Little Savior
They needed the Bulrocho if they were going to shake Jo Taeo off their trail. The problem was those numbers standing in the way.
Running… is already too late.
The outcasts who had been staring at the Bulrocho sensed the two of them and turned around.
“…….”
“…….”
Their mouths worked as if they were talking, yet not a single sound reached the ear.
“Looks like they’re figuring out what to do with us.”
“You can… hear them? What they’re saying?”
“No way. Those guys have lived soaked in poison so long their vocal cords are gone. Melted clean away, apparently.”
“So they can’t speak at all.”
“Yeah. Me saying they’re thinking it over is just a gut feeling.”
Kim Jinhyuk kept his eyes on the outcasts while he listened to her. Contrary to Han Yeji’s talk of cannibals and bloodthirsty monsters, they showed no sign of wanting to attack. They mouthed words at one another with frantic energy, yet the content stayed locked behind silence, and that silence was maddening.
Their interest in the two of them did not last. A moment later the outcasts spun on their heels and went back to studying the Bulrocho.
“Looks like they have no plans for us.”
“Hmm… I don’t get it. I was sure they’d jump us the second they saw us.”
The unexpected calm left the two of them more unsettled than any charge would have.
Then the biggest of the outcasts carefully stretched a hand toward the Bulrocho blooming in the rock crevice. Just before his fingers brushed a petal, the air around the herb gave a strange, liquid shimmer.
That is…
Jinhyuk’s eyes narrowed. Something about it felt wrong.
“……!!”
Sizzle. Sizzle-sizzle.
The instant flesh met flower, a sound like meat charring filled the air. The outcast’s face twisted; he staggered back. His pale-gray fingers had already blackened as if seared by fire.
“Burns…? No—something else. Poison?”
Han Yeji’s voice rose in shock. Jinhyuk, by contrast, found himself newly fascinated by the Bulrocho.
An extreme toxin that rots flesh on contact alone.
Even the usual reek of Doksikrim was absent here, though the outcasts themselves still carried a faint stench.
I’d like to take at least a little of it.
Finding it first did not make the herb theirs. And right now they looked more troubled by the thing than possessive of it.
If I’m right, this might be an opening.
Jinhyuk rubbed the silver ring Jin Seoyeon had given him and began walking slowly toward the outcasts.
“You—where do you think you’re—!”
Han Yeji lunged for his wrist in pure panic.
Whoosh.
Somehow her fingers closed on nothing but empty air.
“Huh…?”
She had lost him for a single heartbeat. Even though fear had driven her hand out at once.
…Am I dreaming?
Or had a night spent on edge guarding the tent left her mind too frayed to keep up? She could not tell. Her thoughts simply refused to catch the moment.
She stood frozen, staring at Jinhyuk’s back.
The outcasts gaped at his sudden approach. A flicker of wariness crossed their faces, yet none of them raised a weapon. Instead they pointed once at the Bulrocho, crossed their arms in an X, and shook their heads hard.
“Don’t take it?”
Shake, shake.
From that alone Jinhyuk understood: they could not speak, but they could hear.
“Then… don’t touch it?”
Nod, nod.
They nodded, then drew a thumb across their throats in a clear warning. Touch it and you die.
Jinhyuk turned straight back to Han Yeji.
“Looks like we don’t need to worry. They have no intention of hurting us. They’re even warning us the Bulrocho is dangerous. And they seem to understand what we say.”
Han Yeji’s face was complicated.
“…Do whatever you want.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
Jinhyuk answered with crisp politeness and went back to trading gestures with the outcasts.
“…….”
Han Yeji watched the exchange with a troubled gaze. Her head was a mess. She had always been taught that the outcasts beyond the Safe Area were creatures to be avoided at all costs.
Did the Association deliberately feed us bad intel?
Once you were summoned to the Tower, cleared the first floor, returned, and registered with the Hunter Association, you became an official hunter. The very first story every new hunter heard was about the outcasts—those who had abandoned the noble goal of saving the world and chosen seclusion instead.
