Harmony in Motion (6)
Time flew by, and the day of the survival competition arrived.
Tension etched itself across every student's face, while a few wore expressions of eager anticipation.
'They're not bad.'
Those with anticipation on their faces averaged around Mid-rank in ability—strong enough to be thrown into real combat right now.
'But still... that bastard is a monster.'
Mid-rank wasn't weak by any stretch, but compared to the Lucinus students, they were still the weaker ones. Among them, the top two were Seol Si-yun and Hae-sol. Hae-sol was so strong that even when I'd hidden the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, I'd had to fight at full power just to barely win. And Seol Si-yun, the top student, was so powerful that even I couldn't guarantee a victory if I held back the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.
Seol Si-yun's current realm was a fully matured Upper-rank. In terms of realm alone, he was on par with me. But equal realm didn't mean equal strength. I'd raised my realm through past-life experience and various elixirs, but Seol Si-yun had climbed purely on talent alone. And Seol Si-yun, who was already growing fast, was somehow growing at least twice as fast now compared to before my regression.
To be honest, if I fought Seol Si-yun right now, I'd have about a 70% chance of winning with the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, and only 50% without it.
'So I need to avoid any friction with Seol Si-yun as much as possible.'
Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't care about winning or losing—I'd fight if I felt like it, and not if I didn't. But the me of this regression wouldn't make reckless challenges.
This time around, I had to meet the Sage.
A Sage with no rumors or reputation attached to her. All that was known was that she possessed strength comparable to a Transcendent—nothing else about her was documented. And there was a reason I referred to the Sage as a "woman."
'I've met the Sage before.'
Though the Sage was veiled in mystery, I had seen her appear suddenly in the previous regression, which is why I could call her a woman—and why I had to meet her.
At all costs.
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"Alright, everyone received their bracelets, right?"
"""""Yes!!"""""
Every student answered Ryu Se-rin's question with vigor.
"The bracelets you received will activate a protective magic spell when the professors are watching you, or when you receive an attack that could endanger your life—it will teleport you to a safe location."
As Ryu Se-rin explained the bracelets, she also outlined the rules of the survival competition and the criteria for determining the winner. Summarized, they were as follows:
First. Elimination occurred when a student received an attack severe enough to threaten their life and was teleported to the professors' location.
Second. The survival competition began as an individual event. Alliances were permitted, though how far they would last was uncertain. Rendering another student combat-incapacitated resulted in their elimination, and the student who eliminated them absorbed a base 10 points plus all the points the eliminated student had accumulated.
Third. During the survival competition, students had to be self-sufficient for food. They could earn points individually by hunting monsters.
And finally, fourth. The survival competition lasted one week. The top three students with the most points would each receive rewards, and the top 50 beyond that would earn the right to participate in the selection competition for Arcadia.
'What I need to focus on here are the second and third rules.'
Alliances and earning points by hunting monsters. Alliances were the weak's means of restraining the strong—a way to band together and stand against the powerful, preventing the strongest from running rampant. No matter how many weaklings banded together, they were still weak—but this was slightly different for me.
I could confidently say I had the largest mana capacity in the academy, but the problem was that while my total mana was enormous, my recovery speed was extremely slow. Mana that others recovered in one day took me three times as long—three days. So even if a bunch of weaklings banded together and were still weak, for me, even a single battle could become a painful long-term loss. Especially when even avoiding Seol Si-yun might not be enough to evade him.
There was only one thing I needed to do. From the moment it started, hunt as many monsters on the island as possible and collect mana stones. Whenever my mana ran low, I would consume the mana stones I'd gathered to recover.
"Alright, we'll be moving now. Do your best, everyone."
The signs of teleportation enveloped all the students, and their vision was swallowed by light. When the light faded and I opened my eyes, I was standing in the middle of a dense forest of towering trees.
Crack, crack-crack.
I twisted my neck left and right to loosen it up and did a quick stretch. The eerie sound of bones cracking echoed through the forest, and Cheon Seong's detection range expanded rapidly.
"Alright, let's go find Yuna first."
Cheon Seong drew up his mana and moved quickly toward the mana signatures he could sense around him. He planned to follow the mana trails to find Yuna.
"Raaawrrrr!!"
But the survival competition wasn't taking place in some small neighborhood park—it was on an island owned by the academy's dean. When he arrived at the location where he sensed mana, an F-rank monster called an Owl Bear was waiting. Cheon Seong circulated his body's mana even faster and leapt high into the air.
Whoosh.
Cheon Seong's body spun rapidly through the sky, and like an axe chopping wood, he came down in a spinning arc, striking the Owl Bear's head.
Crack!
The sound of something shattering rang out, and the monster's massive body crashed to the ground with a thud. Cheon Seong killed the monster and checked his bracelet.
