Chapter 70. Expedition
As a blacksmith, someone that strong would hardly exist under heaven.
Maybe there is only one. Dong Bong-su assumed so.
If that assumption was correct, then the master of the Eight Directions Armory could only be a Weapon Monster, one of the Two Gods, Three Eccentrics, Five Elders, and Ten Great Masters. There was plenty of possibility that it was not the case, but Dong Bong-su guessed that it was. And in any case, even if it was not, it did not really matter.
In any event, Dong Bong-su had already used him to resolve two of his questions about the system of New Murim Online, and soon he would even receive one useful item.
Are items that the system gifts, like the novice's sword, really something that does not break or melt?
This question was resolved when the Weapon Monster melted the novice's sword. And in that process, one additional question was also answered.
Before entrusting the novice's sword to the Weapon Monster, Dong Bong-su had made several people hold the novice's sword. The novice's sword had various stat-increase options attached to it, so if those were also applied to the people here, the NPCs, then he could not casually hand it over. Although the increase from the novice's sword was not great, even that much would be enough to be called a divine sword or a rare treasure if taken into the martial world. Making others hold the novice's sword was a kind of experiment to prevent such a situation in advance.
The result of the experiment was "no." To NPCs who were not players, items were useless. To NPCs, items were nothing more than slightly sturdier or tougher ordinary objects. Dong Bong-su guessed that it was probably because they did not have something like an equipment window.
So the people used in the experiment were lucky enough to survive. None of them noticed at all how extraordinary the novice's sword was. If they had noticed, they would all have died on the spot.
After the experiment, Dong Bong-su could entrust the novice's sword to the Weapon Monster with peace of mind. He was not confident he could defeat the Weapon Monster, but he was confident he would at least not die, and above all, he believed that the Weapon Monster would not attack him because of the novice's sword.
The Weapon Monster was a madman. A human mad about weapons.
Dong Bong-su saw pure madness in the Weapon Monster's eyes. Just the desire to melt the novice's sword and make something better than it. There was nothing that inspired safer trust than that.
Anyway, through his chance meeting with the Weapon Monster, Dong Bong-su solved two questions and would soon obtain an item he had needed for a long time. It was not finished yet, but judging by the speed at which the Weapon Monster worked, he would be able to receive the finished product when he returned from this hunting trip.
When Dong Bong-su reached this point in his thoughts, a large open space appeared before him. He had arrived at the training ground. It was an open circular track-shaped ground so large that its diameter reached as much as 50 meters.
As soon as Dong Bong-su arrived there, he drew his sword. It was a sword stained black with blood caked all over it.
[Wanderer's Sword]
A longsword that went through countless battles together with a wanderer. Like the wanderer who grows stronger the more he is soaked in blood, this longsword also grew by feeding on blood.
Attribute: Nothingness
Required class: wanderer-type
Required level: 10
Minimum attack power: 25
Maximum attack power: 66
Hit value increase effect: ?
Minimum martial arts attack power: 41
Maximum martial arts attack power: 97
Martial arts hit value increase effect: ?
Additional ability: when an attack succeeds, absorbs 1% of the damage dealt as the player's health.
That sword was one of the items the system gave Dong Bong-su as a gift when he changed class to wanderer. If he had not had this, Dong Bong-su would not have been able to use the novice's sword so easily as a test item.
Not only the [Wanderer's Sword], but in his equipment window, there was no longer even a single piece of the novice set. The wanderer set such as [Wanderer's Shoulder Guard], [Wanderer's Leather Shoes], and [Wanderer's Bamboo Hat] had taken the places that the novice set like [Novice's Clothes], [Novice's Shoes], and [Novice's Hood] had occupied a year ago.
Compared to the novice set, the wanderer set not only had far superior stat increases, but all of them also had special additional options. Moreover, since he already knew that equipment stacking had no effect, Dong Bong-su no longer needed the novice set.
[Wanderer's Sword]
Additional ability: when an attack succeeds, absorbs 1% of the damage dealt as the player's health.
[Wanderer's Shoulder Guard]
Additional ability: returns 1% of the damage received from an enemy back to that same enemy.
[Wanderer's Leather Shoes]
Additional ability: increases movement speed by 1% when worn.
[Wanderer's Bamboo Hat]
Additional ability: converts 1% of the damage received from an enemy into JP.
Life drain, retaliation, movement speed increase, spirit drain.
Although the effects of these additional options were small, the difference between having them and not having them was like heaven and earth. These were exceptional abilities that did not exist in this martial world.
Dong Bong-su, who could fully use those abilities, naturally became an exceptional and special existence.
