8
08 - Erosion
Before Shartia had awakened any abilities. When she first entered the Gate.
She was lucky. She met hunters from Earth, fellow New Yorkers at that. The six of them had used a Feather of Fate to enter together and encountered Shartia while searching for the Red Portal to head to the 2nd layer.
"Your first Gate? You're a complete newbie!"
"You said you're from New York. Where's your home?"
"Bill Street! I know it well. That's right near our house!"
They were kind. If she had been from another city, they would have been wary, but she was a fellow New Yorker, and a newbie who had just stepped into her first Gate at that. At the time, Shartia was extremely frightened and intimidated, so anyone could tell she was a newbie.
They taught Shartia survival methods in the Gate. How to hide, what could be eaten, methods to erase traces, and conversely, methods to identify traces. They shared food with her and handed over cheap tools, bestowing many things upon this fellow hometown beginner Hunter.
Until they were attacked by an Elf.
"Damn it! It's an Elf!"
"Just one! Stay together and retreat!"
Only one Elf had attacked. But all seven of them were defeated by that single one. Six Hunters couldn't handle just one Elf, excluding Shartia, who didn't have a single proper ability.
Three people, including the party leader, died. The remaining four barely managed to escape and hide thanks to their sacrifice. That time when they trembled in the thick bushes, hoping only that the Elf would pass by without noticing. Shartia still often had nightmares about that time. That one hour of praying while hidden in those bushes was a time in her life that could never be erased.
"&@$%&!"
But the Elf didn't give up the pursuit and eventually discovered their traces. The Elf walked steadily toward the bushes where the group was hiding. The scent of blood on its body was so thick that Shartia and her companions were driven to the brink of panic. Then.
[ Fragments of a past life surface. The forest shall embrace you. ]
The inside of the bushes glowed. She was startled by the light appearing when they were already discovered, but soon her eyes widened. The bushes grew into vines and trees, protecting them in layers. However, the ability that awakened at that time only created a wall; it didn't help them escape from the Elf. Through those layered vines, the Elf's and Shartia's eyes met.
"$#%@#."
The Elf's hand entered through the vines. That hand, which seemed ready to strangle her at any moment, didn't strangle her but rather gently patted Shartia's head. The Elf chuckled and left the place without lingering.
Strangely, Shartia could understand the Elf's last words.
—What, was she a kinsman?
Her eyes wavered. She couldn't help but know, even if she didn't want to. She had awakened abilities from a past life, and those abilities were of a kind that made the Elf see her as kin. In other words, her past life had been a terrifying Elf like that one.
Her feelings were complicated, but she had survived anyway. For now, she was just happy to have survived, her legs giving out from relief. Starting with her collapsing, the other companions also exhaled the breath they had been holding.
"We, we lived! We survived!"
"We made it, damn it! We survived the hands of that demon-like bastard!"
Everyone rejoiced. No joy in the world could compare to this moment. Watching them embrace and celebrate, tears welled up in Shartia's eyes. Then someone spoke up.
"But Shartia. Why did that thing retreat after looking at you?"
The atmosphere froze.
***
'Haa......'
Shartia grabbed her throbbing head. Even now, just thinking about that day made her head spin. Enough to momentarily forget that she was facing Ma Du-sik across the table.
Those four people from that time. Three, excluding herself. She couldn't even remember which of the three had brought up that topic first. Without exception, their eyes were colored with fear, disgust, and rejection of the unknown, and Shartia was cast out from the group. And she could never meet them again.
'When I returned, the rumors had already spread everywhere.'
She somehow survived and found the Blue Portal to escape. It took less than a month for rumors about her to spread throughout New York's Hunter community. Those three had also safely found the Blue Portal and escaped, spreading rumors in New York.
There's no need to elaborate on what happened after. Shartia continued her Hunter life while receiving tremendous discrimination and contempt from New York's Hunter community. Even when she tried to quit being a Hunter and find a new job, rumors had already spread throughout New York society, making that difficult too. There were many offers saying they didn't care about past lives and asking if she'd like to work for them. But such offers were invariably shady and sinister.
'Since it's come to this, might as well see it through to the end.'
Rather, she harbored spite and continued her Hunter life. She crossed Gates countless times and awakened numerous Elf abilities. Among them was the ability to promote plant growth, and only then could she find a reason for living.
Let's revive Earth's environment with this ability. All this pain and trials until now were for this purpose. It was worth enduring and persevering all this time.
She wasn't an environmentalist, nor did she have noble consciousness. But without thinking this way, she couldn't find a reason to live or a reason for having endured until now. New York society had rejected her all this time, but they couldn't reject the power to dramatically increase crop yields. Eventually, she was accepted, at least partially. And all the unrecognized contributions and achievements she had made were acknowledged all at once. That was her journey to reaching S-rank.
It wasn't a smooth life, but she didn't want pity. She had eventually reached S-rank and gained partial recognition, so wasn't this a successful life? There probably weren't any more people who would dare to mess with her now.
She had been working with that mindset, but......
"It seems there are still many who consider me an eyesore."
"......Is that so."
"Hmph."
Ma Du-sik responded with a troubled voice. But Shartia snorted and doubted his sincerity. Anyway, the man before her also only coveted her abilities and wanted her to become a Seoul citizen. His true intentions weren't much different from those stubborn blockheads in New York.
"I promise you. There will definitely be no such discrimination in Seoul. Rather, there will be many who will welcome and embrace you."
"Anyone can say that. Tokyo and Beijing all said the same thing."
"Are you considering those places......?"
"I'm more drawn to Europe. I haven't decided yet, though."
