Time Passes Fast

After he had finished his shower, Kaizen who had extra time since his class today had ended early chose to look at his pocket.

[Hello, how are you doing?] Wrote Areum.

[Hi, I have just finished my exam, thankfully everything went fine. How are you?] Replied Kaizen.

[I am also fine; we also just had an exam and I managed to create two stable baangs. So, I was able to leave early.] Returned Areum.

[Congratulations Areum! Even though we don't have to do these exams, it feels nice to get the extra points from completing them.] Responded Kaizen.

[Yep, it feels quite nice to get those extra points. So, would you like to take a walk together? I am feeling quite tired of staying seated for long times.] Replied Areum.

[Of course, I would love to take a walk with a beauty like you.] Wrote Kaizen.

[Okay the, let's meet up next to the cafeteria in ten minutes.] Responded Areum.

[Okay, see you there] Replied Kaizen.

For the last week, Kaizen had spent some time during the mornings and evenings befriending both Areum and Kyong. And now that he had some extra time, he chose to hang out with them for a while.

After taking a walk with Areum and then playing cards with Kyong at her room, Kaizen retuned to his room. Doing so, he continued doing his shinsu training trying to turn his baang into ice. While doing so, he remembered that according to the webtoon, during their training, both Khun and Rak materialized their elements as items, such an ice spear in Khun's case while Rak had developed stone gloves.

Thus, this time instead of only focusing on turning his baang into ice, Kaizen spent also tried to imagine specific shapes for the ice. And, although he didn't manage to turn his baanng into ice, he felt that at his last attempt, his baang was a bit colder than before.

After eating dinner, Kaizen would write some notes on the notepad provided in the room as he reflected on his mistakes and training. Then, he would train his shinsu control till he fell asleep.

For most days, Kaizen would spend his day going to the gym for two hours, then, he would take a shower and go eat breakfast where he would talk with Areum and Kyong. Then he would go to his classes. Not having much more necessary theoretical knowledge to teach, Hex started to pair up regulars and let them spar with their needles and reels.

During these spars, Kaizen was able to win most of them. The only two opponents that he was not able to resist at all being Endorsi and Anak which only stayed in the infirmary for three days.

Then, after class he would take another shower and then head to the cafeteria to eat dinner, a time he also spent talking to the girls. Then, he would return to his room and train his shinsu till he fell asleep.

Aside from Sundays where he had no classes, Kaizen spent most of his days in the same way. Thus, on Sundays, he would take some time to relax with the girls.

Near the end of the second week, Hex took the twelve remaining regulars who weren't in the infirmary to the second special testing arena. The other five had received severe injuries that would take more than a week to heal. So, they were disqualified.

Having arrived on top of a circular dark pavement, with an yellowish barrier covering it, Kaizen looked around to see that surrounding it was a desert filled with white sand. And, other than the few dunes he could see here and there, only the light coming from the ceiling of the floor could be seen.

"So, regulars, this location is the second special training ground. Here your test will be to survive for two days and kill at least three shineuh." Said Hex floating on top of her green couch.

"Be careful of not heading too far away, about three kilometers away, a few nests will be present and some of the shineuh present in them are capable of killing E-rank regular. Other than that, if you get into a fatal condition, you will be taken back to the infirmary and be disqualified immediately. So, be careful out there." Said Hex as her voice sounded more serious than normal.

Then, she raised her hand and said, "When I say start, you will only be able to enter this place after two days have passed. So do not stay near here for too long."

Afterwards, she looked at the ten regulars before saying, "Start."

Just as she said so, all the regulars were teleported to the dunes surrounding them.

As he had wanted to test himself, Kaizen took a look to see where the other regulars are heading before walking in the opposite way.

A few hours had passed after Kaizen had started to walk away. And, even though he was already sweating from the heat, his experience on the first floor made it so that his body was more resistant to it than normal. So, he was not tired yet.

While climbing one of the dunes to see if he could find any shineuh, Kaizen's ground suddenly started to shake as he jumped to the side.

There, in his previous position, a three-meter-long and one-meter wide yellow worm covered by scales could be seen. Noticing that it had failed to swallow its prey, it tried to burrow into the ground to attack Kaizen again.

Seeing the creepy worm whose mouth was full of sharp teeth, Kaizen rapidly reinforced his body with shinsu as he manifested his arms inventory and swung his reel, successfully managing to attach it to one of the worm's scales just before it went underground.

Due to this, Kaizen was able to follow its movements underground as he started to dodge the worm's attempts at swallowing him.

Each time he would dodge it, he tried to stab the worm with the needle he was grabbing with his right arm. But, even with all of his attacks hitting, he was barely able to injure it even when he aimed at the spaces between the scales.

After ten minutes had passed where he was constantly evading the worm, Kaizen had barely managed to kill the worm. Multiple stabbing wounds seen on its body.

Breathing heavily, Kaizen dismissed his reinforcement as he sat on the ground and drank some water from the bottle he had on his waist. Thankfully, their teacher had advised them to bring a water bottle with them today, or surviving would be much harder.

"Although I can handle one of them. If more of them come at me, I will probably have to run." Said Kaizen as he started to think about the differences between facing a regular and facing a shineuh.

Resting for ten minutes, Kaizen got up as he started to head back so that we would not be too close to the nests that Hex had mentioned.

By the time night had come, without having any maps of this area in his pocket, Kaizen had thoroughly gotten lost. But it didn't take much longer till he saw someone in the distance.

Moving closer to check who it was, the chilly winds sweeping on his face, Kaizen's stomach could not help but rumble just as he got near enough to see that Endorsi seemed to be fighting a worm two meters longer than he had fought.

