An exam where you fought over admission tickets?
For her, who had slipped into the testing grounds to gauge the examinees’ abilities, it was practically an opportunity dropped into her lap.
Even without that, she had been feeling stifled from quietly holding her breath and observing the examinees.
‘I was just thinking there were nothing but chaff around me, and that coming here had been a waste. This works out nicely.’
The abilities of the examinees that could be assessed in the third and fourth tests were limited.
To begin with, the fourth test had taken place inside their dreams, so she had gained nothing from it.
Most of all, there were simply too many of them, and because they had been split up to take the tests, she had not been able to see them all.
But this test was different.
Every examinee was participating, and the test allowed an extremely high degree of freedom.
[You have entered the Gate.]
[Yellow: Honrim Island V]
The Doll Demoness, I Gahyeon.
Residing in the body of an examinee wearing a yellow admission ticket, she welcomed this situation greatly.
“Hmm, so it’s taking place on an island.”
After entering the Gate and opening her eyes in the forest, I Gahyeon dismissed the message.
Her eyes swept over her surroundings.
There seemed to be no one nearby.
At least, on the surface.
“…There are a lot of eyes on me.”
Even if they suppressed their emotions as much as possible, they were still only examinees.
There was no way people only just about to step out into the world would be used to “hunting” people.
I Gahyeon, who had no hesitation when it came to killing, could feel the hesitation in their gazes.
“To think I’m the one being hunted… Nice. Being on the receiving end isn’t bad either.”
Meanwhile, I Gahyeon rather liked the situation she had suddenly found herself in the moment she entered the Gate.
After becoming one of the Six Demons, no one had dared lay a hand on her, so she had never imagined she would be targeted like this.
It was a feeling she had not had in a long time.
It made her feel young again.
She licked her lips with her tongue.
“I wonder who’ll try to knock me down first?”
Humming to herself, she walked through the forest as if to make a show of it.
Pretending not to have noticed their presence, she deliberately exposed herself in a defenseless state.
In that way, she tempted them.
Bang!
“You’re first, are you?”
Just then, someone fired a gun.
At the sound of the bullet being fired, the corners of I Gahyeon’s mouth drew a long arc.
Drawing two daggers from her waist, she deflected the bullet flying toward her head.
It was a rubber bullet.
‘How cute.’
I Gahyeon giggled inwardly.
She immediately dashed in the direction the rubber bullet had come from.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The opponent seemed to have panicked greatly when she avoided his attack and instead counterattacked.
Gunshots rang out in succession.
But a gun was a delicate weapon.
Even a slight tremor would throw off the aim.
The rubber bullets her opponent fired grazed past I Gahyeon on their own, even without her making much effort to dodge.
‘For someone who tried to knock me down first, this is pretty disappointing.’
Disqualified.
Without any need to see more, I Gahyeon decided to take him down.
She threw the dagger in her left hand.
“…Agh!”
The dagger lodged in the shoulder of the opponent, who had belatedly tried to flee when none of his attacks worked at all.
Startled by the sudden attack, the opponent fell from the tree.
There was a thud.
Slowing down, I Gahyeon approached the opponent sprawled on the ground.
One of his arms was bent at an odd angle.
“Ugh…”
“You need to learn how to stay calm. Disqualified. I’ll be taking this.”
She would not kill him.
If she needlessly caught the evaluators’ eyes, it would become difficult for her to move.
Indifferent to the condition of the opponent groaning from the pain of his broken arm, I Gahyeon tried to take his admission ticket.
It was then that the examinees who had been hiding revealed themselves.
They had aimed for the moment her attention was on the opponent collapsed on the ground and launched a surprise attack.
‘These kids know how to read the flow.’
Of course, it did not work on I Gahyeon.
Dodging the sword strike that came from behind her, she dealt with the examinees closest to her first.
The battle did not take long.
“N-no way…”
“How can a yellow…”
After several exchanges.
All the examinees who had rushed at I Gahyeon ended up rolling on the ground.
Every one of them wore an expression of disbelief.
She evaluated them.
