Skill Gap (1)
“I, I have a fear of heights……”
Those were the first words Han Gamin said to me when I grabbed her and jumped out of the castle window on the first floor of the tower.
“You could’ve told me.”
“……You didn’t exactly give me a chance to.”
She later explained that the moment I hurled the wooden tea table at the castle window, her body had frozen solid from the instinctive realization that she was about to fall. But because she was smart enough to understand that jumping was the only escape route, she’d somehow managed to suppress the overwhelming terror and hold on.
“……. ”
“Are you okay?”
“Hng… Actually, I’m really, really not okay right now.”
“Uh, um… huh?”
When fat tears began rolling down her cheeks like chicken droppings, I couldn’t help but panic. I’d only ever seen her bold and fearless side. I never imagined she could look this fragile.
I’d heard that severe acrophobia could make living in an apartment impossible. People couldn’t even approach windows in corridor-style apartments, terrified they might fall while trying to ventilate.
“Hic. I know it’s a stupid thought, hic. I know that, okay?”
Fearing a fall from somewhere you couldn’t possibly fall from, and having a panic attack because of it. But everyone has their own trauma, and fear isn’t something you can simply control.
“Next time… if something like this is going to happen, give me a heads-up beforehand……”
“Y-yeah… Sorry.”
After that day, I tried to avoid any locations where there was a risk of falling. Of course, strategic necessity sometimes forced us to camp near cliffs, but I always chose spots as far from the edge as possible, and only at night when the ground below was invisible. All of it was for her sake.
But this… even setting aside her fear of heights, this development was completely unexpected.
“A-are you okay?!”
A perfect freefall. She’d simply become the second person falling alongside me, so I had no idea what she meant by asking if I was okay. Her face had gone deathly pale, and she was clinging to my clothes like she might rip them apart. The sight actually left me feeling more flustered than anything.
If anything, it looked less like she’d jumped to save me and more like the complete opposite.
“Gamin! Snap out of it! Breathe!”
“Huuup! Haa!”
At my shout, Han Gamin squeezed her eyes shut and began breathing in sharp, urgent gasps. It was admirable that she was trying to relax even while falling, but there was no time for praise in a situation like this.
She opened her eyes for a moment, glimpsed the pitch-black ground that looked like an abyss, then stiffened and dropped her head.
“Look at me! Don’t look down!”
Since my body wouldn’t move properly, all I could do was hold her hand and stare into her eyes.
“You jumped down because you had a plan, didn’t you?! Don’t panic, just think slowly…! Think it through slowly!”
“Y-yes!”
Whether my words helped her regain some composure, Han Gamin—still trembling—closed her eyes again, reached into her clothes, and pressed a small feather against my body.
[Light Feather (C) has been used on your body.]
[Fall speed will be reduced until you reach the ground.]
The moment the feather touched me, I felt my body become buoyant, and our descent speed noticeably slowed. The deafening roar of wind that had been threatening to tear my eardrums faded dramatically, allowing me to finally take in our surroundings.
A pitch-black forest dotted sparsely with trees. A cloudless sky with a brilliantly shining moon. And the cliff we’d jumped from now looked impossibly distant.
“……Hiiik!”
Even with the reduced speed, her fear remained. Han Gamin peeked through narrowed eyes, gasped sharply, and clamped them shut again.
Shhhhhhh!!!
“Whoa!”
“Kyaaaak!”
The instant we brushed against the tall trees, the item’s effect vanished and our bodies grew heavy again. The description had said “until you reach the ground,” so apparently even trees rooted in the earth counted as ground.
Boooom!
“Ugh!”
Right before impact, I wrapped myself around Han Gamin as best I could to shield her from harm. I felt branches scraping across various parts of my body, but the Heavenly Silkworm Robe I’d received as a gift on the second floor proved surprisingly durable. I didn’t suffer any major wounds.
Still, the impact from the fall itself was unavoidable, so the pain was inevitable.
“L-land!?”
“Yeah, it’s land.”
“W-we’re alive! Alive…!”
Han Gamin jerked her head up, seemingly so overwhelmed that her language skills had regressed. She couldn’t even finish her sentences properly.
The silver lining was that I seemed to be adapting to her temporary loss of motor function—my limbs were finally starting to respond again.
“Thanks for saving me, but maybe you could……”
I could move, but there were still some restrictions preventing me from getting up immediately. The place was pitch black, so it wasn’t obvious at first, but I was lying on the dirt ground with Han Gamin sprawled on top of me.
“Ah, oh!”
Understanding my implication, she hurriedly tried to get up. But her body still wasn’t fully functional, so I grabbed her swaying arm and continued.
“It might be better to stay close until our vision adjusts. It’s way too dark around here.”
There were no streetlights or electric lanterns like in the modern world. The only thing we could rely on was moonlight. I couldn’t see her face, but I felt her hand tighten slightly, indicating she understood.
