Ben and Hyunsoo chatted for several hours.

Strategist Pan drew a small smile as he watched the two of them talk.

He looks like he’s enjoying himself.

Pan noticed.

Hyunsoo would use “friends” as an excuse to say he wanted to meet Ben, and come over to their side.

And Barad would accept that.

Barad must have noticed we’d try to take Hyun.

Both Pan and Ben truly realized what the beginning of peace Barad had offered was.

And Hyunsoo quite enjoyed this relationship of friendship with Ben.

And now Hyunsoo would be able to proceed freely with the quests Ben gave him—and many things that existed within the Prahum Kingdom.

“May I come in?”

Frak’s voice came from outside.

Hyunsoo still had rewards he hadn’t received.

Frak brought something extremely precious, wrapped in cloth.

When he unwrapped it, two fruits revealed themselves.

[You obtain the Small World Tree’s Golden Apple.]

[You obtain the Small World Tree’s Grapes.]

One was the best-looking fruit among those the Small World Tree bore: a golden apple.

“You should eat that apple right away.”

Just as Ben said, he immediately took a bite.

Crunch—

Juice far sweeter than a normal apple spread through his mouth.

[You ate the Small World Tree’s Golden Apple.]

[All stats increase by 1%.]

It was truly an apple with an incredible effect.

All stats +1% was overwhelmingly better than gaining stats in flat amounts.

Especially considering Hyunsoo’s current total stats were already quite high, this single apple was equivalent to raising more than fifty stats.

But that wasn’t the only surprising part.

[You will learn about the Real World Tree.]

[Your level is still too low.]

“......!”

It seemed the consumer of the golden apple gained a hint.

It did feel strange.

If it was a World Tree, it was a World Tree—so what was a “Small World Tree” supposed to mean?

Hyunsoo recalled the Small World Tree that had been so beautiful.

Somewhere, a Real World Tree exists—one with far vaster size and greater power than that Small World Tree.

That meant the power held by that material would be greater than the power the Small World Tree possessed.

And the Small World Tree’s grapes {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} totaled five.

Each had a different buff effect.

One grape: +50% EXP gain rate and +50% artifact drop rate.

One: skill ability maximization.

One: skill activation twice in a row.

One: all stats maximization.

The last effect had the power to instantly restore roughly 60% of HP and MP.

Just these grapes would be worth 30,000 gold...?

Thirty million won.

There was a reason someone would price it that high even as a buff item.

Even what was called a highest-grade potion only restored a measly 30% of HP.

But those filled 60% of both HP and MP at once.

And most importantly, there’s no consumable reuse time.

For a consumable like this to have no reuse time was enormous.

It meant you could consume them all immediately if you wanted.

Ben rose and said,

“Now I’ll pass Ghost Steps on to you.”

Following Ben, Hyunsoo walked together to the training hall.

Hyunsoo’s heart pounded as he followed behind him.

Ghost Steps of Sky King Ben is a completely different power from the Sword King Barad’s swordsmanship.

Both were the power of legend all the same.

But in the case of the Sword King’s swordsmanship, it was a comprehensive skill made up of multiple chapters.

And Ben’s Ghost Steps was a single skill.

A single skill tends to be overwhelmingly superior.

On top of that, Hyunsoo’s level still wasn’t something that could be compared to the high-rankers in Korea.

I haven’t clashed with them yet, but I might end up clashing with them soon.

In that situation, Ben’s Ghost Steps might become a major way out.

When they arrived at the training hall, there were as many as twenty soldiers.

“I’ll show you only once, so watch closely. All of this will happen within one second.”

One second?

Hyunsoo made a puzzled face.

One second was far too short a time.

If you were to describe one second, you could call it a fleeting instant.

With his hands clasped behind his back, Ben walked toward the soldiers.

And without a word, he activated it.

Ghost Steps.

One second passed.

Hyunsoo doubted his own eyes.

W-what did I just see?

No sound reached Hyunsoo’s ears.

As if a ghost had walked.

But Hyunsoo didn’t lose sight of Ben flashing past like a streak of light in that one second.

Soon, unlike Ben standing there again with his hands clasped behind his back, fourteen out of the twenty soldiers screamed at the same time.

