When I landed on the hard stone floor instead of crashing into the wall, a new mission window appeared.
HIDDEN MISSION
[Mana Acquisition (Beta Test)]
Eliminate enemies (0/32)
[Rewards]
• Attribute Mana 10
• Random Box (×1)
Though my head shook briefly as it hit the ground, I quickly returned to normal.
The first thing that caught my eye afterward was “Mana Acquisition.”
Next in line was a number that caught me off guard.
“Thirty…?”
Before I could fully comprehend the sudden increase in numbers, the monster’s roar echoed.
“Kkeok! Kieok! Kyaak!”
Surprisingly, within those howls, an uneasiness, perhaps anxiety, was mixed. What was even more peculiar was that I felt no different from the creature.
Beyond the wall I had just passed, there was only Ethan left with the monsters. He struggled to maintain consciousness and hadn’t been able to walk for a few minutes.
“Crazy!”
I hurriedly approached the wall. As I touched it, a cold chill ran through me. It resembled the white space where the tutorial took place. It was evident that the system had created this wall.
I groped the wall, but there was no way out. Instantly, anger surged through me.
“Damn it!”
Swearing, I kicked the white wall, and my body stiffened. Again.
This emotional rollercoaster was not getting any easier to handle. Every time I felt the heightened aggression, my vigilance returned.
I started taking deep breaths to try and control my anger.
“My chaos level is now 48.”
With 50 looming ahead, a new mission was the last thing I needed. Remembering the number 32 from earlier, I immediately took a purification pill.
Dealing with a two-digit monster in such an emotional state was dangerous. As thorns that had pierced my body began to recede, the chaos level dropped to 13.
The anger that had been shaking me subsided.
Meanwhile, the monster beyond the wall fell silent. It felt like the calm before the storm.
“Damn it…”
Would that thing spare Ethan?
Though it was quiet now, Ethan’s screams would likely echo soon.
While contemplating this, I turned away.
“Rather than standing here, let’s move.”
I needed to tackle the new mission first. Otherwise, I might end up having to deal with corpses here.
I picked up the spear that had been rolling on the stone floor.
Step by step, cautiously moving forward, I felt a twinge from the side where I had kicked the monster earlier.
“It feels like something’s broken.”
There was no immediate way to treat it, and it drove me mad.
Suppressing a sigh, I went deeper.
As expected, beyond the white wall was a cave.
“32.”
Probably the number of monsters inside this cave.
“If they all come at once, it’s dangerous.”
Being rational, I realized I could handle only two or three simultaneously.
The thought of them swarming made my hands sweaty.
But for some reason, I couldn’t see the shadows of the monsters.
A fork in the path appeared.
I took the right path and soon arrived at a dead end.
“What is this…”
Before me, at the dead-end, small monsters were huddled together, crawling.
“Nng, kkiiing.”
Monsters that couldn’t even stand on their two feet, crawling around.
Even if they stood up, they wouldn’t reach my knees.
“Hah!”
It was the moment I understood the actions of the monsters that caused chaos outside.
Here was the nest of the monsters, where defenseless monster offspring gathered.
The system was instructing me to kill them all to absorb their mana.
* * *
[Congratulations! You have successfully completed the HIDDEN MISSION – Mana Acquisition Beta Test.
As a successful reward, you will receive 10 elemental mana.
Additionally, you will receive a random box (×1) as a success reward.]
There was no hesitation in killing the baby monsters. The reluctance stemmed from seeing the monsters that couldn’t enter the cave.
Clearly, the creature had dragged a human corpse to the cave entrance. Once it became evident that this was their nest, the purpose was apparent – they were probably feeding the young ones.
In such a situation, there was no need to hesitate just because these creatures hadn’t fully grown.
If I hadn’t entered, these little ones would have feasted on the corpses.
I killed the monster offspring. Although the Mana absorption varied by individual, I absorbed the Mana
babies with each kill.
With every breath, my body transformed. The sudden surge in strength was difficult to control; it was enough to pierce the ground with a grandeur that wouldn’t let go.
The changes were so rapid that even containing my own body was not easy.
However, there was no time to slowly adapt while examining the changes. Just as I had almost killed all the offspring, an adult monster emerged.
“They must have come from that fork in the road.”
I was battered and bruised when the battle ended.
“Pfft.”
What I spat out could have been saliva or blood; it was indistinguishable. Unlike the previous battle, this was a melee where avoiding injuries was impossible.
Especially severe were the injuries to my back and the ribs area. The hot blood flowing down was palpable. Perhaps my lungs were damaged because each breath was agonizing.
Due to drowsiness, there were residual bruises, and my arms and legs weren’t in perfect condition.
“Ugh….”
I had practically torn my thigh apart, exposing the bone.
