Chương 50: Chapter 49: Alone in Freed’s Forest

Freed's final words said: If you see this, then I am already dead. This is to be expected as we're fighting someone as strong as Trisha. I might have taken too many risks lately, but I couldn't bring myself to continue hiding while she lives. I've spent thousands of years just hiding in the forest, unable to fight back in any way, which I've had enough of. Since you came, I've been planning thoroughly on what to do to defeat Trisha, and my death won't stop my contingencies.

I've left you a detailed map of what to do after I die, so don't just be depressed and laze around. Since I've died, it means Trisha will be more wary of you. You can't be as blatant as before when going out to kill gods. Instead, from now on, you'll spend all your time training your swordsmanship until you reach the maximum level. Once you do, you'll slowly take short trips outside to kill gods and raise your level.

This plan, though not entirely foolproof, will bring you at least to equal footing with Trisha once you're finished. After that, you're on your own. Even Trisha hasn't reached level 10000, so even I'm not sure how to reach that level. Considering Trisha hasn't reached level 10000 after thousands of years, there must be a specific condition before you're allowed to progress to such a level. If you can find that out yourself, that'll improve your chance of killing Trisha.

If you can't, that's also fine, but you can't face her head on, so make sure to sneak attack her. That's all I have to say, and good luck to you, as this is all the help I can offer after my death. Below this are my insights on leveling up your skill, so it should help you somewhat, though I'm unsure how much exactly. Stay safe and be sure to kill Trisha. That was the end of Freed's final message, and beneath it was a long explanation of how I might be able to level up my skill.

With all this work to do, I found a new purpose and no longer felt as depressed over the current situation. My first course of action was to read through the insights and start leveling up my skill. Although I didn't know how long this would take me, I had no other choice at the moment. This began a very long period of training, as progressing my skill was very slow. Just reading Freed's insights took me several days, as it was quite hard for me to understand everything.

After finally finishing the text, I began to do what was described in the message. Every day, I'd get up early in the morning and practice my swordsmanship all alone, hoping to progress my skills. With how slow the progress was, some days I lost motivation, but I managed to pick it back up the next day. This continued for twenty years before I finally reached [Ex] Divine Swordsmanship (Lv. 70). I felt some sense of accomplishment from this, but it didn't last long, as a whole twenty years had passed.

At this rate, who knows how long it'll take until I reach the max level. Not wanting to get depressed, I continued to toil away with my sword since I couldn't do much else. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Freed had planned swordsmanship training for every ten levels, and I started a new set of training today, which gave me a breath of fresh air after doing the same thing for twenty years. Still, being all alone as the years went by made me bored.

Sometimes I got so bored that I used the system Freed left behind to leave the forest. I'd go out to kill gods who came too close to the edge. They had been searching around the area, which was probably Trisha trying to find me. But since the forest was so safe, I didn't really care that they were looking nearby. Instead, I would go out and kill them if they got too close, then hurry back inside to continue hiding.

I did this so often that several powerful gods came and camped outside the forest, and I had to wait until they got tired and left. Once a few years passed, they'd leave, and I'd do the entire process all over again. Gods are very impatient beings, as their power has gone to their heads, so they would always leave if I ignored them for a few years. After another fifty years had passed, I reached [EX] Divine Swordsmanship (Lv. 80). I also killed several gods during this time and reached level 9312.

Trisha came by occasionally, but she always left very quickly, as she was too impatient to wait even a few days. Whatever gods remained that I felt were weak enough, I'd kill, which included both low-level and mid-level gods. The experience points started to decline as my level became much higher than theirs. Still, my level went up occasionally, so I didn't mind it too much. What I did care about was how well protected Freed's forest was. After all these years, I was still safe despite Trisha coming by sometimes.

This made me wonder what was so special about this forest. I couldn't figure it out, so most of the time I put the thought away, but I'd still get curious whenever Trisha came and left soon after, unable to do anything. Despite not understanding it, I was still very grateful to Freed. With my continued peace of mind, I started my new training regimen after doing the same routines for the past fifty years. I was quite happy with this change, as the old training had become very repetitive after so long.

Once I started the new training, I continued it for a long time. Several years after starting, I was bored again and went out to kill gods outside the forest. What surprised me was that the number of gods outside the forest had dwindled since I'd last gone outside. It seems they caught on to my trap and no longer tried to stay near the border. I was slightly annoyed, but there wasn't much I could do. I killed whatever gods were still around to ease my boredom and continued my training.

Sometimes I'd get so bored that I'd take risks and travel further outside the forest. After a few successful attempts at killing powerful mid-level gods, I became slightly addicted. That addiction was soon resolved when I almost got killed by Trisha during one of the attempts, barely escaping with my life. I stopped going out after that, as I didn't want to feel that level of danger again. Time continued to pass as I kept up my repetitive training with no end in sight.

I was incredibly bored in this forest all alone, but at least I was safe. This safety made me become too comfortable, and I no longer felt like going outside. My mind turned off, and I became like a robot repeating my training, waiting for something new to happen. After another hundred years passed, something finally changed as I reached [EX] Divine Swordsmanship (Lv. 90). My level had also gone up to level 9404 before I stopped going outside the forest. On this day, I finally stopped what I was doing.

This level up had woken me up from a long fog of repeated motions. I needed a break to clear my mind, or else I'd be no different from a machine. The first thing I needed, after deciding to take a break, was to sleep in, as I'd been very diligent for the past one hundred and seventy years just training in this forest. I passed out after lying on the ground, as all the stress I'd built up finally caught up to me. I slept very soundly with nothing bothering me for an entire week.

After waking up, I felt much better, as all my stress had vanished. I felt like I needed a change in scenery after looking at the exact same thing for so long. I slowly started to walk out of the forest for the first time in a long while. The trees along the way looked exactly the same as usual, which was to be expected. Once I arrived at the edge, I began looking around to make sure Trisha wasn't nearby. After confirming she wasn't hiding in the area, I came out of the forest to breathe in my freedom.

As the moments passed, with my anxiety decreasing from the change in scenery, I noticed something I'd completely missed before. Lying on the ground a little distance away, covered in leaves and grass, was a woman. This woman looked very familiar to me, but I'd missed her earlier since she didn't give off a threatening aura. As I got closer to take a look, I recognized who it was. It was Selen, whom I hadn't seen in a very long time.

I didn't understand what she was doing here unconscious, so I quickly picked her up, intending to take her back into the forest. I had many questions for her once she woke up, so I turned around and carried her into the forest.