A few days passed like that.
Training followed the same pattern every day.
Harin getting angry at Se-ha, Se-ha running away, Harin chasing after him with her axe raised—the same cycle, day after day.
“Hey, Yu Se-ha! Stop right there!”
“N-no way! Actually, you’re the one who said don’t get caught!”
“Shut up! Stop making excuses!”
“Gyaaah!”
Da-hong watched the whole scene every day, leaning against the wall.
“Entertaining.”
“It looks entertaining to you?”
“Yeah. They look close.”
“Ahaha… I guess so.”
I-sol smiled bitterly at Da-hong’s unbothered reaction.
“Hey, want to spar with each other on the side?”
“Sure.”
While Se-ha and Harin played cat and mouse, I-sol and Jin-ho practiced together, working on their coordination.
“Don’t step back there—try stepping forward instead. It actually narrows the attacker’s space and puts you at an advantage.”
“Oh, using space like that… That’s impressive.”
“When you’re the one attacking, you can see these things.”
Training seemed to be going smoothly enough, in its own way.
***
The day of the practical exam.
Group One rode the Academy-provided vehicle to the site of the deceased Behemoth’s nest.
Their assigned instructor was Seo-yeon.
“My summon will follow along and observe the situation throughout. Unless it’s a genuine emergency, I won’t intervene.”
After that, they received a brief rundown of safety precautions and an explanation of the Gate’s structure.
Each of them was also handed a distress-signal mana stone—break it in an emergency and it activates.
“Han I-sol, plus three others.”
I-sol presented the paperwork along with their provisional licenses to the safety officer.
The officer scanned through the documents.
“Academy students, I see. Good luck.”
The Gate was partway up a mountainside.
The rippling opening looked like the mouth of an enormous cave.
The Hunter Association had installed lighting, but it only illuminated the entrance area—beyond the Gate itself, no light reached at all.
“Alright, let’s go in.”
“…”
The moment I-sol spoke, tension rippled through the group.
Jin-ho took a deep breath, hefted his tower shield, and stepped in first.
Then I-sol, then Harin, and finally Se-ha and Da-hong entered together.
Whoosh.
A sensation swept across their bodies, and all five had passed through the Gate.
“First things first—everyone okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Hmph, it’s a managed site, so obviously.”
“The smell is pretty rough, though.”
Jin-ho wrinkled his nose.
“That’s residual mana from the Behemoth. You’ll get used to it.”
I-sol adjusted her grip on her wooden sword as she spoke.
Click.
Se-ha switched on the lantern clipped to his belt.
A warm yellow light lit up the ground ahead.
Da-hong glanced down at the light, then raised her head.
Zone One was relatively quiet.
The ceiling was high and the passages were wide.
Traces of the Behemoth’s comings and goings remained intact.
Scratch marks gouged into the walls.
Footprints pressed into the floor, hardened over time until they looked like fossils.
“…Must’ve been massive.”
Jin-ho muttered, staring at the footprints.
“It was an S-rank monster.”
Harin answered.
That was when it happened.
Skreeee—!
A sound came from the ceiling.
I-sol immediately swung her lantern upward.
“Bats! Flying-type! Take them out one by one before they swarm!”
Jin-ho and Harin raised their weapons.
The dark masses clinging to the ceiling began to writhe.
Skreeee!
Skreeeee!
Bat-type monsters spread their wings and poured down all at once.
“Here we go!”
Harin raised her axe and charged forward.
Crash!
The axe swept in a wide arc, and bats dropped in droves.
Jin-ho immediately rushed in behind her with his shield, covering her flanks.
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
The sound of the bat swarm slamming into the shield and bouncing off filled the air.
“Han I-sol!”
“On it!”
I-sol ran along the wall and sliced through the remaining bats.
Thwap-thwap.
Shredded bat fragments rained down.
A clean finish.
…Except for Se-ha.
“…”
Everyone looked at Se-ha.
Harin walked over.
“Yu Se-ha.”
“…Yeah.”
“Just going to stand there and watch?”
“…Sorry.”
“I don’t need an apology. Show me results.”
Se-ha slowly turned to the side.
Da-hong was leaning against the wall, idly nudging a bat monster’s corpse with her foot.
“Da-hong.”
“Mm.”
“Could you please fight?”
Da-hong looked at Se-ha with a flat, unimpressed expression.
“Do I need to step in?”
“But…”
“Look. Even now—aren’t you all managing fine on your own?”
“Still, though…”
Just as Se-ha was about to argue back, Harin grabbed his shoulder and stepped forward.
“Hey.”
Da-hong looked at Harin.
“What exactly can you do?”
“Lots of things.”
“Like what?”
“Eating, sleeping, watching?”
“…”
A vein bulged on Harin’s forehead.
“No, if you’re a summon, shouldn’t you be fighting? Why are you just standing there doing nothing?!”
“That’s my business.”
Harin lowered her axe and turned her gaze to Se-ha.
“Yu Se-ha. Do you think this makes any sense?”
“…I’m frustrated too.”
Harin planted her axe on the ground and walked toward Se-ha.
