Chapter 21: Duhan


    Probably about a year passed since the time Ryo lost consciousness in the sea.


    Till today, he has not had sess with 『Blood Freeze』.


    That said, it would be impossible to seed in just a year or so …


    Nevertheless, he did not skip any of his daily magic control training.


    Incidentally, he could now thaw the frozen meat prepared by Michael (pseudonym) in an instant.


    And that Ryo, for the past few months, has been visiting a certain location every night.


    It was the shores of ake in the central part of therge wends, beyond the Northern Forest.


    When the moon reaches the highest point in the night sky, it would appear.


    A headless horse ridden by a headless knight, an existence called a Duhan.


    That Duhan was not holding onto his head with his right hand.


    Why was there a headless knight in the Rondo Forest?


    Perhaps there was a prospering nation in the past where Rondo Forest currently stood.


    That said, he had not seen any signs of past human life and he had not found any man-made objects.


    In Earth’s mythology, Duhans are Irnd fairies and are not a knight’s apparition ….


    With that in mind, Ryo casually changed his assumption from there were humans here in the past to it might be a fairy or something that traveled into Rondo Forest.


    To Ryo, the value of that Duhan’s existence was to be his sword mentor.


    Of course, since it was missing its head, it couldn’t speak.


    However, when Ryo holds up his sword … he calls it a sword but it is just a carved out wooden sword coated with ice on the surface to improve its durability … the Duhan would hold up its sword too.


    Somewhat along with the feeling of ‘Again? … this troublesome fellow’.


    Of course, it didn’t have a head so this was entirely imagined by Ryo.


    And so the sword fight began.


    In the first ce, the Duhan was not recorded in the 『Monster Encyclopedia Beginner’s Edition』.


    In other words, it was either ‘Not a monster’ or ‘Not at beginner level’.


    Looking at it from the standpoint of whether he could defeat it, the current Ryo was probably still incapable of that.


    It didn’t use magic. So Ryo didn’t use magic either. He only wore 『Ice Armor』 that protected his body.


    But it was considerably strong in terms of just sword technique.


    Furthermore, he had to look up at it.


    “I’ll act as your training partner.”


    He felt it convey that intent … naturally, it didn’t have a head so it was all in his imagination.


    The Duhan would turn away once it dealt three sessful attacks that would cause fatal damage to Ryo.


    “Come again whenever you wish.”


    It seemed to convey something along that line.


    Conversely, Ryo didn’t know what would happen if he dealt three fatal blows to it.


    In the first ce, he had never even dealt damage to it even once …


    Recently, their battle duration had increased considerably.


    In the beginning, it was an instantaneous kill but nowadays, the battle would continue for about an hour.


    Of course, he still had a lot of discontents.


    In the first ce, there was no other way to improve interpersonal battle, whether it is martial arts, wushu, or even in games, than to have repeated interpersonalbat over and over until your body personally gathers the experience, knowledge, and movements.


    In that sense, that was an extremely valuable experience for Ryo who always performed practice swings on his own … but his opponent was a Duhan.


    To some extent, 『Breathing』 was crucial in understanding interpersonalbat.


    Although it is important to adjust one’s breathing, it is also important to read the opponent’s breathing.


    But the Duhan doesn’t breathe … in fact, it doesn’t have anything above its neck!


    As such, Ryo could not umte experience in 『Reading your opponent’s breathing』.


    In addition, there is also something called footwork, or footsteps.


    Footwork is important in any battle.


    In interpersonalbat, one could obtain important information with footwork and use it to predict the opponent’s movements.


    That is the reason why kendo and kenjitsu practitioners wear hakama.


    By wearing a hakama, the opponent will not see your footsteps and will not be able to gain an advantage from it.


    The Duhan doesn’t wear a hakama so Ryo wanted to learn that too … but due to the overwhelming difference inbat ability, the Duhan hardly moved from its spot …


    It looked as though a kendo master parrying children without moving at all.


    That’s right, Ryo was still being treated as a child.


    “In that case, I have to be stronger and make it move!”


    Of course, there were benefits too.


    No matter what kind of martial arts or wushu you practice, by practicing on your own, the content will inevitably be biased toward attacks.


    But that was not ideal.


    Especially in 『Phi』 where he was constantly in a life-threatening situation, neglecting his defense would be foolish.


    In that sense, it was quite practical to parry or avoid the Duhan’s attack before retaliating.


    However, Ryo still didn’t understand much.


    But tonight, Ryo was different from usual.


    His body movements were sharper than usual and he was able to urately anticipate the Duhan’s attacks.


    Perhaps because of that, he parried the Duhan’s continuous attacks, was able to evade the final downward diagonal sh with a half step, and followed up with a sh at the Duhan’s right arm.


    Well, if the opponent was a human or an ordinary monster, the arm would have been sliced off but the Duhan’s arm did not fly off.


    At the same time, the Duhan’s sword that was headed toward the ground from the downward diagonal sh transitioned into an upward diagonal sh and struck Ryo’s torso.


    Tonight, Ryo once again fell after the third fatal blow.


    There was almost no damage to his body due to the ice armor but he fell because of the mental damage.


    Normally the Duhan would sheath its sword then and disappear after kicking the headless horse but today was different.


    It approached Ryo who had fallen and took out a knife with a distorted shape.


    The de was about 10 cm long, the protrusion between the de and handle called the hilt was also about 10 cm in total length but the handle was long … longer than 20 cm.


    Ryo noticed.


    The length of the handle was the same as the wooden sword he was holding, about 24 cm long.


    Therefore, when viewed from the side, the knife looked like a cross.


    Ryo had never heard of such a knife.


    The Duhan ced its left hand on the knife handle and when it ced its right hand on the base of the de, it moved its right hand beyond the tip of the de as though there was an invisible de.


    Then, a de of water formed along with the movement of its hand.


    “A water de …”


    And when the Duhan put in magical power, it froze and became an ice sword.


    “So that exins the handle length.”


    The Duhan dispelled the ice de and handed it to Ryo.


    “You’re asking me to use this?”


    When Ryo epted it, the Duhan kicked its headless horse as usual and disappeared.


    “That was such a fantasy setting …”


    Even on his way home, Ryo repeatedly formed the ice de on the sword.


    Magic could flow through that sword without any stress to an astonishing level.


    As though it was made for Ryo.


    It could be said to be a sword made specifically for Water Attribute Magicians.


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