Skills, items and their accompanying additional abilities, and on top of that, the martial arts he was learning. Dong Bong-su had already become strong enough to overcome a difference of level 10 or even more.
"Wasn't there a term for this? A cheat character?"
He felt like he had heard such a term somewhere when he was in that other world. Yes, what could be a more fitting expression than that?
Dong Bong-su, he was already a cheat character, an unfair existence in this New Murim Online.
But.
It was still not enough.
Dong Bong-su was still hungrier.
Swaak, sak.
The Wanderer's Sword began to move.
If not for the low friction sound that occurred when the wind and the sword brushed past each other, it would probably have made no sound at all. However, it was fast. Being fast yet making no sound was in itself an enormous advantage. In the eerie silence of Dark Bamboo Forest, the sword moved like a shadow, and when needed, it cut through wind, trees, ants, and everything according to Dong Bong-su's will.
It was clear that Dong Bong-su's Windless Sword Art had greatly advanced over the past year.
Now his sword was moving along the sword paths of not only the Three Talents Sword Art and the Heavenly Wind Sword Art, but also various other sword techniques. All of those were movements that Dong Bong-su had selected in his own way from the sword arts and blade techniques he had obtained at Seonjung Mountain. All of those movements naturally melted into the Windless Sword Art and silently split the empty air between the Dark Bamboo Forest.
Now, it no longer seemed right to call his sword merely a technique. It was free yet secretive, and also systematic and disciplined. It was as natural as flowing water, yet as sharp and precise as lightning. At a glance, it was a combination that was hard to understand, but it was clearly Dong Bong-su's movement, and his body movement was like that.
He had created his own law beyond technique. That was the only way to see it. Not only in stats and skills, but Dong Bong-su's sword had also advanced tremendously compared to a year ago.
From Windless Sword Art to Windless Sword Technique.
Swaak, sak, ssssss...…
Today as well, Dong Bong-su was becoming stronger. He had grown stronger without rest over the past year, and even at this very moment, he was evolving.
Tomorrow, he would be a little more complete than today.
Swaak, sak, ssssss .....
***
New Murim Online Rule No. 9: Items given as gifts by the system are not unbreakable. They melt, break, or wear down.
Addendum 1: Other than Dong Bong-su, who is a player, no one can feel or benefit from the effects of items.
Addendum 2: Items cannot be worn in duplicate.
e.g.) Even if you wear Wanderer's Leather Shoes over the Novice's Shoes, the only thing displayed as equipped in the equipment window is the Novice's Shoes.
※ Still, all of these rules may not be fixed or certain.
***
Guisui.
A natural fortress and the breathing hole of the grasslands. To the north, the Yinshan Mountain Range and the Daqingshan stretch east to west for a thousand li, and to the west, the Great Gobi Desert blocks the way.
This city is located between the narrow canyon formed by the Daqingshan and the Yinshan Mountain Range. If one passes through that canyon, compared to going around the desert or the mountain range to reach the northern great plains, it saves several thousand li. Therefore, if one occupies only this place, the northern peoples can very easily control the fertile Hetao Plain in the south.
On the other hand, if the dynasty of the Central Plains occupies this place, not only can they seize the lifeline of the northern barbarians in one hand, but they can also gain the Hetao Plain as a bonus.
In short, if one takes Guisui, one can lay the foundation to become the hegemon of the north. For this reason, since ancient times, the northern peoples and the dynasties of the Central Plains have constantly fought to occupy the Guisui region.
When the dynasties of the Central Plains occupied Guisui, an age of peace and prosperity came to the Central Plains, and in the periods when the northern peoples occupied Guisui, they used it as a base to dominate the entire north, and sometimes even the whole world.
The Byeongin Incident that happened only about forty years ago, the beginning of that humiliating event, also started with the fall of Guisui. In the middle of winter, the northern peoples came down through the canyons of the Yinshan Mountain Range, seized Guisui in a surprise attack, pacified the surrounding grasslands, crossed Datong, and then surrounded Beiping, where the imperial palace was located.
After that, they indiscriminately plundered outside the outer city. Several months later, the northern peoples eventually withdrew, but the material and spiritual damage the Central Plains suffered at that time was beyond what could be expressed in words.
In the end, the emperor who set out for revenge recaptured Guisui after four expeditions, but when he died, the northern peoples invaded again and Guisui once more became a den of barbarians.
Ten years after that.
The cities near the Great Wall became extremely devastated, the population sharply decreased, and public sentiment grew unstable. If Guisui could not be recaptured again in the near future, there was no guarantee that something like the Byeongin Incident would not happen again.
Thus, another great war was approaching here once more.
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