The Five Great Elements
Dueogsin. The Head-Crushing God.
Or, as he was more commonly known, Dueogsi.
Few knew how that yokai had begun. Some took him for a monster who appeared anywhere at all and crushed people's heads until they burst. Elsewhere, the tale went that he was born when a maidservant met a bitter, unjust death.
"Just as you said. He ended up like that because he was incomplete."
A bitterness touched Dueogsi's lips.
"This land lost far too much to war. Our legends were among what vanished."
Yokai, anomaly, or ghost story — if one meant to remain oneself, the tale had to stay clear. But the yokai of the peninsula had lost their foundations in the wars of the past, and their stories had been erased with them.
"If only those filthy raiders from the island nation had never come invading..."
Dueogsi's brow twisted.
He's talking about the Japanese colonial era.
Bihyung had heard of it. They had made Korea a colony and bent its language, its history, even its stories to their own taste. In the course of that, it seemed a great many tales of Korea's native yokai had been lost.
"And so I grafted myself onto what little of that legend remained, and onto the story of the yaksha."
There had even been a time when yaksha and Dueogsi were treated as one and the same word. Dueogsi had used that to leave at least his name upon the world.
"...Though I no longer know if it was the right choice. Once, I believed that if I left even a name behind, I could keep my sense of self. Now... I do not know."
A life that survived by losing its original form, its story, even its nature — was there any meaning in persisting so uglily?
"I thought of it as riding alongside. In truth, it can only be called parasitism."
Watching that expression, Bihyung found his thoughts running deep.
You can keep a self only if you leave a name... That sounds exactly like the yokai from the game.
Monsters without selves, swinging bloated bodies and rampaging. Beings you could not even stand against unless you had reached at least the middle ranks. The end Dueogsi described looked very much like looking at them.
"I am told the dokkaebi's state is graver than my own."
Dueogsi's gaze turned toward the subordinates waiting beyond this domain.
"A race incomplete from birth."
No one even knew when they had lost their foundation. They had passed through glory and through ruin, and were born already wearing the incompleteness they bore now.
"You mean to become the first step for dokkaebi such as they. Do you say this knowing what it means?"
The question settled heavily across Bihyung's shoulders. Even so, the will in his eyes did not die, and his shoulders did not bend.
"Yeah. I'll lead them."
He would overturn the verdict of incompleteness and forge a legend that would endure for ages. Perhaps that was the ending laid out for a half-yokai like himself.
"......"
Dueogsi stared at him for a long moment, then shook his head.
"I truly cannot fathom it. Where does certainty like that even come from?"
"Do I need to be certain?"
"...What?"
The corner of Bihyung's mouth drew a faint arc.
"I'm already the height of what a dokkaebi can become."
A grade that reached EX. A presence no yokai dared stand against.
"Whatever the rest of you do, I'll keep walking. Legends will pile up along that road on their own."
Bihyung held out his hand. He was telling him to choose.
"Decide whether you'll follow behind me."
Dueogsi's eyes trembled, if only a little.
"...Then why bid me join the Hundred Ghosts? If that is all you mean to say, then say it to my subordinates..."
"I already asked. They said they couldn't. They have a boss they have to serve."
And now, watching Dueogsi's reaction, Bihyung understood for certain. The violent nature he had known in Dueogsi had been distorted in no small part.
Because he fed on the yaksha legend?
The yaksha had been worshipped, yet before they took refuge in Buddhism they were yokai that inspired fear. Their root was India's yaksha. Close to nature spirits, they had at some point become baleful beings that fed on human flesh.
"Dueogsi. I like you."
Bihyung's smile settled in those trembling eyes.
"Stand behind me and take your oral tradition back. No — this might be a fine chance to pile a new story on top of the roots you have now."
Bihyung held out his hand.
"I'm going forward. What about you?"
What about him? Did he really have to say it...?
So that the blood rising around his trembling eyes would not be seen, Dueogsi dropped his head and took Bihyung's hand. A being once worshipped. A boss who had led the weaker dokkaebi. This was the moment Dueogsi was folded into the Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts.
