Infernal Energy Explosion Sword - the requirements to activate it didn’t seem that difficult.
It was like spinning a wheel, moving forward, backwards, then lightly stretching out your right hand.
Seol-Hwi moved his head in the directions indicated on the characteristics table. And after doing that, he could see a faintly blooming flame on the sword he was holding.
“Captain, that…!”
Jeok Song pointed to the flame, and Seol-Hwi realized what was going on.
While training, Jeok Song would move his body, and he unknowingly must have followed some of the actions on the skill table. Jeok Song probably felt an energy in his wrist, and then suddenly saw a flame on his sword.
Because even if he performed only half of the skill table’s instructions, this would happen.
“I will tell you later.”
Seol-Hwi said briefly, and then redid the skill table from the beginning.
After following all of the movements, Seol-Hwi raised the sword, and extended his right hand.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
“…!”
“…!”
The eyes of both men widened.
An explosion suddenly shot off from the tip of the sword, into the sky. And it wasn’t only one explosion.
There were six large and small explosions in total, enough to take down any opponent.
The explosions had detonated with roars so loud that, afterwards, Seol-Hwi could feel his ears ringing.
“Captain, what kind of martial art did you…?”
Jeok Song had a bewildered expression as he questioned Seol-Hwi.
Meanwhile, Seol-Hwi was analyzing what just happened.
It’s like a blast bomb…
They were similar to explosions from a grenade.
It was like condensing the power of ten or more grenades into one. As if to prove that, even after a little time had passed, Seol-Hwi’s deafness continued.
“Captain, what did you do?”
After a moment of silence, Jeok Song kept trying to ask Seol-Hwi. He saw those explosions, and he thought it had nothing to do with the sword, but rather, was Seol-Hwi’s own ability.
“I didn’t think it would be that strong…”
Seol-Hwi was too distracted with the sword to hear Jeok Song’s words. The power of the explosions weren’t that different from Wind God.
No, maybe they were even stronger. The range wasn’t very wide, but if an explosion hit the opponent straight on, they’d turn to ashes.
“Captain…”
“Okay, I will teach you now, so try following these movements.”
Seol-Hwi could hear Jeok Song again after his temporary deafness went away. He returned the weapon back to Jeok Song, and Seol-Hwi demonstrated the movements for the Infernal Energy Explosion Sword.
Jeok Song moved clumsily, but he followed Seol-Hwi as best as he could, until he finally learned to unfold it.
Bang!
He witnessed the same explosion as before coming out of his sword.
“What is this…”
Jeok Song was shocked.
It was such a powerful attack, but he didn’t even use any of his internal energy. How was this possible?
“A Divine Weapon. Take good care of it.”
“Is that true? This…”
Jeok Song’s face was filled with admiration. Seol-Hwi felt a bit embarrassed. Then, a sudden thought occurred to him.
Wait, if all the weapons I got from the shop are like this… then the other weapons…!
Seol-Hwi widened his eyes in realization.
He recalled that after he bought them new weapons, his subordinates’ combat power had noticeably increased.
“Jeok Song.”
When Jeok Song was about to leave, Seol-Hwi stopped him.
“Yes Captain?”
Instead of answering, Seol-Hwi simply stared at him. It was to check Jeok Song’s stats.
<Jeok Song [Command unit, 2nd member]> Normal Physical State Master level Health: 5.15 million/ 5.15 million Internal energy: 2.8 million/ 2.8 million Combat power: 5.33 million (+fight) <Ancient Sword>
When did his health and internal energy grow so much…?
From what Seol-Hwi remembered, he was sure Jeok Song’s health was less than 2 million. Then how…?
Did he really grow that much in one month?
“Your physical abilities seem different from before…?”
“Ah. That…”
At Seol-Hwi’s words, Jeok Song bowed his head. Then he raised it and spoke with a bright expression on his face.
“It’s all thanks to the Captain!”
“Me..?”
“I was a bit upset for the past few months, but then I managed to cross the wall a few days back.”
“Crossed the wall? You mean…?”
“Yes. There seems to be an increase in my stamina and endurance due to cultivation. This training we are doing now has been helpful for me. When we cultivate, when both stamina and internal energy are low, a new path seems to have risen, where the meridians seem to absorb higher energy…Oh, was I getting carried away? I spoke too much. Surely the Captain must already know all this.”
