The sword that punctured the head conveyed a sensation.

It was unpleasant. The pain was greatly reduced, but the unpleasant sensation of killing a person was vividly transmitted through the hilt.

‘One.’

Lorraine’s form scattered into a cluster of light.

Without a moment to consider, I immediately swung my sword.

Clang! A rough recoil pushed my body back.

“Tch!”

Raven charged forward with his spear leading, and Kim Hyun, having recovered from the slash’s aftermath, approached.

I had disposed of the small fry, but the real challenges, those two, remained.

I steadied my breath. I drew my sword against the thrusting and slicing spear and sword.

– Zzzzzzt!

The clearing was already in chaos. Weapons imbued with slashes and Qi were swung, leaving long scars on the ground and bursting in various places.

Trees nearby were severed and rolled across the ground. With this level of commotion, it wouldn’t be long before other cadets gathered.

I had to end this quickly.

Kim Hyun couldn’t afford such thoughts.

It was absurd. That was what he thought.

Raven Est. Though from a different academy, he was a friend often entangled with Kim Hyun due to their families’ good relations. They had frequently dueled and practiced combined attacks by hunting monsters together within the dungeons.

And there was Lee Hayul, fending off their combined assault head-on.

Of course, it wasn’t perfect. Pssht! Red particles burst from a slash across the shoulder. His whole body was littered with such wounds.

His movements were excellent, but there were awkward aspects in places.

He had been blind even before his awakening, they said.

Kim Hyun considered it ‘blindness’ that he must overcome through effort. No matter how much one compensates sight with detection abilities, it can’t match the eyes that capture the ever-changing world.

Just one month. He marveled at reaching such a level in this time.

Skkkrt! Red particles burst from a shoulder.

“Kek!”

It was Kim Hyun’s shoulder. In The Tower of Growth, pain was greatly reduced, but Kim Hyun was struck by more than just physical pain.

Raven, too, grimaced and recoiled as a distinct cut marked one of his arms.

In contrast, Lee Hayul stepped forward. His body was riddled with wounds. Scars etched everywhere, and some bleeding cuts where blood particles flowed.

In the early stages of their combined attack, he was hard-pressed to defend. Defending head-on, but continuously suffering wounds as defenses were breached.

Now…

‘We’re being pushed back.’

Raven with his thrusting spear, Kim Hyun with his swinging sword… gradually I began to respond. My attacks were increasingly blocked, and successful strikes dwindled.

In this very moment, my skills were growing exponentially. Clumsy actions were becoming refined.

In this short instance.

– Kwoooong!

My leg raised high slammed to the ground. Compared to before, twice the colossal noise accompanied spider-web-like fractures on the earth.

Rumble rumble- The ground shook roughly as thick spikes of dirt and stone shot up.

Kim Hyun swung his Qi-laden sword. Following a straight trajectory, the shooting spikes were cleaved midway.

As fragments scattered through the air, a streak of light flashed on one side of Kim Hyun’s vision.

‘This…!’

Kim Hyun’s eyes widened as he dodged the base of an unsevered spike, and a blue electrocution strike flew toward him.

– Zzzzt!

“Kugh…!”

The electrocution that struck his ankle spread throughout his body. Kim Hyun clenched his teeth.

The damage wasn’t severe. He was wrapped in Qi, and the magic was weak to begin with.

Raven, brushing off spikes in haste, leapt towards Kim Hyun. Anyhow, an opening had formed, and he moved to compensate.

The expectation was wrong.

Lee Hayul charged, not at the electrocuted Kim Hyun, but at Raven.

An unexpected move. But Raven’s body naturally thrust forward with the spear. A stabbing born from experience melted into his movements.

Lee Hayul also thrust his sword. The blade and spear clashed, and his sword took flight. His figure vanished momentarily.

Craaack! Suddenly, Lee Hayul, who had burrowed below, gripped the spear tightly.

‘Ah.’

This is bad─

Before the thought completed, reflexively wrapped Qi around his abdomen burst forth. His waist bent at a right angle.

“Gack…!”

Oxygen was forcibly ejected from his lungs. Raven, not giving up despite the gap, extended his Qi-wrapped hand.

The method of dealing with an opening when a spearman gives an inch. He had learned it exhaustively.

– Bang!

