Survival(2)
The screams did not fade.
They sharpened, tearing through the humid jungle air like jagged glass.
Before the echoes could even settle, the ground groaned under a series of heavy, structural impacts.
A violent, low-frequency thudding traveled up through the mud, vibrating straight into the bones of their legs.
Something massive was charging blindly through the dense forest.
Seo Jun's expression changed instantly.
Warmth disappeared.
Only focus remained.
"Stay close," he said.
"We need to move."
They pushed through the jungle, quietly, fast and controlled.
Less than two hundred meters away, they found them.
Four cadets.
Seoul Hunter Academy tracksuits.
Pinned against massive tree roots and surrounded by six Ironhide Boars.
They are huge. Car sized bodies. Thick metal-like armor plates covering their skin.
They have little intelligence. Only brute instinct. They only charge and crush.
One cadet swung his sword desperately.
It hit armor and shattered instantly.
A second later, the boar rammed him. Tossed him into the tree roots. A sickening impact.
The other cadets froze. They are terrified. Already accepting death.
Seo Jun watched quietly.
Then spoke.
"Ha Neul."
"Remember the breathing."
She nodded. Hands trembling but eyes full of determination.
"Target the ground," Seo Jun said.
"Not the beasts. Beneath their hooves. Disrupt their charge. I'll handle the rest."
He didn't wait. He moved immediately while activating mana.
Mana Sovereignty
He shaped his energy into a single idea.
Sharpness.
Not raw force. Not excess power.
Pure cutting intent.
And he knew exactly how to manifest it, because he had already done it before.
A thin layer coated his iron sword.
Weak weapon but temporarily reinforced.
The boars turned. Two of them charged first. Like collapsing walls of flesh and armor.
"Now," Seo Jun shouted.
Ha Neul exhaled perfectly.
A blue concussive blast struck the ground.
Right between the hooves. Earth shattered and mud exploded.
The surface collapsed under their weight.
The boars lost balance. Their charge broke instantly. Bodies were crashing forward and their armor clashing. Their momentum was ruined.
Seo Jun entered immediately without hesitation and fear.
Only seeing the openings. He stepped onto the first fallen boar. Used its body as leverage.
Then drove his blade into the joint behind its neck.
A clean gap between armor plates, the weak point of boars.
Spinal cord severed. It was an instant kill.
The second boar lunged blindly.
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Seo Jun ducked under it and moved with it, not against it.
Then cut across its throat gap.
Hot blood sprayed into the jungle air.
The remaining four roared. All attacking at once from different angles.
The cadets watching thought it was over.
No one survived that. How can a single person face them?
But Seo Jun didn't break the rhythm.
He moved like water through collapsing space.
Flowing Stream Sword Art
He redirected their momentum. Let them crash into each other. Used their strength against themselves.
Every strike was precise. Every movement is efficient. No wasted motion, only efficiency exists.
He didn't fight harder. He fought correctly with strategy.
Within forty seconds, silence returned but it was a welcoming silence.
All six Ironhide Boars lay dead in the mud.
A blue window appeared.
[You have slain an Ironhide Boar]×6
[50 Survival Points awarded]×6
The jungle went quiet for half a second after Seo Jun's last strike.
Then it collapsed into noise again. Wind rushed through the black trees. Monsters shifted in the shadows. The feeling of control in the tutorial was gone.
Seo Jun stood in the center, blood on his blade, breathing steady.
He had taught Ha Neul everything she needed for the tutorial. Now, it was time for the two of them to take an active role in the hunt.
Seo Jun moved without hesitation.
The moment one battle ended, he was already heading toward the next.
A monster pack here. A group of trapped awakeners there. An injured cadet surrounded in the trees. A wounded future hunter unable to run.
Seo Jun saved them all.
Not because he was kind. Because every survivor was another fighter, another vanguard.
The more survivors they save in this stage, the greater it is for humanity.
Every survivor was a potential Hunter. A future warrior. A future protector.
Someone who could stand against the monsters in the battles to come.
The more people who survive today, the stronger humanity will become tomorrow.
As the hours passed, a pattern formed naturally. It became a routine. A battlefield of rhythm.
More and more academy cadets began following him.
They knew his face. Some trained with him, some heard about him.
