Golf Swordsmanship / Skadi Receives a Gift

Perhaps it was time to catch her breath... Skadi thought.

Bai Ye looked at the Deep Sea Girl sitting quietly across from him. Her features seemed gentle in the glow of the campfire.

"All right, where should we start..." Only now did the two finally seem like traveling companions. Before, they had merely been strangers who happened to be heading the same way.

Skadi tilted her head and thought for a moment. "Tell me about that giant Originium Slug." She had always been interested in enormous things.

Bai Ye nodded. "No problem... Actually, I've seen something similar before—a huge thing that had mutated. It looked like a volcano, constantly spewing lava in every direction..."

By the campfire, Skadi listened quietly. Though they had not spoken much before, they got along surprisingly well now.

The girl savored this rare moment of peace.

Golf Swordplay

After passing through Laterano and continuing north, the temperature steadily dropped, while the skies grew increasingly bleak.

Bai Ye knew they were heading in the right direction. They were already close to Ursus's frozen tundra.

It was even colder there. Out in the wilderness, snowstorms would become increasingly deadly.

Newbie Players without sufficient Constitution or proper protection would most likely receive a continuously draining "Cold" debuff here.

But neither Bai Ye nor Skadi feared it in the slightest.

Neither of them could truly be considered ordinary people anymore.

"Let's take a bath." Looking at the frozen lake before them, Miss Skadi seemed tempted.

She came from the sea, a damp place, so she naturally preferred moisture. Even though Rhodes Island's bathtubs were narrow and shallow, she still liked soaking in them whenever she could.

"Further north, it'll be nothing but tundra. There are few Mobile Cities there—mostly mines, villages, and small outposts." Bai Ye looked at the map. It really would be difficult to bathe after this.

"All right." Bai Ye nodded.

The two walked to the lakeshore. Skadi raised her greatsword and cleaved open a huge gap with a single strike.

The ice shattered, revealing clear lake water beneath.

There was little industrial pollution here, and few people ever came this way. The lake water was clean and hygienic.

"Mm... You go first... Huh, wait?"

Bai Ye watched Skadi walk barefoot into the lake without even taking off her clothes.

"What is it? Aren't you coming in too?" Skadi stood in the water, tilting her head at Bai Ye in confusion.

The girl's snow-white calves sank into the crystal-clear water like tender lotus roots. Each time she lifted a leg, glistening droplets splashed upward, making her seem like a spirit of the lake.

Then, as her entire body submerged, her clothes became completely soaked and clung quietly to her graceful curves, radiating a startling allure.

So huge!

Bai Ye was a little surprised. He had somehow never noticed that before during their daily interactions. That had been an oversight on his part...

"You can't swim?" Seeing Bai Ye frozen in place, the girl continued, "If you can't, I can teach you."

"I was just wondering, don't you take off your clothes when you bathe?" Bai Ye asked curiously.

"Why would I take off my clothes to go underwater?" Skadi asked in return.

To the people of Sargos, that was an incomprehensible notion.

"...I almost forgot, you came out of the water..." Bai Ye was somewhat speechless. Then he followed her example and dove into the lake.

The icy lake water stung his skin, but fortunately, his Constitution was already high enough to endure the cold sensation.

"You land-dwellers can't stay in the water for long. Otherwise, I could take you to see my hometown..." Skadi smiled as she watched Bai Ye soaking in the water.

But she quickly dismissed the thought herself.

Better not go into the sea. It was too dangerous. It would only get Bai Ye killed.

Bai Ye did not mind.

Although he had never tried it, he had a hunch that his Originium Arts were enough to control the oxygen in the water, and even underwater, his Originium Arts would not weaken by much, though his close-combat capabilities would take a heavy hit.

Skadi took off her hat and set it on the ice beside her. Her silver hair spilled loose, floating messily across the surface of the water.

Her expression was content, her eyes half-closed as if she were enjoying this brief moment of moisture.

She looked a little like a salted fish...

It was Bai Ye's first time seeing an Abyssal Hunter like this. Having left their homeland, they could instead experience a brief moment of tranquility.

So, for the first time, Bai Ye did not rush to continue their journey. Instead, he let Skadi soak to her heart's content.

"What do I need to do?"

After entering Ursus territory, Skadi could clearly feel the change in the atmosphere around them.

The villagers in the occasional settlements they passed through looked tense, as though they were terribly afraid of them.

The sentries at the checkpoints were no friendlier. If not for the pass in Bai Ye's hand and the greatsword on Skadi's back, they would probably have entertained some unpleasant ideas.

"You just need to follow me. If I tell you to act, then act." Bai Ye knew Skadi was exceptionally strong in single combat.

He knew exactly how to use someone like her—after all, that was how the commander of The Revelry Tea Party used to order him around.

"Oh." Skadi nodded obediently.

On land, she usually had no tactical plans.

This was not her domain. The training she had received and her combat experience both left a gap in this area.

In the past, as a bounty hunter, she had relied purely on her own strength.

"Let's go here first..." Bai Ye looked at Skadi's greatsword and quickly got an idea.

He was going to make some money.

Treasures lay buried beneath Ursus's tundra.

