With his hand clasped behind his back, William stood straight and faced General Isaac, who focused on a holographic monitor.
"Sir, I have come as ordered!" William announced.
"…"
William waited a few minutes, but there was no response.
"Sir?"
"I heard you the first time," Isaac replied flatly. "Just wait while I finish my work."
"Yes, sir."
William stood silently, not daring to move as time passed. The sun rose and then set. Still, the general's eyes stayed glued to the screen.
Only after night had fully fallen did Isaac finally lean back and stretch.
"Ah~, another hard day's work," he muttered, yawning lazily.
Then he noticed William still standing there.
"…"
After a few seconds of staring, Isaac remembered why William had come.
"You're here for the test?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Alright. Come with me."
They got into the general's private car. William sat quietly beside him. Neither said a word during the 30-minute ride.
They arrived at a strange mountain top. In the center was a massive, pitch-black hole so deep that William couldn't see the bottom.
"If you survive down there for 24 hours, I'll assign you to the Toxcarver hunting unit," Isaac finally said.
"In there…?" William asked, dumbfounded
"Off you go. I've already wasted enough time on you," Isaac said, then kicked William into the hole without warning.
Before he could react, William was falling.
"AHHHHH—!"
***
"Huff… Huff…"
After what felt like endless falling, William finally managed to cast a spell to slow himself down, landing without injury.
He dropped onto all fours, gasping for air. His heart pounded from the shock.
"What… huff… what the hell?!"
He looked around. The forest was pitch black—he could barely see the trees.
Every sound made him flinch.
After a few minutes crouched in place, his breathing slowed, and his thoughts cleared.
'Is this the test? Survive here for one day?'
Remembering his training, he checked his gear. To his dismay, he only had his ID bracelet and a protective charm. He hadn't brought weapons—he had only expected a short visit.
'Damn it.'
But he didn't panic. Taking a deep breath, he began to plan.
First, he covered himself in dirt and mud to hide his scent.
Then, he cast a weak night vision spell and a basic sound-dampening charm. His eyes turned black, and a thin layer of gray coated his body.
He used only the smallest amount of mana—conserving energy was key.
With his stealth spells in place, William slowly moved through the woods.
His goal was simple: find a place to hide and wait out the day.
Shortly after William left—
Four muscular, shadowy figures jumped into the area where William had landed.
They examined the broken trees and trampled bushes. Sharing a nod, they disappeared into the night.
Back to William—
After moving through the forest for a while, William realized it was too risky to keep walking in unfamiliar terrain.
He searched for the densest tree nearby, climbed up, and decided to rest there, always on alert.
Sleeping wasn't an option. Using Sleepless Magic would drain too much mana—he had to endure throughout the day.
A few minutes passed.
'It's too quiet,' William thought.
'No animals, no bugs… just wind in the trees and a few distant bird calls.'
'This must be another artificial training zone of the army.'
'If so, the enemies are likely to be golems, not real beasts.'
Distracted by his thoughts, William didn't notice the growing sound of birds until it surrounded him.
"!!"
Realizing something was wrong, he stood on the branch and scanned the forest.
Cold sweat formed on his forehead. He didn't even notice movement, yet he was surrounded.
He wanted to run, but without knowing where the enemies were, it was nearly impossible.
Then, the attackers made their move.
One leapt toward William's tree. As it landed, its form was revealed—a muscular, four-armed ape golem.
William sighed in relief—it was just a training golem.
But that didn't make things any easier.
The golem threw a punch. William jumped off the branch, and the golem's fist smashed through the trunk, shattering it.
Stunned by its strength, William didn't hesitate. He landed and bolted.
His body glowed with yellow-white light as a speed-enhancing spell activated, boosting him fivefold.
But one of the apes jumped down from a tree, landing in front of him.
William didn't slow down. His arm glowed orange, and he launched a fireball at the golem.
The explosion created smoke, but the golem stepped through it unharmed and swung a punch.
William dodged at the last second and kept running.
Despite his speed, the golems easily kept up, swinging through the trees with powerful arms.
