The jungle’s greenery was dense.
Leaves and branches had grown so luxuriantly that they blotted out the sky and blocked the sunlight, so the deeper I went, the darker my surroundings became.
‘I should be ready for an ambush….’
To get used to this darkness,
as I ran through the jungle with my physical abilities enhanced by the mana inside my body, I adjusted the distribution of that mana, focusing mainly on my eyesight.
My vision sharpened further.
Having quickly adapted to the dark, I peered into the gloom.
It was then that I was attacked.
Whoosh!
Crackle!
A current ran down my spine.
My Evasion Instinct activated.
I immediately braked with my front paws and half-turned my body.
It was by a hair’s breadth.
Thud!
A rock fell in the direction I had just been about to run.
The stone, larger than a fist, had gouged a hollow into the ground.
If my reaction had been even a little slower, it would have struck me and burst my head open.
‘This is seriously brutal.’
I turned my head toward the direction the rock had fallen from.
By then, the presence of the monsters that had been circling the edge of my detection net, secretly following me ever since I entered the jungle, rose all at once.
Kiki! Ookiki!
Hiding themselves in the darkness of the jungle,
ape-shaped monsters were perched in the trees, their eyes gleaming.
The moment I recognized their presence, a message appeared before my eyes.
[You have encountered monsters.]
[Pocket Ape (Rank. 01) x 7]
The “Pocket Ape,” a monster that carries throwable tools in the pouch on its belly and attacks by hurling them at its opponent.
I recalled what I knew about them.
‘There are a lot of them, but this won’t be hard.’
In the game, once they threw all the tools they had stored in their pouches, their attack power dropped drastically.
From that point on, they were nothing more than ill-tempered monkeys.
The information I had learned from the Divine Sword Do Clan was not much different.
And so.
Kii! Ookiki! Kiki!
I did not curse the terrain disadvantage just because those things were up in the trees.
I simply relied on my Evasion Instinct to dodge the attacks flying at me nonstop.
‘Dodging isn’t hard.’
They were fast, but their attacks were simple.
With the help of my Evasion Instinct, and now that I had adjusted to the darkness, they posed no threat to me at all.
That made me bold.
Ting!
They would know that once they ran out of things to throw, they would become weaker, so when that time came, they would try to flee.
Even in the game, monsters very occasionally ran away in the middle of battle, and in this place where the game had become reality, that would not be strange at all.
Ooki?
I couldn’t allow that.
They were good at climbing trees, and it would not be easy to chase down every last one of those nimble bastards.
For me as I was now, it was impossible.
So in the brief moments between dodging attacks, I counterattacked.
Clang!
If I can sense it, I can strike it.
The instant I detected a stone with Evasion Instinct, I knocked it away with my scabbard.
‘I think I can do this.’
After knocking them away a few times, I started to get the feel for it.
I coated my scabbard with the mana inside my body and sent a rock flying high into the air.
——!
The rock returned in the direction it had come from, cutting through the air with a sharp sound.
Ooki!?
Thwack!
A Pocket Ape was right there.
Not knowing what had just happened, it was struck by the rock and fell from the tree.
Crack!
Kiik….
There was the sound of something breaking.
Unfortunately, it did not seem to have died.
But that was fine.
Now that it had fallen to the ground, I could catch it whenever I wanted.
‘Oh-ho, so this is how it’s done?’
Recalling the sensation from a moment ago, I knocked away another stone.
Kikikik!?
…Crack!
It hit again.
Another one fell to the ground.
Judging by the lack of sound, it seemed to have died instantly.
At any rate, like that….
“Home run.”
They say even monkeys fall from trees.
I got to witness the rare sight of not one, but seven monkeys falling out of trees.
And after that?
Ki… kiiing….
“You should’ve learned how to throw breaking balls.”
I finished off the ones buried in the ground like the very rocks they had been throwing.
Unable to resist, they had to watch as my sword pierced their hearts.
‘I dealt with them without much trouble… but I used up a fair bit of mana.’
There was no time to extract the mana stones.
The Hunters hiding nearby and watching us would take care of that on their own.
To recover the mana inside my body, I absorbed the mana dissolved in the air.
Then I checked the time.
02:26:11
Roughly 34 minutes had passed.
Considering there was still a long way to go to reach the Water Spirit’s Lake, my stamina consumption would become even worse from here on.
‘Can I kill it in this state?’
I was skeptical.
Even if the Water Spirit had been weakened, I could not ignore a Rank 3.
‘I need to preserve as much stamina and mana as possible until I reach the Water Spirit’s Lake… Huh?’
At that moment, I saw something roll out of one of the bastards’ pouches.
It was a red fruit that looked like an apple.
“This is….”
I knew this fruit.
Not because I had learned about it from my family, but because in my past life, I had seen every ending of this game.
