Chapter 21
Chapter 21
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 21
Chapter Title: Mountain Lodge Built on a Dokkaebi Den (8)
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Na-rae followed behind.
The dark tunnel sloped downward endlessly.
Na-rae had to shine her phone light with one hand, making the crawl quite arduous.
The musty smell grew stronger the further they crawled.
The floor was no longer flat; damp earth appeared.
The one saving grace was that the tunnel didn't narrow, so crawling wasn't too uncomfortable.
However, there was no room to turn around, making it hard to backtrack.
"Reporter Eun, shine the light properly. It's too dark up ahead."
Dong-jin grumbled, overwhelmed by the atmosphere that felt like something could leap out from the darkness at any moment.
"How am I supposed to shine it better when you're blocking the way with your back in this tight space? You're filling the whole tunnel, sunbae."
"Then what do we do?"
"If something jumps out and rips your head off in the dark, I'll have space to shine the light."
Whether joke or not, her words were enough to scare Dong-jin.
'To survive, I need to get out of this tunnel fast.'
Dong-jin's crawling speed picked up noticeably.
Thanks to him, Na-rae struggled even more as she followed, shining the light.
After crawling through the dark tunnel for over an hour, a faint light appeared.
Spotting it, Dong-jin crawled frantically with renewed vigor.
The light grew closer, revealing a wide space.
It was about two or three pyeong in size, with one wall made of wood.
Light filtered through the gaps in the wood.
Na-rae crawled out on all fours, collapsing in exhaustion as she asked,
"What is this place?"
She looked utterly drained, soul and all.
If not for the energy from Emel, she would've collapsed midway.
Too wiped out to stand, Na-rae crawled on hands and knees to the wooden wall.
Dong-jin was already peering out through the gaps, saying,
"Who knows. Judging by how long we crawled, seems like we've reached the village at the base of the mountain."
* * *
"Hey, mister! Wake up."
A booming voice like a bell jolted Byung-su back to consciousness.
As he sat up, he clutched his severed shoulder.
The dokkaebi hurled itself at the red-clad evil spirit, slamming into its torso.
Caught off guard by the sudden attack, the evil spirit flew across the hall to the large wooden floor.
Seizing the moment, the dokkaebi tucked Byung-su under one arm and charged toward Baekho, scooping him up under the other.
Then it grabbed the yapping puppy by the mouth and bolted.
'Isn't that Kim the manager? Saved by a dokkaebi, of all things.'
Blood still spurting from his shoulder, Byung-su gritted his teeth and said,
"Hey! Kim the manager dokkaebi, thanks for the save. But where are you headed?"
Grateful for the rescue, Byung-su thanked him, and the dokkaebi replied,
"Ah, you old coot... G... gotta... smash... the demon... where else?"
With the puppy in its mouth, it was hard to make out.
"Wha... why'd you... grab this pup? I was gonna eat it meself... If ya hadn't, it'd be in my belly. Heh heh heh."
The dokkaebi ran on without pause, chattering away.
Byung-su and Baekho couldn't understand a word, exchanging baffled glances.
It cleaved through the wind, folding the earth beneath its strides.
Soon, the bridge leading to the lower village came into view.
Upon reaching the bridge, the dokkaebi set Byung-su and Baekho down.
It held the puppy up in one hand before its eyes and said,
"If you were a live dog, I'd have eaten you in one bite, but since you're already dead, I'll let it slide. Lucky, huh?"
Byung-su found it amusing that the dokkaebi called a dead dog "lucky," but seeing the puppy wagging its tail at the dokkaebi filled him with gratitude.
"Thank you. Dokkaebi-nim, I'll leave a bowl of buckwheat jelly on the bridge tomorrow."
"Nah! This squares us for the booze I got from Kim the manager yesterday. Don't sweat it."
Even though Dong-jin had paid with wild ginseng, the dokkaebi seemed bad at math.
"Huh? You're a weird one, mister. The blood that was gushing stopped? It's healed. What are you?"
As the dokkaebi said, not a drop more blood flowed from Byung-su's severed shoulder.
This was thanks to the energy Emel had infused.
"That cute girl last night was full of weird energy, and now you too. But how'd you get beat by trash like that? Weird. Anyway."
Muttering to itself, the dokkaebi rummaged in its bosom and pulled something out.
Somehow procured, it was a bizarre arm covered in scales with grotesquely long fingers.
It resembled a crocodile's foreleg, or a raptor’s, or even a chicken's foot.
Grinning, it slapped the arm onto Byung-su's severed left shoulder without asking.
Miraculously, it fit perfectly, instantly forming a proper arm.
Then it pulled some herbs from its bosom and mashed them in its mouth before applying them to the wound on Baekho's shoulder.
"I didn't run from that trash 'cause I was scared. It flooded the floor with blood knowing I'd come, that's why. I hate human blood or animal blood. Kinda scares me, actually."
Dokkaebi had always avoided blood since ancient times.
Even so, this one seemed disarmingly honest in admitting its weakness.
"Don't let your guard down yet. That thing never gives up; it'll follow soon."
His left arm regenerated by the dokkaebi's grace, Byung-su marveled as the pain vanished. He swung it around experimentally.
Each swing whistled through the air.