Dueogsi was brought into the Hundred Ghosts. As if to congratulate him, notifications burst before Bihyung's eyes like fireworks.
Congratulations. Dueogsi, together with the faction under him, has been incorporated into your Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts!
Once master of the Hundred Ghosts who led the weaker dokkaebi, and the vanguard who stood at their front.
A flash in the east, a flash in the west. One whose tracks could never be lightly found, he was among the greatest terrors of the common folk.
Such a being has sworn upon his soul to stand beneath your command.
The progress of the unique story, Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts, has increased.
As those words ended, Eodugi's voice came through.
"E-Eldest!"
Eodugi was linked to him. Feeling the Night Parade's progress climb in real time, he had gone wide-eyed.
"Something... something is happening, it is!"
The little one was fine in every other way, but he had this habit of talking like that whenever he tried to offer an opinion of his own.
"And what exactly is this something?"
"Your Night Parade is growing stronger, Eldest! Thanks to that, I believe I can move forward as well! If only a chance is given, I think I can evolve, it is!"
As the Night Parade grew stronger, a bonus had been applied to the growth of those who belonged to it.
A profit.
The stronger Eodugi became, the greater the power Bihyung could show when he wore him as a shroud. And since Mina was among his people as well, he could aim for her growth on top of that.
Dueogsi. Him too.
Bihyung looked at the small child standing stolidly behind him. The body looked unimpressive, but the sense within it — as if it held a giant — was anything but ordinary. From the moment Shuten-doji's curse had been lifted, he had been gradually reclaiming the power of his true body.
At first he was barely low rank. Now he's on par with a decent middle rank.
If he recovered it all, he might even be able to trade blows with a high rank. Was this what people meant by feeling full without having eaten? Solid. Reassuring.
"Boss."
Dueogsi looked at Bihyung and spoke. For the record, from the moment he joined the Hundred Ghosts, he had been addressing Bihyung with full courtesy.
"There is one matter I wish to ask."
"Go ahead."
"...I feel something familiar from you, Boss. Could that perhaps be..."
Bihyung let out a hollow laugh.
"You feel it because it used to be yours?"
"As I thought. You have obtained a primary attribute bound to Void."
Yes. That was what Bihyung had chosen as the reward of the bet. A primary attribute.
More precisely, it was written as affinity.
Since that was simply a measure of how attuned one was to the attribute in question, calling it a primary attribute was close enough.
The moment I looked at it, the system sent a notice.
This reward is closely tied to the foundation that constitutes Dueogsi. Exercise caution.
A message along those lines. So Bihyung had chosen it without a backward glance, and he had come to understand, if only a little, what it meant to speak of the foundation that made up Dueogsi.
That no search could ever follow Dueogsi's tracks — that, too, was one of his incomplete legends.
The clue, it seemed, had been sorcery of the Void. Specialized in it as he was, even an outstanding exorcist had been unable to pursue him.
"What, want it back?"
"No. I have no particular need of it any longer."
Dueogsi clenched his fist, then opened it as he spoke.
"You said so earlier, Boss. That I should let a new story sprout atop the oral tradition I hold now. If that is so, it eases the heart to set down what I possess and begin again."
The right words, and a mindset not easily followed. Fortunately Bihyung did not have to return what he had taken, and that lifted a weight from him.
Thanks to the primary attribute of Void, there's been progress in Colorless Painting too. If I'd handed this back, it would have been a disaster.
Colorless Painting. The highest cultivation method of the Reader's Chronicle, taken from the library anomaly. After gaining affinity from Dueogsi, Bihyung had begun to find his footing in it.
Because there is nothing, anything can be drawn.
Colorless Painting, bearing that meaning, did not follow the Five Phases. It was closely bound to Void. On that basis, Bihyung meant to train until regular classes began.
After I collect the rewards I've been putting off.
He had told Mina to tour the treasure vault with the dokkaebi as her guides. After that, he looked into the empty air and examined the changes that had come over him.
Classification: Unique Story
To begin is to be the one who opens the door.
The first of every step, and the start of oral tradition.
Each and every one of your stories will remain as lore passed down.
Raise a legend that will endure for ages.
