Chapter 205
Chapter 205
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 205
Chapter Title: Chapter 38: Scattered Puzzle (4)
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Two days since the assault on the final 6-star Contaminated Zone had begun.
It was a day with particularly thick rain clouds and high humidity.
While crossing the dank, moist air and pressing forward, Kim Yul suddenly halted, unconsciously muttering a curse as he grimaced.
“Fucking hell...”
He hadn’t actually voiced it aloud, but Yang Tae-ho and I weren’t all that different.
Thousands of skeletal remains were scattered around us—rotted flesh clinging to bones in a way that evoked mummies.
The northern forest, thick with trees, let in almost no sunlight.
To make matters worse, the sky beyond the canopy was blanketed in storm clouds.
Even in broad daylight, the sight of thousands of remains strewn across the dim expanse was profoundly eerie.
If one word could sum up the scene before us, it was “death.”
“...Every time I see shit like this, it just gets to me. For real.”
Overwhelmed by the sight, Kim Yul muttered in a stiff voice unlike his usual self.
I kept my composure and replied.
“Get used to it.”
We were in the middle of a war. We could never forget that simple fact.
“No matter the place, our job’s the same. Destroy the Meseo and search for relics.”
These kinds of spots always yielded a ton of relics.
I planned to scour the area thoroughly once we were done.
“...Yeah.”
After a brief pause, Kim Yul gave a short reply.
His voice sounded a bit hoarse compared to before, which worried me, so I gave his shoulder a light tap.
I started walking again, and soon felt him catching up.
The reason we were trudging forward, stepping over remains we didn’t even know belonged to whom, was simple.
*The Meseo’s here.*
By the time we reached the heart of the final 6-star Contaminated Zone.
We spotted a lone Meseo sitting in an isolated spot.
I gathered the party members and moved us away.
We’d already eliminated over 70% of the monsters in the zone, so it wasn’t particularly dangerous.
In fact, the monsters we encountered en route were mostly basic ones that couldn’t even approach the Meseo.
The reason for leaving the pile of Meseo behind and heading elsewhere was straightforward.
*The blue dot next to the Meseo.*
It was unlikely an innocent survivor would be smack in the middle of a Contaminated Zone like this.
*Given the situation and location, it’s probably a traitor.*
We’d already confirmed in previous main scenarios that their markers appeared as blue dots.
Catching that one might let me finally get the information I’d been after.
It was worth challenging for, even if it meant forgoing achievements only available from closing Holes or special missions.
*Good thing Ramon took Belta with him.*
Just a few days ago, Ramon had shown up out of nowhere and scooped up Belta.
I could still hear that wailing cry refusing to go.
Under the pretext of escorting them, I’d also sent Ahel along.
Thanks to that, it was just me, Yang Tae-ho, and Kim Yul heading to the problematic Meseo and blue dot.
We pushed through the remains, maintaining a healthy tension.
When we arrived at the spot with the Meseo in question, I had to tilt my head in confusion.
All that was there were dozens of evolved monsters and regular ones.
*Using invisibility or stealth magic or something?*
I suppressed my presence and scanned the surroundings from multiple angles for a while.
The blue dot was practically right on top of the Meseo’s position.
At this distance, it had to be either holding the Meseo or sitting right at its base.
Yet no lifeform I suspected to be an Ain was visible to the naked eye around the Meseo.
In the end, I decided to clear the monsters first.
There wasn’t even a general-grade among them.
Three gold-badge Players wielding attribute mana put on a one-sided slaughter against those monsters.
The fight ended quickly, and my confusion only deepened.
“...There’s no one here?”
As I heard Kim Yul’s bewildered voice, I alternated between the map and the Meseo several times.
One Meseo at my feet. One blue dot marked right beside it.
But all I could see was the Meseo.
After a moment’s thought, I activated Mana Detection.
Only then did I understand the source of the mystery.
*It’s underneath.*
Beneath the swirling mana leaking from the Hole embedded in the Meseo.
There was a fairly large mana signature.
*No way they didn’t notice us coming...*
Was it sitting there out of confidence?
Or some other reason?
I racked my brain while lowering my stance.
That revealed a skull beneath the Meseo pile, and something faintly sparkling darted inside it.
I immediately wrapped mana around my left hand and shoved it into the remains.
After groping around inside several times.
“Hmm?”
I felt a texture completely different from hard bones, slimy moss, or rotten hide.
Something soft and warm.
As if insisting it was a living being, its owner kept trying to wriggle deeper into the crevice.
But I had no intention of letting it escape.
If I did, I’d be back to helplessly waiting for who-knows-when the next chance would come.
*Even if it costs me my hand, I’m grabbing it.*
As long as I could recover the severed body part, an upper-grade potion would reattach it.
The pain in the process would suck... but it beat letting it go and waiting for another shot.
I thrust my hand even deeper.
The mana-wrapped hand easily crushed and parted the remains.
That let me successfully seize the small lifeform trying to flee deeper through the narrow gap.
Worried about magic or other attacks, I quickly pulled my hand out.
I also crammed in a burst of red mana to fill my grip.
But those fears proved unfounded.
Nothing happened until I fully withdrew my hand from the ground.
A bit flustered, I opened my clenched fist.
I’d swapped my spear for a dagger in my right hand—better for close-range—just in case.
