6. One Year, Then One More (1)
August, Year 460 of the New Era.
“Come to think of it, it was around this time last year, right? When the Squire said those strange things.”
Senior Soldier Jun struck up a conversation with the Squire, who was undertaking the jungle reconnaissance mission alongside him. The Squire replied with a displeased expression, clearly not welcoming Jun’s topic.
“Strange things?”
There was the fact that he did not want to speak of a shameful past, but it was also because he missed the stiflingly rigid demeanor Jun had shown when they first met.
Jun, whose stifling temperament had shifted into perceptiveness now that he was more talkative, failed to notice the other’s discomfort and kept at it.
“Why, you know. Things like, ‘You’ve worked hard for a year too,’ or ‘I hope we meet again.’ You spoke as if you were going to disappear, then spent three days drowning in a liquor vat, didn’t you? Then you attended the Prayer Ceremony, caused all sorts of mayhem, and to Sir Coren, you——”
“Shut up! Damn it!”
Jun couldn’t finish his sentence and closed his mouth at the other’s shout. But a bright smile bloomed on his face as he followed behind the Squire.
“…Forget it, you bastard.”
He covered his face and quickened his pace, moving ahead of Jun. Jun did not miss the red flush spreading across the uncovered part of his face.
“Hey now! You need to listen to me well here. Acting alone is dangerous, even for a Squire.”
“Acting alone? We’re moving in a two-man team… Damn it!”
He ignored Jun’s words and walked even faster.
“Squire……! Sir Jeongjin! I’m telling you, it really is dangerous!”
Senior Soldier Jun urgently followed Ijeongjin, who ignored him and ran into the jungle.
Squire.
In other words, Ijeongjin had obtained the position of Trainee Knight starting last year.
The knight system of the Karbon Territory—no, the three empires—had three types.
At Level 20, one became a Trainee Knight; at Level 30, a Quasi-Knight; and at Level 50, upon undergoing the 2nd Advancement, one obtained the rank of Official Knight.
Of course, non-Blessed could also challenge for knighthood, but competing against Blessed who acquired superhuman physical abilities through leveling up and stat investment was too harsh, so their numbers were few.
And in Karbon Territory, there existed only one Official Knight: Coren. There were no Quasi-Knights, and the number of Squires, including Ijeongjin, could be counted on one hand.
Having finally entered the ranks of power, yet seemingly unhappy about it for some reason, Ijeongjin grumbled and quickened his steps.
“Trainee Knight, my ass……!”
It was the result of weighing Swain’s concerns: the judgment that remaining inside the lord’s castle to train continuously would not be good for Ijeongjin, and that coddling a single Blessed One would spread bad rumors to the outside.
Provided appropriate information control was maintained, they had even received imperial permission to expose the Summoned to the outside, and since he had just surpassed Level 20 and met the conditions for a Trainee Knight, Coren appointed Ijeongjin as his assisting Trainee Knight and had been leveling him up by slaying monsters around Karbon Territory since last year.
But Ijeongjin was not pleased with this. He stopped walking and turned around. Then he lightly stabbed his spear at a tree to the right.
Thud! Squeak—!
The sound of a small animal in the tree shrieking as it died. A creature the size of a small dog was impaled on the tip of his descending spear.
Ijeongjin pointed the spear toward Jun and spoke indifferently.
“How could this be dangerous? Especially since both of us have learned mana. The worst situation I can imagine is getting a scratch from one of these things found out and rolling around dead at Sir Coren’s feet.”
The animal on his spear was a mountain rat, the most commonly seen creature in the Salkir Jungle where Karbon Territory was located.
When Verdo had pioneered Karbon Territory, he had completely wiped out nearby monsters and threatening carnivorous animals. With the natural population control of predators gone, these omnivores bred like wildfire every summer. In the territory, they were welcomed as providers of scarce protein and fat.
But when their numbers grew too great, monsters entrenched deep in the Salkir Jungle would often descend to feed on the mountain rats. To prevent this, organizing parties to hunt mountain rats every summer was one of the main summer tasks for Karbon Territory soldiers and mercenaries.
