Chapter 14

Chapter 14. The Weight of Survival

***

"W-What do we do!"

"It is covering it? How are we supposed to break through that?"

Group C's formation wavered.

An unexpected pattern change.

The Mirror Golem had raised its left arm and covered its core. It was not a simple defensive posture. The movement carried the sense of intelligence, as if it were protecting a vital point.

'Its master intervened.'

A monster released in an exam site learning on its own and covering its weakness? Impossible.

This was the examiner, or the summoner, who had been monitoring from outside, manually changing its stance.

A foul hobby of reducing the number of passers, or perhaps pushing us to the limit.

'Who is it? It is not Yoo Hye-sung.'

It had to be the summoner examiner.

But I understood.

If you collapse here, then in real combat you are no different from a corpse.

When you meet a wall, you have to break through it.

That is what a Hunter is.

I adjusted my grip on the sword hilt.

I was considering increasing my output and blowing off its entire forearm.

That was when it happened.

"Move aside!!"

A booming shout rang through the forest.

It was Lee Seong-chan.

Without even correcting his collapsed posture, he kicked off the ground and leaped.

He held the shields in both hands overlapped into one, a full-power throwing stance.

"Hraaaaah—!"

BOOM—!

A heavy impact burst out.

Lee Seong-chan's shield struck the golem's side, or more precisely, the elbow joint.

A simple, brute-force shoulder charge.

But that brute force worked.

"Grooo!"

The golem, whose center of gravity had been tilted, staggered.

The impact forcibly knocked open the left arm that had been covering the core.

A momentary opening.

The red core in its chest was exposed defenselessly.

"It opened! Now!"

Lee Seong-chan shouted as he rolled across the ground.

Excellent assist. But the golem's reaction was fast too.

Its surface rippled grotesquely once again.

Click, clack.

The ivory mirror plates stood up like scales.

If it could not protect the core, it would burn the enemy to death instead. An aggressive change of stance.

A self-destruct pattern that converted the mana it had absorbed into light and released it.

SHAAANG—!

A blinding white light burst out.

The warriors who had been about to attack screamed and covered their eyes.

Even Lee Seong-chan turned his head and hid behind his shield.

Their vision had been blocked.

I did not close my eyes.

No, I did not need to.

Because my vision was open through mana response, not my retinas.

'There you are.'

Within the white world, a red-burning heart of mana was pulsing clearly.

The mana it was emitting made for a fine target by itself.

"[Synchronization]."

WOOONG—

The mana core in my heart rotated.

The mana flowing through my blood vessels converted into Aura and sent sparks through my entire body.

My muscles contracted, and my nerves accelerated.

I focused every sensation on the tip of my sword.

This was not a simple slash.

If placing magic on a sword was the foundation of a magic swordsman, then a 9th Circle magic swordsman had to use magic itself as a sword.

[Energy Bolt], [Magic Missile].

I overlapped two formulas.

Normally, Energy Bolt flew in a spherical shape.

But I collapsed that form.

I compressed mana along the blade at high pressure.

As if loading gunpowder inside a barrel.

And the excellent guidance performance of Magic Missile was a bonus.

'Slash.'

I kicked off the ground.

My body shot out like an arrow.

A shot fired at the same time as a slash.

The air tore apart.

A blue flash stretched out in a straight line from the tip of my sword.

PAK—!

A sound like something breaking rang out from the golem's chest.

The compressed Energy Bolt exploded inside the bastard's body.

KABOOOM—!

With a tremendous roar, a blue pillar of mana punched out through the golem's back.

Perfect penetration.

The core had not simply broken. It had been erased.

"Grooooooo...!"

Crack, craaack.

Spiderweb cracks spread across the once-solid mirror shell.

The collapse began from within.

Like a glass castle crumbling, the giant shattered into pieces.

Thousands of fragments poured down like rain.

"Fuuu..."

I lowered my sword and caught my breath. My wrist ached.

Even 1st Circle magic becomes an anti-tank shell depending on how it is used.

This is the aesthetics of efficiency and fusion.

The white light died down.

The Hunters who had been covering their eyes lifted their heads one by one.

