## Chapter 79 – 1 Gold
“Oh my, Guild Master, how have you been?”
“Hmm?”
I opened the guild doors and stepped inside. Karin was sitting on an ale barrel as usual, tending to her blade. It was a two-handed sword made of rare metal, shimmering with a purple hue. I waved at her.
“Last time I saw you, you had a staff, right? Sliced up anyone new since then?”
“No, damn it. What kind of question is that?”
Had I sliced up three more since then?
The training grounds seemed generally deserted. Aside from a few bald men swinging their swords at the air, there wasn’t anyone around. I guess the recession was hitting hard; there seemed to be fewer members. Business wasn’t doing well.
Karin got off the ale barrel and approached me. She glanced at Claudia behind me and said,
“Who’s that behind you?”
“Ah, this is my girlfriend. Hey Claudia, this is the Guild Master.”
Karin and Claudia faced each other.
Hmm, seeing them together made me wonder. Who was stronger? Karin was plenty strong, but Claudia was the same. Though, age-wise, Claudia was probably older.
“…Nice to meet you. May I call you Claudia?”
Karin, after examining Claudia, spoke.
“Nice to meet you too. What should I call you?”
“Please, call me Karin.”
“Alright, Karin.”
They exchanged greetings. The way they looked at each other was unusual; it was as if strong people recognized strong people. So, who would win if they fought? I kind of wanted to see.
Claudia whispered in my ear,
“Katt. She seems alright. Someone like her could teach you properly. Good, I’m relieved. I’m glad I came to check.”
“Oh, really?”
She figured that out already?
As we stood there, Karin gestured at me. I went over to her. Then, she cautiously looked around and asked me,
“That’s your girlfriend?”
“Pretty, right?”
“…”
Karin was silent at my girlfriend boast.
“This doesn’t make sense… How did you manage to get someone so skilled…”
Karin said, scrutinizing my face.
“With a face like that… No, your body is good, so maybe if you cut your hair, you’d be alright? It’s so strange. What happened?”
“Well, this and that happened. Oh, and Ms. Risha, the black magician, seemed to be doing well. I sent your regards.”
“Oh, really? I don’t care about that woman, but that…”
Karin’s expression was odd.
Personally, I thought of myself as a super macho, incredibly handsome man, but it seemed Karin didn’t think so. She repeatedly scanned my face with a doubtful expression, as if she couldn’t understand.
“Anyway, what brings you here after so long?”
“I came to learn swordsmanship, of course. I’ve got money now.”
“Oh, really? That’s great news. I was going crazy because no one was joining. Apparently, the martial arts guild next door is having a discount event or something. Those crazy bastards have no business ethics.”
She said with a sigh.
In life-or-death battles, the martial artist profession was just trash. It was astonishing that there was such a widespread trend of thinking it was manly to beat enemies with bare hands. They were pathetic. An ogre tearing apart a martial artist flashed through my mind.
“They’re like disabled people. There’s value in learning hand-to-hand combat, but it shouldn’t take precedence over weapon skills.”
“Exactly, that’s what I’m saying. But these kids these days don’t get it.”
Karin seemed to have a lot pent up. Everyone should stop wasting money on stupid martial arts guilds and learn to wield a sword. With equal skill, the one with a weapon always wins.
Catching an opponent’s sword with a grappling technique was impossible unless you were an incredibly skilled master. No matter how much a martial arts master flew and crawled, they couldn’t beat a swordsmanship master.
As Karin muttered about how useless martial artists were, she suddenly clapped her hands.
“Oh, right. By the way, there’s a rumor that a barbarian caught an ogre, was that you?”
She had a keen ear for rumors.
“That… To be exact, I was the bait, and Lady Isvant landed the finishing blow. That’s how I got the money.”
“It’s just one amazing thing after another. Did I teach you too well?”
“No. I didn’t use swordsmanship at all when I caught the ogre. The physical training helped, though.”
It was a series of surprising events for me too. Anyway, I had money now, so I had to learn swordsmanship from Karin.
“Alright, since you brought money, I’ll teach you. It’s quiet and there aren’t many people, so we can start right away…”
“Just a moment.”
I turned to look at Claudia. She was already sitting in the shade. When she met my eyes, she waved.
“I’ll be watching from here!”
“Watch closely! Then, Guild Master, here’s the money.”
I took out my wallet and handed over 5 silver. Karin took it, casually stuffed it into her pocket, and said,
“So, what do you want to learn? I’ll give you intensive training with a month-long course again. I’m really free right now. Oh, but if new guild members join, I’ll have to pay attention to them first, so there might be times when you get pushed back a bit.”
Karin, holding a wooden sword, took a stance. When I tried to grab a wooden sword as well, she shook her head. As I said before, real sword training is the best way to learn. *Shwing*, I drew my bastard sword with a sharp sound.
“It doesn’t matter. I have plenty of time right now. As for what to learn… This time, how to deal with people. Honestly, you can catch most monsters if you just increase your basic stamina and strength, but it’s not the same with people.”
“Good thinking. It’s useless to be good at catching monsters. In the end, a swordsman has to be good at killing people.”
I also took a stance. A forward-leaning stance with my sword aimed forward.
Karin admired quietly.
“Hmm, it has a pretty sharp taste… Did you slice up someone? I like it. To improve your skills, there’s nothing better than killing. If there’s someone you need to kill, try to kill them whenever you get the chance. That feeling has to remain in your hands to improve. Feed your sword blood.”
