Chapter 103

The arrival dates and times for the three countries had been set.

Tuesday the 15th, 6 p.m.

My and Han Jin-hwan’s security contract had naturally been pushed to that date as well.

That left me with three free days.

It was the reason I’d been able to make it to the ranch region in Gangwon-do early in the morning.

I should buy the last sheep I need to clear the “Bring Back Animals” quest.

Buzz.

The smartphone I’d left on top of the steering wheel vibrated.

I stopped driving by reflex and reached out for it.

There weren’t any cars coming or going on this road, so I could park wherever I liked.

The vibration kept going until I picked it up with my hand.

[Sender - Ji Sang-wook, Kim Jae-sik]

I’d thought it was a phone call because of all the buzzing, but it wasn’t. It looked like the two of them had sent messages at the same time, which was why the phone had kept vibrating over and over.

I checked Ji Sang-wook’s message first, since he’d sent his before the other one.

[Do-woon hyung, are you watching TV right now?]

[An S-class hunter is coming in three days!]

[All four of them!]

What had originally been planned as a secret operation had turned into a huge public event.

It made sense. There were only four S-class hunters in the entire world, and all four of them were gathering in one country. If I were the president, I’d turn that into a major national event too.

Then I read the message Kim Jae-sik had sent.

[Hyung! Huge news! Totally huge!]

[They say all the S-class hunters are coming to Korea on the 15th!]

[All four of them!]

[Um, what was it, that thing, it’s because of Hwayeomsan Dungeon!]

It was the same story after all.

Seeing that they’d sent the same message at almost the same time, the embargo must have just been lifted.

I know. Looking forward to it.

I sent a quick reply to both of them.

The phone buzzed again as if they were answering me, but I ignored it.

I set the smartphone back on the steering wheel and drove on.

There wasn’t much I had to do with the free time I’d gained after the change in the arrival date.

Just clearing quests, mostly...

I checked the list sorted by rank.

At the moment, the quests I could realistically clear were Bring Back Animals and The Path of the Caretaker.

I looked like I’d be able to finish Bring Back Animals by the end of the day.

To be exact, I’d need to buy the sheep and then go into the Sanctuary to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠confirm it.

As for The Path of the Caretaker...

I still needed more time.

I’d already finished using Warm Touch, but the remaining conditions were still pending.

After I finished the Bring Back Animals quest, I’d have to stop by the Muju Ant Cave Dungeon.

It would let me clean up the place, work on the World Tree Root condition, and make A-rank or higher fertilizer all at once.

At least the Altera-Shonem part was something I could do together with the elves, so that was a relief.

Just thinking about having to use it a thousand times by myself...

Ugh. Even imagining it made my head go blank.

“Oh.”

After driving for a few minutes, I finally saw sheep clustered together like clouds inside a fenced area.

Maybe because I’d confirmed the sheep were there, I could almost hear their bleating in my ears.

A little later, I parked in front of a building where the people managing the sheep ranch were clearly stationed.

When I got out of the car, the sheep inside the fence came crowding toward me as if they were curious.

Of course, they didn’t get far before they rammed their heads against the fence and stopped there.

It was an adorable sight, like they were welcoming me.

I spread my arms benevolently toward the lambs.

“My little lambs, come with me to a better place.”

***

After sending six sheep away, I entered the Sanctuary.

I wanted to ask whether that would be enough.

“Ah, Caretaker-nim!”

“Caretaker-nim!”

“You’re here!”

The three elves greeted me warmly.

Regina was among them.

The moment she noticed me, she hurried over and bowed at the waist.

She folded in half like an old flip phone from decades ago.

“Thank you! Thanks to you, Caretaker-nim, we gathered enough animals to make the ranch!”

“No, please don’t do that. It wasn’t even that hard.”

That was the truth. I’d only had to send the animals I bought into the Sanctuary, so it didn’t even feel like I’d done any real work.

Sure, there had been a roundabout hundred million won or so going out the door, but that still wasn’t that huge a sum.

After all, the reward for this quest was a leaf from the World Tree.

If I made potions and sold them, I’d make several times that amount at minimum.

Clap.

Regina straightened her back and clapped her hands.

“Oh, and you’re curious too, right, Caretaker-nim?”

“Huh? About what?”

“The ranch!”

Then Regina grabbed my wrist and tugged me along.

I let out a helpless sound and followed after her.

About a minute later, I saw nine elves, including Patria.

They were split into groups of three inside the wooden fences, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠examining the animals I’d sent over.

When the elves spotted me, they called out to Patria.

“Elder!”

“Patria-nim!”

“Hmm? What is it?”

Patria, who’d been stroking a black goat, turned his head.

Then, when he saw me, he immediately came out through the fence.

Regina tucked the hand that had been holding my wrist behind her back.

When I looked at her, she gave a little “ah-ha-ha” laugh and ran off toward the other elves.

What was that about...?

Soon Patria stood before me.

“...Caretaker-nim, you have arrived.”

“Ah, hello. Patria-nim...”

While speaking to him politely, I let my eyes roam over the surroundings.

The elves’ ranch was already looking surprisingly complete, even though less than a day had passed.

Each animal had been separated into its own wooden enclosure and spread out over a wide area, frolicking among themselves.

Seen this way, it almost felt like the ranch district of Gangwon-do had been gathered together in miniature.

“How is it? The ranch we made.”

“It’s excellent. I didn’t expect it to turn into such a proper ranch in just one day.”

“That’s all thanks to you sending us the animals, Caretaker-nim.”

Patria lowered his head.

I hurriedly waved both hands and told him not to do that.

