Zombie vs. Plant (1)
I let out a long yawn. Maybe it was because I finally slept under a proper roof, but I feel like I got the best rest I've had in ages.
“You’re awake? Get ready. We need to move.”
“Yeah…”
Leb was already up before me, wrapping fresh bandages around his entire body. The guy really never seemed to sleep.
“Hurry up. The South Forest is pretty far from here.”
“Why are we going to the forest…?”
“You’re the one who picked up that trash-tier herb-gathering quest, remember?”
“Oh… right.”
I grabbed Zildre’s sword hilt—the one I still carried around like a lucky charm even though Momo said it was useless now—and tucked it away.
“…Why do you keep carrying that thing?”
“It’s like… a talisman or something.”
“…It looks like a pretty decent sword.”
“Doesn’t matter. I can’t even use it anymore.”
I slipped the hilt into my inner pocket, and Leb didn’t press the issue.
“If you’re done, let’s go.”
“Sure.”
Momo still wasn’t answering no matter how many times I called her. She must’ve still been asleep. I just shrugged, put on my usual headpiece, and climbed down from the attic.
“Ah, Grandpa…”
“Uhh… Hero…”
The old man with dementia was rocking back and forth in his chair. In the kitchen stood an elderly woman I hadn’t seen yesterday.
“Oh my, the young men are up?”
“Ah, hello…”
The woman—who I assumed was the old man’s wife—gave us a kind smile and set down two bowls of soup.
“Here, eat up. You need your strength.”
“Thank you…”
“No need to thank me. That old fool put you through so much yesterday.”
She glanced at Leb, who was quietly eating his soup.
“I had an urgent errand yesterday, so I’m really grateful this young man took care of my husband~”
“Ah… I see…”
No wonder Leb was late getting back.
“Is this young man the Hero? My, he does look the part.”
“I do…?”
“Yes. My husband grew up hearing stories about the Hero from a very young age~”
“Stories about the Hero…?”
The old man in the rocking chair must have overheard us, because he suddenly chimed in.
“There is only one true Hero!”
“Oh dear, there he goes again…”
The grandmother hurried over to calm him down. I took a spoonful of soup and asked Leb,
“True Hero…?”
“…He’s talking about the First Hero. A lot of people say the only real Hero was the First Hero, and every Hero summoned after him is a fake.”
“Really? Was the First Hero that amazing?”
“He single-handedly repelled an invasion that nearly swallowed half the Central Continent, defeated the worst Demon King in history, and sealed away all five of the so-called Great Calamities. He’s practically a living legend…”
Just then the grandmother returned after soothing her husband and joined the conversation.
“Don’t get him started… My husband claims he’s a descendant of the innkeeper who gave the First Hero his very first night’s stay.”
“Oh! I think I heard something similar at the Adventurers’ Guild…”
“This city is close to the Imperial Capital, so it was the first place the First Hero headed to. Back then it was just a village. There are quite a few relics and stories left over. If you boys have time, you should look around.”
“Haha, we’ll try…”
Leb had already finished his soup. He stood up and started clearing the bowls.
“Thank you. It was delicious.”
“Not at all. It’s us who should thank you for listening to an old couple ramble.”
“Let’s go, Hero.”
“R-right!”
I hurriedly gulped down the rest of my soup straight from the bowl and followed after him.
“We’re leaving now! See you this evening!”
“Take care~”
We walked for a long time before finally reaching the edge of the forest.
“This city is surprisingly big…”
“The place we were staying is quite far from the South Forest. See? There are already several adventurers here.”
Where Leb pointed, a group of what looked like rookie adventurers were busy digging up herbs.
“Argh! At this rate we won’t get any!”
“Hurry. The quest said we need thirty of them.”
We tried to find a decent spot to start gathering too, but every promising patch had already been picked clean.
“Ugh… I only found two…”
“I only got one. If this keeps up, we’ll fail our very first quest.”
