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Chapter 69: A Mermaid Who Loved A Knight (4)

"He must be crazy."

That was clearly disrespecting them as knights!

They were so furious that they swung their swords, intending to slash the arrogant adventurer at once. They showed complex swordsmanship that was different from the style that ordinary soldiers and adventurers learned.

No matter how keen-eyed and quick to react Kai was, it was impossible to completely avoid this sophisticated swordsmanship he had never seen before. The durability of Kai\'s armor quickly diminished, and scratches increased on his body.

But I need to endure it!

Kai raised his arms to guard his vital points and stood still, provoking them even as he got hit. "Is that all the skill you knights have? I\'m disappointed!"

"Let\'s see if you can still talk like that after you\'re dead!"

"And you, have you forgotten how to swing a sword after taking a few hits?" Kai responded.

"Hmph, this guy who can\'t even react to my sword and just keeps getting hit sure has a big mouth!"

Brafa and Dover\'s swords became even faster. This speed was actually a strain for them, but seeing the adventurer hold on despite getting hurt, their pride was piqued.

"This is so ticklish! Scratch harder!"

Besides, there were also unexpected provocations that came out of nowhere!

"Huff, huff."

"Huff, puff."

After swinging their swords wildly for ten minutes, they finally noticed that something was odd.

Why hasn’t this adventurer bastard collapsed yet?

We\'ve hit him dozens of times already!

Even counting only the accurate strikes, they had hit Kai three figures worth! In a normal situation, he would have died several times over.

But why...?

As they started feeling an unknown danger, Kai, who had only been defending, slowly lowered his arms.

"Already tired?"

"Don\'t be ridiculous. We wouldn’t be tired with just this..."

“Right... we shouldn’t be, but...”

Brafa and Dover, who were about to scoff, checked the status of their bodies and were shocked.

W-why does my body feel so heavy?

My breathing is at the limit! My heart is racing too fast!

Normally, they had to swing swords continuously for an hour during training to get this tired. It was true that they had overexerted themselves just now, but it had only been ten minutes.

Unable to accept this situation, they glared at Kai with widened eyes.

"What have you done to us!?"

"What did I do? I didn’t do anything," Kai casually replied while installing the Spring of Restoration beside him.

[Recovering 1 Health every second.]

[Recovering 1 Stamina every second.]

Kai checked his slowly recovering Health and Stamina, then looked at them. "You’re the ones who’ve been swinging your swords non-stop, even on this sandy beach."

"What? We obviously knew this was a sandy beach..."

"No, you didn\'t." Kai grinned. Humans were creatures of adaptation.

If he had pranced around, fighting with them, they would have noticed the sandy beach and conserved energy by fighting carefully.

So I just stood still, letting them hit me.

And he kept provoking them, cleverly pushing them to the brink of madness!

Brafa and Dover laughed at Kai, who couldn\'t even react to their attacks, but that very fact was actually tightening the noose around their necks.

To the point that they forgot where they were standing.

As Kai stood still, the guys who had beaten him probably paid no attention to where they were. Of course, ignoring it didn’t change the fact that the ground beneath them wasn’t solid but sandy.

It would have taken several times more energy just to swing their swords once than usual.

And, crucially, Kai had a recovery skill that could replenish his Health.

In the end, the knights had just wasted all their energy!

Kai, who had let his sword drop, slowly approached them.

"Supernova. Flood of Blades."

The beast revealed its hidden fangs and suddenly kicked up the sandy beach.

Fwoosh!

A cloud of sand filled the air! Before those grains even hit the ground, Kai\'s sword swept through the knights.

Clang, clang!

"As expected, full plate mail is really solid."

It felt like they had suddenly been slapped in the face with the unexpected hit!

Naturally, Kai didn\'t plan to stop with just one attack and raised his sword again. "One more time, Flood of Blades."

Clang, clang, clang, clang!

Kai\'s sword relentlessly struck Brafa and Dover. They tried to resist, but even in a normal state, dealing with Kai\'s Supernova was difficult. And now, with their energy drained, they were just puppets in Kai’s hands.

Vital point, vital point, vital point!

Kai aimed persistently at their vital points because he knew that hitting there would cause much more damage!

[Critical hit. Additional 1.5 times damage inflicted.]

[Critical hit. Additional 1.5 times damage inflicted.]

[Critical hit...]

...

Immersed in the fight, Kai didn\'t even pay attention to those messages, and continued swinging his sword.

That it was in that moment.

Ding!

[With incredible focus, you have landed over 50 critical strikes on your enemies.]

[Skill Proficiency in Swordsmanship of the Dawn has greatly increased.]

[Swordsmanship of the Dawn increased to intermediate ranking.]

Huh?

Kai\'s eyes widened a bit.

Swordsmanship of the Dawn just increased to intermediate rank?

It was a sudden change to his swordsmanship skill, which was previously at Beginner level 9!

Kai quickly distanced himself from the two knights to check the skill info.

[Intermediate Swordsmanship of the Dawn LV.1. Passive.]

Does 200% damage when attacking enemies with your blade.

Attacks to additional holy damage based on Holy Power stat.

Proficiency: 0/100

As his swordsmanship skill reached the intermediate rank, additional abilities were unlocked!

After seeing this, Kai\'s eyes widened.

Additional holy damage proportional to the Holy Power stat? If this is efficient...

He would need to level up both the Strength and Holy Power stats together going forward.

With smoother, more fluid movements, Kai swung his sword and looked at the knights before him.

Let\'s test it out first.

Brafa and Dover had quickly fallen from duel opponents to test subjects! However, they had saved some energy, so they weren’t just going to sit back and do nothing.

