Chapter 19: A Brief Separation |
Squelch! Crack!
Thump.
After crushing the head of the last remaining Deadman, I leaned against a tree. All around me, the remains of Deadmen, every one with a shattered head, were strewn carelessly about.
Even though I had tried to conserve my strength by taking them on one by one, it was over in an instant. It was, quite literally, a one-sided slaughter. But I couldn’t feel satisfied. Far from relieving my tension, it only left a foul taste in my mouth.
“Ptooey.”
I spat on the remains before me, but the instinct craving slaughter only reared its head higher, as if in defiance of being suppressed for so long. My chest felt tight. I tried to calm myself with a deep breath, but it only seemed to fan the flames. Suddenly, it occurred to me that perhaps I had no intention of stopping this feeling in the first place.
“Damn it. This wasn’t even a proper fight. Just enough to ruin my appetite.”
Tasting only dissatisfaction, I finally gave in to the surging bloodlust and struck a nearby tree.
CRACK! Rustle...
The group was already gone. If I had my way, I’d have set this whole forest ablaze, but I forced myself to hold back. Even if they had crossed the stone wall, there was no telling what other monsters might be waiting outside the forest. I was worried about them, and I needed to retrieve my arrows, so there was no time to waste.
Since there was no one around to see, I regulated the mana I'd been holding back and moved swiftly.
Trees, the forest, and the surrounding scenery flew past me in a blur. As if mocking the time I had spent before, I arrived back at the stone grave in an instant.
As I pulled the arrows from the Deadmen's heads one by one, I scanned my surroundings. I couldn't sense the group's presence. It seemed they had left right after I went into the forest, just as I'd expected.
“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight... This should be enough.”
I wanted to just stick the arrows in my quiver, but An Sol might have a fit if she saw them, so I quickly wiped off the filth.
‘Alright, time to head out.’
An Hyeon's party might be right outside, so I moved slowly. Before crossing the stone wall, I turned my head and looked at the quiet forest.
The forest was unchanged. It looked the same now as it did back then. The last time I left this forest, I was being chased and had no time for thoughts. I just ran, and the next thing I knew, I was out.
But now was different. For a long while, I just stared blankly at the woods. I felt a sense of relief, as if a great weight had been lifted from my shoulders.
After indulging in the sentimental mood for a moment, I vaulted over the wall. I had no desire to get lost in such trivial feelings. There were more important things to deal with.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The sight that met my eyes after I leaped over the wall was a far cry from my expectations. The path I was standing on now was uneven, but it showed signs of human hands. It wasn't immediately obvious, but though the path wasn't perfectly straight, its rough edges had a consistent shape.
Below the path, a plain stretched out to a vast, endless horizon. The area was deserted. Only the occasional gentle breeze made its faint presence known.
There were no monsters in sight, no matter how hard I looked. But the group was also nowhere to be found. I looked everywhere, even scanning a portion of the area with my mana, but their presence was undetectable. The thought that they might have abandoned me crossed my mind.
With three people of 'Good' alignment, the probability of betrayal was relatively low. However, I couldn't judge based on their dispositions alone.
Setting aside the possibility that they left me behind, the most logical conclusion was that something had happened to them while they were waiting. There were many types of monsters other than Deadmen that appeared in the Rite of Passage. Deciding that something must have occurred, I first began to search for traces of the group.
Finding clues—tracks for pursuit—wasn't a difficult task for my current self. As I calmly scanned the area along the stone wall, I discovered a patch of dirt with deep sneaker prints. It looked like they had crossed the wall in this direction.
Following the direction the dirt was scuffed, I found the spot where the group had gathered. It seemed they had waited for me here after confirming the coast was clear. As I confirmed this, the sliver of suspicion that had begun to take root in a corner of my mind seemed to melt away like snow.
I crouched down where they had gathered and examined the area slowly, one detail at a time. A skilled ranger or trapper would have been able to deduce everything about the situation—when, where, how many, how, and why. Of course, I wasn't capable of that. All I could do now was use my sharp eyes and every ability at my disposal.
I enhanced my vision, comparing and contrasting each footprint. My plan was to first familiarize myself with what looked like the group's sneaker prints, then examine any other tracks. The footprints were so frantic it looked like they'd been having a group shuffle dance competition. It seemed like telling them apart would take some time. A single, unsettling thought flashed through my mind, but I told myself it was too early to jump to conclusions and continued my examination.
After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, I finished my analysis. I stretched my legs and stood up. Aside from what appeared to be the group's footprints, I found no other unusual tracks. If I had to pick something, there was one deep impression where a foot had landed hard. But a sneaker tread was stamped over it, making it difficult to determine if it belonged to one of them or not.
There were no drag marks, so it definitely wasn't a Deadman. The thought of a boss monster crossed my mind, but I immediately shook my head. Only half a day had passed since we started, and there were specific conditions for a boss monster to appear.
Pushing aside the idea of a boss monster, nothing else clicked into place. In the end, there was only one method left. Knowing it probably wouldn't work, I began to awaken my magic circuits.
In an instant, I drew out my mana with explosive force and activated The Third Eye. What I was about to do was on a completely different level from simply checking another user's status.
Even I hadn't expected to use this much mana so early on, but it was a race against time, and I couldn't think of any other way. If I wasted time trying to find them with mana sense, something could happen in the interim, and I wouldn't be able to guarantee their survival.
The phenomenon I was trying to observe with The Third Eye was not the present, but the 'past'. Of course, this unique ability was powerful enough to observe even different dimensions if the conditions were right. Therefore, seeing the past and future of this dimension was also a matter of its capability.
Just as a single worry was about to cross my mind, a scene seeped into my vision, and I naturally focused on it.
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡
The Third Eye
Fzzt!
“Kuh...!”
I had only seen it for a single second, but the scene on my retina distorted, and a massive shock struck my eyes. My eyeballs throbbed with heat, as if they were burning in a fire. I reflexively rubbed my eyes, a bitter laugh escaping my lips.
Just one second. I had only seen a single scene from the past for one second, and The Third Eye was forcibly canceled. After a short while, as the pain in my eyes subsided, I muttered in a hollow voice.
“Ha... haha. To think that even with 96 Magic Power, the limit is just one second... This is insane.”
I had a feeling this might happen, but my Magic Power stat couldn't handle the overdrive of my unique ability. It was a fresh reminder of just how high-level The Third Eye was, but at the same time, I felt a pang of disappointment.
Seeing the past is treated on the same level as seeing the future. It was a problem of a different dimension than simple precognition. Still, I thought it might be possible since The Third Eye had reached S-Rank, but the 2-rank drop from its forced awakening seemed to be holding me back. In the end, even with the 1-rank boost from the Essence of Fire, I could only observe all phenomena in the present. Dealing with the past and future was still premature.
The pain was gradually subsiding, but my vision was still blurry. It seemed to be an aftereffect of the mana backlash from the spell's cancellation. Fortunately, as time passed, the objects in my vision slowly came into focus, so it didn't seem to be permanent vision loss.
I had unintentionally played a dangerous card, but thankfully, I did get something out of it.
It was only for a second, but I had definitely seen the 'past'. Recalling the scene that had flashed across my retinas, I let out a deep sigh. I finally gathered these gems and escaped the forest, only to find an even more troublesome matter waiting for me.
If I were powerless, I could understand, but the reality that I had power and still had to endure made me even more depressed. If worse came to worst, I'd raise hell, Rite of Passage be damned, but that was a last resort.
It felt like I was climbing one mountain only to face another.