Ru Amuh followed soon after Chi-Woo jumped down the mountain peak. They didn’t have the chance to check how many monsters there were or how they looked. They didn’t even know whether or not they were on the right path. They just started running as fast as they could to escape. With senses that surpassed normal humans, Ru Amuh ran while thinking that they wouldn’t last even half a minute. The speed at which the monsters chased after them was exceedingly fast; and the ones in the back weren’t their only concerns. There were monsters coming from their right, left, and even from above.
‘We can’t…’
It would be a victory if even one out of the five of them made it out alive.
‘At least Teacher should…!’ Before Ru Amuh could finish his thought, he sensed a monster’s presence near him.
“Be careful…!” He shouted as a clump of spider web burst out from a bush on the side. A spider monster cast its web like a net at the search party. Having foreseen it beforehand, Ru Amuh sidestepped the web by an inch. On the other hand, Hawa froze slightly facing the unexpected ambush; if she continued running forward, she would fall into the web, but if she stopped, she would be caught by the monsters chasing after them. Neither was her way out. Thus, with perfect timing, Hawa quickly flung herself towards the bushes and landed where the spider monster had burst out from.
Bang!
Stunned that Hawa had exchanged positions with it, the spider monster turned around. But it didn’t chase after her and instead focused its attention on its other prey. Hawa was just one person, and there were four people currently in its vicinity. Soon, Chi-Woo was faced with the eight eyes scattered all over the spider monster’s body, which sent a chill down his spine. He didn’t know what had happened to Hawa, but he was certain of one thing: he was the spider monster’s next target. Proving him right, the spider monster ran towards him with its eight legs until it was right in front of Chi-Woo. It then raised one of its legs to pierce Chi-Woo’s back—
“How dare you!”
Punch!
—Kiih!?
A heavy thump was followed by the spider monster’s short shriek.
“Senior! Let’s go!” Ru Hiana shouted. Ru Hiana had been running behind Chi-Woo this whole time and jumped to action as soon as he was in danger.
“Ms. Ru Hiana!”
Chi-Woo turned instinctively to see Ru Hiana climbing on top of the spider monster’s sloping body before stabbing her sword through the top of its head. And then he saw the monsters coming for them from behind.
“Run! Don’t look back!” Ru Hiana held onto her deeply inserted sword like a steering wheel as the spider monster floundered madly. When she saw the other monsters rushing to them from behind, she quickly jumped off the spider monster and dived into the side bushes like Hawa did.
They had only started running a while ago, and yet two people had already separated from the group. However, there was no time to be concerned about Hawa or Ru Hiana. Their danger was still imminent, and would only get worse onwards. The monster’s cries were getting closer than ever, and dozens of monsters began to peek their heads out from the hills in front of them. Chi-Woo cursed. They had almost run into their enemies blindly.
Ru Amuh stopped running. Hurriedly, he twisted around and rushed toward where Hawa and Ru Hiana had gone. Simultaneously, monsters from the front and back lunged. Six or seven of them were about to strike Chi-Woo, but—Whoosh! Strong winds circled around Chi-Woo fiercely before growing into a whirlwind, trapping the monsters caught within. Although the wind only managed to make the monsters stumble, it created an opening for Chi-Woo to escape from the monsters’ view. However, dangers continued to come their way.
Clang!
“I apologize, Teacher…!” Ru Amuh shouted while drawing his sword with a sharp shing. Chi-Woo didn’t know why Ru Amuh was apologizing, but it was clear what Ru Amuh was planning to do now: he would keep the monsters occupied so that Chi-Woo could escape.
‘Mr. Ru Amuh…’ Chi-Woo gritted his teeth, but the situation seemed inevitable. Ru Amuh must have decided when he stopped running that it was too late for him to return now. Even if Chi-Woo turned back to help Ru Amuh, he wouldn’t be of much help, and it would be foolish of him to do so.
