In the fifth hermitage, Zain and the other cadets struggled to ward off the endless hardships of the undead army led by the Wight, with her skeleton and wraith troops. Despite defeating the monsters countless times, they remained unable to die. The battles between the two opposing forces collided repeatedly and with all their might, but the cadets didn't benefit at all. They were at their wits' end and almost desperate to find the undead's weakness. They tried destroying the body or head and attacking with light magic, but nothing seemed to work.
The skeletons were swarming the cadets in large numbers, showing no fear or pain. Another army of wraiths, being ghostly and insubstantial, were able to pass through solid objects and attack with incorporeal claws or other spectral weapons. They might be invisible or partially visible, appearing as shimmering or ethereal figures that can move swiftly through the air. The situation worsened when a colony of spiders crawled down from the mountain, followed by a mother spider, distracting the cadets who were still dealing with the undead.
"Gods…not a moment's peace!" exclaimed Yugos.
"Let 'em come. We'll greet 'em with fire and iron!" followed by Hugos.
The Viking brothers had been fighting there for more than two hours, but the other cadets stood with their legs stiff as planks, waiting in the corner and watching. If it continued like this, they would surely destroy themselves and die, knowing that dawn was still a long way off. One of them pointed to the cave at the end of the hermitage and suggested hiding there as the last safe checkpoint. The wraiths, who knew their ploy, flew from the side to intercept the cadets, but with their remaining strength, they continued to run.
"Don't be such a fraidy cat, we must fight these undead together until dawn!" shouted Zain, who separated from the others.
Many cadets had already fled to a nearby cave as they were vastly outnumbered by the enemies. Zain could not look back as he continued to fight alone, however, there were still a few brave cadets, such as Kirana, Ischel, Ryuusei, and Don Craig, who were risking their lives to fight against the Wight and her undead army. Despite this, the situation was grim with the appearance of dozens of giant spiders. Zain's doubts grew as he witnessed several cadets being stung by the giant spiders and wrapped up in webs. A mother spider was also present, busy choosing the fattest and most delicious prey to eat.
Zain fixed his gaze on the cadets' corpses lying on the ground, horror etched on their faces, until he was targeted from behind by a single skeleton. Unaware of his surroundings, he unleashed Soul Charge in a panicked state, slamming his Flail onto the ground and unleashing the forbidden echo slam he had saved for flattening hundreds of skeletons. The resulting potholes and reverberations attracted other monsters, but Zain felt relieved that none of his fellow cadets had witnessed this embarrassing scene. He resolved to follow the other cadets to the cave in the heart of the mountain and run there for safety.
Upon entering the cave, no undead troops dared to pursue Zain any further. They growled, scraped their blades, and cursed at him from outside. Exhausted and drenched in sweat, Zain froze at the sight before him. Eventually, the monsters left him and returned to battle the struggling cadets. The cave had a cold and silent aura that was different from a hermitage. Zain was fortunate to have survived the pursuit of the undead, being the last cadet to enter the enigmatic cave.
"What the heck?" Zain muttered, his face twisted with confusion and bewilderment, unable to comprehend why the monsters were avoiding the cave.
As Zain searched deeper into the cave, he felt increasingly insecure. Despite the quietness, he couldn't hear any screams or voices from the other cadets who had entered before him. Where were they? Why wasn't anyone here? Zain suspected they must be hiding and waiting for dawn, which made him feel uneasy.
Eventually, Zain stumbled upon a sacred and ancient space filled with statues of snakes, burning torches, and hieroglyphic writings. The darkness of the place made him feel like he had stepped back in time. Suddenly, he spotted someone standing in a pose in the distance and ran toward them while waving his arms and shouting, "Hey! You're over there!"
Upon closer inspection, Zain was shocked to discover that the person he had seen from a distance was actually a statue of a cadet, with a terrified expression on his face, trying to escape from the cave. As he examined the statue, he was amazed by its perfect texture, which made him realize that it was not an ordinary sculpture, but rather a statue that looked like a real human. Zain trembled in horror at the sight before him.
As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw dozens of statues of cadets, all with the same frightened expression and running poses, either toward him or out of the cave. The hairs on his neck stood up as these statues looked so lifelike, making him question the safety of entering the cave which evokes a sense of danger and foreboding.
He continued walking straight ahead, looking at the statues and cursing under his breath, wondering if this is real or not, and why there was no one alive beside him. It felt like a bad dream, and Zain's mental steel began to falter when he saw the face of one of his former classmates on one of the statues. Their faces were filled with the same frustration and desperation he was feeling right now.
"Son! Kyle! Zolu! Jessie! Can you hear me?!" he shouted as he held and shook the statues, hoping for a miracle to bring them back to normal.
