Law of the Jungle (1)

No one possessed senses as keen as mine.

I remembered the strange dissonance that prickled across my skin the first moment I laid eyes on the three demon children. It had been absent around Miho, yet that unsettling, voyeuristic stare had lingered distinctly over the spirit. There were simply too many clues pointing in the exact same direction.

Locking eyes with the child, I fixed my gaze on whatever presence was peering out through those innocent pupils.

"Having fun?"

I had no idea what grand scheme lay behind scattering sentient life throughout this dimension. Perhaps, from some unfathomable perspective, the intentions were benevolent. But it was impossible to believe someone who secretly spied on me had done this out of the goodness of their heart. And the arbitrary, careless manner in which these lives had been seeded left a foul taste in my mouth.

Naturally, my voice turned cold and sharp.

The entity on the other end offered no reply. Could it only observe? Not a chance. Anyone capable of seeding an entire dimension with intelligent beings possessed more than enough power to borrow the vocal cords of a young child. It simply refused to speak with me.

Arrogant bastard.

"I won't bother asking... what your goal is."

It wouldn't have answered anyway. If it had intended to talk, it would have shown itself long ago.

One thing had become crystal clear: I could not afford to stay idle. My recent clash against the flock of pterosaurs surged back into my mind. If I remained holed up here, doing nothing, I would spend eternity dancing in the palm of that entity's hand.

"I don't know what you're plotting, but..."

Why was the universe so hell-bent on tormenting me at every turn? I had to brace for the coming apocalypse. I had an alien or two to eradicate. Above all, I had to survive. The checklist of tasks I needed to clear before reaching that finish line was so staggering that looking at it made me dizzy.

Even so, I never once believed it was impossible. I had absolute faith in myself. I knew with every fiber of my being that I would see this through and live to the very end. That had been the rule of my existence so far, and it wasn't about to change.

"Shut that eye right now, or I swear to god I'll find a way to kill you."

The presence vanished instantly.

Even I hadn't anticipated such a swift retreat.

"What was that just now?"

Belba had a habit of quietly letting slips of personal information slide through. A Watcher. It sounded like an apt description for her role, though lately she felt far less like an omniscient observer and much more like my personal manager.

Regardless, a weight lifted from my chest. Knowing someone was watching my every move had been intensely grating, so having them back off without a fight was a relief.

"You three."

I turned to the demon children, whose immediate utility had all but faded.

"From here on, keep up on your own feet. Don't count on me sheltering you like before."

Listening to my own words, I realized just how much I had changed. Gone were the days when I hastily gathered supplies out of an earnest desire to protect an orc. Now, whatever happened to anyone barely registered on my conscience. Some might call it necessary growth, but honestly, even I found myself unsettled by it at times. I liked to believe I was clinging to my humanity, yet with each passing milestone, I felt further detached from the person I once was.

Faced with my blunt decree, the kids nodded frantically. I cast a careful glance at the one who had served as the entity's conduit, but nothing unusual stirred within the child's gaze.

Scooping Miho onto my shoulder, I strode out of the cave. The brilliant sunlight we had briefly left behind poured over the world, vivid and warm.

"You can say that again."

The pterosaurs had evidently moved on, unless they were lurking somewhere unseen, biding their time. Either way, it hardly mattered. I had already learned everything I needed to know.

Still, the time had come to establish a proper base of operations. A permanent shelter.

According to Belba, ninety percent of the sapient beings generated in this world perished before their first full day. Half of the survivors succumbed by the second. By the third and fourth days, the numbers dwindled to near zero. Not a single soul had endured for an entire week. Unlike those intentionally seeded by that mysterious voice, naturally spawned life forms possessed nothing beyond raw instinct, making survival nearly impossible.

If I was going to rescue people like I had today, I needed a secure perimeter to house ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠them—unless I intended to live alone until the end of time.

"Every inch of this land is absolute trash, but the spot where I first woke up is probably our best bet."

I had already settled on the location: the dense jungle I knew best. I could hardly call it safe, but at least it lacked the inherently lethal environmental hazards of the glacial waste or the Volcanic Zone. If anything, the jungle was perilous precisely because it overflowed with overwhelming vitality.

That vitality, however, introduced an unpredictable variable. I had no idea what horrors lay hidden in the canopy. I hadn't even mapped one percent of its breadth. Some unfathomable nightmare could easily leap from the undergrowth and tear me apart. In a biome like that, even the wildest paranoia carried weight.

Stay sharp. Keep your guard up.

With the children in tow, I swiftly cleared out of the Volcanic Zone. Whenever a beast crossed our path, the kids instinctively scattered to run, only to freeze dead in their tracks the moment my spear pierced through the threat in a single, fluid strike. Watching them instinctively scatter in three opposing directions offered a stark glimpse into how they had managed to survive this long.

The journey was long. At my full running speed, it would take roughly twelve hours. Dragging three children along would multiply that travel time drastically.

I caught my train of thought grinding to a halt.

