The sensation of being pierced by a sword through the head.
It was unpleasant. The pain felt greatly reduced, but the unpleasant sensation of killing a person was clearly transmitted through the handle.
‘One.’
Lorraine’s aura scattered like beams of light.
Without even a moment to think about him, she immediately swung her sword.
Clang! With a rough recoil, her body was pushed back.
“Tch!”
Raven dashed forward with his spear while Kim Hyun steadied himself from the aftermath of the strike.
The small fry had been cleared, but there were still two real opponents left.
She caught her breath. She faced the incoming spear and sword with her own sword drawn.
– Sizzle!
The open space was already a total mess. Weapons filled with momentum swung, leaving long gashes on the ground, causing explosions here and there.
Nearby trees were also sliced, rolling around on the ground. With this much commotion, it wouldn’t be long before other students gathered.
She had to finish this quickly.
Kim Hyun could hardly entertain such thoughts.
It was ridiculous. He thought that.
Raven Est. Though the academy was different, he was often intertwined with her. Their families were friendly, training together regularly and practicing joint attacks against monsters in the dungeon.
Lee Ha-yul was receiving this joint attack head-on.
Of course, it wasn’t perfect. Swish! A red particle burst from his shoulder where the blade grazed him. His body was riddled with similar wounds.
His movements were excellent, but there were awkward parts scattered here and there.
He was said to have been blind even before awakening.
Kim Hyun considered his blindness an effort to overcome his weaknesses. No matter how much he replaced sight with sensing ability, nothing could compare to eyes that could capture the ever-changing world.
In just one month. He marveled at how far he had come to this level.
Swish! A red particle burst on his shoulder.
“Cough!”
It was Kim Hyun’s shoulder. Pain felt greatly reduced in the Tower of Growth. Yet, the mental shock he received was even greater.
Raven, too, grimaced as he was hurt. A clear gash marked one of his arms.
In contrast, Lee Ha-yul took a step forward. His body was covered in wounds. Gashes were marked all over, and there were places where scarlet particles flowed from puncture wounds.
In the early stages of their combined assault, he had been focused on just holding on. He responded from the front, but gaps in his defense led to more injuries.
Now…
‘He’s getting pushed back.’
As the spear thrust by Raven met the sword swung by Kim Hyun… he was gradually responding. Attacks from their side were getting blocked in succession, and successful ones were dwindling.
In this moment, his skills were growing exponentially. Awkward movements were becoming refined.
In this brief instant.
– Crack!
A raised leg slammed down onto the ground. Compared to before, there was a tremendous sound and spiderweb-like cracks spattered across the earth.
The ground shook violently as thick earth and rock spires shot up and stabbed toward them.
Kim Hyun swung his sword imbued with energy. The spikes that had erupted in a straight trajectory were sliced in half halfway.
Amidst the debris flying in the air, a beam of light flashed in Kim Hyun’s peripheral vision.
‘What the…!’
He barely dodged the base of the unbroken spikes as a bolt of blue lightning shot towards him.
– Crackle!
“Ugh…!”
The lightning struck his ankle and spread throughout his body like a shockwave. Kim Hyun bit down hard.
The damage wasn’t severe. He had coated himself with energy, and the magic itself was relatively weak.
Raven hastily cleared away the spikes and lunged at Kim Hyun. Regardless, a gap had formed in his defense, prompting this movement to supplement him.
That expectation was wrong.
Lee Ha-yul charged at Raven instead of the stunned Kim Hyun.
An unexpected move. Yet, Raven’s body naturally thrust the spear. It was a stab born from experience that had seeped into him.
Lee Ha-yul also thrust his sword to meet it. The blade and spear brushed against each other, and his sword sailed through the air. In that moment, his aura vanished.
Crack! Suddenly, Lee Ha-yul, who had dug down below, tightly gripped the spear’s shaft.
‘Ah.’
He was done—
Before the thought could finish, the energy wrapping around his abdomen exploded outwards. His waist bent at a right angle.
“Gah…!”
Oxygen was forcibly expelled from his lungs. He had given an opening. Raven, not giving up, reached out with his hand wrapped in energy.
The countermeasure when a spear user gives their opponent an opening. He had learned it painfully.
