The World Trembles Beneath the Thunderbolt
I was quiet.
Not a single branch stirred in the stillness. The sound of a bug crawling. A frog’s croak. Everything hushed, except for those noises that cut through the silence like they belonged to another world.
I pressed my body against the tree trunk, holding my breath.
A crack.
That noise shattered the quiet.
From the thicket of vines, scales flashed.
One. Two. Three. Five in total.
They searched slowly, tongues flicking like they were tasting the air, heads turning every few steps.
Through the gaps in the vines, their eyes were clear and focused. They stopped, lifted a foot, and stamped the ground. They looked closely, as if searching for something specific.
One of them raised a hand.
*Crack.*
Blue light gathered at the tip of its fingers.
Now.
*Snap-snap-crack!*
All at once, the overcharged mana stones hidden under the leaves discharged.
Blue current raced across the wet soil in every direction.
“Kiiieeeek!”
The current surged through the lizardmen’s bodies, and their skin burst. Blood ran down their flesh in sheets.
The twitching creatures fell limply backward, and their movement stopped with a heavy thud.
The smell of burnt flesh filled the clearing.
I stepped down from the tree slowly and picked up the mana stones on the ground. Five of them. More than I expected. A sharp, salty taste. If this kept up, the tree would be healed in no time.
I put them in my bag.
**[Battery]**
You can store electricity in objects. But not in insulators.
The battery I had chosen last night.
Simple, but the performance was surprisingly good.
That was why I could use it like this.
*Snap-snap-crack!*
“Kiiieeeek.”
Another group got caught in another trap.
I quickly handled them and moved to the next area.
I repeated lizardman hunting like this for days.
Ambush. Trap. Discharge. Gather.
At first, two or three. After a few days, five. Later, eight.
They kept coming even though they knew traps were set. Thanks to that, the bag grew heavy with mana stones. After repeating it for several days, my whole body felt weighted down. My muscles ached, but I had to gather them. Still, my body felt tough, so I could endure it.
Because of the awakening, I felt stronger than when I was a man. It was less tiring and more like a strange, exciting feeling. Hunters must all feel like this.
I returned to the great tree and placed the mana stones on the roots. The tree slowly absorbed them.
The cracks sank little by little, the blue light faded. Inside the tree, the unstable lightning that had been moving restlessly now settled.
*Thud. Thud.*
The sound of pounding against a hard object.
The tree opened the entrance, and outside came into view.
A young otter poked its head out of the entrance.
It remembered the promise of playing together. It had come all the way here to see me every day when I went somewhere in a hurry.
“What’s the matter? Are you bored?”
I nodded.
“You’re not scared? Other animals don’t come near.”
I tapped my roots while saying that. The tree’s roots gently scratched the young otter’s back.
I guess the two of them met a few times while I was away. They seemed friendlier than I thought.
The young otter pricked its ears and looked around. Still, it felt like it was seeing this place for the first time, so it started running around wildly.
The young otter’s body moved quickly, and I noticed small, stiff hairs falling from it.
“Hey, you’re shedding!”
I grabbed it forcefully and lifted it up. Because it was young, its body was small and easy to pick up.
*Plop. Plop.*
It wiggled in my hands like it was enjoying the bounce, keeping rhythm.
“I see. I’ll play with you.”
*Creak!*
It spun around in place happily.
***
“Ah, I’m tired.”
Is it because of me? My stamina was too high. I had to force the otter to play until it was exhausted because it said “play with me because it’s fun,” and now I’m collapsing from fatigue.
The divine essence of lightning was gradually completing.
The crystal pieces that formed during the tree’s healing process.
**[Lightning Essence 34% achieved]**
“Mm~”
Even now, the taste when I ate it was sharp and bursting. The taste threshold should be rising, but every time I ate it, an exclamation came out naturally.
Even though the completion of the essence was still far away, the tree slowly recovered, and the inside of the great tree healed.