“You, you, you, and you too.”
“…”
“You’re all disqualified.”
At her tone, which sounded almost as if she were teasing them, the examinees’ faces twisted.
However, the pain had not yet faded, and they could not move their bodies.
I Gahyeon tore off the admission tickets attached to their bodies.
“The others… don’t seem to be here.”
She had gathered the minimum points needed to pass the test.
However, I Gahyeon’s goal was, until the end, to determine the level of the examinees.
She left the area to evaluate other examinees.
Simply by presenting herself as prey, they took the bait on their own.
“You’re disqualified too.”
Without even knowing that the ones actually being hunted were themselves.
Wearing their admission tickets on her body, I Gahyeon clicked her tongue in disappointment.
“There’s no one who meets my standards.”
Since this was the final test, the examinees she encountered were fairly skilled.
But they did not satisfy her expectations.
She had yet to see anyone beautiful and strong enough to set even her soul ablaze.
At that, her motivation only waned.
──!!
It was then that she heard the sound of something cutting through the air.
The greenery in the direction of the sound shook violently.
I Gahyeon erased her presence as much as possible and moved toward it.
“Are you trying to run away because you’re scared!? Is that any way for a man to act!?”
“…”
Two examinees were fighting.
The battle was flowing one-sidedly in favor of one examinee.
I Gahyeon focused on that examinee.
‘That child is…’
A male student with bronze skin.
On the back and the left breast of the black martial uniform he wore were embroidered the characters “俠” and “義.”
With that alone, I Gahyeon could recognize his identity.
‘A child of the chivalrous Yong family.’
The foremost family in the martial arts world.
Having unexpectedly found an examinee from that family, I Gahyeon’s eyes gleamed.
She observed his battle.
“He’s quite good.”
There was no trickery in his attacks, and they were simple.
However, precisely because of that, the force discharged so straightforwardly was absurdly destructive.
If one was hit even once in the wrong way, it could lead directly to defeat.
The opponent, who knew that and had been dodging, ultimately failed to block his attack and collapsed.
The battle was settled.
At that moment, I Gahyeon, who had been quietly watching, moved to confirm his skill for herself.
“You showed some unsightly moments in the middle, but it was still a good match. I’ll gladly take your admission ticket… Kuh!”
While the direct descendant of the chivalrous Yong family had been fighting, I Gahyeon had approached to within a hair’s breadth without being detected, then leapt from the ground and launched a kick.
His guard toward his surroundings had relaxed, and he belatedly sensed her presence.
Barely raising both arms, he managed to receive the attack coming from outside his field of vision.
However, he was pushed back by the force.
“What are you doing, acting so cowardly?”
Between the arms he had raised in guard, the man’s eyes flashed.
He muttered as if annoyed.
Unpressed by his momentum, I Gahyeon immediately followed up with her next attack.
Kicking off the ground and closing the distance, she swung the daggers in both hands.
“So you want to fight me, do you? Fine. I’ll fix that attitude of yours.”
The examinee from the chivalrous Yong family responded.
The knuckle guards on his hands transformed, wrapping around his arms like gauntlets.
The blades could not cut his arms.
Rather, as he knocked the blades aside, he threw a punch at I Gahyeon.
──!!
The fist shot straight toward her face.
I Gahyeon turned her head.
The fist brushed past the side of her face, and the wind generated by the punch carved a long wound across it.
‘I liked this face. His fist is practically a blade. As expected of someone from the chivalrous Yong family.’
Drops of blood scattered at the edge of her vision.
Confirming his skill firsthand, I Gahyeon raised the corners of her mouth.
“You pass.”
“What!?”
As if asking what nonsense she was spouting.
The examinee from the chivalrous Yong family’s face twisted.
I Gahyeon did not answer this time either.
She launched another kick.
Tap! Whoosh! Thwack!
The examinee from the chivalrous Yong family reacted.
He raised both arms horizontally and created a mana barrier.
I Gahyeon’s attack was blocked by the barrier and did not inflict any damage on him.
But she had another intention.
Whirrr!
