Leveling Up through Eating

Translator: ChubbyCheeks

PR: MattForgenti

“……What’s wrong?”

“It, it’s nothing.”

Lee Seokhoon shook his head hurriedly. He was so shocked when he saw User Minhyuk earlier that he let out a strange gasp.

‘What in the world is that user doing……’

He did not know what that user was doing or what he ate but he was pretty sure that he would encounter a very big accident soon.

However, the situation at hand proved that his thoughts were completely wrong.

“You know that today is the last day, right? I just stopped by while I was on my way to the bathroom.” 

“Yeah. I’ll be right there shortly, you hippo.”

What he expected to happen did not happen, Ellie was even watching Minhyuk with a gentle smile on her face.

It’s the smile that my mom often has!

‘W, what’s this?’

Seokhoon couldn’t understand the situation he was in.

As far as he could see, Minhyuk was very friendly towards the Empress in front of him. It seemed like he was treating her as if she was just an older sister that was living next door. Meanwhile, Ellie was smiling at him gently as if he was her younger brother… No. As if he were her son.

‘N, no. Ellie, you’re the Empress!’

But noona! You’re getting called noona?!

Lee Seokhoon rubbed his aching temples.

“I’m going to go back and get some more training.”

“Yeah.”

Minhyuk rushed back to the training grounds while Lee Seokhoon followed him not long after. When Lee Seokhoon got out of the throne room, Minhyuk was already nowhere in sight.

Lee Seokhoon let out a deep sigh.

***

Minhyuk began to repeatedly strike the wooden puppets with his wooden sword back at the training grounds. Today was the last day of the one-week deadline.

Slash!

“Today, I am finally!”

Slash!

“Going to eat!”

Slash!

“Budaejjigae!”

Minhyuk excitedly swung his sword at the wooden puppets.

Slash!

Craaaaack!

[You have obtained 1 special point.]

[You can also invest your special points on stats that can’t be raised with bonus points.]

He broke another wooden puppet with his final strike, and as usual, he invested the special point into his DEX. His DEX had risen sharply due to his training that it almost reached 360. Minhyuk was very satisfied with the results of his training.

[One week has passed since the start of the training for Ellie’s Swordsmanship.]

[You have achieved more than 100% of the invisible training progress.]

[You have perfectly mastered Ellie’s Swordsmanship.]

[The strength and power of Ellie’s Swordsmanship changes depending on the training progress that you have achieved.]

[You have learnt Ellie’s Swordsmanship.]

‘Hoo.’

So it’s a special reward?

It was only possible to receive this special reward since Minhyuk exceeded the set limit for the training progress.

Minhyuk decided to check the detailed information about Ellie’s Swordsmanship right away.

(Ellie’s Swordsmanship)

Active Skill

Rank: Unique

Level: 1Lv

Proficiency: 0%

Mana Required: Depends on the chapter that will be used.

Cooldown: Depends on the chapter that will be used.

Effects: 

━ 1st Chapter: Sword of Fury

━ 2nd Chapter: Rampant Sword

━ 3rd Chapter: Ellie’s Swordsmanship

━ 4th Chapter: Step

The form and the movements of the skill were not much different from Bardy Swordsmanship so he checked on each chapter to see if there were obvious differences.

(Sword of Fury)

Active Skill

Type of Swordsmanship: Ellie’s Swordsmanship

Mana Required: 180

Cooldown: 2 minutes

Effects:

━ Additional 50% attack power to strong lunges and stabs.

━ Additional 30% attack power on vital strikes.

(Rampant Sword)

Active Skill

Type of Swordsmanship: Ellie’s Swordsmanship

Mana Required: 300

Cooldown: 2 minutes

Effects: ━ A flurry of rampant swords will be created with a 30% additional attack power for 5 seconds.