Zain's heart raced as he saw a giant serpent carcass split in two. Who could have done that? His killer instinct kicked in as he heard a hissing sound, like a snake ready to strike. He knew what that meant: an S-class monster was nearby. Then, a woman's laughter echoed through the darkness, sending shivers down Zain's spine. Was this the cave owner, waiting to greet her next victim?
"Don't mess around, show your ugly face!" Zain demanded, trying to keep his voice steady.
As he cautiously moved forward, he spotted a statue at the very front—facing the darkness without running back. It was Fenrius, the infamous lazy and crazy man that everyone talked about. Zain couldn't believe it - how could Fenrius be turned to stone like all the others?
But before he could ponder this any further, the woman's voice taunted him once again. "Ah, another trespasser who came to play..."
Zain's muscles tensed as he braced himself for whatever lay ahead. He had come too far to back down now.
Zain bravely stepped further into the enveloping darkness, but his heart skipped a beat as two glowing eyes appeared before him, piercing through the blackness. With the help of the Draught of Agony, he could see the figure of a large woman emerging, her body resembling that of a snake, and her long snakelike hair writhed and twisted as if it had a life of its own. As he took in her appearance, Zain found himself retracting his earlier comment; she was not ugly, but in fact quite strikingly beautiful. However, despite her charming facade, Zain struggled to contain his fear at the thought of fighting a rank S monster alone.
Medusa the Gorgon laughed at Zain's predicament, fully aware that one cadet certainly posed no threat to her. "What a pitiful little thing you are," she taunted him. "Take a good look around you, those naive cadets thought they could escape from my lair, and neither will you."
Zain gritted his teeth. "How dare you turn my friends to stone!" he growled.
Medusa merely sneered. "You think you can avenge them?” followed by a high-pitched cackle. Then she continued, “You're nothing but a weakling."
Zain's body trembled as he weighed his options. He couldn't run, he knew that much. Medusa's power was different from that of other Gorgons. Even if he tried to flee, she could turn him to stone with just a glance—sealing his fate like other statues. Although it was the worst-case scenario, deep down, he wanted to beat this Medusa and show the world the beginning of his legendary tale.
As if reading his thoughts, Medusa pointed to the only statue that faced her with a fearless expression. "But he's different," she said, gesturing to the petrified figure of Fenrius. "After he single-handedly defeated the Basilisk, he didn't try to attack me like the others. He just stared."
Medusa approached Fenrius and licked his face with her snake tongue. "He was able to stare at my Gorgon Eyes for five whole minutes," she said with a mix of admiration and pity. "But in the end, he died petrified, and now he's just a decoration."
Zain's mind raced as he tried to come up with a plan in such a short span of time. He couldn't afford to end up like Fenrius and the others who had been turned to stone. Gripping his Flail tightly, he knew it was his only chance at survival.
Zain twirled his Blackjack chain, trying to intimidate the Gorgon with his menacing stance. As he looked around at the petrified cadets, he realized that they weren't just from his generation, but from the previous one as well. None of them had been able to defeat a tier S monster until now. The thought of claiming Medusa's head with his bare hands further increased his fighting spirit. If he could achieve what others couldn't, it would add to his legacy in the hundreds of years to come.
As Zain was about to throw his flail, Medusa crept up to the cave ceiling and disappeared into the dark passage. Her speed was too fast for his brain to anticipate, and he couldn't catch a breath as he tried to catch her tail many times. He decided to return to his standby position, spinning his flail while waiting for Medusa to make the first move. After all, this one-on-one battle was no different from Holmgang or Mubarza for him. "Come here, bitch! I'll take you down myself!" he sneered, hoping to draw his enemy into his attack range.
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Medusa was provoked to attack, but she didn't realize that Zain could see through the darkness. His flail crushed a lot of charging snakes with his right momentum, but he failed to aim at her. She was too fast to be targeted, and her movements were twice as fluid as a stream of water. Another wave of snakes that served as a diversion came his way, making Zain destroy the roof of the cave out of desperation. The falling stones rained down and squashed her snakes.
As Medusa watched her snakes writhing under the weight of the stones, she realized the full extent of Zain's power and knew she should not underestimate him. However, feeling unable to approach Zain any further, as he was already preparing to deliver a powerful blow, she let out a piercing scream that shook the cave. Zain took a few steps back as his eardrums felt like they were about to burst. Her aura suddenly changed drastically, and her gorgon eyes shone. Zain immediately closed his eyes to avoid being turned to stone.
From the darkness, colonies of small snakes sprang up and attacked Zain. He spun his flail to sweep hundreds of snakes in one swing, but they were too agile for the size of the large flail he was using. Over time, the snakes multiplied from hundreds to thousands, and several wrapped around Zain's legs, causing him to fall. Caught off guard, another snake wrapped around his hand, causing him to drop his weapon. Soon, his body was inundated by small snakes, leaving him with only his sight and voice for calling help.
