Chapter 347
Chapter 347
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 347
>Chapter Title: The 31st Word Overturns the Game Board
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The forest keeper, a massive parrot, had brilliantly colorful feathers. With its somewhat naive-looking eyes and its talkative nature, the forest keeper was exactly as Kang Seol remembered from the past.
"Hey, those giant bees might actually be the strongest creatures in this forest. They're nasty-tempered and have insane combat power! Their stingers can pierce any tree, and their venom will keep you bedridden for a month if it hits! Isn't that scary?"
"Scary."
"Right? Plus, their shells are so tough they don't die easily? There was this one time back in the day..."
"Oh man, that must've been a disaster."
"Huh? Oh... yeah."
The forest keeper talked way too much.
Kang Seol nodded vaguely, as if he knew exactly how to handle him, responding briefly to whatever the bird said.
"Um, are you even listening to me?"
"Yeah, thanks."
"No need to thank me... Anyway, about those giant bees..."
"Shh... We're almost there, so no more noise."
"Right! Giant bees are super sensitive to sound! Huh? How'd you know? But how do you stay quiet? I've never done it before."
Regardless of the forest keeper's chatter, Kang Seol kept his eyes fixed on the intimidating giant beehive visible in the distance.
'At least a few more hives, probably.'
What he could see wasn't all of them. There were surely more hidden here and there, and countless bees nesting in them would come swarming the moment one in their territory was attacked.
Kang Seol recalled those memories in an instant.
- Hang in there! Hang in there! Charlie!
- ....
Charlie, who had endured the penalty of plate armor to avoid being pierced by their stings and fought the giant bees while clad head to toe in it.
'We had no idea back then....'
That was when they first realized the giant bees' stings could pierce even plate armor.
"How are you gonna wipe out the bees? Like Charlie did?"
"......"
Kang Seol thought of Charlie at the forest keeper's words.
Charlie was the epitome of ordinary.
Average features, the kind of forgettable impression you get from a guy doing humble work in a village.
Without his neatly trimmed mustache, he probably wouldn't stick in anyone's memory at all. The forest keeper likely wouldn't remember anything about Charlie except that mustache either.
Charlie had indeed stepped up clumsily to exterminate the giant bees and suffered a major setback.
But Kang Seol had done it once before, so he had no need to repeat that now.
'Swinging at them would've taken days of misery anyway.'
Time-wise, it was impossible.
Thud...
Kang Seol leaned against a stump and quietly closed his eyes.
"What're you doing? Napping?"
"......"
"Wait, are you giving up? You were gonna help me with my request..."
"No, I'm waiting."
"...Waiting for what?"
Kang Seol yawned and let his head droop.
"The wind."
- Wind?
- ???: Yeah... the southeast wind will come soon. The Cao Cao army...
- How do you know?
- I checked the morning weather forecast.
"Ah! The wind!"
The forest keeper sat down next to Kang Seol upon hearing this and closed its eyes, waiting along with him.
"Grooo...."
And just like that, it fell asleep in an instant.
The speed at which it dozed off was truly impressive.
Watching the sleeping forest keeper, Kang Seol reminisced about the past.
To perfect the optimal combination formula, Charlie had spent the most time in this forest out of anywhere in the underground garden while gathering various toxic herbs.
- Hey, Charlie. Are all humans as quiet as you?
Whenever that happened, the forest keeper would chatter away by Charlie's side to keep things from getting boring.
Kang Seol felt nostalgia seeing the deeply sleeping forest keeper. He hadn't hated the labor back then—he just hadn't hated the forest keeper.
Crack...
He plucked some grass and let it scatter in the wind.
The direction was directly opposite from the beehives.
The winds in the underground garden's forest shifted constantly in every direction. So sitting still and waiting for the right wind would take far less time than constantly moving around.
'It might delay things a bit, but this is still the fastest way.'
Kang Seol waited quite a while like that, watching the dozing forest keeper.
