Interference

‘It seems he has no intention of stepping in.’

From the darkness, Baek Ho-yeon leaned back as he watched Ro-un.
The giant’s appearance had been unexpected, but saving Lee Ro-un alone was something he could do with one hand.
Even if the young human fighting the giant was making a reckless challenge, Baek Ho-yeon had no intention of intervening.
Baek Ho-yeon had no interest in anything other than Ro-un.

‘He does seem to be acquainted with Lee Ro-un, so if he dies, I can at least carry the body outside. Still, to think that what was hidden here was a dual passage, and a trial-type passage at that.’

Trial-type passages.
Baek Ho-yeon, who had stayed in his territory and knew little of the world’s affairs, listened to everything they said and had to work to suppress the laughter threatening to burst out.

‘Lee Ro-un. You knew it all along, didn’t you? You came here knowing this was a trial-type passage, and that Cheon Su-ho was its owner.’

He barely swallowed back the laughter rising in his throat.
After coming out into the world, Baek Ho-yeon had investigated everything about Lee Ro-un down to his every move and taken it all in.
He knew that something had changed in Lee Ro-un at the entrance ceremony, and he also knew that Lee Ro-un himself had changed after that.

‘What in the world happened to you on the day of the entrance ceremony? If I had known it would be like this, I should have come out for at least a little outing.’

It almost made his stomach hurt, regretting that he had not seen Lee Ro-un’s exploits with his own eyes.

‘Lee Ro-un. What exactly are you trying to do this time?’

Baek Ho-yeon hid himself in the darkness and watched the four of them, ready to grab only Lee Ro-un and flee if needed.
His yellow eyes remained fixed on Lee Ro-un.

At the center of the ring of dancing flames stood Cheon Su-ho and the white statue.

[Show strength befitting the name of Hero!]

With those words, the white statue charged at Cheon Su-ho.
Without missing a single movement, Cheon Su-ho slipped into its guard the moment it reached out with its hand.

“Hup!”

Paaang!

Without any help from mana, Cheon Su-ho’s fist tore through the air with pure physical force.
It was such a clean movement that even the Association employee watching from the side let out an admiring, “Oh ho.”
Joo Hee-jun, standing nearby, glanced the Association employee up and down at the sound that seemed to be evaluating Cheon Su-ho, but Ro-un ignored it.

‘The opponent is the master of an S-rank passage. There’s no way it would just obediently take Cheon Su-ho’s punch.’

Swoosh!

As though it had used magic, the white statue vanished from everyone’s sight.
Only one person, Cheon Su-ho, threw himself aside the instant after the statue disappeared.
The white statue now stood firmly on both feet exactly where Cheon Su-ho had moved.

‘When did it—!’
‘I-I can’t see it!’
‘That human is rather skilled.’

By the time the three barely managed to follow Cheon Su-ho’s movements and catch sight of the two of them, Cheon Su-ho had already lifted his long leg and brought it crashing down.

Whooom! Boom!

The statue was already gone from the place where Cheon Su-ho’s foot came down.
Before Cheon Su-ho, having smashed only the ground, could even turn around, he hurriedly raised his guard.

“Ugh!”

Baaak!

The white statue, which had reappeared before anyone knew it, kicked Cheon Su-ho and sent him flying.
Cheon Su-ho flew into the opposite wall and slammed into it.

Kooong!

“Cheon Su-ho!”
“H-hey, hey!”

But without even a moment to recover from the impact, Cheon Su-ho rolled aside.
The white statue’s fist struck into the wall the instant Cheon Su-ho moved out of the way.

Kuuung!

A massive shockwave rang through the chamber.
Moving quickly, Cheon Su-ho returned to the place where the trial had first begun and steadied his breathing.

“Haa. Hoo.”

It had only been a very short time, but in that life-and-death exchange, Cheon Su-ho’s whole body had already been drenched in sweat.
The onlookers, too, stared with their eyes wide and mouths open at the exchange that had passed in an instant.

“…Wh-what…? What’s happening right now?”
“……”
“Hey. Lee Ro-un. Are you seriously just going to watch? Shouldn’t we do something now, at least?!”

Joo Hee-jun grabbed Ro-un’s sleeve and shook it.
Ro-un’s mind was no less complicated.

‘Cheon Su-ho’s injuries still aren’t deep. In the end, in a trial-type passage, the one being tested has to defeat the boss…. Should I use that?’

With a Level 6 [Healing], injuries at that level could be restored in no time.
Regenerating missing body parts would require a higher level, but even at this level he could heal wounds as if they had never been there.
And there was also another one of Ro-un’s skills, one he had not used even once yet.
While gauging the right moment to use that skill, Ro-un looked at Cheon Su-ho’s face.
His eyes were still burning with fighting spirit.

‘If we interfere in the middle of the fight, Cheon Su-ho may no longer be counted as taking the trial. That needlessly righteous idiot. For now… let’s watch a little longer.’

Beside him, Joo Hee-jun was shrieking that they should run right now, but Ro-un ignored him.
The Association employee only touched his equipment once, then lowered his hands again after confirming that Cheon Su-ho had not given up yet.

