Geon-mu, who had been circling nimbly around Anubis, turned a somersault and pulled away from it.
That Geon-mu, who had fought by dodging attacks this way and that, had opened up distance sounded like good news to Anubis.
-Your death is not far off.
Anubis assumed Geon-mu had tired and was taking a rest.
"Is that so?"
Its expectation was wrong.
The reason Geon-mu had pulled away was not to rest but to settle the matter in this one exchange.
At the strange sight that soon arose, Anubis could not contain its shock.
-What is this......?!
A heat shimmer of white energy rose off Geon-mu's body.
The rising shimmer flowed onto the two short swords gripped in Geon-mu's hands.
White sword qi overlaid the blades entirely.
VRRRMMM—
A keening sound rang out across the desert.
The two swords Geon-mu held were vibrating hard.
He crossed the hands that held the swords and bent his body.
The blades that had gone back over his shoulders began to burn red.
-What have you done, mortal?
Anubis was seeing the technique Geon-mu used for the first time.
But its essential nature, at least, was plain to see.
The eleventh form of the Heaven-Breaking Divine Art.
It was power enough to shatter its own manifested form.
"Torrent Dragon Flash Wave."
***
Hearing that Cha Geon-mu had a grade assessment, Woo Hyo-jeong headed for the twelfth floor.
Having heard that Cha Geon-mu was taking his grade examination, she was making for the testing ground.
Geon-mu was one of the few figures who stirred Woo Hyo-jeong's curiosity.
'What grade will Mister Cha Geon-mu come out with?'
Woo Hyo-jeong recalled her own grade assessment.
At the time, she had been,
'F-Grade.'
F, the grade commonly called washout.
Unsuited to activity as an Awakened, the sort who had to live as an ordinary person.
But once she contracted with her Patron Star, everything changed completely.
She beat down a five-man group of Awakened committing crimes single-handedly, which got her ability reassessed, and at her third grade evaluation she was promoted in one stroke to A-Grade.
'Cha Geon-mu, that man will probably get about B-Grade?'
Under the current examination rules, B-Grade was the maximum obtainable.
If he requested A-Grade, the test would be conducted at A-Grade standards, but Woo Hyo-jeong did not think Cha Geon-mu would make such a request.
Arriving at the grade assessment testing ground, Woo Hyo-jeong was startled by an atmosphere unlike the usual one.
The place was noisiest before and after a grade assessment, and yet for some reason it was noisiest now, during one.
"Damn it! I can't see! What's with that sand!?"
"If we keep hitting the glass, won't the sand slide down so we can see a bit?"
"I think opening the door is the best method. We say it opened by accident, and if we just look a little......."
The Awakened were sharing deranged ideas and trying by any means to get the sand off the glass window.
Woo Hyo-jeong went over to the control officer and asked him what had happened.
"What is going on right now?"
"It's chaos, that's what. He summoned a Minotaur against someone taking his first grade assessment...... I don't think he can manage it with his own strength."
Hearing that, Woo Hyo-jeong could understand it a little.
"A Minotaur? You mean he agreed to that with the assessor?"
"It seems so. The assessor's ability cannot be used without agreement."
Was that why the people were so worked up?
If a rookie flew in like a comet, it was only natural for everyone's attention to focus on him.
Woo Hyo-jeong turned her head and looked at the glass window covered in sand.
"So Mister Cha Geon-mu is fighting the Minotaur right now?"
"Well......"
The man found it absurd even as he said it, and swallowed his words once.
"The Minotaur's trial has already passed."
"It has passed?"
"......And within thirty seconds of the test starting, at that."
"Within thirty seconds...... you say?"
It was absurd enough that Woo Hyo-jeong wondered whether she had heard correctly.
"Yes. The Minotaur, a semi-boss class at a level in the seventies, touched the...... the sphere formed in his hand, and died on the spot. And now he is on the second one...... it seems the assessor has even implemented a setting."
When Woo Hyo-jeong had been at a similar level to Geon-mu, she had fought a Minotaur.
And that had been at her final test.