"Snooo... slurp...."
Poke...
Poke...
"Wake up."
The forest keeper was drooling in its sleep when someone poked its side a few times, startling it awake.
"Eek-!"
"Quiet."
Whiiiiiirrrrr...
The sound of giant bee wings buzzed in his ears. They seemed to be patrolling the area.
"The wind's not here yet?"
"Nah, we're good."
Kang Seol lit the firewood he'd prepared.
Crackle... crackle...
Whoosh...
As the bonfire roared to life, Kang Seol pulled out heaps of prepared grass and tossed it in.
It was the stench grass he'd bought from the Madness Shop.
"Ugh... What smell is that! Butt! Wild boar butt smell!"
"Pinch your nostrils."
"Nostrils? How do you pinch them? Can't breathe then?"
"Breathe through your mouth."
"Oh! That works?"
Even just pulling the stench grass from his pocket was ordeal enough.
Kang Seol pulled out a cloth and covered his mouth and nose.
"Me too!"
"...Here."
The forest keeper took the cloth it apparently needed.
Kang Seol kindly tied it securely around the forest keeper's beak.
Then he scattered more stench grass into the bonfire.
Soon, the smoke began turning pure white. People often associated white with purity and cleanliness, but the stench emanating from it was the polar opposite.
The smoke soon drifted toward the beehives.
Buzzzzzzzzzz...
Crackle...
Splat...
The vigorously flapping giant bees tumbled to the ground after about three seconds, and those around the hive slammed their heads into the dirt after about ten.
Thud thud thud thud...
Not just the visible hives—even from elsewhere, giant bees began plummeting one after another.
The giant bees twitched and shuddered.
Soon, even that stopped.
Kang Seol approached a fallen giant bee and checked its condition.
"Dead."
The effect of the stench grass.
He'd been so frustrated when he learned about it from someone else who had raised a druid and cleared a legacy adventure with him—after he'd already exterminated the giant bees himself.
It was especially infuriating since he'd found out right after.
Sharing info seemed like the much easier way to clear the underground garden's legacy adventure.
"Huh? These guys!"
The forest keeper suddenly gobbled up a dead giant bee with its large beak. The stench grass itself wasn't lethal—it just hit giant bees hard—so eating the corpses wasn't a big issue.
"You bad guys! Tormenting the forest! You guys!"
Crunch...
Cruncccch...
It pretended to be lecturing them, wrapping it up like some grand act of justice, but really it was just stuffing itself with bees.
- Maybe... the giant bees didn't do anything wrong?
- The forest keeper's suspicious!
By burning the stench grass and letting them inhale the smoke, Kang Seol had wiped out most of the giant bees in the area.
The forest keeper, its belly now bulging like a mountain, patted Kang Seol's shoulder.
"Buuuurp... Well... no, I mean... good job! As thanks for helping me, is there anything you want?"
'It appeared.'
With the task done, the reward should follow.
Soon, the choices popped up.
[The forest keeper's huge headache has been resolved! Having solved its problem, the forest keeper wants to reward you. What do you desire?]
1. I'll take the giant bees' shells.
2. I'll take the giant bees' hives.
3. I'll take the giant bees' stingers.
4. I'll take the giant bees' larvae.
...
Whatever he took had its uses.
Shells were coveted by mechanists and blacksmiths, hives by cooks and druids, stingers by alchemists.
'But it's not about what I take.'
Kang Seol said to the forest keeper,
"Could you concentrate the giant bees' venom for me, by any chance?"
"Oh? That's what you want?"
"Yeah."
The giant bees' venom had weak effects if used raw. But concentrated, it became a deadly poison among deadly poisons.
'I can't do it myself right now.'
Charlie, the venom master and assassin, could concentrate it on his own. But Kang Seol's class was far from poison-related, so he needed help.
'The finished product won't be as potent as Charlie's... but it's still the best option.'
