“Wow, so this is what the inside of a Gate looks like.”
“Hmph. It is still fake, yet you are impressed?”
Just as Shin Daehoon said, the inside of the rift, no, the virtual Gate, was far more detailed than expected.
It felt as if they had truly entered a forest.
But just as Choi Minseok said, this place was fake.
All five senses were functioning normally, and the surrounding scenery, thick with trees and grass, was far from anything one could call artificial.
And…….
[Newly Unlocked Quest: Virtual Practical Combat]
The quest was still there as well.
To Daehyun, that mattered more than anything else.
‘This comes first.’
Daehyun reached toward the notification window before his eyes.
Swipe—.
After that, he looked at the newly unfurled notification window, and his eyes widened.
[Quest]
[Virtual Practical Combat]
[Details: ?????????]
[※ You cannot check the quest details yet.]
[Completion Conditions: ???]
[※ You cannot check the quest completion conditions yet.]
[Reward: ???]
[※ You cannot check the quest reward yet.]
It was strange.
The details, the completion conditions, and even the reward.
Aside from the quest’s name, he could not check anything.
‘……This is the first time this has happened.’
On top of that, it left behind the meaningful words “not yet.”
In other words, it meant they might be revealed someday.
Kieeeek!
As Daehyun was thinking, an unpleasant cry rang beside his ears.
Daehyun turned his head toward the direction it had come from.
“……What is that?”
“Is it a monster?”
At the same time, Shin Daehoon and Choi Minseok also turned their heads.
The moment they met eyes with the owner of the voice, the two of them flinched. Daehyun, however, calmly examined it.
‘Hmm.’
A body that came up to just below the pit of his stomach.
Pale green skin, similar to green tea.
And an ugly face with a long nose.
‘A goblin?’
He had seen it in a book from the Demon Realm library.
A creature that only attacked those weaker than itself, or those who appeared weak.
A species classified as low-grade even among monsters.
“It is a goblin!”
“Hey! H-hurry and take out your weapon!”
Kieeek!
That very creature now looked at the two people standing at the front and quickly charged in.
It, too, had noticed the opening created by the flustered students and rushed forward.
THWACK!
“Gah!”
The goblin’s fist struck Shin Daehoon squarely in the cheek.
Its running speed and the speed of its punch were not impossible to dodge, but because he had been in the middle of drawing his weapon, he had failed to react.
“You little, for a monster!”
In place of Shin Daehoon, who had fallen backward, Choi Minseok belatedly drew his spear.
Unlike his somewhat arrogant tone, his legs were trembling, and his spear would not stay still.
The reason was simple.
‘Because this is their first time seeing a real monster.’
Kieeeek!
Seeing that, the goblin let out another loud cry.
Since it had confirmed its opponent’s fear, its intention was to use that to amplify the terror.
“H-Hiiik!”
In the end, Choi Minseok lost his balance.
It showed that the goblin’s intention had worked perfectly.
Kieeek!
The goblin did not miss that moment. It quickly closed the distance and drove its fist into Choi Minseok’s face.
THWACK! THWACK!
“Aaah!”
The situation ended in an instant.
Looking at the two who had ultimately fainted,
Daehyun scratched his head.
‘Hmm. What a mess.’
He had not expected anything, but to think they would fall this far below even those expectations.
‘Well, what can I expect from children?’
This was enough of a spectacle, and he had clearly learned their level.
‘No, from their perspective, am I a child too?’
Even so, he had hoped they would at least act like human beings, but it did not matter even if they did not.
After all, he had intended to move alone from the moment it began.
‘Now then.’
So Daehyun let out a hollow laugh and clenched his fist.
Tap—!
[Skill, Divine Fist (LV.1), activates.]
[You have succeeded in controlling Divine Power!]
[The power of Skill, Divine Fist (LV.1), has been set to an appropriate level!]
CRACK—!
The fist imbued with Divine Power struck the goblin in the solar plexus.
After taking the blow, the goblin flew into the air.
Kiiiiik!
Only for a moment. The goblin’s body then fell to the ground, and its motionless body, as if it had fainted, immediately turned to dust and scattered into the air.
“Ugh……”
“It hurts…… It hurts.”
Leaving the two still-unconscious people behind.
Daehyun laughed quietly to himself.
‘As expected, controlling it is better.’
Divine Power Control was a stage he had awakened to a few days ago.
By limiting the Divine Power applied to a single punch to a fixed level, he could control not only the damage but also the mental burden.
After all, a fight had to account for a long battle as well.
He could hardly pour all his strength into catching a mere goblin or minor monster.
‘It had decent power, all things considered.’
Admiring the power, which had been more appropriate than expected, Daehyun shook off his fist.
[The target of Skill, Divine Fist (LV.1), has been eliminated.]
[Skill proficiency rises sharply!]
At the same time, a new notification window appeared.
Target eliminated. Skill proficiency increased.
It seemed to be a window that appeared only when the target hit by his fist disappeared.
‘……This is not what matters right now.’
Daehyun silently looked around.
Trees and grass surrounded him everywhere.
The place where he stood was a complete forest.
In other words, it meant monsters could be in every direction, and at the same time, Daehyun could be surrounded by monsters in an instant.
“Hmm.”
Kieeeeeek!
And even at this very moment, goblins kept appearing one by one.
He could not guess how many there were, but it was only natural that Daehyun’s stamina would be depleted faster.
‘I need to move quickly.’
[Skill, Divine Fist (LV.1), activates.]
