'Shitty’ doesn’t quite cut it

[Your frame of mind is unstable. Skill ‘Calm Mind’ cannot activate.]

Youngwoo got greeted by the notification after he left the headquarters of Magician Guild. He gritted his teeth as he did his best to not start screaming. He was mad. Furious, even. He was mad that he wasn’t able to stop himself or Weiss before they… no, he couldn’t even think about that.

He groaned as he passed by a few buildings. In actuality, he really, really wanted to blow off some steam. Sword by his side, he only glanced at his phone, to see the hour turning to about 20:20. No, actually, he didn’t care. Even if it were 3 in the morning, he wouldn’t stop or stray away from his destination.

Still… he couldn’t just leave. Not without saying a thing to Hilda. As much as he hated himself in that moment for what he had done, he would hate himself unbearably more if he let her down again like he did with Ieva before. No, he absolutely needed to give her a heads up.

Youngwoo: Hey, just finished talk with Weiss.

He couldn’t really express how hard it was to write that sentence. With every tap of his finger he felt like he was stabbing a knife in Hilda. A rotten feeling that he knew he won’t get rid of, not easily, at least.

Hilda: Hey, glad to hear that ;) How’d it go?

Youngwoo: No time to talk right now, can we talk later?

Hilda: Sure, I’m soon going to sleep myself. Meet me tomorrow at noon?

Youngwoo: Sure. Love you, sweet pie.

Hilda: Aww, you make me blush. Love you :*

He held his phone for a long moment. For a few seconds, he wanted to smash it on the ground, but decided against it. Relieving his rage on innocent piece of tech would be useless.

He walked up to the Gate after a few long minutes.

“Transfer, floor 4.” He needed to blow off some steam, and what better place than a floor he hadn’t cleared yet?

He stood on large plains, many square kilometers of green space in front of him. The sun was just above the horizon, but noticing a large tablet near him depicting the 4 cardinal directions, he understood that the time was late evening. As he took a few steps forward, he got greeted by a notification.

[Continuing quest…]

[Hunting the wolves]
[Some monsters that appear in the Tower focus much more on one of their aspects than others. Some focus on hunting in groups. Gray wolves have excellent intelligence and agility, but low strength and endurance, and that’s why they typically hunt in groups.]
[Objective: Hunt 15 gray wolves. 1/15]

[Quest reward: linked quest, 1 gold coin]

Exactly as he had left it years before. He only managed to kill one beast, and even then he just barely escaped with his life thanks to a group of other Huntes. Without them, he’d have died to the rest of the pack that attacked him. But, now was no time for pondering. He got hold of his sword and unsheathed it immediately. Without a moment of hesitation, he looked around and tried to locate nearest group of enemies. To his surprise, however, he found none.

He gripped the hilt of his weapon with more ****, but decided not to say a thing. Instead, he simply started running forward, into the plains, the knee-high grass not a bother for him in the slightest. He kept going on and on for a few minutes, until he noticed a dark outline in the distance. The line that came into his vision was of nearly black color, and stretched over almost a third of the terrain he saw up front. He found the forest where the wolves tended to roam about.

He passed by a few small animals here and there, scaring them away with his mere presence. A pack of young deers passed far from him as he was approaching the tree line, but he didn’t bat an eye. Right now, he needed to fight something, not to adore wildlife.

And thankfully, after taking no more than 10 steps into the forest, he heard some movement on his right. Taking his hint, he begun a stride left, preparing himself.

2 wolves ran not far from him, both visibly injured. One of them had burn marks on its dense fur, while the other’s hair were dyed red from its blood in many spots. With disappointment, he lowered his weapon a little, seeing that the animals were chased by a small group of Hunters.

‘Fucking hell.’ He thought with a grimace. Turning around, he noticed how Iris was looking at him with a gaze full of annoyance, but also filled with bit of curiosity. Was this a bit of worry he was seeing in her violet eyes? No, that must’ve been his imagination.

“…” He didn’t say a word. No, if he could help it, he didn’t want to speak with anyone for now. He was too mad at the moment.

He felt veins in his hand bulge momentarily as he gripped the longsword with all his might. He gritted his teeth and charged forward. If he couldn’t have what he had found, he would simply have to find something else.

3 minutes later

He stood in front of a pair of large wolves. They seemed to be about 1 meter tall while on all fours, their paws outfitted with large claws. Their bodies were slick, and although outfitted with dense fur, they looked like they’ve gone through rough times with finding food. However, Youngwoo knew it wasn’t it; those beasts were most definitely vivid and ready to fight to ****, contrary to what one might think. Their hair were of matte silver, or rather just gray color, contrasting with the deep brown bark of trees and green of moss on the ground. Their eyes, nearly entirely black, were looking at him, and he saw the glints of animosity most monsters emanated at humans at the first glance.

