Chapter 16

I decided to become a dirt fountain in human form.

It was the only way to face the inevitable: give up, and enjoy the ride.

And yet, for some reason, I couldn’t stop long, heavy sighs from leaking out of my lungs.

“Hheeuupf! Cough, cough!”

“Ptuh, ptuh!”

“My eyes! There’s dirt in my eyes!”

Woo Yeon-hoo and Kim Ji-yeon both looked up in alarm, then hurriedly wiped their faces clean, as if trying to figure out what in the world had just happened.

The dirt had sprayed across their faces and gotten into their eyes and mouths.

Sorry for making them suffer.

I was in no position to apologize for my own suffering, either.

The dirt had slipped into my mouth when I sighed, nearly clogging my throat.

As I hacked it out of my windpipe, Woo Yeon-hoo brushed dirt off his face and asked, “What, exactly, are you doing all of a sudden?”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to….”

I apologized at once.

I couldn’t exactly say it was all my fault, which made it feel unfair, but since the dirt had come erupting from my chest, I couldn’t deny responsibility completely.

It wasn’t as if I could go tattling that Saessak had done it.

The World Tree was moved by the genuine care humans had shown one another, so why had it sent me dirt?

I wanted to pull out my smartphone and check the message, but there was no time for that.

Even now, the skeletons were probably looking down at us from above….

“Te, ni…?”

...Huh?

Afraid the skeletons were about to attack, I snapped my gaze back up toward the cliff.

And when I did….

Hm. The skeletons wreathed in black smoke were gone.

Not all of them, though.

The ones with high ranks, like the Skeleton Lord and his generals, were still there, glancing around in confusion.

From their reaction, I could tell the skeletons hadn’t simply disappeared because they’d been ordered to.

“Master….”

“I’m looking. The skeletons—”

“No! Not that!”

Huh? If not the skeletons, then what else had disappeared?

Curious, I looked at Kim Ji-yeon.

She was sweeping her gaze across the area over and over again.

There hadn’t been anything else around here, had there…?

Ah. No, wait.

There had been cold and miasma.

Just moments ago, they’d been drifting through the air like a dense fog, but now they were all gone.

Woo Yeon-hoo seemed to arrive at the same conclusion, and murmured, “The cold and the miasma… are gone?”

Why had the things that had been here only moments ago vanished so suddenly?

Unable to make sense of it, I turned a slow circle—and spotted a newly appeared message window.

Apparently, I’d been too busy coughing dirt out of my throat to notice it before.

Corruption?

When I read that line, I had no choice but to look back up at the cliff.

The Skeleton Lord and two Skeleton Generals were staring down at me.

The Lord had clenched both fists so hard his body was trembling.

Just looking at him made it obvious he was furious beyond reason.

If he was that enraged, why wasn’t he attacking right away?

The answer wasn’t hard to guess.

It was because of the soil Saessak had sent.

Now that I thought about it, the Skeleton Generals looked like they were in pain.

As if they wanted nothing more than to flee this place.

It can purify corruption.

In other words, just as the message said, the soil had purified the skeletons’ corruption.

Like how a healer’s healing skill damages undead instead of restoring them, the skeletons had been purified and were now being sent to whatever final rest awaited them.

I wasn’t sure whether that was even the right expression to use for undead that were already dead.

“Don’t tell me… this soil did all this?”

“…….”

Woo Yeon-hoo asked that while scooping up a handful of dirt from the ground.

Before answering, I glanced at the Skeleton Lord.

Corruption.

There was something very, very corrupt standing right in front of us.

I grabbed a fistful of the dirt covering the ground.

Then I immediately flung it at the Skeleton Lord and his generals.

“Mr. Ji-on? What are you doing?”

“Wait! What the hell are you doing? Don’t get all excited and—”

Woo Yeon-hoo and Kim Ji-yeon both panicked and tried to stop me, but I shook off their hands and scattered the dirt over the three skeletons.

The Skeleton Lord swiftly swept his cloak around himself, shielding his body.

But the generals, who wore only heavy armor without cloaks, were hit head-on by the dirt I’d thrown.

The moment the soil touched them, the generals writhed in agony.

And no wonder.

The parts that had been touched by the dirt were beginning to melt away, as ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠if someone had poured acid over them.

“What is that…?”

“It’s melting? No, why? What is this dirt?”

“...Throw it!”

“What?”

“Throw the dirt like Mr. Ji-on!”

“Ahh…!”

Finally understanding what was happening, Woo Yeon-hoo and Kim Ji-yeon began doing the same thing I did.

They grabbed handfuls of Saessak’s dirt from the ground and started hurling it at the Skeleton Lord and his generals with all their might.

Laughing and shouting like children playing with dirt in a playground.

Like friends in the middle of winter break, having a snowball fight with handfuls of packed snow.

We threw dirt as hard as we could, doing our very best.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

After all that diligent dirt-throwing, the Skeleton Generals died and the Skeleton Lord fled.

They couldn’t step onto the places covered in dirt, so they had to attack from outside the area.

One of the two generals lost its temper, stepped onto the dirt, and was purified into dust the instant it did.

The other one threw its sword from outside, but there was no chance of that hitting us.

Worse still, after losing its weapon, it got dogpiled by our concentrated attacks and melted to death.

The last remaining Skeleton Lord proved, once again, why he was a lord.

Without using a weapon, he attacked us with magic.

But every time he tried to cast a spell, Kim Ji-yeon shot a magic arrow to interrupt him.

