Chapter 103

Honoring the Old, Learning the New

Kairus returned to the office and checked the items he had secured from Pontus.

“So, spray it with water.”

The first thing Kairus checked was the living armguard, Evergreen.

If sprayed with water and exposed to sunlight, it would recover even if it had been shattered—an item full of mystery.

And on top of that, it was a piece of equipment that showed just how recklessly the people of Dersos would act once they set a goal.

‘It’s a piece that doesn’t consider efficiency at all.’

To complete something similar to this, Kairus would have to begin the work, and his grandson would have to finish it.

The concept of time in the Dersos civilization was clearly different from that of modern people.

‘Useful, but in the end, it can’t be mass-produced.’

Armor that would recover to its original state with just water and sunlight, no matter how badly it was damaged.

Armor that required an immense amount of effort to make even one piece.

This Evergreen was a perfect demonstration of how incredible the ancient Dersos civilization had been and at the same time, why it had to fall behind modern technology.

“Next…”

Kairus spread out one of the scrolls he had brought and slowly began to read through it. As he did, Irena, who had been snoring on the couch with a magazine covering her face, approached.

“Can I take a look too?”

“Of course.”

Nimbus wasn’t Cloud Seizing Art. If mastered, Irena would be able to use it as much as she wanted.

“The main use is deception, huh?”

“Well, it is a cloud.”

Nimbus was a sword technique that created clouds to obscure the enemy’s view, using the advantage that gave to apply pressure.

Kairus was only interested in one thing.

‘The trick to creating clouds.’

After all, Cloud Seizing Art had the word “cloud” in its name.

Kairus and Irena spent hours meticulously studying the contents of Nimbus.

And they were able to reach a conclusion.

“Using clouds to deceive the enemy is the main application of Nimbus, but…”

That wasn’t the core. Irena’s eyes lit up as she looked at Kairus.

“The truth is, the key lies in the vibration.”

The essence of Nimbus was to make the weapon vibrate at an incredible speed.

“When water touches a vibrating weapon…”

The rapidly vibrating surface shattered water into fine particles. The broken droplets floated in the air, forming mist, and when enough of that mist accumulated, it turned into a cloud.

“The problem is that the vibration frequency has to be ridiculously high.”

If the frequency was too low, the water couldn’t be broken down into small enough droplets.

Irena, reviewing what she had organized in her own way, spoke again.

“If what’s written here is true, a blade vibrating at high speed becomes unbelievably sharp… but is that really possible?”

“It seems plausible. If a trembling blade touches skin, isn’t that similar to swinging an axe at an insane speed?”

At Kairus’s words, Irena let out a thoughtful hum and nodded.

“True.”

Stained Glass and Flicker were already incredibly sharp weapons on their own, but as always, the sharper the blade, the better.

“This all just comes down to practice.”

You had to raise the vibration frequency to a meaningful level. If you couldn’t make the blade vibrate fast enough to form clouds and enhance cutting power, you couldn’t use Nimbus at all.

Generating and maintaining a certain level of vibration served the same role as the Peerless Wind of Swift Blade.

“Wanna bet on who gets it first?”

At Irena’s suggestion, Kairus shook his head.

“This isn’t the time to be making bets.”

Competing to improve only worked after a certain level of mastery.

If he got caught up in pointless rivalry with Irena now, he'd only grow impatient and miss out on things that were within easy reach.

“If you’re scared, just say so.”

“Yeah. I’m scared.”

Irena tried to provoke him, but Kairus brushed it off effortlessly.

The pride of the strong didn’t need to be asserted—they had others to protect it for them.

No one insulted someone who could slit their throat in an instant.

“Vibration… so that’s what it’s about.”

Kairus fell into thought, pondering how to swing a blade quickly and with depth.

It wasn’t the kind of worry that came from life’s grime and troubles, but a pure concern—how to wield a sword better.

Since his release from the Labor Correctional Facility, this was the first time he had been immersed in such a clean, focused kind of contemplation.

“…”

The issue itself was simple. Just use the output of the battle gear to make the weapon vibrate.

But just because the problem was simple didn’t mean the solution would be.

The challenge Kairus faced in trying to use Nimbus was exactly the same kind of challenge he would face later when he obtained the Cloud Seizing Art manual.

‘There’s no one to teach me.’

He had to master Nimbus using only what was written in the book.

Even if a question popped up in his mind, there was no one to explain it to him or give him hints to figure it out on his own. Of course, the book was well-written enough that someone could figure it out without a teacher, but even so, the absence of a mentor was sorely felt.

The first challenge Kairus faced was the generation of vibration.

“The most obvious method is impact.”

He muttered this as he tapped the spine of Flicker with the back of his hand.

It was common for a weapon to tremble and let out a howling sound after clashing with another from the shock.

Having fought countless battles, the first idea that came to Kairus’s mind was vibration through impact.

“The question is whether it can be maintained consistently.”

To keep the vibration steady, you had to maintain a consistent level of impact.

Of course, it wasn’t an easy task. It required an immense amount of focus…

And on top of that, the fight had to continue. The enemy wouldn’t just stand there doing nothing while Kairus tried to form a cloud.

“The amount of water produced, and the vibrations that inevitably occur when blades clash…”

He had to control all of those variables while fighting.

“This is ridiculous. Those ancient lunatics…”

There were probably very few people who could actually pull all of that off in the middle of a real fight. Kairus stared at the Evergreen wrapped around his arm.

