‘Should I go hunting after a long time?’

For Haster, the past few days were more precious than gold. It was as precious as when he was serving in active duty. Didn’t he grow every day without fail? It was all thanks to Grid and the God Hands. He still wasn’t able to win against eight God Hands, but he wanted to go to an appropriate hunting ground to experience his increased strength.

However, he couldn’t leave the castle because it was hard to come back. He wasn’t an Overgeared member. He had to ask Lauel in order to enter the castle, but it was too shameless...

‘Let’s just stay still.’

It happened when Haster was sitting alone in a quiet garden and staring blankly at a fountain containing starlight fragments...

“Have you eaten?” a passing knight spoke to him. It was a knight called Royman who was fairly young. Nevertheless, her demeanor was restrained and her eyes were deep. He felt the years of experience. The strange situation of her dressed as a man was also noticeable. It was to hide her good looks.

“Yes...” He had filled himself with bread as he was being hit by the God Hands. There was no need to explain this.

Royman smiled at Haster and gave a small nod. “You can try out the restaurant as well. The food of the royal palace is amazing. However, avoid breakfasts on weekends.”

They were words that meant a lot. The knight in front of him—the senior knight with red epaulettes—was treating Haster as a guest rather than someone uninvited. She would’ve followed instructions from the top. It meant that the Overgeared Kingdom had accepted Haster as a guest.

“Thank you for letting me know.”

Haster had always been alone since losing his teacher. Yet unknowingly, he naturally became surrounded with people. The feelings he had forgotten for a long time made him feel warm and Haster couldn’t help smiling. He hurriedly left his spot in an awkward manner and Royman stared at his back with surprise. Just then—

“......!”

Deep in the royal palace...

Two shockwaves were felt near Grid’s smithy. It appeared suddenly without any warning. One belonged to King Grid and she didn’t know who the other one belonged to. It was strange and terribly strong. It even reminded people of the invasion of heaven or hell.

“This!”

Royman rushed forward immediately toward the smithy. Dozens of knights and assassins emerged from all over the castle and followed her.

"W-Wait a minute! You shouldn’t go...!”

Haster tried to stop them, but it was useless. There were only a few people in the Overgeared Guild who could control the knights and assassins.

***

“You have the Undefeated King’s Swordsmanship. Don’t distinguish between the Undefeated King’s Swordsmanship and your swordsmanship. Apply it just as you use the sword dances and Shunpo together.”

Just a little while ago, Grid had combined Shunpo with Transcended Linked Kill Wave Pinnacle. It was done in one go. It was completely different from the previous conventional method of using Shunpo first before linking a sword dance or linking sword dance to sword dance. The previous application belonged to the category of combos while the new application was closer to the sum of techniques.

‘Can I use the sword dances and Undefeated King’s Swordsmanship together?’

It might not mean a skill fusion system. The fusion of skills were hidden pieces that wouldn’t occur unless it was special. If skill fusion was so easy, players would have hundreds of skills on average. It was a single skill with potent strength and the possibility of the Undefeated King’s Swordsmanship combining with Grid’s Sword Dance was very small. It was just like how the skill fusion system didn’t occur when he used Shunpo and the sword dances together.

‘I can naturally link the sword dances to the Undefeated King’s Swordsmanship by adding additional moves in the process of doing the sword dances.’

Was it possible? Shunpo was classified as a ‘movement skill.’ The natural linkage of attack skills wasn’t impossible in common sense. It was just that as the name suggested, the Undefeated King’s Swordsmanship was swordsmanship. If the Undefeated King’s Swordsmanship was used during the continuous movement of the sword dance, the existing movement of the sword dance was bound to be canceled. Then the activation of the sword dance would naturally be cancelled as well.

‘Um...’ Grid suddenly remembered something. The fusion sword dances that used Wave as a medium had a gap between movements. It was because when he used Wave, the sword would swing horizontally to the greatest extent. At this time, it was necessary to recover the sword.

‘What if I insert the Undefeated King’s Swordsmanship in that gap?’

Grid calculated it. Pull the sword from the outside to inside and insert a rotation of the waist...

In other words, integrate the gap in Wave with the Undefeated King’s Swordsmanship.

‘It is possible.’

It would put a lot of strain on his arms, waist, and especially his back muscles. It wouldn’t be strange if they were all torn. Still, it was fine. It was a manageable area due to the nature of the myth class that ignored a certain amount of the physical laws.

—Probably.

“Have you grasped an idea?” Biban waited while Grid thought. He merely watched as Randy rode on Noe like Randy was abusing a little cat and the vampires gazed at him with condescending expressions.

‘He could’ve hurt some of them if he attacked while I was lost in thought.’

It might be a simple favor, but Grid thought that Biban was held back by his upright personality. Grid laughed. He thought that Biban probably wouldn’t change for the rest of his life. Biban was a tiring but trustworthy man to deal with. He seemed to see why Biban didn’t get kicked out of the tower despite causing an accident every time.

