What would the other world where the earth spirits live look like...?
That was the question I had before entering the Gate. A wasteland? Or a desert? Which one would it be? Now that I've entered the Gate, it's time for that question to be answered.
Gradually, light began to penetrate my eyelids. But before I opened my eyes, I smelled something first.
"The smell of the forest...."
It seems the other world is a forest.
When I gently opened my eyes, a forest was spread out as expected. It wasn't the rainforest I saw a few days ago, but a forest of trees.
"What a troublesome place."
There were many trees to provide cover, and the space was narrow because of those trees, making it the most dreaded environment for Hunters who use weapons.
"Okay, leave it all to me."
"I guess I'll have to carry the luggage."
I held out my hand to Shi-hyun-i.
"I'm okay."
Shi-hyun-i hid the luggage he was holding behind him.
"Hand it over when I'm asking nicely."
If I'm not going to be helpful in battle anyway, I should at least be a porter.
I ignored Shi-hyun-i, who was hesitating, and tried to snatch the luggage. But Shi-hyun-i reacted quickly and raised the luggage above his head.
"Hey...."
I reached out, but the height difference was too great, and the luggage was out of reach.
I lifted my heels and reached out, but couldn't reach it. Shi-hyun-i looked at me with a playful expression and repeatedly lowered and raised the luggage slightly.
"Hey!"
I was angry at Shi-hyun-i's actions and kicked him in the shin. I thought I kicked him pretty hard, but it didn't seem to do much damage to Shi-hyun-i's sturdy body, so his reaction was minimal.
"Sorry, you're cute."
Only then did Shi-hyun-i give me the luggage.
"If you do that again... I won't let you off."
"Okay."
Shi-hyun-i smiled and patted my head, as if treating me like a child.
I tried to swat his hand away, but Shi-hyun-i resisted with his strength and continued to stroke my head.
"Let's just go."
I turned my back on Shi-hyun-i and moved away. As I moved away, Shi-hyun-i quickly approached.
"Sorry, I'll take the lead."
Only then did Shi-hyun-i apologize.
"If you understand, then behave."
I was about to kick Shi-hyun-i's butt, but I held back.
After walking through the forest for about 5 minutes, a spirit appeared.
"Is that it."
The earth spirit was shaped like a stone, and it was kind of cute.
"It looks like I've seen it somewhere before...."
"That thing, the game the kids play."
When I heard Shi-hyun-i's words, something flashed through my mind.
"Ah! That's it!"
It looked like Kko-O-dol and De-O-ri from the game the kids were playing.
"No wonder it looked familiar."
"Then I'm going."
Shi-hyun-i jumped into the spirits and attacked by releasing magic power in all directions.
"One hit, that's amazing...."
The spirits were all shattered by one burst of magic power.
"The monsters here are spirits, so the Gate's rank is high. The spirits themselves are easy opponents if you have magic power."
"Really? I think it would be more troublesome than you think if they shot stones."
I remembered struggling with the icicles and snowballs that the ice spirit used to shoot. If that became stones or gravel, it would be more dangerous than I thought.
"That's why you have to kill them instantly."
"Yeah, you're so great."
I was confident that I could do the same if it was a wide open space. But it was impossible in this narrow place.
No... I could use the Light Sword to ignore the terrain and objects and just cut them all down.... It's just too barbaric a method.
"Is there a boss here too?"
That Gate broke down and the boss came out and it was a mess. I was really horrified when I heard that Shi-hyun-i stepped up to take care of it and got hurt.
"Yes."
I couldn't help but frown at Shi-hyun-i's words.
"There is?"
"Yeah, a white tiger called San-gun comes out."
He investigated everything as expected.
"Well, he's weak anyway."
"Weak?"
"He's B-Rank, so I can defeat him by myself."
"Didn't you get hurt doing that before?"
"That giant was A-Rank in danger...."
Shi-hyun-i's voice became a little smaller.
"If we encounter the boss, we'll fight together."
My practical sense has deteriorated, but my stats are higher now. At least I can play the role of a meat shield.
I opened the stat window after a long time and checked my stats.
[Jeong Su-yeon]
Strength B Agility B(C)
Stamina B Endurance A
Magic Power B Female A
- Awakened Ability: Feminization
- Additional Abilities:室家之樂(Shil-ga-ji-rak), 氷肌玉骨(Bing-gi-ok-gol), Magic Power Manipulation
If you look at the stats alone, I could aim for A-Rank. Of course, my Awakened Ability is not related to combat, so it's the same as being incompetent, and my additional abilities are only Magic Power Manipulation, so it's not very useful....
In addition, my agility became B-Rank with the power of the artifact, but it was actually C.
"Okay."
I worked hard with Shi-hyun-i to defeat the spirits. I also fought them a little, but just because they look like stones doesn't mean their bodies are made of real stone.
It's just the shape, and the body itself is made of magic power, so it won't work unless it's an attack through magic power.
Of course, my spear was custom-made, so it worked regardless.
"Heu-heung... It's a good spear after all."
"I know, I can't believe you can attack spirits without magic power."
"It's expensive."
I received it and used it without much thought at the time, but I realized how OP this weapon was as time went on.