When I fully opened my hand, I was speechless.
Amid crushed bone fragments and slimy contaminants, a small lifeform the size of a stag beetle huddled with its head buried in its arms.
“...Tinkerbell?”
Kim Yul’s stunned mutter was utterly out of left field.
But for a split second, a similar word had flashed through my mind too.
Twin pairs of translucent wings like a dragonfly’s, surrounded by falling glittering dust.
Pointed ears and a tiny size that fit perfectly in my palm.
Fluffy pale pink hair like cotton candy.
Staring at that fairy-tale exterior naturally brought a certain word to mind.
“Fairykin...”
It seemed to be one of those Fairykin, the first Ain race said to have betrayed us.
*Why the hell’s this thing in a Contaminated Zone? Here for the Meseo? No way it can carry that alone.*
The completely out-of-nowhere appearance short-circuited my thoughts for a moment.
That brief gap appeared.
The Fairykin, still huddled with its head covered, slyly lowered its arms and lifted its head.
It glanced at the three humans looking down at it—swish, swish.
“Hyap!”
Then it suddenly flapped its wings furiously.
The light dust falling from its wings seemed to flare brightly for an instant, warping my vision.
Right after, a hazy sensation washed over me, and my consciousness began to float away.
Gently drifting higher and higher.
In that buoyant feeling, I was strolling through a forest of skyscrapers.
Beside me were my precious family.
Fragmentary scenes flashed rapidly through my mind.
At a menu, checking the dish names first, not the prices.
Spotting clothes I liked and asking if I could try them on, instead of eyeballing the price tag first.
In all those moments, I wasn’t rushed. I was at ease.
My expressions, movements, thoughts—all of it.
I sensed the incongruity right away, and the floating sensation vanished simultaneously.
“Hyung!”
“K, snap out of it!”
As the dizzying freefall began toward the distant ground below, I’d already formed a barrier around us.
“W-what?!”
But I didn’t need to bother.
The moment Kim Yul noticed something was off with me, he’d captured the Fairykin with an upper-grade binding spell.
Regaining my senses at the end of that vertiginous drop, I coldly snatched it back up.
Kim Yul released the binding chains, but watched the Fairykin with a more tense expression than before.
“N-no way! How’d you break out that fast?!”
The Fairykin’s panic was plain as day.
I narrowed my eyes and glared at it.
*So this is the ability that makes you dream...*
What I’d just seen was my past, and at the same time, the future my siblings had lost.
Things I’d once taken for granted but couldn’t give the twins.
Money had come now, but I was rolling around in Vihar without even seeing my siblings.
That’s why I’d sensed the wrongness before floating any higher.
If I hadn’t noticed and kept drifting with the buoyancy.
*I might’ve gotten sucked into the dream the Fairykin created.*
Fortunately, I did notice, and dropped back to reality.
*Does the ability fail if the gap between dream and reality is too wide?*
If this was standard for all Fairykin abilities, they didn’t seem like a huge threat.
*Or maybe this one’s just particularly weak.*
While I pondered this first encounter with a Fairykin’s power, the one who’d used it on me was rolling its eyes frantically.
Tears welled up in those eyes, which was ridiculous.
*Jesus.*
Anyone seeing this would think I’d done something heinous.
When it was the one who’d pulled that stunt.
Shaking my head, I readjusted my grip on it for now.
I’d positioned it so only its head poked out, my hand enveloping its entire body.
Incidentally blocking the wings too.
*It flapped its wings and scattered dust before using its ability.*
That must’ve been right, because it didn’t try the power again.
A disarmingly intuitive and simple method.
*No wonder human trafficking hit them so hard.*
As I swallowed a sigh, the Fairykin let out a shrill shriek.
“Aaack! I-it hurts! It hurts! Put me down right now!”
Of course, its voice was so tiny it was more like chirping than yelling.
To even hear it, I had to heighten my senses more than usual.
*...With the physical size difference, that’s to be expected.*
Communication with other races would’ve been a nightmare otherwise.
I swallowed another sigh as I recalled the Fairykin’s betrayal process and backstory.
“Y-you barbaric human! Put me down this instant!”
Ignoring its continued shrieks, I pulled an item from my storage.
Seeing it, Kim Yul looked surprised and asked.
“You’re gonna use that magic stone?”
“Technically, it’s not a magic stone.”
It was attribute mana condensed into solid form.
The mana in question came from a flower with mind-altering effects.
I’d searched for similar plants on Earth, but it was a waste of time.
*Only found in Vihar.*
And only occasionally, in areas where spirit stones grew.
By magical classification, it was a 5th-grade advanced variant under the earth affinity’s wood-and-plant route.
A rare attribute discovered just eight times over centuries.
The eighth and last one was estimated to have appeared a few years ago.
*Couldn’t ID the source, though.*
Word was it started hitting black markets around five years back.
All this intel came from Radriol.
The black magic stone he’d used when trying to kidnap me back then was similar.
*Poppy mana, he called it.*
Hearing that jogged my memory, so I’d reached out to Radriol.
He confirmed it was mana used for guided interrogations.
- It’s famous among the elite.
- Supply’s limited, but plenty of folks probably have some.
I hadn’t asked the cult folks about it, though.
Didn’t want to hear their answer.
Goddamn system