Suppression
Suppression
The forest was noisy in the middle of the night.
It was because several monsters had suddenly fallen from the air.
This in itself was nothing new. In a forest teeming with naturally occurring monsters, being attacked was common.
'This is different.'
But this time, the monsters causing the disturbance were different.
Monsters that had fallen from a bizarre black hole. They were stronger than the monsters native to this forest.
Their rank was the same, yet their base caliber was higher. Their physical ability, their mana—and they even possessed an Innate Talent.
At a site where a battle had just ended, Lee Ha-yul narrowed his eyes as he stood before the collapsed corpse of a monster.
Variants.
It wasn't just this one. All the monsters that had fallen from the hole were variants that had undergone mutation somewhere.
'...Were the variants created deliberately?'
The Tower of Growth was divided into countless spaces and floors. Some spaces were used for Tower Entry, but there were also spaces that remained unknown.
Lee Ha-yul recalled the spaces he had observed upon falling here.
In the vast and varied spaces, countless monsters were propagating, devouring each other, and growing.
'If you could control them, you could use them as an army beyond imagination.'
The Authority of Growth.
He had already experienced its performance thoroughly. Without thinking too deeply, he could guess which Authority would be most suited for creating an army.
Having finished his thoughts, Lee Ha-yul released his presence.
"...One more!"
The cadets who had been catching their breath instantly raised their weapons. Then, upon seeing the black helmet Lee Ha-yul wore, their eyes widened.
A reaction similar to the previous cadets.
Lee Ha-yul's actions were also the same.
"Gurk, you, son of a..."
"Ambush! Crazy assassin... kgh..."
"This damn game is so shit— ungh!"
He approached the cadets who had woken up due to the nighttime disturbance and deliberately revealed his presence.
Once they went on alert, he showed himself for a moment before subduing them with hidden weapons.
If he couldn't subdue them in one blow, he grappled and suppressed them. And then he didn't finish them off but fled.
He repeated such havoc all night long. Before he knew it, he could sense signs of the sun rising.
'...Hmm.'
Was it because of that?
The momentum of those clinging to his heels was especially sharp. Their faces were all grim. They looked like pufferfish swollen with poison.
Hiding his awkward expression behind his helmet, Lee Ha-yul kicked off a branch. Fwip-fwip-fwip! Traces of mana streaked and embedded themselves densely into the slender branches.
The arrows didn't stop. He spun, his robe fluttering. The resulting wind narrowly deflected the arrows' trajectories.
Lee Ha-yul landed softly in a clearing cleared of trees.
- Kwoong!
At that same moment, cadets who had been hiding in the surrounding forest surged in.
'The encirclement... is fairly tight.'
Since he had been constantly harassing the cadets, now, with dawn approaching, quite a few cadets were pursuing him with determination.
To the point that they were clumsily cooperating to form an encirclement.
Lee Ha-yul subtly raised his right arm. The sleeve fluttered.
- Tadadak!
"Kup...!"
The cadet rushing in with a greatsword flinched. He could see needles that had nearly pierced his Aura, stopping right before his nose.
This was something he had already experienced once.
That boss is holding back. The hidden weapons he's scattering are just carved from the common wood lying around, yet they pierce through Aura.
Still, he throws them just enough to be barely blocked by Aura raised at full power. Moving his Aura to shake off the needles, the cadet brought his greatsword down.
Lee Ha-yul's form distorted left and right. Kwadeuk! The greatsword cleaved the earth. Retreating like a ghost, Lee Ha-yul flicked his sleeve again.
- Puboobook!
A stinging pain struck his entire body. His body seized up as the hidden weapons stabbed into his circuits. The cadet's face contorted.
He adjusts the thrown hidden weapons so they can be blocked with Aura.
In other words, to block hidden weapons targeting your entire body, you have to wrap your entire body in Aura.
If you don't wrap yourself in Aura, or if it wavers, the hidden weapons slip through the gaps like a ghost. The body of the cadet who had charged from the front collapsed.
- Even though it's a greatsword, your movements are too sluggish. Let's pay attention to that part.
After subduing one and sending a Sound Transmission, Lee Ha-yul turned.
Presences were rushing in from the left, right, and behind. Perhaps because they knew each other, they approached with a fairly adept formation.
This time, Lee Ha-yul raised his left hand. As his sleeve fluttered, a flurry of daggers shot out.
"Hup!"
The cadet hadn't seen it but had anticipated it. He leaped, hugging close to the ground. Whoosh! The wind trembled faintly above his head.
Smiling slightly, the cadet tightened his grip on his spear. At that, Lee Ha-yul twitched his five fingers. The threads of mana tangled around his fingers pulled the hidden weapons.
Whoosh!
The hidden weapons that had passed overhead now aimed for his back. Startled, the cadet spun and swung his spear. Crash! The Aura spreading through the air blocked half of the hidden weapons.