Without realizing it, I had been mapping out a plan to ditch the kids right here. I can just recruit more sapient subjects once I reach the jungle. It would be far more efficient.

The realization hit like ice water. That wasn't how anyone should treat living beings. No matter how much of myself I had shed, there were moral boundaries I refused to cross.

I looked back at the children. Their faces were pale, chests heaving desperately as they struggled to match my accelerated stride. Feeling a bitter pang of self-reproach, I reached my hand out to them.

We finally breached the perimeter of the jungle.

Perhaps it was due to their youth, but in that brief span of travel, the children had already gained noticeable height. Their maturation rate was absurdly rapid—likely an innate trait of the demon race.

And then there was Miho.

Lately, she had begun attempting to speak. At first, I had mistaken her vocalizations for simple animal whines, but they weren't. She was carefully articulating phonemes. Naturally, the syllables she mimicked were the Korean sounds I spoke.

Belba's translation functionality had improved by leaps and bounds, completely eliminating language barriers, yet hearing my mother tongue spoken out loud sparked a warm, nostalgic emotion deep within me.

Ah. Ya. Eo. Yeo. O. Yo.

Watching her diligently repeat every vowel I taught her was unbearably endearing.

"Ah. Oh. Eh-oh-oh."

"Aigoo, look at you go! Who's a smart girl?"

"Eh-oh-oh-ng!"

There were moments when I genuinely couldn't tell whether she was a fox or a cat, but either way, she was adorable.

"I know."

I reached into my subspace inventory and pulled out my shield, gripping my sword tightly in the other hand. Cold sweat prickled along my spine. The very soil beneath my boots radiated suffocating hostility.

Are you fucking kidding me?

We had barely set foot in the jungle three hours ago, and a monster of this caliber was already baring its fangs. What on earth was this thing?

The alarm bells ringing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in my head were louder than anything I had ever felt before. It far surpassed the panic of taking a grievous wound or brushing against the threshold of death. Had I stood face-to-face with that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠titanic apex dinosaur on day one, it might have felt something like this.

The sheer gravitational weight of its presence made my knees tremble against the loam.

Phoo... Don't panic. Breathe. Just breathe.

I slowly ushered the demon children and Miho behind me, widening the distance before lowering myself into a battle stance.

The earth ruptured beneath me.

Crack—!

A plant!

A thick, fibrous root coiled violently around my leg. I slashed down instantly, severing the tendril in a flash of steel, but the crushing torque had already pulverized the bone inside my ankle. It would take over thirty minutes for the fracture to knit back together. My mobility was cleaved in half in an instant.

The strike was easily three times faster than I had anticipated. More than anything, I had never expected an ambush from flora. What kind of deranged ecosystem was this? By what twisted logic did a patch of overgrown greenery outclass every predatory beast in the realm?

Far deeper within the clearing, an enormous, grotesque flower bud loomed in the gloom. It thrummed with a nauseating pulse of raw mana. Radiating outward from its bloated core were hundreds, thousands of massive, whip-like vines forming an impenetrable perimeter.

Right. So I have to carve through all of that?

Balancing on my intact leg, I kicked off the dirt. Fighting without one limb was a scenario I had practiced, analyzed, and endured dozens of times over. It happened far too often in this hellhole to let it throw me off. First, I needed to test its baseline capabilities.

CLANG—!

What the fuck?

My blade had cleaved directly into a vine, yet the impact rang out like a hammer striking hardened anvil steel. The violent kinetic rebound hurled my entire body backward through the air. Glancing at the target, I saw nothing more than a pitiful three-millimeter nick on its outer bark.

Well, shit. This thing might actually kill me.

Despair clawed at my chest. I had never felt so utterly cornered. Had I not reflexively coated my arm in mana right before impact, that single swing would have shattered my wrist to powder. Even with reinforcement, it was a razor-thin margin; a sharp, throbbing ache flared along the joint.

Reckless offense was suicide.

Reach. Destructive power. Armor density. Reaction speed. Freedom of movement. Agility. Stamina pool and tactical variance. There was not a single category where I held an advantage. I was outclassed across the board.

"...Can I really pull this off?"

The icy chill of impending death washed over every nerve in my body, a sensation I hadn't tasted in an eternity. The creature's suffocating bloodlust pressed against my skin like hot breath. I couldn't advance, and with shattered mobility, retreat was impossible.

There was only one path left. Succeed, or end up as fertilizer.

"Belba. Buy Endress's Dagger and the Elixir of Awakening. If I'm short on coins, liquidate whatever's in my inventory. It should cover the cost."

The complete absence of teasing in Belba's voice drove home the severity of the situation. In an instant, a heavy, pitch-black dagger materialized in my grasp alongside an ornate glass phial swirling with luminescent purple liquid.

A vine whistled toward my head. I whipped my shield forward, deflecting the trajectory just enough to let the strike gouge empty air, and popped the vial's cork with my thumb. Without hesitation, I tilted my head back and downed the Elixir of Awakening in a single gulp.