The Lost Ruins (3)

I assigned Ji Yeon-ha as the Breaker and Ah Seo-ah as the Harmonizer.

Well, the Harmonizer matters too.

But the Breaker's importance was practically on par with the Vanguard's. In a word, without a Breaker, the trial itself was essentially impossible.

If the Harmonizer falls a little short, it can be covered for. The Breaker can't.

By that measure, assigning Ji Yeon-ha as the Breaker was by far the better choice. Worst case, we could end up getting beaten one-sidedly without even landing a single blow.

As Wiz finished speaking, light began to bloom around Ji Yeon-ha and Ah Seo-ah. Apparently it was teleporting them to wherever they could fulfill their roles.

Having roughly grasped the situation, the two each tossed a word my way.

"Give it your best, dear. Whatever happens, don't die. I'll support you from behind as much as I can, so rest easy."

"Let's smash through this and get out of here, quick!"

And then—

The light flashed, and both of them vanished.

Reading the floating messages, I smirked.

"Appreciate the support."

The trial about to begin would be nothing like that cute, innocent facade. The artificial intelligence might be the one administering it, but the trial's contents had been crafted by 'Sages' to judge who was worthy of inheriting their knowledge.

Better keep my head in the game.

I straightened my spear and raised my mana.

And a moment later—

Space twisted, and something massive materialized at the center of the garden. Grinding gears, mana circuits interlaced as neatly as blood vessels—the form of a colossal gorilla made entirely of machinery.

"KUWOOOOOAH—!"

A mana-laden roar reverberated through the garden.

[Hall of the Piercing Ones]

The place Ji Yeon-ha had been sent to was a stone chamber of modest size. The first things she saw upon arrival were a large screen and a round board. On it was a live feed of Lee Tae-hyun facing off against a mechanical gorilla.

"So, what exactly am I supposed to do?"

Wiz answered her question.

A ripple of mana crackled through her head, and someone's voice began to come through.

"Ah—ah. Is this coming through clearly?"

On the screen, Lee Tae-hyun was mouthing words with practiced calm.

"…Don't tell me you knew about this part too."

"Roughly, yes."

The Breaker could communicate with the Vanguard. So how on earth did Lee Tae-hyun know the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠inner workings of a gate like this?

Once again, the man was an overflowing spring of things she wanted to say, but she swallowed it all down with superhuman patience. Now was not the time for that conversation.

"First, try attacking it. I need to know exactly what we're dealing with."

"Understood."

Lee Tae-hyun kicked up a wind around his whole body and closed in on the gorilla with an uncanny footwork.

BOOM!CRASH!

A giant hand came swinging at him, fist after fist. Each blow shattered the ground while erupting with mana to devastate a wide area all at once.

KRWAAAH—!UUUH—!

Even under the indiscriminate bombardment of a raging beast, Lee Tae-hyun wove laterally through the attacks with practiced ease—wearing the relaxed expression of a man out for a stroll.

"…Wow."

Ji Yeon-ha let out an involuntary breath of admiration.

She'd felt it before, but Lee Tae-hyun truly was a man outside the bounds of common sense. She had met plenty of humans in her time, and not one of them had ever made the impression he did. At most, it took a Diana or one of the other World Rankers to give off a similar presence.

Then does that mean… Lee Tae-hyun is World Ranker class?

The moment ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the thought surfaced, she shook her head. No matter how freakishly fast his growth was, or how many strange powers he wielded—

World Rankers are beings of an entirely different caliber as a species.

The World Ranker realm was beyond the human—heaven beyond heaven. The strongest of the strong even among S-rank hunters, those who had set foot in the bounds of transcendence. Human weapons whose very existence was tied to a nation's power. However strong Lee Tae-hyun might be, he surely hadn't yet reached their heights.

At least, that was what she believed.

"Yeon-ha?"

Lee Tae-hyun called to her.

"Ah, yes. I'm listening."

"I'll try an attack now."

Flames coiled around his spear, and he thrust it in hard.

Even at a glance, the power behind it was terrifying—but the moment it landed, the armor the beast wore flashed, and the attack simply evaporated.

So this was the Giant Kong's defensive system.

"Strange. I clearly felt the spear bite in… but it's as if the armor absorbed the attack."

"Absorbed… absorbed, you say…"

Ji Yeon-ha tapped her cheek, her mind turning over. There was no way something could take an impact of that magnitude whole and leave not the slightest trace behind. And yet the armor remained perfectly intact. Without so much as a scratch.

"Could you attack it a few more times?"

"Sure, why not."

Lee Tae-hyun ran up the beast's arm and unleashed his spear art. With a crackling hiss, the phantom of a yaksha rose behind him. The mysteries of the Nameless Spear Art rained down on the gorilla again and again—

KUUUUNG!KUUNG!

—and still, nothing landed. If anything, the thing only seemed more enraged, its fists coming faster.

Lee Tae-hyun rapidly widened the distance.

"Do you see it now?"

Ordinarily she would have needed far more data, but for her, this was plenty. The corners of Ji Yeon-ha's mouth curled upward.

