"The test was quite a success. We defeated all the monsters with ease, and except for some laughably weak students… everyone showed good results. It is quite sad to notice that a student wasn't a partaker of such an interesting event."

“What do you mean? All students meant to join this test were available today. You can have the reports, the data on every available student is stored in the files. If you notice the missing student, quickly tell me the name. This could be quite an issue.”

“Here, this one…”

Sitting calmly, Vysla overheard some of the higher-geared members of this facility make reports on how well the test had gone. She frowned at the part where they mentioned a student did not join the test. Her mind quickly travelled to Mark, but she shook her head — he had walked into another room which was different from where he was ordered to enter, but what could have gone wrong?

She had tried sneaking in but was caught and told outsiders were not allowed in such areas until they became members or unless supervised by someone. With that option ruled out, she decided to go to her seat and wait, but it had been four hours already and Mark was still busy in that room… Vysla decided to call their attention to her speculations.

She approached them as they spoke calmly, and they turned to her after noticing Vysla’s presence. As soon as they turned to her, she opened her mouth and decided to cut to the chase, “I’d overheard your conversation, and I think the missing person you’re talking about is tbe boy who walked into that room by accident… His name is Mark.”

Turning to the room she pointed to, all the colour on the man’s face drained. He’d not expected something so simple like walking into a different room by accident to be so disastrous in a situation like this. That room was supposed to be locked out to children as only a handful who’d developed the experience in hunting down powerful threats were allowed inside.

But, he was the one in charge of such issues and had failed to deal with them. If word gets out of a mistake as massive as this one, then losing his job and being sent to the frontiers was going to be the least of his worries. He understood what the issue was with the student and immediately turned to a calm Vysla, “Do not report this to anyone else, we will deal with this situation immediately.”

He turned to the other beside him with a strange expression on his face, and understanding that expression, the other sighed and nodded. The both of them strode to the door to the room, opening it and stepping inside with calm expressions on their faces. As soon as they disappeared, Vysla felt a cold smile forming on her face.

If he died, there would be no one here except that other one who knew her secret. To keep the facts of her existence a secret, she would have to make that one disappear as well, but — the smile on her face withdrew — this was not what she needed to do. It was not like she cared, but he had to live for a little longer before dying for a dumb reason like this.

But, there was nothing she could do… Was there?

——

Mark could feel himself running out of breath. He was running with all his might, abandoning his defended death zone, and charging into the unknown. He could only throw the idea of being aided to the wind as he needed to defeat the monster himself, but he could try his best and fight while he was prepared for the worst. After all, that was how it went in this world.

As he ran, he stumbled on a piece of metal and went tumbling into the numerous metal beasts in front of him. After regaining his senses in an instant, he scrambled to his feet in the metallic mess. He was about to keep pushing on when he noticed that one of the ruined metal humanoids had hunting gear on its body, and although the rust was quite prominent, Mark took it all and threw it on himself.

[Hunting Gear Equipped — Do you want to register equipment, Y/N?]

Hunting Gear? It was not as stylish as a full-fledged battle suit but it was better than wearing his bare shirt to battle. As he equipped the gear, he turned to see the monster already upon him, and he lifted his head to stare off into the distant ceiling, completely ignoring the screen suggesting to get it registered. He had no time for distractions like this… He had something difficult to handle now!

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As he stared at the ceiling, he prepared himself and after a second of delay, he was launched into the air at a very fast speed. The one thing that set the Origin Descendants apart from all others who hunted monsters, was the gear they wore — weaponized machinery tailored especially for hunting down monsters way beyond their physical capabilities.

As he propelled himself into the air, he clenched his fists calmly. He could dream about beating the monster with such pathetic gear, but if he could at least escape from this area with his head, the test would be the least of his worries. He had believed the arena to be something on his level, but a room like this was simply a deathtrap he could not handle on his own.