“Yes, thank you for the advice.” The duration of Item Combination ended. Grid used Divinity to reset the cooldown time, but he didn’t use it again immediately. He had one question first. “Excuse me, will you regenerate if a body part is cut off?”

“What? Are you trying to cut my arm?”

“Maybe it isn’t an arm.”

“Huhu, I heard that the advantage of children these days is their honesty, but your words are disgusting. At this point, it isn’t an advantage, but that you don’t have a brain. Threatening to cut off the arm of an old man who doesn’t serve you like you are heaven? It is something I never imagined when I was young. Is there a missing morals class at the academy these days?”

“I’m sorry. So, will it regenerate or not?”

“Tsk tsk... Do you think I’m a monster? If a person has a body part cut off, then that’s it. Do you think it will grow back like a lizard’s tail?”

It was an answer that revealed human limitations. The tower members were different from the great demons, angels, and the yangban, Mir, whose bodies recovered when damaged. In a short-term battle, Biban might have an edge over higher ranking angels and great demons, but the longer the fight went on, the higher his chances of defeat.

‘If it is cut off, then it is the end... does that mean he fought a dragon with such a body?’

Of course, the body of a transcendent wasn’t easily damaged. However, the story was different if the opponent was a dragon. Grid gained greater respect for the tower members. Then his expression suddenly distorted.

Biban’s swordsmanship was very passive. Every time their swords had collided, Grid had been astonished. In fact, 150,000 of his health had been consumed even though most critical injuries had been avoided. There was only around one million left. The situation was much better than Biban, who only had two-thirds of his health left, but Grid wanted more.

‘Perhaps it is because he is a legend and a transcendent, but he is a man who is reluctant to trade blows.’

Grid’s basic tactics of blow in exchange for blow weren’t very effective for targets similar to himself. Grid wanted to use the Falling Moon Sword. It was best to cut Biban with his secret weapon to obtain victory. He was anxious in his current state. The biggest problem was that Storm of the Fire God had weakened.

[The swirling remotely controlled swordsmanship has slashed at Storm of the Fire God. The area and power of the divine flames are greatly reduced, making it difficult to expect any effects. The Fire of Willpower has been extinguished.]

[A giant sword bigger than a mountain has split Storm of the Fire God in half. The Red Phoenix’s 9th Heart has lost communication with the red phoenix. Your willpower and mental world have become blurry.]

Storm of the Fire God couldn’t be completely destroyed due to the infinite sword energy that he had been gifted by Hayate. Biban’s mental world was depicted as a landscape of tens of thousands of swords floating around a huge sword-like mountain. It cut off most of Grid’s flames and swallowed them, but it didn’t damage the infinite sword energy that existed at the end of the flames. Nevertheless, it was true that it was invading bit by bit.

‘The mental world of the Sword Saint is bound to be so powerful.’

One of the minimum conditions for being a Sword Saint was ‘Heart Sword Unity.’ They could do swordsmanship even without the sword. An ordinary branch could replace a sword. There was already a sword in their heart, so their body was beyond the sword...

In the literature, the symbols of Muller was the sword technique that moved the sword with energy and the mind, as well as the remotely controlled swordsmanship that cut the world with willpower alone. This meant that the mental world was closely related to the swordsmanship that a Sword Saint pursued. The mental world of the Sword Saint was bound to be specially tempered. It was natural that Grid’s not yet fully harmonized mental world was insufficient against Biban’s.

“If your body part is cut off, don’t panic too much. I’ll restore it somehow.”

A quick battle was the answer. It was highly likely he would become disadvantageous the moment Biban’s mental world swallowed even the infinite sword energy.

‘I’ll finish it before then.’

Grid determined and sent a whisper to Lauel. He asked Lauel to log out and call Sehee.

-I understand. By the way, what is going on? Now all the knights are over there...

Lauel said something, but Grid only heard the first part of the sentence. Biban’s face had changed colors and it wouldn’t be strange if he attacked immediately. Grid couldn’t afford to disperse his attention.

“I can’t sit still. Today, I’ll teach you not only swordsmanship, but also etiquette! This is a favor offered in the hope that you will live in expulsion. Please accept it!”

“Request to Stand With Me.”

Grid felt that any further questions and answers were meaningless. The teachings were already fully received. He judged that further conversation was useless.

“Keen Insight!”

[Your knight, ‘Mercedes,’ has authorized the use of Keen Insight.]

The battle resumed the moment the transplant of Keen Insight was completed. The 30 God Hands held their own weapons and rushed toward Biban. However, the God Hands stopped along the way. They were dominated by the willpower of the Sword Saint. The stopped God Hands released a bombardment of Magic Missiles. Flashes of light poured toward Biban.

Biban spread out a sword curtain and attacked Randy, who was copying Grid. Noe created a barrier of lightning to defend, but there was nothing the Sword Saint’s sword couldn’t cut. Biban’s sword reached through the lightning barrier and Randy’s sword dance to pierce Randy’s heart. However, he stopped before touching Randy.

