Fun Swordsmanship Training

A week has passed living in a mansion that is somewhat too large for one person and one creature (a vampire).

Every day I dove into dungeons to level up and collect Magic Stones, and my emptied-out funds have grown to 3,000,000 G.

With this amount I shouldn’t have trouble living alone.

Thanks to that my Level rose considerably, from Level 37 to 45.

Compared to my stats before clearing Dullahan’s 【Black Neck Mound】dungeon, it looks like this.

My stats have already reached the level of an A-rank adventurer.

Judging by overall combat power, it feels roughly equivalent to a Goblin Lord.

Furthermore, considering my Undead body, in a one-on-one against the members of the hero party, defeat would be unthinkable.

Yes, with this much strength, defeat against most monsters would be impossible—at least that’s how it looks.

“――――!!”

“Guwaaaaah!?”

――Slash!

I was cleaved across the torso by a slash from the Shadow Dullahan and sent flying.

“Hmm… that makes it one versus eight, hm.”

It’s not that Dullahan staged a rebellion because I stole its steed, Dark Horse.

It’s just that it’s giving me swordsmanship training.

“Damn it! Master Dullahan, once more!”

“――――”

I re-gripped the longsword I had just bought anew and crossed blades with Master Dullahan.

Although my body is invincible and I have high-rank adventurer stats, my combat skills are still amateurish.

I’ve been getting by with a scrappy fighting style that makes use of my Undead body, but I knew I couldn’t go on like that.

The Goblin Lord was defeated by shoving an arm down its throat to suffocate it and then tearing its lower jaw apart, and with Dullahan I unseated it with a willingness to die together and then struck its weak spot in the neck—an act of recklessness that would have killed me if I weren’t Undead.

So I decided to have the Shadow in my possession who excels most at swordsmanship train me.

Since both the Goblin Lord and the Minotaur just swing huge weapons relying on brute strength, I made Dullahan my master.

“Chomp chomp—apples are sweet these days. It seems Magic Stone processing technology has benefited agriculture too; it’s a fine world we’ve come to.”

“Tch! You’re so carefree while people are suffering!”

――Kiin! Kiin!

Ekarraat was lying on a bench set in the mansion’s garden, biting into an apple.

She rested her head on the armrest, bent her long legs, and hooked a knee over the opposite armrest.

Ekarraat is under the effect of Necromance and doesn’t need to eat, but lately she has been eating solely for the pleasure of stimulating her taste buds.

She especially favors fruits and sweets; she seems to love sweet things.

…Though it’s money I earned.

“――――!!”

“Gueeeeeh!?”

Another defeat.

My blood splatters across the mansion garden.

I’m Undead, and Dullahan is a Shadow so neither of us can die, which means we’re both serious.

I have the Shadows clean up the soiled blood, but occasionally spots are missed, and the neighbors’ suspicions that this is a haunted house are growing stronger.

“Today’s record is one win and nine losses, huh. The final goal was to win ten out of ten matches, wasn’t it? At this rate who knows when that’ll happen—chomp chomp.”

――Scrappy brawling-style fighting is forbidden.

――Aiming for the Dullahan’s weak spot deep in the neck is also forbidden.

――Defeat it by pure swordsmanship alone.

Those are the rules I set.

If I don’t, I’ll just use cheap tricks and it won’t count as training…

“Sid, today’s training seems finished, so we’re going to buy provisions. We’re out of apples.”

“Yes, yes.”

From the next day onward I woke up at 6 a.m. every day.

I rode Dark Horse to the dungeons to gather Magic Stones and level up.

In the evenings I returned home and trained with Master Dullahan.

I kept that up every day.

All of it was for revenge against the Hero party.

No matter how much Master Dullahan beat me, remembering their faces let me get back up an unlimited number of times.

This pain is different from the meaningless, senseless violence the Hero party inflicted on me.

It becomes my blood and flesh—every time I gasp in pain I can feel myself growing stronger.

I’ll surpass them overwhelmingly in both stats and combat skills, and I won’t spare any effort until I can give them the humiliation I’ve endured—so degrading they would rather be dead.

Holding only that motivation――――one week later.

“Oraaaaaaaah!!!!”

“――――!?!?”

――Kaan!

The slash I unleashed hammered into Master Dullahan’s shoulder.

My master dropped to one knee as if admitting defeat.

“Well, well—it’s astonishing to overwhelm Dullahan with swordsmanship alone in such a short period.”

Today’s record—10 wins, 0 losses.

I achieved a complete victory over a Sword Master, Dullahan.

“Hah, hah… heh, how about that.”

“At this rate, it might be about time to go retrieve Vanargand.”

“Vanargand? What’s that?”

“Sid, tomorrow you’ll accompany me on my trip back to my homeland.”

“What do you mean?”

“We’ll clear completely the dungeon I used to be in—the S-Rank Dungeon【Crimson Night Moon】.”

Ekarraat said that while biting into an apple with her developed canine teeth.