Moreover, Chae Nayun was even receiving I Jiyun's buff, so.......
"......Oh, damn."
But Chaenayun herself was merely staring blankly at the ogre, showing no intention of charging in.
The end.
With an arrow created by pouring out all three strokes of the Stigma, I took off one arm of a mid-grade, upper-tier monster.
It was quite an impressive explosion. However, I didn't have the strength to watch the result.
In an instant, my mind grew hazy, and the sky and ground swapped places in my vision.
Overcome by sudden vertigo, my body fell beneath a tree.
"......Ah."
From that state, I looked at the battlefield. I saw the sight of a sword of mana surging up. It was Chaenayun's doing.
A greatsword roughly half the size of the ogre's forearm was swung horizontally. A wicked sword strike that seemed to cleave even the sky. The ogre staggered as the blade struck its shoulder, and countless slashes from the cadets poured down upon the staggered creature.
......But come to think of it, it seems the recoil grows stronger the more strokes of the Stigma I use.
My body probably can't endure the force of the mana discharge.
"Ugh."
Feeling hazy and dizzy, I closed my eyes.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Though the battle was growing fiercer, the sounds seeping into my ears gradually faded.
To the sudden drowsiness, I gladly surrendered my body.
* * *
When I opened my eyes again, Chaenayun was close-up before me.
Puffy cheeks. A face full of curiosity, like a puppy.
An unrealistically beautiful appearance, I realized anew.
"Ah."
Chaenayun flinched and backed away greatly.
"......What."
"Kya kya kya, you're awake?"
What were you doing to be so surprised? I asked, rubbing my face.
"......What did you do?"
"Ha, what would I be doing. More importantly, I came here right after fighting, and you're sprawled out sleeping?! What?!"
Chaenayun shouted like that for no reason and sat leaning against the tree trunk beside me.
"Ah, sorry. I was tired."
"......Hmph. Still, the first one was super cool. What, was it a special move? A special arrow?"
At that question, I simply nodded silently.
It is a special move. I fell asleep for about 1-2 hours right after firing it, so of course it has to be a special move.
"What about the ogre?"
"We caught it. Thanks to you, we didn't have much trouble."
"That's a relief."
Then, a hologram window arose before our eyes.
[You have cleared the stage.]
[Contribution point settlement complete ─ Announcing the top 3.]
[Chae Nayun: 68 points]
[Gim Hajin: 39 points]
[I Jiyun: 33 points]
[The bottom 30% in contribution points will immediately move to a lower stage.]
[The top 30% in contribution points will move to an upper stage after 2 hours of rest.]
[The remaining 40% will gain an opportunity to retry.]
Reading those messages, I understood.
If we kept repeating stages like this, some would climb the tower and some would stagnate at a certain point, so by the time the exam ended, scores would be appropriately divided.
"Ah~ so that's how it works."
Chaenayun clapped as if she understood too.
And then she poked my shoulder.
"Right. Hey, form a party with me."
"Party?"
"Yeah. There's a party function here. I just found it."
Chaenayun showed me the screen of her smartwatch. On the screen of the watch I had thought only had a time display function, the 'Party' function was boldly displayed.
"......The heck."
"Let's do it."
I looked at Chaenayun. Finding her sparkling eyes burdensome, I subtly averted my gaze, and this time Chaenayun grabbed my sleeve.
"I want to do it with you."
"Ah, what are you saying. Hey, let go first."
"Let's do it, let's do it. I said let's do it~"
Pulling my sleeve this way and that, as if acting cute...... No, it wasn't cute. I felt my very bones rattle from Chaenayun's touch. This feels like she's grabbing me by the collar.
"Ah, hey wait. Let go first. I'm gonna puke."
"I'll let go if you say yes. Hurry, hurry."
She shook me as if she were going to tear my clothes off.
Having no choice, I nodded.
"Okay. Hey, give me your wrist."
Chaenayun's grappling only ended after she personally completed the 'Party Formation' on my smartwatch.
* * *
After that, I went through two more stages with Chaenayun in total.
On some forest path, we escorted NPCs from monsters, and in the Colosseum, we fought other cadets or giant monsters.
To put it honestly, I rode the Chaenayun bus. Chaenayun burst through the stages, displaying overwhelming skill.
From the start, Chaenayun's specialty is combat endurance. With her mana capacity being so enormous that her recovery rivaled Gim Suho's, tower climbing where stamina is important was no different from a fish meeting water for her.
Of course, no matter how much of a Chaenayun bus it was, the exam is an individual competition.
I too earned points in my own way and steadily stayed within the top 30%,
[This is the final stage.]
The final stage had finally appeared.
The final stage, where probably only the elite cadets remained now, was a straight-line cave.
Chaenayun tapped my shoulder and said.
"Hey, this must be that. A boss raid. Look and see what's up ahead."
"Got it."
I widened my eyes.
Within my expanding field of vision, an unremarkable rocky floor passed by...... and a person appeared.
—Yawn.
A woman crouching before a dead-end stone wall, yawning.
It was Rachel.
Somehow happy to see her, I smiled.
"There's one more person over there."
"Really?"
