Sword's Path of The Reincarnated Painter

Day 2:

What is the meaning of this? Why am I still here? Is that old man actually insane? This is a dream, right? Maybe I haven't woken up yet.

Thoughts and doubts swirling in my mind, clouding my groggy consciousness.

Even if I'm blind, that doesn't mean I can't calculate my own time; I have passed the 24-hour mark, yet I'm still inside the cave.

My back touched the cold, jagged rock floor. One of the reasons I risked tiring myself out yesterday was because I thought I'd done the one-day test.

Though it wasn't a long time, I thought I had learned some valuable lessons. As if laughing at my circumstances, faintly the sound of a waterfall echoed off the enclosed passage of the cavern.

'What is this? Am I supposed to do something more?'

Master Luben said he would pick me up when the 53rd day came…

'Unless the 53rd hasn't come yet… But how?'

My mind comes up with an absurd assumption, preposterous even.

'Time… dilation?'

I do know one popular place in fiction where the main character goes inside a room that has a time dilation rate of 1:365 to train and get stronger.

'Is it something similar?'

Of course, for now I simply put it up as one of the weirder theories. Master Luben can simply forget, or my internal clock for some reason was broken—though it shouldn't affect my biological one, which I also keep track of.

Right now, I have no luxury of lying on my somewhat comfortable bed at home, so now I really have to plan for my survival and comfort.

In case of extended residency, I should prepare for many things I haven't really thought about.

'I already have food and water, so next should be a decent place to sleep. I also need a safe place to train too…'

Training wasn't on the priority list but also essential since, for some reason, the old man didn't teach me anything about swords.

My training back then was more akin to a brute than a swordsman.

'But I don't know how to wield a sword either.'

So, I need to at least train hit swing so if I were to meet a dangerous foe, I could at least put up a fight.

'A painter and a swordsman should have some similarities, right?'

I heard that swordsmanship is often described as a form of art, an expression of human will, or something. The books I used to read usually illustrate swordsmanship like that. I'll have to find out how creditable those are now.

Due to my past as a traditional artist, it was a given that I have good dexterity; my eye-to-hand coordination was also good. Of course, it was before the accident that took away my light.

But my muscles haven't forgotten the sensation of picking up a brush and the passion of creating a lasting piece of art.

'It should be fine. It's just a vertical and horizontal slash, just like doing a stroke on a canvas.'

The day passed by faster than it was on the first day, where I had to acclimatize myself with the environment.

With some difficulties here and there, my work was done in quick succession. Occasionally, I would lose track of my path, but I quickly found the way back by searching for the sword trail.

'If I can't fix the problem of navigation, it would be impossible to hunt the Outsider unless it lets me ambush it.'

Luckily the Woodland Stalker I killed back then was a non-status; facing someone about to break through, it was obvious that the monster would be killed.

Though gathering leaves proved to be somewhat of a challenge due to my inherent handicap, it wasn't that bad.

I used the nearby fallen leaves to help and vines to slowly build up a comfortable bed; spreading the leaves, I make sure to make considerable distance between the fire and my bed.

As for the place to train, the waterfall is an ideal location.

Training near the waterfall serves two purposes: one is immediate access to refreshing water alleviates my fatigue, and another is that I can take a dive to hopefully hide from a dangerous beast.

For today, I didn't plan to go out to hunt for Outsider. One reason was that I'm not confident in myself enough to take on a beast without even knowing how to wield a weapon. Another was an unexpectedly expected breakthrough.

Hours have passed; the foreign mana settled calmly inside my circuit, and within a certain threshold, a sudden burst of pain assaulted me.

My tendons contracted, my blood is boiling, and my blood vessels felt like they were about to burst, creating a river of blood. What? Why? I didn't even have time to question the sudden pain.

My heart becomes rapid, faster and faster, wilder and wilder, my mana wrecking the internal organs of my body, leaving no stone unturned.

Lung.

Kidney.

Stomach.

Intestine.

…

Eventually even my brain felt the searing heat.

'Shit! Master didn't say it would be this painful. Has he even told me anything remotely useful?'

It was like he intentionally ignored all of the lifesaving knowledge and let me learn those myself with experimentation.

'I was preparing for the breakthrough, but I didn't know that it would put me through this kind of pain.'

I haven't mentally prepared for the trial I have to overcome; breaking the limit of the human body is a tall task after all.

'What an incompetent, useless, damnable, detestable master. Why did I decide to become his disciple? It was clearly written in big font, the words 'Suicide Contract'.'

