112. Midterm Evaluation (3)
112. Midterm Evaluation (3)
Hummm—
For a moment, dizziness swept over me along with the sensation of my body floating in midair.
In an instant, the scenery before my eyes flipped.
Thud─
I landed on the ground, lowering my body.
"......."
Crash─ Crash─
The sound of waves reached my ears amid the silence.
It was still deep in the early morning, so the surroundings were dark.
I slowly straightened up and looked around.
It seemed I had been dropped near the coast.
The sea was behind me, and a forest stretched out ahead.
In particular, the forest side was densely packed with enormous trees, its mouth gaping open like a pitch-black cave where not a single ray of light could enter.
"......Tch, they dropped me on the very outskirts."
I clicked my tongue.
A placement choice reeking of malice from a petty Brat throwing a tantrum in a toy store.
'I'm guessing everyone else will start moving once the sun comes up.'
We had essentially been dumped on an uninhabited island with nothing but the clothes on our backs, without any preparation whatsoever.
Even for Hunters with bodies far sturdier than ordinary people, wandering through the forest in the dead of night was not a good choice.
Especially since this was prime time for nocturnal monsters to be drooling with hunger—all the more reason to stay cautious.
But I felt the corners of my lips curl upward.
'This trait really comes in handy at times like this.'
Eye Opening (開眼).
It had a name that sounded impressive, but in reality it was just an average trait that let you see things even in the dark.
Thanks to it, however, I could clearly make out my surroundings despite the dim visibility.
And this difference would create a gap between me and the other cadets, and as time passed, it would let me seize an even more advantageous high ground.
Being able to move around in a place like this during the night as if it were daytime was a huge advantage, after all.
Creak─
I stretched my arms way up over my head.
"First, I'd better locate the Base Camp."
I readjusted the trusty backpack slung over my shoulders and strode into the dark forest without hesitation.
* * *
"......Ugh, this is embarrassing."
Shin Se-hee, who had been dropped onto the uninhabited island right after Jin Yu-ha, mumbled with her face flushed bright red.
She hadn't realized it in the rush of the moment, but she had ended up showing him her completely unadorned, shabby appearance.
She hugged the black puppy plushie that had come with her, pulling it tight against her chest.
"......That's so unfair."
Shin Se-hee muttered in a sulky tone.
No matter how she thought about it, it was unfair.
While every other cadet was still dazed and confused, Jin Yu-ha alone had stayed perfectly calm,
had even shouldered a big backpack, and put on an awkward act like he expected anyone to fall for it.
The moment she pictured him, Shin Se-hee's lips jutted out in a pout.
'Jin Yu-ha knew about this whole situation in advance and was able to prepare for it! Because he can see the future!'
This, she figured, must be why regressors in novels always hide their identity.
If even she—the person closest to him, the one who trusted him most—felt a sudden surge of resentment, how would other people react?
Of course, setting that feeling aside, she understood why he hadn't told her in advance.
It was something no one was supposed to know, after all.
Even she, who had thoroughly researched how the Midterm Evaluation had been conducted the previous year, had never dreamed it would suddenly begin like this.
If he had tipped her off and the others had prepared alongside her, it could have exposed the fact that he could see the future.
So of course he had to be cautious.
Still, honestly, she couldn't help the quiet thought that crept in: couldn't he have at least told her?
Tch.
'Even if I'd known in advance, I could've just played along and pretended I didn't.'
Really?
Immediately, her inner thoughts shook their head vigorously.
No matter what, this was an exam she was taking alongside Jin Yu-ha.
There was no way she would've wanted to show him such a raw, unpolished version of herself.
If she had known beforehand,
......she never would've come hugging this jet-black puppy body pillow that vaguely resembled Jin Yu-ha, nor would she have come with all her makeup washed off.
She would've done the kind of makeup that looks natural but isn't.
Anyone perceptive might find that subtle awkwardness suspicious.
"......Maybe I shouldn't have acted like I knew from the start."
Haaah─
She let out a soft sigh.
There was no use regretting something already done.
What mattered now was how she conducted herself going forward.
Shin Se-hee pushed thoughts of Jin Yu-ha aside and called up everything she knew about this exam.
"First of all....... The important thing is Coins."
The number of Coins she currently possessed was displayed on the chest of her altered outfit.
[ 500 Coin ]
As a Special role, she had been given a base amount of 500 Coins.
