Second Selection
So he wanted me to join under him? It was an outrageously shameless offer from a bastard who had just killed one of his own companions a moment ago.
I glanced lazily at his outstretched hand, then lifted my eyes and stared straight into his.
“Me? Under you?”
A thin sneer curled at the corners of my mouth.
I had once commanded an army of tens of thousands of corpses in my previous life.
Even the weakest of that corpse legion would have been stronger than this fool, so me, under Lee Cheolgang? Nonsense.
“How about you come under me instead? I’ll keep you alive until the test is over.”
A counteroffer.
In an instant, the air inside the cave turned icy. The two remaining lackeys behind Lee Cheolgang’s back gaped with their mouths hanging open.
“You crazy bastard! I was trying to be nice, and you don’t know your place!”
Lee Cheolgang’s face flushed red, then purple.
I could feel the strength gathering in his clenched fist.
He looked ready to smash my skull in right then and there.
“What, you want to try?”
Still sitting where I was, I tilted my head and looked up at him.
Even in the middle of charging forward, Lee Cheolgang hesitated.
He wasn’t scared. He was judging whether he could win.
Then—
“…Tch. Just you wait. Let’s see if that arrogant mouth of yours is still running tomorrow.”
In the end, Lee Cheolgang reined in his fist and stormed off to the opposite side of the cave, grumbling. His lackeys, reading the room, hurried after him like puppies.
I couldn’t help admiring the man in a detached sort of way. For his age, Lee Cheolgang had a massive frame and enough brute strength to flatten most boys without issue.
And yet, after seeing me move with a little more skill than he expected, he’d already decided he might lose.
He looked like a coward, but he was strong for his age and smart enough to know when to hold back. A combination like that tended to live long.
With Lee Cheolgang gone, Jin Sohee walked over to me.
“There’s no advantage in making enemies for no reason.”
“Enemies? That brat?”
I answered carelessly and leaned back against the cave wall.
I didn’t care whether I made enemies or not. I was interested in only one thing: the Death Qi in this land. No matter how much I absorbed, it was like a lake that never ran dry.
For a necromancer like me, it was the perfect training ground. Whenever I had time, I needed to absorb as much Death Qi as possible.
.
.
.
The next morning, we were summoned back to the training yard.
The number of trainees had been cut in half from yesterday, but the atmosphere was several times heavier.
After experiencing murder for the first time in their lives, the children had finally understood what kind of place this was.
This was a place where death was real, and where they could die at any moment.
Faced with that reality, the children had acquired a maturity far beyond their years.
The head instructor stepped forward onto the platform.
“If you survived the first selection, that means you were prepared to kill others in order to live.
Then now I will ask whether you truly have the qualifications to walk the Blood Cult’s path.
That is the nature of the second test.”
At his gesture, the assistants began handing out small pellets to each child.
They glowed faintly red, and a harsh, bloody stench rolled off them.
They looked like ordinary medicine at first glance, but vicious energy was tightly compressed inside.
“What I’ve given you is called a Blood Pill.
It is a pellet made by diluting the essence of the cult’s unique inner art, Blood Art.
If you’re suited to the cult, it will further reshape your sinews and bones.
If you’re not suited…”
A cruel smile crossed the head instructor’s lips.
“Then you’ll be unable to withstand the energy raging through your body, and you’ll die after bleeding from every hole in your body.”
I studied the Blood Pill quietly. In my previous life, mad mages had distributed things like this too.
Potions made by sealing their own mana into them. Drink it, and one of two things happened: either a person without mana awakened it, or they died because they couldn’t endure it.
“Eat.”
With that single command, the head instructor’s voice rang out. The children nervously brought the pills to their mouths, but one person in our group was different.
“Why are you all so scared? Don’t you want to get stronger?”
Lee Cheolgang, clearly aware of my gaze, swallowed his Blood Pill first.
“This doesn’t even feel like—kuh!”
He clutched his chest. His eyes turned bloodshot, and pale steam began rising from his body.
Even as he gritted his teeth and endured the pain, he was grinning at me, as if he’d already beaten me because I still hadn’t eaten mine.
With Lee Cheolgang leading the way, the other children began taking their Blood Pills as well.
“Agh!”
A scream burst out from one side.
A boy clutched his chest and rolled on the ground.
Dark red blood began pouring from his eyes, ears, and nose, and then his body twisted like a rope as his movements stopped.
The assistants, as if they’d long since grown used to it, dragged the corpse away and tossed it outside the yard.
