Chapter 88 – Skull (４)

Jun took down every last evil shape that had come charging at him.

But that wasn’t the end.

Even after all the shapes were eliminated,

the moment the last shape fell, the true face of the evil began to reveal itself.

It was darkness itself.

The forest, and even the sky above, began to darken.

But in that instant.

“Huh?”

Something rose into the air.

It was the Sain-geom.

And then the talismanic sword began to shine.

“Why is this…?”

Jun tilted his head and reached out to grasp the Sain-geom.

In that moment, a voice spoke.

A voice that echoed inside Jun’s head.

[Cut it down.]

A single, terse command.

A familiar voice, and a familiar tone.

It was unmistakably the voice of the Ancient Heart.

‘Always so damn curt.’

Just dropping a ‘cut it down’ out of nowhere.

But for Jun, right now, that was enough.

Because he could see it.

‘Over there.’

In the heart of the pitch-black darkness.

He saw something moving.

More precisely, he felt it.

The darkness around it was no different from anywhere else, but he could sense a rippling ‘center’.

Jun moved toward it without hesitation.

The Sain-geom in his hand began to flare with an even more intense light.

He stepped up to it, and the moment he swung the blade….

Shink!

The sensation of cutting through something traveled up his hand through the hilt.

At that instant.

Kyaaaaaaaaaagh!

A scream that felt like it would tear eardrums apart rang out, and….

[Quest completed!]

[The Sain-geom has cut down the ancient evil!]

[The source of the evil that filled the Forest of Prostra has been eliminated!]

The Quest-completion message flashed up.

More messages followed in quick succession.

[The Forest of Prostra has been purified!]

[The sealed Proo tribe has been freed!]

‘…!’

The next message to surface announced the liberation of the sealed Proo tribe.

But that wasn’t all.

[Prostra, who had fallen into a deep sleep consumed by evil, has opened his eyes!]

Prostra.

A message saying he had awakened.

[Go to the awakened Prostra and receive your reward!]

Ssssh-!

The instant that final message appeared, the Forest of Prostra—once steeped in darkness—regained its light.

Gijun surveyed his surroundings.

The trees that had burned away and vanished, that had been stained pitch-black, began to restore themselves to their original form.

An unreal sight, like watching footage played back in fast-forward.

Severed trunks regenerated before his eyes.

Trees that had withered so badly a single tap might shatter them swelled back with vitality.

And now…

[I am Prostra.]

There he stood—ahead of him—Prostra himself.

Behind him, the Ancient Tree that had once enveloped the entire forest now stood firm and resolute.

*

“Thank you.”

Prostra offered his gratitude to Gijun.

Then he handed something over.

“Last time, I couldn’t bring myself to give you this. But now I can offer it to you without hesitation.”

What he passed to Gijun was a bracelet.

“…!”

[You have acquired the quest reward.]

[You have acquired the Ancient Tree Bracelet.]

The Ancient Tree Bracelet.

A bracelet woven from the leaves of the Ancient Tree.

At once, the bracelet’s information unfolded before his eyes.

[Ancient Tree Bracelet]

-Equip Restriction: Level 200

-Grade: Unique

-Magic Attack +250%

-All Stats +30

-Magic Power +50

-Light Damage +500

A Unique-grade item with a hefty Level 200 requirement.

Gijun’s eyes flew wide.

Every other stat line was outstanding.

Magic Attack, All Stats, and even a boost to Magic Power.

But what stunned him was the very last option.

An effect he had never once encountered before.

‘Light Damage?’

Immediately, details on the Light attribute appeared.

[Light Attribute]

-A power that repels darkness.

-Reduces the resistance/defense of darkness-aligned targets by 1% of the Light-attack power.

-Reduces the recovery rate of darkness-aligned targets by 1% of the Light-attack power.

-Against darkness-aligned targets, accumulated Light damage decreases both their attack speed and movement speed by 0.3% of the Light-attack power per hit (max 10 stacks).

‘What the…’

After reading the Light attribute’s description, Gijun’s eyes grew even wider.

‘That’s outright broken.’

The Light element possessed an utterly monstrous capability.

It only worked against darkness-aligned opponents, granted—but the sheer potency was staggering enough to leave his mouth hanging open.

Simply landing an attack could drastically reduce an enemy’s stats.

And on top of that, with every landed strike, it kept reducing the target’s attack speed and movement speed. A steady, relentless drain.

The cap was ten stacks, but if it accumulated, even that became a number you couldn’t just shrug off.

Which means as my Light-Attack stat goes up, the effect amplifies with it.

That was the real kicker.

Right now, his Light-Attack stat was a measly 500.

But as time passed and that number climbed, the effect would scale — visibly, dangerously.

And once I complete the Sain-geom?

His thoughts naturally ran that track.

The Sain-geom.

Once he finished forging that blade, hadn’t they said he’d gain command over the power of light itself?

I keep getting stronger.

One thing was certain: even at this very moment, Gijun was growing without end.

That was when Prostra spoke again.

“More to the point — seeing that sword of yours, I think I know why you’ve come.”

Prostra’s gaze rested on the Sain-geom at Gijun’s side.

“You’ve come looking for it, haven’t you.”

Gijun still had no idea what ‘it’ was.

But he nodded.

“It simply amazes me that you’ve grown this far already. At any rate, when the time is right, I will guide you. Follow.”

With that, Prostra moved.

*

The place they arrived at together was a lake, reached only after leaving the forest behind.

A spot roughly a hundred meters from the northern edge of the Forest of Prostra.

There, a lake sat quietly.

It wasn’t a large lake.

But its depth — that was impossible to gauge, fathomlessly deep.

