Chapter 41
“……”
“That's what I'm saying!”
Jeong Hamin suddenly butted in.
“Hyung, you're not actually running a fever, are you?”
“You little shit... Hah, what the hell. Whatever, get lost.”
Han Biyeol kicked at the North Ocean Guild members' asses, venting his pointless anger.
He's a character you can never quite figure out, even if you think you do.
It was more shocking than any avant-garde scene he'd witnessed.
I swallowed the jolt rising all the way to the roof of my mouth. Then I explained the plan to Han Biyeol and Jeong Hamin.
Their reaction after about five minutes of talk was this.
“Hunter Seo, you're not infected by those spores too, are you?”
“...?”
Not at all.
“No, no matter how I think about it, it's insane... I mean, pretty words, pretty words. Haha! It's just such a wildly creative plan!”
“It's as much of a gamble as it is creative.”
“……”
“……”
I stood up. My legs had gone numb from squatting so long.
“Let's go.”
Kyarrlrr, kyarrlrr!!
The fairies' festival was in full swing. They trumpeted fanfares and chanted songs.
“Hic!”
Enormous shadows stretched out from their tiny bodies—shadows too vast to believe.
The North Ocean Guild members tied to the trees recoiled, not wanting even to brush against them.
But they were already bound by the fairies, and with their bodies numb from the pollen, all they could do was wiggle their hips.
“Hee?!”
The fairies' gazes converged on the one twitching. Under those pitch-black eyes without whites, the guild member wept snot and tears.
“P-Please...! Please spare me!”
Flap, flap. A flower-crowned fairy fluttered lightly over.
“We're not harming you! Don't say such sad things!”
“Please... please... spare me...”
“That's too sad...”
The fairy rubbed its fists at its eyes like it was crying. At the mocking gesture, the guild member's patience snapped.
“You bastards burn people alive and drain their blood, and you say you're not harming us? You goddamn walking insect shits!”
“That's sad. Bad words are no good.”
“You're the ones doing bad shit to us! You fucking moth spawn!”
Flap, flap.
The fairy just stared blankly at the hunter from right in front of his face. Despite its arm-thick size, the hunter felt his thigh muscles go slack.
“We're the spirits of the Great Grandmother Tree! Insulting us is the same as insulting the Great Grandmother Tree!”
“That's right!”
“Hear, hear! Hear, hear!”
The fairies started getting heated.
The hunter sensed something had gone terribly wrong. Now he sobbed toward his guild master instead.
“G-Guild Master. Please, please save me.”
Namgung Hyunil hung his head beside him but didn't respond.
“You son of a bitch! You dragged us all here!! You have to take responsibility!!!”
“……”
“I-I'm... I'm sorry. So please, spare me. Yeah? With your power, Guild Master...”
Kyarrlrr, kyarrlrr.
Terror spread from human mouths like a plague. The fairies tittered mockingly at them.
The flower-crowned fairy placed a hand on the sobbing hunter's forehead.
The next instant, he shot to his feet. The vines binding his upper body loosened.
Step.
His feet moved.
Not by his will, but against it.
“No! I don't want to!!”
In the direction his feet dragged him, the fire fiend yawned wide, its edges beckoning him like a tongue.
“I don't wanna die! Nooooo!”
His screams peaked.
“Hold on a moment.”
A stranger's voice. Footsteps followed. It seized the attention of the fairies and hunters alike in an instant.
Seo Wonseok and his group emerged from the brush. The tall figures towered like giants amid the pint-sized fairies.
“Fairies, you're making a grave mistake right now.”
“Hee?”
Seo Wonseok opened with an Initiate.
“New sacrifices?”
“No.”
“Then why interrupt us?”
“Not interrupting—correcting you.”
Seo Wonseok spoke with utmost courtesy.
“Surely you've noticed it yourselves, haven't you? No matter how many lives you feed it, the Great Grandmother Tree isn't recovering.”
The fairies sobered at once. Splash. Even the hunter about to dive into the flames collapsed, legs giving out.
The air grew heavy in a heartbeat; the hunters gasped for breath. The flower-crowned fairy tilted its head like the Tower of Pisa. Chilling.
“...What does a human know about the Great Grandmother Tree to spout such nonsense...?”
“I know how to restore the Great Grandmother Tree.”
“??”
“And that the tree deceiving you is a false entity!”
“What nonsense!”
The fairy shrieked.
“That tree is the Great Grandmother Tree reborn!”
“Right! You must not have heard our song! We'll sing it again!”
Seo Wonseok seized the opening.
“Two hearts beneath the roots. They writhe and breathe.”
At their own language from his mouth, the fairies hopped in place. Some hostility eased. Promising.
“Can a single life have two hearts?”
“Th-That's...”
“Think about it properly. Has the Great Grandmother Tree ever demanded life's blood from you before?”
“...Come to think of it... never...”
Grunts of agreement trickled in.
“That corrupt tree is impersonating the Great Grandmother Tree and goading you into killing.”
“No way.”
“Since you settled here, has the Great Grandmother Tree ever once told you to roast lives whole?”
The fairies glanced at each other. No firm answers.
“Every command you've received so far is false.”
Murmurs.
That was when.
“Lies!”