Seen him in the sparring halls. Shared classrooms and meals with him.
Most importantly, they trusted him.
Without realizing it, Seo Jun became the center of a growing force.
Scouts and fast runners moved ahead.
Their job was simple. Find monsters. Lead them back.
Archers and mages prepared the battlefield.
The moment a monster pack entered range, arrows flew. Mana blasts exploded.
The monsters' charge lost momentum. Their formation broke apart.
The shield bearers stepped forward. Large shields locked together. A solid wall of iron and determination.
When monsters crashed into the line, the shield bearers held firm.
Even when their arms trembled. Even when their feet dug into the dirt.
Behind them stood the spearmen.
Long spears thrust through the gaps.
Stabbing eyes, necks, joints. Anything that is exposed.
Swordsmen moved between openings.
Finishing wounded monsters. Protecting the rear. Supporting wherever the line weakened.
Ha Neul stood at the center. She was calm and focused. She felt growth for the first time in a while. Each battle was changing her, little by little. She guided the mages using the knowledge Seo-Jun had taught her.
Her mana blasts disrupted charges. Her timing became sharper with every battle. Every spell saved future hunters. Every spell created opportunities.
And at the front, stood Seo Jun.
While everyone else fought as a team, he fought directly against the strongest targets.
The largest wolves. The armored boars. The venomous stalkers.
Anything dangerous enough to break the formation.
His sword flashed endlessly. One strike and one kill because he can see the absolute weakness.
With every step, another corpse of a monster lay.
The academy cadets gradually stopped seeing him as a fellow student.
On the battlefield, he looked more like a veteran commander than a twenty-year-old awakener.
As hours passed, monster corpses piled higher and higher.
The jungle began to change. The monsters that once hunted humans now avoided certain areas.
The scent of blood had become too strong. The casualties had become too one-sided.
A strange reversal had begun. The prey had become the predator and the predators had become the prey.
Across that section of the Verdant Hell, it felt like a single rumor spread among monsters.
If you saw a young swordsman with calm eyes and a chipped iron blade run.
✦ ✦ ✦
The hunting grounds had fallen eerily quiet.
Then, the system broke the silence.
A deep red window slammed into his vision.
[System Anomaly Detected]
[Participant: Lee Seo Jun]
[Abnormal accumulation of Survival Points confirmed.]
[Evaluation: Far exceeds expected Tutorial parameters.]
[Stage 1 ecosystem has collapsed.]
[All designated monsters have been eliminated.]
[Tutorial survival rate exceeds acceptable threshold.]
[Initiating balance correction...]
[Hidden Condition Fulfilled.]
[Hidden Event Activated: Apex Predator Protocol]
[Deploying designated apex hunter...]
[Warning.]
[Survive.]
Seo Jun read it once.
It was something new, but he was prepared.
He had progressed too fast. Too clean. Too efficiently. The system no longer saw him as a trainee.
It saw him as a mistake.
A target for correction.
Around him, the jungle changed.
The insects stopped.
The wind died.
Pressure spread through the forest like a heavy weight pressing down on everything alive.
One cadet dropped to his knees without understanding why. Another couldn't even hold his weapon steady.
Ha Neul tightened her grip on her wand, her voice shaking.
"Seo Jun… what is this…?"
He didn't answer immediately. His eyes stayed fixed on the treeline.
Something was coming and it was not a normal monster.
A roar hit the forest.
It was deep, layered and ancient. Full of pure killing intent.
The black trees trembled as if they recognized it.
The cadets stepped back instinctively.
Seo Jun slowly raised his sword.
"This isn't a tutorial monster," he said quietly.
The bushes at the edge of the clearing moved. Something stepped out.
It was massive.
Far larger than anything they had faced so far.
Its body looked like hardened black flesh fused with armor-like plates, cracked with glowing red veins like molten stone. Each step sank slightly into the ground, as if the world itself struggled to hold its weight.
Its eyes locked onto Seo Jun. Only Seo Jun.
The Apex Predator had arrived.
Seo Jun exhaled once.
His grip tightened.
"Everyone stay back," he said.
Ha Neul swallowed hard. "Can you beat that…?"
Seo Jun didn't look away.
"I don't know."
A pause.
"But I must."
The monster moved first.
The air shattered.
And Seo Jun moved right after it.