"Yeah. It seems she can't enter alone. Let's go."
"Okay."
Chaenayun and I ran toward her.
Thud, thud, thud, thud.
At those loud footsteps, Rachel flinched, trembled, and sprang to her feet.
And then, with a highly wary face, she drew her rapier and aimed it this way.
I spoke up first.
"Miss Rachel!"
"What? Rachel?"
Chaenayun, who had been running alongside, stopped dead.
But Rachel sheathed her rapier and started running toward us.
The encounter was quickly made.
"Mr. Hajin......?"
Rachel, calling out to me, had a bright face, but upon discovering Chaenayun beside me, her expression slightly stiffened.
"......Chaenayun?"
"What. What's the princess doing here."
Chaenayun and Rachel exchanged displeased glances.
I extended my hand to Rachel. Rachel shook it for now, then resumed her staring contest with Chaenayun.
As expected, they really are rivals.
Well, Rachel and Chaenayun are a relationship the media would pit against each other for the next five years, after all.
Same gender, same year, and now even the same title of swordsman; they're exactly the fodder hero reporters—more ardent than entertainment reporters—would love.
"Um, Miss Rachel. But why were you alone?"
"What? Ah, they said you couldn't enter alone, so I was waiting for people."
This final exam is dangerous for Rachel. Since Lancaster's power isn't that great yet, a monster on the level of causing serious injuries probably wouldn't suddenly appear, but it was clear she was exposed to a greater threat than other cadets.
"That's a relief. Then let's go together."
"Yes. Follow me."
Rachel guided the way. I walked beside Rachel. Chaenayun glared at us slightly from behind, then soon stuck to my side.
We walked like that for about three minutes.
"Hey, princess."
Chaenayun, who had been staring at Rachel sulkily, finally opened her mouth.
"You didn't form a party, I see?"
"......Yes. I did everything alone."
Rachel answered simply.
"Oh really~? Teamwork is probably part of the exam evaluation too. You're gonna get a zero on that."
Chaenayun giggled, trying to get on Rachel's nerves, but Rachel didn't respond.
Then Chaenayun placed her hand on my shoulder and said.
"But you and I will probably get full marks."
"On what."
"We've been together from the start to the end of the stages, right? Plus, a swordsman and an archer. A perfect combonation."
"Ah...... Well, sure. Let's say that's the case."
Rachel glanced at Chaenayun.
"It's not combonation, it's combination."
"......Same thing~"
After that, another three minutes of silence.
This time, Rachel suddenly clapped her hands as if she had just remembered something.
"Ah, right. Mr. Hajin. Would you like to come to England during this winter break? With all the old team project members together. There's a large festival being held at Clancy Islet."
"Clancy Islet? Ah, great. That's wonderful."
My eyes sparkled. I had wanted to go back anyway, but I couldn't because I didn't have an invitation. I felt sorry for Rachel, but shouldn't I freeload off her until I at least get blacklisted?
"Yes. Then please come with Mr. Hoseung, Mr. Bokgyu, and Mr. Jamel."
Rachel said so and smiled.
Jamel.
Just as I was about to grow slightly sentimental at the alias of Tomer that I hadn't heard in a while, Chaenayun cut in indifferently.
"If you just play around every time like that, you'll get left behind~"
"......."
In an instant, Rachel's eyes narrowed sharply.
But kids like Chaenayun are the type who like it more the more you react, and as expected, Chaenayun smiled a triumphant smile.
"Princess, have you heard of Yu Sihyeok? The Yu Sihyeok Camp? You know, the one where the children of hero families bribe their way in with tens or hundreds of billions of won. I'm going there~ You might soon be caught up to even in swordsmanship now."
At that sneer, Rachel let out a shallow breath and, pretending to talk to me, spoke to Chaenayun.
"Mr. Hajin. There is such a thing as efficiency in training too. Generally, if one is unintelligent, they cannot understand what they're taught well, so that efficiency drops considerably."
"......What? Hey, you."
"In that regard, I think I'm progressing a bit quickly."
Rachel's words directed at me were not meant for me.
"These days, I think I've gotten quite close with spirits, spirits."
Perhaps quite stimulated by Chaenayun's words just now, Rachel deliberately mentioned the word spirits. Even emphasizing it twice. Like Evandel's Hajin-Hajin.
"......Spirits?"
"Yes. Spirits, spirits."
"What? Spirits? What's that supposed to mean?"
Then Chaenayun's brow furrowed. Her eyes, full of rivalry, were sharp.
"Ah, my mistake. This is supposed to be a secret."
Rachel covered her mouth slightly with an awkward face. Her cheeks puffed up as if she were about to burst into laughter.
......She wasn't originally this kind of person.
Chaenayun does have a tendency to make people around her childish too. Should I say it's contagious?
"Did you put a hamster in your mouth?"
Just as Chaenayun was sneering like that.
We reached the stone wall.
There was no need to try hard to open this stone wall. The moment the three of us approached and stood before it, the door slid open on its own.
"Pretty plain?"
The interior of the stone wall wasn't much different from the outside.
However, the terrain was circular rather than straight, and it was wide enough to be called a space rather than a passage. You could say we passed through the straight cave and entered a circular cavern.