It was unthinkable that this was the worst-case scenario after petrification. The snakes had completely immobilized Zain, starting from his hands, feet, body, and neck, making it difficult for him to breathe. He tried hard to untie the snakes, but it was an endless task. Medusa wrapped her tail around Zain's body, coiling him multiple times until he could no longer move a muscle.
Zain felt as though this was the end of his journey as a cadet. It dawned on him that he had always boasted about wanting to be the number one assassin in the academy, but the reality was bittersweet. Despair loomed before him as if he had been slapped by his own words and left feeling embarrassed. Especially when he thought about the cadets who had survived the exam, he knew they were probably talking about his foolish desire to be number one.
The one thing he realized now was that he was just like the dead cadets - a mere mortal who was nothing special but a laughing stock. His breath grew heavy, his vision faded, and he could only make out the blurry face of Medusa, who laughed at him. And to think that he had died being entangled rather than turned into stone like the others hurt his dignity even more. Deep inside his perverse mind, dying at the hands of the beautiful Medusa was not the worst fate—or at least, no one would be able to witness his final moments.
"Damn it! I'm sorry, everyone! I am a weak man! Brother, Dain! I'm sorry I couldn't meet you outside the continent! I didn't even get to go back to Dragenheim to fight alongside you guys against that damn Shadow Dragon!" Zain cried out in agony as his true personality emerged, stiffening on the verge of death.
"You are so noisy!" retorted Medusa. "I will crush your bones slowly as punishment!"
"Hey," someone said, startling Medusa and Zain.
The Gorgon loosened its coils and looked at the petrified statues of the cadets. "Who? Who said that just now?" she asked the whole room warily.
"Right in front of you."
Fenrius' mouth miraculously gritted itself, an unnatural sight that sent shivers down Medusa's spine. Slowly but surely, Fenrius' stone body began to move! Fingers, wrists, arms, legs, back, and neck - each body part moved with precision and purpose.
The strange and fascinating phenomenon of the living statue caused Medusa to untie her tail and crept while screaming into the darkness, which was followed by her little snake cubs. Zain breathed a sigh of relief, detached from Medusa's coils. He gazed at Fenrius, still petrified from head to toe with hair standing straight up. He moved step by step like a wooden puppet, but eventually, he was able to walk like an ordinary person.
Medusa, who had been hiding in the darkness, slowly emerged, cold sweat dotting her forehead. She nervously asked, "How did you do that? I haven't seen anything like it before!"
Fenrius replied in a deep voice, "Thanks to you, I am now immune to petrification."
Medusa was taken aback. "So that's what you're after?! I couldn't understand why you didn't attack me earlier, especially since you were able to tear a Basilisk in half. I thought you had given up and wanted to die honorably without running away from me. But it turns out you were just trying to lure me into using the Gorgon Eyes, even if it meant sacrificing your comrades."
Upon realizing the true danger of petrification, Medusa understood that it was one of the most perilous diseases in the Runeverse, surpassing even curses and poison. However, Fenrius had managed to adapt and overcome it, making him invincible in the current world.
Fenrius approached Medusa with a sharp gaze that pierced through her body, leaving her trembling with fear at the thought of the dead Basilisk. "Since I have done you a favor, would you do the same for me?" Medusa pleaded.
But as she lowered her guard, Zain swiftly grabbed her tail and slammed her against the cave wall and onto the ground, crushing her snakes under her weight. "You wretched creature! You'd better turn them back to normal, or I'll cut your head off and display it to the Runeverse while enjoying mead with my comrades on the mountaintop!" he threatened, refusing to let go of his grip until she agreed to his demands.
Medusa cried out for mercy, "I will! But first, you must let me—"
After Zain released his grip, Medusa and her children quickly made their way into the dark depths of the cave, disappearing from sight and leaving Zain feeling angry and betrayed by her sudden departure. "Damn you!!!" he screamed in frustration, turning to Fenrius and urging him to chase after her to the very depths of Vorgosh.
However, Fenrius simply stood there, not moving a muscle, which caused Zain to wonder if he was still alive and capable of movement. In his curiosity, he approached Fenrius and asked how he had managed to survive petrification, and whether his body had become hardened like the other victims.
As Zain spoke, he noticed that Fenrius only looked back at him with a flat affect, as if he were suffering from a severe case of a brain disorder. The thought of Fenrius witnessing his moment of weakness, when he had been crying like a child at death's door, made Zain break out in a cold sweat. He silently hoped that Fenrius hadn't seen everything.
