Why Did I Have to Enroll

Chapter 139:

Why Did I Have to Enroll - Chapter 139

Lesson 28: The Flower Festival of Ruin - 6

To briefly explain what Ban Yu-won just did:

Starting from the Blade, which is the main subject of the attack, he channeled power from his fingers holding the Blade, to his wrist, arm, shoulder, chest, and then to his waist, hips, thighs, knees, shins, instep, and toes.

He meticulously structured every concept related to his movement, including his breathing, the movement of his lungs, the beating of his heart, and the flow of his blood, to manifest a language magic based on his body and the three Blades.

"Whew, whew…"

He needed to perfectly read the enemy's movements and possess high-speed thinking to complete all calculations in an instant.

A deep understanding of the relationship between Martial Arts and the Body, and the sense to unravel it as a collection of flowing concepts, was also required.

Furthermore, there were limits to his Magic Power, and all of this had to be within the concepts he recognized, making it far from an easy ability to handle.

[You have gained a unique enlightenment regarding authority and the Body. The depth of Martial Arts has reached 1,000, greatly accelerating the growth of lower concepts. The depth of Ever-changing Eye and Ever-clear Hearing, and the depth of Ever-smooth Tongue have reached 250. The depth of Soul has reached 830.]

If Ban Yu-won continues to observe and collect various Martial Arts and movement-related concepts on countless battlefields, and steadily train his Body, Magic Power, and Swordsmanship, which are the foundations for unfolding these concepts, it is certain that this technique will bring him infinitely close to invincibility.

The notification of changes in his internal concepts that appeared the moment he beheaded the Orc Lord proved this fact.

[You realize what it means to embody the purification of internal power. The depth of Swordsmanship has reached 250. You have obtained a clue about the combination of authority, magic, and Swordsmanship.]

[The depth of Mysterious Body Technique has reached 200. The depth of Mysterious Energy has reached 420. The conversion of Body concepts has been rapidly achieved, and the depth of Body has reached 30. You have realized that the depth of the converted unknown concept has surpassed 550.]

[The depth of Life has reached 680. By deeply contemplating your internal concepts, you can handle them more efficiently and actively, and you realize the higher concept that encompasses concepts of the same series.]

[The depth of Acceleration has reached 10.]

'Swordsmanship has grown tremendously. No, it would be faster to find what hasn't changed.'

The harmony and movement of the concept once embodied with authority are firmly engraved in his body.

If he were to face the same Orc Lord again and replicate the same movements, Ban Yu-won could unleash a much more powerful sword strike while consuming less than half the Mysterious Energy he did earlier.

In other words, the more he uses this technique, the more it permanently enhances all his movements.

The rapid growth of Swordsmanship and the perfect awakening of Aura were examples of this.

'My head… it feels like it's going to burst…'

?Throb.

Ban Yu-won clutched his head with one hand.

It was a natural result of forcibly drawing upon the low-depth Acceleration concept.

The irony was that this led to the depth of Acceleration reaching 10.

If he wanted to establish today's enlightenment as a complete martial art, deepening the Acceleration concept would be more important than anything else.

?Are you okay?! You moved like you were possessed by a ghost just now!

‘Well, it’s something like that.’

Even in a situation where he wanted to collapse from pain, Ban Yu-won quickly did what he had to do. He immediately retrieved the relic to prevent other orcs from touching it, stored it in his inventory, and extracted the concept from the Orc Lord’s corpse to annihilate it.

[You steal Life 100, Body 70, Wildness 150, Super Strength 50, Spirit Power 50, and Swordsmanship 50. Wildness is a concept that humans cannot possess.]

“Wow, it’s like a complete gift set.”

Ban Yu-won, who was examining the unusually thick and long golden string of text, forgot his pain and widened his eyes in surprise. He could give Wildness and Super Strength to Luciel, and he could consume the rest himself. He was particularly pleased to swallow Spirit Power, a force he had been interested in.

And… the Orc Lord’s Swordsmanship.

