Chapter 4, Chapter 1. Newbie, What's the Problem? (4)
The surroundings quickly darkened. They'd spotted a puddle nearby, but since the water wasn't flowing, it was likely contaminated. They decided to skip it for now. If things got truly desperate, they could always drink from it — but you don't die from skipping water for a day or two.
As dusk settled, the mountain beasts gradually vanished from sight. They knew, just like anyone else, that the monsters' active hours were approaching. With no other option, Kang-jun tore off a rotten tree branch, gathered a handful of wriggling larvae, and made his way back. The sight of the squirming bugs on his palm made the whole group recoil in horror. But they needed to replenish their depleted energy, so they had to eat them. After grilling them thoroughly over the fire, they received a lukewarm verdict that they were at least edible. "Tastes like roasted pupae," someone muttered.
"About weapons?"
"Something like this should do, right?"
It was a crude spear — a fairly thick wooden stick with the end sharpened to a point. How much damage could a wooden spear like this really do against a monster? But still, the psychological difference between holding one and holding nothing was dramatic.
He scouted around for any decent shelter that could block the wind, but unfortunately, there was nothing nearby. They'd have to curl up and sleep inside the makeshift lean-to they'd built.
"Let's set up a watch rotation. We have no way to tell time, so we'll have to rely on each other's conscience to wake us up. It's just three days. Let's all suffer together for three days."
"Kang-jun and Yoko worked the hardest today, so let's give them first pick."
"Sounds good."
"I'm in."
Maybe because it was the first night, everyone still had the luxury of being that accommodating. Yoko was delighted with the arrangement. Kang-jun volunteered to take the first shift. The rest of the order was decided by drawing lots.
The eight of them split between two tiny lean-tos and crawled inside. Soon, the sound of snoring filled the air. Starving and exhausted, they must have fallen asleep the moment they lay down.
The Japanese girl kept dozing off and waking up in cycles. Each time she woke, she asked Kang-jun how long it had been.
"Not long at all."
"...I'm so tired I think I'm gonna die."
After a while, overwhelmed by the misery of her situation, she started sobbing. In a place like this, where you had to conserve every ounce of energy, crying was a luxury. He considered telling her to stop, but decided against it. It was her own problem.
"Hic... sorry. Was I being a sight for sore eyes?"
"Pretty much."
"Eh? You really think so?"
Maybe because she was born Japanese, her gestures were distinctly different. That made teasing her a special kind of fun.
"I want to awaken my magic power soon too. Then I'll be super strong, right?"
"Even if you get it, it's not a magic bullet. It all depends on how you use it."
"Still, it's better than having nothing. ...I feel like nothing but dead weight right now."
"You're right about that. You are dead weight."
"Aah, I hate you, oppa, I hate you!"
Normally he'd hold back from useless banter like this, but to be honest, he was a bit tired too and had been letting his mouth run loose. Talking kept sleep at bay. And her reactions were entertaining.
Instructor — is she asleep yet?
Kang-jun fixed his gaze precisely on the tree where the instructor had climbed. No movement. But he couldn't be sure she was sleeping. She'd been in that state for a while now. ...She couldn't possibly have been asleep this whole time.
He periodically spread his mana outward. Occasionally he sensed something moving, but it was just small animals crawling across the ground. No monsters in sight.
Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll pass by?
That would be a relief, but he didn't think luck like that would happen to them of all people. With such delicious, nutrient-rich prey gathered in one spot, unless the monsters were severely defective, they wouldn't miss it.
"Still, it's a good sign. They said monsters would show up here, right? Doesn't seem like they're coming tonight."
"You know what a flag is? If you say something like that, they'll show up guaranteed."
"Let's try to think positively, oppa."
Kang-jun responded with nothing but a shrug. What could he do — this world wasn't exactly positive. And his circuit for optimism had been worn out from overuse until it was completely fried beyond repair.