– Bang!
“…?!”
But that was only because Lee Ha-yul’s reaction was faster.
The energy burst forth. Before Raven’s hand could even stretch out, Lee Ha-yul’s fist, having firmly planted on the ground, once again struck Raven’s abdomen.
This time there was no noise. Instead, a disturbing sound came from inside as flesh was crushed and burst.
Even at this point, Lee Ha-yul’s arm did not stop.
His energy-wrapped fist pummeled Raven’s abdomen, solar plexus, and philtrum in succession. The already fading consciousness felt even more pressure.
‘Damn it.’
Raven cursed inwardly as he saw the mass of crimson particles spat out. Damn, he had joined in to earn some points, and look what it turned into.
Finally, he saw a fist coming right up to his face.
– Bang!
A nasty sensation came from his fist, breaking bones and crushing flesh. Raven’s face caved in as his body went limp.
‘Two.’
Quick footsteps were heard from behind. Lee Ha-yul released the spear and seized Raven’s wrist, swinging him around.
“…!”
Kim Hyun’s eyes widened.
Rustle— The sword half cut through Raven’s body that hadn’t completely scattered in a burst of light.
Perfectly placed for grabbing. He quickly reached out with his energy-wrapped hand and seized the sword.
Crack! The energy wrapped around his hand dissipated. No matter how sturdy Lee Ha-yul’s energy was, if he held on like this any longer, his hand would be severed.
Before that happened, Lee Ha-yul extended his empty hand. The magical energy wrapped in it quickly surged and formed a spell.
Magic Slash. A ridiculously simple spell structure.
He modified the existing spell slightly and added to it. The original spell and the added spell interlocked to some extent.
Since it was fundamentally a simple magic, even a beginner like him could handle the modifications.
Lowest level magic
“Magic Slash: Burst”
The spell contained in his grasp detonated. The burst of magic slashes tore through the beam of light forming a corpse and surged towards Kim Hyun standing nearby.
‘Can’t dodge.’
It was too late to escape. Even if he ditched the sword and leaped away, the result would be the same.
Kim Hyun’s judgement was swift. He gathered all the magical energy he had and enveloped his body with it. He pulled out the sword to brace against it.
‘Hah…’
He sensed it instinctively. This he couldn’t block.
Despite that ominous instinct, he moved, but the feeling of dread did not dissipate.
The world felt slower. So Kim Hyun felt, but regrettably, his body couldn’t keep up with his thoughts.
He wouldn’t let his guard down. He thought that, but even that was arrogance.
He judged Lee Ha-yul’s level based on his own standards.
He was paying the price for that.
‘Definitely.’
Kim Hyun recalled what his father had once said.
The world is vast, so he should see the geniuses gathered in the Tower of Space where talented individuals convene.
‘The world is indeed vast.’
While his thoughts expanded, his view narrowed as the magic slash loomed closer.
*
Magic Slash.
A downright simple magic placed at the lowest tier among spells.
He modified it just a little.
Changing a single output to produce four or five was an easy task.
A discord in the spell arose during the process. If it was merely a little hiccup, frankly, as long as the power was assured, everything else could be adjusted on its own.
– Boom!
Numerous slashes forcefully repelled each other, ripping apart the area around the open space. Instead of being neat, it was like a chainsaw had recklessly scratched the ground.
Kim Hyun’s presence vanished in an instant. The chaotic remnants of magic dissolved away. It seemed to be from the light that eliminated Lorraine and Raven earlier.
Not long after, the scattered magic settled down.
He felt the stirring sounds and sensations in the messy area. Standing above it, he took a breath.
– Ding!
The watch on his left wrist suddenly chimed an alert.
…It didn’t have a function to read the contents. No holograms either. He didn’t even know how many points he’d earned by taking down students.
Nonetheless.
‘…I won?’
He had won. Against 3 to 1? And the other two seemed to be from fairly competent combat majors?
He muttered in a daze.
Honestly, when he released spatial perception and opened his senses, he didn’t think much. Even when focusing on magical affinity, he didn’t think much.
He just thought maybe it’d work out like this.
When he was being chased. Honestly, he thought it was over, but still thought he’d try to get something out of it by throwing himself into the fray.
