Kaijin Fighter: So I Have to Make Monsters, So What?-Chapter 1204: Aspirations vs Reality

"Okay, that should be the last of the-hold up."

Sound of tooth extraction.

"YEOW!"

"Now that’s the last tooth."

Due to Lythero getting pinned to a tree, he and Zhen Liu decided to end their training session early so that the latter could pull the teeth and get the former back down to the ground.

Especially since a couple of teeth managed to snag some skin.

Once the last of the teeth were removed Lythero slumped down to the ground, exhausted by the amount of aether he used to perform that illusionary trick of his. Zhen Liu joined him on the ground, sitting crosslegged.

"How the hell are you and the zakos able to always differentiate me from my clones?," Lythero asked. "Is it some kind of [Chaos] trick? We’re friends now, you have to tell me if it is."

"It ain’t some [Chaos] trick," Zhen Liu answered honestly. "I just learned how to listen to heartbeats better than most other senses."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I figured it’d be useful to have some stealth detection skills on hand that weren’t [Chaos] related on the chance I fight someone who can nullify my abilities. Rather not be caught with my pants down, you know?"

"That...makes sense. Hmm. Maybe I should look into ways to circumvent that kind of situation in case I ever...no no, forget it. I shouldn’t think about that dark possibility...again," Lythero accidentally said loudly enough for Zhen Liu to hear...and use as an opportunity to ask a question that had been brewing in the back of his head this whole time.

"Let me guess, that dark thought involved the possibility of your masters’ swords getting destroyed before or during your revenge match with Duke Diamoro?"

"Yeah..."

"That is a very real possibility...so why are you trying to master all seven of their swords then?"

"Huh?"

At this point in time, Lythero still had the [Trickster’s Fang Pack Kukri] in his hand while the other six Gold tiered swords were in the holster box near by.

"Well, from what I’ve seen, every last one of these swords not only have different baked-in abilities, but each one requires wildly different movements and builds to properly utilize. And here you are trying to master all seven," Zhen Liu elaborated. "While I’m not unable to see the romance behind the idea of using all seven in a glorious revenge attack, one that will probably go down in history and be spoken about as a cautionary tale for years on end, I can also understand that there are limits to such ideas as well."

"What are you on about?," Lythero asked, while expecting the question he didn’t want to confront.

"Realistically, do you really think you’ll be able to master all seven?," Zhen Liu asked. "In time for your revenge match against Duke Diamoro, I mean? Because given enough time, months to years perhaps, I can see you mastering all seven of these blades and being unstoppable swordmaster, but for now...part of me thinks it’d be better for you to just focus on the one blade and master the everliving shit out of it."

What Zhen Liu was describing was a twist on the old adage, "practice makes perfect". In the past few days of assisting Lythero with his training, Zhen Liu had seen firsthand that while the man could wield all seven swords to an extent, he appeared to have better compatibility with some of the of the blades more than other.

As to why this was the case, Zhen Liu could hazard a guess.

Updat𝓮d fr𝙤m ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com.

Gold tiered aether treasures did have the possibility of developing a sense of a rudimentary yet noticable personality, much like Zhen Liu’s [Hammer of the Dearly Departed], that could make it difficult for certain warriors to wield them properly.

There was actually this one story, that may or may not be Kaijin Lord related, about this one man who managed to refine and upgrade a sword to the point that it had developed sentience and even a gender identity.

This sword would later on claim to be it’s wielder’s beloved, and through the power of a mysterious medicine and an Aether Demi-God, take on a human form in order to marry it’s wielder.

Of course, there were also stories of some weapons developing sentience and then forcing their wielder to go on massive murder sprees. Unfortunately, these were much more common.

Through a combination of his own intuition, and the [Hammer of the Dearly Departed], Zhen Liu could sense that all seven of these Gold tiered swords had a modicum of personality.

Not enough to be considered sentient, but just enough to nudge and push in ways that could be beneficial or detrimental to whomever was wielding them at the time. Hell, he even had a small belief that these swords actually contained the remnants of Lythero’s old masters...but that was a hypothetical that Zhen Liu was keeping to his chest.

Regardless of these speculations though, Lythero was the ultimate wielder of these weapons so it was up to him whether or not he wanted to heed Zhen Liu’s words in the first place.

"I understand what you mean, and I get that it’s probably better for me to focus on one," Lythero admitted with a bitter smile. "But I made a promise to myself and my masters that I would get revenge using all seven blades, since that damned Duke managed to defeat all seven of them. And I’ll be damned if I don’t at least attempt to keep that promise to them. Come hell or high water, I’ll make sure every blade gets a chance to cut off their pound of flesh."

"Hmmm."

Not too long ago, Zhen Liu once condensed a [Core] focused on the desire for [Regret], and even went on a short adventure with the man who he sourced it from. During that adventure though, that [Core] had suddenly mutated into being not just about [Regret], but [Revenge] as well.

When that occurred, Zhen Liu learned that [Cores] were intrinsically linked to their source mortal, and would change as their main [Desire] changes. That is, they would change unless they were installed into a Kaijin or stored in the Library’s storage room.

The first time Zhen Liu met Lythero, he condensed the [Core of Ever-Burning Hope].

It a was a reflection of his desire to reignite his ability to cultivate and be able to reach the heights of greatness he was once denied.

But now that he had this desire fulfilled, his heart began to change and the [Core] began to reflect that.

More specifically, it had gained an attachment.

...

|Notice, [Core of Ever-Burning Hope] has experienced a change and will adapt accordingly...complete.|

|The [Core of Ever-Burning Hope] has transformed into [Core of Ever-Burning H(ope/ate). Please use or address at your earliest convenience.|

...

"Alright, if that’s what you want do, I’ll try to help you pull it off," Zhen Liu sighed as he got back to his feet and assisted Lythero in doing so as well.

"That said, if you do manage to get your revenge in the upcoming wandering ruins expedition, you may not need to master all of these blades in the first place," Zhen Liu pointed out. "You do still want to explore those wandering ruins, yes?"

"I do," Lythero answered. "It’s probably better for me to test my mettle against actual opponents who want me dead instead of your zakos and Kaijin."

"I can have them try to kill you instead."

"Please don’t," Lythero quickly retorted. "I’ve seen what Corpse Doll can do, and I shudder at she could do at full power."

"Ha! Fair!"

"Instead, have you managed to hear anything about this ruin were heading towards."

"Yes! I glad you asked!"

With a snap of his fingers, one of Zhen Liu’s ghostly zakos appeared out of nowhere with a scroll of paper in her hands.

"Thank you."

[Woo.]

After she handed Zhen Liu the scroll, she promptly disappeared like smoke in the wind.

"A couple of the zakos I sent out as scouts had managed to gather enough random scraps of information to cobble together a a cohesive pamphlet of sorts," Zhen Liu said as he handed the paper over to Lythero. "While it ain’t the most accurate piece of information in the world, there were enough overlapping pieces of information to suggest consistency."

"Okay."

Scroll in hand, Lythero unfurled it to see what exactly he and Zhen Liu were expecting to deal with.

...What the scroll said...

Name given: City of Mirrors

Upper Limit: Aether King.

Lower Limit: Aether Master.

Description:

The ruins appear to be remnants of a civilization that was similar to Dozing Salamander’s past, but missing key details. Many of the buildings present have mirrors built into their architecture, with many of the creatures having illusionary abilities. Treasures retrieved from the ruins appear to have attributes related to defense, illusion and teleporation.

Rumors indicate that there is a room where a person must fight a reflection of themselves.

...

"Huh...well that’s convenient."