Chapter 19
The cool, damp air stabbed sharply into Chaeho’s nose.
Holding his breath as quietly as possible, Chaeho pressed his back against the dark rock wall. Beneath the musty smell of damp earth and dust, the foul animal stench of a beast drifted heavily through the air.
This might have been an artificially constructed training zone, but the killing intent he felt against his skin was no different from a real dungeon.
Chaeho carefully turned his head and looked ahead.
Twenty meters away, a massive beast covered in black fur was scratching at the dirt while growling low in its throat.
It was a wolf-type monster with a thick, rugged horn growing from the center of its forehead.
It was also the designated target assigned to Chaeho for this C-rank practical evaluation.
For something that big, its footsteps are almost silent. That means it must be fast.
Chaeho lightly tightened his grip on the sword.
Whenever the monster's forepaw touched the ground, the shoulder muscles beneath its thick fur shifted smoothly.
There were no complicated calculations running through Chaeho's mind.
There was no need to release mana wildly and charge in with some flashy attack either.
He only needed to wait for the brief instant when the monster's entire center of gravity shifted to the left.
Then he would slip into its blind spot and cut through its throat.
That was all.
Whenever the monster looked away, Chaeho followed the curves of the wall and slowly closed the distance.
Before long, his breathing had settled completely, and the muscles in his legs tightened.
He was close enough to kill it with a single step.
And then—
BOOOOM!
A deafening explosion violently shook the artificial dungeon.
The ground beneath Chaeho's feet trembled unsteadily.
Startled, the wolf-type monster leaped into the air with all its fur standing on end.
Instead of baring its teeth at Chaeho, it jumped backward and stared warily toward the direction of the noise.
Chaeho immediately stopped himself just as he was about to spring forward and turned toward the sound.
It had come from the zone assigned to another examinee nearby.
"Aaaaaagh! Help me!"
A desperate scream mixed with the dull sound of something breaking.
That wasn't the voice of someone merely frightened by a monster.
It contained genuine terror.
And Chaeho could smell blood.
That area should be restricted because the terrain is unstable.
Chaeho frowned.
The rules of the practical evaluation were simple.
Each examinee had to locate the designated monster assigned to them somewhere inside the large dungeon, kill it within the time limit, retrieve its mana stone, and return.
Doing so would earn a high score and a passing grade.
There was absolutely no reason to leave the assigned area or recklessly explore somewhere else.
But the screams that followed told him the situation was serious.
"Please! Help me! My leg—Aaaagh!"
Chaeho glanced at the wolf monster at the edge of his vision.
Because of the explosion, its vigilance had reached its limit, and it was already turning away to escape.
If Chaeho gave up the chase now, finding it again would be difficult.
There was a high chance he would lose any possibility of receiving a high score.
For a moment, the time he had spent fighting through the basic measurements, mock battles, and every other stage necessary for promotion flashed through his mind.
But his hesitation didn't last long.
Chaeho tightened his grip on the sword and kicked hard against the ground, rushing toward the screams.
There was no need to think about whether his test score or someone's praise mattered more than a human life.
The situation inside the restricted area was far worse than Chaeho had expected.
"H-Hah... Stay away!"
A D-rank examinee sat helplessly on the dirt, desperately dragging himself backward.
His right leg had apparently been trapped beneath the collapsed rocks. It was covered in blood and bent at a grotesque angle.
Desperate to secure his promotion, he had become impatient and recklessly chased after his fleeing target until he entered a trap zone.
Now he was paying the price.
The ceiling and walls where the trap had activated were covered in deep cracks, constantly shedding rocks of various sizes.
And through the thick cloud of dust, two enormous shadows slowly rose to their feet.
Grrrrrr...
They were rock-type monsters that had been hidden deep underground in a dormant state.
Their entire bodies were covered in solid stone armor.
Their glowing red eyes stared down at the intruder who had disturbed their sleep.
Even at a glance, they were terrifyingly huge—monsters that would normally require an entire C-rank party working together in formation just to handle.
"Stay away! Fuck! I said stay away!"
The injured examinee desperately swung his sword through the air, but there was no chance it would reach.
One of the enraged rock monsters raised its massive stone arm high above its head.
If that fist came down, the examinee would be crushed beyond recognition.
At that hopeless moment, Chaeho burst through the cloud of dungeon dust and entered the area.
Sharp fragments of rock were raining down from above.
At the same time, a fist the size of a small house was descending toward the injured examinee at terrifying speed.
