'Is it time to leave?'
That's what Dong Bong-su thought.
Having grown stronger, he goes to find stronger beasts.
Unable to grow any stronger here, he departs to hunt more powerful predators.
To him, it was a natural proposition and a natural instinct.
Perhaps he could level up with this Harvest.
He couldn't be certain, but in any case, this would be his last Harvest.
Beep. Click-
He closed the Status Window and this time opened the Skill Window.
As expected, the results showing just how fierce Dong Bong-su's past year had been, floating up in the air as holograms in a row.
First, the levels of the Active Skills he had before his class change had risen significantly.
[Lightness Arts Lv.8, Three Talents Sword Technique 1st Form Sweeping Away a Thousand Soldiers Lv.9, 2nd Form Direct Strike at the Yellow Dragon Lv.9, 3rd Form Mount Tai Pressing Down Lv.7, Circulating Energy Lv.3]
However, the changes to 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 maximum (Max). He had become strong enough to easily dispatch most enemies with just basic movements alone.
But for Dong Bong-su, this was nothing new anymore, and naturally there was no need to look further.
He picked up a handful of rice with his chopsticks and put it in his mouth while examining the changes to the new skills that had appeared after his class change.
There were two new Active Skills and four Passive Skills.
The two Active Skills were.
[Sword Energy Lv.3 Proficiency: 1.68%]
A technique that overlays energy onto the sword to increase destructive power. It dramatically increases attack power, but maintaining Sword Energy requires significant internal power.
The emission effect of Sword Energy slightly increases range.
Attack Power Bonus: 150%
Range Bonus: 3%
Energy Consumption per Second: 50 JP
[Footwork Lv.4 Proficiency: 15.77%]
A mysterious gait devised to efficiently evade enemy attacks.
Upon activation, instantly teleports once in one of four directions: forward, backward, left, or right.
Cooldown: 5 minutes
Currently Applied Level: Lv.4 (Player can adjust the level of this skill.)
Movement Distance: 4m
Energy Consumption per Use: 1000 JP
These were the two, and the Passive Skills were.
[Consecutive Slash (Conditional Passive) Lv.2 Proficiency: 60.05%]
Humans have a tendency to become more frenzied the more blood they see. Especially Wanderers, with their strong desire for survival, this tendency is more pronounced.
Duration: 5 minutes
· Upon achieving 5 consecutive slashes, all abilities increase by 5%. (Lv.1 activated)
· Upon achieving 10 consecutive slashes, all abilities increase by 10%. (Lv.2 activated)
※The kill count is only maintained if you slash the next enemy before the effect of Consecutive Slash ends.
[Consecutive Strike (Passive) Lv.1 Proficiency: 17.74%]
A Wanderer's sword strikes, learned only through real combat without formal techniques, are crude but frightening because they're unpredictable. Above all, even if the enemy is not struck by their sword, a Wanderer never gives up and persistently clings on. If they cannot slash in one strike, then twice, three times, even over a hundred times they will swing to surely kill the enemy.
Causes special status ailments to enemies who receive the player's attacks consecutively.
· Upon 2 consecutive strikes, causes 'Bleeding' to the enemy. Upon failing 2 consecutive strikes, pushes the enemy back. (Lv.1 activated)
※For consecutive attacks to be recognized as consecutive strikes, the attack and next attack must occur within 1 second. The effects of status ailments that occur differ according to level.
[Iron Cloth Shirt (Passive) Lv.1 Proficiency: 91.45%]
External energy art that makes the skin of the body extremely hard.
Permanently increases health and defense power.
Health / Defense Power Bonus: 5%
[Survival Instinct (Passive) Lv.2 Proficiency: 0.00%]
To survive in the ruthless Martial World, the more difficulty a Wanderer faces, the more fiercely they grit their teeth and fight desperately.
When health drops below a certain level, all abilities except health increase due to a strong desire for survival.
Current Health: 100 / 100 (%)
· When health drops below 50%, all abilities increase by 5%. (Lv.1 activated)
· When health drops below 20%, all abilities increase by 10%. (Lv.2 activated)
※Even if health drops and then recovers to exceed a certain level, the effect of Survival Instinct persists for 1 minute.
These were the four.
Needless to say, Dong Bong-su had become tremendously stronger with the addition of these skills.
In the case of Sword Energy, it was an On/Off type Active Skill like Lightness Arts, but the difference was that he couldn't adjust the level's height and the energy consumption was tremendous. With the addition of Sword Energy, for the first time situations arose where JP was insufficient.
Until then, even if he used skills freely, JP had been more than enough. However, the effect of Sword Energy was as excellent as its considerable JP consumption. Because it stacked with Circulating Energy, if he overlaid Sword Energy while using Circulating Energy, the attack power increase was enormous. If the stacking of other passives and other Active Skills was added here, the increase was so tremendous that even Dong Bong-su himself couldn't easily gauge how much power it had.