Senior Soldier Jun said with a stern expression.
“It’s because the Squire has never seen the monsters that come down to eat them.”
“Aren’t you talking about those weird bird flocks no different from stinking monkeys except for their beaks?”
“They are on another level from those. Black bears or packs of giant hounds established deep in the jungle—if they come down, you should consider yourself dead without Quasi-Knight level Blessed.”
In present-day Karbon Territory, it was hard to see dangerous monsters if one did not enter the jungle. But Senior Soldier Jun, who had spent his childhood since the pioneering days of the territory, had experienced firsthand how many dangerous monsters swarmed inside.
At least in this jungle, Ijeongjin did not disregard the words of Senior Soldier Jun, who was more of an expert than him.
The ‘Indestructible’ option was not invincible. If he initiated hostile actions against monsters or fellow humans first, the Indestructible option would naturally disappear.
‘He started it first though……’
Still, Ijeongjin remained somewhat indignant. Spitefully, he sprinkled fallen leaves on top of Senior Soldier Jun’s head as the latter was sprinkling white powder on the mountain rat carcass to prevent decay.
“Ah! Come on!”
* * *
Hunted mountain rats were packed into leather sacks; once a sack was filled, it was buried in a hole. A simple mark was placed above, and once the safety of the reconnoitered path was confirmed, soldiers were sent to retrieve them.
“Were there always this many rats?”
Ijeongjin sat sprawling on a wide rock, drinking water, his face openly displaying annoyance. For five hours, the two had caught enough rats to fill eight sacks tightly. Only two sacks remained.
“It’s about this much every year. We have to repeat this for a month before the rat population noticeably decreases.”
“Can’t we make traps and catch them all at once?”
“Of course we do that as well. Would you like to go see when this reconnaissance is over? The sight of nets large enough to hold dozens of people packed full of rats is quite a spectacle.”
“……”
‘So that’s why you don’t see starving people in this territory……’
Ijeongjin had not grown used to the appearance of the mountain rats either. If you took a squirrel as a base and mixed in a rabbit, would that shape come out?
When they judged there was nowhere left to flee, they would approach quickly with a writhing, unpleasant movement and struggle to bite toes and fingers; at times, they evoked disgust surpassing that of cockroaches.
“Ah.”
As Ijeongjin shuddered at the thought of dead rats, Senior Soldier Jun’s voice reached his ears.
“Squire……!”
Jun lowered his voice and gestured to Ijeongjin. Ijeongjin, tensing as well, approached him.
“What is it?”
“That… among the Blessed’s skills, there are ones that judge tracks? Something like that? Do you happen to possess such a skill, Squire? This is a bit suspicious.”
‘Does he mean a skill like Tracking?’
Ijeongjin looked at the tracks Jun pointed out. The footprints Jun indicated had faded so much due to the morning shower that it was difficult to tell something had even passed by.
“I do have Detection, but it’s a passive, so it won’t be very effective. Still, I’ll try.”
Ijeongjin stirred his mana and focused on the ‘Detection’ skill.
‘I don’t feel anything?’
Just as he tilted his head.
Thud! Thud-thud-thud!
Jun pounded his shoulder furiously. Ijeongjin looked back at him, slightly annoyed.
“What… hup!”
Before he could speak, Jun urgently covered Ijeongjin’s mouth. Then he pointed at the stream flowing down the slope.
Grrrr……
There, a large creature was tearing into something else.
‘A bollok!’
The hunted specimen was an animal Ijeongjin knew as well. An animal treated as a quasi-monster. A giant carnivorous boar straight out of a B-movie. One possessing a charging force that could injure even Ijeongjin if struck properly. An animal that mercenaries working in Karbon Territory avoided as dangerous.
‘Because of that?’
He pointed at the unknown creature devouring the bollok and asked Jun.
He had seen a creature similar to it in his memories. Would a crocodile listed in the Guinness Book have that build? However, the difference from ordinary crocodiles was that its limbs were twice as long and it was moving its jaw joints more flexibly to tear apart the bollok.
A nod.
Cold sweat ran down Jun’s temple as he answered wordlessly.
