A Survival Guide for a Counselor in the Apocalypse – Chapter 62

Author: Cireng

Chapter 62

I raised my trembling forearm again and moved it. The muscles I had pushed to their limit were screaming like mad.

—

[‘Trait: Strength (3)’ has leveled up.]

[Severe Muscle Pain – Arms (08:59:59)]

The muscles pushed to their limit are wailing!

Your arms ache terribly.

You can still move, but you’ll have to grit your teeth to do it.

When using ‘arms’, there is a 5% chance that stamina will decrease.

[You’re gradually starting to look like a proper human!]

—

Because of the routine, sleeping briefly in the morning, training through the afternoon, resting again, then pulling all-nighters on guard duty, my body was being tempered every moment.

I wasn’t stationed in the same place as Hoin, so I only saw him occasionally during meals after training. His synchronization level, as expected, had risen to a somewhat high level. I warned him several times about it.

But what was scarier than synchronization was how his already big body kept getting bigger. He was turning into a bear. Just what the hell was Hermadion doing to him…?

‘If you eat a protein-heavy diet and train day and night, does everyone end up like that?’

Damn it, muscle privilege. I’m struggling like hell just to reach average human strength.

Letting out a sigh, I kept thrusting the spear downward in rhythm with the chant. It felt like my forearm was tearing apart. The soldier next to me shook his hand as if his strength was failing.

“Just a little more!”

This damn situation always forced teamwork. Without it, you die. If even one person let go of the spear, the rest would be left trembling, waiting for that bastard to grab it again like they were being punished.

If we dropped it, we’d have to go to the forge and get another one, and carrying that massive spear back itself was both work and punishment.

My comrade gritted his teeth and grabbed the spear again.

In the end, teamwork meant sticking together when everyone was equally screwed. As we held on a little longer, someone behind us shouted for us to clear the way so the magic device could fire. Immediately, we pulled the spears back in sync with the chant.

“One!”

Two, three. As soon as we withdrew the spears in rhythm, the device activated.

Boom!

With that sound, something like a laser cannon shot through the air, drawing a line as it fired. Whenever something climbed up and placed its hands on the wall, we stabbed its fingers with spears to knock it down.

Even so, there were too many. We had to use every method available, catapults, anything. The wind howled like crazy, sweat poured down like rain, and taking advantage of Ainauk’s advance, I saw things climbing up along its back.

White, fluffy masses were crawling up through Ainauk’s fur like mad.

Tap-tap-tap-tap

Spiders. Pure white spiders began climbing rapidly. Someone spotted them and shouted:

“Glätscherweber! Prepare the hammers!”

Glätscherweber. Glacier spiders. Their webs were like sharp glass threads, so they had to be smashed before they could fire them. Damn spiders that were easier to crush than cut or slice. My worst matchup.

Johanna, who had come as reinforcement at some point, stepped onto the wall’s edge, pulled back her massive spear, and thrust it forward with tremendous force.

Swaeak!

With a strength no human should possess, something was pierced and sent crashing down below. Johanna was already preparing her next spear.

Before the spiders climbing up behind could fully ready themselves for combat, I raised my hammer.

“Ugh!”

—

[Severe Muscle Pain – Arms (08:59:59)]

The muscles pushed to their limit are screaming in agony!

Your arms ache terribly.

You can still move, but it feels like you’ll die every time you do!

When using ‘arms’, there is an 8% chance that stamina will decrease.

—

Muscle pain, damn it.

I clenched my teeth and brought the hammer down hard. My damaged muscles screamed.

—

[Stamina has decreased by 1.]

—

I stopped thinking and just swung. Thinking longer wouldn’t help. Hesitating wouldn’t help either.

Bang!

I smashed the spider’s abdomen hard. The hammerhead was heavy enough that if I lifted it properly and struck, it would shatter.

Glätscherweber raised their abdomen before attacking, a preparatory stance, and were defenseless during that moment. That’s why hammers were the countermeasure.

With a sound indicating a low-grade mana stone had dropped, it shattered. Letting out a breath, I picked up the heavy hammer again.

The dawn is damn long.

***

Supported by medics, I entered inside and glanced at the magic device that still hadn’t cooled down.

‘Magic.’

It didn’t exist in our world yet. To begin with, it was a world without things like “magic,” “aura,” or “martial arts.” You could only obtain such things here, through skills or by throwing yourself into events headfirst.

And “throwing yourself in headfirst” meant exactly that.

You either got blasted by magic repeatedly until your body adapted to it,

Or you were unexpectedly smart enough to understand magical circuits and immediately use them,

Or, even without understanding them, you had the memory to replicate the geometric shapes of magic circuits over hours and activate them through sheer persistence.

The first method required encountering something that used magic, and usually, you’d just die.

The second and third methods weren’t much better.

No matter how smart you were, not understanding how unfamiliar symbols worked was natural. A genius capable of grasping and applying it instantly…

‘Among all those countless characters, there was only one.’

Gi Yeyeon.

The brute-force memorization method of magic circuits had been attempted by around a hundred people, but fewer than five succeeded.

Even with proper attempts, it took over ten days to see results. Sure, once you awakened magic, your growth would explode, but until then, you had to be protected by someone else.

For efficiency, Sa Jaeheon locked one of those five, Do Jaehee, inside a cave like a bear or tiger, feeding and protecting them. Calling it protection was generous; it was imprisonment.

Of course, this stunt only worked once.

Anyone would lose their mind being confined, scribbling strange symbols while essentially being raised like livestock. Most died before their magical talent could bloom, collapsing from mental breakdowns.

‘It wasn’t even voluntary.’

To be fair, Do Jaehee hadn’t been entirely uninterested in that kind of training. He had been stranded in a dungeon event and was trying anything to survive.

He just hadn’t expected some lunatic named Sa Jaeheon to shove him into a cave out of nowhere.

‘If you ask what suits me… honestly, neither.’

My memory wasn’t that great. I was terrible at memorization. And I had no talent in anything artistic either.

If you didn’t understand it, you at least had to draw the symbols correctly… but I couldn’t even do that.

It was like this:

Fire.

In the first case, you understand the word “fire” and write it in cursive. Even if it’s not perfect, it still means fire.

In the second case, you don’t understand it, but you replicate the exact symbol perfectly. Then it still becomes fire.

But if you can’t do either, you end up writing things like “fie,” “fir,” “far,” “fum,” hoping it somehow turns into fire.

At that point, it’s faster to just pray. To heaven, to Buddha, to Jesus, whoever it is, begging for a miracle.

‘Still… if I could learn it, that’d be nice.’

Hermadion originally had magic. It had a structured system. If I were going to learn it, now was the time…

‘But I don’t have the time.’

I was busy just adapting. Nights were spent fighting or standing guard, mornings passed out asleep, and afternoons rushing through meals and training. Any spare time went to treating muscle pain or getting ointment. Then dinner, then sleep before the next night.

I once tried staying up to visit the library, but without sleep, I couldn’t endure guard duty.

In a place below minus 30 degrees, where your throat could be torn out at any moment, being sleepy?

That was basically declaring, ‘I’m going to die today.’

‘If I were assigned to the magic division, I could learn faster…’

But the magic division wasn’t even an option at the start. It wasn’t an open position. At best, there were basic magic books in the library.

‘Other places too…’

They were all hell.

Medical unit, forge, inner walls, everywhere.

‘…Then there’s only one way.’

Get injured.

Soon.

If I just kept grinding like this, I’d end up with nothing.