No, there was one thing that Chi-Woo could still do. Chi-Woo thought of his die and looked conflicted. Given the circumstances, he should roll the die, shouldn’t he? No, not yet—another part of him thought, and he debated with himself back and forth. He reached into his pocket to grab the die, but in the end, Chi-Woo shook his head to himself.
‘I shouldn’t.’
No one had died yet, and they were still running. What if he rolled the die and got the wrong number? Chi-Woo recalled the memory of the last failure and removed his hand from his pocket. In the end, he simply gritted his teeth and ran. Without looking back, he ran and ran.
Watching Chi-Woo go farther away from him, Ru Amuh lifted his sword. He stood in the path that Chi-Woo had taken and made a firm resolve to die only after giving Chi-Woo as much running start as he could—or at least enough time to escape Mountain Evalaya. But soon, Ru Amuh was taken by surprise.
“What?”
Monsters that were flung away by Ru Amuh’s winds rose again and suddenly dispersed. Most of them circled past Ru Amuh and rushed towards where Chi-Woo had gone. It seemed the monsters were intent on not letting a single prey escape. Despite his shock, Ru Amuh quickly tried to chase after them, but he wasn’t able to.
Whirrrrl!
Tentacles flew from both sides and wrapped around his arms and legs. Although the majority of the monsters were chasing Chi-Woo, not all of them had gone. Two had remained and surrounded Ru Amuh.
“Kuh…!” Ru Amuh groaned as he fought against the force pulling on his wrist, swinging his sword quickly to cut the tentacles. He tried to follow that up with a couple more consecutive swings, but the tentacles regrew almost instantly after they were severed, and the monster’s strength was truly formidable.
He knew he wasn’t going to cut down twenty or thirty of them simultaneously as he had done with the mutants that had yet to fully evolve. Still, he thought he could face them if there were only two. However, he couldn’t afford to waste so much time fighting them. If he wanted to buy Chi-Woo time, fighting one was one too many.
‘I should get away from them as fast as possible and chase after Teacher again.’
Ru Amuh clenched his fists towards the two monsters that blocked his path and quickly moved.
At the same time, Chi-Woo thought while running, ‘What should I do?’ It would be great if no more monsters came out, but there was little chance of that happening. Hawa had dropped out in the beginning, and Ru Hiana and Ru Amuh, the two people who could protect him, were no longer with him. The only person left was Eshnunna. Moreover, he could tell that the monsters that had been hindered briefly by Ru Amuh’s attacks were now chasing him.
‘Perhaps it was too late.’ Was Ru Amuh already defeated? He didn’t want to believe it, but the reality was harsh. What should he do? Chi-Woo considered what alternatives there were besides throwing the die, and the first thing that came up was using the ‘sharing’ ability. Mimi had told him to save this ability as much as possible, but this was not the time to be picky. Death would soon catch up with him, and he needed to do everything he could to survive. Which ability should he choose? Swordsmanship? Combat fighting? No—these were not it. What could be helpful in this situation was…
‘Ms. Mimi!’ A notification immediately came up.
[User Choi Chi-Woo will share Ru Amuh’s special ability ‘Synesthesia’.]
[Synesthesia rank…S. Trust level…97%. Adjusted rank…A+.]
Mimi seemed to have also recognized the severity of the situation as she immediately read Chi-Woo’s thoughts and began the sharing process.
[Sharing is complete. User Chi-Woo’s special ability ‘Synesthesia’ will be activated.]
Chi-Woo felt a strange sensation sweep through his entire body as soon as the sharing was complete. Even though he was just running while looking to the front, his body seemed to be collecting sensory information from all around him. It felt as if he was looking at a map updating in real-time.
Synesthesia was a phenomenon in which stimulation of one sense triggered another sense. Chi-Woo felt a strong sensation coming toward him from one side. When he reflexively turned around, he saw Eshnunna running with difficulty. Then, as soon as she came within his sight, a fierce alarm rang in his head. There wasn’t even time to talk. As soon as he recognized the strange sensation, he ran towards Eshnunna. Eshnunna screamed as she was brought to the ground with Chi-Woo.
Bam!
