24 Hearts

Chapter 20

20====================

To live in this world.

[——]

-Shadow Justice

└Shadow Justice Form 1 – Spreading Shadows

└Shadow Justice Form 2 – Magic

[——]

The magical power that had so abundantly accumulated in my body emerged, with a portion of it being released. Practicing it was far different than employing it in an emergency.

Shadows swam to the floor and began spreading out from me.

In an instant, the shadows had enveloped the surrounding area and began to convey information to me. It felt as if my field of vision had been forcibly widened; as if I was forced to see more than humans are made to see.

I had only practiced Spreading Shadows in a room before, where there existed no moving beings, so this felt far different. My shadows now showed me how many enemies were in the vicinity.

‘A total of three.’

The location of my foes was revealed as red blips on my minimap. I had thought there to be only one wolf; there were three. They had completely surrounded me and could attack at any time. Had I rushed toward the first one, the other two would have immediately attacked me from behind.

I had also been wrong in thinking that a single wolf had circled me, constantly moving. They had not moved since they came here. Instead, they had made the occasional furtive step so as to confuse me on their positions and number.

‘Kreung!’

Whether a signal of attack or not, I heard a growl from behind me and then sensed swift movement.

A wolf leaped out from the bushes, and as it revealed itself, it growled in an even fiercer manner.

‘Hwaaaar!’

I swiveled about to face it.

‘Ha, it’s big!’

The wolf was bigger than I had thought. It had great rows of sharp teeth, and it seemed as if it would sink them into my neck at any moment. In that instant, the other wolves came loping up from the other side, still hidden behind the thickets. I had already confirmed their position through Spreading Shadows, and in two spots, the bushes were shaking where the beasts moved. I threw my dagger toward one of those spots.

Fortunately, I didn’t need to worry that much about accuracy. Due to my proficiency in Mercenary Left-Handed Dagger, my throw was true, and the dagger flew straight for the spot between its eyes. Still, the wolf had good reflexes, barely swerving out of the dagger’s path, getting sliced across its scalp. It slunk back into the bushes, a bit more fearful now.

In the meantime, I was thinking of how to deal with the beast before me. Although I was in the body of a young boy, my stats had already improved. Moreover, I had trained by constantly swinging swords, which was a neat ability to have in my current predicament. The wolf ran at me and launched its attack, and as it did, I sidestepped, gripping my longsword in both hands, and piercing it up toward the wolf.

There was the sound of metal slicing through flesh, and then a pained, hideous roar.

‘Wrohuuu!’

The wolf’s teeth snapped shut inches from my nose as it crashed to the ground. Out of fear, I had altered the direction of my initial thrust, cutting clean through one of the wolf’s paws. Its heavy body rolled to the ground as it yipped and yelped. I drew one of my remaining daggers from the belt and threw it at the wolf’s head as it tried to regain its footing while it whined and growled.

The black wolf’s skin was tough, but the dagger was thrown from such a small distance that it accurately pierced its hide and then its throat. I watched its spasming body convulse, and then droop into lifelessness.

I wanted to catch my breath, but I held back the impulse, knowing that it was not yet time.

‘Gruur!’

There were still two wolves left. The one who had escaped my dagger was in the rear, but the other one had run out and was now behind me.

Dodge, or attack?

I had to do one of the two. I chose the latter action. The wolf who was charging at me leaped into the air. Through the shadows that suffused the area, the wolf’s attack pattern flowed into my mind and I managed to avoid the attack as if possessing a magic eye. And while I dodged, I twisted my waist and performed a short, inward thrust with my sword.

‘Uwhoo!’

The wolf could not fully avoid my thrust, so I cut into its left shoulder, though its claws raked into my left shoulder in turn. The blood splattering onto my face caused a tingling sensation. I frowned but knew that if such pain began to bother me, I would really die.

[——]

─Shadow Swordsmanship

└Shadow Swordsmanship Form 2 – True

[——]

Activation was confirmed as soon as black particles began to cover my sword’s blade after I had spent some of my magical power. I had already landed a preemptive attack on the over-confident wolf. I drew my sword back from where it had pierced the beast, and blood splattered into the air like cherry blossoms upon a breeze.

