Song of the Forest
The expedition had gone smoothly through the first day and into the second. They pressed steadily onward toward the heart of Ellinia.
"You sure we've actually got a way to find those Mandrakes?"
Lee Jeong glanced back at Karen as he asked. Honestly, it was a wonder he hadn't brought it up sooner.
They were heading for the central region, where Mandrakes had been found most often so far — but even the heart of Ellinia was vast in its own right.
"We got lucky yesterday. I found this insect."
Karen produced a small glass vial. The creature inside had a single antenna jutting from its head, and it fed primarily on mana leaves.
"This bug stretches its antenna like a compass toward whatever plant has the densest concentration of mana. Once we reach the center, we just follow it."
Karen had deliberately shown one of his cards.
A gambit.
Every preparation he could make was already done. He had shown them a surefire way to find the Mandrakes. And if someone truly intended to use the pheromone with malice...
It'll be tonight.
"What's this bug called?"
Chaerin took the vial and peered at the insect inside.
"A Golden Mana Bug."
Only now did it start to feel real to Chaerin — that the moment her brother would open his eyes again was drawing near. She couldn't look away from the insect for a long while.
"It could break in a fight, so I'll hold onto it."
Karen slipped the vial into his own pocket at the precise moment every eye was on him.
Quite the actor.
From the instant he'd revealed the insect, he'd been watching their faces for any flicker of suspicion. He found nothing. This one wouldn't be easy.
"Curse Eyes ahead."
Just as Lisa said, a pack of Curse Eyes blocked the path.
They'd seen the creatures once already, at a restaurant, so they were familiar enough. But with the tails still attached to the bodies, the impression was entirely different. Each tail was longer than the creature's own torso, a mass of muscle harder than steel, and the filthy spit they launched from their mouths would lock a body rigid on contact with skin.
"There's no way around a fight here. We have to take them out to get through."
Near the border between the outskirts and the central region, two enormous trees rose like mountains, leaving only a narrow path between them. The problem was that the path cut through a stretch of sucking wetland — prime Curse Eye habitat. To pass, they would have to kill whatever stood in their way.
"Cheep-cheep-chirp."
"Still the most mismatched cry I've ever heard."
They looked like enormous one-eyed lizards, yet somehow birdsong spilled from their throats. They used the sound as bait to lure prey.
"We're starting. Everyone, put on your shoes."
In an instant, Chaerin's voice went hard, shoving every thought of her brother aside. Combat readiness had long since become second nature.
The party pulled on the shoes Han Minjae had taken from the packs — swamp-specialized footwear crafted from the buoyant scales of Water Skater Monsters, creatures that skimmed freely across the surface of water. Even a hint of moisture was enough; the scales' own buoyancy kept a wearer from sinking. They were essential for fighting in a swamp.
"Take positions."
Han Minjae and Karen fell back a good distance. Lee Jeong took the front, Chaerin stood right behind him, and Lisa held the rear with her bow.
Now.
At Chaerin's signal, Lisa's arrow flew toward a Curse Eye.
Thwack. With the precision of an A-Rank Hunter, the arrow buried itself in the eyeball that occupied a full third of the Curse Eye's head.
"GUAAARGH!"
What burst out was not the beautiful birdsong they used to lure prey, but their true voice — cracked and ragged.
"Ready. Feed them through one at a time. Two's fine if it gets heavy."
"Got it."
The Curse Eyes shrieked and charged. But Lee Jeong had already planted himself at the mouth of the path like a boulder, so no more than three could come at him at once.
They lashed their steel-hard tails at Lee Jeong's shield, every blow loaded with irritation and rage. Boom. Boom. Boom.
"Ngh."
Three tails at once. Not a large number. But those tails could shatter rock.
Crack. Crack. The tails worked like whips, and the air itself popped with each strike. A groan slipped from Lee Jeong's mouth under the impact. He clenched his teeth, flooding his body and shield with mana, and watched them through the narrow viewing slit cut into the shield.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
"Sendin' one through."
At a glance the attacks looked chaotic, but to an A-Rank Hunter's experience and instincts, a pattern emerged. The one on the left was next. The moment Lee Jeong had been waiting for had come.
"Hup!"
Lee Jeong timed it to the instant the left one swung its tail with full force and gave his shield a slight twist.
"Guek?"
Its attack slid off, and the creature made a stupid sound as its weight pitched forward. Lee Jeong stepped out and sent it past him, peeling it away from the other two.
"Welcome. Now die."
The creature naturally went for Lee Jeong's exposed flank — he was busy holding the front, after all — but what waited for it was Chaerin's fist, already bouncing on a boxer's step.
Chaerin had two abilities: physical enhancement, and Severance. Physical enhancement — reinforcing the body with mana — was the most common ability there was. But Severance was what made Chaerin special.
A punch charged with Chaerin's mana literally severed whatever it hit. Crack-split. And the volume of mana that still rippled visibly around her fist even after she'd flooded her entire body was more than enough to make her an S-Rank Hunter.