“Pagma’s Sword Dance, Link.” Youngwoo didn’t wait, and immediately activated the first sword dance. He slashed the blade 5 times within a single second. With every slash, a blue, half-transparent blade was formed and shot forward at fast speed, closing the gap of 20 metres before he finished the entire dance. “Flower.” He connected the second technique as he noticed that both wolves flinched at his attack, seemingly stunned momentarily.

About 20 flower petals in total moved in spiral around him before they aggressively shot forward at the wolves. The two beasts seemed to shake out of their initial reaction, and started dodging the blue petals. However, the homing effect quickly took effect, and the petals made rapid turns around, as if guided by strong wind. Meanwhile, Youngwoo started another sword dance.

“Restraint.” As he made the final step, a sphere of dark blue aura erupted from beneath his feet, enveloping everything in 5 meter radius around itself.

The first of the wolves charged inside the aura after roughly a second or so, and instantly, the tall man noticed how its movements became slower. The closer it got to him, the easier it became for him to simply take a wide step aside whilst it was charging forth, unable to stop its momentum quickly enough to turn at him. Using the fact that he wasn’t affected by Restraint aura, he made a rapid slash, and managed to cut the beast’s hind leg deeply.

The second wolf managed to change its direction of charge while it was outside of the aura, but Youngwoo managed to just barely dodge it. He made a fast step forward, and suddenly felt the friction beneath his feet disappear. He slipped and hit the ground, but didn’t fret. He took a look at the two beasts, and noticed how one of them stood in the back now, visibly hurt in its back leg, while the one in front seemed **** to attack immediately.

Without wasting a moment, Youngwoo made a turn and got up. The slightest mistake could mean his ****, and he sure didn’t plan on dying today. He gritted his teeth.

“Kill.” He charged at the healthy wolf. While the beast managed to evade the initial charge, he immediately made a turn, backpedaled, and charged again. “Dragon.” His stab hit the wolf cleanly in its belly, wounding it deeply. He only heard its whimper as he removed the blade.

The injured wolf attempted to attack him, but he slashed the sword, cutting at its jaw. Seeing that they were in a losing position, both beasts started moving away, clearly having a bit of trouble moving, but not even daring to turn around.

“You’re not getting away.” He fixed his posture, took the base stance, and made a few steps and a rapid turn while swinging his weapon. “Transcend.”

Suddenly, Youngwoo felt a slight surge of power fill his veins. It was… weird, in a way. It wasn’t like he had had a good rest, but rather, it was closer to adrenaline, but still not quite the same as the actual thing. It was… more energetic, per say. He felt goosebumbs travel down his hands as he made a slash, feeling the extra power within him. One slash, second one, third one, he watched as the aura blades were sent forth. Those were different from the ones he saw when he used Link. Link had blue blades, whereas Transcend sent out blades that had more of a faint golden glow to them. In a way, they looked more… fancy? He wasn’t sure if that was the word.

He swung a total of 12 times, 6 for each wolf, before he decided that it was enough. It in fact only took 3 attacks to incapacitate the more wounded beast, while the one only stabbed with Dragon took 5 before it collapsed on the ground. Youngwoo made a final swing with the sword, getting rid of the remnants of blood still on its blade, and sheathed it. He took a deep breath.

‘…this isn’t enough.’ He thought. No, if he wanted to calm down, he would need to keep on going.

He groaned lightly, and went deeper into the forest. After a few minutes, he noticed a group of Hunters who were finishing up their hunt. 4 people were quickly taking care of a dozen or so wolves, or rather, their corpses, skinning them with clear skill, while a single man was scanning over the nearby forest, ensuring the rest of them could work in peace. The distance between the man and Youngwoo was about 40 or so metres, and they stared at each other for a long moment.

The man seemed to be a roughly between Ieva and Hilda’s height, and there were a number of weapons by his side, both sharp and blunt. His muscular posture was somewhat imposing even from the distance. He wore leather armor, and in his hands he held a bow and had an arrow fixed to the bowstring, ready to be pulled and shot at moment’s notice. On his head, he wore a large hat that Youngwoo could swear looked exactly like stereotype archer’s hat, its construction similar to bird’s beak, and it even had a feather sticking out from its left side.

The man’s face was round, his puffy cheeks were halfway covered in light beard of dark brown color. Large nose was guarded by a mustache of same color. The man’s gray eyes were staring at Youngwoo with somewhat neutral feeling in them, but after a few seconds, it seemed to change. The man bowed his head lightly and curved his lips in a small smirk. Not exactly sure how he should respond, the tall swordsman also bowed his head a bit, and started walking away.