Those were, of course, my conjuration to divert the pain and anguish somewhere else.

'Is this why Terrisa doesn't want me to associate with him? That seems about right.'

This damn pain intensifies responding to agitation; weirdly, it was concentrated on my head. Ignoring the agony, I calmed my mind while trying to find a safe place to meditate.

'Damn it, this is fine.'

I sit down on a nearby boulder; it gives me some high ground to work with in case of emergency.

Bubble.

The cascading waterfall pacified my disturbed mind.

"Hah… Hah… This is… hah…"

My voice is getting weaker, and my body slowly becomes more robust, akin to an exploding bomb.

My tender skin swells, my muscle expands, the bones inside me are screaming, enduring the relentless pressure, and my unprotected organs are going to burst.

'Am… I… die?.… again?'

My thoughts became disjointed and incoherent.

Yet I can't pass out, something in the back of my mind shouting for my perseverance, something warning me that I would truly die if I were to pass out.

Seconds turned into minutes, minutes turned into hours, and hours slowly turned into a day.

Day 3:

"Hah… Hah… Hah… Hah… Hah… I survive…"

Lying, beaten by the previous torment. My back was drenched with my own sweat, and some unknown sticky substance also attached my shirt to the boulder.

I don't know the color, but it exudes a foul smell. Worse than the sewer I was in just a month ago.

'This is just great…'

In the end, I didn't manage to train or hunt Outsiders. Instead, the longsword became a pillow for me to vent my anguish.

I've now officially set foot on the path of Transcending, the first step of a long journey. Grand-Status, or G-Status for short, signifying the transition between a human and an Ascender.

Back in ancient times, the amount of people achieving this stage was incredibly rare. The name Grand-Status is also called Grand Human back in the day.

human

 yet no longer just a powerless mortal.

In the short ten and a half years in this world, I have achieved what was considered an impressive feat in the ancient era; of course, now pretty much everyone achieves this stage simply by growing till their adolescent years.

This information surprisingly doesn't come from Dain, but from master Luben.

'He's surprisingly good at giving useless information.'

At least I can take solace in succeeding in reaching the status of a Grand Human.

"Hop!"

I bounced up to my feet. Tearing my back away from the foul substance

Cracked.

'What?'

What I heard was right; my simple bounce has caused a crack on the boulder I was sleeping on.

I bent down, touching the fracture and examining it. It resembles my bare feet.

It was no exaggeration to say that I'm no longer a human.

'A Grand Human… that's a fitting description.'

It was an intriguing and fascinating process. Despite having to go through utter agony, receiving this kind of power in return doesn't seem half bad…

'Am I… becoming a masochist? Shit, that old man Luben is rubbing off on me.'

With his training regime, it was no wonder that my body slowly adapted to the pain; it was dulled or ignored but simply endured.

'Is that also the purpose of my godawful training? Nah, I'm probably making excuses for him.'

It doesn't matter anyway; what matters now is I need to test out my newfound strength.

Conveniently, the right target is just beneath my feet.

Jumping down from the boulder. I tried to poke a hole in it with my index finger. Slowly I could feel my finger slowly carve a small hole in the boulder.

'Isn't too much.'

It was unreasonable; it was fantastical. This kind of strength is something anyone can reach. It was a huge shock to a former Earthling like me.

'Then… I should test out my maximum output. Here goes nothing.'

I pull my body back, one leg behind and one leg forward, utilizing the muscles in my leg, following the momentum of my turn.

Boom!

'A boom?'

"Ah, ouch! Shit. It hurts like hell!'

My bone cracked due to the immense pressure I put it through; despite having an unimaginable output, my software wasn't strong enough to withstand the force I could discharge.

But I did confirm my absurd strength.

The boulder that I've punched now has a huge dent; if I were to punch it a few more times, it would crumble into pieces.

Back when I was still a non-status, my peak was that of a theoretical human, but now as a G-status, such feats are now a casual occurrence for me.

'Great, now I have to learn how to control my strength.'

With great power comes great restraint; I can't just go around the forest casually destroying trees or crumbling rocks, now can I? That would alert predators. For better or for worse, it is better to be safe than sorry.

I guess I should spend some time acclimating my power and training in swordsmanship for a while.

'Is this also a part of the test? I don't know; the old man is too fickle to get a grasp on.'

With distractions out of my mind temporarily, I decided to accept current circumstances.

'Let's go swing my sword for a few days. With my current stamina, I could easily do that.'