“Then why did you even enter the Gate? You can’t even control your own summon!”
The moment Harin’s hand reached for Se-ha’s collar, I-sol grabbed Harin’s arm.
“Let go.”
Just then, Jin-ho pointed to a corner of the ceiling and said:
“Look over there.”
A spirit shaped like a bird.
Seo-yeon’s summon.
“…”
“Fighting with your own teammates inside a Gate is a demerit.”
“Tch.”
Harin clicked her tongue and turned back to face forward.
Then she slung her axe over her shoulder and said:
“Fine. A Gate like this—I’ll clear the whole thing by myself. Then the teacher won’t think this dropout even had a chance to participate, let alone the rest of you.”
I-sol grabbed Harin’s shoulder.
“Harin, don’t push yourself.”
“Ha, are you looking down on me right now?”
Thwack.
Harin knocked I-sol’s hand away.
But I-sol caught the split-second flicker of Harin’s eyes dropping to her hand.
She was checking—wondering if she’d hit too hard.
Prickly on the surface, but genuinely considerate underneath.
That was Harin.
The way she kept pushing Se-ha so relentlessly—it was almost certainly because she was worried he’d end up at a disadvantage.
After all, when they were sparring, she’d trained Se-ha diligently and thoroughly.
“Haha…”
I-sol laughed, helpless.
“Hmph, so the rest of you just stand back and watch!”
Harin gripped her axe tight and dropped into a low stance.
Mana gathered in her legs, and then—
Crash!
A red streak shot forward like a gust of wind.
“Grk?”
A cave goblin stood directly in her path.
Harin didn’t slow down—she drove straight in and swept her axe upward in a diagonal slash.
Whooom!
Thwack!
“Kieeeek!!”
Two cave goblins were cut through the waist and killed in an instant.
“Kyaaak!”
Cave goblins that reacted a beat too late came charging in, clubs swinging wildly.
“Watch out!”
Se-ha shouted.
But Harin seemed to mock that concern—she slipped in between the goblins, then yanked her axe back in a wide, sweeping arc.
Boom!
“Greeek!!” “Graaah!”
The cave goblins screamed in unison.
“…!”
With every swing of that massive axe, monsters were swept away like leaves in an autumn storm.
“She’s incredible…”
Se-ha stared, mouth hanging open.
“Harin’s strong, isn’t she?”
“…Yeah.”
“What are you spacing out for? Let’s move!”
Harin pressed forward toward the next zone with a triumphant air.
Harin’s solo rampage continued into Zone Two.
With every arc of her axe, monsters were swept aside.
From Zone Two onward, lizardmen had taken up residence.
Crash!
Thwack!
“One more!”
“Kieeeek!!”
The cave walls were stained with lizardmen’s blood.
Clang.
The axe was raised again.
“Move!”
Blindingly fast.
A pace that even most C-rank Hunters would struggle to keep up with.
I-sol narrowed her eyes.
*Something’s off.*
She’d known Harin was strong.
She’d known since the entrance exam.
Even so…
*She’s taking them down way too easily.*
And Harin herself was noticing it too.
*What’s going on.*
Harin thought as she ran.
*The monsters are cowering.
Like they’re scared.*
Her best guess: Intimidation.
A skill some Hunters possessed.
Using powerful mana or sheer force of presence to break an opponent’s will to fight.
*No one in our group has anything like an Intimidation skill.*
Han I-sol was the closest candidate, but even I-sol wasn’t skilled enough yet to have developed something like that.
Which meant…
Harin’s gaze drifted naturally to the side.
At the end of that gaze was Da-hong, following along behind them with a perfectly indifferent expression.
Her white hair shimmered in the lantern light.
*…*
Harin turned her eyes back forward.
*Doesn’t matter.*
Her grip on the axe tightened.
As long as it means I can fight more easily, that’s all that counts.
***
The group arrived at the entrance to the boss room.
Darkness lurked at the end of the passage.
I-sol raised her lantern high.
The light didn’t reach.
“…It’s big.”
Jin-ho murmured.
Even Harin didn’t charge forward here.
Step…
The moment she set foot inside, her footsteps echoed.
The floor was different.
Up until now it had been packed dirt; now it was solid, hardened bedrock.
Deep impressions of the Behemoth’s footprints were carved all across the ground.
…Gulp.
Se-ha swallowed.
At the edge of the lantern’s reach, a cliff face came into view.
A sheer, vertical drop.
It stretched to either side without end.
Se-ha looked up.
He couldn’t see the ceiling.
Nothing—just darkness.
Like staring up into an open, hollow sky.
“This is the nest? It’s enormous…”
“Think about how big the Behemoth was.”
“Hard to imagine something I’ve never seen.”
Se-ha listened to Harin and I-sol’s exchange and looked around once more.
The size of those footprints.
The height of that ceiling.
The Behemoth that had been killed three years ago.
This was the space it had once roamed alive.
That was when it happened.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud——
Vibrations rose through the floor.
Something heavy and fast, pounding against the earth.
“It’s coming.”
Everyone dropped into a combat stance.
Thump.