Being a semi-boss class monster it was dangerous, but Woo Hyo-jeong had used her wits and succeeded in killing the Minotaur.
And even then, it had taken twenty minutes of a drawn-out fight before she barely secured the win.
In truth, that alone had been enough for everyone to take notice.
Thirty seconds.
That Geon-mu had killed a Minotaur in thirty seconds was, to Woo Hyo-jeong as someone who had done it herself, a situation she could not believe at all.
"So then...... you are saying he is sitting the second test now?"
"I am not sure it is the second. As you can see, the waiting room's glass window is covered......."
The examinees could see nothing at all because of the sand piled on the glass.
Trying to see it from below had been a foolish idea.
Woo Hyo-jeong left the waiting room and headed for the upper level, from which the Simulation Room could be looked down upon.
There, analysts in white gowns and staff who had come after hearing the rumor were pressed against the glass, murmuring.
Woo Hyo-jeong, like them, pressed against the glass and watched Geon-mu's fight.
'What is that?'
Woo Hyo-jeong could not believe what she was seeing.
The Simulation Room had become a desert, and without any need to look closely, a huge dog-headed human, Anubis, was plainly in view.
'The test itself has already gone past A-Grade standards.'
Anubis' existence alone put it outside the range of an examination.
And as if that were not enough, a sand desert setting had been created as well.
'And it lets Anubis change even the setting and turn everything to its own advantage.'
Was this being done at the assessor's discretion?
Woo Hyo-jeong shifted her gaze to Assessor Kim Cheol-mun's position.
Kim Cheol-mun, the assessor, was on his knees catching his breath.
He had spent so much mana and mental fortitude summoning Anubis that he could not move.
With that, Woo Hyo-jeong could be certain.
'This is the Patron Star acting on its own.'
Having concluded that, Woo Hyo-jeong raised her head and looked at the sky.
[<Lady with the Scales and Sword> begins to weigh the scales.]
The weighing would determine whether Anubis could be faced or not.
At last the judgment ended.
[<Lady with the Scales and Sword> has judged it legitimate.]
"Which means...... this examination is being conducted legitimately right now?"
It meant that this dangerous-looking situation was itself something Cha Geon-mu had consented to.
Woo Hyo-jeong looked down again.
'It's one thing to be somewhat disadvantaged, but this is far too unfavorable a situation.'
She wanted to join in, but with her current strength Woo Hyo-jeong was in no state to stand against Anubis.
All Woo Hyo-jeong could do was watch as things were.
Geon-mu gripped two swords and began a battle with Anubis in earnest.
Every time sword and staff met, a sandstorm rose and the terrain of the battlefield changed again and again.
"Mister Cha Geon-mu is impressive."
"What's impressive about it? He can't do a thing right now."
"Still, isn't it impressive that he can dodge like that without taking a single hit?"
"The problem is that he's so caught up in dodging he has no room to think. There have to be moments when he goes in decisively......."
The analysts chattered, putting their opinions to one another.
The only thing Woo Hyo-jeong learned from that discussion was that the analysts knew nothing.
Woo Hyo-jeong thought differently from them.
'Going in decisively against those attacks would be madness.'
You see as much as you know.
Geon-mu's fight was, contrary to appearances, thoroughly calculated, and he was carrying it forward in the best possible direction.
If Geon-mu did not endure in this fight, he would be taken apart by Anubis with no recourse.
Even so, the best he was throwing out now was not a fight that benefited Geon-mu.
'Drag it out and Anubis comes out ahead, one way or another.'
The desert heat would gradually drive him toward exhaustion, and once that happened Geon-mu's defeat was settled.
Geon-mu, who had been moving nimbly, opened up distance and came to a stop.
Was he doing it to steady his breathing?
It was just as she was thinking that.
VRRRMMM—
"Ugh."
A noisy resonance stabbed at Woo Hyo-jeong's eardrums.
"Team Leader Woo Hyo-jeong, are you all right?"
"That sound...... can you not hear it?"
"What sound do you mean? Can anyone hear something?"
"No."
The analysts standing beside her wore looks of complete puzzlement.
