The time limit was three days, and the selection began with an unprecedented start: a free fall.
As time passed minute by minute, I moved through the forest, paying attention to the movements around me.
I predicted that the movements of the participants vying for the general position would divide into two camps.
One was a war of attrition, where participants conserved their strength until the latter half, profiting from the struggles of others.
And the other was…
A short, decisive battle where they crushed their opponents with full force, launching a swift attack.
Between the former and the latter, I chose the latter.
This was the result of considering various situations on the battlefield.
If I were to fight the instructor or the Dragon King, it would be detrimental to waste stamina and time fighting other unnecessary participants.
Consuming time, in particular, would be painful.
Fighting a strong opponent like the instructor with a time limit was, frankly, an unacceptably harsh condition.
I didn’t use my full power, but I ran through the forest at a considerable speed, searching my surroundings while detecting nearby presencesWith magic.
I was using active echo rather than passive echo, intensely releasing magic waves and searching for the instructor based on the strength of the returning echoes, but I couldn’t find them in the early stages.
Instead, participants came attacking me one after another.
“Hahahahahaha! A human? You perish here!!”
“You’re in the way.”
It was a spider-insectoid that attacked from above.
It probably used its spider silk for a surprise attack from the air, but its movements were slow.
I didn’t imagine that the net of spider silk, cast to envelop me, would be uncuttable.
Therefore.
“The net broke?! GAH!?”
Effortless.
The opponent didn’t even realize it was cut and was surprised that the encircling net before them had been severed, but I sheathed the Ore Tree I had drawn and ran. I heard the sound of blood splattering behind me.
“There you are.”
Only one person attacked from the front, but I could detect thirteen presences trying to surround me.
Among them, I lunged at the closest opponent through the trees, and they seemed to try to intercept with something improvised, but…
“Too slow.”
With no conceptual defense, physical defenses were almost meaningless against me.
“My magic sword!?”
A wolf or a dog, hiding somewhere, not knowing for sure, but a well-trained beastkin was surprised and stopped in its tracks.
“To think you could win with that.”
The fate of the wolf-beastkin, who had exposed an opening not only for me but also around me, was easily imagined.
“How naive.”
Instead of closing in, I jumped sideways based on the felt magic presence, creating distance. Around the beastkin, arrows, magic, and even what seemed like bombs flew, aiming to take me down along with it.
The beastkin, standing frozen in the center of this storm of attacks, was reduced to a pitiable state.
I could tell it was alive because it was breathing, and being teleported by a magic stone meant it was retiring from the match here.
“Might as well clean up the rest.”
And then, thanking the beastkin for revealing their position with its attack, I went on the offensive to annihilTe annihilate everyone, including those hiding.
All it took was closing in and slashing.
It was a simple task of dodging all attacks and then approaching.
Since they were enemies, they weren’t cooperating, so their attention was scattered, leaving them wide open.
“…”
But it wasn’t just that, I thought.
Gripping the handle of the Ore Tree, I confirmed that all those I had defeated were alive.
I had cut their arms and legs, but none of the wounds were fatal. I had severed all the muscle fibers they would use for walking or attacking.
In other words, I had gone easy on them.
I hadn’t expected to go easy on them in a selection test for the general position.
Without my breathing accelerating, and barely breaking a sweat.
Nor did I consume much magic.
The stamina and magic consumed were only at a level that would recover if left alone.
It would be perfectly possible to continue fighting like this.
Were all the participants of a certain caliber, or were they here dreaming of rising through the ranks…
The quality of this selection test seemed lower than the one held in the previous arena.
“In that case, it would be quickest to just cause a ruckus and draw the instructor out.”
While thinking that the strong ones might be observing the situation cautiously, I moved away from the spot.
I had caused quite a commotion, so I expected other participants to attack, but perhaps they thought they couldn’t win if they fought carelessly, as there were no signs of them attacking.
There was a slim chance I might draw out the Dragon King, but… it was better than searching such a vast land.
I probably expected the instructor to be causing a ruckus somewhere as well.
“Hm?”
Did the ground just shake?
Or was that just me?
“No, it wasn’t just me. The ground is… sinking?”
As I was thinking that, I felt a strange sensation at my feet, and then I noticed my vision gradually lowering.
“Bad luck!”
This indicated that the area I was in was about to disappear.
The moment I realized I was in trouble, I started running at full speed.
The ground was dropping at a considerable speed, and I could see a cliff forming before me.
My starting position was bad.
Also, I was probably set up.
Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been guided to the center of the falling area.
I don’t know how they pinpointed the falling area by some means, but those who attacked me were probably decoys.
As evidence of that.
“The killing intent towards me is high!!”
As I tried to escape the area, they rained attacks down on me, taking advantage of their high ground.
“No mercy.”
I thought there would be no reaction, but a smile must have been forming on my lips.
Roughly speaking, given the fall speed I felt, there were about thirty seconds left until this area fell away.
The estimated distance to the cliff on the other side was 300 meters.
I had to cover 100 meters every ten seconds or less, or I would be eliminated along with this area.
If I ran straight at full speed, it would be easy, but the attacks aimed at slowing me down had turned the direct path into a death trap.
“But”
That’s if it were normal.
For me, who had survived in a world that was a joke, this much hardship…
“How naive.”
It couldn’t even be called hardship.
When did I ever say I was running at full speed?
“You guys, that’s my range, you know?”
One stroke, one cut.
Can someone who can’t cover a mere few hundred meters defeat that demon?
“They vanished?”
“No way!”
“Yes, that way.”
The world at high speeds.
It is said that only a select few can enter that domain, and without entering it, one doesn’t even have the right to fight that demon.
