Chapter 39 – Day 11, 8th Floor Forest
The first thing I saw was the sky, then Yang Su-jin and Yoon Ji-hee.
"h.e.l.lo… Ack?!" Yang Su-jin smiled widely before finally noticing. We were all floating in the air. A shiny bubble was surrounding each of us.
Instead of being shocked, I looked around as much as possible. The s.p.a.ce itself seemed similar to Talia. However, the sun was nowhere to be found. Only the bubbles surrounding us and the lights shining from the ground could be seen.
I figured we were approximately 50 meters from the ground?
“Don"t panic, and look over there." Yang Su-jin and Yoon Ji-hee looked in the direction that I indicated. There were dozens of sparkling bubbles at the same height as us. I couldn"t see inside because of the distance, but there were definitely people inside it.
“We"re probably going to fall."
"Yes?!"
"…" Yang Su-jin"s eyes widened at my words, while Yoon Ji-hee didn"t say anything.
We weren"t simply heading downwards. If not, they wouldn"t need to put us in the sky like this. “Do you remember the ticket I gave you? Tear it if there is an urgent situati…"
Paang.
I heard the scream of a woman. The fall took place in an instant. As the dizzying view moved around me,
Kung.
There was a heavy thud. I was rolling across the ground. I got up and looked around.
[Evella. Type: Plant Rank D.]
[A leafless plant found in Evella Forest, also called the "barren forest." It is only made up of stems and roots, not leaves. Unless there is a fire, removing this plant is very difficult. Since it grows faster than the burning rate, the creatures and inhabitants of Evella Forest can"t resist them. They can only live in the s.p.a.ces allowed by this plant.]
Indeed, these plants were everywhere, like a white fence. Not only was it around me, but the plants were also above me. There was only a hole left from the bubble that had surrounded me.
That hole was restored in almost seconds. There were two paths to my left and right. This was the s.p.a.ce that "Evella" allowed. I tried disobeying. I grabbed a Evella vine from among the wall-like fence and firmly pushed.
“Um…"
There was overwhelming pressure despite my muscle strength being 20 points. I could easily break it with my body, but it was instantly restored. I didn"t know if the wall of vines was thin or not. It was unreasonable to go through the wall without knowing how thick it was.
Due to the fact that it was a forest without light, the limited field of view from the previous floors was back again. In the end, I could only explore the maze instead of going through the wall.
I started walking down a path. Rather than silencing my footsteps, I focused on exploring as quickly as possible. As I thought, I soon met a resident.
Swik.
There was the sound of metal rubbing against something. I stopped walking and raised my head. Surprise appeared on the face of the male hanging above me.
“Geik!”
The man fell from above. I took a step back and widened the distance. I honestly thought it was a goblin or something. I had seen the forest from the air. I thought that the bright lights among the vines came from a village of intelligent creatures, but he was a human.
“Moget.” His skin color was light brown. At first glance, he looked like a mixture of an Asian and a western person. However, his nose was sharp like an arrow. His hair color was also gray, a natural color that didn"t exist in my world.
"Why? I. Attack. Won"t." I made my p.r.o.nunciation of Tellan as clear as possible.
"Hah?" The other person looked surprised. Then he said, “Give me Moget.”
[The level of a talent has risen.]
[Tellan (Conversation). Lv 2. Related abilities have increased.]
“Moget? What is that?" The person opened his mouth like he was going to explain, but then his eyes narrowed and he adjusted the daggers in both hands, like I was an enemy. Once I was killed, he could collect the items without any questions.
A corpse couldn"t converse. The man moved immediately.
Fast!
Of course, it wasn"t that hard to avoid.
Tak.
I grabbed his wrist and lightly pulled, as I immediately noticed that appearances were deceiving. This guy looked like an ordinary teenage boy. However, the impression of strength I received from grabbing his wrists far surpa.s.sed that of Lee Sang-yoon.
Was it the difference between species? Even though they looked similar, their physical abilities might be far superior to that of modern human beings. I put strength into the hands holding his wrist. It was very light.
"…!!" His hands dropped the two daggers and I blocked the scream that tried to emerge.
"Hey. Tellan." I didn"t know what else to call him. “I am stronger than you. If you raise your voice then your neck will be broken. I hope you understand. Speak slowly. Evenly."
As I pulled my hand away from his mouth, the boy"s frightened eyes turned to me.
"Our warriors will catch you soon." Unlike his bold words, his voice was as small as an ant. It was cute.
I asked again. "What is Moget?"
“T-The invitation of the G.o.ds…"
“Describe the function of it."
“If I rip it, I can go to the sanctuary."
Ah. I took out a ticket from my inventory. "Is this what you are referring to?"
“Moget.” The boy"s eyes shone like it was a treasure. Was it to buy goods they couldn"t get from here? The daggers that the boy dropped and the clothes he wore seemed quite shabby. Although they seemed to be natives of the forest, the shabby nature showed how long they had been pa.s.sed on.
“Do you have money?"
"… Money?"
"It is required to buy things there." The boy didn"t seem to understand.
“We offer a tribute… The Gasava fruit that is carefully prepared…"
“Tribute?"