“What do we do? There aren’t any herbs left around here…”
And the ones we had found were in terrible condition.
“No choice. Let’s head deeper in.”
“Deeper into the forest…?”
“Yeah. It’ll be dangerous if we go too far, but we still need to gather the herbs…”
Neither of us knew much about the forests of the Central Continent, but Leb—who at least knew a little more—took the lead as we ventured inside.
Once we moved in a bit, we started seeing traces of other adventurers who had come for the higher-quality herbs. We pushed even deeper. I was completely mesmerized by the otherworldly forest I was seeing for the first time.
“Whoa… those dragonflies are huge!”
“Those are geographic dragonflies. Perfectly normal insects.”
“Leb! Look at this! The flowers are glowing like glass!”
“Glassblooms… They’re beautiful, but they die the moment you pick them and are incredibly hard to cultivate. Not very valuable.”
“Hmm… what’s this? There’s a caterpillar on it?”
“That’s—crap! It’s a Death Worm! Get back!”
“Huh? It’s so small though?”
The ordinary-looking caterpillar spotted me, opened its mouth wide, and fired something.
KWAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!
“What the hell!!!! It just shot a water cannon!!!!”
“Dodge! That’s its stomach acid! If it hits you, you’re dead!”
“UWAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!”
Whoooosh—
KWAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!
After that, we barely made it to the inner part of the forest while dodging giant carnivorous plants and bees the size of people.
“Oh! I see some herbs over there!”
Just like Leb said, there were several untouched herbs deeper in.
“Great. Let’s gather them quickly and get out… I’m exhausted…”
“Stop whining. You’re the one who chose this quest.”
“Yeah, but still…”
We were busy picking them one by one when I suddenly felt a vibration in my head.
Ugh… What’s going on? Where am I?
“Momo, you’re awake? You slept for ages…”
A beauty needs her beauty sleep, you know…
“It’s way past noon though…”
Ever since we escaped the underground prison, Momo had become noticeably quieter. She barely reacted to anything and slept a lot more.
“Is something wrong?”
It’s not that. I’m just… still adjusting.
“I guess that makes sense…”
For Momo, who had skipped over several hundred years, being dropped into this brand-new world must have felt like starting from zero again.
“Let’s see… thirteen…”
I counted the herbs I’d gathered so far and called out to Leb.
“Leb! How many did you get?”
“Not many here. I got fourteen.”
“Really? Then let’s get just one more. The ones we picked earlier were in terrible shape.”
I called out to him while searching for a decent-looking herb.
“Ah, that one should work.”
I moved toward a herb growing near some tree roots. Leb was organizing the ones he’d collected and walking toward me.
“It really does look green…”
The moment I bent down to pull it out, I felt something land on my head.
“Huh? What the—?”
I reflexively reached up to check what it was.
But the texture I felt was soft, squishy, and sticky.
KWAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!
“UWAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!”
What I was holding in my hand was a plump Death Worm, proudly showing off its chubby body.
“Hero! Throw it away!”
The Death Worm writhed, preparing to spray its acid. My body had frozen from the sudden shock, but I felt the Emergency Dodge Maneuver forcibly take control.
Whoooosh—
“UWAAAAAAAAAH!!!”
“Crazy—don’t come here!!!”
The trajectory my body was flung in and the path Leb had predicted for the acid spray and dodged overlapped perfectly. We got tangled together and rolled across the ground.
“Somebody help!!!!”
“Get this thing off me! Hurry!!!”
We kept rolling and rolling. The Death Worm’s acid cannon flew through the air and only managed to melt some innocent trees.
Whether it was the force of us trying to separate or pure bad luck, we didn’t stop—we only picked up speed, tumbling straight toward a nearby slope.
“Wait!!! If we keep going we’ll fall!!!”
“Stop!!! Grab onto anything!!!”
But the acceleration had built up too much. It carried us right over the edge.
“UWAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!”
“UWAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!”
We slammed into tree trunks over and over until we finally crashed into the roots of a massive tree and came to a stop.