If you can lose sight of me, then becoming a general is a distant dream.
I swung the Ore Tree, targeting the Dark Elf man with a staff on the cliff and his partner, a Dark Elf woman.
The slash I swung at the pair, who were likely partners, instantly took away their freedom of movement. And then I fell into the collapsing area that had tried to push me down.
“First of all, why would you think I can’t even do something as simple as running on air? Right, partner?”
“Who knows? Among them, is partner(you) considered weak?”
Seeing that, I couldn’t help but let out a wry smile and talk to my partner, who replied with a resigned tone from the blade.
“I thought I knew that, but this much…?”
“Perhaps some of the participants, because partner is human, arrogantly thought they could do it too.”
“That’s plausible.”
I clearly felt underestimated, but was there a reason for that?
The fact that the president approved their participation meant he was involved in weeding out the rot, and I chuckled to myself, thinking he was saving himself some trouble.
“Well, whatever. Before they get serious about cleaning up, I’ll find the instructor and pick a fight, partner.”
“Yeah, then there’s no need to deal with the weaklings.”
I stated my plan for later.
My objective remained the same: to find the instructor while causing a commotion.
What stood in my way.
“For that, I will cut down all obstacles.”
Until I push through.
The smile, taught by the instructor, intimidated the opponent. My refined magic became a great power.
“For now, let’s start with a bang.”
“Ooh!”
Being picked at by annoying pestering attacks is also bothersome. It wouldn’t be bad to unleash a big move here.
The roots of the Ore Tree wrapped around my arm, circulating my magic.
That magic was refined at an unusually high speed and purity.
Although I sensed their presence, the actions were divided into two major categories.
Those who fled indiscriminately, and those who tried to take me down by exploiting my opening while I was about to unleash a powerful technique.
Which was the correct answer, the former or the latter? If you ask me, I’d say:
Both are incorrect.
The Ore Tree began to crackle with electricity.
Sparks of blue lightning enveloped the blade, hinting at the power about to be unleashed.
“Takemikazuchi.”
With a sway, I slowly lifted the Ore Tree, which had been resting on my shoulder, and brought it down towards the front.
It was a simple gesture, but through the countless swings I had practiced since making the contract with Valse-san, each of my strikes was devoid of any waste, allowing me to constantly deliver the ultimate strike without thinking.
The blue lightning was released from the blade, indiscriminately sweeping away those who attacked and those who fled.
“Oh, the scenery has certainly cleared up.”
What was originally a densely forested area now had a clear path leading to the barren land visible in the distance.
Along that path, I saw several scorched human figures, motionless, but sensing their life signs, they were alive. I thought they must have had strong bodies or prepared superior equipment to participate in this selection, as I slowly proceeded down the path.
“Now, now, where could the instructor be…”
As I thought that, it seemed a major task had just dropped into my lap.
“Seriously, they hate humans too much.”
I stopped upon sensing a presence.
It was a large number of presences, perceptible even from the edge of my detection range. It was an unbelievable number, making me wonder how many of this selection’s participants had been deployed.
“Roughly a hundred, I’d say.”
Muil-san couldn’t even investigate all the participants in this selection, but the final confirmed number was just under three hundred.
Muil-san had predicted that more people were participating, but…
“They’re only coming at me with about thirty percent of the number I heard initially.”
Whether they hated me or were wary of me, it didn’t matter. I didn’t have time to care.
“The troublesome part is the aerial force. Even I can’t fly that freely.”
Then, looking at the flock of flying species in the distant sky, I slowly started walking in that direction, thinking I’d take them down first.
Well then, perhaps the next opponent will be more substantial.
“Oh, an assassin. I didn’t sense any presence until the moment they attacked.”
Or so I thought, when my body reflexively caught the shadow.
It was a jet-black blade, stopped by pinching it with my fingertips.
Was the liquid dripping from the blade poison?
The black-clad figure, whose momentum had been killed in mid-air, and whom I thought I had finished, paused.
I couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman from their attire, but I wondered if someone like this was also participating.
“Instead of getting mixed into the chaos caused by their group attack, they planned to strike while my attention was on that group. I see, that’s good timing. In fact, they managed to get this close. That’s a commendable strength and something to be praised.”
While impressed, I praised this surprise attack, but the opponent, as if displeased, released their weapon and threw a new one, gripped between their fingers, at me.
“However, you should put more thought into the follow-up. Otherwise…”
I neither deflected nor dodged the attack. I caught them all with one hand and threw them back.
“You get counterattacked like this.”
They were good at concealing their presence.
Their act of hiding and ambushing was also skillful.
“Your downfall was not escaping when your surprise attack failed.”
However, their direct combat ability can only be described as crude.
If you excel in one art, then hone that one art.
“Well, it’s not the time for lectures. Do I have to fight them while being wary of guys like that next?”
This was quite entertaining.
The dagger I threw back pierced the black-clad figure, and they, not understanding what had happened, looked at the five daggers stuck in their abdomen and slowly fell backward.
Grabbing a pendant with a trembling hand, I figured they would survive, and slowly started walking again.
Well then, complacency is the enemy.
However, excessive tension hinders movement.
I should maintain a moderate level of tension.
But, I didn’t know it then.
That the people I was dealing with were by no means weak, but rather were elite fighters among the Demon Lord’s Army.
Certainly, there was a significant difference in skill compared to those who would become generals, but they still possessed the ability to participate in the previous selection.
What was terrifying was my growth rate.
The growth triggered by my awakened ability, Magic Aptitude 10.
Without realizing it, I plunged myself into the next battle.
Today’s Word:
A lion gives its all even when hunting a rabbit.
So, a person who has cast aside complacency does not let their guard down and gives their all.
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