Chapter 322
Nowadays, the existence of Extra Skills was no longer a secret.
Although not all of them were discovered just yet, once a Player managed to learn that skill, the information about the Special Skill will immediately spread.
Either the user disclosed the information out of their own accord to give the rest of the Players more possibilities to fight like how Rozen disclosed the information about his Martial Arts Skill and Klein on his Katana Skill, or Argo would get his hands on that information. Either way, hiding the information wasn’t possible once a Player acquired an Extra Skill.
In addition, there were various NPCs who gave out a hint about Extra Skills and how to acquire them.
Rozen himself also learned the story about the Rainbow Butterflies from a gardener NPC. He also learned how to raise and strengthen the Tamed Monsters from NPCs, and after tweaking it with his own knowledge and ability, Saichou managed to be as capable as now.
In short, NPCs would provide Players with a lot of information. As a result, more and more Players acquire Extra Skills, and of course, because of that, the leak of information was inevitable.
But the Sword Skill that Heathcliff just used has never been made public so far. Otherwise, Rozen would’ve known about it.
There were two possible reasons behind this.
Either the Extra Skill that Heathcliff obtained was so rare that no one else managed to do so, or he has just obtained the Extra Skill recently, and thus the information hasn’t reached the rest of the Players.
Either that or…
“I don’t know the details myself, one day this skill just appeared out of nowhere on my Skill Slot. As far as I know, no one else has this skill, and I’ve never heard NPC mentioning the way to acquire this skill either. If my hunch is correct, this should be a Unique Skill rather than an Extra Skill.”
Heathcliff said calmly as if seeing through Rozen’s thought.
“Unique skills.”
An Extra Skill that was limited to one user.
“The skill is called “Holy Sword.”
Heathcliff took his stance once again and slightly smiled.
“Let’s see how you fare with this Unique Skill.”
As soon as he finished his words, he immediately charged toward Rozen once again.
“…!?”
Rozen had no time to think about it and immediately raised his Queen’s Knightsword to fend Heathcliff’s attack.
The two of them once again engaged in a fierce confrontation, Heathcliff once again used the Sword Skill that Rozen never saw, and it took all Rozen got to barely deflect Heathcliff’s attack.
In addition, Heathcliff’s Kite Shield could be used for offense as well, and he’d not hesitate to slam his shield toward Rozen after Rozen blocked his Sword Skill.
To deal with this troublesome combo, Rozen had no choice but to keep retreating while blocking the attack.
(He’s strong…!)
Rozen trembled as he held on for his dear life.
It was not like this was the first time Rozen encountered a particularly strong player in this world. For example, Kirito, whose game skill was top-notch. The strongest Player among the Clearers right after Rozen was probably Kirito. There was barely any Player who could stand their ground against Kirito among the Clearers, maybe only Klein and Agil who could, and even so, they were still no match for Kirito.
But Heathcliff was in a whole different league.
When Argo mentioned that Heathcliff should be strong enough to be one of the top three Players among the Clearers, Rozen thought that he should be on par or maybe stronger than Kirito.
Now, Rozen finally realized that he underestimated Heathcliff. Heathcliff was indeed stronger than Kirito, but not by a small margin.
(Can Kirito even last a minute against this guy?)
There was no doubt that Heathcliff was the strongest Player Rozen has ever seen.
Facing against such an opponent, it was no wonder that Rozen would fall short because even Rozen could only win 4 out of 10 duels against Kirito at most.
As mentioned before, Kirito’s game skill was top-notch, but Rozen was good at long-range battles, while Kirito was the opposite. When it came to controlling their body freely, Kirito was way ahead of Rozen, obviously because Rozen wasn’t physically fit.
Fortunately, Rozen’s sense and awareness were better than Kirito to the point where he could keep up with the battle between Servants. Otherwise, Rozen would’ve been absolutely crushed by Kirito every single time, especially in this world, where body movement and sensory were emphasized and no magic whatsoever.
With that said, regardless of game skill, Rozen’s was not as good as Kirito when it came to using a one-handed sword, so if even Kirito would have a hard time against Heathcliff, the same went for Rozen.
However, there were two reasons why Rozen fell short against Kirito.
First, because he didn’t use his Tamed Monster, and second, because he refrained from using Eye of the Mind.
But now…
“No more Mr. Nice guy!”
Rozen raised his head and parried Heathcliff’s attack.
“Saichou! Hanachou!”
The two Rainbow Butterflies who were on standby finally made a move when Rozen shouted their name.
“Woo!”
“Goo!”
Saichou and Hanachou were closing in toward Heathcliff from both sides
“rustle…”
Both Hanachou and Saichou discharged glittering powder from their wings as they flew toward Heathcliff.
“!”
Heathcliff’s expression changed, seeing the Rainbow Butterflies approaching, he hesitated to keep attacking and stepped back in caution.
“Wooo!”
“Gooo!”
The two Rainbow Butterflies immediately pursued Heathcliff. Meanwhile, Rozen was closing his eyes.
He dove deeper into his consciousness, and the world around him was starting to change…