Eshnunna was about to shout and ask what he was doing, but she was soon stunned by the ensuing explosion. Something hit hard against the spot Eshnunna had just been in. If she had kept on moving, she would have been completely pulverized. Eshnunna blankly looked at it, belatedly realizing that she was shaking. Chi-Woo helped Eshnunna up as he got to his feet before starting running again.
“N-no…just leave me and g…” Eshnunna froze before she could move. There were monsters all around them. In the short amount of time they had stood still, the monsters had caught up with them. Chi-Woo looked at the monster jumping like a grasshopper and clenched his teeth before dashing straight towards it.
The monsters had caught up, but they hadn’t been caught yet. They could still run away—if they even have a chance. At the very moment the monsters jumped and were about to rush towards them in unison, Chi-Woo focused on his new senses. ‘Please!’
‘Left!’ Chi-Woo made a swift turn while running.
Swish!
A sharp sensation passed his side. ‘Back, left, and right simultaneously! Ankle!’ Chi-Woo jumped with all his might, and something that felt like an elastic rubber brushed him before dropping.
‘Left, right, diagonal next!’ As soon as his feet touched the ground, he began running again and dashed in a zig-zag line. Huge insect-like monsters charged past him on both sides, leaving deep impressions on the ground.
‘Back again! Front!’ Chi-Woo immediately turned to the side and spun around.
Swish!
A monster that appeared behind him flew past Chi-Woo and pierced another monster in his front. The tall monster that had been coming towards him stopped and screamed in pain. Then Chi-Woo slid past between the monster’s legs with all the momentum he could generate. After passing through this small, tunnel-like opening, he saw a bright path. With what little strength he could muster, he got up while carrying Eshnunna before quickly ducking down.
Whoosh!
A chilling sensation missed his back by a hair. With one misstep, his body would have been cut into two.
“Huff!” Chi-Woo straightened his back and began running again. He ran straight ahead like the wind. Eshnunna looked completely stunned while being in Chi-Woo’s arms. She had been certain of their doom when all manners of monsters rushed towards them at the same time. She couldn’t believe that they had emerged miraculously unscathed.
The monsters seemed just as stunned as they looked at the place where they had all attacked at once and blankly stared at Chi-Woo as he moved farther away. They were so shocked that for a while, they simply stood frozen rather than chasing after Chi-Woo. The monsters had been sure that they would get them; they had surrounded Chi-Woo and Eshnunna and rushed towards them at the same time. There had only been a 1 to 2 seconds time difference between their attacks.
However, Chi-Woo seized the short opening and managed to escape every time they tried to catch him. Moving his body like an acrobat, he avoided the monster’s attacks in a matter of seconds. Thus, even the monsters were shocked beyond belief, which thankfully allowed Chi-Woo to run straight ahead, putting more distance between them and the monsters. Only then did the monsters yell in anger and resume their chase.
The crisis was not over yet. They had only gone over one hurdle. Chi-Woo didn’t know how many more they would have to overcome until they left this mountain. And even if they escaped, he didn’t know how many strenuous events awaited them before they could return to their fortress. Various thoughts passed through his mind, but Chi-Woo decided to stop thinking. It was imperative for them to get out of this situation first.
At that moment, Chi-Woo suddenly felt his surroundings become dark again. Even though the sun was not setting yet, shadows were growing longer.
‘What’s happening?’ Chi-Woo was confused and suddenly found a rock slowly rising from a distance. ‘What?’ What he saw didn’t make sense. Chi-Woo’s eyes opened wide as he tracked the movement of the rocky wall.
No, it wasn’t a rock, but huge muscles that were as hard as rocks. It was a monster. A gigantic monster about the same size as a house was in the process of rising. It smirked as it saw Chi-Woo running while holding Eshnunna and raised its hand. An enormous hand that was big enough to cover the sun’s rays soared vertically. At the same time, the monster opened its mouth.
Guahhhhhhhhhhhh!
The terrible roar shook the entire mountain range. Accompanied by a tremendous burst of wind, the giant monster’s hand quickly dropped down.