"That's more than enough."

She stepped up to the board and began rapidly drafting a magic formula.

"This isn't simply a matter of defense, you see."

If it were merely high defense, there was no way that much of a mana reaction would occur each time it received one of Lee Tae-hyun's attacks.

And then there's its behavior.

Giant Kong wasn't even trying to defend against his attacks. However small the damage, any normal creature would at least raise an arm or cover its vitals when an attack came in.

Which means no damage is reaching it at all, from the very start.

In the current situation, there was exactly one mechanism that could make that possible.

"The moment your attack lands, it's being teleported somewhere else entirely. That's what ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I mean."

It was nullifying the attacks themselves by relocating them elsewhere. And the way the armor flashed and its circuits whirred every time it took a hit—it couldn't help but remind her of the teleportation technique she'd seen when first brought to this place.

With smooth, sweeping strokes, she drew the magic formula across the white board. Before long, a single spell stood complete.

"Done!"

Mana flowed into the formula on the board, and it began to operate successfully.

Ji Yeon-ha's magic formula materialized above the Giant Kong's head, and its armor shattered into fragments. Now Lee Tae-hyun's attacks could finally reach the beast.

"Go!"

"As expected—you're fast."

Lee Tae-hyun smiled faintly and gripped his spear tight. Kicking up the flames of Karma Flame, he unleashed strike after strike in a single breath.

Flame Soul Moon Blade

Fire Thorn — Linked

Unlike before, every flaming spear thrust that landed tore the body apart.

"Kuu… kaAAAAH…"

With a groan of protesting metal, the gorilla broke apart piece by piece and crumbled away.

"Hohoho. Well, naturally."

Who did they think made that spell?

Ji Yeon-ha gave her shoulders a proud shrug.

At this rate, I can clear the rest in no time.

Finishing a rough calculation in her head, she turned back to the screen. Lee Tae-hyun was finally stretching, as if only now loosening up. He'd felled a monster of that size with a handful of spear thrusts, and his expression was still perfectly serene.

Still, a monster is a monster.

It was a relief that the monster happened to be on her side.

Everything was going smoothly. "Then, the next stage should be—"

The moment she allowed herself that optimism—

An ominous message flared to life.

"…What?!"

Ji Yeon-ha's eyes went wide with shock. Wasn't the Harmonizer supposed to be a support role that granted buffs? A debuff? What on earth—?

A violet, sinister aura descended over Lee Tae-hyun, settling a debuff upon him. A debuff that shaved a full thirty percent off his defense. For a Vanguard fighting on the front line, it was anything but trivial—

"Hmm…"

—and yet Lee Tae-hyun remained as calm as ever. Not the slightest ripple crossed his face. As if he'd known even this would happen.

Ji Yeon-ha hurried to speak.

"A-are you alright?!"

"I'm fine. My body's always been pretty sturdy—this much of a debuff I can handle."

Then, looking toward the screen, he spoke slowly.

"So don't beat yourself up. Just get ready for the next stage."

It was the tone of someone offering quiet words of comfort to another.

"Haa… haa…!"

In a chamber with a massive scale set at its center, a wizard in a peaked hat exhaled ragged breaths.

"B-but it was wrong? H-how, how could this…!"

Ah Seo-ah checked the formula over and over again. There was absolutely no way it could be wrong. Not a single margin of error, not a single mistake.

"What the heck is the problem then?!"

Emotion surged hot and fast. Failing to solve the puzzle was mortifying enough—but what truly shook her was that her failure had put a burden on Lee Tae-hyun.

She lifted her head and looked at him on the screen. Violet energy seeped into his body, grinding down its durability.

"Aah…!"

So this was the Harmonizer's true role: to convert, with each passing interval, the debuffs inflicted on the Vanguard into buffs. If the Harmonizer failed at her task, those unmanageable debuffs would stack and stack on the Vanguard.

And the result of that would be—

"…Hhk."

Ah Seo-ah's fists trembled. She was, without question, one of those classified as a genius—yet her wisdom was still not enough to unravel the Sages' puzzles. She had always lived with such short-sighted vision.

"Can… can I actually do this…?"

Anxiety and guilt pressed down hard on her shoulders. If she kept getting the puzzles wrong and only ever handed Lee Tae-hyun debuffs—if, because of that, he ended up dying—

Just as delusion bred delusion and an indescribable emotion began to close around her—

"Don't beat yourself up. Just get ready for the next stage."

Lee Tae-hyun on the screen was looking straight at her.

"This was only the first one. And if your defense drops? Then I just don't get hit. Simple as that."

"Besides—since when have you ever been the one worrying about me?"

"Even if you get them all wrong, I'm confident I'll win."

At the confidence rising along the corner of his mouth, the shadow hanging over Ah Seo-ah lifted, just a little.

"…Get them all wrong? Who's getting them all wrong?"

Ah Seo-ah barely steadied her trembling body.

"Just watch. I'll be of help—I swear it…"

The trial of the Hall, made to choose an inheritor of the 'End of Demon Magic'.

The curtain on the true test had risen.