Chapter 57
Chapter 57
8. Hunter Alliance -9
Whether Joero really used the plant bastards' power, whether he was cooperating with those monster trees, whether his subordinates were in on it too, or whether the entire radical faction was one rotten bunch⋯⋯.
I didn't know yet.
Jumping to conclusions was pointless. What mattered wasn't so much the truth itself, but what I could actually do with that knowledge.
[-> Download Slot 1: 『- - - -』 (Downloading⋯⋯ 32%)]
Either way, to escape this stage I had to resolve the system error first. Until the download finished, I had no choice but to wait in this burrow. Might as well use the time productively.
"You said you brought a book?"
"Yes. It's over here⋯⋯ here!"
Rustle.
Elijah pulled out an old volume she'd hidden against the small of her back. Even from the cover, I could smell blood soaked deep into it.
I didn't know how many hands this book had passed through, but I could tell with certainty it had left countless pools of blood in its wake.
"I tried to read it, but the system's translation function was barely holding on. If Noah had arrived just a little later, we might not have even been able to talk like this. Hehe."
"⋯⋯If that had happened, we'd have spent a bit more time talking through body language."
Flip.
I turned the pages. Since my system was also glitching, some of the text wasn't translated here and there, but the noise was less severe than Elijah's, so I could make it out.
I could fill in the missing parts from context. First, the cover. It felt as though the letters themselves carried power, and just reading them drained me steadily—though it was only magic power being consumed.
The cover, at least, seemed manageable. And so, after about five minutes of concentration and analysis, the identity of this book was revealed.
Hell Path / Second-Realm Art / 『Erzsebet's Reforging』.
That was it.
The information on the cover alone was enough to get us talking.
"Second-Realm Art⋯⋯ What you were going to do with me was the Asura Path's First-Realm Ladder Ascension Method, right? The rite to advance to the next stage. Hmm, if the latter part—Art or Ladder Ascension Method—indicates the purpose."
"Then the first part indicates the rank. First-Realm, then Second-Realm—it goes up like that. So this book is⋯⋯ the next rank up. In system terms, would that make it C-grade?"
"Probably, right⋯⋯? Is this also about some kind of rite? If so, then what in the world are they trying to accomplish by gathering up those young beastman children⋯⋯."
On reflex, I sent a message to Glass Sword Lord asking him to tell me about this, but the cooldown hadn't reset yet and the system was still glitching, so of course the transmission failed.
Fortunately, this book also had an explanation at the front. Why I wrote this, what this book is about, and so on. But unlike the cover, once the actual content began to reveal itself—the strain on me shot up sharply.
[One day, my fourth rib was aesthetically displeasing. This is unforgivable. So I pulled it out, but then it was even worse. I needed a prosthetic to replace the rib. While I'm at it, I might as well try attaching a new arm or ear. Conveniently, there is one disciple whose arm I'd like to pull off. Therefore, I write this miscellaneous volume for the purpose of overall bodily beautification.]
The writing itself was unpleasant, like it had been penned by a lunatic, so it wasn't easy to read.
But I felt a menacing pressure, like facing a high-ranking hunter—the kind where if this state continued, I might vomit blood or have my insides churned up.
Since I'd have to fight soon once the system error was resolved, I quickly focused only on grasping the book's function without taking damage.
To put it simply.
"⋯⋯It's a rite where you offer up sacrifices and graft parts of their bodies onto yourself. But the efficiency is garbage. It looks like you'd need to sacrifice ten people just to graft a single finger joint."
At that, Elijah—who had been covering the little one's ears with both hands since the story began—tilted her head with a bewildered expression.
"What? Um, what about other functions? There's nothing else?"
"Nothing else. Not from what I read."
"⋯⋯Why?"
Right. I felt exactly the same way.
According to Elijah's testimony, the radical faction president Joero had his upper face meticulously wrapped in bandages. Taken at face value, it would seem he had a complex about his appearance and was trying to fix it through the rite.
But would that really be reason enough to secretly carry out a Hell Path rite—one despised by most system hunters—using his own subordinates to abduct sacrifices, and to hunt down Elijah to the ends of the earth to kill her for witnessing it?
"No. He didn't seem like that kind of person. If he cared about his appearance, he wouldn't have just wrapped bandages around it, and he would have paid attention to fashion. I think he'd have at least worn a hat."
