Ticklish
Ticklish
Did you know what my demon mark had in common with an electronic ankle bracelet?
Once you were tagged with either, society branded you a criminal.
Still, an ankle bracelet just got you contempt. Me, I got the death penalty, so I guessed that made me the bigger felon.
And the fact that you couldn't take the damn brand off voluntarily—that was pretty similar too.
There was something else they shared.
Both an electronic ankle bracelet and my demon mark needed to be charged.
The power source was different, but anyway. Ankle bracelets ran on electricity; my mark got charged by sunlight and air.
Oh, and while it was charging, your feet had to stay on the ground and all four sides had to be open to the sky. Seriously messed-up conditions.
Why the hell did it even need charging...?
Charging it didn't mean I could suddenly go wild with demon powers or anything.
An ankle bracelet didn't shoot lasers just because you charged it, right?
The reason I had to charge it was actually kind of similar to the ankle bracelet too.
To avoid the risk.
If an ankle bracelet's battery died, the cops came hunting for you because that was a violation.
In my case, failing to charge it caused a different kind of side effect.
The mark, the horn-shaped mark, started itching. Like someone was jabbing me with very fine thorns, over and over.
And the longer the battery stayed dead, the worse the itching got. If I left it too long, it went from itchy to downright stinging.
Actually, this was less like 'charging' and more like 'programming.'
A program designed to throw a fit at regular intervals if I tried to live in hiding.
Dealing with this dogshit symptom, I could almost feel what the mark was trying to say.
Do not hide that you are a sinner.
Your blood has been steeped in evil since birth. Do not even dream of the hope that you can live hidden among people.
"Argh, you fucking..."
Our demon mark was a real troublemaker. Couldn't stand not tormenting its owner.
Honestly, I'd barely felt the itching up until recently.
I only had to charge the thing once every few weeks or so.
Charging it was easy, too. I'd just go outside, take off my shirt, and sunbathe for a bit.
Even in winter, I could just light a campfire nearby and soak up some sun.
But lately, I hadn't been able to do any of that.
You never knew when some Otherworlder bastard might pop out of stealth. Anywhere, anytime.
I couldn't exactly go flashing my mark in the open.
And in that situation, close to a few weeks had gone by.
"Haaah..."
Thanks to that, my itch was growing worse by the day.
*
Right after she finished her light dinner with Yoo Chae-rin, the very next day.
Im Ha-neul lay down in her capsule and logged straight into the game.
Once her employer's suspension lifted, she'd be busy again, after all.
So, while she had a sliver of free time, she intended to meet him at least once.
Before being an editor, she was a player of the game herself.
With that in mind, she grabbed a few items and stood before the 'Forbidden Forest.'
A low-level wizard robe, a beginner's wand, plus a fatigue potion and a low-grade mana potion.
Everything was stuff she could lose without real loss.
Which meant she was sufficiently prepared.
"But... how exactly do I get in...?"
Standing before the forest, she fell into thought for a moment.
Her level was over 60, but that was nowhere near enough to force her way through the Forbidden Forest.
And she hadn't learned stealth like a rogue class either, so she was stuck before she even started.
"...Hmm."
Of course, she hadn't come here without a plan.
She had a method prepared, although it was a little nerve-wracking.
Among wizards, she was an unusual one who focused on support magic.
She was better at support and defense than direct combat.
And among support magic, there were a few skills that, while not efficient, looked pretty interesting.
The 'Flight' magic she'd recently learned was one of them.
It consumed a great deal of Magical Power and was useless in combat.
Still, it could help her cross the Forbidden Forest.
'It'll work out... right?'
She did feel a bit uneasy.
If she flew above the trees, how would she see what was below? What if she ran out of mana and fell? And so on.
'Eh, whatever. It'll work out somehow.'
But she didn't dwell on it for long.
If she tried to calculate every single variable, she'd never even set out.
He was an NPC that was rare to encounter, anyway. Meeting him would be great; not meeting him would just be a shame.
Thinking that, she took off.
Without knowing just how vast the forest was.
Only a few hours later, she'd run completely out of mana and plummeted into the middle of the woods.
*
Thwack—! Thwack—!
Today was a woodcutting day.
Even if the weather was warming up with spring, fire was a necessity.
To live, a person had to eat; to eat, they had to cook.
And to cook, you ultimately needed fire.
As it happened, the firewood I'd stockpiled was running low.
The campfires I'd blazed constantly to survive the winter had devoured a massive amount of wood.
I'd thought I'd gathered quite a lot. Couldn't believe it was already all gone.
And now I even had the beautiful axe that Ms. Kim Mari had dropped.
I figured I'd spend the whole day just gathering firewood. It was easy, since the place was made of trees in every direction.
Thunk—! Bwaaak—!
"...Agh."
But there was one problem.
Every time I swung the axe, my right collarbone kept itching.
The mark, left uncharged for close to weeks, was throwing a goddamn tantrum.
A prickling itch jabbed at my right collarbone.