Desperate, William's hand turned brown. When he touched the ground, it split open, and he buried himself beneath it.
It was a spell he had learned to dig out Toxcarvers—now repurposed to escape.
Caught off guard, the golems slammed into the ground, clawing at the dirt with their bare hands.
But William moved faster. Controlling the earth, he dug deeper, slipping away underground.
Knowing that digging would cause heavy vibrations, William chose to dig deeper to avoid being tracked by the apes on the surface.
But before he could get far, a deep, soul-rattling roar echoed through the earth, followed by violent tremors.
Every hair on William's body stood on end. Without hesitation, he frantically digs straight back up again.
Panic surged through him as he injected more mana into his hands and began retreating upward. The shaking only grew worse.
Above ground, the ape golems stumbled as the earth violently trembled beneath them.
Suddenly, the ground erupted—William burst out first, followed closely by a massive, armoured centipede golem the size of a house.
William barely rolled aside, narrowly avoiding the creature's emergence.
Realizing this was no time to conserve mana, he dumped everything into his speed enhancement spell and ran at full sprint.
Unfortunately, the centipede ignored the groups of apes and immediately locked onto him.
The giant centipede dove back into the earth, chasing William.
"Shit! Shit! SHIT!" William screamed as he ran, his heart pounding.
Each time the centipede moved beneath the surface, the ground buckled and split open.
Dirt and rocks exploded upward in its wake, a wave of destruction gaining on him fast.
The tremors grew louder and closer, sending chills through his spine.
"I'm gonna die—I'm going to god damn die!" he cried, running with everything he had.
Without warning, the ground beneath him erupted again. The monstrous centipede burst out, flinging William high into the air.
He hit the ground hard, rolled several times, but somehow survived without major injuries.
As he looked up at the towering centipede, his pupils shrank.
'There's no way I'm fighting that thing!' he screamed internally.
'How the hell am I supposed to survive 24 hours like this?!'
The centipede lunged again, its enormous head taking up his entire field of view. Dodging seemed impossible.
I have to move or I'm dead.
At the threat of death, William's instincts took over. His mind raced. Solutions flashed before his eyes.
In a split second, his body moved on its own.
He activated his protective trinket. At the same time, a fireball traveled down his arm and exploded at his feet, launching him out of harm's way.
Missing its target, the monster dove back underground.
Knowing he couldn't outrun it, William made a rash decision—he'd try to cling to its back.
But the centipede's rocky scales were too hard to pierce. He couldn't get a grip.
Falling off, he watched helplessly as the creature vanished beneath the earth once more.
For the next few minutes, the pattern repeated.
The centipede burst from the ground, and William dodged using explosive fireball blasts again and again.
Each blast tore at his body. His shield absorbed the flames but not the shockwaves.
The pain built up, and his body began to go numb.
Kneeling with ragged breaths, William watched as the centipede dove underground again.
'Is this it? Is this how I fail?'
He wiped blood from the corner of his mouth.
'No, I'll try everything before I give up. I'll escape the next time it launches me.'
The ground rumbled. It was coming back up.
William prepared to dodge, but failed to notice a four-armed ape silently approaching from behind.
It struck.
The ape broke through his weakened barrier and landed a clean punch to his face.
At the same time, the centipede burst from below, launching William into the air.
Dizzy and stunned, William couldn't move as the centipede's gaping jaws raced toward him.
He managed one last thought: Are they working together?
Just as the centipede's massive jaws were about to snap shut and seal his fate, a white blur slammed into its body.
The impact was so powerful that it swayed the monster's massive body to the side, saving William at the last second.
"HAHAHA! The dragon centipede finally shows itself? Today must be my lucky day!"
The perpetrator, a man wrapped in bandages, shouted with wild glee as he charged at the beast again.
William bounced off from the creature's body and hit the ground hard, rolling across the earth.
Pain shot through his body, but he forced himself up and ran, ignoring the explosions and monstrous roars behind him.
But before he could vanish into the safety of the forest, four ape golems dropped down, blocking his only escape path.