When the semester evaluation began, unexpectedly, the industry that enjoyed a boom was none other than the quarry.
The [Match Against the Rock Troll] that decorated the finale of the semester exam.
Because of this, the Academy purchased in large quantities high-quality marble and hard rocks mined from the quarry.
However, only the nobles or merchant lords who managed the quarry enjoyed the boom.
For the laborers working underneath, it was no boom at all.
Rather, it was a period of severe overwork.
Boom! Crash!
Shoddy facilities without even proper quarrying equipment.
All that occupied the space were pickaxes, giant hammers, and large nails.
Having carved away the mountain to reveal a massive rock formation, the quarrymen were pounding it without rest.
"Strike in order! Don't let your posture slip!"
"You stupid bastard! Don't falter! You son of a...!"
"Don't lose focus, one mistake and your neck's broken!"
Shouts mixed with harsh reprimands flew about.
For occupations where a single mistake could cost your life, it was perhaps unavoidable.
Still, they were only this sensitive because they had to extract the massive rocks in perfect form; normally, they weren't bad people.
They just had to earn money, and their lives were precious, so they were only aggressive when working.
During that time.
Crack!
"You stupid bastard!"
One of the new workers who joined today finally caused an accident.
He struck the wrong grain, causing a crack to appear in part of the rock formation, and that crack gradually grew larger.
Crrrrack-!
"Uh, uhh?!"
"Don't stand there like idiots, take cover, you fools!!"
The rough-tongued foreman's roar.
Since even a single mistake could cause a major accident, there was naturally a manual, and running to a safe place without hesitation was undoubtedly the best manual.
As everyone urgently fled.
"W-wait a moment...!"
One novice worker's legs froze.
Likely, his legs gave out from the unexpected situation.
"Gus...!"
A coworker urgently called the worker's name and tried to help, but the timing was already too late.
Crash! Rumble!
Boulder-sized rocks from the cracked area fell one after another.
Before a disaster like a rockslide, humans were infinitely powerless.
People thought with pale faces that one person would become a handful of blood today, but.
Grab!
Someone grabbed the worker by the scruff of his neck and dodged the falling rocks.
"...Huh?"
"Snap out of it, man. How long are you going to stand there dazed."
"……."
"You really aren't suited for this work. Find something else."
"...T-thank you."
"Your thanks are too late, too."
"...Yes."
The worker slowly nodded at the advice of the man who had saved him.
It did seem like he wasn't built for this, as the man said.
* * *
"Mr. Rohan! Thank you so much, if it weren't for you, we'd be carrying out a corpse."
"Corpse my foot, we wouldn't even have recovered a corpse."
"Could you stop with the unlucky words?"
"If you're grateful, how about giving me more overtime pay."
The worker Rohan replied gruffly and silently devoted himself to the work that had resumed.
Despite such a large rockslide accident, no one cared and work resumed.
This sight was in a way terrifying, but the laborers accepted it as normal.
There was an accident, but it was just an unexpected mishap.
In a world without even labor rights, let alone labor unions, who would worry about a little accident?
Honestly, such accidents were everyday occurrences—would you believe that some people were actually happy because the large amount of fallen rocks meant the work would finish faster?
"I know, I'll put in a word upstairs to get you more. Since we don't have to pay the guy who caused the accident anyway, I'll give it all to you."
"That's definitely a fine way to show gratitude."
Clang! Crack!
"...Wow, your skill is remarkable. Have you worked somewhere else before?"
While the foreman had been keeping an eye on the worker Rohan, he witnessed his skill and let out continuous admiration.
His skill was that extraordinary.
"Just experience I've accumulated here and there."
"Haha, so you're experienced, and outstandingly so!"
The true beginning of quarrying work lay in shaping the rocks so they could be loaded onto carts.
After all, you couldn't move things that were too heavy.
And the tool for shaping rocks was only a single pickaxe; there were hardly any other tools.
Therefore, it required solely the strength and skill of experienced workers, and in a quarry where lives were always at risk, skilled veterans were precious manpower.
'He's no ordinary guy, look at that consistent striking?'
Crack! Crunch!
Every time the pickaxe passed, the rock was shaped.
It wasn't something that could be done with just strength; it was a skill that required technique and know-how.
Excellent!
'Even if I have to pay more, I need to scout him!'
Talent shortages existed in every industry.
The foreman's eyes gleamed.
'...I could die of misery, it's strangely only middle-aged men who like me so much.'
The worker Rohan, who was shaping stones.
No, the worker-turned-knight who had temporarily changed his name and become a quarryman couldn't hide his ambivalent expression.
When he confirmed the owner of the intense gaze he felt from behind, a sense of sorrow arose.