We\'ve roughly figured out that bastard’s attack patterns.

His attacks aren\'t as sharp as they seem.

When Kai charged at them, the two knights brought up their swords.

"Argh!"

The swords of the two knights aimed at Kai\'s heart and head.

Kai, who was watching the trajectory of the attack until the last moment, suddenly dropped to the ground. The moment his fallen body hit the uneven ground of the sandy beach, his center of gravity was greatly shaken. Then he reflexively adjusted his body and balanced and gained perfect balance again.

Kai\'s posture, springing up from a low stance, was literally perfect. And perfect swordsmanship emerged from the perfect stance!

Slash!

In the blink of an eye, Kai\'s blade grazed Dover\'s throat.

Dover, who couldn\'t believe what had just happened, coughed out blood, his eyes widened. "Kugh!"

Both Dover and Kai were stunned by the turn of events.

W-wait. Does a skill become this strong after it leveled up once from the normal rank?

It felt like his attack power had increased by at least 1.5 times!

Kai quickly opened his skill window to check the detailed information.

[Intermediate Swordsmanship of the Dawn LV.1 Passive.]

Rank: Rare

"It’s Rare!?" Kai\'s mouth fell open in surprise.

When I first learned it, it was definitely a Normal skill.

The book that master Huey gave him had been tattered with a subtle gray color. Most importantly, he was confident because he had examined the skill thoroughly several times.

So the grade also increased as it reached the intermediate rank.

It was a skill that ranked up as he leveled up!

Kai had never heard of such a strange skill before, but he understood it at the same time.

"Well... if it\'s swordsmanship from Patrick, I guess it should be at least this powerful."

He had always found it odd that the skill\'s abilities were too poor compared to its grand name. But he never expected it to have a hidden secret like this!

Already a monster, Kai had gained even sharper claws.

The moment Brafa and Dover realized this fact, their faces turned dark with despair.

***

[Aquarian knight Brafa defeated.]

[Aquarian knight Dover defeated.]

[When Baron Bariton discovers your actions, you will be marked as an enemy, and a bounty will be placed on your head.]

[Level increased.]

[Level increased.]

[+10 Stat points.]

"Amazing."

Finally, his level started with a 7.

Then Kai fell into serious thought.

The efficiency of the Swordsmanship of the Dawn has improved much more than I expected. What should I do?

Kai\'s base stats had decreased by 5, bringing his total Holy Power stats to 259!

To be honest, there were parts that Kai had to sacrifice when focusing on Strength.

First of all, the healing amount doesn’t increase any further. Also, the destructive power of Holy Explosion remained the same.

Furthermore, the constant duration of Supernova had always been somewhat frustrating. However, with Swordsmanship of the Dawn reaching the intermediate rank, a path to increase damage by boosting the Holy Power stats had opened.

If that\'s the case, raising the Holy Power stats is definitely beneficial...but what ratio should I aim for?

Purely from the perspective of attack power, it was better to increase Strength than Holy Power. However, raising Holy Power brought a lot of additional effects.

After weighing the pros and cons of the two stat types, Kai reached a conclusion.

I’ll allocate 3 points to Strength and 2 to Holy Power every time I level up, at least for a while.

The decision he made was to give slightly more weight to Strength because even with a few additional Holy Power stats, it would be challenging to see immediate effective results.

[Apprentice Knight’s Longsword]

Grade: Magic

Attack Power: 82 - 115

+5 Strength

+3 Agility

A longsword crafted by the Kingdom of Rashion’s workshop, provided to apprentice knights upon their knighthood.

Requirements: Level 100+, Knight class, Strength 130+

Durability: 81/100

After completing item farming, Kai approached Crawford.

After blowing into his conch for quite some time, Crawford stood still on the sandy beach, staring out at the sea.

What’s happening? Is Helene not going to come?

While sympathy swept across Kai\'s face, a trembling voice came out from Crawford\'s quivering lips. "He... lene..."

At the same time, something approached quickly through the sea from a distance. It had sun-kissed brown skin, large shells covering the chest, and the most notable was a tail fin instead of legs.

"Oh, Crawford, Crawford, Crawford!"

Helene swam across the sea in an instant, leaping into Crawford\'s arms like a fresh flying fish. As soon as she came out from the water, her tail fin transformed into legs, and she wore what looked like shorts made of seaweed.

"Helene...!"

Crawford, who held his lover he had missed for twenty years in his embrace, shed tears.

Helene, gazing up at him, started crying while teasing him, "What is this? You\'ve become a crybaby while we’ve been apart."

"...You\'ve become even more beautiful since I last saw you."

"And you\'ve become even more handsome, Crawford."

As they gazed into each other\'s eyes with affection, their lips slowly came together.

Watching them, a gentle smile crept across Kai\'s lips.

That’s it, the best ending for those who love and care for each other is supposed to look like this.

He was glad they had finally reunited.

As Kai closed his eyes with relief, a flood of messages appeared.

Ding!

[Helene and Crawford, who had not forgotten each other for 20 years, have finally reunited. Your benevolence has changed the tragic ending of these two lovers into a happy one. Seeing love beyond the boundaries of race, Solarian God Helik praises you with tears in his eyes.]

[Birds begin to sing the story of Crawford, Helene, and the adventurer, Kai. +3000 Fame.]

[+800 Contribution to the Solarian Church.]

[Spread of the word of the Church of Solaris increased by 10%. Those who wish to confirm their eternal love may now marry under the officiator of a cleric of the Solarian Church.]

[+30 Benevolence.]

...Does a god actually cry over something like this?

Kai chuckled, then smiled as he looked at the man and woman blessed by the blue sea and the warm sunlight.