The remaining half tore through the air as if winding around the cadet.
The moment his Aura focused on the spear, the Aura protecting his body wavered slightly. Puboobook! The hidden weapons that slipped through that gap stabbed into his flesh.
The cadet, now turned into a pincushion, collapsed.
- The attempt was good, but you let your guard down for a moment. Don't assume an attack will end with a single strike; let's always keep long-range manipulation in mind.
Only the cadets rushing in from behind and the right remained. Lee Ha-yul moved his legs.
He wasn't fast. He could be leisurely tracked with the eyes. Rather, he was slow. He was even within range. If they thrust their weapons, they'd surely hit.
They didn't hit.
His swaying movements dodged every attack by a hair's breadth. His bizarre footwork seemed to mock the eye.
Lee Ha-yul raised both hands. The twin daggers he now held blurred.
- Pababak!
"Kuk."
In one exchange, the cadet's sword tip was tapped off balance. The other blade slid up along his sword, aiming for his fingers. The moment he tried to respond, the opposite dagger sliced his wrist. On the next attack, the dagger shallowly grazed his neck.
None of it was fast. It was cruelly easy to follow with the eyes.
- Your spacing control was clumsy, wasn't it? Let's try handling and facing weapons of various lengths directly.
He tapped the flinch-stricken cadet's solar plexus with his palm.
'Resonance Strike.'
Pang! The cadet's body bucked at the impact bursting from within. Leaving the collapsing cadet behind, Lee Ha-yul turned.
One remained. The cadet with a horrified expression approached and brought his sword down.
- Kwang!
"Urk!"
A spell planted on the ground he stepped on detonated. The output was weak, unable to break through even the protective magic of the cadet uniform, let alone his Aura. But his posture was disrupted for an instant.
Lee Ha-yul extended his dagger toward the sword blade falling toward his head.
'Azure Cloud Falling Water.'
The sword struck the dagger. Operating his Observation and senses to the extreme, he twisted his wrist. The sword lost its power and slid down, clinging to the dagger as if stuck.
"Wow, seriously insane."
In that interval, Lee Ha-yul's legs pushed off the ground. He twisted his upper body and rammed in with his shoulder. He detonated the force accumulated from the ground at a single point.
'Hoof Advance - Mountain Breaker.'
Kwoong! Swallowing a scream, the cadet's body bent at a right angle and flew away.
- Since your sword speed is constant, it's easy to predict and counter. The sword changes a great deal depending on variations in speed.
"Shit, so... fucking thankful..."
The cadet, choking back on his breath, hung his head. Having already embedded needles in several parts of his body in the meantime, Lee Ha-yul swung his arm.
- Cha-je-jaeng!
The dagger shot down the arrows. After deflecting the three leading arrows, they collided with the eight following and scattered off into harmless directions.
- Did you see? Having too much space between arrows is bad, but if you pack them too tightly thoughtlessly, they become easy to shoot down like this. Let's keep this point in mind.
The cadet drawing his bowstring atop a branch flinched. Then, letting out a deep sigh, he cautiously turned his head.
His gaze met Lee Ha-yul, who was suddenly standing right beside him.
There hadn't been the slightest presence. The cadet's mouth fell open.
"...Senior, why are you here, anyway?"
How did he know? For a moment, Lee Ha-yul's eyes widened, and he moved his hands.
- ...There are circumstances.
"What circumstances could possibly make you persecute your juniors here like this... gurk."
- I'm giving them help and advice, aren't I...
A needle embedded in his neck, and the cadet's body tilted. Flop! He crashed into a soft thicket.
Confirming this, Lee Ha-yul puffed his cheeks slightly.
'Persecute... but I'm diligently giving them advice...'
Of course, he was getting personal training out of it too. Lee Ha-yul toyed with the dagger in his hand and pursed his lips.
It was an extremely low-grade level of doppelganger. Both its physical ability and mana were below the average of a first-year cadet.
'Still, its skill doesn't disappear.'
Of course, this skill level was also lower than the original body's. Mana Affinity and All-Rounder. These two Unique Abilities didn't fully reach the doppelganger.
The techniques he had just used were also pure techniques, not expansion abilities. Thanks to that, the level was a bit low.
'I've been clumsy with my martial arts training for a while.'
There was ample room for growth in this area too. And he had to grow.
Previously, he hadn't been able to overwhelm the Tower Master of Purgatory he had fought in terms of skill.
'Tsk...'
Considering it was a doppelganger, and also that this side possessed the Observation Authority, it was fair to say he had been pushed back. Clicking his tongue, Lee Ha-yul toyed with his dagger.
'Should I train this way until today?'
The original body couldn't move anyway. Having organized his thoughts, Lee Ha-yul kicked off a branch—
'Hyiik...!'
