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, hit the ground hard, and tumbled across the earth.
Gritting his teeth, he forced himself up and sprinted away, 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 path.
Outnumbered and exhausted, William froze.
They stood there in silence—both sides locked in a tense standoff.
'This is bad. I'm low on mana, and they punch faster than I can cast.'
Though panic clawed at his insides, William held still, refusing to show weakness.
He used the pause to think through his options.
'Fight? Run? Double back toward the centipede?'
Desperation drove him to act. Brown light shimmered over his hands as he tried to dig underground and escape.
He barely managed to burrow a few inches before one of the apes appeared beside him in a blur, grabbed him by the neck, and yanked him out like a weed.
He couldn't fight back. The golem swung him through the air and smashed him headfirst into a tree.
"ARGH!" he cried out as blinding pain tore through his skull.
But it wasn't over. The apes continued the brutal punishment by throwing him from tree to tree.
Finishing off by dragging his face through the dirt like a ragdoll.
By the time they were done, William's eyes had rolled back into his head, unconscious.
Strangely, despite the vicious beating, there was no blood or broken bones. Not even a scratch. His skull remained miraculously intact.
One of the apes grabbed him by the leg and dragged him away, back toward the chaos he'd barely escaped.
The forest had been ravaged. Trees were splintered, the ground torn up, and a wide crater now marked the battlefield.
The centipede was diving in and out of the earth like a demon, the bandaged man still clinging to its back, cackling with every blow.
Then, without warning, the apes hurled William's limp body into the crater.
He hit the ground hard, but by some miracle, the shock woke him.
Groaning, he rolled over and locked eyes with the ape golems standing at the edge of the crater.
They just stood there… watching.
'What…?'
Confused and still dazed, William glanced around the battlefield, trying to piece together what was happening.
'Are they… forcing me to fight the centipede?' The thought crept in as he stared at the ape golems.
Before he could fully process it, the ground trembled again. The centipede burst from the earth nearby, screeching as it soared into the air.
Panic surged through William. He scrambled to his feet, willing his numb legs to move.
But the monster ignored him this time, diving into a different part of the ground.
The tremors faded.
Heart racing, William took a breath. 'First things first—heal.'
Soft green light shimmered over his bruised body as he cast a minor healing spell. Slowly, the pain ebbed, and strength returned to his limbs.
After a minute, he was steady on his feet again. He didn't waste time.
Keeping low, he moved deeper into the battlefield, away from the crater and—more importantly—the ape golems.
Though the immediate danger had passed, a new problem loomed on the horizon…
'What now?' William asked himself.
The ground trembled constantly, forcing him to focus just to stay upright.
The best option is to get out of here, but that's impossible with the apes guarding the perimeter…
I just have to stall until the day ends.
As he watched the centipede burrow in and out of the battlefield, an idea came to him.
***
At the battle between the centipede and the bandaged man—
The man clung stubbornly to the centipede, refusing to let go no matter how violently it thrashed.
Even as it dragged him, slammed him into rocks, and tore his skin open, he held on with raw tenacity.
"You think this is enough to beat me!? Think again, bastard!" he roared.
Locking his legs around the creature's rocky plates, he began hammering its back with brutal punches.
Each blow cracked through its armored hide.
"RRAAAHHH!!" the centipede shrieked, louder than ever.
It dove underground again—but this time, the tremors were apocalyptic.
The ground split and buckled, entire slabs of earth displaced as the beast went berserk beneath the surface. It coiled, thrashed, and tore apart the terrain in a crazed frenzy.
Then—silence.
A moment later, a thunderous boom echoed across the battlefield. Shockwaves blasted outward, hurling rocks and debris in every direction.
At the center of the chaos, the bandaged man was launched into the air, unconscious, his body coated in blood and shredded bandages.
The centipede shot up after him, jaws wide, ready to devour him whole.
But just before it could reach him, a burst of purple energy flared in the sky. A gravity field enveloped the man and yanked him eastward, pulling him out of reach.
The centipede shrieked furiously and gave chase, slithering across the ground in pursuit.
It didn't dive as it knew it couldn't track something flying through the air, it need to keep its eyes on it.
Within seconds, both human and golem vanished into the horizon.
At that moment, William lay underground beneath the battlefield. His eyes and hands glowed faintly with purple light.
He had used his most advanced gravity spell—the one he'd trained relentlessly to master—to fling the man away and bait the centipede into leaving.
Now, he was completely drained.
His breathing was ragged. His face was pale. His mana reserves were empty.
He was curled up in a small hollow he'd pre-emptively dug underground. A finger-sized hole above served as his only air source.
'It worked… at least, I think it did.'
His plan had been simple: lure the centipede away and pray the apes would follow, or at least not bother searching for him.
Everything was silent now.
No explosions. No tremors. No roaring monsters.
Finally, after what felt like hours of constant danger, William had a moment to breathe.
With the tension finally releasing from his body, he slumped back against the dirt wall.
His muscles loosened without permission. His eyelids drooped.
All the adrenaline in his body faded at once, replaced by the crushing weight of exhaustion.
A powerful mental tug pulled him downward, dragging him into sleep—and he didn't resist.
***
Time passed. How long, he couldn't tell.
Deep in slumber, William suddenly felt a sharp, magical pulse radiating from his chest.
His eyes shot open.
Hovering above him was a silver symbol, glowing and pulsing with radiant light.
It emitted another wave of energy, stronger than before, snapping him fully awake.
Panicking, William reached for it, but his hand passed straight through.
Then he realized what was happening.
'It's broadcasting my location!!'
Nothing in his two weeks of combat training had prepared him for this.
Before he could think, he heard it: distant thudding. The rhythmic pounding of heavy footsteps. Trees splintering. The ground is shaking again.
A chill ran down his spine.
He leapt out of his hiding spot, heart racing.
In the distance, a massive cloud of dust surged into the sky. Trees fell one after another.
A monster stampede—and it was heading straight for him.
With no time to think and no money to spare, William turned and ran.
He poured every last drop of energy and mana into his legs, drawing on sheer survival instinct as he bolted through the forest.