
“Path of the Spear: 1,000 Talons!” My most prided technique, 1,000 Talons. It took me four years of harsh training every day to perfect it, and when I did, I broke through the barrier of high-ranked warrior to spirit warrior by unlocking the Path of the Spear. With this strike, I’ll avenge Gae’s pseudo death!
Dozens of holes instantly appeared on Snow’s body as she recklessly charged into the barrage of spear strikes. At this rate, she’d die without a complete corpse. But why was I feeling so uneasy like my older brother was watching me? I ignored the feeling and pushed through with my technique. With Durandal in my grasp, I wouldn’t have to worry about Algar even if he was spying on me right now. Wait. Durandal? Why hadn’t she called him out? Was she waiting for this moment?
Snow’s mouth opened in a silent scream as she lifted her sword despite the numerous holes in her arms. No words came out, but I could tell she was shouting, “Breaking Blade!” as qi surged into her sword’s edge. When had she gotten so close to me? How could she move with injuries like those!? My stance shifted from an offensive one to a defensive one, and I held Gae’s weapon body horizontally in front of myself to block her strike. It was then that I remembered the words of my first teacher, a famous mercenary with one arm: Never underestimate someone’s final struggle for life. Even rabbits will fight back if they’re cornered. And never underestimate a dying beast’s death throes.
Snow’s blade crashed against the shaft of my spear. My arms creaked and felt like they were going to break. My shoulders popped out of their sockets as I was forced to my knees. Her strength really was terrifying! Gae Bulg and her blade continued to shriek and shoot out sparks as she pressed down harder. As if a mountain had descended on me, Gae Bulg’s weapon body crashed into my chest, my arms breaking, unable to support my spear any longer. My vision turned yellow as Snow straddled my torso and lifted her sword with a reverse grip, pointing it at my head. The lines of my vision blurred, pulsing with a black light. I barely managed to choke out the word, “T-teleport.”
As a scion of the royal family, I was given a ring that doubled as a magic tool. Embedded in it was the seventh-circle magic, teleport. A safety net in case anything ever went awry. I’ve experimented with it a few times, and I always felt nauseous after every use, but what was worse, death or nausea? But the familiar sensation of needing to vomit didn’t come. Snow was still straddled on my torso and her sword was plunging towards my head. Why? Why wasn’t it working?
It’s funny how time moves so slowly when you’re about to die. Dozens of thoughts can flash through your mind that would take you a minute to process under normal circumstances. Almost like a dream. Now that I think about it, Bryant also had a ring of teleportation, didn’t he? Yet he still died, most likely to this very person. Why did I think I would escape the same fate? I was too rash. Arrogant. Did I underestimate Snow from the start based on her appearance? How could I declare myself the paranoid prince? …It was Durandal. The thought of obtaining the Godking’s legacy, ending the stress of competing for the throne, was too tempting. I gambled, and I lost.
And Snow did say she wanted to talk. If I had accepted her offer, would I still be in this situation? No, I would’ve made the same decision if I was given another chance. I couldn’t trust her. If she had tried to kill me after I lowered my guard, then that would’ve been even worse. This might be too much to ask for, but I hope she’ll take care of Gae Bulg. After all these years of living with the constant threat of death looming overhead, I can finally rest.
***
…There’s an awful lot of rare spirit beasts out there, huh? This one could even use a spear, and it summoned another rare spirit beast that was a wolf on the verge of becoming a human. How scary. Surprisingly, I managed to complete the Path of Slaughter in one try and regained control of my body after slaying the beast. I can’t believe this rare beast tried chasing me down; it doesn’t happen often. I’m scrawny and the meat to bone ratio on my cute adorable figure is not worth the effort of hunting me down.
Lan who? The sixth prince? Why are you bringing up totally unrelated names? Lan’s a training freak who never leaves his room. He’s in the palace, working hard to become a bodybuilder. This spear contains a weapon spirit? What spear? You mean the one I’m hacking to pieces with mini-DalDal since I’m afraid of more rare spirit beasts being summoned? Oh, look! A spirit seed popped out of the spear! This is the first one I’ve found by myself; I’ve seen quite a few on street vendor stalls in the capital.
