The Full Moon (2)
Having paid off his debts with the gold coins left over from the government office, Rudy made use of the National Teleportation Magic Circle.
In the Agnis Central Empire, where his family was based, he was whisked away in an instant to the Lien Spirit Kingdom — and from there, he had immediately bribed a carriage driver to take him toward the Forest of Dead Mist.
Rattle, rattle.
With every mile that brought the forest closer, the climate around them turned gloomier and more oppressive.
The carriage driver spoke up.
"Hey, mister, why're you headed to the Forest of Dead Mist anyway? You a spirit mage or something?"
"...Yes, well. Something like that."
"Ah, I get it! Going there to train, huh. Place is crawling with the ghosts of spirits who lost their contractors and got stranded in this world!"
"Close enough."
Rudy did not appreciate the driver's friendliness.
It was like a hairdresser who wouldn't stop making pointless small talk mid-cut.
What business was it of the man's where he was going?
Perhaps sensing Rudy's mood, the driver gave an awkward cough and, after that, stopped trying to make conversation, devoting himself entirely to the reins.
Thus half a day passed.
"Mister, from here on out it's a danger zone — the carriage can't go any further. You'll have to get out here..."
"I'll get out."
With a brief word of thanks, Rudy handed over the fare and climbed down.
He saw the carriage off and stepped past the boundary at the forest's edge.
Twisted, withered trees and barren gray earth — hardly worthy of being called a forest.
A hazy white fog blurred his vision.
If there was one advantage, it was that the stars and the moon hung sharp and clear in the sky above.
How in the world am I supposed to master Lunar Qi in a place like this...?
The doubt had struck him the moment he arrived, but having come this far, there was no turning back now.
The instant he entered the forest's edge, strange sounds reached his ears.
-Kiiiii...
-Krurur, kriing!
Wraiths of spirits who had lost their contractors and drifted into the mortal world — fitting for such a mysterious region, they came out to greet Rudy.
Wolf spirits, and spirits resembling enormous rats.
Danger level, maybe 2-Star?
They posed no threat to a 3-Star swordsman like him.
-Status Window
The foundational swordsmanship of the Heavenly Moon Sword, drilled into him through his training in the underground secret chamber.
He hadn't yet learned Lunar Qi itself, but since accepting the pinnacle of the sword arts, the Heavenly Moon Sword, his physical stats had climbed a modest amount.
Shwick!
Sweeping away the remnants of the wraiths with a single aura-laden strike, Rudy pressed steadily onward.
'Meditate on the hill where the moon is most clearly visible — that's what the instructions said.'
As it happened, the tallest hill in sight loomed directly ahead.
More of the same wraiths appeared along the way, but Rudy paid them no mind and simply pushed forward.
When he reached the hill and confirmed that no more wraiths were following, Rudy set down his pack.
Then he settled into a spot with a clear view of the moon, folding himself into a seated meditation posture.
"Whew. Took long enough. Now..."
Just as the Heavenly Moon Sword tome had described, he readied himself to receive the moon.
Rudy closed his eyes and began to meditate.
"......"
Five minutes passed.
"......"
Ten minutes passed.
"......"
A full hour went by without a single change.
...Is this even going to work?
Wondering if he'd gotten the method wrong, Rudy sank deep into thought.
The old tome had only said to prepare himself to receive the moon, and to ready the ritual for filling his dantian with Lunar Qi — nothing but vague, abstract instructions.
It's not... going to fail, right?
With things this dire, he had no choice but to treat every effort as nothing lost.
And so, for the next several hours, Rudy meditated in exactly the same way.
"...Hoo."
In the end, it was about three hours in that his exhaustion won out and he began to drift into sleep.
"...Huh?"
He'd nodded off — and by the time he came to, half a day had already slipped away.
His body temperature had dropped, leaving him shivering with cold, and it was only then that he noticed something deeply wrong with his surroundings.
-Uuuuu...
-Keudeudeuk, keudeudeudeuk......
Tree spirits brimming with a strange, malevolent energy were swarming at the base of the hill — and they were crouched low, eyeing Rudy from below.
"Oh, what the f—!"
Rudy sprang to his feet with a shout of pure alarm.
"Lunar Qi, my ass...! I got completely scammed is what this is!"
The moon still blazed overhead, huge and radiant.
And nothing about Rudy's body had changed at all.
Could it be that he simply wasn't one of the chosen?
But there was a bigger problem than that.
Every last one of the several dozen tree spirits looked strong — and every last one of them looked aggressive.
To get out of the forest, he'd have to shake them off somehow.
'Breaking straight through is the only answer, isn't it.'
Having made his decision, Rudy sheathed his blade in aura.
And then —
KWA-KOOM! KWA-KAKOOM!
-Keudeudeudeuk...!
-Keudeu, deudeudeuk!
Hacking his way through the tree spirits, he bolted for the way he'd come.
"Tried to strike it rich once and ruined my whole life! Unbelievable!"
His aura was draining far too fast.
That was how tough the tree spirits were — ordinary sword strikes didn't so much as make them flinch. Only aura-infused blows could actually wound those bodies of theirs.
He'd been running for a few minutes when —
"Heh heh. Well, I'm screwed."