[Vitality Fruit]
◆ Consumable Classification
—Fruit
◆ Detailed Description
—A fruit Pocket Apes enjoy eating. It is also used as an ingredient for potions.
◆ Effect
—Restores 50 HP upon consumption.
It was the fruit I knew.
‘Come to think of it, in the game, there was a high chance of finding this fruit near places where these guys appeared.’
And this wasn’t the only fruit.
There were blue fruits as well.
When my thoughts reached that point,
“I’ll have to do a bit of farming.”
I decided on my course of action.
Then I searched the Pocket Apes’ bellies to see if they had any other fruits.
After gathering the fruits like that….
“As long as the mana stones aren’t removed, the corpses won’t disappear… This feels a bit wrong, but I’ll have to do it.”
Slice.
I tore off their pouches.
Their pouches were elastic, making them convenient for storing fruit.
“Monsters are living beings too… Sorry.”
My conscience pricked me, but what could I do?
I had to make sure I did well first.
I gathered their corpses in one place and, on each of their chests, wrote large letters in blood.
[Do] [not] [take] [out] [the] [mana] [stones]
“They’ll understand if I do this.”
If the Hunters took the mana stones in the middle of the evaluation, the pouches I had obtained would disappear.
If that happened, all the fruit I had put inside would come spilling out.
So I took measures.
‘If this were the game, the monsters would die, leave only their loot, and disappear, so I never would’ve even thought of using their pouches like this.’
Of course, the Pocket Ape’s pouch was one of the possible loot drops.
But I couldn’t assume a pouch would definitely drop, so I had no choice but to do this.
“Sorry. I’ll put your pouches to good use.”
The corpses were leaning with their backs against a tree.
One corpse had its eyes half-open, another had its eyes closed, and another had its head crushed.
I prayed for their souls and left the spot.
‘I’ll look for any fruits that catch my eye on the way to the Water Spirit’s Lake.’
Or I could look for monkeys.
Biting into a Vitality Fruit, I decided to move by leaping across the tree branches outright.
* * *
At that time, on top of the cliff.
People were leisurely watching the evaluation match while being waited on by servants.
It was a scene that contrasted sharply with the children fighting life-and-death battles in the jungle.
Of course, it was different for the parents whose children were participating in the evaluation match.
They could not take their eyes off the screens.
“What do we do…? Isn’t he dead?”
“He defended himself well with the mana inside his body just before impact. His head might be a little dizzy, but he isn’t dead.”
“Even if the monsters were weakened, isn’t it useless if the Apes travel in groups?”
Twenty minutes had passed since the evaluation match began.
By then, most of the participants had entered the outer edge of the jungle and ended up facing monsters.
The Rank 1 monster that climbed through the trees and attacked, the Pocket Ape.
The participants who had been ambushed by them were floundering in confusion.
Even though they had already experienced real combat and achieved a certain level in the Beast King Style, in the face of a Yellow Gate’s trial, they had no choice but to be flustered in the end.
Even so, there were a few participants who refused to yield to the situation and stood out.
“He has many unnecessary movements, but he is handling it wisely enough.”
“No matter how fast their attacks are, if there is cover to protect the body, it does not become a problem.”
Do Seungwoo, the prodigy of the Divine Sword Do Clan.
He raised his shield to block the attacks and protected himself by hiding behind nearby rocks and trees.
Then, the moment the monsters’ attacks stopped, he counterattacked.
“He is skilled at wall walking.”
“My son learns quickly. I taught him that not long ago.”
The head of the Divine Sword Do Clan, Do Yeik.
Do Yeik praised his skill.
At that, Do Seungwoo’s father, Do Beomjun, smiled in satisfaction and began to boast.
“So the reason Seungwoo lost in the sparring match was because his opponent was Gyeonu, and he let his guard….”
Just as he was about to enthusiastically brag about his son to the people around him,
“Oh.”
People’s gazes shifted to the screen showing Do Sieun.
Streaks of light were surging upward.
No, it was blue lightning.
Blue Thunder.
The Lightning Flower, Do Sieun.
While taking a sword-drawing stance, she was glaring at the Pocket Apes rampaging in the trees.
Immediately after, Do Sieun vanished from her spot, leaving only streaks of light behind.
Ooki!?
Displaying footwork so fluid it could not be compared to Do Seungwoo’s,
Do Sieun left afterimages of light and climbed the tree in an instant.
And then.
Lion’s Fierce Assault.
Four consecutive strikes.
She moved like twisting lightning and bisected the Pocket Apes.
The people could not help but admire her, wrapped in blue lightning.
“That is Blue Thunder! There is no doubt, it is Blue Thunder.”
Even Do Yeik could not hide his admiration.
Although the streaks of light were not yet thick, Do Sieun was producing Blue Thunder.
He burst into hearty laughter.
But that laughter did not last long.
“Seungwoo and Sieun both have improved remarkably.”
