The Fairy? and the Woodcutter (2)
The Fairy? and the Woodcutter (2)
The undead rushed in.
From the serpent's vertically split maw, a clumsy roar burst out.
The air vibrated faintly, a subtle venom creeping in.
It conjured thoughts of death.
Amidst the sensation of fine hairs standing on end, Lee Ji-yeon moved without hesitation.
She drew upon the earth, elongating the haft of her axe.
Reinforcing her entire body to its limit, she clenched the haft with all her might.
Immediately after, she infused it with aura.
A thick, green aura coiled around the axe.
The aura exploded outward, especially fierce along the blade.
'Taesan.'
Taesan was the unique ability to wield the earth.
In the process of manipulating the earth, one could handle the vitality within it, and through that vitality, even control the dead.
But its foundation was, ultimately, command over the great earth.
Since ancient times, the earth itself has been the root of life and a symbol of power.
Lee Ji-yeon drew upon the power of the earth.
Rooting her feet deep into the ground, she seized the mana and vitality of the earth, pulling it deep into her physical body.
A fearsome vibration shook the haft in her grip, as if it might shatter.
A chilling, explosive crack resounded between the wood and her hands.
Gritting her teeth, Lee Ji-yeon swung her arm.
The axe blade cleaved the air with a booming slash as it descended. In an instant, it came crashing down upon the head of the charging undead.
- KWA-AAAAANG─!
"Kh...!"
The serpent's head, struck by the axe, was smashed into the ground.
A shockwave burst outward in all directions.
Like an explosion, earth piled high scattered, and trees, already skeletal, snapped clean in half and flew away.
Lee Ji-yeon had no time to care. Before she could recover from the recoil, she threw herself aside.
CRACK! Right where she had stood, a ghastly, blade-like tail slammed into the ground.
'So tough...!'
A numbness shot through both her arms. They trembled uncontrollably, feeling as if they might snap off.
Lee Ji-yeon stared down at her shaking hands.
Crumbled... Only the bare haft of her axe remained in sight.
The axe-head had been completely obliterated upon impact.
- KYAAAK!
Still, she had managed to wound it.
The gash on the serpent's head—now raised and thrashing about after being driven into the earth—was proof of that.
But it was far from a critical injury. Her face twisted into a grimace.
Her first strike.
An attack fully imbued with Taesan had failed to inflict a decisive blow.
'A little over 4th Rank? Not an Alpha.'
Lee Ji-yeon analyzed the situation coldly. The speed of its attack, the durability that withstood her axe strike.
The physical level she could estimate was low within the 4th Rank.
A 4th Rank monster was a horror that could appear as the Alpha Individual of a Grade 2 Dungeon, a beast capable of holding its own small territory even within the Demon Realm.
The gap wasn't so vast as to be despairing. Her blade could bite into it. If she kept hammering at it, it would eventually die.
She had never hunted a 4th Rank monster alone, but she knew it was killable.
'However...'
A chill ran down her entire spine.
This life-or-death crisis made all previous dangers feel like child's play.
The serpent shut its mouth and puffed up its snout, as if holding something in.
Through the gaping holes where flesh was missing, whatever it held dripped out of its snout.
- Hiiiiisss...
A black liquid tinged with deep green, and fumes seeping out along with it...
A lethally dangerous poison beyond compare.
"Evade—!"
Lee Ji-yeon bellowed, kicking off the ground.
While Lee Ji-yeon had been responding, the team members, who had been forming up, also kicked off the earth.
The serpent's torn eyes twitched as it opened its snout.
A green wave poured forth.
The dark-infested space, where the sun had sunk, was stained with a green hue.
Tree stumps, left desolate after their trunks were ripped away, were submerged in the poison and instantly melted without leaving a trace.
And that wasn't all.
The poison seemed to vaporize, continuously spewing out a toxic gas.
The liquid poison spread first, then expanded outward in gaseous form.
The land submerged in the poison melted away, slowly sinking. The land not yet submerged, steeped in venom, rotted and crumbled into ruin.
The sky was soon dyed deep green, as if filled entirely with toxic fumes.
- Shaaaahhh...
Even after causing such devastation, the serpent's maw remained agape. The torrent of poison showed no sign of stopping.
