Chapter 60: Midterm Evaluation (5)

Two hours had gone by since Yuren passed out from mana exhaustion. I had tried tapping his cheek, shaking his shoulders, anything to wake him, but he was completely unresponsive, like he had fallen into a coma.

“Damn, this brat just won’t wake up At this point, is he even alive?” I joked.

Passing out from mana exhaustion usually took forever to recover from anyway. As someone who had experienced mana exhaustion more times than I could count, thanks to an ant-sized mana reserve, I considered myself something of a professional in this area. I knew better than most how long recovery could take.

However, it had already been about four hours since the midterm evaluation began. The exam’s time limit was eight hours, so half of it was already gone, and my current score was a brilliant zero. I needed to start earning points soon.

The wolf demonic monster I had taken down at the start didn’t count toward the score, probably because it had wandered in from outside. Then Yuren had snatched the unicorn’s points from me as well. If this kept up, I’d be dead last again, and I was done with being the last-place hero.

I sighed deeply, looking down at Yuren, who was lying on the makeshift bed I had cobbled together. It was just something simple to avoid letting him sleep on bare rock.

“I really should start moving if I want to catch up…”

However, I couldn’t just leave him here either. That left me with only one choice. “Guess I’ll throw up a barrier to keep demonic monsters away.”

In the past, the idea of using a barrier, an incredibly inefficient and mana-hungry spell, would’ve been laughable for someone like me. But lately, my mana had increased enough that setting up a basic barrier was finally within reach.

The barrier wouldn’t be particularly strong. But since the unicorn had been defeated, only five-eyed demonic monsters or lower were probably left in this area.

“Alright, here we go.” I drew my sword across my palm, letting a few drops of blood fall. Then I inscribed a magic circle around Yuren with them.

I was finally putting what I learned from Senior Sophia to use. While I had technically created a barrier before when I fought Astaroth, that had been more of a brute-force mana wall than a carefully constructed spell. It barely counted as real magic.

For this one, I decided to base the axis of the circle on the Hexagram Theory and let the mana flow follow Arcadia’s Cyclical Spell Theory. If nothing else, I was confident in my theory.

The process of forming the magic circle was surprisingly fun.

“Alright. Done.”

I channeled mana into the core of the circle. As though I had flipped a switch, the barrier activated. A soft gray mist rose, enveloping Yuren.

Actually using this stuff felt very different after all those hours I had spent studying theory. It was just like writing a novel; one could design the plot and characters meticulously, but things always turned out differently once they started writing. In magic too, I learned that while knowledge was important, intuition was just as critical.

There were still countless hurdles to clear before I could use magic as naturally as Senior Sophia did. “I’ve still got a long way to go.”

I turned my back on Yuren. “Well, time to get moving.”

As I walked away, I heard a sound.

“Prrr! Puhiiing!”

The unicorn, which had collapsed after Yuren’s attack had shredded it, suddenly stirred, wobbling as it tried to stand.

“Huh. You’re still alive?” I said.

That was impressive, I had to admit. Somehow, it had survived the mana tsunami that was practically a natural disaster. This was probably why it was a six-eyed demonic monster.

The unicorn staggered away from me, breath ragged and limbs trembling.

I raised my hands, showing I had no intention to attack. “Hey, hey. I’m not trying to kill you. No need to run, man.”

Most demonic monsters weren’t that smart, but a creature strong enough to be tamed as a familiar probably understood simple gestures, at least.

“Hiiiing!Prr!

”

Even though I clearly indicated I wasn’t hostile, the unicorn didn’t stop. “Huh”

Trying to figure out what was going on, I narrowed my eyes and cautiously stepped closer. The unicorn continued stumbling forward, not even sparing me a glance.

At first, I thought it might be avoiding the barrier I set up, but it had long since passed the range of the spell. Furthermore, that barrier wouldn’t faze a creature of this level anyway.

It’s not running from me. So, what is it running from? If it isn’t me and it isn’t the barrier, what has scared it this badly? I wondered.

Suddenly, the ground trembled violently, like an earthquake.

“Shit!”

I didn’t think. I just instinctively launched myself away from the source of the tremor. The ground erupted in an explosion of dirt and debris. The next instant, the unicorn shrieked, something having grabbed it and flung it into the air. It was ripped clean in half. Blood rained down in thick, red drops.

