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Chapter 6
Roizen wasn’t the only one caught off guard by the sudden appearance of the mist wolf.
‘What is that? Could it have come over from Zone 2?’
Jina, the temporary instructor who had been secretly watching Roizen from the pier, was also considerably surprised.
‘Tch, here I…’
It was unreasonable to expect a trainee paladin to handle a monster with two cores on their own.
That’s why Jina had thought she’d have to deal with it herself and drew her sword. But then she saw:
‘What? Is he seriously going to fight that thing?’
Instead of running, Roizen held his sword and pointed it at the mist wolf.
‘Normally, I’d have to stop him…’
Normally, she would have intervened immediately to prevent him from acting recklessly, but Jina decided to observe for a moment.
‘He doesn’t seem like an ordinary trainee paladin anyway.’
Having witnessed Roizen take on five wild dogs earlier, Jina couldn’t help but be curious to see how he would handle the mist wolf. Of course, she was confident that if Roizen got even slightly into danger, she could immediately step in to save him.
‘He’s already passed the graduation exam. Might as well see what the rookie can do.’
‘So he starts by spreading mist.’
The mist wolf began expanding the fog that shimmered around its body, spreading it widely in all directions.
‘But all that mist can do is…’
There were only two things the mist wolf could be aiming for with the fog.
One was to curse.
The wolf’s mist was made of magical energy. Even if it couldn’t directly cast a curse, it could contaminate others with magic through the fog, causing them to be cursed.
Any exposure to magical energy could result in a curse, and Overlake was already saturated with mana. Adding the wolf’s mist would make the curse stronger and faster.
The density of the magic was enough that even a trainee paladin would likely fall victim despite using protective spells, but it didn’t affect me. My mastery of protective spells was enough that such a minor mana intrusion couldn’t harm me.
Moreover, the effects of my protective spells seemed far more potent than I initially thought; the wolf’s mist couldn’t penetrate my body at all without me even casting a spell.
The second target the wolf aimed for was obstructing vision.
It wasn’t using a curse to blind me—it wanted to physically block my sight by spreading dense mist.
In fact, this was likely the wolf’s real intent.
Sure enough.
The once imposing mist wolf disappeared from view as the fog thickened and the surroundings became hazy. Not only had its body vanished, but even the sound of its footsteps was concealed.
Now, it wouldn’t be strange if the wolf attacked from anywhere. I had to clear the mist before it launched a surprise attack.
I imbued my boots with holy energy, and with a shout, slammed them hard into the ground, releasing compressed holy energy in an instant.
A technique that bursts compressed mana in a single strike: Impact.
Since I used holy energy, it could be called a Holy Impact.
The shockwave of holy energy, reflected off the ground, blew away the dense magical mist that had blocked my vision, revealing the mist wolf that had been sneaking up.
Holy Impact also dispersed the mana that had wavered like heat waves around the wolf, leaving it stunned by the force.
“Grr, grrr?”
The frozen wolf growled at me with a panicked expression. I pointed my sword at it to intimidate it.
“Want some more?”
If it had backed down, I would have let it go. Unfortunately, the wolf didn’t seem willing to retreat after witnessing the Holy Impact.
“Grrr!”
It now displayed hostility it hadn’t shown before and began advancing again.
Tch, annoying…
I clicked my tongue, approaching it as I had hoped it would simply leave.
If it goes all out, catching it will be difficult.
Even I couldn’t match its speed if it truly decided to rampage.
Then…
As we closed the distance enough to attack each other, the mist wolf lunged at my arm with its jaws. I willingly offered one arm.
I was wearing a protective guard on that arm.
Though the wolf’s bite was stronger than expected and pierced the guard, reaching my arm, I could withstand it.
The wolf shook its head violently, trying to tear my arm apart, but the strength I had built from practicing the Titan Breathing Technique allowed me to resist its shaking.
I pressed down on its jaw with my arm, immobilizing it, and drove my holy sword, charged with holy energy, into the back of its neck.
“Grrr!”
