“How many days has it been?”
“It is already the fifth day.”
Bengle answered Berton's question.
It had already been five days since Theron entered the Punishment Room.
With ordinary trainees, screams burst out after just three days.
But strangely enough.
“No sound at all can be heard from inside. Could it be…… that he is dead?”
Bengle's voice trembled slightly.
No matter how much they treated these brats like animals, it would be quite troublesome if one died like this.
“Shall I go in and check?”
“The punishment is one week.”
He had no intention of changing a decision once made.
If the brat died in there, it would simply mean that his thread of life ran only that far.
“But…….”
Bengle spoke as if hesitating, but Berton lightly gestured toward the door with his chin.
It meant, get out.
“……Understood.”
When Bengle left, Berton closed the book he was holding and placed it on the desk.
“…….”
In a harsh environment like this, there were cases where a person suddenly changed.
Berton called it ‘awakening’ or ‘opening of the eyes.’
Because, although very rare, there had been similar cases before.
“Was I mistaken?”
Berton muttered in a low voice.
But soon, he turned his attention elsewhere.
Either way, the result would only come out once the lid was opened.
Thinking about it now would change nothing.
But somehow, unlike usual.
“…….”
It oddly bothered him.
***
…….
…….
…….
How much time had passed?
Not having drunk even water, his lips had grown so dry they felt ready to crack and bleed.
But…….
SSSSSSSSSS!
The intense movement of mana whirling inside his body gradually subsided and slowly concentrated toward his lower belly.
“Hooooo…….”
Theron let out a deep breath.
Of course, there was nothing to see and nothing to hear.
But even the Punishment Room could not block this intense energy he felt inside his body.
At the vivid sensation within his body, Theron muttered before he knew it.
“Done.”
That short word was mixed with many emotions.
However, there was no time for emotional thoughts.
He did not know how much time had passed, but the moment he parted his lips, he felt something running down his chin.
Probably blood.
His dried-out lips had split.
FUMBLE, FUMBLE.
Theron reached out and picked up the canteen he had placed beside him.
GULP, GULP.
Because he had taken neither water nor food while fusing the two mana cultivation methods, his body had already reached its limit.
The water going down his throat seemed to be absorbed into his entire body.
Then Theron crammed food into his mouth as well.
CHOMP, CHOMP.
Like someone desperately preparing for something, Theron ate without pause.
Because now he had to focus on the remaining time.
‘I can do this.’
Theron concentrated his mind once more.
He did not know how much time had passed.
He simply focused on stabilizing the fused mana cultivation method and accumulating new mana.
SSSSSSSSS!
Ironically, the mana formation that cut off the senses to inflict suffering was a help.
Because of the mana formation, the mana density inside the Punishment Room was richer than anywhere else.
He seized as much as he could of the mana that came in with his breathing.
Struggling as if not to miss even a single handful.
It was while he was focusing on the mana cultivation method as though fallen into a state of self-oblivion.
CREAK!
The door of the Punishment Room opened, and light leaked in through the gap.
Theron flinched before he knew it and slowly opened his eyes.
The door of the Punishment Room opening meant.
‘Has a week…… already passed?’
The Dark Tempelst Mana Cultivation Method, into which he had immersed himself without even a sense of time.
“Come out.”
Soon, at the voice from outside, Theron slowly got up.
But…….
“Ugh……!”
Because he had done nothing but sit for a week, his body moved unnaturally.
As if it had gone stiff.
And at the sight, the instructors irritably dragged Theron out.
“……?”
“Wh, what?”
Theron had originally been thin, but now he looked so shabby that his cheeks had sunk in.
But a strange feeling flowed from the boy's eyes.
At a gaze that seemed sharper-edged than before, the instructors could not help flinching before they knew it.
However…….
GRIN.
A very small arc formed at the corner of Theron's mouth.
Though it had been a short time of just one week.
‘I've…… completed it.’
The new mana cultivation method.
The Dark Tempelst Mana Cultivation Method, up to the 1st Star.
Truly, he had only just managed to complete it.
A week in the Punishment Room.
Compared to the past, it was mana worth no more than a handful, but for Theron now, it was an amount so abundant as to be filling.
It was precisely because of this that he had been able to live for four days without taking in water or food.
“……Vicious bastard.”
“Locked in this Punishment Room for a week, and not a single scream.”
It had been so quiet that at first they had simply thought he was dead.
And when Theron arrived at his room.
“Theron!”
The three roommates in the room shouted loudly.
“You are given today to rest. Attend training starting tomorrow.”
In just one week, Theron's appearance had been wrecked to the point of being hard to look at.
But the instructors, without a shred of mercy, told him to attend training and turned away.
“Theron! Theron!”
Renil shouted loudly and shook Theron's body. At that, Perka said.
“Don't shake him. Bring some water and something to eat. Right now.”
“O, okay.”
Renil brought over the dried jerky and water he had hidden in his spot.
GULP, GULP!
The hard jerky was difficult to eat right away, but just drinking water seemed to give him plenty of strength.
“Hoo…….”
“Theron, are you okay?”
“Yeah, I'm fine. No need to worry.”
Sitting up, Theron lightly moved his neck and waist.
Having stayed in one position for a week, his body was certainly quite stiff.
“……Did something happen?”
Theron asked at Renil's somewhat stiff expression.
At that, Tioren, beside him, clicked his tongue.
“Honestly. Pulling that face at a guy who just got out of the Punishment Room.”
