Chapter 69. Weapon Monster
"Is it time to leave?"
Dong Bong-su thought so.
Since he had become stronger, he would go look for stronger beasts.
Since he could no longer become stronger here, he would leave to hunt stronger predators.
To him, it was a natural proposition and a natural instinct.
Perhaps with this hunt, he would be able to level up.
He couldn't be sure, but in any case, this would be his last hunt.
Beep. Click-.
He closed the status window and this time opened the skill window.
As expected, the results that showed just how fierce Dong Bong-su's past year had been floated in the air as holograms.
First, the levels of the active skills he had before the class change had risen greatly.
[Lightness Skill Lv.8, Three Talents Sword Art 1st form Sweeping the Thousand Armies Lv.9, 2nd form Straight Piercing the Yellow Dragon Lv.9, 3rd form Great Mountain Pressing the Summit Lv.7, Circulating Energy and Performing the Technique Lv.3]
But the changes in the passive skills were even more astonishing.
[Slash Lv.Max, Thrust Lv.Max, Throw Lv.Max, Block Lv.Max]
The proficiency levels of all the passive skills had reached the maximum (Max). Now he had become strong enough that he could easily deal with most enemies using only basic movements.
However, to Dong Bong-su, this was no longer anything new, and there was no need to look at it further.
He picked up a mouthful of rice with his chopsticks and put it into his mouth, then looked over the changes in the new skills he had gained after the class change.
There were two active skills and four passive skills.
The two active skills were.
[Sword energy Lv.3 Proficiency: 1.68%]
A technique that coats the sword with energy to increase destructive power. It increases attack power dramatically, but maintaining sword energy requires a great amount of cultivation power.
Due to the sword energy projection effect, the attack range increases slightly.
Attack power bonus: 150%
Range bonus: 3%
True energy consumption per second: 50 JP
[Movement technique L1:4 Proficiency: 15.77%]
A mysterious walking method devised to efficiently evade the enemy's attacks.
When activated, teleports once in one of the four directions: front, back, left, or right.
Cooldown: 5 minutes
Current applied level: L1:4 (The player can adjust the level of this skill.)
Movement distance: 4m
True energy consumption per use: 1000 JP
These two, and the passives were.
[Chain Slash (Conditional Passive) L1:2 Proficiency: 60.05%]
The more humans see blood, the more frenzied they become. In particular, Wanderers show this tendency more strongly due to their intense desire for survival.
Duration: 5 minutes
When 5 consecutive slashes succeed, all stats increase by 5%. (Lv.1 activated)
When 10 consecutive slashes succeed, all stats increase by 10%. (Lv.2 activated)
※ In order to maintain the kill count, the next enemy must be cut down before the effect of Chain Slash ends.
[Chain Strike (Passive) Lv.1 Proficiency: 17.74%]
A Wanderer's sword strikes, learned only through real combat without any formal techniques, are crude but unpredictable and thus terrifying. Above all, even if the enemy is not struck by his sword, the Wanderer never gives up and persistently clings to them. If he cannot cut them down in one strike, then two, three, or even over a hundred times, he will swing until he surely kills the enemy.
Causes a special abnormal status to enemies who are hit consecutively by the player's attacks.
-When 2 consecutive strikes succeed, causes 'Bleeding' to the enemy. If 2 consecutive strikes fail, pushes the enemy back. (Lv.1 activated)
※ For consecutive attacks to be recognized as a chain strike, the attack and the next attack must occur within 1 second. The effect of the abnormal status varies depending on the level.
[Iron Cloth Shirt (Passive) Lv.1 Proficiency: 91.45%]
An external cultivation technique that makes the skin of the body extremely hard.
Permanently increases health and defense.
Health / Defense bonus: 5%
[Survival Instinct (Passive) Lv.2 Proficiency: 0.00%]
In order to survive in the ruthless martial world, the Wanderer grits his teeth and fights even more tenaciously the more trouble he is in.
When health falls below a certain level, all stats except health increase due to the strong desire for survival.
Current health: 100/100 (%)
When health falls below 50%, all stats increase by 5%. (L1:1 activated)
When health falls below 20%, all stats increase by 10%. (Lv:2 activated)
※ Even if health falls and then recovers above a certain level again, the effect of Survival Instinct continues for 1 minute.
These were the four.
Needless to say, Dong Bong-su had become tremendously stronger thanks to gaining these skills.
Sword energy, like Lightness Skill, was an On/Off type active skill, but the difference was that its level could not be adjusted and its true energy consumption was enormous. Thanks to sword energy, JP finally started to feel insufficient. Until now, no matter how freely he used skills, JP had always been left over. However, as much as it consumed a considerable amount of JP, the effect of sword energy was outstanding. Since it stacked with Circulating Energy and Performing the Technique, if he used Circulating Energy and Performing the Technique and then coated the sword with sword energy, the increase in attack power was enormous. On top of that, if it was further stacked with other passives and another active skill, even Dong Bong-su himself could not easily estimate how great the increase would be.
