Chapter 183 Swearing Allegiance To The Strong 3

Tsugumi felt good. Fighting one intense battle after another allowed her to get acquitted with her new Caliber. Add to the guidance [One with Sword] provides and she felt gaining wings as she flew.

Turning the clock back a bit, after learning she could store Caliber swords in her soul space as her master called it. The sister of the Mitsurugi created sword after sword and then used them to kill all to refill her calibers repeating the cycle.

Originally she used Katanas and then experimented with rapiers but neither worked out very well. The katanas due to being curved down and kinda off balance needed more spirit to move. In contrast, the rapiers flew extremely streamlined, but due to their shape, they looked like needles.

That would be great if the similarities stopped there. The problem was they also behaved like needles or more accurately nails. When she created Caliber rapiers and used them as darts they got lodged into their targets due to having a thin blade that extends to a wider base.

The swords she created that way couldn't be removed as they got stuck in deep. Tsugumi only was able to remove them by heading for each one and retrieving it into her sword intent. Much like inventory the retrieval and storage of swords in her sword intent had a capacity and limit.

She could store any sword within five meters even without touching the blades. Next, she could only draw out a maximum of a dozen swords at any one time. So if she wanted to retrieve 50 she would need to draw out four sets of a dozen with six being drawn on the fifth try.

Going back to shape the sword type she found most suitable was the Chinese Jian sword. They looked like normal European longswords but had short square hand-guards and round pommels. Due to the balance being distributed well they didn't veer in various directions in flight and were extremely aerodynamic.

In terms of combat, the Caliber Jians were extremely practical, Tsugumi could use them as missile weapons like arrows, or have them stab or slash like extra limbs. Fortunately one of Tasukete's works featured a rich young master who became a sword deity and floating swords were his trademark weapons.

Everything from flying using floating swords and sword arrays Tsugumi copied from her favorite author. It pleased her greatly to bring her fantasies to life. Having multiple caliber Jians allowed Tsugumi to strike places out of her reach. She moved them together like a school of Herrings.

Together their might greatly increase. Tsugumi concentrated on murdering the Antlions while slowly increasing her sword intent. When she got to a critical mass of sixty Caliber Jians, the monsters just started dropping like flies.

When she had around eighty of them she challenged the half-dead Goliath Dragoneater by shredding its body and stabbing it all over. Neither worked to take down the giant beast. [One with Sword] suggested treating them all like drops of water.

- A single drop cannot harm a fly, yet allow them to create momentum and flow and they can break down even the mightiest of mountains. -

Tsugumi then used ten layers of eight Jians revolving in a circle. The result could be said to be a worthy achievement.

- Alert: Goliath Dragoneater Spider Lvl 78 has been defeated 1,350,000 exp gained! -

Before she could celebrate arrived and know she was fighting with eight more of the fuckers. The only problem was the Caliber Jians had a glaring weakness. When one of the spiders caught and snapped one of the blades in two.

"Bleagh, what? Why did I get damaged?" After vomiting a horrifying amount of blood, Tsugumi understood that It seemed like the Caliber weapons are not perfect. When housed in one's Sword Intent they become part of one's Soul.

In the same vein, by being stored in one's soul they become objects that when destroyed damage the containers that house them. So flying Caliber weapons are like flying weak points begging to be exploited. The age-old saying power always comes at a price came through once more.

Due to the amount of damage, Tsugumi felt, she knew if she created thousands of swords and they got destroyed she would die. While stronger than normal the Caliber Jian's could not blow around 600 STR. Significantly lower than why Tsugumi's currently buffed body could endure.

Thus while Caliber Jian is an excellent addition to her arsenal she should not wholly focus on it. In light of this realization, until Tsugumi found a war to reinforce them, she will still be the main attacker with the blades only supplementing her blows.

As the sword saint danced with the spiders, she delegated part of her brain to have them strike in the opposite direction of where she went. Or to position themselves to serve as footholds. The resulting applications of combat revolutionized her understanding.

The woman felt that truly one needed to constantly be tested in order to learn and develop. No matter how busy she was though, she kept her eye on her beloved brother. And seeing the absolute powerhouse that is Hiroto Musashi get one-sidedly stomped did not make her feel good.

Originally she wondered how she would console the man. Most men do not take failure lightly. Some fail once and are forever destroyed by it. Yet the man did not wallow in negative feelings but channeled them into action.

Like an angry force of nature, Hiro brutalized the Jormungandrs by mowing them down as one would do weeds. Lars who understood his master's rage backed off, he then helped out Geo, then appeared to help Tsugumi. Currently, she only needed to fight half of the spiders as the other half were chasing the adopted son of the Krich.

Still, Tsugumi prepared herself, many failed at what they were most proud of and completely broke down as a result. Whether or not Hiro is the same remains to be seen. Unknown to her even the San-Baka felt sentiments similar to the sister Mitsurugi.

As none of them saw Hiro as weak before, only when he psychotically murdered everything they didn't know what to expect. After a few more hours everything that had a pulse outside of the five system users died. Hiro who bisected the queen grew slack as the string of battles finally came to an end.

The five of them were so covered in blood they looked like they sway in a sea of it. Wondering what they would do next Hiro then started to slice the queen into pieces. The group did not know if they were for eating or for weapons but with Hiro leading the way, the four naturally followed.

It took them about 10 hours to salvage everything after everything was done. Hiro had them all gather and said. "Well done, fun-camp part 2 is now officially over." Hiro then sat down as he spoke.

"The spoils you earned will be divided among the four of you. I will only take the ones I took down on my own. Now, we will be holding a meeting to correct each other's mistakes. This is how we grow. By learning from one another, I'll go first."

All four of Hiro's party breathe a sigh of relief, reflecting on one's action can only be done with a strong mindset. The weak blame everyone else for their mistakes, absolving them of the responsibility to become better. The ones that take responsibility grew simply because they are willing to change. And none of those that gave up and are willing to get better are ever the same people.