Chapter 49 — Calamity Approaches

1

“Phew-.”

Beads of sweat formed on his skin.

Though he could have easily dispelled it with magic, Manus deliberately let himself sweat profusely.

Hiking was excellent exercise for both the lower body and cardiovascular system.

He moved his body as part of the training he had been doing intermittently.

He had learned a lot from watching the Guardians fight.

Manus continued to move, only using magic to evaporate the sweat that had accumulated on his clothes.

‘I used to hate hiking so much…’

Strangely enough, he was enjoying it now.

It was another moment that reminded him of the importance of one’s mindset.

Pop-.

He shot out some mana to pluck a delicious-looking fruit.

The knowledge he had gained from the game wasn’t limited to just the story.

It meant he had mastered everything from items used in the world to the environment and various terrains.

As he savored the sweet flesh of the fruit in his mouth, Manus darted his eyes around.

The lay of the mountains.

The grain and direction of the trees.

The intensity and position of sunlight, and so on.

There were so many clues one could gather from nature.

Combined with his sharp mind, a vivid map formed in his head.

While he couldn’t pinpoint exactly where he was, he at least figured out which direction was west.

‘Let’s climb to a high point and draw up a road map first.’

When traveling, planning your route is crucial.

The same applied to this survival assessment.

Whether you’re on an adventure, carrying out a mission, or on a business trip.

Setting a schedule in advance, roughly predicting what might happen, and considering what you’ll need for daily life.

Just doing that changes your approach to the journey.

Combining training with his task, he climbed to his destination by himself.

Though he had set out in the morning, the sun was already past its zenith and beginning to set.

It was roughly two or three in the afternoon.

He’d need to pick up the pace from here on out.

‘There’s a stream when I go down. I can camp there for tonight…’

Crossing the stream would lead to an empty prairie.

He could see the herbivorous monster ‘Komodo’ roaming the vast land.

A monster with massive armor and a hefty body.

Though docile in nature and easy to tame, wild Komodos were creatures to be wary of.

There were even stories that the areas where they lived would soon turn into prairies.

However, Manus didn’t find these creatures threatening.

“But for me right now, they’re a good source of protein.”

Beyond the prairie, he could see a desert.

He also spotted a school of sand fish swimming and bouncing through the sand.

And then another body of water.

He decided to make further plans after passing through the massive beech forest where not a speck of light penetrated.

‘Let’s move quickly.’

The calamity would soon arrive.

The time for leisurely training was over.

It was time to move for real survival.

Crackle-.

He enveloped his entire body in mana.

The mana utilization method used by the Guardians.

It was still a bit clumsy, but considering it was his first attempt, it was at a fairly usable level.

Manus moved, the route mapped out in his mind.

There wasn’t much time left until the calamity began.

2

“Ugh— why are you doing this to me!”

“Sorry. I have my reasons.”

“Just because you’re the student council president doesn’t mean— mmph mmph mmph-!”

Vines controlled by mana silenced the noisy sounds.

The silver-haired hunter, Alano, looked at her incapacitated classmate.

The sun had already turned red.

Bang-!

A flare signaling surrender painted the sky.

These flares were numbered, matched one-to-one with each student.

A flare going off meant that the corresponding student had been eliminated.

“The sun’s about to set, so isn’t this better?”

“Mmph mmph-!”

If his mouth hadn’t been covered, a stream of harsh words would have poured out.

Leaving behind her classmate, who was cursing her with his eyes, Alano walked through the bushes now tinted with twilight.

The trial would soon arrive.

She didn’t yet know that the coming trial had transformed into a calamity.

The mission of the person she had just eliminated was [Gather as much food as possible].

Having taken everything he had collected, she didn’t have to worry about hunger.

‘Now I need to find a place to stay.’

Everyone would be stationary at night due to the dangers.

She had to be cautious of monster attacks and needed to fully replenish her depleted energy.

Nobles also paid attention to hygiene.

-Soon, they would realize how luxurious that was.

But for now, no one knew the truth.

The sun had completely disappeared.

‘I wonder if the time between exists here too.’

Alano, having settled in a suitable spot, suddenly had such a thought.

Without the pocket watch she always carried, she couldn’t check the time.

A stifling feeling began to creep up.

Who knew not being able to check the time could be so uncomfortable?

‘Manus… I wonder how he and the others are doing.’

Manus was probably spending his time leisurely, while the first-year juniors would be working hard to climb the tower.

The exploration had to continue even without her.

Many enemies had appeared.

From a peaceful daily life, she had suddenly become someone tasked with saving the world.

It would be a lie to say it wasn’t burdensome.

It was bearable because there were comrades to share the weight with.

‘This isn’t the time for such thoughts.’

A week.

Though she had to survive for a time that was by no means short, she couldn’t stop her training.

After setting up simple safety measures around her, she began to construct a magical formula.

5th Class.

The turning point that surpasses human limits, the realm that first-class magicians step into.

It’s a realm that can be aspired to because she’s a genius, and can be challenged because of her exceptional talent.

The star of the Harrison family, a hardworking genius, began to shine and sparkle.

-How much time had passed like that?

“…It’s here.”

Rustle rustle-!

The calamity had begun.

3

Croak-!

Croak-!

Bizarre cries could be heard.

Manus opened his closed eyes.

He slightly furrowed his brow at the mysterious phenomenon.

Red water.

