Each One’s Fourth Year! (1)

“Sigh… I really shouldn’t be like this, but I feel like cursing.”

“I feel like throwing up. Ugh—”

“…I don’t even have the strength to speak.”

“…Be quiet. My ears are ringing.”

Is this a battlefield? No—it’s the newly expanded area behind the mansion.

They looked like that because of the terrifying terrain Talis had created with his tremendous effort and towering mastery of magic.

It was so punishing that even Hazel was weak, leaning against me.

Three days ago, morning finally arrived—the day Talis and Bioss had warned us about.

At breakfast they only told us what time to wake up the next day and ordered us to gather in the newly expanded area.

Until then, the members had been joking happily about the new training that was about to begin.

Everyone knew the training would drastically boost their abilities; the mage representatives were especially eager for Talis’s instruction.

When we arrived, the old training grounds were gone, replaced by a flat, empty field.

The force-accumulation arrays had been moved—Talis had installed them under the fountain avenue himself.

“Is everyone here?”

“Yes.”

When Lee Hyo-ju answered on behalf of the group, a sly smile tugged at the corner of Talis’s mouth.

I remembered that whenever Talis or Bioss smiled like that, something bad usually followed.

Just as I was about to hurry over and ask what they were planning, Talis stomped his foot.

A silver pillar, roughly the size of an adult torso, slowly rose beside his foot.

At a glance and up close, it was a solid column of mithril.

Now that I thought about it, the mithril we’d left in the shop for crafting was missing…

Talis laid his hand on the mithril pillar and muttered—surprisingly, even fearsome Talis had to chant the spell.

When he finished, the magic revealed a floating control panel above the mithril cylinder like a holographic pad.

“Disciple.”

“Yes.”

“Do you prefer mountains or rivers?”

“Huh? I don’t really like either. I prefer my home, actually.”

“You dullard, just pick one.”

“Then… I’ll choose the mountains.”

“Mountains? Mountains are great…!”

Talis manipulated the panel; the ground rumbled and a small hill rose in the barren field.

It formed a mini mountain terrain with dense groves and sparse patches of trees.

It sprang up in the wasteland.

“How’s that?”

“Woah, wow!!”

A mage of Talis’s caliber had apparently spent a month and cleared out the magic tower’s storeroom to make something this incredible?

What surprised me most was that the terrain changed instantly without damaging the mansion or the thick walls.

It wasn’t an illusion either; it really was astonishing.

“Remarkable.”

At that sincere praise, a long, snickering laugh escaped Talis.

The magic drew every curious member forward; they gaped anew.

“Now, training begins. Terrain: mountains. Teams: excluding my disciple—one team led by Lee Hyo-ju as captain with each squad leader forming a team, and the other team led by the newly arrived lizardman as commander. Prepare. You have 20 minutes to plan tactics.”

A five versus twenty-one match. Neither side was careless; they discussed tactics seriously and prepared.

But that wasn’t the only constraint.

“Which side will ambush?”

With five minutes left, Talis asked, and Lee Hyo-ju and Merus both visibly tensed.

When Lee Hyo-ju conceded, Merus took the ambushing side.

Lee Hyo-ju used the remaining minutes to give quick orders, then entered.

“Don’t you think it’s too cramped?”

“Far from it—if we set up a maze array here like this, you could walk for hours and never find the exit.”

Talis’s final unexpected twist made Lee Hyo-ju’s face go pale with chagrin again.

Even while moving, she kept the other four informed.

Contrary to expectations, Merus struck in under five minutes.

Lee Hyo-ju, Hazel, Naruan, Arun, and Mae Young-ryeong were surprised but quickly took positions and countered.

Perhaps by design, Hazel deftly partitioned the space and focused on defense while Naruan vanished—likely using stealth.

Arun prepared small spells rather than large ones; Mae Young-ryeong readied a healing spell, then cancelled it.

Amid the lopsided assault, Hazel produced the first change.

The black orb at her side trembled, fell, and began to take shape.