Using the barrier as a foothold, she sprang upward and curled her body in midair.
Curling into a ball and spinning, she landed far away from where she had originally been.
“Then do your best on the test.”
“Hey! Where do you think you’re going in the middle of a fight!? Come back, right now! You’re running away like a coward right to the end!?”
Without showing even a hint of lingering attachment, I Gahyeon turned her back and fled from him.
Only then did he realize her intention and fly into a rage.
He tried to chase after her, but he could not close the gap in distance.
In the end, he lost her.
“Let’s fight fair and square!”
Meanwhile, the examinee whose admission ticket he had nearly taken had already slipped away in the meantime.
* * *
Nam Yuri uses a gigantic sickle classified as a scythe as her weapon.
The advantages of a scythe lie in its long reach, which can block an opponent’s approach, and its ability to attack a wide area at once.
In the game, she often employed tactics that made use of those advantages.
But that did not mean she relied on the scythe.
The scythe was merely one part of her tactics.
Whoosh!
Using herself as the axis, Nam Yuri swung the scythe like a windmill turning.
A blade wind rose around her, blocking any approach.
I, who had been trying to rush at her, had no choice but to hurriedly change direction.
“Ahaha! Gyeonu, Gyeonu! Are you just going to keep running away like that!? If all you do is run, you can’t beat me!”
I’m not running away, I’m dodging.
I replied to Nam Yuri’s words inwardly as I opened up the distance.
Then her rotation seemed to slow.
“You can’t come to me because of this, right!? Then I’ll give you a chance, Gyeonu, just for you!”
“…!”
Nam Yuri used the remaining centrifugal force to hurl the scythe at me.
The scythe left her hand and flew through the air, drawing a huge circle.
Whoosh!
If that hit me as it was, my body would be cut into pieces.
Because its attack range was so wide, it would be cutting it close to evade by changing direction.
But it was not impossible to dodge.
Nam Yuri was probably aiming for me to move that way.
Naturally, I had no intention of playing along with her intentions.
I charged blindly forward toward the incoming sickle.
Crackle!
My evasion instinct activated.
The Gift detected the optimal evasion route and informed me.
Entrusting my body to the Gift’s signal, I lowered my posture.
Whoosh!
The scythe passed over my head.
Hair sliced by the sickle fluttered down into my vision.
Had I lowered my head even a little less, my head would have been cut.
A chill ran through me.
But thanks to that, a path to Nam Yuri had been created.
She no longer had a weapon.
There was no need to worry about the scythe’s checks.
Without stopping my sprint, I ran toward her.
Lion Claw Mark
I added sharpness to the blade of the Ultramarine Sword with compressed mana.
The blue mana dwelling in the jet-black blade was honed to a keen edge.
Preparing to swing my sword, I looked at Nam Yuri, who was now only a short distance away.
She was looking at me and smiling.
“Gyeonu, Gyeonu, you don’t think I can’t fight without my scythe, do you? I can do things like this too.”
The corners of Nam Yuri’s mouth rose.
It was then that her hair wriggled as if it were alive.
“You know, hair may look thin and like it breaks easily, but it’s surprisingly tough. If you use all the hair on a person’s head, you can even hang a weight of up to five tons from it.”
Her wavy gray hair.
Her hair split into two strands on its own, intertwined, and joined together.
The hair became fists larger than Nam Yuri’s face.
“So my hair can block a sword too.”
This was why Nam Yuri was said not to rely solely on her scythe.
In the game, she had two normal attacks.
One was swinging her scythe, and the other, when she was not holding the scythe in her hand, was forming her hair into fists and launching them.
‘This is why people acknowledge her performance, but say she’s a pain when she’s an enemy.’
Hair fists came rushing in.
I clicked my tongue at the attacks coming from both directions at once.
Whoosh!
I stepped and twisted my body.
Letting one fist slide past, I swung my sword at the other.
As Nam Yuri had said, the fists made from her hair could block most swords.
But that was only limited to ordinary attacks.
They could not block the Ultramarine Sword imbued with the principle of the Lion’s Claw Trace.
