Guardian of the Reed Field
His breath caught in his throat.
What had once been a peaceful reed field, a landscape that could stand as a spectacle in its own right, had transformed completely. The air itself felt different with the monsters and challengers packed into one place.
About ten of them?
Do-yun’s eyes flicked rapidly, counting heads. Most of the faces were ones he had seen at least once in the videos—which meant the top ten of the Hall of Fame had gathered here.
And that pointed to a single, brutal fact.
Clearing the Fifth Floor’s trial is first come, first served.
This field held one monster in each of the four directions—east, west, south, and north. That left only four challengers who could claim a kill. Everyone else would never even get the chance.
Several others reached the same conclusion at once. Their gazes sharpened to blades.
Who would move first?
A silence so thick it raised goosebumps settled over them, as if everything would be decided in a single heartbeat.
Fwoosh.
While they were still sizing one another up, bodies coiled tight, one figure exploded into motion.
“Looks fun and all, but I don’t think we’ve got time to stand around here.”
The cat-eared woman—Kaya—tossed the short remark over her shoulder and bolted. Her destination was north, where the boss that dropped a body-enhancement elixir waited.
“What?”
“Tch. Too late!”
In the span of a single blink she was already gone. All she left behind was a trail of wind and the rustle of swaying reeds, as if she had never stood among them at all.
Whump.
By the time anyone looked north they could still catch a faint afterimage, but her speed—whipping like the wind itself—was terrifying. Even if they gave chase, the northern monster would almost certainly already be dead.
With one option erased, the remaining challengers’ eyes grew even fiercer.
“Hey. I get that everyone’s in a hurry, but how about we take care of the rank-one guy standing right in front of us first?”
A man raised his hand. He was draped in an eccentric assortment of daggers from head to toe—a face that had already lodged itself in Do-yun’s memory.
Nightwalker Grham.
He grinned wide and pointed a finger straight at Do-yun.
“I don’t know which direction the rest of you are eyeing, but if you end up overlapping with that guy, you’re finished before you start.”
A few heads nodded in agreement. Everyone had watched the footage of Do-yun claiming first place. Absolute combat power even after every stat had been equalized. If he grew any stronger, the obstacle he would become was obvious.
“Let’s cut the sprout right here.”
At Grham’s chilling suggestion, the sound of weapons being drawn rang out from every side. It was clearly more than one or two people.
Showing too overwhelming a performance was a mistake, huh.
If Do-yun had been merely a strong opponent of a level they could accept, Grham’s provocation would never have landed this cleanly.
Can I win?
One-on-one he would never lose, but against a group the story changed.
Do-yun’s hand tightened on his sword hilt—then help arrived from the last person he expected.
“Stop.”
The Heavenly Demon, Jin Cheon-woo.
The man in black martial robes stamped one foot. At the same instant a crushing pressure slammed outward in every direction.
Boom!
The ground shook. No—the very air trembled. Jin Cheon-woo had taken only a single step, yet that one step froze everything. Reeds bowed under an invisible weight. The challengers who had drawn weapons against Do-yun flinched as one.
“Hey, old man, what exactly are you trying to pull?”
Grham asked, voice thick with disbelief. From any angle it looked as if Jin Cheon-woo had planted himself protectively in front of Do-yun.
“Don’t tell me you’re about to spout some garbage about how fights have to be fair.”
“I always move only for my own desires.”
Jin Cheon-woo answered the sneer in a low, level voice. He was the man who would have stood closest to the absolute peak if Do-yun had never appeared—and he possessed a kind of creed.
“I simply wish to settle a life-and-death duel with this man once both of us have recovered our true strength.”
Jin Cheon-woo glanced sideways at Do-yun. There was not a shred of goodwill in those eyes—only pure fighting spirit, enough that attacking Do-yun on the spot would not have seemed strange. Yet for some reason he was holding that urge in check.
“I have a feeling this man can help me break past the wall.”
What the hell is this lunatic talking about?
Do-yun could not begin to understand him, but for the moment he decided he could treat the man as an ally.
“Even if there are two of you, nothing changes!”
“Yeah! We’ve still got the numbers!”
A man and woman Do-yun did not recognize shouted. Faces absent from his memory meant they had never cracked the top five of the Hall of Fame—yet they could not be dismissed. They had come close enough to stand here at all.
“Eliminating first and second place simultaneously is more efficient.”
“Judgment. Join.”
Even the two robots present began to whir and clank. Destroyer and Protector. Cyborgs that looked more machine than human split open their palms; vibrating blades and bullets of pure light emerged.
Weapons were a hair’s breadth from clashing—an explosive standoff.
