Chapter 14
Terminally Ill, but It's Okay — Episode 14
Joo A-rin gritted her teeth.
She was getting a firsthand demonstration of the saying that people can't be fixed.
"That goddamn bastard...."
A chill sharp enough to sting her skin encroached on their surroundings, but it only slowed the creature down.
The pack leader's movements were still vicious.
As expected.......
Blocking the darkness with an incomplete freeze was asking too much.
If Hae-rin hadn't been fighting so desperately, she would already have taken a direct hit.
"Worse than a Divine Beast."
So she was furious.
And because she was furious, harsh words kept spilling out.
She should never have trusted him from the start.
The problem was that she'd briefly been taken in by the sight of him suddenly appearing with a sword and charging in without regard for anything.
He'd thrown himself into danger first, and she'd heard he ran around drenched in sweat taking on all the dirty work.
Unlike the rumors she personally knew, she'd figured he wasn't the worst sort of irredeemable case.
But to think he'd stab her in the back like this.
"This...."
Joo A-rin, about to shout once more, bit down on her lip and swallowed the words.
What good would it do? It was already in the past.
Strictly speaking, it wasn't only his fault.
She too had known her opponent was no pushover, yet she'd gotten greedy and tried to secure a fast capture time as well.
If she had taken on the pack leader herself from the beginning, the time would have dragged, but there wouldn't have been a crisis like this.
CRACKLE!
As another clash erupted, Joo A-rin widened the distance and caught her breath.
The remaining ordinary specimens surrounded them on all sides as if laying siege, and the pack leader flashed its white eyes and grinned, as though already anticipating its victory.
It was the gaze of a predator looking at prey.
"How dare...."
As humiliation settled over her once-lofty pride, her pounding heart rapidly cooled.
Joo A-rin gritted her teeth and drew up her mana.
She knew it was unreasonable, but she prepared a new freeze.
Krrk-krrk—
The pack leader began to move as well.
Its already-black body darkened further as it phased, and it surged forward like a shadow.
Joo A-rin reached out without hesitation to counter it.
...But then.
Cough—
In that instant, her chest seized up, and she tasted blood.
"My mana...."
She didn't have enough left to manifest the freeze, and that was the problem.
"A-rin! It's dangerous!"
Lee Min-ha, sensing the danger, shouted, but it was already too late.
The distance between her and the creature had shrunk, and she had so little mana left that even casting another sorcery would be like trying to stop a speeding train with her bare hands.
"At least you get out of the way."
Joo A-rin immediately dismissed Hae-rin's summon and braced for the coming impact.
FWOOSH!
It was exactly then that something flashed behind the pack leader.
A sphere of fire appeared out of nowhere and flew toward them.
At the starting point of its trajectory stood him.
"...Park Ha-yul?"
The man she'd thought had run away had cast a sorcery to help her.
"No way?"
It was late, but still not the worst situation, and a faint glimmer of expectation rose in Joo A-rin's eyes.
But only for a moment.
Figures.
Would that even reach 1-star?
What help could a fireball so pathetically tiny possibly—
Bang.
But then, right after the fireball struck the pack leader.
RUMBLE—
Joo A-rin's already-large eyes flew open even wider.
Geu-eo-eo-eok—
The point of impact blazed up as if expanding in an instant.
Along with a heat so intense it was bewildering, a void lingered as if all the surrounding air had vanished at once.
....
Soon after, as the ferocious heat swallowed the area, the pack leader and the ordinary specimens let out agonized shrieks.
"Ugh."
Joo A-rin was no exception.
Though it was only the aftermath, the force was impossible to ignore, and a groan escaped her.
What in the—
She quickly withdrew her mana and shielded her entire body.
Rattle-rattle.
But she couldn't block it completely.
As the heat seeped in, her skin stung.
Byproducts of the explosion raked across her face.
With the first pain she'd felt in a long while compounded by the early symptoms of mana exhaustion, her mind grew hazy.
Still, she forced herself to hold on.
Soon the form of the pack leader, which had taken the explosion head-on, came into view.
Its upper body was half-melted, and only one of its flashing white eyes remained.
This was the last chance to kill it, so Joo A-rin compressed her final handful of mana and hurled it.
Straight at the creature....
"Leave it."
Just then, she heard a familiar voice.
Before she knew it, Park Ha-yul was right beside her, thrusting his sword at the creature.
SHNK—
The pack leader, its head pierced through, collapsed without so much as a single shriek.
....
Joo A-rin, standing there dazed, soon realized there was a lot she needed to demand answers for.
"You......."
But maybe because his usual atmosphere was different?
Looking at Park Ha-yul's cold, hardened face, she couldn't bring herself to continue.
-Team 4. Report exactly what just happened.
Lee Taek-jin's voice came belatedly, but she only let out the sigh she'd been holding back.
* * *
The Initial Stage Occupation Battle, in which all ten teams had participated, came to an end.
The evaluation meeting was held in Lee Taek-jin's faculty office.
Because each team had faced different Monsters and difficulty levels, outside personnel had been brought in to ensure fairness.
"Let's watch Team 3's footage."
Kim Mi-young pointed at the magic screen installed on the wall and spoke.
Soon the recorded footage began to play.
A handsome man dashing forward alone, Seol Yoon-gi, appeared on screen.
Without a moment's hesitation, he charged at the Monster guarding the Initial Stage core.
It was a giant specimen nearly three meters tall, a Geogugoe.
