[Summer Sea]
“Kieeeek!!”
As the tide of battle shifted dramatically with Rex’s arrival, the mass of corpses let out another screech. It seemed to be preparing something once more.
Guessing as much, I quickly reached out toward Rishar and shouted.
“Rishar, over here!”
“What? Oh, yeah! Ack!”
She grabbed my hand in a panic at my words, and I immediately pulled her toward me, activating the Protection Ring.
“Protection Barrier!”
The moment I used it, a transparent barrier like a soap bubble enveloped my body. Of course, Rishar, now in my arms, was within its range too.
Just as I deployed the barrier, the zombies’ bodies began to swell massively.
Boom! Boom!
A moment later, every zombie exploded like living bombs.
“Kyaa!”
“Ugh!”
The gusts from each blast made our bodies sway, but I stood firm on both legs.
“Whoa, that scared me!”
“They’re all dead!”
Once the explosions stopped, Rex let out a whoop and looked around. Raising my head at his voice, I saw chunks of corpse splattered everywhere, as if a massive blast had gone off.
‘The goblins and orcs...?’
Checking my smartphone, a new notification appeared on the screen.
All goblins summoned by the ‘Goblin Summon’ skill have suffered irreparable damage and have been forcibly unsummoned.
Re-summoning possible in 1 hour.
All orcs summoned by the ‘Orc Summon’ skill have suffered irreparable damage and have been forcibly unsummoned.
Re-summoning possible in 2 hours.
“Total wipeout...”
I couldn’t help but sigh. Still, the zombies guarding the corpse mass were all wiped out too, so it wasn’t all bad.
I tapped confirm, then raised my left hand.
“Healer’s Staff summon.”
Summoming the Healer’s Staff, I pointed it at Rex and spoke again.
“...Stamina recovery, wound recovery.”
With those two recovery spells, a white mist enveloped the twin-headed ogre’s body, healing the wounds from the explosions.
“No more pain! Whoa, that’s cool! What is this? So cool!”
“Idiot, it’s magic! Hehe, it’s nice having the Master use magic!”
The two heads seemed thrilled with the recovery magic, giggling and dancing around like fools.
But that lasted only a moment. Rex turned toward the corpse mass and spoke up.
“Master, Master. What do we do with that?”
“Why ask? Smash it flat, obviously!”
“Aha, right! Let’s smash it quick!”
“No, pulverize it!”
With that shout, Rex charged at the corpse mass with booming footsteps. Like a cannonball, it slammed its shoulder into the torso, sending the mass flying into the air and tumbling across the ground.
“Kieeeek!!”
Even as it rolled, the struck mass screeched piercingly. Rex hesitated in surprise but showed no sign of easing up.
“You’re noisy!”
“Yeah, too noisy!”
Rex grabbed the mass with both hands and slammed it into the ground. Then it stomped down, and with a squelch!, dark red blood sprayed everywhere.
‘Ugh...’
It looked just like bursting a live bug, making me grimace involuntarily.
But Rex treated it like a toy, ripping and crushing it with its hands, then hurling it down again.
Thud! Thump!
Under Rex’s merciless assault, the mass couldn’t even resist properly and went limp. Finally dead, it seemed.
“Master, see? We killed it!”
“Should we eat it now?”
As Rex lifted the limp mass and asked, I let out a light sigh and stepped out from the bushes.
But then, the supposedly dead mass twitched and lunged at the twin-headed ogre.
“Kieeeek!!”
Boom!
The mass enveloping Rex’s body exploded. Just like the zombies’ suicide blasts.
“Rex!”
I couldn’t help but yell loudly.
‘Did it just die?’
Calming my pounding heart, I waited for the dust to clear. Once it did, I saw Rex collapsed and covered in blood.
My heart sank for a moment, but Rex lifted its head and groaned, apparently fine.
“Urgh, that hurts.”
“That’s more than hurt. Looks like I got hurt worse than you.”
“Idiot! We’re one body.”
“Oh, right.”
Since it was spouting nonsense, it was clearly okay. I exhaled in relief and extended the Healer’s Staff toward Rex.
Then Rishar tugged my collar and shouted.
“Yuhyun! It’s escaping!”
“What?”
Turning to where she pointed, sure enough, the corpse mass was wriggling away frantically.
Urgent, I quickly aimed the Ebony Staff at it.
“Kieeeek!!”
But then an arrow flew in and embedded in the mass. It let out a final screech and slumped dead.
‘Who’s that?’
Steadying my racing heart, I turned toward where the arrow came from. There, a dozen elves appeared in my view. All of them had arrows trained on me.
“Lady Irene!”
Rishar shouted loudly and stepped in front of me. They knew each other, apparently. As per the quest description, elves were after the mana stone fragment too, so it made sense Rishar knew them.
