As I told Kaido, I visited the Dimension Room from the afternoon onwards under the guise of solo training.
Kaido had secured the Dimension Room without any issues, so I was able to enter smoothly.
However…
The staff there repeatedly asked me if I was sure about this, and each time I nodded, I was met with looks that seemed to question my sanity.
Well, their reactions were understandable.
The entire area around me would instantly turn into a battlefield, and I would have to fight against magic beasts that attacked one after another.
I started this training to gauge my limits.
And to push past those limits.
The content of this training was far from half-hearted.
“Haa haa, I kind of miss the administrative work from the morning.”
I found myself regretting it just a little.
My breathing grew ragged. Even with my enhanced body, my stamina wasn’t infinite. Faced with enemies that came relentlessly, I found myself longing for the busy yet peaceful desk work.
“Hmph!?”
Sensing a presence that wouldn’t let such a lapse in my concentration slide, I swung the Ore Tree in my right hand. With a single slash, I cut down a spotted lizard-like magic beast that was already in an attacking stance and split it vertically.
Its sharp fangs grazed my face, and had I not killed it in one blow, it would have sunk into my body. Instead, it fell a distance away with the momentum of its attack.
“Seriously, they just keep coming.”
About four hours had passed in real time since I entered the Dimension Room, but subjectively, it felt like eight days already. Fighting continuously for that long sharpened my nerves, and the constant, unwavering vigilance in this space further honed my senses.
Magic beasts continued to appear one after another. Some possessed great strength, others were physically robust, some were cunning, some were poisonous, and some used cursed eyes. If it were just one or two, it wouldn’t be a problem, and I’d be able to catch my breath. But…
“Damn it.”
When I was surrounded by such a number that I could only curse, it was understandably frustrating.
“How can the instructor always laugh in situations like this?”
I had some leeway on the first day, but as the days passed, that freedom was chipped away. I couldn’t afford to wear a relaxed expression in my current state. I was barely managing to rouse my fighting spirit with a weak, unenthusiastic smile.
My body felt as heavy as lead from the continuous battles. Even the Ore Tree, which usually felt as light as a feather, now consumed my stamina with a single swing.
“Here it comes!”
“Yeah!!”
Still, I had to break through this battle. Otherwise, I couldn’t move on to the next one. I swallowed my ragged breaths, bolstered my fighting spirit, and forced my facial muscles to form a smile.
I had set myself the challenge of not just running away, but of fighting through. Facing the swarm of monsters that came one after another with all my might.
What was needed was an unbroken spirit, I was learning now. No matter how strong my body was, if my mind broke first, I couldn’t continue fighting. Therefore, the first word I banished from my mind was “impossible.”
“Your magic power is erratic! Get it together!!”
“Hah! They never cease to annoy me!!”
If I let my guard down even slightly, my magic power would fluctuate, and instantly, accumulated fatigue and drowsiness would flood my body like a debt. In this space, which was like a demonic beast nest, that burden was surely fatal.
My arm, swinging the Ore Tree, screamed with each attack, and my brain shouted that it was the limit, but my heart urged it on, “Not yet!” That was the basic cycle. Weakness was the most troublesome emotion in a battle situation.
Lizards crawling on the ground, dragons flying in the sky. Orcs approaching me with heavy footsteps. Insects that threatened me with the sounds of their unique leg joint movements. From afar, the howling of wolves signaled that I was here, fighting.
“Strengthen your magic circulation! We’re pushing through!”
“Roger!”
With inexhaustible spirit, I pushed my body. Don’t think it’s heavy, don’t think it’s not moving. I had to convince myself that I could still go on. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to handle this number.
“No, I can annihilate them all!”
Discard the thought of impossibility. Think only of how to achieve it! Every attack lands. So, I just need to think about how to defeat the enemy with the least amount of force!
The current location was a forest region. I thought it might be convenient to hide and take a break, but after being ambushed by magic beasts that could blend into their natural surroundings, I had to slash through the entire area, leaving the forest bald. Otherwise, I would be ambushed and overrun in no time. Even with my nerves constantly on edge, it was difficult for my concentration to remain so high indefinitely.
