## Chapter 32 – Swordsman Guild
Once the not-so-brief one-on-one swordsmanship instruction ended, I immediately began physical training in the drill grounds.
That was the routine.
“Physical training is freaking important. The one who’s strong and has stamina always wins in a fight. Isn’t that obvious? Why don’t those who know this work out?”
It seemed this Swordsman Guild doubled as a gym. Karin emphasized the importance of muscles and exercise, and since I was paying, I put my all into physical training.
Working out makes you stronger. Working out improves your stamina. And it makes you freaking healthy. It’s common knowledge, but surprisingly few people spend time and effort on physical training. Because it’s a pain in the ass. True powerhouses are those who have overcome this hurdle of exercise.
I took off my top and ran around the drill grounds. Running is the ultimate exercise for stamina, endurance, and lung capacity. It allows you to fight longer and increases lower body strength, giving you a more solid foundation for swordsmanship.
“Huff, huff! Huff!”
“Good, good. That’s the spirit. Shall we do one more lap?”
“Guh, guh-hek! Guh-ak!”
“Nice battle cry! Come on, you can do it! Our youngest is doing great!”
Karin was running alongside me.
I was slowly drifting from runner’s high to runner’s dead, but Karin was like a car with broken brakes, never stopping. I had lost count of how many times she had said, “Just one more lap.”
“Hey, hey. Your posture’s wrong. You’ll hurt your back.”
When I came to my senses, I was lifting a log for strength training.
Did I just black out for a second? It was an unbelievable hellish training regimen. I can’t believe I willingly crawled in here to do this with my own money. It was beyond absurd; some transcendent being must be interfering, subjecting me to this torment.
“Good. I’m glad you’re following my instructions so well. You’ve got grit. I like you. Your looks, your grit—why do I like you so much?”
I began to suspect she was satisfying her sadistic tendencies by torturing me. Karin seemed to rejoice as I writhed in agony. She claimed she felt a great sense of accomplishment seeing her students grow stronger, but it sounded like bullshit.
Anyway, while I was doing my physical training, Karin was constantly moving around, instructing others and correcting the postures of those training in the drill grounds. She seemed diligent, at least.
“Done with physical training? Next is close-quarters combat.”
For me, who was nearing my limit, the last thing left was close-quarters combat, an extension of swordsmanship. In sword fights, you don’t just use your sword. When you’re locked in close combat, you might need to strike with your arms or legs, or subdue them with grappling or joint locks.
That’s what we learned during this time.
“The skill I’ll teach you today is… knee-to-balls smash.”
I was horrified by the malicious, joke-like name.
“W-what was that?”
“A technique to smash the opponent’s balls with your knee. Now, stop lazing around and get up.”
“Smash what?”
“Get up now. Are you going to keep lying there? Or do you want me to smash your balls?”
I was horrified again and jumped up faster than a fired arrow. Some unsavory men with specific sexual preferences would surely rejoice at the opportunity to have their balls smashed by a beautiful woman, but I was definitely not one of them.
But smashing my enemy’s balls wasn’t bad. A competent warrior must be able to mercilessly target the opponent’s vital points.
In this way, I felt like I was growing stronger every day, becoming cowardly strong. Let’s skip the explanation of the knee-to-balls smash technique, as it was too inhumane.
“Then, Guild Master, have a good day.”
After taking a quick shower in the guild’s shower well, I grabbed my trembling legs and greeted Karin.
“See you. Come early tomorrow too.”
“…”
I left the guild after pouring my entire morning into it. This was my typical routine these days. Wake up early, go to the guild, receive hellish training, and leave around lunchtime. I had not only become an early bird but was also working out so hard that my life was fatally diligent.
Was I going home to sleep now? Was I going to get a good night’s sleep and recover my damaged muscles? Was I going to lie in bed, slowly recall what I had learned today, and imagine a stronger future?
Unfortunately, that was just a pipe dream.
As I said, I was basically poor, and this world wasn’t so easy that a poor person could just work out a bit and then relax and sleep comfortably.
“I’m broke, damn it.”
Having spent 5 silver, how could I afford to be lazy? It was time for work, damn it. I chewed on the jerky I had brought for protein, trudging along. I forced my tired, heavy body to move toward my workplace.
A five-day workweek was unimaginable.
“Damn, it stinks like hell. Seriously.”
I arrived at the city’s underground waterway.
Do you know the importance of water supply facilities? Water supply is a crucial facility that makes the greatest contribution to human survival by drawing water to the city and allowing relatively clean water to be used conveniently. By not using dirty, stagnant water, the city naturally becomes cleaner, reducing disease rates and making people healthier. The mortality rate also decreases, leading to population growth.
The underground waterway was filled with all sorts of trash and waste, making it stink like hell. Thanks to an introduction from the guild, I got what you might call a “part-time job” in the city, and this was where I ended up.