‘Why do I have a feeling like I remember that man from somewhere?’ He pondered for a moment as he kept on going deeper into the forest. There was something about that person that seemed… quite familiar. ‘Have I seen him somewhere lately?’

Meanwhile

‘Why does it feel like anywhere I go, I see this guy?’ The man chuckled lightly at the thought. It was already 3rd time in just a few days. Just how many coincidental meetings could there be?

…well alright, he admitted that one time on 12th floor, that Asian kid wasn’t aware of him while he watched him and the 3 others approach Issar’s walls, carrying the bandit leader with them.

“What’s so funny, Ivo?” Asked a woman skinning wolf’s pelt quickly with a small knife.

“Nothing, just… saw a guy.” He shrugged as he turned around, scanning another part of the forest. “Are you done yet?”

“92%.” She replied calmly. “What kind of guy?”

“Saw him a couple of times on floors 11 and 12. But it’s kind of weird to see him around here.”

“Maybe he wanted to escape reporters?”

“I’m not sure. I can’t put my finger on it, but it felt a bit weird to see him here.”

“Maybe you’re just tired?” Asked a second woman, who was cutting meat into smaller pieces and putting them into containers, and then those containers into a large bag on a cart. “That being said, we’re running out of containers. I think this calls for job finished, no?”

“Already?” Asked a man cleansing the skins handed over by first woman with. He placed his hand on the fur, and cast a skill. After a second or so, blue light emanated from his palm and permeated the layers of skin. “It’s a good day, then.”

“I say it calls for a few drinks.” Said the first woman without raising her eyes from her hands. “What do you guys say?”

“I say not bad an idea, Nikola.” Replied the man cleansing the furs.

“What about you guys?” Nikola turned her head towards Ivo, and then others, having finished her work.

“Sure.” The archer shrugged lightly. “If Zola agrees, I have no reason not to, either. Somebody has to watch over you, knucklehead.”

“Mpmh!” Nikola put on a momentary pout. “You’re just afraid.”

“Everybody’s afraid of you when you’re drunk.” Commented the second woman.

“Bite my ass, Liga!” Nikola made a sharp turn, her hair of copper color following suit and resting on her back in a ponytail style.

Liga snorted momentarily at Nikola’s bark back at her, packing the last of containers onto the cart. She stood up to full 180 cm of height, and let her dark hair waver a little as she put on a smile. She eyed the still sitting woman with her crystal blue eyes, but there was no negativity in them as she reached out with a hand and asked:

“How about this? We spend 4 gold each, and we only drink for that much?”

“A total of 20? I’ll barely get tipsy.” Nikola snorted. “Can we at least make it 6?”

Liga looked at Ivo, then at Zola, and then at the third man. All three of them shrugged lightly, seemingly agreeing.

“I think we all agree then? 30 gold for drinks, no complaints?”

Back to Youngwoo, 3 hours later

“Pinnacle!” He slashed his sword for the thousandth and some time, hitting a wolf cleanly and killing it finally. He had already lost count of how many beasts he’d killed, but he was pretty sure the number could reach 3 digits. This was the effect of Weiss potion, which made him not lose a single breath for over an hour at first.

Finally deciding he’s had enough, he sheathed his sword and sat down amidst 4 wolf corpses. Their blood, still hot, was slowly spilling onto the ground as he was catching a breath.

‘I didn’t think fusing sword dances would be so difficult.’ He thought, revealing his skill list and skimming through list of sword dances. Although he’s been using all of the sword dances whenever their cooldowns ended and connected them as many times as he only could, only a single fusion was born.

[Sword dance: Splendor Pinnacle

Rank: F

A sword dance depicting prowess transcending all races.

At the end of sword dance:

Coat the blade in aura for 4 seconds. Every attack during this time will have its damage increased by 3%, pierce 18% of target’s defense and disable all target’s skills for 3 seconds.
*Disabling of target’s skills only applies once per target in one duration of Splendor Pinnacle.
**Disabling of target’s skills is independent from Splendor or other sword dances using Splendor. If target already has disabled skills, duration is increased by amount dealt by this sword dance.

Sword dance recoil: For 20 seconds, all your skills will have their power decreased by 20%, and all damage that strikes you will pierce through 20% of your defense.

Cooldown: 1450 seconds]

This was the only fusion dance Youngwoo managed to get. If he were to be honest, it wasn’t very good, considering that Splendor was a suppression skill rather than attack one, but he didn’t fret. In the end of the day, he managed to get some information out of it by comparing it with Flower Revolve.

