Chapter 19: A Brief Parting.
Chapter 19: A Brief Parting.
Squelch! Crack!
Thud.
After crushing the head of the last remaining Deadman, I leaned against a tree. The mangled remains of Deadmen, every one of them with a shattered skull, were strewn about haphazardly.
Even though I had conserved my strength and faced them one by one, it was over in an instant. It was, in a word, a one-sided slaughter. But I wasn’t satisfied. Far from clearing my head, I was left with a foul, lingering feeling.
“Ptui.”
I spat on the wreckage before me, but the instinct that craved slaughter, perhaps in rebellion to being suppressed for so long, only reared its head higher. My chest felt tight, and I tried to calm myself with deep breaths, but it only seemed to fan the flames. For a moment, I wondered if I even wanted to stop this feeling in the first place.
“Damn it. This isn’t some kids’ game. All it did was ruin my appetite.”
Smacking my lips in distaste, I was ultimately unable to overcome the surging bloodlust and slammed my fist into a nearby tree.
CRACK! Rustle…
Even though I struck it with nothing but raw strength, without channeling any Magic Power, the solid tree came crashing down with a heavy thud. It relieved some of the tension, but the murderous intent filling me had not completely subsided.
The party was gone, and part of me wanted to set the whole forest ablaze, but I forced myself to hold back. Even after they crossed the stone wall, there was no telling what other monsters might be waiting outside. I was worried about the others, and I still had to retrieve my crossbow bolts, so I could not afford to dawdle.
There was no one around to see me anyway. I brought the Magic Power I had been suppressing under control and moved swiftly.
Trees and scenery streaked past me. In a fraction of the time it had taken before, I reached the stone mound where I had been.
As I pulled the crossbow bolts from the Deadmen’s heads one by one and sensed the area around me, I found no trace of the party’s presence. Just as I had expected, they seemed to have left immediately after I entered the forest.
“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight… This should be enough.”
I wanted to put the bolts straight back into the pouch, but Ahn Sol might have had another fit if she saw them, so I roughly wiped off the residue first.
Alright, time to head out.
Ahn Hyun’s group might be just outside, so I walked slowly. Before crossing the stone wall, I turned my head and looked at the quiet forest.
The forest was just as it had always been. It looked the same then as it did now. The last time I escaped it, I was being chased and had no time for thoughts. I just ran, and before I knew it, I was out.
But now was different. For a while, I just stared blankly at the forest. I felt a sense of relief, as if I had set down a great burden.
After savoring the sentimental mood for a moment, I vaulted over the wall. I had no desire to indulge in such pointless sentimentality. I had more important things to worry about right now.
*
The scene that greeted me after I jumped the wall was far from what I had expected. The path I was on was uneven, but it bore the marks of human hands. It wasn't obvious at a glance, but the rough-hewn sides of the path, while not perfectly straight, showed a consistent shape.
Below the path, a vast plain stretched out to a horizon that seemed to have no end. The area was deserted. Only the occasional gentle breeze made its faint presence known.
I could not find a single monster no matter how hard I looked, but the party was nowhere to be seen either. Even after searching the area with Magic Power, I could not sense their presence. The thought that they might have abandoned me suddenly crossed my mind.
With three people whose dispositions leaned toward Good, betrayal was relatively unlikely. Still, disposition alone was not enough to judge them.
Putting aside the possibility that they had left me behind, the most logical conclusion was that they had run into trouble while waiting. There were many types of monsters that appeared in the Rite of Passage besides Deadmen. Deciding that something must have happened, I started searching for traces of the party.
Finding clues—tracks to follow—wasn't particularly difficult for me now. I calmly scanned the area along the stone wall and found a patch of dirt with deep sneaker prints. It seemed this was the direction they had taken over the wall.
Following the direction of the disturbed soil, I found the spot where the party had gathered. It looked like they had waited for me here after confirming the coast was clear. As I confirmed this, the sliver of suspicion that had tried to take root in a corner of my mind melted away like snow.
I crouched where the party had gathered and examined the area piece by piece. An experienced Ranger or Trapper might have been able to infer when and where it happened, how many people were involved, what occurred, and why. I could not go that far. All I could do was make full use of my sharp eye and the abilities I possessed.
I focused my vision, comparing and contrasting each footprint. The plan was to familiarize myself with what looked like the party's sneaker prints, then examine any other marks. The footprints were so chaotic, as if they’d had a group shuffle dance, that it looked like it would take some time to sort them out. A flicker of anxiety crossed my mind, but I told myself it was too early to jump to conclusions and continued my inspection.
After about the time it would take to drink a cup of tea, I finished my analysis. I stretched my legs and stood up. Other than what appeared to be the party's footprints, I found no other strange marks. If I had to point something out, there was one deep indentation where a foot had pressed down hard. However, a sneaker pattern was stamped over it, making it difficult to tell if it belonged to the party or not.
There were no drag marks, so it definitely was not a Deadman. The thought that it might have been a Boss Monster occurred to me, but I immediately shook my head. Only half a day had passed since the Rite began, and a Boss Monster had separate conditions for appearing.
Pushing aside the thought of a Boss Monster, nothing else came to mind. In the end, there was only one method left. Knowing it probably wouldn’t work, I began awakening my Magic Power circuits.
I explosively drew out my Magic Power and activated Third Eye. What I was attempting was on a completely different level from merely checking another User’s information.
Even I had not expected to draw out this much Magic Power so early, but time was critical and no other method came to mind. If I wasted time trying to locate them through ordinary Sensing and something happened in the meantime, I could not guarantee their lives.
The phenomenon I was trying to observe through Third Eye was not the present, but the ‘past.’ If its conditions were met, this unique ability was powerful enough to observe even other dimensions. That meant seeing the past or future of the current dimension depended on my own capability.
Before another worry could cross my mind, a scene seeped into my vision and naturally drew my focus.
Fzzt!
“Kuh…!”
I had seen it for only a second when the image projected onto my retinas distorted and a violent shock struck my eyes. They burned as though they were on fire. Even as I reflexively rubbed them, a bitter laugh escaped me.
Just one second. I had only seen a single scene from the past for one second, and Third Eye was forcibly canceled. After a short while, as the pain in my eyes subsided, I muttered in a hollow voice.
“Ha… haha. Even with 96 points of Magic Power, one second is my limit… This is insane.”
I had suspected as much, but my Magic Power stat could not withstand the ability’s overdrive. It reminded me anew just how high-rank Third Eye was, though I could not help feeling disappointed.
Seeing the past was treated as being on par with seeing the future. It was fundamentally different from merely receiving a premonition. I had thought it might be possible with my S-Rank Third Eye, but the two-Rank penalty from its forced awakening seemed to be holding me back. Even with the one-Rank correction from Eternal Flame, I could only examine all phenomena in the present. Handling the past and future was still premature.
The pain was gradually subsiding, but my vision remained blurred. It seemed to be an aftereffect of Third Eye being forcibly canceled and the resulting Magic Power backlash. Fortunately, objects slowly returned to focus as time passed, so the damage did not appear permanent.
I had unintentionally made a dangerous move, but at least I had gained one thing from it.
Even if it had lasted only a second, I had definitely seen the ‘past.’ I recalled the scene that had flashed across my retinas and let out a deep sigh. After going to all the trouble of gathering this handful of gems and escaping the forest, an even more troublesome problem was waiting for me.
I could understand if I were simply powerless, but the reality that I had power and still had to hold back made me even more depressed. If things got truly desperate, I could just raise hell and forget the Rite of Passage, but that was a last resort.
It felt like I was climbing one mountain only to find another.