And as proof—
“Your hair got cut, you know?”
“…Huh?”
Nam Yuri’s fist was severed.
A bundle of hair fell to the floor.
Bewilderment surfaced on her face.
But she quickly gathered herself and thrust out the remaining fist to hold me back.
The sword, now without the principle of the Lion’s Claw Trace, failed to cut it this time.
“I’d overlooked the fact that Gyeonwoo-Gyeonwoo is from the Divine Sword Do Family. Right, if it’s the Divine Sword Do Family’s swordsmanship, it makes sense that it could cut my hair.”
Nam Yuri’s hair writhed.
Soon, new hair began growing from the cross-section where it had been cut.
Even so, she seemed displeased by the fact that her hair had been severed.
The purple light in her eyes grew murky as she looked at me.
“I won’t let my guard down now.”
Nam Yuri raised one hand.
At that motion, I went on alert and watched my surroundings.
Whoosh!
When I turned toward the sound, the scythe Nam Yuri had thrown a moment ago was returning.
The scythe wrapped snugly around her hand.
“Gyeonwoo-Gyeonwoo, be careful not to die.”
As if to say this time would be different.
Nam Yuri warned me with all trace of a smile gone from her face.
In truth, her aura had become far more ominous than before.
Her hair even rose on end.
Crackle!
It looked dangerous at a glance.
My instinct to evade was warning me too.
Nam Yuri was about to attack with the intent of nearly killing me.
Even so, I didn’t tense up.
Because—
“The fight’s already over, though?”
“Hm?”
I had taken Nam Yuri’s exam badge.
The reason we had been fighting had now disappeared.
I showed her exam badge so that she, who was tilting her head at my words, could see it.
Only then did her eyes widen.
“Ah.”
Nam Yuri let out a short sound.
After checking several times that the exam badge was no longer attached near her chest, she dropped her aura as if deflated.
“So you took it when you cut my hair.”
“Yeah, that’s correct.”
Nam Yuri grasped the situation quickly.
I nodded readily.
At the same time, I fell into thought.
‘What should I do with this, though?’
It was good that, by taking Nam Yuri’s exam badge, I no longer had to waste any more strength.
The problem was that as long as I had this badge, I had to consider the possibility that she might challenge me again to get it back.
In fact, she could do so right now.
Thinking that, her exam badge only felt like a burden to me.
‘If I keep this, I might end up being chased around by her for the next three days for no reason.’
I wanted no part of that.
So there was only one method I could take.
‘I’ll just throw it far away.’
Nam Yuri would be too busy looking for her exam badge to pay attention to me.
There was no better method than that.
Just as I was about to put that thought into action—
She suddenly spoke.
“Oh well! I want to fight more, but if we keep going, it’ll look like I’m throwing a tantrum, won’t it? A loss is a loss, so Gyeonwoo-Gyeonwoo can keep that!”
“….”
“I’ll give up on my exam badge fair and square.”
Nam Yuri turned the scythe, larger than her own height, back into a metal plaque.
She showed that she had no intention of fighting anymore.
As for me, I could only be suspicious.
“So… you’re saying you have no intention of coming to get it back?”
“I would if Gyeonwoo-Gyeonwoo wanted me to, but isn’t that kind of pathetic? It wouldn’t be fun at all. Then what would be the point of us fighting like this?”
“…True.”
“And if I walk around with a black exam badge, everyone will just be wary of me and won’t fight me, so it’d be no fun. This isn’t bad either. Taking the exam while starting with fewer points than everyone else sounds like it could be fun too.”
Nam Yuri was saying something unexpectedly reasonable.
Truly, she was unpredictable.
Even though I knew her personality, I couldn’t perfectly anticipate her actions.
I agreed with a bitter smile.
“Then, Gyeonwoo-Gyeonwoo! Do well on the exam, and make sure we meet at the Academy next time, okay!? I’m going to go collect points now! I had lots of fun!”
“Yeah, take care. Let’s make sure we don’t run into each other for the next three days.”
With a relieved look on her face, Nam Yuri waved and disappeared.
