August 14th.
It had already been three weeks since Kim Seo-jun entered the Jaeger Camp.
If you count each day, it feels like a long time, but looking back, it all seemed to have flown by in an instant.
In that time, much had changed for Kim Seo-jun.
[Kim Seo-jun]
-Mana: 181 / Inner Power: 248 / Control: 163
-Mystic Arts: Reverse Outpouring Spirit (24%) / Solar Divine Art (31%) / Psychokinetic Veil (11%) / Surak Extreme Lightning (10%) / Mind’s Eye (10%)
His mana and inner power had increased significantly, and the proficiency of his mystic arts had risen considerably.
Especially, as his inner power skyrocketed, the mastery of Solar Divine Art had greatly improved; he had already reached three stars, and the feeling was refreshing.
It was an astonishing rate of growth for just three weeks.
As usual, Kim Seo-jun had finished the morning drill the fastest and was calmly checking his status while eating.
‘Will I be able to surpass 200 mana before the training ends?’
His mana wasn’t increasing as much as he had hoped.
While his inner power had grown by more than 100 in three weeks, his mana had only gone up by about 40.
This was the result of spending two to three hours every night practicing the Solar Divine Art, but naturally, inner power increased much faster than mana.
Still, Kim Seo-jun knew just how impressive this growth rate was.
Normally, even awakened individuals only raised their mana by about 40 to 50 in a year at best.
And that’s only if they absorbed two or three yellow-grade mana stones, or at least one green-grade mana stone.
But Kim Seo-jun had increased his mana by 40 in just three weeks—if anyone found out, they would be floored.
To hide how rapidly his mana was increasing, Kim Seo-jun made good use of the Solar Divine Art’s control.
The deeper his training in the Solar Divine Art, the more thoroughly he could conceal his abilities.
Back on Murim Earth, plenty of warriors had underestimated the young-looking Kim Seo-jun, only to be taught a painful lesson when he concealed his inner power.
Recalling that experience, he also kept his mana level at a steady 130.
Even if someone tried to scan his mana, they’d never notice anything odd.
‘181 mana… I’m finally nearing A-rank, but…’
Compared to the other cadets, he was still a small fish.
Even the lowest, Im Hee-joo, had 225 mana, a difference of over 40.
‘We’re supposed to enter a rift today, so it’d be nice if I could get a decent mana stone in there.’
If he could just get a single blue-grade mana stone, his mana would easily surpass 200.
After finishing his meal, Kim Seo-jun used his remaining free time to check the information on the rift they’d be entering for the first time in the fourth week of training.
The information had been delivered via Gift the moment morning training ended.
[Rift Number: KR-274/2]
[Danger Level: 4]
[Rift Type: Open Mountainous Terrain]
[Special Notes]
-Natural scenery is so beautiful that it stimulates all five senses, making it a unique place
-Many species of plants and animals not found on Earth make it valuable for research
-No monsters above D-rank appear, but monsters with high reproductive rates inhabit the area, so ongoing supervision is needed
[Rift Boss: Three C-rank Elite Orcs]
[Caution: This rift is officially designated for research and training, so boss raids are prohibited]
The information about the rift was fairly detailed.
A danger level of 4 meant that even a D-rank hunter could explore it without much difficulty, and since it was an open-type, they could move around freely.
‘C-rank Elite Orcs as bosses…’
The Orcs were an extremely combative race, over two meters tall, with fearsome, boar-like faces.
Their average rank was D.
Their combat ability was somewhat underestimated because their low intelligence made them easy to trap or deceive.
Still, among the Orcs, an elite C-rank monster would almost certainly yield a blue-grade mana stone.
Jaeger, who managed this rift, must know that too, so it was odd that they prohibited raids on the boss, even if it was just for research and training.
‘Is there some other reason?’
If you killed the boss in a raid, the rift would close within an hour and disappear.
Closing rifts was important, since otherwise monsters could keep spilling into Earth.
Yet for some reason, cadets were forbidden from raiding the boss in today’s rift.