“What did I do, you punk?!”
At the sight of the two, who looked ready to go at it at any moment, Perka sighed.
“Stop it. It's embarrassing, doing this in front of a guy who just came out after going through all that.”
“What's going on?”
“……While you were in the Punishment Room, the next training schedule was announced.”
At Perka's words, Renil's and Tioren's expressions darkened slightly.
Perka said.
“And…… the tests have begun.”
One year of training.
Now it was no longer training, but a ‘test.’
At that, Theron nodded.
Was it not something he already knew?
‘The first…… test.’
The ‘test’ on this Hell Island was not a simple test.
Moreover, the first test had been significant enough to be engraved even in Theron's memory.
Namely…….
‘Because 30% of all the trainees died.’
Not a test in a training ground, but a test with Hell Island itself as its stage.
This was Hell Island, home not only to wild animals, but to all kinds of poisonous insects and unpredictable traps.
A test that could become a true ‘hell’ for trainees who lacked real combat experience.
But…….
‘I've prepared enough.’
Was that not why he had deliberately gone into the Punishment Room, changed the mana cultivation method, and pushed himself to reach the 1st Star?
Theron asked Perka.
“When exactly is the first test?”
“……A week from now.”
“A week.”
Muttering the span of time in a low voice, he thought about the coming test.
If his memory was right, the first test was…….
‘I think it was held…… in the western forest.’
Unfortunately, the thing Theron wanted to obtain lay a little way south of the western forest.
Even if it was training held outside this dormitory.
‘Leaving the designated area would cause big trouble…….’
Theron fell into thought.
At the sight, Perka looked at Theron with a somewhat worried expression.
“You okay?”
“……Ah, I'm fine. I just had something to think about.”
Theron shook his head.
There had to be some way…….
But it was then.
CLUNK.
The instructors who had left earlier opened the door of Theron's room once more and came in.
The three, all but Theron, flinched in surprise and looked at the instructors.
What had they come back to do this time?
But one of the junior instructors looked at Theron and said.
“Follow me. The Chief Instructor is summoning you.”
“……?”
Berton, summoning me?
Theron made a puzzled expression, but he could not just stay put.
Because the instructor was glaring at him, as if to say he would drag him out again if he did not come out at once.
“Theron.”
Renil's voice trembled slightly.
Was Berton not the one known as a devil in this training camp?
He was afraid of what harsh punishment Theron might receive this time.
But Theron lightly patted Renil's shoulder.
“Don't worry. I'll be right back.”
Berton was not the type to hand down another punishment for a matter already settled.
In that case…….
The steps toward Berton's office.
Theron's mind grew intricately tangled.
***
“…….”
Unlike when he had first seen him in the training ground, facing him like this brought the memories of that time vividly to mind.
―Is it not the way of the world that new water be poured into a new vessel?
The voice with which he had tried to dispose of them, as if it were nothing, rang vividly in his ears.
He wanted to drive a sword into his heart right now, but.
‘……I have to hold back for now.’
On Hell Island, Berton's standing carried more power than a king's.
At a single word from him, the trainees' lives were worth less than a gnat's.
Theron looked at Berton in silence.
Berton casually shifted his gaze and said with an indifferent expression.
“Was the Punishment Room bearable?”
“It was painful.”
Bearable, he asked.
He must be out of his mind.
However, Berton rose from his seat and came close to Theron.
Then he touched Theron's shoulders, arms, chest, and thighs, pressing down firmly.
An unpleasant feeling wrapped around his entire body, but Theron stood still.
Soon, Berton frowned.
“Your body's development is slow. Your muscles have not properly formed either.”
And yet a brat like this had knocked out Falcot with a single blow?
‘So he…… landed a near-perfect attack?’
Otherwise, knocking him out with a physique like this would be impossible.
Even chance needed a certain degree of conditions to back it up.
Which meant that something had changed in the brat because of his life here.
“I will increase your meal portions from now on. So that you can eat enough. And I heard that this fight arose because you were helping a comrade who shares your room. Is that true?”
A gaze like a snake's coiled around Theron's entire body.
Berton's pressure, which he had felt in the past.
But Theron had already reached a top-tier realm in his past life.
There was no way such childish pressure would frighten him anymore.
But…….
‘I should play along a little.’
Because if he changed too much all of a sudden, he could not help but be suspected.
Theron deliberately pretended to flinch under Berton's pressure and stammered.
“I, I did not h, help him.”
“You are saying you did nothing?”
“I, I just…… went close and advised him to…… keep his breathing steady.”
At those words, Berton withdrew his presence and said.
“That, too, is help. Keep this in mind. Here, trust no one but yourself. Everyone is a competitor, nothing more than an enemy you must surpass and kill. Endure with that mindset.”
“Under……stood.”
Theron nodded.
Right, these were the ones who had always drilled this ideology into them.
Everyone but me is an enemy.
Which was why relations between the trainees could only ever be the worst.
At Theron's answer, Berton pointed toward the door.
“You may go. I will be watching from now on.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
One might think he had been summoned over nothing, but.
‘……Things are going to get annoying from here.’
Considering Berton's disposition, he would certainly keep a close eye on him from now on.
The things he had to be careful about had increased.
When Theron finally left the room, Berton called another instructor.
“Theron of Section 5. Watch that brat carefully from now on and report to me.”
“Pardon? Ah, understood.”
Berton's gaze remained fixed on the corridor down which Theron had gone.
Tab 7