Chapter 25
Chapter 25
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 25
Chapter Title: Instinct Over Mercy
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Hwan-in, who had been resting at the cave entrance, finally stirred into action when a Soul Orb with less than thirty minutes of duration time appeared.
Even though it was nearing midnight, if he wasted time until morning like this, not a single Soul Orb would be left.
Even under the effects of Spirit Possession, he had faced several near-fatal crises where he nearly sustained serious injuries. Without the physical enhancement from Spirit Possession, facing beasts and monsters was still far too dangerous.
'I need at least twenty-four Soul Orbs to have any real leeway in my activities.'
Having gathered his weapons, the Spike Tail Pig meat, and other gear, Hwan-in started descend the cliff but paused when he realized that the roughly five-meter drop no longer felt all that high.
It felt like he could jump down without a problem.
After a moment's thought, Hwan-in scanned the valley surroundings to confirm no beasts or monsters were approaching, then tossed his gear, weapons, and staff down below.
He turned, gauged the distance, and leaped.
After a brief sensation of floating, his feet hit the ground, and he lightly rolled backward to absorb the impact, springing right back up.
"Hm."
He had rolled across the gravel, but his body felt fine. Standing up and brushing off his knees and thighs yielded no sense of impact at all.
'No need for landing techniques after all.'
The younger the body, the more flexible and resilient the muscles.
That's why a child can jump from the same height unscathed while an adult might twist an ankle or break a bone.
Hwan-in had tried various sports and was more flexible and fit than his peers, but even he used to feel a faint bone-jarring aftershock from falls.
"Must be from gaining these superpowers."
No matter how he thought about it, the only conclusion was that acquiring supernatural abilities had made his body tougher as well.
Recovery, strength, flexibility, elasticity, endurance—all of it.
When he first gained the powers, he'd been too sick to notice, but... actually, it was probably because his body had toughened up that he could move around so much right after barely surviving.
'I'll grill some Spike Tail Pig meat at that suitable spot I scouted earlier...'
After that, he could cautiously scout the surroundings for traces of beasts or monsters.
Gathering his gear, Hwan-in let the Emergency Ration perch on his shoulder as it flapped in, then headed down the stream into the gray darkness.
Five days had passed since he began using the cave in the valley between the twin-peaked mountains as his base.
During that time, Hwan-in stayed close to the cave, focusing on identifying the types of beasts inhabiting the mountains, their food webs, and ecosystems.
First off, the Twin Mountains (tentative name) were as vast as any national park.
And there were plenty of edible plants.
Not as many as in that carnivorous plant mountain, but with Soul Vision, he could find edible roots, tree bark, and small acorn-like fruits everywhere.
Perhaps because of that, a peaceful ecosystem like any Korean mountain had formed, teeming especially with small herbivores.
Where there are many herbivores, predators that feed on them soon follow.
Over three days practicing the Blue Leopard's stealth techniques, he confirmed during the day that Blue Leopards occasionally came down to the river to drink, and he spotted aggressive Yaks roaming about.
Around the mountains lived herds of bison and groups of horse-like creatures that sucked blood from prey with their fangs.
At night, beasts resembling hyenas prowled.
Among them, the beast Hwan-in ranked highest on his watchlist was the one he'd guessed at from the fur the Emergency Ration brought back.
A wild boar.
An ordinary Earth wild boar wouldn't have been an issue for Hwan-in now.
But the one he spotted was the size of a minibus, with lightning-shaped blades protruding from its forehead—a monstrous beast through and through.
After confirming the Blade Boar (tentative), Hwan-in climbed the eastern Twin Mountain again the next day, wondering if it had just been passing through.
Kwang! Kwagwang!!
He came back down silently.
Whether it was showing off its strength or marking territory, he witnessed the Blade Boar smashing a thick tree with its meter-long lightning horn.
The sight of a tree that would take three grown men to encircle crashing down amid thunderous noise... made him resolve to avoid its territory at all costs.
The silver lining was that its domain seemed to be the peak of the eastern Twin Mountain; it hadn't descended toward the valley even once in three days.
The eastern Twin Mountain seemed ruled by the Blade Boar, but the western one had no clear dominant beast.
Instead, two groups appeared to divide it: one of five ill-tempered Yaks, the other of three Blue Leopards.
While gathering this intel, Hwan-in hunted solitary or paired beasts to gain experience with low-grade Spirit Possession.
In three days, he added possessions of the Spike Tail Pig, Three-Eyed Dog, Scaled Mole, a Velociraptor-rhino hybrid he dubbed Dragon-Horned Rhino, and more.
He also learned that low-grade souls might lack skills, thanks to the last two.
The Three-Eyed Dog soul massively enhanced vision; the Spike Tail Pig soul massively boosted stamina and endurance.
When he possessed the Three-Eyed Dog soul, Hwan-in broke into a cold sweat inwardly.
The enhanced vision let him count leaves on trees hundreds of meters away, but activating it hit him with intense pain as the world sharpened a hundredfold in clarity.
If he'd done it mid-battle or before one, it would've been disastrous.
He'd used it as a test since duration was nearly up and no beasts were around—thank goodness.
Still, the three-eyed beast's possession effect was solid.
Freely adjustable vision range let him roughly survey the Twin Mountains' ecosystem over its eight-minute duration.
That's when he spotted the bloodsucking horse herds—Vampire Horses?—and bison in nearby hills and basins.
He used the Spike Tail Pig soul when a Yak herd charged, seeing him as a thorn in their side for stirring up the mountain.
The effect increased stamina recovery during duration.
He learned he wouldn't tire no matter how wildly he moved.
