Reincarnation with AI (Unemployment-Free)

Chapter 72 Fragment Integration

After having dinner, Rudius returned to his room.

Rudius closed the door and leaned against it, letting out a sigh of relief.

The day had been going smoothly until Rudeus flashed a light on Alice in the afternoon, after which he remained on tenterhooks, constantly on guard against her.

Fortunately, it wasn't exactly a lie; it was just that the joke went a bit too far.

Alice wasn't very angry, and she probably wouldn't come to beat up Rudeus tonight.

But just to be on the safe side, Rudius still wanted to block the door.

It doesn't take much effort, does it?

Looking back now, there was genuine fear in Alice's scream.

Rudeus pondered as he walked towards the bed, skillfully using flight magic to lift the entire bed up, then pushed it to the doorway and gently set it down.

In order not to take up space in the passageway, indoor doors like these usually open inwards. Although there is a possibility of climbing in through the window, that would be much more troublesome.

After setting up the bed, Rudius jumped up and lay down on it in a starfish position.

Perhaps I underestimated the power of Flash of Light?

After developing light magic, Rudeus did not continue his research.

The main reason was that Loki was still at home at that time, and Rudeus needed to focus his energy on learning about the world of joblessness.

After meeting Silphie, he turned to the study of flight magic.

Speaking of flying magic, Rudeus slapped his forehead—the book that Senis gave him for his fifth birthday was never finished before he arrived in Roya.

It's not that he didn't finish reading it; it's just that Rudius originally planned to take the book to the countryside and compare the plants in the book with the real ones.

But this is obviously extremely time-consuming.

Human energy is limited, and Rudius simply couldn't spare the time to do this anymore.

It's a pity I didn't bring that book, but even if I had, I probably wouldn't have had time to read it anyway.

Rudius felt stuck; it was frustrating that things hadn't gone according to plan.

In the time before heading to Roja, Rudius had already made arrangements for Sylphie.

In truth, Rudeus didn't have much left to teach Sylphie.

The four arithmetic operations, literacy, and the content of the magic textbook have all been taught.

The textbooks were also given to Silphie.

Of course, if you absolutely have to teach Hilfi something like linear equations in two variables, that's fine too.

But it's not really necessary.

It's not that it's useless; training one's mind is certainly important. It's just that there are more important things to do right now, and Rudius will be going back regularly.

When he said there was nothing left to teach, he meant that if Rudeus wanted to teach any practical magic, he would first have to figure it out himself.

Otherwise, it wouldn't be called teaching, but rather collaborative learning, like the magic of laundry.

Now, although Rudeus is teaching Alice, it's actually a long-awaited free time for him.

Then why not develop new magic?

Have we seriously underestimated the potential of the supernatural phenomenon of Flash of Light in actual combat?

Like this time, flashing onto Alice, it can be said that the victory was immediately secured.

Even if you can't directly take over the opponent's vision, wouldn't it be disgusting for the opponent if you keep flashing your high beams at them during the battle?

When faced with the unknown, people often react with fear, and fear can be a decisive weapon in combat.

Similarly, the quagmire strategy, which also utilizes information asymmetry, is too easy to understand. It can buy time, but it cannot disturb the other party's psychology.

In retrospect, Paul merely glanced at the swamp and ignored it.

Compared to using the same tactic again next time, the time spent delaying Paul will be greatly reduced.

Flash magic clearly amplifies this information gap into an unknown deterrent.

If a "primitive man" like Alice were truly "blinded" by the light for a short period of time, would he really be able to understand what had happened to him?

A modern person would know I was flashed, but Alice is starting to wonder: What just happened? What did he do to me?

The source of fear is a cognitive gap, and this kind of fear is, in some ways, far more difficult to heal than physical injury.

Rudius smiled wryly, realizing that his modern thinking was too narrow-minded—the power of knowledge was far greater than imagined, and so was the curse of knowledge.

Once Rudeus realized this, he almost immediately found the application of flash magic in swordsmanship.

The swordsmanship knowledge I had learned before surfaced in my mind, and various fragments were instantly integrated.

In swordsmanship, holding the sword with both hands and keeping the blade in front of yourself and the center line is the safest and least prone to error posture.

Any other unnecessary movements could expose a fatal flaw.

In a one-on-one duel to the death without any preparation, both sides would most likely choose the most conservative and safest option: wielding swords with both hands and fighting steadily.

