As I looked up at the sky, observing the dragon closing in on the Manashift Cruiser, my brain still hadn’t processed what was happening.

I shifted my gaze and noticed Andre, Kaelar, and Hana sprinting toward the Cruiser from a distance, frantically swinging and waving their arms. It looked like they were trying to say something, but I couldn’t make out what it was.

Then it hit me—my brain finally connected the dots.

My body jerked upright in pure panic.

“It-It’s coming this way?! What do I do? What do I do?” I shouted, my voice shaky with fear.

I was paralyzed. A dragon was hurtling toward me at a speed that could probably cause an explosion if it crashed, and I was directly in its path.

Then my eyes landed on a knife resting on the dashboard inside the Manashift Cruiser. It probably belonged to Kaelar.

Without thinking, I snatched the knife and leaped out of the Cruiser. My mind was still a mess—I had no plan. I’d grabbed the knife purely on instinct, as if it would somehow protect me. But deep down, I knew it was pointless. What could a tiny knife do against a dragon?

‘What am I supposed to do with this thing? I don’t even know how to fight! Am I going to die here?’

The dragon approached at terrifying speed. I glanced toward the Celestial Concord candidates—they were still too far to reach me in time.

Oddly enough, the thought of running never crossed my mind. Whether from fear or sheer shock, my body refused to flee.

Then, out of nowhere, I started running toward the dragon.

The distance between us closed rapidly. My heart pounded louder with every step, and just as the dragon was about to collide with me, I dived flat onto the ground. It missed me by a hair’s breadth—just like with the Vergrizzler I encountered earlier.

The dragon smashed into the Cruiser, obliterating it. The beast was unharmed, but the Cruiser was reduced to wreckage.

The dragon soared back into the sky, stabilized mid-air, and then... it turned around.

It was coming for me.

‘What?! I thought it was after the Cruiser!’

Confusion filled my mind. I had assumed the dragon’s target was the Manashift Cruiser, but no—it was after me.

I didn’t have time to figure out why. I picked myself up and sprinted toward the Celestial Concord candidates. If anyone could help me, it was them.

Just as they spotted me running toward them, their expressions turned to panic.

Without hesitation, they spun around and bolted in the opposite direction.

“Hey! Guys! Why are you running away? I need your help!” I shouted after them.

“Look behind you!” Andre yelled without turning around.

‘Huh? Behind me?’

I glanced back and froze.

The dragon was barely two meters away, closing in faster than before.

‘I’m dead.’

It felt like my life was over. No flashbacks, no grand revelations—just the certainty of death looming over me. The dragon was too fast. I couldn’t escape.

Then, something ridiculous happened.

I tripped.

A tiny rock, hidden in my path, caught my foot, and I tumbled face-first into the dirt.

The dragon missed me again—by sheer luck.

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But it wasn’t over.

As the dragon pulled back into the sky, one of the spikes on its tail snagged my shirt, lifting me off the ground.

Before I knew it, I was dangling from the dragon’s tail, high above the ground.

I was terrified.

“Jay!” Hana screamed; her voice sharp with concern as she stared up at me.

‘She’s... worried?’

That surprised me. Hana had always been cold toward me, but right now, she looked genuinely concerned—more so than the others.

But I didn’t have time to dwell on it. I flailed wildly, screaming at the top of my lungs.

The knife in my hand accidentally grazed the dragon’s tail. It must have felt like a small sting because the dragon’s only response was to whip its tail upward at incredible speed.

That was very bad for me.

The force flung me off the tail, hurling me higher into the air. I screamed as I soared through the sky, and the dragon’s eyes locked onto me.

It roared, the sound chilling me to my core. I thought the shadowy figure from my execution was the scariest thing I’d ever encountered—this was far worse.

I reached the peak of my flight, far above the clouds, and then gravity took hold.

I started to fall.

And the dragon was waiting below, mouth wide open.

I clenched the knife tightly—so tight that the blade pointed downward by mistake.

“AHHHHH!!!!!” I screamed, tears welling up behind my closed eyes.

“It’s over. Goodbye, cruel world.”

But fate had other plans.

I wasn’t falling toward the dragon’s mouth. Instead, I plummeted straight toward its head.

The knife in my hand struck true.

By some miracle, the blade sank deep into one of the dragon’s eyes. Black fluid sprayed everywhere as the dragon roared in agony.

The sound was so deafening it felt like my ears would burst.

Panicked, I let go of the knife—a terrible decision.

Now I was free-falling again, and this time, there was no dragon beneath me—just the hard, unforgiving ground.

I could already imagine the sickening splat that awaited me.

Tears streamed from my eyes as the ground rushed closer.

Then, out of nowhere, I began to slow down.

‘Huh? I’m slowing? What’s happening?’

A faint blue mist surrounded me. That’s when I noticed Andre below, his staff pointed in my direction.

‘He must’ve used a spell to slow my descent.’

I landed softly, collapsing to my knees.

“Oh, sweet earth! I’ve missed you!” I cried, clutching the ground. “Please, never leave me again!”

The ordeal was enough to give anyone PTSD.

“Wait! What about the dragon?!” I shot up in alarm.

“Relax,” Andre said, smiling. “Kaelar and Hana are handling it.”

