[Jiuche Xiaxi]
[Power Level: 37 (Body 17, Skill 9, Mind 11)]
[Wind Breathing Lv.2 (231/1000)]
Life Skills (Total: 7)
Lv.2 [Physical Training]
Lv.1 [Basic Sword Swings] [Running] [Camping] [Cooking] [Fishing]
Lv.0 [Gathering]
Achievement Points: 6
As he walked through the woods, Xiaxi thought about how he needed to learn other breathing styles as soon as possible, while at the same time searching the surroundings for enemies.
In theory, these demons that needed to eat people, trapped in the mountains by the lake for so long, ought to be starving.
Once they smelled the scent of a living person, they should have swarmed over like striped mosquitoes in a rice field.
Gripping his Nichirin Blade, Xiaxi was full of anticipation.
To the other swordsmen,
this entire selection would likely be a matter of being ambushed by demons in the dark, then fighting and defeating them.
But for Xiaxi, it was something entirely different.
He only needed to spot a character name within the system's detection range.
Sure enough, before long, a line of text appeared in the woods to his right.
And it rapidly enlarged as time passed.
[Brainsmear ???]
[Power Level: 33 (Body 22, Skill 6, Mind 5)]
[Threat Level: Low]
"Holy shit, finally a living person! I'm starving to death here!"
Accompanied by a burst of incomprehensible shrieking, a monster that looked seventy percent human and thirty percent toad dropped directly from a tree.
It kicked up a huge cloud of dust as it landed, while its famished, eager eyes swept hungrily over every inch of Xiaxi's skin.
"Brat, don't resist. This great me can at least grant you—"
Wind Breathing
Second Form: Claws, Pure Wind
Several beast-claw-like slashes tore straight through huge portions of the demon's body.
Its neck went with them, and its entire head was sent flying.
"—grant you a quick deat—waaaait, my head?!"
Only after its head had already hit the ground did the demon belatedly scream in shock.
Then its body began to gradually disperse.
"I remember now... it was that monster, that monster turned me into—"
[Skip]
I'm in a dungeon farming EXP. Who has time for your personal backstory?
[Wind Breathing Lv.2 (265/1000) +34]
Oh? Thirty-four EXP?
He had expected this toad monster to give a lot less than the last one.
Just as Xiaxi was thinking that, another disturbance came from the woods behind him.
The half-accelerated flow of time snapped abruptly back to normal.
A new battle had triggered.
Xiaxi turned with sword in hand to defend. Sharp claws scraped against the Nichirin Blade, dragging out a long trail of sparks.
"That idiot Brainsmear actually died to a brat."
"In that case, I shall gladly claim this delicacy for myself."
It was a gaunt demon.
Aside from the somewhat grotesque length of its limbs, it looked almost human.
[Dead Rod ???]
[Power Level: 52 (Body 41, Skill 6, Mind 5)]
[Threat: Low]
Xiaxi found himself a little more interested now.
Its stats were much higher than that last one. Fighting it ought to be a little more interesting... though why was its threat rating still the same?
He closed in. The Nichirin Blade he had swung was already pulled back toward his waist.
Thrust!
And with the momentum of his dash layered into it, the point of the blade shot forward even faster, becoming a straight streak of light.
"What an arrogant little brat."
"It seems I need to teach you a lesson."
Faced with such a swift thrust, the demon reacted with ease, retreating while twisting its joints in an inhuman way to evade the blade point.
At the same time, its long claws curved around the Nichirin Blade and tore toward Xiaxi.
But the boy remained calm.
The thrusting sword form suddenly shifted. He dropped his stance, and his right hand, which had only loosely held the sword, slipped directly off the hilt.
Then he drove his elbow upward, slamming it squarely into the joint of the demon's arm.
A dull thud sounded.
Wincing in pain, the demon's attack was forcibly knocked aside by Xiaxi's elbow strike.
Just as he thought—so long as something had a humanoid body,
it would always be constrained by its joints and the structure of how its power was generated.