‘Ryu Cheol-myeong’s Swordsmanship. It doesn’t have the depth of Dokgo Yeon’s, but combined with the Orc Lord’s Wildness, it certainly displayed tremendous power. To complete my Swordsmanship, I need to absorb various Swordsmanships. Only then will the vessel become solid.’

His Swordsmanship would only be completed by observing, collecting, and digesting countless concepts. Dokgo Yeon was the most technically complete swordsman he knew, but he couldn’t learn from her alone. He had to learn from everything in the world. Even if it meant learning from enemies he despised.

[The depth of Life has reached 700, the depth of Body has reached 40, the depth of Spirit Power has reached 50, and the depth of Swordsmanship has reached 270.]

Absorbing 50 concepts of both Life and Swordsmanship and growing their depth by 20 was more than satisfactory. Ban Yu-won set aside Life 50 to give to his familiars, stored it in the core along with Wildness and Super Strength, and then raised his head.

“The Lord, the Lord is dead!”

“No, the power… it’s draining away…!”

With the death of the Orc Lord, the Orc Wave also dissipated, and the orcs, naturally losing their strength, were groaning in pain all around. Ban Yu-won was relieved to confirm that the energy of the infection wave was no longer felt among them. The Orc Lord had perfectly transformed and controlled the infection wave, so killing him resulted in the monster wave not occurring and being cleanly dispelled.

“In that sense, maybe the difficulty was low—oh.”

“Low? You can only say that because you achieved the feat of defeating a clearly superior opponent one-on-one.”

“Huh? …Sister?”

Muttering half to himself and half to Celon, Ban Yu-won, who was staggering from the headache, was startled to find Yumina supporting his back, just like before. If he had perfectly established his martial art, he might have noticed Yumina’s approach, but it seemed he still had a long way to go.

“What was that just now? I don’t know much about martial arts, but it looked like you predicted all your opponent’s movements and moved accordingly. It’s the first time I’ve thought it was beautiful to see a sword swing and cut a neck.”

Despite claiming not to know much about martial arts, Yumina’s words pierced the essence of Ban Yu-won’s sword. Since he hadn’t fully organized it himself, he couldn’t explain it to others, so Ban Yu-won just chuckled and asked her.

“Why did you come? I told you to just watch.”

“You looked really tired. Plus, you were staggering. It would be a shame if you got taken down by other orcs after defeating the Orc Lord.”

“I wouldn’t let that happen… but well, it’s almost over now, so it’s fine.”

He had the Rain Sword and Living Armor ready in his inventory, but Ban Yu-won decided not to mention it and instead boost Yumina’s spirits.

“Yu-won!”

Luciel, realizing the wave had ended due to the orcs’ change, came running on all fours in her half-transformed state. Seeing Ban Yu-won leaning on Yumina, she quickly closed the distance, landing perfectly in human form and holding him.

Yumina, seemingly surprised by Luciel’s sudden approach, also held Ban Yu-won tightly, but soon he freed himself from both of them and stood straight.

“Yu-won, are you hurt anywhere?”

“No, I just felt a bit dizzy, but I’m fine now.”

Ban Yu-won waved his hand dismissively at Luciel’s fussing and quickly chewed a life candy he took from his pocket, not showing any signs of the recurring headache. Not only did the headache disappear instantly, but—

[All states recover dramatically. The depth of Mysterious Energy increases by 1, the depth of Charm by 5, and the depth of Acceleration increases by 2.]

It was amazing. Life candies and the life and overall benefits obtained from Eden seemed to grow concepts useful to the person consuming them, but he didn’t expect the depth of Acceleration to increase by 2 at once. It seemed the accumulated elixir mileage had burst this time, and Ban Yu-won nodded in satisfaction.

“But do we need to deal with those orcs?”

“If left alone, they’ll reduce their numbers and scatter. Especially the monsters that weren’t originally orcs now hate orcs more than humans, having escaped the influence of the infection wave.”