‘It’s a monster called Rodal. It’s not black bear class, but… it’s dangerous for the two of us, so let’s slip away quietly. And we must inform Sir Coren immediately.’
‘No, that seems like it’ll be difficult.’
‘What?!’
Jun had proposed fleeing, but Ijeongjin, possessing superior five senses thanks to his stats even without using mana, could see the creature clearly.
The pupils of the Rodal tearing into the giant boar were faintly turned sideways, in the direction where Ijeongjin and Jun were hidden. Having noticed the two trying to flee, Rodal decided to ignore its meal and attack them.
“It’s coming.”
Ijeongjin spoke calmly without lowering his voice. At his words, Jun also confirmed that Rodal had turned its body.
Grr!
The creature charged, blood dripping around its mouth. Though it resembled a crocodile, its long limbs let it run much faster than the crocodile movement speed Ijeongjin imagined.
“Not from the front! Jump to the sides!”
Jun stopped Ijeongjin, who was about to charge head-on.
Thud-thud! The one-ton mass climbed the hill, making noise. But Ijeongjin had experienced a different density of experience since coming to the planet Orloka; he was not one to fear it.
Geuak!
“Now!”
When Jun shouted at the point about ten meters away, Ijeongjin did not hesitate for a moment and leaped to the left. Even while running, he stabbed his spear at Rodal’s eye.
Thud! Crack!
Perhaps irritated by such Ijeongjin, Rodal whipped its tail toward him, and simultaneously, a tree struck by the creature’s tail broke cleanly apart.
Thud!
Seeing the opening, Jun did not delay and stabbed at Rodal’s flank. Jun’s spear was wrapped in a faint green light.
‘Shallow!’
But as a predator of the Salkir Jungle’s aquatic ecosystem and a monster, Rodal’s scales were too much to pierce. Only about one-third of his spear blade embedded into the creature’s skin.
‘I have to draw its attention and the Squire must attack!’
Just as Jun judged so—had Rodal read his intent?—the creature turned its body and thrust its maw at Jun.
“Huk!”
Drawing attention was one thing, but seeing Rodal’s maw rushing at him made his confidence plummet. Jun flattened himself to dodge Rodal’s teeth. Even so, Jun believed Ijeongjin would not miss this opening.
Ijeongjin was a spiteful fellow and a lazy slacker who sloughed off his duties as a Squire, but in battle alone he possessed a voraciously aggressive attitude.
But these two arrogant humans were underestimating the wild nature of the monster. Rodal turned toward Jun and used that momentum to whip its tail at Ijeongjin behind it.
Thud!
“Kuaaack!”
A scream presumed to be Ijeongjin’s rang out from behind Rodal.
“Ijeongjin!”
Jun quickly got up and hid behind a tree, calling for Ijeongjin. Then he took out a spare spear he had brought and was about to thrust quickly at Rodal’s nose and eyes……
Grrrrrrk!
Rodal was twisting its body violently in agony!
Jun calmly observed the creature, looking for an opportunity, and was able to discern the reason. A large portion of Rodal’s tail had been cut off. As the creature thrashed in frenzy, blood sprayed everywhere.
As Rodal twisted, Ijeongjin was visible behind it. He was leaning his back against a tree, holding a one-handed axe neatly upright in front of his chest.
“Heo-eok……!”
A deep blue light swirled around the blade of the one-handed axe held in both hands. At the critical moment, he had rolled on the ground to dodge, drawn the axe at his waist, and unconsciously used the Smash skill to guard his chest. Simultaneously, Rodal’s tail struck the axe blade.
Fortunately, the power of Smash had enough force to cut through Rodal’s tail, which was thicker than a human waist. Ijeongjin collected himself and raised his spear. He quickly stabbed at Rodal’s anus and shouted at Jun.
“Keep dodging!”
Rodal turned its head to attack Ijeongjin, but Jun seized the moment it turned and threw a rope at its face. The rope accurately coiled around Rodal’s neck.
Kk! Ahh!
Rodal turned its body in anger. Jun’s body was shaken about as if he had become a toy, but he used that force to approach a nearby tree and quickly tied the rope around the trunk.