Whoosh, whoosh. Chaerin threw a few jabs into the air to loosen up, then called to Lee Jeong.
"Send them two at a time. No — as many as you can."
Lee Jeong glanced at the Curse Eye corpse, carved to pieces before it could even use that prized tail of its, and grinned.
"You're somethin' else."
How many hunters in the world could smash a Curse Eye to pieces like that, alone? That was Lee Chaerin for you.
As Lee Jeong fed the Curse Eyes through one and two at a time, the corpses piled up fast. It looked easy. It was only possible because they trusted each other's skill — that trust was what made the movement and the speed work.
"GUEEEK!"
"Nice one."
Lisa wasn't idle in the back, either. While Chaerin killed, if a Curse Eye's attention so much as drifted toward Lee Jeong, an arrow arrived at exactly the right moment to pull its gaze away. A slightly off shot could have hit Lee Jeong or Chaerin. The three of them, knowing one another's skill, didn't so much as blink.
"Sunbae, hunters A-Rank and above really are on another level."
"Yeah. They're pretty good."
Han Minjae watched from the rear as the Curse Eyes dwindled at a startling pace. Chaerin being S-Rank made her a given, but the other two were impressive too. Rank aside, they fought on teamwork and on experience piled up crossing the line between life and death more times than they could count. They were on a completely different level from those so-called A-Ranks who'd come looking for Karen last time.
If I were in normal condition, it wouldn't even be a question... but if I had to fight right now, it wouldn't be easy.
At last the final Curse Eye collapsed with a nauseating scream, and the path into the heart of Ellinia lay open.
"Hah..."
They wiped the sweat away and caught their breath. Even then, Chaerin swept the field with a cold gaze, checking that not a single Curse Eye still lived.
That was what made Internal Gates so particularly terrifying. Even a high-rank hunter couldn't afford to let their guard down. Even Chaerin would seize up and die if that spit hit her once. The swamp itself limited mobility, and the monsters lived in packs, coming all at once.
"We're not collecting byproducts. We go in and set up camp."
The Curse Eye corpses alone would have fetched a fortune, but nobody cared. Money had never been the point.
At Chaerin's order, the party stepped over the corpses and began their entry into the central region.
"Sunbae-nim? What are you pouring?"
Once he'd confirmed the vanguard had all gone through, Karen poured a violet potion in several spots around the Curse Eye corpses.
"Just something."
He couldn't tell Han Minjae everything. The kid might not be the ringleader, but he could still be an accomplice.
"You'll tell me later, right? Right?"
Han Minjae stared at the potion in Karen's hand with naked longing. Watching the kid's behavior and that look in his eyes, a thought crossed Karen's mind.
If this kid's the traitor, he'd have made it as an actor.
"Fine. Let's go."
The moment they cleared the narrow path, a forest far denser than anything they'd walked through so far welcomed the party, as if the road behind them had been a joke.
"We camp here."
The second day was already nearly gone, and dusk was settling in. The forest night belonged to the residents accustomed to moonlight. There was no need to take unnecessary risks.
The hunters strung bells on thread and ran the lines through the surrounding trees. It would give them a rough idea of any threatening monsters. Inside a gate, machines didn't work at all, so a monster detector was out of the question. Everything was old-school.
"The three of us will rotate watch. You two sleep easy."
Paradoxically, the stronger your abilities, the greater the responsibility. Putting a non-combatant on night watch was inefficient and only raised the risk.
"Kku-ing, Master. Wasn't Chaerin cool?"
"Quit the nonsense and go to sleep."
After staying quietly in the bag since they'd harvested the herbs, the first thing out of Samsaek's mouth was a piece of work.
"She's totally different from when she's with us."
Fair enough. The Chaerin who spent her days in sweats, whining like a puppy, was a far cry from the party leader they'd just watched.
"But Master, aren't you gonna tell Chaerin about the Monster Pheromone?"
"You think she could act her way through that?"
"...Kku-ing. I'm sleepy. Let's just sleep."
Was the goal to stop Chaerin from harvesting the Mandrake? Or was he the target?
I'd rather they just attacked me directly.
Even with his mana dropped to B-Rank, he could still pick up on genuine killing intent. That was something his body had learned over long years of staying alive.
Listening to the cat already snoring by his legs, Karen let himself drift toward sleep. If the culprit made a move, staying awake for no reason would only cost him. It was going to be a very long night.
How many hours had passed since he'd fallen asleep to the insects' song as a lullaby?
Jingle.
A branch snapping on its own and catching the thread, maybe. The bell they'd set rang once.
Jingle, jingle.
Twice this time. A small animal?
Then the bells that followed jolted everyone awake.
Jingle, jingle, jingle, jingle...
"What the hell?"
The bells they'd strung in every direction began to ring through the entire forest. Everyone looked around.
"Oh my god..."
The forest, which had held not a single light, had somehow grown bright. Bright with the eyes of the residents that had come flooding in, drawn by the sweet scent of Monster Pheromone finally released from an empty bottle.