“It is all thanks to you, Clan Head.”
“Sieun would be pleased to hear that.”
“But I am also worried. This is only the outer edge of the jungle….”
“…”
Do Yeik stroked his beard.
While he was delighted by his grandchildren’s skill, he was also calmly assessing the situation.
“If they waste time against those creatures and consume their stamina and mana, they will have a hard time fighting the Water Spirit later. I worry whether the children are considering stamina management.”
“If it is Seungwoo… he will do well.”
“I hope so, but….”
Do Yeik trailed off.
The Pocket Ape was merely one of the monsters that appeared in the jungle.
From here on, monsters that were even more difficult and stronger would appear.
But were his grandchildren taking that into account and managing their stamina?
He felt like asking the grandchildren on the screen himself.
‘Well, the answer will come when the time comes.’
Time would tell.
Do Yeik reached that conclusion and tried to look at the skills of his other grandchildren.
It was right then.
Clang!
“…What was that sound?”
A sound like a baseball being hit.
Do Yeik searched the screens to confirm the source of the sound.
It was the screen showing Do Gyeonu.
Clang!
…Crack!
“…”
Do Gyeonu was knocking away the rocks the Pocket Apes threw with his scabbard.
The rocks he knocked away were precisely intercepting the creatures up in the trees.
They plunged to the ground.
“What is that child… doing right now?”
“…”
Do Yeik could not understand the situation, so he asked the others.
But no one could answer.
[Home run.]
Do Gyeonu’s voice flowed from the screen shown from his point of view.
Hearing it, the faces of the clan members twisted strangely.
“…”
They could not believe it even after seeing it with their own eyes.
Once could have been coincidence.
But Do Gyeonu was now making that coincidence happen again and again.
If a coincidence overlapped several times, it was undoubtedly inevitability.
He was targeting the creatures in the trees with his own skill.
“Hah….”
Having accepted the situation that far,
Do Yeik could not help but let out a sigh as he watched Do Gyeonu’s bizarre conduct.
It was a sigh in the best sense.
“He’s got good instincts.”
The surroundings were dark, and the attacks were so fast they could hardly be seen.
Yet Do Gyeonu dodged them as if it were nothing, then struck back at his enemies with precision.
Do Yeik’s eyes gleamed sharply.
“M-My lord, Seungwoo is currently fighting a new monster and—”
“Let us watch Gyeonu first.”
“…”
“Seungwoo will do well enough without us watching.”
Do Yeik cut off Do Beomjun’s words and continued staring at Do Gyeonu.
With that, everyone in the observation seats knew where the family head’s attention was directed.
It was not Do Sieun.
Nor was it Do Seungwoo.
It was Do Gyeonu.
“You should all watch as well. Let us see what that child chooses to do.”
“…”
Do Yeik’s shoulders shook.
By then, Do Gyeonu was putting on the bizarre spectacle of tearing the pouches off the Pakit Apes.
“To my eyes, Gyeonu appears to have no interest in the evaluation match…. Is this really the time for him to be doing that?”
“Beomjun.”
“Yes, my lord!”
“Can you not see that child’s intent?”
“…”
“Look at the fruit in Gyeonu’s hand.”
Do Gyeonu bit into the red fruit.
At the sight, Do Beomjun let out a dumbfounded chuckle.
Only then did he think he understood why Do Yeik had taken an interest in Do Gyeonu.
Because Do Gyeonu was an idiot.
“To eat it without even knowing what kind of fruit it is… What a careless child. Does he not know it can be dangerous to touch something that hasn’t been properly appraised…? Just what has Sangjun been teaching—”
“Are your eyes just for decoration?”
“…”
“Or is it that you have no brain? You call yourself a Sub Lord, and you do not know what Gyeonu just ate?”
“That is…”
At Do Yeik’s rebuke, Do Beomjun snapped back to his senses.
Only then did he realize the identity of the fruit Do Gyeonu was eating.
“The Fruit of Vitality…”
“He showed no hesitation in eating it. It seems Sangjun taught him well.”
“I did not teach him. Gyeonu simply…”
“No need to be modest. If not you, then who else would have taught him?”
“…”
“And it seems what you taught him was not limited to the Fruit of Vitality.”
Do Beomjun’s face crumpled.
Do Sangjun wore a reluctant expression.
Ignoring their reactions, Do Yeik raised the corners of his mouth.
[Found it.]
“He found the Fruit of Vigor as well.”
“…”
On the screen, Do Gyeonu was plucking a blue fruit hanging from a tree.
Just as before.
Do Gyeonu did not go through any process of checking it, but immediately brought the fruit to his mouth.
“Did he see the Pakit Apes and instantly think of the fruit’s existence? Even hunters rarely consider that. He responds to the situation rather well.”
I Became the Childhood Friend of the Mid-Boss