I Became a Gallery Newbie Beloved by Transcendents

I moved forward.
I swung the sword vertically downward.

The sword stopped abruptly.
A 4th tier swordsman.
I expected him to be formidable, but he was even more impenetrable than I thought.

Red sword energy was blazing on the sword Rainer held.

“I’ll show you what kind of being you’re facing.”

Instinctively, I had a feeling.
A feeling that this guy was the most dangerous opponent I had faced so far.

Rainer stomped the ground and thrust the sword he held in both hands.

Clang clang clang!

I twisted my foot to the right and blocked Rainer’s sword with the flat of my blade.

“I was a knight of the honorable House Valten. I’m on a different level from a rootless weed like you.”

Knight?
I couldn’t help but ask.

“Then why are you doing this here? Have you thrown away your knightly honor?”

Of course, I didn’t forget to poke at him while asking.

“Or were you discarded by that knight family?”

It seemed my poking hit a nerve too well.

“…Y-You lowly creature, how dare you!”

Rainer, with a face like a demon, charged at me again with his sword.
On the sword, as if layering several more levels of sword energy on top of what he had just manifested, a red storm was swirling.

I poked at him to make him lose his composure.
But while I succeeded in making him lose composure, it seems I raised his anger too much.

“Take this, this is the sword of the great Valten!”

I don’t know about great, but I can certainly tell it’s dangerous.

Dragon Slaying Sword (龍殺劍).
I believed in the swordsmanship that senior LightSword had given me.
The content in the sword manual stated that sword energy was ultimately necessary for the sword technique to be properly executed.

And now, I had that sword energy.

Red aura rushing in diagonally.
I had no thoughts of avoiding it. I just had to cut through it.

Tss tss tss tss!

Horizontal slash, Þursahǫgg.
The red windstorm slashing down diagonally was cut through in one go.

Beyond the severed windstorm, I saw Rainer’s face crumpling.
He closed his mouth and retracted his widely spread arms.

I saw him lifting his right shoulder and pulling his sword back.
I immediately recognized it as a preparation stance for a thrust.

I saw red aura converging on Rainer’s sword, flashing with light.

Rumble rumble rumble!

The crimson haze condensing in a spiral violently shook the air.
A chill ran down my spine.

The emotion that arose wasn’t fear.
I took the same stance as Rainer.

I drew pure white sword energy into the great sword Karnavalt.
The sensation of arm muscles tensing like a bowstring traveled up to my shoulders.

Thump.

I stepped forward.
The muscles in my right shoulder screamed.

What filled my vision was a rush of four streams.
As expected, what Rainer extended was an ultra-fast thrust.

The sword energy slash rushed at me like a spear extending in a straight line.
Four red spears distorted the air as they bore down.

The match was decided in an instant.

Pure white sword energy also extended from the Karnavalt I held.

Dragon Slaying Sword 4th Form.
5 consecutive thrusts.
Quinque Acies.

Clash clash clash clash clash!

The four strands of red slashes collided with the white light and mutually annihilated.
Fragments of sword energy scattered densely.

The pure white sword energy that extended through the fragments struck Rainer’s abdomen.

Rainer’s thrust was 4 consecutive.
My thrust was 5 consecutive.
The single trajectory that survived without being annihilated pierced Rainer’s abdomen.

“Cough!”

A handful of red blood burst from Rainer’s mouth.
There was no shock or doubt on Rainer’s face.

Because both he and I had seen it.
The process of our sword strikes meeting.
There are no coincidences in a life-or-death battle.

The moment I approached to finish him off,

Rainer instantly stabbed his sword into the ground.

Flash─

A red shockwave rushed right in front of my nose.

All my senses told me.
If I touch that, I’ll die.

Crunch-

I heard the sound of something being crushed.
It was my right arm.

My right arm, engulfed by the shockwave, was twisted strangely.
Blood rushed to my eyes.
It was pain like having blades driven into each nerve.

I barely held onto my consciousness that felt like it would fly away from the sudden onslaught of pain.

[The level of skill ‘Pain Suppression’ increases. Lv.6]
[The level of skill ‘Fighter’s Movement’ increases. Lv.5]

My thoughts accelerated.

I had to jump over the red shockwave that shot upwards and slash Rainer’s neck.

I released white aura from both feet.
Dragon Slaying Sword, footwork.

What I focused on was the single gap that the shockwave hadn’t completely covered.

Lumen Errans.

I stepped forward.

Slash-

I flowed into the gap of the red aura that shot up vertically.

Slash!

I cut Rainer’s neck with the Dagger of Blood in my left hand.
I properly severed the carotid artery.

Blood gushed out from Rainer’s neck as he collapsed to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.

From the moment my thrust pierced his abdomen,
To my arm being consumed by the red shockwave,
And until Rainer’s death just now.

This moment was all in an instant.

[Level up!]

[Lv.20 → Lv.21]

Perhaps because I killed a 4th tier, I instantly gained one more level from level 20, which I had only reached after slaughtering beasts and humans.

Crunch!

And naturally, my right arm was restored to its original state.

I stared at Rainer, who had died with his eyes wide open.

I really almost died, you bastard.

His arms were far from normal. Grotesquely raised blood vessels.

The red shockwave. It seems he exceeded his limits to unleash that attack.
Were you trying to take me down with you?

I literally survived by a hair’s breadth.

I couldn’t afford to dwell on the aftermath of the battle with the 4th tier swordsman Rainer yet.
The situation wasn’t fully resolved.

I swung the great sword horizontally towards Kaetor, who was the only one among the remaining three enemies to recognize that I had killed Rainer and was thrusting his spear at me.

The bisected spear shaft shot upwards.
Blood spread in a horizontal line.