What lay before them was only the powdered remains of the golem, and me standing over them.

"......"

Everyone stood blankly with their mouths open, as if they could not believe it was real.

The first to regain his senses was Lee Seong-chan.

"W-We caught it..."

"Waaaaaah!"

"We did it! We actually did it!"

"Mr. Do-jin!"

Cheers erupted.

They embraced each other, sat down and cried, and shouted.

The success of their first hunt. And the joy of survival.

I could feel the heat unique to rookies on their faces.

'There was a time like that.'

I remembered my hands trembling after catching my first goblin before my regression.

That trembling would one day grow dull, but at least in this moment, it was fine for them to enjoy it.

I shook the mana residue off my sword.

Grrrrrk.

A mechanical sound came from deeper in the forest.

The trees split to either side, and a red iron door revealed itself.

It was probably the entrance to the next stage.

***

The area in front of the iron door was like a makeshift maintenance station.

The smell of rusted iron mixed with the scent of disinfectant, giving off a fishy tang.

Staff members wearing copper-colored vests were moving busily.

"Take a maintenance kit. One per person."

One staff member handed me a small box.

His hand moved mechanically as he checked my name on the chart board in his hand.

I opened the box.

Inside were a shriveled energy bar, a cheap bandage, and a mana potion the size of an ampoule.

'They are giving us this?'

I picked up the thumb-sized potion bottle.

The moment I opened the cap, a sour vinegar smell stabbed my nose.

The lowest of low-grade.

Something made from industrial mana that had barely been refined.

The moment you drank it, it had a taste that made your tongue shrivel and your stomach twist.

But right now, even this was something to be grateful for.

Gulp.

It was just as expected.

An unpleasant sensation, as if it were scraping down my esophagus.

But even if faintly, vitality returned to my depleted mana circuit.

I painfully missed the sweet potion that the Donggureung Hunter Shop owner had given me as a service.

"Excuse me, please move the people collapsed inside quickly!"

"Understood. The medical team is on standby."

The surroundings were chaotic.

The eliminated participants being carried away on stretchers.

Survivors sitting on the floor, retching.

Hunters leaning against the wall and doing nothing but panting.

But the staff members' expressions were calm.

Some checked the roster,

some cleaned up broken equipment fragments,

and some prepared to call the next group.

Even this kind of hellscape was just daily work to them.

Then I heard chatter from behind.

"Hey, Hunter Choi Seon-a is really going to be pissed today."

"Why?"

"Two Mirror Golems already got wrecked. It is not even noon yet."

"Ah, right. I heard she spent all night tuning them yesterday."

"Yeah. They said she was working on them until four in the morning."

"Wow...... Then would we die if we talked to her right now?"

"We probably would not die. But overtime is guaranteed."

"Should we at least bring her a high-grade potion?"

"You lunatic. You call that a joke?"

"No, I mean, summoners use a lot of mana. Seriously."

"Enough. Just work and do not get caught for nothing. We will get yelled at again."

"Ah, fine. Let us prepare the next group."

My ears stopped at those words.

Choi Seon-a?

It was a familiar name.

An A-rank Hunter of the Guardians Guild.

And one of the most notable talents among 7th Circle summoners.

I remembered seeing her a few times in major Gate raids before my regression.

She was not the type to run wild at the front.

Instead, she designed the battlefield.

Summon placement. Mana flow control. Combat sustainability management.

She definitely had talent in that field.

However, at this point in time, she was not yet complete.

She was still in the middle of growing.

I looked in the direction where the staff members had disappeared.

'So that is why.'

The reason the Mirror Golem's quality had been abnormally high.

Because it had not been a simple scrap of data, but a piece an A-rank summoner had painstakingly created.

The pattern change at the end, when it covered its weakness, had probably been her real-time control as well.

What I had broken might not have been a mere monster, but her pride.

Perhaps I had made a proper impression.

Whether in a good way or a bad one.

More importantly, all the examiners are big names.

Yoo Hye-sung, and now Choi Seon-a too.

Invictus's presence here might not be a coincidence.

"Now, attention! Head count!"

The sound of a megaphone broke my thoughts.

There were six survivors from Group C, including me.