Minimize power, don’t let your breathing falter. Always overwhelm the enemy with minimal effort! Maintain composure.
“Did you falter!?”
“Don’t rush!”
Even with my tired body, I could feel a slight anomaly when swinging the Ore Tree. It didn’t cut smoothly, and my frustration grew, but my partner’s encouragement quickly normalized my thoughts. In that brief moment. A powerful magic descended from the sky towards where I stood. It wasn’t just the breath attack of the dragons. This was…
“An Elder Lich!”
A humanoid figure clad in dim robes, riding on the back of a flying dragon. I had set undead as my enemies, but being attacked like this made it difficult to retaliate. In the beginning, I had swept them away with brute magical force, but with my magic power nearly depleted, I couldn’t do that now. The barrage of high-level magic that flew precisely, avoiding friendly fire but still precisely aimed, seemed like a diversionary attack to disorient me. So, what was the real threat?
“Ugh!? What is this?”
“The wind is against us!!”
I thought they wouldn’t give me time to consider such things. A faint numbness on my cheeks and a sharp pain, intensifying the spicy taste on my tongue. Before I could even think about what it was, I strengthened my magic circulation to resist this poison.
“Scale dust…”
My vision wavered momentarily, but the distortion lasted only an instant. To avoid inhaling the scale dust flying from the windward side like a mist, I covered my mouth and nose with the scarf around my neck.
With the force of my sword, I blew away the surrounding area, about two hundred meters in distance. A swarm of moth-like magic beasts hovering in the sky shook their wings, scattering white scale dust. I thought they were poisoning all the magic beasts here, but as I saw a faint curtain of light enveloping the magic beasts in this area, I looked up at the sky. There, I saw Elder Liches strengthening the magic beasts with group magic.
If that was the case, this was not a good place, and I ran with all my might. Compared to the beginning, the coordination between the magic beasts seemed to be getting stronger. At first, they were simply trying to defeat me through brute force, but gradually, they were creating an environment disadvantageous to me, and cornering me like a slow chess game.
“No, even wolves would have the intelligence to think of something like that.”
Perhaps they were simply waiting for me to get tired.
While talking to myself to distract myself, I ran through the forest and charged into a legion of orcs that awaited me in an open area.
“Oraaaaa!!!!”
It was better to break through head-on than to look for an escape route.
“Was choosing a humanoid form a mistake!?”
In this Dimension Room training, there was a fundamental difference in how to fight humanoid and beast-type magic beasts. Magic beasts of species like dragons, insects, mammals, and reptiles were basically instinctual fighters who used their bodies. On the other hand, humanoid species like demons and undead were intelligent fighters who equipped themselves and used reason. While the instinctive movements of most magic beasts were troublesome, those that formed formations and attacked with reason were equally troublesome.
“Hah!”
It was easy to cut down orcs with a single blow, but the spears that pierced the bodies of their fallen comrades, returning to magic essence, were an attack that beasts couldn’t replicate, aiming for my life. When they formulated strategies with reason, I had to allocate more thinking power to deal with it, and my response was delayed. Time, one second, one minute, felt incredibly long here. I had long since stopped bothering to count how many I had defeated, and I wasn’t counting. Perhaps the staff managing the Dimension Room were counting, but that was of no consequence to me now.
“Takemikazuchi.”
I finally unleashed the magic I had accumulated, intending to wipe out this group at once. The Ore Tree began to charge with electricity as it clashed.
“Release!”
I unleashed the lightning directly in front of me. The blue lightning tore through the ground and struck the orc legion. I thought a clear path would open in front of me, but…
“A shield for anti-magic, huh?”
After about a hundred meters, its momentum was killed. And in front of them, orc soldiers stood like a wall, wielding greatshields. From the imposing atmosphere of their heavy shields, I could tell they were treated with anti-magic processing. The area around me was cleared once, but then magic beasts poured in from the forest through the gaps. And what were the orcs doing? Behind the shield formation, a group stood ready with large ballistas, visible through the gaps in the shields. On foot, magic beasts; in the sky, dragons and Elder Liches; and the surrounding orc army creating a wall to prevent escape, while insects flew around them.
