Chapter 111

               

There are those who would describe marching tens, or even hundreds, of kilometers in the army as the ‘pinnacle of training’ or ‘hellish training’.

I can say with certainty, if that person came here, they wouldn’t just call it hell.

Wouldn’t they have called it hell’s grandfather?

“Hoo, hoo.”

“Hoooo.”

Hot breaths escaped the team members’ lips.

Beads of sweat formed on their foreheads, and their breathing grew increasingly ragged.

Just because you were a high-rank hunter didn’t mean you had infinite stamina.

We were still human, after all.

If you expend more than a certain amount of stamina, you run out of breath.

This was especially true for those whose abilities didn’t involve direct physical exertion, unlike Zhang Wei or James.

‘Besides.’

This was a march with no end in sight.

No matter how much we walked, the castle ahead of us remained the same size, and a fear that we could walk for a month and still be in the same spot began to consume our bodies.

It was a psychological terror.

“Let’s rest here for a moment.”

In the end, in the middle of the path.

I stopped walking.

No matter how much of a competition this was, managing our stamina was important.

In short, it was similar to a marathon.

I couldn’t afford to overexert myself in the beginning, only to be caught by another team.

“Zhang Wei, please take charge of setting up camp. Find a spot in the shade, and those who need to take care of business can do so. Also, look around for anything we can use for food.”

Fortunately, there was plenty of food around.

There seemed to be wild animals, and I could also see fruits and roots like the ones from Theme 1.

Well, yeah.

If they sealed our bags and didn’t give us anything to eat, wouldn’t that be torture, not a trial?

‘Ah, is it torture?’

Lately, I wasn’t so sure about the definition of a ‘trial’.

The elder’s massage, ingesting poison, Sun Spear’s challenge in the past, and so on.

To call them ‘trials’, they were a bit too painful and horrifying.

“……”

Come to think of it, that’s right.

No matter how much I dreamed of becoming stronger, a life of constant suffering like this…

Could that really be a happy life?

‘Hmm…’

I thought about it for a moment, but as expected.

The thought was brief.

I guess I really am a pervert.

I hated being weak more than I hated suffering.

No matter how hard or painful it was, I preferred being strong.

That made me happier.

‘If I hadn’t had power.’

I would have already had my throat slit by an assassin from the Dark Shadow Unit in the past.

Or I would have been bullied by that gangster chaebol Shin Jongo from the Ohsung Group, one of the top 10 domestic corporations, and eventually assassinated.

A painful but strong life was better than such an unjust end.

The world had always been like that.

The powerless always yielded to immense power and had what was theirs taken away.

Only the powerful could fully protect what was theirs.

You have to be strong to protect what’s yours.

‘That’s why.’

I will grow even stronger.

I will climb ceaselessly so that, in the future, even the 1,000 rankers engraved on the bulletin board won’t be able to treat me carelessly.

“Skeleton King. I’ve finished giving out the orders.”

Zhang Wei approached me.

He was faithfully carrying out his role as vice-leader.

“I’ve assigned tasks to everyone according to their abilities.”

“Well done.”

“The problem is you.”

He looked at me.

“As the vice-leader, I can’t assign a task to you.”

“Ah.”

That’s true.

So the gist of his question was.

Everyone else is working, so what are you going to do?

“I have some business to attend to, so I’m planning on going somewhere for a bit.”

“Where?”

I grinned.

“I’ll tell you later. It definitely won’t be anything useless.”

I have to find Floa.

The business I couldn’t finish yesterday.

* * *

Trudge, trudge.

I walked down the deserted path.

With the elder, who had been summoned again after a day.

“First, about that airhead girl. She seems to have gotten a bit smarter.”

The elder said in a whisper.

“She’s maintaining a certain distance, but she’s also planning to flee the moment she senses you. She’s realized that you can find her no matter what.”

I had been meticulously planning since yesterday, but I just couldn’t find an angle.

