Emperor! Can You See Stats!?

Chapter 120: Breaking Off with the Knife

The moment Eurius split the last masked man’s body in half, someone far away felt a tremendous impact.

Crack!

The ridiculous mask shattered completely, and the man bled profusely from the seven holes in his face, going berserk.

“Kraaaak!”

The lavishly decorated table broke with a squishy sound.

This time, he didn’t send a simple summoning that only connected his senses, but a ‘part of his main body’ directly, so the damage was enormous.

The fallen man had no choice but to writhe on the floor in agony for a long time.

“…”

When his convulsions subsided a bit, one of his subordinates cautiously approached him.

“Archbishop… are you all right?”

The man silently raised his hand and grabbed the subordinate’s leg.

“Didn’t I tell you to call me Owner here?”

Whoosh!

“…!?”

He had no time to make a sound as he was instantly burned to ashes.

The man didn’t care about it.

He had plenty of people who could replace such an oblivious subordinate.

In fact, the other subordinates who entered the room after hearing the man’s scream saw the scene and froze with pale faces.

“Hoo…”

The man shook his head once as if the pain had subsided, and then opened his mouth.

His tone was different from usual, full of anger. He seemed like a completely different person compared to before.

“Send a message to the others. I’ll take care of the First Prince!”

“I’m sorry, but didn’t they say they would take care of it from the East?”

One of the subordinates cautiously spoke up, but the man stubbornly shook his head.

“They said it would take time for them to come here anyway. I’ll just finish it here before then.”

“I understand.”

As they hurriedly ran out, the man finally seemed to find some relief and sighed again.

“Sigh… I said it in a fit of rage, but how do I catch him?”

He wasn’t showing his full power at Heavengard.

But the prince had easily (?) defeated him. What if he had more hidden tricks?

But he couldn’t let it go as it was.

The damage he suffered was too immense.

He lost four puppets that were hard to make, and many subordinates as well.

What annoyed him more was that he had been beaten by Eurius twice in a row, but it was difficult to deal with him in a direct confrontation.

‘If puppets are not enough, maybe I should pull out some pillars from this side…’

The man thought for a moment and nodded with a blank expression. He didn’t have much time left now.

“I guess I need to make a new mask first.”

He walked out of the room with the same expressionless face.

***

When Eurius came out safely from the heat, the castle was soon cleaned up.

He was now listening to Victor and Haines’ reports in the knight’s waiting room.

“The knights have some minor injuries, but no major damage.”

“That’s good to hear.”

Eurius nodded at Haines’ words first.

In fact, when four masked men appeared, he couldn’t help but worry.

He used an incomplete technique to quickly finish them off and go to help the knights, but fortunately, the enemy’s strength seemed to be just that.

He turned his head and looked at Victor.

“How’s the damage to the castle?”

“Some places were slightly scorched by the fire that we couldn’t completely stop. But it was quickly extinguished.”

“You did well. Then can I consider that I’ve repaid my debt to you?”

“It’s not just repaying, it’s a great favor. I thank you on behalf of Heavengard.”

Victor bowed deeply to Eurius in gratitude. The damage to the castle was one thing, but if Eurius hadn’t warned him beforehand, Heavengard would have been reduced to ashes in a day.

Despite his calm tone, he was quite shaken inside.

‘I thought it was hard to believe when I first heard that he fought one-on-one with His Majesty, but it seems like I was wrong. My judgment must have declined as I got older.’

Eurius also smiled quietly inside.

‘You seem to have come around now?’

Eurius recalled the situation a few days ago.

***

“Well, now that we’ve finished deploying our troops, we just have to wait for them to come.”

Eurius stretched and got up from his seat after finishing the ambush plan for the defense battle.

“I can’t compare it to the palace, but I’ll prepare a place for you to rest.”

“That’s fine, but I have a favor to ask.”

Eurius stopped Victor who was about to get up quickly.

“What is it?”

“Do you have a quiet and spacious training ground in this castle? I need to test what I’ve learned this time.”

“…!?”

Victor couldn’t help but be surprised.

He was one of the closest confidants, so he knew what the Grand Duke was studying.

But he just came out of the secret room and said he was going to test it. What did that mean?

‘Could it be… But what if it’s true that His Grace defeated him?’