Kiiiiik!
On top of that, there was no guarantee that the only monsters were goblins.
If there were stronger ones, then even stronger creatures might appear. Most decisively, the one he had to defeat was the boss anyway.
‘I cannot waste time.’
At that moment.
Kuwooooooo!
A roar sounded from somewhere again.
Daehyun’s eyes gleamed when he heard it.
“This sound is…….”
“Hey. Hey! Where are you going?”
“We have to work as a t-team!”
Something different from a goblin.
Daehyun quickly kicked off the ground.
***
A few minutes had passed since Daehyun began running.
“……Hey, go with us! I am injured!”
“Why is that guy so fast?”
Shin Daehoon was running while barely managing to stop his nosebleed.
Choi Minseok was struggling to follow on his limping leg.
Daehyun glanced behind him for only a moment,
then increased his speed again.
‘It is enough as long as they are alive.’
He had heard that the exam’s grading criteria also included teamwork and the extent of damage suffered by team members, so Daehyun was frequently checking whether those two were alive.
It was to avoid failing later because of excessive solo action.
‘There is a teacher here, so they will not die for the time being.’
If he abandoned them and acted alone, the grading bothered him, but if he moved with them, it seemed those two would be no more than baggage carriers.
“Where…… huff, where in the world are you going? At least tell us that!”
“Or at least give us healing! You are Healing-Type!”
“That is right, heal us! Heal us! Is that not what your type exists for?”
Shin Daehoon, who had stopped at some point as though his stamina had run out, shouted while gasping for breath.
Following him, Choi Minseok also stopped walking.
‘……How troublesome.’
The reason these so-called teammates were at this level was obvious.
Because their grades had originally been low, they had been roughly grouped together with similar students.
Daehyun sighed and turned around again.
“I will heal you later. For now, just follow me.”
He did not know what might be ahead.
He could not use Divine Power on mere people like this.
Only by keeping his full strength constantly at its maximum would he have a chance of winning.
‘In the end, I have no choice but to hope they follow properly on their own.’
Whether they collapsed from exhaustion on the way, or were surrounded by a swarm of goblins before that, would depend on their own abilities.
Daehyun sighed and silently kicked off the ground.
“Uh, hey! I told you to at least say where you are going!”
“And what do you mean by a sound? A roar? Are you the only one allowed to hear it?”
Leaving the two noisy shouts behind, Daehyun focused all his senses on his hearing.
Kuwooooooo!
The sound was gradually getting closer.
That was proof that Daehyun was going in the right direction.
‘At the very least, it is not a goblin.’
In that case, there was a fair chance it was the boss.
Daehyun raised his speed by another level, and after some time, he stopped in front of a certain cave.
Kuwooooooo!
From inside the dark cave, a roar loud enough to ring in his ears was sounding.
He could not see its appearance, but the pressure he could feel beyond the abyss, and the level he could predict from the power of its voice, were also on a completely different level from ordinary.
“……Seeing as it is not coming out, I suppose it wants me to go in myself.”
The instinct to detect an intruder from a distance and thoroughly prepare for battle.
It seemed to be a greater beast than he had expected.
“Hey! Hey! Goblins over there!”
“There are two whole goblins!”
And who knew when they had caught up?
His teammates had already arrived behind him as well.
“…….”
[Skill, Divine Fist (LV.1), activates.]
In place of the two utterly frightened guys, Daehyun lightly took care of the goblins with his fists.
Then he silently looked inside the cave.
The creature inside the cave was probably the master of this forest.
“W-what are we going to do now?”
“……What if there are, like, a hundred goblins inside?”
A hundred goblins. If only it were that easy.
Daehyun smiled bitterly as he thought.
‘The three of us entering this place…….’
Leaving himself aside, the remaining two were the problem.
It would be dark, so friend-or-foe identification would not work properly, and above all, it did not seem as though their abilities would be of any help.
“I am going in.”
Saying that, Daehyun turned around and looked at Shin Daehoon and Choi Minseok.
Although they were taking the exam together as a team, the exam score also included each individual’s contribution.
In the end, the choice was theirs.
“Go in.”
“Into…… there?”
Shin Daehoon and Choi Minseok looked at each other’s faces, seeming to hesitate for a moment.
The two of them knew as well.
Their individual contribution scores had already been cut as much as they could be.
And that if they did not want to fail, they had to go inside.
“……There is no helping it, right?”
“It seems that way…….”
As if they had made up their minds, the two looked at each other and nodded.
“Let us go!”
“I can do it too!”
In truth, there was no meaning in backing down now.
Were they not also people who had applied to the Superhuman Training School in order to become Superhumans?
They could not receive a failing grade on the Gate exam, which could be called the flower of Superhuman work.
“Do as you like.”
If they did not run away with that will alone, perhaps that would count as doing well.
Daehyun sighed.
“Once we go in, each of you should handle…….”
Rustle—.
Handle yourselves.
Just as Daehyun was about to say that,
something burst out of the bushes right beside them.
Kieeeeeek!
It was a goblin.
Not one, but two.
They seemed to be new ones that had come after hearing their comrade’s voice.
“Uwaaaaaah!”
And sure enough.
The two who had been so spirited just moments ago immediately screamed, then began running with all their might in the opposite direction of the cave.
“…….”
If they had caught goblins with that speed, they might have wiped them out entirely.
Daehyun let out a hollow laugh and shook his head.
“I expected nothing from you.”
Then he immediately advanced into the cave.