“Ugh!”

“Ghk!”

“Kuh!”

One soldier flew up as if he’d been struck in the abdomen.

Another stumbled backward as if he’d been hit in the solar plexus, and someone else had their weapon snatched away and dropped to the ground.

In different ways, fourteen soldiers had been struck or disarmed.

Ben adjusted his sleeve cuff and said with an indifferent face,

“This is Ghost Steps.”

“......!”

Hyunsoo formed a hypothesis.

If they weren’t soldiers but enemy knights, and if Ben were holding a spear...

In that mere fleeting moment, fourteen of them would have died.

[You have learned Ghost Steps.]

It was definitely different from when he learned from Sword King Barad.

Back then, Barad corrected his posture step by step, and he trained for several days.

But now, he had acquired it for the moment.

Literally: for the moment, he had only acquired it.

(Ghost Steps)

Active Skill

Grade: Legend

Mana Cost: 1,000

Cooldown: 10 minutes.

Level: None.

· For the fleeting instant of one second, you move along the route you draw in your mind.

· Because the power forces you to move only along the route you draw the moment you use it, control is not easy.

· After activation, movement speed and attack speed are ghostlike, so they are not listed.

· An afterimage remains when you strike.

· A training period of 3 days is applied, and for 3 days you ignore all cooldowns and mana costs.

Hyunsoo understood from the skill information.

It’s a power that changes completely depending on how I guide it.

And that “route” written there.

The route Ben had moved along for that single second clearly continued.

A route is ultimately the line of movement.

With his hands clasped behind his back, Ben said,

“Try it on me.”

After taking a deep breath, Hyunsoo accepted a wooden sword from a soldier.

[Ghost Steps]

The instant he activated it, Hyunsoo felt silence drop in that fleeting moment.

He used what he could see to draw a route.

And then, immediately—

Shrrrk—

Hyunsoo moved, swung the wooden sword toward Ben’s chest, then immediately aimed for his back, then tried to bring it down from above—

Crash!

He rolled across the floor.

The route had tangled.

Ben gave a sly smile down at Hyunsoo, who’d fallen.

“It won’t be easy. The more you train, the more actions you’ll be able to do—but there’s an even faster and easier way, too.”

Ben was truly a sly old man.

“Three days. If you can make four routes precisely within that time, I’ll add another 0.1 seconds.”

The “easy way” he meant was increasing the casting time.

0.1 seconds.

It didn’t look like much, but not with Ghost Steps.

A 0.1-second increase would let him deploy Ghost Steps more smoothly.

“Of course, I’ll only give it if you accomplish it.”

Ben didn’t rate that possibility very highly.

By Ben’s standards, it was doubtful ordinary knights could make four routes even after honing it for a week. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

That was how tremendous Ghost Steps was—and yet its power changed depending on the user.

Then—

“What if it’s more than four?”

In Hyunsoo’s eyes as he got up, a heavy determination settled in.

If it wasn’t 0.1 seconds, but 0.3 seconds. Or 0.4 seconds.

At that level, he’d be able to swing one more time.

At those words, Ben laughed.

“Ho ho. If it’s more than four, then each time you pull off one, I’ll increase it by 0.1 seconds.”

Ding!

[Quest: Ben’s Test.]

Grade: A

Restriction: Those proposed by Ben.

Reward: +0.1 seconds per action.

Penalty on failure: Decrease in intimacy with Ben.

Description: Ben believes Ghost Steps is a power that makes it extremely difficult to achieve 4+ actions within 3 days. Achieve 4+ actions with that power and earn his acknowledgment.

Even a quest popped up.

Hyunsoo felt his motivation burning.

Ben and all the soldiers left.

After they left, Hyunsoo activated it immediately.

[Ghost Steps]

He stepped the route and moved.

Once, twice, three times......

Crash-clatter—

Hyunsoo’s route tangled again, and he couldn’t move properly.

After repeating it a total of ten times, he drew a conclusion.

Right now, he could deploy it stably only twice.

If he tried to go beyond three, the route tangled.

Three is a level I can overcome with effort.

Hyunsoo had worked as a blacksmith for days without sleeping.

And of course, the four Ben mentioned would have included effort, too.