Tendons and ligaments pulled muscles, muscle fibers moved bone, and from that came swings, chops, and all other bodily motions.
The more realistic the game, the greater those constraints became.
Humanoid enemies attacked according to logic. Their movements had patterns.
That was a technique Xiaxi had worked out for himself over countless action games.
Not to mention that this game's combat system also had system assistance.
Before every enemy attack, a fleeting red warning flash would appear.
During his own slashes, the system would also provide varying degrees of attack correction based on his stats.
Once your attributes were high enough, it would even show real-time, varied projected dotted lines of the enemy's possible attack motions.
And at certain key moments,
the game would slow down entirely, entering a kind of bullet-time close-up combat shot.
In short, as far as Xiaxi was concerned, the combat in this game so far...
was baby mode.
Compared to the Soulslikes and hardcore action titles he had played in the past, it really was not all that difficult.
The demon named Dead Rod, seeing itself driven to a disadvantage in the blink of an eye, flew into a rage.
It simply lunged at Xiaxi at close range.
In its view, no matter how capable this human swordsman was, before its immortal body it would only be a matter of how long he lasted.
It had countless chances to make mistakes.
The human only had one.
But before it could close the distance, what met it was Xiaxi's stomp.
Crack.
Not a kick.
He had stomped directly onto the top of its foot, interrupting its forward momentum while also inflicting a massive pain crit.
The sheer force instantly crushed its whole foot into the ground, and pain shot through it like thunder.
Before Dead Rod could scream, another hard object smashed straight into its face.
The sword hilt.
At such close range, where there was no room to swing, Xiaxi did not back away. Instead, he gripped the Nichirin Blade sideways
and slammed the metal hilt directly into the demon's philtrum.
The intense pain and dizzying shock made Dead Rod stagger backward,
but because its foot was pinned firmly in place, it could not retreat even an inch. Instead, it lost its balance and toppled sideways.
"You brat... aren't you supposed to be using a katana...?"
Elbows, stomping on feet, and now smashing mouths?!
It was practically on the verge of cursing him out.
Xiaxi, however, did not hesitate for a second. The sideways-held blade instantly rotated back into proper alignment.
Who says a sword is some unwieldy thing?
Upward slash!
A huge spray of black-red blood arced through the air as Dead Rod rolled away in miserable haste, barely avoiding decapitation.
Xiaxi did not chase it immediately. Instead, he observed.
"Come to think of it, your blood's red too."
Its wounds were healing at a speed visible to the naked eye?
No wonder demons did not feel pain.
Some kind of ability born from flesh mutation?
Across from him, Dead Rod was already filled with terror.
It had begun entertaining thoughts of escape.
This brat's aura was weaker than mine, so how is he this strong?!
No wonder that idiot Brainsmear got erased in a single exchange.
"Hey, don't tell me you're thinking of running?"
Damn it. Why does it feel like this brat is the hunter here?
Xiaxi said, "Look, if you're not coming over here, then I'm going to keep moving, okay?"
Dead Rod finally snapped and roared, "Don't look down on me!"
It stopped holding back and charged Xiaxi with all its strength.
What greeted it was the Nichirin Blade.
In that instant, sword light burst forth, tracing several cold arcs beneath the gentle moonlight and dreamlike wisteria blossoms.
It was as though Xiaxi were inviting someone to dance.
And his unwilling partner was being dragged by force into a waltz of death.
Sparks—
the shattered light cast off when claws hard as metal struck the Nichirin Blade.
Blood flowers—
the screaming and terror that sprayed from the demon's wounds each time the sword bit into it.
Every spark that flared in the night
was proof of the two dancers' struggle.
Under the reflected firelight, the demon's expression became more and more fearful and shriveled;
while in the mirrored gleam of the blade, Xiaxi's eyes grew brighter and hotter.
In the end, the sparks no longer rose.
[Wind Breathing Lv.2 (265/1000)] → [Wind Breathing Lv.2 (377/1000)]
The dance was over.
-------
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