-KEUDEUDEUDEUDEUK!
A tree spirit several times larger than any he'd cut down so far was blocking Rudy's path.
And within the creature's body, he could feel something distinctly sinister — an unnervingly dark mana.
The thing swung its massive fist.
KWAAANG!
"Kghk—!?"
Rudy dodged with what agility he could muster.
But the shockwave gouged a crater into the earth and hurled clods of dirt in every direction like an earthquake, and the turbulence knocked him flat off his feet.
-Keudeudeudeudeudeuk...!
"Come on, why are you doing this to ME, sir?!"
His aura was completely spent.
As he was now, Rudy had no way to stop the colossal tree spirit.
The crouched spirit gazed down at him with eyes that crawled with menace.
"I curse my friend one more time... Park Minsik, that bastard, for dropping me into this dogshit world — may he rot in the deepest pit of hell..."
-KEUDEUDEUDEUK!
"UAAAAAAAAAGH!"
It was a desperate moment.
His stamina drained, Rudy could do nothing but lie half-collapsed and watch the tree spirit's fist come swinging down.
Every movement of the creature seemed to stretch out into a brief, cruel slow motion.
'My whole life is flashing before my eyes.'
A life-in-review. And in that montage, Rudy was doing manual labor.
The next scene... manual labor.
And the next scene... manual labor.
And the next...
"My entire life flashback is just manual labor, goddammit!"
Well, of course — these were the memories of the body he'd transmigrated into.
But at that very moment —
FWOOSH!
A burst of blinding light flared across his vision, and something came screaming down toward the tree spirit's head.
SCREEEEEECH!
A burning figure wreathed in crimson flame — Rudy caught sight of it for barely a single second before it slammed into the colossal tree spirit with a deafening roar.
All in an instant.
KWAAANG!
The fire spread.
The spirit's bludgeoned head went up like a torch, and the whole creature toppled sideways, ablaze.
Amid the chaos, Rudy muttered from where he lay sprawled on the ground.
"What now? Just kill me already and get it over with..."
"What's with this dead weight?"
"......?"
At the sudden sound of a human voice, Rudy raised his head.
A woman stood there.
To judge by her looks, roughly five years his senior. A peaked cap adorned with alternating blue and red patterns sat on her head, above long, straight scarlet hair and deep red eyes.
Her spirit mage's robes, cut low enough to bare a generous swath of her chest, seemed to project her fiery personality as much as her figure.
While Rudy stood there blinking, still trying to process the situation, the woman spoke.
"I don't know who you are, but count yourself lucky."
She raised the short wand she carried.
And then —
[SCREEEEEECH!]
The phoenix — the very thing that had collided with the colossal tree spirit moments ago — began to move at her command.
It was a breathtakingly mystical sight.
The giant tree spirit, its body somehow restored, clashed with the phoenix once more.
The spirit swung its fist.
The phoenix evaded it and breathed out gouts of flame, setting the tree spirit alight.
Rudy had already judged that this woman had, through no effort of his own, saved his life. He got to his feet and offered his thanks.
"...Th-thank you."
"Hmph."
For a while, the two of them watched the standoff between the tree spirit and the phoenix.
The spirit was being utterly overwhelmed by the phoenix, regenerating itself over and over only to be burned down again.
And each time it regenerated, Rudy felt that same sinister, macabre mana seeping from it.
When on earth was the thing going to die?
Unlike the tree spirits from before, this one's regeneration was unnaturally, absurdly high.
-KEUDEUDEUDEUDEUK!
"Huh?"
The moment the phoenix faltered, exhausted, the tree spirit stretched its hand toward the woman.
And then —
"Ghk?! Wh—"
It expelled some unknowable energy in a violent surge and forced it into her airways.
A strange, ominous power of unknown origin.
The instant it took hold of her —
[SCREECH?!]
Her phoenix began to lose its form, growing fainter and fainter until it vanished from the mortal world entirely.
It had happened in a flash.
Even Rudy could roughly grasp how things were unfolding.
Crisis situation, round two.
And that woman —
couldn't do a damn thing on her own anymore.
"Th-this is such bullshit! Why won't the summon go through...!"
-KEUDEUDEUDEUK!
The tree spirit, its body restored once more, began to close in on her with slow, deliberate steps.
Driving its long roots deep into the earth.
Winding its colossal trunk around itself as it moved.
Closer, and closer, toward her.
...Am I really the only one left who can fight?
So this was how it ended, huh.
If he'd just quietly paid off his debts, he could have looked forward to freedom in ten years or so.
Regretting every page of the tome he'd read in that underground secret chamber, Rudy slowly stepped forward and planted himself in front of her.
"...! What are you doing?! Run, you idiot — that thing is way beyond anything you can handle!"
"You're the one who's combat-incapacitated right now. Run where, exactly? Tch. And here I thought I'd found my savior — turns out we're in the same boat..."
"Wha—?! Y-you dare...!"
Ignoring her entirely,
Rudy turned to face the colossal tree spirit once more.
"...Well, in for a penny, in for a pound."
The moon hanging above Rudy shone with unusual brilliance.
It was a full moon.