He fought with a resolve to win, but he never thought he’d actually win.
‘Why did I win?’
He fell into contemplation. He had sustained significant injuries during the fight. He fiddled with the clumsy recovery magic while pondering.
The fact that he had won was strange.
When he first came to this world, when considering growth, he had given up on the original… the game-like growth from the start.
Games and reality are different. That’s a fact anyone not stark raving mad would know.
In games, one does not die. When HP reaches 0, the character disappears, and you simply make a new character and start over.
Here, dying means the end. There is no next time. No, in the original world, death means the end.
In games, there was no reason to be scared. You just keep trying, and if it doesn’t work, you make a new character.
That doesn’t work in reality. Unlike the original where you could gobble up hidden pieces readily, you couldn’t just poke around everywhere.
That’s a given. So, I gave up on bizarre growth.
In the first Tower event, I didn’t resist at all and got wiped out. In the subsequent eight attempts, I performed decently but ran into bad luck and got wiped out again.
Things began to take off after the ninth attempt, when I stopped being nice. Especially the eleventh attempt brought out remarkable results.
Now, my achievements seemed somewhat too fast.
The duel with Aiden wasn’t due to my skills, but from successfully exploiting an opening. I could understand that.
Right now.
Though I had suffered many injuries and consumed a great deal of magical energy, I had single-handedly taken down three students who had rushed at me with their spatial perception sealed.
‘Why?’
I hadn’t consumed any hidden pieces. I hadn’t gained any tangible benefits from game knowledge yet.
But I did have one thing I could make sense of.
I had consumed a precious elixir, one that couldn’t be priced, from Hong Yeon-hwa.
I also had three unique abilities. Each of those came with a curse, and while my spatial perception was useless in this battle, at least it existed.
Beyond that, something was weird with my physical abilities. They were too good for just one elixir.
‘…The Blessing of Growth.’
The basic blessing of growth bestowed upon the students of Shio-ram. And the additional blessing of growth bestowed on special students.
Though newly enrolled, the blessing of growth applied within the tower had helped activate my senses and grow my magical affinity.
There’s more. I instinctively thought so.
Beyond the three I just mentioned, there was surely something else facilitating growth.
‘Definitely…’
There has to be something else—
The sound of rushing wind sliced through my contemplation. I hastily turned my head.
– Swoosh!
A magical arrow grazed my face, piercing through the thick tree across the way. Had it hit my head directly, it would have been almost a certain death.
‘An ambush.’
I activated my body with energy and prepared for the next attack.
Beyond that magical projectile, with my expanded senses, several presences quickly approached.
‘…Right.’
The bewilderment from my unexpected victory washed away. The calm I once had returned to my mind.
‘It’s not over yet.’
I had won 3 to 1. But that didn’t mean the students were no longer plentiful.
There were those like Kim Hyun, driven by curiosity, and Raven or Lorraine, who sought points.
There were surely over five hundred students still present.
I steadied my breath and slammed my feet into the ground. Tap-tap! Magic arrows fell abundantly onto the place I had originally stood.
As I dashed away in the opposite direction of the pursuers, their speed increased as well.
In just a brief moment of running, more and more presences followed me. It seemed the commotion had effectively exposed my location.
Not even a day had passed in this five-day event.
I had no intention of getting eliminated quietly.
*
A spark ignited. A tiny spark. A small ember that could be whisked away by a gentle breeze.
– Whoosh!
Suddenly, it burst into flames. The roaring flame engulfed everything around.
The storming wave of fire swept across everything. The flames, which showed no sign of stopping, concentrated as if rewinding time, returning to a tiny spark.
“Phew…”
The ember transformed into a sword. Grasping the sword, Hong Yeon-hwa let out a soft sigh.
Inside the Tower of Growth. The amplifying blessing of growth.
Instead of merely aiming for points, some also stay here to pursue growth.
In fact, Hong Yeon-hwa was among those with such a purpose.
Besides that, she had another goal.
“Where is Ha-yul…?”
Hong Yeon-hwa’s shoulders drooped.
It was the second day of the Tower challenge.
She still hadn’t seen a trace of the person she was looking for.
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