I waved back at her and let out a sigh of relief.
In any case.
“For now, I’ve met the passing condition.”
By obtaining Nam Yuri’s exam badge, my total score became 200 points.
Less than an hour after entering the Gate, I had achieved the minimum score.
I Became the Childhood Friend of the Mid-Boss
(70) [Illustration]
All the examinees had entered the Gate.
Scattered all across the island, each of them was lying in wait for an opportunity to steal someone else’s exam badge.
In that situation, there were only two broad types of people who would openly roam around.
Those confident enough in their own skills not to be hunted by them.
Or those who had failed to grasp the true nature of the exam.
‘How annoying.’
The foremost spirit arts family in the country.
Cha Eunsol of the Circulation Cha Family, if one had to classify her, belonged to the former category.
She did not have absolute confidence in her own skills, but she did not think she was weak enough to be taken down by the examinees.
More than anything, she did not want to think, and everything was just annoying.
Her sugar was dropping.
It was a waste of calories.
‘My sugar and fat must be cherished.’
She had to spend three days on this island.
In a situation where food was hard to come by, it was only right to refrain as much as possible from anything that would consume energy.
Cha Eunsol stroked her stomach, which was already announcing its hunger.
Then, to check her condition, she grabbed her belly fat.
“My belly fat… I can’t grab it….”
Cha Eunsol’s voice trembled.
The thickness of her stretchable belly fat was far too thin.
It did not stretch as well as usual either.
It felt like it had shrunk by 1 mm.
For her, who had a constitution that made it difficult to gain weight no matter how much she ate, even 1 mm was a big number.
Of course, that was only how she felt; in reality, it might not have decreased at all.
But the fact that she had felt it was the problem.
“Nom.”
Even if only to protect her precious belly fat.
And also to replenish her sugar.
Cha Eunsol took a sausage out of her pocket and bit into it.
“Nom nom.”
The sausage was black.
It was chocolate-flavored.
As the sweet taste spread through her mouth, Cha Eunsol’s expression softened.
Whenever she felt that she was lacking sugar, she would often eat this sausage.
In addition, the sausages she always carried around came in a variety of flavors.
They were rich in calories and nutrition as well, making them perfect snacks.
‘I should eat one more.’
This time, it was cheddar cheese flavor.
Cha Eunsol stood in place and peeled open another sausage to eat.
‘There are more people targeting me now.’
Meanwhile, Cha Eunsol was also aware of the examinees lying in ambush around her.
Because even if she did nothing, the spirits told her.
“….”
Their genders, appearances, numbers, weapons, and the colors of their exam badges.
Cha Eunsol knew them all.
She sensed them all.
Rustle!
That was why, even when they launched a surprise attack—
Cha Eunsol was not flustered.
‘One white, three yellow, one green.’
A total of 100 points.
If she could take their exam badges, she could meet the condition to pass the exam.
Cha Eunsol raised the wind.
Whooooosh!
“…What!?”
The wind spirit answered her call.
Wind rose with Cha Eunsol at the center, deflecting the incoming attacks.
It did not stop there, lifting the examinees who had been hiding in the trees into the sky.
Thrown by the wind without a chance to resist, they let out panicked cries.
She did not listen to those voices.
‘You help too.’
Meanwhile, there was also an examinee whose feet remained on the ground.
When the tide of battle was overturned in an instant, he tried to flee.
To stop him from escaping, Cha Eunsol borrowed the power of the earth spirit.
Sssssk!
When she raised her hand toward the sky, a hand surged up from the ground.
The examinee, suddenly standing on that palm, had no idea what to do.
He belatedly tried to jump down, but by then, the wind spirit had already moved.
Suspended in midair, he flailed to somehow break free.
But there was no chance.
The wind, entirely unconcerned, stripped the exam badges from the examinees.
“I gathered them all.”
When she spread both hands toward the sky—
The exam badges dropped in a patter onto Cha Eunsol’s palms.
She sent the examinees flying far away so they could not pursue her.
Then she spoke toward one spot.
