I Start with 13 Hidden Traits Chapter-449

Chapter 449. **The Three Kings**

—

Upon reaching the realm of **Sword aura**, one is acknowledged as a first-rate knight.

In any kingdom, such a person would receive the highest treatment, and with a bit of luck, could even be granted a noble title.

Considering Dietrich’s age, this was a level at which headlines across all of Pangaenia would scream, *“A Genius Has Appeared!”*

Even among the legendary great swordsmen of history—those famed as geniuses among geniuses—only a handful managed to manifest sword aura in their late teens.

And Dietrich was only in his mid-teens.

“That’s aura!”

“An aura warrior!”

Seeing the clearly condensed energy clinging to the blade, the dwarves gasped in admiration.

Yet ironically, the very person emitting that sword aura—Dietrich himself—was utterly dumbfounded.

*W-why did this suddenly happen…?*

He hadn’t attained any special enlightenment.

All he’d done was get beaten senseless, losing sixteen times in a row.

That alone was nowhere near enough to awaken sword aura.

And yet, out of nowhere, sword aura flowed along his blade.

Could it have been instinctively manifested in a split-second, life-or-death moment?

*There’s no way.*

Dietrich was surprisingly good at self-assessment.

He knew what he could do—and what he couldn’t.

He also knew that reaching the realm of sword aura should have taken far more time.

*Is it because of the Guardian Holy Sword?*

That was possible.

After all, he had fed it runes repeatedly—perhaps this was its way of repaying him by allowing sword aura to manifest.

Still, too many things felt off.

“But why is the aura black?”

“I’ve never seen aura that pitch-black before!”

“At that point, I’d believe it was aura formed from demonic energy!”

…They were right.

The aura was black.

Completely opposite to the so-called “transparent” aura commonly associated with sword aura.

Yet it didn’t feel evil.

Dietrich had never accepted or trained in such power.

*Then why is it black?*

…He had no idea.

He couldn’t even clearly explain why sword aura had manifested in the first place—so understanding its color was even more impossible.

If someone on the Pangaenia continent had seen this, they might have screamed *“Black Knight!”* or mistaken him for a demon.

If it were the Guardian Holy Sword’s influence, shouldn’t the color have been bright?

In truth, the reason Dietrich’s sword aura was black lay with **Park Hyun-myung**.

*…Did I get too greedy?*

He had tried to draw out only Dietrich’s latent potential, but in his excessive ambition, his own mana had affected Dietrich’s freshly opened **middle dantian**.

Still, it should be fine.

Black or not, sword aura was sword aura.

*Aside from the aura of the End making one full circuit through his middle dantian, nothing unusual happened… so it should be fine.*

During a brief lapse in concentration, the End had jumped out to “help” and swept through Dietrich’s middle dantian once.

Thanks to that, the opening of the middle dantian had gone smoothly.

To be honest, how exactly the End had influenced Dietrich remained unclear.

It had helped, but *how* it helped was unknown.

*…It’ll be fine.*

Pitch-black though it was—

Sword aura was sword aura.

And this was more than impressive.

“So you really were a warrior!”

“You must’ve lost on purpose yesterday just to gauge our level!”

Look—weren’t the dwarves acknowledging him now?

The moment they saw sword aura, their misunderstanding only deepened.

The atmosphere had shifted to one of accepting Dietrich as a fellow “warrior.”

Their tone and gaze showed approval, as if they wouldn’t even mind sharing the training ground with him.

How simple they were.

Just yesterday, they’d charged at him as if trying to kill him.

“….”

Having lost all words, Dietrich could only gape, opening and closing his mouth like a goldfish.

*

*

Deep within the darkest part of the tunnel.

Crouched in the shadows, **Apsel** trembled.

Because he had seen a monster he had never witnessed before.

Apsel’s eyes were the eyes of a god.

They saw even what he did not wish to see, which was why he usually kept them closed.

But standing before that monster, his eyes had opened naturally.

And the moment they did—

He saw it.

A massive storm cloud, vast beyond measure.

—*The beginning and the end of all things. My name is ‘End.’*

He heard the voice of the End.

An overwhelming sight that brought termination to everything it touched unfolded before him.

Before the End, Apsel was nothing.

He could do nothing.

He couldn’t even comprehend why something like that existed in his home.

All he could do was flee and hide.

But it wasn’t only the End that had entered the tunnel.

*Light* had come in as well.

A warm, gentle presence.

Since it was a kind of light he’d never seen before, Apsel had followed it for a long time.

But today—

That *light* had become *End* as well.

Apsel was confused.

He could no longer tell what was light and what was the End.

If he didn’t open his eyes, he’d never know.

Yet opening them terrified him.

Every time he did, he was forced to acknowledge how different he was from the other dwarves.

*Glance.*

Apsel briefly opened his eyes toward the training ground, then shut them again.

“That’s incredible!”

“Someone beat him already!”

“That’s pathetic, Aristol! Admit your defeat!”

“Boooo!”

The training ground felt like a festival.

Was this what it felt like to have one’s place taken?

And it was a scene he had never witnessed before.

“….”

Unable to move either way, Apsel hesitated for a long while.