It was as if a dam had collapsed, releasing a vast reservoir of water all at once.
The surrounding area was destroyed.
The zone submerged in poison was beyond salvation, and even a perimeter dozens of times larger was being steeped in venom and killed.
And that radius was now expanding exponentially.
They barely escaped the range of the poison, gazing up blankly at the tidal wave of venom from atop a hastily elevated platform of earth.
"...This is insane."
Lee Ji-yeon muttered, dazed. Her complexion was as deathly pale as a corpse.
The faces of her team members were much the same.
Even here, far away, just feeling the venom carried on the air made their faces drain of color.
'...That thing.'
That serpent was an undead.
A corpse puppet, forced into motion by cramming an undead spirit into a body already dead and drained of vitality.
No matter the method, it could only be weaker than in life. Extraordinary modifications could boost its power, but they rarely surpassed the original.
Above all, judging by the serpent's appearance, there were no signs of such modifications.
If anything, it was unstable.
There was no need for a detailed examination.
Even a cursory glance revealed gaps where flesh, bone, and scales were unnaturally missing.
Those empty spaces were filled with black mana and a patchwork of lesser undead. Anyone could see it was in an unstable state.
Moreover, to Lee Ji-yeon's trained eye as a necromancer, the very composition of this undead looked like a ragged quilt.
And yet, the estimated rank of this wretched corpse doll was 4th Rank.
If so...
'Then the original in its lifetime...?'
Lee Ji-yeon's expression hardened.
'Wait.'
A sudden thought struck her, and she scrutinized the distant undead still spewing poison.
The type was a serpent.
Its body was massive, several times larger than an average commercial building.
Black-green scales and chilling yellow eyes.
A massive, blade-like weapon hanging from its tail, a neck split into two...
More than anything, the poison gushing madly from its one remaining snout...
This appearance and these traits... she had seen them often in history books and high-rank monster classifications.
A 3rd Rank, deep-green, two-headed serpent whose venom spews from one side of its snout.
'Twin-headed Poison Dragon...'
A 3rd-Rank Alpha.
The legendary monster that choked the life out of a nation called China.
Such a monster had now reappeared as an undead.
- Shaaaahhh...
No time remained to be bewildered.
The undead—the poison dragon—having finished spewing its venom, shook its head from side to side before turning toward Lee Ji-yeon.
Soon, the poison dragon approached.
The distance narrowed.
The sight of it advancing, leading a wave of poison, could not have been more terrifying.
Lee Ji-yeon felt dread at the spectacle.
She sensed an overpowering threat to her life.
She felt the grass and trees steeped in venom, losing their vitality and rotting away.
She sensed the undead who couldn't even resist and simply dissolved upon contact with the poison.
Her survival instincts screamed in protest.
She had estimated the poison dragon's physical capability to be on the lower end of the 4th Rank. It wasn't even an Alpha. It was a level Lee Ji-yeon could certainly kill.
That was true, considering only its physical parameters.
But what about that unique ability... that poison?
She couldn't kill it. Mere approach was difficult as long as it shrouded itself in venom.
Find and eliminate the necromancer controlling it? Would the poison dragon simply wait patiently during that time?
Even if she circumvented it and found the caster, they were a necromancer skilled enough to reanimate the poison dragon, however unstable the result.
It would be no easy fight.
Rationally speaking, engaging it with their current forces here was suicidal.
First, retreat.
She had already sent a support request to the main house. Even with the mana wave disturbance running wild, it should have been received.
If chaos had erupted to this degree, the Association must have grasped the situation by now.
Lee Ji-yeon turned her head.
To issue orders to her team members, frozen stiff just like her.
"...Retreat─"
The words cut off in the middle.
Into Lee Ji-yeon's vision as she turned her head, she saw a girl cradled in a team member's arms, vomiting up her insides onto the ground.
'Ah.'
It was the child Mumyeong had rescued.
The child's complexion was dead black.
Even accounting for that, her skin overall was dark and muddy.
Her eyes were unfocused, pupils trembling faintly, and her fingertips were stiffening.
Symptoms of poisoning.
Even though Lee Ji-yeon and her teammates had protected them with magic and unique abilities, the child had inhaled trace amounts of venom and become poisoned.
It was only because of that protection that she hadn't died instantly.
But she was poisoned.
