Cooking Swordmaster [EN]: Chapter 258

But for some reason, my body felt incredibly heavy.

It was as if I had huge sandbags strapped to both my arms and legs.

Just in case, Cainchel checked his status window.

His stats were shockingly low.

‘…It only took skills on the first floor to affect me, but now it’s draining my stats.’

First, he needed to figure out exactly what the current situation was.

The fact that the commander was Percival meant that most of the warriors with him belonged to the Highlander Mercenary Corps.

They were battle-hardened veterans who had fought in countless wars. They didn’t back down an inch, even against the Undead.

Someone tapped Cainchel on the shoulder. He turned around to see a mercenary with a large scar near his eyes.

“Don’t be too nervous, rookie. Either way, Britannia is doomed if we can’t stop them. If we’re going to die, might as well die looking cool, right?”

Krrrrr-!

A vibration that felt like the entire snowfield was shaking spread, and before he knew it, the Undead army was right in front of them.

The mercenaries screamed.

“Damn, they’re too fast!”

“Skeletons riding horses! Isn’t that cheating?!”

At the head of the Undead army was a Death Knight riding a large skeletal horse.

‘Tch, the strongest one from the start…!’

The greatsword he was holding looked two or three times larger than those of the skeleton soldiers.

When he swung his sword, the mercenary who had been talking to him just a moment ago was cut in half.

Percival screamed at the top of his lungs.

“The enemy is too strong! Move in groups of at least three! Absolutely do not engage in a head-on fight!”

In the meantime, the Death Knight swung his sword once more, and Cainchel reflexively activated his Aura Sword.

Fwoosh!

However, no matter how much Aura it was imbued with, a rusty old sword couldn’t block the attack of a high-level Undead.

Cainchel met his first death without even putting up a proper fight.

* * *

[Welcome to the Tower of Trials.]

[You are currently on the 17th floor.]

“……!?”

Cainchel looked down at his body, which was soaked with cold sweat.

He had clearly been pierced through the heart by the Death Knight’s sword, but he seemed perfectly fine.

Iris sighed as if she expected it.

― Sigh, that’s why I told you that the higher you go, the more difficult the trials become. Now that you’ve died once, you know how terrible it is, right? You feel the pain just the same, even if you don’t actually die.

Certainly, the Undead army was a difficult opponent to face even at full strength.

Moreover, the feeling of dying was more terrible than he had imagined. But for some reason, a small smile appeared on Cainchel’s face.

“That’s right. It’s definitely not a pleasant experience. But even if my neck is cut by a sword and my body is split in half, I’m actually perfectly fine, right?”

― Well, yes, but…

Usually, when you die in a desperate situation, even the strongest mind tends to break.

But the man in front of her was burning with fighting spirit.

“In other words, I can gain real combat experience very safely! And in the worst battlefield of the Seven Sins War. I think I can handle a little pain for that much.”

Cainchel had fought many strong opponents so far.

However, he hadn’t experienced many battles where he purely crossed swords.

This was a golden opportunity to make up for that deficiency.

― ……

Cainchel recalled the memory of blocking the Death Knight’s greatsword just now.

He couldn’t even block the opponent’s attack right now, but there must be a way.

He took a slow, deep breath and called Iris.

“Then, Iris, I’ll challenge the next trial.”

― Hmph, fine. If you like dying so much, go ahead and challenge it as much as you want. Now, open, Gate of Trials…!

He closed his eyes and opened them to find himself back on the battlefield.

But unlike before, the Undead army was right in front of him.

‘Tch, so they’re not even giving me time to prepare now.’

Cainchel reflexively drew his sword and aimed for the legs of the skeletal horse the Death Knight was riding.

Heeheeing!

The horse screamed and fell forward.

If he had been even five seconds late in attacking, he would have met the same fate as before.

The Death Knight rolled heavily on the ground and got up.

The Death Knight and Cainchel moved at the same time. Snowflakes swirled along with the sword swung by the Death Knight.

‘Instead of retreating, I’ll close the distance even more!’

The opponent was wearing thick armor, but the connecting links were loosened by the impact just now.

Cainchel didn’t miss that small gap.

The horizontal slash, swung thousands, no, tens of thousands of times, struck the Death Knight’s right shoulder.

But it was Cainchel’s sword that broke instead.

‘Ugh… I had a feeling this would happen…’

Cainchel clicked his tongue and flew backward. He picked up the sword of a fallen mercenary and kicked off the ground.

Thwack!

Fortunately, this time he was able to smash one of the Death Knight’s arms, armor and all.

Groooo!

The wounded Death Knight roared and swung his sword wildly.

A tremendous blizzard rose with a roar that sounded like the earth was rupturing.

Then, the heads of some mercenaries who couldn’t avoid his attack flew off.

Unbelievable destructive power.

Cainchel tightened his grip on the sword. The elementary swordsmanship he had honed to the extreme could break mountains and split rivers.

Then, the feeling he had felt when he crossed swords with Meliot was revived from his fingertips.

He realized why only elementary swordsmanship remained intact, unlike other skills.

The swordsmanship that had become ingrained in his body from handling countless ingredients had become one with Cainchel.

‘That’s right, even without the Aura Blade, if my mind can pierce the enemy…!’

Cainchel stepped forward and instantly closed the distance with the Death Knight. Then, he thrust his sword towards the Death Knight’s neck.

Clang!

A deep crack appeared in the helmet the Death Knight was wearing. The Death Knight collapsed from the tremendous impact.

And he didn’t move anymore.

The mercenaries who were fighting around him swallowed their breaths. And then, as if they had agreed, cheers erupted.

