Chapter 109
“...Oh!”
Saessak’s appearance was different from just moments ago.
From the trunk, a single new branch had grown out.
And naturally, leaves had sprouted along it as well.
About ten leaves, each a little larger than the palm of my hand, unfurled from the branch.
If the number of leaves had increased, then the maximum mana had probably gone up as well.
“Character window!”
A bluish panel rose in front of my eyes.
[Baek Do-woon - World Tree Manager]
[Title - Companion of the World Tree]
[HP - 100%]
[MP - 2,600,260]
[SP - ∞]
[Status - ]
[Fruit Storage - Over 50%]
“2.6 million....”
My eyes kept drifting to the MP line.
Probably because that was the only thing my mind could focus on.
“Fertilizer really is something else.”
The power of the fertilizer startled me all over again.
The last time I’d given it some, Saessak had gone from a sprout to a slightly bigger sprout.
This time, as soon as I fed it fertilizer, its appearance changed visibly, with branches and leaves sprouting at once. It had even gained 500,000 mana.
The height hadn’t changed, but there was no doubt Saessak had grown.
The elves on the screen were proof enough.
The SD-style elves were throwing their arms up and down, cheering as if they’d won a championship.
Their faces were so bright they practically radiated happiness, each and every one of them looking like an emote with a beaming (^0^) expression.
Watching them smile made it feel like some of that joy was bleeding into me too.
“Ha ha....”
I grinned and tapped the screen.
Then I looked around.
The corpse storage room, now completely purified of stench and poison, came into view.
A corpse storage room that felt fresh, as if someone had sprayed it with Febreze....
This place was huge, since it was where the giant ants were taken when they died.
It was the perfect spot to dump the trash I’d hauled over from the Crystal Workshop.
In other words, an ideal place to use Altera-Shonem.
That was right.
I’d met the condition for giving fertilizer of A-rank or above, but I still wasn’t ready to leave the ant nest dungeon yet.
[B-Rank Former World Tree Quest Manager's Path (Beginner)]
📍 Location: [ ]
🎁 Reward: [ ]
I turned the magic pouch inside out and shook it with both hands.
Trash of all kinds spilled out in a clatter.
Since it had all come from the Potion Maker’s workshop, most of it was leftover residue from potion-making.
There were broken machines, empty flask bottles, and scraps of paper covered in notes I couldn’t make heads or tails of.
“All right then.... Arca.”
I looked down at the scattered trash and drew out Arca.
Altera-Shonem.
There was something I had to do before I could use it.
“Should’ve bought a shovel....”
Namely, digging a pit to bury the trash in.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“As I mentioned, Altera-Shonem is a spell that converts waste into nutrients in the earth,” Regina said as we walked side by side.
We were on our way back to where the elves were.
After seeing messages like [World Tree Manager Baek Do-woon cannot enter Yggdrasil.] and [The current manager is too weak to enter Yggdrasil.], I’d given up on going back in for now.
If the thing was saying I was too weak to enter, what could I do about it?
I’d just have to look forward to next time.
Regina waved her right hand, her index finger extended as she walked.
“But there’s something that has to happen first.”
“Something that has to happen first?”
“Yes. Can you guess what it is?”
“Uh....”
She only smiled at me, wordlessly.
It was as if she was telling me to think it through because she wasn’t going to say it for me.
“Hmm.”
Something that had to happen first....
I remembered what I’d seen when the elves in Reditus Forest had used Altera-Shonem.
They’d gathered up the empty chicken boxes I’d bought for them and buried them in the ground.
I’d nearly had a heart attack, thinking they were just going to bury the trash like idiots....
Fortunately, that hadn’t been their intention.
Regina had sat in front of the pile, set her hands on the ground, and gathered mana into them, and in the end a sprout about the size of my index finger had grown up.
They’d converted the trash into nutrients in the earth.
“...Ah.”
“Did you understand?”
“I think so. You have to bury it in the soil, right? So it can be converted into nutrients underground.”
“Exactly. That’s it.”
“I knew it....”
“You absolutely have to bury it. If you don’t, the converted energy will just scatter into the air.”
“Into the air? Then what happens to the trash?”
“Once it’s converted into energy, it disappears.”
Oh, disappearing. Now that was lovely to hear.