His leg twisted.
Original body or doppelganger, in the end, it was a body that Lee Ha-yul moved. The doppelganger trembled at the sensation reaching the original body.
The twisted doppelganger fell below.
"Kkooek!"
- Keuaak.
He crashed into the thicket. A scream akin to a frog being squished rang out.
* * *
A hologram floating in a dark space. Within it, the night's ambushes were being broadcast.
It was footage of a small assassin in a black helmet and white robe rampaging through the forest and trampling the cadets.
"...What is our kid doing in there?"
"......"
They had only covered their head with a black helmet. As if there was any way they wouldn't be recognized?
Liana, who had checked the footage one by one, blinked. Atra, standing beside her, had her mouth similarly agape.
The staff member who had called the two over tilted their head.
"Uh... Professor Liana, you don't know either?"
"Yes... we can't see the 2nd years in real time because of the time compression..."
Tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear, Liana checked the footage again.
...He was quite literally flying around.
For some reason, he was mostly performing ambushes, and wherever he'd learned it, he was displaying insane skill even at that.
"Atra, did you know he could teach that kind of thing too?"
"What does it look like to your eyes?"
"Ah, looks like he self-taught."
Quickly convinced, Liana tilted her head.
"So why is our kid over there? The 2nd-year Tower Entry isn't even over yet."
A question that naturally arose.
Even though the 2nd-year Tower Entry wasn't over, Lee Ha-yul was in the 1st-year Tower Entry space, wearing a helmet over his head, and rampaging like an event boss.
With a bewildered expression, Liana tapped the hologram. The viewpoint broadcasting the tower's interior darted around.
She snooped around various viewpoints, excluding restricted areas for cadets' privacy.
"Ah."
And finally, she found them.
- Daera, is that really the best you can do? If so, just give up and hand him over to me.
- Ah, just stay still. Because you keep back-seat driving from the side, my posture keeps getting twisted.
Lee Ha-sol and Daera. The current 1st-year Top Seat, and the cadet who, considering combat ability alone, surpasses Lee Ha-sol.
The two famous figures, perhaps having formed a temporary alliance, weren't fighting but were merely bickering verbally.
- Ha-yul, isn't it uncomfortable? Wait just a moment. I'll get you back.
- Get him back, my foot. The little junior likes my embrace too. He slept comfortably held in my arms.
- Daera's chest is smaller than mine anyway.
- This crazy bit— you, have you measured? How do you know my size?
- Anyone can see it just by looking...
Amidst that, she spotted Lee Ha-yul, held in Daera's arms.
A younger Lee Ha-yul.
"Hm."
Liana propped her chin on her hand.
Why had he become younger? There was no need for lengthy deliberation. Liana, and even Atra. The two of them now knew the reason.
Damage severe enough to make normal physical restoration impossible.
"Hiiik..."
The staff member who had called the two over swallowed a scream.
Liana's and Atra's eyes chilled over.
"Ah, ah... the end time is soon."
The trembling staff member announced that the Tower Entry's end was approaching.
* * *
'Ah.'
His flickering consciousness surfaced. His senses returned. Observation activated as well.
Lee Ha-yul blinked his bleary eyes and moved his body.
'I'm back.'
The entrance of the Tower of Growth. Standing there, Lee Ha-yul's body had returned to its original state.
Relatively small... very slightly small, but a body with no problems whatsoever for activity.
'My shaved-off vitality and vessel have returned too. As expected of the Tower of Growth.'
He touched his forearm and matched his state check.
The growth achieved inside the Tower was applied, and the vitality and vessel that had been completely wrecked by the aftermath of Three Ends had returned. No matter how he thought about it, it was an absurdly overpowered function.
'Taesan's senses are as they were too... good.'
A faint smile formed. Taesan's senses. The vitality of the things standing upon the earth was clearly felt...
- Squeeze...
"Geueng..."
In an instant, a hand aimed for the back of Lee Ha-yul's neck.
But he didn't feel the slightest urge to dodge. Even as they grabbed him by the scruff and lifted him, he had no will to resist.
The assassin who had just been toying with the 1st-year cadets' night and senses was now being lifted like a cat.
"Ha-yul."
"Hik."
A sensation felt from behind. A blazing, crimson Calamity Flame. Scorching eyes bore into the back of his head with enough force to pierce through.
Was that all? He could also feel a sharp, blade-like intent, and a warm yet keenly honed intent.
Baek A-rin, stern-faced both above and below her mask, and Ellia, her eyes darkened.
"...Geueu..."
"Quiet."
Lee Ha-yul's twitching lips pressed shut. With a calm expression, Hong Yeon-hwa stared at the Lee Ha-yul held in her hand.
"First, let's talk at home."
Red, blue, and yellow winged garments wrapped tightly around Lee Ha-yul's body.