But that's not how it is in reality.

In real combat, every skilled swordsman will quickly switch between the stable structure of holding a sword with both hands and the flexible extension of holding a sword with one hand.

Even in battle, he wields his sword with both hands 90% of the time.

But at a suitable distance and in the perfect moment, Rudyus's hand will leave the hilt and reach out to control the distance.

To obstruct the opponent's view or even strike their sword.

Then immediately retract the sword and hold it with both hands again.

Distance measurement is a very interesting point.

Rudius still vividly remembers how he developed the concept of "distance" as an infant.

Babies can clearly understand the positional coordinates of various "objects" in their brains by observing the changing positions of objects, hands, and eyes.

This is a discussion about object permanence, an automated physical intuition that everyone possesses.

However, because they don't engage in sports, most people no longer develop this ability.

The most direct purpose of extending your forearm is to measure the distance between you and your opponent.

For modern people, this is the most common thing in fencing competitions.

When assuming the stance, the body is turned to the side.

If you extend your left hand forward and hold the sword in your right hand, then extending your left hand is equivalent to adding a dynamic rangefinder to yourself.

So this is actually a sword technique that Rudeus has been using and frequently employing since he began learning swordsmanship.

If your left hand can touch your opponent, it means your sword will definitely hit them.

The left hand is used as a benchmark to determine whether "I have entered the attack range".

Distracting the line of sight was precisely one of the strategies Rudeus had devised when he first began studying magic.

In sword fighting, if your opponent suddenly extends their other hand in front of your face, your vision will be blocked, and your attention will be instinctively drawn to it.

This is human instinct; it's not something you can control with your willpower.

A skilled swordsman will use this moment of distraction, even if it's only 0.1 seconds, as it can be enough to determine success or failure.

At the same time, when the front hand is extended, it becomes an extremely tempting target.

An experienced opponent would likely attempt to attack it.

This was exactly what Rudius wanted.

So in reality, this one action has four purposes: measuring distance, interfering with the opponent's line of sight, inducing the opponent to make a mistake, and paving the way for a fatal blow later.

What if Rudyus stretched out one hand and waved it around?

In the eyes of a true swordsman, this is undoubtedly courting death.

It's not that this movement doesn't exist in swordsmanship. Since the striker is the most basic swordsmanship knowledge, the opponent will realize that this hand is a decoy.

Swordsmen usually wear iron gloves or thick leather gloves, which allows their hands to withstand blocking and striking to some extent.

Rudeus, whose real purpose was to unleash the Flash spell, obviously did not need to wear gloves.

All he needed was for the other party to focus their attention on his hands, nothing more.

Even if you know it's bait and the other party's purpose, you're facing an unprotected hand.

Any swordsman who witnessed this scene would judge Rudeus as an unskilled, dim-witted idiot who lacked any defense and was trying to lure his opponent with his rudimentary knowledge.

A bloodthirsty swordsman might even imagine how wonderful it would feel to slash down without the obstruction of iron plates.

This swordsmanship move, with one hand in front, without any defense, is undoubtedly an extreme provocation, and also a deliberately designed bait.

The other party will make Rudeus pay the price for his ignorance without any mercy.

However, as soon as the other party looks at his hand, Rudeus can instantly unleash a flash spell.

Nothing in this world is faster than light.

The moment Rudius noticed his opponent's gaze shift, he could say he had secured the victory.

It's hard to say what the Water God style, which focuses on defense and counter-attacks and lacks offensive capabilities, might be.

Kitakami-ryu might have some means to escape death.

However, if the opponent is a swordsman of the Sword God style, the core of the Sword God style is "victory by first strike", and the goal is to seize every opening to launch a fatal blow.

This instinctive reaction is repeatedly trained and ingrained in the muscles, making it almost impossible to control.

Upon seeing an unprotected hand reaching out, any trained swordsman of the Sword God style would instinctively want to "cut it down."

Rudius believed that no one could resist such temptation.

At that moment, when the opponent's gaze is focused, the information gap will be transformed by the Flash Magic into a sure-fire way for Rudeus to win.

Flashes of light are child's play for modern people, but to them they are no different from aliens.

It doesn't matter if you can't kill them with one blow.

What's more terrifying about the Flash Magic is actually the psychological impact.

Once the opponent regains their sight, they will begin to wonder: should I chop them down next time they reach out?