The shallow deposits had already been scraped clean, soil and all, by Ursus's locusts.

But the ownerless treasures buried deep beneath the tundra now belonged to Bai Ye.

Leading Skadi to the vicinity of some Mobile City ruins, Bai Ye pointed at the empty tundra. "Let's dig this up together."

As he spoke, he took a shovel from the vehicle and began clearing away the thick snow.

"All right."

Skadi raised her greatsword and drove it forcefully into the frozen ground.

With a piercing roar, a huge pit appeared in the ground. She had a unique technique for exerting force, and even the hard tundra could not hinder her in the slightest.

Only then did Bai Ye remember hearing that a Rhodes Island corridor had been sliced open by something...

When he asked about it, Skadi had readily admitted that she had done it by accident.

"Anyway, I didn't have anywhere to stay for the time being, so I listened to Doctor Kal'tsit and came with you."

Bai Ye: ...

What a terrifying existence. Supposedly, these Abyssal Hunters could unleash even greater strength in the sea...

No, no, perhaps not. On land, they did not need to contend with such immense pressure and resistance. Maybe the effects of their strength were even more pronounced.

When he came back to himself, Bai Ye was surprised to find that Skadi had vanished.

A huge pit had appeared in the ground. Dirt constantly flew out of it, piling up beside the hole into a mound.

The mound was rising at a rate visible to the naked eye.

"Damn, that's way too efficient..."

Bai Ye felt that Skadi was like a humanoid excavator... Apparently, a greatsword could be used for digging too.

Bai Ye stretched out a hand and activated his Originium Arts, using pressure to compact the soil along the walls of the hole Skadi had dug and prevent a collapse.

He was glad Kal'tsit had found him an assistant like Skadi. Otherwise, digging for treasure alone would have been far too difficult, and he might even have needed to cooperate with someone else.

How could that compare to how comfortable this was?

Sure enough, Skadi was the best!

Skadi Received a Gift

"There's a stone slab down here. Should I open it?"

Skadi suddenly poked her head out from the deep pit. Though she had been acting as an excavator, the girl's hair was not even disheveled, and she had not so much as taken a breath, as if this level of exertion was nothing to her.

"So there really is treasure..."

Bai Ye had not been entirely certain at first. In his previous life, he had not paid much attention to treasure-related guides, only retaining a vague impression.

He had not expected to actually find something.

"Try digging it open directly." As Bai Ye spoke, he began clearing away the dirt Skadi had excavated.

The frozen soil mixed with snow was swept together by Bai Ye and piled near the entrance to the hole.

Then he heard a dull, thunderous impact from below.

Bang!

Skadi smashed through the heavy stone slab with a single swing of her sword!

After a moment, Skadi called out from underground, "Come down."

Bai Ye jumped down directly.

Then he saw a passageway that looked as though it had been cast from concrete, with a hole already blasted through its ceiling.

"Impressive..."

Bai Ye's swordsmanship emphasized agility. In terms of sheer destructive power, he was nowhere near that strong. Not to mention, he did not possess Skadi's immense strength.

"It was fairly easy." Skadi slung her greatsword back onto her back and straightened her slightly rumpled clothes.

Bai Ye turned on a searchlight, and a beam of light illuminated the passage.

"I really don't know where you keep pulling out all these strange things..."

Skadi muttered as she began studying the passage ahead with interest. She was curious about the ways land-dwellers hid their treasures.

"The tundra is hard, and the climate is harsh, so it's the best place to bury treasure. Unfortunately, the nobles who left this treasure behind all disappeared during the Great Purge." Bai Ye shone the light down the passageway descending below, which seemed bottomless.

"The Great Purge?" Skadi was curious about the fragments Bai Ye casually mentioned.

"I don't know the details either. Basically, the current Emperor of Ursus fought the old nobles. After the rebellion ended, every noble who had rebelled was purged. That was over a decade ago."

Bai Ye was not a story-focused player. He excelled at dealing with all kinds of enemies and creatures, but he only had a superficial understanding of the plot.

"So this treasure has no owner." Skadi understood.

The two proceeded down the passage until they finally arrived before a heavy metal door.

"Stand farther back. I don't want to hurt you." Skadi raised the sword on her back.

Bai Ye obediently retreated several steps. He had no desire to be accidentally struck by that greatsword.

Clang! Crash!

No key was necessary. Skadi's greatsword tore through the metal door.

Her weapon had been forged using technology far beyond anything on land. It was Sargosian technology.

"No matter how many times I see it, this kind of pure strength is still awe-inspiring." Bai Ye closed his eyes and constructed a model of Skadi in his mind.

In a simulated battle, he did not think his current attributes would be enough to contend with her—without relying on Originium Arts, he could probably last five minutes, provided Skadi fought using only her current level of strength.

Skadi had no idea what Bai Ye was calculating. She said calmly, "It's nothing. For me, it doesn't even count as a warm-up. My body hasn't even heated up yet."

Speaking without a care, Skadi slung her sword back over her shoulder and was the first to enter the treasury through the opening in the metal door.

"Huh." Then she could not help letting out a soft sigh.