I stood there, blood spattered all over me, staring at the massive creature that had burst from the ground. “What the hell…”

Its head was that of a crocodile, grotesquely oversized, but its body was vaguely humanoid. Covered in hard, green scales that looked like armor, its thick limbs rippled with muscle. From its gaping maw, sharp, glistening fangs gleamed.

A stunned, breathless laugh escaped me. Atop the crocodilian head, four pairs of crimson eyes glowed with a savage gleam.

Why the hell is there an eight-eyed demonic monster here? What the hell kind of fucked up situation is this?

The crocodilian demonic monster let out a low, menacing growl. The sharp scent of wet moss and blood tingled at the tip of my nose. Eight crimson eyes, stretched wide across a long, protruding snout, glared at me.

Even among the top hundred heroes across the Three Nations, the so-called Rankers, few could confidently say they could defeat an eight-eyed monster. Besides someone like Professor Kane or Professor Baldwin, who possessed exceptional strength, this thing would be far beyond anyone’s ability to handle.

A monster like that wasn’t supposed to show up in a third-year cadet exam. I narrowed my eyes, carefully observing its massive, five-meter-tall body. Just like the wolf monster I encountered at the beginning of the exam, there wasn’t a single trace of a marker on the crocodile-like creature.

It was definitely not one of Professor Kane’s surprise challenges, which meant this thing had also wandered in from outside. Even after I racked my brains, I didn’t recall hearing anything about a monster like that showing up in the exams in my past life. So only two possibilities came to mind: Either no one had encountered it last time and the test simply ended without incident, or something had changed the future.

“I don’t know which it is, but one thing’s for sure,” I said to myself. This was no time to stand around pondering where it came from.

The crocodile monster let out another low growl and stepped forward. Just a single step of it made the ground quake with weighty force. Then, with a savage roar, it charged.

I dashed to the side and swung my sword at it. My sword bounced off its thick scales like I had struck solid iron, and my palm went numb from the shock.

As I had predicted, ordinary attacks were useless. I would have to aim for a weak spot.

Taking a deep breath, I kicked off the ground toward the monster. It swung its long tail like a whip as it came charging.

That was the opportunity I was looking for. I unleashed the Sun Sword Style Fifth Form—Modified: Black Sunspot Absorption, a modified technique that used the properties of the Black Sunspot, a point of condensed mana, to absorb the surrounding energy and embed it into the sword.

As though I had flipped on a vacuum, the air around my sword swirled inward. With the howling force of the incoming tail sweep, I lunged forward, aiming not to clash head-on, but just to make contact. Instead of striking with the edge, I angled the flat of the blade toward the tail. The sword stuck fast, the Black Sunspot’s pull acting like glue, binding the blade to the monster’s tail.

Then, I was yanked into the air like a weight tied to the end of a whip. I immediately used Wind Step. Gripping the sword still clinging to the tail, I kicked off as if I were stepping on air. Mana burst from my foot, propelling me upward, straight onto the creature’s back.

“Hrrragh!” Reversing my grip, I aimed for one of the eight glinting red eyes and drove my sword down. However, the sword bounced off its eyelid. Even its damn eyelids were tougher than steel.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

Although the blade hadn’t pierced it, the shock probably still hurt. The crocodile monster let out a monstrous roar and thrashed wildly.

I clung desperately to its scales, trying not to be thrown off. But its strength was overwhelming. The next instant, I was flung off its back and slammed hard into the dirt. A crushing pain radiated through my back. My limbs twisted at unnatural angles, and it felt like my organs had been pounded into jelly.

The crocodile monster, confident in its victory, snapped its massive jaws with a loud crack and let out a triumphant roar. It turned toward Yuren, who lay unconscious, and stomped toward him. With a vicious swipe of its tail, it shattered the protective barrier I had placed around him. The monster loomed over Yuren, letting out a low, sinister growl as it gazed down.

However, a voice called out from behind it. “Hey, croc-head.”

The crocodile monster blinked its eight eyes and turned its head. Its eyes fell on me, the human it had just smashed into the ground, supposedly broken and battered, now on his feet before him, standing tall and unharmed.

“We’re not done here yet. Where the hell do you think you’re going?” I said.

Then, my green eyes burned fiercely, glinting like blades. A sizzling sound filled the air, like flesh scorching in open flame.

“Ignite.”

At my command, ash-gray smoke began to rise.

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