From then on, he went berserk without pacing himself, inflicting wounds great and small on all five Yaks, even severing one horn.
But that was his limit.
Whenever he targeted a gap in one, two others flanked him, denying easy kills.
The Yaks retreated first, admitting defeat, and with under a minute left on possession, Hwan-in didn't pursue.
Without the Spike Tail Pig effect, he'd have fled first.
Their linked assaults from mid-sized truck bodies were terrifying.
But it wasn't for nothing.
After the fight, as if acknowledging "The valley is your territory," no Yaks approached it.
Before, they'd come down once a day to drink.
Kwak. Kwak.
"Hold on."
Kwak!
"Hey. Wait."
Kwak...
As Hwan-in grilled hunted meat by the river and calmed the impatient Emergency Ration nagging him, he glanced around and nodded slightly.
'Four days of stirring up the western Twin Mountain and vicinity paid off.'
He'd encountered the Blue Leopard group on day two, showing their power gap with Soul Explosion and possession.
The Yak herd was repelled unscathed thanks to Spike Tail Pig possession.
With the two groups dominating the western mountain routed, no beasts from there entered the valley.
Beasts outside the Twin Mountains never entered to begin with.
The eastern had no proper predators; probably fled the Blade Boar's ferocity.
After five days mapping the food chain and webs, Hwan-in could finally light a fire by the river with peace of mind.
Slap.
Chirp.
He lightly tapped the Emergency Ration's back as it sneaked its beak toward uncooked meat by the fire; it shrank its neck and sat sullenly by the flames.
Smiling faintly at its innocent five- or six-year-old-child-like reaction, Hwan-in took unseasoned, fully cooked meat and sliced it thinly with the Multi-Tool knife.
Since discovering the reddish-purple, codonopsis-like root veggie gave spicy bitterness, he collected it whenever found for sauce.
Mash with a bit of water for a spicy, slightly bitter sauce; brush on meat and grill—even rank meat tastes good.
But unsure if Emergency Ration could handle sauce, he gave it plain grilled only.
Placing slices on a large leaf before it, the bird looked up as if asking "Can I eat this?"
"Eat up."
Kwak!
After feeding the Emergency Ration first, Hwan-in grabbed his spear from the right and turned his gaze downstream.
A brown jaguar creeping cat-like toward the river froze under his stare.
As he stepped toward it, it startled and fled pell-mell.
Tracking its vanishing trail into the mountain with his eyes, Hwan-in set down the spear, sat, and continued grilling, basting with sauce.
'With the area cleared, now just to start smoking...'
One bison from nearby plains yields two weeks' meat.
Smoke chips from dead trees whose roots Yaks ravaged on western mountain—plenty.
Materials fine; issue is smoking method.
"Hm."
Books said salting, then two ten-hour smokes makes two-to-four-week preserved food.
But no salt here.
African interior uses air-dry plus smoke sans salt, but details lacking—next was cold-smoking.
'No reason to detail saltless smoking.'
Pondering solves nothing.
Biting into reddish, sauce-tinted skewer: mild spice and pungency meshed perfectly with meaty umami.
Devouring a kilo fast, Hwan-in overcooked the rest to render fat, stored it, stirred the fire for separate charcoal.
Enough meat from daytime unknown beast; belly full, time to try smoking.
'Pit method...'
Tripod with tent-cloth over fire works, but no airtight cloth.
Weave leafy branches into tent shape possible, but first try pit-smoking.
Thanks to Scaled Mole soul in possession not explosion, he had some digging skill.
First, away from riverbank, he scraped earth with now-Black Ebony Spear from Black Club.
Depth one meter: first stage cylindrical 50cm high inside; second widens gradually.
Thud, thud! Scrape.
"Hoo."
Even with iron-like durability, blunt-tipped for piercing, digging was hard labor—but technique and enhanced strength brute-forced it.
Then Multi-Tool knife minces thigh meat.
'Best smoking thickness around 6cm.'
First try, so ten pieces—not wasteful if fails.
Whittle branches to skewers, thread meat. Chop leafy branches galore, bundle with vine-bark cord into huge fan.
This blocks smoke escape from pit.
Line pit bottom with campfire charcoal, gently blow to ember, soak bark/leaves roughly, shake, layer on.
Soon, white smoke billows as expected from wet materials.
Fix 60cm meat skewers 50cm above fire, cover pit with woven branch board.
"Hm."
Worried during board-making; sure enough, smoke leaks through gaps.
More leaves/branches from mountain seals it.
Well, barely visible wisps now—fine.
Kwak?
Exhausted after four-hour prep, slumping by pit, Emergency Ration tilts head approaching.
"......"
Petting its head, Hwan-in gazed at leaf-covered pit during rest.
Five days scouting Twin Mountains raised his Soul Orb limit from eight to nine.
Seven hours on prep/first try consumed five orbs at duration end via possession.
Four left: durations from two hours to twenty minutes.
Confirm three-hour smoke from refilling green wood bark/leaves once; restock materials, then hunt.
Secured six lowest-grade souls in two hours, but anxiety crept real.
Even aggressive beasts avoid unwinnable foes.
Five days active, Hwan-in ranked high in local food chain; beasts instinctively fled or hid on sight.
Easy to notice.
His horrific scent mixing countless odors, eerie aura raising hackles—detectable dozens of meters away.
Soul Orb supply bottlenecked.
This time got six via Emergency Ration scouting and Blue Leopard stealth soul skill, but...
"Can't stay in valley forever."
Finite creatures; must succeed smoking, then move on.
Hwan-in steeled himself inwardly and returned to the valley.