If Chaeho rushed in without a plan, both of them would be turned into lumps of meat.
He also hadn't forgotten that the evaluators in the external monitoring room were watching everything.
Slowdown.
Chaeho silently activated his skill.
In an instant, the deafening sound of the collapsing dungeon faded into the distance.
The flow of the entire world stretched into something thick and sluggish.
Dozens of falling rocks seemed frozen in midair.
Even the enormous fist descending toward the examinee slowed until it almost appeared motionless.
Only Chaeho's thoughts continued moving at normal speed.
His eyes swept rapidly across the entire space.
The angle of the fist.
Where the largest fragments will land.
The smallest blind spot I can enter and still escape from.
Dozens of tangled lines appeared and disappeared inside Chaeho's mind.
There was only one path that would allow him to survive safely.
After finishing his calculations within that tiny instant, Chaeho released the skill.
FWOOSH!
Time exploded back into motion.
Chaeho shot forward like an arrow, slipping through the gaps between the falling rocks.
A massive fragment scraped past his shoulder and slammed into the ground, throwing up a cloud of choking dust.
"H-Huh?"
The examinee barely had time to make a confused sound.
Chaeho grabbed the back of his collar with a powerful grip.
Then, without wasting a second, he twisted his body like he was rolling across the ground and threw himself backward.
BOOOOM!
The rock monster's fist smashed brutally into the exact spot where the examinee had been moments earlier.
The ground sank inward, and a violent shockwave surged toward Chaeho's back.
Still holding the injured examinee, Chaeho rolled once across the dirt, smoothly dispersing the tremendous impact.
"Cough! Cough!"
"Get a hold of yourself."
Covered in dust, Chaeho spoke briefly as he tightened his grip on the sword.
He placed the injured examinee behind himself and slowly stood.
The two rock monsters roared furiously after losing their prey right in front of them.
ROOOOOAR!
Both enormous creatures charged toward Chaeho at the same time.
Every step sent such heavy vibrations through the ground that the examinee's knees trembled.
"W-We have to run! How are you supposed to stop those things alone?!"
The examinee screamed in panic from behind him.
But Chaeho's feet remained firmly planted.
That didn't mean he intended to stupidly challenge them head-on.
Trying to compete with creatures that overwhelmingly surpassed him in mass and raw strength would be suicide.
Instead, Chaeho's eyes remained fixed on their moving shoulders and feet.
The one on the left has a wide stride and moves slower.
The one on the right is leaning its upper body too far forward.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The moment they came within two meters of him, Chaeho lightly pushed off the ground.
The monster on the right attacked first.
Its upper body was already leaning forward, and its thick stone arm swept horizontally toward Chaeho like a massive log, threatening to split his waist in half.
Chaeho bent his upper body backward in a smooth arc.
The attack passed barely above him.
The cold pressure of the wind brushed the tip of his nose.
Immediately afterward, the monster on the left raised both hands high above its head and attempted to smash them down.
This time, Chaeho didn't retreat.
He lowered his center of gravity as far as possible and slipped directly inside the monster's wide reach.
The heavy fists slammed into the ground behind him, scattering dirt everywhere.
At that exact moment, Chaeho's eyes sharpened.
The heavier the armor, the weaker the joints.
No matter how solidly their bodies were covered in stone, their joints still had to bend if they wanted to walk or swing their arms.
Every time the monsters moved violently, the layers of stone armor shifted slightly out of alignment.
And through those tiny gaps, faint currents of mana were clearly exposed.
Chaeho's sword drew a simple silver line through the darkness.
SHNK!
"Grurk?"
The steel blade slipped perfectly into the narrow opening in the left monster's thick knee joint.
An unpleasant sensation traveled through Chaeho's hand as he cleanly severed the crucial structure supporting its movement.
He twisted the sword free and immediately kicked off the ground, shooting toward the opposite side.
The monster on the right stretched out its arm in confusion.
But Chaeho's gaze was already fixed on its ankle.
KAAANG!
With a sharp sound like steel cutting through stone, the joint in the right monster's ankle shattered as well.
The instant the parts supporting their balance were destroyed, both massive creatures began flailing helplessly.
BOOM!
CRASH!
Their enormous bodies, weighing tens of tons, collapsed uselessly onto the ground.
Unable to support their own immense weight, the fallen monsters could only throw up clouds of dirt.
They could no longer stand.
There hadn't been even the slightest waste in Chaeho's movements.
He never tried to match their strength by forcefully clashing his sword against their bodies.