With a clack, clack—when it landed, it had become a golem about Naruan’s size.

“A-a golem?”

“It’s cheating!”

“Eek!”

“Focus fire!”

Amid the commotion, Talis asked with admiration.

“Oh? Disciple, did you make that?”

“Yes. But it’s a bit crude, isn’t it? Could you refine it for me later?”

“A solid golem made of adamantium. That piques my interest. Good!”

“Haha, thank you.”

The adamantium golem charged at the spellcasters but sank into a pit and was buried—neutralized more easily than expected.

As a golem, its incapacitation was temporary, but the pause let the representatives reorganize.

Before they could fully set up, Naruan’s hidden form moved.

She reappeared on the mountainside and attacked a priest at the rear.

One fell and two mages were lost, but arriving warrior representatives began to stop Naruan, preventing further casualties.

Naruan’s weapon made it difficult to get close.

“That weapon’s broken-broken.”

“Huh? That kid’s weapon—did they really make it out of that?”

“Yes. It’s dragon bone. A Red, too.”

“You actually managed to get something like that. Looks good, doesn’t it? I wouldn’t promise I could replicate it. I admit it—impressive.”

“Thank you.”

Then Talis asked about the new members’ weapons, and I answered.

While four warriors held Naruan, Arun harassed the mages with low-level spells.

So much so that Louise and Jeanne shouted, “Arun, that’s dirty!”

A vein pulsed on Talis’s face, showing his irritation.

To me, it looked more like playing than training. I said a silent prayer.

“How’s it going? Disciple.”

“Those guys, you mean?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm… I’ll pass on commenting.”

“…Even you think they’re a mess, right? They must’ve been resting too comfortably for a month.”

“Is that… so?”

The situation seemed more serious than I’d thought—flames practically burned in Talis’s eyes. Again, my condolences…

After that, the battles became almost one-sided: twenty-one assailants against five defenders.

Mae Young-ryeong, apparently frustrated, pulled out a card and joined the attack.

“Summon Gemini of Dual Faces. Party.”

The card with twin figures vanished and a Black Oak appeared.

At a glance it looked warrior-class: a Black Oak warrior and a shaman materialized, roaring.

“Oh? That’s a chieftain?”

“…What?”

“A chieftain. See those feather-like decorations on the helmet?”

“Yes.”

“That means chieftain. Big or small, Black Oak tribes all have that. By the way, when did that kid meet a chieftain?”

During the legion achievement expedition we encountered a Black Oak tribe of around eight hundred in the Monster Belt.

Talis, Bioss, and the others had been following while drinking and probably weren’t paying attention, but Mae Young-ryeong had briefly stepped away then.

“Back then I went out after being granted food-luck… did she bring one back too?”

The chieftain and shaman launched into battle, each fulfilling their role.

The chieftain rushed up the mountain with uncanny speed through the trees.

Each time the shaman muttered, blue, red, and green lights flickered around the chieftain.

As the lights multiplied, the chieftain’s speed and defense soared. Eventually it charged, ignoring the representatives’ spells.

It leapt over the trap that had swallowed the adamantium golem and finally collided head-on with the warrior representatives.

“Oh!”

Some Black Oaks use sword qi; in severe cases force qi—sword qi is common.

This chieftain wielded sword qi effortlessly.

It struck Meo and Michelle and sent them flying with a massive axe qi.

Even though two reps blocked, they couldn’t withstand the blow and were hurled away.

They flew several meters, tumbled, and then passed out.

“Huh. Does that chieftain’s attack cause internal injuries?”

Meo and Michelle, who’d shown promise in the workshop, coughed up dark blood after being sent flying in one blow.

Wigo, Inex, and the elementals Soria summoned finally stopped the chieftain.

After a long scuffle, the Black Oak suddenly vanished without a trace.

After that, nothing much changed: Hazel defended, Naruan rampaged, Lee Hyo-ju attacked intermittently, Mae Young-ryeong stared blankly, Arun supported, and the others were the same…

And the fight ended anticlimactically. Lee Hyo-ju’s side surrendered at the right moment.