But Woo Hyo-jeong could hear it clearly.
It was the sound of something vibrating hard.
It was the sound of the moment before an explosion, trembling unsteadily like something being forced into a vessel that could not hold it.
She could tell where the source of that vibration was.
It was the pair of swords Geon-mu held.
"What in the world is this......."
Woo Hyo-jeong's pupils dilated.
A red energy she had never once seen was coiled around the swords in Geon-mu's hands.
It was as though a dam had broken and hundreds of tons of water were pouring out.
That was how much power there was in it, how fierce.
The red energy aimed precisely at Anubis' chest.
Anubis raised its staff and blocked Geon-mu's attack.
SHATTER—!!
The hard staff broke apart like rotted deadwood.
Its defense pierced, Anubis took Geon-mu's attack head on, defenseless.
THUUUD!!
The building shook as though it would collapse.
***
In the midst of the explosion, Geon-mu stood where he was and was certain of his victory.
Torrent Dragon Flash Wave.
An attack that injected the internal force within the body into the swords and drove home one powerful blow.
The wave in the shape of a dragon did not stop at piercing Anubis' chest; it reached the far edge of the Simulation Room.
It had not merely pierced the body but had aimed precisely at the core that served as its heart, and destroyed it.
Having lost its core, Anubis hung against the edge of the wall.
-So the role given to me ends here.
Instead of returning to its original state, it began to split apart little by little.
Even in its dying moment, Anubis could not contain its admiration.
-That was a blow I had not imagined. Are you different from the other mortals who live only by their mouths?
Chewing over the bitter taste of defeat, Anubis raised its head.
It looked at Geon-mu and asked a question.
-I would like to meet you again. I have been defeated like this today, but if we meet again, I will not be taken so easily.
"Will that be so?"
Geon-mu was confident.
Even if they met again, the victory would be unchanged.
-I want to meet you again. I want to remember this battle with you for as long as I live in this moment. May I ask your name?
Was there really any need for a bastard who was going to die anyway to know his name?
Even thinking that, Geon-mu answered him gladly.
"It is Cha Geon-mu."
-......What did you say?
"Cha Geon-mu."
He answered a second time, but Anubis nodded and went off on some other tangent.
-So you will not give your name...... I can understand that. A formidable enemy such as you always has many foes.
"What is this bastard on about, deaf thing."
My name is Cha Geon-mu.
He was about to shout it one more time, but Anubis' form vanished completely.
The moment Anubis disappeared, the sand desert also vanished like a mirage, and the latticed Simulation Room returned.
"Whew......."
With that, the second test was over.
Or was it the third?
When it had summoned the Vengeful Spirits of the Desert, Anubis had said that this was a test.
"You there, assessor."
"Y-yes?"
"Is this test the second or the third? It does not seem to be mine to judge."
"......Sorry? That would be...... the third."
Kim Cheol-mun stared blankly at Geon-mu before answering.
Dazed as he was, he had watched the whole situation on the field.
"Is that so? Then let us proceed with the fourth test."
Geon-mu's body was already exhausted, but he intended to keep going.
If he did not do it by the rules, he would give them an opening to raise objections, and then he would not receive an A-Grade.
Geon-mu was set on carrying the examination straight through.
"I am sorry, but I do not think that will be possible."
Kim Cheol-mun fiddled with the earphone in his ear and gave that answer.
Displeased with the answer, Geon-mu creased his brow.
"Why is that?"
"At the assessor's discretion, the examination may be halted in cases of serious injury. And I have judged that in your present condition, Mister Cha Geon-mu, the examination cannot be continued."
Geon-mu wondered what he was talking about.
Kim Cheol-mun gestured with his eyes at both of Geon-mu's arms, and he understood why the man was saying that.
"Ah."
The swords had exploded as he used the Torrent Dragon Flash Wave.
Fragments had scattered in the explosion and driven into the insides of Geon-mu's arms.
The flesh had been torn, so of course there was blood.
Both of Geon-mu's arms were entirely caked in blood, dripping onto the floor.
"We will suspend the examination for now."