I can use it on my dress! …There’s a lot of holes in my dress. Is it still viable? You can only see most of my underwear underneath it…. Maybe I won’t use it on my dress. I can use it on…, hold on a second; first order of business, remove all the useless magical rings! I’ll keep the Mini-Map and Fling rings and put away the rings with Dismantle, Barbeque, Steam, Stir-Fry, Boil…, don’t judge my choices! Anyways, that doesn’t leave me many options to bury this seed into. Hmm. I’ll hold onto it for now then.
Now, let’s see what items this rare spirit beast had. If it dressed like a human, it should definitely have some useful stuff! Like that ring. And its clothes. Maybe its underwear too…. I think I’ll take everything on it and appraise them later. Yes, that’s the best course of action. Let’s see…, take this stick and draw on the ground. A picture of a rabbitkin woman with a penis escaping from a net. There we go. Just in case someone mistakes the beast for an actual person, they’ll blame Snow instead.
But I really need to buy new clothes. This dress is way too breezy and risqué now. I’ll start wearing those bones again. It’ll prevent me from being indecent and provide easy access to consumables, win-win! I hope Durandal wakes up soon…. Oh! What if I use the spirit seed to nourish Durandal’s spirit? Would that work? …I’ll ask Liana; where’s my messenger?
While I distanced myself from the crime scene, err, hunting spot, my messenger rang.
Dear Lucia Fluffytail,
I’m sorry, I don’t know much about spirit seeds. They weaken the arrays inside of magic tools, so no respectable mage will employ them. You may have better luck asking a martial artist, but I doubt they would know either. Why are you trying to save an injured spirit? Weapons are meant to be thrown away after they’re broken.
Sincerely,
Liana Noctis
No! Ms. Encyclopedia has failed me. And who are you calling a broken weapon!? Durandal’s just sleeping! I’m going to do it. I believe in Durandal! I grabbed the new spirit seed and pressed it into mini-DalDal’s hilt. There was a bright flash of light, and a second later, the spirit seed popped out and fell to the ground. I guess it won’t work. Darn. Well, if spirit seeds can only be used on non-magical items, then I’ll grow this one in my socks. Magical socks and shoes were the only articles of clothing I couldn’t find in the wilderness town. ...Yes, my underwear is magical too. But their functions are for me to know! …Pervert.
Anyways, how do I bury the seed in my sock? I’ll just step on it and see if it works. Oh? It did! A dog’s paw print appeared on both of my socks. I guess it counted a pair as a single item. But I thought armor spirits were supposed to take a long time to grow; could I summon it right away? Let’s try it. “Come out, Mr. or Mrs. Spirit!”
…
…
…
Now I feel stupid. I guess it really does have to take time to grow. I wonder what it’ll become. I obtained the seed off a spear that could summon a rare spirit beast after all. Maybe I’ll get a spirit similar to the beast it summoned. Yeah. “It’s still a bit sad I couldn’t feed it to Durandal….”
“So you’re really Durandal’s new owner.”
“Gah!?” I fell over as a wolfkin appeared underneath my feet. “You’re the rare spirit beast!”
“…I’m the weapon spirit, Gae Bulg. Throw away all notions of me being a mere spirit beast.” The wolfkin frowned and looked around. “Where is my weapon body?”
“Um. You’re a sock spirit now….” I pointed at my socks.
“Huh? Wait. What happened? Where’s Lan?” The wolfkin’s hackles bristled as he glared at me. His eyes turned red as he reached behind his back and drew a spear…-shaped sock.
“Lan? Who’s that?” Deny everything! Lan’s in his room in the palace training away like usual! I killed a rare spirit beast that enjoyed impersonating people. Mhm.
“You. Didn’t I stab you through the stomach?”
“Nope.” Ignore the blood on the dress, please. “Wrong person.”
“What happened to Lan!?” The wolfkin dashed forward and grabbed my shoulders. Ah, his hands are soft. He feels like Bouncykins. Are all sock spirits as soft as him?
