Chapter 173: Parasitic Wood
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 173: Parasitic Wood
After falling from the cliff, Yohan immediately turned his head to look at the ground below. A dense forest. If he was lucky, he could survive the fall even without any preparation.
In other words, it was a gamble that required him to bet his life on luck. Yohan had no intention of making such a bet.
‘Find a way.’
Even in a tense situation where life and death hung in the balance, his mind coolly analyzed the circumstances and found a way out. It was a survival technique he had learned from the Legendary Paladin, however briefly.
Having found a way to survive, Yohan kicked off the cliff face, launching himself forward.
CRACK-!
He shot off the cliff wall and grabbed onto a tall tree. He let the tree absorb the impact, then swung around to another.
His momentum slowed with each jump, and by the time he reached the ground, he was able to land gently.
“Hoo—that crazy bitch.”
Yohan cursed, thinking of Hekaterina up on the cliff. He was starting to hate both Hekaterina for kicking him off and the other witches for letting the bitch do it.
‘Why all of a sudden?’
He didn't think she'd done this because she'd grown to hate him. If the witches were tired of him, they wouldn't have just abandoned him like a stray dog—they would have simply killed him.
The witches had the power to do so, and the fact that they hadn't suggested there was a reason for throwing him here. With that in mind, Yohan carefully sat down and began to think.
“Grrr…”
If only he'd had the time.
Yohan groaned, staring at the monster that had appeared before him.
When he had a weapon, they weren't particularly frightening. After all, he was the only human with magic.
But bare-handed? Then it was as terrifying as a hunter facing a wild beast with nothing but his fists.
‘I'm fucked.’
Lowering his stance, Yohan watched the monster's movements. The moment it leaped at him, he ducked and slipped right under it.
The instant its back was turned, Yohan sent the monster flying with a powerful kick, then immediately sprinted for a tree and began to climb.
The monster could climb as well, but it couldn't keep up with Yohan as he leaped from tree to tree like a monkey.
“Almost died—.”
Screeeech—!
Skraaaaw—!
A monstrous screech came from the sky. Yohan glanced up. His view was obscured by the canopy, but he could make out the shapes of massive pterosaurs circling above.
Flying monsters had appeared in the sky.
Winged beasts that could peck him to death at any moment were circling overhead, while land-bound beasts pursued him from below.
Seeing himself getting squeezed from both sides, Yohan let out a dry laugh.
“It’s just one thing after another.”
WHOOSH-!
After dodging a diving monster, Yohan landed on the ground, only to let out a hollow laugh as another one swiped at him with its claws.
‘Fine, let’s do this, shall we?’
Shhkk-! Yohan blocked the monster's claws with his arm, then immediately jabbed his fingers into its eye. Squish. With the sensation of eyeball and brain turning to pulp, the monster died instantly.
Yohan casually shook the clotted blood from his arm and, with a grunt, ripped the monster's head clean off.
He then extracted the monster's spine, preparing to wield it like a club.
“This should do.”
Winding up as if swinging a baseball bat, Yohan swung the spine with all his might, successfully embedding it in the head of another monster diving toward him.
The monster's momentum knocked him flat on his back, but Yohan simply shoved the several-hundred-kilogram pterosaur off his body and burst into laughter.
“She sent me here to die.”
Only then did Yohan understand why Hekaterina had dropped him here. To die. She had sent him here simply to die.
What was that about the witches having no reason to abandon him here? He was right. The witches as a group had no reason to send him here.
But Hekaterina personally had every reason to throw him here to die.
‘Fucking bitch.’
She'd been like that since the day they met. A witch who acted on whims and lived as she pleased. She had been hiding her fangs all this time, only to finally reveal her claws.
He didn't know how she'd fooled the others, but he was certain of one thing: she was trying to kill him.
‘I will survive, no matter what.’
He would survive, no matter what, if only to land a solid punch on Hekaterina's head.
With that thought, Yohan decided his first priority was to escape the forest. In a place no different from a jungle, an unarmed human was nothing but prey.
“He's doing well.”
Hekaterina, the one who had kicked Yohan off the cliff, monitored his progress, confirming that he was still alive.
She had indeed pushed him to the brink of death, but it would be a problem if he actually died.
‘They call it shock therapy for a reason.’
His brain fried from too much sex? What a crybaby. Procreation is a fundamental drive for all living things. If your mind gets messed up from doing it too much, it's not because of the sex itself, but because you've gotten too comfortable.
The closer a creature is to death, the stronger its desire to procreate becomes. It's a basic instinct to pass on one's DNA before dying.
‘In other words, push him to the brink of death, and all his problems will be solved.’
All I have to do is put him in a situation so intense that it instantly resets the high threshold caused by his dopamine-addled brain and snaps him out of his rut.
He'll face real, life-threatening danger several times, but I won't actually let him die. Of course, telling him that would make the whole plan pointless, so I'll keep it to myself—.
‘Suffer a little, you bastard.’
The truth was, Hekaterina had never forgotten the time Yohan raped her, nor the resentment she felt.
She would have paid a fortune to see Yohan suffer. And now that she could watch for free, she vowed to maintain this state of affairs for as long as possible.
“Ah, he's going that way. That way is dangerous.”
Hekaterina grinned as she watched Yohan's path. The direction he was headed…
“What is this?”
Yohan froze, staring at the enormous tree before him. It was so massive he couldn't even guess its height or circumference.
It was the kind of tree people would call a World Tree.
‘What kind of tree is….’
If a tree like this existed on Earth, it would have either been chopped down for lumber long ago or roped off and turned into a tourist attraction.
With that in mind, Yohan approached the tree. He hoped to find something to eat, but even if there was nothing, he could climb it to get his bearings and find an escape route.
Just as he got close, a shrill cry echoed from above.
Whoosh-! Yohan leaped back, his eyes widening at the monster that landed right where he'd been standing.
‘What the hell is that?’
“Clack-clack.”
A humanoid figure seemingly woven from wood stood there. It had no face, but he could tell from its contours that it was shaped like a female.
As Yohan tried to approach the tree, the wooden humanoid unwound the wood on its arm, blocking his path.
“Creeeak-.”
“What is this?”
Its movements seemed designed to completely block his path to the tree. After feinting left and right a few times to gauge its reactions, Yohan pretended to go for the World Tree, then suddenly changed course and charged the wooden humanoid.
As if it had never seen a feint before, the creature left a wide opening. Yohan's roundhouse kick connected with its head, and the flimsy humanoid exploded, spraying sap everywhere.
Seeing the sap, Yohan finally realized what the creature was.
“A parasite… no, a Parasitic Wood?”
A creature that survived by sucking the sap of the World Tree. He wasn't sure if it could even be called ‘alive,’ but one thing was clear: it was a parasite that lived on the tree and drove away anything that got too close.
‘I see, so that's why it stopped me from approaching…’
Parasites unconditionally reject any being that threatens them or their host.
Likewise, the Parasitic Woods must have sensed that Yohan could harm the World Tree and moved to stop him.
‘But it was no match for me.’
He didn't have a place to sleep, and figuring this would make a good shelter, Yohan hummed to himself as he walked toward the World Tree.
And then he realized.
He realized that parasites rarely come alone.
“…Huh?”
Dozens of shadows appeared overhead. Dozens of Parasitic Woods clung to the tree, looking down at him.
Seeing the swaying wooden vines, Yohan raised both hands.
“I surrender.”
Swish-! As the wooden vines descended upon him, Yohan covered his head.
Chuuup- Chuppeueup-.
“…Huh?”
When he came to, Yohan was horrified to see a Parasitic Wood performing semen extraction on his ‘thing’.