Do-yun ran simulations in his head, deciding whom to drop first.
Grham first after all… wait, what’s he doing?
He half-raised his sword and tilted his head. The very man who had stirred everyone into this confrontation was quietly easing his body backward.
Sssss.
In an instant black darkness wrapped Grham’s form—and he vanished completely.
“Hey! He’s running!”
A dark shadow rippled between the reeds. Grham’s figure burst out of the gloom a short distance away. One of the techniques Do-yun had definitely seen in the videos.
“What?”
The nameless man whipped his head around. When he saw Grham’s receding back, his expression crumpled into pure betrayal.
“You son of a bitch! You planned this from the start!”
Roaring, the man charged after Grham. With that, the taut atmosphere simply unraveled. Numbers reduced, no one saw any reason to pick a fight with the strongest remaining fighters; they scattered in every direction at once.
None of them had ever shared any real trust to begin with. An alliance slapped together on the spot broke just as easily.
“Risking danger is inefficient.”
“Directive. Move west.”
The cyborgs stowed their weapons, then ignited thrusters under their feet and blasted off into the sky. Do-yun briefly wondered whether that was even balanced—until he remembered that Kaya had outrun them barefoot moments earlier, and he let the thought go.
“Then I shall observe from higher ground.”
Jin Cheon-woo, temporary ally for a few short minutes, left those few words and began leaping across the tops of the reeds. He was not forcing his way between the stalks. He was using the thin, fragile reeds themselves as stepping stones.
How is that even possible?
Do-yun watched in mild awe for a second, then scanned the field.
“Everyone gone?”
Not a soul remained among the reeds. Only the backs of people racing toward their chosen destinations were still visible in the distance.
They really all left?
He checked again and again, unable to believe it. Because the reward for staying here was worth far more than anything the directional monsters could drop.
— Hello! This is Jeong Se-ah of “Digging Up Every Hidden Piece”!
— Today I want to talk about a hidden piece you can find on the tutorial’s Fifth Floor.
— The conditions are a little tricky, so I only recommend this for people who are confident!
Seeker Jeong Se-ah. The returnee who had obsessed over hidden pieces and revealed every scrap of information she uncovered. The Fifth Floor’s secret was among them.
— If you look carefully at the reeds, there’s a spot where they’re unusually thick, right?
— It feels like mana and life force all tangled together.
— Just wander around enough and you’ll find it!
Recalling her bright, cheerful voice, Do-yun stared out across the endless reed field and let out a low hum.
“Even knowing a hidden piece is here, this is still insane.”
Comb through this entire expanse, comparing every reed until you spotted the difference? It was a madman’s errand. He was far from the only one who had thought so. Jeong Se-ah, however, had simply tilted her head as if the question itself were strange.
— Why on earth did I do it?
— There’s one monster each to the north, south, east, and west, but nothing in the center. Doesn’t that feel weird?
— It just reeks of a hidden piece!
Her entire way of thinking was different. Do-yun felt genuine respect for the woman who had attempted something this crazy with zero information.
I guess it’s natural the others don’t know.
Unlike Earth with its developed internet, people from medieval worlds likely lacked convenient ways to share information. Even the cyborgs—whose technology seemed more advanced than Earth’s—being ignorant still felt a little odd…
But if they don’t even know the concept of a hidden piece exists, it makes sense.
From the way they spoke earlier, they prized pure efficiency and rationality. Mechanical types like that would never invent the idea of a “hidden piece.” In this one area, at least, Do-yun’s world held the advantage.
Slash, snick.
He cut through the surrounding reeds one by one—and soon sensed something off. Beyond the stalks an unusually strong pull tugged at him.
Absolute Sight (S) has activated.
It was no illusion. The skill he had obtained on the Zeroth Floor—and never once needed since—was finally making its presence known. A skill that could sense the flow of mana.
“Oh, finally doing your job.”
Do-yun gave a short laugh and walked in that direction. Just as Jeong Se-ah had said, he soon found a cluster of reeds far thicker and tougher than the rest.
Thud.
He drove his sword down among them. Instantly the ground began to shake as if an earthquake had struck.
Rrrrumble…
He gripped the hilt tightly and held on. Then, without warning, his field of vision rocketed upward.
“Kh!”
Even though he had braced himself, the sudden change still startled him. The cause was the enormous golem rising beneath his feet, eyes blazing with light. The creature that had been lying flat against the earth, waiting, had felt the external impact and begun to stand.
“KRAAAAAH!”
As the golem roared, system windows bloomed in front of Do-yun’s eyes.
The golem will keep regenerating endlessly until you destroy its core!