"But the other possibilities are pretty strange too. You said the ones taken as sacrifices weren't full-grown beastmen—they were young beastmen. A guy with the strength to tear off your mechanical arm with his bare hands—what part of a child is he trying to graft?"
Nothing but questions.
Nothing but questions, but⋯⋯.
[-> Download Slot 1: 『- - - -』 (Downloading⋯⋯ 80%)]
If I strung the scattered beads onto a single thread, I might be able to see the picture more clearly than I thought.
The download was almost done. About ten minutes left. I decided to settle one last thing: whether Elijah would be joining the fight.
"Once the system error is fixed⋯⋯ what are you going to do?"
"Obviously, go rescue them."
I knew she'd answer that. That's why I asked.
She had lost her 『Coffin』. Without the berserker-style combat method of swapping out her limbs, her effective combat power had dropped significantly.
Jumping into battle without proper maintenance was the same as raising her odds of dying. One wrong move and she could be killed. I had to stop her.
"How about you rearm and come back. At least get a new 『Coffin』."
"Starting from scratch, it'd take a month to get another one. By then it'd be too late."
"I'll go in your place. You stay here and protect the kid."
"Every extra hand matters. They have numbers. Two of us is far better than fighting alone, right?"
"Hah."
The shameless way she answered—what stubbornness.
But I knew what she'd say if I told her not to be stubborn. She'd ask why I was going, then. And if I said I was going because I could handle it, she'd say then there was no problem with her tagging along too.
Elijah smiled brightly, reading my eyes, and answered.
"Exactly."
"⋯⋯⋯⋯."
So I asked something else.
"You know it's dangerous. Why⋯⋯ why are you trying to throw yourself in even knowing that?"
"Because my goal is grand. Didn't I tell you when we first met? Even if I starve to death, I have to look far ahead and move like a madwoman. If I run from a skirmish like this, how could I ever topple a giant?"
She called fighting a faction pillar who could crash other people's systems and drag around his own subordinates a "skirmish."
"What exactly is this goal of yours?"
"Well, with a little exaggeration—I have to fight and win against an entire world."
"Fine. Your goal can be grand. But there are plenty of ways to get stronger. You don't have to force yourself into a fight like this—you could train martial arts with me and acquire skills, right?"
"⋯⋯But I only have one heart, you know?"
Elijah closed her eyes gently and placed a hand over her chest. The soft, curved smile looked frail and pitiful at a glance, but what I felt was different.
To me, she looked like a rock standing tall in the middle of a storm-tossed sea. I learned for the first time that a gentle smile could look so stubborn.
"If it breaks once, it'll break twice. Once a heart folds, the crease stays until you die."
"⋯⋯⋯⋯."
So she was determined to fight no matter what. I laughed in disbelief.
She wasn't someone who'd listen just because I said so. In that case, rather than persuading Elijah, it'd be cheaper to figure out how to smash her and the Hunter Alliance radical faction together. Hell, I just had to pull it off, right?
Our forces were me, Elijah, and Hori, who'd already left. The enemy, on the other hand, was numerous. No matter how I thought about it, that rite site would be a dangerous battle⋯⋯.
Ding!
[-> Download Slot 1: 『- - - -』 (Downloading⋯⋯ 100%)]
[Error!]
[Intrusion detected in ■-grade special system (User: Noah Won). Function access temporarily restricted—]
Bzzt, bzzzzt──
<Analysis complete. Capture successful.>
Stored list: ⋯(omitted)⋯, 『Gaze of the Black Maple (黑丹楓) (Danger)』.
That moment.
With a strange noise, the system window streamed out. The instant I read the text and chewed over its meaning, I knew by instinct.
It really was the plant bastards' power after all!
What Joero had used, what he'd attached to Elijah with it, and the black gate floating in the sky above this stage—they were all the same thing. I'd been in denial because it seemed unthinkable, but now it was clear.
I didn't know how he'd cooperated with those green wastes that couldn't even communicate and seemed to have no intelligence, but that bastard Joero was a traitor to the system who'd sided with the monster trees.
──They called these things 『Elves』, didn't they.
If I thought about it under the premise that Joero was an Elf, the strange things I'd sensed so far mostly made sense. I'd heard that Elves' ears grew long because of the system's curse.
Then wasn't it a coincidence? That he wrapped bandages so tightly they covered even his ears. And that he was going out of his way to spend time and Credits on a rite to steal other people's body parts!
