057 – The Nymphs Eat the Apple Pie! #1
Escape was finally within reach.
And then the nymphs came to a halt.
"The words carved into this tree…! Truly, just as Oinoi said, it is the language of the nymphs, that is what this is…!"
The tree that served as the Rift Core.
And sure enough, letters were etched across it as though carved with a whittling knife.
They were less words than pictures, really — drawings of leaves here, a round apple there. Pictographs, would you call them?
"This Oinoi was never taught the fairy tongue properly by her master, that is so…! It is far harder to read than expected…!"
"This Coris knows a few letters, that is so…!"
"Mwehehe, this Illinoi was once called the Magician of Language in her tribe…! Allow Illinoi to read it right now, that is so it is…!"
Illinoi stepped forward, shouldering the full weight of the nymphs' expectations. She cleared her throat with a grand ahem—
"Illinoi cannot understand a single word, that is so it is…! Someone call Illinoi a lawyer, that is so it is…!"
Over the past few days I'd come to realize that Illinoi was all noise and very little substance. How on earth had someone like that ended up as a gang boss?
Anyway.
The nymphs huddled in front of the tree, heads together, sinking deep into thought. Meanwhile, the F-rank trainees were steadily closing the distance behind us. At this rate they'd catch up before long. Wait around like this, and we might actually lose.
Then Oinoi spoke up.
"Ahh! This round shape is unmistakably an apple, that is so…! And this fire clearly means to bake the apple, that is so…! Then this is a recipe for apple pie, that is so…!"
"Ahh—! Now that you say it, it does look that way, that is so…!"
"This Oinoi remembers it now — her master used to draw pictures like these on trees, that is so…! Perhaps these very drawings were made by Oinoi's master, that is so…!"
Oinoi was overjoyed.
Her master, it turned out, was her mother.
No wonder she was happy — she'd just found what might be a trace of family, carved into the bark of a tree.
"Bake the apple, knead it well into the flour dough, recite a special incantation as it roasts over the fire, and a magnificent apple pie shall be complete. And this special incantation is written right here—"
Oinoi focused with everything she had.
"Ditch ditch ditch water, little ditch water—"
Then she froze, eyes going wide.
"Ahh—! These are the lyrics of the nymphs' song, that is so…! Bake the apple while singing the Song of Ditch Water, and a delicious apple pie is complete, that is so…! So the secret of the apple pie was a song all along…!"
"Coris never knew either, that is so…!"
"Mwehehe, then at last this so-discusting golden apple can be baked delicious, that is so it is…! Golden apple pie is most extremely tasty, that is so it is…!"
Wham—!
The nymphs thrust their fists into the air.
Even I couldn't help but perk up at the words golden apple pie. We'd finally get to eat that horrifyingly tasteless apple in a way that was actually good. And if the nymphs called it delicious, it was guaranteed to be genuinely delicious.
Right at that moment—
Screeeech—
The tree moved.
"Is the feed glitching? Ari, what's going on?"
Had the cameras the nymphs were wearing malfunctioned?
At my words, Ari shook her head.
"No, the cameras are fine. I think the tree itself is moving. The tree is actually moving!"
She was right. The tree anchoring the rift — the one standing before the nymphs — was alive, moving like a living creature!
Its roots.
It hoisted its roots up like legs and swung its branches, stretching skyward, like arms.
"Ahh! Now I see — this is no ordinary tree, it is a Stump, that is so…! Stumps are friends of the nymphs…! This is most wonderfully delightful, that is so…!"
Stumps?
What was that supposed to be?
I had no idea, but Oinoi was absolutely delighted. So were Coris and Illinoi.
"To think we would meet a Stump in a place like this, that is so…!"
"A tree that lives and moves like a living creature…! It has been very long since Illinoi has seen one, that is so it is…!"
Swish—
The living tree snaked a branch around Coris's and Illinoi's waists. The two of them were thrilled.
"It seems to wish to carry this Coris upon its branches, that is so…!"
"Mwehehe, Stumps are very friendly with nature-loving nymphs like us, that is so it is…!"
Or so they thought.
I was watching with wary eyes when—
Crunchhh—
The tree-monster Stump seized Illinoi and Coris and squeezed them tight.
"Hieeek…! Let go, that is so…!"
"This Illinoi will not simply be looking at such violence, that is so it is…! Put us down this instant, or Illinoi shall make you taste her fists of angry honey, that is so it is…!"
The nymphs thrashed and squirmed. Then Oinoi began to tremble.
"This Stump must be the guardian that protected the secret recipe, that is so…! It must have woken from its long slumber because Oinoi recited the incantation, that is so…! Hieeek…!"
Shff, shff-shff—
It wasn't only the tree holding Illinoi and Coris.
One by one, two by two, more tree monsters were rising from the ground all around us.
━Mooooot—
━Moooo—
━Treeee—
Were they crying "tree" because they were tree monsters? No — that probably wasn't the important thing here.
"Oinoi! Get out of there, now!"
I shouted into the radio strapped to Oinoi's waist.
But she'd already been snatched up too.
"Hieeek…! Oinoi has been captured, that is so…!"
"Damn it — I'm coming!"
I broke into a run immediately.
Trainee #51, Bae Hu-seong.
The F-rank boy and his group had just spotted the nymphs still inside, right by the exit.
Someone called out to him.
"I don't know what's going on with them, but they haven't escaped yet! We just go out first! Lucky us!"
He wasn't wrong.
But Hu-seong noticed something off about the scene.
The nymphs were pinned down by something.
"Hey! Nobody leaves! We have to save them! Whatever that is, it looks like it's really happening!"
It was exactly the right call.
