The roars of the Cursed Wood-Ent were now accompanied by human screams—short, guttural cries that ended abruptly. It meant the 'other' candidates, the ones who had tried to ambush Si-woo, were now being pulped into mana-fertilizer. Good riddance.
Si-woo moved with a silent, deadly grace, the Wraith's Shroud making him a shadow within the mist. Liora and In-ho struggled to keep up, their heavier footsteps crunching through the undergrowth. Liora's hair floated around her head, crackling with residual mana. In-ho's breathing was heavy, but his grip on the mace was firm.
They burst into a clearing, and the sheer scale of the Boss monster made In-ho gasp.
The Cursed Wood-Ent stood easily thirty feet tall, a monstrous figure of gnarled, twisted wood and thorny vines. Its body was composed of hundreds of entangled branches, forming a vaguely humanoid shape. Its "eyes" were two glowing, moss-covered holes, pulsating with malevolent mana. One of its massive, root-like arms was still dripping with blood and torn fabric. It had just crushed someone.
[Boss Monster: Cursed Wood-Ent]
[Rank: E]
[Weakness: Fire (Requires concentrated application)]
[Resistance: Blunt/Piercing (High)]
"Holy mother of..." Liora breathed, her eyes wide with a mix of terror and awe.
"It's beautiful," Si-woo said, his voice a low rumble. "In its own ugly way."
The Wood-Ent turned its massive head, its glowing eyes fixing on them. It let out another earth-shaking roar.
"In-ho! Keep its attention!" Si-woo ordered. "Hit its left leg! Keep it busy!"
"What?! Me?!" In-ho stammered, his face going pale.
"You have a goddamn mace and those gloves," Si-woo snapped. "You're the shield! Get in there and bash its shins!"
Before In-ho could protest further, Si-woo shoved him forward. In-ho stumbled, then found his footing. With a terrified yell, he charged, swinging the heavy mace with all his might.
CRACK!
The mace connected with the Wood-Ent's thick, bark-like leg. A shower of splinters erupted, but the creature barely staggered. It let out an enraged bellow and swung its massive arm down toward In-ho like a colossal hammer.
"Liora! Now!" Si-woo yelled.
Liora, fueled by the mana-wine, unleashed a torrent of fire. She didn't just cast a fireball; she conjured a "Blaze Serpent," a writhing ribbon of pure flame that coiled around the Wood-Ent's attacking arm. The dry wood instantly caught fire, sizzling and blackening.
The Wood-Ent shrieked, a high-pitched, grinding sound. It ignored In-ho for a moment, trying to shake the burning serpent off its arm.
"Focus your fire on its chest!" Si-woo commanded, pointing to a dark, pulsating spot in the center of the creature's wooden mass. "That's its core! Burn it!"
Liora unleashed another torrent of flames, shaping them into a concentrated beam. The core of the Wood-Ent began to smoke, then glow with an internal inferno.
Meanwhile, In-ho, emboldened by Liora's attack, kept swinging the mace, chipping away at the creature's legs. He might be slow, but he hit like a brick house.
Si-woo, cloaked in the Wraith's Shroud, moved like a ghost. He didn't engage the front. He darted around the back of the Wood-Ent, climbing onto its root-like feet as if they were stairs. His hands moved with blurring speed, finding the weak points, the brittle joints where old wood met new.
He plunged his shortsword, the one he'd used to kill the Alpha Cat, into a critical seam where two massive roots intersected. It wasn't a killing blow, but it caused a massive branch to splinter off, distracting the monster further.
The Wood-Ent roared, swinging its burning arm wildly. One swipe sent In-ho flying into a tree, leaving him dazed. Another nearly caught Liora, forcing her to dive for cover.
"You useless bastards!" Si-woo yelled, still climbing. "Keep it together! Liora, more fire on the core! In-ho, get back up and distract its legs!"
The Wood-Ent started to glow from within, cracks of fire appearing all over its body where Liora's mana had taken hold. It was a desperate, final surge of power. It slammed both arms down, aiming for Liora.
"No, you don't," Si-woo growled. He had reached the creature's upper back. He pulled out the sheath of his shortsword—a piece of dull, heavy iron. He slammed the sheath against a specific knot on the creature's neck, a point he knew was a crucial mana nexus.
CRUNCH.
The Wood-Ent froze, its massive body shaking. The glowing eyes flickered. Then, with a sound like a thousand trees falling at once, it began to collapse. The internal flames intensified, consuming it from the inside out.
Si-woo jumped clear just as the monster imploded, sending a shower of burning splinters and mana-ash into the air.
[Boss Kill Confirmed: Rank-E Cursed Wood-Ent]
[Experience Gained. Level: 2 -> 4]
[Trait: 'Heart of the Slaughterer' Evolved. Effect: Mana Regeneration increased by 5%. Physical attacks now apply a minor 'Soul Chill' debuff.]
Si-woo landed with a soft thud. He looked at the smoking remains of the Wood-Ent.
"Finally," he muttered.
Liora staggered out from behind a fallen tree, her face streaked with ash, but a triumphant grin splitting her face. "We... we actually did it! We killed a Wood-Ent!"