What appeared first were hooves—skeletal, with bone laid bare.
And a height well over two meters.
Clatter.
“…?”
Harin narrowed her eyes.
What had appeared was a skeleton.
The upper body of a skeleton knight, fused to the lower body of a horse.
Draped in tattered armor, dragging a massive chipped longsword—the sight was thoroughly unsettling.
The skeleton tilted its head, eye sockets flickering with a cold inner light.
As if sizing up the intruders.
Harin muttered, sounding slightly thrown off.
“What is that… An Armored Bone Knight? Something’s different, though.”
A Bone Knight was a knight formed from bone.
Sometimes the head or limbs were mixed with those of a beast, but the overall frame was still fundamentally human.
She’d never heard of one where the entire lower half had transformed into something centaur-like.
Jin-ho raised his shield and said:
“Why is there suddenly an undead-type monster here?”
“It’s an irregular. A Bone Knight alone is a B-rank monster. It has no business appearing in a C-rank Gate.”
“Damn… Is it because of the residual mana?”
I-sol’s explanation made Jin-ho break into a cold sweat.
“Either way, what we have to do is the same.”
“Right…”
“On my signal, charge. One, two…”
“…”
The two of them slowly lowered their stances.
The skeleton knight stood motionless, watching the group.
“…Three! Go!”
Dash!
Harin and Jin-ho charged simultaneously.
Harin was slightly faster.
“Hyaaah!!”
Boom!
A round shield and a massive axe collided.
Clang-clang-clang!
The skeleton knight skillfully deflected Harin’s axe.
Thud!
The axe bit into the ground, and Harin staggered for just a moment.
The instant the skeleton knight swung its sword—
Thwam!
Jin-ho arrived just in time, throwing himself between them and blocking the blow.
Skrrrk.
Jin-ho’s feet scraped across the bedrock.
He’d been overpowered.
But it was enough.
“Nice!”
Harin immediately swung her axe at the horse’s legs.
But.
Clop-clop!
The skeleton knight, moving with agility that belied its massive frame, leapt clean over the axe and landed far away.
“What, with that body?!”
The moment Harin shouted—
The skeleton knight turned its head.
“!”
I-sol burst out of the darkness and went for its neck.
Clang!!
The skeleton knight raised its sword and barely managed to block the strike.
I-sol’s eyes and the flickering eye-light met directly.
Whoosh!
I-sol lightly pushed off the swinging shield and returned to the group’s side.
“Good—we can handle it.”
“Alright… Yu Se-ha!”
“Uh, yeah!”
“Stay out of the way and keep running!”
Harin shouted that and charged forward again.
Jin-ho joined in a beat behind.
“…”
*Keep running*—humiliating words.
But there was nothing he could do about it.
He had nothing to offer here.
Summoners typically learned ranged attacks or support-type magic to back up their summons.
But even that came after learning to properly command their summons first.
Se-ha, a first-year who had only just entered the Academy, had nothing he could do yet.
Se-ha lowered his head and said:
“Da-hong… please, won’t you fight?”
“…”
Da-hong didn’t answer.
She was staring off into the far darkness.
“…Ugh.”
Se-ha clenched his fist.
His nails dug in, and blood welled up.
Something surged in his chest, and he shouted:
“Why! Why won’t you listen to me! Is it because of the contract?! Then let’s redo it right here, right now! I’ll give you whatever you want!”
“…”
Only then did Da-hong’s crimson eyes turn toward Se-ha.
“No.”
“Why not?!”
Da-hong smiled, slow and sly.
“Because this is more fun.”
“Ugh…!”
Se-ha’s face twisted.
He knew Da-hong liked to play games, but this had crossed a line.
“…”
Then.
A single thought surfaced in Se-ha’s mind.
“…Da-hong.”
“Mm.”
“You like it here. Don’t you?”
“That’s right.”
“…Then it would be pretty inconvenient if you had to go back, wouldn’t it? No more ramen, no tteokbokki, no malatang, no books, no movies.”
“…?”
Da-hong tilted her head.
“If a summoner dies, the summoning contract becomes void.”
“…”
“Which means—if I throw myself into that fight and get killed, you’d have no choice but to step in.”
“…Do you have the nerve to actually die?”
“Of course.”
Se-ha stared Da-hong down with steady, resolute eyes.
Da-hong looked back at him, expression unreadable.
Then Se-ha began taking off his jacket.
And he started running toward the skeleton knight, waving the jacket wildly.
“Hey!! You idiot! Over here!! The easiest prey is right here!!”
“What—”
“Se-ha!?”
“What are you doing, you moron?!”
The moment the three members of Group One froze in shock, the skeleton knight reared back its upper body and began charging straight at Se-ha.
“That’s dangerous!!”
Kuooooo!!
“Ugh, ugh, ugh…!!”
Se-ha’s jaw rattled, but he didn’t stop running.
“Pfft—ahaha, ahahaha!!”
Da-hong saw it, and burst out laughing.
“Ahaha—kihihihi!! Oh my! Kyahahahaha…!”
Tears gathered at the corners of her eyes.
Truly…
This was the best.