There was a truly obscene amount of trash on Earth right now that nobody knew what to do with.
Especially plastics that didn’t rot, like vinyl and Styrofoam.
Just being able to make that vanish gave Altera-Shonem enormous value.
Well, I wasn’t going to let it simply disappear, since I needed to grow Saessak.
Still, Altera-Shonem definitely had to be used by burying things in the ground....
Huh?
“Hold on. I have a question, teacher.”
“Hm? Teacher? Me?”
Regina looked at me, flustered.
I ignored her flustered expression and asked what I wanted to know.
In order to use Altera-Shonem properly, the trash had to be buried in the earth.
Then....
“If I want to give nutrients to Saessak, do I have to come into the Sanctuary every time? One by one?”
“......”
At my question, Regina closed her mouth.
Was she upset because she thought I was being lazy?
Just as that thought crossed my mind, she broke into an easygoing smile.
Oh? She was smiling?
So she wasn’t annoyed?
“I thought you’d ask that.”
“You did?”
“The previous manager asked the same question, too. He was very fond of wandering around, you see.”
“Heh, really?”
“My mother answered him like this.”
Regina cleared her throat with a soft “ahem,” then went on.
“Don’t worry, Manager. You won’t need to come all the way back every time. The World Tree and the Manager are connected.”
“Connected...?”
“No matter how far away you are, it will be delivered to the World Tree. Even if you’re in another dimension.”
Even if I was in another dimension...?
At that, my head tilted before I could stop it.
I didn’t know why, but I couldn’t just accept that at face value.
For some reason I couldn’t quite name, that answer kept snagging in my mind.
“Hmm? What is it....”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
People were gathered in front of the ant nest dungeon as the evening sunset bled across the sky.
Four men in all.
Two of them were Seo Ji-hyeok and Choi Ki-jeong from the Balance Guild, while the other two were the staff members from the management office who’d been fawning over Do-woon earlier.
The management office workers, though, had no consciousness and were sprawled out carelessly in the grass.
Choi Ki-jeong had put them to sleep with magic.
He withdrew his hand from the staff members and straightened up.
“According to the manager bastards, he went in around two or three. Didn’t we come a little too early?”
“Do you really think so?”
“......”
At Seo Ji-hyeok’s question, Choi Ki-jeong couldn’t answer right away.
That was because the ant nest dungeon in front of them was only E-rank.
Whereas Baek Do-woon was an A-rank hunter.
An A-rank hunter who had gone into an E-rank dungeon four hours ago....
By now, it was about time for him to come out.
“...If he were just an ordinary A-rank hunter, I’d agree.”
“Oh?”
Seo Ji-hyeok turned from the dungeon entrance to look at Choi Ki-jeong.
He didn’t quite understand the exact meaning behind the words ordinary A-rank hunter.
Was he doubting Do-woon’s ability?
There was certainly a fair amount of noise around the fact that he had risen to A-rank.
Since it had been a recommendation from Han Jin-hwan, he hadn’t gone through proper verification.
The government hadn’t confirmed him, so they couldn’t officially recognize his strength as a hunter....
The problem was that the person who recommended him was Han Jin-hwan.
Did he really need any other proof?
At the very least, Seo Ji-hyeok had never doubted that Do-woon was at the level of an A-rank hunter.
“An ordinary A-rank hunter wouldn’t go into some E-rank dungeon. They’d be too busy running A-rank gates.”
“I see....”
An admiring sound escaped Seo Ji-hyeok’s mouth.
His subordinate’s reasoning was highly convincing.
Why would an A-rank hunter bother running an E-rank dungeon for the sake of some petty profit?
Unless they had some purpose no one else could know, they would never do it.
“So he went in there because he had some objective, and that objective might be taking a while.”
“Exactly.”
“Hmm.... That does make sense.”
“So why don’t you go inside the management office and wait comfortably—”
“No. I don’t think I need to do that.”
“Pardon?”
“There he is now.”
Seo Ji-hyeok jerked his chin toward the dungeon.
Do-woon was coming out of the ant nest dungeon.
He was walking with tired, leaden steps, as though he had no strength in him at all.
At the sight, the two of them tilted their heads in confusion.
