About a year had passed since I was trapped in this space.
Right now, I swung the [Unbreakable Stick] relentlessly. The reason was simple: if I wasn't doing something, I felt like I would go crazy from anxiety about the future.
Of course, I had hoped that swinging the [Unbreakable Stick] would increase my stats, but as usual, they remained at 0.1 without changing. It seemed things wouldn't be that easy after all.
At any rate, perhaps because I had been training in swordsmanship for as long as I could remember, swinging the stick allowed me to forget everything.
—10 years after the start of the game.
A long time had passed. For the first few years, I kept count by carving marks into the sheer cliff wall in thirty-day increments, but along the way, I discovered that the rows of numbers on the stone slab inside the temple indicated the date, so I began using that instead.
For those initial years, I missed my hometown and family so intensely that I could hardly bear it. However, the moment I came up with the idea of holding virtual matches against people I had sparred with in the past, that loneliness vanished.
—40 years after the start of the game.
Through these imagined virtual matches, I defeated my peers at the dojo, and then the adults. And finally, when I became capable of defeating even the assistant instructor—
"You have met the requirements to acquire [Kai-Style Swordsmanship: Single-Blade Initial Transmission]. Acquiring skill—[Kai-Style Swordsmanship: Single-Blade Initial Transmission]."
An inorganic female voice echoed in my head.
"Huh?"
Suppressing the agitation brought on by this long-awaited change, I appraised it.
―――――――――――――――――――――
Skill—[Kai-Style Swordsmanship: Single-Blade, Initial Transmission]: The initial transmission of swordsmanship. Slightly increases stats during actual combat with swords.
Acquisition Condition: Continuously engage in mock battles with swords for over 12 hours every day for approximately 40 years.
Rank: Beginner
Rank-up Condition: Continuously engage in mock battles with swords for over 12 hours every day for approximately 120 years.
――――――――――――
What I had acquired this time was something utterly bizarre called [Kai-Style Swordsmanship: Single-Blade].
Of course, I hadn't been fighting real mock battles. Perhaps fighting against virtual images was counted as mock combat. Either way, those imagined mock battles were my only connection to others. I had no choice but to keep going.
—800 years after the start of the game.
A sword dance tracing curves like flowing water. By now, I could move the stick as if it were an extension of my own limbs.
[Kai-Style Swordsmanship: Single-Blade, Initial Transmission] had progressed through Intermediate Transmission and reached Secret Transmission.
According to appraisal, it was supposed to grant a stat-boosting effect as long as I fought with a sword, but likely because these were virtual mock battles, I felt no improvement in my physical abilities whatsoever.
Well, the present me understood that swordsmanship was not a matter of physical strength or skills.
In fact, with the physical capabilities of a mere toddler, I had reached the point where I could defeat my grandfather, the Sword Saint—Elm Heinemann—without breaking a sweat. My grandfather was an esteemed warrior who had once fought the Four Great Demon Kings as part of the Hero's party. His strength was indisputable. This proved that in swordsmanship, physical capability was nothing more than a superficial trick.
Indeed. The path of swordsmanship—the Way of the Sword—was something that lay beyond technique and physical brawn.
"Well, Grandfather is past his prime. The world is still full of strong warriors."
Before being trapped here, my grandfather had taken me around to observe various tournaments and dojos. Perhaps because day after day I had done nothing but think about and practice how to defeat opponents with the sword, I had forgotten everything about my life before being trapped here, yet I never forgot the supreme sword techniques of those warriors.
Gram of the Dual Blades—the strongest swordsman of the Izavel Theocracy, who wielded two swords as if they were his own limbs.
Silver of the Magic Sword—said to be the strongest living elf, who integrated magic and swordsmanship.
Former Sword Emperor Ashburn—of the Glitnir Empire.
The world was still brimming with the strong.
Filled with extraordinary joy, I immersed myself in the journey of the sword.
—1,500 years after the start of the game.
Even more years passed. Having defeated every swordsman I had ever laid eyes on, and even an imagined version of my grandfather in his prime, I envisioned and created the First Sword Saint, regarded as the strongest swordsman in the long history of the blade. Naturally, I had never met the First Sword Saint. It was purely my imagination, but I believed it wasn't far off the mark.
And when I finally defeated the First Sword Saint, I attained Full Transmission.
—3,000 years after the start of the game.
After defeating the First Sword Saint, I decided to challenge the greatest adversary, whom I had long since chosen as my training partner. It was the supreme warrior at the pinnacle of swordsmanship, of whom I had once heard from my grandfather. A supreme Sword God who was versed in all martial arts and had reached the absolute peak of the way of the sword. Surely, having defeated even that strongest Sword Saint, I was now capable of constructing this ideal swordsman.