Strange life forms moving within it.

Frog-like creatures climbing from the water onto land.

Bumpy protrusions and large eyeballs added to their grotesqueness.

“This seems to be crossing the line for a trial.”

This would drastically increase the difficulty.

Would anyone be able to last even three days?

The smell of blood began to permeate the air.

This wasn’t a trial, but a calamity.

Was it just his imagination that fate seemed to run wild wherever he went?

Whoosh-.

“I’ve always wondered what roasted frog tastes like-.”

Flames swept through the underbrush.

The blood that touched the scorching heat began to boil.

The nauseating smell made his head spin.

Croak-!

The frog swarm hopped around with agonizing screams.

These creatures were called ‘Ranung’, frogs as big as an adult’s head.

“Burn.”

[Ignira]

Boom-!

A pillar of flame erupted.

It pierced through the veil of darkness that had settled, spreading a bright light.

Being magical fire, it didn’t have the property of spreading, but everything touched by its heat turned black and died.

“-Ah.”

When a cool breeze blew again, everything around had turned black.

A river of blood trickled by.

An environment where drinking water couldn’t be obtained naturally had been created.

Blackened lumps that had turned to ash were scattered about, rolling around like pebbles.

Tsk, Manus clicked his tongue.

He had intended to use them as food, but he failed to control the fire properly.

‘I felt this before, but…’

Passive and passive.

The destructive power resulting from the overlap of potency and potency was tremendous.

Enough to make him smile with a ‘huh’.

However, Manus moved forward with an expressionless face.

He dipped his finger in the red water and lightly touched it to his tongue.

The fishy taste confirmed it was indeed blood.

Croak-!

“It’s not like they have infinite regeneration…”

Unless they gave experience points or mana crystals, these creatures were truly a calamity.

Not entities to be fought, but to be avoided.

Manus moved on.

Bang-!

Bang-!

Beautiful fireworks painted the dark night sky.

Signal flares.

Despite it being only the first night, more than ten flares flew across the sky.

Following that, a blue light shimmered in the corresponding areas.

“At least they have proper discernment. This one’s cooked well.”

Manus tore into a properly cooked frog leg.

Crunch-.

The texture was similar to chewing on a very tough turkey leg.

After roughly sating his hunger, he continued moving westward.

‘Is this someone’s intervention? Or…’

Was it originally this difficult?

There was no way to know right away.

He’d just have to endure and figure out the truth later.

Dawn began to break.

The light-hating nature of the Ranung began to show.

As sunlight illuminated the earth, the frogs hopped back into the stream.

He had planned to spend the week leisurely training, but it seemed he would need to be quite tense.

He thought, “As expected, Mythos Academy’s education level is different-“

Though no one else would think that way.

4

The second day of survival.

The river remained changed to blood, and a terrible stench and dry wind blew.

Manus caught a Komodo and galloped across the prairie.

The third day of survival.

The river was still blood, a terrible stench lingered, and pus oozed from wild animals.

To obtain food, one had to catch live monsters.

Manus roasted and ate the Komodo he had been riding.

The fourth day of survival.

The river was blood, a terrible stench lingered, and wild animals were inedible.

On top of that, insects hatched en masse and swept over everything.

Manus headed west, surrounding himself with a curtain of fire to block the insects’ approach.

The fifth day of survival.

In addition to the river, stench, animals, and insects, rain began to fall from the sky.

As the rain fell from sky to earth, it turned into small ice crystals.

“Even if the world ended, it would be more peaceful than this.”

Something that was either hail or sleet was vigorously beating the earth.

As soon as the rain started, countless signal flares turned the sky red.

He wondered how many would remain until the end.

He was curious if Alano had survived safely.

Though a genius, her knowledge of survival would be lacking, so she was probably struggling in a disheveled state.

Still, her experiences growing in the tower would have made her much stronger.

“I should start moving soon.”

He hadn’t even seen the sea yet, let alone a properly flowing river.

The harshness of what might be a trial or a calamity had subtly hindered him.

If he hadn’t roasted and eaten the Komodo, he would have already been starving and driven out.

He pushed westward through the massive debris falling from the sky.

And so, on the sixth day.

Manus woke up feeling perplexed.

“I feel like I’ve slept enough…”

His body was telling him.

He had rested sufficiently, and without feeling full, considerable time must have passed.

But why?

Why was the world so dark?

He got up and dusted himself off.

The nauseating stench remained, and hail was still falling outside his shelter.

It felt more like hell than an artificial island.

Still, he had to move forward.

One might think it’s just a test.

Even he, having spent his school days, knew.

‘Looking back, things like performance assessments or school grades were nothing-.’

But the heart that had already settled in a corner of his soul refused to take it lightly.

Whatever he did, the will to perform perfectly until the end blazed up.

A day without a speck of light.

Manus continued walking with a sphere of light floating above him.

It had come to the point where he had to create his own light in the absence of even the faintest illumination.

He constructed another magical formula.

[Dux]

Now was the time he truly needed a guide.

Whoosh-.

Suddenly, he heard an alien sound.

In a world without light, everything had turned dark green.

“Corruption… shouldn’t occur.”

Originally, laws are meant to be unchanging.

The law of this game should have been that ‘corruption only occurs in the Academy’.

That law, the foundation of the game and the world, had been broken.

-Unpleasant things began to happen.

–TL Notes–
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