This was completely different from the other rifts they’d used for training, where the boss had already been defeated but the rift wasn’t closed.
Kim Seo-jun closed the rift info on his Gift’s display and stood up.
As always, he headed for the audiovisual room for the theory class.
Right at 8 o’clock, Instructor Park Mun-ho entered the room with two other instructors.
The ten cadets were already seated, each in a comfortable spot.
“You all look lively today. It seems you’ve gotten used to the three weeks of training, haven’t you?”
At first, even the basic tests had been tough for the cadets, but now they didn’t even feel tired during the one-on-one sparring sessions every morning.
“Anyway, I’ll be cheering for all of you, even from afar, to finish today’s fourth-week first class and final rift practice without any dropouts.”
His tone was different than usual.
The cadets only now realized today’s rift practice was their last, and didn’t understand what he meant by cheering from afar.
“I can see you’re all dying of curiosity. Ha ha ha, it’s nothing much. Today’s rift practice will last three days, so there won’t be any more after this. That means there are only three days left until graduation. During those three days, each of you will be paired with an instructor for close-contact training.”
Close-contact training.
That meant, as soon as they woke up, an instructor would be glued to them all day, joining them for all training and entering the rift together to hunt monsters.
In other words, after this rift practice, the ten cadets wouldn’t be gathered together again until the final evaluation on graduation day.
The cadets looked at each other with expressions full of regret.
At first, the different backgrounds and clashing personalities had caused plenty of trouble.
But after three weeks of difficult training together, camaraderie had blossomed, and they no longer fought or bickered like before.
That’s why everyone looked so reluctant to part ways now.
Im Hee-joo, the youngest among them, was especially disappointed.
Once ignored by everyone, she had become the beloved little sister of the group.
Even the taciturn Yang Hwi, the arrogant Shin Tae-yang, and the irritable Min So-ra had all become good brothers and sisters to Im Hee-joo.
“As you’ve all been told, today’s rift for practice is ‘KR-274/2.’ Don’t let your guard down just because its danger level is only 4; you could get seriously hurt. Also, raids are forbidden here. With three bosses, you can’t clear it alone, so don’t get greedy and end up injured. Understood?”
The cadets all shouted “Yes!” in unison at Park Mun-ho’s warning.
“There are two goals for today’s practice. First, deal with every monster you encounter and each collect an orange-grade mana stone. The monsters in this rift are D-rank or below, but they move in groups, so if you do well, you should be able to get an orange-grade stone within two days.”
The chance of getting a mana stone from a D-rank or lower monster was only 1%.
To get ten mana stones, they’d have to defeat at least a thousand monsters.
All the cadets sighed, wearing the same “of course” expression.
It might be called a thousand monsters, but actually hunting that many in two days would mean constant fighting, with hardly any rest.
“Your second goal is to directly encounter the boss monsters. This rift has three boss rooms, each housing a powerful C-rank elite monster. They feel about B-rank in strength. Anyway, you’ll all go through the boss rooms together, experience up to Phase 2, and return within 72 hours. That’s your final objective.”
In most rifts, even bosses rarely have divided phases, and if they do, two is the most.
But Park Mun-ho had just said “only up to Phase 2.”
That meant the bosses here had up to Phase 3.
“For this practice, instructors won’t go with you. We’ll only escort you to the rift entrance, then watch your progress via drone. You must accomplish both goals using only your own strength. Understood!”
“Yes!”
“Good. That’s all for the instructions. Follow me to the rift.”
Park Mun-ho led the way toward the capsule transport installed at the back of the audiovisual room, and the cadets followed.
They were all used to the capsule transport by now—none of the cadets fainted or threw up anymore.
The rift was located in the rift management area on the second basement floor of the camp.
There were as many as twelve rifts being managed here.
According to the Jaeger Survival Guide, these included one A-rank rift and two B-rank rifts.
Naturally, these weren’t open to cadets, and were guarded 24/7 by battalion-sized military forces.
Yet even the security around the ‘KR-274/2’ rift, which Park Mun-ho was leading them to, looked formidable.