Alerted to the sound of Kaizen's stomach, Endorsi got distracted for a second while looking at him. This allowed the worm to slam into her as her body flew back by a few meters.

Getting up without any noticeable differences other than a few wrinkles and tears in her clothes, Endorsi shot Kaizen an annoyed glance as she ran up to the giant worm and killed it with her needle.

Looking around, Kaizen could see more than ten worm corpses which were starting to be covered by the white sand.

This in turn, gave him a slight fear of her beating him up for distracting her. But, deciding there was no running away, and happy that he found someone else, Kaizen just relaxed his face as he watched Endorsi tear apart the worm after killing it due to being annoyed of the tears in her dress.

While walking back, Kaizen had realized that he made a light oversight when going out by himself. He had forgotten that without anyone to help keep watch, he would have to stay up for two whole nights without sleeping. Thus, he was happy to find Endorsi, even though he will probably be scolded by her in few moments.

After she had finished tearing up the worm's corpse, Endorsi looked at him somewhat angrily as she said, "Don't you dare to run away." Then, she quickly reached Kaizen's location before raising her hand as if she was about to slap him.

But, before the hand could ever reach him, she stared at him and said, "Now, since I am kind and benevolent, I will give you two choices. You will either stand at night watching out for any incoming warms for the next six hours, where afterwards I will keep guard for you for two hours. Or, you are going to lose one of your legs."

Seeing that she seemed serious about breaking his leg, along with the fact that sleeping for two hours was better than nothing. Kaizen chose to acquiesce this time as he said, "Okay, I am fine with the first option. But, that will be all that I will need to do to repay you for the dress, right?"

Tilting her head slightly to the right while thinking for a few seconds, Endorsi straightened up as she nodded and replied, "I will forgive you so easily only this time."

Three hours had passed since Endorsi had fallen asleep, yet, it was at this moment when Kaizen suddenly felt ground trembling so much that the two or three dunes around them had scattered thus changing the whole terrain into a plane.

"What is happening? Can't you even keep watch properly?" Screamed Endorsi while spitting the pieces of sand that had entered her mouth.

Seeing what was happening, Kaizen reinforced his body with shinsu while he materialized his arms inventory and drew his needle with his right hand. A grim expression could be seen on his face.

Then, after all the trembling, an eerie silence had suddenly befallen the place.

After two seconds had passed, Kaizen's instincts had screamed for him to dodge as he jumped with all his prowess towards the right side.

Then, half a second after he jumped, a giant worm, about twenty meters long and five meters wide suddenly jumped out of his previous location and then back into the sand. It had silver like scales and its mouth was full of teeth which were each as big as Kaizen was.

Seeing the terrifying worm which had just appeared, Endorsi quickly jumped back from her previous location as she reinforced her body with shinsu and said, "Run away for now, I can hold him by myself."

Yet feeling trepidation spread through his whole body, Kaizen wasn't able to think how he could run away from that. So, instead of running, he stopped for a second attempting to hear the sound of the worm moving. Focusing for another second, Kaizen didn't hesitate to jump to the left this side while he continued to run.

Then again, the worm suddenly appeared at Kaizen's previous spot. Seeing that his prey had run away again, the worm retuned to the ground again, although this time not as deeply as before. Then, resolute in chasing after him the worm moved straight towards him.

Seeing all that was happening, Endorsi attempted to run towards the direction that giant worm was going as she heard Kaizen's voice saying, "I will be bait, try to kill it before it kills both of us."

A bit annoyed that Kaizen seemed to be belittling her thinking that she could not handle that worm alone, Endorsi didn't hesitate to run even faster trying to show that she could kill it even without his help.

Yet just as she was about to reach them both, Kaizen suddenly turned to his right just as the worm was about to jump on him again. Forgetting what Hex said about them being saved if they entered a fatak condition, Kaizen was desperately trying to stay alive.

Taking the opportunity when the worm had missed, Endorsi managed to stab it in its back.

Feeling the pain from Endorsi's needle, the worm got more triggered as it dived towards Kaizen.

Seeing that he could not escape being swallowed, Kaizen resolved himself as just as he was entering its mouth he jumped inside to avoid being crushed by its teeth. Then, just as he was about to fall down into its stomach, Kaizen managed to stab his needle into the inside of the worm's throat as he barely avoided the fate of being digested to death.

Feeling a great amount of pain from being stabbed from the inside, the worm started to writhe on the ground. This in turn allowed Endorsi to attack it till it died.

Holding on with all his might after the worm started to twist desperately, Kaizen who had thought that he will be dying soon suddenly heard the sound of walls falling as he turned to look and saw that at the opposite side, Endorsi had managed to make a tear big enough that a human could easily pass through.

Not hesitating for an instant, Kaizen jumped towards the outside with his needle covered in bodily fluids happy to have survived.

Looking to see that Kaizen who was covered in saliva and blood didn't seem to have any big injuries, Endorsi sighed as she said, "I won't blame you this time."

Just as he got out, the mixture of relief, fear, excitement, hunger and tiredness made him fall asleep before he could reply to Endorsi's statement.

Traveling with Endorsi, Kaizen managed to defeat two other worms by himself before the time had ended. Then, after taking a short rest, all the regulars were suddenly teleported back to the dark circular pavement.

Just like this, the second exam ended as Kaizen returned to his room, took a long shower and went to eat dinner before falling asleep in his bed.

Alternative Titles: Where Is the Poison That Giant Worms Tend to Have? - *Secret* - Run For Thy Dear Life