'At least I'm fortunate.'
She wielded magic that summoned fire.
Considering that there were some in the Special role who had no meaningful offensive abilities at all, this was a highly positive aspect.
On top of that, Jin Yu-ha had gathered the party members to drill them like he was exterminating rats whenever he had a spare moment, so her stamina was fairly decent as well.
Even so, casting skills still required time, and her low defense remained an unchanging weakness.
Forming a party with a Tank or a Damage Dealer wasn't optional—it was mandatory.
"Hmm, if possible, I'd like to do it with Jin Yu-ha though......."
There was nothing better than going with someone who knew the future.
Shin Se-hee was already enjoying the ride with him at the wheel in real time, so it was hard to even think of anyone else.
"First, I'll set Jin Yu-ha as my top-priority party member....... Next, the shop."
It was no exaggeration to say that the shop—where you could obtain the necessities for living on an uninhabited island—was the single most important factor in this Midterm Evaluation.
But blindly spending Coins to buy up items wasn't the smart play either.
"Because in the end, our grades are decided by how many Coins we still have at the finish."
In other words, she had to use her Coins as efficiently as possible.
Calculating things like that was her area of expertise.
"So first I need to find the shop and check the types of items and their prices. Hmm, but I wonder if exchanging Coins between individuals is allowed?"
If it was, she might be able to pull off something even more fun.
For example, monopolizing one essential item and selling it at an inflated price.
Shin Se-hee's eyes sparkled as she plotted some chaos for the first time in a while.
But all of that was only possible if they found the shop first.
Cuckoo─
Somewhere, a cuckoo called out.
"......I can't move right now."
She was currently alone, left by herself in the dark forest.
It was a dangerous situation where she could be attacked by nocturnal monsters,
but Shin Se-hee calmly spread her pillow on the ground and plopped right down.
"The initial summoning location has to be a safe zone. Otherwise, cadets with poor combat abilities would get taken out the moment the Midterm Evaluation starts."
And so she sat on her pillow and waited for morning to come.
* * *
Rustle─
'......One of the three party slots has to go to her, and if we fill the remaining slot with one of our own people, it'd be perfect.'
I pressed through the dark undergrowth, thinking to myself.
In this Midterm Evaluation, our party members had a solid shot at earning high scores.
For starters, Gukbap was naturally very good at adapting to survival situations like this.
She was well-versed in making do with whatever was on hand, skilled at crafting things from natural materials around her, and fairly experienced with camping and the like.
Shin Se-hee's skills were all about area attacks using fire from the get-go, so she was perfectly optimized for mob-hunting in a forest like this.
And Poppy—honestly, this Midterm Evaluation was so favorable to Kang Do-hee it almost felt like the test was designed for her.
For other Damage Dealers, just scraping together enough Coins to buy a weapon at the shop was a challenge in itself.
But since she fought with her fists and feet, she didn't need a weapon to begin with.
In other words, she was the only one not stuck with a penalty that everyone else had to bear.
'Totally broken.......'
Honestly, Gukbap and Shin Se-hee were one thing, but wasn't Kang Do-hee a bit too much?
'Tch, I just need to do well myself. Just me.'
Shff—
I activated Detection, muffled my footsteps, and kept walking.
'......So you really can learn skills through training.'
I'd honestly been half-skeptical about it.
Covert Step (暗行步).
A footwork technique I'd been personally taught by Instructor Baek Seol-hee.
Back then, I'd only managed a single successful step.
But now, I was walking with Covert Step as naturally as breathing.
Thinking about it, it was only to be expected.
Every time I'd practiced this technique before, I'd been lugging a giant hunk of iron on my back. Now, I was carrying nothing but a single backpack that didn't even weigh a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of that.
With a body so much lighter than during training that it didn't even compare, it would've been strange if I couldn't use Covert Step as smoothly as flowing water.
That was when it happened.
─ Grrrrrr.......
The sound of a monster caught my ears from somewhere not too far off.
A savage throaty growl—the kind it had tried to suppress for the hunt but couldn't quite hide.
I killed my presence and steadied my eyes.
Then, up ahead, a monster came into view: the shape of a small hairless monkey with purple skin.
'A Gremlin.......'
An agile and annoying monster.
But, in that instant—
I smiled with delight.
Because I'd caught sight of what the creature was holding in its hand.
A small, worn-out dagger.