The week passed in an instant.
As usual, he trained and he ate.
If anything had changed, it was that his meal portions had increased, and that the gaze of the instructors watching him felt somehow prickly?
‘……Looks like he's already made his move.’
Berton was meticulous.
As long as he had said he would be watching, Theron always had to be mindful of the eyes of others.
However…….
‘Not that it matters.’
Theron was not one to be cowed by such things.
Moreover, since that day, the atmosphere of the training camp within Section 5 had changed a little.
The number of trainees in the Section 5 training camp who tiptoed around Theron had increased quite a bit.
But…….
GLANCE.
Theron looked at Falcot, who was sitting at a table a little way off.
He was glaring at Theron murderously, as if he could not tolerate this atmosphere.
But if he caused another commotion where the instructors were, he, too, would inevitably be disciplined.
He was forcing himself to hold it in, but it seemed he would explode someday.
But…….
‘Not my concern.’
Because now was the time to put on a show of obeying the instructors well.
Hell Island was as dangerous as its name. But thinking about it now, it was also a place with as many possibilities as it had dangers.
‘Back then, I just thought it was hell…… I never imagined there'd be so many things here that could help with growth.’
The Blood Jade Fruit (血玉菓), which had completely changed Theron's body, was one of them.
An elixir that removed the impurities in the body and widened the mana circuits.
In his past life, he had not properly known its value, nor had he properly absorbed it, but…….
‘Even so, I was able to change completely.’
But if he could properly absorb every one of the Blood Jade Fruit's effects.
It would not merely remove impurities and widen the mana circuits; he could gain an enormous amount of mana.
Mages did not risk their lives searching for it for nothing.
Moreover, was the hot nature of the Blood Jade Fruit not so tremendous that it could even remove the Death Sigil in the heart?
‘The key, though, is getting to where the Blood Jade Fruit is first.’
The plan was already complete.
Theron cleared away the bowl from his finished meal and glanced at the instructors.
And some time later.
“Everyone, assemble!”
Bengle, the instructor in charge of Section 5, came out to the lobby and gathered the trainees.
At last, tomorrow.
Ahead of the full-fledged ‘test,’ the final briefing had begun.
“……Why's the atmosphere like this?”
“It's menacing.”
The instructors standing with Bengle looked at the trainees with gazes different from usual.
Naturally, the lobby was filled with tension, and the trainees' expressions could only stiffen.
And then.
“As you all know, the real test begins tomorrow.”
At Bengle's words, several trainees gulped.
Bengle continued.
“It will not be easy. Some of you may even die.”
Bengle's eyes turned sharp.
“But keep this in mind. If, by one chance in ten thousand, you are pushed aside by the bastards from the other sections and end up dead last, I will kill half of those of you who survive.”
Stake your lives, fight, and seize it.
“If you smear ink across my face, you will never live upright here again.”
At Bengle's threat, the faces of some trainees had already turned the color of death.
Because judging by Bengle's usual behavior, he was more than capable of doing so.
Perka said with a stiff expression.
“I don't know what the test is…… but if that son of a bitch is talking like this…… it must be really dangerous.”
“The part about dying…… that's not real, right?”
Renil said, looking slightly scared.
Then Tioren shook his head.
“No, it's probably real. Think about it, he's barely hit anyone these past few days. If that dog-shit bastard is keeping his hands off the kids…… it has to be a really dangerous test.”
It was a reasonably logical deduction.
Theron merely listened to their conversation without a word.
But…….
“Figuring out what the test is comes first. After that…… if there's something we can help each other with, let's help.”
At Perka's words, Tioren and Renil looked at him.
Normally, this would have been something to trail off on and let pass…….
“Okay, I'll do that.”
“I'll help too.”
Tioren and Renil answered.
Perka's words were quite unexpected, but their answers were even more surprising.
Was it because of what had happened recently?
The incident with Falcot seemed to have become an opportunity that bound these three together even more tightly.
And at the center of it.
“You'll help too, right?”
“Theron, what about you?”
“…….”
Perka and Tioren asked.
Renil just looked at Theron with an apologetic expression, like a mute who had eaten honey.
Theron burst into a chuckle before he knew it.
“Sure.”
It was a short answer, but their expressions brightened.
And the instructor's explanation continued.
It concerned the format of the test to be held tomorrow.
‘It's…… the same as before.’
Needless to say, it was the same format as the test Theron had taken in the past.
The Shadow Forest, located on Hell Island.
It was a name given because, day or night, the inside of the forest was always filled with darkness due to the densely overgrown trees.
The forest was not very large, but the important thing was that there were poisonous insects and beasts with sharp teeth inside it.
‘And there was a fairly deep cliff near the edge of the forest.’
Theron knew every place on Hell Island.
To the point that he could picture them when he closed his eyes.
It was only natural.
He had lived here for the long span of ten years.
“……The test you must take there is to collect a flower that looks like this.”
“……A flower?”
In Bengle's hand was a flower with black leaves dotted with white spots.