Gazing toward the upper village, the dokkaebi sat on the ground and looked down at Byung-su, asking,
"Mister, isn't the new arm better than the old one you lost?"
Byung-su chuckled in response.
"A brand-new arm? Amazing. But I'm worried that evil spirit bitch from the upper village might follow us here to the lower one."
The dokkaebi reassured him confidently.
"She'll come. But we have a plan, so no worries. When that trash shows up, you two old coots hide on the bridge. I'll block it right here."
"You have a good strategy?"
Byung-su leaned in expectantly, and the dokkaebi beamed with pride.
"Yup. Haha! Of course I do. Wanna hear it? It's short, so we can chat till that bitch arrives. Haha."
Grinning happily, it pointed to a withered old tree by the bridge.
"See that tree?"
"Yeah, it's pretty ancient."
Byung-su answered promptly, delighting the dokkaebi, whose mouth stretched even wider.
"Right! Ancient it is. About two hundred years ago? A massive serpent wrapped around that tree for days, showing off. Back then, the upper village was bustling. The lower one barely existed."
At the mention of the giant serpent, something clicked for Byung-su.
"A giant serpent?"
The more he reacted, the more excited the dokkaebi got, barely containing itself.
"Yeah, giant serpent! So big it coiled around that tree. A woman fetching water here one morning saw it and said to her friend, 'Oh my, look at that serpent—it has legs!' Haha, nothing special, right?"
It burst out laughing at its own tale.
"But somehow that serpent heard her and wailed like the earth was caving in. The women fled in terror. It cried for ages, then plunged into this stream."
Byung-su endured the dokkaebi's antics, listening patiently.
"Summer, water deeper than a man's height, but too small for a giant serpent. Yet it jumped in. This puny stream."
It paused, eyeing Byung-su.
"You know what that serpent was, right, mister?"
"An imuggi, yeah?"
Byung-su's answer sent the dokkaebi clapping in glee.
"Exactly! Imuggi! A millennium-old serpent on the verge of dragonhood. But it's not just about living a thousand years."
It stared at Byung-su expectantly again.
Reading the dokkaebi's pleading eyes, Byung-su played along.
"So how does it become a dragon?"
"Here's how: the millennium serpent appears where people can see it, and if someone shouts 'Dragon!', it ascends to the heavens as one. But if they yell 'Serpent!', a thousand years wasted, back to slithering. Haha."
Spitting with excitement at Byung-su's reactions, the dokkaebi rambled on.
Clever Byung-su feigned ignorance even on known facts, chiming in.
"Ah, so it cried because that water-fetching woman ruined its chance?"
"Bingo! Failed dragon serpent. It wailed for days, bringing massive rains. Noisy as hell."
Shaking its head at the memory.
"After days of crying, it went quiet. Rain stopped too. But no bridge back then."
Per the dokkaebi, the imuggi had cried near this very bridge spot.
"Just a log over this stream, washed away by its rains. Upper villagers needed the bridge to live, so they tried rebuilding. Got a smoke?"
Mid-story, it abruptly asked for a cigarette.
Byung-su pulled a pack and lighter from his pocket.
"Here, menthol okay?"
The slim cig would look comical in the dokkaebi's big mouth.
"Mint? Great. Haha. Secondhand smoke says I should quit, but... where was I?"
Mistaking menthol for mint suggested heavy smoking habits.
Byung-su lit it, and the dokkaebi puffed contentedly before continuing.
"Anyway, to build the bridge, they had to enter the river, but the imuggi's rains swelled it several fathoms deep."
"And?"
"Still needed the bridge, so they started from there, piece by piece. But anyone touching the water—the imuggi dragged them under and killed them. Horrific! Blood just pouring."
Byung-su timed his interjection perfectly.
"Yikes! Holding a grudge, that imuggi."
The dokkaebi relished the rapport.
"Yes! After three or four workers died, bridge-building halted. Fine, but people need water."
"True."
"Women fetching water—three snatched. Careless kids playing by the river—gone too."
At the imuggi harming villagers, Baekho chimed in despite the pain in his cracked shoulder blade.
"Vicious imuggi. So, what happened?"
His bleeding stopped and nerves mending, thanks to the dokkaebi's herbs.
Now Baekho joined in; the dokkaebi's grin threatened to split its ears.
"Whoa, you're impatient! Haha. My dad and I couldn't stand it, so we decided to teach it a lesson. We don't meddle in human affairs usually, but it went too far."
"......"
"Sure, it felt wronged, but no need to wipe out the village over one woman's words. Right?"
"Absolutely!"
Byung-su nailed the response again.
"But the imuggi hid in the water, getting bolder. Dad tried stopping me, but hot-headed me dove in to catch it. Turns out, in water, imuggi's king."
Thumbs-up praising the imuggi, then on with the tale.
Byung-su smiled silently at the antics.
"It coiled around me, trying to drown me everywhere. No escape, no fighting back. Dad stomped outside, about to jump in—but then father and son both done for."
"Big trouble."
"Huge. That's when the upper villagers killed by the imuggi returned as water ghosts. Haha."
"What happened next?"
"Water ghosts are beasts in the river too. They swarmed the imuggi coiled around me and shoved it out onto land."
The tale, starting with a serpent, had twisted into a water ghost story.