Shadow Tracking
“What came out?”
Seong Moran’s question snapped me back to reality. I looked at the Azure Dragon Ring again, but the vibrations had already stopped.
Was it my imagination?
It was just a bracelet hanging loosely on my arm, not fixed in place. A wrong move could make it sway, and that might make it seem like it was moving on its own…
In your dreams.
Escapism wouldn’t help in a situation like this. Problems could only be solved by facing them head-on.
It could’ve been a coincidence. The bracelet might’ve just swung by chance.
…But damn it, that monkey had spat out the unholy word ‘Cheonma’ from its mouth.
Two horribly ominous things happening in a row—and if I tried to interpret this positively too, I’d be the one who was crazy.
And I wasn’t crazy.
“Where did the main group go?”
I pressed the stragglers, but no useful info came out. There wasn’t much you could do with people who’d lost all sense of direction anyway.
I grabbed the ronin by the collar.
“…Th, the spirits’ curse… Th, the spirits are watching us…”
People’s minds broke when they faced too much shock. There were plenty like that on the battlefield too. Guys who’d lived with death their whole lives but lost it when unexpected misfortune hit.
If you didn’t treat them quick, they became bigger problems for your allies.
“Young Master Jin, what are you—”
“Good thing I know the treatment.”
“…Th, the spirits’ curse…”
Thwack!
His head snapped halfway back, and the dazed look in his eyes sharpened a bit.
“Guhk… Th, the spirits…”
“You were bragging about hunting spirits, and now you’re shaking over a curse?”
Still needed more treatment.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
I tapped only the most painful pressure points, and the ronin flailed his arms.
“St, stop! Stop it! What the hell are you…!”
Oh, looks like his head was fixed.
I kept my raised fist up and asked, “Where did the main group go?”
“…”
Aftereffects lingering? For aftereffects, a good beating was the cure…
“I, I’ll talk! I’ll tell you, so put your fist down!”
Blood trickling from his mouth, the ronin pointed a trembling finger north.
“Th, that way… They went that way.”
“Lead the way.”
“Y, you’re gonna chase them? Are you insane? Even if you know the direction, they’ve got half a day’s head start—how do you plan to catch up…!”
Who’s selling what medicine here?
“You guys must have a way to track each other’s positions. You think I don’t know that?”
They weren’t the type to charge into a labyrinth like this without precautions against getting lost.
“…”
No answer, so I raised my bloodied fist again, and he covered his face with both hands.
“A, alright! I’ll guide you. Who knew the Baekdo rep would be such a… N, no! I didn’t say anything…! Uh, and I’m not going first no matter what…”
I let go of the ronin’s collar, and he scurried back.
“What the hell was that?”
Seong Moran frowned like she’d seen something nasty.
“You’re not seriously thinking of chasing the instructors, are you? They won’t just sit still… They’ll say we’re interfering.”
“If my guess is right, the instructors won’t be a big problem.”
Complaints only came when there really wasn’t a problem.
# The group’s pace slowed with the stragglers joining. They had to carry the wounded across the natural formation, and beasts kept showing up too.
Beasts that hadn’t been seen while searching now appeared two at a time, throwing the group into panic.
“Beat ‘em down!”
“Got it!”
Of course, the team members skilled in beast hunting handled it without major issues.
We tracked the instructors using the Thousand-Li Scent the ronins used to locate each other. And we ran into more stragglers.
“…This is.”
“…Big trouble, huh?”
Among these new stragglers, three were dead. Most of the rest had severe injuries.
Seong Moran couldn’t hide her rage.
“Even if they’re blinded by inner cores, isn’t this crossing the line?”
I agreed. The instructors probably did too. No matter how many inner cores they got, if academy students kept dying like this, it’d spiral out of control.
“Hey, what happened?”
“Jin… Sowoon?”
I tried waking the least injured academy student to hear the story.
“Spirit… hunting is bad… We were wrong…”
He barely spat that out before passing out.
Yang Japyeong let out a groan and asked me, “What now?”
“First, gather the wounded and move.”
The injured already outnumbered the able-bodied by half. Fighting beasts while dragging them would be tough, but we couldn’t leave them.
“The bodies…”
“Leave ‘em for now. We’ll recover them later with Namgwonmun’s help.”
“…Got it.”
Yang Japyeong looked like he had more to say but nodded.
As we formed up to move again.
Chirr. Grrrrowl.
An unwelcome sound echoed.
“Damn it…”
Five pairs of yellow eyes gleamed from the bushes.
I took a defensive stance and called out quietly, “Battle ready!”
As if waiting for it, five beasts lunged at once.
# We pushed as fast as we could, but the pace kept slowing. Most stragglers were injured, hobbling or useless in combat, and beasts kept coming.
“Why are there more and more…!”
Seong Moran cursed, but no beast would politely back off.
