We Are Children of Nature
We are children of nature.
“Oh, now that I think about it, you’ve been getting unusually close with the Seranapia alliance, haven’t you?”
One afternoon after safely clearing the ninth floor of the Tower and finally catching our breath, I sat in front of the brand-new high-end PC monitor we’d set up in the corner of the living room and casually tossed out the question while clicking away. We’d installed two PCs before even finding a new place to live, so the already-empty living room now looked more like a PC bang. Not that it mattered. A quick round of Role between moderating sessions was the best fatigue reliever there was.
Tap-tap, tap-tap-tap!
The moment I finished speaking, the monitor in front of Lee Sieun—who had been furiously hammering her keyboard—flashed gray. She’d tried a clumsy forward leap only to have her head split open by the enemy’s massive axe.
CRASH!
“Agh, damn it, Level 11 of the Promise!! That thing’s ridiculously strong.”
Sieun slammed her fist on the desk, ruffled her hair in frustration, then continued answering while still fuming.
“Haa… Yeah. I don’t know why, but those pointy-eared Seranapia guys have been acting super docile around me lately. They listen to everything I say without complaint. A while back they even gave me the Spirit Magic trait at half price.”
I pulled my character safely behind a turret and turned to look at her.
“No guesses at all? They’re not exactly philanthropists. There’s no way they’d hand out traits for free.”
“Hmm…”
At my serious question, Sieun fiddled with her mouse, deep in thought. The glow from the monitor lit up her furrowed brow. For about twenty seconds, only the sound of the mouse wheel scrolling filled the living room. Just as her respawn timer was about to finish and she moved her character back toward the top lane, she suddenly let out a short exclamation, as if something had clicked.
“…Ah! Now that I think about it, the very first quest I got was called Nature’s Resonance or something like that.”
“Nature’s Resonance?”
“Yeah. One day the system suddenly dumped 50,000 coins as an advance payment and told me to find places where I could feel the elements of water, fire, wind, and earth, then meditate there all day. The condition was to report back exactly what I felt afterward.”
I leaned back in my chair, intrigued.
“So? Did you feel anything after spacing out all day?”
At my question, Sieun paused her game and slowly began recalling the memory.
“First, for water, I went to the East Sea on the weekend and wandered around a nearby lake park too. But I swear I felt absolutely nothing. Just got cold and damp from the sea breeze and ended up with messy hair. Same with fire. I booked a glamping site and sat in front of a fire pit all night, but all I got was watery eyes from the smoke and unbearable heat. The only thing I remember is grilling samgyeopsal.”
“Sounds like you just went on a trip.”
“Pretty much.”
She shrugged and continued.
“But wind and earth were different.”
“How so?”
“You know that hill at the top of the sheep ranch in Daegwallyeong, Gangwon? I spread out a mat on the grass there, closed my eyes, and sat down. At first it just felt like mountain wind blowing, but when I steadied my breathing, the feel of the wind suddenly changed.”
Sieun’s voice grew a little excited.
“It wasn’t just rushing past. It felt like the wind was gently stroking my cheeks and tickling my ears with a soft mother’s touch. It was so vivid, like someone was whispering words I couldn’t understand right into my ear. And from the dirt I was touching with my bare hands, I could feel a faint, rhythmic vibration—like a heartbeat going thump, thump. My own pulse started syncing with that rhythm. It was seriously goosebump-inducing.”
After finishing her explanation, she picked up the mouse again and started hitting minions. The sight was so ridiculous that I couldn’t help but laugh.
“What the heck. Aren’t those elf bastards just trying to lure you into the forest so they can kidnap you and make your ears pointy? Be careful, or one day you’ll wake up and start gagging at the smell of meat while insisting on being vegetarian.”
“Hey! Don’t jinx me. How am I supposed to give up beef?!”
Just as Sieun flared up and looked ready to throw her headset at the monitor—
Ding—!
A brilliantly cold platinum light burst into the living room air.
Platinum Note received.
“Another note?”
I took my hands off the keyboard and stared at the air in confusion. Sieun also stopped playing and looked at the translucent system window in front of me. With a light gesture, she flipped through the screen a few times, and the message window slid open with a flashy effect.
Sender: Seranapia Council of Elders
Content: O great Wind Guide. The whispers of earth and wind brought by your companion were truly wondrous echoes. However, we wish to hear the deeper abyssal resonance you carry. Please proceed to the place where water, fire, wind, and earth intersect and share your unique resonance with us.
Below the message was a golden reward box.