Every time I moved somewhere, she would notice like a ghost and increase the distance.

‘Hmm.’

Thunderstrike Floa is a ranker.

Not just any ranker, but a top-tier ranker at 84th place.

As long as she didn’t let her guard down and held out, there was currently no way for me to catch her.

“You brat. That’s what I’ve been telling you since yesterday. No matter how great my Ten Thousand Arts and skills are, you can’t overcome a vast difference in power.”

I wonder why my helplessness made him so happy.

The elder was smiling with an excited expression.

“That’s why it’s enjoyable. This world is filled with so many strong people. Do you know? They are all the foundation that will help you grow.”

‘Yes, yes, that’s all well and good… but for me to get stronger, I need to pass this trial with good results.’

“Yes, normally I would have reprimanded you, asking where you think you’re going trying to get stronger with a mere reward… but this time, I have no choice but to acknowledge it.”

Surprisingly, the elder agreed with me.

“That’s how much of a cheat that weapon is. Tsk, you lucky bastard.”

‘This…’

I stared blankly at the staff in my hand.

The Godslayer-class item called ‘Sealed Spirit of Seven Essences’ was shining brilliantly.

The thing that hadn’t answered since it first spoke to me.

“The thing inside it. It’s a kind I’ve never seen in our world. It feels like some colossal being, far beyond my realm and endlessly transcendent, is sleeping in there.”

‘How many times have you said that?’

I grumbled.

Yesterday, he spent so much time just hovering around the weapon, exclaiming ‘Ooh!’ and ‘Aah?’, that I couldn’t even train properly.

It wasn’t like he came up with a brilliant plan to catch Floa, either.

“I’m telling you because you don’t seem to understand! You unromantic brat! Aren’t you excited? About what kind of power it will unleash when all the spirits have gathered in those seven empty slots. Ah, to be able to witness something beyond the Ten Thousand Arts…! I’m trembling! To think that holding on with my regrets would lead to such a glorious sight! This master is truly delighted!”

‘Yes, yes. To fully enjoy that delight, we need to find the examiner right now, you know?’

It was nice that the elder was being so sincere.

But unfortunately, the time allowed today was only one hour.

There was no time.

“Right, that’s why I’m wracking my brain right now, you brat. Don’t rush me.”

The elder held his chin and closed his eyes.

Seeing him like that, floating in mid-air in his white clothes, really felt like I was serving a mountain spirit.

“Hmm, to increase your chances with your current skills… how about using that Toxin Mist?”

‘Toxin Mist?’

I felt the energy of the thing coiled next to my dantian.

The thing that was resting quietly for now.

Would this thing help me?

“Telling you to catch that girl with your meager skills would be like telling you to slice a star in the sky with a knife. But at least your poison has reached the pinnacle of mastery, has it not?”

‘The problem is that this thing is still not well-controlled.’

“I know, do you think I don’t know that? However, if we’re looking for a method right now, that thing is the only answer. You instinctively know how to mix poisons, don’t you?”

The Toxin Mist in my body contained a whopping Ten Thousand Poisons.

I couldn’t use all of them.

If I needed its help.

I would have to lure it out and extract only the poisons I needed.

“I think we just need to make some illusion poison and paralysis poison. What do you say, shall I tell you a brilliant formula?”

‘You have something like that?’

“Kekeke, go on and try to coax it. If you can coax it, I’ll tell you.”

‘Hmm.’

The elder was right.

It was better to experiment with something than to just wallow in self-pity.

No one was going to spoon-feed me if I just stood still.

‘Alright.’

I met the elder’s eyes and nodded.

It was just a coincidence, but at the very moment we nodded, whoosh! the wind blew past.

Right.

All preparations were complete.

* * *

At that moment.

Munch, munch.

A German girl, perched on a thick tree branch, was chewing on beef jerky.

Snack jerky provided only to the examiner.

