Chapter 12

Chapter 12

"Whoa, that's some serious presence......"

"Serious, my ass. He looks scrawny."

Before long, Jaeyun and Gyeol were huddled behind Euno, heads pressed together.

Sahyeon, hands in his pockets, striding forward. Haeseong chasing after him at a near-run.

"He's coming, he's coming!"

As the two drew closer, Euno straightened up with an excited voice.

"What are you scheming now?"

Gyeol said, clicking his tongue.

"Just watch. You said you were curious about his skill."

Euno raised the corner of his mouth and focused on the entrance.

[Air Control (A) skill has been activated!]

A thin, transparent membrane sealed the doorway.

Euno flashed a triumphant grin.

"Okay, got it!"

"What did you do?"

Gyeol asked, brow furrowed.

"Air wall!"

Euno declared proudly.

An applied skill learned in defense class.

A high-pressure air wall perfected through repeated practice and drills.

By compressing air, he'd created an invisible, solid barrier.

Jaeyun drew a small breath.

"Is that the one you were practicing with me yesterday? It really wouldn't break......"

A wall that hadn't budged against Jaeyun's punch — and Jaeyun's Strength stat was A+.

Jaeyun's voice was laced with concern.

"Will this be okay?"

"Relax, relax~ he won't even know it was me."

Euno said with full confidence.

Unless you were the caster, the membrane was virtually invisible.

Anyone without the instinct for it would be left clueless and floundering.

"There you go again with the pointless stunts."

Gyeol chided, but Euno's eyes were sparkling with anticipation.

I get to test the teacher's skills, and I get to practice mine. Two birds, one stone.

Footsteps drew near.

Euno ducked excitedly.

"Here he comes!"

"Why am I being—"

Gyeol, dragged along by Euno's hand.

Jaeyun scurried after them both.

Three people hidden in a blind spot.

The door swung open.

All three pairs of eyes locked on the entrance.

Any second now he'll try to walk in and hit the wall, right?

Just as Euno's lips were curling into a smirk—

"...?"

Why isn't he coming in?

Sahyeon, who had been walking in first, stopped.

'What — don't tell me he noticed?!'

And why is he suddenly taking off his glove?

Sahyeon removing one leather glove.

While Euno was thrown off by the unexpected action—

Sahyeon raised his bare hand and brought it in front of the air wall.

What's he going to do?

Euno craned his neck and studied Sahyeon's hand closely.

Thumb and middle finger curled into a circle.

That's,

'A flicking stance?'

And then he snapped his fingers against the wall.

FLICK!

"?!"

Euno shot to his feet, his mouth opening and closing wordlessly.

"Huh? Wh-What?! No way!"

"What happened?"

"Euno hyung, what's wrong?"

His clueless friends lowered their voices and asked.

"My skill......"

Euno muttered in a hollow voice.

"It broke?"

Euno's air wall, shattered with a pathetic fizzle by a single flick of Sahyeon's fingers.

"What?"

"Just with his fingers?"

Despite his friends' questions, Euno's face was still frozen in disbelief.

Meanwhile, Sahyeon had ambled into the training hall.

He pulled his glove back on and looked around the hall.

Then he spotted the three people huddled in the corner beside the entrance.

A slack-jawed face clutching a fistful of red hair.

The corner of Sahyeon's mouth curled up.

"That you? The one seven days into your Awakening."

***

After the failed hazing attempt, on the way to the test site.

"I don't get it......"

Euno muttered, scrubbing his flushed, beet-red face.

Punished by Sahyeon for unauthorized use of a skill, Euno had been made to run one hundred laps around the training hall while maintaining his air wall.

Of course, for someone with his agility, a hundred laps was nothing.

Maintaining the air wall while running for an extended period, however, was anything but easy.

— It's going to break any second, isn't it? Can you really go to the test at this level......?

Every time his concentration slipped, that infuriating voice would needle him — and he'd gritted his teeth and powered through.

'There's no way this should break from one flick!'

He might have Awakened less than a week ago, but his talent was famous enough to draw scout offers from numerous guilds.

On top of that, his air wall skill had been recognized even by Academy professors — notorious for withholding praise — and yet it had crumbled that easily.

"Tch. Some kind of damage-absorption ability like Ha Jaeyun's?"

"Mine absorbs physical impacts only, not skills......"

Jaeyun added in a small voice from the seat beside him.

"Still, if he can punch through that air wall, he must be insanely strong, right?"

"Strong or not, how does it make sense that it broke that easily?! Your punch couldn't even scratch it!"

Euno pushed back in a fierce whisper.

Gyeol, who had been listening quietly to their exchange, tilted his head.

"Maybe your skill was just garbage."

"Oh, you wanna go?!"

Euno bristled and swung his arm, but Gyeol calmly narrowed his eyes and dodged.

"Anyway."

Euno expelled a furious breath.

He narrowed his eyes and glared at the back of Sahyeon's head.

What the hell is that guy?

***

Combat Zone, Sector 0. An open lot in front of the Paju Industrial Complex. A Gate the size of a three-story building rippled before them.

