Chapter 229
Chapter 229
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 229
Chapter Title: Horse Chestnut
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It's quiet.
Out of 24 hours, I don't remember twenty of them.
The only impression I had when I emerged from the dungeon was that.
-Shwaaaa.
I stared blankly at the cascading waterfall. After sitting there for a long while like that, I picked up a nearby pebble and tossed it onto the river's surface.
Ping-grrr. Tap, tap, tap.
The pebble skipped across the water like hand-pulled noodles.
The pebble created a few ripples before sinking.
"......"
"......"
We had nothing to say.
The silence was broken by Marronie, her face hollow and sunken.
"...Do men usually do it that much?"
With her temperament back to normal—and having already seen everything there was to see and tried every kind of play—she no longer bothered keeping up appearances.
"No, it's just me being weird. It's my constitution."
"I see."
At my response, Marronie buried her face in her knees.
Her expression was utterly listless.
"But even so, people don't usually go at it all day long, right?"
"......"
"You definitely snapped out of it midway."
I don't remember.
"...You didn't have to lick my toes either."
I think I did lick them.
But she had liked it.
"And why the armpit..."
"Let's drop that one."
"......Okay."
The silence stretched on even longer this time.
"What am I supposed to say when we get back to the academy? That I had sex inside a dungeon during the Forest Keeper selection match?"
Forget the academy—not even your country was an option for going back to. And she wasn't even a student, yet she kept up that pretense.
I chewed over the words that had risen to the tip of my tongue and swallowed them back down. It wasn't worth bringing up.
Marronie had always been like this inside the dungeon.
Whenever my temperament eased off and I turned cool-headed, she'd chatter away, subtly taking digs at me.
Like just now—since she was the one who'd gotten eaten anyway, she'd use it as ammunition to hurl insults.
Then, when her own temperament kicked back in, she'd tremble like a coward. Don't. Hate it. Hate your dick. No clue what she even wanted.
-Clack.
A sound came from right beside me. I turned my head to see Marronie starting to pack up her things.
She gripped her staff last, slammed it into the ground, and looked down at me.
"......Now it's time to go our separate ways. You didn't forget what I said, right?"
"Forget everything about the dungeon?"
"Yeah. And just... act like you don't know anything."
It was an accident. That was how she wanted to leave it.
Not a bad deal for me either, so I agreed.
Marronie gave a nod of thanks and turned to leave.
I stared at her retreating figure before suddenly murmuring a name that popped into my head.
"Blanche."
Whose name was that?
-Halt.
Marronie froze in place and turned to look at me.
Her face turned mischievous for a split second—was that my imagination?
Her cheeks were bright red.
"Don't... call me that..."
She said it in a voice that seemed to melt away, then fled from my side like she was running for her life.
So that was her name.
But what was with that reaction?
I didn't turn to look after her. Instead, I pulled a fruit from my pocket and held it up before my eyes.
Can... I even eat this thing?
Not sure if I should call it a fruit. A nut? Even that's ambiguous.
Seemed inedible.
In my sex-crazed haze, this was the only thing I'd managed to bring out of the dungeon.
I opened my status window, and notifications I'd missed came scrolling down.
⚔ STATUS ⚔ 'Tree Encyclopedia' entry added: Horse Chestnut. ⚙ ENCYCLOPEDIA ENTRY ⚙ □ Horse Chestnut [Encyclopedia No: 564] [Scientific Name: aesculus hippocastanum] - Alias: Marronie (marronnier) - Plant Kingdom Wood Person family soapberry subfamily seven-leaf genus Horse Chestnut. Its fruit resembles a chestnut but carries poison and is inedible. Famous as an ornamental tree. - Flower Language: Genius. Natural Talent. - Aptitude: [Magic Aptitude] - Unlock Progress: 36.11% [Encyclopedia Unlock Perk: Slight stat increase. All magic-related aptitudes noticeably rise.] [Due to ties with the dark-blooded National Tree family, acquired stats rise by 0.2 each.] As the status window appeared, I immediately closed my eyes and sensed the mana within me.
It was definitely stronger than before.
Once stats surpass 10, raising them by even 0.1 requires months of training—sometimes over a year. For me, this was the equivalent of striking gold with a lucky encounter.
And all from a single coupling with a National Tree family member, granting +0.2 to each stat.
Factor in the magic aptitude boost, and the gains were even greater.
As expected.
I spread my hand and conjured a Wind Cutter like the ones I'd used before.
-Whummm!
The blade of wind trembled noticeably more than yesterday. I poured in more mana to enlarge it.
An intermediate-level spell. Feeding it even more power caused the elongated wind blade to grow massive.
I hurled it into the waterfall.
-Piiing!!
The air burst with a sharp crack. The spell cleaved through the waterfall and soon made it spew rocks and dirt.
A major disturbance erupted in the lake.
If it's this strong already...
......I might need to abandon all sense of dignity and go through with more couplings.
The growth in my magic was that striking.
Now I might need to learn top-tier, first-class spells beyond what I already knew.
Among the magic I could currently use, only space magic reached first-class value.
Rare, unpublished grimoires.
Ones passed down from a master in the capital all the way to me.
In short, to obtain first-class magic, I'd need an encounter on that level—or find a proper master.
...Even top-tier varies by the spell.
The highest-grade magic I'd ever used was Wind Hole.
A spell only taught at the tail end of El Academy's magic tomes. Honestly, even this was nothing to scoff at anywhere.