Probably because it was a low-rank monster, the points were even less than what one student was worth. But Cheon Seong didn't care about the small amount. Following his original plan, he wrapped mana around his hand like a sharp blade, reached toward where he sensed the mana stone, and pulled it out. He placed the extracted mana stone into the small bag at his waist and continued moving toward where he could sense more mana.
"Kieeeek—"
Thud.
"Aaawwwww—"
Thud.
As he moved forward, killing the monsters that appeared one by one, Cheon Seong's reserve mana stones accumulated at a rapid pace. His bag was filling up fast... but not quite full.
"I should thank my sister-in-law again when I get back."
The bag Cheon Seong was currently using was the same kind he'd taken when he went to save Nepila before—it was a bag enchanted with Beatrice's space expansion magic. Of course, it was a different bag from the one he'd used back then, but Beatrice had made this one and given it to him as a gift just the same. With each mana stone he collected, Cheon Seong's gratitude toward Beatrice grew.
"Found you."
About an hour had passed since Cheon Seong had been running nonstop, gathering mana stones, when he detected a very familiar mana signature. Focusing his detection there, he could sense Yuna's mana inside a cave. Cheon Seong increased his speed and ran toward Yuna.
'But what the hell is that bastard?'
But as he ran, he realized something—the mana there wasn't just Yuna's alone. There was a familiar mana signature somewhere, one he felt he'd seen before. He was certain he'd seen this mana once, but he couldn't remember where. While he was pondering where he'd seen this mana, he suddenly felt it flare up like an explosion. Cheon Seong frowned and pushed his speed even higher.
Closer and closer to Yuna's mana, and the fiercely burning mana made a small vein bulge on Cheon Seong's forehead.
"—What the hell are you doing, clinging to that bastard!! You're the kind of guy who does dirty things with other women!! You'll abandon him someday!!"
"Don't you dare insult Cheon-seong! Cheon-seong isn't like you!"
"You bitch!!"
Whoosh—!!
"Ugh!"
A man standing in front of Yuna wrapped flames around his hand and swung at her, and Yuna squeezed her eyes shut.
'Who the hell does this bastard think he's touching?'
"Kuhup!!"
But the hand never reached Yuna. Instead, the man's head spun around and was driven into the ground.
"Yuna, are you okay?"
"Huh? Cheon, Seong-ah? How did you get here?"
Yuna blinked at Cheon Seong's worried gaze and asked. Cheon Seong gently stroked Yuna's cheek and answered her question.
"I've been looking for you since earlier."
"Oh... I see."
At Cheon Seong's words, Yuna's face flushed slightly and she beamed. Cheon Seong smiled softly at her. If it had been just the two of them, a pink atmosphere would have flowed between them—but unfortunately, they weren't alone.
"Cough, you, you bastard... you, dare..."
"Hah, shameless bastard. If you can't help in the real world, at least shut up when it counts."
Cheon Seong cast a cold gaze at the student staring at him with burning eyes.
"And who the hell are you, harassing Yuna?"
"Ugh! You, you bastard. You don't remember me, do you?!"
"Why would I remember someone like you?"
At Cheon Seong's words, the student shouted in anger, and when Cheon Seong answered, the student's face turned bright red and he screamed.
"You bastard, you don't remember what you did to me on the academy entrance exam day, do you!!!"
"Entrance exam? Ah... are you that guy from back then?"
At the student's words, Cheon Seong finally remembered who the man in front of him was. The trash who had been harassing Yuna on the day of the academy entrance exam.
"Yes! Do you even know how humiliated I was because of you back then!!"
"Humiliated? You're the one who was harassing Yuna, that's why."
At Cheon Seong's words, the man's face turned as red as a bomb about to explode, and he shouted while violently spewing mana.
"That would've been fine if a commoner bastard like you had just handed her over!!"
"Hah, crazy bastard."
At the man's words, Cheon Seong let out a hollow laugh and spewed even more powerful mana toward the man who was violently releasing his own, swallowing the man's mana whole.
Tremble, tremble, tremble, tremble, tremble.
At the mana Cheon Seong was releasing, the man's body began to tremble uncontrollably. Cheon Seong took a step toward the trembling man.
Step, step.
As Cheon Seong approached, the man took a step back. Cheon Seong stepped forward again.
Thud.
"Lee Ik! Help!!!"
The man, who had been retreating, hit a tree and couldn't go back any further. He fired a massive flame at Cheon Seong, who was still approaching.
"Pathetic bastard."
Whoosh!
The man's flame split apart by Cheon Seong's fist, and the fist flew toward the man, embedding itself in his face. The man's body flew through the air, blood spurting from his nose, smashing through a tree before vanishing into thin air.