I pulled at the corner of my mouth and said to Elijah.
"You don't need to worry. If we time it right⋯⋯ I think this might go easier than expected."
"Do you have some kind of plan?"
I did.
What mattered wasn't so much the truth itself, but what I could actually do with that knowledge.
Those Hell Path practitioners, said to be utterly vicious, were despised within the system's framework. Then what treatment would traitors who'd joined hands with the system's archenemy, the 『Monster Trees (怪樹)』, receive?
At this moment, this matter was no longer the immoral deviance of Hunter Alliance radical faction president Joero and an internal pursuit—it became a hunt to root out an 『Elf』 spy hiding within the Alliance.
Unless they were all in on it together, there was nothing strange about informing the Hunter Alliance traditional faction and storming in together.
"Joero is an Elf. I know the location of the Hunter Alliance D-grade branch. Let's go there, report Joero, and gather as many people as we can."
"⋯⋯⋯⋯!! Yes! I love it!"
"⋯⋯You seem a little too happy about it."
"It's my dream! Gathering people and flipping something over!"
What in the world are you planning to go up against in the future?
I exited the burrow and stepped outside. Whoever had been tracking Elijah must have gone completely the wrong way, because I felt no presence nearby.
But through the leaves covering the sky, the pitch-black gate still hung there.
Once the download completed, the general usage flowed into my head. This 『Gaze of the Black Maple』 was a request to open a small gate above the target's head that would eat away at their system. And it was addressed to the plant bastards.
Since it was a power used by petitioning the plant bastards like submitting a payment request, I'd call it a Tree Petition. Somehow, that name felt fitting.
I looked up at the sky and activated the skill.
"Black Maple, the leaves have served their purpose, so please 『close』 it now."
Zzzzt──
With a sticky sap-like sound, the black gate in the air slowly faded from sight. Immediately, ding-ding-ding—system notifications began ringing in a flood.
The most eye-catching among them was.
[Glass Sword Lord: Noah Won!]
A chat message from Glass Sword Lord. At this timing? The cooldown shouldn't have reset yet.
It seemed like it might be something serious, so I checked it first.
[Glass Sword Lord: Haha, you've met an Elf, I see? The System has granted an emergency hearing. Thanks to that, we can talk for free like this. We have about 10 minutes, so report as quickly as possible, and use the remaining time to ask good questions!]
[Noah Won: Excuse me? So⋯⋯ it wasn't free before?]
[Glass Sword Lord: For a high-ranking hunter to converse with a lower-ranking hunter, Credits are consumed according to the gap. Honestly, I'd love to talk for a long time, but I don't have that many Credits on hand!]
"⋯⋯⋯⋯."
So he'd been paying the international call charges for me, Sword Lord⋯⋯.
[Glass Sword Lord: Cut to the chase and describe the Elf's personal details! If your evidence is valid, the System will issue a quest!]
A quest!
I didn't know exactly what that entailed, but I had a rough feeling. It would probably put a bounty on the Elf's head.
If so, the biggest problem—how to convince people that Joero was an Elf—was solved. Originally, I'd planned to negotiate with that traditional faction man, Muyeon, and stir up a fight between the factions.
This was far cleaner.
I sent a flood of chat messages to Glass Sword Lord while preparing to move stages. I'll push this through, Joero. I'll make you pay in full for what you did to my rite partner.
And⋯⋯.
At least keep yourself alive, you bastard Hori.
Joero lightly shook the blood from his hand. Drip, drop. Red specks scattered across the ground.
"You've grown weak, Hori. Didn't you once say you wanted to become strong?"
"Kuhuk⋯⋯ cough, cough!"
Hori, sprawled before Joero, vomited up a basinful of blood. She was already so badly wounded she could barely move.
Her ears rang, and the pain dulled. A sign that death was approaching.
Beyond her increasingly blurred vision, she saw a hazy vision. From the black screen beyond the fog, the image of a girl slowly played.
-You useless bitch, a half-breed mixed with human blood!
A small beastman girl beaten by her tribespeople—told the weak were useless, told a half-wit like her should leave. The girl curled her small body and wept.
She couldn't dare resist. The tribespeople were stronger than the girl, and the girl was weaker than the tribespeople.
"Da, damn⋯⋯."
Just like right now.