Some Taechang bastard receives such intense gazes from beautiful noble ladies, but what I get is....
'What a life, damn it.'
Though he felt nausea rising, he silently devoted himself to the quarrying work.
Wearing a thick mask to block quarry dust and other particles, he continuously swung his pickaxe.
"Huuuh! Huuuh!"
Breathing was difficult.
The mask itself was specially made, blocking quarry dust and fine particles with 99.9% probability, but in exchange, it was damnably hard to breathe through—the alchemist merchant's words seemed to be true.
Perhaps because of that, the more intensely he moved his body, the faster his stamina depleted compared to normal.
However, he was more than satisfied with this damn mask.
Because this was what made it easy to feel his limits.
Clang! Claaang!!
'Damn, this is hard!'
Trying to break a stone that was noticeably harder than the others, his hands rattled.
The foreman might think he was breaking stones effortlessly, but it was not easy at all.
Swinging a pickaxe was something that took more stamina the more you did it, and especially when breaking hard things, the shock transmitted to the body.
In that sense, his body, which was breaking more than five times as many stones as others, was quickly feeling its limits.
The pain rising from his overworked wrists and arms.
It was a sign that an injury could occur at any moment.
Normally, he wouldn't have cared about such signals, but right now, it was extremely arduous and his mind kept fading.
No matter how good his recovery ability was, there was such a thing as a limit.
'As expected, 18 hours of training a day is torture.'
He had been devoting himself to training at this pace all day for eight days already.
Two hours of running right after waking up.
Three hours of climbing cliffs while carrying logs and such.
Five hours of honing weapon techniques.
Eating seven or more meals between training and taking short naps.
And all the remaining time was spent entirely at the quarry.
It was the same as having no rest at all, and he was gradually hitting rock bottom both mentally and physically.
Relying solely on his body's innate regeneration to endure was one thing for a day or two, but after exceeding 8 days, it was natural to start hitting bottom.
"……."
Claaang! Clang!!
But he did not stop.
Rather, he struck the stones more forcefully, more strongly, and repeatedly shattered them!
Flex!
He thought he already knew the technique of tensing his power, but the more he tried, the more new sensations bristled throughout his body.
The movement and flow of power, and concentration and embodiment.
The more he repeated and mastered it, the deeper and more profound this embodiment became.
It was probably a training method only he could do.
Only he, who had repeated this process for years along with his special constitution, could accomplish.
And at some point...!
'I can see it.'
My limit.
The worker Rohan—no, the knight Lee Han—focused.
Because right now, this moment when he could see his limit, was the crossroads.
The fork in the road where he didn't know if it would lead to growth or regression.
Flaaaare!
'It's here!'
He instinctively realized.
That 'it' he had been waiting for, which some warriors would consider themselves fortunate to experience even once in their lifetime, had come...!
The state of selflessness.
Or the state of mushin.
It was a state forcibly induced by driving himself to the extreme.
Lee Han forgot even his own existence and the act of his body moving, and simply swung the pickaxe.
Now even Lee Han didn't know the result.
Where this forcibly induced state of selflessness would lead him.
But Lee Han believed in himself.
He believed in the efforts he had made all this time, and the years he had driven himself to the limit solely to achieve his goal.
Thud!
Clang!
Crack!
Repeated movements.
No, even forgetting the movements, with the focus gone from his eyes, the present was used only for observing his body.
A tiny, very minor change occurred inside Lee Han's body.
Oooohm-!
A minute—no, a minutely occurring change in the flow.
And that.
Swoosh!!
—Produced the best result.
"......Ah."
Belatedly, his unfocused pupils returned to normal, and Lee Han almost lost strength in his legs for a moment.
"Hey, Mr. Rohan. Take it easy, push too hard and you'll drop dead."
"...How long have I been like this?"
"Huh? Less than a minute, I think?"
"One minute...."
"Y-you sure nothing's wrong? D-do you want to go back now?"
"……."
The foreman was anxious about his precious ace getting hurt, while Lee Han saw the result he had achieved.
'...Still, maybe it was worth the challenge.'
The rock he had struck down upon.
It was undeniably extremely hard, and until now, the only option had been to shatter it.
But now.
"Huh? Why is the cross-section of this rock like this?"
"Mr. Rohan, how did you do this?"
"...Just, well."
The pickaxe hadn't shattered the rock but had cleanly split it into multiple pieces like chopping firewood, and seeing this, Lee Han.
"It just kind of ended up that way."
He just shrugged and gave his answer.
The night of the 12th day of the semester evaluation.
The knight had finished his own personal 'bulk-up' in preparation for any eventuality.