by Yuu Tanaka
“GRAAARGH!”
Which was why I was caught off guard by a sudden roar that sounded like it came from right above me. I looked up at the source of the noise and saw a huge black shape the size of a Cessna plane.
What?! How did Echolocation not detect that thing?!
I had scanned the area with my Skill a few moments ago and that huge shadow didn’t show up in the results. It roared again, whizzing by me at what felt like supersonic speeds. It grazed a part of my blade, and a high-pitched metallic clang rang through the air. The creature’s lunge was so powerful that I flung back about ten meters in a tailspin. That wasn’t all: The graze had decreased my Durability by 30 when I checked my status screen.
You’d resort to an ambush, you coward?!
Now, you might be thinking, “But you ambush monsters all the time,” and you’d be right. But it was okay if I did it, because I was a sword. Why does that make it okay, you ask? Well, because! Being on the receiving end of an ambush also pissed me off!
I tried stabilizing myself as I spun in the air from the ambush. I needed to see what I was up against, but I couldn’t even see it. It was too fast to see with the naked eye—and I suddenly understood why Echolocation didn’t work on it. I only used Echolocation once every few minutes to check my surroundings, but a creature with that kind of speed would only take an instant to get to me; it was well outside the effective range of thirty meters. Considering the thing was already a tiny dot in the distance in the five seconds after it had grazed me, I figured it probably took less than three seconds for it to find then carry out the initial strike against me.
The creature roared again.
Damn, it’s coming in hot!
I cast Identify on it, barely evading its assault.
Name: Lesser Wyvern
Race: Monster; Lesser Dragon.
LV: 21
HP: 223; Magic: 95; Strength: 122; Agility: 142
Skills: Intimidate 2; Stealth 2; Fire Resistance 3; Air Manipulation 3; Poison Resistance 3; Hardened Scales; Enhanced Olfaction; Enhanced Absorption; Enhanced Sight
It was strong! The wyvern may have been a lesser dragon but it was the strongest monster I had come to face yet. It had more skills, too. I managed to avoid a direct hit this time, but the wind pressure it generated was enough to knock me off course. It was then I realized that I had taken this world lightly. I had yet to face any hard opposition, but throwing me a dragon for my first real fight was overdoing it, don’t you think?
Damn it!
My formidable foe circled around, moving even faster this time. This seemed to be a hopeless boss fight, but giving up wasn’t an option on the off-chance I got a Game Over screen instead of progressing my story. I resolved that, if it came down to it, I would hover close to the ground to escape the dragon’s missile-like assaults. That might be enough to do it. Maybe.
For now, I was going to try and fight it since it was doubtful whether I’d be able to run away from it in the first place. It was probably going to pursue me as long as I stayed in its territory, so I may as well find a way to create an opening and fight back. Its supersonic speed seemed like a double-edged sword I could use to my advantage, so I decided to start there. My own survival took precedence of course.
I waited for the Lesser Wyvern to make its next attack. The creature’s speed worked against it, making it difficult to alter its own flight course. Thankfully, I didn’t need to worry about the certainty of the dragon’s next assault. It made a great turn and lunged toward me once more.
Here it comes!
The creature let out a mighty roar as I readied myself to aim for its soft underbelly. My plan was to dodge its charge while staying close to the creature’s stomach. I could then slash upward to cut it open in one quick swing. I wasn’t sure whether it would work, but I was all for trying it out. If I was damaged in the process, I would hastily make my retreat.
The dark shape grew larger as it closed in on me, but I was oddly calm. It was fast, but it wasn’t quite as fast as the cars and bikes back home. Add the fact that it couldn’t make any fancy maneuvers, and you had what was essentially a flying freight train; fast, but predictable. This might just work.
Come on!
“GROAR!”
No, never mind. I had managed to dodge the wyvern’s charge, but I only grazed the belly of the beast. Trying with all my might to stay calm, I had overcorrected the course of my swing out of subconscious fear. At least I knew I could hurt it now though, even if it was just a scratch. The graze gave me a chunk of my mana back, given the wyvern’s high magic value. This would make it easier for me to cast my skills.