Rodal shook its head, trying to remove the rope. But Ijeongjin’s spear stabs at its rear were so painful that it could hardly exert its strength properly.
Ugh-zzik!
Unable to endure, the creature thrust its face forward and broke the tree.
“Kyaack!”
Jun had never imagined such a scream would come from his own mouth. But if he sat down here, his future would be monster dung. He did not want to become dung.
Unable to tie it to the tree any longer lest the rope snap, he held the rope lightly in his right hand and gripped his spear long in his left, pecking at the creature’s face to draw its attention.
Then he positioned a tree between himself and Rodal to use as a shield, employing a tactic of avoiding attacks.
Ugh! Thud! Crack! Thud!
From behind, the sound of stabbing. From the front, the sound of a tree breaking. Rodal’s eyes turned red as it thrashed almost frenziedly, and with every twist—huddeuk!—its scales shredded the rope bit by bit.
Tuk!
Finally, the rope snapped.
He had reinforced the rope with mana, but there were limits. Jun rolled on the ground with the broken rope and shouted urgently.
“Skill! Use a skill!”
Ijeongjin replied irritably.
“Damn it! Easier said than done!”
From what Ijeongjin had learned, a skill was a technique that used mana with mysterious corrections added. Thus, one could not use skills freely just because one had learned them. It meant the user’s ability had to support it.
And for Ijeongjin, who had never experienced a dire crisis like the present one, using a skill was difficult.
‘Difficult, my ass! I’m Ijeongjin! Twenty-five years old, someone who speaks casually even to a count! A man who endured two years with sheer spite!’
Ugh!
He bit his tongue hard.
Blood spurted from his mouth and pain pierced his brain like lightning. His tongue throbbed with pain as if set on fire, but thanks to that, his mind snapped awake.
Holding back tears that threatened to well up, Ijeongjin circulated mana through his body following the method established on the planet Orloka over countless years.
“Single Flash!”
[Mental Strength has increased by 1.]
The steel spear laden with ample mana pierced through Rodal’s anus.
Puuuuk—!
Kk! Kkeugh! Kkeugeuk!
The spear thrust into its anus was buried so deep only the leather-wound hilt was visible. As Rodal twisted, Ijeongjin picked up Jun’s spear and aimed for an opening.
“Jun! Anything! Stop it!”
Having felt the power of the skill, Ijeongjin gained confidence and climbed a tree. Then, watching the frenzied Rodal, he shouted at Jun.
“Wha, uh… ah!”
It wouldn’t stop even if stabbed with a spear. The moment Jun judged so, he surveyed his surroundings. Soon he spotted the rock Ijeongjin had sat on to rest. Jun quickly went there and picked up a rock of suitable size.
Hudadaak! Ujijik!
“Kuaaa!”
Though Jun was also a non-Blessed, he was a superhuman who had learned mana. He lifted a boulder weighing over 200 kilograms above his head and threw it at Rodal’s head.
Kung!
Rodal nimbly twisted its body, but its nose and snout tip were crushed by the stone, becoming ragged. When the creature screamed in unbearable agony and raised its body high.
“Single Flash!”
Ijeongjin dropped from the tree, stabbing his spear downward.
Geuk……!
Ijeongjin’s steel spear smashed the creature’s skull and destroyed its brain in one go.
Unable to overcome the thrusting force, Ijeongjin tumbled aside. He sprang up and approached Rodal to prepare for any eventuality.
They were basic skills, Smash and Single Flash, which could be used over a hundred times a day if used lightly, but because he had put his full power into the attacks due to a mistake in force distribution, his mana had decreased by nearly thirty percent.
He suppressed the lethargy and nausea rushing in from suddenly consuming a large amount of mana and confirmed Rodal’s death.
“It’s gone. It wasn’t tough enough to survive with its brain destroyed.”
The moment he confirmed its death, he recovered his spear lodged in its anus.
Pyung!
“Hwee-eok.”
Ijeongjin pinched his nose and dry-heaved.
The spear lodged in Rodal’s head was covered all over with thick, sticky yellow and red clumps.