When the conversation died down, she started dozing off again. After a while, Kang-jun decided it was time to switch shifts. He woke the two men curled up inside the lean-to, sleeping like the dead.
"Shift change."
"...Damn it, feels like I just fell asleep."
"More time has passed than you think. I cut you some slack."
"Got it, got it."
The two, who had been deep in slumber, looked like they were about to die as they took over the watch. The Japanese girl whined that even lying on the bare ground felt like she might live. Kang-jun, whose physical abilities were diminished, actually felt the same way. They said you could memorize all three Confucian classics, but nothing beat lying down.
She soon fell asleep. Kang-jun thought he'd fall asleep as soon as he lay down too, but strangely, sleep wouldn't come. ...It was because of a strange feeling. Something felt a bit more charged with killing intent than before. His sharp senses caught even that subtle shift.
Kang-jun, just in case, spread his mana outward again. That's when something caught his awareness. Undoubtedly a monster. There was only one of them, but its size was considerable. Of course, size and strength didn't always correlate, but with monsters, they generally did.
Right, this is how it's supposed to go.
Kang-jun's lingering sleep vanished completely. He kept expanding his senses with his eyes closed. The creature was slowly approaching them. Surprisingly cautious movements. And not long after, he also sensed the instructor on the tree shift. She had detected the monster's presence too. But she only shifted her body slightly. She seemed to be waiting and watching for now.
Just as the Japanese girl started snoring softly, the watch people began waking up the sleeping members. They'd started hearing suspicious sounds from far away.
"It's probably just a mountain beast, right?"
"No. It sounded completely different from that. Something's really off."
Hearing that, the group's faces went from sleepy to wide awake. Everyone got up and gripped their wooden spears.
The rustling sound was definitely on a different level from ordinary mountain beasts. Something much larger and heavier was out there.
Kang-jun, who already knew exactly what it was, gave the group his confidence.
"It's a monster."
"Really?"
"I'm sure. The breathing is different from a mountain beast."
If he was that certain, they couldn't deny it. Everyone gripped their spears with tense expressions, carefully scanning the surroundings. It could burst out from anywhere at any moment.
"Should we call the instructor?"
"Calling her won't make her come down, fuck. And we should've known better."
The man who said that so definitively was supposedly a statistics researcher from Earth. Perhaps that was why he understood the instructor's tendencies so well.
Anyway, the team members resolved to get through this crisis with their own strength. It was still the tutorial, after all — they were confident that ten people working together could handle one monster. Besides, they were still within the realm of ordinary humans, weren't they? ...But that overconfidence vanished the moment they saw the silhouette slowly emerging from the darkness.
"Holy shit...!"
Everyone's breath caught the instant they saw it. It looked like a puma, but its size was like three or four brown bears stitched together. It gave the impression of what you'd get if you chopped off the left and right heads of Cerberus's three heads from hell.
Kang-jun recognized it immediately. It was a creature commonly seen in Dungeon 1. Among players, it was called a Giant Puma.
Its level was roughly around 50. There were often higher-level ones, but most hovered around that range. If you compared it by calculating one stat point per level, creatures like this were easily something he could toy with.
The instinctive fear born from that stat gap swallowed the team members whole. Still, groups were like that — fear spread easily, but so did the escape from it. The thought that there was only one of them and ten of us made their stiffened bodies slowly start moving again.
"W-we can win if we all charge together! Everyone, pull it together!"
A brave young man shouted. Everyone gritted their teeth and gripped their spears tighter. But with one leap from the monster, their hope shattered into pieces.
"Aaaah..., eeeekkk!"
The Giant Puma clamped its jaws around one of the group members, tearing their head and torso apart right there on the spot. The women fell into a panic and screamed. The men were just as shocked. The creature moved too fast — no one could react at all.
Kang-jun confirmed that the instructor was still holding her position on the tree, then quietly opened the chat window. He was hoping something like a mission might drop.