A low growl emanated out of the creature.
Crap, it looks pissed now. I barely scratched you, buddy.
I may have made things worse for myself, seeing that the dragon was now glaring at me with resentful eyes.
This may not end well.
It charged at me again. I tried to get away, but, alas, it hit me dead on.
Ow! That’s it, you oversized, winged lizard!
It got a good hit in, I had to admit. The Lesser Wyvern flicked its tail as it grazed against me, as if expecting my counterattack in a display of acrobatic flair to knock its talons on me. But I wasn’t about to just float there and take it. I took advantage of the momentum from its claw striking me and charged straight into its right eye. However, gouging the eye proved to be too great an effort for my blade and the tip of it snapped. It was so worth it, though. The creature roared and flailed in pain, its flight becoming erratic.
Now let’s see if I’m okay.
I still had two thirds of my blade left on me. It didn’t hurt, but I wasn’t sure if I was going to be all right after this encounter. It didn’t look like I had any problems with flying either, likely thanks to my use of Telekinesis. My broken shape had no apparent effect on my aerodynamics, and neither was I leaking mana from my broken blade. I was in surprisingly decent shape. I had that Self-Repair skill, so I wondered if that would fix me after this. It would suck if I had to remain broken though, I thought to myself. Just then, my blade began glowing and a couple millimeters of my broken cross-section had begun fusing itself. The Self-Repair skill was kicking in. I sighed in relief. It looked like I was going to be whole again.
You’re done for, you oversized lizard!
Having checked to see that I was all right, I resumed my furious name-calling of the wyvern. My beautiful white blade was now cracked and in pieces, and I wasn’t going to let it get away with that. I suspected it wasn’t going to let me get away, either. The wyvern reared up resentfully and launched itself toward me again, set on destroying me for the injury I had dealt it. It was slightly slower, but it was still faster than I was by far.
Bring it on!
I had made peace with the fact that my broken blade was going to make my life difficult, but I had steeled myself. I was ready to lose one battle to win the war against this thing. First, I slowed myself down, deliberately allowing the flying lizard to gain on me. Having tricked it into thinking I was limping away, it charged in a straight line toward me.
Hah, you fell for it, you winged bastard!
I pivoted, aimed my blade at its wings, accelerated, and was rewarded with a body blow. The wyvern couldn’t dodge my attack with how fast it was going, and we rammed into each other. Only a tenth of my blade remained after the crash, most of it shattered by the smash. But the Lesser Wyvern wasn’t doing so great, either. I had cut its left wing clean off its base and it was now hurtling toward the ground. We were about thirty meters in the air, and I figured that wasn’t going to be enough to finish off a lesser dragon. But as I approached the Lesser Wyvern, I found that its neck was bent at an odd angle and was now sputtering copious amounts of blood from its mouth. The creature was in its death throes, and it was only a matter of time until it ceased moving entirely.
Phew, I survived that encounter somehow.
My Durability counter was at 23 now. That was too close for com
fort. I wouldn’t have survived if I had taken more damage from the first hit.
Well, it’s a good thing I won…but how do I go about getting your crystal?
Digging out my hard-earned prize was going to prove difficult with only a tenth of a blade. Considering how long it took for Self-Repair to work, it was probably going to take more than a night to get back to my original shape. In the meantime, the corpse of the Lesser Wyvern might not be safe from the scavengers wandering the grasslands at night.
What do I do now…?
I felt a bond forming between my broken pieces thanks to my Self-Repair skill.
Maybe…
I focused my energy and visualized Self-Repair energy flooding my blade in the hopes it would speed things up. Granted, it was a silly speculation but—
What’s this?
My blade was now glowing brighter.