The movement technique skill was a completely different concept from the general movement techniques spoken of here. As described as 'one-time teleport,' it was a kind of evasion skill that avoided the enemy's attack in one go at a very dangerous moment. It was similar to the magic called Blink that often appears in fantasy novels. Since the cooldown was 5 minutes, once every 5 minutes he could use this to overcome a life-or-death crisis. However, since this too was a class change skill, the JP consumption was enormous.
Passive skills like Chain Slash and Chain Strike were much more Wanderer-like skills than sword energy or movement technique. They were a kind of combo skills that showed their effect the more enemies you hunted or the more you attacked. At first glance, their abilities might not seem like much, but if these were activated while other skills like sword energy were applied, the increase would be absolutely impossible to ignore.
Iron Cloth Shirt was similar to that in general martial arts novels, a survival skill that increased health and defense.
On the other hand, Survival Instinct was also a survival skill similar to Iron Cloth Shirt, but unlike the defensive Iron Cloth Shirt, it was an offensive survival skill. When health fell below a certain level, all stats except health increased. Perhaps, among the class change skills, it was the skill that suited Dong Bong-su the most.
Since the timing of acquiring the class change skills and the methods of raising their proficiency were all different, the distribution of their levels also varied from 1 to 4.
Dong Bong-su chewed his rice and looked over how much the class change skills had grown so far. But it wasn't hard to see that for some time now, they had hardly changed at all.
"I'm leaving."
Just like with his level, when considering it from the perspective of proficiency as well, this place had clearly lost its appeal as a hunting ground. In particular, the proficiencies of Chain Slash and Chain Strike had not increased at all. This was something that had already been foreseen. In the last hunt, Chain Slash and Chain Strike had not activated even once. It was probably certain that if the level difference between the player and NPC exceeded a certain point, they would not activate.
Marking time in place.
Just like the stagnation of leveling up, the fact that the growth of skills had slowed was decisive.
Beep-.
Dong Bong-su closed the skill window and finished his meal. After doing some simple cleanup, he went out for his usual midnight walk. Perhaps this would be the last walk here, but until it truly became the last, it was still one of the things he had to do.
***
On the outskirts of Datong, there was the only local specialty here, the Dark Bamboo Forest. Because the sound of bamboo leaves rubbing together in the night wind resembled the wailing of ghosts, it was also called the Ghost-Crying Forest.
After Dong Bong-su learned that the Dark Bamboo Forest existed, he went out for a night walk here every day when there was no hunt.
Late at night, wild animals that ate meat often appeared, and because of the sound of bamboo leaves rustling, there were few people. The fact that people rarely passed by meant that it had the best conditions for training.
Even as Dong Bong-su headed toward his own training spot deep within the Ghost-Crying Forest, his thoughts did not stop. The wind brushing past his face due to his even faster Lightness Skill was quite sharp, but it was not enough to interfere with his thinking.
Right now, he was thinking about the iron box made by the craftsman of Eight Directions Armory.
"The Weapon Monster finally succeeded in melting a novice's sword and making an iron box."
Weapon Monster. Dong Bong-su clearly called that craftsman a Weapon Monster.
The Weapon Monster was one of the Three Eccentrics, and his exact title was Eight-Skill Weapon Maniac. It was said that no one knew his real name, and that he had mastered eight kinds of skills. In particular, he was called that because he had reached a godlike realm in making weapons.
As befitted someone who carried the titles of Eccentric or Maniac, he was said to be bizarre, but as one of the Three Eccentrics, he was an eccentric master who possessed martial arts great enough to roam the world as if it were his own front yard. Because of that, he was elusive and hard to meet, and little was known about him.
Then how did Dong Bong-su recognize such a person and call him the Weapon Monster?
The reason was only one.
Strength. The craftsman of Eight Directions Armory was a master strong enough to be caught by spiritual vision. The reason Dong Bong-su was so sure was because there was no other reason, nor was one needed.
As is the case anywhere in this barbaric age, people who make weapons are weaker than those who use them. And those who hang weapons at their waists and only move their mouths are usually stronger than those who actually use the weapons.
Therefore, blacksmiths who make weapons usually have no choice but to be weak. They have difficulty learning martial arts, and they are not in a position to learn letters and command those who have mastered martial arts, so they make weapons instead.
But there are exceptions everywhere. And usually, exceptions are much stronger than the normal ones.
When Dong Bong-su first came to Datong, there were quite a few people who were more than 10 levels higher than him. But over the course of a year, they either died, left, or decreased in number as Dong Bong-su became stronger. Eventually, now, only one master remained for whom the warning sound of spiritual vision would tell him to avoid.
That person was the craftsman of Eight Directions Armory.
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