Yet ironically, the image of that god of martial prowess I had perfectly constructed was none other than the present me—Kai Heinemann.
From then on, I began training against myself, my own ultimate ideal.
As a result of continuing to swing the stick toward the somewhat perverse and contradictory goal of defeating my ideal self, after an unfathomable expanse of time, I finally achieved victory and attained [Kai-Style Swordsmanship: Single-Blade Ultimate Transmission].
[Kai-Style Swordsmanship: Single-Blade Ultimate Transmission] seemed to have the effect of maximizing stats during combat with swords, but to a swordsman, stats were merely an afterthought. They held no real significance. It was an ability one could hardly call useful.
Incidentally, as a result of eating poisonous bugs every day, my resistance had progressed through [Lethal Poison Resistance], [Poison Nullification], and [Poison Absorption], ultimately evolving into the pinnacle: [Poison Assimilation]. This [Poison Assimilation] was an ability that allowed me to merge with poison; whenever I was afflicted by poison, I would absorb it and recover HP and MP. It was a power of little use in a life spent merely swinging a stick, but well, it was certainly better than nothing.
"Well then, it's about time I get going."
Finishing my meal of [Hard Poison Insect]s, I took the [Unbreakable Stick] in hand and stood up.
At any rate, far too much time had passed. I didn't remember a single shred of the past.
The only thing that had driven me forward through these well over one thousand years was walking the path of the sword. That was all. Everything else was trivial to me.
That was why, when I realized I had defeated my ideal self and fully mastered the way of the sword, I was deeply shaken for the first time. It was because the hardship known as a 'goal' that once stood in my way was now gone.
Defeating myself had been my very sustenance for living in recent years. Now that it had been achieved, I had to find a new goal. If I didn't, I would cease to be myself. That was an undeniable truth. Yet now that I had defeated myself, there were no enemies left to overcome. Just then, I arrived at the most fundamental question of all: why had I started swordsmanship in the first place? It was right under my nose. I abruptly remembered that what my soul truly craved right now lay beyond that temple.
It was almost laughable how foolish I had been. No matter how devoted I had been to the way of the sword, to think I had forgotten a place where I could stake my life against thrilling, mighty foes.
The past me hadn't harbored the slightest thought of conquering the dungeon deep within that temple. That place was literally a domain of death. A battle that, by all rights, should be impossible to win. There was nothing more wonderful than that. Perhaps it could serve as a new, towering wall for me to overcome.
"Mmm. How exhilarating."
Fighting hard to suppress the grin spreading across my face, I stepped toward the domain of death with the [Unbreakable Stick] in one hand.
Walking slowly toward me from the front was the Grasshopper Man.
Appraising it displayed only [Name—Grasshopper Man]. Oho, so it's impossible to evaluate an enemy's stat values even with appraisal, is it? Fascinating! Measuring strength by numerical values and choosing only to fight foes weaker than oneself is the height of dullness. This is much better!
Now then, thanks to the effect of [Kai-Style Swordsmanship: Single-Blade Ultimate Transmission], all of my stats have risen to an average of 50. I look forward to seeing just how well I can stand against that fellow. Truly, I look forward to it.
"Hey, Grasshopper Man. Show me the path I ought to tread!"
Shouting that, I walked leisurely toward him, brimming with delight.
I dodged the Grasshopper Man's relentless flurry of claws by a hair's breadth, and easily parried what seemed to be his trump card—a full-power right middle kick—with my wooden stick.
"Is that all...?"
Having received only a few attacks, I realized it. With strikes utterly devoid of refinement like these, he wouldn't touch me even if given a hundred years. In the end, he was merely a grasshopper, after all...
Doing my best to hold back my disappointment, I readied my wooden stick. And then—
"[Kai-Style Swordsmanship: Single-Blade], First Form—Death Line."
A line ran across Grasshopper Man's chest. The line rippled outward, spreading across his torso, limbs, and head.
"Giga?!"
Those were Grasshopper Man's last words. The various parts of Grasshopper Man's body slid out of alignment, spraying green blood as he collapsed into finely diced pieces of flesh.
After shaking the spray of blood off my wooden stick, I appraised myself.
My base average stats had risen from 0.1 to 0.2.
It seemed defeating enemies increased physical abilities as well. The opponent being small fry was a bit of a disappointment, but no matter—before long, I would surely encounter an absolute powerhouse whom my puny self could not defeat. In that case, for now, let us strengthen this body for the sake of battling those yet-unseen mighty foes.
"If so, subjugating monsters would indeed be the way to go."
Indeed. That shall be my immediate goal. With the [Unbreakable Stick] in hand, I commenced my hunt of the bugs in earnest.