In front of him, there was a sheer stone wall.
He looked upwards, and saw the red sky above him. It was just a dot, so small that he could not tell whether it was very close or far away.
The message that he was still in the process of awakening was before his eyes.
Progress: 11%.
The problem was that it barely moved at all.
It had already slowed down severely after reaching ten percent, and, past that threshold, it was extremely slow.
He would not be able to stay here for long. This castle had already fallen. There was no guarantee that this cavern would not follow. In the worst case, the entire dungeon could collapse.
These dungeons typically became unstable when they had rifts and, while rare, some eventually collapsed entirely.
The answer was to flee this place if we were to survive.
Having made his decision, he began to climb the stone.
He didn't know if this was the right choice, but no better alternatives came to his mind.
He had always prided himself on his endurance, but scaling a wall of this height would have seemed impossible to most.
But now it seemed possible.
His body was in an absurdly good condition as a result of the awakening.
He worked his way up the rocky fingers that jutted from the wall.
He climbed slowly but surely. He proceeded with deliberation.
He paused to catch his breath.
More than half an hour later we had not yet reached the top of the hill.
At least he had strength left in him.
Her mind turned to the physical training the Raw hunter trainees had been put through, the guild's reputation for pushing bodies to the absolute limit. He had survived every single one of them.
It wasn't because of talent.
He had simply worked harder than anyone else.
He practiced while others rested, slept less than the rest, and even shortened his meals to give himself more practice time.
And yet, not once had those efforts been acknowledged.
People mocked him by telling him that no matter how strong he was, mana was more important, and stamina would increase after becoming a hunter.
He ignored them.
Even afterwards, when he'd already finished mana control training, the exercise had felt necessary, though he never could have put a finger on why that was.
Now, it was proving to be the right choice.
He climbed faster, clutching one stone after another, one thought driving him.
He would survive.
But reality was cruel.
The wall stretched on before him, no matter how high.
His breathing turned into a gasping. His strength began to fail him and his muscles began shaking.
He looked down, and saw that he could not see the bottom, for he had ascended far beyond that.
If he fell now, he would surely die.
As this damaging thought crossed his mind, his hand slipped away from the page.
He almost immediately managed to catch hold of another protrusion sticking out of the rock.
But my muscles were shaking more now. The only ones I needed to hold on were spent.
At this rate, I was falling.
He refused to give up on him.
Again he extended his trembling hand before him, and began to read.
[Stamina has increased by 1.]
It worked; the trembling stopped and the grip became firm.
It was not a complete recovery, but it was enough.
He resumed climbing.
The wall had always seemed insurmountable, but he kept climbing, for the message would appear whenever his body could go no higher.
[Stamina increased by 1 point.]
And no matter how high he climbed on the apparatus, no further messages followed him, not even when he saw it again.
He felt pain in every muscle as he moved.
Then, at last, he saw it.
At last he came to the edge of the pit into which he had fallen.
Relief gave way to concern.
What if monsters were outside our doors?
He was not yet a hunter. He was in the middle of his awakening.
With the monsters present, escape was nearly impossible.
But there was no choice.
But with whatever strength he had left, he grabbed the edge and pulled himself up.
But as soon as he came out, he saw them.
These monsters had forced Raw's hunters, already overwhelmed, to turn and run.
They saw him and began to move closer.
He held tight to the staff he had inherited.
If this was indeed the 13-Star Black Mage's, then perhaps there was a strong magic hidden inside of it.
He pushed and screamed and gave it his all.
Nothing happened.
As he stood there like an idiot, the monsters came out and he gave in to despair.
He muttered to himself in resignation, wishing the robe had at least some kind of stealth function.
Immediately as the thought left him, his form became transparent.
The monsters froze, then howled in fury when they realized their prey had escaped.
They couldn't see him.
He managed to dodge it and moved on.
The effect was subtle: apparently this robe had the power of invisibility.
He did not know how long it would last, but that did not matter.
He ran.
A lot of mana drained out of his heart, and dizziness filled his mind.
However, the monsters did not hear the sound of his walking footsteps.
Sound itself had been erased.
The thought sent a chill down him.
Not even the assassins had such stealth, and they had to train hours to move so quietly.
This robe needed none of that.
Presumably its rank could wait a while.
He then headed directly to the gate leading back to the outside.
He escaped a few moments later.
Not long after, news began to spread that the dungeon rift had escalated from a low-grade to a high-grade.
All of Raw's hunters survived.
The trainees had not.
Public opinion erupted.
Some scrutinized Raw's actions and others called for a full investigation into them.
He quietly read the comments before closing his phone.
One detail was wrong.
The death toll was reported as thirty-four.
He knew better.
Thirty-three of the trainees died.
He was alive.
Before long, he was again standing before Raw's monolithic headquarters.
His survival had already been reported, so there was no stopping it.
The contract still sat in his name as a trainee, until he had learned to awaken. Even afterwards, they had priority rights.
Unfortunate, but not absolute.
He could not be forced into a guild just because he did not want one.
And he had already decided.
He would never walk the same path as Raw again.
Until that event came, he would make the most of what they offered.
As if to challenge this resolve, the awakening began.
[Awakening in progress . . . 12% . . . 13% . . .]
Then he took a deep breath and walked.
Toward Raw's building.
More resolute than ever before.