Kooong!

“Ghk.”

Barely dodging the statue’s kick by the width of a sheet of paper, Cheon Su-ho moved at once.
A fist that seemed capable of smashing the earth itself filled his vision.

[You are weak.]

As he twisted his body by force to avoid the fist, it felt as though his muscles were screaming.

[You are too weak to prove the qualifications of a Hero.]

The white statue lashed out with fists and feet, disrupting Cheon Su-ho’s focus.
As his stamina steadily fell, Cheon Su-ho missed a step.
He tried to recover his balance quickly, but the white fist came faster.

Puh-eok!

“……!”

Cheon Su-ho went flying without even managing a scream.
The humans watching from outside the ring of flames screamed in his place.

“Hey! Cheon Su-ho! Get it together!”
“Cheon Su-ho. Get up.”
“You two, step back. I’ll go.”

The three of them shifted as though they were about to rush in at any moment.
What stopped them was a voice thinner than a thread.

“Ah, that hurts.”

Patter….

Cheon Su-ho, now battered all over from fighting the white statue, staggered upright while bracing himself against the wall.
One of his arms hung limp. It looked as though his shoulder had been dislocated when he hit the wall.
Stone dust trickled down from Cheon Su-ho’s upper body.
Even to an outsider, it was obvious that he was no match for the thing.
At what looked like nothing but reckless bravado, Ro-un’s eyes went cold.

‘Was it impossible for Cheon Su-ho alone after all.’

Watching the fight between the two, Ro-un realized that the white statue was holding back far more than its rank suggested.
Otherwise, there was no way the final boss and examiner of a top-tier S-rank passage would have spent this much time on a mere B-rank Awakener with Mana Disability.

‘The qualification of a Hero. If proving that had not been the point of the trial, Cheon Su-ho would have gone down in a single blow.’

Because that was what the trial required, the white statue, acting as examiner, must have been indulging him in this mock duel because it wanted to see something from him.
But that only went so far.
As he was now, Cheon Su-ho could not land a meaningful blow on the examiner.

‘There was no way he could fight alone against a passage boss of a higher rank than the trial-type passage Alexander had faced in the first place.’

It looked like he would have to ignore Cheon Su-ho’s wishes and intervene.

Kooong!

“Cheon Su-ho!”
“!”

While Ro-un was thinking for that brief moment, Cheon Su-ho was struck once more by the white statue and smashed into the ground.
This time, even Cheon Su-ho seemed unable to rise. He could only twitch on the ground.

‘No. I can’t lose Cheon Su-ho here.’

He had come here because he hoped for a future in which Cheon Su-ho overcame , not because he wanted to watch him die pointlessly like before the regression.
He could not lose Cheon Su-ho here yet.
Ro-un immediately drew up Holy Power.

[Disappointing.]

As if it no longer had any intention of continuing the trial, the white statue clenched its fist and aimed it at Cheon Su-ho.
A force unlike anything they had seen before gathered in its fist.
It was an overwhelming amount of mana.

[It seems you do not have the strength to prove the qualifications of a Hero.]

It was a sentence of death in all but name.
Realizing what that meant, Joo Hee-jun urgently called out to Cheon Su-ho.

“Hey! Get up!”
“This won’t do. I’m stepping in.”
“……”

Ro-un silently prepared to activate his skill.
Cheon Su-ho stared fixedly at the fist aimed at him.

“Y-you, you crazy bastard! Why are you just sitting there!”

As Joo Hee-jun, unable to attack rashly for fear of hurting Cheon Su-ho, stamped his feet, and the Association employee crouched as if ready to spring, someone else moved faster than either of them.
It was the one person there who had recognized Cheon Su-ho’s limits first and prepared the next move more coolly than anyone else.

[It is over.]

‘You can’t die here, Cheon Su-ho.’

Lee Ro-un activated his skill.

Paaat!

Before the statue’s fist could slam down onto Cheon Su-ho, the milky-white half-dome they had seen countless times on the way here sprang up in front of him.
It was a dazzling curtain of light, as though made by gathering together all the shining lights of the sky.
Cheon Su-ho knew who that light belonged to.

‘Lee Ro-un….’

He was a man as gentle and good as the light that stood in the way of the giant’s fist.
A fist that seemed capable of collapsing a mountain slammed into that gentle wall of light.

Kuaaaang!
……!

“Ghk!”
“Hold on tight!”

At the shockwave that followed, the Association employee held Ro-un and Joo Hee-jun tightly.
In particular, he pulled Ro-un behind his back and took the dirt and dust kicked up by the shockwave himself.
Within the black dust, the employee’s eyes shone sharply.

‘There was the sound of the fists colliding… and then another sound.’

If that fist had struck Cheon Su-ho directly, they would have heard the sound of flesh being crushed.
But it was different from that.
The employee’s eyes, buried beneath thick folds of flesh, gleamed like a predator’s.
Once the shockwave subsided, Joo Hee-jun belatedly opened his mouth with a dazed expression.

“Did he die…?”

At that moment, an even louder sound burst out.

Kwaaaaaaang!