Details differed floor by floor, yet one claim never changed: outcasts ate people, were vicious beyond measure, and had long since stopped being human.
And yet.
Seeing them with my own eyes… they just can’t talk. Otherwise they look no different from ordinary people…
It was her first time facing real outcasts. Most hunters were probably in the same boat. People climbed the Tower; few wandered outside the Safe Area for the fun of it.
Prejudice… maybe.
Still, she could not lower her guard completely. She decided to keep a close watch on Jinhyuk while he talked with them—especially after Jin Seoyeon’s earnest request to look after him.
Honestly, you’re a man drowning in luck.
While she thought that and allowed herself a small, wry smile, the silent conversation between Jinhyuk and the outcasts grew surprisingly smooth.
He pointed to himself again and again, then tapped the silver ring on his index finger—the detoxification artifact from Jin Seoyeon. When he flashed a bright, reassuring smile, the outcasts floundered, mouthing frantic words at one another with grave faces.
That should be enough explanation.
They still looked unconvinced, but there was no reason to waste more time. The possible wild card named Jo Taeo had already been removed; once the goal was met, lingering here was pointless.
Originally I planned to poke around a little and leave empty-handed if nothing turned up.
If he had known sooner what the Bulrocho truly was, he would have hunted it with fire in his eyes.
Ignoring the outcasts’ last attempts to stop him, Jinhyuk slowly stretched his right hand toward the herb. The same poison that had blackened a finger in an instant surged toward his fingertips.
Sizzle-sizzle.
A pure white radiance bloomed from the silver ring and shoved the toxin back. The ring’s powerful detoxification magic did its work.
A moment later Jinhyuk simply closed his fingers around the stem and snapped it clean. The Bulrocho dropped straight into his backpack in one fluid motion, as natural as water flowing downhill.
Then came the cheerful question.
“Yeji-ssi, shall we head back now?”
“…….”
Listening to that innocent voice, Han Yeji scratched her cheek.
“Thank you for the concern. Thanks to you, I got to take it.”
Before leaving, Jinhyuk gave the outcasts a polite bow. Their reaction was nothing he expected.
Thud.
As if they had rehearsed it, every outcast flung their weapons aside and dropped to their knees one after another.
At the same instant the messages appeared.
The Outcasts’ Worry
You have completed the 3rd Floor’s hidden quest for the first time.
🔗 Linked Quest unlocked: Nonexistent Paradise
◈ Select and claim a single weapon belonging to the ostracized.
“…….”
Messages he had never expected. While Jinhyuk was still processing them—
“They’re… bowing to you, right? If I’m not seeing things.”
Han Yeji, who had no idea what the windows meant, stared at the outcasts in disbelief. Their foreheads were already pressed to the dirt.
They offered no spoken thanks. But gratitude does not always need a voice.
“…Why are they doing that?”
Jinhyuk gave a quiet snort of laughter.
“Maybe the Bulrocho was the problem. They’re thanking us for getting rid of it.”
He spoke while the completed quest name still glowed in his mind.
“Not because they wanted it for themselves?”
“That’s how it looks to me, at least. I could be wrong.”
He kept the answer deliberately vague.
“…….”
Han Yeji fixed him with a long, measuring look. For an ordinary civilian who had never even awakened, his nerve was something most hunters could not match.
Even with a detox artifact, I never thought he’d just yank it out without a second of hesitation…
And that after watching a finger rot the moment it touched the thing.
He really is something else.
Then Jinhyuk suddenly began mouthing silent words. Han Yeji tilted her head.
“…?”
“What do you think I just said?”
“Outcas—ah, no. Are you copying them? Hmm, a quiz… well. What would you have said…”
She had not been watching closely enough to catch it.
Obviously something like “Please marry me” or “You’re so beautiful.” Wait, too easy?
Or maybe “Having gone on a date with a goddess like you, I can die without regrets.” But even if I know the answer, saying it myself would kill the cool factor.
“Ummm… no idea. What did you say? Aaaah~ I really don’t know~”
“I said you smell like sweat.”
“…Die.”