“…!”

But Lee Hayul was quicker.

Qi exploded. Before the hand could even reach, Lee Hayul’s fist, pounding the ground, struck Raven’s abdomen again.

This time, no sound came out. Instead, the chilling noise of flesh being crushed and bursting could be heard inside the body.

Even now, Lee Hayul’s arm didn’t stop.

His Qi-filled fist brutally hit the abdomen, solar plexus, and philtrum in succession. Consciousness, already fading, was kicked further away.

‘Damn it all.’

Raven spat out a cluster of blood-colored light as he cursed inwardly. Damn it, he joined to earn some points, and now look at this situation.

Lastly, he saw the fist approaching right before his face.

– Bang!

The unpleasant sensation of smashing bone and mashing flesh was transmitted up the fist. Raven’s face caved in, and his body slumped.

‘Two.’

Quick footsteps approached from behind. Lee Hayul released the spear and grabbed the collapsing Raven’s wrist, swinging it.

“…!”

Kim Hyun’s eyes bulged.

Skkkrt- The half-severed body of Raven, not yet scattered into light, was bisected by the sword.

It was perfectly exposed, easy to grab. He swiftly extended his Qi-filled hand and grasped the sword.

Crack. The Qi around his hand was sliced away. No matter how solid Lee Hayul’s Qi was, if he kept holding on, his hand would be severed.

Before that, Lee Hayul extended his empty hand. Mana held in his grip swiftly sped away, forming the spell.

Mana Slash. The composition of the spell was incredibly simple.

With a few modifications and additions to the existing spell. The original and the added spell interlocked somewhat properly.

Since the base of the magic was simple, even a novice like me could make these adjustments.

Lowest-level magic
[Mana Slash: Barrage]

The spell in my grasp erupted. A barrage of slashes tore through the body turning into light and surged towards Kim Hyun, standing right before me.

‘I can’t dodge it.’

It was too late to dodge. Even if I threw my body aside and abandoned the sword, it would be the same.

Kim Hyun’s decision was quick. He drew all his mana and covered his body with Qi. Over it, he pulled his sword to block.

‘Hah…’

He felt it instinctively. I can’t block this.

Despite the intuition, he moved, but the ominous premonition did not fade.

Time slowed down. Kim Hyun felt it, but regretfully his body couldn’t speed up to match his thoughts.

I won’t be careless. That was the thought he had going in, but even that was arrogance.

He had judged Lee Hayul’s level by his own standards.

And now, the consequence was bearing down.

‘Certainly.’

Kim Hyun remembered his father’s words.

The world is vast, he had said. In the broad world, go to Shio-ram to see the geniuses gathered.

‘The world is vast.’

Contrary to his expanded thoughts, his vision narrowed as slashes covered it up.

* * *

Mana Slash.

A magic at the very bottom tier of the hierarchy, so simple it’s unmatched.

I had made a slight modification.

Instead of just one going out, I changed it to send out four or five at a time—a simple task.

The discordance between the spells occurring through the process. I only needed to hold onto it a bit. Honestly, as long as the power was guaranteed, the rest could be tuned and used as needed.

– Crashing!

Multiple slashes pushed against each other, razing the area of the clearing. Far from clean, the ground of the clearing was torn as if it had been scratched indiscriminately with a chainsaw.

Kim Hyun’s presence vanished in a moment. Beyond the remnants of the scattered magic, scattered mana was felt. It looked like the light clusters that had erupted when Lorraine and Raven were disqualified.

It didn’t take long for the scattered mana to settle.

With the sound of the wind and touch, I felt the devastated clearing. I stood atop it and steadied my breath.

– Ding!

The experimental watch on my left wrist suddenly produced a notification.

…There was no feature to read the content to me. No hologram either. I didn’t even know how many points I’d earned for catching the cadets.

Nevertheless.

‘…Did I win?’

I won. Me. 3-on-1? And weren’t two of them notably skilled from the combat major?

I murmured blankly to myself.

Honestly, I had no special thoughts when I let go of spatial perception and opened up my senses. Even when I focused on mana affinity, I didn’t have any particular thoughts.

Just thought I might as well do something. I tried it out with a light thought that maybe it’s okay to do this.

When being chased. To be frank, I thought it was all over, and yet I had the thought to gain something before I went down.