“Hiiik! What is that? What on earth is happening?!”

The fear that a classmate might have died, the terror of a situation he could not understand, the panic that made him want to run away right this instant.
With all of that mixed together on his face, Joo Hee-jun turned to the side.
And then he let out a single syllable.

“Huh?”

Lee Ro-un’s face had gone pale.
A thin red line, presumably blood, ran from the corner of his mouth.
Seeing blood at the corner of Ro-un’s mouth, Joo Hee-jun turned deathly pale and hurried to support him.

“Lee Ro-un. What the hell did you— You, you! Blood!”
“Student Lee Ro-un. Are you all right?”
“Yes.”

Ro-un roughly wiped away the blood running from the corner of his mouth.
But more blood soon flowed down and filled the smeared trace again.

Hwoooong!

Then a gust of wind blew from the center of the blast and swept away the dirt and dust.
With their vision finally clearing, the three of them looked toward the center of the ring.
A milky cluster of light stood between the statue and Cheon Su-ho.

Paaang!

No, it broke.

Paaat!

But the instant it shattered, the milky half-dome appeared again.
The process was so fast that Joo Hee-jun blinked at the fragile-looking barrier blocking the statue’s fist.

“Why is that… still intact.”
“It isn’t intact. It is being destroyed, then created again.”

The Association employee murmured in admiration.
Cheon Su-ho was the same.
Lee Ro-un was looking at him with blood on the corner of his mouth and eyes that seemed to be burning.
Cheon Su-ho understood.

‘The barrier is being recreated at the exact instant it breaks.’

It was a lunatic feat of skill.
The statue’s fist, filled with overwhelming force, was slowly pushing closer.
Yet Lee Ro-un’s skill was delaying, even if only slightly, the moment that fist would reach Cheon Su-ho.
The repulsive force created by blocking and shattering again and again was delaying the advance of the fist through a reckless method akin to throwing eggs at a boulder.

‘This is… Lee Ro-un.’

The owner of !
There were only three people here who understood the feat Lee Ro-un was performing.

“Cough.”
“Hey, hey! Lee Ro-un! Are you insane? Do you think you can block the fist of an S-rank passage boss?!”
“I can’t block it. I can’t, but I am slowing it down.”

This lunatic bastard!
He was still using his skill even while coughing up blood?

‘He’s holding that off right now? Is this guy actually insane?!’

When mana backlash occurred or a skill was forcibly broken, the backlash returned to the caster.
Even if Holy Power was less harmful to its user than other energies, that didn’t mean the backlash would be light.
And the proof was right there in the blood streaming down from the corner of Ro-un’s mouth.

“Hey! Stop!”
“If I stop, Cheon Su-ho dies.”
“Ah, shit! This is seriously driving me insane! We’re going to die too at this rate!”
“Cheon Su-ho hasn’t proven his qualifications yet.”
“He won’t be able to! Unless he comes back after fixing , this is impossible!”
“We will proceed with the emergency evacuation. I’ll bring Cheon Su-ho back.”

Then, as though he had heard someone’s voice alone, the Association employee paused for a moment and spoke with a strange expression.

“…Lee Ro-un. Shall we watch Cheon Su-ho a little longer?”

The employee suddenly changed his stance.
Ro-un looked once at the Association employee with darkened eyes, then nodded.
At the employee’s words, Joo Hee-jun turned to him in shock.

“Are you insane!? We need to grab him and get out right now!”
“Yes. It’s fine. Cheon Su-ho will prove his qualifications.”

If it was Cheon Su-ho, who had earned the title of before the regression, then he would be able to prove his qualifications.
And now, that stubborn idiot would probably finally accept his help too.
With his skill, even Cheon Su-ho could land a proper blow on that examiner.

“Understood. In that case, we will watch a little longer.”
“This is insane. Can’t you tell just by looking at him right now? If this keeps going, we’re all dead!”

Joo Hee-jun leaped around beside him.
But Ro-un’s mind remained cold and clear.

‘The qualification of a Hero. The examiner said Cheon Su-ho was too weak to prove his qualifications. It never said he lacked them.’

The words the statue had spoken when it began sparring with Cheon Su-ho.
‘The qualification of a Hero.’
Ro-un continued thinking about what exactly the statue meant by the qualification of a Hero.
If it were merely testing raw strength, it did not seem likely that it would have summoned Cheon Su-ho, a B-rank Awakener with Mana Disability, into an S-rank passage.
What was the qualification of a Hero?

‘A heart that doesn’t give up? An unbreakable will?’

He did not know.
Still, if it was Cheon Su-ho, if it was the Cheon Su-ho who had not run even before death, then he would have the qualifications.

‘If it’s only strength that’s lacking, then I can help with that!’

One could not give someone mentality or resolve just by helping them, but mere strength was something he could help with more than enough.
That was when it happened.

[Who dares interfere with the sacred trial!]

The white statue turned toward the spectators in anger.
In an instant, the statue grew in size.

[Heaven’s punishment upon those who interfere with the trial!]

The giant, now as large as when they first entered, brought its foot down toward Ro-un.