It was among the stronger Grade 7 Monsters, so the evaluators expected it to be difficult to handle.
But their worry was unfounded.
His level far exceeded that of his peers, and with the buffs from his Support Track teammates concentrated on him, the result was beyond imagination.
With relaxed movements, he subdued it cleanly in under ten minutes, drawing admiration from those watching.
"Ho-oh, they say the Seol Family treasures him, and he's quite good. Honestly, I'm impressed."
The first evaluator to speak was from the Yosal Corps, the government's anti-demon and Demonkin extermination force.
She was So Yi-hyeon, vice-commander of Squad 8 and a Tier 6 Awakener famous by the alias Red Witch.
"The operation was solid. They made good use of each team member's traits. The student in the central role showed skill worth watching too."
The outside personnel who agreed with her opinion was also from the Yosal Corps.
Lee Ha-joon, vice-commander of Squad 13.
A Tier 6 Awakener whose gentle eyes, fitting his alias Cheongnok, made him likable.
"You must be pleased, Professor. Having a talent like that as your student."
Lee Ha-joon looked at Lee Taek-jin and chatted amiably.
"I haven't been in charge of him for long, but I intend to guide him well."
It was a mild response, but he didn't seem displeased.
As the corner of Lee Taek-jin's mouth twitched, So Yi-hyeon caught it and cut in with narrowed eyes.
"Vice-Commander Lee Ha-joon. Are you already making a move?"
"Hey, making a move, what...."
"Let's play fair, shall we? Recruitment is for later. We're here for the evaluation right now."
"What, can't I even give a compliment? Don't be so uptight. You're just as interested in the prize as I am."
Lee Ha-joon waved his hand as if telling her to stay out of it, but So Yi-hyeon wasn't about to back down.
"I don't make it obvious like some people. Childishly."
"Childish? Is that how you talk to your senior?"
"What senior? Then try acting like one."
"What?"
In the end, a small spark flew between the two.
As Lee Ha-joon had said, the evaluation was only a nominal reason.
Every part of the Yosal Corps shared a common thirst for recruiting talent.
"Ahem, Professor, shall we proceed with the evaluation?"
Fortunately, Kim Mi-young, who was facilitating, interjected at just the right moment.
"Have you both said everything you wanted to say?"
When Lee Taek-jin asked with a displeased expression, the two coughed awkwardly.
Kim Mi-young spoke again.
"As you know, the evaluation consists of three categories. Time and safety scores have objective indicators, so please just confirm them, and please discuss and decide the difficulty score."
Lee Taek-jin, So Yi-hyeon, Lee Ha-joon.
All three possessed excellent judgment, so the meeting did not drag on.
Seol Yoon-gi's Team 3 received a difficulty score of 47 out of a maximum of 50.
Their time and safety scores were 49 and 48, respectively.
Total score: 144.
It was the highest score among the teams evaluated so far.
"Let's watch the next team's footage."
The evaluation continued.
The two outsiders' eyes lit up whenever famous talents from Class A appeared.
"Baek Sa-young is too altruistic."
"Right. His time dragged because he was looking after his teammates' safety. He needs to be bold when boldness is required."
"Still, there's no doubting his skill. I'd believe it if you told me he was a graduate."
Baek Sa-young's Team 1 received a total of 143 points and ranked second.
Cheon Seo-yoon's Team 5, evaluated next, placed third with a total of 140 points.
"Next is Team 4."
And so the final evaluation approached.
"Ah, this is Joo A-rin's team."
"She's from the Guardian Joo Family, right? I've heard the rumors."
"The Summoning Track is a treasure in itself."
The two from the Yosal Corps focused on the screen with the same interested gazes as always.
Most of their attention was directed at Joo A-rin.
The footage began to play.
Thanks to a teammate with a guide trait, Team 4 advanced toward the core without wandering even once.
Krrk-krrk—
Then, without even a moment to prepare, they ran straight into the enemy.
The Kkeomeoksari had launched a surprise attack.
There was momentary confusion, but Joo A-rin's performance exceeded expectations.
As she wielded freezing along with a high-ranking Divine Beast, the two couldn't help but admire her.
"But what's with that one?"
"Cleanup crew?"
"Funny. He's really only going for the last hit."
One other student who had awkwardly joined in was stabbing away with his sword, but he didn't draw much attention.
If anything, he only blocked the screen and got in the way.
They thought it would wrap up without any major trouble.
That was, if not for the crisis that suddenly arrived.
"Huh?"
Kang Cheol-min and Lee Min-ha, who had been marking the pack leader, couldn't hold out long and were knocked away, and the creature seized the opening to charge at Joo A-rin.
"That's dangerous. She's been overexerting herself."
"There were quite a lot of ordinary specimens too. She must already be exhausted. The difficulty gap is pretty severe, isn't it?"
It was an unexpected turn, but how would she overcome this crisis?
It was just as the two's gazes focused on Joo A-rin again.
"Huh?"
The breakthrough came not from Joo A-rin, but from another student.
The student who had been flailing around with a sword moments earlier was the one responsible.
One moment he had vanished off-screen as if fleeing, and a moment later, blue and red sorcery flashed from that spot.
Because it was at the edge of the screen, it wasn't clearly visible, but the churning mana was enough to make the very air ripple.
Lee Ha-joon, who had been watching, shouted.
"Wh-what is that? He just used fire-attribute and water-attribute sorcery at the same time, right?"