Getting the animals was easy compared to making a ranch.

If someone told me to build a ranch like this myself...

I was confident I’d give up immediately without even thinking about it.

I’d rather just go buy more animals.

“Elder! I think you need to come over here!”

“Hmm? I’ll be right there! Caretaker-nim...”

“Ah, don’t mind me. Please go ahead. I have things I need to do too.”

“Then...”

Patria gave a small bow and walked toward the elf who had called him.

The young elf was speaking while wearing a slim log across his waist.

I couldn’t hear the details, but from the gestures it was clear he was asking how they should install the fence.

It looked rough at a glance, but apparently they had their own way of building things.

Before long, Patria gestured.

The elf laid the log down vertically and drove both ends firmly into the rocks on either side.

Then,

Oh.

Maybe because I’d checked the ranch myself, the quest completion alert had popped up.

[You can obtain a leaf from the young World Tree as your success reward.]

All the World Tree leaves I’d received so far had belonged to the former World Tree.

This time, the leaf I was getting belonged to the young World Tree.

In other words, it was Saessak’s leaf.

This should be exciting.

I pressed YES right away.

Whoooosh...

I heard the sound of waves from behind me.

I turned around, wondering why I was hearing surf all of a sudden.

“Saessak?”

The sound was coming from Saessak.

Though it was far away, I could clearly see Saessak trembling all over.

Its leaves were fluttering left and right, creating that wave-like sound.

With a rustling sound that rose and fell, the leaves began to spill down.

Just when it looked like they would fall to the ground, they changed direction and flew into my hand.

“Oh...”

The word of admiration slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it.

It was strange seeing the leaves piling up neatly in my right hand.

The elves were just as awed.

“Wow!”

“The World Tree is shedding leaves...!”

“That sight! I never thought I’d get to see that sight again!”

“Ooh!”

It seemed to be just as amazing for them.

They stared at me and at the leaves stacking up in my palm.

Some of them were so moved that they were wiping away tears.

Patria was one of those.

He tapped at the corner of his eye to wipe the tears away.

Looking at them, I could understand something.

The former World Tree and the former Caretaker must have received leaves just like this.

I looked down at the leaves piled in my hand.

There were five leaves in total, each about the size of my palm.

I could feel Saessak’s warm mana in them.

Because the mana of the World Tree was contained within them—

...Huh? Wait a second.

Saessak and I were one body.

That meant the number of Saessak’s leaves was the same as the amount of my mana.

But just now, about five leaves had fallen off.

If each leaf represented fifty thousand, then by simple calculation my mana should have dropped by two hundred and fifty thousand.

“Character window!”

I opened the character window in a panic.

Right away, I checked the mana stat.

“2.1026 million...”

The mana was unchanged.

Even though the leaves had fallen off, nothing had changed.

That was different from what I’d expected, but at least it was a relief.

Still, I didn’t ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠know why it hadn’t changed.

Seeing that the total mana remained the same even after the number of leaves decreased, maybe it had nothing to do with the total amount of mana?

Hmm. I wanted to ask the former Caretaker if I could.

“Ah.”

Even if the former Caretaker was gone, there was someone I could ask.

No, I should say there were elves I could ask.

By their own account, elves were children of the World Tree.

They would definitely know something about this.

I called over Regina, who was standing nearby, stroking the head of a sheep while licking her lips.

After looking at the sheep and swallowing hard, she walked up to me.

“......”

“What is it, Caretaker-nim?”

“I have something I want to ask.”

“Ah! Ask me anything!”

“You saw me receive those leaves from Saessak just now, right?”

“Saessak...”

“Yes?”

“Ah, yes! I saw it. I saw the World Tree give you leaves, Caretaker-nim.”

“But my mana didn’t decrease. It stayed the same.”

“What?”

Regina tilted her head.

She looked like she didn’t understand what I was saying.

Hmm. How should I explain this?

“So... every time the leaves grew, my mana went up, right?”

“Yes. Ours does too.”

“But the leaves just fell off. Shouldn’t my mana go down?”

“Huh? Ah, ahhh!”

Clap!

Regina clapped her hands.

She clapped so hard her golden hair trembled slightly.

“Right. Since you never heard this from the former Caretaker, you wouldn’t know. The growth of the World Tree has nothing to do with the number of leaves.”

“Huh? What?”

“The leaves growing are just a byproduct of the World Tree’s growth.”

...?

No, what was she talking about?

Until now, I’d thought the number of leaves was Saessak’s growth indicator.

Every time a new leaf appeared, I’d felt so proud...

Whether she understood my feelings or not, Regina kept explaining.

“To put it simply... hmm... Ah! Right. Hair!”

“Hair?”

“Yes. Among humans, aren’t there adults who are all grown up but still don’t have any hair?”

“......”

“It’s the same for the World Tree. The fact that leaves fall off doesn’t mean growth disappears with them.”

Maybe she was proud of her own explanation.

Regina smiled brightly and nodded.

Her golden hair swayed gently and shone dazzlingly in the light.

Come to think of it, if I thought about it slowly, it wasn’t an impossible idea.

When Saessak changed from a sprout into a young tree, the number of leaves had suddenly shot up by several dozen.

If the leaves were the measure of growth, it would make no sense for that many to appear all at once.

Still... I hadn’t expected her to compare them to hair.

“Thanks for explaining it so kindly.”

“Not at all! If you ever have more questions, ask anytime! I’ll teach you anything!”

As she said that, Regina clenched her fist as if making a vow.

Her thick golden hair shimmered brilliantly as it swayed.

***