Yumina pointed to the orcs fighting and brawling everywhere.

At first glance, they all looked like the same orcs, but after hearing Yumina's explanation, it seemed a fight had broken out between the original orcs and the monsters that had transformed into orcs.

Since their appearance had been altered by the Orc Wave, if they were mentally intact, they'd want to tear apart those who made them this way more than humans would.

If things continued, the monsters that made up the wave would naturally dissolve into a group of tens of thousands, and Ban Yu-won shrugged and said,

"This Orc Wave cleanup is a breeze, isn't it?"

"Only if you defeat the Orc Lord."

"Ban, are you hurt—?!"

Soon, Light joined them, shaking off the blood from his spear.

Despite facing a horde of orcs boasting an average strength of Life 300 with Luciel alone, he appeared unscathed.

Whatever 'help' he was receiving from Ayre, it was clear he was improving remarkably day by day.

"Hmm, you sorted it out pretty quickly."

"Good job, Dokgo Yeon."

Dokgo Yeon also arrived, landing nearby while riding Eve, who had transformed into Lilith.

Surprisingly, she was the most exhausted among the Rebellion members after Ban Yu-won.

"Putting the mountain giant in and out of the subspace consumed quite a bit of internal energy.

Its sheer size made it inevitable…"

Dokgo Yeon said, rolling a life candy in her mouth to recover her depleted mental and internal energy.

"Still, I managed to grow it.

I think it crushed at least a hundred thousand."

"Listening to you, it sounds like you've become a complete tamer."

Ban Yu-won, who was smiling wryly at his comrades who remained unfazed even after averting a crisis that could have destroyed a lower dimension, soon realized he wasn't much different.

Even after defeating the Orc Lord, he was only thinking about his authority rather than the enemy.

"Alright!"

At that moment, Yumina, having confirmed the group had gathered, clapped her hands to draw their attention.

Despite five humans gathered in the middle of the battlefield, the orcs showed no interest in them and only fought among themselves, which felt strange.

Judging by the faint scent in the air, it seemed she had taken some measures.

"That was an amazing performance! No team has ever achieved such perfect results in their first special activity.

Therefore, I hereby officially declare the end of the special activity!"

"It really ended in less than a day…"

"Seeing the swarming orc army, I wondered if we could finish by the weekend."

"I expected the wave to collapse if we took down the leader.

Nonetheless, accurately identifying and intercepting the leader among so many orcs is a testament to our team's skill."

Hearing generous words from Dokgo Yeon was rare.

It was true that the orc army was a formidable foe, and it was also true that they had excellently eliminated the target without any damage.

As Yumina said, it could be considered 'perfect' this time.

In the newly warm atmosphere, Yumina smiled brightly and concluded,

"Now that we've perfectly completed the special activity, let's return to the humans of Papitar to report the results and have a flower viewing!"

Yumina's obsession with flower viewing was truly at an astonishing level.

Despite the Papitar people wanting to celebrate with a party and fireworks upon learning through scouts that the Orc Wave had collapsed, Yumina ignored all that and mercilessly raided the royal family's collection of fine liquors.

"Now, for the next hour, go around the capital and find some delicious snacks!

We'll meet back here in an hour!"

"Professor, could it be that you just wanted to have a drinking party…?"

Light squinted his eyes and questioned Yumina, but she ignored him and dismissed the group.

Of course, Ban Yu-won had anticipated this from the moment Yumina mentioned flower viewing.

In the spring of his senior year, he had rushed to Yeouido to see the cherry blossoms with friends, only to find all the other people sitting on mats around them were having drinking parties, making him painfully aware of his underage status.

What he wanted to say was that flower viewing was practically synonymous with drinking parties.

"Thinking about it makes me crave chicken again.

After all, the best chicken is the one you order and eat while sitting on a mat by the Han River…"

Back then, he had eaten chicken with a cocktail of tears and cola instead of alcohol, but now he could legally drink!

"Huh?"

While Ban Yu-won was shining his eyes, determined to find chicken in this city, someone tapped him on the shoulder.