The flower-crowned fairy blocked their view of me, spreading its arms like an orator.
“Receive the blood, hasten and receive it. Eheyah, turn and turn. Bloodflowers bloom in that child's hand. Songa songa, turn it back. The Great Grandmother Tree craves blood!”
“Interpreting that literally is your first mistake.”
I countered immediately.
“To a tree, blood isn't life's essence—it's a metaphor encompassing 'nutrients.'”
Whispers.
“But look. You've neglected carrying pollen, fixated on burning lives, and the forest is withering.”
“That's... a sign of the Great Grandmother Tree's revival...!”
“Can you prove that, fairy?”
Seo Wonseok stepped closer.
Close enough a headbutt would burst it.
“I can prove it.”
“Then prove it!”
Good. Halfway there.
Seo Wonseok nodded and signaled his group. They backed off knowingly.
Under everyone's gaze, regardless of allegiance, Seo Wonseok stood before the great tree. Nearby, Namgung Hyunil's real body glared at him with its left eye.
Ignoring it, Seo Wonseok shaped Hemo into gloves and brought it to the tree.
Exposing Hemo is fine. Better they think it's my ability—it'll make things easier ahead.
Better tentacle user than vampire in their eyes. Less wariness, probably.
“Hemo.”
Creeeak!
“...!!”
The glove bloomed layer by layer like a lotus.
“No normal tree would bleed. Even a spirit tree.”
Chomp.
Each fin clung with clusters of octopus-sucker-like pads. Blood Collection Stickers.
“You've been sitting still like a mangbusok, so it might sting, but let's see your true body, you fake bastard.”
A shot at Namgung Hyunil too.
Splatter!
Hemo's maw gaped wide, wrapping the great tree's trunk. The stickers began sucking.
The next moment.
Rumble rumble rumble grrrrumble.
The ground quaked.
Not figuratively—the road surface writhed. Hunters bound to the trunk fell free from the vines but tumbled, unable to steady themselves.
Seo Wonseok didn't.
He dropped vine mines to the ground and stomped them, anchoring his weight.
Kraka ka ka kag!
Dozens of whip-like things burst from the ground. Tree roots rearing up, dirt cascading off.
They lunged at Seo Wonseok's back all at once. Letting them hit would turn him into a porcupine of thorns.
In that instant.
Slash!
A blade flash from behind Seo Wonseok. Han Biyeol severed the sharp roots just before they reached him.
“……”
The guy side-eyed Seo Wonseok once. Then hurled himself at the next wave of roots.
But roots came from all directions. Even an excellent hunter like Han Biyeol couldn't handle it alone. Sure enough, roots closed in from the flanks into Seo Wonseok's view.
Crack!
Bolts struck true, exploding roots. Jeong Hamin. He darted through them like arrows, firing in bursts.
Eternal Pact: Forming contract with the Cursed Tree Subordinate.
The roots shredded fairies mercilessly too. Pea-sized ones vaporized on a mere graze.
Kya aaaak! Kya aaaak!
“That's not the Great Grandmother Tree! That thing!!”
“Lies! It lied to us!”
The fairies couldn't release pollen. They needed to instill fear, but they were the terrified ones.
That made fairies less than D-grade beasts. They scurried away busily, but over half were swept up in seconds.
As the fairies exploded.
Cursed Tree → Seo Wonseok
Transferred EXP: +121
Transferred EXP: +121
Transferred EXP: +121
The effect of the Golden Die adjusts EXP gain.
Acquiring additional EXP!
“How long do we have to hold?!”
Jeong Hamin shouted.
However, 'Blood Exchange' is still too shallow, so 'Review Event' participation is unavailable.
Subordinate will increase 'Blood Exchange' with more combat EXP!
Seo Wonseok bit his lower lip amid the encroaching anemia.
Once the dizzy haze cleared, he answered.
“As long as possible!!”
A battle of endurance.
But against a tree.
Cursed Tree → Seo Wonseok
Han Biyeol → Seo Wonseok
We're winning.
I'm the best at enduring.
Seo Wonseok endured silently, eyes on the ground.
His philtrum burned hot.
Drip drip. Red spots stained the road at his feet. Nosebleed. But the amount seemed dangerous.
Seo Wonseok laboriously lifted his head.
Veins of Hemo sucked 'blood' from the great tree over its bark.
Just a bit more, Hemo.
I had to push as hard as Hemo.
Seo Wonseok gripped Blood Mirror reverse in his free hand. He slashed long down the tree's flesh.
“Hemo, hurry!”
Hemo slurped the pooled blood eagerly.
Red Slimes grow with blood consumed.
So it swelled massively!
It already covered two-thirds of the trunk's bark.
Hemo attacked aggressively with expanded Blood Collection Stickers.
Wooooooong!
A beastly roar echoed from the trunk. Gravel flew up.
The cursed tree bellowed to shake off this parasitic human.
But vine mines clamped his legs like they'd burst them, so only its upper body thrashed.
In that moment, a root grazed his shoulder.
A light wound, but anemia would drop him right there if ignored.
Dangerous.
At that timing, he activated Potion Ring.
The wound stopped, but now his skull throbbed. Anemia dizziness surged like a dam burst.
It's fine, it's fine.
Just don't pass out!