Leveling with the Gods

hapter 94

Vwoom, vwoom—

A massive mana ripple was coming at him with the swing of Buar’s fist.

YuWon thought about it for a moment but decided not to use his mana.

In order to practice with [Cinder Eyes,] [Sensory Field,] and 「Hermes’s Treads,」 he decided not to use his other abilities during this fight. Because the moment he broke that rule, this would devolve from training into just a children’s fight.

Fwoosh—!

With Buar’s fist, the mana ripple became a huge wave, ready to crash into him.

YuWon had to read a path to break through it before getting caught up in it.

[Cinder Eyes reads the path.]

With the expanded senses, time felt like it was flowing slower.

It came with an additional overload on the brain, but YuWon had that much more time to make decisions, and everything he saw felt clearer.

The flow of mana could be felt clearly on the skin, and he could precisely see the point where he could break through in the mana wave that was heading towards him.

‘There,’ YuWon thought while raising his sword.

The point was miniscule, and it moved with the flow of the wave. But he still had to do it in order to pierce through.

And so YuWon didn’t dodge the wave, but instead thrusted with all he had.

* * *

Whoosh—

Buar saw the tip of the sword coming at him.

At that moment, he wondered, ‘He’s going to counterattack?’

He sensed nothing from YuWon. YuWon wasn’t using even the slightest bit of mana. He was using purely physical strength to counter his punch.

‘He’s even more reckless than a Giant.’

That was the only thought in Buar’s mind. It was already proven that he was ahead of YuWon in terms of strength. Buar was overexerting power in order to try to stop YuWon from dodging around. And now, instead of evading, YuWon was coming in for a direct confrontation.

It was obvious who would be the winner before they even clashed.

“Big brother!” Nwiar shouted in surprise.

This was a situation where YuWon could get seriously hurt, and if that were to happen, they’d feel ashamed in front of Urpha.

‘Sorry, but…’ Buar thought while swinging his fist, ‘It’s too late.’

In that moment…

Slice—

Through the mana wave, a thin line pierced through.

Fwooo—

The massive collection of mana that looked like it was going to wipe out the entire vicinity split apart. And the thin line that pierced the wave quickly approached Buar.

“What the…?” Buar was shocked by what had just happened.

He realized it was too late for him to pull back his fist while the line was coming at his face.

He wondered how in the world YuWon managed to break through the humongous flow of mana.

Fss—

The ‘line’ that Buar saw was YuWon’s sword.

YuWon dodged Buar’s fist and broke through the huge mana wave, and now the tip of his sword was pointed close to Buar’s neck.

“…”

“…”

“Wow…”

The surrounding Giants reacted with silence or muted awe.

That included Nwiar, who was worried that YuWon was going to get injured. In fact, she was the one who was the most shocked because she had been engaged in combat with him.

‘What just happened…?’ She wondered.

Buar had made an attack while taking on the penalty, and YuWon had thrust his sword in response.

It was certainly a much weaker attack, akin to throwing an egg against a boulder. But in the end, the egg had smashed the boulder into pieces.

Shing—

With Buar remaining still, YuWon pulled back the sword that was against his throat.

The fight was now over.

“Hmm…”

YuWon’s eyes returned to their original color.

He felt a headache, and his vision was a bit shaky, but the results weren’t half bad.

“It worked,” YuWon said to himself.

He won against Buar, a Giant, without using any mana. It was a victory against a player of a significantly higher floor.

He did acknowledge that a bit of luck played a part in his win, but defeating Buar without using mana or other skills was monumental.

“I-I lost,” Buar declared his defeat, albeit a little late.

Since he had been unable to respond to a sword at his neck, it was his complete defeat.

“You guys were at least better than the rest,” YuWon said.

Thanks to the siblings, he was able to use [Cinder Eyes] and [Sensory Field] until he felt a bit worn out. And he had gotten a bit used to using 「Hermes’s Treads,」 but this was the first time he had used them this much in one day.

The Giant siblings were the perfect opponents for YuWon to hone his dulled senses against.

“I hope we can do more of this,” YuWon said, extending his hand.

There was a limit to training alone, so having someone to help him train was good news. If possible, he wanted to continue getting Buar and Nwiar’s help.

Buar looked intensely at YuWon’s hand before reaching for it.

“It’ll be my pleasure.”

Squeeze—

YuWon could sense Buar’s fighting spirit from his strong handshake.

“I look forward to it.”

* * *

Ten days had gone by.

In the last ten days, YuWon’s daily routine was the same everyday.

Fighting, more fighting, and today as well, he was fighting.

Fwoop—

Swoosh, fwoosh—

“Nwiar!”

“Okay!”

Nwiar leaped into the air and crashed down.

Thump—!

Her size and weight shook the branch of Adam upon impact. The force was much greater than what should have been possible for Nwiar’s size.

“Is it a Weight Amplification Technique?” YuWon wondered.

Every player in the Tower learned martial arts on the 10th Floor, and the technique Nwiar just displayed looked like a practical application of martial arts from the Martial Realm.

“So you guys haven’t shown me all your cards yet,” YuWon said.

YuWon’s sword grazed past Nwiar’s torso.

“I got you!” Kwant shouted while swinging his mace down.

Whoosh—

Slam—!

The mace missed, but it was obvious in which direction YuWon would dodge.

“Vulcan! Dariwul!”

“Got it!”

Vulkan and Dariwul, who had been anticipating YuWon’s evasion, moved together.