But Hyunsoo wanted to show him something perfect—beyond what he thought.

Hyunsoo kept repeating it.

After practicing for 24 hours, he barely managed to execute three actions perfectly.

Good. At this speed...

He thought he could easily achieve six or more within three days.

Then Hyunsoo’s face twisted.

[You have been afflicted with the status effect Physical Fatigue.]

[You have been afflicted with the status effect Mental Fatigue.]

Hyunsoo made a puzzled face.

Why did this notification pop up already?

This notification usually came when he pulled all-nighters doing blacksmith work—right when the second day crossed into the third.

But it came at the point when only one day was passing.

And usually, after one more day passed following this notification, he would faint.

Because I’ve been repeating unfamiliar work...?

Mental fatigue.

That probability was high.

And physical fatigue was......

No way...!

Only then did Hyunsoo realize.

When he activated it once, his body moved along the route a total of three to four times.

As he moved along the route, Hyunsoo didn’t have a strong sense of it, because it was skill activation.

That he had moved four times—fast and violently—within one second.

But his body did.

The fatigue from moving like that accumulated.

So that’s why 4+ actions is...

Hyunsoo finally understood why Ben had talked about “four.”

If Hyunsoo activated Ghost Steps a hundred times, in reality he would have moved around three hundred to four hundred times.

Only then did Hyunsoo feel the spasms.

His entire body—legs and arms included—was feeling intermittent tension.

After resting briefly, Hyunsoo repeated Ghost Steps again.

But what had already accumulated wasn’t something that would loosen just because he rested for a moment.

Twenty-seven hours. In that amount of time, Hyunsoo was completely exhausted.

The urge to sleep, the screams of his muscles begging to rest.

With mental and physical limits rushing in, Hyunsoo bent his upper body, planted both hands on his knees, and panted.

“Huff, huff......

It was a helplessness he’d never felt before.

If I sleep, I won’t be able to complete four actions.

He closed his eyes and breathed calmly.

And started again.

Just like Haemosu’s words.

Even if it breaks.

But he hit another limit.

And tried again.

Even if it breaks.

He recited the mantra inside himself.

I can do it.

Within those countless mantras—

Hyunsoo slammed into his limit and collapsed to the floor.

His mental fatigue and physical fatigue had already reached the fainting stage.

His body wouldn’t listen.

Thud—

In the end, he even let go of the wooden sword in his hand.

Staring at the ceiling, he realized there were things that simply wouldn’t work no matter how much he kept going.

And Hyunsoo closed his eyes for a moment.

Even if it breaks.

It was a good saying.

Sometimes, even if it breaks, there are things you still can’t win by fighting.

You have to know how to be flexible, too.

And maybe he could be flexible and give up on Ben’s test this time.

Even if he gave up, it wouldn’t change the fact that Hyunsoo had learned Ben’s Ghost Steps.

And as time went on, he’d be able to use routes more freely, and eventually become outstanding.

But...

Even if there are things you can’t win by fighting, even if it breaks—

That has nothing to do with me. I want to keep challenging it.

Hyunsoo, who’d been down, got back up with a body that trembled intermittently.

Yeah. You have to know how to break.

But those words didn’t fit him.

He had a lot he had to push through, and there were people who believed in him.

So even if it breaks—no, even if it breaks and breaks again—he would.

“I won’t back down.”

He would keep going.

He tried to pick up the wooden sword he’d dropped again.

But Hyunsoo felt his vision blur.

At that moment, something strange happened.

[The title Even if it breaks shines.]

In an instant, a thought flashed through Hyunsoo’s mind.

One of the contents written under the title Even if it breaks.

When it is judged that you overcame a life-or-death moment with your own pure strength, you obtain Legend Stat ???.

[By obtaining a Legend Stat, all physical and mental fatigue is restored once.]

[You become 20% less tired than usual, and vitality surges forth.]

Hyunsoo’s trembling body stopped.

His dull mind suddenly became bright.

And he understood why these notifications had sounded.

Because the stat you gain is connected to physical and mental fatigue...!

[You are a person who possesses an unbreakable mind.]

[Only a Legend Stat that suits you is unlocked.]

[You obtain the Legend Stat: Will.]