The strongest adventurer party in the kingdom was called ‘Blue Rose’ and was made up of five women. A while back, he had encountered an old woman who could match him blow for blow and the two had fought to a draw. There was also a rumor that the greatest assassin of the empire was a woman.
Strong women were not uncommon. After all, the difference of physical strength between a man and a woman could easily be filled by magic.
Of course, the strongest body coupled with the strongest magical power would mean that person was invincible.
Brain could feel his heart swell in anticipation at the thought of fighting an opponent strong enough to attack them head on.
“Ah, you don’t have to come with me. Head back inside and strengthen the defenses.”
After telling the mercenary such, Brain put strength into his steps and walked towards the strong opponents from the surface.
Brain Unglaus.
Originally a farmer, he was gifted with what could only be described as a God-given talent in the mastery of the sword. Coupled with his natural talent, he had never lost with a weapon in hand. Even in the battlefield, he was a genius whose worst injury was a scratch.
Having never known defeat with the sword, he had always walked a path of victory.
Everyone around him believed it, and he himself never doubted his skill. However, a dramatic change came into his life at a tournament held in the Kingdom’s palace.
It wasn’t as if he joined with the aim of being the champion. He simply wanted to show his skill to the rest of the Kingdom. He believed that they would kneel to his strength. But the result, he faced an unbelievable situation.
Defeat.
His first loss since he first held the sword, no, possibly since he’d been born.
The one who defeated him was a man named Gazef Strolonoff. He was now serving as the Knight-Captain of Re-Estize, and known to be the strongest man in the surrounding nations.
Both men had won all of their battles almost instantly, but the fight between them was long and drawn out, as if they had been saving all of their time for this one battle.
In the end, Gazef finished the battle using his martial art 「Fourfold Slash of Light」. A battle that was still talked about to this day, no one questioned how a man of the lower class rose to the position of Knight-Captain. It was a fight on a scale where even the nobles who disliked Gazef had to admit that he wasn’t weak.
The victor was showered with glory, but to the loser, it was as if everything Brain had built up to that point had come crashing down. Although the battle was close, Brain realized that his confidence of being the strongest was only a delusion born from the narrow-mindedness of a fool.
For one month, he locked himself away in his own world. A normal person would have drowned away his sorrows in alcohol, but Brain threw his despair aside and pulled himself together.
He rejected countless offers for employment from nobles, and sought strength for the first time.
In pursuit of strength, he trained his body.
In pursuit of magic, he gathered knowledge.
A prodigy was working hard like an ordinary person
His defeat had elevated him to a new level.
The reason he had rejected offers from nobles was because he didn’t want his skills to rust away. In order for him to train his skills to the utmost limit, he needed opponents. Since he didn’t train himself just to show off, Brain needed work that provided ample opportunities to experience real battles while also bringing in money.
It was possible to earn a fortune as an adventurer, but that path was closed to him. An adventurer’s work offered little to no opportunities to fight against other humans. Cutting down monsters wasn’t bad, but Brain’s ultimate goal was to defeat Gazef. For that, he needed human opponents.
With his options limited, he chose to work as a member of the “Death Spreading Brigade”. But in truth, any mercenary group would have suited him just fine.
He had only one goal.
To wipe clean his past shame, to turn his defeat into victory.
In order to gain the strength to accomplish his goal, he needed a weapon. He was willing to throw away everything else for the weapon of his desires.
Magic weapons were expensive, but the one he truly wanted wasn’t any ordinary magic weapon.
Further south, past the Kingdom — was a city in the middle of a desert. Amongst the goods that occasionally flowed out from that city was a weapon that, even unenchanted, far surpassed the cutting ability of ordinary magic weapons. It had a price to match, so much so that people’s eyes would pop out of their sockets upon seeing it. That was the weapon he wanted.
And then, he had finally managed to obtain a 「Katana」.
When he closed his eyes, even now, he could see it clearly, the image of Gazef during their great duel.
He had easily dodged Brain’s attack that no man before him could, and counterattacked with four simultaneous strikes.
He could no longer remember his own appearance the moment he lost. Instead, what burned in his memory was the image of the victor who defeated him.
As Brain approached the entrance, the smell of fresh blood hung heavily in the air. He could no longer hear the screams, meaning that those who had been fighting near the entrance had all been killed. It had only been two or three minutes.
The ten men stationed near the entrance were given the task of focusing on defense, to buy time for the rest to make preparations for the battle. To kill these men so quickly—
“If there are really only two of them, they must be as strong as I am.”
Brain’s face broke out into a grin.
He continued with quick steps and drank one of the potions in his belt pouch. A bitter, strong liquid flowed down his throat and into his stomach. He then downed another bottle.
He could feel the heat from his stomach spread out to every inch of his body. In response, the sound of his muscles expanding and growing stronger reached his ears.
The rapid change was due to the strengthening effects of the potion.
The first one he drank was a potion of 「Lesser Strength」, while the second was of 「Lesser Dexterity」.
It wasn’t necessary to ingest the potion directly for it to work; just spraying the correct dose on the body was enough. But Brain always thought that drinking it seemed more effective somehow. Of course, it could simply be his imagination, but imagination could sometimes draw strength where there was none.
He then drew his katana, and applied oil to the blade. The oil emitted a faint light, and soon disappeared, as if it was absorbed into the katana. The oil was called 「Magic Weapon」, and although the effect was temporary, it infused the blade with magic that further boosted its sharpness.
“Activate 1, activate 2.”
The keywords triggered the necklace and ring he had equipped and a faint magic wrapped around his body.
「Necklace of Eye」, as the name suggested, protected his eyes when activated. Resistance to blind status, night vision, light filtering. A warrior who couldn’t land a hit was useless. Hindering one’s field of vision, or creating distance and attacking with ranged attacks are all common tactics used by adventurers. Brain had once lost to adventurers who used such tactics.