“Within these waters sleeps a fragment of the world, born at the dawn of creation.”

A Fragment of the World.

If that was true, it had to be one of the Monarch’s fragments.

“So… I just need to go in there?”

“Yes.”

“….”

That put him in a bind.

The dominant attribute of Gijun’s magic was… not suited for this.

But he had to dive into the water.

This was basically jumping headfirst into a death trap.

Still, I don’t exactly have a choice.

To complete the Sain-geom, there was no other way.

“Understood.”

With that, Gijun turned around.

“I’ll be going now.”

A word for Horpa.

At that, Horpa gave a firm nod.

Splash!

Without a moment’s hesitation, Gijun pitched himself into the water.

And that instant—

“!!”

Gijun’s eyes flew wide.

I can breathe.

It was exactly as it sounded.

Even though he was underwater, there wasn’t the slightest issue with breathing.

It wasn’t just because this was a game.

Even in Real Spirit, sinking into water made it hard to draw breath.

Of course, it wasn’t as agonizing as real life, but it was still impossible to breathe underwater.

Here, though? No resistance whatsoever.

He could feel the water against his skin, but when it came to breathing — nothing blocked him at all.

His head couldn’t quite accept it, but it was undeniably true.

[That is because this is not ordinary water.]

Libre’s voice came through a moment later.

[It is breath.]

“Breath?”

[Yes. The breath that thing is exhaling.]

“…”

“If it’s that one,” he thought, “it must be the fragment of the Wood Lord Gi-Jun’s going to meet.”

The third piece to complete the Sain-geom.

Gi-Jun kept descending into the lake.

The lake was far deeper than it had looked from the surface.

Deep enough that you could hardly call it a lake.

He had been swimming downward for quite a while when—

At the lake’s bottom, a cave mouth opened, leading somewhere deeper still.

“This way?”

[Yes. It seems so.]

Gi-Jun touched down on the cave floor and looked ahead.

A faint light leaked from the far end.

But that wasn’t all.

‘…It’s coming from here.’

The water that filled this lake—

No, the breath the Lord’s fragment poured out—

It was definitely flowing from the end of this cave.

‘Let’s go.’

Gi-Jun started walking again.

*

The cave’s end.

The closer he got, the higher the ground rose, and the water level dropped accordingly.

As he neared the end, enormous roots came into view.

Tree roots.

‘It’s real.’

Right now, from those roots, the ‘breath’ that filled the entire lake kept seeping out.

He followed the rising terrain until he was finally, completely out of the water.

He lifted his head, dripping.

There, a massive tree stood before him.

It was as gigantic as the Ancient Tree in the Forest of Prostra.

A tree so huge that the diameter of a single root was thicker than Gi-Jun’s own height.

Yet it didn’t look like a Monster at all.

Its core was nowhere to be seen either.

Gi-Jun slowly scanned his surroundings.

The area was choked with tree roots.

Then—

[A Quest has been triggered.]

A Quest message appeared.

[The Core of the Primal Ancient Tree]

– Grade: Job

– Seal the Core of the Primal Ancient Tree into the Sain-geom.

– Reward: Fragment of the Primal Tree

The same type of Quest as before.

And just as the Quest message appeared—

THUD! RUMBLE-RUMBLE-RUMBLE!

The ground suddenly began to tremble.

No, to be precise, those colossal roots began to move.

“…!”

But that wasn’t all.

FLASH!

An eye revealed itself high up in the tree.

A gigantic eye.

It was looking down at Gi-Jun.

‘…Sinister.’

An eye that had suddenly appeared on an already enormous tree.

The thought that it was staring right at him sent a chill crawling up his spine.

And then, the roots rose into the air again.

CRASH! BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

The roots that had been buried deep in the floor all lifted at once, flipping the ground and shaking the entire cave.

That still wasn’t all.

‘It’s collapsing.’

As this colossal tree began to move, the whole cave shook, and the cave started to cave in from the aftershock.

BOOM! CRASH, CRASH, CRASH!

The cavern ceiling above gave way, crashing down onto the floor below.

Gijun moved his body in a frantic scramble.

If he got caught under that collapsing ceiling, he’d be dead in an instant—that much was certain.

But even dodging the falling boulders was no easy task.

Because between every gap, roots kept hurtling toward him like a torrent.

Damn it.

Gijun grit his teeth.

This is a filthy, nasty fight.

To think—a moment’s lapse because it didn’t look like a Monster, and now this storm of attacks had begun.

“Libre, I need you.”

[Understood.]

The instant the words left him, his mind linked with Libre’s.

And with that, his heart felt a little lighter.

The ceaseless rain of rock and root no longer flustered him; Gijun began handling it all with skill and composure.

His main Skill for this was Strong Wind.

His Strong Wind had expanded in range enough to fill the entire cavern now.

And the moment he cast it—

The tree roots surging toward him and the boulders plummeting from above were sliced apart in an instant.

SHWICK-SHWICK-SHWICK!

“…! “

SPLOOSH!

It’s bleeding.

Just then, red blood poured from the severed tree roots.

A gruesome sight.

But he couldn’t afford to dwell on it.

First, I get out of here.

Fighting this tree head-on like this was impossible.

So his priority had to be escaping this cave as fast as possible.

Gijun quickened his pace, weaving Strong Wind and Orca’s Footsteps together as he started climbing up the tree trunk and the cavern walls, ascending steadily.

The tree, of course, had no intention of letting him try.

Its roots kept surging toward Gijun, relentless.

All it was doing, with each onslaught, was carving more wounds into its own body.

And then—

“…! “

Gijun met the tree’s eyes.

Those unnerving pupils stared straight at him, unblinking.

And then a voice came.

It was the tree’s voice.