The wolf tried to bite me while digging its claws into the ground, but I held firm and activated Holy Impact through the sword.
Bang!
Although the energy was less than before, it was enough. Unlike the impact released by stomping with my boots, the sword-focused impact followed the blade, severing the mist wolf’s neck and ending its life in one stroke.
Phew.
Having defeated the mist wolf, I was catching my breath when I suddenly sensed someone’s presence.
“Roizen Harper.”
Specifically, someone deliberately revealed their presence.
“Temporary instructor, Jina Harper. Answer my questions accurately from now on.”
The temporary instructor for the graduation exam, Jina Harper, had approached closely behind me.
‘I didn’t even sense her until she was this close?’
She was within reach, yet I hadn’t detected her presence until she spoke. In my previous life, I never would have allowed someone to get this close.
‘My senses have become completely dull.’
I need to improve my awareness and raise my cultivation soon.
“When did you learn Impact?”
Jina pointed at the mist wolf’s corpse and asked about the technique.
Of course she would ask.
Impact was a technique taught only after becoming a full paladin. Using it before learning officially naturally piqued her interest.
“Impact?”
“The method you just used to clear the fog and cut the mist wolf’s neck.”
I had anticipated this question and prepared my answer.
“I learned it while practicing mana control. I just tried it out.”
Impact was basically a form of mana manipulation. I claimed I had discovered a way to release mana explosively during practice and had merely tested it with holy energy.
“Is that so?”
Fortunately, my lie seemed to work, and Jina moved on without pressing further.
“You know the mist wolf you defeated wasn’t a Zone 1 monster, right?”
“Yes, it probably came from Zone 2.”
“That’s right.”
Jina shook her head, unsure how a monster like that crossed into Zone 1, then looked at me.
“Then why did you fight it? You’d already fulfilled the exam conditions. The Zone 2 monster wasn’t part of the intended test, so you didn’t have to engage it.”
A question mixed with mild reproach—why did I risk myself against an unnecessary monster?
“I just thought I could take it down, so I tried.”
I couldn’t honestly say I wanted a proper fight now that my body was warmed up, so I gave a plausible answer.
Heh. This rookie won’t be easy to handle.
Jina chuckled softly at my reply, then disappeared again, leaving me to return to the pier.
“Roizen Harper, pass.”
The exam result was naturally a pass. Traveling from one end of Zone 1 to the other and answering Jina’s questions took time, but taking on five monsters at once allowed me to finish efficiently.
“Trainee Paladin Roizen Harper, are you ready to bear the responsibilities of a paladin of the order?”
“Yes, I am ready.”
“By the authority of the training instructor responsible for trainee paladins at the Underlake Cathedral, I hereby appoint Roizen Harper as a Grade 3 Paladin. May the blessings of the Seven Divine Thrones be with you.”
“May the blessings of the Seven Divine Thrones be with me.”
The instructor then presented me with the holy emblem, proof of my status as a cleric, completing my promotion to Grade 3 Paladin.
Normally, after a promotion ceremony, one would head directly to the mission room, but I went deeper into the training grounds instead.
“Roizen? You’re supposed to go to the mission room to receive orders.”
A training instructor, preparing exercises, noticed me and approached, curious why I wasn’t heading to the mission room. I replied as I took my position in the inner training area:
“I feel I need more training.”
I explained that I intended to focus solely on training before any mandatory missions. The instructor seemed pleased.
“Hmm, a commendable attitude.”
He added that I could request help if needed and walked away. Even if I asked, it wouldn’t help, because the training I planned to do wasn’t the kind where someone else could assist.
Swordsmanship or physical training could get help, but what I’m doing is core creation—Titan Breathing Method.
Unless the instructor had mastered Titan techniques, assistance was impossible. And I didn’t need any anyway, having already mastered it in my previous life.
The next week will be intense.
Grade 3 paladins are forced into missions if they don’t perform tasks for more than a week. This meant I had exactly one week to focus on training and create my second core using the Titan Breathing Method.