I was now covered in red hot blood and had to swivel around to correct my stance, getting no chance to wipe or brush the blood off.

Right before me was the last wolf.

I looked straight into its eyes as I studied its movement. It had seemed as if the beast would just rush me straight on, but it rather hunched its shoulders as it crouched and stalked toward me. I could see that it was preparing itself to leap at me.

I brought the longsword’s hilt to my chest and angled its tip to the sky. I extended my left hand before me, using it as a sight. It was as if I was aiming an arrow at a target, with my finger pointing in the same direction as my sword.

‘Har-ahr-har!’

The wolf’s voice was fury-filled, and it resonated through the forest.

I activated a facet of my skills.

‘Shadow Swordsmanship, form three, one point!’

As I shouted this, a screen also flashed through my mind confirming its activation.

‘Wheeeess,’ sounded the wind, and alongside that sound came the sound of the black energy that gathered into my blade and then launched itself into the air. The energy that had swirled above me formed itself into a single lance, and that lance pierced through the air and stabbed into the wolf’s chest. The wolf, its eyes having possessed such great bestial anger, now spasmed and kicked for a few moments.

Its death was inevitable.

I didn’t really know. Perhaps it might have saved itself if it had some special abilities, but it was too late for it now. I had heard the air escape from the beast’s lungs as the lance pierced through its tough hide and muscles, smashed through bones, and pierced into its vital internal organs.

Only when the magic that had created the lance returned to its original place, now shaped like a longsword, did blood gush from the great wound.

My hair, face, and clothes: I was covered in blood from head to toe. The smell of the drying blood disgusted me. I gave my sword a swing, and the blood that had coated its surface was shaken off.

‘Huhoo … choo … hoo.’

The wolf with the great hole pierced into its side was still alive. I walked slowly to the struggling wolf and then struck into its head with my sword. After I confirmed its death, my hand started trembling. My hand pained, so hard was I gripping onto the sword’s handle.

‘Wooo!’

It was dangerous! Such was my sudden thought. It wasn’t that I had been feeling a threat to my life. Rather, I felt great joy the moment I had taken the first wolf’s life, even if I had almost fainted. It was a completely different sensation from when you hunted animals such as deer or wild boars. I had survived, I had fought for my life, and I had won.

My battles with Kain had been so that we could hone each other’s skills and advance higher, not so that we could take each other’s lives.

One does not die in a duel, even if one is defeated. Also, I was convinced that Kain wouldn’t try to kill me. The fights against the wolves had been completely different.

It had been a struggle. Everything had happened as if in short bursts of time, and I had acted without knowing that I acted.

‘Chack, chuck,’ I tried to stop the laughter from bursting from me.

‘Ah… hahahhahaa! Ahahaha, ahahahahahaha!’

In the end, it burst out and I laughed like crazy. There were no more wolves around, and my entire body was crying with joy. My heart thumped wildly in my chest. After I had laughed for a while, I stopped. The warm blood on my body was being dried by the wind.

I checked all the system messages that I had been unable to check during the battle.

──────────────────────

[You have obtained 1 silver coin]

[Shadow Swordsmanship and Shadow Justice skill proficiency has increased by 1]

[You have obtained 2 silver coins]

[Your level has risen by 1]

──────────────────────

After starting hunting with Gentia, my level had risen to five while I did this and that. Now it had risen a lot after this fight. And as my level rose, the pain from my shoulder wound grew fainter. Still, the wound was not completely healed.

Even if this world was set up as a game, it still reflected reality to a great extent, so my wound did not completely heal even when I gained a level. Only the regeneration rate of the healing wound had slightly increased.

I stood there blankly for a while, and then breathed out loud, rechecking the system messages. There was something important there: A record of the coins I had gained. In contrast to hunting animals, a certain amount of money is deposited into your inventory every time you kill a wolf.

‘Gentia, are you saying that materials, or items, don’t drop if you kill animals?’ I had once asked her. When I had made my game, I had coded it so that items dropped if you hunted something.

Gentia hadn’t seemed to understand what I meant by the question, and when I asked something about the codes, she had listened to me, laughed, and said that there was no such thing in animals.

She said that you didn’t get coins from killing wild boars and deer, and I had believed her.

So when I got money from the wolves, I wondered whether I would get items as well.

