Chapter 63. Character Evaluation (3)
“Eun-Ho! Are you sure you’ll be okay alone? That thing looks way too dangerous!” Ji-Eun shouted.
“C-can’t you skip this one, Hyungnim? If they’d let us go in together, I’d be right there with you but...” Jae-Hyuk said.
“Don’t worry. If it gets too risky, I’ll pull out right away,” Eun-Ho replied.
Facing a snake the size of an Imoogi[1] wasn’t ideal, but not impossible either.
Even monsters like that usually had weaknesses, and Eun-Ho just had to find it.
Thump.
He walked toward the pale-white creature, eyes sharp and focused. Just then, the system message echoed.
[Subject Cha Jin-Sol will be partnering with you.]
Huh?
“Wait, what?!”
“Jin-Sol! That’s you!”
“Oh, come on...”
They were unwanted partners, hand-picked by the system.
[First participants have been confirmed.]
[Please enter the arena.]
The yellow-haired guy, who ranked number three in the Observation trial, was shoved in to join the fight. His inked legs, covered in dark butterfly tattoos and ornate lettering, moving with visible effort.
“Oh no! He’s not even fully healed yet!”
“Shit... Why now of all times!”
With his Almighty Observer’s Eye, Eun-Ho could see that Jin-Sol’s HP barely hovered over 70%. He was still recovering from the gunshot that bounced off the security guard’s shield.
[The Prince from the Bureau of Investigation asks who the hell that limping guy is.]
[The Crow from the Bureau of Management clicks their tongue, saying he’s unworthy of being a new recruit.]
Apparently, the observers were just as thrown by this sudden team setup though for different reasons.
[You have 10 minutes.]
[Defeat the White Serpent and survive!]
[The trial Cooperation begins now.]
Shuffling up beside Eun-Ho, Jin-Sol scowled. “What the hell does cooperation even mean here?”
That was exactly what Eun-Ho was thinking. How the hell were they supposed to cooperate in this mess? Heck, especially when one of them was already a mess.
Thump.
Still, seeing no point in resisting the system’s push, Eun-Ho moved forward.
Clack.
Jin-Sol followed behind. Soon, they were both standing at the base of the massive clear funnel, the same one supporting that sky-filling, cloud-like serpent.
“I guess we’re supposed to go through here?”
“It seems like it.”
A square-shaped entryway opened up ahead. It was just an open slot without doors. They stepped inside the glass cylinder.
Hisssss—
The giant White Serpent coiled above, slithering slowly and ominously across the sky. The fact that it could drop on them at any second made Eun-Ho’s heart thud. However, now wasn’t the time to fight.
First things first. I’ll have to figure out the situation, Eun-Ho thought.
He had to find its weak points, and look for an edge. Forcefully lowering his gaze, he saw a small table and two chairs. Then, something shimmering around the inside of the walls caught his eyes. From the outside, it looked like smooth, transparent glass but at eye level and stretching downward, the walls were etched with raised designs.
Are these engravings?
There were dozens, maybe hundreds, of snake motifs. Snakes with flicking tongues, and ones that twisted and layered over one another endlessly. In between them were odd protruding bricks, like signposts.
It’s cold in here.
Was it because of the mass of carved serpents surrounding them, or the awareness of the real one coiling above their heads? Either way, a chill crept in. The air was heavy and oppressive.
Eun-Ho wiped the sweat off his palms and onto his pants, trying to snap himself back to focus.
Fwooosh!
Then, the atmosphere shifted.
“Whoa... Is it just me, or did it get really hot all of a sudden?”
Jin-Sol was right. The previously cold air had turned muggy and thick, like a sauna had just been cranked on. No one had touched anything, and the unsettling tension crawled higher. Before they knew it, water had pooled beneath their feet.
“What the hell? Where’s the water coming from?”
“Hold up...” That was when Eun-Ho felt something was off, muttering, “There was a carving right here. I swear it was just here a second ago...”
“Wait, you’re right! I saw it too! Did we imagine it?”
No. The chill, the sudden heat, the missing carving, and the pooling water... This isn’t a coincidence.
“It melted,” Eun-Ho replied.
“Melted? What melted?”
“The carving. It was ice. They were ice sculptures!”
The carvings embedded in the pillar were never stone, but ice. They were melting away.
“Wait, is it just me, or is that thing moving downward?”