Their timing was perfectly matched to YuWon’s moves. Vulkan headed in the direction that YuWon jumped in, and Dariwul waited while watching where YuWon would double jump towards.

And of course, Buar didn’t stay still while this was happening. He leaped in the direction that YuWon had jumped towards.

Even though YuWon was capable of jumping again while in the air, there were far too many Giants heading for him.

“Got ya!” Vulkan shouted while reaching his hands out for YuWon.

Vulkan, who was the biggest among the five, tried to grab YuWon around the waist.

However…

Fss, fss—

YuWon disappeared from his spot.

“Huh?”

“What the—?”

“Where did he go?”

The five began to look around to find the now missing YuWon.

That was when Vulkan, who was still midair after jumping after YuWon, was caught by the ankle.

Grasp—

Fwoosh—

Vulkan’s body was swung higher up into the air.

In an instant, YuWon had jumped below Vulkan and had flung him by the ankle.

“Ahhhhh!”

Vulkan’s massive body became a deadly blunt weapon.

Wham, blam—!

“Kgh!”

“Kugh!”

Vulkan was forced to collide with Buar and Dariwul.

Nwiar just barely managed to dodge this attack.

Tak—

YuWon finally landed back down on the ground.

Nwiar and Kwant, who had been waiting for him from below, made their move.

Mana started wrapping around Nwiar’s fist.

The fist, imbued with a ridiculous amount of power, flew at YuWon, causing the air to shake.

Rumble, rumble—

It was the same technique that Buar had used before. The mana that formed the wave was densely packed together. There was no point of evasion nor a nullification point visible to YuWon.

Behind him, Kwant was coming at him swinging his mace.

YuWon turned around and headed for Kwant.

Ssk—

With the tip of his sword, YuWon slightly changed the trajectory of Kwant’s mace.

Crash—!

YuWon’s sword and Kwant’s mace blocked Nwiar’s punch together.

‘He used my strength to his advantage…?’ Kwant was shocked.

He found himself standing beside YuWon, but he was too late to notice.

Crack—

“Ahhhhhh!”

YuWon struck Kwant’s wrist with his elbow, making him crumple in pain.

He then started charging Nwiar.

Fwoosh, fwoosh—

Nwiar was the most skilled among the five.

She swung her fists at YuWon, who was coming at her head on.

YuWon dodged a myriad of punches in a matter of seconds, but in the end, he got grabbed by the collar of this shirt.

“Hiyah!” Nwiar shouted, trying to lift YuWon up to slam him into the ground.

However, strangely enough, she could not lift him.

He was heavy.

YuWon, who looked like a child next to her, should have been as light as a feather, but she couldn’t even budge him.

“I decided to use it too,” YuWon said, bringing the edge of his blade to Nwiar’s neck. “The Weight Amplification Technique.”

The [Weight Amplification Technique] was not a special skill. It was a simple technique of the Martial Realm where you increased your weight by shifting your power in a single direction.

He had decided to try it after seeing Nwiar do it, but it turned out to be more effective than he anticipated.

“…”

Feeling dejected, Nwiar eased up and lowered her fist.

The fight was over.

The others also felt dejected. They were either sighing in frustration or moaning in pain, like Kwant.

Nwiar said with disbelief, “You can now defeat five of us like it’s nothing.”

She didn’t think they were going to win, but she also didn’t think the fight would end up being settled so soon.

However, the reality was that in a matter of minutes they had all been thrown to the ground, and she even ended up with a sword to her neck.

“You’re completely different from just ten days ago.”

It was the damnedest thing. At first, it felt like the two of them could almost take him on. Like there was just a slight difference between the sibling duo and YuWon and that she could reach him. But as time went on, the gap only widened.

And then, YuWon made a proposal.

“Let’s add one more person to the mix.”

The first volunteer was Kwant.

Knowing that he himself wasn’t good enough, he decided to fight YuWon by helping the siblings.

But the results were the same.

The only difference was how long the fight took. In the end, YuWon was always the victor.

And, of course, this time was no different.

“He doesn’t particularly feel like he’s gotten stronger…” one of them commented.

YuWon was always like this.

It felt like he was just barely too short of their grasp, that they could also almost get him.

At first, they thought two would suffice against him, but the results of the fight demonstrated otherwise. And it was the same with three and four.

“Are you getting adapted to something?” Nwiar asked.

“Yeah. There’s a skill I have to get used to using,” YuWon didn’t deny it.

His answer only made Nwiar feel more dejected. She knew for a fact that YuWon was barely using any mana. She knew he should have other skills, but Yuwon was purposely not using them.

Nwiar wanted to make him use his skills by any means necessary, but she wasn’t able to make that happen.

‘How much stronger would he be if he fought seriously?’ Nwiar thought.

It was something she had wondered multiple times now, and she wanted desperately to force him to do it, no matter what.

“Let’s rest a little bit before we continue. Actually, should we add another person to our side? Make it six,” Nwiar asked, thinking once again that they were only falling slightly short of him.

But the answer she got was unexpected.

“No,” Yuwon turned around, having sweated enough. “Let’s stop here.”

“What? Why?”

“It’s almost time for the test.”

“Oh…”

It was an acceptable answer for Nwiar. YuWon was a player who had only recently arrived on the 20th Floor. It was just that his skills made her forget that fact.

“Get some good rest, guys,” YuWon said while looking at Kwant, who got majorly injured. “A big fight’s coming.”