Instead, he thoroughly used the monsters' own movement against them and severed only the critical points.
It was the result of intelligent and precise combat.
"M-Madman..."
Behind him, the trembling examinee stared with his mouth hanging open, completely frozen in disbelief.
At the same time, inside the external monitoring room.
Immediately after the collapse, the monitoring room had dispatched an emergency control team.
Radio communications filled the room without pause.
But before the team could even arrive at the scene, Chaeho had already neutralized the threat.
The chief evaluator and the staff members watching the screen stared in shock.
On the large monitor, two enormous rock monsters lay helplessly sprawled across the ground.
In front of them stood Chaeho, calmly brushing dust from his sword.
"I-Is what we're seeing even possible...?"
The staff member wearing glasses stammered as he leaned closer to the monitor.
"Replay the part where the ceiling collapsed! Now!"
At the chief evaluator's urgent command, the staff member quickly tapped the keyboard.
The footage rewound several seconds and began playing in slow motion.
It showed the desperate instant when the ceiling collapsed and that enormous fist came crashing down.
On the screen, Lee Chaeho moved between the falling rocks as though he were dancing.
Then he grabbed the injured examinee precisely by the back of the collar.
There wasn't even a single unnecessary flinch in his movements.
It was as if he already knew the trajectory of every falling fragment.
What happened afterward was even more unbelievable.
Facing such intimidating monsters, Chaeho never once retreated.
Whenever their attacks missed, he used that tiny opening to strike directly into their joints.
There had been no flashy sword aura.
No explosive release of mana.
He had simply watched them move and attacked their weaknesses.
And that alone had ended the fight.
A heavy silence settled over the monitoring room.
"Abandoning his designated target and rushing to rescue someone without even one second of hesitation is impressive enough, but..."
The chief evaluator swallowed dryly before continuing.
"Look at how he handled that situation. Those are two rock monsters that an entire C-rank party would struggle against, yet he neutralized them without wasting any strength. His eye movement, his narrow footwork, even the angles of his thrusts... there's nothing to criticize."
"I can't believe someone with that level of skill was working as nothing more than a porter all this time. You could put him on the front line of a B-rank dungeon right now, and he'd survive on his own."
Hearing the excited staff member, the chief evaluator silently nodded.
"Anyone with enough talent can crush things with overwhelming mana. But fighting that calmly and intelligently is different. That's real skill built through experience and judgment. Even in a crisis, he never lost sight of what mattered most."
Without hesitation, the chief evaluator drew a thick circle around the PASS section on Chaeho's evaluation sheet.
"Contact the control team that's already on the way. Tell them the monsters have been immobilized, so they should secure the injured examinee as soon as they arrive."
He paused briefly.
"Lee Chaeho's practical evaluation ends here. Mark it as complete."
Then he looked back at the monitor.
"There's nothing else we need to see."
Back inside the artificial dungeon, the choking dust slowly began to settle.
The fallen rock monsters continued swinging their thick arms and tearing at the dirt.
But with their lower bodies completely disabled, they were no longer a threat.
Chaeho let out a light breath and slid his sword back into its sheath.
The sweat on his palm cooled pleasantly in the chilly air.
He approached the stunned examinee and carefully placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Ah... Aah..."
"Fortunately, it doesn't look like those monsters can chase us anymore."
Chaeho spoke calmly while checking the surrounding terrain.
Small pieces of debris were still falling through the cracks in the collapsed ceiling, but there were no signs of another major collapse.
"Hold on a little longer. The monitoring room should've seen everything that happened here. The rescue team will be here soon."
Chaeho supported the injured examinee and carefully moved him toward a solid section of the wall where falling rocks wouldn't reach.
The man leaned against the safe wall while breathing heavily.
Even now, he stared up at Chaeho with an expression of complete disbelief.
"You... Who the hell are you? Why would you throw away your own test score just to save a complete stranger like me...?"
"When someone is about to get crushed to death right in front of you, how could you have time to weigh things like that?"
Chaeho answered casually while rubbing his chin.
Just as he said, losing his designated monster might have been unfortunate.
But he didn't regret his decision at all.
The true reason he wanted to become stronger was to protect his family's safety and preserve the ordinary life he had.
Some grand score or status that required him to ignore another person's life had never been part of his goal in the first place.
Far down the dark passageway, hurried footsteps echoed through the dungeon.
Flashlight beams from the approaching control team flickered through the darkness.
"They're finally here."
Chaeho brushed the dust from his outer clothes and slowly stood up.