Karin, aiming her wooden sword at me, began to spout an incomprehensible rant that sounded like it came from a serial killer. Just listening to her words felt like my mind was being corrupted. As expected of someone from a mercenary background, her values were unique.
Karin seemed to genuinely believe that only practical experience in killing people could lead to true skill improvement. I wasn’t in a position to deny that, but I wished she knew that even though I had killed some people, I still had reservations.
One wrong step and I might die and go to hell. I had only killed eight people so far, so it was just barely okay.
“That’s some crazy talk. How many people have you killed?”
“Well… Being able to count them is proof that you’re still a novice. Now, let’s start.”
ㅡ *Whoosh!*
At those words, I immediately thrust my sword forward. Even though I aimed for her face, she simply lifted her sword and twisted the trajectory of my sword.
ㅡ *Clang!*
But it doesn’t end with just one strike. I immediately twisted my wrist, turning the sword as if wrapping it around, and tried to strike Karin’s temple with the opposite blade. Of course, that was easily blocked as well, and the wooden sword’s tip touching my Adam’s apple ended the match in less than 3 seconds.
“Well, I can see everything, but that was a decent attack just now. Sudden face stabs are hard to deal with. Beginners will break their stance out of fear. And that’s when they die.”
“Is that so?”
“What you need is training to defend yourself while continuing to attack when your attack fails. You already have enough guts, so let’s just keep doing offense and defense training.”
In other words, memorization. When you attack like this, you block like this. And from that state, you attack again, counter the incoming counterattack, and switch to attack. We repeated that kind of offense and defense training for about ten minutes without taking a break.
“Do you get a feel for it?”
“Hah… Hah… Sort of. I know what it feels like, but only to that extent.”
Dancing with a sword for ten minutes without rest made me feel like all the energy was draining from my body. Sweat trickled down my forehead. But Karin didn’t break a sweat.
“A month is longer than you think… With that much time, I’ll make it so you can continue the offense and defense up to four times when I’m just messing around. Right now, it’s only twice.”
“How skilled is that, specifically?”
Karin’s four times when she’s messing around.
“Well, you’re an adventurer, so in those terms, you wouldn’t be C-class. C-class are people who have learned a thing or two. They’re at the level of mercenaries or standing armies who have seen some war. You’re a little short of that. You lack practical experience.”
As I always say, people from C-class and up were pretty strong.
According to Karin, the skill of experienced mercenaries who live by fighting wars from the moment they open their eyes until they close them was C-class, so I could imagine how strong they were. They only become that kind of mercenary by killing, killing, and killing again to survive.
To be frank, I wasn’t that good.
At best, I was a little above D-class.
“You’ve killed people, but you’ve never fought an equal opponent?”
Karin sharply pointed out to me as I was lost in thought. That was true. The people I killed were mostly killed by surprise or with stones; I had never had a life-or-death battle while competing with someone’s true skills.
“Ah, yes. Looking back, I seem to have only dealt with people with surprise attacks, throwing stones, or killing opponents weaker than me.”
“That’s a bit of a shame. It’s good to catch bandits or wanted criminals like that to increase your experience. It’s also a good experience to fight an equal opponent with your life on the line.”
Fairness wasn’t my style. I usually don’t fight opponents stronger than me. When fighting people, I only endure and move on unless I think, ‘I can win with this’. Or I run away without looking back.
Even if I do fight, I use methods like throwing stones or scattering sand.
If that doesn’t work, I gang up on them. I win no matter what it takes. That’s not ugly, but rather beautiful (it is ugly). I was the kind of person who thought that was the true path of martial arts.
“That sounds terrifying just hearing it. I usually don’t do things like that. I’m learning swordsmanship for self-defense. And weren’t you the one who said that anything is swordsmanship as long as you win, no matter what you do? Why are you suddenly saying that?”
“Because it’s a waste. You’re showing some talent.”
“Well, there might be a chance… But I plan to avoid things like that if possible.”
I had no intention of actively killing people. I was already feeling restless these days to the point of going crazy, and if I killed a few more people, I might cross a river that I couldn’t return from even with Claudia’s comfort.
I felt like I was going to see the Teletubbies if I kept having this crazy conversation. Either way, she was basically a professional serial killer. There was no point in talking to her for too long.
“Let’s do it one more time. Come at me. After that, we’ll do physical training.”
After that, I continued to practice swordsmanship with Karin. In the process, I was able to learn some meaningful things. I was sure that I would get a feel for it in about a month. After the training, I asked Claudia for her thoughts.
“How was it?”
“Hmm, you were doing really well? Very good.”
“Really?”
For some reason, she seemed more satisfied than I was, so I suggested we run together. We ran for a long time, and then we did strength training for a long time again. The physical training lasted until past noon.
After finishing the exercise, I looked at my pumped-up muscles with my upper body undressed, and those words came out naturally. I muttered to myself.
“Muscles, muscles everywhere.”
“Huh? What did you say?”
“Nothing. It’s nothing.”
When I left the guild, it was still midday.
Actually, the time was a bit ambiguous. If I spent about four or five hours in the morning training, the daytime would be completely empty. I didn’t have anything to do, so I followed Claudia, who liked to wander around, and poked around various parts of the city. In other words, it was a date.
I wonder if I’m going to squander all the money I earned like this.
Anyway, I spent a month like that.