He moved his steps back to the inner castle with doubt and disbelief.

The place where Eurius was guided was an open space inside the inner castle.

There was a small river flowing on one side of the open space, which was used to supply water to the entire castle, and the flat and well-trimmed floor proved that it was well maintained.

“This is the training ground exclusively for His Grace. Since he has no owner now, you can use it as you please.”

The words ‘he has no owner’ were a bit uncomfortable for the person who had killed that owner.

‘He’s quite stubborn. Does he find it hard to trust someone who killed his master, even if he has no grudge against the Grand Duke?’

Eurius smiled sarcastically and answered.

“It’s a nice training ground. The person who takes care of it must have worked hard.”

“It’s my duty as the one in charge of the castle’s maintenance.”

They exchanged some sharp words.

In fact, Eurius had been subtly pressuring him to join his side.

Actually, the secret organization Gladius had lost almost all of its main force, but there were still a considerable number of people left, including those who were captured in the palace and the trainee knights.

His intention was to let them go back to the palace side if they had no grudge against the Grand Duke.

‘There’s no reason not to absorb such a good force.’

In fact, if the Grand Duke had been closely related to the cult, he might have thought differently, but surprisingly, he was a much cleaner person than Eurius had expected, except for his contact with the black market.

But Victor seemed to be old for nothing. He kept avoiding his answer with clever replies. It would be hard for him as a knight to go to someone who killed his master right away.

“Can you leave me alone for a while? I have something to think about.”

“I understand.”

After confirming that Victor’s presence was gone, Eurius headed to the center of the open space.

He had to test how much he could use what he had learned by ‘acquisition’. He slowly drew his sword.

Shiiing!

The sword that rose slowly into the air swung down at a terrifying speed.

The target of Eurius’ sword was the small river flowing on one side of the open space.

It was a small tributary that was not even a few meters wide, but if he had mastered the secret technique, there would be some consequences.

Splash!

The water split slightly and the bottom became visible.

But that time lasted less than a second.

The slash cut through the water and advanced a little bit, but soon lost its power.

‘It seems like I can imitate it to some extent?’

Normally, trying to cut water with a sword would only make a splash and bounce off the surface.

Although it was a small river, he split it cleanly enough to see the bottom for a moment, so it seemed possible to use the secret technique itself even if he learned it by acquisition.

“Kuh…”

But Eurius looked strange.

He staggered and collapsed on the spot.

Just once!

He used an incomplete technique, but his whole body was drained of energy.

[Failure, 1 point.]

The Dragon Sword judged it as a failure before he could decide.

‘It seems that what I learned by acquisition is not fully mine without enlightenment? Is it because I’m not an official player? Or is enlightenment necessary in the first place?’

The techniques learned by acquisition usually have their usage automatically remembered in his head.

But this time, since his realm did not match the technique, he couldn’t split the water completely, and it consumed a lot of force and stamina in an instant.

Eurius pondered.

‘I shouldn’t use it in real combat until I raise my proficiency more.’

[Breaking Sword Proficiency: 1%.]

It was useless to have an incomplete secret technique that made him faint after using it once.

But he still didn’t know how strong the enemy who would attack this time was, so he wanted to have one more trump card if possible.

“Is there no way?”

[…]

He asked the Dragon Sword after thinking for hours by himself, but this sword was too expensive to deal with as usual.

Hmm.

But it seemed to have recognized him somewhat, as it gave him more plausible hints these days.

The sword moved on its own and pointed to one side of his chest.

‘Do you mean His Grace manual?’

Eurius looked puzzled as he took out the book from his pocket.

There wasn’t much content in it. It was just a diary containing His Grace struggles.

Why did he tell him to read it again?

[I came to a conclusion recently. No matter how fast and strong a strike is, it can’t cut mountains or seas. I might have made a mistake from the beginning by focusing on power.]

His Grace struggle for the second stage training ended here. Then did this mean there was a hint here?

[Not result.]

The Dragon Sword added a word. Eurius thought hard.

‘Does that mean process?’

If so, His Grace had judged that neither strength nor speed was the answer.

Then what did he use to split the lake?

Process meant swinging the sword, and result was splitting the water.

And swinging the sword with speed or power was not the subject of consideration in the second stage.

