The Forest's True Master
“Heh… heheheh…”
Elanus, who had forgotten even to breathe as he watched the scene unfold, finally let out a hollow laugh.
In all his centuries of life, had the old elf’s heart ever pounded quite like this?
“The trial passer who never appeared… and it turns out to be a human outsider, not an elf…”
But that no longer mattered.
Race was irrelevant.
What mattered was whether Eldona Forest had answered—or not!
“I-is it real…?”
“The legend was true.”
“That dying ancient tree! New shoots are sprouting from it!”
The entire forest was awakening.
And at its center stood a single figure: the human girl catching her breath—Kang Si-a.
The elves no longer regarded her with wariness or distrust.
What they saw was no outsider.
She was the one the forest had chosen.
The true master they had waited for across endless ages.
It was then that it happened.
Swaaaa…
From behind the altar, an elven woman stepped forth.
The moment she appeared, every sound died as if it had been a lie.
“Ah… Your Majesty.”
Elanus and the elves bowed their heads in reverence.
Lana, the current queen of the elves.
In truth, she was no queen in the fullest sense.
She was merely the proxy of the first queen, Bilsana.
The true queen of the forest… was one who could illuminate the woods with a bow, just as was happening now.
“So it is you…”
Lana’s gaze settled on Kang Si-a standing at the heart of the altar.
“The one who has awakened the forest’s heart.”
Kang Si-a swallowed dryly under the crushing weight of the queen’s presence.
Yet she did not flinch.
Instead, she met the queen’s eyes with quiet defiance.
Lana studied that gaze for a moment, then a faint smile touched her lips.
Then—
Srrrk.
She began unstrapping the bow from her back.
It looked almost ordinary: a sleek wooden bow.
“This is a relic once used by the first queen, Lady Bilsana.”
Lana’s voice was clear and deep.
“It has been passed down solely to the proxies of our forest through the generations. And with this bow came a single prophecy.”
Twang!
Lana flicked the taut bowstring with a fingertip.
“When a crisis the forest has never known descends, and darkness seeks to swallow every light, a true master who awakens the forest’s heart shall appear. When that one arrives, bestow this bow. And with them, escape the forest’s peril.”
As her words ended, every elf around them held their breath.
The legend was coming true before their eyes.
Lana knelt before Kang Si-a.
The proxy queen of the elves offering respect to a human girl.
“The forest has chosen you. From this moment, you are the master of this bow.”
She held it out.
“And we elves shall follow your will.”
The moment she became the protagonist of a fated opportunity.
Kang Si-a did not hesitate.
She carefully accepted the bow.
◈ You have acquired the Autumn Wind's Bow (Legendary).
◈ This item is the only one of its kind in the Tower of Despair.
Autumn Wind?
Kang Si-a tilted her head.
Who was Autumn Wind, anyway?
Hadn’t they said the forest’s queen was Bilsana?
Cradling the bow, she slowly ran her fingers along its length.
Information surfaced.
Type: Bow
Grade: Legendary
Traits: A bow in which Chu Pung is sealed. Bestowed upon the first to clear every trial of the elves.
Attack Power: 50
Durability: 500/500
◈ Agility +3
◈ Arrows are automatically retrieved and repaired.
◈ Falling Autumn Leaves: Attack power doubles for 1 minute. (Cooldown: 1 hour)
Whoa.
A weapon of the exact same grade Baek Yeon-ho had obtained!
Its performance was nothing short of spectacular.
Even the Moonlight Bow with its attack power of 20 had been called broken—this more than doubled that figure.
It even raised Agility by 3.
Having learned how vital stats became as one grew stronger, she knew just how enormous that was.
And more than anything—
Arrows refill themselves?
That part delighted her most.
How frustrating it had been until now.
Baek Yeon-ho had always had to recover her arrows, and in true emergencies she had been forced to pull out an ordinary bow.
This changes the entire shape of combat…
Endless harassment.
Infinite rapid fire.
…Wow.
Just imagining it sent a shiver through her.
Now she could truly support Hyun Si-woon in earnest.
And last of all.
That broken skill.
If attack power doubled… would 50 become 100?
Whatever the math…
Being able to unleash an arrow barrage the likes of which no one had ever seen, all within a single minute, was tremendous news for the entire climbing party.
“Ohh, Si-a. What’s the bow’s grade?”
“Looks legendary from here.”
“Damn, legendary owner?”
“…I’m so jealous.”
The members who had gathered at some point clapped her on the shoulder and offered their congratulations.
“Si-a.”
Baek Yeon-ho spoke up as well.
“You don’t see anything in your field of vision, do you?”
“…See anything?”
Right.
Come to think of it, that was how it had been.
Both Hyun Si-woon and Baek Yeon-ho had said they could see the souls sealed in their weapons… so why was there no sign of anything?
Whoosh, whoosh!
Kang Si-a shook the bow.
She even nocked it and loosed a shot into empty air.
Still no reaction.
And then, in that very instant—
Bwoooooooooooom—!
Suddenly a horn blast signaling city-wide emergency rang out in frantic urgency.
“What is happening!”
Queen Lana shot to her feet and cried out.
Moments later a blood-soaked elven scout staggered into the altar grounds.
“Y-Your Majesty! Disaster!”
Terror and desperation filled the elf’s voice.
