Chapter 768: The Mermaid King's Treasure [1]

With this in mind, he took off his shirt and tossed it aside.

Then, focusing his mind, he raised his hand and swung the sword again.

SWISH!

An arc of yellow light flashed through the air before him.

This swing was slightly faster than the last.

Through the dynamic vision of his Eye of Tempered Blade,

he could clearly see the trajectory of each swing.

Fifteen times!

That was six more swings than before.

This was the maximum speed his current body could achieve.

He then tried again, this time channeling the power of his Extraordinary Traits.

This time,

Hu Qi’s swing speed made a quantum leap,

reaching thirty-five swings per second.

This was his current limit.

After all, simply swinging the sword wasn’t enough.

Each strike had to be delivered with full force.

The consequence, of course, was the enormous strain it placed on his arms.

For an ordinary person, a full-power swing—including the recovery motion—takes about 0.5 to 1 second, depending on the sword’s weight and their stamina.

A sustainable pace is roughly 300 to 600 swings an hour, after which a short rest is required.

Typically, even if someone trained diligently for ten hours a day,

3,000 to 6,000 swings would be their absolute limit.

The rest of their time would have to be spent eating and recovering.

Otherwise, their body simply wouldn’t be able to handle it.

At that rate,

completing the advancement ritual for Sequence Eight, Ten Thousand Slash Disciple, would take at least seven to eight years.

But with Hu Qi’s swing speed, he wouldn’t need nearly that long.

He could swing thirty-five times per second.

A day in this world was divided into twenty-five hours.

At this rate, he could theoretically complete ten million swings in just over three days.

But that was just a theoretical number, of course.

Even as a Professional, he couldn’t actually swing at full power for three days and three nights without stopping.

If he forced it, his arms would likely be completely ruined in less than half a day.

He needed to rest, too.

It was just that, unlike ordinary people, his Extraordinary Traits allowed him to recover his stamina in an extremely short amount of time.

With that thought, he gripped his longsword without hesitation.

A glint of light flashed off the blade as he began to swing.

For a time,

the only sound in the room was the continuous SWISH SWISH SWISH of the blade cutting through the air at extreme speed.

From a distance,

all that could be seen were arcs of light flashing continuously around his body, like silk ribbons—beautiful and deadly.

…

「At the same time.」

Just as Hu Qi was working to complete the advancement ritual for Sequence Eight, “Warrior of Ten Thousand Battles,”

in a manor on the complete opposite side of Night Crow Harbor from where he was,

a tall woman in a black dress stood in an open clearing.

Strangely, upon closer inspection, one could see fine, hair-like streams of water constantly swirling around her.

“I finally did it!”

Su Ta, the young woman in the black dress, watched the currents of water swirling around her.

An unusual glint flashed in her eyes.

It had taken her nearly two months, from the moment she arrived in this world until now.

She had finally stepped into the realm of the Extraordinary once more.

Compared to the other Professionals she knew of, her speed was astonishing.

After all, others had to learn the Ancient Burrim Language and various forms of Mystical Knowledge, not to mention preparing Magic Potions, Meditation Methods, and rituals.

That process took at least a year or two.

It was impossible for them to master everything as quickly as she had.

‘I wonder where those guys are?’

Su Ta’s gaze shifted.

She thought of the other three Managers who had entered this world with her.

‘Even if those three were slow, they couldn’t be that far behind.’

‘At the very least, they should have made contact with this world’s Extraordinary Paths by now.’

‘Aside from the newest Manager, who could be disregarded…’

‘…the ones I’m most wary of are Han Yun and that Deceit Puppet Master.’

‘Still, they probably aren’t advancing as quickly as I am.’

‘After all, right after I arrived,’

‘I obtained one of this world’s Professional paths, and the identity of the body I possessed has also been a significant help.’

At this thought,

she lifted a slender finger and pointed forward.

WHOOSH—!

The crystalline water that had been swirling around her like a silk ribbon suddenly transformed into several sharp, cold projectiles that shot through the air.

THUNK THUNK THUNK…

A birch tree the width of a bowl, standing ten meters away, was instantly riddled with a row of fine, dense holes.

Su Ta stared at the neat row of holes in the trunk, from which beads of water slowly trickled down the wood grain.

Such power was already comparable to some small firearms.

It far surpassed the realm an ordinary Sequence Nine could ever hope to reach.

The Professional path she walked was called Sea Demon.

Within it, Sequence Nine was named Wave Rider.

Its abilities included sensing the flow of moisture with both hands.

It also granted control over approximately one cubic meter of liquid water, allowing the user to form water arrows or guide streams, though without the ability to change the water’s temperature or density.

Finally, it allowed for underwater breathing, extending the time one could hold their breath to thirty minutes.

While Water Control was one of the abilities of a Sequence Nine Wave Rider,

an ordinary Professional could never achieve what she had just done.

It required an extremely precise level of control over one’s internal Spirituality.

But for Su Ta, who was at the True God Level, this was child’s play.

Although this wasn’t her original body and she no longer possessed her True God Level strength,

her mastery of power was something these ordinary Professionals could never hope to match.

‘The only problem is, the information I have on this Sequence Path only goes up to Sequence Seven, “Abyssal Songstress.” I don’t know the advancement methods beyond that yet.’

She frowned.

Based on the intelligence she had gathered so far,

she had already deduced how monumentally difficult it would be to hunt a Main God.