A team member kept administering antidotes and pouring healing-type unique abilities onto her, but there was no visible improvement.
"......"
Retreat all together?
With the poison dragon, closing the distance moment by moment, dogging their heels?
"Shit."
The vulgar curse escaped her lips for what felt like the hundredth time.
Her head throbbed.
If she had her way, she wanted to run and flee.
Her survival instincts were screaming bloody murder—who wouldn't want to run?
But she was, undeservedly, the heir to the Taesan Family.
And she also held the position of commander leading Team 1 in this search operation.
"...Relaying orders. All team members, take the rescue target and retreat."
"What about you, Young Lady?"
A team member asked back, her voice tinged with unease.
Lee Ji-yeon turned her gaze slightly, staring at the poison dragon approaching them.
It was terrifying.
Lee Ji-yeon wanted to run away.
"I will buy some time and withdraw separately."
As the heir to the Taesan Family, as the one entrusted with the role of commander, she couldn't allow that.
"Young Lady!"
"Absolutely not!"
"Rather, let us—"
"All of you, shut up. Before I kill you myself for insubordination."
Immediate protest erupted. She had no time to handle it gently. Lee Ji-yeon coldly suppressed the dissent and turned her head.
"Team 2 and 3 leaders. Harmonize your respective formations, break through the encirclement, and retreat. Immediately after, detoxify the protected target, send an emergency signal to the Association, and carry out civilian evacuation."
"But...!"
The team members' resistance persisted.
"...Don't look at me like I'm definitely going to die."
It was not merely a matter of chain of command; feeling the worry and sorrow in their eyes, Lee Ji-yeon softened her tone and spoke.
"I'm doing this because I can also run away."
As she spoke, Lee Ji-yeon shared the vision of the undead.
Somewhere around the midpoint of the unfathomably deep gorge she had seen earlier through the undead's sight, an illusory mist shimmered in the void... the entrance to a dungeon was visible.
* * *
My hair had been dyed white.
I checked multiple times, but the color hadn't changed.
'What now?'
Rubbing the strands between my fingers, I made a dumbfounded expression without realizing it.
My hair, black just moments ago, had turned white.
Thinking back on the information I'd observed, I deduced it had started changing about ten minutes ago.
The change was still in progress.
It was subtle, but still shifting even now.
It was changing far too fast to just be grey hairs.
Besides, it's not like it's dyed; how often does hair just change color on its own?
'Huh.'
A sudden thought crossed my mind as I rubbed the strands.
The color felt familiar.
Even colors said to be of the same family have their own differences.
It could be a minor difference hard to tell with the naked eye, or a major difference obvious at a glance.
This color was so unique it was easy to distinguish.
'This is almost exactly the same as Seo-yul's hair color.'
That pure, snow-white base, gleaming faintly with five colors... that lovely hair that didn't seem of this world.
It wasn't gleaming with five colors just yet, but reviewing it through observation showed it was practically identical.
That mysterious hair only Seo-yul, a fairy, not a human, possessed.
And my hair, changing color to nearly match it completely.
- I wondered if Cadet Lee Ha-yul might not be human, but a fairy.
A statement that still left me feeling unsettled...
'I don't get it.'
After rubbing my hair for a moment, I simply submerged myself in the lake again.
It's a suspicious body that heals simple injuries on its own anyway, and even regenerates a leg that had been crushed and severed.
Honestly, my hair changing color wasn't that surprising.
I soaked my body deep in the lake water.
- Bloop bloop...
Submerged up to my mouth, I aimlessly blew bubbles onto the lake's surface.
I was still concentrating on absorbing as much mana as possible.
I didn't want to waste mental energy on anything else right now.
'It's about time for Proof of Protection to appear.'
I subtly observed the waterfall cascading into a corner of the lake.
Despite its considerable size, the force was quite gentle.
Thanks to that, the ripples on the lake's surface were also very calm.
Inside that waterfall was a small cave.
Soon, it would be the place where Proof of Protection would manifest.
Comparing it with the original story's timeline, it was really about to appear any time now.
'I need to get to Seo-yul quickly...'
Too much time had passed.
If I go to find her now, I could still spend a few days with Seo-yul.
Just as my bubbling grew faster out of impatience, the spirits that had scattered everywhere, enjoying their leisurely wanderings, began to return one by one.