“Haa… You okay…?”
“Ugh… I’m fine…”
Leb clutched his side as he struggled to his feet. I barely managed to regain my senses.
“Hey! You’re bleeding!”
“Damn…”
Blood was seeping from Leb’s side.
“That wound on your side… is it from the fight with the boss?”
“Yes. It must have torn open while we were rolling…”
“Uh… I’ll stop the bleeding…”
As I panicked and flailed, Leb calmly unwrapped several of the bandages covering his skin and began treating the wound himself. We had lost all the herbs we gathered while rolling, so we had no way to properly treat it.
“It’s fine. It’s not that bad of a tear.”
“Ugh… Thank goodness…”
“More importantly, the real problem is figuring out where we are…”
Just like Leb said, we had rolled so far that we had no idea where we were anymore. The sun was already starting to set. If we didn’t find a way out soon, we might have to spend the night here.
“In the worst case, we could wander here for the rest of our lives and die slowly…”
“D-don’t say stuff like that…”
We started walking along what seemed to be the path we had rolled down.
“Hmm…”
“Ah…”
But we quickly got lost.
“What do we do? The sun’s about to set…”
“No choice. For tonight we’ll have to—”
Ting-ling—
“…!”
The sudden sound of a bell made us snap to high alert.
“Who’s wandering around the forest at this hour?”
Along with the bell came a young woman’s voice.
“A girl…?”
“Stay on guard. It could be some kind of hallucination or trap.”
Soon, the owner of the bell appeared.
“Who are you guys?”
The person who looked about our age was wearing a robe woven from leaves and stems. In one hand she held a large wooden staff, and every step made the bell attached to it ring.
“Who are you!”
Leb immediately dropped into a combat stance and demanded answers.
“Me? I’m Yakacham, ya.”
“I’m not asking for your name. Who do you belong to?”
“Belong to? I live in Capa Village, ya?”
The girl’s innocent answer made us lower our guard a little.
“Leb, it… doesn’t seem like a trap.”
“…Fine. You! Yakacham… was it? We need help.”
When she saw Leb’s wound, Yakacham’s eyes widened and she rushed over.
“What happened, ya? How did you end up like this, ya?”
“It’s a long story… For now, can you guide us to your village?”
“Okay, ya! Follow me, ya!”
I asked Yakacham to lead us to the village, and she happily guided us there.
The place she took us to was far more surprising than I expected.
“This is our home, Capa Village, ya!”
It was a village that seemed to melt completely into nature—completely different from the city we had left behind.
“Yakacham, I told you not to wander off by yourself, ya…”
At that moment, a stern-looking middle-aged man approached her from inside the village. He also carried a wooden staff and wore a robe made of leaves and stems, but the difference was the wolf pelt draped over his shoulders.
“Bringing outsiders… You’re going to be in big trouble when we get inside, ya!”
The man pointed his staff at us.
“Dad! Calm down, ya! These people are injured, ya!”
“That doesn’t matter, ya. Outsiders are strictly forbidden from entering our village, ya. And moreover…”
His gaze locked onto Leb’s purple skin.
“Traitor kin are even less welcome, ya!”
“Wait…! Just a second!”
I quickly shoved Leb behind me and stepped forward.
“We don’t have to enter the village. We’ll just leave.”
“No. Now that you’ve seen this place, we cannot let you go, ya!”
“What kind of bull—”
The man didn’t wait for me to finish. He swung his staff.
Whoooosh—
I pushed Leb aside and let the Emergency Dodge Maneuver pull my body out of the way.
“…! Who the hell are you people!”
“…I am the Hero who came from another world—Lee Siwoo! And this is my companion, Erasreve!”
If we were going to fight, I at least wanted to seize the initiative. I spoke with as much dramatic flair as I could muster.
Thud.
But the man’s reaction was completely unexpected.
“Hero, ya…! Finally, ya!”
He suddenly dropped to his knees before me.
“Huh?”