Drakeas stopped.
'It's not an illusion.'
He had thought that as death loomed before him, his thoughts would accelerate and time would slow to a crawl.
It was a scene that appeared often in comics and movies, wasn't it?
But Drakeas had truly halted its legs and wasn't moving.
'What the hell?'
This was the monster that had massacred dozens of soldiers and left even Eirin incapacitated.
Yet it had stopped right in front of Seo Woo-jin.
As if it were afraid...
'Afraid?'
That was ridiculous.
Anyone could see that they were the ones who should be terrified and backing away.
And yet, Seo Woo-jin felt that Drakeas was afraid.
'What does that mean?'
"You've got guts."
"I thought you heroes were pretty timid for all that."
At that moment, a voice came from directly behind him.
A voice so nonchalant.
"Heroes who haven't even grown properly yet, step back. We'll take it from here."
Seo Woo-jin slowly turned his head.
The first thing that caught his eye was the blue armor.
"...The Knight Order."
It was the Blue Shield, the knight order that Kingdom Zion and Massive Guardian prided themselves on.
"We watched your little show."
It was Testaron's voice.
His usual mocking tone, but this time it felt a bit different.
"Thanks to you, Eirin survived at least."
With those words, Testaron patted Seo Woo-jin's shoulder once and charged toward Drakeas.
Kwaaaang-!
A massive explosion erupted.
'Why am I such an idiot?'
Staring blankly at the knights battling Drakeas, he berated himself.
Seo Woo-jin had known, of course.
There were other knights around him besides Eirin.
He had even heard their conversations directly.
But fear and tension had frozen his mind, making him forget entirely.
'How laughable must I have looked?'
Flailing around in front of them as they prepared for battle with Drakeas while Eirin bought time.
Imagining the knights laughing at the sight made his face burn hot.
"That's why you shouldn't charge in alone."
Seo Woo-jin unnecessarily scolded Eirin, who was receiving treatment beside him.
"That's my role."
"To rush ahead and die first?"
That's at least how it had looked to Seo Woo-jin.
Fortunately, she had survived.
"If I hadn't moved there, you would've been in danger."
To be precise, she might have been, or might not have.
But Eirin couldn't ignore even that 1% possibility.
So she had charged at Drakeas.
She had been surprised by its greater-than-expected strength, but this was hardly worth calling an injury.
Not compared to the soldiers who had died to it.
"They're all incredibly strong."
Seo Woo-jin marveled, watching the knights.
Just over a dozen were pushing back the massive monster.
No, it was more accurate to say they were toying with it.
Every swing of their swords carved massive chunks from Drakeas's flesh, sending them tumbling to the ground.
The beast thrashed desperately to survive, but the knights allowed no such mercy.
And finally...
Testaron's massive sword severed Drakeas's neck.
Thud-!
With a sound like a boulder crashing down, the enormous head hit the ground.
"Clear the battlefield!"
Testaron shook the red blood from his sword and commanded the soldiers.
As the knight order stepped in, the soldiers who had been watching from a step back sprang into action.
"...They're really strong."
He had known knights were powerful, but seeing it with his own eyes was awe-inspiring.
Especially Testaron.
His strength was overwhelming.
"I thought he was just a muscle-headed berserker."
He stood out starkly even compared to Eirin and the other knights.
"Sir Testaron is an advanced knight."
One of only five in all of Kingdom Zion.
Testaron was one of them.
His personal prowess went without saying, and his command abilities were exceptional too.
Well, his personality kept him from being too popular.
"Drakeas is a top-tier monster, but Sir Testaron is no slouch either."
Eirin's voice was calm.
But her expression was different.
'Frustrated?'
Her bitten lip made her look unmistakably annoyed.
She had barely managed to stall the beast for a moment, yet they had hunted it like it was a game...
For a low-rank knight like Eirin, that was understandable.
Of course, Seo Woo-jin's thoughts were a bit different.
'She's plenty strong in my eyes.'
To block a charge from a monster like that was astonishing to him.
Yet seeing Eirin unsatisfied with her own skill made him admire her a little.
"Mr. Seo Woo-jin."
Eirin suddenly turned to look at him.
The frustration had vanished from her face, replaced by her usual demeanor.
"Yeah?"
Seo Woo-jin blinked at her, and Eirin continued.
"You know how heroes grow, right?"
It was a sudden question, but Seo Woo-jin nodded.
Status windows and levels.
Just those two made the heroes' growth system incredibly intuitive.
"Hunt monsters."
He had already internalized that from the basic training before arriving at Massive Guardian.
"Exactly."
For Eirin, a native of this world, it was a mechanism she couldn't comprehend.
No training, no advanced combat techniques.
Yet heroes grew stronger just by 'killing' monsters.
And far faster and more powerfully than anyone else.
Honestly, it made her jealous.
Some people scrimped on sleep to train and grow stronger...
But she couldn't complain about it.
The heroes had come to help their world.