“Aren’t you coming?”
The examinees watching Cha Eunsol were not limited to the ones who had been blown away by the wind; there was one more.
Naturally, she had also noticed the remaining person’s presence.
Realizing they had been discovered, the other party obediently walked out from behind a tree.
“I was watching because you looked pretty, but you were from the Circulation Cha Family? No wonder your skill at handling spirits was so impressive….”
“….”
It was a woman wearing a yellow exam badge.
She spoke as if trying to be friendly.
Cha Eunsol did not react.
Because she had seen that, while the woman outwardly displayed a friendly attitude, that was not actually the case.
Her heart was not clean.
That was how special her eyes were.
More than anything….
‘Her body and soul aren’t in harmony?’
It was right then.
The woman drew twin swords.
She abruptly charged.
“Then shall I see for myself how good you are?”
The woman giggled.
Cha Eunsol raised the wind, just as she had a moment ago.
The wind tried to seize her.
Tap, tap!
But the woman avoided the wind’s grasp with supple movements.
She also cloaked her body in a barrier to block it.
‘Lend me your strength.’
Cha Eunsol swung her hand.
The earth spirit answered.
Behind her back, wedge-shaped rocks formed.
She launched them all at once.
Papapak! Ting!
The woman protected her face with her twin swords and knocked the rocks away.
The ones she could not deflect, she dodged.
Some of them grazed her legs or waist, leaving scratches.
Blood flowed from the wounds.
“Not bad.”
As if numb to pain.
Without showing any sign of hurting, the woman instead praised Cha Eunsol.
Meanwhile, she had already closed in right before her.
‘…She’s strong.’
For the first time, Cha Eunsol stepped backward.
Emotion appeared on the face that had maintained an expressionless look from beginning to end.
Borrowing the power of the earth spirit, she made a stone pillar rise from the ground.
Fwoosh!
The stone pillar blocked the woman’s path.
The woman, who had been leaping toward Cha Eunsol, showed a momentary flinch.
But it lasted only an instant.
Her eyes narrowed, and the corners of her mouth drew an arc.
The twin swords imbued with mana shone.
Rumble!
“…!”
The woman’s twin swords pierced through the pillar.
The pillar collapsed just like that.
She was able to face Cha Eunsol, who had been protecting herself inside the stone pillar.
Cha Eunsol’s green eyes widened as she allowed the distance between them to close to a hair’s breadth.
‘You didn’t expect this, did you?’
The woman, Lee Gahyeon, observed Cha Eunsol’s reaction.
She thought she would be flustered.
But she quickly composed herself and asked with an unwavering gaze.
“You… who are you?”
“….”
Cha Eunsol’s gaze was staring straight into Lee Gahyeon’s eyes.
No, not her eyes.
Her gaze was staring at her soul inside this body.
Lee Gahyeon realized it instinctively.
At that very moment—
Fwoosh!
“…!”
Behind Cha Eunsol’s back—
A fireball was flickering.
She had anticipated that her defense would be broken through and had created it in advance.
Surprise spread across Lee Gahyeon’s face as she belatedly noticed the fireball’s existence.
Whoosh!
Cha Eunsol dodged Lee Gahyeon’s blade and twisted her body.
The fireball behind her struck Lee Gahyeon directly.
A pillar of flame shot upward.
Using that opening, she widened the distance.
“Those eyes.”
“….”
Lee Gahyeon emerged from within the pillar of flame.
Having blocked the attack at the last moment to reduce the damage, she looked at Cha Eunsol’s green eyes and spoke.
Her tone sounded intrigued.
“They weren’t ordinary eyes, were they?”
“….”
“Eyes that see what cannot be seen, huh… They’re pretty, and they have value too. I like them. They’re just my taste. Enough that I’d like to make them part of my collection right this instant.”
Lee Gahyeon licked her lips with her tongue.
Cha Eunsol met her gaze and felt an unpleasant chill.
“But I can’t cause trouble, and you’re also a member of the Circulation Cha Clan, so I can’t rashly take you. There’s a possibility you’ll bloom even further, and it would be a shame to erase that possibility…”
She had no idea what the woman was talking about.