Strangely, my body felt lighter. Perhaps because my Mana had exceeded a thousand during the battle.
It felt like each cell in my body was awakened. Unfortunately, calling this a good thing in the current situation was challenging.
Every sensation felt heightened, as if every nerve was stabbing me like a pain.
I could distinguish the air touching my skin, each strand, each thread.
The thudding footsteps invaded my ears like a relentless assault on my brain.
The dripping blood felt like it was scratching my skin.
I withdrew my hand from the bleeding area on my chest, feeling the bone nearly snap just from exerting force as if I were squeezing it casually. Clearly, I almost fractured my rib.
Despite being exhausted, I moved forward, dragging my feet.
Returning to the entrance was quick as I retraced my steps.
The white wall had disappeared. In the gaping entrance lay the corpses of unknown beasts and a stranger with fair skin, with a spear by their side.
“Haah….”
I had evidently purified the contaminated mana before coming out. Even though I left a purification potion just in case, my chaos index was only 5%.
Yet, looking at the corpses, something hot bubbled inside me.
The distinctive smell emanating from the dead assaulted my senses.
It was so vivid and disgusting that it made me want to vomit.
I turned away, heading outside the cave, still hoping to confirm Ethan’s body.
I had spent about ten minutes in the cave. It wasn’t a long time, but I didn’t expect Ethan to be alive.
However, the sight outside the cave was different from what I expected.
Hearing a rustling noise, I checked to see a black person standing next to Ethan, raising a spear as if about to thrust it down immediately.
Seeing this, my actions were faster than my thoughts.
“Hey!”
I shouted and threw a dagger at the unfamiliar player.
With my movement, the dropped blood painted the ground.
Thunk.
The thrown dagger, with a sinister sound, embedded itself into a tree near the unknown player.
I threw it with force, but even I was surprised by its destructive power.
The guy who stepped back in surprise turned to look at me.
“What the hell are you doing?”
From the tilted head, black blood flowed down.
It was the flipped blood used during the battle with the adult monster and the handler.
Approaching with a spear in hand, the black person staggered backward.
Nevertheless, it seemed like he was fixing the window with a sense of distance.
I diverted my gaze from him and looked down.
Ethan’s chest, lying on the ground, was moving slowly.
And next to him, the monster with a broken arm and a pierced abdomen lay defeated.
It was definitely the one I was dealing with.
A sword was firmly stuck in the monster’s chest.
“Huh.”
It seemed like I underestimated Ethan too much.
The monster was not killed by the newcomer, the black man.
If that person had killed the monster, Ethan wouldn’t have survived until now.
“He probably died in the monster’s hands long ago.”
So, after Ethan killed the monster, the player arrived and found him unconscious.
“He was probably trying to kill the nearly dead guy to absorb MAna.”
The system had consistently emphasized the relationship between killing and Mana absorption to the players from the tutorial.
If the black man had killed Ethan directly, he wouldn’t have survived until now.
“Heh…”
At that moment, a faint groan came from Ethan.
I looked at him quietly and then raised my head.
The black man I made eye contact with let out a cry.
“———, ——!”
I didn’t know what he was saying.
Without hesitation, I fixed the spear and swung it at him.
The large spear accurately struck the black man’s head.
It seemed like he was trying to block it, but his movement was slow enough to burst inside.
He was effortlessly thrown to the ground.
He, who had received consecutive blows to the head, collapsed to the ground.
I looked down at him with cold eyes.
“Immoral.”
I admit that Mana is important to the players in this game since it started.
That’s why I gathered Mana, even going so far as to pull out plants.
Of course, I had no intention of killing or hunting animals.
But I had no intention of applying my standards to others either.
If another player wanted to kill people to gather Mana, that was their decision.
They should take responsibility for any guilt or social issues that followed.
However, the reason I interfered with Ethan’s death was simple.
“Because I spared him.”
I didn’t carry him around like an unknown guy’s stepping stone.
At least for today’s mission, I didn’t want to see Ethan die.
“Get lost.”
I kicked the new player away with my foot.
Afterwards, I pulled out the dagger stuck in the tree and sat down next to Ethan, licking my lips.
There were new wounds on his abdomen and shoulders, probably from killing the monster.
I glanced at the dead monster.
“He wasn’t entirely useless.”
With a broken arm and a pierced stomach, if he hadn’t killed the monster and absorbed Mana, he would have been treated as useless.
But Ethan, too, was a player who cleared the tutorial.
In a life-threatening situation, he seemed capable of protecting himself.
“Hey.”
I slapped his cheek lightly, but Ethan didn’t open his eyes.
But he was definitely alive.
“About 4, 50 minutes have passed…”
It had been about an hour since the mission started.