Even with the same poison, the venom expert Charlie could draw far greater effects. Even using the recipe Kang Seol knew, it wouldn't match Charlie's.
'Still, it'll be pretty nasty.'
It was poison he was confident would even work on Azanic.
Gurgle...
The forest keeper poured the concentrated venom into a wooden fruit shell.
"Here you go!"
"Thanks."
"And... take this too!"
It handed over something in a similar container.
"This is... why...?"
"The hives are intact! It'll bring good things if you give it to the sleepyhead!"
This seemed like another easter egg.
Because Kang Seol hadn't touched the hives at all.
A gift for the sleepyhead—definitely felt like it'd lead to a good reward.
"Give me your hand!"
Sizzle...
[Acquired the Forest Keeper's Seal.]
[The Sleepyhead will meet with you.]
He got the second seal as well.
Not only on the back of his hand, but a forest pattern with dense trees was etched in too.
The forest keeper scratched its head and said,
"Well... thanks. It was a nice change, reminded me of that human after so long!"
"...That human?"
"Yeah! There was this human who stupidly climbed trees to catch giant bees! Hehehe! Funny, right? Makes you think intelligence might be the most important trait for all living things..."
Crunch...
"Huh? You mad?"
"Not mad. Yeah."
- Looks pretty pissed though
- Seems angry to us lol
- Why's he mad?
- Hot-tempered?
The forest keeper gazed at the forest and said,
"I wonder if he's doing well? He said he wouldn't come back, though...."
Kang Seol's expression changed.
'No way, does it miss him?'
Thinking about the tough times with Charlie, it made sense. Plus, the forest keeper had guarded this place alone for so long.
Loneliness mixed with longing for a departed connection.
"Human, if you go out... find someone who looks like this."
Scratch... scratch...
The forest keeper drew a picture on the ground with its claw.
It was crude.
You couldn't make out any features except the mustache—which was drawn perfectly.
"...Looks like this?"
"Yeah, fur under his nose!"
"You wanna see him again?"
"Yeah! Tell him to visit! It was fun having him around!"
Kang Seol chuckled.
"...Sure. Got it."
"Bye! Take care! But the swamp keeper won't be as nice as me!"
Kang Seol left the forest keeper behind just like that.
He passed through the forest and reached the second gateway.
This was a cave terrain too, so he carried out the exact same preparations as the first gateway.
'Whew... took some time.'
Still, pretty quick.
Now only the final gateway remained.
The swamp stretched out before him.
On the surface, nothing seemed off.
'Where's the swamp keeper?'
Among all the overseers, getting toxic herbs from the swamp keeper took the longest. That's why Charlie had sometimes searched the swamp himself for what he needed.
'First, head in....'
Rumble rumble ruuuumble...
"...Huh?"
Ruuuuumble...
['Dragon's Vengeance' main content has changed.]
['Dragon's Vengeance' has changed to 'Untimely Visit.']
...
Kang Seol quickly checked the updated adventure details.
"......Damn."
The ruins' entrance wouldn't hold for six hours, and soon Azanic would invade the underground garden.
It even said the entrance couldn't withstand Azanic's power for much longer.
'Damn... knew it might come to this....'
In that case, forget landing a hit—escaping immediately was the right call.
Just as all his efforts so far were about to go to waste, someone appeared beside Kang Seol.
"Need a seal, by any chance?"
A fat toad-man approached and spoke.
"...What?"
"I'm the swamp keeper. Help me from here on, and I'll give you the swamp seal."
Kang Seol stared at the toad, his face briefly showing confusion.
'...This guy's it?'
He quickly schooled his expression, plastering on a fake smile as he replied.
With at best thirty minutes left, earning the swamp keeper's favor to get the toxic herbs and seal was practically impossible.
The dragon would smash through the gateway and snatch him from behind.
No matter how he thought about it, giving up made sense.
"...Alright, swamp keeper. What do you need help with?"
A bit more thought, and speedrun felt right.