Sswaaaa!
Under the breathtaking waterfall, five men were brandishing their swords.
"14,930,641!"
“14,930,642!”
“14,930,643!”
The sword-wielding men were shouting astronomical numbers!
They were the Geomchis.
Geomchi, Geomchi2, Geomchi3, Geomchi4, and Geomchi5!
After parting with Pale and the rest of the party, they went deep inside the Yuroki Mountains to practice their sword.
Geomchi3 swung his sword blissfully.
"Only strong men are popular in the world! Strong men don't need to be afraid or suffer from anything."
In reality, strong men weren’t the lady-killers they believed in from the stories. Of course, women of the same age were afraid of them, even their mothers and little sisters were afraid.
Every day, they practiced their swordsmanship with earnest.
“Mom, please give me some food!”
Geomchi3 yelled the moment he reached home. he was very hungry.
“Oh, alright, I’ll make you some. Just wait for a short while...”
However, while cooking, his mother trembled with fear.
Mastering the sword also disciplined the mind and body, and was meant to help live righteously. Although there was no case of severe malice behavior towards his family, the change in his look and voice was enough to scare his mother.
This was only the beginning.
Some days he just shouted thoughtlessly.
“I'm hungry!”
“Kkkkaaaaaaaaaaackk!*
Crash!
She dropped the bowl she was carrying and shrieked.
Although she adores her children, she suffered from fear watching her child getting tougher day by day.
Because of that, Geomchi3 actively considered abandoning the sword and sat alone to have a talk with his dad.
“Father.”
“Yes? Speak. Tell me. Whatever you want.”
“Will you hear me out?”
“Why are you so serious? Father will listen...”
“I was planning on stopping to learn the sword and follow in your footsteps and work.”
“Keoheok!! You’re saying you want to be like me?”
Geomchi3’s father ran a rice factory.
The store receives many orders via internet, including from large supermarkets. They used to hire many workers to help them with the store.
According to Geomchi3’s judgement, the family business seemed to be doing well.
But his father just shook his head.
“That’s not right. You have to do what you want. Learn the sword. What are your thoughts about studying abroad? For about 10 years...”
“...”
Geomchi3’s childhood mental traumas did not end there. It was hard for him to look at himself in the mirror after washing his face, but his family were careful not to hurt his feelings.
Geomchi4 wasn’t any different.
In junior high, walking through the alleys.
“Hey! You come over here and take a look at this.”
He was called by the neighborhood bully and he was part of a High School gang. He was smoking cigarettes and chewed gum.
Geomchi4 slowly lifted his head. And looked at him straight in the eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
“I’ve made a mistake.”
“Spare me...”
The bully quickly put out his cigarette and apologized.
The rumors that were spread about Geomchi4 being a thug that no one should ever mess with, during his childhood days. Geomchi5 also had his situation.
National Id cards came out not too long before his sophomore year of highschool, and the government began large scale cleanup operations against gang members.
Because of his threatening scowl, while he was walking on the road, there was a time when he was arrested and dragged to the police station.
It was definitely a situation he should be angry with, but he held himself back. Mainly because among the thugs who were dragged to the police station, many were punched around by Geomchi5!
The Geomchis, who were all hiding away painful experiences, found hope in Royal Road.
Geomchi2 spoke.
“This place could be our paradise.”
“That’s right. Sahyung.”
“If we raise our level then we can meet girls!”
Geomchi3 and Geomchi4 said out loudly.
There were a lot of single men in modern times. However, to these guys who have never dated even once, a “woman” was a very urgent problem.
The only women they knew were their mothers and family. They were naive men who had never kissed a girl.
Geomchi3’s eyes shone brightly.
“Therefore, let’s give it our all. We can’t spend our time idly.”
“Okay. I understand!”
Geomchis trained deep in the mountains and valleys.
They hunted monsters to raise their levels. The embraced the advice that Weed had given them.
At their inquiry of the method to becoming a master, Weed answered.
“You only have to work hard.”
It was a very simple advice.
Geomchi2 was the one who came up and personally asked. Since he was asking a much younger disciple, although it hurt his pride, the pressing desire was greater of importance.
The hope of the old bachelors to get married even a day sooner!
“Is there any way we can raise our levels and fame even a bit faster?”
“Um, If that’s what you’re after, there’s no other way than to work hard. You have to put in much more effort than others.”
“What kind of effort do we perform? If it’s hunting monsters, we have confidence in that."
Fighting became second nature to Geomchi2, as much as sleeping or eating was.
The monsters of Royal Road had a set attack pattern. The wolves favored frontal attacks, and the thieves used poison-coated daggers. In cases where monsters wielded axes, one had to watch out for fast and straightforward attacks.
Because the Geomchis figured out their individual weapon’s timing and the enemy’s movements, they were able to hunt more efficiently.
Weed spoke his personal secret.
“You must sincerely work hard. In the master’s or senior’s case, you can raise your defense to a certain extent by wearing better gear.”
Geomchi2 nodded his head. After wearing the defensive items, the damage dealt by monsters lessened tremendously.
“You’re right. It’s much better wearing armor.”
“Since it’s heavy, it’ll dull your movements, but it’s a sacrifice for better defense. Also, if you take a lot of hits every once in awhile, you can raise your Fortitude and Fighting Spirit, which will help you in the long run. Though it will hurt a bit.”
“Getting hit many times... If you want to master the sword, it is something everyone has experienced. And what else?”
“It should be fine if you can supplement your weakness this way. However, to raise your level really quickly, you must have high damage.”
“Hm, You’re right. You have to have high damage to hunt quickly. But how do you go about doing that?
“You have to raise your sword skill.”
The importance of skills in Royal Road could not be overemphasized. It was revealed that even the highest leveled player, BardRay's, sword skill was only at Advanced level 4.
There could be many reasons for that.
While leading a large party mainly to hunt monsters that gave a lot of experience, there was not enough opportunity to swing a sword. Because he favored using powerful skills rather than basic swordsmanship, the proficiency of this skills were on the lower end.
The art of swordsmanship was the basics of battle.
Depending on the Sword skills level, it may exert enormous attack power.
The Geomchi’s had only one goal.
To master the sword!
Also to pave the road for the next generation of swordsmen.
The goal was to challenge the unthinkable.
The plan was simple. While mastering swordsmanship, they would also increase their levels.
Always hunt monsters at the same level or slightly higher than yourself. After mastering swordsmanship the damage done during hunts was overwhelming. This made level ups come faster.
Although Weed spends a lot of time on other skills, he does not lag behind others due to this.
Weed gave this advice. This advice was nothing special. If you played Royal Road then you would have already known this.
But not everyone could follow this advice.
Most people who played Royal Road were doing so just to enjoy it. Only less than 10% of the players played with the purpose of hunting. This was not a number to ignore, the amount of effort done by this 10% was much larger.
Not many people could wield a sword for 18 hours straight. Who can for 1 month, 2 months, three months?
Most likely, many will not be able to.
But to the Geomchis this was possible.
“When there were doing our most favorite work, it does not feel fun.”
“I’ve held a sword every day since I was 7 years old up till now at 35 years old.”
While the Geomchis were near the waterfalls of trees, monsters would sometimes spawn, and they would brandish their sword. Becoming the true monsters.
While learning the way of the sword, Geomchi3 occasionally saw the teacher’s questioning stares.
The Sword!
He was the most enthusiastic student when he held a sword. Whenever he felt the stares of the other students he blushed.
“Royal Road has no law restricting old people right? We aren’t married yet...”