"Seoul is also a very livable city. The infrastructure is superior to most cities, and the quality of basic facilities is high. The cost of living is a bit high, but that shouldn't be a big problem."
"It certainly wasn't bad. That's why I said I'd stay another week instead of leaving right away."
But.
"It's decent enough, but there's nothing that really captures my heart. I'll look for it for like a week, but I don't know if I'll find it."
Seoul was certainly a good place to live. The food was delicious, and the water wasn't bad. The air was acceptable at this level, and farms and forests were quite well preserved. But it was just reasonably okay, without any particularly eye-catching charm. She'd look for a week, but probably wouldn't find anything.
'Originally, charm is something that strikes you from the first impression.'
Her first impression of Seoul wasn't different from her current impression. Just reasonably okay, without any particular rough edges. She didn't think a mere week would overturn that.
***
Jin-woo, who woke up early in the morning, headed to the library. Last time he had borrowed books about basic survival methods, but today he had different knowledge in mind. Elves. Anything written about Elves would be good. Books with anything written about their habits, tracking skills, or their unique arts.
"Hmm...... There are more than I thought."
When he looked, there was quite a lot. Enough to fill several bookshelves in the reading room. Of course, most were books dealing with all heterogeneous races, not just Elves.
「About Heterogeneous Races in Gates」
「Heterogeneous Race Survival Rules - Elf Edition」
「2025 Observed Arts of Heterogeneous Races」 . . .
He brought about five or six books within reach and sat down to open them. He skipped over things about other heterogeneous races like Orcs, Dwarfs, and Beastmen, and selected only sections about Elves to skim through. He should learn about other races' information too, but for now, he was curious about Elves.
'Why on earth did she give me preys and a sword before leaving?'
As far as Jin-woo knew, Elves tried to kill humans on sight. There were cases where they didn't chase when humans ran away because it was bothersome, but cases of following around and performing strange actions were almost nonexistent. Still, there might be exceptions. Wondering if there might be such cases, he skimmed through all the books that caught his eye.
'Not in this book, and in this book......'
No such cases were found. The next book he looked at didn't have such cases either, nor did the one after that. He even found and read a collection of unique encounters with heterogeneous races, but there was no case like his own.
'What on earth was that?'
No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't figure out the reason. The only thing that came to mind was that it was just a whim. But concluding it was just a whim and putting it aside left too many unsettling points.
'I might encounter an Elf again in the next Gate.'
Even if not that Elf, he might meet other Elves. To respond accurately, then, he needed to understand the situation in advance. But finding out with just the books in the library seemed hopeless.
'It's not like there's some professor for this.'
If it were another field, he would have looked for papers or specialized professors, but that was difficult for heterogeneous races. Humanity's knowledge about heterogeneous races was only fragmented knowledge based on experiences when encountering them in Gates. Research wasn't easy, and even the accumulated knowledge was biased toward their techniques and attack methods. There was no knowledge about the Elf whims that Jin-woo wanted.
"Ugh."
"Are you curious about Elves?"
When he was struggling with his tenth-plus book, someone suddenly spoke to him. Light blonde hair and calm amber eyes. It was a foreign woman he'd never seen before.
She was looking with interest at Jin-woo, who had stacked books about heterogeneous races and was skimming only sections about Elves.
"Would you like to talk for a bit?"
The foreign woman pointed outside the reading room and whispered softly. She meant they should go to the lounge since they couldn't be noisy in here. A suspicious suggestion from someone he'd never met. Normally, Jin-woo would have refused, but.
"Shall we?"
He unusually accepted. There was a reason he couldn't pass up. The blue flame he saw within her body. It wasn't burning ordinarily like other people. It burned elegantly like a flower bud made with traditional crafts.
It was very similar to the flame that had blazed from the Elf he saw that time.
"Whew. The lounge is well-equipped. Oh? They have black tea too?"
The woman looked around here and there as if it was her first time in the lounge. It seemed like her first time at this library. She put a tea bag in a paper cup and poured hot water. The woman who drank the instant black tea with anticipation soon frowned and stuck out her tongue.
"Ugh. This is fake."
"There's no way they'd put real tea leaves in a place like this."
"They emphasized so much that Seoul is a good city, I thought this would be real too."
It was an exaggerated Western gesture, but what came from her mouth was fluent Korean.
"You speak Korean quite well."
"My hobby is learning foreign languages. I came to see if the foreign language dictionaries here are well-stocked too."
"You must travel abroad often?"
"A little."
Traveling abroad these days wasn't easy. Land routes were almost impossible and most were by air, meaning airplanes, but the fares were ridiculously expensive.
Barriers had to be placed on airplanes to protect against monsters that might attack from the air, and those devices and the magic stone fuel were expensive. Being able to afford those fares and travel by plane meant being quite wealthy.
"So who are you? You seem to know a lot about Elves."
Jin-woo asked with slight wariness. The other person's blue flame closely resembled an Elf's, but her ears were human. Could she be an Elf in disguise? Had heterogeneous races already deeply infiltrated the world without ordinary citizens like himself knowing? When all sorts of ominous imaginations and conspiracies branched out in a thousand directions.
"I am......"
She introduced herself. But her following words were drowned out by a roar.
Kurrrrrrung-!
The ground, the atmosphere, and the entire building shook as the library was enveloped in a red and black curtain. Jin-woo immediately drew his sword and stood with his back to the wall, while the woman looked at the library covered in dark red energy with narrowed eyes.
"It's Erosion."
That phenomenon that had covered Earth with black land and monsters. It was the Erosion phenomenon where the power of the otherworld within Gates flowed backward to invade reality.