“Look, Mr. Wolfie, I don’t know who Lan is. This is my first time meeting you.” Lie with a straight face! Durandal would be proud!
“You called me a rare spirit beast!” His claws pressed against my skin. Oh, that’s pretty comfortable. I wonder how nice Durandal’s head pats would feel if he turned into a sock spirit too. “Where. Is. Lan!?”
“Return from whence you came!”
The wolfkin’s eyes widened before his body distorted and disappeared into my socks like water spiraling down a drain. Wow. I didn’t think that’d actually work. “I’ll let you out when you learn not to ask totally irrelevant questions.”
10
After experimenting with the Unrelenting Path of Slaughter for a while, I realized it’s really not that bad. All I have to do is initiate it right when I see a beast to prevent myself from picking fights against rare spirit beasts or creatures that may be too scary to fight against. There’ve been a lot of those recently. That stupid spear-wielding rare spirit beast chased me really far into the southern pass, and a lot of the beasts I’ve seen recently have been emitting auras similar to Durandal. I tried going back north using my handy dandy mini-map spell, but… I managed to get lost. First there was an army of bear-sized ants marching in a line that I couldn’t go past, so I tried walking around them. Then there was a river with—well, it doesn’t matter what the river had because I can’t swim. After that, I encountered a mountain with molten rock spewing from its peak. I kind of gave up trying to go north after that. So I’ve been stuck hunting beasts that can almost kill me, and I’ve been running away from the beasts that are as scary as Durandal. I’ve named them Beastrandals.
And thus, that’s how I ended up fighting a giant lizard with splotchy green and yellow skin with mucus-like substances dripping out of its mouth. Recently, even when I mess up my steps in the Unrelenting Path of Slaughter, I still have full control of my body which is a bit scary because the path used to always bail me out when I was about to die. But I guess it’s a path for a reason and not a cheat that allows me to win every fight. Darn.
“Let me out! I want to fight it!”
“Shut up, you stupid sock spirit! I’m busy!” And I regret planting that spirit seed into my socks. He’s very loud, annoying, never shuts up about some person named Lan, and completely not my type. If it weren’t for the fact that he made my socks super comfortable, I would’ve thrown him away a long time ago. “Breaking Blade!”
Whew. It only took thirty Breaking Blades to cut off the lizard’s head. How tough is its skin? I bet I could make a house out of it and not worry about it breaking for the foreseeable future. I’ve also learned through experience that there’s a limit to how much I can store inside of my interspacial ring. So I only harvest the most valuable portions of the beasts I’ve slain.
“Stop cutting off animals’ penises!”
“I’ll cut off yours too if you don’t stop nagging me! Gold doesn’t grow on trees!”
“Did you do this to Lan!?”
“I didn’t cut his off! I don’t even know who Lan is!”
“He’s the spearman who owned me previously!”
“Stop shouting at me!” See? Isn’t he obnoxiously loud and annoying? Why couldn’t he be more considerate like Durandal? “I don’t know any spearmen.”
“…Are you alright in the head?”
“Don’t call me stupid!” Oh, nice. This lizard had a beast core too. I still haven’t finished using all the previous ones I obtained from the first time experiencing the Path of Slaughter. Before he had fallen asleep, Durandal had told me to consume them slowly and fully incorporate them into my body or impurities would build up. I can’t use this one yet, but I’ll be able to soon! I wonder how much it’d sell for….
“You, you’re still a low-ranked spirit warrior, yet you’re able to kill a mid-ranked spirit beast. It’s no wonder why Lan lost.” The wolfkin’s voice sounded a bit dejected, but that wasn’t my problem! I still haven’t found a good use for him yet. But how did he know I was a low-ranked spirit warrior? …Did I discover a new encyclopedia?
“You sound like you know a lot about spirit warriors.”
“Of course. My previous owner, Cuchulainn, was an acclaimed spearman at the peak of the spirit warrior realm. One more step and he would’ve became a divine warrior. But, like the Godking, he couldn’t cross that wall.” My socks sighed. That tickles!
“How do I become a mid-ranked spirit warrior?” That should definitely count as becoming stronger, right? And if I become stronger, Durandal will wake up faster. Tell me, sock spirit! Lead the way.