“This is almost funny.”
This was what you call the brute force of numbers. Surrounded by enemies to the point where I didn’t know where to start, a weary smile crept onto my face.
“Bring it on.”
There was no resignation in that smile. It was simply the drive to crush the enemy head-on, compelling my body forward and charging.
“Hahahahahahahaha!! This is great!! I don’t even need to approach the enemy now!!”
Every step I took meant enemies. Within a ten-step radius, enemies overflowed. I dispatched the enemies further ahead, but they were replenished like chasing a swift bowl of soba. I accepted movement itself as a consumption of stamina, and I would block all enemy attacks with just the Ore Tree. Dragon breaths, Elder Lich magic, the poisonous moth’s scale dust, the orcs’ ballistas – I slashed through them all. Even as dust swirled and visibility worsened, I instinctively knew an enemy was there and swung, and indeed, there was an enemy. I cut down an Elder Lich attempting to cast a powerful spell and kicked the head of an orc returning to magic essence towards a dragon. A spider that spat viscous threads and tried to wrap around the Ore Tree was swung with its own threads and thrown at a dragon. Taking advantage of the fact that the Ore Tree couldn’t be used, I kicked wolf packs that charged at my throat to death. My stamina was nearly depleted. My magic power was like a candle in the wind. My hunger was immense. My vision was starting to blur.
But strangely, my mind was clear, and I knew what I had to do; my thoughts were lucid. Only my body was not functioning well. I moved with reflex, calmly knowing what to do. Step forward, step back, tilt my head. Achieve the best results with minimal effort. Without expending any wasted energy, keep defeating enemies with maximum efficiency. To an observer, it might have looked like a sword fight from a historical drama, reading the enemy’s movements. I realized that simply placing the Ore Tree where a magic beast was about to attack would easily result in its head being severed. Magic was the same. I had always thought I could cut through it, but I was still being wasteful. Not cutting magic power. Not cutting magic essence. If you want to cut magic, cut the laws that govern it. Then…
“It turns into magic essence so easily like this.”
By brute force, using magic power to cut magic, my magic power would never be enough. So, if I could cut the principles that made magic exist as magic, magic would simply be reduced to magic essence. This was how I dealt with the Elder Lich’s magic.
“…”
Physical attacks like the orcs’ ballistas could be dealt with by reading the enemy’s intent. I just needed to find the gaps in their aiming points, slip into those spaces in sequence, and the attacks would pass through harmlessly. My body was becoming heavy, and as I focused on conserving energy, I realized that I could be surprisingly efficient.
“With this, I might be able to last another two days.”
Perhaps it was when I truly started to feel the danger that the real game began. When I thought I was cornered, I found I still had reserves left by shedding the unnecessary.
“Alright, Himik’s delicious beef stew is waiting for me today, so I need to go back hungry.”
Shedding more and more unnecessary actions, cutting down flashy movements.
“I also want to take a bath with Yukiera and Sachiera.”
Eliminating even the act of running, not desperately chasing the enemy.
“Come to think of it, Memoria brought some good sake the other day.”
Instead of forcefully resisting approaching enemies, I let the Ore Tree follow the flow of their movements.
“Evia said she was returning early today. She’s been busy lately, so maybe we can have a late-night drink together.”
While advancing with brute force wasn’t bad, shedding the unnecessary was also a necessary skill.
“I’ll invite Suella too, so we can spend time together as a group of five.”
And a mountain of corpses was left in my wake.
“Good, I think I can last a little longer.”
With this method, my breathing was easier, and there was room for my magic power to recover. I had also found a way to recover stamina.
“Now, I just need to establish this method and refine it thoroughly.”
It was still rough, and there was room for optimization. I seemed to have found a solution for the battle royale surprisingly quickly.
Today’s Word:
Exploration is necessary.
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