"How much further is there to go? We've been walking for ages," Ethan grumbled for the third time in twenty minutes.
"I'm the one walking. You've done nothing so far. Stop complaining." Adriel replied shortly, using Ethan to cut through a tangle of cobwebs. "Your voice is annoying."
"I've done plenty," Ethan spluttered. "I'm cutting things for you. I'm watching your back, for god's sake!"
The two of them were wandering through a system of cave tunnels, after their initial back-and-forth when Adriel had first picked up Ethan. Well, Ethan was just being carried like a helpless baby, to his discomfort. But fortunately, they hadn't come across anything dangerous yet.
According to the novel, Adriel came here on a second years' expedition from the Academy.
Adriel Kaen's story started off at the famous Zarodei Academy. As a first year, he quickly clawed his way to the top, and cemented himself as a rare talent in the school. By the time he and his friends began their second year, everyone knew his name.
Then, the students had been sent to explore a cave for battle practice. According to instructors who had investigated it beforehand, it was supposed to only contain low-level monsters.
But they hadn't looked far enough. Adriel had gone too deep, believing himself strong enough to face anything that came his way.
And that's true, but being strong won't save you from being a dumbass.
Adriel turned a corner, quickly looking through the next stretch of cave. "There's no chance you're actually watching anything. You're probably waiting for a monster to come and attack me."
Ethan stayed quiet as a sudden wave of dizziness passed through him.
Seeing everything around him, all 360 degrees of vision, was too much for his human mind. With so much information, too many details, his brain was lagging like a budget laptop. Every so often, he felt like he was going to throw up--but as an object, he physically couldn't.
And Adriel constantly swinging him around made it worse. Ethan had asked him to go easy several times already, but of course the prideful boy wasn't going to listen to a sword.
I thought the novel's description of the sword said something about it being incredibly heavy. Adriel really does have that classic protag strength.
He supposed he'd get used to being a sword as time went on, but for now, he'd just have to deal with it.
"Listen, sword," Adriel began.
"Ethan."
"Fine. Ethan. Just by looking at you, they're going to know you're not a common sword."
"Who's they?" Ethan asked, despite knowing the answer.
"My professors. They're going to ask where I got you, and they'll check to see if you're cursed. I need you to suppress your cursed-magic aura to fool the detector. After that, I'll just brush off your aura as my doing, if anyone asks. But we'll have to watch out for people wandering around with cursed-magic sensitive items."
Ethan half-understood that. Unlike many other popular novels he knew, the world of The Strongest Doomed Swordmaster didn't use mana to power objects and abilities. Instead, they used magic. Just like the cursed sword system, magic hadn't really been explained that much.
All he knew was that most things in the world contained varying degrees of magic inside them. Artifacts, like cursed swords and wands, and humans, like swordsmen or mages, had decently high levels. But unlike humans, artifacts weren't supposed to passively radiate magic.
The novel had also hinted at the existence of other sentient races, but not stated anything concrete.
But as for what determined a person's magical strength--Ethan had no clue.
"Uh, but why do I have to do that? Can't you just say I'm just a really magical sword?"
"Are you stupid? A sword with its own magic aura is a pretty strong indicator it's cursed. I do not want anyone finding out I picked up a cursed sword."
A distant scraping sound came from far off.
"Also, stop talking immediately if you see another person, got it?" Adriel went on. "I'm keeping you absolutely secret, so you better not run your mouth in front of others!"
Wow. What kind of protagonist is this temperamental? Every single one I've read was made of emotional trauma and horrific pasts.
"Yeah, yeah," Ethan said dismissively. "One problem. I don't know how to suppress my aura."
Adriel stopped, suddenly gripping Ethan with both hands. "You WHAT?" he hissed.
"You heard me," Ethan snickered, in spite of himself. Adriel's personality was annoying, for sure, but he'd be lying to himself if he said the boy's mini-outbursts weren't even a little entertaining.
"You better not be lying again," Adriel said through clenched teeth.
"No idea why you think I'm lying," Ethan responded, pretending to be insulted.
Suppressing magic might be a thing that people here can just do. I guess I'll make up something about why I can't.
"You see, I was born frail," Ethan said dramatically. "Too frail to use magic, and so my mother--"
"Shut it," Adriel interrupted. "I don't want to hear a cursed sword's sob story. What am I supposed to do now, huh? Your incompetence is going to get me ridiculed. Why couldn't you have been some powerful ancient warlord instead? At least then you would've been useful!"
Ethan gasped with mock horror. "How dare you! If you really ended up with someone like that, you'd be dead already. At least I'm not evil--"
Adriel swung him into the wall, putting a large crack into the rough stone, shutting Ethan up.
"That's much better," he said, suddenly calm again. He sighed, removing one hand from Ethan, and shoving it in his pocket. "Now I have to think of another plan. You're half as tall as I am. I can't hide you. Can I mask your magic aura with my own? No, that won't work…"
Adriel murmured ideas to himself, dragging Ethan along as they wandered through the cold, silent cave.
There were supposed to be a hundred second-years exploring the place, but even as what felt like an eternity to Ethan went by, they didn't see anyone.
Just how far did Adriel go? Ethan wondered. This is kinda weird for my first hour in a fantasy world. Thought I'd have come across a dragon, or been thrown into a life-or-death situation by now.
Back home, Ethan often liked to imagine himself as one of those lucky characters who became their favorite person in a novel. Villains, heroes, side characters, even a monster--he wouldn't mind being any of them.
But he was now--a sword, who couldn't do anything. A powerful cursed sword supposed to doom Adriel. It was a little underwhelming, considering he'd had to die to come here.
Not that I'm upset at what happened, he thought quickly. I mean, this is much better than dodging college assignments all day.
Still, he felt the slightest bit disappointed he wasn't something else.
"Are we almost out of here yet?" Ethan asked again, trying to stave off the thoughts, and his boredom.
"No. Don't interrupt my thinking."
"If you say so."
Ethan decided to focus on the sensations going through him. Not having a proper, flesh-and-blood body was still rather uncomfortable, but the waves of nausea were slowly decreasing in frequency.
He felt the whoosh of air past immoveable metal as Adriel walked fast, holding Ethan at his side with one hand. Ethan didn't know how to describe it, but he realized he just knew where he started and ended. He could tell that Adriel was almost dragging him on the ground, despite his gloved hand gripping him firmly.
A thought struck him.
What's it gonna feel like when he actually uses me in battle…?
Getting thrown around so far hadn't been fun. But fights were literally the one thing swords were made for.
Scrape, scrape.
Adriel froze. "Did you hear that?"
"Yeah."
The boy sharply looked the dark tunnel up and down. Ethan, already able to see everything around him, was confused--there was nothing around.
"It's a monster," Adriel said, slight concern turning to glee. "I'm finally going to get to try you out. You better not disappoint me. I'm expecting big things from you. I might as well take advantage of being bound to a cursed sword."
"Oh, you won't be," Ethan said confidently. The sword wielded by a protagonist always had to be super strong.
Webnovels can never go without someone or something being OP!
Since neither of them saw any monsters in the current tunnel, Adriel kept moving
Eventually, they turned into a large cavern, filled with the strange crystals that had surrounded Ethan when he first woke up. Long scratches decorated the floor, and the shattered remains of stalagmites were strewn around.
And standing in the middle, was the most hideous thing Ethan had ever laid eyes on.