“Shoot!”
Slowly and deliberately, one of the carved stone blocks held up by the icy engravings sank under its own weight. It created a hollow just big enough for two people to squeeze into.
A low grind echoed as heavy stone scraped against stone. Eun-Ho could feel the massive creature shifting directly above them, and the hair on his neck stood on end.
No way... No, it can’t be. Right?
Still, he summoned his Razor Beak Blade with a whisper.
Click.
A faint locking sound followed. A moment later, a single black droplet fell from the sky.
Sizzle!
“Ugh!”
“Look out!”
Eun-Ho shoved Jin-Sol out of the way. The droplet splattered against the asphalt, melting the ground right where he’d been standing in its exact shape.
“W-what the hell?! Where did that even come from?!”
“The ceiling! Something’s above us!”
Jin-Sol’s eyes bulged in shock as he looked up, but it was too late. “The door! The entrance is gone?! Are we trapped?!”
The rectangular opening they had entered through had sealed shut, and what used to be an exit had now become the ceiling.
So that’s how it works...
The strange protruding blocks were some kind of mechanism, acting as both the door and its trigger.
Hissss—
The giant White Serpent above began to stir.
“Get over here and help me lift this!” Eun-Ho shouted.
“What?! Why?! What even is this thing?!”
“I think it’s the door control. Hurry!”
Thunk!
Eun-Ho shouted and threw his shoulder under the block, trying to lift it again. However, it didn’t budge neither up nor down. As frustrating as it was, the name of this trial was Cooperation.
“Come on, help me!”
“Uh, okay!”
Jin-Sol, skeptical as ever, stepped up and heaved his end onto his shoulder. Then, just like that, the opening in the ceiling sealed back up. A faint gust of wind blew in through the reappearing exit.
“It’s working! It’s moving!”
***
A breeze just barely sneaked in through the slowly widening door.
So when the ceiling opens, the exit closes. When the ceiling closes, the exit opens.
That meant they had three choices. Option one: hold the block together until the ten minutes are up, surviving unscathed yet failing the trial.
Option two: let the ceiling open, allowing the snake to fall and fight it. High risk, high reward, as it’d mean succeeding the trial and obtaining the loot of Venom Sac and whatever else it was hiding.
Lastly, option three: one of them would hold the block while the other fled. The ceiling would stay shut, and one person would get away.
Option three is the worst option of all. That’s coward’s exit.
Choosing option three would mean failing the trial, losing any chance to face the Serpent and shattering the team in the process. The moment of decision had come.
What’s the safest way to take it down? Close combat is too dangerous. One hit from that venom and I’d be dead in sixty seconds.
The result could be worse considering how it melted asphalt with just a single drop.
Maybe if I could coat myself in petrification... Or I could try long-range shooting, which might be safer, but the damage might not be enough. But before doing anything, I need to find its weak spot.
Then, Eun-Ho shifted his gaze toward the Serpent slowly slithering toward the rectangular hole above them.
“Oh my god! It’s open!” Jin-Sol shouted.
“Wait.”
Jin-Sol, still grunting under the weight of the block, pointed up at the reappearing exit. “No, look! I think we can get out now!”
Clearly, fighting was never part of his plan.
[The Crow from the Bureau of Management suggests feeding that coward to the snake.]
Regardless, the massive White Serpent flicked its forked tongue as it slithered back and forth.
“Just hang on a bit longer,” Eun-Ho said, eyes locked on the monster.
“Hang on?! Are you seriously thinking of fighting that thing?!”
“If it looks beatable, we fight it.”
“Look at me! I can barely stand! I’d die before I got two steps in! Just give up and pass the baton to the next team!”
“Why would I do that?”
The blond snapped. “You don’t get it! I can barely stay upright on this leg! What do you know?!”
Oh, I know. I know better than anyone.
The same injury Jin-Sol had gotten just thirty minutes ago, Eun-Ho had lived with it for a decade.
Still, he asked coolly, “What did you use your last reward on?”
“Why do you care?”
“Just wondering. I couldn’t decide what to spend mine on.”
He figured Jin-Sol could have used his points to heal himself.
Instead, the guy gave a look like Eun-Ho had just asked if water was wet. “Obviously I leveled up my skills. Duh.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Didn’t you use a skill earlier too? Why wouldn’t you upgrade that first?”