Rescuing people from rifts was the most basic duty of a rift hunter.
The kids snapped back to their senses and charged at the tree monsters.
━Treee—
━Mooooot—
Pop—!
Claaang—!
But the tree monsters' hides were hard as steel, and the trainees' crude practice weapons barely made a dent.
"Hu-seong, what do we do now!? Should we run out and call for backup first?"
The kids looked to him for answers. Faced with this sudden crisis, Hu-seong felt his head spinning.
Nobody ever told me something like this could happen! How is this training ground even being managed? Am I— am I going to die here? Come on, what do we do!?
It felt unfair.
He thought it was unfair.
But then he remembered what someone had said just last night: rifts are unfair by their very nature.
He didn't want to admit it, but it was true. When the rift itself was stacked against you, who exactly were you supposed to complain to?
"Ugh — fine, let's give it a shot. Don't just rush in, all of you! That bark is insanely tough! Count your bullets and supplies, and ration everything for now!"
Charging in blindly would only mean a war of attrition. And if they got captured too, things would only get far worse.
The F-rank trainees decided to keep their distance and draw the tree monsters' attention instead. The creatures were powerful, but slow — slow enough that a handful of F-rank trainees could juke them, at least for a while.
"A hit that never lands might as well be the strongest attack in the world — isn't that what they say!"
Hu-seong's confidence began to build.
If they could just buy time, the instructors monitoring the drill would come swarming in.
"Hieeek…! Save us, that is so…! It's a mad Stump attacking the nymphs, that is so…!"
"Stumps are by nature nymph-friendly creatures…! For one to attack this organic, free-range nymph Illinoi — clearly this is a plot by invasive species, that is so it is…!"
The problem was the hostages.
Leave it like this, and somebody was going to get badly hurt.
"Humanoid monsters and humans share common weaknesses, right?"
"Hey, Hu-seong! What are you planning?"
"They don't look human at all, no matter how I look at them — but those arm-like branches have joints where they bend! If we hit the joints, we might be able to free the hostages!"
Joints.
The shared weakness of most living things, humans included.
If that tree was alive too, it had to have them. And a folding point would naturally be softer than the rest.
"I'll draw their fire — you guys unload!"
"Five rounds—"
The kids slapped fresh mana-round magazines into their weapons.
Hu-seong pulled the monsters' attention, and the others opened fire, nailing a shot right into a tree's shoulder joint.
Crrrick—
Thud—
"It— it worked!"
"Illinoi is now free, that is so it is…!"
The severed arm dropped, and Illinoi tumbled loose.
All that remained were Oinoi and Coris. The problem was that the trainees were out of ammo.
And the Stumps were furious.
━Mooooooot!
━Mooooo!
The very air seemed to shake with their roars.
Hu-seong turned to the others.
"Hey! You guys get the nymphs out of here! I'll hold this line!"
"Hu-seong! What are you doing!? You can't beat them alone, no way!"
"I know!"
He knew perfectly well he couldn't beat the tree monsters alone.
And yet something in his chest refused to let him step back.
Stubbornness? A kid's childish tantrum?
No — it felt like something a little different from either, and he was puzzling over that very feeling when—
"Sometimes there are moments when you have to stand and fight, even knowing you're going to die. You're better than I gave you credit for, kid."
Swish-swish—
The trees' joints dropped away, cleanly severed.
Then a man appeared, a brilliant blade of light in his hand, and said:
"Good work."
The tree-monster Stumps were fairly strong.
But they were weak enough to take real damage from C-rank weapons, and once Ari and I joined forces, we cut them down without much trouble.
"Senior, you cleared that course in ten minutes flat. You've still got it, huh?"
When the last tree fell, Ari giggled behind her hand.
I was surprised too, honestly — I hadn't expected us to sprint that long, winding course in just ten minutes.
But that hardly mattered anymore.
"You three — anything hurt?"
I checked the nymphs over.
"This Oinoi is terribly angry, that is so…! We must show these wicked Stumps the fury of us nymph sisters, that is so…!"
"This Coris was frightened too, that is so…!"
"You shall all taste Illinoi's fists of honey, that is so it is…!"
Thud-thud-thud-thud—
The nymphs hammered away at the fallen tree monsters' bodies.
The trees — which we'd assumed were dead after Ari and my assault — shuddered and moaned mooooo— under the nymphs' fists. I couldn't quite tell what was going on, but the nymphs certainly seemed healthy. I couldn't spot a single scratch on them.
━Th─at's enough.
Then the tree with the writing carved into it waved its branches left and right.
It even spoke — short words, but actual speech!
A tree that talks!
Seeing this, Oinoi nodded sagely.
"Ahh—! It has come back to its senses, that is so…! The hands of us nymph sisters hold the power to turn muddy water clear, that is so…! They say that power can also cleanse a polluted mind, that is so…!"
Truly remarkable. What if we deployed nymphs into prisons to beat the inmates back to their senses?
Then Illinoi declared:
"This Illinoi does not let things slide with vague hand-waving, that is so it is…! We shall call a lawyer and file a lawsuit, that is so it is…! We shall feed these wicked Stumps tasteless seafood bibimbap every single day, that is so it is…!"
Tremble-tremble—
Whether it was the word lawsuit that frightened them, or the situation itself, the Stumps shook where they lay.
Then the carved Stump pointed a branch at the hole where it had stood — and inside sat a wooden chest.
It looked exactly like a treasure box.
"Hidden treasure? I've never heard of anything like that in the Nonsan fixed rift. I was told researchers had completely finished exploring it—"
Ari marveled, and I found it fascinating too.
The tree spoke.
━Rew─ard—