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HELHEIM SCANS
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Chapter 172: Each One’s Dawn (6)
Smack! Slap!
The sharp sensation of someone slapping his cheek jolted him awake.
"…Sca, Oscar!"
As his blurry vision cleared, he saw Hagor’s face looking down at him.
"You’ve finally opened your eyes. Are you feeling any better?"
"Ugh…"
Oscar groaned and barely managed to sit up, rubbing his stinging cheek as he tried to recall what had happened.
‘I definitely entered the dimensional rift that Master Ado created… Oh, right.’
He had seen his master and his wife in their younger years.
And just as he was about to close the space, he remembered being struck by his master.
‘…Wait, did I really pass out from a single hit? And then I was thrown out?’
The mighty Oscar, reduced to this?
What a disgrace.
The absurdity of the situation made him let out a hollow chuckle, prompting Hagor to ask,
"Are you sure you’re alright?"
"For now, yes."
"What the hell are you up to? You suddenly vanished from my sight—I was startled, you know."
"Ah, well… That’s a bit of a long story."
Oscar briefly summarized the events he had experienced and what he needed to do moving forward.
Upon hearing the tale, Hagor’s eyes glimmered with interest.
"Ho? Ado Vail, you say? I know that name well. He’s a famous archmage, even among dwarves."
"Is that so?"
"Mages who manipulate space are rare, you see. I recall hearing that, centuries ago, he helped the dwarves build their settlements."
"Really?"
Even with the dwarves’ exceptional craftsmanship, creating vast underground spaces would have taken a great deal of time.
It wouldn’t be surprising if his master had assisted them with space magic.
With such magic at his disposal, creating immense caverns would have been a trivial matter.
"I never imagined you were the one inheriting the legacy of such a great mage."
"I’m not worthy of claiming that legacy just yet."
Oscar stood up and gazed in the direction of the dimensional rift.
"I’ll only be able to say it with pride once I’ve fully mastered this power."
"Heh, that’s just like you."
Hagor grinned and gave Oscar a hearty slap on the shoulder.
"Go on, then. If you pass out again, I’ll be sure to wake you up, so don’t worry."
"I’m counting on you. Oh, but…"
Oscar hesitated for a moment before cautiously adding,
"…Could you hold back on the slapping? Your calloused hands hurt like hell."
"……."
* * *
Once again, Oscar stepped into the dimensional rift, which remained just as beautiful as before.
The moon spread its silver light, and the lake’s surface gently rippled in the breeze.
‘…And finally, my master and his wife.’
Despite being referred to as a married couple, they both appeared to be in their early twenties.
They were strolling along the lakeside, just as they had been when Oscar first saw them.
"!@#$%$#@"
"@#%@!^#&"
Once again, their conversation was distorted by incomprehensible static.
After watching them for a moment, Oscar nodded to himself.
‘It’s repeating.’
Time in this space was frozen.
No, it flowed independently, separate from reality.
‘If my theory is correct…’
If he repeated the same actions as before, his master’s reaction should be identical.
Oscar began searching for the spatial threads just as he had previously.
The moment he located the thread capable of unraveling the dimension, he glanced toward the couple.
‘Gone.’
Just like last time, his master had vanished, leaving only his wife standing alone by the lake.
Without hesitation, Oscar swiftly severed the thread.
Snip!
The tip of the thread was neatly sliced away.
And once again, his master appeared with a cold, unyielding expression.
‘He’s even younger than I thought.’
He looked to be in his early twenties, seemingly the same age as Oscar himself.
"%@$!#@$?"
His master spat out more incomprehensible words and suddenly threw a punch.
"%!@#%@#!"
"This time, it will be different."
Prepared for the attack, Oscar deflected the punch with the back of his hand.
"……!"
His master’s eyes widened slightly, surprised that his blow had been blocked.
Oscar’s body, meanwhile, ignited with the heat of four magic circuits coursing through him.
‘I’ve closed the distance. No matter how skilled he is, even Master won’t be able to dodge this one.’
Oscar Style Martial Arts: Secret Technique, Chapter 1
Wave Sound.
His fist shot out in an instant, striking his master square in the chest.
"!@#!%!"
Letting out a pained, almost bestial cry, his master staggered back several steps.
When he lifted his head again, his face was twisted with pain—but Oscar was no better off.
‘…It wasn’t deep enough.’
At the last moment, his master had displayed monstrous reflexes, slightly pulling back.
That minuscule movement, a mere few centimeters, had scattered much of the impact’s force.
"!@#!%$."
His master muttered something under his breath.
