These days, my progress has been… dull.
Status:
Strength – E⁺
Stamina – D⁺
Agility – E
Intelligence – E⁺
Charm – E⁺
Mana – C⁺
Overall – E⁺
Intermediate Swordsmanship – 35%
Intermediate Handling – 30%
Intermediate Quick Step – 10%
Core – Adept (Blue) Stage – 1
For the past two weeks, I've trained relentlessly morning to night, pushing my body to its limits.
And my status can be somewhat called "decent."
Most importantly, my core managed to rise by two full ranks.
Even I wasn't expecting that.
Maybe it really is the effect of my trait—"Ultimate Physique."
But still… at this pace, I've hit a wall.
No amount of pure physical training or mana circulation will push me much further.
I must find a Sword Art and some hidden skills, weapons. I think I know a perfect place.
In the next two days, I'll head toward the ruin buried deep in the forest…
the tomb of a forgotten god, left to rot in the silence of ages.
A place where fate changes those bold or foolish enough to enter.
I will must aquire it there.
From my memories of the game, an early-stage villain accidentally stumbles upon it
and that single encounter turns him into one of the most powerful villains later on.
All of that… from just one sword art.
A technique with that much potential…
I can't ignore it.
I have to acquire it, no matter what.
In the game's timeline, the villain only finds it after entering the Academy,
so there's still time for me to get ahead.
The "Ruins of the Forgotten Ancient God"
is hidden inside a dungeon deep in the forest.
Two days from now, I must reach it.
Night…
The moon rested high at its peak, casting a soft glow through the silent jungle.
Everything was still, wrapped in sleep.
Except for one lone figure.
Black hair blending into the night, red eyes carrying a sharpness that refused to waver.
He stood quietly, a small bag in one hand
and a plain iron sword tied at his waist.
Dressed in a black hood and loose dark pants,
the boy almost disappeared into the shadows,
moving with the calm confidence of someone who belonged to the night itself.
Step by step, he walked toward the place where fate leads him.
the forgotten ruin hidden in the darkness.
Its about time i reach the destination.
I think I walked for nearly an hour.
Choosing to travel at night was the right decision.
the monsters are far fewer compared to the day
as if even they avoid the cold silence of darkness.
The air shifted.
I could tell… I was close.
The ruins were near.
As I pushed through the overgrown weeds,
my foot brushed against something hollow.
There...
an entrance, half–swallowed by tall grass and ancient stone.
To anyone else, it would look like an ordinary cave,
nothing more than a forgotten hole in the earth.
But I knew better.
I knew exactly what slept inside that darkness.
Here lies one of the most powerful sword arts in existence—
a technique capable of shaking the world's balance,
Sword art said to rival even the famed Hero's sword art…
and perhaps, surpass it entirely.
Even though the villain who got it wasted its potential.
But I will not.
"Starless Shadow Sword Art."
The name alone sends a chill through the spine,
beautiful yet ominous at the same time.
like a moonless night hiding a thousand silent blades.
This was the sword art once wielded by the right hand of a forgotten god.
A being who, according to legend,
single-handedly slaughtered an army of Immortals
and left not even their shadows behind.
And now…
that power waits for me in the dark.
"This must be the entrance."
Plain and simple from the outside almost disappointingly so.
Yet the simplicity only made the unease coil tighter in his chest.
If a monster was hiding inside…
No—he had to stay alert. Careless steps meant death.
As he stepped past the threshold, Raven instinctively reached for the iron sword at his waist, gripping it with both hands
as if his life depended on it.
Even though he was prone to strong emotions, right now he didn't feel fear.
It was something else
a cold, sharpened caution.
Every movement he made inside the cave was precise, deliberate.
His steps were soft, controlled, each one echoing faintly into the suffocating darkness.
From the outside, the cave had looked plain, unremarkable…
but the moment he entered, it became a world entirely different...
a place where the dark swallowed everything whole.
It was so silent he could hear his own heartbeat slow, heavy, loud
as if the cave itself was listening.
After walking deeper, he finally reached into his bag and pulled out the night-vision device he had bought from the market days before.
Just as I expected… this place is silent,
but not the peaceful kind.
It was the heavy, suffocating silence that warned intruders to turn back,
the kind that whispered danger with every breath of air.
"I need to reach the tomb's location.
It should be at the center," I reminded myself quietly.
The game said there were no monsters here.
Hopefully, that part wasn't a lie.
Because if something appeared now…
I wasn't sure what I could do.
Raven walked for almost an hour and a half,
his footsteps swallowed by the darkness.
Then—
he saw it.
A colossal, majestic door stood before him,
towering out of the shadows like the entrance to another world.
Its presence alone was enough to make his heartbeat slow.
Strange symbols were carved across its surface—
an ancient language twisted by time.
But Raven recognized it immediately.
He had seen this in the game.
It translated to:
"The legacy of the forgotten god lies here."
The moment his eyes traced the final word,
the ground trembled faintly—
and the door began to open on its own,
as if acknowledging his arrival.
"Woah…" he breathed,
a mix of awe and unease curling in his voice.
"It's creepy… but also kind of amazing."
Then his gaze dropped.
Something was written beneath the original inscription.
words not mentioned anywhere in the game.