“This isn’t any different from that.”

It had excellent effects, but required an absurd amount of time and effort.

“Anyway, the important thing is to try.”

Having organized his thoughts, Kairus left the office and headed for the rooftop of the building. Irena was continuing her training there.

“Irena, give me a hand.”

Hearing Kairus’s call, Irena, who had been practicing swirling strikes with her blade, nodded.

“Sure, I’m down.”

As soon as she spoke, Irena swung Stained Glass in a flash.

“Sparring, right?”

Kairus, blocking her sudden strike, looked at her incredulously.

“Everyone says practice can’t beat the real thing, right?”

That meant they had to go even harder. As she finished speaking, Irena swung her sword again and charged at Kairus.

“…Damn it.”

Kairus moved in sync with Irena’s assault. At the same time, the sword in his hand began to hum with a low vibration.

‘Already?’

Irena had also grasped the concept behind Nimbus. But since it wasn’t something that could be mastered in a short time, she had only intended to keep practicing steadily.

“This is harder than it looks.”

Kairus had successfully caused his sword to vibrate and had even managed to produce water.

However, he failed to turn the water flowing down the blade into mist. Instead, the finely broken droplets just splattered onto the ground.

“Too bad.”

Relieved that Kairus hadn’t succeeded right away either, Irena swung her sword again. A fierce gust pressed down on Kairus’s body while accelerating Irena forward.

The best defense Kairus could use in this situation was to counter her using Swift Blade, just as she was.

“…”

But Kairus didn’t do that. From the start, he hadn’t even considered using Swift Blade in this sparring session.

‘This is training to use Nimbus. Using Swift Blade would be meaningless.’

If this had been a situation where he had to kill Irena, he would have used any means necessary. But this was a sparring match, and in sparring, victory wasn’t what mattered.

What mattered was achieving the goal set for that sparring session.

‘While continuing to fight Irena…’

He had to succeed in using Nimbus. Otherwise, even if he won this match, it would be meaningless.

On the other hand, Irena was gaining something from this sparring regardless. She was using the opportunity to go beyond her comfort with Peerless Wind and train in the techniques of Swift Blade, including Local Wind.

Using a technique she was still practicing against someone stronger than herself was meaningful in and of itself.

“Feels like I’m getting the short end of the stick here.”

“You’re the teacher, and you expect to gain something from your student?”

Irena’s sword came for Kairus’s ankle.

As Kairus moved back to dodge, an updraft struck and forcefully lifted his body into the air.

“Well, would you look at that.”

If Kairus got serious, he could completely shut down Irena’s attacks with Swift Blade. His skill level in that technique was far superior.

But doing so would leave Irena with nothing to gain.

“Damn it.”

While suspended in the air, Kairus managed to use his battle gear’s output to form a small handful of mist.

Now he just had to maintain it and increase the amount.

“Sorry.”

But just as he felt he had succeeded, Irena disrupted him. Her sword strikes surged toward Kairus, still floating midair.

There was no way to dodge. The whole purpose of using the updraft was to prevent evasion in the first place.

The moment he raised his sword to block, a heavy metallic clang rang out and shock rippled through him.

The carefully stabilized vibration frequency went wild, and the blade that had been producing mist began shedding fragmented droplets again.

“Damn it.”

Kairus stepped back slightly, and Irena stopped her assault to check on his condition.

“Should I apologize?”

“No.”

The whole point had been maintaining Nimbus during combat. And Kairus had failed.

It was never a technique meant to be mastered in a short time.

‘Ten years, maybe?’

Even Kairus, who had the talent to become the fastest Swift Blade user of his generation, estimated he’d need ten years to master it. That’s how difficult it was.

You had to maintain a steady vibration frequency, and there were just too many interfering variables during battle.

“Maybe I should give up on this.”

Kairus had planned to master Nimbus to aid his path toward learning Cloud Seizing Art.

But if Nimbus alone would take ten years of training, he couldn’t afford that investment.

There was no way this damned city would allow him to sit around training swordsmanship for a whole decade.

“There’s got to be another way.”

Watching Kairus think, Irena spoke.

“But… you don’t need to make the water yourself, right?”

Kairus let out a confused sound at her comment.

“The add-on. That scorpion-shaped norigae.”

At that, Kairus let out an aha. Now that he thought about it, as long as he maintained output, the add-on could supply a steady amount of water.

Just removing the water-generation step made everything a whole lot easier. It was one less procedure required to use Nimbus.

“Wait a second.”

As that thought clicked, Kairus suddenly stood up.

“Why the hell do I have to be the one to make the mist?”

He already understood the principle behind Nimbus: vibrating the blade at high speed to break water into mist. And his goal with Nimbus was to use the resulting cloud to confuse his opponent. So then…

“I could just make an add-on that uses Nimbus’s principle to generate clouds.”

The reason the ancient Dersos people trained for years to master Nimbus was because their civilization hadn’t developed add-on technology to that level.

So they had no choice but to train their bodies.

But in the modern world, that wasn’t necessary.

An add-on that produces water, then converts it to mist through a specific vibration pattern?

“With a skilled engineer, that should be perfectly doable.”

That was the key. What humans had to do manually in Dersos, modern add-ons could now do automatically.

There was no need for a person to control all the chaotic variables during combat.

“Good idea.”

“If you’re gonna make one, make one for me too.”

Irena grinned as she spoke.

“Of course.”

Instead of forming clouds by hand, they could just create an add-on that did it for them.

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