In-ho was slowly picking himself up, rubbing his head. "I think I saw stars."
From the edge of the clearing, a slow clap echoed.
"Impressive. Truly," a voice purred.
Si-woo's head snapped up. Emerging from the lingering mist was a figure in pristine white robes, untouched by the battle. It was Ezra, the Golden Scion of House Valerius—a noble family whose influence rivaled the Church itself. In Si-woo's past life, Ezra had been one of his most cunning and deadly rivals, a silver-tongued serpent who always appeared at the worst possible moment.
Ezra smiled, a predatory gleam in his eyes. "I admit, I didn't expect such competence from a group of slum-rats. Now, if you would be so kind... step away from the mana core. It belongs to me."
Si-woo stared at Ezra. The guy looked like a painting—blonde hair perfectly coiffed, a rapier at his hip that probably cost more than a hundred lives in District 12. In the previous timeline, Ezra had ridden his family's influence to the top of the Shepherd ranks, stepping on the necks of anyone who actually did the dirty work.
"You've got a lot of nerve showing up now, you golden-haired prick," Liora spat, her eyes still flickering with the remnants of the mana-wine. She raised a shaking hand, a spark of fire dancing on her palm.
"Easy, firefly," Ezra said, his voice smooth as silk. He didn't even look at her. His eyes were locked on Si-woo. "I'm not here for a fight. I'm here for the spoils. My family needs this core to secure my ranking. Hand it over, and I might see to it that you three get a decent position as my... attendants."
In-ho gripped his mace, his knuckles white. "Attendants? You mean servants."
"I mean survivors," Ezra corrected, his smile never reaching his eyes.
Si-woo looked down at the smoldering pile of wood. In the center, a fist-sized gem pulsed with a deep, earthy green light. The Wood-Ent's core. It was the ticket to a high-ranking placement, the kind of score that could change a person's life in a single day.
"Five seconds," Si-woo said.
Ezra blinked, his smile faltering. "Excuse me?"
"I told the last group of retards the same thing," Si-woo said, stepping over a charred branch. "Five seconds to turn around and fuck off before I start pulling teeth. You're at three."
Ezra's expression shifted from amusement to a cold, aristocratic disdain. He drew his rapier in a blur of silver. The blade was thin, elegant, and hummed with a high-frequency mana-vibration. "You really are a gutter-rat. You don't even know who I am, do you?"
"I know exactly who you are, Ezra Valerius," Si-woo said, his voice dropping to a predatory whisper. "I know your family's secret cultivation technique. I know about the mistress your father keeps in the West Wing. And I know that if you try to lunged at me, I'm going to shove that toothpick so far up your ass you'll be tasting steel for a week."
Ezra froze. The color drained from his face. "How... how could you possibly—"
"One second left," Si-woo interrupted.
Ezra snarled, his pride finally snapping. "Die, you piece of shit!"
He lunged. Ezra was fast—faster than any F-rank candidate should be. His rapier moved like a lightning strike, aimed directly at Si-woo's heart.
But Si-woo didn't dodge. He leaned.
The blade whistled past his ribs, slicing through the Wraith's Shroud. As Ezra's momentum carried him forward, Si-woo reached out and grabbed Ezra's wrist. With a brutal twist, he forced the noble to his knees.
"ARGH! Let go!" Ezra screamed.
Si-woo didn't let go. He kicked Ezra in the stomach, sending him rolling into the hot ash of the Wood-Ent's remains. Before Ezra could recover, Si-woo was on top of him, his knee pinned against Ezra's throat.
"You're nothing without your name," Si-woo hissed, staring into Ezra's terrified eyes. "In this forest, you're just another piece of meat."
[System Notification: Hostility Detected]
[Trait: 'Heart of the Slaughterer' active.]
[Soul Chill debuff applied to target.]
Ezra shivered, his breath hitching as the temperature around him seemed to drop forty degrees. He looked at Si-woo and didn't see a slum-rat. He saw a predator that had hunted things far worse than him.
"Wait! Wait!" Ezra wheezed. "I... I have money! I have artifacts!"
Si-woo reached into Ezra's inner coat and pulled out a small, velvet pouch. He weighed it in his hand. Gold coins clinked.
"Now you have less," Si-woo said. He stood up, giving Ezra one final kick to the ribs for good measure. "Take your sword and get out of here before I decide I need a new pair of boots made from your skin."
Ezra scrambled to his feet, grabbed his rapier, and bolted into the mist without looking back.
Liora and In-ho stood there, stunned.
"You... you just robbed a Valerius," Liora whispered, her voice a mix of horror and genuine admiration. "We're so dead. We are so incredibly dead."
"We were dead the moment we signed up for this trial," Si-woo said, picking up the Wood-Ent's core. It was warm to the touch. "But now, we're dead with a lot of money and the best score in the district."
He tossed the gold pouch to In-ho.
"Let's go," Si-woo said, heading toward the exit gate. "The instructors are going to be wondering why the Boss monster is dead and why a noble is crying in the bushes. I want to be there to see their faces."