And then—
Before Oscar could prepare for a follow-up strike, the atmosphere changed.
"……!"
The pressure emanating from his master surged outward, suffocating the entire space.
It felt as though even the moonlight dimmed under the weight of his aura.
A profound, unnatural silence fell.
The chirping of insects and the rustling of the wind vanished entirely.
It was as if the entire dimension held its breath, waiting for his wrath to subside.
"@#$@%#@?"
His master murmured ominously.
Oscar couldn’t interpret the words, but he could clearly feel the cold hostility in the voice.
Goooooo.
An intangible pressure pressed down on his shoulders along with the space around him.
“I give up. The difference in skill is just too much.”
“Hmm, so Ado Vail in his younger days must have been incredibly strong.”
“He was.”
“So strong that you couldn’t possibly win?”
“Yes. I think you’d need to be at least level 7 to even stand a chance.”
Wave Sound was currently the most powerful spell Oscar could unleash at close range.
Yet, the moment it failed, the master struck him down with his full strength.
In other words, at this point, he couldn’t think of a single way to win the fight.
“Hmm. Something seems a bit off.”
Hagor, who had been quietly observing, muttered.
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“If it was such a difficult task, why didn’t Ado Vail give you a warning in advance? Was he toying with you?”
“...I don’t think so.”
Oscar shook his head, recalling his master’s character.
The man was many things, but when it came to training, he was as serious as anyone could be.
“But it is strange, now that you mention it.”
Oscar had found a total of five spatial rifts in the magic tower.
The one they were currently at seemed the easiest to close.
The others were so overwhelming that merely approaching them made his stomach churn.
‘If even the easiest one requires level 7 magic, the master would have warned me.’
He would have told him not to even look at it until he was ready.
Ado was always serious yet kind when teaching.
He was efficient and disliked wasting time unnecessarily.
‘But if he didn’t warn me… does that mean it’s still possible?’
But how?
No matter how hard he pondered, he couldn’t come up with an answer.
Finally, Oscar stood up.
“Are we heading back down?”
“No.”
He stared at the rift and replied.
“I’m going in again.”
“?”
Hagor, failing to grasp the meaning, furrowed his brow.
“Didn’t you just say there’s no way to win right now?”
“I did. And I still can’t think of any solid method.”
But to him, this was an opportunity.
“I have a chance to fight my master from his younger days as many times as I want. It’d be a waste to give up. Besides, there’s no limit on how many times I can enter.”
“...You’re fine with passing out over and over?”
“Well, I’m at the right age to be passing out a lot. It’s fine. It’s not like I’ll die.”
“Hah! The right age to pass out—never heard that one before.”
Hagor let out a dry chuckle and nodded.
“If that’s what you want, I won’t stop you. I’ll wake you up every time you collapse.”
“Thank you.”
Oscar walked toward the spatial rift with determined steps.
There was an old saying:
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
This was no different.
* * *
Fight, collapse, wake up.
Fight, collapse, wake up.
The cycle repeated endlessly.
Oscar relentlessly analyzed the patterns of his master in his younger days.
“Hmm.”
Finally, after his 35th collapse, he reached a conclusion.
“I figured it out.”
“Oh?”
Bang! Bang!
Hagor, who was now so used to Oscar’s antics that he didn’t even care anymore, responded while hammering away at something.
“What did you figure out?”
“The moment my first attack fails, I’m done for.”
He had tried countless approaches.
But the most significant opportunity was always with the first strike.
That was, when he deflected the master’s fist and countered with Wave Sound.
“That’s my first and only chance.”
“Hmm. So if you miss that window, it becomes impossible?”
“Yes. To be honest, there’s still a considerable gap between me and my master in his younger days.”
Through countless battles, he learned that the master wasn’t yet an Archmage.
However, he was at least at level 6.
“The longer the fight drags on, the fewer openings he shows. His magic output is also higher than mine.”
In other words, this battle had to be finished quickly.
To do that, he had to exploit the master’s only moment of carelessness—
right at the very first strike.
“But if you’ve already failed over thirty times, doesn’t that mean your spell just isn’t strong enough?”
“You’re right.”
He had cast Wave Sound dozens of times, but it was always just slightly too weak.
The master’s monstrous reflexes allowed him to evade the moment he felt the spell.
That was why Oscar’s course of action was now clear.
‘I need to close that gap.’
He had to modify the spell so that his Wave could land perfectly on his master’s chest.
He had already finished the blueprint in his head.
‘Bitter Cold Wind.’
He was going to utilize the legacy left to him by Allan Winterheart.
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HELHEIM SCANS
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