Going by its colors alone, it gave off a gloomy feeling, but Theron simply nodded.
‘Moltir Flower.
The early tests held at the training camp were all related to the growth of the trainees.
The Moltir Flower, commonly called the Flower of the Dark Heart.
If it was blanched lightly in boiling water and then crushed, the properties of the Moltir Flower could be maximized.
Namely, it helped the mana cultivation method run smoothly, and, though only slightly, increased the amount of mana accumulated.
But in exchange, the toxicity of the flower itself increased as well, sometimes dealing fatal damage to the liver.
‘At first, we used it without knowing any better, but some guys died because of it.’
Enduring this was supposedly a form of training in itself, but.
‘For their goals…… they never cared about the means, whatever became of us.’
Theron's expression hardened.
“The test lasts five days. Those who fail to return within five days will be considered failed and will receive a heavy punishment. Of course…… I will leave what that punishment is to your imagination.”
With those words, the Section 5 trainees all dispersed to their own rooms.
Everyone wore a grim expression.
Lying in his spot, Renil muttered in a low voice.
“……Do you think we'll do okay tomorrow?”
Because judging by what the instructors had said earlier, if something did happen, it would blow up big.
But no one answered.
Perka and Tioren were just as anxious.
But it was then.
“Don't worry too much. We just need to watch out for a few things.”
“……What?”
“What do you mean?”
“Theron?”
The three looked at Theron.
At that, Theron sat up and gestured to the three as if telling them to get up.
When the guys who had been lying down raised their upper bodies, Theron continued.
“The Moltir Flower has a distinctive toxicity, so if you just pluck it with your bare hands, you can get poisoned.”
It was not a strong poison, but it made the skin itch, and in severe cases, the skin could peel off and the flesh underneath could rot.
“And above all, what you need to watch out for is something that's always around wherever this flower blooms.”
“What is it?”
“A bug called a Silen Nak. Just think of it as a bug about the length of an index finger.”
The Silen Nak looked like a caterpillar, and it folded and unfolded its body to lunge at humans with powerful elasticity.
“If one bites you, paralysis sets in right then. Of course, just one of them won't paralyze you in one go…… but if you're slow getting out, other Silen Naks will come too, and you could die.”
“…….”
At Theron's explanation, everyone's expressions gradually stiffened. But Perka cautiously asked.
“But Theron. How do you…… know all this?”
“They were around where I lived as a kid. I learned from my father.”
The children dragged to Hell Island were around six to ten years old.
There were slight differences, but all of them had memories from before coming here.
At Theron's words, the three roommates looked surprised.
“You actually…… know stuff like that, huh?”
“……I guess.”
Theron lay down.
There were limits to explaining with words here anyway.
Once they entered the Shadow Forest.
‘Everything will feel completely different.’
There were guys who could not even step inside because of the forest's peculiar pressure.
In the end, the only way was to face it head-on.
And, each of them clutching their own anxiety and worry, the tomorrow they had hoped would never come arrived.
The Section 5 trainees left the training camp building and moved with the instructors to the Shadow Forest.
The only time they ever went outside was for the morning run.
Coming out this far was as novel as it was frightening.
And…….
“This is the Shadow Forest.”
Facing the Shadow Forest in person, the trainees all stared at it with frozen expressions.
***
Beyond the high wall stood the training camp's watchtower, looking down over Hell Island.
Berton was always in his office, but whenever a test began, he would always come here.
Berton, who had been looking down at Hell Island with his arms crossed, spoke while gazing straight ahead.
“Has the test begun?”
The junior instructor standing behind him answered at once.
“Yes. The trainees of every section have entered.”
Instead of answering, Berton let out a short breath.
He withdrew his gaze for a moment, then, with one brat suddenly coming to mind, asked.
“Where did Section 5 go in?”
“The Shadow Forest.”
At that moment, Berton's gaze paused briefly.
The Shadow Forest, was it.
“So they went to obtain the Moltir Flower?”
The words slipped out almost like a soliloquy.
The junior instructor lowered his voice.
“Yes. It seems quite a few trainees…… may die from the very first day.”
Berton did not so much as twitch an eyebrow.
“Then that is as far as those bastards' lives go.”
Short, decisive words.
No sympathy, no emotion.
To Berton, trainees were merely a simple structure divided into those who would survive and those who would die.
He slowly raised his head and looked into the distance, in the direction where the Shadow Forest stretched.
At that, the junior instructor cautiously asked.
“Section 5…… Could it be that you have the trainee named Theron in mind?”
Berton was not one to ask questions like that. And there was also the fact that he had summoned him separately.
‘And this time too…….’
Why was he paying so much attention to an unremarkable trainee?
But Berton did not answer.
He merely raised his chin slightly, casting his gaze far off.
“Who knows.”
He simply looked out over all of Hell Island.
But soon.
TURN.
Berton turned around without hesitation.
The test had already begun.
In a few days, the results would come out.
As for whether this thought was merely needless worry or not.
‘I will know when that time comes.’
There was no hesitation in Berton's steps as he turned away.
Tab 8