Amid the screams erupting everywhere, I looked at Jin Sohee.
She had taken the Blood Pill too, and I could see her frowning while she fought to endure the pain.
And I could see something else as well—Jin Sohee was trying to accept that energy with her own internal force.
So that’s how you do it.
The answer was harmony. My energy and the energy inside the Blood Pill were inevitably different, so I had to accept it, not resist it.
I put the Blood Pill into my mouth and bit down.
Crunch.
The moment the pill broke, a spicy, bloody taste slid down my throat. And then hell erupted immediately.
Bang!
It felt as if a bomb had gone off inside my body, and the vicious demonic energy contained in the Blood Pill began rampaging through me.
It was like molten lava pouring through my veins. My body clearly wasn’t compatible with it. If I had been an ordinary child, my heart would already have burst from this stage alone.
You insolent thing. Where do you think you’re rampaging?
I opened the Death Qi I’d hidden throughout my body.
Even when energies were of the same nature, Death Qi still held the upper hand. That was why dark magic surpassed ordinary magic.
Death Qi crashed over the Blood Pill’s energy. Suppression, crushing, then swallowing it whole—a merciless act of predation, like a pack of starving wolves tearing apart a lone lamb that had lost its way.
My body had become a battlefield. Death Qi and the Blood Pill’s energy collided, making my muscles tremble and my bones scream. And I watched it all with my eyes wide open.
Whoosh.
Before long, the storm of pain began to subside.
As if the Blood Pill’s energy had surrendered to the Death Qi, it lost its momentum and settled in one place.
Below my navel?
Since I hadn’t formed a circle yet, mana existed throughout my whole body, but the Blood Pill’s energy had taken root below my navel.
“Hoo…”
I spat the black blood pooling in my mouth onto the ground.
When I lifted my head, the surroundings were a complete disaster.
Even among Group 44, one of Lee Cheolgang’s lackeys was already dead, blood gushing from his body, while Lee Cheolgang himself was barely keeping his breathing under control, having managed to settle his energy at the last second.
The head instructor slowly walked around the yard, checking the survivors.
“Congratulations to those who lived. At last, you have shed your skin as mere worms and gained the right to become members of the Blood Cult!”
His gaze lingered on me for a moment. While the other children were pale and staggering, I actually seemed even livelier than before.
“Starting tomorrow, you will undergo the initiation ceremony as members of the Blood Cult.
Once the ceremony is over, you will be given your introductory martial arts, so conduct yourselves properly.”
Martial arts. According to the memories in this body, this world used something called martial arts instead of magic.
At last, I had a chance to learn the true power of this world.
As I looked forward to tomorrow, Jin Sohee staggered over to me.
“You… look fine?”
“I had a rough time too.”
It was the truth. Without Death Qi, there was no way I would have endured the Blood Pill’s energy.
“You don’t look very fine yourself.”
Cold sweat was beading on Jin Sohee’s forehead, and the energy inside her was in complete disarray.
She had clearly managed to absorb it, but the process hadn’t gone smoothly.
“I have a favor to ask…”
“What is it?”
“I suffered internal injuries while absorbing the energy. Keep watch over me while I heal them.”
“I don’t know what keeping watch means, but you want me to protect you, right?”
Jin Sohee nodded. If Lee Cheolgang realized she’d weakened, he’d immediately try to eliminate a rival.
Of course, Lee Cheolgang probably wasn’t in good shape either, but there was no harm in being careful.
But still—
“Why should I do you this favor?”
Helping Jin Sohee wouldn’t benefit me in the slightest.
Of course, I’d wanted to ask her about energy, but we were going to learn martial arts tomorrow, so even that had lost most of its value.
In a situation like this, I had no reason to help her.
“…”
Jin Sohee understood better than anyone that she had nothing to offer me.
“…I’ll do anything.”
“What?”
“If it’s something I can do, I’ll grant you one favor. Anything.”
I had nothing I wanted to ask Jin Sohee for. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to have a debt like that lying around.
“How long do you need me to keep watch?”
“Just tonight is enough.”
For the price of guarding her for a single night, I’d get one wish. It was technically a bad deal for me, but having one companion under my belt wasn’t a bad thing.
“Then I’ll keep watch.”
“Thank you…”
Jin Sohee’s gaze toward me seemed a little different now, but a ten-year-old kid’s gratitude didn’t mean much to me.
Besides, after living alone for hundreds of years, I’d long since transcended things like love.