After the massive stone pillar came crashing down on him, William quickly got back on his feet, frowning at the unexpected attack.
But the training tag didn't care. It couldn't hear him, and even if it did, it wouldn't listen.
The second round started right away.
The target rose again, and the entire building began to shift.
Before William could even lift his rifle, another pillar shot up and slammed down on his original spot.
William stepped back, dodging it with ease.
But in that moment, he lost focus.
The target turned green—and he missed it.
A bolt of lightning shot out from the tag, striking him in the chest.
"GAAAHH!"
The pain was sharp, burning through his nerves and muscles. He collapsed to the floor, twitching.
This time, the tag gave him no rest. The target flipped up again, and more stone pillars came crashing down from above.
"Damn it!"
Gritting his teeth, William forced himself up and jumped away, landing hard on one knee. He steadied his breathing, aimed his rifle, and focused on the target ahead.
But then, the ground gave way beneath him.
His stomach dropped before his mind even registered what happened—he fell into a hole.
He tried to climb out, but before he could, the target turned green again.
Zap!
Another bolt of lightning struck, and the hole sealed itself shut, crushing him inside.
William growled through the pain, pressing his arms and shoulders against the narrowing gap.
"Rrraaaahh!"
With brute strength, he forced the stone open just enough to crawl out. His body trembled from exhaustion, but as soon as his hands touched the rifle—
The target turned green again.
William fired instantly, not even bothering to aim.
But a massive stone wall shot up in front of the bullet's path.
The round smashed through the wall, but it deflected just enough to miss the target.
Zap!
William jerked as another wave of electricity hit him.
"IT CAN BLOCK MY SHOTS?!"
He slammed his hand on the floor, yelling, "That's just unfair!"
The tag floated up again and changed its message.
[Goal: Hit the target one time.]
William clenched his jaw and stood up, glaring at the tag.
"Fine. Bring it on!"
From there, the real battle began.
Hours passed as William tried everything to land just one hit.
Each time he missed, he grew a little steadier. His breathing slowed. His aim sharpened. His body adjusted.
But no matter what he did, the building always countered him.
Every step he took made the building react; holes opened, walls rose, and pillars fell.
It was as if the entire training hall was alive, predicting his every move.
When he tried to brute force it by pouring mana into his shots, the building simply spawned more walls to block him.
When he tried to rush the target directly, the building carried it away, always keeping the same distance.
For every move William made, the hall already had an answer.
The fight dragged on until his body finally gave out.
"Haaah… haaah… haaah…"
He dropped to his knees, gasping for air, staring at the faraway target taunting him.
"Just what the hell am I missing…?"
He grabbed his rifle again and fired a quick shot, but even before the green light appeared, a wall rose to block it.
He sighed and looked down at the gun in frustration.
"Maybe… there's another way to increase the power output?"
Before he could think further, the target glowed green again.
He was too slow.
Zap!
The lightning struck once more, forcing a scream from his throat.
"Haaah… haaah… Oh, screw this."
In pure frustration, William forced all his mana into the rifle.
[Whummm—]
Blue light flared from the weapon's core. Mana surged through the runes etched across its frame, glowing brighter with every second.
The rifle drank his mana greedily, its metal creaking and shifting in his grip.
The barrel stretched longer. The runes burned brighter.
The weapon twisted and expanded, new plates locking together with sharp mechanical clicks. Blue sparks danced across its surface.
When the light finally dimmed, the sniper rifle was gone—replaced by a massive railgun that hummed with unstable, almost living power.
At the same moment, the target turned green again.
The building reacted instantly, opening holes beneath William, dropping a stone pillar, and raising thick walls around the target.
But in the face of overwhelming power, none of it mattered.
[BOOOM!]
William fired.
A beam of pure plasma shot out, tearing through stone and steel like paper. Everything in its path was vaporized.
The target exploded, and the beam didn't stop—it tore straight through the far wall, blowing open a hole to the outside world.
Sunlight poured through the gap, flooding the dark hall with blinding light.
But William didn't see any of it.
The recoil launched him backward, smashing him through a reinforced wall. His body was embedded deep into the concrete before everything went dark.
***
When William opened his eyes again, he was back in the infirmary.
He sat up fast.
"Did I… pass?"
He quickly reached for the training tag.
[Goal: Hit the target one time — Completed.]
[Familiarization with Weapon — Completed.]
[Next: Stealth & Precision Training.]
[You have 3 days to prepare for the journey.]
William's grin faded at the last line.
"Three days to prepare?"
That was unusual. They never gave him prep time.
His stomach twisted. If they were giving him time to prepare, something bad was coming.
He scrolled down the mission details.