The first thought, the moment he saw it, was pure bewilderment.
Every single one of my stories becomes oral tradition... what is that even supposed to mean?
The puzzlement did not last. Bihyung finally grasped it.
...Wait. Stories? It doesn't matter whether they're the main story or a side one?
A story was a story. Thought of that way, simply pushing the main story forward would let him gain rewards other than the ones for performance.
If oral tradition piles up, the unique story's progress rises, and that means abilities open — just like the Night Parade.
Ha! This was it!
When everyone else pushes a story and gets one reward, I get two?
How was he supposed to sit still for that?
And... is the other one an achievement?
When he had forged the Dokkaebi Bat, he had been told he had accomplished an impossible feat.
What is it going to give me?
He had kept ignoring the notices that rose one after another while he spoke with Dueogsi. Now seemed like the time to look.
Open.
The moment his will rose —
Ding!
A bright chime, as if offering congratulations, and one side of his vision was covered.
Bloodline Maker?
A new achievement, added to the system list. Just as Perfect Neutrality had, this one surely hid an ability.
What is it?
While he was turning it over, he strangely felt the yang energy in his lower dantian blaze. If he had to compare it, it was surging about half again as fiercely as usual.
...No way.
A change that had come the instant he obtained the achievement Bloodline Maker. Which was to say — did the achievement raise the power of bloodlines themselves?
...Was there ever an ability like this?
There was not. Even Bihyung, a long-time veteran of the Reader's Chronicle, had never seen anything this broken. A bloodline was not something one could choose, so in the game it might not have been quite so absurd. But for Bihyung, a dokkaebi?
Bet or otherwise, I can take bloodlines too.
Of course, the ones he stole from would have to be villains. It was not copying. It was seizure. If he was caught by the scruff of the neck, he would be the one in danger.
And it pairs well with the Dokkaebi Bat I just got.
The ceiling of its growth had struck EX, but the grade of the ability itself still felt like E. If this amplified the bat's power, nothing could be better.
I could even put it to use in a real fight right away.
Bihyung smiled crookedly and stretched long. Now, if he just picked out the rewards that suited him and headed back to the dorm...
That was the moment.
"Boss."
From the instant he had heard that Bihyung had taken the primary attribute of Void, Dueogsi had been sunk in thought. Now he called to him.
"Would you spar a round with me?"
And out of nowhere, he requested a blood-spar.
...Is this why they say you should never take in a black-haired beast?
"A-ah, no! It is not that!"
When Bihyung relayed the thought with an amused look, Dueogsi swept his palms hard through the air and shook his head.
"I only wished to pass on to you the techniques I know, Boss!"
"Oh?"
Now that was a little tempting.
When I glanced through the bet's list earlier, the techniques Dueogsi had mastered numbered close to a hundred.
He had lived a long age, and in that time he had learned many arts and tempered them. This would be a chance to take intensive lessons from someone like that. When Bihyung showed interest, Dueogsi went on as if delighted.
"Which technique do you wish to learn?"
Which technique...
"That one. Among yours, there was definitely a technique tied to sense, wasn't there?"
"You mean Ghost-Sense Tread."
"Yeah."
From the rough look earlier, that sense technique's grade had clearly been SS+.
It was listed as sealed, unusable — but if used, the power of the 8th Rank. And a plus-grade on top of that.
Even if Dueogsi had not brought it up first, Bihyung would have wheedled him to teach it. Dueogsi nodded, plainly satisfied.
"Understood. As it happens, the primary attribute required to learn Ghost-Sense Tread is Void, so this is a boon."
A heaven-sent chance, arriving out of season. If he had not gained affinity with Void... yeesh. He would not have been able to learn that either.
And if I'd taken only that on its own, I wouldn't have been able to handle it for quite a while.
The same went for Colorless Painting. Gaining the primary attribute of Void had truly been the right call. As the corner of Bihyung's mouth twitched with satisfaction, Dueogsi spoke.
"Then, from this moment, I shall teach you of Void — no. Of the Five Great Elements that yokai employ."
And so it was. Before he had even learned an exorcist's arts, he found himself learning a yokai's.
Hhh... is this even right?