“……”
“……”
We stayed like that, holding hands, for a while. It wasn’t perfect, but I could at least make out that there were trees nearby and that Han Gamin was right beside me.
Of course, before my awakening, this level of darkness would’ve left me unable to see even an inch ahead. But as my body grew stronger, my eyesight had also surpassed normal human limits, and my ability to adapt to any environment had accelerated dramatically.
“I think I can see a bit better now.”
“Y-yeah, me too.”
Being in the middle of a forest, the air was cool and the humidity high. Staying still in an environment like this was a sure way to catch something. We needed to start a fire, which meant finding a safe location first.
“Let’s get moving. Follow me carefully.”
With that, I naturally released Han Gamin’s hand. Our vision had improved enough, and continuously holding hands might make it harder to react quickly to sudden threats.
But at that moment—
Grab.
“Hm?”
When I let go, her hand that had been groping in the air caught the slightly drooping sleeve of my Heavenly Silkworm Robe.
“I still can’t see very well…… Would it be okay if I hold on for a little while?”
“Ah, sure.”
With my right hand resting on the hilt of the sword at my waist, I extended my left arm slightly toward her.
“Thank you.”
“It’s fine. It might be inconvenient, but let’s move as quickly as we can. There might be more than just players out here.”
She thanked me again and gently took my hand once more. Well, holding my sleeve was one thing, but actually holding hands made it far less likely we’d lose each other. It was definitely the safer option.
‘But shouldn’t our stats be identical right now?’
All players from the same coordinate were locked to the same stat values. That should mean our vision was roughly the same too. Still, since I’d spent time in the Murim world getting used to darkness, it was possible I’d adapted to the dark faster than she had. I decided not to overthink it.
“Aaaah!!!”
“Siin! Gamin!”
The two of them had fallen off the cliff. To be precise, Kim Siin had been falling, and Han Gamin had jumped after him in a desperate attempt to save him. But what mattered was that both of them had fallen. The details didn’t change that fact.
The remaining players from the Earth coordinate poured every ounce of their strength into dealing with the remnants of the enemy. The sword energy Kim Siin had unleashed had already obliterated half of the attackers’ magic, making the fight at least somewhat manageable.
The fierce battle that lasted through the night ultimately ended in victory for the Earth coordinate. And thankfully, the fight hadn’t been entirely meaningless.
Day has arrived. All the deceased have vanished.
You have slain the deceased ‘Alexei.’
You have slain the deceased ‘Alex.’
You have slain the deceased ‘David.’
Your Stamina and Magic Power have each increased by Lv.1.
The stat reward from hunting four or five of the deceased. Since they had already been eliminated once before, they were probably treated more like individual monsters than players.
But gaining stats wasn’t entirely good news. No matter how much their abilities had grown, they had lost two incredibly important people.
“What… do we do now?”
“……”
“……”
No one had said it out loud, but Kim Siin had been their de facto leader. Namgung Cheonho might have planned the overall strategy for the team battle and everyone had moved together, but it was only because Kim Siin was there that they’d had any confidence. On top of that, Han Gamin—who had been carrying the flag—had fallen with him. The situation was practically no different from being eliminated.
“……Still, finding the flag down there won’t be easy.”
It was an impossibly deep cliff. As cruel as it sounded, if the flag had simply dropped somewhere in the vast, dark forest, it would be difficult for other coordinates to locate it either.
“For now, let’s regroup. We need to show some kind of result if we want to face Siin with any dignity later.”
At Namgung Cheonho’s words, the others quietly nodded. Death in a competitive match only sent players back to the lobby; it didn’t mean permanent death. The team battle wasn’t over yet. If they could retrieve the flag before others found it, they still had a chance at a high ranking.
“Then let’s start by revising our strategy……”
Everyone’s attention focused on Namgung Cheonho. But someone interrupted.
“I don’t think that’s necessary yet.”
“Pardon?”
“My senses could be wrong, but……”
The one who spoke was none other than Park Jocheol. His brow furrowed slightly, as if recalling the final moments of the battle.
“I think I saw something at the end. Or rather, heard something?”
While others might not have noticed, his Super Sensory ability had picked it up clearly. There had been no sound from below the cliff when something should have crashed down at terrifying speed.
“I believe they’re probably still alive. Especially since Gamin isn’t the type of kid to act purely on emotion.”
He couldn’t imagine that smart college freshman simply leaping off a cliff because her feelings got the better of her. She must have had some kind of plan to pull off such a reckless move.
A few people nodded in agreement after hearing Park Jocheol’s explanation.
“If everyone agrees, let’s organize a rescue team first. We should also prepare an assault team for next time… There probably aren’t many coordinates as strong as ours right now, so this is the perfect opportunity.”
The journey to find the flag. Along the way, stealing flags from other coordinates and bolstering the strength of the two who were currently lost in the forest below would be an added bonus.