Nearly half had been cut down.

"From now on, you will move to the second exam site. Once inside, you cannot leave for twenty-four hours. Anyone who wishes to give up should raise your hand now."

No one raised a hand.

The elation of having defeated the Mirror Golem was clouding their judgment.

Faces overflowing with confidence.

But I knew.

The real hell began now.

Creeeak—

The red iron door opened with a scream-like sound.

Beyond the door was pitch-black darkness.

And from within it blew a humid, turbid wind.

"Mr. Do-jin."

Lee Seong-chan came to my side.

His face clearly showed his tension too.

He had said this was his first time passing the first exam as well.

"What do you think is next? Are we going to defeat another boss monster?"

"No. It probably will not be a subjugation type."

I read the mana waves beyond the door.

They were not gathered in one place, but spread out widely, faint yet sticky.

"If it is not subjugation... could it be wave-type defense?"

"That is not it either. If it were defense, the entrance would have been fortified from the start."

I pointed at the maintenance kit we had been given.

"Food and bandages. And a time limit of twenty-four hours."

"Ah...!"

Lee Seong-chan let out an exclamation as if he had realized it.

"Exploration-type... survival."

"Correct. We may have to camp. In the middle of it, no less."

"That is troublesome. It will become a battle of stamina."

Lee Seong-chan scratched his head.

"Enter!"

At the staff's urging, we stepped into the darkness.

After passing through the tunnel, our view opened up.

And at the sight that unfolded before us, everyone swallowed their breath.

***

"......Wow."

Someone's stunned voice.

The place was not a forest.

It was a ruined city.

Collapsed skyscrapers stood like tombstones, and roads were cracked, overgrown with weeds.

Shards of broken window glass lay scattered across the ground, gleaming under the moonlight.

A dreary wind passed through the forest of buildings and made a sound like ghosts crying.

'Well made.'

The quality felt excessive for an exam site.

They had recreated the chaotic Seoul from the early days of the Gate incident.

This was not a simple combat power assessment.

This place was an exam site designed to grind down a Hunter's patience and mentality.

"Now, now! Let us all keep our spirits up! We only need to endure one day!"

Lee Seong-chan deliberately lifted the mood in a bright voice.

But the Hunters' expressions were not bright.

Fear of an unseen enemy.

The unpleasant feeling that something was watching from the dark.

Without a word, I took up the rear of the formation.

The true enemies here were not monsters.

Fatigue, hunger, and distrust.

We had to guard against collapsing on our own.

The first few hours were peaceful.

The occasional goblin or kobold that popped out was handled lightly by Lee Seong-chan and the warriors.

But as time passed, the air grew heavier.

"Haa... Haa... How long do we have to keep walking?"

One Hunter sat down.

His face was drenched in sweat. His eyes were trembling with anxiety.

The monsters were not strong.

But they came out without rest.

When we tried to sleep, an attack began, and when we tried to eat, arrows flew at us.

Guerilla tactics thoroughly designed to interfere with rest.

"If we go just a little farther, there should be a safe house. Let us just get there."

Lee Seong-chan tried to support him, but the Hunter shook his head.

"No. I cannot go. Not anymore..."

"Hey, if you give up here, you are eliminated!"

"I know! I know, but... my feet will not move!"

A scream close to hysteria.

His mentality had already hit bottom.

The fear of blades that could come flying out of the darkness at any time had gnawed away at his stamina.

"I... I want to stop now too."

The female mage beside him also raised her hand tearfully.

Contagion. Fear spreads like a virus.

When one person collapsed, the dam holding back the others who had barely been enduring burst as well.

FWOOOSH—

A red signal flare went off.

Watching that flame, an eliminated participant muttered,

"If this were a real Gate... I would already be dead."

He was right.

If this had been real combat, the moment he sat down, a kobold's spear would have pierced his heart.

Acknowledging one's limit and stepping back.

Perhaps that, too, was courage.

It was better than acting recklessly and dying.

"Let us go."

I spoke calmly.

Lee Seong-chan looked at the eliminated participants with regretful eyes, but in the end, he nodded.

Including Group D, around ten people remained in the final group.

The darkness was growing deeper.

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