This might just work…
Focusing my energy made the Self-Repair skill work faster. This was quite the discovery. It meant that increased focus during the casting of other skills may increase the effectiveness of those skills. On the flip side, I was now consuming mana at a rate of 1 MP per second. My mana consumption wasn’t without merit however, when I had recovered the entirety of my blade in about three minutes’ time. I had 15 MP left by the end of my repair. I wouldn’t have had enough if I hadn’t drained mana from the Lesser Wyvern during our fight.
I learned a lot from that fight.
Now I had enough blade to carve myself a crystal. The Lesser Wyvern’s crystal was in its neck (I should’ve aimed at this spot instead) and was worth 20 points, indicative of how hard the fight against it was.
I guess I’ll find a bush to hide myself in for the rest of the night…
It was the morning after I had defeated the Lesser Wyvern. I was hovering in the air trying to locate my pedestal. It was a bright day, and the increased visibility aided me in locating my home. I spotted it eventually, much farther away than I had thought. I must have gotten turned around the other night and went in the opposite direction.
And away we go!
I launched myself in the direction of my pedestal. I took down some weak monsters who were unfortunate enough to be caught in my flight path and had a hearty breakfast of crystals. The fight with the wyvern last night strengthened me to the point where the weaker monsters had become little more than trash mobs. I noticed monsters grew stronger the further away I went from the pedestal, and weaker the closer I was to it. It might have something to do with the magic emitted by the pedestal; perhaps it made a barrier of some sort. Incidentally, I only noticed this barrier ever since I began using magic. I didn’t know who put it up, but I speculated that it might have been my creator.
It took a little under an hour to reach the pedestal I called home. Flying in a straight line helped, and it was a lot easier to navigate now that it was light out. I was only away for a night, but I had already begun feeling homesick. As I drew closer to the pedestal, the warm magic of the barrier welcomed me home.
I’m back, Pedestal! Did you miss me?
I dove into it and sheathed myself with a plop. Resting within the pedestal was comfortable beyond belief.
Home sweet pedestal. I can finally kick back and relax!
I spent a few minutes just staring at the clouds as they went by. Then, it was time for entertainment.
Heheheh… Mwahahaha! I finally have it! I have ceased to be a mere sword, J*jo!
It was time for some magic. I had gotten fire magic off a Goblin Mage during my goblin slaughter the other day and I couldn’t wait to try it out.
Let’s just equip it real quick… And, we’re set.
I concentrated on casting it. I was no stranger to using my Skills, so I was curious as to how a Spell would work, if at all. My initial results were disappointing, to say the least.
It doesn’t look like it’s doing anything…
I had cast the spell, but nothing came of it. Though, it didn’t feel like I had failed to cast the spell, either.
What gives? Do I not have enough magic? I’m pretty sure that Goblin Mage had less magic than I do though… I’ll try equipping all of the mage’s skills for now.
I equipped Mineralogy, Command, Staff Mastery, Battle Staff, Fire Magic, Fire Magic Up (Small), and Mana Manipulation to start. Suddenly, some new images came into view.
Fire Arrow and Fire Shield?
I picked Fire Arrow because if I was going to use any magic at all, then it had to be offensive magic.
Whoa, there’s an actual incantation in my head now.
I began reading the incantation and my blade glowed by the time I finished.
Fire Arrow!
An arrow made of flames shot out of me when I said the magic words. It flew off into the distance at the speed and trajectory of an actual arrow.
Whoa…
It worked!
Hahahaha! I did it!
The fire arrow only singed the grass it flew over. If we were talking about pure damage, then flinging myself at an incoming enemy would’ve been a hundred times more effective; but that wasn’t the point. The point was that I was now able to use magic.
All right, let’s try this one next! Fire Shield!
A small, flaming buckler projected itself in front of me.
Hm. I wonder how strong it is.
I picked up some rocks with Telekinesis and began flinging it at the shield. Nothing too powerful, I was only tossing them at the speed a baseball pitcher would throw a ball. It took the first rock without any problems but began wavering by the third.
That’s about it, I guess.
