Gourmet Gaming - Chapter 365

Chapter 365: Pinnacle
Sword Saint Conir was looking at Minhyuk in interest. The method to learn Conir’s Pinnacle was very simple. All Minhyuk needed to do was to swing his sword repeatedly in compliance with the chapter. That was on top of adjusting the posture and form to Minhyuk’s own swordsmanship.

However, even though the method was simple, obtaining the Pinnacle was not an easy feat. After all, Minhyuk had to swing his sword repeatedly for 30,000 times.

The number of times that Minhyuk had to swing his sword should be at least 30,000 times. This was a very difficult feat to achieve. If someone had a weaker mentality, they would simply be unable to hold on for long. Most people would grow tired of simply swinging their sword, even before they could achieve 10,000 swings.

However, Minhyuk went without sleep for several days to continue swinging his sword when he was learning the first chapter. His driving force was his goal, and fury.

‘What are you furious about?’

The reason remained a mystery to Conir. However, he knew that Minhyuk’s current feelings were the reason why he could repeatedly swing his sword 30,000 times, a task that was arduous to complete.

Conir’s method of training each chapter was simple, they needed to swing the sword with all their strength, with the most accurate form. An hour has 3,600 seconds, and one swing with the accurate form needed at least four seconds to execute. This was mainly because it consumes stamina, or STM. Someone that could swing 1,800 times in two hours would then need to take a break to replenish their strength. No matter how much someone wanted to continue, they would already then feel the limits of their physical and mental strength.

However, Minhyuk was able to learn the first chapter, without any rest.

‘He’s truly an exceptional man.’

While Minhyuk was learning the Pinnacle, he also made sure to talk with Conir. He had told Conir that the young boy Conir was working under him as a ‘vassal’.

‘He might be young, but he’s still me. He would never choose to serve someone that easily.’

In fact, it was very surprising that the young Conir willingly served someone. But, after interacting with Minhyuk, Conir understood why his young version chose to do so.

Meanwhile, the first chapter that Minhyuk had just learned was a sword skill that combined Sword of Fury and Scattering Sword.

[A new chapter will be added to Ellie’s Swordsmanship.]

[Its power has reached Half Pinnacle.]

[You have acquired +5 to all five of your basic stats for learning a Pinnacle Chapter.]

[You have learned the Sword of Frenzy.]

[You will have additional 400% damage to your attack upon a successful strike to your enemy’s vital point. The six consecutive attacks that would follow the attack will have additional 100% damage. Upon a successful vital point attack, enemies within a five meter radius will receive six consecutive attacks with additional 100% damage.]

The Sword of Frenzy was literally the combination of Sword of Fury and Scattering Sword. Just like in Scattering Sword, where Minhyuk could deal consecutive sword strikes with additional 140% damage, he would be able to unleash six more attacks with additional 100% damage upon a successful strike to his enemy’s vital point.

‘That’s crazy…’

If one calculated the total, potential damage, then it would add up to 1000%. Of course, in the case of consecutive attacks, there was the possibility of missing his attacks. However, the effects of the skill were definitely far better than before. Just the fact that he could deal six consecutive attacks, with 100% additional damage to his enemies within a five meter radius, was well over the top already.

‘So, this is the power of Pinnacle…’

Minhyuk could also tell the reason why it was only at Half Pinnacle.

‘A single use of this skill will consume 7,000 mana…?’

Thanks to all the medicines and elixirs that Minhyuk had eaten so far, his mana reserves had reached 26,000, an amount that far surpassed plenty of ordinary class players. This was the reason why he was only restricted by the ‘cooldown’ whenever he used Ellie’s Swordsmanship and various other skills, but never the MP.

With his MP, the amount of times that he could use Sword of Frenzy would be extremely limited. In fact, even its cooldown was twice as much as the existing Sword of Fury and Scattering Sword. He surmised that the same must be true with the other skills.

