I’m Here to End This Fight

Chapter 42 - Changing the Dragon Plaque (1)



Chapter 42 Changing the Dragon Plaque (1)

The Forest of Beginnings was engulfed by a rough snowstorm for the first time in a long while.

Despite it being afternoon, the forest exuded a dark and dreary atmosphere.

Scattered throughout the forest, cadets waited for the snowstorm to subside from within their shelters.

Most cadets had reached their mental and physical limits due to the month-long survival test.

Given the situation, the turbulent weather could have dampened their spirits, but contrary to expectations, the overall mood among the cadets wasn’t bad.

This was because January 1st was approaching.

However, the cadets weren’t waiting for the New Year.

What thrilled them was the fact that in two days, they would finally escape this dreaded forest.

Most of the cadets’ minds were filled with one thought:

‘If I can hold on just a little longer… I’ll become the 50th cadet of the Cradle!’

It was a hope that seemed almost within reach.

On that day, as the cadets gradually let go of their tension in anticipation of that hope,

Despair came mingled with the diagonal snowstorm.

* * *

Due to the dark clouds covering the sky, the Forest of Beginnings was shrouded in darkness.

Whoooo-.

Amidst the fierce snowstorm, a dim light shone weakly from a small hut crudely made of intertwined trees.

The hut was practically a house made of snow, but it was enough to block the cold wind.

Dennis Wayne, crouching inside, clicked his tongue as he watched the raging snowstorm.

“This damned weather just won’t quit.”

Despite his grumbling, he was inwardly satisfied with the current situation.

‘Still, this is much better than the beginning.’

At the start, he didn’t know how to make a fire or find food, surviving for days by swallowing only cold snow.

Compared to that, the small hut and campfire now seemed like a revolution.

‘All thanks to the shop!’

On his way to ring the bell to quit, he had encountered the shop.

The taste of the Tosaba he ate there was unforgettable.

Although he had spent all his silver coins there, he didn’t regret his choice.

‘Thanks to that one Tosaba, I gained the courage and hope to endure again!’

With newfound courage and hope, Dennis had consistently guided others who were about to give up to the shop.

‘Good things should be shared, right?’

Of course, he gained a little food and flint in return…

‘In the end, they learned about the shop quickly because of me… so it’s a win-win, right?’

Having rationalized his actions, Dennis looked outside again.

Watching the falling snow, he sighed softly.

“Ha, I wish time would fly by…”

Why did time pass so slowly?

The remaining two days felt like two years.

“Haah…”

Dennis’s heavy sigh turned into a white mist in the cold air.

As he sighed continuously,

“Huh?”

Dennis noticed something moving in the snowstorm in the distance.

His brows furrowed.

‘What is that?’

At first, he thought he was seeing things.

But he wasn’t.

‘Hmm…?’

A black figure wriggling in the dim light.

The movement grew larger.

“What?!”

Soon, it rushed through the snowstorm toward Dennis’s hut.

Only then did he realize it was a person moving in the snowstorm.

“Ahhh?!”

Startled, Dennis hurriedly drew his sword.

However, the ‘black figure’ was faster than Dennis’s reaction.

Swish-.

A silver flash pierced through the snowstorm.

Dennis instinctively swung his sword at it.

Clang!

Thud-.

Immediately after the clash with the silver flash, Dennis felt a sharp pain in his arm and shoulder holding the sword.

‘What strength is this?!’

One clash.

It tore apart his grip, sending his sword flying far away.

At the same time, the silver flash lightly grazed Dennis’s cheek and split his hut in half.

The whole process took only about ten seconds.

The silver flash then transformed back into a sword.

Thud-.

Dennis, feeling the cold blade against his neck, fell back in shock.

Thump-.

With his hut blown away and the snowstorm raging, the campfire Dennis had lit flickered as if it would go out at any moment.

During this time, Dennis could see the mysterious assailant holding a sword to his neck.

‘A Black Sword Corps member?!’

The man wore black clothes.

But he wasn’t a Black Sword Corps member.

He looked too young for that.

Maybe only a few years older than Dennis himself?

Moreover, the man’s black clothes were the same as his own.

‘A cadet?’

But then, he thought that wasn’t right either.

The man wore the same clothes as the cadets, but there was one difference.

‘That’s… an epaulet?’

A yellow epaulet on the man’s shoulder.

No cadet wore epaulets like this man.

Drip-.

Blood trickled down Dennis’s cheek.

The man’s eyes, watching this, were cold.

Then, in a voice colder than his gaze, the man spoke.

“With such trash skills, you must have the Yellow Dragon Plaque.”

At that moment, the man’s sword moved quickly.

Swish-.

The sword slashed through the air, turning Dennis’s clothes into rags.

The sharp killing intent froze Dennis in place.

And then,

Clatter-.

Something hard caught in Dennis’s clothes.

“This is it.”

The man flicked his sword, sending it flying.

‘Huh?!’

Dennis’s eyes widened as he saw his Yellow Dragon Plaque fly up in front of him.

At that moment, all his nerves focused on the Yellow Dragon Plaque, making time seem to slow down.

Thanks to that, he noticed the silver flash heading towards his Yellow Dragon Plaque.

Little by little.

The sword and the Yellow Dragon Plaque drew closer.

And finally, the silver blade touched the Yellow Dragon Plaque.

‘What?’

Dennis internally screamed, predicting what would happen next.

Swish-.

‘No, no!’

But despite his screams, the assailant mercilessly destroyed the Yellow Dragon Plaque.