Advance Reward: 50,000 Coins, Trait: Spirit Contractor
“……”
“……”
Sieun and I stared blankly at the platinum text floating in the air, then at each other. It was the exact same quest Sieun had just described, word for word.
“Maybe these bastards planted a bug in our living room.”
When I looked at the screen with mild distaste, Sieun crossed her arms and shrugged.
“Who knows? More importantly, 50,000 coins and the Spirit Contractor trait as an advance reward? They only gave me coins at first. Total VIP treatment. Well… I guess we’ll find out once you try it? They already paid, so there’s no reason not to do it.”
She wasn’t wrong. So without hesitation, I pressed the quest accept button.
***
The next morning, I decided to follow the tourist route Sieun had recommended. The first place I arrived at was a quiet beach on the East Sea.
Splash, crash.
White foam from the waves soaked the sand as seagulls cried overhead. I found a spot on a rocky outcrop near a deserted breakwater and sat cross-legged. Closing my eyes, I tried to steady my breathing and feel the “resonance” Sieun had talked about.
Ten minutes. Twenty minutes. Thirty minutes.
“……”
It was cold. Insanely cold. The sea breeze whipped my hair into my face, my nose stung, and goosebumps covered my body as the chill seeped through my coat. Aside from the sound of the waves, there was no mystical whispering or resonance to be felt.
“Damn it. Guess I have no talent for water either.”
Irritated, I scratched my head and gave up on meditating. Instead, to kill time on the way back, I opened the community window where Auto-Moderation Mode was probably running diligently. While idly scrolling through the free board, I clicked on a post out of curiosity.
Title: Saw the Ultimate Mutant Slime in the Swamp Dungeon Today. Whoa whoa whoa.
The moment I opened the post—
“Ugh…!”
I nearly threw up the udon I’d eaten at the rest stop that morning. A grotesque mass of slime that looked like thousands of leeches writhing together. On top of that, human-eyeball-like spheres were disgustingly embedded in its surface, rolling around. The image quality was so high that even the sticky texture of the slime came through vividly.
“Ah, shit… my eyes.”
I hurriedly waved my hand to close the window, but the indescribable afterimage of that cursed image was already burned deep into my brain. Even with my eyes closed, it felt like those eyeballs were staring at me.
‘Damn it, damn it.’
I desperately needed eye bleach. If I didn’t wash away this filthy optic nerve with something beautiful, my mood would stay ruined all day. I lit up my eyes and frantically searched the community’s concept post tab. Then, on page four at the very bottom, a post that no one had clicked—probably because the title alone suggested it contained something disgusting or NSFW—caught my eye.
Title: (NSFW Warning) Secret Bathing Ritual of the Seranapia Imperial Guard High Elf. jpg
“… Nothing to lose at this point.”
My eyes were already rotten anyway. Seeing something even more extreme probably wouldn’t make much difference. But contrary to my expectations, the high-resolution image that appeared when I opened it was truly breathtaking. A clear spring in the forest bathed in moonlight. In the center stood a dazzling silver-haired high elf. Crystal-clear droplets slid down her pale, perfectly curved back. The composition, with a single thin leaf clinging wetly to her skin and barely covering her, created an almost artistic tension.
The nude elf photo I’d gotten last time was already excellent, but this was on another level. This was true literature and art.
That thought filled my mind before I even realized it.
“… Thank you.”
Overwhelmed with gratitude, I instinctively offered my thanks and was about to naturally save the photo into Padak’s storage when—
“What are you doing here, looking all pathetic by yourself?”
Sieun’s voice came from right behind me. I felt the hairs on my body stand up as I turned around. Sieun had returned from the convenience store at the breakwater entrance carrying two warm canned coffees. She was looking back and forth between me and the translucent high elf nude photo floating right in front of my face, her eyes narrowed. Her gaze was a perfect 1:1 mix of contempt and pity.
“Oh, you’re back? This isn’t what it looks like…”
“Weren’t you supposed to be meditating?”
“I am meditating. This is also a kind of… highly academic contemplation to explore the ecological beauty of other races and the laws of nature.”
Sweating coldly, I tried to hurriedly close the window, but my hand slipped and I accidentally pressed the image enlarge button instead. Half of the elf’s chest, glistening with water droplets, filled the screen in an overwhelming way.
“……”
Sieun’s icy glare pierced my heart, a hundred times colder than the winter sea breeze of Gangwon. I coughed awkwardly and quietly turned my gaze toward the sea. The waves were still loud, but they were nowhere near enough to cover the heavy silence that had settled behind my back.