Ujijijijijik.
— “I broke it…?”
“Well done.”
— Hehe…
In response to Crab Girl Gapwoo’s words, who had fallen into a cave with a different magic array than mine, she scratched her head and laughed.
On the magical screen beside me, Gapwoo had literally torn the test opponent ‘Stone General’ apart with her claw.
No matter how strong a warrior is, they cannot just mindlessly destroy the Stone General.
Even that Stone General could not withstand the sharpness and grip of Gapwoo’s claws, which were comparable to intermediate-tier magic and the Demon Race.
[Oh]
[Wow]
[Gapwoo’s fast]
[Go, Gapwoo]
[Gapwoo’s amazing]
[Lily, wake up right away]
[One-shot cut]
[When will it end?]
Before starting the first test, I summoned Gapwoo for the third test, the ‘Cooperation’ test.
Gapwoo was learning from many ‘Monster Senpai’ including Karabus and Lasty, but she quickly nodded her head when I said we had to take the test together.
‘Do you know what it is?’
‘Uh… I have to do it… if it’s you, contractor…’
‘You can call me comfortably. Just comfortably.’
‘Uhuhuhuh… uh, um, this is comfortable…’
Gapwoo shook her head vigorously with a trembling face, and I told her to just do as she wished.
‘What on earth did you hear in ‘An’?’
After activating the ‘Saintess’s Compassion’ for the thoroughly frightened Gapwoo and casting a recovery spell, her condition finally got a bit better.
“Handle her carefully.”
This is exactly why you shouldn’t throw just anyone into the Space of Despair.
The Space of Despair is filled with monsters that can violate an entire world without a care, and if a fragile life enters, they could be mentally consumed right away.
That’s why a military commander is needed to enforce discipline and prevent crossing the ‘line.’
With both Lasty and Pharaoh present, there’s no one foolish enough to pull such a stunt, so the culprit is obvious.
‘Karabus or Lasty?’
Since Karabus is connected to Gapwoo for the purpose of knowledge transfer, she probably mentioned me.
What I have done, and why so many monsters are trapped there.
‘Or maybe Lasty just ‘messed around’.’
Flap. Flap.
“Hmmm…”
[Lily?]
[Lily isn’t coming?]
[Go Go Go Go]
[It might be better to hurry up.]
“Hold on. I need to check something first.”
The opponent for the first trial was a Stone Golem in the form of a general, looking as tough as obsidian.
This 3-meter tall golem moved due to the abstract power flowing through the cave.
This test is simple.
Inside the cave, there’s a book titled ‘Unyielding Rock,’ and the task is to quickly learn the technique from it and destroy the Stone General right in front of you.
The Stone General’s defense and resistance rapidly increase due to the abstract power, accepting only the attack from ‘Unyielding Rock.’
It’s just like…
“It seems like a test I gave before.”
In the past, I had created magic stone golems for users to destroy using only their given weapons.
I had made the rock solid.
To break free from the invasion of mana and master teleportation, numerous rankers struggled to defeat even a level 40 golem.
At that time, the only one who managed to break it was Leo.
Leo had merely gained a small realization but maximized his strength and swung his staff to smash the golem.
In essence, it was no different from breaking it with brute force like Gapwoo.
[LOL]
[Let’s just break it with strength]
[Why follow Lily? ¬¬]
[This much is a piece of cake for the professor, haha]
[Can’t Lily clear it in one hit?]
[Let’s just smash it]
“I can break it, of course.”
Whether it’s the Kraken’s Spear, a unique weapon, or the White Guardian.
If I swing any weapon infused with a certain level of holiness, I could break the stone general standing majestically up there.
“But there’s no point.”
I didn’t come to Extreme Defense just to show off strength.
Since my fourth-tier technique is a method used in this place, ‘Teshiniria,’ I need to know exactly how the techniques work and what effects they have.
The techniques I’ve learned, like the Orb of Explosion and the Roar of Acceleration, are just superficial at best.
If I could gain deeper insights here, it might help fill the gaps in my blunt techniques.
Thud.
“Hmm… okay.”
The brown-covered paper book folds in my hands.
I place the book on the table and pick up the best hammer among the various ones lying in the cave.
Whoosh!
As I swing it, infused with holiness, a heavy weight fills my grip.
‘Unyielding Rock’ is a technique that gathers intrinsic power and ‘manifests’ it through a weapon.
It consumes half of one’s ‘magical power’ to unleash nearly double the force, similar to the technique Golden Dragon.
While it might be useful for ordinary people, for ‘me,’ the efficiency is so low that I rarely used it.
I suppose many challengers haven’t awakened their own powers, hence they’re given such techniques.
Since there’s no hidden power I don’t know of, using it wouldn’t make much difference…
“Me?”
[?]
[Me?]
[Lily?]
[Yup?]
“…maybe.”
‘Use external power.’
I set the holy energy down.
The hammer, which was emitting a white light, turned back into an iron-colored hammer.
I retrieved the holiness, but faint traces and remnants of the holiness still linger around me.
‘I seal the holiness.’
Wooom!
As I blocked all the holies, the holiness within me vanished entirely.
Instantly, the level of my body and the powers I held lowered significantly.