Between the cracks, new wood grew like fresh flesh, and the charred parts slowly peeled away, revealing new growth.
*Wooong.*
The tree’s will felt warm.
“You’ve improved a lot.”
*Crack.*
Today too, I chewed on a fresh battery as an afterthought and leaned against the roots.
It was strange.
My body felt comfortable, but a sensation that seemed to touch my nerves kept scratching at me.
The quietness flowing out from the slightly open entrance kept annoying me. Normally, I might have heard birds chirping from far away or the sounds of nearby animals, but nothing came.
Electricity flowed through my body.
I felt a biological reaction to the presences around me. A fast heartbeat inside my body.
The approaching presences were felt the moment I stepped out from the great tree.
They were them.
Unlike last time,
the search range had narrowed toward the great tree.
They had noticed.
I lowered my body and entered the tree.
“They seem to have found this place.”
*Wooong.*
Tension came from the tree’s will.
“It’s fine.”
I held the window.
“I’ve prepared.”
*Snap-crack!*
A wave of current felt from afar.
It had started.
“I’ll be back.”
*Thud.*
The tree’s roots grabbed my arm.
*Wooong.*
The will trembled anxiously.
*Heh.*
“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”
When I came out, smoke rose from afar.
The powder they liked.
**[Hibiscus Powder]**
A powder made from hibiscus.
One of the ingredients used by lizardman priests in rituals.
It reacts with mana to cause strong excitement and excitement. Long-term use carries a risk of addiction.
I had placed flowers that make this powder along with traps.
I had sent electricity through them.
There were still many left.
The lizardmen who had narrowed their range toward the great tree.
The closer they got, the more traps activated.
*Snap-crack!*
Their eyes were bloodshot.
Only three lizardmen reached the front after breaking through the traps.
I could handle them easily.
*Boom!*
At that moment, the tree outside the clearing fell, and a huge shape covered me.
“Reza, Dremaen, kill them all!”
Grayish skin, huge body.
I had seen a similar appearance before.
A troll had appeared again.
A troll shouted with a voice full of killing intent.
*Boom!*
“Cack!”
One lizardman flew like a ball.
The remaining two lizardmen looked at each other warily and slowly retreated.
I could just leave them alone and they’d sort it out by themselves?
I decided to watch the troll’s rage toward the lizardmen. The troll that had thrown the lizardman saw me and their eyes met.
“Human! Reza, Dremaen!! Friends!! Kill them!!”
What, what?
The sudden rush toward me made me activate the traps I had prepared.
*Snap-crack!*
“Ah, frda!”
The current that burst from the traps ran along the troll’s legs but only slowed it down for a moment before it started running again.
The troll with its right leg scorched black swung a tree trunk with its right foot.
*Thud!*
I twisted my body sideways to avoid the path cut by the wind.
*Crash!*
Even while running through the dust, the corners of my mouth were upturned.
*Heh.*
Those bastards.
They had deliberately lured the troll toward me.
The troll drew back the heavy tree trunk. If I just stretched out my arm, it would be crushed. I had to get away first.
I released it like exploding it.
*Snap-crack!*
The current exploded and flowed through the troll’s body.
“Kraaaaa! Ah, frdaaa!”
The troll, who had been about to swing down again, froze for a moment.
I threw the charged mana stone from my pocket.
The large mana stone I had prepared just in case. The one the troll caught outside had given me.
The mana stone collided with the troll’s body and released the current it was carrying.
*Crack-crash-shatter!*
My vision flashed, and everything went white. The intense light bursting in front of me made my eye nerves tingle.
I should have had sunglasses right now.
*Boom.*
I raised my head that had been lowered by the sound of the ground shaking near my ears. The troll’s breathing sound came with the acrid smell. It still had breath left.
I held the window and aimed at the troll’s heart.
*Thud!*
**[Level up!]** I quickly reviewed the situation in the sudden battle. The lizardmen I had been observing and the troll that had chased them. And the fleeing lizardmen.