“We heard a huge explosion and rushed over wondering what happened... Rishar. Why are you with a human? Where are your companions? Were you captured?”
The elf woman I assumed was Irene fired off questions in succession. And she was stunningly beautiful. Not just her looks—her voice, gaze, even her breath were captivating. Enough to catch my breath for a moment.
‘Same species as Rishar?’
The gap was so huge I wondered if they were really both elves. Despite the other elves around her being attractive beauties too.
Calming my pounding heart, I focused on their conversation.
“No! He actually helped me. And my companions... they’ve returned to Mother’s embrace.”
“The undead’s doing?”
“Yes. Around here, arrows didn’t work... We struggled.”
“I understand. I was flustered too.”
Irene lowered her lashes, showing a hint of sorrow. But soon she stepped toward the dead mass.
“...This the culprit?”
“Yes. It was spawning the undead.”
“This little thing...”
“No. It was much bigger originally.”
“Bigger?”
At Rishar’s words, Irene asked again, and Rex, who’d been quietly listening, lifted its head and yelled.
“Yeah, right! It was way bigger!”
“Hey, you elf bitch! That’s mine, don’t eye it!”
At Rex’s shout, the elves aiming at me hurriedly redirected their arrows at the twin-headed ogre. They’d thought it was dead until now. Given how severe Rex’s wounds were, that made sense. Though Rex itself didn’t seem to care.
“Still alive, ogre.”
Irene snapped coldly, and Rex’s left head bellowed back angrily.
“I’m not an ogre!”
“Idiot, we are ogres!”
“Huh? Really?”
“Yeah, really.”
“Whoa. Epic.”
The right head shook in disbelief at the left’s exclamation.
“Kill it.”
As Rex bantered, Irene commanded coldly. The instant she did, I whispered as quietly as possible.
“Rex, unsummon.”
Though soft, I’d spoken clearly, and Rex vanished without a trace.
“Gasp! What the...”
“The ogre...!”
All the elves except Rishar looked around in panic for Rex. Even Irene cracked her icy expression, scanning everywhere.
“Find it!”
“Yes!”
At her shout, two elves yelled back and dashed off somewhere. The rest split: one group on alert, the other arrows on me.
‘Need to recover that mana stone fragment...’
I glanced at the corpse mass, eyes darting.
‘...If they’d just leave it...’
But against my hopes, Irene showed interest in it. She had someone fetch a sack-like bag and stuff the mass inside.
‘Damn.’
I gritted my teeth. She planned to take it.
Desperate, I spoke up quickly.
“That thing’s dangerous.”
Irene shot me a freezing glare.
“You know something about it, human.”
“Yes. I know it well.”
I bluffed knowledge smoothly.
“Did you make it?”
Her tone turned savage.
“No. I didn’t make it.”
“Then who? Who did?”
“Don’t know. But I know it’s extremely dangerous. That’s why I’m tracking and recovering it.”
“You’ve got ulterior motives.”
“No, purely good intentions...”
“Don’t lie, human! I know your kind well.”
She radiated intense hostility. Persuasion seemed hopeless.
I looked to Rishar for help. She stepped beside me quickly.
“Lady Irene, this human is trustworthy. He even saved my life.”
Her defense softened Irene’s expression momentarily to pity.
“Foolish child. Didn’t I always teach you? Humans are cunning. Never trust or follow them. Defending them is the height of folly.”
“But he saved me.”
“Another of his schemes.”
“But...!”
“Enough, Rishar.”
“...”
Despite Rishar’s pleas, Irene wouldn’t budge. She clung to her beliefs like absolute truth, glaring coldly at me.
“Human, I’ll watch how long you keep that hypocritical mask.”
“Planning torture?”
“If necessary.”
“...”
I shook my head. This woman was impossible to reason with.
‘What now?’
I wanted to seize it by force, but no summons were available. Elena, Matilda, and Ena remained, but their levels were too low. Rex was injured too, so no easy win.
‘...Give up?’
Worse, fighting Irene meant fighting Rishar too. Sighing lightly, I pulled out my smartphone and tapped Otherworld Quest.
Abandon Otherworld Quest ‘Elf in Trouble’?
[Yes / No]
Before tapping Yes, I looked at Irene.
“Irene, one last question.”
“What?”
“Can’t you hand it over?”
She hardened her face.
“I refuse.”
“I see. Understood.”
Clicking my tongue bitterly, I thumbed Yes and continued.
“...Hope we don’t regret this.”
It sounded like a third-rate villain line, but I meant it. Short as our bond was, I didn’t want trouble for Rishar.
“Seize the human...!”
In my blurring vision, Irene’s shout reached me. But I was already returning to reality, and the elves’ belated grabs missed me entirely.
==========
Author’s Note
This is the training arc! Let’s do some sea scavenging after the Summer Sea part!