“Dear G.o.d, please forgive the incompetence of our ancestors. Please help us leave here and return to the civilization of our ancestors. We pray."
“There are no stairways here? They would go down."
"We… We are different from you. We can"t cross the boundary. We were exiled here." In other words, they couldn"t get out of this forest, so they stole the tickets from incoming explorers to pray to the statue.
Well, I knew very well that the prayer had no effect. That"s why they were still here. There was one thing though.
They knew about the concept of tickets and explorers in advance. Were there explorers before this? Is it not just our world? I looked at the boy to ask another question.
At that time, a few sentences emerged in the air.
"…" I read the message twice. It took some time before I understood the meaning. Indeed. It wasn"t entirely useless.
"Ah." The boy"s eyes widened as he looked behind me. There was an expression of relief on his face. I looked back and saw four Tellans.
“Father!” The boy cried out to one of the four men. All of them looked much stronger than the boy. They were big and holding sharp weapons. They determined that I was an enemy just by looking.
Well, my questions were already roughly resolved just from the previous message that I popped up in the air. If one survived, I could kill them to get their talents. Were they treating me like a monster?
The Tellans rushed towards me.
&
I found a village five hours later. I was going to tear the ticket and go to the fifth floor after eight hours. Even if Yang Su-jin and Yoon Ji-hee tore their tickets, they would still be there for 12 hours.
There were Tellan villages all over the forest. That was the information I had squeezed from them. There were several villages that guarded the stairs leading down to different exits. They were stairs that the Tellans couldn"t go down.
"Cough." As I breathed in smoke, I looked around the village that was already in shambles. It was approximately the size of a primary school playground. There had been dozens of Tellans living here. But now, all of them were dead and uninvited guests were resting in the village.
“Who is this? I really ran into you here." The one in charge was Hip-hop. There were at least 10 people around him. I looked around, but didn"t see Gla.s.ses or Macho.
"It looks like you"re alone. Were you lost in the forest?" He spoke casually, but his party was already spreading out, like he had given them unspoken directions. I saw one person block the road into the village behind me.
I looked at Hip-hop and said. "I discovered the path a few minutes ago and followed it. I"m alone."
Hip-hop laughed with satisfaction at my words. The shoes he was wearing seemed to be unusual.
Lee Sang-yoon said it was a "B rank" equipment. The place they reached on the 7th floor was a "factory." Similar to me, instead of fighting the guards of the factory, they chose a smarter way.
They fixed the facilities of the factory using the Tellan language and received three B rank items as compensation. Right now, I only had C and D rank equipment.
Of course, they were weapons, but I couldn"t couldn"t ignore the skills of the people handling them. Even if they had the mysterious ability to shoot fire or freeze an opponent, I could get that much destructive power from other weapons.
But they were different. They had overwhelming firepower and talents. Lee Sang-yoon had said this.
“I will give you a chance to change your mind. How about it?" As Hip-hop stepped forward, his shoes started to glow. They were shoes that allowed for incredibly fast movement. Maybe it was the power of the shoes that allowed him to take over this village.
As proof, there was dust on some of the party members, while Hip-hop showed only a little bit of fatigue. He made a triumphant expression. “I"m not an intolerant person. Some of the ones here only joined me on this floor. Do you see this pretty girl here? I saved her directly."
Hip-hop winked at the girl next to him.
“Oppa is really cool." The girl laughed like she was shy. I wasn"t sure if that face was pretty or not.
“Lee Sang-yoon, that jerk was too self-conscious. He makes me want to beat him up even when he is quiet."
“I feel the same way."
“Well, I don"t want to hit you. But you did do something to my car. Even if you surrender, I have to pay that back." Of course, I wasn"t fool enough to surrender and Hip-hop also knew that. He was waiting for me to say "no" so he could strike.
I opened my mouth. “Have you ever read Romance of the Three Kingdoms?"
"… What?" The look on his face said he hadn"t read it.
“Before he died, Zhuge Liang handed something in his pocket to Yang."
“What are you talking about?”
“Zhuge Liang believed that the guy called Wei Yan would betray him. So before he died, Zhuge Liang handed a pouch over to Yang. Yang opened the pouch. There was a piece of paper with writing on it."
"Who will kill me? If Wei Yan shouts this message three times. I will hand over all military rights to Wei Yan. Yang delivered the message to Wei Yan, who smiled and shouted it three times."
"Crazy b.a.s.t.a.r.d." Hip-hop thought I was talking nonsense to buy some time and lowered his upper body.
"You don"t know what I mean, but you should at least look behind you."
"That…!" Someone who read Romance of the Three Kingdoms called out to Hip-hop, but it was too late.
Bam!
The body of Hip-hop, who was about to move, shook for a moment. Hip-hop stared blankly at the broken gla.s.s bottle that hit him and the liquid that soaked his head.
""I will kill you." Was that it?" The girl recited the line in the novel and shrugged as she turned towards me. “People should study these days. There are no kids reading Romance of the Three Kingdoms anymore."
"You?"
“I read it whenever I am bored." As I looked at Yang Su-jin, blood poured from Hip-hop"s body.