I killed Kaetor. Two remained.
I ended the lives of those who couldn’t even think of intervening in the battle between Rainer and me,
And who, unlike Kaetor, didn’t immediately rush in.

“……”

Even though I had just leveled up, I felt terribly fatigued.
Both physically and mentally.

I approached the two felines with chains on their necks and hands and freed them from the iron chains.

“A-Are you okay?”
“I’m glad you’re alive…”
“The adults should be coming…”

The feline beastkin huddled together.
They all had wary expressions towards me. Except for Mike.
I didn’t particularly feel like easing their wariness.

Leaning against a large tree, I looked at the felines.

The total number of felines secured was eight.

[8/8]

I had already secured the number of felines specified by the quest.
Now the quest would be completed once I handed them over to the rescue team.

But when are these rescue team guys coming?
If they’re coming to rescue the felines, they’re likely to be felines themselves with high probability.

At that moment, one of the two felines I had just rescued spoke while sobbing.

[NPC – Feline Beastkin Shamo]

“Yu, Yutel and Merva are missing…”

Two are missing?
Well, it did say to secure 8 or more.
It never said 8 was all of them.

Shamo continued speaking with a pale face.

“That person was indeed the combat leader of the slave cartel, and we were dragged around here and there… but they were nowhere. We thought they’d be here… if they’re not here either, that’s not good.”

He’s in a completely broken mental state.

It was a situation where I could have said “How should I know?” without any problem.
Because the quest conditions had already been met.

The cat-eared children started having a heated discussion.

“Let’s go look for them!”
“No! It’s dangerous for everyone to scatter again! There are not only slave traders but also beasts!”

Yeah, don’t.

But these guys.
No matter how I looked at them, they didn’t seem like NPCs from games I used to play during my gallery-browsing days in my previous life.

I could understand why the Transcendent Gallery seniors got so immersed, talking about the Lucerna Mercenary Group and Delisa.
It felt no different from reality.

I took out my terminal and filmed the felines gathered in a circle for discussion.

I opened the Transcendent Gallery.

I wrote a post.

With a photo attached.

Title: I found as many felines as required, but…
Author: ㅇㅇ*
Attachment: 823884390.jpg
(Photo of eight feline beastkin children gathered in a circle)

-The kids say two are missing. Does anyone know how to find them?

ㄴ The felines are cute.
ㄴ IceQueen) Freeze! Cute!
ㄴ DragonKing) Beltui- it’s been a while since I’ve seen felines.

ㄴ You only need to find as many as required, right?
ㄴ He’s in an immersed state.

ㄴ This guy cleared 100 floors but still doesn’t know about the Tower. If you find more than the required number, you get more points.
ㄴ People die doing that, what do you mean I don’t know? You’re gonna die.

ㄴ LightSword) I think there was a pointy-eared one who might know about this.
ㄴ I’mAnElf) ? You mean me?
ㄴ LightSword) Not you, the furry pointy-eared one.
ㄴ Pioneer) That pointy-eared one was blocked before, wasn’t he?

ㄴ WaterKing) Hey!!!!!!!!!!! GalleryMaster!!!!!!!!!!!!! You bastard!!!!!!!!!

ㄴ Pioneer) Oh, you’ve been released. Long time no see.
ㄴ Lolololololololol He’s trying so hard to get blocked again right after being released.

ㄴ WaterKing) When felines appear on a floor, you should release me right away!!!!!!!!!

ㄴ GalleryMaster) ?
ㄴ WaterKing) I’m sorry. I got a bit excited haha
ㄴ WaterKing) I’ve been lurking for so long, I really wanted to participate haha…

ㄴ ‘?’
ㄴ The question mark of a person in power is scary.
ㄴ Immediate mental treatment lol

ㄴ GalleryMaster) I gave you special amnesty because it’s your area of expertise, so be careful with your words and actions.
ㄴ WaterKing) Haha yes!!

ㄴ Upvote if you think WaterKing is cursing like crazy inside.
ㄴ Not inside, he’s probably saying it out loud.

ㄴ ㅇㅇ*) Are you a feline?
ㄴ WaterKing) Yeah, nice to meet you!!!!!! Gallery owner!!!!!!!!

ㄴ WaterKing) First of all, thank you for saving the feline children. They seem so real even though they’re NPCs, right?

ㄴ ㅇㅇ*) They say two are missing. Is there a way to find them?

ㄴ WaterKing) The children seem to have forgotten in their confused state! Felines have a resonance sound that can only be sent between feline species!

ㄴ WaterKing) In the Beast Forest, given feline habits, caves are likely places they would hide. The two remaining ones are probably hiding in a cave. The feline resonance sound can penetrate even enclosed spaces, so you should be able to find them quickly.

ㄴ ㅇㅇ*) Thanks
ㄴ WaterKing) Please find them!

As far as possible.
I closed the gallery.

“Mike.”

Mike immediately ran over and looked up at me timidly.

“Yes.”

“Don’t felines have a resonance sound that can communicate among yourselves?”

“Ah…!”

Mike’s green eyes widened.
The rest of the felines also looked surprised.

“Why did we forget about that!”

The felines opened their mouths and started making sounds that I couldn’t hear.
Then, as if they had figured out the direction, they all turned their heads to the right at once.

“I’ll take the lead, so follow closely behind me, slowly.”
“We should do as Mr. Yuseong says.”

Mike led the children behind me.

Step step

After walking for about 20 minutes, two felines emerged from a cave, parting the mist.

“Yutel!”
“Merva!”

The feline children hugged each other in reunion.

“Is that everyone?”

Mike stood on her tiptoes, looked up at me, and smiled brightly.

“Yes, Yuseong.”

The rescue is complete.
Now we just need to meet up with the rescue team.