It was because Grid appeared before he knew it and deflected Biban’s attack. Most of the techniques of the Sword Saint, which were honed for hundreds of years, were also read by Keen Insight, a power even the gods feared. Grid was protected by the system for as long as Keen Insight was maintained. The best options and targeting methods were laid out in his head. As Grid continuously attacked, the God Hands held Mjolnir and came up behind Biban. The mentally controlled swordsmanship cut all the Mjolnirs.

Grid admitted it.

‘The God Hands don’t work against transcendents.’

It didn’t even have to be the Sword Saint. It was Keen Insight’s interpretation that it wasn’t very difficult to attack the God Hands when strong formless will could be used. It was fine.

‘Item Transformation, Raiders.’

Flash!

The God Hands became huge in unison. Biban confirmed their appearance and was very surprised.

‘Magic machines?’

Biban shook off Grid and stepped away. He escaped from Grid and placed the giants in his trembling eyes. He remembered a sight he had once seen. It was one of the most intense memories in Biban’s life. Hayate reached out to him to protect the world together. The magic machines were lined up behind him as he was covered in dragon blood.

He resembled the current Grid. That’s right. Biban saw Hayate overlapped over Grid. It meant he faintly glimpsed the absolute from Grid. He couldn’t help trembling.

“Haha...” Biban, whose anger soared to the sky, calmed down again. He raised the stretched out sword above his head. The sword fell like lightning.

Elfin Stone, who had been secretly approaching Biban, was cut deep on the shoulder.

“Extreme Blood Transfusion.” Elfin Stone felt a threat to his life as the price for allowing a single blow and immediately launched his ultimate skill. It had a cooldown time of 24 hours, but it was a vampire skill that showed outstanding power.

Biban just cut it.

“Light..!” The sight of the pillar of blood rising from the magic circle being cut by a physical force was enough to frighten Elfin Stone.

Meanwhile, Grid had predicted this situation. He jumped through the split apart blood pillar and scattered blood and thrust his blood-covered sword forward. It was the precursor of Blood Sword Shatter. Biban couldn’t perfectly respond to Grid’s surprise attack that was committed properly in the gap when his vision was obscured by Extreme Blood Transfusion.

Biban clearly read that it was a technique that couldn’t be blocked or slashed, but he still moved his left hand to block with the sword. The Blood Sword exploded and the fragments scattered. Blood flowed from Biban’s body, but Grid also paid a price for it. His waist was cut.

‘The overall stats have risen.’

This was the strength of the mental world. Biban’s fighting power after opening up his mental world was incomparable to before. Just then—

The huge sword that was like a mountain was towering in the center of the space. It was believed to be a particularly important symbol to Biban’s mental world and now it tilted to one side, causing an earthquake. The shadows could be seen scattering.

Latina, one of the few female direct descendant vampires, tried to tie up Biban’s feet with blood magic and was hit instead. It wasn’t a useless exit. Her magic succeeded in tying up Biban’s feet.

“Ohhhh!” Tiramet broke through the tsunami of mentally controlled swordsmanship and hugged the stopped Biban’s waist as hard as possible. It was along with the magic machine corps flying through the sky. Then all of them were cut in half by something invisible. Tiramet and his kin scattered into shadows and the magic machines crashed to the ground. Even Noe, Randy, and Grid couldn’t avoid the cut despite being on a different trajectory.

There is No Sword in the Hand, but a Sword in the Heart—the Sword Saint’s ultimate skill that ‘cut all enemies.’ It wasn’t ‘a target in the field of view,’ but an ultimate skill that cut ‘all recognizable objects’ in range.

‘Amazing.’

The God Hands had infinite durability. It was normal for them to stiffen without receiving any damage. Yet at this moment, they were cut and split in half. It was the moment when the worst assumption of being cut by an overwhelming opponent or skill came into reality. Of course, there was a built-in repair function, but he didn’t know how long it would take them to recover.

Still, it didn’t matter. Grid had minimized damage by using White Tiger’s Posture as soon as he detected it. He managed to withstand the severe blow and already used Linked Kill Wave Pinnacle.

Biban was forced to use large-scale swordsmanship due to the 30 magic machines and he revealed a gap. Keen Insight didn’t miss this gap. All the muscles in Grid’s body twisted and his bone joints screamed. It was the inevitable aftermath that took place immediately after connecting Wave to 100,000 Army Massacre Sword. It was done with the combination of the Fire Dragon Sword and Falling Moon Sword. He also didn’t forget to strengthen it with Michael’s Power.

“......!” Biban’s face showed astonishment as the sword light reflected on it. It was a slightly more intense reaction than when he saw the emergence of the magic machine corps. The mentally controlled swordsmanship that was wandering all over the place and the huge sword in the center suddenly appeared in front of his eyes to form a barrier.

It was proof that Biban’s mental world only had the thought ‘I want to live.’ It was like when he faced the dragon’s Breath head on. Even that concept—

Clang!

Biban—Grid’s ultimate goal surpassed the greatest swordsman’s philosophy. It was overwhelming violence. He, who would go to heaven and fight against the gods—even the greatest swordsman couldn’t handle Grid.