It was the one I'd used when kidnapped by those twins named Alpha and Beta before.
I'd learned Wind Hole as a prerequisite and refined it to a usable level.
But even advanced and top-tier spells have their own hierarchies.
Just like A-rank and S-rank Hunters—ranks were just labels, and actual skill gaps were vast.
Some advanced spells were valued more highly than certain top-tier ones.
Rarity, performance, efficiency—they determined worth.
Hmm.
But first things first.
⚡ ITEM ACQUIRED ⚡ ▶ Marronie's Chestnut (B+) - Consumption grows talent in attribute magic.
- Absorbs some magic from parent body, Marronie Blanche.
The chestnut in my hand.
I peeled off the spiky husk to reveal something chestnut-like inside. I popped the whole thing into my mouth.
No matter how poisonous it was, this was a Hunter's body.
Not like it'll kill me.
But the instant it hit my tongue, my brows furrowed.
"...Bitter."
It tasted like dumping every herbal remedy at home into a pot and boiling it furiously.
I writhed as I chewed it down and swallowed the sticky lump.
Tasted awful, but it was fine.
I pulled clean water from my backpack to rinse my mouth, then summoned my mana.
-Zzzzt!
An electric orb sparked to life in my hand.
Couldn't tell from looking, but trying it out showed decent efficiency.
Of course, lightning didn't match my wind affinity like Wind Cutter did. Even accounting for that, it was a spell worth using occasionally.
Its deployment speed beat the electric shock imitation by a mile.
-Tap, tap.
I dispelled the spell from my palm, dusted off my hands, then pulled an artifact from my backpack and prepared to move.
Mana injection activated it.
A rectangular hologram appeared, listing cadets' names in a long scroll.
Quite a few eliminated.
I scanned the list of cadets.
Those trackable by position were one color; untrackable ones another. Far too many reds.
Over half the hologram was bright red. That meant 100-plus eliminations in a single night.
First night with crowds, so skirmishes make sense...
A ton of dropouts?
Could happen.
But this many? Way more than the previous Forest Keeper selection.
...Is this right?
The doubt was natural.
First, find Cornus.
I located Cornus in the participant list and clicked it.
The hologram disintegrated into particles, reforming as a paper map in my hand.
A simplified drawing and arrow pointed to her location.
[→]
Cornus's position... east.
I shouldered my backpack and dashed toward the arrow.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ A tautly drawn arrow trained on one cadet.
Aim the bowstring, hold your breath. Release when the tremor stops.
The mana-infused arrow flew straight into the cadet's forehead with a pop!
"...Guh!"
Unable to even exhale properly, he fainted.
Non-lethal, packed with electric magic.
"One more."
Bead smoothly drew another arrow from her waist quiver.
Her custom artifact gun had its power dialed down for later days, so she relied on the bow now—no risk of killing.
Arrows with wooden heads. Crudely made, but enchanted for durability.
If survival were the game's main event, Bead had aced it.
Rather than clearing dungeons, she'd survived this forest on her own terms.
Hiding amid the leaves, delivering one-shot stabs from above.
Bead eyed an approaching cadet from afar, drew her bowstring, and muttered to herself.
"Getting eliminated now is your lucky break..."
A ticket out before the real storm hit.
No need for innocent sacrifices—they weren't tasty anyway.
Afterward, it'd just sour her mood for no reason.
For the greater cause, she couldn't afford more casualties.
Flower's top priority: thin out the cadets.
Of course, it was her superior's miscellaneous orders—zero input from Flower's own intentions.
-Shwoook!
"Gurk!"
The struck cadet collapsed wordlessly.
His artifact activated, whisking him to safety.
Bead rubbed her red-hot palm against her thigh.
"...Thirty-three."
The number of cadets she'd eliminated in one night.
[Bzzz!]
[Whirr.]
Seven drones hovered around Bead, filming her.
The camera count proved she warranted that level of coverage.
Wonder if the others are doing well.
She thought of Flower's comrades—names unknown, identities unknown.
Cadets from various academies, or in other roles, participating in this Forest Keeper selection.
All of them steadily culling cadets like her.
To outsiders, they'd look like diligent competitors.
After this trial came meetings with the nomadic trees. Blessings and bonding.
More trials, then direct audience with the World Trees.
Flower had one goal.
'Assassinate the World Tree.'
She took aim at the approaching cadet.
Her hand trembled with tension.
In this globally broadcast event, hosted by the World Trees' divine will.
Expose the limits of those called gods without mercy—and make them wither personally.
Of course, there were other gains to be had here too.
She'd prepared plenty for the cause.
Taut arrow.
Released—the shaft hurtled toward the cadet at blinding speed.
-Whiiiish!
Blue electric mana surging, too fast for any ordinary cadet to react.
Black skin, black hair. Yellow eyes.
The woman's face snapped toward the arrow.
'...She reacted?'
Whiiiish—Thud!
A heavy impact. The woman had caught it.
Her participant uniform shredded to rags on her whim. Black-skinned woman.
Lion-like golden eyes stared straight this way.
Ominous aura. A National Tree.
Decision made, Bead rapidly backpedaled.
-Tap!
Expert and swift judgment.
"Hey."
But the woman moved faster still, scaling trunk and branches.
-Pop.
She thrust her face right up to Bead's nose, leveling a chilling glare.
Her face frozen in terror-inducing rigidity.
"Who the hell are you?"
Baobab Tree.
From her body, blood-red mana rose in lazy coils like mosquito repellent incense.