After the fourth job change, all my stats were converted into ‘Holy Destruction.’
It has happened.
I sealed away all the holy essence, including that which sustains the body, so it’s only natural that I’m getting weaker.
I contemplate my empty world.
Magic power, aura, internal energy… they may have different names, but they are ‘essentially’ the same.
They are all powers that reside within the caster’s body and depleting them creates phenomena in the world.
Thump. Thump.
The place where the aura gathers is the heart.
The power I possess or create is not mine.
‘The power of earth does not manifest from the body, Dragon Heart, or any tangible or intangible something else.’
‘Then how does it manifest?’
‘The world.’
Sre…
‘You draw upon the power of the world. As the Master of Earth, you command it.’
A body connected to the ground.
The energy of the earth flows upward from beneath my feet, heading toward my heart, which then redistributes that energy to circulate throughout my entire body.
Before I know it, my hammer is covered in brown aura.
[?]
[Huh?]
[Where’d the holy power go?]
[Why the color change?]
“I’m going.”
I swung the hammer just like that.
BOOM!!!
The Stone General shattered with a pretty satisfying impact.
“…Might be decent, I guess?”
—Challenger Number 71. Passed.
■
“47 participants passed. We selected those who managed to break at least 10% of the Extreme Strong Stone.”
“10%… Sounds ridiculous.”
After gathering the passers, Minja shook her head at Won-ho’s report, who had them waiting for a bit.
It’s surprising that 47 out of 72 challengers passed, but ‘effectively’ only 11 truly succeeded.
The rest barely managed to scrape by with just bruises or marks without breaking anything.
With a heavy sigh, Minja lamented the grim reality.
“Is it even possible to break only 10% when we gave them a full five hours? What about those who couldn’t break anything at all?!”
“The criteria have been significantly relaxed. It seems more like newcomers were allowed in who wouldn’t have even qualified originally.”
“Oh dear… the future looks dark. Really dark.”
“Not necessarily! You saw it earlier, didn’t you?”
“…… Yeah, I did.”
4 minutes and 27 seconds.
An odd girl passed the test at three times the speed of the upper-ranked disciples.
The overseers were in a frenzy, and Mujoo went straight into the Inner Hall to report.
Only upper-ranked disciples were allowed inside, leaving the two intermediate disciples to continue overseeing.
“What do you think that girl is? She’s definitely an outsider.”
“It’s common knowledge that there are other worlds now. Just think of her as a monster that slipped through.”
“Comforting? I’m about to see hell here!”
“?”
“How the hell do we teach that?”
She’s no genius.
She hadn’t even read more than a few pages of the books given out in Extreme Defense and used some strange claw to tear apart the Extreme Strong Stone instead of the prearranged weapons.
Instead of using a magic array, I shredded the Extreme Strong Stone with a strange claw.
‘Literally merciless.’
“That guy is a monster.”
“……”
“He looks like he can’t even handle a hammer properly, so how can he teach? What if during teaching he asks, ‘So is it stronger than a claw?’!”
“…Isn’t that a rebellion? If he does that, he’ll definitely get expelled from the sect. Don’t worry too much.”
“You don’t understand. The higher-ups dislike rebellion not because of rules but for another reason.”
“…Isn’t that so?”
Hmph! Minja plopped down and started reading the attendance list in front of her.
As if categorizing each one.
“They say as long as someone is useful, they’re treated well. They’ll probably treat a kid like that as an ‘outer disciple’ and elevate them quickly—if not immediately to an upper rank.”
“That sounds too much like speculation.”
“It’s not speculation; it’s certainty. There are actually quite a few like that, right? Not in Extreme Defense, but I know there are quite a few on the other side.”
“……”
“Ah~ It feels like the gates of hell are already opening…”
Flap. Flap.
Boom!
“Is this it?”
“That’s right.”
“…Is there anything useful, maybe two?”
Eleven people completely shattered the Extreme Strong Stone.
Most of them spent more than four of the five hours of the test time, but few crossed the three-hour mark.
Usually, I would just brush it off, saying this batch totally flopped~ but there were a couple of usable ones.
One was a guy named Daeyeolcheon, who recorded 38 minutes.
He was a decent-looking guy with a ponytail, ranking high among the intermediate levels, and the son of the renowned Daeyeol family in the southwest continent.
Of course, even though the family is ‘renowned,’ it could never compare to the Seven Factions.
‘And the other one…’
“She’s really pretty.”
“I think she’s an outsider too.”
“One hour? That’s pretty fast. The interesting thing is, her technique casting was perfect?”
“I think so.”
“Ooh…”
One was a kid who passed within an intermediate time limit.
And the other was someone who perfectly executed the Unyielding Rock…
“Which one do you think is more usable?”
“I think it’s Daeyeolcheon.”
“Why? I’m more attracted to this girl.”
“Ultimately, there’s a time difference of about two times. If Daeyeolcheon was given that time, he would have achieved similar results.”
“On the flip side, it wouldn’t have been possible?”
“That’s right. When I reviewed the magic array screen, she spent an hour lost in thought. She has outstanding talent, but it seems her realization is a bit slow.”
It seemed that would be her limit, thought Won-ho.
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