Some even seemed to sense our predicament, attacking fiercer or targeting the wounded in gaps.
“Hoo…!”
We’d already taken down ten beasts. Crack.
No time to absorb poison sacs. Too many eyes watching.
I split the tiny inner cores among the team to swallow. No time for circulation right now.
Then.
“What’s that?”
An academy student with a splinted broken arm pointed at our actions.
“Beast inner cores,” I said curtly.
“…Beast inner cores? Never knew they existed.”
What was he getting at?
“…So you’ve been hogging them all this time?”
Yup, nonsense as expected.
I tilted my head sideways and replied, “And what if we have? What’re you gonna do?”
Entitlement was deep-rooted; it didn’t fade even when you should be groveling.
“What?”
“Can you even absorb it now? Inner cores have poison, right? Oh, you’re not asking us to wait patiently, are you?”
“…”
No comeback, but the dissatisfied look lingered. Then he muttered.
“Hmph! Trash really isn’t worth dealing with.”
Seong Moran shot up and grabbed his collar.
“Hey, where’d the rest of your precious Jeongdohoe go?”
“…”
“We’re the ones picking up your mess after they ditched you. Still don’t get it? Or wanna stay in Mukrim and be beast chow?”
“…!”
For the first time, he seemed to grasp his situation. Confusion twisted his face.
One word from us could decide his fate, just like Seong Moran said.
She shook off her hand like it touched filth and murmured low, “Don’t say a word till we’re out of Mukrim. Then I’ll toss you into the formation myself.”
“…”
Her words worked. The grumblers shut up tight.
I scanned everyone and ordered, “Move out again.”
No more whining for rest from the exhausted ones. They knew who held their leashes now.
“Those who took inner cores, circulate whenever you get a break. Might not get any rest in the worst case.”
“Young Master Jin, is this okay?”
Like Seong Moran said, this was inefficient.
“Why not send a few ahead to the outpost first?”
It might be the best choice. But I shook my head.
“Instructors left the outpost, so no help there. Leave these guys, and they won’t last half a day.”
For some reason, the beasts were fiercer. No longer hiding from humans.
Magyyeong had truly become hell.
“Best to gather as many stragglers as possible and head to the outpost before more teams take losses.”
Thanks to Seong Moran, our speed picked up. After two more beasts, we arrived at…
“Hmm.”
A massive group of thirty stragglers—the first big one.
On one side lay an academy student’s corpse and beast remains. They’d hunted while straggling and paid for it.
“Who’s in charge here?”
No answer from the thirty. Just hostile glares.
“No one who can talk?”
A mocking voice came from the side.
“Real vultures, huh? How’d they find this place too.”
Daoists tie their hair back for hats, exposing foreheads that look horsey—hence ‘horse-nose Daoist.’ But this guy’s nose was actually horse-like.
“Hey, Horse-Nose. You the leader?”
“…”
“What happened?”
“Ha! You think I’ll tell you?”
I peered at his nose.
“Not just the nose—is your head horse-level too?”
“What?!”
“Saw five bodies on the way here. All academy students. Know what that means?”
“…”
“You think ‘we followed orders, so no fault’ or some crap?”
Horse-Nose’s nose wrinkled hard. Wow, he really thought that. Total conscienceless psycho.
“Forget spirits or whatever—people died. If you kept chasing spirits into this mess, your instructor’s a Black Dao spy.”
My blow hit home; Horse-Nose wailed like he’d collapse.
“O, our senior wouldn’t do that!”
Ah, Cheongsungpa guy.
I sighed and stepped closer.
“What exactly happened?”
“…”
His eyes flicked to our stragglers. He bowed his head in silence, then.
“C, can we come too?”
Pathetic eyes looking up. Sigh, just immature kids.
Lured by that bastard instructor No Jinha without knowing why, barely surviving.
I turned dryly. “If you follow straight.”
“…We lost the spirit while chasing. While resting, ones like its young showed up. We rushed and couldn’t catch the main group.”
I glanced at Yang Japyeong. He slowly shook his head.
Even wild animals have maternal instinct—fleeing predators, they don’t head to their young. Even spirits wouldn’t bring young back. Didn’t add up.
Finally faced the truth I’d ignored.
The instructors and students weren’t chasing spirits.
What the hell are these idiots chasing?
A ‘sinister’ word tickled my mind, but I kept it in. Too pessimistic if true.
Damn, even if my second life was cursed by demons.
That’d be too much. I decided neither to affirm nor deny.
Didn’t a certain young master say the golden mean was best?
I clapped once and looked around.
“Prep to move. What’ve you been doing without first aid?”
While stragglers applied salve, I approached the beast.
Horse-Nose paused treatment, eyeing me curiously.
“Wh, what’re you doing?”
“What else? Gotta grab what we can, even in a rush.”
Sure, you hunted it, but still.