“Jun! You alive?!”
Ijeongjin roughly wiped his spear against the ground and approached Jun.
“Ugh, my back……”
Jun lay on the ground, twisting his back in pain. He must have exerted himself too much when throwing the boulder. Relieved that he seemed free of serious injuries, Ijeongjin collected the fallen weapons around them.
Ijeongjin picked up the hand axe near the broken tree and grumbled.
‘Levels just won’t freaking rise. To think there’d be such a blind spot during the education period.’
At best, three levels in two years.
That was the growth rate Verdo had told Ijeongjin about.
Ijeongjin recalled a conversation with the count from six months ago.
“To think the growth rate correction wouldn’t apply to experience gained from killing monsters. This was something even the Imperial Court didn’t know.”
“If there is no correction, how fast is the leveling speed?”
“From the time you reach Level 10 and undergo your 1st Advancement, even if you hunt monsters and train like crazy, two levels per year is the average growth rate for high-ranking Blessed.”
“At the 1st Advancement?”
“Moreover, if you reach Level 50 and undergo the 2nd Advancement, the leveling speed slows further, and after the 3rd Advancement at Level 100, it decreases even more, making it hard to gain even one level per year.”
“How can that be……”
“Considering you must also risk losing body parts, contracting poison or disease, or even dying in battles with monsters, the example I just gave is the speed when all necessary resources besides combat are abundantly supported. I’m sorry, but Karbon Territory has limits on the support I can provide, so Jeongjin, yours will be a bit slower than that.”
“No, it’s fine. I am more than grateful even for this much.”
Having answered, Ijeongjin felt something odd and looked at Verdo. With time, Verdo’s level had risen by one to 122. And no matter how one tried to gauge it, his outward appearance looked like mid-forties.
“Come to think of it, how old are you, Count?”
Verdo was over ninety years old. After a brief cough, Verdo spoke to Ijeongjin.
“Quiet, Jeongjin.”
“Yes……”
‘Still, if it gets dangerous, I can always abandon the education period.’
He had charged forward like a thunder monkey believing he could abandon the education period if needed, but after a year, Ijeongjin’s level was only 22.
“If you can move your body, get up.”
Shaking off his thoughts, Ijeongjin handed Jun his weapon.
“What use is a man whose back gives out already.”
“It’s because some Squire bastard drove me so hard.”
“If you use that as an excuse when you fail to make a third child, I wonder if your wife will be convinced.”
‘What a load of crap…….’
Jun grumbled and checked his weapon.
‘Still, if the one on this reconnaissance mission with me hadn’t been the Squire, I would’ve become a meal for Rodal, so I’ll endure that level of bullshit.’
Stretching his back straight and composing his thoughts, Jun approached Rodal’s corpse.
“Squire, even if you are Blessed, it’s truly amazing that you’ve grown this strong in just two years.”
“……”
But Ijeongjin did not react. Ignoring Jun’s words, he kept staring in one direction.
“Squire?”
Jun looked at him with a glance that said, ‘Here we go again…’
‘I need to clean up Rodal’s corpse, launch the contact smoke bomb since it was discovered, and there’s a mountain of things to take care of.’
What can you do? Rank is a thug. Jun suppressed his irritation and spoke kindly to Ijeongjin.
“Squire? Sir Coren said he will definitely report if you don’t listen to me during this reconnaissance……”
“Jun.”
Ijeongjin cut off Jun’s not-quite-threat and called his name.
At the tone dripping with severity, Jun endured the pain in his back and trudged over to Ijeongjin.
When Jun looked in the direction Ijeongjin quietly raised his finger and pointed.
“What the… hup!”
Geu-eugh! Wujeok! Wujeok!
The carcass of the bollok that the first Rodal attacking Ijeongjin and Jun had been eating. A pack of more than ten Rodals were tearing into it, engaged in a quiet scuffle.
To make matters worse, the remaining creatures smelled the blood scent wafting from the Rodal corpse they had killed and were walking leisurely in that direction.
Jun felt the reptilian, spine-chilling gazes fixed on him and thought:
‘It’s too late.’