Unable to use magic from outside, and unable to enter the dirt itself, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the Skeleton Lord eventually turned and ran.

“Ha, hahaha. This is insane….”

Kim Ji-yeon finally collapsed to the ground after the Skeleton Lord fled.

She lay there, stroking the dirt on the floor with her hand and letting out a stunned laugh.

Then she shook her head, as if she couldn’t believe what she’d just done.

Woo Yeon-hoo looked like he wanted to ask about what had just happened, but he didn’t.

There was something more important we had to do first.

“Mr. Ji-on, please.”

“Yes. I’ll ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠finish quickly.”

I immediately walked toward the Udamhwa in the pool below the cliff.

The Udamhwa stood upright on thin roots, blooming a white flower.

Sure enough, as befitted an S-class elixir, I could feel a warm energy from it as I approached.

The Udamhwa had grown by feeding on darkness and now held pure yang energy.

If this was it, then it would definitely be able to save Woo Yeon-hoo’s sister.

I reached out and touched the Udamhwa with my index finger.

Hm? That was a little different from usual.

Up until now, it had always been corrected to a flat 100% chance, but the Udamhwa was different.

It started at 90% and increased by 5% twice.

Well, either way, once it reached 100%, there was no problem.

Three seconds later, just like every other plant before it, the Udamhwa snapped upward on its thin roots and sprang into the air.

Afraid I might crush it if I held it too tightly, I caught it carefully in both palms.

I turned around and held the Udamhwa up for Woo Yeon-hoo to see.

When he saw the flower resting on my palm, he clenched both fists.

Then he let out a smile so bright and pure I’d never seen on his face before.

It was the kind of smile that made everyone who saw it smile right back.

Then, suddenly, a chill crawled up my back.

Don’t tell me—the hand that was pulling me was…?

“Watch out!”

When I looked behind me, a massive magic circle was blazing with fierce light.

I’d seen it before.

A teleportation circle.

It was definitely trying to take me away.

“If you ran off, you should’ve just given up and stayed gone….”

I turned my head away from the magic circle.

Woo Yeon-hoo and Kim Ji-yeon were already running toward me.

They were running even though they knew it was too late.

Looking at the brilliance pouring out of the magic circle, I was already marked as the thing it intended to move.

As if to prove it, countless iron chains and skeletal hands burst out of the circle and grabbed hold of my body.

I struggled, wondering if I could force my way out with brute strength, but it was useless.

Warm Touch was useless too.

There was no way I could break free from this with my own power.

“…….”

“Don’t give up!”

When I stopped struggling, he must have thought I’d given up, because he shouted at me.

Give up? As if I would.

I was thinking about what the best thing I could possibly do was.

I started running through every option at top speed.

And maybe that was why?

One absurd idea flashed through my head.

I slipped my hand through the hole Saessak had sent the dirt through and into my armor.

Passing the smartphone that still felt warm in my hand, I reached for the magic pouch Woo Yeon-hoo had given me.

I opened it quickly, shoved the Udamhwa inside, and sealed it again.

Then I flung it toward him, where he was already running toward me.

“……!”

His eyes went wide as he caught the magic pouch.

As if that was surprising.

“Save your sister first.”

“Baek—!”

Baek?

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to hear the rest of his words.

My field of vision changed in the blink of an eye.

A ceiling so high I had to tilt my chin all the way up to see it.

And a throne so massive it might as well have been that ceiling’s equal.

「…….」

The Skeleton Lord was right in front of me.

He was sitting there with his chin propped on the arm of a huge throne.

He’d fled, and yet here he was, acting all grand as if he’d accomplished something.

「I thank you for answering my invitation. Welcome, human, to the first steps within my palace.」

First steps, my ass.

Your palace has already been broken into several times.

Once the cold and miasma were dealt with, this was nothing more than an ordinary B-class gate.

If not for the Udamhwa, it wouldn’t have become famous at all.

Hunters would’ve remembered it only as a nasty, troublesome gate.

“I didn’t particularly want to come here, either.”

「I supposed as much.」

But… I had to admit the truth.

Right now, I had no chance of beating the Skeleton Lord.

The boss monster of a B-class gate was usually judged to be A-class.

But the Skeleton Lord was an evolved monster with black horns growing from his skull.

That made him at least an A+ rank monster.

One I had absolutely no hope of defeating in my current state.

「What are you?」

“What am I?”

「Yes. What are you, to summon such a hideous soil?」

Hideous? Who decided it was hideous?

I thought it was adorable, considering how well it could make your lives miserable.

「Reveal your identity, human!」

“My identity? My identity is….”

As my words overlapped with his, another message window appeared.

While buying time, I read it as fast as I could.

Hah. Life really never makes things easy.

The words Failure: death stood out more sharply than the reward for success.

Judging by how plainly it was written, that probably meant even my bizarre regeneration wouldn’t be enough to keep me alive.

If I couldn’t escape the gate or kill the lord, I’d die.

Oh? Now that’s a pleasant sound to hear.

Are you kidding me? What am I supposed to do with a branch?

I was about to get angry at the sheer nonsense of it when something suddenly burst out from my chest.

Again?

If I’d known this was going to happen, I’d have kept my smartphone in my hand.

「Mm! Th-that…!」

The Skeleton Lord looked distinctly displeased.

My face probably looked no better than his.

A huge log had erupted from my chest.

“Wait, didn’t you say branch?”

Hm….

No matter how I looked at it, that was a log.

「Ugh! What, exactly, is that hideous thing?!」

“What do you mean? It’s a log.”

The so-called branch of the Ancient World Tree.