Due to time constraints, it was impossible to go hunting outside the city or clear quests from lunchtime onward. There was no one to go with, and there wasn’t much I could do in the short time before sunset. If I knew the geography around here, I would have gone out to gather herbs, but I couldn’t because I hadn’t been here long.
Inevitably, I had to find work inside the city.
And this underground waterway patrol was it. It was a 5-copper-a-day job that adventurers of E-rank or higher could do. It was literally a day-to-day job that disappeared as soon as you ate, washed, and slept.
This was the only job that started around noon, so I had no choice.
“You’re here?”
“Yes. Good work.”
I greeted Mr. Merman, who was patrolling with me. The underground waterway was a relatively important facility, so guards or patrols were needed. They needed to crack down on people dumping illegal waste and exterminate monsters hiding in the waterway.
“Let’s go in then.”
“Yes.”
The foul odor stung my nose. I wrapped a cloth around my neck like a gaiter to cover my nose. The working hours were from this lunchtime to the evening. I had already eaten jerky on the way, so I could endure it.
Anyway, during work hours, I just had to walk around the waterway with Mr. Merman and look for anything unusual.
The inside of the dark waterway maintained a moderate level of brightness thanks to the sunlight coming through the gaps in the holes in the ground. But this ray of light disappeared if you went down just one more level. A lantern was needed.
Before going down to the second underground level, Mr. Merman turned on the lantern. Relying on that light, we searched the waterway again.
“Wow, that’s a huge piece of trash.”
“Hmm… the location is…”
We found a large piece of trash that had flowed in. It seemed to have been brown originally, but now it had turned into a slippery, black color. It looked so greasy that I didn’t want to touch it. If we recorded the location, cleaners would come and remove it later.
“There’s nothing worth any money.”
“No one would bother throwing away something worth money.”
“Wow, that’s a very convincing statement. That.”
“Let’s take a break around here.”
“Hehehe, you know what’s up.”
In reality, how could someone patrol all the time during those long hours? You had to take breaks in between, and you had to take it easy while working. In that sense, Mr. Merman was a very good person. Mr. Merman found a suitable spot and lay down on his cloak. I also laid down on my cloak next to him.
“Sleep well.”
He wasn’t doing this for the first time.
As expected, he had experience.
“Good night.”
The smell was so foul that it wasn’t a good environment for sleeping, but it was okay since I had covered my nose with a towel and had gotten used to it to some extent. Above all, I was so tired from the intense training that I felt sleepy as soon as I closed my eyes. If I slept like this and then pretended to work a little more, I’d get 5 coppers for the day.
I felt sorry for the Adventurer’s Guild, who trusted me and gave me work, but I was originally a conscienceless son of a bitch.
That’s when it happened.
I suddenly felt a chilling sensation, and my eyes opened on their own.
“Ah… fire.”
I calmly found the lantern in the dark and lit it.
Then, the scene that unfolded was…
“U-uh!”
A scream burst out!
Slimes! There were so many slimes…! Simply put, it seemed like a slime army was coming! I didn’t know what those weak-ass slime bastards could do even if there were a lot of them, but the story changed if there were so many that it surpassed that.
They were slowly, very slowly, crawling toward us.
“What the hell are these bastards! Mr. Merman! These bastards!”
On the floor, on the walls, on the ceiling…! Seeing so many of those gelatinous creatures gathered together gave me the creeps, like looking at a collection of frog eggs. Mr. Merman, who had just woken up, rubbed his eyes and said leisurely.
“Ah, waterway slimes. They’re purple, so they’re dangerous. They’re poisonous. Let’s get out of here quickly.”
“B-but there are so many?”
“It’s not the first time this has happened. Stay calm. They’re poisonous, but it’s okay as long as they don’t touch bare skin.”
As expected of a senior waterway patrolman, Mr. Merman was calm. He skillfully moved his feet, avoiding the slimes on the floor. In the first place, slimes are creatures that eat corpses or rotten plants, so they aren’t very fast and are clumsy monsters. They probably thought we were corpses and approached us.
“Hmm… there seem to be too many. It would be good to catch a few and report that ‘Slimes have massively spawned in the waterway, making it impossible to proceed further. We barely escaped after a fierce battle.'”
“That’s a great idea. Aren’t you too smart, Mr. Merman?”
“You become like this after doing this for several years.”
So we slaughtered the slimes. As expected, they were slow to run away, so we just had to find the translucent cores, stab them with our swords, slice them out, and they would lose their elasticity and disappear into liquid.
After a long struggle, we achieved satisfactory results and came up to the surface. Mr. Merman calmly reported with a serious expression, and I took my pay and left.
1 copper for the bathhouse, 3 coppers for the inn, and 1 copper for food. Wow, I’m just living day to day. I had to wake up early again tomorrow and go to the guild.