(Ellie’s Swordsmanship)

Active Skill

Type of Swordsmanship: Ellie’s Swordsmanship

Mana Required: 400

Cooldown: 30 minutes

Effects:

━ Cast time for skills will be reduced and all stats would have an increase of 15% for 5 minutes.

━ Rate of Evasion will increase by +30%.

━ Rate of Fatal Strikes will increase by +30%.

(Step)

Passive Skill

Type of Swordsmanship: Ellie’s Swordsmanship

Mana Required: None

Cooldown: 3 seconds

Effects: ━ Can quickly narrow or increase your distance with the opponent by 1m.

Minhyuk thought that it was a very satisfying skill. First of all, he could see that the skills were overwhelmingly superior compared to Bardy Swordsmanship. Furthermore, Ellie’s Swordsmanship could be leveled up. It meant that the skill would get higher and he would become stronger in the future. 

However, even though the skills were good, there was still one problem that caught Minhyuk’s attention.

‘The MP consumption……’

It’s quite high.

Since it was stronger than Bardy Swordsmanship, it would also consume higher MP. If he compared it with Bardy Swordsmanship then his MP consumption would be around 7~10 times higher if he used Ellie’s Swordsmanship.

But it was fine…

‘I have that!’

When he received it, he just left it in his inventory since he thought that it wasn’t anything delicious. However, he still had it.

It was ‘Minotaurus’ Bone Necklace’.

The moment that he put it on, he would instantly receive 1000 MP. That wasn’t all; once the item was equipped his MP recovery rate would increase by x2. It would definitely be a great assist whenever he would use Ellie’s Swordsmanship.

Then the door opened and Ellie came in.

“I see that you have learnt it all.”

“Yes, I learnt it all! Huhu, so please give me the ingredients now. This is the list.”

Minhyuk handed Ellie the list of ingredients that he had listed in advance. It was as if he was waiting for it for a long time. Ellie handed the list over to a servant that was waiting outside and came back to check on Minhyuk’s training progress.

“I want to see it once.”

“Yes!”

Minhyuk nodded readily as he approached a blue wooden puppet to show off his new skills.

First, the Sword of Fury. His sword started to flash red.

[Sword of Fury.]

[There will be an additional 50% for strong lunges and stabs, if a vital strike is successful there the additional attack power will be 80%.]

There were no vital points that were shown unlike when he used ‘Vital Strike’ from Bardy Swordsmanship. However, Minhyuk still thought that this skill was infinitely better.

The skill meant that if the user accidentally hit the vital point of their opponent then there would be an additional 30% attack power added on to the original 50% increase when the skill was used. This level was something that could never be ignored.

Minhyuk stabbed the wooden puppet resolutely. He tried to remember the area where he first struck the wooden puppet before so it was a bit easier for him to strike right now. He stabbed the wooden puppet with all of his might.

Fwooooooosh!

The air felt like it was being ripped into two. The vibrations caused by the strike could even be felt in the entire training grounds.

Ellie’s eyes were shining unusually bright.

‘As expected……! It’s beyond perfection!’

As soon as she thought of that, she saw Minhyuk’s sword strike another blue wooden puppet.

Craaaaack!

The moment the sword and the wooden puppet met, the wooden puppet shattered.

Bang!

Tak, tak, tak━ 

The remnants of the wooden puppet fell all around him. It might not be the same with Ellie where there were no scattered remnants of the puppet but it was still obvious to any bystander that it was a powerful strike.

And it didn’t even end there.

Chapter 3, Ellie’s Swordsmanship.

[Ellie’s Swordsmanship.]

[All stats will have a 15% increase for 5 minutes.]

[Evasion rate has increased by +30%.]

[Fatal Strikes rate has increased by +30%.]

The red aura surrounding Minhyuk’s body started to flutter and dance. There was more…

[Rampant Sword.]

[A flurry of rampant swords with additional 30% attack power will be created for 5 seconds.]

Minhyuk quickly jumped in the middle of the blue wooden puppets. His sword moved to strike the wooden puppets surrounding him.