Fwooooooom—

Minhyuk continued to swing his wooden sword. This time, the skill that he was learning was a combination of Splitting Sword and Blooming Sword. Splitting Sword was a skill that would send out sword lights the moment Minhyuk swung his sword horizontally. On the other hand, Blooming Sword was a sword skill that would trigger flowers of sword blades to bloom on the ground, which would stab his enemies and inflict additional damage with the flowers explosions.

Fwooooooom—

Minhyuk swung his sword horizontally. After finishing that movement, he immediately stabbed his sword strongly on the ground. However, these movements required high mental concentration, and just the slightest deviation would cause notifications to ring out for Minhyuk.

[You have not reached the correct number of swings.]

[Please use the correct posture and power when swinging the sword.]

[Current Number of Swings: 105.]

One could say that this method of learning was too stringent. In order for Minhyuk to learn, he literally needed to swing his sword repeatedly and accurately, to the point that it could already be classified as ‘torture’.

However, Minhyuk did not stop, even after one hour, then two hours, then three hours. Perspiration continued to drip down his body, but he still continued to swing.

Ever since he had contracted his eating addiction and ate a huge amount of food everyday, Minhyuk always had to grit his teeth and exercise more than anybody else to live and survive. To avoid damaging his knees, he chose to swim in the pool continuously and wiggle his fat body while lying in bed.

Perhaps, the thing that he was best at was ‘working hard’. Someone once said that Minhyuk, who had everything, was the perfect man if only he did not have his ‘eating addiction’. However, that might not be the answer at all. Minhyuk had always worked harder than anybody else. Even when he was struggling so hard to exercise and fight against his eating addiction, he would still continue to ponder over mathematical formulas in his head, and would even murmur English words to himself. His athleticity and quick reflexes? This, too, was something that could be considered as a result of Minhyuk’s repeated training and efforts.

In a blink of an eye, five hours had passed.

“You should get some rest now.”

“No, thank you. I’m alright.”

For some reason, Conir felt increasingly worried about Minhyuk and tried to dissuade him. He knew that Minhyuk was a ‘foreigner’, a special existence that could come back to life. However, he believed that they would also feel the same pain as them.

Athenae was a very realistic game and doing something repeatedly like this would definitely make Minhyuk feel the same way if he were to do something like this in reality.

In fact, Minhyuk’s eyes had already started to go blurry from dizziness, as drops of perspiration dripped down from his chin. Even his breaths had turned haggard. His body was thoroughly soaked, while his mouth was burning from dehydration. He could feel that his body was already sore and was close to sagging from the pressure. Still, he did not stop.

Then, the notifications rang in Minhyuk’s head.

[You have acquired 1 DEX.]

[You have acquired 1 Will.]

[You have acquired 1 Will.]

[You have acquired 1 Will.]

[You have acquired 1 DEX.]

[…acquired 1 Will.]

Thanks to Minhyuk’s consistent efforts, his ‘Will’ stat was rising continuously. Even his DEX was increasing rapidly. Although the effects were a bit insignificant, wielding a sword would also have an effect in DEX, especially after he repeatedly swung his sword without using a skill. That was the main reason why his DEX and Will stats kept on increasing. He earned as much as 11 Will stat points in just one day alone.

Then, the skill that assisted Minhyuk and stopped him from succumbing to his exhaustion was triggered.

[You have triggered the Skill: Will.]

[All of your skills and abilities related to DEX will temporarily increase by 25%.]

The skill, Will, would be triggered every hour since the skill only had a one hour duration. In a blink, eight hours had already passed.

[Current Number of Swings: 9,997]

The one swing every four seconds that Conir had estimated before included breaks in between. But Minhyuk had completely foregone taking breaks, and completed 10,000 sword swings.

‘He’s crazy…! Very crazy…!’

Conir was both in shock and horror at the ridiculous mental fortitude that Minhyuk was showing him.

Meanwhile, the notifications continued to ring for Minhyuk.

[You have accumulated more than 50 points in your Will stat.]