If they had decided to flee, they should have run the moment Rodal died. The monsters were walking slowly because they were fully confident they would not miss Ijeongjin and Jun.
“Smoke.”
Ijeongjin spoke, gripping his spear tightly and assuming a stance.
“Yes?”
“You said there’s a smoke thing you set off when monsters are spotted! Hurry and use it!”
“!!”
Having said that, Ijeongjin ran straight into the Rodals without looking back. Simultaneously, the five monsters approaching them accelerated and lunged at Ijeongjin.
“Kup! Keuheup!”
Ijeongjin went down the slope as if rolling. Before him, five crocodile-type monsters opened their maws wide enough to swallow a human torso in one bite.
Ijeongjin took out the thick wooden shield on his back and secured it firmly on his left shoulder, then bounded diagonally and shouted.
“Smash!”
Kung!
Ijeongjin smashed heavily into the left temple of one Rodal lunging from the left. The noise was loud enough to reach Jun, who was lighting the smoke canister atop the hill.
‘Kkeu-eugh!’
Ignoring the throbbing pain in his shoulder, he observed the movements of the remaining creatures.
The monsters nimbly turned their heads toward Ijeongjin, who had moved toward their tail side.
‘One is staggering and two are colliding with each other!’
In reality, only two were accurately thrusting their fangs at him.
Ijeongjin crouched his knees deep and put strength into his lower body. On his thighs, hidden by thin clothing, excessively concentrated mana and blood caused thick veins to bulge like earthworms.
“Ttuhap!”
Then he jumped immediately!
Ijeongjin soared upward in an instant. Fortunately, one creature couldn’t react, but one turned its maw upward.
One Rodal that responded to Ijeongjin’s movement with the agility of a wild animal and the instinctive mana usage unique to monsters.
“Smash!”
Enduring the throbbing pain in his left shoulder, he swung his spear down widely from above like an axe chop.
Puhwak!
The spear blade accurately split Rodal’s mouth vertically before being stopped by thick skull bone. But the force concentrated on the spear was not merely physical strength—it was mana that reigned above the laws!
The spear was blocked, but the Smash skill still had remaining power that churned the inside of the creature’s face. Due to the clash of mana, the spear blade did not embed in Rodal’s bone, and from the naturally occurring repulsive force, Ijeongjin landed about ten meters away from the creatures.
“Kkeu-eugh……!”
His palms, skinned and trembling.
Enduring the pain transmitted to both hands with pain resistance and the power of perseverance, Ijeongjin ran in one direction without looking back.
“Is it far?!”
He shouted toward the hill as he ran hard.
“You bastard didn’t run away, did you?!”
Gnashing his teeth, Ijeongjin had no time to wait for Jun, who gave no answer.
Because the remaining four, excluding the one with its maw split vertically, and the dozen or so Rodals that had been eating the bollok had also discovered Ijeongjin and were charging at him.
He reached one spot and crouched to start digging the ground. Because the creatures bickered among themselves as they charged at him, he had about ten seconds of leeway before they arrived.
“He… here!”
Having pulled something from the ground, he threw it at the pack of Rodals charging at him.
“Hap!”
Thud-thud—something fell through the air, sliced in half by his spear. Its identity was a sack containing the hunted mountain rats.
Geuu…….
The carcasses of easily over a hundred rats.
Fortunately, the Rodal pack showed interest in the rat carcasses falling from above; after briefly sniffing them, they lost interest in Ijeongjin and began eating them.
To a Rodal larger than an average hippo, one or two rats were only a drop in the bucket. While they were distracted by the insufficient food and fighting among themselves, buying time, Ijeongjin urgently climbed upward.
Pung! Peo-eong!
When he had climbed about halfway up, two fist-sized spheres shot into the sky, spewing black smoke.
“That’s all?”
Ijeongjin looked at the objects bursting in the air and scattering black smoke with a dumbfounded face.
“What are you doing? Hurry up and come!”
Jun poked his head out and urged Ijeongjin.
“So much for a signal flare! In the time it took, I could’ve gathered branches and started a fire that’d be more reliable than that.”
“Please don’t say such dreadful things in the mountains.”