SCREECH—

The tinted black vehicle pulled to a stop in front of it.

Sahyeon stepped out with light strides. The students piled out behind him.

"This is a Gate?"

"It's way bigger than I expected......!"

"Ooh! I've never seen a Gate this close before!!"

Sahyeon shook his head.

"What, do they think this is a field trip......"

Haeseong, having finished parking, came to stand beside Sahyeon.

"Um, Mr. Sahyeon."

Sahyeon rolled his eyes toward Haeseong without turning his head.

"Well, they're still students...... I'm sure they don't mean any harm."

— Could he be a mental-type......?

— Ooh. Could be? Honestly, Tae Euno, your head's simple enough he could probably read it in one second flat.

— You've been pushing it, hyung...... wanna go for real?!

— Hey, but doesn't being a mental-type make him super weak?

— Hello? Is anyone listening to me?!

Whispers that had flowed nonstop from the back seat.

Haeseong was apologizing preemptively in case they'd soured Sahyeon's mood.

"Honestly, sending out kids who can't tell fire from water."

Sahyeon clicked his tongue.

Everyone here was an Awakened — did they really think whispering would go unheard?

Being rookies showed glaringly in moments like these.

All this racket was already draining his energy.

'I'd rather deal with monsters.'

Let's get this over with so I can get back to my own work.

Sahyeon marched briskly toward the Gate.

Haeseong scrambled after him.

"W-We're going straight in?"

"No reason to drag it out."

Euno, who had been taking a selfie with the Gate—

He called out urgently to Sahyeon, who was striding past.

"Wait! Wait a second!"

Sahyeon didn't stop.

"What."

"I can't take it anymore, I have to know!"

Euno pressed, catching up.

"That wall earlier — how did you do it?"

A direct, point-blank question.

Every pair of eyes locked onto Sahyeon.

"I broke through it."

He answered with perfect calm.

Since the compressed force was air, one puncture was all it took for the wall to scatter.

Sahyeon's trait — sensing the flow of intangible forces. Through it, he'd found a tiny gap and pierced it.

'I was going to take one look and cancel the whole test if they seemed hopeless, but......'

While the kid ran his laps around the training hall, Sahyeon had watched — and his speed and growth rate weren't bad.

The skill had noticeably solidified in that time too.

The petty bravado was a great way to get himself killed, of course.

Still, a D-rank Gate should be manageable enough that nobody dies.

"Broke through......?"

Euno's brow furrowed, uncomprehending.

His wall wasn't something you could just "break through." Awakened of A+ rank and above hadn't been able to breach it.

'That's what I'm asking — HOW did you break through?!'

Not a single question answered, but Sahyeon was already waving his hand as if to say that'll do, and stopped at his destination.

The black Gate, rippling chaotically.

Normal Gates typically gave off this dark, blue-black glow.

'But a reddish light......'

Sahyeon recalled Lee Haje's notes and spoke.

"Just follow me in."

Then he stepped straight into the Gate.

"W-Wait, hold on—"

"Together—"

The trailing voices smeared into nothing.

His vision warped dizzily.

A bizarre sensation, as if his body were being sucked somewhere.

Before long, the dark field of vision brightened—

The moment Sahyeon lightly set foot on the ground, soft terrain gave way and his feet sank in.

Sand in every direction. Scorching sunlight beating down on his crown. Air so stifling it was hard to breathe.

At that moment—

"WAAAAAUGH!"

"GAAAAH!"

"WAH, WAAAH!"

CRASH—

The latecomers arrived.

Every one of them hit the sand face-first with a spectacular racket.

"This is......"

Gyeol, now covered head to toe in sand, raised his head.

"A desert?!"

Endless sand, softly rising dunes, and scattered rock formations.

Just as the materials Haeseong had provided described, this Gate's field was a desert.

DING—

A system chime sounded, and windows appeared before each person's eyes.

['Arid Dunes' Gate entered.]

[! 'Stat Restriction' has been applied.]

[Stats are declining.]

An unpleasant sensation crept up from their feet, as if their legs were sinking into the sand.

"Huh? My body feels heavier?"

Euno was first to right himself, patting himself down.

Haeseong pressed his palm to his forehead in dismay.

"Looks like this Gate has a debuff......"

Gates occasionally generated random debuffs.

A debuff had been applied that reduced the stats of every hunter who entered.

Sahyeon pulled up his status window.

[Status Window]

Name: Yeom Sahyeon

Age: 27

Grade: S

Trait: Formless Sovereign

Overall Stats (!Stat Restriction active):

Stamina (SSS→SS+), Strength (SS+→SS), Agility (S+→S), Intelligence (A+→A), Mental Fortitude (B→B-)

Stats dropped by half a grade across the board.

"This much is nothing."

He murmured to himself.

Gyeol groused as he got to his feet.

"My movements feel sluggish too. This feels awful."

He twisted his wrists and ankles around, grumbling.

Haeseong shook his head.

