Ascension Through Skills

In order to do that, there was a skill that needed to be confirmed. It was the Gale Slash.

[Special Activation Skill: Gale Slash]

[Proficiency: 1%]

[Mana Consumption: 100]

[Dash forward while swinging your sword like a storm. You can control the movement to some extent.]

Gale Slash: a skill that slightly increased strength and agility stats and charged forward.

[You have activated Gale Slash.]

Taesan stood in front of the monster and used Gale Slash. His feet moved forward, and his sword swung like a storm.

The shadow precisely mimicked Taesan’s movements.

Clang!

The swords collided. In close combat, both tried to keep moving forward.

Clang!

Taesan took a step back.

At the same time, the effect of Gale Slash ended.

Taesan realized that Gale Slash required swinging the sword like a storm and charging forward. If these two conditions were not met, the skill ended.

So, under the condition that these two were fulfilled, how long could Gale Slash last?

[You have activated Gale Slash.]

Clang!

The swords collided. The shadow, which mimicked Taesan’s power, tried to push Taesan back with similar movements.

But the shadow’s movements were degraded. Taesan had a slight advantage. Therefore, Taesan could push the shadow back.

Clang!

Moving forward, Taesan pressed the shadow.

The condition of charging forward was fulfilled. The sword also continued to swing like a storm.

As a result, Taesan continuously activated Gale Slash for several minutes.

Taesan noticed something unusual.

‘The skill isn’t ending?’

Once the skill was activated and the two conditions were met, the effect continued.

That seemed to be the nature of Gale Slash.

‘No wonder the Guides favor this skill.’

The description of dashing was ambiguous, but as long as you could pressure the opponent and move forward, the skill would continue.

So it was possible.

Taesan began to prepare.

[What are you trying to gain this time?]

The ghost asked curiously.

Taesan started experimenting with Gale Slash. The ghost realized that Taesan was trying to acquire a new skill, just as he had always done.

Endurance, Addition, Absolute Judgement, etc.

They were all amazing skills that even surprised the ghost who once conquered the depths. Watching the process and the methods of obtaining them was quite enjoyable.

But Taesan shook his head.

“I don’t know either.”

[Huh? You don’t know?]

“I’ve never acquired this one before.”

The labyrinth’s skills could be obtained when certain effects are sufficiently drawn out. Addition, Endurance—they were all skills obtained in this manner.

Taesan had experimented and challenged himself many times with various ideas.

One of them was doubling the speed of the skill itself.

Could you obtain a skill if you increase the speed of skills like acceleration and leap that involve moving the body directly?

Taesan judged it was possible.

So, he challenged himself countless times to acquire the skill.

‘But it was impossible.’

It was a matter of location and conditions.

What Taesan wanted was to increase the speed of the skill itself.

But there was no skill to properly experiment with.

The theory Taesan came up with was to maximize the effect of skills that affect the body’s speed, like acceleration.

But acceleration was already a skill that maximized speed. It was impossible to increase the speed further in a normal way.

The only possibility was to continue running while using Endurance to increase the speed.

But acceleration was a skill that required visual confirmation and target designation to activate.

Endurance increases efficiency by repeating the same action, but it had to be repeated for a very long time. With acceleration, you could only quickly reach the target but couldn’t sustain the skill.

Additionally, other skills that affect the body’s speed were also experimented with but were blocked by the limitations of the skills.

Through various experiments, Taesan figured out what was needed.

Unlimited duration, the ability to perform repetitive actions, and skills related to movement speed.

The past Taesan did not possess such skills.

Determining it was impossible to acquire, Taesan turned to other skills after several months.

But now, he could acquire the skill he gave up on in the past.

The labyrinth’s skills were not pre-existing but were created according to the adventurer’s actions, according to Balbabamba. Based on Taesan’s experiences, it was quite possible to acquire it.

The ghost chuckled.

[You’re really trying everything. Isn’t Ability Sword the same?]

“I tried, but it seems like there’s not enough mana.”

Ability Sword could also be continuously activated if timed right.

But even though it consumed a very small amount of mana, it still consumed mana continuously.

Taesan had thousands of mana. With high intelligence, mana consumption was very low, and the Forgotten Goddess’s blessing quickly regenerated mana, but it was still impossible.

To acquire the skill, it had to be repeated thousands or tens of thousands of times, and mana would run out before that.

“Similarly, Fairy Wings is also impossible.”

Fairy Wings had unlimited duration. Taesan thought about it but quickly gave up.

Doubling the speed. Making already supersonic speed even faster.

The problem was there was no space to do so. The labyrinth was too cramped, and outside didn’t meet the conditions for such speed.

So Gale Slash was the answer.

Taesan steadied his breath and raised his sword.

‘The only thing I can use are continuous activation skills excluding activated skills.’

What he had to do was continuously pressure the shadow to double the speed of Gale Slash. The theory wasn’t difficult.

