Sword Sovereign Ji-hee.
She was the username that had shown up on day one alongside my master, debated the direction of my training, then clicked her tongue and vanished the moment I started down the Black Magic tree.
She'd said she would teach me how to handle a weapon.
ㄴ Anon (312F): why is she randomly butting in?
ㄴ Anon (543F): so out of nowhere lmaooooo
ㄴ Seol Ha-rin: Why is that woman here…
She was neither a Death God nor a mage, so the gallery's reaction made sense—her appearance was pretty out of left field.
But I knew exactly why she'd shown up at this particular moment.
ㄴ Sword Sovereign Ji-hee: Slash (斬) belongs without question to the realm of martial arts! I shall be the one to teach it.
ㄴ Anon (710F): uh you're not even a Death God; do you actually know what the instant-kill derivative skill is?
ㄴ Sword Sovereign Ji-hee: Why would I not? I too listened to your explanations alongside the Death God miss.
ㄴ Anon (533F): been lurking hard lmaooooooooooo
ㄴ Anon (499F): jumping in just because it sounds kinda similar wtf;;
She'd barged in the same way the last time Slash (斬) came up in conversation.
The gallery's reception was just as cold as before.
Sword Sovereign Ji-hee stepped forward with an aggrieved air.
ㄴ Sword Sovereign Ji-hee: Did that young miss not accomplish before your very eyes what none of you could teach or even intended to teach?!
ㄴ Anon (249F): you talking about the circle leap from earlier? lol
ㄴ Seol Ha-rin: ……
ㄴ Death Note Grand Canon: That mouth moves with unseemly cunning…
ㄴ Anon (702F): ;
ㄴ Anon (643F): just hit everyone with an AoE lmaooo
*Well, she's not wrong.*
Come to think of it, nearly every technique I'd learned up to now had been exactly like that.
From the instant-kill skills to the Spirit Blood Tea Rite, Circle Excitation to Persona Divide.
Things the gallery had no intention of teaching, or didn't even know themselves—I'd learned them all in ways they never imagined, in a fraction of the time.
*It'd be nice if the Slash derivative came just as easily…*
That was what I was thinking when the most conservative voice in the thread—my master—posted something unexpected.
ㄴ Death Note Grand Canon: …I will admit, what that girl is doing does come closest to the practice of the Slash derivative.
ㄴ Anon (710F): wait what?
ㄴ Anon (197F): why is he agreeing??
*Oh.*
Master's tone was grudging, but he was nodding along.
Honestly, so was I.
I'd wanted to learn physically-grounded combat techniques.
It seemed all three of us had zeroed in on the same priority.
ㄴ Sword Sovereign Ji-hee: Old Death God. You are not entirely without discernment. What that young miss urgently needs right now is to refine her weapon mastery. Her only true killing technique at present lies within the domain of weapon handling. To properly execute that technique in actual combat—especially in a crisis—she must absolutely internalize the weapon arts I will impart.
My current finishing move was Slash, which meant I needed to develop physical combat techniques first.
And above all else, that had always been the first thing I should have done after equipping two high-value Legendary artifacts.
ㄴ Death Note Grand Canon: Had my disciple not invested in Strength and Agility, I would have dissuaded her… but there is no helping it.
ㄴ Anon (312F): didn't Sword Sovereign Ji-hee absolutely despise teaching newbies at the very start
ㄴ Anon (277F): she's mellowed out a lot since the Void Hermit thing lol
ㄴ Anon (540F): nah if she hadn't put points in physical stats she'd still be forcing it lol
ㄴ Anon (754F): that lady is genuinely the #1 theorist on weapon arts. she's produced one vanguard member before
ㄴ Anon (397F): Sword Sovereign Ji-hee is in the late 800s herself, isn't that basically vanguard?
Nearly vanguard.
Sword Sovereign Ji-hee seemed to be quite the heavyweight.
Having a disciple above floor 900 was no small thing—so why was her reputation so oddly mixed?
I was mulling that over when the discussion continued on another thread.
ㄴ Anon (351F): wait there's 30 minutes left, shouldn't she be reading the floor 101 guide right now?
ㄴ Anon (431F): with her current stats she'll probably just steamroll it anyway
ㄴ Anon (197F): wouldn't it be better to just keep climbing for now
ㄴ Anon (435F): she probably jumped in because there's something that can be learned quickly
Right.
There must be something she could pick up fast.
But Sword Sovereign Ji-hee's very next post betrayed that assumption entirely.
ㄴ Sword Sovereign Ji-hee: What nonsense. There is no such thing as a shortcut on the path of weapon mastery.
ㄴ Anon (312F): excuse me?
ㄴ Anon (643F): brutally honest lmao
ㄴ Sword Sovereign Ji-hee: That young miss is merely a Death God's body. She was not born with a warrior's bones. Therefore, abandon any expectation that she will master something in an instant.