[In 3 days, proceed to the Frostland, north of Unit Zero.]
[Mission Objectives:
Kill 100 Glacier Rabbits from a minimum distance of 1 mile.
Remain undetected for 100 days.]
[Failure in either objective will result in a full reset.]
William's eyes went wide.
"One hundred days…? In the Frostland?!"
He clutched his hair, pacing in panic. Sweat dripped down his face.
"This is insane…"
The tag pinged a lunch reminder, but he ignored it.
Instead, a thought popped into his head.
He needed answers.
William bolted out of the infirmary, sprinting across the compound until he reached the warehouse.
"Sir! I need your help!" he shouted.
The old dwarf didn't even look up at first, staring at his holographic screen.
After a long silence, he finally turned. "What do you want?"
William explained everything—his mission, the Frostland, the 100-day survival test.
The dwarf listened quietly, then asked flatly, "So what do you want from me?"
"Sir, I need information on the Frostland. And—if possible—advice on what to prepare in three days."
The dwarf sighed. "No, I'm not going to explain anything to you."
William blinked.
"But I'll give you the data," the dwarf said, snapping his fingers.
Several glowing tablets floated off the shelves and stacked into William's hands.
"Go read them yourself. And stop bothering me."
As William turned to leave, the dwarf added, "Oh, and don't expect to stay only 100 days. With your skill level, it'll take more than a year."
William's shoulders sank.
"Also—return those tabs when you're done!" the dwarf shouted as the door closed.
Outside, William stopped in the middle of the road. He looked down at the pile of glowing tablets in his hands… then realized something.
He had nowhere to read them.
The next morning, in the empty cafeteria.
Two giant piles of food sat side by side—one for William, one for Aeris.
Next to William's pile was an equally tall stack of glowing data tabs.
Aeris glanced over while chewing, curious.
William was eating fast, eyes fixed on one of the tabs.
Without warning, he slammed his head on the table.
That finally got Aeris's attention. She stared at him. "What are you reading?"
"Info about my next training," he mumbled.
"Is it that bad?"
"I might have to spend the next one or two years living in the wild."
"…I see."
Not sure how to respond, Aeris just went quiet and kept eating.
After a while, she finished and left, while William stayed behind, still reading.
By nightfall, he was still there.
He groaned and hit his head against the table again. "How the hell am I supposed to survive for 100 days out there?!"
Scattered across the table were dozens of holographic tabs showing different monsters from the Frostland.
"Glacier rabbits the size of dogs… detect mana from a mile away… and react faster than lightning!"
He pressed his palms over his face. "How the hell am I supposed to hit that from a mile out?"
After a long sigh, he stared at the last unread tab.
[The Fundamentals of Stealth Magic]
With no other option, he picked it up and started reading.
For the next several days, William did nothing but train.
In the mornings, he memorized key spells listed in the mission data—chanting, casting, drawing runes in the air until his mana ran dry.
By noon, he shifted to marksmanship, testing long-range shots with his sniper rifle. But with the target being a mile away and no bigger than a dog, he barely landed ten percent of his hits.
Each miss made him more frustrated—and that frustration only made his aim worse.
At night, he studied the frostland's monsters: their traits, abilities, and weaknesses. But the more he read, the worse it looked. Every creature seemed absurdly strong.
By the third day…
[BANG]
William slammed his head against the cafeteria table again, fingers buried in his hair. Three days of nonstop work, and he'd barely improved.
His spells were unstable, his accuracy terrible, and the monsters? Still nightmares on paper.
'Three days isn't enough!' he screamed internally.
But it didn't matter. The sun had already set on the final night.
Exhausted and mentally fried, William gave up and passed out right there on the cafeteria table.
***
After an unknown amount of time, William's training tag began to glow.
It pulsed yellow, getting brighter and brighter.
Then, a bolt of lightning shot out, hitting William and his rifle.
But instead of pain, it lifted him off the ground.
"Wha—what's happening?!"
William shouted, awoken by the sudden weightlessness, as he flailed his arms.
The tag projected a new message:
[Lesson No. 2: Always keep your guard up, no matter the situation.]
Before he could react, light enveloped his body, and with a loud crack, he was blasted straight through the roof.
The world blurred into white as he shot through the clouds.
The air turned cold in seconds.
Then—
[CRASH!]
After what felt like minutes in the air, William slammed into the ground, rolling through thick snow.
Groaning, he slowly pushed himself up, shaking snow off his head.
He looked around.
A white wasteland stretched as far as he could see.
Only snow, ice, and howling wind.
"What… the hell…"
His words were lost in the storm.
He had arrived in the Frostland.
Six hours early.
Equipped only with his training suit and sniper rifle.
Completely unprepared.