Cha Eunsol did not lower her guard.
Just then, Lee Gahyeon clapped her hands.
“You pass for now.”
“…Huh?”
“I’ll look forward to seeing you grow well.”
Lee Gahyeon abruptly turned around and left.
Cha Eunsol stood there in silence, staring at her back.
“…”
If she wanted to chase her, she could.
She was suspicious.
Would it really be all right to let that woman go like this?
Cha Eunsol hesitated.
Before long, she made her decision.
“What a pain. Nom.”
She had already collected the points she needed anyway.
She did not want to move any more than this.
It would only consume energy.
Eating a chocolate-flavored sausage, Cha Eunsol decided to forget about the woman.
* * *
After obtaining Nam Yuri’s exam ticket.
I openly roamed around the island and dealt with the examinees.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t get any news about Lee Gahyeon.
“So this makes 350 points.”
In the end, the only gains I’d made were the exam tickets I obtained after knocking down examinees.
I pinned the newly acquired exam ticket to my clothes and looked up at the sky.
‘I should call it here for today.’
Before I knew it, the day was coming to an end.
Monsters became ferocious at night.
It was dangerous to move around any more than this.
Anyone with sense would have stopped hunting by now and started preparing to spend the night.
I decided to do the same.
‘Let’s go find somewhere to sleep.’
I wasn’t hoping for a place where I could rest comfortably.
Examinees were bound to flock to places like that, which meant I would have to stay on edge all night long.
So I decided to look for somewhere I could hide myself well enough, and where people were unlikely to set foot.
‘If it’s in a monster’s territory, they probably won’t come. But if I go too deep, I might end up in danger too… It’d be best to settle somewhere as close to the boundary as possible.’
I stepped into the forest.
The forest was extremely dark.
As the sky gradually turned bluish, the darkness blanketing the forest deepened.
It was hard to see far ahead.
Rustle!
“…”
That was when I sensed a presence.
Something was circling around me.
‘…A person?’
It wasn’t the presence of a monster.
From the looks of it, examinees who had entered the forest before me seemed to be targeting me.
‘I can’t see them from here.’
They were up in the trees.
I could only sense them moving swiftly, melting into the darkness; I couldn’t see them.
The same was probably true for them.
To illuminate the darkness around me.
I deployed first-tier light elemental magic and floated a sphere made of light.
The fist-sized sphere rising above my palm illuminated the forest hidden in darkness.
It was a spell distinct from Radiation, which simply condensed mana and made it emit light.
“…I can’t see them.”
Then I raised my palm high.
The fist-sized sphere rising above my palm illuminated the forest hidden in darkness.
Unfortunately, the light did not reach as far as where they were.
At this rate, it would only reveal my position instead.
Even so, it didn’t matter.
I decided not to turn off Light.
‘I can just draw them in like this.’
There wasn’t just one of them. There were several.
Naturally, it was more efficient to wipe them all out at once than deal with them one by one.
Deciding to lure them in, I continued walking.
Rustle!
They were following me.
Now they were openly revealing their presence.
They were trying to scare me.
At the same time, they were skilled.
‘…Three of them?’
Taking turns revealing their presence.
They were herding me.
They were guiding me so that I would be startled by their presence and change direction.
Of course, it was only possible because I was letting myself be fooled.
Before long, perhaps deciding they had driven me where they wanted, they let out laughter.
The sound rang out as if echoing.
“You’ve fallen into our trap!”
“You didn’t even realize you were being lured, did you!?”
“What an idiot!”
…Somehow, those lines sounded familiar.
At that point, I could guess who they were.
Sure enough.
“If you don’t want to die!”
“Hand over your exam ticket!”
“Then we’ll at least spare your life!”
The ones who suddenly leapt down from the trees were the triplets.
My underlings.
‘No wonder it feels like it’s been a while since I’ve seen them. But what the hell are these guys saying?’
I snorted, dumbfounded.
I Became the Childhood Friend of the Mid-Boss