“……”

Hiding her body within the electromagnetic waves formed in the air, she gazed at the natural environment before her.

No, to be precise, she was looking directly at Joo Donghoon, who was about 1 km away.

With eyesight that most hunters couldn’t even dream of imitating, she was none other than Thunderstrike Floa.

“That bastard, I think he’s caught on.”

His reaction had been a little strange since yesterday.

He would occasionally look around.

Or he would stop in his tracks and mumble as if talking to someone.

“Hehe, but he won’t know I’m watching from here, will he?”

Actually, she hadn’t intended to follow Joo Donghoon in this theme.

She had lost all her rewards for Theme 1 as a penalty for being discovered last time.

“Damn it.”

She grumbled.

The rankers participating as examiners in Delilah’s trial.

They receive rewards commensurate with their work after each theme ends.

That was why rankers, for whom every single stat point was precious, would take time out of their golden schedules to act as judges.

But that.

It all went down the drain because of that Joo Donghoon.

She couldn’t make such a mistake again, but.

‘Still, I am just too damn curious, isn’t I?’

Curiosity won over reason.

In her judgment, Joo Donghoon had enough potential to eventually enter the single-digit ranks.

A trial for someone like that?

‘I can’t miss that.’

Wasn’t it a sight you couldn’t see even if you paid for it?

“Hm?”

It was then that Floa, who had been chewing on jerky, shot to her feet.

Joo Donghoon.

His eyes had definitely been aimed this way for 0.1 seconds.

Considering the margin of error in angle over a distance of 1 km, it was an impossible feat.

“He knows I’m here, too?”

She absolutely could not get caught this time.

Leaving aside the trial rewards, this was a matter of pride.

“I’ll admit you’re going to be a powerhouse, but not right now, right? Don’t think you’ll find me this time either.”

A smirk on her face, she immediately kicked off the branch.

She planned to put some more distance between them for a while.

* * *

“Hm?”

Floa, having increased the distance, wore a puzzled expression.

‘I thought it might be, and it really was.’

A look of surprise flickered across her face.

Honestly, she thought he had found her by chance the first time.

Because she had been careless.

She thought he had gotten lucky with his attack because she had gotten too close.

‘But.’

Joo Donghoon was continuously closing the distance.

And at an unexpectedly incredible speed.

There was only one explanation for a situation like this.

He was trying to catch her right now.

Just like in Theme 1.

‘Ha, this is hurting my pride.’

Even if he was a monster who had dealt with the Toxin Mist.

Being challenged so openly like this stirred a strange feeling in her.

The pride of a double-digit ranker flaring up?

‘Well, he is the guy who’s getting the best results in history. He might have his own methods. I shouldn’t be too careless.’

Of course, her pride wouldn’t allow her to just run away.

Besides, she wasn’t even sure if she could run away.

She didn’t know what method he was using.

But he was closing in at a very high speed.

“Sorry, but if you want to find me, you’ll have to land an attack. Brat.”

She grinned.

Floa was different from the other judges.

Because she could become one with the electricity shimmering around her, she could interfere with his approach without being discovered.

Pzzzzzt!

Lightning sparked around her body.

In a flash, her form vanished into the blue electricity.

At the same time.

Whoong!

She flung her hand in the direction Joo Donghoon was approaching from.

It was a warning, to both announce her presence and tell him not to get any closer.

Pzak! Pzzzzzak!

Yellow electricity turned into lightning bolts and surged toward Joo Donghoon.

No.

To be precise, it headed for the path in front of where Joo Donghoon was running.

Delilah greatly disliked excessive interference from the examiners.

That’s why the moment an examiner attacks a participant, they are unconditionally ejected.

And they receive a huge penalty.

‘Well, as long as I don’t attack him directly, it’s fine, right?’

Still, she had used more than half of her power, so this should be enough to scare him.

For the first time in a while, a look of amusement appeared on Floa’s face.