"Count your blessings. There have been cases where Gates applied a skill restriction debuff."

Jaeyun's eyes went wide with alarm.

"What?! Then how do you fight if your attack skills are blocked......?"

"That's exactly why upper-tier Gates are normally entered in teams of two or more."

Haeseong elaborated.

If you entered an upper Gate alone and got hit with a nasty debuff, the odds of clearing it plummeted.

Not a concern for Sahyeon, who'd been ground through the worst debuffs imaginable.

DING— DING—

Even as they chatted, system windows continued to appear.

[Eliminate the monsters.]

[E-rank or above monsters: 0/300]

[Boss: 0/1]

[Clear Reward — Shard of the Scorching Sands (?)]

[Time Limit: 11:59:57 — (Failure to clear in time will trigger a Monster Wave.)]

"A Monster Wave...... we'll need to finish this as fast as possible."

Haeseong said with a thin sigh.

A Monster Wave — where hundreds, sometimes thousands of monsters poured out all at once.

If they couldn't stop it, monsters would flood out beyond the Gate.

In other words, the Gate would collapse.

This was precisely why hunters had to clear Gates.

DING—

[Monster Kill Count]

Yeom Sahyeon — 0

Yun Haeseong — 0

Tae Euno — 0

Go Gyeol — 0

Ha Jaeyun — 0

A final window appeared.

A display showing the kill count for every hunter who had entered the Gate.

Gate rewards were determined by this kill count — contribution, in other words.

'Today it'll serve as the test scorecard.'

Sahyeon cracked his neck and spoke.

"Let's start by seeing what you've got."

Gyeol scrunched his face, looking around the barren desert.

"Monsters or whatever — there's nothing out here. What are we supposed to do?"

"Well, normally you'd walk around and they'd pop up on their own, but—"

Sahyeon pulled off one glove.

"I'll pass on that kind of grunt work."

He bent his knees and brought his right hand to the sandy ground.

Hot air met his palm.

Euno and Gyeol whispered as they watched Sahyeon crouch.

"What's he doing?"

"Like I'd know."

Jaeyun, eyes darting nervously, seemed to be mulling something over. Slowly, he spoke.

"...Hey, guys. Does the ground feel like it's rumbling?"

DU-DU-DU-DU—

At that moment.

A strong pounding sound spread upward from below.

"They took the bait fast."

Sahyeon lifted his hand from the ground and pulled his glove back on.

He straightened his legs and jerked his chin toward the rear, signaling Haeseong.

"Fall back a bit?"

"Y-Yes! Got it."

Haeseong hadn't fully grasped Sahyeon's intentions either, but he followed the instruction faithfully.

The three students, meanwhile, were still focused on the mysterious vibrations.

DU-DU-DU-DU-DU-DU-DU—

The mystery sound grew rapidly.

Sand grains were bouncing off the ground with the force of the tremors.

"Whatwhatwhatwhat, what is it!!"

"An e-earthquake?!"

Jaeyun was inching backward behind Gyeol.

"Ohhhh! Here we go!!"

The instant Euno broke into a wide grin—

The ground beneath their feet shifted subtly.

The sand began to bubble, as if boiling.

"What? Why is the ground—"

The moment Gyeol noticed something wrong and looked down—

BOOOOM!

The stirring sand erupted like an explosion.

"AAAAARGH!!"

Gyeol was launched into the air.

"GAAAH! Gyeol hyung!!"

Jaeyun tried to grab him in a panic, but the ground around him was already doing the same.

BOOM! BOOM!

The desert floor detonated in rapid succession, as if under bombardment.

Visibility went white with sand dust. After a moment, the explosions stopped.

PATTER, PATTER, PATTER—

As the scattered sand cleared, the source of the blasts gradually revealed itself.

Red shadows visible through the dust.

"Woooow......!"

Euno's eyes lit up as he let out a deep gasp of awe.

HISSSSS—!

Massive bodies roughly three meters tall. Coarse, sand-colored fur. Long, straight, razor-sharp claws.

Gyeol, sprawled on the sand where he'd been tossed, stared up at the towering monsters in a daze.

"...Damn. Ugly as hell."

Haeseong, watching from a distance, sucked in a startled breath.

"Golden Moles?!"

A mole-type monster — the Giant Golden Mole. A medium-sized monster native to desert fields.

Wait — this was no time to stand around.

Haeseong shook his head quickly and opened the monster's status window.

DING—

[Monster Information]

Name: Giant Golden Mole (GIANT GOLDEN MOLE)

Grade: D-

Characteristics: Highly developed sense of smell, with sharp claws as its defining feature.

.......

Grade D-.

Thankfully on the lower end of the spectrum, but......

That was only when there was one of them.

Dozens of long, narrow eyes glaring at the students.

The students, trapped in a ring of dozens of Golden Moles.

"...God, what in the......"

Everyone stared blankly at the chaos before them.

Everyone except one.

"Just the right amount."

Sahyeon wore a satisfied smile, perfectly at ease.

"If it's not enough, I'll toss in more. Don't worry."