He was naïve. Apparently, Jin-Sol had dumped every point he earned into raw stats or flashy abilities without even considering healing himself.
That kind of injury could’ve been fixed instantly with a point just like I did.
However, there was no reason to explain that to him.
“Whatever, screw it! Fight it, die, do whatever the hell you want!” Then Jin-Sol shouted, “Summon!”
He conjured something small and metallic. A tattooist’s needle, big and sharp enough to carve into stone.
“Huh?”
Stabbing it into the transparent wall, he drew a circle the size of his head, with two vertical lines beneath it like legs.
Scritch! Scritch!
Then, he added curved lines that branched out like arms.
[The Prince from the Bureau of Investigation nods, impressed that Sector 13 really does have a lot of artists.]
[The Crow from the Bureau of Management says every great man needs a sculptor to tell his tale and votes to spare him.]
[The Night-Shift Fairy from the Bureau of Audit asks if he is sketching a self-portrait.]
No. This is...
Sweat rolled down Jin-Sol’s brow. He seemed to radiate heat, melting like the ice engravings from before.
The next moment, he shouted, “Materialize!”
Boom!
Then, something burst from the wall. It had big arms, dragging across the floor.
“A gorilla...?”
The drawing was alive, or at least animated, coming into existence by Jin-Sol’s drawing and skill.
[The Night-Shift Fairy from the Bureau of Audit freaks out because the self-portrait just came to life!]
“Make it lift that block! Now!”
The summoned gorilla raised both arms, resting the block onto its palms. Clearly, Jin-Sol planned to have the gorilla hold the door so he could slip out.
It’s a smart plan. But...
“That thing’s not gonna hold long.”
Thud. Thud.
From here to the exit was maybe twenty steps. It would take thirty seconds if he moved fast. However, the gorilla’s arms were trembling already. It was a powerful skill for sure, but not good enough.
“I’m outta here!” Jin-Sol shouted and turned with a smirk. “Fight it or die, I don’t ca—”
Crack! Shatter—!
Jin-Sol froze because the summoned gorilla’s arm cracked like glass, then shattered completely.
“Oh, fuuuck!”
Jin-Sol bolted, limping hard, but running for dear life. However, the exit slammed shut and the ceiling opened wide.
There were three seconds left. That was all it took for the enormous Serpent to sense the shift and descend. Slithering down the wall like a wave of muscle, its glowing white head loomed inches from Jin-Sol’s face.
“S-summon! Aaaaah!”
Panicked, Jin-Sol pulled a spear from thin air and thrust it upward.
Swoosh—!
Then, a pale line appeared on the serpent’s scales. However, it could barely be called a scratch, with no blood.
Its defense is ridiculous.
[HP: 99.9%]
[HP: 100%]
Wait. Did it just heal itself?
Not only was it barely taking any damage, it was recovering instantly.
“What the hell?! It just healed itself on the spot!” Jin-Sol shouted.
Eun-Ho exhaled. “They gave us something we can’t kill.”
“Then what the hell do we do?! We can’t run away from it either!”
If it had a regeneration skill, that meant they only had one of two options. They had to either stop the monster from healing, or overwhelm it before it could recover.
Eun-Ho scanned the room and came up with an idea.
I know how to win without fighting.
“Aaaaah! Help me!”
Jin-Sol tried to draw again, but the snake lunged at his hand. He stumbled and landed hard on his bum.
There was no way he could get a sketch out now.
“Jin-Soool!”
A scream burst through the glass walls. It was the woman in a leather skirt, tattoos up and down her arms, slammed into the barrier. She was the same friend who healed him earlier.
“Eun-Ho! Watch out!”
There was Ji-Eun, too. Both women pressed to the wall, fear written all over their faces. Eun-Ho turned to them briefly, eyes calm.
“H-help me! Please!” Jin-Sol shouted.
“Alright,” he said, looking at Jin-Sol scrambling to survive. “I’ll go get him real quick.”
“Jin-Sol! Hang on! Wait what?!”
“Okay, Eun-Ho...”
The woman was anxious, whereas Ji-Eun's eyes still held a trace of trust. Leaving them behind, Eun-Ho dashed forward, straight toward the Serpent’s gaping jaws.
Swoosh—!
“Wind Blade!”
1. Imoogi is a large, serpent-like legendary creature in Korean mythology that resembles a dragon but is not yet a true dragon. ☜