The Footwork skill was a completely different concept from the general footwork spoken of here. As the description 'teleport once' indicated, it was a type of evasion skill that could instantly dodge enemy attacks at very dangerous moments. Similar to the magic called Blink that commonly appears in fantasy novels? With a 5-minute cooldown, once every 5 minutes he could overcome desperate crises with this. However, as this was also a class change skill, the JP consumption was tremendous.
Skills like the Passive Skills Consecutive Slash and Consecutive Strike were techniques much more Wanderer-like than Sword Energy or Footwork. They were types of combo skills that could be effective the more enemies one hunted or the more one attacked. Though their abilities might seem like nothing much at first glance, if these were activated while other skills like Sword Energy were applied, the increase was definitely not negligible.
Iron Cloth Shirt was similar to that in general martial arts novels, a survival skill that increased health and defense power.
On the other hand, Survival Instinct was a survival skill similar to Iron Cloth Shirt, but unlike the defensive Iron Cloth Shirt, it was an offensive survival skill. When health dropped below a certain level, all abilities except health increased. Perhaps it could be said to be the skill that suited Dong Bong-su best among the class change skills.
Since the point at which he obtained the class change skills and the methods of raising proficiency were each different, the distribution of their levels from 1 to 4 was also varied.
Dong Bong-su chewed his rice while examining how much the class change skills had grown. But he could easily tell that recently they had barely changed at all.
'I'm leaving.'
Like with level, when considered from the proficiency aspect as well, this place had clearly lost its appeal as a hunting ground. Especially, the proficiency of Consecutive Slash and Consecutive Strike hadn't risen at all. This had already been foreseen. Because Consecutive Slash and Consecutive Strike hadn't activated even once during the last Harvest. Clearly, if there was a certain level difference or more between the player and NPCs, they wouldn't activate.
Treading water.
Like the stagnation of leveling up, the fact that skill growth had slowed was decisive.
Beep—
Dong Bong-su closed the Skill Window and finished his meal. After briefly cleaning up, he went out for a midnight walk as always. Perhaps this might be his last walk here, but until it became the last, it was one of the things he had to do.
***
On the outskirts of Datong was this place's only famous attraction, the Ink Bamboo Forest. Because the sound of bamboo leaves rubbing against each other in the night wind resembled ghostly wailing, it was also called Ghost Wailing Forest.
After Dong Bong-su learned about the Ink Bamboo Forest, on days when there was no Harvest, he went out here for a nighttime outing every day.
When deep night came, carnivorous wild animals frequently appeared, and due to the sound of bamboo leaves sweeping, human presence was sparse. That people didn't often pass through was consistent with saying it had the best conditions for training.
Even as Dong Bong-su headed to his own training ground located deep within Ghost Wailing Forest, his thoughts didn't stop. Though the wind brushing his face from the much faster Lightness Arts was quite sharp, it was insufficient to interfere with his brain's rotation.
Right now he was thinking about the iron statue the Eight Directions Armory blacksmith had made.
'Soldier Eccentric finally succeeded in melting the Novice's Sword to make the iron statue.'
Soldier Eccentric. Dong Bong-su clearly called the blacksmith Soldier Eccentric.
Soldier Eccentric was one of the Three Eccentrics, and his precise epithet was Eight Skills Soldier Madman. It was said that no one knew his name, and that he had mastered eight types of skills. Especially in making weapons, he was said to have reached a divine realm and was thus called that.
As befitting someone followed by the titles Eccentric or Madman, he was a person said to be bizarre, but being one of the Three Eccentrics in name, he was an eccentric master with martial arts at a level where he could roam the world like his own front yard. As such, he was elusive so no one could easily meet him, and little was known about him.
But how did Dong Bong-su recognize such a person and call him Soldier Eccentric?
The reason was only one.
Strength.
The Eight Directions Armory blacksmith was a master strong enough to be caught by Spirit Eyes. The reason Dong Bong-su was so certain had no other reason and needed none.
As would be the case anywhere in this barbaric era, those who make weapons are weaker than those who use weapons. Also, those who wear weapons at their waist and only move their mouths are usually stronger than those who directly make weapons.
Therefore, blacksmiths who make weapons inevitably tend to be the weak. Because it would be difficult for them to learn martial arts, and they wouldn't be in a position to learn writing and command those who learned martial arts, so they would be making weapons.
But there were exceptional existences everywhere. And typically, exceptions are much stronger than the normal.
Even when Dong Bong-su first came to Datong, there had been several people more than 10 levels higher than him. But within a year, whether they died or left, or if not that, as Dong Bong-su became stronger, such people decreased. Finally, now there was only one master strong enough for Spirit Eyes' warning sound to send him a warning to avoid them.
That was precisely the Eight Directions Armory blacksmith.