Just as Jun ignored I Jeongjin, who was grumbling, and was preparing to flee, I Jeongjin stopped Jun—who was turning to leave—and pointed at the corpse of the Rodal they had killed.
“Wait! Roll this bastard’s corpse down too!”
“But this thing is expensive...”
“Is it the local belief of Koreun Territory that you’ll be treated well in the afterlife if you take Rodal leather with you? Shut up and roll it, Senior Soldier Jun!”
* * *
“Kyaack!”
A scream reached the ears of I Jeongjin and Jun, who were running toward the territory.
I Jeongjin shouted to Jun, who was running behind him.
“Who is it!”
“Hamon! It’s Junior Soldier Hamon!”
They stopped running and traced the source of the sound. It was a quiet forest where not a single bird cry could be heard, and the screams thought to be Hamon’s did not ring out again, making it difficult to guess the direction.
I Jeongjin stopped and closed his eyes.
And he focused on the Star Cluster that maintained the flow of mana without stopping.
A technique that actively activated a passive skill, traced that flow, concentrated mana, and doubled the effect of the passive skill.
When mana exceeding its capacity was added to the detection skill he had almost never used, his stomach churned, but I Jeongjin endured it forcefully. Tracing the sensation he had grasped, he opened his eyes and shouted as he ran.
“It’s that way!”
“How do you know!”
“Detection!”
Following the direction I Jeongjin pointed, they discovered Junior Soldier Hamon shortly after.
It was a reconnaissance mission performed in teams of two, but only one was visible; Junior Soldier Hamon was up a tree, waving his spear around and putting up resistance.
When I Jeongjin saw his figure from afar, he asked Jun in annoyance.
“Wasn’t Rodal a creature that lived near water! Why has it come out this far!”
“It mainly lives in water, but that doesn’t mean it can’t go far!”
“What kind of bullshit is that! Is it a guy who drinks but doesn’t drink and drive?!”
Jun tilted his head at the unfamiliar word, but I Jeongjin ignored him and approached Rodal, which was about to climb the tree, with a great leap.
‘Those damned monsters wearing the guise of living creatures!’
At that moment, Hamon, hanging in the tree, spotted them and waved his hand.
“Ah! Squire! Senior Soldier Jun... Huaaack!”
“You idiot!”
Jun, unable to keep up with I Jeongjin’s speed, shouted without realizing it.
Hamon lost his balance and fell below.
And Rodal—a monster wearing the guise of a crocodile, possessing kinetic vision and reaction speed surpassing humans, enough to react even to I Jeongjin’s jump—did not miss it.
“Kuaaack! My arm...! My arm!”
I Jeongjin clenched his teeth and deliberately blocked auditory stimuli using mana. If his mind was shaken by Hamon’s screams, it wouldn’t end with just one arm. Having judged thus, he focused solely on the head of the Rodal biting Hamon’s left arm.
Rodal, having bitten Hamon’s arm once, opened its mouth wide in order to bite his entire upper body.
I Jeongjin exerted his thigh muscles to the point of tearing, ignored the pain from his cracked hand, and threw his spear with all his might.
“Kuaang! One Flash!”
Squelch!
[Your level has increased by 1.]
[Your One Flash skill level has increased by 1.]
[One Flash (Lv 11, Active, Magic): A secret technique manifested when the mana flow included in the 182 movements of the Empire’s basic spear arts is distilled to its core and compressed into a single movement. It is capable of demonstrating power far beyond simply concentrating mana to thrust, but it is a technique severely simplified for the sake of smooth supply, making it difficult to reach the true secret art.]
It had been a while since he heard a level-up notification.
Level is essentially the class of the user’s body and soul. When one levels up, that class rises by a certain value. And accordingly, part of the Blessed One’s stamina and mana recovers.
Especially since there had been no news of One Flash for half a year after it reached level 10, I Jeongjin was as delighted by the skill level increase as he was by the level itself.
Feeling the throbbing pain in his joints and muscles decrease slightly, I Jeongjin landed on the ground.