His spine stiffened.
Whatever this was… it was new.
And new meant dangerous.
"I don't know ancient language," Raven muttered under his breath.
"It would've been nice if someone who did was with me…"
He raised his device.
"I should take a photo. I might need it later."
With that, he stepped into the chamber.
The air shifted immediately—
heavy, cold, almost reverent.
At the center stood a massive coffin,
its entire surface carved with a shimmering star-pattern,
like fragments of the night sky had been trapped in stone.
But what truly seized his attention
were the sculptures.
In every corner of the chamber,
towering stone warriors stood vigil—
each gripping the same star-forged sword,
each positioned as though guarding a monstrous criminal sealed within the coffin.
Their stone eyes glowed faintly under the dim light,
intense, unblinking,
watching him.
Waiting.
Any normal person would have turned back.
But Raven…
he remained calm.
Almost too calm—
as if this place recognized him
and he recognized it.
"I hope these statues don't suddenly come to life…"
His voice barely broke the silence.
"That would be… troublesome."
In the game, after touching the coffin,
a key would appear—
the key to unlock the lid
and claim the sword art within.
Raven approached.
The coffin radiated an unnatural stillness,
a silence so deep
it pressed against his ears.
His hands began to tremble as he neared it—
not from fear,
not anxiety,
but something else.
Something familiar,
something his body remembered
even when his mind did not.
The moment his fingertips brushed the coffin—
everything stopped.
For a full minute,
the entire ruin held its breath.
No wind.
No echo.
No heartbeat.
Just a suffocating, dead silence—
the kind that warned
something is coming.
And nothing good.
"…Honestly, I expected something cooler," Raven whispered.
"Like blinding light exploding everywhere,
and the sword art descending from the heavens…
Something grand like that."
Tch—
A soft clicking sound echoed.
A small key, shaped like a delicate crown,
materialized in his palm.
"Well… that works too."
Without wasting a second,
Raven inserted the key into the coffin's lock.
"I hope nothing bad happens," he whispered—
even though the atmosphere suggested otherwise.
The lid creaked open.
Inside lay a thin, ancient manual—
the Starless Shadow Sword Art.
As Raven reached out and touched it,
the manual burst into a radiant white light.
The light surged upward,
swallowing his vision, his body,
The chamber,
until Raven himself was completely engulfed.
Ding!
You have acquired a Sword Art of unknown rank.
This sword art cannot be ranked.
Ding!!
Presence of an anomaly detected!!
Before Raven could react,
his vision warped—
as though the world itself was being torn apart—
and then everything went black.
His consciousness was violently pulled somewhere else,
dragged into a space that did not belong to the living.
"Ugh—what… what is this place?"
Raven groaned as his senses slowly returned.
"Did I lose consciousness? How long was I out?"
A sharp pain stabbed through his skull.
"My head feels like it's splitting…
And there was nothing like this in the game.
Is this… some kind of hidden quest?"
His blurred vision cleared and froze.
The peaceful, silent ruins were gone.
In their place stretched a vast battlefield,
the ground drenched in dried blood,
broken weapons buried in cracked earth,
and corpses
countless corpses
strewn like discarded dolls across the wasteland.
The air was thick with the metallic scent of death.
Ash floated like ghostly snow.
A battlefield from a forgotten era.
"What… what happened here…?"
Then his eyes caught it....
At the center of the carnage
A lone figure sat atop a mountain of dead bodies,
as if it were his rightful throne.
His appearance was obscured, distorted by shadow and light,
but the overwhelming presence radiating from him
was unmistakable—
ancient, absolute, terrifying.
In his right hand,
a sword was casually stabbed through the skull of a fallen being—
an angelic figure with shattered wings,
face frozen in eternal horror.
The mysterious man sat there without a flicker of emotion,
as though slaughtering heaven itself
was nothing more than breathing.
Raven's breath hitched.
This place,this figure,this scene
None of it belonged to a mortal realm.
The sight alone sent a cold shiver crawling down Raven's spine. His emotions might have been dulled, but this suffocating presence he could still feel Death!! .
The entire place reeked of it. Even the birds circling high above the corpses refused to descend, as if the ground itself rejected life.
A crushing weight slammed onto Raven's shoulders, sudden and merciless. His bones creaked under the pressure, his breath hitching any moment now, he felt he would shatter.
Yet he forced his trembling legs to hold. He had to.
And then he saw it.
A lone figure stood in the distance, sword hanging loosely from one hand. Calm. Emotionless. A face carved from ice. A presence that felt both dead… and impossibly alive.
"Who… is he?"
Raven's thoughts trembled.
"This pressure… is this Death? No. This isn't just Death. It's something far beyond it."
He clenched his iron sword with both hands, knuckles whitening.
I need to pull myself together.
The place I aim to reach shows no mercy to the weak.
Just as he steadied his stance, the figure slowly turned. Their empty gaze locked onto him then, without a word, the figure began walking toward him.
Each step felt like it echoed through the world.
And then The world twisted.
The battlefield vanished, swallowed by darkness.
Raven blinked only to find himself standing in a vast expanse of stars.
A cosmic void. Silent. Endless. Terrifying.
And the figure was still walking toward him....