“…”
Seol-Hwi didn’t reply. Actually, it was more like he couldn’t.
Because Seol-Hwi had never felt such a thing.
When his internal energy temporarily increased, or his senses became more acute, Seol-Hwi used pills. There was never a time where he felt his meridians ‘opening up’ and ‘gathering energy’.
“Then the others are also seeing this effect?”
“Yes. Yorim seemed to have a similar experience as me. And Seo Ryeong and Yong Jin were showing signs of it. It looks like they might fully show results soon. And Imugi is the only one still struggling.”
“I see.”
Seol-Hwi smiled.
He was worried that this training wasn’t helping, but it was effective for his subordinates.
“Then, Captain, please work hard.”
Jeok Song bowed his head again, and turned around to head back.
While watching him walk away cheerfully, Seol-Hwi slowly looked more and more disappointed.
“Is this the price of not getting stronger in the normal way?”
The price of raising only combat power.
Seol-Hwi’s body couldn’t produce results due to poor foundation. There was never a time where he had trained properly and honestly, instead of fighting.
Ah, actually, there was one time.
When he was teaching himself the White Light Body Demonic Martial Arts.
However, perhaps because of that experience, he wasn’t able to gain any further realization of himself after that.
“Basic training…”
Seol-Hwi looked down at his hands, and back at the mountain.
The training which he wasn’t sure he should continue. It had helped his subordinates grow stronger.
“Let’s try. I can do it too.”
Seol-Hwi clenched his fists. There was no need to give up here.
If the gaps are filled, he will see results.
Seol-Hwi’s training turned even more intense.
Mountain climbing twice a day, and at most, he would even go up and down the mountain three times.
He couldn’t help it.
Maybe it was because of his high combat power, but Seol-Hwi’s health and internal energy weren’t decreasing as much as he expected.
So he repeatedly climbed the mountain to drain his stamina, while using martial arts along the way.
All of this was to cultivate.
It was because he had come to know that cultivating with a body exhausted in stamina and internal energy would give him more significant growth.
Not just that, Seol-Hwi was training to draw a ‘straight line’ with his strength.
He thought it was needed to know that his growth was ‘perfect’, and what the meaning of that was.
“How can things be more ‘perfect’?”
Seol-Hwi questioned, while looking at the line drawn on the rocks after many days. He thought it was strange.
For some reason, the day he was at the lowest level of health with hardly any internal energy, the line he drew looked the most straight.
“How did this happen?”
It was a feeling.
But as time passed, and on days he didn’t even have strength to pick up the sword, he couldn’t rest seeing this line.
So he would empty his thoughts and relax his mind, to see optimal efficiency come out.
“How about cultivating with this mindset?”
And the thought continued.
He completely focused on cultivating. Currently, Seol-Hwi was on the fourth form, which is known to break out of the dantian’s capacity.
He made sure that the energy in his body passed from the upper and then to the lower points. If it passes this way, then the flow of energy will be stronger.
Even if it is weak for now, I should continue to do this.
Seol-Hwi began to repeat the process. Whenever he felt very exhausted, he would do this. But there was no guarantee that he would break through.
These were all his own ideas and speculation.
But one day…
Huh?
Seol-Hwi felt an extremely cold sensation in his forehead.
Then, the energy went down to his waist, and began to run around his body madly.
Isn’t this the kind of thing one dies from?!
Seol-Hwi began trying to control it. His health was low, but he had to do this.
And while he was exhausted,
<You have reached the peak of Super Master level. In what way would you like to express your achievement?>
A new window popped up.
▶Confidently radiate energy ▷ Passively hide the energy
Confidently, and passively…?
He couldn’t understand it, but for Seol-Hwi, this was good news.
The confidence part looked good.
<You have selected 'Confidently radiate energy'.>
He chose this option, and then felt a hot energy form in his dantian, which quickly spread around his body. The clothes on his body burned away due to the heat.
And it wasn’t just that, his muscles began to grow stronger. In fact, it felt like his body was now a ‘perfect’ body to perform martial arts with.
“Confidence, huh…”
Seol-Hwi could understand.
What was this confidence?
It was…
“Captain…!”
He didn’t know when, but a person stood there, shocked, looking at his naked body.
And that woman was…Seo Ryeong.
