“Thought Acceleration also means improving your ability to process information. In short, it’s like watching a phenomenon caused by a rotating lantern. And when it’s reached the extreme, one will feel as if time has stopped. However, those who have reached that point will, without exception, have some sort of issue afterward. This is because the human brain is not naturally allowed to process that much info.”
Hearing my words, A-chan closed her eyes and said that.
I was casually thinking, “Wow, you know a lot,” when Kohaku seemed to notice something and asked her with a slightly grim expression,
“You sound as if you’ve seen someone who suffers from that before.”
“…Well, somewhat.”
For an instant, and just a tiny instant, I felt like A-chan was directing her mind towards Himiko while still keeping her eyes closed.
But Himiko herself didn’t react, so I guess it was just my feeling.
“I won’t ask further then. Anyway, are you okay, Sukuna? If what Arthur just said is true, then Sukuna must be under a lot of strain.”
“Well… I do feel a bit tired.”
At first, I was a little surprised when I was flooded with a tremendous amount of information because I fully released the limit, but I can maintain that state for at least a minute or so.
And, when I fought with Hisui, I had narrowed down my detection range to a few dozen meters at most, so I had a lot more leeway than I had expected.
“Normally, you’d be crippled just to maintain it for seconds… Well, that’s just because you’re Sukuna, is all I can say. Now that I’ve seen with my own eyes, I realized that you are even more monster than what Touka told me.”
“A monster… I can’t deny that.”
Because A-chan is right.
Calling me a monster or monstrosity was common when I was young. Even my parents, who had given me unconditional love, were frightened by some aspects of my power, the further away I am from the meaning of the word human.
“Well, it’s not a bad thing if you’re okay.”
“That’s true.”
“But that’s beside the point. It’s my turn now, isn’t it?”
When A-chan’s critique was over, she impatiently stood up.
“I’ve been too fired up after watching Sukuna, and I don’t want to wait until the heat is gone. Kokuyo-dono, I’m sorry. But you must fight me, right now.”
The sheath of the sword she was playing within her hand clinked against the ground.
“Yes, that’s okay. Because I also have a hard time to hold back too.”
I don’t know if it was because she could tell how A-chan was feeling or because they were feeling the same way, but Kokuyo smiled and accepted A-chan’s challenge.
===*
“Sukuna-dono. Is Arthur strong?”
“I’m pretty sure she is strong… but I’ve never seen her fight seriously.”
I gave a slightly vague answer to Hisui’s question.
She is the leader of the largest swordsman clan in the WLO, has the confidence to declare that she’s the strongest in her clan, and none of her clan members would dare to deny it.
Despite being inferior in terms of level, everyone admits that A-chan is the strongest within the Knights of the Round Table.
Even from my point of view, I think A-chan is strong. This is based on how she wields her sword and how she usually behaves.
A-chan’s body language is very similar to that of a martial arts master I had observed several times in the past, an extremely strong man.
“Himiko, what do you think of A-chan?”
“She indeed strong. That’s one thing you can’t doubt about her.”
Himiko answered my question immediately.
Himiko said that there was no doubt about it, so I guess that meant that her strength was real. However, Kohaku put her finger on her chin, perhaps a little curious about the implication in how she phrased it.
“Is there a flaw other than strength?”
“No, it’s simply because I haven’t seen her for a long time. I don’t know how much she has grown. The Arthur I knew was an unbeatable swordsman, at least among her peer.”
“Oh, you mentioned that you haven’t seen her for a while.”
Himiko told me that she hadn’t seen Arthur for a long time because she had run away from her family after cutting her ties with them.
There is a saying, “If you don’t see a man for three days, you cannot overlook his growth,” but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t apply to girls.
If you haven’t seen a girl for five years, it’s natural that you can’t measure her strength.
“So it’s an unknown….”
“She’s wielding a sword now, but it seems that her original weapon was Katana. In any case, she a person with [Sword Saint] skill, it is impossible for her to be weak.”
From beside the puzzled Hisui, I heard the familiar voice of Kohaku.
“Oh yeah, Kohaku. What is a [Sword Saint]?”
“It’s an extra rare skill that is given to those who passed its trials.”
“Extra rare skill?”
“Hmm, let me explain a little about the different types of skills.”
I was going to ask about the [Sword Saint], but unexpected new terms came up, and I tilted my head, so Kohaku smiled and explained.
First, common skills are skills that the inhabitants of this world are born with or can gain through training, such as [Blunt Weapon], [Bare-Handed fighting], or [lightning magic].
Then, some skills can only be obtained by increasing one’s proficiency in a certain skill, such as the [Dual Wield], [Great Sword], or [Dual Great Sword], which were called Master Rank skills.