[The Skill: Will has leveled up.]

[You have accumulated more than 50 points in your Will stat.]

[The Skill: Will has leveled up.]

Minhyuk had leveled up his skill, Will, twice in a row.

(Will)

Passive Skill

Level: 3

Level Up Requirements: Increase Will by 50 points.

Effects:

•Your fatigue and exhausted mind will clear up whenever you exert your utmost effort, passion, determination and indomitable will. All skills and abilities related to DEX will have a 20-30% increase for one hour.

•Increases the Will Acquisition Rate.

The level up requirement for the passive skill ‘Will’ was to accumulate 50 Will stat points. Today, Minhyuk was able to level up his once-stagnant passive skill Will, twice in a row. And with the increase in level, he was able to trigger the skill Will once again.

[You have triggered the Skill: Will.]

[All of your stats, skills, and abilities, including DEX, will temporarily increase by 28%.]

There was a significant difference after the level up in the skill. Compared to the effects of Minhyuk’s Level 1 Will skill, his current skill helped his head become much clearer. Even his exhausted body was energized once again. This was mainly because the Level 1 Will skill mainly focused on DEX, which had nothing to do with temporarily clearing the mind and clearing fatigue.

However, an astonishing change happened after the skill ‘Will’ reached Level 3. It was not only DEX, but all stats, skills, and abilities would increase for an hour.

‘This is amazing…!’

He was lucky enough to have gained an amazing, yet ridiculous, ability. Simply put, once this passive skill was triggered, Minhyuk would be able to increase his skills, abilities, and stats by almost 30%, and could disregard the ‘no overlapping buff’ restriction. A 30% increase was equivalent to a 150-level increase, and for someone at Minhyuk’s level, an increase of that degree would result in a monstrous power. That was why this was an amazingly ridiculous ability.

Just like that, Minhyuk continued his repetitive and hard task. Out of the entire 24 hours each day, he only took four hours of break to replenish his strength and stamina. Because of this, even though he had the skill ‘Will’, he often fell into a ‘faint’ state. However, as a result, Minhyuk was able to learn and awaken the remaining two chapters within three days.

[Ellie’s Swordsmanship has reached Half Pinnacle.]

[You will receive rewards for applying a Half Pinnacle skill to the entire Swordsmanship.]

[You have acquired +20 to all five of your basic stats.]

[You have gained 500 REP.]

[You have learned the Heaven Tearing Sword.]

[You will be able to send a red sword light with an additional 350% damage and 20% increase in critical hit rate towards your enemies. Upon a successful attack on a vital point, an explosion with an additional 600% damage will engulf your enemy.]

The Heaven Tearing Sword was the combination of Splitting Sword and Blooming Sword.

[You have learned the Sword of Tempest.]

[Hundreds of sword blades with 250% additional attack will be created around your body that will indiscriminately slaughter your enemies within six seconds. During the duration of the skill, your movement speed will increase by 200%.]

The Sword of Tempest was the sword skill created after combining ‘Rampant Sword’ and ‘Like the Wind’. It was most suitable as a defensive skill. Although using all three of these skills would consume 21,000 of his MP, Minhyuk found it justifiable, with how unbelievably powerful the skills were.

Then, another notification rang in Minhyuk’s head.

[You have gained the Title: The Only One Acknowledged by the Sword Saint.]

The One Acknowledged by the Sword Saint. Minhyuk saw Conir nodding at him, and Conir’s expression filled with infinite trust and respect for Minhyuk.

‘How can you swing your sword like that without taking enough breaks?’ Conir thought in shock.

However, that was not the end. Just when Minhyuk was about to check the effects of the title…

[Aerod, the God of Disasters and Abilities, has acknowledged you.]

[You have gained the Title: The One who Exceeded God’s Expectations.]

The God of Disasters and Abilities, the very same God that bestowed the earth with the Eight Pinnacle Skills, was also in awe of Minhyuk’s will and determination.