As expected, I was the idiot for hoping. Kang-jun closed the chat window, once again confirming that there were no gods merciful enough to attach a mission to something like this. A smut novel should be played like a smut novel. If he actually went and fucked it, maybe some people would offer coupons.
In the brief moment he'd looked away, another person had been killed by the monster. At that point, one of the team members bolted. Two more followed. Now only five remained standing at the spot.
The creature, apparently satisfied with two people as prey, circled the area a bit before swallowing them whole and vanishing without a second thought. The five, including Kang-jun, stood frozen in place for a long time.
"I-is it... gone?"
Even after the Giant Puma had completely disappeared from sight, they couldn't sit down for a long while. And when the surroundings finally quieted, they collapsed to the ground in a daze. The women were so terrified they didn't even have the energy to cry.
"W-was he really dead? He really died?"
The Japanese girl was shaking both hands violently — this was apparently the first time she'd witnessed a person die. Everyone except Kang-jun was in the same boat. The instructor never came down.
They spent the night with their eyes wide open. When the surroundings had brightened considerably, the instructor suddenly appeared. She didn't even flinch at the sight of their numbers cut in half.
"So, does it finally feel real? What kind of place this is."
"People died. Real people died. And you're saying something like that?!"
A man jumped up and shouted defiantly. The instructor kicked him hard in the lower abdomen. Wham. He rolled on the ground and collapsed.
"Do you think I've seen this kind of thing once or twice? The weak die. That's the law of this world. Understood, you stupid brats?"
Everyone trembled and couldn't say a word. But unlike before, they couldn't hide the rebellious glint in their eyes. That was the effect of witnessing death. Perhaps that look pleased her — she just chuckled and didn't bother them further. She seemed to raise them this harshly. It was a method that required some sacrifice, but the results were certainly effective.
"Let's move. The living still need to live."
Kang-jun said that toward the four sprawled on the ground. With the numbers now appropriately reduced, he was thinking of taking on the role of leader. Still, if they lost more people, it would be troublesome for the team competition later.
"First, we need to secure drinking water and food."
One of the male team members raised his hand quietly.
"I'll go look for water."
After Kang-jun nodded, he turned to the Japanese girl.
"Yoko, you handle food. You have experience."
"...Yeah, I'll do my best."
"One more person each for water and food. I'll go scout around for a place we can use as shelter. I'll be going a bit far, so be careful until I get back."
Everyone had realized the importance of shelter after this attack. As Kang-jun said, even if it meant going far, they needed to find one.
"You need to be careful too, oppa. It might still be around."
They were already so terrified they didn't even have the nerve to move far.
"Will the people who ran away come back?"
"They're not not coming back — they can't come back. You know what happens if you get lost here. And it was night."
He could probably find them by spreading his mana and searching, but Kang-jun didn't want to waste energy on something so useless. Five people was already a perfectly adequate number. Other teams would probably lose two or three too, so the gap wouldn't be that big.
"Mark your path as you move."
They gripped their wooden spears and set off to do their assigned tasks. Kang-jun also picked a direction and strode forward at a steady pace.
Soon, he felt someone following him. It was the instructor. Of course. He smirked crookedly as he watched her move exactly as he'd intended. The instructors and assistant instructors only helped with awakening magic power — they had never taught anyone how to use mana. She must have found it suspicious.
Kang-jun went quite far before finding a suitable spot and spinning his body around. Then he directed his gaze precisely at where she was.
"Come out now. Instructor."
The instructor dropped down from the tree. Her eyes on him were anything but ordinary.
"You, you brat... what are you really? Are you really a trainee?"
Kang-jun grinned, showing his teeth.
"Wouldn't you know if you looked?"
"A trainee could handle mana like that? ...You can't fool my eyes, you brat. Tell me straight."
Kang-jun wiped the smile from his face and tilted his head slightly.
"No, but..."
His eyes flashed with a chilling light.
"Why do you keep calling me 'brat' at the end of every sentence, you bitch."