"......Wait."
I stretched out my arm to stop the two women. Because I saw a figure in the distance.
A suspicious man wearing black robes, suspicious at a glance.
"Someone over there—"
"Greetings, cadets."
But the man approached us first.
"I am called 'Heukjeon,' the supervisor of the final stage."
I met his eyes.
Writhing black pupils. No matter how I thought about it, he gave off an unpleasant aura unbecoming of a supervisor. Specifically, a chilly ghostly energy along with the smell of blood.
Not just me, but Rachel and Chaenayun also seemed to sense something suspicious.
"Are you really a supervisor?"
"Of course. However, before participating in the stage, I will choose one person to eliminate. Only two people can participate in this stage, you see."
The self-proclaimed supervisor spoke thus and pulled out a die.
"The male is 1, 4. The short-haired female is 2, 5. And...... the blonde is 3, 6."
Tap.
The die rolled across the floor.
"The person it lands on cannot participate in this stage."
The result was, as expected, 5.
Chaenayun's brow furrowed.
To her, the supervisor said with a broad smile.
"Short-haired lady?"
"......Why."
The supervisor flicked his fingers.
Then, from above, something slid down with a rattle— a cage came down.
The cage's mana powerfully pulled Chaenayun in.
"Ugh! Ah, what is this!"
"Please go up for now. It will soon be over."
“Hey! Wait! Ah, uaaagh…”
His finger flicked again. The cage imprisoning Chae Nayun shot sharply upward.
Rachel, who had been watching the scene, spoke to me in a dismayed voice.
“Hajin. That man…”
“Yes. He seems to be a Djinn.”
Rachel shook her head and corrected me.
“…He’s from the ‘Waning Crescent of Guicheon.’”
“Waning Crescent?”
“Yes. Look at the emblem engraved on that robe.”
The emblem engraved on the robe—a black goblet, and a faint moon that seemed to float above it.
The Waning Crescent of Guicheon.
Rachel clenched her teeth.
“…I’m sorry. This is all because of me.”
“Huh? No, not really.”
Was the Waning Crescent of Guicheon that great of an organization?
I furrowed my brow.
What was it again? I was sure it had been among my settings, but I couldn’t remember at all.
“Now then, shall we begin the real test?”
But that thought did not last long.
Heukjeon looked at us and drew up his magic power.
Ruuuumble—!
All of a sudden, the ground began to shake violently.
The sudden earthquake split the road, and the cracks gradually widened.
“The test is simple.”
Dozens of daggers unfolded behind Heukjeon’s back like a fan.
The killing intent he was radiating now was not fake, but real.
“Below this place is a stage prepared for a duel.”
Saying that, Heukjeon leaped down into the fissure. As the space continued to split apart like fragments amid the unending quake, Heukjeon’s voice rose from underground.
—For the next ten minutes. If you can endure up there, the stage will be considered cleared, and the test will end.
In that instant, I felt as though an immense weight were pressing down on my shoulders. At the same time, the ground beneath my feet collapsed violently, and I lost my balance and slipped.
“Urgh!”
In that fleeting moment, Rachel threw herself forward and grabbed my wrist.
“Hajin, are you all right?”
“This is…”
“It’s a gravity field. Climb up— ngh.”
Rachel tried to pull me up, and I tried to climb up onto the surface.
But at that moment, my shoulders grew heavier once again. The pressure was so tremendous that even Rachel grimaced in pain.
I felt like I was suffocating.
—However. If even one of you falls down here.
Heukjeon’s voice echoed from below.
—I will kill that person.
Kill.
The temperature of that word, and the emotion contained within it, were chillingly sincere. Fear and dread spread across Rachel’s face.
—Ah, don’t worry about both of you dying. If one person falls, the gravity field will disappear. Oh, right. For your information, the chance that both of you can endure there for ten minutes is probably 0%. A gravity so powerful that even I couldn’t withstand it will arrive, so don’t pointlessly burst apart and die. One of you should give
up.
Just as he said, the gravity field only continued to grow stronger, and the earth repeated the process of breaking and breaking again.
“…”
“…”
Rachel’s gaze and mine met.
Only then did I feel like I understood what that bastard was thinking.
He wanted us to fight and make each other fall, or else expected some melodramatic scene where we each claimed we would die for the other.
Suddenly, Rachel’s expression became extremely serious.
“Hajin, don’t think anything strange.”
“…What, thought, are you talking about?”
My hand was being crushed by gravity, on the verge of plummeting downward, and Rachel held on to it with both hands.
“I’m telling you not to try letting go. Grip my hand with all your strength. Hurry!”
“…No.”
No, that wasn’t it.
Unlike you, my body isn’t one that can keep holding on just because I don’t want to let go.
But the gravity had grown so severe that I could no longer speak. Gravity dozens of times stronger than normal squeezed my vocal cords, and my eyes hurt as though the capillaries in them had burst.
“Ah, ah, Hajin. Don’t think anything strange and come up—!”
“…”
Rachel was shouting desperately in her own way.
But at this rate, I felt like the gravity field itself was going to kill me, so I let go of Rachel’s hand.