ㄴ Anon (243F): then get out again
ㄴ Anon (543F): so how long will it take?
ㄴ Sword Sovereign Ji-hee: A foolish question. It varies enormously.
Then my master said this:
ㄴ Death Note Grand Canon: …Fine. I understand. Begin quickly.
ㄴ Anon (461F): she just said it'll take forever and you're okaying this?
ㄴ Death Note Grand Canon: It is certain that awakening the derivative Black Magic of Sentence of Death – Sight will take far longer than the first step of what that girl is about to teach.
ㄴ Anon (643F): wait so this guy was also trying to keep the newbie occupied lmaooooooooo
ㄴ Anon (248F): both of them are so shady lol she still needs to climb within 30 minutes…
ㄴ Anon (578F): newbie said she's not scared of invaders anymore anyway lol
As I'd thought before, the break time didn't matter much anymore.
Getting stronger efficiently was what mattered above all else.
ㄴ Sword Sovereign Ji-hee: *Void-Cutting Shatter Strike* (切空斷碎)—the martial derivative of Slash—is most certainly not a technique that can be learned in thirty minutes.
ㄴ Anon (710F): huh? how do you know the name of the derivative skill?
ㄴ Sword Sovereign Ji-hee: I named it.
ㄴ Anon (312F): ? lmaooooooooooooooooooo
ㄴ Anon (431F): what the hell lmaooooooo
ㄴ Anon (710F): why are YOU naming a Death God's technique wtf
ㄴ Sword Sovereign Ji-hee: Upon observing Death Mark, I finished gauging the level at which an instant-kill derivative skill would reside.
ㄴ Anon (241F): the galaxy-brained confidence is insane
ㄴ Sword Sovereign Ji-hee: Therefore, I predict that in order to even stand at the threshold of this Void-Cutting Shatter Strike, one must break through at minimum 5 layers of the wall!
ㄴ Anon (643F): there it is. she said it.
*Wall?*
That was fairly interesting.
Like circles in magic, it seemed martial arts had its own concept of a "wall" to represent one's level of mastery.
Given that she said 5 layers, it seemed to be the equivalent of the 5th circle.
ㄴ Anon (100F) (OP): What is a wall?
ㄴ Sword Sovereign Ji-hee: Why do you not know this?
ㄴ Anon (643F): wall definition: Wall
ㄴ Anon (249F): lmaooooooo
ㄴ Anon (351F): lmaooooo it's not abstract lol
*Is she talking about a literal wall?*
ㄴ Sword Sovereign Ji-hee: A wall naturally refers to the walls of this tower!
ㄴ Anon (100F) (OP): I see…
ㄴ Anon (100F) (OP): So from now on… I just train by hitting the wall with my scythe…?
ㄴ Anon (643F): looked so barbaric I was genuinely taken aback lmaooooooo
ㄴ Sword Sovereign Ji-hee: Correct. But why do you look unconvinced?
I was typing out a reply when a comment that seemed to take offense at my words appeared first.
ㄴ Anon (150F): why is she looking down on wall-breaking? where else in the Demon King's Tower are you gonna find a sandbag that's so perfectly standardized?
ㄴ Anon (643F): wall-breaker persecution complex lol
ㄴ Anon (100F) (OP): I'm not looking down on it, I just thought it was like circles in magic.
ㄴ Anon (150F): it literally is though?
ㄴ Anon (643F): lmaooooooooooo
ㄴ Anon (358F): kids who put points in Strength do rank themselves by how many wall layers they've broken lol. the walls have high magic resistance so it's only the physical-combat types who do it.
*So my first instinct was right after all…*
That was when it happened.
ㄴ Sword Sovereign Ji-hee: Wall training is not something to be dismissed. Not only does it help one grasp the subtleties of strength, it also connects to the second method of escaping this Demon King's Tower.
ㄴ Anon (643F): instantly proving why it gets dismissed lmaooo
Hm?
What?
*The second method of escaping the Demon King's Tower?*
That was a genuinely surprising thing to say.
ㄴ Anon (100F) (OP): Excuse me?
ㄴ Anon (432F): lmaooooooooooooooooo
ㄴ Seol Ha-rin: Seo-yun. Just ignore that last part…
ㄴ Anon (543F): it's actual brain-dead nonsense so don't pay it too much attention
ㄴ Anon (249F): oh right, Sword Sovereign Ji-hee was a wall-breaker too
ㄴ Anon (100F) (OP): What is it?
*The wall-breaking connecting to escaping the Demon King's Tower… could it possibly mean…*
ㄴ Anon (349F): it means smashing through the tower and walking out. there are some smooth-brained believers who genuinely think you can physically break through the tower walls and escape that way
ㄴ Anon (312F): lmaooooooooooooooooo