"Okay, break time is over."
Shi-hyun-i finished drinking his drink and got up.
"Okay, let's go."
I also drank the last sip and threw the trash on the floor.
I went around the other world with Shi-hyun-i again and dealt with the spirits. It's already been 11 hours since we entered the Gate.... It was a short time if it was short, and a long time if it was long.
"Honestly, I have no idea how much longer we have to go."
The spirits weren't clustered together, and the other world was incredibly wide, so it seemed like it would take a long time.
"Do you know how many monsters are here?"
"I don't know exactly... The Gate Management Department wants us to catch about 1,500."
"1,500? That's less than I thought?"
The problem is that the spirit groups we encounter at once don't exceed 10.
"That's right, the problem is that we've only caught about 500 so far."
500 in 11 hours... That means we have to go around for more than 20 hours.
But this is just a rough calculation, and the travel distance will increase as time goes by, and I didn't even want to imagine what would happen if we met the boss in the middle.
"Ha, considering the break time in the middle, we'll have to be here for more than two days."
"That's why I brought a lot of luggage."
There was a reason why Shi-hyun-i worked so hard to pack the luggage.... There seemed to be more than two days' worth of food, there was a reason for that....
"Who said anything?"
I saw a spirit in front of me, so I held the luggage in one hand and threw the spear in the other.
"Go! Seong Shi-hyun!"
"Yes, yes."
One spirit was destroyed by my spear, and Shi-hyun-i staggered forward and slaughtered the spirits.
One spirit per punch, steadily....
"Is your magic power okay?"
I was worried even though he was controlling it well and Shi-hyun-i's magic power recovery was excellent.
"It's not even noticeable."
"I'm glad I fed you the panacea back then."
I forced him to eat what I got from the Gate, and I was proud.
"I'm glad I ate it back then too."
He said it made him feel a lot more comfortable after eating it.
"Did you collect all the magic stones?"
"Yeah."
I moved the magic stones from the pouch Shi-hyun-i was holding to my pouch.
"Okay, let's go again."
"Isn't it heavy?"
"Even so, my strength is B, so it's not hard at all."
"Yeah, yeah."
It would be funny from Shi-hyun-i's perspective, whose strength is A and is even surpassing that limit.
"I'm getting tired of seeing the forest all the time."
I said, looking around.
"But it's not hot, is it?"
The rainforest was like a steam room, and I felt like I was losing stamina even if I was just standing still. But the forest of trees was better. The hot sunlight was blocked by the large trees, and a cool breeze blew through the forest.
"The environment itself is really nice."
The temperature is good and moderate....
"If it wasn't another world...."
I became depressed at Shi-hyun-i's words. I couldn't rest easy because of the monsters, and I had to maintain constant tension. No matter how much Shi-hyun-i was there, complacency was forbidden.
"There's another one over there."
There was a group of about thirty spirits where Shi-hyun-i was pointing.
"Wow, that's a lot."
They only gathered in groups of about 10, but this time there were thirty.
"Don't let your guard down, you know that spirits are stronger when they're together, right?"
"I know."
While Shi-hyun-i rushed out first, I put the luggage down in a suitable place.
"Oh...."
When Shi-hyun-i approached, the spirits dropped stones from the sky. Is it because thirty spirits shot them? The number was enormous.
If you look closely, Shi-hyun-i was just taking the flying stones with his body. It looked dangerous even though he had equipment.
"I'm going too."
I ran towards the spirits on the opposite side of Shi-hyun-i and immediately threw my spear.
The spirit laughed at my attack and ignored it. It seems that he also knew that ordinary attacks would not work.
But my weapon was special. The attack, which he expected to do no harm to him, pierced the spirit's body and severely damaged the core.
The spirit left a bizarre sound as its death throes and disappeared.
I immediately rushed towards the other spirits, and the spirits were wary of me... no, the spear.
"You shouldn't have been wary, you should have run away!"
The spirits were wary, but they didn't think about moving away from me, and they shot stones or created them in front to block the attack. I saw that and used magic power to attack and destroyed the spirits one by one.
As expected, I allowed some of the attacks because my practical experience was lacking, but thanks to the sturdy equipment, it didn't lead to injuries.
"The shock absorption ability is also good...."
It was worth the expensive price.
"Is it over?"
While I was defeating 7 of them, Shi-hyun-i defeated the remaining spirits and was watching me.
"You were watching without helping?"
Shi-hyun-i shrugged his shoulders.
"Because you were fighting well."
"You did well, I fight pretty well too, right?"
"Of course, I know that well."
Shi-hyun-i smiled and praised me.
I took a short breath and packed my luggage again and went around the other world....
-Geureureu....
While walking through the forest, Shi-hyun-i suddenly stopped walking and stopped me with his hand, and stepped back to protect me.
"It's the boss."
"What?"
I couldn't hear anything and couldn't feel any signs, but it seems that Shi-hyun-i heard something.
"Really?"
"Yeah, I heard a sound. A very small sound."
It was a very small sound, but it seems that Shi-hyun-i, who has excellent hearing, heard it.
Shi-hyun-i and I began to tense up.