“But don’t you need strength and speed to cut something?”

Hmm.

The Dragon Sword vibrated more strongly as if it was frustrated.

[No, stupid, word, cut, not.]

‘Now that I think about it…’

The meaning of the word was also strange.

Normally, when you cut something, you use the word ‘cut’, not ‘break’.

The two words had different meanings.

[Me, knife, not.]

‘What does that mean?’

He could easily cut through any metal or stone with a kitchen knife if he reached his peak.

A kitchen knife was not much different from a regular sword or even a treasure sword like the Yellow Dragon Sword.

“What does it matter if it’s a kitchen knife or a famous sword? They’re both tools for cutting things… Huh?”

Eurius, who had been thinking this far, suddenly slapped his knee.

“Ah!”

He got up again with his sword.

He had recovered quite a bit since some time had passed.

He realized two things this time. The first was the difference between the process and the result!

‘I’m not cutting through the water. That’s just the outcome!’

His sword swung very slowly from top to bottom, like a turtle crawling.

[Your proficiency has increased greatly.]

[Cutting Sword proficiency: 10%]

Swoosh.

His expectation was right.

“As expected!”

His sword had clearly cut through the water, even though it was only a few meters deep.

For a moment, he could see the riverbed through the gap that had been split.

Eurius couldn’t help but stick out his tongue at the sight, even though he had done it himself.

‘This was a more terrifying ability than I thought. Who would have guessed that it was a sword that cut off space and severed objects!’

As he thought, the meaning of cutting was literally to separate the space.

The mountains and seas were split simply because that part was cut off by the separated space.

The second hint that the Yellow Dragon Sword gave him was that the cutting sword had a very different meaning from the usual ‘cutting’.

Wasn’t there not much difference between cutting a person with a sword or cutting meat with a kitchen knife physically?

That’s why it was called cutting, not severing.

And the reason why Eurius could figure out this principle in a short time was the skill he showed at the end of the battle with Grand Duke.

He had barely been injured in the center of the explosion that had blown away half of Grand Duke’s body, because Grand Duke’s sword had blocked his surrounding space from the impact of the explosion.

“Ugh…”

The joy of gaining an edge was short-lived. Eurius had to sit down again. He was better than before, but it was still not a skill he could use recklessly.

‘I can only use it twice in a row at most.’

But those two cutting swords had played a decisive role in this battle.

He had blocked the surrounding space and covered himself with resistance, enduring the fiery storm that enveloped him, and then attacked him by surprise, knocking down the one with regeneration ability in one shot.

‘He can’t regenerate unless his body is attached first!’

For a while, it was impossible for flesh to touch each other in the blocked space, so he fell down without any resistance.

‘If I can master this sword perfectly, I won’t have any problem no matter what crisis comes.’

He had faced many hardships, but Eurius was able to grow another step.

***

Eurius, who finished his flashback first, spoke up.

“Then isn’t it time to decide your whereabouts? You have something to tell me too.”

He asked jokingly this time.

Victor seemed to have realized his intention and thought for a moment.

“I know all the contact locations of those black market guys… but if they have any thoughts, they wouldn’t have left any traces.”

“That’s enough for me. And what’s the second thing?”

Eurius urged him to answer.

Victor seemed to be quite conflicted.

He finally opened his mouth after some hesitation.

“Actually, I have an impudent request. Would you be willing to listen?”

“Hmm?”

Eurius sensed that this request would be crucial in deciding whether Gladius would join them or not.

“Tell me anything. I’ll talk to Father about it. I’ll send you a signal as soon as I get to the capital, so you can come up then.”

Victor bowed his head deeply again.

“I’m really sorry.”

Eurius waved his hand at him and left Heaven Guard with his knights.

He had a lot of things to do when he arrived at the capital.

First of all, there was still an enemy left unfinished.

‘The first round was my victory. But they won’t go easy on me in the second round!’

The enemy he was thinking of was the black market.

He had eliminated the archbishop, but no quest message came up.

The reaction was different from when he eliminated Ismail last time, so there was a high possibility that the enemy was still alive.

Eurius had only one thought in his head as he rode his horse. It was to find their base!

‘I’ll have to prepare to catch their tails when I get back to the capital.’