I turned to see the dragon thrashing wildly in pain. The knife embedded in its eye had done serious damage. Kaelar and Hana were trying to get it to retreat.

About forty seconds later, the dragon gave up and fled, black fluid trailing from its wound.

“Was there something special about that knife?” I asked Andre, bewildered by its effectiveness.

“I don’t think so,” Andre replied. “But it’s Kaelar’s knife. You’ll have to ask him.”

Andre scratched his chin thoughtfully. “Although... it was strange how the dragon came after you. That behavior felt off.”

‘Yeah... why me?’

The thought gnawed at me. I hadn’t even been involved in the battle, yet the dragon targeted me.

‘How did it know I was in the Cruiser?’

I had no answers, and apparently, neither did Andre.

After the dragon flew off, Kaelar and Hana started making their way toward Andre and me. Just like earlier, Hana still wore that worried look—but this time, it seemed worse.

‘Wait… are those tears?’

It looked like she was about to cry.

She marched straight over, grabbed me by the collar with one hand, and hoisted me off the ground.

“What do you have to say for yourself?” she asked, her voice sharp and filled with tension.

“Uh… thanks?” I stammered, forcing a nervous, confused smile.

‘Why does she look so pissed and worried? I thought she hated me.’

“You had one job: stay in the Cruiser!” she snapped.

“Now, now, Hana, it’s not like staying in the Cruiser would’ve been safer,” Kaelar cut in, trying to ease the situation. “Cut the kid some slack.”

“Hmph!” Hana huffed, tossing me down like a sack of potatoes.

“This is exactly why I didn’t want him to come along,” she muttered before storming off toward the wrecked Manashift Cruiser.

‘What the hell is going on? Why does she care so much if she hates me?’

I turned to Kaelar and Andre, hoping they had answers. “Any idea why she’s acting like this?”

“No clue. We only met when we got chosen as candidates for the Celestial Concord,” Kaelar replied with a shrug. “We’ve been traveling together for, what, 15 days?”

Andre nodded. “It’s probably tied to something in her past. But she’s usually not this aggressive—not with us, anyway.”

“Speak for yourself,” Kaelar muttered. “She’s always picking fights with me.”

Andre chuckled. “Yeah, but I’ve never seen her this worried about someone before.”

“She’ll come around eventually,” Kaelar said, trying to reassure me. “Don’t stress about it too much. Our real problem right now is figuring out where to get another Cruiser.”

Their means of travel was gone—destroyed in seconds by the dragon’s assault.

“We’ll worry about that later. For now, let’s focus on helping the villagers,” Andre suggested. “Besides, we might even find a Gearsmith around here.”

Kaelar sighed. “Yeah, yeah, I guess.”

“Hey, Hana! Let’s help with the villagers,” Andre called out.

“On my way,” Hana replied, her voice more composed. It seemed like she was back to normal—at least for now.

“What about me?” I asked, still unsure of where I stood.

“You can tag along,” Kaelar said with a wink. “Helping people’s part of the job for a Celestial Concord candidate.”

“Wait... does that mean you accept me?” I asked, a flicker of hope lighting in my chest.

Kaelar grinned. “We do. You held your own against a Sky Dragon, after all.”

“But don’t get ahead of yourself,” Andre warned. “You’ll still need to pass the qualification test. If you fail, there’s nothing we can do.”

Hana scoffed. “I don’t agree with this.”

No one seemed to care much about her opinion, though. It was a two-to-one decision, so she didn’t press the issue further.

As we made our way toward the village, I felt a need to clear the air.

“Uh… just so we’re clear—you guys know that was a fluke, right? I just got lucky.”

“We know,” Kaelar said with a laugh. “But luck or not, you still held your ground. And you managed to do more damage to that dragon than the three of us combined—all with a regular knife.”

The image of the knife flashed in my mind. It had been lodged in the dragon’s eye until the very end, and the beast had flown off with it still embedded.

‘How did I even pull that off? I’m not stronger than these three. Could it have something to do with the system?’

No sooner had the thought crossed my mind than a screen materialized before me.

==============================

[Keen Eyes] (Lv. 1):

Heightened awareness that allows the user to spot hidden objects, traps, or enemies from a greater distance.

────────────────────────────

Effect: Increases detection range by 15 meters and enhances critical hit chance against unaware enemies by 5%.

Cooldown: None (always active).

Cost: None (passive skill).

==============================

‘Huh? Keen eyes?’

As I read the skill’s effects on the screen in front of me, I realized what must have happened.

‘Enhances critical hit chance against unaware enemies by 5%? Was that why? I guess the dragon wasn’t expecting me to stab its eye; even I wasn’t expecting that.’

‘If that’s the case, then the skill must have been extremely effective considering my low level. I really got lucky... Luck, huh?’

I then opened my status screen and observed the Luck attribute, which was at a dismal 0.

‘If my Luck is this low, how did I survive all that? A miracle?’

“Don’t be so deep in thought, kid. Relax. The Sky Dragon is gone,” Kaelar suddenly said.

Whenever I analyzed the system’s screens around them, I usually put my hand on my chin and furrow my brows to make it look like I’m thinking deeply about something. This way, they wouldn’t suspect anything.

“Don’t worry about me; I’ll be fine,” I replied with a smile.

‘Well, whatever. I survived; that’s what matters.’