***

Luben looking down at Raon from 'above.' It came to him as a great surprise to see how enthusiastic Raon is with the sword.

"It seems like I have to scratch out my perfectly crafted swordsmanship lessons. At this rate, he will soon discover his own path sooner than I expected."

Raon's movement was crude and unseemly, not even fit to be called a true swing, yet hidden beneath the basic horizontal and vertical slashes was an embryo of an unknown sword art.

In his life, Luben has never sought a master or learned foreign sword arts from anybody else; since the beginning, there was only him and his sword carving out the unknown.

It was a lesson he wanted to impart to his disciples, yet it's now unnecessary.

"Ha. How ridiculous; this kid's adaptation is impressive; I almost don't believe that he's blind."

If one were to look at Raon from an objective standpoint, one would see that he doesn't act like a blind person. He seems to know too many foreign imageries that should be impossible for someone born blind.

But Luben doesn't mind the enigma that is his student; he's simply happy that he has a talented disciple under his tutelage when his life gradually comes to an end.

Though many would say that his training could barely be called proper training. The way he conducts his lesson and his test doesn't align with what is commonly associated with teaching.

But someone of his caliber rarely takes in disciples, so it is perfectly normal for those below peak A-Status to question his way of educating.

But why would he care about those pesky, weaker individuals who don't know how to teach their disciple the proper way?

"Hah… hah… hah…"

Raon's hands tremble, his leg wobbles up and down, and his eyes remain unfocusedunfocused. e body was hurting.

Once again Raon has pushed his body to the absolute limit while in a trance.

"It's truly like painting…"

Despite the pain, a smile was present on his face.

It wasn't exactly the same, but for a moment he did feel as if he was painting on the canvas once again.

After the incident that took away his sight, he was incapable of painting normally; he had heard of many blind artists in the world before his death. But suddenly losing his sight, a task as simple as picking up a brush becomes an insurmountable mountain.

He may have given up too soon, but what else could he do in a pit of despair just like back then?

The discovering of joy in swordplay akin to painting has greatly ignited Raon's once-dead artistic spirit.

Inadvertently, he fell into a trance-like state, constantly mimicking the act of painting with his sword. Though limited to just vertical and horizontal slices, it was enough for him to 'draw' the different geometries.

With just that, he was delighted; of course, he was also able to do such basic things even when he was blind on Earth.

But the prospect of the Mana Sense—said to be an Ascender third eye—his master promised to teach after this ordeal, greatly excited his spirit. It revitalized his passion once again.

"Maybe, with this sword, maybe I can finally paint again…"

For some reason, Raon has grown attached to the concept of drawing using a sword instead of a brush.

'It is indeed cooler than painting with the good old brush.'

Maybe it was the childishness, or maybe it was his dream all along; Raon has decided to use the sword as his brush and the world as his canvas.

For Raon the path of the sword has just only begun.

***

Day 5:

I woke up after exhausting myself; I realized how reckless I had been for the past five days in this godforsaken forest, but my excitement couldn't be helped.

'It was like a child finding a new toy… Is this what you call age regression?'

There are some scientific theories about how the body affects the mind and vice versa. Maybe my mind and this young body are trying to reach an equilibrium, resulting in a regression in my mental age.

With my past actions, my easily ignitable temper, and somewhat childish thinking, maybe it is the case.

'Whatever, that doesn't matter. I need to check back on my camp.'

Finding the marking and the right direction to reach the entrance has been an especially difficult task.

I have passed out too many times; it was a given that I forgot my orientation.

Thankfully, due to my decision of making the marking extremely obvious to spot. Just by tapping my sword a couple of minutes, I eventually found the way back.

One thing I noticed was how sensitive I was toward the vibrations; I could almost discern the trail I made just by hearing the slight difference in sound.

Of course, I need to train much harder than two short days to make my hearing more pronounced; for now it was enough that I could almost use echolocation.

It wasn't improbable that I could learn it now, trying to create waves with my sword as a walking stick and hearing the different frequencies. However, it was very hard for my brain to compute that information for now.

'I'm excited. This world where mana exists, blindness can be circumvented.'

Hopeful about the distant future, I jog back to the base. Involuntarily, my sudden acceleration causes a huge gush of wind.

'How fast am I now? I must be much, much faster than Usain right now.'

It was a somewhat nice yet dangerous surprise, as I still have no idea how to control my speed, my training with the sword mainly to help me control my arms strength, not my legs.

'Could I go hunt at this moment?…I need some fighting experience to help her job also.'