It felt like someone had lodged a vibrator just under my skin.
If it was only now and then, I could deal. But it had been going on for weeks, so the stress was unreal.
The irritation was getting stronger, too. Reaching the point where I couldn't ignore it anymore.
Especially when I tried to sleep in the still of the night—it sometimes stung outright.
Still, I forced myself to ignore it and kept swinging the axe.
Work was work. It had to get done.
Part of me also wanted to do what I did during Berserk B—turn my focus outward and empty my thoughts.
Thwack—! Thwack—! Crack—!
For a while, the sound of wood being split echoed through the forest.
In this silent forest, even that rang out pretty loudly.
Maybe because the weather had grown so much warmer, sweat started beading up after moving for a while.
Sweat from my forehead dripped down, soaking my shirt. The thin short-sleeves were getting damp with sweat.
And then, just as I was splitting logs...
Itch itch.
"Argh!"
Thwack—!
The constant itching finally made me hurl the axe to the ground.
I couldn't live like this!
If this kept up, I felt like stress would kill me before the knights ever found me.
Even if it meant I died, I had to get rid of this itch right away.
Leaving the axe where it was, I dashed through the forest for a bit.
My destination was the spot behind my cave. The same place where I'd hung my laundry last time.
Like I said back then, that was the spot where the sunlight hit best.
So, sometimes instead of laundry, I'd hang myself out there.
After a short sprint, the place I wanted came into view.
In a world where the leaves blocked out the sky, I spotted that one place where the sun shone down especially bright.
The moment I got there, I got ready to strip off my top.
"Hoo... hoo..."
Impulse had a grip on me, sure, but I wasn't about to recklessly expose the mark.
I'd stay as alert as possible.
I looked around, sharpening my senses to their limit.
The movement of grass near my sight line, a pebble rolling across the ground, the sound of wind brushing my ears. I took it all in.
Even if someone had stealth, it couldn't hide absolutely everything.
There'd be some trace left behind. Footprints, ruffled grass, something.
After scanning my surroundings for a little while, I confirmed: I felt no presence at all.
At least directly around me—front, back, both sides—there was nothing alive.
Good! This was enough. I could charge up for a bit with zero problems!
So I thought, and freely peeled off the shirt I was wearing.
The lean muscle sculpted by harsh forest living was laid bare. A cool breeze blew, chilling the sweat running down my skin.
As if the sun was reaching down to scratch the itch directly, the sensation gradually faded.
Feeling utterly refreshed, I let out a sigh.
"Haaah..."
Maybe this was what sex felt like. It was this refreshing, so I figured it could totally count as sex.
So I felt joyful and soaked up the sun for a while.
And because of that, I didn't notice.
I never imagined the presence I'd been so desperate to find wouldn't be around me, but would come from right above—in the sky.
"Huh?"
I tilted my head at a strange noise, but only for a moment.
"Kyaaaaa...!"
I spotted something hurtling violently down right in front of me.
*
The idea of crossing the forest by flight, it seemed, was a mistake.
If it were possible, wizard NPCs would've conquered this forest long ago. Why hadn't I realized that?
Flight magic consumed huge amounts of mana to begin with. Using it to cross this vast forest was too much. Too many variables because of the wind.
Im Ha-neul only realized that when her mana ran out and she reached the middle layer.
As the trees grew larger, the altitude rose, and the mana drain was no joke.
She'd already chugged three mana potions, but her mana dried up in no time.
To make things worse, she was now completely out of mana potions.
Whoooosh—
To top it off, a gust of wind blew right then and shook her hard.
Maybe because she wasn't on the ground but up in the sky, the wind was on a whole other level.
She frowned.
At this rate, she was going to fall to her death before she even met that NPC.
"Tch!"
She had no choice but to attempt an emergency landing.
Rather than trying to maintain control and balance, crashing into the ground seemed to cost less mana.
There'd be some damage, but she had no other way.
She cut off Flight Magic, gathered her mana, and began chanting another spell.
The floating sensation she'd felt until now vanished, and gravity started crushing her down.
The ground below rushed up at a terrifying speed.
A sliver of fear spiked through her, but she forced herself to focus and finished the spell.
She used a mana barrier and a wind spell.
First, the wind spell to slightly reduce her falling speed.
Then she wrapped her body in the barrier. It didn't matter if it broke.
As long as it lessened the impact, even a little!
The ground closed in. Falling held a primal terror, so she couldn't help but scream.
"Kyaaaaa!"
And then she collided with the ground.
Boom!
With that sound, clouds of dirt billowed up.
A massive shock punched through her fifteen percent Assimilation Rate. Still, the barrier she'd diligently prepared must have had some effect.
She managed to regain her senses not long after.
"Ow..."
Clutching her head, she looked around for a moment.
And then she saw it. The NPC called Yor, staring at her with a pale face.
And his sculpted, finely chiseled upper body.
Strangely, he had his top off.
"...Uh, huh?"
Her face instantly went bright red.