Hamon cried and pulled out his left arm. In truth, rather than pulling it out, his arm had come free from the mouth of the instantly killed Rodal as he flailed in agony.
His left arm was compressed as if pressed by a hydraulic press, nearly up to just below the elbow.
“Endure it, Hamon!”
Having said that, Jun, who arrived right after, swung his spear and cut off Hamon’s left arm up to the elbow in one strike.
“Guh— ack!”
Then Jun accurately struck Hamon’s chin with his knee to knock him out, and took out bandages and white powder to begin first aid.
“Jun! What are you doing...!”
I Jeongjin looked at him with shocked eyes, but Jun was too busy stopping the blood gushing from the wound to answer.
“Jeongjin-nim! Please help!”
“No, more than that! Why did you cut his arm...!”
“Quickly! I’ll explain later, so inject mana into Hamon’s body just as it is!”
Pushed by the momentum of the shouting Jun, Jeongjin slowly and carefully pushed his half-recovered mana into Hamon’s body.
Jun finished the rough first aid, picked up a suitable stone, and secured it under Hamon’s left armpit as he spoke.
“Hamon hasn’t learned to use mana.”
“Does that have anything to do with cutting this idiot’s left arm off?”
“Of course.”
Jun explained to I Jeongjin, who was looking at him doubtfully.
“The most certain way to distinguish monsters from carnivorous animals is whether they possess mana or not. To be exact, whether they possess corrupted mana, and whether it is a living being whose corrupted mana flows outside the body even without using unique skills.”
“I know that.”
“Then surely you know what adverse effects that corrupted mana has on ordinary people?”
“?”
Jun brought mushrooms from nearby, carefully tore off a cap about the size of a fingernail, and put it in Hamon’s mouth as he asked I Jeongjin,
“Well... from the way you’re saying it, it’s clear it has adverse effects.”
“...It’s not merely adverse. Unless they are ones that have undergone animalization like Bollogi or Toraum, if you are wounded by ones with strong monster characteristics like Rodal, you can assume that most will die.”
“?!”
Could Hamon feel the pain in his left arm even though he had lost consciousness? I Jeongjin, who had been wiping the sweat pouring down Hamon’s forehead, flinched and looked at Jun in surprise.
“I never thought the Squire wouldn’t know because this is such common knowledge. I cut his arm off as quickly as possible, but... honestly, I can’t guarantee he’ll survive......”
* * *
Koreun lightly shook the blood off his greatsword and looked around. The senior soldiers who handled mana alongside him, the mercenaries, and the Blessed Ones were hunting in groups the monsters that had been driven out from the inner survival competition of the Salkireu Jungle region and come down to eat mountain mice.
Of course, by human standards, the monsters were not weak enough to say they had been “pushed out.” More accurately, it was correct to say the monsters of the Salkireu Jungle’s inner region were simply too strong.
“To think that Black Bears have appeared again.”
The black bear roughly three meters in size that Koreun was looking at gravely was one such example.
This bear possessed such ruthless physical abilities that hunting it required either cooperation from Knight Candidates above level 30 or for Koreun to step in personally.
“It seems a new Gate has formed inside. I should suggest it to Lord Tolji.”
Bereudo, Tolji, and Koreun had decided to settle here about twenty years ago. Their fourth son, Seuwain, had been identified as a Blessed One, so they had felt the need to settle down for his education.
Under their leadership, they had nearly exterminated the dangerous Black Bear-grade monsters, but fitting for existences that defied the common nature of ordinary creatures, they crept out little by little every year. Finally, this year, the Black Bear they had driven to extinction ten years ago had reappeared.
“I should call back the soldiers sent out on reconnaissance.”
Just as he resolved to have only senior soldier-level troops capable of sensing mana perform reconnaissance missions, a soldier came running up to him urgently.
Ignoring the mercenaries who were looking at him strangely, the soldier approached Koreun without even saluting or following procedure.
“Sir Koreun!”
“What is it, Senior Soldier Alteo?”
“Junior Soldier Hamon and Junior Soldier Woman, who was teamed up with him, are said to have fled here from a Rodal...!”
“...What? Calm down and tell me in detail.”
“It’s......”