With that in mind, I decided to set off tomorrow on a trip to fight with some Outsider. With my current heightened senses, I hope that I won't get lost when the combat begins since I have no intention of going for an ambush.

I need to amass actual experience in one-on-one or one-on-many fights after all, so I should try to build it up as soon as possible.

Though I am afraid of potential pain and the possibility of death, haven't I endured worse?

'I have died once and also experienced the cruel process of breakthrough. Fighting Outsiders is nothing.'

A sense of bravery and confidence rose up to my chest; it was a dangerous mindset, but it wasn't exactly wrong either.

With firm resolve in mind, I reached the end of my amrking, which means I have reached either the campfire, which would have extinguished by now, or the depth of this cave.

Tapping my sword, I tried to identify my surroundings using rudimentary echolocation.

'This is the depth.'

Due to the obvious echo instead of dispersing to the outside, that means I have taken the wrong turn.

'That's just fantastic. Now I need to jog back.'

The way back wouldn't take long since my speed is now much greater than before; at best, it would take a minute, at worst, two.

In a leisurely pace, I trace back my path with one hand touching the surface of the cave, the other holding the sword in case something jumps out and attacks me.

Within the designated time, I have come back to my base…

"What… is this…"

With a slight annoyance in my bowel, the atmosphere around me suddenly changed. It was as if…

'Teleportation. No, a portal?'

Having no reference, I thought of the portal with its association to my nausea.

But it was different, the sensation; it was different somehow.

GROWL

Growl

growl

'Something,' it was the cause of this phenomenon. Its growl echoed off the wall, growing smaller and closer.

Whoosh!

I reacted by dodging to the side with a step.

It was a projectile.

'Am I still in the depth? That can't be.'

With no time to think, a bombardment of sharp objects hurtling toward me.

Pak. Pak. Pak. Pak. Pak. Pak. Pak. Pak.

With my speed, it was an easy task.

'A group of Outsiders? Animals can't be coordinated, but I'll have to take precautions in case it was an animal."

Animals in this world, when grown to a certain level, are said to be very cunning and achieve true sentience when they ascend, but normally they would remain mindless beasts, even more mindless than Outsiders.

Pak. Pak. Pak. Pak. Pak. Pak. Pak. Pak.

Another batch was easily dodged again, with it I confirm that they were just a bunch of non-status outsiders.

'This is simple enough.'

Shining.

After that thought, following with rapid tapping with my sheath, I approach the poor Outsiders.

Swing!

Snap!

I could feel my sword parting the air, snapping the neck of an Outsider with a vertical slash.

It appeared that I had hit the creature's head with the blunt side, resulting in its head getting smashed to pieces while the spine is flying out following the momentum of the head.

'Oops… I need to improve on that…'

My execution was very poor, but my overwhelming strength made up for that shortcoming.

It was a probe attack to gauge their height, but it seems like I hit the jackpot. They are the same height as me.

"Greek."

"Graka."

"Geek."

The Outsider fearing my might back off wanting to run off.

Due to the terrible turn, my momentum got messed up, creating time for the Outsiders to move deeper into the cave.

'Pursue or not pursue…'

I could easily kill all of them right now, but it poses a significant risk as I will have to dive into the unknown.

'For now, let's check out the reason why I'm back here.'

Finding the nearest wall, I checked for the marking; luckily, this was the right wall.

I zoomed full speed ahead to see if it changes anything.

Wrong!

Click!

My stomach was upset again. My surroundings once again were changed, but…

'The forest? How? I was in the cave just a moment ago.'

What is this cave? How can it teleport me in the middle of nowhere so quickly? It was understandable that Master Luben could open a portal for fast travel, but this is straightforward teleportation.

There was no twisted space, and there was no loud sound indicating a portal opening; it was just teleportation.

HOWL

A howl dwarfing the surrounding ambient. It was beastly; it was primal; it was dangerous.

'It's strong… at least a grand.'

Instinctively, I knew that monster was no ordinary beast.

Be it an animal native to this world or an Outsider species, it is now my opponent.

GROWL

The beast in front of me slowly circling me, gauging my action, it too could sense that I'm a Grand Human.

"Tsk, come here, bastard. Let's fight!"

For now, fighting is the best option, since I don't know if I'm going to be teleported back or not.

'I will kite it until I confirm if I can run off or not.'

I am not suicidal; at the end of the day, there is still too much to live for.

'Damn it! That old bastard of a master better not be responsible for this.'

Pointing my sword at nothing, the fight begins.

Whoosh!