So she swallowed her frustration and supported them as best she could.
"The heroes from other kingdoms have already started growing."
"...Already?"
He hadn't even adapted yet, and the others were already leveling up.
It made him feel behind.
"And they chose the fast and easy path."
"What's that?"
Seo Woo-jin tilted his head.
Leveling up was already the fastest and easiest way possible.
Was there something even better?
"Previous summoned heroes called it a 'bus.'"
Eirin gave him a look asking if he knew what that meant.
"Ah..."
That single word explained it far better than a long explanation.
"I see. Riding the bus would definitely make it easier. Less dangerous too."
Heroes hadn't yet reached superhuman levels.
In that state, leveling up with help from other knights?
'It'd be the ultimate free ride.'
Hearing that, Seo Woo-jin felt a bit relieved.
Powerful knights like Eirin and Testaron.
And hundreds of soldiers.
With their help, subjugating monsters would be safer and faster than expected.
But Eirin's next words shattered that optimism.
"To be honest, Zion won't use that method."
"...What?"
Why not?
Why skip a proven method from past generations and take the hard road?
'It's dangerous enough already!'
Seo Woo-jin's relaxed expression hardened again.
The thought of fighting monsters like Drakeas directly turned his mind blank.
"Zion doesn't train knights with such weak methods."
Pride? Self-respect?
Seo Woo-jin clutched his head at Eirin's firm voice, laced with such emotions.
'I'm not a knight, I'm a hero!'
To be precise, he wasn't even a hero—he had the Demon King aptitude, but still.
Anyway, these guys weren't normal either.
Escape was off the table, so he had to get strong fast.
To survive among 99 heroes and these insane Zion knights.
But instead of catching up, he was falling behind.
"Of course, we'll guarantee your safety as much as possible."
"You think that'll work?"
"Huh?"
He had blurted out his inner thoughts without realizing, but Seo Woo-jin had no time to care.
Ignoring Eirin's gaze, he sank into thought.
'What should I do?'
Two options.
Slip away unnoticed and escape, or actively join the subjugation.
Both were risky.
The slightly more feasible one...
'Subjugation?'
He had no confidence escaping this frozen wasteland alone.
Without supplies, he'd freeze to death soon enough.
Subjugation was different.
There would be combat, but also ample supplies, knights, and soldiers.
Eirin said she'd ensure maximum safety, so death wouldn't come easily.
'Still dangerous as hell.'
After agonizing, Seo Woo-jin sighed.
In truth, he only had one real choice.
"Are there a lot of things like that?"
Seo Woo-jin pointed at Drakeas's corpse being dismantled by the soldiers.
It was just one now, which was lucky. If they came in hordes?
It'd be a disaster.
Even Eirin couldn't protect him then.
"As I said earlier, Drakeas is a top-tier monster. But there aren't many of them."
That was a relief.
"But there are plenty of monsters more dangerous than it."
Eras that hunted in packs of hundreds, each individually weak.
Nair that hid in the snow for ambushes.
Monsters that caused massive casualties every year.
But the most dangerous of all...
"Kratos."
The 6th Demon King's familiar, the strongest demonic beast on land.
Little was known about Kratos.
Without records from the 6th Demon King descent, people might not even know it existed.
"Don't worry. No subjugation party has ever encountered Kratos so far."
To be exact, they didn't advance into what was believed to be Kratos's territory.
The distance was one factor, but they didn't need to subdue it anyway.
But even with Eirin's reassurance, Seo Woo-jin's expression didn't brighten.
To him, Kratos or a wild bear made no difference.
Whichever he met, he'd die.
Regardless of Seo Woo-jin's worries, the march to the camp resumed.
After six more hours of walking alongside what remained of Drakeas's corpse—which no longer even held a shape—they finally arrived.
'Fuck.'
Seo Woo-jin cursed inwardly.
He shouldn't be worrying about monsters.
This murderous cold was the real problem.
"I'm gonna freeze to death like this."
"You won't die."
Eirin shook her head at his grumbling.
"The cloak you're wearing has a warming spell. It's not high-level enough to block all the cold, but it'll at least prevent you from freezing solid."
Seo Woo-jin looked down at his clothes.
A cloak that looked a bit fancier than the soldiers'.
He hadn't paid attention until now, but learning it had magic surprised him.
"Are these common?"
"Of course not."
It was a special magic item prepared for a hero who hadn't grown at all yet.
Unlike the soldiers, he wasn't used to this weather, so it could really be dangerous.
Glancing anew at his cloak, Seo Woo-jin looked around.
"They're impressive."
Even after walking so long in this cold, they were setting up camp at an incredible speed.
"We do this every year. And we train periodically."
Even so, it was amazing.
'If I brought them to our country's army, they'd all be aces.'
Lost in random thoughts, he heard someone calling him from behind.
"You're here."
He flinched—
His body shrank instinctively.
The reason was simple.
'Ban Slaine?'
It was his voice.