It was much stricter than the E-rank rifts used for cadet practice up to now.
A company-sized force was stationed around the rift, and several automatic machine guns were pointed at it.
The rift itself floated about fifty meters above ground, with a huge aerial work vehicle stationed beneath it.
The platform on the vehicle was big enough to easily carry fifty people at once.
‘This is a lot of security for a D-rank rift…’
Kim Seo-jun felt a strange sense of unease.
Why so much security for a rift where raids were forbidden?
Was the research value really that high, or was the rift still too dangerous? He couldn’t tell.
“Today’s practice is to learn how to survive on your own, without the help of artifacts. Therefore, you can’t bring any personal artifacts into the rift. If you have any with you, hand them over to the instructors. They’ll be returned safely after the practice.”
All the cadets were startled at Park Mun-ho’s words.
That meant this rift practice was essentially a survival challenge.
“Don’t worry. We’ve prepared separate survival gear for you.”
As Park Mun-ho spoke, several instructors brought over large boxes.
Inside were various weapons, necessities, and food.
“Once you’ve submitted your artifacts and finished the instructor’s scan, come here to collect your survival gear. You only have ten minutes!”
As soon as he finished, the cadets hurriedly took out every artifact they had.
Almost everyone had a subspace artifact, and there were plenty of stamina boosters and power enhancers as well.
Most of the cadets came from wealthy families and owned more than one artifact.
Kim Seo-jun had all his artifacts in a ‘space pouch,’ so he just handed that in.
He’d left the Arondight and the subspace backpack his father gave him back in his room, so now he was as good as empty-handed.
Im Hee-joo, who had no artifacts, was the first to undergo the full-body scan, and Kim Seo-jun was the second.
The scan was simple.
You just had to pass through a large ring emitting blue light.
If there was an artifact with mana, the blue would turn red, making it easy to detect.
When Kim Seo-jun went through, the ring’s color didn’t change at all.
The instructor let him pass, and Kim Seo-jun went to inspect the boxes of equipment.
Feigning a yawn, Kim Seo-jun activated his Mind’s Eye.
A golden light shone from his eyes, but no one noticed.
He was checking for any artifacts hidden among the gear in the boxes.
‘It’s suspicious to take our artifacts but then give us survival gear.’
Taking away their artifacts before entering the rift was odd, and giving out new survival gear was also strange.
So he used his Mind’s Eye.
Just then, Kim Seo-jun spotted something peculiar.
[528/Unique]
[84/Normal]
[173/Special]
[93/Elite]
[47/Normal]
[133/Special]
There were six artifacts hidden among eight boxes.
‘What the…?’
Worried another cadet might grab them first, Kim Seo-jun reached for the item with the highest mana reading.
[528/Unique]
It was a tiny orb, looking ancient, almost like a relic—yet it contained an astonishing 528 units of mana and had a unique property.
He blew the dust off, but its aura of age didn’t fade.
The orb was etched with faint, wavy patterns.
It felt like stone, but also metallic, as smooth as glass and as dense as wood.
It was less than a centimeter in diameter, but it felt surprisingly heavy.
It was like holding a solid iron ball.
Kim Seo-jun gently infused some mana to check its information.
But—
[….]
Nothing showed up.
He tried two, three more times, but not a single word appeared about the orb.
‘What on earth is this?’
His Mind’s Eye let him see its mana value and unique property, so it was definitely an artifact.
But not being able to read its information was maddening.
Pressed for time, Kim Seo-jun simply took the orb.
Next, he looked for the item with the second highest reading.
[173/Special]
A dust-covered, grayish glove.
Brushing off the dust, it looked familiar.
‘Aren’t these the gloves the instructors use?’
Even now, the instructors wore gray-and-white gloves on their right hands.
When they touched the air with those gloves, magic circles appeared, and they could pull out various things like a genie’s lamp.
Kim Seo-jun infused mana to check its info, just as he expected.
[Spatial Glove]
-Can store or materialize items in subspace.
-By using mana, creates a subspace entrance in empty air.
-Space Limit: 3㎥