It was Dokgo Yeon.

"What's up?"

"It seems you achieved something while facing that enemy.

I'd like to hear about it."

She meant she was curious about her student's achievement and had come to ask directly.

Such interest was not unwelcome.

Ban Yu-won grinned and raised his index finger.

Then, he limitedly applied his newly awakened martial art to his index finger, generating the concepts of Blade and Pierce, and finally infused it with Mysterious Energy.

His finger was enveloped in a golden aura.

“…”

Dokgo Yeon, seeing this, widened her eyes silently. When she was truly surprised, her pupils moved in an impossible pattern, and it was the same now. They tilted slightly horizontally, changing from a cross (+) to an X. Cute.

“This doesn’t seem to have changed much in its essential meaning.”

“I don’t know how it looks to you… but I feel like I’ve found my own path. I’ve concluded that since I can collect and create as much content as I want, I need to make the vessel that holds it sturdy.”

“A vessel, huh.”

Her pupils regained their normal state. Before he knew it, she was looking at him with a serious and stern gaze.

“Is creating a vessel that can perfectly contain infinite possibilities the path your sword pursues? Answer more firmly and confidently.”

At first, it felt presumptuous to talk about his martial art to Dokgo Yeon, who was far ahead of him. But she wasn’t someone who liked such modesty. She would rather he firmly set his mind and strive forward.

“…Yes, that’s right. That’s my Martial Arts.”

When Ban Yu-won nodded with a firm voice, a faint smile appeared on Dokgo Yeon’s lips.

“Is that so… You learned quite well, whoever taught you.”

It seemed he had chosen the right answer this time as well. Dokgo Yeon cleared her throat and turned her head slightly. It seemed she didn’t want to show him her smiling face.

“It will require a lot of effort and research. Saying you’ll contain all those martial arts in a sword would be an absurdly arrogant statement if it weren’t you.”

“Is it because… you believe in me?”

“No, you’re an ignorant rookie who probably doesn’t even know what that means. It’s not arrogance but a result of ignorance.”

Though she spoke bluntly, Ban Yu-won could see her profile still smiling.

“But who can stop someone aiming high? Although it’s not my intention, since I was the first to teach you the sword, I can’t say I’m not your teacher, so I’ll cheer you on.”

“That’s so touching I might cry—ow!”

She flicked his forehead without even looking back, continuing her words.

“A vessel that can contain any meaning. It seems suitable for your goal. Calling it a perfect vessel is somewhat vulgar, and calling it a fundamental vessel is awkward, so I’ll reverse it and call it Origin Vessel. Since the vessel is the sword, it becomes Origin Blade.”

“Origin Blade…”

“Since it’s said that all things return to one, if you succeed in gathering all sword intents, it will become one great and thick flow. By then, you might dare to use the word ‘origin.’”

After finishing her words, she sighed and looked at him with a deliberately expressionless face. She probably didn’t realize her cheeks were flushed.

“So, do you like it? You could name it yourself, but…”

“I love it, Origin Blade.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Ban Yu-won nodded. Seeing Dokgo Yeon’s lips momentarily relax, it seemed he had chosen the right answer again.

“I’m glad you like it. I wasn’t confident in naming…”

“Ah—now.”

Feeling the atmosphere was getting strange, Ban Yu-won cleared his throat and changed the subject.

“We’ve talked enough, so let’s go get some snacks. There must be chicken in this world.”

“Chicken? Ah, you mean that crispy fried chicken from before.”

“Spicy and sweet seasoned chicken is also delicious. You seem like you’d enjoy it with lots of sauce.”

“Spicy… and sweet? Such a thing exists?”

The two walked through the capital, engaging in trivial conversations. It wasn’t just Ban Yu-won’s imagination that the distance between them seemed to have shortened. Incidentally, they couldn’t find either chicken or seasoned chicken, so they had to fry chicken and make the sauce themselves with Luciel’s excellent cooking skills.