“Shouldn’t you already know? You’re Durandal’s owner, aren’t you? Why haven’t I seen him this whole time? I recognize his weapon body. I’d never forget it.”
Well, I guess it couldn’t hurt to let my sock spirit know about my weapon spirit, huh? “Durandal fell into a deep sleep before I became a spirit warrior. I have to get stronger to help him wake up.”
“Huh? A deep sleep?”
“Right. I was poisoned by a bastard, and Durandal absorbed the poison into his system instead.” Why is this lizard’s heart green? I wonder if it’s poisonous. Well, I’ll store it anyway. Now I just have to carve its bones with focus engravings and my next hunt can proceed.
“Durandal absorbed your poison, fell critically ill, and told you you’d have to get stronger to wake him up?”
“That’s right.” I thought wolfkin were supposed to have a good sense of hearing. Why do I have to repeat myself every single time? It’s like that Lan business all over again. Do you see how he’s super annoying?
“Out of concern for the stability of my future…, are you a bit stupid?” What. “It’d be better to just tell me now, so I can accept my fate for being bound to such an owner.”
“I’m going to set you on fire.” I really am. Where’s my Barbeque ring?
“W-wait. Don’t you know what happens to weapon spirits when their spirit body dies?”
“They die, right?”
“…You killed me earlier, remember? Yet I’m still here. The only way to kill a spirit is to destroy its core. A spirit won’t die to something like poison, and they’ll recover by themselves naturally. Whether you get stronger or not won’t matter.... Durandal will wake up when he wakes up.”
“What.” I’ve been deceived! No! I refuse to accept that! What the hell did I work so hard for if that’s true!? Do you know how long it’s been since I last went to sleep or ate a decent meal!?
“It’s true—”
“No. You’re lying.” It’s not true. Durandal wouldn’t lie to me. I have to get stronger to wake him up. This stupid wolfy is trying to trick me! He’s jealous of Durandal and wants him to never wake up, yes, that must be it! “Just shut up and tell me how to become a mid-ranked spirit warrior.”
“…”
“Or I’ll set you on fire.”
My socks sighed again. “Alright, I’ll tell you.”
***
“How far along are you on your path? And what exactly is your path?”
“How can I tell how far along a path I am? And my path is the Unrelenting Path of Slaughter.”
The wolfkin fell silent for a moment. What was his name again? Gae Bulg? I think I’ll just call him Puppers—it’s much easier to say. “I thought a squirrelkin would be more in tu
ne with the path of ‘hey, look, an acorn’, not a Path of Slaughter.” Hey. “And you even have a prefix before your path. What is this world coming to?”
“I’m the squirrel here! Stop getting so distracted and tell me how to become a mid-ranked spirit warrior already! Stupid Puppers.”
“Did you just call me Puppers?”
That’s it. “Where’s my Barbeque ring?” Here it is.
“Incorporate your path into your daily life! Live, breathe, eat, and sleep your path. You—”
“Sleep my path? The heck is that supposed to mean. Speak clearly, Puppers!” There should be enough mana in the vicinity to activate this ring, right?
“You know how Lan’s skills were preceded with ‘Path of the Spear’ every time he used one? He incorporated the Path of the Spear into every essence of his life. While he was sleeping, he trained the path in his dreams. As he was eating, well, he exclusively used a spear to eat his food. He bathed with a spear, combed his hair with the spear, wrote on paper with the spear. Everything he did was to further himself on the spear’s path.”
“Great. But how am I supposed to do that with a Path of Slaughter? How do I eat with slaughter? Slaughter’s not even a tangible object!” This advice sucks. I thought he was supposed to make me a mid-ranked spirit warrior.
“That’s a good question.” Puppers fell silent, so I wiggled my toes to make sure he was still there. “That tickles. Please stop. I’m trying to think of a way. Cuchulainn also followed the path of the spear, but he had a prefix too: it was righteous. He used his spear to help everyone he could, fighting for justice and the weak. The unfairness in the world where the strong bullied the weak, he tried to correct that.”