But acquiring a new skill, something he hadn’t done before, involved many unknown variables.

It was time to figure that out.

[You have activated Gale Slash.]

Clang!

The swords clashed. Pressing aggressively, Taesan made the shadow retreat.

Step.

Taesan advanced aggressively.

Swinging his sword, he pressed the shadow.

Clang!

The shadow responded, but its movements were a bit slow. The shadow was slowly being pushed back.

Gale Slash continued to be activated.

Taesan struck down harshly with his sword.

The speed was slightly faster than before.

A skill that increased speed through repeated actions: Persistence.

And a skill that increased strength and speed as the struggle continued: Madness of Struggle.

Thanks to the effects of these two skills, Taesan was getting faster and faster. The shadow was being pushed back to the wall.

Clang!

Taesan swung his sword and pushed the shadow to the side of the wall. Just as he was about to rush towards the bouncing shadow, Taesan’s movements suddenly slowed.

“Ugh.”

The duration of Gale Slash had ended.

Taesan clicked his tongue and sheathed his sword.

‘Charging forward.’

In other words, if you didn’t move forward, Gale Slash ended.

So where was the boundary of moving forward?

[You have activated Gale Slash.]

Clang!

He pressured the shadow again. This time, instead of pushing the shadow recklessly until it touched the wall, Taesan adjusted his sword strikes so that the shadow was pushed diagonally.

As a result, Taesan understood that the condition of charging forward allowed for a certain angle.

Realizing this, Taesan moved more delicately. He began to push as if drawing a circle.

There was no longer a problem of Gale Slash being cut off by hitting the wall.

Clang!

He swung his sword. After dozens of minutes of fighting, Taesan’s movements started to get even faster.

And those movements began to go out of Taesan’s control.

“Tsk.”

The uncontrolled sword strike broke through the shadow’s defense and struck it down. The shadow flew away with a loud noise.

Gale Slash was cut off.

Taesan frowned.

“When the speed increases, problems like this arise.”

The description of Gale Slash mentioned that you could control the movement to some extent.

In other words, Taesan could not control all movements.

And the faster it got, the harder it became to control.

How should he solve this problem?

After thinking for a moment, Taesan came to a conclusion.

[You have activated Gale Slash.]

Clang!

Learning through repetition. And responding with experience.

He advanced while swinging his sword roughly.

As the speed increased, the sword strike tried to escape Taesan’s control. Taesan identified the trajectory and intensity, controlled the part he could, and prevented the shadow from flying away.

Clang!

As a result, Taesan lasted a bit longer than the previous attempt.

He repeated the process. Taesan gradually got used to controlling the difficult movements.

Then came the limit of his stamina.

With trembling arms, Taesan cast magic and black magic. The shadow was pierced and disappeared.

Taesan collapsed to the ground.

Extremely high strength and agility stats. And a skill for sustained combat.

Despite that, Taesan’s stamina was nearly depleted.

With each attack, new variables emerged, and he dealt with them. He twisted the sword and moved his feet to control the shadow without knocking it down.

When fighting purely, you only need to focus on defeating the enemy, so it consumes more stamina than fighting a strong enemy.

After just two days of swinging his sword, his stamina was exhausted.

[This is... this is unbelievable.]

The ghost clicked its tongue. Despite Taesan’s stats being at the deep level, his stamina being depleted in just two days indicated the high difficulty.

Taesan quietly recovered his stamina and murmured.

“This is different from before, but it’s still quite difficult.”

With Addition, he had to repeat the exact same action without any change in a changing situation.

Absolute Judgement required remembering and recording all the opponent’s responses and responding to all those patterns.

And this skill required controlling the variables that changed in real-time.

Purely consuming stamina, this skill was the most severe.

But it was not impossible.

Little by little, Taesan was making Gale Slash last longer without ending.

So, the rest was just to keep repeating and gradually increase proficiency.

The next day, Taesan, who had recovered his stamina, found a new shadow and started fighting.

Taesan sustained the fight longer than the previous day. But as Taesan’s speed increased, the shadow was pushed back faster. Thus, he failed when the shadow hit the wall without drawing a circle.

As Taesan’s speed and strength increased, new variables emerged. Taesan moved organically, adjusting the pressure on the shadow, and slowly resolved them.

Three days passed like that. Taesan continued to fight with the shadow.

He understood the patterns and variables. He continued the fight while responding in real-time.

[The proficiency of Madness of Struggle has increased by 1%.]

[The proficiency of Persistence has increased by 1%.]

[The proficiency of Combat Sustained has increased by 1%.]

Clang!

Taesan pressured the shadow.

After 17 days of fighting.

When the proficiency of Combat Sustained reached 100%, Taesan acquired a new skill.

[You have increased the speed of skill actions through countless challenges. You have acquired the special activation skill [Skill Acceleration].]