This self-doubt can undermine a swordsman's fighting instincts.

If Rudeus were to combine this with a few more feints without unleashing his flash, his opponent would hesitate between "slashing" and "not slashing," and his fighting ability would be greatly reduced.

Do you know how the old sword god died in the original work?

Hesitation is a devil for swordsmen of the Sword God style.

In terms of stalling for time, this effect far surpasses that of the quagmire.

I'll teach this trick to Silphie next time I go home.

The point where you combine magic and swordsmanship is not "using magic to enhance the sword", but using swordsmanship to create the conditions for releasing magic.

This is a higher-level tactical mindset.

It seems that Gilead was right.

Rudius reviewed the deduction process again and discovered that the tactic used the idea of ​​"defense and counterattack".

Moreover, this is an extreme form of defensive counter-attack, even exceeding the scope of defensive counter-attack.

Rudius did not counterattack after his opponent attacked, but rather planned his counterattack path before his opponent attacked.

Lure your opponent to attack with minimal movement, then counterattack with magic.

Proactively create vulnerabilities by exploiting information asymmetry.

However, the current tactical design is clearly aimed at opponents who are encountering Flash of Light for the first time.

Alice has already been dodged.

Whether she understands it or not, Gilead, who has witnessed the whole process, will certainly offer guidance.

Ah—does this world even have sunglasses?

After all, the nemesis of the Solar Flare is sunglasses!

However, in the heat of battle, there's no time to suddenly pull out a pair of sunglasses and put them on.

Wouldn't this action itself become a weakness?

Why do people in Dragon Ball wear sunglasses?!

Oh my god—Dragon Ball is still chasing me—why am I even thinking about this?

And why didn't I think of Solar Flare sooner?

But what is Solar Fist?

AI must know about such a famous work.

[Solar Fist: A blinding flash with no indiscriminate range, requiring no guidance and directly inflicting blindness. Its advantages are stability and unpredictability; its disadvantage is that it may blind allies as well.]

Looking at the AI's description, Rudeus suddenly remembered the close-up of the man's face when Tien Shinhan unleashed the Solar Flare. It turned out that the man's eyes were closed to prevent him from being blinded by the light.

Indiscriminate flashes — this means more magic power and time to accumulate it.

I just mentioned that Flash Magic is better than Swamp Magic, and one of the key reasons is the mana consumption.

The magic power consumed by the brief flash was equivalent to the physical strength consumed by picking his nose for Rudeus.

Only with this level of mana consumption would Rudeus consider using the Flash to disgust Alice.

The reason why high beams seem particularly offensive is because you know the other person could turn them off, but they just don't.

Its main purpose is to mess with your mindset.

However, there is still a long way to go before Alice gets to that point; she needs time to get used to it.

She'll definitely hesitate when she faces Alice again.

I don't know if I reached out to her to ask for her hand, or if I really wanted to gauge her distance.

Hesitation itself is a flaw.

As the Sword King, Kyrie Irvine would surely warn Alice to "be careful of his hands."

But knowing to be careful and actually being able to do so are two different things.

First, use a combination of real and fake reach attacks, then you can unleash "Solar Fist" without reaching out. If "Solar Fist" is blocked, you can switch to Rock Cannon or Fireball.

She was used to it all; she had no idea she could cast magic with her feet.

Rudius, in a pleasant mood, took off his clothes and crawled into bed.

Just like real steam magic, Rudeus did not actually unleash the full power of steam magic in his battle against Paul.

The real attack should begin when the opponent is engulfed in steam and their vision is taken away.

Paul only took a "starting move" before Rudius stopped.

The Flash move was never used on Paul either.

Paul, that guy, Rudius also had some reluctance to hurt him.

But looking back, the reason I didn't use Flash Magic was because Paul was too strong, making me feel that using it would be pointless.

After all, Rudius doesn't need to kill Paul, so what's the point of flashing at him?

Having a competitor of equal skill level is really a good thing.

Despite his many thoughts, Rudeus still needed to study swordsmanship diligently; revealing too many of his trump cards wouldn't do him any good.

Ah—did Thomas overhear some of the conversation?

However, I noticed the other person at the time, so I didn't say anything. Thomas probably didn't see me release the magic either. It probably didn't matter. Even if Thomas heard what Alice said, Rudeus was just a child who could use magic in his eyes.