*

*

The next day.

Seeing the visitor who arrived early at the training ground, I smiled.

*As expected.*

I knew that if I trained Dietrich here, he would eventually show up.

*He was fidgeting like a puppy that needed to pee—no way he could hold out for a full day.*

I had already noticed how Apsel behaved in the shadows.

It was only a matter of time—just sooner than expected.

Still, he remained wary of me.

“Dietrich. How about sparring with that one today?”

“…Understood.”

Dietrich nodded with a resolute expression.

Apsel—the strongest being in this tunnel.

Dietrich had already heard as much.

“I look forward to it, Apsel!”

Dietrich shouted boldly.

“…?”

With his eyes closed, Apsel tilted his head.

Still, the fact that he had taken his place in the training ground meant he was ready to fight at any time.

At least, that’s what the dwarves believed.

And Apsel likely shared that mindset.

“M-maybe we shouldn’t…”

“Apsel doesn’t hold back…”

The dwarves’ reactions were strange.

Their expressions were like people who had just poked something they absolutely shouldn’t have.

Then—

*Nod.*

“….”

Apsel nodded.

He accepted the duel.

*Ziiiiing!*

The moment Dietrich gripped his sword, sword aura surged forth.

After just one day, he could now consciously manifest it.

*Whoosh—*

In that instant—

Apsel was right in front of Dietrich.

“…!”

*Clang!*

Dietrich swung instinctively.

His sword reacted before his eyes did.

*Clang! Clangclangclang!*

He felt like he was going to vomit.

The countless follow-up strikes that came immediately after could only be blocked by pure instinct.

Yet Apsel’s sword grew faster with every passing second.

*Slash!*

Dietrich’s posture broke—and in that opening, Apsel’s blade stabbed in.

His shoulder was pierced deeply.

*Splurt!*

But it didn’t stop.

Regardless of whether his opponent was wounded, once Apsel entered combat, he relentlessly pressed the attack.

“Declare defeat!”

“Apsel won’t stop until the opponent admits loss!”

The dwarves shouted.

Dietrich ignored them.

The gap in skill was overwhelming.

Even so, he couldn’t admit defeat.

In fact, throughout all his duels here, Dietrich had never once verbally surrendered.

The dwarves would simply knock him down and declare victory themselves.

*I won’t lose…!*

Dietrich clenched his teeth.

If even a single attack landed, he would consider it his win.

He’d never believed he could win through sheer skill anyway.

“Hah!”

Dietrich’s clothes were stained crimson.

His entire body was being carved apart.

Apsel toyed with him, as if playing.

Gradually increasing his speed, crushing him completely.

As a large amount of blood suddenly left his body, Dietrich’s head spun.

“Stop it!”

“You just have to say you lost!”

Even the onlooking dwarves were getting anxious.

Apsel was a born hunter—a harbinger of death who never showed mercy.

In the past, he had even killed sparring partners.

*Shhheeeek!*

As Apsel’s blade came flying in, about to split Dietrich’s head in two—

Dietrich finally had no choice but to close his eyes.

*Grab.*

But what everyone feared did not happen.

Between Dietrich and Apsel—

“…You don’t know how to stop yourself.”

“…!!!”

When his arm was caught, Apsel twisted violently.

“Aaaah…!”

Then he howled like a beast.

Unable to break free with strength, Apsel bit down on my arm.

He looked less like a dwarf and more like an animal.

“You need some proper training, Apsel.”

*Whooom!*

Mana flowed from my hand and choked Apsel.

Before long, his body went limp.

And only then—

After directly scanning Apsel with my mana—

I realized an uncomfortable truth.

*Apsel is not a dwarf.*

He looked like one, but he wasn’t.

*

*

I treated Dietrich, who had passed out, circulating his energy.

Then, beside him, I pushed mana into Apsel’s body, which lay in the same posture.

“…This is absurd.”

No matter how many times I checked, the result was the same.

Baek and the other dwarves seemed to believe Apsel was a dwarf—the child of their god.

But they were wrong.

Apsel was neither a dwarf nor a god’s child.

“A primordial species…”

Like the dinosaurs roaming outside.

In fact, he was closer to them.

The structure of his mana circuits, the way his mana was generated—

He was a native life-form of this world.

Then why did he look like a dwarf?

—*At first, they secretly abducted dwarves. After evolving that way and gaining some craftsmanship, they began openly pressuring us.*

Baek’s words suddenly came back to me.

He had said the knights abducted and devoured dwarves.

…Perhaps this child was a knight who had evolved by eating dwarves.

Hadn’t they said he was the child of a god?

*Did he consume a fragment of a god?*

That was possible.

But one thing was certain—

The dwarves’ hope was not a dwarf.

Of course, that had little to do with me.

Whatever Apsel truly was, I would train him as promised and learn the techniques of the Black Smiths.

However—

—*Comrade!*

…the magic sword.

Its reaction bothered me.

“Comrade?”

—*Strange. Why is it wearing the form of those little dwarves?*

“Explain more clearly.”

—*No!*

“Five minutes.”

—*This one is one of the Three Kings. Or isn’t he? No, he is. But why has he become so small… and so weak?*