I approached the troll’s corpse.
A bone-made ornament embedded in the troll’s shoulder that had been completely charred caught my eye. In the middle of it, a completely unburnt shape stood out.
This was it.
I lifted it with the tip of the window.
I remembered the strange bone ornaments standing here and there in their village. Should I call this a totem?
It wasn’t a simple ritual decoration.
When I lifted the totem stuck in the troll’s shoulder, blood dripped from the totem.
“Kiiie…”
A groan came from my ear.
When I turned to the direction the sound came from, a lizardman who had just regained consciousness was shaking its head.
*Chic!*
A small spark appeared at the tip of my fingers.
Hmm… Can I talk to monsters?
***
I lost several times.
The result was one.
It was surprisingly stupid.
But there was one thing I had clearly figured out:
They had been controlling the troll with the bone totem they had driven into the ground.
Was that the reason the troll went crazy the moment it saw me earlier?
And now they had realized that I was near the great tree.
I needed to prepare.
***
*Kurung!*
In the jungle, sudden strong winds and heavy rain sometimes come together.
A squall.
Rain and wind slammed in.
I stood in the clearing and looked up at the sky. Rain pouring from the sky obstructed my view.
The trees behind me glowed, contrasting with the gloomy weather. It was as if they resonated with the current of the air, the unstable current flowing from the blue cracks.
And the biological electricity beating like a heart in every corner of the forest.
“You’ve come a lot.”
*Wooong…*
The tree’s will trembled.
“More than I thought.”
One after another, lizardmen emerged from the grass and bushes past the clearing.
Their red tattoos on their entire bodies twitched, and their eyes glowed fiercely. The shaman shouted.
“Human! Because of you, our entire plan is ruined! We’ll use you alive as a sacrifice!”
The lizardman spoke fluently, perhaps thanks to the system’s influence, or maybe monsters’ language sounded natural in Korean.
They said I had been interfering all along.
The shamans waved their staffs as if drawing pictures on the ground.
“So?”
The cracks on the tree’s body began to glow with the rising wind and rain.
The shaman raised its staff high toward the sky.
“Curse! To the great ancestor gods! This is the god’s punishment falling upon you!”
**[Ding!]** **[Lightning Essence 50% blossomed]** **[The great current of nature begins to react to you.]**
The message that appeared after I ate the large crystal. And the only thing that comes to mind when talking about nature’s current is thunder.
Thunder.
As if proving it, the sky split.
*Kururung—Kwaaaang!!*
A monstrous thunderbolt pierced straight through the head like a direct hit.
A hundred million volts of lightning swallowed the front yard of the great tree whole. The lizardmen howled in victory with a cry of “Kyaaak!”
*Snap. Snap-crack—*
In the white wind, cells all over the body woke up simultaneously and spat out sparks. The explosive brain lightning was so bright it made the surroundings as bright as daytime.
The sensation of forcibly suppressing the rough flow of lightning starting from the overcharged heart ring. Honestly, it was so intense that a scream might come out.
It was burning hot. The inside of my mouth was burning as if it would be completely scorched. And behind that disgusting spiciness, a sweetness I had never felt before wrapped around my tongue and stimulated my brain cells.
My brain flashed, and the nerves throughout my body screamed in overload.
The taste of the lightning that fell from the sky was…
Incredibly intoxicating.
*Ha—*
When I opened my mouth, blue residual current flowed out with acrid smoke. I curled the corners of my mouth and whispered.
“… It was insane.”
My mouth felt numb.
This was the taste of lightning.
The shaman’s forehead twisted horribly with shock.
“Kyaa, kyaaaaa! Kill them! Tear apart that monster right now!”
The shaman’s scream became a signal.
The lizardman army whose bodies were covered in red tattoos turned blood-red drew their weapons and poured in.
“Kiyaaaa!”
*Heh.*
“One more time.”
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[Level up!]