“Can one usually survive this long?”
I pressured him, but he still wasn’t bleeding.
In such a situation, he was still alive.
It was an abnormal vitality.
The feeling that things were getting further away from the norm had been present since the game started.
“Hoo.”
I breathed a long sigh and reached out to poke Ethan.
But before I could touch him, a new window appeared.
[MISSION – Promotion Test completion conditions are met.]
[Calculating overall results.]
It seemed like the last monster had been caught.
[Calculating overall results.]
[Allocation is imposed for closing the hole. Please specify a code name.]
I stared at Ethan while lying him down and frowned.
“Code name?”
I wondered what the system was up to this time.
“Closing the hole…”
Come to think of it, when I first fell into this forest, the system mentioned the same word.
[Hole opens.]
I didn’t know what the hole was, but this time it seemed like the system was trying to close it.
“What’s the allocation?”
The information provided was consistently inadequate.
I wrote down my English initials without much thought.
“K.”
There was no special reason. Just because I’m Kang.
I considered writing the whole name, but it seemed too bothersome, so I wrote only one.
After about a minute, a new window appeared.
[Closing Allocation
– K(36): 201
– Human(4): 45
– Zone(2): 22
– Lily(2): 22
– Ethan Rembron(1): 10
– Maxim Mihalich(0): 0
– Shota Hisaku(0): 0]
Two names were crossed out.
One of them reminded me of the Japanese one.
I realized what it meant and clenched my fist.
I had a vague guess, and I had even seen the corpse outside the cave.
But recalling that someone died here was more shocking than I thought.
But I survived, and I had no intention of dying in the future.
So, instead of focusing on the unfamiliar names, I looked at the numbers assigned to my code name.
36 and 201.
The meaning of 36 was easily understood.
It perfectly matched the number of monsters I killed.
The problem was the number 201.
“Allocation…”
I had to recall some of the information expressed in numbers by the system.
As I did, anxiety crawled up from my toes.
Could it be…
“Ugh.”
As soon as I thought about it, the word ‘could it be’ grabbed me.
[Mana is collected.]
Mana began to be escape from my body.
It turned out that allocation meant Mana.
In an instant, my mind turned white, and immediately after, it burned hot.
How much trouble did I go through to gather this Mana!
“Kuh!”
Biting my teeth, I hunched over.
The Mana escaping from my body stopped.
At that moment, a tug-of-war began.
[Mana is collected.]
The system pulled.
[Mana is collected.]
I resisted.
It felt like I was holding onto a very thin thread with all my might.
I couldn’t pull it because I didn’t know when it would break.
But I couldn’t let it go because the situation was dire.
All the sensations in my body were concentrated there.
I couldn’t let the system take away my Mana like this.
This Mana was the result of the efforts I had put into gathering it.
Being able to enter the hidden mission area was thanks to the question mark trait ‘?????’.
That achievement alone from the first tutorial was something achieved by barking and rolling around like a dog.
But now, the system was trying to take away my efforts under the name of allocation.
“Do you think I’ll just give it up easily?!”
This Mana belonged to me!
At that moment, I roared with anger.
Mana surged and disappeared deep into my body.
[Mana Manipulation proficiency increases!]
[The effect of the characteristic Assimilation is applied!]
[The effect of the characteristic Dedication is applied!]
[Mana Manipulation proficiency increased by 10.52%!]
As monotone sentences appeared, the pulling force that was trying to take my Mana disappeared.
[The system assists with the Allocation.]
[The defense barrier is deactivated.]
[The hole is closed.]
“Congratulations! MISSION – Promotion Test (Beta Test) is a success.”
[As a reward for success, Atrribute Mana 10 is provided.”
[According to the results, you are promoted to Alpha. An exclusive trait, Purification (Growth), is generated.]
[As a result, Advanced Attribute Stone is provided.]
[As a result, Currency (10,000,000 won) is provided.]
[The tutorial (Beta Test) is over.]
[The community is activated.]
[The main server (Earth) stabilization begins.]
[The main server (Earth) stabilization 0.001%]
Countless messages appeared afterwards.
“Hoo.”
Breathing out a tired breath, when I opened my eyes again, I saw the familiar wallpaper and a red residue.
Blood was dripping onto the plastic sheet spread out on the bed.
“Ugh…”
Shoulders, around the ribs, legs, and even the neck…
Pain remained all over my body.
The meaning of the pain was clear.
Even though I returned to the room after finishing the mission, the wounds didn’t heal.
It seemed that the recovery from injuries was only up to the tutorial.
It was indeed not a protected area.
I was annoyed that my Mana was almost taken away.
But now wasn’t the time to waste my anger.
My hand, reaching for the phone lying next to the bed, became urgent.