The shield was good for three hits, after which it dissipated. It was going to suffice for any projectiles, but I was doubtful about putting it up against swords and axes. For now, I was content playing around with these two spells. I had more than enough mana to spare after my rank up and they both only cost 5 MP to cast. I enjoyed myself, casting one spell after another.
Fire Arrow! Fire Arrow! Woohoo!
Thirty minutes went by before I started coming down from my high. The surrounding shrubbery appeared to have been on fire, but that could’ve been my imagination.
Phew. Speaking of, I should look into my skills.
Specifically, I wanted to know which skills I needed to equip to cast magic. I began by unequipping the two skills which obviously had nothing to do with magic: Mineralogy and Command. With Staff Mastery, Battle Staff, Fire Magic, Fire Magic Up (Small), and Mana Manipulation still equipped, I cast Fire Arrow again.
That worked.
I then unequipped Staff Mastery and Battle Staff.
Fire Arrow!
No problems there. I unequipped Fire Magic Up (Small) and found I was still able to cast magic. This time, I unequipped Mana Manipulation so that Fire Magic was the only magic related skill I had equipped.
Nope.
I re-equipped Mana Manipulation.
Fire Arrow.
Whoosh.
It looked like I was going to need Mana Manipulation to use any magic at all, so I may as well just leave it equipped at all times. Which brought my attention to another skill with a similar name: Spirit Manipulation.
If Mana Manipulation is for Magic, what’s Spirit Manipulation for?
The skills the Goblin King had were as follows: Intimidate, Sword Arts, Sword Mastery, Command, Morale Boost, Shield Mastery, Provoke, Throwing Weapons, and Vigor. Was Spirit Manipulation for Sword Mastery? Or maybe it was for this new skill called Sword Arts. After some time experimenting with my skill sets, I figured out that Spirit Manipulation indeed went with Sword Arts. I was able to expend Spirit to unleash devastating attacks called Sword Arts. There was the Double Slash which allowed me to attack twice, and the Heavy Slash which was a devastating strike sure to kill most enemies. They looked intriguing.
I can’t wait to try them out on a moving target.
I could hunt tougher monsters with all these new skills. I’d be able to expand my hunting grounds as
well.
I’ve already taken care of the goblin situation, so I guess I’ll try venturing farther out.
Four days had gone by since I first learned fire magic. The local monsters had begun fearing me as the murderous magic sword, and some even took the initiative to destroy me. I carried on absorbing crystals and was now at Rank 4. I had developed a taste for the various kinds of magic crystals available; not that the crystals themselves literally had different flavors, but there was a difference in the quality of magic between every monster type. The orcs and goblins I’d been killing as of late had a stronger taste compared to the other monsters. Absorbing the crystals of the demonkin was like eating spicy food in my previous life, although the resemblance was vague at best.
I’d collected a myriad of different skills and was slowly increasing their levels as well. My raid of the Gourmet Orc’s nest proved to be a delicious venture, both in the skill acquisition and crystal absorption senses. I acquired various weapon skills which included my most frequently used Sword Mastery and Sword Arts, both of which were now at Level 3. Leveling Sword Mastery to Level 3 really made a difference as I could manipulate my blade, which was really my body, much better, and I was much more efficient at striking the enemy’s vital parts as well. I could deflect the attacks of some of the larger monsters, too. This really was the most important skill to have if you had a sword for a body.
I also acquired a variety of skills from the other monsters of course: The rock-like Stone Spider gave me an upgrade of my Poison Fang skill, Advanced Poison Fang; the carnivorous Giant Mole gave me Heat Sense; and much like a certain Poison Fang Rat, the Paralysis Cat didn’t give me Paralysis Claws, but it did give me Conceal Presence. On top of that, I got Air Current Sight from the bird-type monsters, a skill which fell under the Sense category, and other Stealth skills from the smaller, fanged monsters. They were all easy to use and had great utility. I had explored seventy percent of the grasslands and it now felt like my backyard.
Take this! Fire Arrow!