There are also skills that are completely different from that, and can only be obtained under special conditions, such as [Hungry Wolf] or [Oni no Mai]; these are called rare skills.
And among those rare skills, there are skills that are directly related to gods called extra rare skills.
“In the Imperial City of Fias, there is a test called the [Trial of Kenshin], which only those with the emperor’s permission can challenge it. I don’t know the details, but I heard it’s very difficult.” {Kenshin = Sword God}
“So… A-chan must have passed that trials.”
Kenshin is the god who rules over swordsmen. I’m sure that when we first met, Shuten said, gods are those who watch over the profession.
“But even taking everything into consideration, it will be difficult for the current Arthur-dono to defeat Kokuyo. Her level is simply too low.”
“How high is Kokuyo’s level?”
“354.”
The number that Kohaku had just told me was far higher than I had imagined.
I thought it would be over 200, or perhaps close to 300, but it was over that… it almost four times of my own level, that’s how far they are apart.
It’s what they called overwhelmed by the status number. I’m sure at that level, her physical skills will have reached almost 700 in all stats.
“Three hundred and fifty-two.”
“Himiko is broken!”
“I’m sure she’ll deliberately lower her status for this fight, just like when I had a hand-to-hand spar with Sukuna, otherwise Arthur-dono attacks won’t be able to penetrate at all.”
“Lower the status?”
“With debuff items and skills. If not, there is no way I will be hurt by the attacks of a two-digit level Sukuna.”
It’s true. Considering my status at the time, even if you consider the buffs that strengthen me, it is strange that my attack would go past Kohaku’s defense, which is probably even higher than Kokuyo.
I think she took me lightly, more than I thought at the time. It’s a shame, but even if my attacks can pass now, I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to defeat Kohaku. Yet.
“To be honest, I could just use recovery skill to heal myself at that time.”
“Hahaha.”
When I stared at her, Kohaku laughed happily. At the same time, Hisui explained to me about the recovery skill.
“It’s probably [Kiketsu – Oni’s Blood]. It’s a sustained recovery skill exclusive to the oni race.” {Kanji written as Oni’s blood}
“I wonder if I can learn it.”
“Yes, you have to complete the trials, but if you are an oni, you can learn them without any problems. I’ve studied it myself, and so have the other Travelers… I’m sure Meguru and Ladybug recently also made it through the ordeal.”
Hmm. Come to think of it, when we defeated the Volcano Golem before coming to this village, Meguru said that it was a necessity to complete some kind of quest.
By the way, Ladybug is one of the regulars on the forums, and I almost always see her name when I visit the Oni Forums.
I have the impression that although she is always trying to stir things up, though it usually has a boomerang effect on herself.
She is an interesting person in a different way from Himiko because she sometimes responds earnestly. It’s a pity that she doesn’t seem to be in the village at the moment.
“Tell me more about it later. Look, it’s starting.”
Unlike our training weapons, A-chan held a one-handed sword with a sheath instead of a Katana. It was a double-edged sword that was clearly not intended for training.
She didn’t have the sword she showed us before, so this one must have been a spare, because it looked much more rugged than the relatively decorated sword before.
A-chan closed her eyes and struck the tip of his sword, still in its sheath, twice vertically against the ground.
Was it some kind of ritual? All I know is that those two taps have raised her concentration to the maximum.
Grabbing the sword’s scabbard with one hand, she gently pulled the blade out.
Her movement is majestic, almost like a dancer who fascinated the audience.
The moment A-chan gently opened her eyes and turned the blade she pulled out to Kokuyo, I felt the illusion that my whole body was torn apart.
“……!”
“Hee….”
It was tremendous sword energy that was far different from what I felt when I first met her.
Neither Kohaku nor I could take a breath, and Hisui seemed to be surprised as she tried to ready her wooden sword sheathed at her waist.
So, this is the strongest swordsman of Knights of Round the Table.
In contrast to her fierce spirit, Arthur put her hands on the sword’s hilt and smiled menacingly.
“Well… I’m coming.”
“Yes, any time.”
Looking at each other, the two swordsmen glared.
And not long after, the two blades made a high-pitched crashing sound.
===*
A note :
Thanks to all of you, I’ve reached my long-awaited 50,000 points!
And we have a book on Blunt Type Oni Girls on sale!
Thank you for everything! I’ll keep working on it!
Also, I’ve updated the activity report, so please check it out.
I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather, so I’ll continue to post after I get better!
Tl note:
The hell… Himiko used to be OP? she becomes like that as a side effect from Thought Accel?
Some creativity in early line “being called monster or monstrosity”, the original lines are “being called Kaibutsu or Bakemono”, the heck… I cannot smoothly translate this to English, and even if I leave it just like that, the lines will become too weird. So yeah… I compromise…
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