Fortunately for Zain, Fenrius was a mute-deaf cadet who seemed indifferent to the lives of others. If Aleister had been present instead, Zain would have resorted to any means necessary to kill the snitch, or else he might have chosen suicide as his only option.
"Zain," Fenrius called out in a guttural voice, "you're really loud."
Fenrius began to rub his petrified body from head to toe, causing the stone on his skin, clothes, and hair to erode like sand, revealing his human form beneath. Zain watched in amazement as Fenrius reverted back to his original state, realizing that somehow he had become immune to the petrification disease that had affected so many others.
As Zain pondered this remarkable turn of events, he understood that while Fenrius may have appeared to be a rock from the outside earlier, he was still battling the disease within his heart and mind. It seemed that the Flask of Nightmare had triggered some kind of mutation in Fenrius, granting him immunity to petrification after just a few minutes, allowing his body to neutralize the effects of the disease.
Fenrius took out two Flasks of Nightmares from his pouch and handed one to Zain, who was stunned by his boldness. Zain knew that Fenrius must have stolen the black potions from Lucia's Manor, but he couldn't help but feel admiration for this guy's daring actions.
Fenrius then demonstrated to Zain where he poured the black potion on one of the nearby cadet statues. The potion slowly eroded the petrified skin of the cadet, spreading throughout his body until he fell to the ground, unconscious but with his skin returning to normal. The cadet's clothes bore a badge with the serial number one, which Fenrius and Zain believed belonged to Beno the Trailblazer. However, since they didn't recognize his face, and the badge design was different from theirs, they assumed he was from a previous generation.
Fenrius turned toward Zain, hoping he would catch his point. Zain nodded; even though he was a barbarian, not an interpreter, he understood the instruction. He was looking for one of his friends from earlier, and unfortunately, out of the many Class D cadets there, he could only choose one to save. He chose the youngest, Son the Third-Grade, and doused his face with the black potion.
When Son fell, he immediately began stuttering and crying, as if something terrible had happened to him. Zain quickly calmed him down by slapping and shouting at him in his Viking style. As Son saw Zain wake him up, he hugged him tightly and cried while recounting his recent nightmarish experience. He had just emerged from a long dream paralysis, only to be stabbed by the angel of death, and his soul had been brought to the front gates of the Maldrakar Hell before returning to the Runeverse again.
Zain took a deep breath because of the four choices, he chose the crybaby cadet instead. He proceeded to explain everything to Son, revealing that he had been in a petrified state while Zain himself and Fenrius had valiantly defeated the S-rank monster, Medusa the Gorgon.
Son Alibaba the Third-Grade, cadet number 278 from class D, was born into a poor family in the Lanzell region (Drought Desert). His parents sold him to the academy for money, and as the youngest cadet, he was trained to live independently from the start. During his three years at the academy, he ranked number one in both written and practical exams, earning him the nickname "Son the Third-Grade" (which he never wanted). This nickname stuck with him forever because he was only famous in his third academic year.
Son was well-liked by his classmates in class D, particularly Zain. For the past five years, Son had served as an errand boy for the riot squad, buying food and delivering messages, among other things. He never complained and always obeyed their orders, earning the squad's protection in return.
Zain turned to Fenrius, but he was gone. Feeling indebted to Fenrius for saving his life, Zain ran after him out of the cave, leaving Son behind with the unconscious cadet who had not yet come to his senses, and the statues of present and former cadets, along with the danger of Medusa.
As one of the many cadets who did not take the Draught of Agony, Son was terrified of the dark and he couldn’t see a thing. His screams echoed behind Zain, pleading with him not to leave him alone.
Regardless of what happened here, Zain has learned many life lessons. First is his biggest trusting issue with the monster which he vowed never to do again to the seventh heaven. Second, he was pretty sure that the Medusa had attempted to turn him into stone with her Gorgon eyes, but it didn't seem to work quickly since he had been protected by the Flask of Nightmare within his body. Unlike the other petrified cadets, who were running away and facing backward in motion without looking into the gorgon's eyes, he managed to avoid the petrification. Third and foremost, Fenrius the Mad has shown him that petrification could be broken, no matter what.
“Fenrius, wait for me!” shouted Zain as he saw Fenrius in the distance. “I have yet to thank you properly, and there's something I need to tell you that might shock you!”
But Fenrius kept ignoring him, so Zain persisted in walking beside him. “To tell you the truth, when the Gorgon had me, I was only pretending to yield—you know, to test which of the statues could still hear me. But I know—“
"Save your speech for later," cut Fenrius without averting his gaze.
Fenrius' deep and calm voice cleared Zain's head, and he handed over the lead to Fenrius as they ran out of the cave, leaving the Gorgon's lair behind.