'They came back sooner than I thought... huh...?'
The spirits gradually gathered above the lake.
The lake's surface became colored in a brilliant, multicolored array.
Maybe it was my imagination, but the spirits seemed brighter than before.
That wasn't the strange part.
'What are these ones?'
The strange part was that the number of light clusters gathered at the lake had increased.
I had sent out just over a hundred, but roughly three hundred had returned.
With a dumbfounded look, I poked at a spirit loitering right under my nose.
The water spirit, flaunting its blue hue, wriggled about as if ticklish and put a little distance between us.
That one isn't even a spirit I have a contract with, for the record.
No idea whose kid it is.
'What are you guys?'
Even after shooting out such roughly formed thoughts—will thoughts—no real answer returned.
I just feel good. Pet me more. Ticklish. Etcetera... Only simple emotional waves came back.
Lower spirits have such hazy egos. Proper communication is impossible.
'...Should I form a contract?'
I checked the capacity of my vessel.
There was plenty of room.
The reason I stopped at a hundred contracted spirits in the first place wasn't because of the vessel's limit, but because there were no more spirits to contract.
Having more contracted spirits isn't a bad thing.
I approached the spirit to proceed with a contract.
- Whooong!
Then it happened.
The lake's surface rippled.
Countless ripples spread, like a series of small earthquakes, and the lake water was dyed yellow.
It was the same shade as the yellow leaves floating on the lake.
'It's out.'
The signal that Proof of Protection was appearing.
An annoying but easy gimmick where the player had to spend days buried in the lake.
Within ten seconds, the color of the lake water returned to normal.
But new information was observed from the cave inside the waterfall.
A pleased expression on my face, I headed for the waterfall. It was on the opposite side.
Brushing aside the yellow leaves and five-colored light clusters floating everywhere, I approached the waterfall.
I crossed the center of the lake. The depth grew considerably; if I stood straight, the water would reach my mouth.
- Whooong!
'?'
The lake rippled again.
The water waved and slapped my face.
'What is this.'
The gimmick is supposed to happen only once.
I froze stiff and surveyed my surroundings. On guard against some unforeseen accident, I spun up my observation with heightened vigilance.
As if reflecting my state of mind, the spirits also rustled about in all directions, on alert for a threat that might leap out at any moment.
- Crick.
'?'
An anomaly occurred in my observation.
It wasn't just observation; Space sensed it too.
Above me.
The space of the sky trembled, then spat something out with a pop.
'Interception— No, wait!'
Just as I was about to unleash a volley of pre-prepared spells, I flinched in surprise and urgently stopped them.
The spirits, who had also been about to pour down spells and all sorts of attributed attacks, startled and shrank themselves in alarm.
The person the space had spat out was not unfamiliar.
'Lee Ji-yeon?'
The heir to Taesan, a character from the main cast.
The person I was supposed to meet during the second semester had, for some reason, entered the Lake of Mana.
I had heard she had been active in China recently... but I never imagined I'd run into her here.
And in such a wounded state.
Lee Ji-yeon couldn't control her body and fell limply.
She seemed conscious, but apparently couldn't move properly.
I manifested a levitation spell.
Lee Ji-yeon, who was about to plummet helplessly into the center of the lake due to gravity, descended slowly.
In the middle of reaching out my hands to catch her.
A sudden thought made my hands stop.
My arms were short, I only had one hand, and my height...
- Crack.
And my height... was short. I reached the conclusion that catching her directly was a bit problematic.
With a face like I'd just bitten into something foul, I manipulated the Sky Wing Feather.
The Sky Wing Feather, split into multiple strands, gently caught Lee Ji-yeon.
"Uh, urgh... I don't want to die..."
Just as I was getting out of the lake, thinking to lay her down on the ground, Lee Ji-yeon's body twitched.
As if suffering a nightmare, her eyelids trembled faintly, then slowly opened.
Deep green eyes were revealed.
A hint of bewilderment was caught in them.
She seemed unable to grasp the current situation.
Her gaze, which had been scanning the surroundings, soon reached me.
"...Ah..."
A faint, single-note exclamation escaped Lee Ji-yeon's lips.
"...An angel?"
"?"
Did she injure her head?