“Woo-hoo!”

“The rookie took down the Death Knight!”

The mercenaries’ morale soared to the sky thanks to Cainchel’s struggle.

A rookie from the militia had achieved an incredible feat, and they couldn’t afford to lose.

‘The situation changes depending on my actions. Roughly, my combat power is about that of a Sword Knight. Well, then it’s about time to go die.’

Cainchel gritted his teeth and threw himself towards the next target.

He cut down a total of three Skeleton Knights and was shot down by an arrow flying from the rear.

A skeletal horse trampled over him.

That was his second death.

After experiencing about ten deaths, Cainchel was able to figure out one rule.

The battlefield was fixed, but the time of participation varied subtly each time.

There were even times when it was an hour before the all-out war broke out.

Moreover, that wasn’t the only gain.

“Oh, rookie. You’re warming up. But your sword-swinging posture is pretty decent? I heard you’re from the militia, so you must have learned properly. But what’s with that weapon? Even if the supplies are a mess, how are you supposed to fight the Undead with such a worn-out sword? Wait a minute.”

The mercenary with the scar on his face held out a spare sword he was wearing on his waist.

“Ah, thank you, Mr. Stigma.”

“Huh? Did I tell you my name? But it’s strange. It’s only been a few days since we met, but for some reason, the rookie doesn’t feel like a stranger. Are we from the same hometown?”

He had already had similar conversations several times.

“Anyway, I’ll use the sword well.”

What Stigma gave him was a fairly sturdy-looking iron sword.

He had been acting strangely friendly ever since he saved him from being killed by a Skeleton Knight.

The memories of fighting together disappeared. But his feelings towards Cainchel seemed to remain the same.

Stigma grinned and began to oil the blade.

“I don’t know about others, but I’m definitely going back to my hometown alive. Not as a silver-ranked mercenary, but as a hero who saved Britannia. Cough, cough… Why am I saying such embarrassing things?”

Then, a man who had been chewing on something in the back handed him jerky.

“The ones who say that are always the first to die. Eat this, rookie. My mouth is so bitter I can’t even eat meat.”

“This is bear jerky.”

“Haha! If you eat this, you’ll be as strong as a bear. Of course, I’m not giving it to you for free. Pay me back ten times over if you survive.”

Cainchel nodded silently.

Of course, not everyone was as calm as those two.

Most of the people here were mercenaries or free knights, but some were drafted from the militia.

They usually hunted or farmed. But when the security became dangerous, they took up spears to protect their families.

But could those who couldn’t even handle Aura survive against the countless Undead in front of them?

The militiaman’s face twisted.

“I, I can’t die in a place like this… My wife is about to give birth. I promised to be by her side…”

Then, the mercenary next to him patted him on the back.

“What are you talking about? Of course, you can go back safely. It’ll definitely be a very healthy boy who looks just like you.”

“…I really hope so.”

Cainchel looked at Josh, a hunter who was trembling in the rear.

His archery skills were amazing, piercing skeletons with arrows even after setting the bowstring on fire.

But most of them didn’t last 10 minutes before dying.

That was the same for Cainchel.

* * *

After dying over 100 times, Cainchel was able to survive for nearly 30 minutes.

The more he did, the more he learned about the nameless mercenaries, hunters, soldiers, and knights.

‘Martin… Except for his bad foot odor, he’s the best hunter who can even take down wolves with his bare hands. Mr. Baker has five daughters and said he has to work as a soldier for another 20 years to get them all married…’

And when he had died over a thousand times.

Cainchel was finally able to see the faces of the reinforcements.

But the price was not cheap.

“Hah…, hah… Hngh…”

The first to arrive was Meliot, holding an incredibly large greatsword in one hand.

He bit his lip as he looked at the countless Undead who had been reduced to ashes and scattered, and the bodies of those who had fought them and been annihilated.

“Damn it, I came too late… I wasted too much time fighting Satan’s minions. Are you the only one alive?”

Cainchel nodded, panting heavily.

The Highlander Mercenary Corps was stronger than he had expected. It was hard to believe that they were a hastily assembled force of people gathered from various places.

But in the end, Cainchel was the only one who survived.

‘Percival must have suffered near-total annihilation in this battle and acted with the Virtues for a while. So, the only one who actually survived was him…’

He understood why Percival was so reluctant to talk about the Seven Sins War.

Those who fought and died to protect their loved ones.

He could feel their hearts vividly.

But he had endured in a desperate situation until the reinforcements came, so he must have passed the trial safely.

As if to prove it, Iris’s cheerful voice rang out.

― Congratulations, Examinee…! I never thought you would last this long on the 17th floor! You’ll definitely never forget it for the rest of your life!

When he opened his eyes, he was already in the 17th floor lobby. A place he was now completely familiar with, having been back and forth nearly a thousand times.

Cainchel shrugged his shoulders as he listened to Iris’s excited voice.

“So, I want to start the next challenge right away.”

Then, Iris stammered in embarrassment.

― Wh-what are you talking about, Examinee? Y-you just successfully completed the trial…

“I appreciate your concern, but the trial I received on the 17th floor isn’t completely over yet.”

After more than a thousand challenges, Cainchel knew what was needed to complete this trial.

Even to understand Percival’s heart, Cainchel wanted to complete this challenge.

The structure was simple. Thousands of Undead and the Highlander Mercenary Corps fighting against them.

If it was simply a trial to survive alone, it would have been given in a different form.

That meant that the trial given to Cainchel on the 17th floor of the Tower of Trials was clearly…

In a battle where his allies were annihilated, to save as many people as possible.