“It’s the demons! The demons have… broken through the western defense line and are advancing as far as the city outskirts!”
“What!”
Elanus’s face drained of color.
The western defense line was the sturdiest of all, held by the elves’ absolute elite.
That it had been breached so futilely meant this demonic offensive was on an entirely different scale from anything before.
Queen Lana’s expression hardened into ice.
“Reorganize the forces at once and rebuild the line! Not a single one of them is to enter the city!”
“But, Your Majesty! Their numbers are too great! At this rate…!”
Wooooong!
Before the scout could finish, a massive explosion thundered from the city outskirts and a pillar of black smoke billowed skyward.
The green mana barrier encircling the city rippled like a wave and began to crack.
“Kh!”
“The barrier… is breaking!”
Terror spread among the elves like a plague.
The situation was a hair’s breadth from catastrophe.
“One chosen by the forest…!”
Lana muttered in urgency.
“It seems the forest’s crisis is already upon us. Can you hold the western defense line? You need only buy time until our main force reorganizes and comes to support…”
In effect it was an order to walk into certain death.
The fiercest, most dangerous battlefield of all.
Yet it was exactly what Baek Yeon-ho’s party had hoped for.
To clear the floor they would have to annihilate the demon legion anyway.
“Understood.”
The one who answered without a moment’s hesitation was Baek Yeon-ho.
“We told you from the start we would help. Which way do we go?”
“You have our gratitude, warriors from beyond. Your courage will be remembered forever by every elf.”
Lana immediately turned and shouted toward the captain of the guard beside her.
“Kael! Guide these people to the western gate at once! Clear every obstacle along the path and support them with everything you have so they can focus on the battle!”
“As you command.”
Beyond the Wall of Illusion.
That place remained pure hell.
Honestly speaking, the situation was worse than the Tower of Despair itself.
Back then at least it didn’t reek of this rotten stench and sulfur…
Reaching the source would take a full day of hard running.
The problem was that the difficulty of the demon-type beasts and traps waiting in between surpassed all imagination!
Even now—
- Kieeek!
- Kirrrrk!
Hundreds of crimson eyes were rising out of the darkness.
Every single one was a 7th-rank beast, and the real issue was that this was only the beginning.
Abyssal Trackers.
Beast-type monsters that crawled on all fours.
Bat wings sprouted from their backs, and acid dripped from their maws.
They were fast, cunning, and relentlessly persistent.
Ordinarily I’d climb the walls and pick them off one by one…
But not now.
“Hup!”
Hyun Si-woon kicked off the ground.
Moon Shadow Step.
First Step.
Swimming Step.
Residual Image.
One of the three variations of Swimming Step.
Residual Image, which left afterimages through sudden acceleration and deceleration, unfolded.
The Trackers in the lead fell into confusion and attacked the afterimages.
In that instant the third form of Moon Spirit Swordsmanship blossomed.
Puk!
Moon Point punched clean through the brow of one Tracker.
Whirik! Chaaaaak!
Moon Line split the skull of the one charging behind it.
- Hoo.
A low exclamation escaped Ha-wol.
- This isn’t a level made for a 7th-floor climber to clear, is it?
Exactly.
- How in the world did people clear this before? Without this lady’s earth-shaking martial arts you wouldn’t have lasted half a shichen…
There were ways.
It was a game, after all.
He had plenty of coins.
Challenge endlessly, find the weak points, then repeat—and eventually everything broke.
Especially the tenacity of Korean gamers made it possible.
And among those Koreans, Hyun Si-woon had been the final boss.
- What a strange brat.
The enemies were not only Trackers.
Before their corpses could even form a mountain, the ground began to shake.
Thoom! Thoom! Thoom!
With footsteps that rocked the earth, a massive form revealed itself.
Its entire body sheathed in armor like black obsidian—an Abyssal Crusher.
A demon fully five meters tall.
Its rank was a full 6th-rank.
- Insane.
Ha-wol finally spat a curse.
Ordinarily 6th-rank beasts only appeared from the 10th floor onward.
Even if they weren’t quite boss-tier for their floors, they were monsters of real weight… and one of them was showing up as trash mob on the 7th?
- Grrraaaaaaah!
The Crusher swung its enormous iron mace.
Whoooooom!
The boulder that stood where the mace passed was pulverized into dust.
- Dodge! If you take that head-on your bones won’t even be left to pick up!
But Hyun Si-woon had already memorized every pattern of its downward strikes.
Taat!
He simply ignored the Crusher and sprinted straight ahead.
And the Crushers were not limited to one.
From behind as well, more than ten of them began to appear one after another.
Even as those things smashed down with thunderous force, Hyun Si-woon never took a hit.
- Wh-whoa! Ugh! Ack!
Ha-wol kept flinching and bouncing in shock.
Ah, seriously. It’s distracting. Keep it down a little.
- K-khem. Understood.
Ha-wol was left speechless.
It was less his words than his movements that left her flabbergasted.
That isn’t martial arts.
It was desperate wisdom born of survival, or improvisation bordering on madness.
If the Ha-wol of her climber days had been dropped into this place, would she have lived?
No.
She would have been crushed into a lump of meat on the spot.
That crazy bastard.
Floating in the air, Ha-wol watched Hyun Si-woon still moving tirelessly with a look of pure exhaustion.
Disciple of this lady or not, this one is truly a madman.