Shwaaaack!

Shwaaaack!

Shwaaaack!

Minhyuk’s sword was moving so fast that it was even leaving afterimages. It was extremely fast to the point that he could even make four strikes in one second!

Shwaaaack!

Shwaaaack!

After his skill’s casting time finished…

Plop, plop, plop━ 

Tak, tak, tak━ 

All of the wooden puppets surrounding him were torn and broken with the pieces falling to the ground one by one.

Minhyul could tell…

Rampant Sword is a skill that’s effective when I’m fighting a lot of enemies and I’m being surrounded. What if I level-up the skill and increase the damage?

‘This strength is no joke, right?’

After thinking for a bit, he also decided to check and test out the remaining skill.

[Step.]

[You can quickly move to a distance of 1m away from your target.]

Dash!

Minhyuk just thought of moving backwards and he was already stepping back as if something was pulling him backwards. His movement speed was about three times faster than usual. It looked like it was just an ordinary skill but it was not.

‘What if I use it immediately when I’m in danger?’

If the skill was used right before a monster launches its attack, you can immediately pull yourself out of immediate danger. This could also be used to quickly launch an attack or approach a monster.

“How is it, do you like it?”

“Yes, I like it!”

Before he learnt Ellie’s Swordsmanship, he thought that it was just another skill that he needed to learn. However, once he mastered the skill, he thought that it was an ability and skill that anyone would be satisfied with. 

As he turned around, he could see that Ellie was holding something in her hand. It was a glass bottle that was filled with a transparent liquid. The liquid was sloshing around in the glass bottle and it was even shimmering with a faint light.

Ellie smiled softly and gave it to Minhyuk.

***

Team Leader Park Mingyu and the new employee Lee Minhwa were eating in the cafeteria when the team leader of the Development Team, Lee Seokhoon, sat in front of them and sighed loudly.

“Ha…… I know now why Team Leader Park is having such a hard time with User Minhyuk.”

“……What are you talking about?”

Team Leader Park and Lee Minhwa were looking at him strangely. They have yet to know what happened since the Special Users Management Team did not look at the users everyday. The only thing that they knew was that he was building favorability with Ellie and training his swordsmanship at an alarming rate.

Team Leader Lee Seokhoon did not leave them hanging and explained to them what happened in the palace. Team Leader Park jumped to his feet and put his hands over his shoulders.

“Now…… Now you understand why I’m having a hard time whenever I talk about that user, right?”

“……I understand. Ah, How are you going to handle him? No, he even calls the Empress noona.”

Team Leader Lee Seokhoon tapped Team Leader Park’s hand. After they finished eating their meals, they stood up and went together to the Special Users Management Team.

“Let’s get a cup of coffee and talk a bit more about that user.”

They went inside the Special Users Management Team with those words.

When Lee Minhwa turned on her monitor screen, they were just in time to see User Minhyuk, the user that they were just talking about.

Then, her eyes suddenly opened wide in surprise.

“Team, Team Leader Park.”

“Why? Did User Minhyuk do something amazing again?”

“Something big must have happened again~”

They were just saying it as a joke but Lee Minhwa nodded her head seriously at their remarks.

“Yes……”

“What?!”

“Heob?!”

Team Leader Lee and Team Leader Park quickly turned their heads to look at the monitor. The notification that popped up left them gaping in surprise…

[The Sword Emperor Ellie gives User Minhyuk the Empire’s Elixir as a present.]

“……!”

“……!”

The Empire’s Elixir.

Team Leader Lee and Team Leader Park’s eyes met over the monitor after confirming it over and over again.

***

TL’s corner!!!

You really shouldn’t impose your standards on him. LOL. he’ll just break it over and over again. KEK.

PR’s corner!

I feel bad for the devs. Imagining a player just one-upping everything you planned for would be frustrating. Fun to read though.