Slash- slash-.

The copper Yellow Dragon Plaque was cut into pieces like a wooden block.

A total of four strikes in mid-air.

Thud-.

The Yellow Dragon Plaque fell to the ground in eight pieces.

“Ah…”

Dennis stared blankly at the pieces of the plaque on the ground.

It all felt like a dream.

‘My… my… plaque?!’

In the Forest of Beginnings, the Dragon Plaque was life.

The shattered Dragon Plaque meant Dennis’s life was shattered too.

‘Is this… really the end?’

How had he survived for a month?

He only needed to last two more days?

In two days, he would have become a cadet of the Cradle?

The hope that had been so close evaporated completely.

Watching his plaque shatter right before his eyes, the despair and emptiness were indescribable.

“No… noooo!”

Dennis screamed as he gathered the broken pieces of his plaque with trembling hands.

The assailant, who had been inspecting Dennis, clicked his tongue in disgust.

“Tch, worthless.”

He spoke coldly to Dennis, who was still in shock.

“Get out. Trash like you doesn’t deserve to be my junior. You’re just a bug.”

Leaving those cruel words, the assailant left.

After a while, Dennis finally regained some composure and muttered the assailant’s words.

“Ju…nior?”

With tear-filled eyes, he blankly stared in the direction the assailant had gone.

* * *

At the time when desperate screams echoed from cadets all over the Forest of Beginnings,

There was only one person who let out a happy cry.

“Hehe, hehe! I’m rich!”

Clink, clink-.

Rubbing his cheek against a swollen cloth bag, Yuri’s face looked like a content cat.

Behind Yuri.

The stockpile that had been piled up in one corner of his hideout was gone.

Instead, a sturdy wooden box took its place.

Only Yuri knew that the box contained two more bags similar in size to the one he was hugging.

“Ah, this heavy feeling… it’s too good?”

Although they weren’t real coins, Yuri had never held this much silver in his life, so he felt immense satisfaction.

‘If only this were real gold…’

The total amount of silver Yuri had gathered exceeded 200,000.

Including the 100,000 he originally had.

If this had been real gold, it would have been an astronomical amount of 300,000 gold.

Thinking of that, a hint of regret flickered in Yuri’s eyes.

‘Even after sweeping up the silver from so many cadets, it’s only 230,000…’

The secret behind the numbers engraved on the silver coins.

It fell into one of the two predictions Yuri had.

The number of coins varied depending on how the cadet entered the Cradle.

Those recommended by the Yellow Dragon Plaque got 500.

Those recommended by a Silver Dragon Plaque holder got 3,000.

Those recommended by a Gold Dragon Plaque holder got 10,000.

‘I couldn’t confirm the amount for those recommended by the Platinum Dragon Plaque… but it’s probably around 30,000 to 50,000.’

In other words, the 100,000 coins he received were because he was recommended by Johan, the Black Dragon Plaque holder.

The 100,000 silver coins he received thanks to Johan were indeed a huge amount.

‘Out of 503 cadets, only about thirty didn’t use my shop.’

Even most of those with the Yellow Dragon Plaque had used his shop to buy goods.

In that process, more than 95% of the silver coins given to the Yellow Dragon Plaque holders became Yuri’s.

And yet, it was only 230,000 silver coins.

He alone had received 100,000 silver coins.

“Man… I didn’t expect to benefit from the old man.”

If this unique silver coin really became the currency in the Cradle…

‘I’ll forgive the old man for always bragging about it.’

Johan’s face, grumbling “Are you insane? Giving away such a precious Dragon Plaque!” flashed through Yuri’s mind.

At that moment.

Clatter-.

A sudden noise changed Yuri’s expression.

The happiness from a moment ago vanished, replaced by a cold, hard look.

He grabbed his sword and quickly stood up.

‘An intruder.’

Quickly deciding on his course of action, Yuri moved just as he had when the one-eyed man had come before.

He extinguished the campfire and threw a couple of logs towards the entrance before hiding in the darkness.

Once his eyes had adjusted to the darkness,

Yuri focused his hearing towards the entrance.

Snap!- Clang!

‘The trap worked.’

After the one-eyed man’s attack, Yuri had reworked his traps as a lesson.

The result was the noise he now heard.

Snap- Clang- Clatter-.

Various sounds came from beyond the entrance.

Even if the traps didn’t pose a real threat, he had adjusted them to make sure they made loud warning noises.

Snap- Snap- Clang!

The noise grew closer.

A glint appeared in Yuri’s eyes.

‘The intruder has some skill.’

But not enough to completely ignore his traps, given the racket they made.

Yuri closed his eyes.

He focused more on the sounds and mapped out the locations of his traps in his mind.

Soon, an intricate trap map appeared in his mind.

Clang- Clang- Bang!

The sounds from beyond the passage merged with the trap map Yuri had envisioned.

‘From the sounds, the intruder is alone, still at the entrance.’

The image of a lone intruder maneuvering through the traps vividly played out in his mind.

Snap- Clatter-.

He identified the sounds made by each triggered trap.

Clang-.

The timing and manner in which the intruder blocked or deflected the traps.

Yuri perfectly analyzed the sounds, estimating the intruder’s skill level.

As most of the traps were destroyed and the noise gradually subsided,

Having gauged the intruder’s skill, Yuri slowly opened his eyes.

At the same time,

Sssss-.

In the darkness, his red lips twisted into a small, crooked smile, forming dimples.


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