Thus the match seemed to be concluded—at least that’s what the twenty-six members thought…

They comforted each other and met in the lower basin. The maze array vanished and Talis approached.

“Was it fun?”

“…Yes?”

Arun, who would normally shout ‘Yes!’ loudly, was quiet. Talis’s demeanor was fierce.

He radiated such killing intent that anyone who said nonsense might be torn apart.

“Seriously, did you fight or did you play?”

“……”

They were silent, not from fear but because each had thoughts on their mind. But the pressure emanating from Talis intensified.

“Representatives have such a fun time. The ambushers loudly announced their positions as if the adamantium golem would arrive, and the ambushed have gone full-on pacifists. Why? Are you afraid they’ll get hurt so you can’t act?”

“It’s not like that…”

Talis’s pressure became a spell; with screams and choking moans, the twenty-six representatives collapsed to the ground.

Not gravity magic—he pressed them down with sheer force; only the twenty-six suffered.

“Disciple.”

When I approached his sudden call, a spell whizzed straight at me—no start word, no activation phrase.

Finger-thick black beams flew like lasers; I dodged the first two, then dozens and hundreds more.

“Damn. Why’s the old man like this again?!”

After blocking and dodging, a hole opened in my thigh.

Only then did Talis stop. He panted on the ground, glared, and scolded the members watching me in shock.

“You won’t die from my powers. With your pathetic powers you can’t even kill each other, so stop the nonsense and do it properly. If you don’t, I’ll make you suffer—starting with your commander. Especially you and you.”

His gaze, fixed on Lee Hyo-ju and Hazel, was ferocious.

“With your powers you might get cut but you won’t die, so stop the whining and do it properly.”

“Yes!”

“Get back in there!”

The members charged back in en masse.

Ambushes and defenses restarted. They swapped ambush and defense roles, reformed teams, and that day they fought eleven battles without eating.

After the fights, everyone’s armor and weapons were wrecked; aside from some high-rank gear, most equipment was mangled.

Of course, Talis restored that equipment with absurd magic; even I was surprised.

As the battles repeated and escalated, severed arms and legs became commonplace.

The only relief was that Talis’s magic, Mae Young-ryeong’s improved divine healing, and potions distributed to squad leaders kept everyone from permanent maiming.

Still, it was luck—some participants developed trauma and became reluctant to fight.

Talis pushed them relentlessly, indifferent to their trauma, so they had no choice but to pick up their weapons again.

They ate breakfast, skipped lunch, and ate a late dinner.

If not for the conditioning magic installed in the mansion and the stamina-boosting foods, they wouldn’t have been able to get up in the morning.

By the third day they’d been fighting continuously for thirty hours without proper meals or sleep.

During five-minute breaks people groaned, collapsed, dry-heaved, and repeated that they were going to die.

Me? Heh. I took a full hit from Bioss’s Deicide on the first day and have been adapting ever since.

The struggle between Deicide trying to sever my divine-power circuits and my own divine power continues.

Still, the two masters ordered me to keep loading my body with Heavenly Strength and maintain my routines.

Sometimes I even fought alongside them.

“Is the commander going to be okay?”

After Deicide hit me, I looked like a junkie—members worried about my condition during rest.

Dark circles rimmed my eyes, my body trembled, lips cracked, eyes bloodshot—for three straight days.

“Disciple, are you holding up?”

Bioss came up and asked with a crooked smile.

In truth, after the first day my body was slowly adapting to Deicide.

“You’re already adapting to a tenth of my power. As a master, I’m pleased. Now, take this—a master’s love.”

He shoved more Deicide into me and left. Dense destructive energy, perhaps twice yesterday’s, churned through my body.

The involuntary scream made the mages guarding me flinch in worry.

“Gah… ugh. Hoo… hoo…”

Only three days in.

I don’t know what training lies ahead, but there’s a reason people give up after three days. It was the toughest, most exhausting day.