Maybe they just dropped money, but I would be sure to check it out later once I hunted more wolves.

I pulled a cloth from my {bag} and used it to wipe clean my longsword. I then recovered my daggers. I glanced at the black wolves lying on the ground.

Come to think of it, these animals belonged to the ones that net a profit. Their leather was sold for hefty sums to general and clothing stores, and because they were a type of monster, they also had magic stones inside of them.

I opened my inventory by selecting {bag} again and removed my butchering knife. It would be my first time slaughtering a wolf, but I was able to do it, for my skills had become refined to some extent through my butchering of animals in East Forest.

It couldn’t get a pristine cut of hide for leather, but it had all gone satisfactorily.

After I had removed the skin, I had to remove the gemstone. According to Gentia’s teachings, the gemstone was situated between the navel and the pit of the stomach. Following what she said, I was able to carve out two gemstones. In the case of the last wolf, the gemstone was impossible to find, considering the hole that had been gored through its chest. Instead, I got something even more precious.

“Is this a b code}?”

The baseball-sized object was surrounded with a glass-like membrane, and inside it, blue characters were spinning lazily, as if on a continuous conveyor belt.

A faint white light emanated from the glassy membrane. And I knew that if it was white, it meant it was of a [common] grade.

──────────────────────

「Code: Sharpness of ~」

Class: [common] weapons only

Effect: Wound Worsening (3% Increase in blood loss|||1% decrease in regeneration)

──────────────────────

This game did not have hard stats to reinforce items: +1, +2, et cetera did not exist to increase damage here. Instead, it was possible to add prefix and suffix effects to a weapon by using a b code}.

The higher the b code} rating, the more special options appear, and there are many ways in which to obtain codes.

In my original game, a b code} was obtained through hunting, or when an NPC who met the conditions was killed. Of course, you could also get rewards for completing quests, and you would get a higher level b code} or a different one of the same level if you combine codes of the same level by using the synthesis system of the game.

But this world was now reality for me, no longer a game. From what Gentia had told me though, the way in which to get a {code} wasn’t so different.

She said that when monsters or influential persons such as saints and sages die, codes appear in their bodies.

One difference from the game is that she said that a b code} is commonly found in areas where natural disasters or pestilence have struck, for example, after floods or some great plague.

I had asked her how one would check the effectiveness of a b code}, and she told me that I could ask a mage, or perhaps peruse their wares.

It seemed to have been a method of using the effects of the game system in the real world to a limited extent, but to me, for who all systems were open, it was possible to check by simply summoning the data.

‘Hmmm.’

I checked the effects of the {code} and used it on my longsword at once. Gentia had told me to visit the mage’s tower if I wanted to know the effect of a {code}, but in my case, things worked a little differently.

[—]Would you like to give -Longsword- the effect of 「Code: Sharpness of ~」? Y/N[—]

A system message had appeared. When I chose to give it to the sword, the baseball-sized sphere and its blue characters penetrated the metal of the longsword.

[—]As the suffix {code} was successfully added, the name of -Longsword- is changed to -Longsword-Sharpness-[—]

I said nothing as I studied it, for I could see nothing different, even when I swung it through the air. In the case of a {code} given only once, it was said that one could duplicate it by requesting one from a tower. So if that was the case, would it be possible to extract b code} once it had been used?

And just as I had expected, there was a [code extraction] option in the item’s info screen.

After some time, I held a whitely-shining sphere in my hand.

“So the usage and extraction cost nothing… that is fine.”

I gave a gentle laugh and realized that the sun would soon set, so I headed back to Serenia.

I became relieved of tension along the way, for the strength of my legs was regained, and even if I had stumbled once, I had managed to walk out of the forest.

Fortunately, no more black wolves bothered me upon my journey.

* * *

──────────────────────

[—]Hint: 1 Gold Coin = 1 million Won | 1 silver coin = 10,000 Won | 1 fairy tale = 1,000 Won[—]

──────────────────────

「Status Window」

[Name: Judah Arche]

[Title: None]

[Level: 10]

[Job: Black Claw _ Shadow Magic Swordsman (Hidden_A)]

[Number of resurrections: 1]

[Strength: 35(D) / Potential A]