There was no way an E-rank ant nest dungeon could wear him out like that.
And their judgment was correct.
Do-woon was not tired at all.
The reason his steps lacked strength had nothing to do with fatigue.
The feeling wrapped around his body was disappointment.
The way his lips were pushed out in a slight pout proved that he was displeased.
Keeping his head still, Do-woon turned only his eyes and looked at Seo Ji-hyeok.
“Baek....”
Seo Ji-hyeok couldn’t even finish saying his name.
Do-woon held out his right hand to stop him.
“...Wait.”
“What?”
“That bastard....”
Seo Ji-hyeok and Choi Ki-jeong were dumbfounded.
Ignoring them, Do-woon strode past the collapsed management office workers.
He was heading for the management office.
Jingle.
As he opened the door, a bell rang out.
“No way...!”
Choi Ki-jeong hurriedly drew out his staff.
He thought Do-woon was going to report them after going into the management office.
As he drew in mana to stop him, Seo Ji-hyeok raised a hand and firmly held him back.
“Stop.”
“Why?”
“He’s not trying to report us.”
“But...”
“...Trash can?”
“What?”
Choi Ki-jeong echoed him in disbelief.
He hadn’t expected the word trash can to come out of Seo Ji-hyeok’s mouth.
He turned back to look at Do-woon, who had gone into the management office.
He was just stepping back out.
In his hand was a square blue object.
“Trash can...?”
Choi Ki-jeong muttered under his breath without meaning to.
Why was he suddenly taking out a trash can?
That question had barely formed when—
“Arca.”
Do-woon drew out a massive wooden sword.
It was his trademark.
The weapon that had earned him the epithet of the Moonlight Swordsman.
This time, Choi Ki-jeong was certain Baek Do-woon meant to attack.
If a swordsman drew a sword, the only thing left to do was cut.
Choi Ki-jeong immediately drew mana into his staff.
But....
“Hup! Huhup!”
“......”
Do-woon did not slash with Arca.
Nor did he thrust.
He simply—
“Hup! Huhup!”
used Arca in both hands to dig into the ground where the grass had grown.
That’s right.
He had started to shovel with a sword taller than two meters.
With a perfectly set stance, moving at astonishing speed.
Watching that, Choi Ki-jeong felt embarrassed for having gathered mana into his staff, thinking it was an attack.
He bit his lower lip slightly and asked Seo Ji-hyeok, “What on earth is that bastard doing?”
“A foolish question. Like I’d know.”
“Sorry. I just couldn’t help myself....”
“It’s fine. I understand.”
I’m just as annoyed as you are, because I have no idea what that guy is doing either.
Instead of saying that, Seo Ji-hyeok quietly watched Do-woon’s bizarre performance.
Do-woon was now tipping over the blue trash can he’d brought from the management office.
He dumped the trash straight into the pit he’d dug with Arca.
“Huh...?”
“......?”
At the same time, Seo Ji-hyeok and Choi Ki-jeong tilted their heads.
They couldn’t make any sense of it.
He’d spent all that effort digging a pit, only to fill it with trash?
“Gasp!”
Choi Ki-jeong sucked in a breath.
Do-woon’s strange behavior showed no sign of ending.
He filled the pit he’d worked so hard to dig with trash, then began covering it back up with soil.
“What the hell is he doing!”
As a citizen of Korea, where recycling was a way of life, Choi Ki-jeong wanted to yell at the top of his lungs.
But for the moment, he decided to hold back.
He was curious to see what would happen next.
“......”
“......”
After covering the ground evenly, Do-woon crouched down.
Then he gathered mana into both hands.
Bluish mana quickly engulfed his palms.
Choi Ki-jeong thought that mana looked incredibly pure.
He even had the illusion that he could smell the phytoncides of a dense forest.
Do-woon placed his mana-filled hands on the ground.
And then,
Thunk.
The earth caved in.
Instead, mana surged upward.
“Huhh!”
Choi Ki-jeong gasped in shock.
He had never imagined mana would rise from where the trash had been buried.
But there was still something even more surprising to come.
The mana that had risen started to move.
Toward Do-woon.
“No way...!”
The mana flowed into Do-woon.
“That’s impossible!”
Seeing that, Choi Ki-jeong was left speechless.