As he chased, the blades spinning around the monster roared, and it leapt after Mark. He could not fly like Mark, but the monster ran along the walls at a speed that would be stunning to whoever stared upon it, and frightful to those who were against it. As the enemy ran at such an absurd speed, Mark knew he triggered bad feelings.

I did not want to trigger anything though… He liked the speed it was running at a second ago and wanted it to continue running at that speed. Is it the gear? He imagined that the monster was not too happy to find its target wearing the gear of the exact people it was supposed to kill, but Mark was desperate!

Mark heard a flash and he hurriedly bit into his arm, turning around to face the monster only to come face to face with a barrage of blades. As soon as [Blood Reverence] came into effect, the first blade cut into his thighs, and as his heart skipped a beat, [Instantaneous Regeneration] activated. In that same instance, the other blades stabbed into differing parts of his body.

[Fatal Damage Inflicted!]

[Health -40%]

[Negated Healing Reduction Debuff]

[Negated Shock Debuff]

[Negated Immobilisation Debuff]

[Defence System (Temp. Pain Reduction) Online]

He clenched his fists, even as the numerous blades ripped through him at a frightening rate. The difference that separated him and other monsters was quite simple: He was trained from birth to kill as much of them as possible, and he had the skillset builsd for doing so. His targets? That was all they were, no matter how strong… Targets.

He was trained to eliminate targets, no matter how much of a threat they posed.

Mark moved his arm, grabbing a sword that had sunk into the side of his stomach and drawing it out. He could still move, despite the numerous shades he shed of himself with the blades sunk into his body. He let the calmness settle into the depths of his soul, feeling time slowing down around him as he locked his eyes on the target

[Combat System (Chase Burst) Online]

[Combat System (Weakness Detector and Exploiting) Online]

He propelled himself forward, charging towards the target and stabbing its sword into its body, not caring if he dealt damage or not. As his sword stabbed into the target, Mark dragged another blade with his right hand and then stabbed it as well, drawing it out and stabbing again, repeating the action with a monotonous expression on his face.

The Pained Demon Of A Thousand Sword charged up, moving at a very high speed with the hope of throwing Mark off, but Mark’s grip on the sword was like glue. No matter how much the enemy spun in the air or how fast, Mark did not release it. As he continued to stab into it, the monster slowed down, and the time for his healing’s end neared.

If the skill effect duration ended, then he would be in a bigger mess. The intensity of his attacks only grew with time, as there was nothing else he could do. Thinking he could kill it with this was a fantasy that did not apply to this world, but the chances of getting it to tire out and registering it as defeat sounded more of a realistic goal that was less difficult to attain.

After some time, the very active monster suddenly came to a halt in midair, and as they descended, Mark continued to stab into it. Only after they had crashed into the ground, creating a web of craters all over the area, did Mark slow down with his stabbing. Finally coming to a halt after he had noticed the notice,

[Survived Collapsed Forsaken level battle, No XP Granted]

[Path Unlocked — Heart Of Bleeding Stone]

[Path Unlocked — Trampled Dreams]

[In Exchange of XP, 4 new abilities have been learned! All Statistic reviewed improvements that span over 50%! Arena Key Obtained! Unknown Mechprint Obtained!]

Mark skimmed up to the last word, then he closed this screen. Just as he was about to turn away and run as far as he could before the boss recovered from its stunned state, a screen appeared, and he read it with a calm expression,

[Defeating the Boss has unlocked “Randomised Transporter” and “Origin Paths”]

He clenched his fists. He had done it, but it was barely over yet. He turned and ran, deciding to dream about defeating a forsaken another time. He abandoned exploring the dungeon to study the abundance of ancient information and put it at the back of his mind that he would return when he was levels stronger than he was at this moment.

Seconds after Mark ran for dear life, the defeated monster twitched, and the blades shot out of its body and returned to the others spinning around it. It levitated to its feet, the roar of the blades growing as the monster contemplated chasing or not. After some time, it vanished into the shadows behind it, and the roar of the blades was silenced.