‘The cooldown seems to be simply a sum of parent’s cooldowns plus a few minutes.’ It seemed to hold up so far. Parents of Flower Revolve had combined cooldown of 1350, and the fusion itself added 250 seconds to make it 1600. Similarly, parents of Splendor Pinnacle combined to a total of 1150 seconds. However, they added 300 seconds for the fusion, which gave Youngwoo another hint. ‘The additional increase is dependent either on difference between the individual sword dances, cooldown of the lower sword dance, or on some kind of lower limit for fusion dances’ cooldown.’ Those were natural conclusions, but he couldn’t really prove any of them until he managed to get third sword fusion. And that could take a while.

Of course, he could’ve simply asked Tower for an answer, but he decided against that. He was never a fan of going for an extremely easy solution. If he really needed that information one day, he would ask, but until then he would try to brainstorm the answer.

He put a hand in his pocket. During his hunts, he managed to get a grand total of 4 gold coins and some silver ones. In all honesty, this was already better than his usual hunts, considering that he’s only been hunting for 3 or so hours. He sighed, looking at his phone. The hour was 23:51 already. On any normal day, he should be preparing to sleep by now. But this time around… he only felt a weight on his heart when he thought about going back.

‘…what do I say to Hilda?’ He didn’t know how he was going to dress the situation in words. For 3 hours, he’s been thinking whilst slowly calming down, and so far, he didn’t think of anything concrete.

He knew he couldn’t just lie to her. It wasn’t just because of ‘Charismatic Leadership’ he had, but also because of his past. Every single time he’d lied, he got the weighing feeling of guilt on him, and even if he finally managed to get rid of it, the unpleasant memories were very effective at making him **** to lie. He reminded himself of situation with Abigail. The girl knew of his lie because of Grendel, and while she didn’t show it, she must’ve felt betrayed by him. In no world would he want to have Hilda feel the same way. Of course, he could’ve just regressed and prevented Weiss from going on him, but… similar issue as before. He wouldn’t forget, and that was a problem. On the other hand, he didn’t know how Hilda would react.

“…Iris?” He asked, turning to the woman who was watching over his movements for the past hours.

“What?” She asked, and surprisingly enough, he could see only faint resemblances of annoyance in her violet eyes. Was she not mad anymore?

“…if I wanted to tell somebody something very bad… how should I do it?”

“…” She looked away for a short moment, and looked back at him. “Is it about that businesswoman?”

“…yes.” He hung his head down, closing his eyes. "…I didn’t for that to happen. A-And… I don’t know how to tell Hilda about it.”

“Why would you ask me about it?” She formed a questioning expression.

“Who else do I have to ask?” He asked a rhetorical question. He knew that Ieva was out of question. She was protective of her sister (even though she didn’t show it much), and knowing that he was a regressor, there was a good chance she’d just blast his head right off his neck when she got to know. No matter whether their relationship got out of negative zone, he knew well damn well that if anyone it would be her to change it back. She wasn’t afraid of him. And beside Hilda’s sister, Youngwoo didn’t really have any friends.

“…”

“How would you react if your boyfriend came to you from my position?” He looked up at Iris with almost pleading gaze.

“…” White-haired woman turned away from him and stayed silent for a few seconds. “…don't you assume a little too much?” This time, he could clearly hear an angry note in her question. Did he just touch a sore spot?

“…I’m sorry. I asked what I shouldn’t.” He put his head down again.

“…” Iris closed her eyes and clenched her teeth a little, but remained calm. “I don’t know.” She answered after a few seconds.

“…huh?”

“What’s with that ‘huh’? I don’t know everything. I’m a genius, not a sage.” Her voice once again sounded of typical for her irritation.

“…I see. Thank you for your insight, Iris.”

‘…this is too much for me right now.’ He thought, feeling a headache form inside his skull. ‘…I need to set myself off.’ An idea came to his mind. Without skipping a beat, he ventured in a direction where he remembered the Gate was located in. Thanks to it being illuminated in the night, he managed to spot it after roughly 15 minutes of searching.

Meanwhile, Iris begun thinking. His question was… out of place, in all honesty. She completely didn’t expect him to ask for her opinion. So far, from the moment she’s been released from her seal, she’s been acting as a help for him, but it felt more… ****, in her eyes. During times when he didn’t need her, she simply stayed quiet and observed the situation. But this, now… it was not only a question completely out of blue, but also one that wasn’t related to dealing with climbing the Tower or other Hunters. Right now, Youngwoo Lee, that man… asked her for a relationship advice?

‘No, shake out of it!’ She shook her head as strongly as she could, to the point where she could swear she heard her brain move in her skull. That man was the way he was, and that was the end of it. No point pondering too much on unimportant details. No point in... obsessing over her heartbeat.