I fought prepared to possibly win, but I never thought I would actually win.

‘Why did I win?’

I sank into contemplation. I had quite a few injuries from the fight. Clumsily dealing with the healing magic and deep in thought.

Me winning. It’s strange.

When I first came to this world and pondered growth, I gave up on the original… the game-like growth curve right from the start.

Games are different from reality. A fact well known by anyone who isn’t a lunatic unable to distinguish between imagination and reality.

You don’t die in games. If hp hits 0, the character disappears, and you just create a new character to start again.

Here, death is the end. There is no next. Well, in the original world, death is the end too.

I had no reason to be afraid in games. Just push forward whether it works or not, and if it doesn’t, just start over with a new character.

That’s not how it works in reality. I couldn’t recklessly consume Hidden Pieces like in the original. I couldn’t rampage around every which way.

It’s obvious. That’s why I gave up on the freakish growth.

The first ascent event. In the first round, I was disqualified without much resistance. Up until the 8th round, I had moderate success, but sometimes unluckily disqualified.

From the 9th round, when I put aside the ‘good deeds,’ I saw more success. Especially in the 11th round, I achieved freakish results.

The current performance, it seemed, was much quicker.

The duel with Aidan. A victory gleaned by exploiting his carelessness, rather than my abilities. That I could understand.

But now…

Despite receiving many injuries and consuming a large amount of mana, I still managed to knock down three cadets who were all out to get me, even with my spatial perception sealed.

‘Why?’

I hadn’t consumed any Hidden Pieces. I hadn’t yet reaped any benefits through game knowledge.

Yet, there were understandable aspects.

I received an elixir from Hong Yeon-hwa, valuable and hard to price.

I have three inherent abilities. Along with them, three curses. And while my spatial perception was useless in this battle, it was still there.

Beyond that. My physical abilities are a bit strange. Too good for just consuming one elixir.

‘…The blessing of growth.’

The fundamental blessing of growth bestowed on Shio-ram cadets. And the additional blessings of growth granted to special admission students.

The blessing of growth that aids in the activation of senses and growth of mana affinity, applied inside The Tower of Growth.

There’s more. Intuitively, I thought of something else.

Beyond those three, there was definitely something else accelerating growth.

‘Surely…’

Some other thing─

The sound of rushing wind approached rapidly. My senses, pierced through by my thoughts, swiftly turned my head.

– Swoosh!

A mana arrow shaped like a projectile grazed my cheek, piercing the thick tree on the other side. An attack that would have been nearly fatal had it hit the head straight on.

‘Ambush.’

I activated my body into a fortified state, preparing for the next attack.

From beyond where the mana came. Several presences began to approach swiftly with my expanded senses.

‘…Right.’

The disconcerting surprise of an unexpected victory washed away. The previous calm reclaimed its place.

‘It’s not over yet.’

I won 3-on-1. But that didn’t change the fact that there were still plenty of cadets.

Some curious like Kim Hyun, others like Raven and Lorraine aiming for points.

There must be well over five hundred of them.

I steadied my breath and stamped on the ground. Tap tap tap! Mana arrows impaled the ground where I originally stood.

As I dashed in the opposite direction of the pursuit, the chasers sped up as well.

I had run only briefly, but already the number of those chasing me began to increase. It seems the recent commotion exposed my location properly.

Not even a day of the five had passed.

I had no intentions of being disqualified gracefully.

* * *

A spark ignited. A tiny spark. A faint gust could have easily scattered such a small spark.

– Woosh!

Then it suddenly blazed up. The flame spread wildly, turning into a Gop-hwa, devouring everything around.

The wave of flames, like a storm, swept through everything in all directions. The unceasing flames eventually concentrated back to a point as if rewinding time, becoming a small spark once again.

“Huff…”

The spark turned into a sword. Holding the sword, Hong Yeon-hwa exhaled a light sigh.

Inside The Tower of Growth. The amplified blessing of growth.

Rather than just aiming for points, some choose to stay here for growth.

That was also Hong Yeon-hwa’s purpose.

And there was another reason.

“Where is Hayul…”

Hong Yeon-hwa slumped her shoulders.

Day two of the ascent.

She still hadn’t even caught a glimpse of the person she was searching for.