Chapter 8
Ji-woo’s eyes, which met his directly, were heated. Soon turning his head sideways, Ji-woo extended one arm beyond the forest boundary surrounded by black curtains. Though he could see it, it was hard to believe, but clearly Ji-woo’s hand could enter inside the barrier.
Ji-woo had hesitated with half his left arm already inside the forest, but when Herba only watched in silence, he stopped arguing and took another step deeper into the woods.
At that moment, Herba urgently grabbed Ji-woo’s right arm.
“If you enter like this, the stranger might be in danger. The Forest of Trials changes into a forest of darkness after seven days. And today marks the end of those seven days. The forest now is completely different from when the stranger was there. Every step they take now could be their last.”
Herba instilled the dangers of the Forest of Trials that he knew through numerous stranger testimonies every year, but Ji-woo’s expression didn’t change at all.
“I understand what you’re saying. After all, I can see strange creatures unlike before.”
At Ji-woo’s response while keeping his gaze fixed on the forest, Herba nodded, truly believing that this stranger could see inside the forest.
“Yes, so let’s move locations with us now. I cannot stand by and watch the steps heading toward death.”
“You’re telling me to leave when I can clearly see an injured person over there because my life is in danger?”
“The end of those who cannot pass the trials is unfortunate but unavoidable.”
“I cannot understand that.”
Though Ji-woo’s words were for filling his own interests, Herba, who didn’t know Ji-woo’s inner thoughts, interpreted his intentions differently, adding even Ji-woo’s unintended passive effects.
A human who doesn’t care about his own life for the sake of others.
Facing such a person, Herba’s expression could only harden.
He too didn’t view this Forest of Trials positively. How strong the strangers who overcame the forest were, that power became the driving force to protect the empire, but countless people suddenly conscripted from another world dying without even knowing the cause was painful.
The deaths of innocent people. That became the reason Herba suffered nightmares every night, but Herba, who had sworn loyalty to the empire and the emperor, had no choice but to erase his beliefs and turn a blind eye to protect the empire.
Yet the pure and transparent stranger standing before him pressed him, saying he couldn’t understand the wrongs he had overlooked. The strength left Herba’s grip on Ji-woo’s wrist.
“You could die…”
Herba’s voice was small and weak.
Did he want to prevent that young man’s death? Or did he want to stop him for the empire’s sake?
For the empire, securing a stranger who showed such mystery was important. He might be able to solve the secrets of the Forest of Trials that hadn’t been solved despite decades of repetition. If he let him into the forest like this and he couldn’t preserve his life, that itself would be a great loss.
However, Herba could no longer stop that fragile-looking stranger.
“I don’t mind. I want to help that person.”
The boy, like a white cloud who firmly conveyed his will, roughly tore apart the beliefs Herba had been pressing down.
Herba’s eyes calmly settled.
“Then please wait just a moment. Just a moment will do.”
Herba contacted headquarters through his communicator. Not much time passed before people wearing the same equipment as the boundary guards came running like arrows from the direction he had come.
“Huff, huff. Vice-Captain. You said to bring it urgently… Did someone get hurt?”
The low-ranking soldier caught his breath while offering the bag in his hand to the vice-captain. Herba, who was always a kind superior, didn’t answer his subordinate’s question and handed the received bag to Ji-woo while speaking seriously.
“Bandages and medicine for emergencies. I’ll pray you can definitely save him.”
“Thank you.”
As Ji-woo adjusted the bag Herba had given him, Herba looked down at Ji-woo one last time and asked.
“May I know your name?”
“It’s Han Ji-woo.”
When Herba, who had closed his eyes and bowed silently, raised his head again, only the new guard’s shocked voice, Ji-woo’s empty spot, and the forest’s darkly closed curtain remained.
“Gasp! How…!”
The noisy cry of the guard who had delivered the bag was cut off like a lie when Ji-woo passed his body through the boundary. The inside of the forest he returned to felt damp and eerie. With a strange feeling, he turned around to see only pitch-black energy rippling at the forest boundary.
[Pain is immunized and nullified. This is unrelated to wounds.]
When he brought his hand to the boundary just in case, crackling— flowing current stimulated his fingertips. Though it didn’t hurt due to pain resistance, his fingertips turned red.
It won’t work. Ji-woo gave up his lingering attachment and approached the collapsed guy.
The dark forest sky was gradually turning black. He had to move the collapsed guy before it got later, so he moved his body urgently.
Though he wanted to immediately pour healing abilities on him and tell him to get up, even if he poured abilities on him, it was uncertain whether he could get up right away.
When Ji-woo used healing abilities, mana was consumed, and when the remaining mana amount approached 0, he would automatically lose consciousness.
This was a phenomenon that appeared equally in all awakeners, not just healing, but since cases of using abilities until mana reached 0 were extremely rare, not many people knew about this phenomenon.
Anyway, since it wasn’t yet possible to gauge how much mana was needed to use healing abilities, healing in this place was quite a dangerous choice.
Even if it was a bit too much, there was a need to move locations. He moved the guy to a safe inside place, away from the forest boundary, where monsters wouldn’t reach.
Thanks to the map that steadily marked caves, he could reach his destination without getting lost. Ji-woo, who had been dragging the man with difficulty, threw him to the ground carelessly.
Though it wasn’t appropriate behavior toward a patient, Ji-woo’s stamina had reached its limit to worry about such things.
A physique larger than his own, a drooping body that had even lost consciousness was quite burdensome.
It was fortunate there were no monster traces while finding the cave, but if he had encountered even one monster, it would have been such a difficult time that he would have been ready to throw the man as bait and run away.
Due to the harsh labor intensity, sweat seeped onto the surface of his entire skin. Recalling the environment where there wasn’t even a proper place to wash and rest, a refreshing feeling suddenly came over him.
It wasn’t just a simple feeling. When he looked for the source of the faint fragrance, it was a smell rising from his own skin.
Ji-woo, who recalled the forgotten passive effect, grinned while paying respect to the mythic-grade profession characteristics.
“Ugh…”
Ji-woo, who had been busy congratulating himself and forgetting about the man’s existence, turned over the man’s body with a low groan.
Blood had leaked from wounds that couldn’t be stopped during the journey, and his vitality had dropped considerably. Thinking it might be dangerous if delayed further, Ji-woo placed his hands over his body.
It was his first time using a truly supernatural ability, not a relatively realistic ability like reading system windows such as status windows or maps.
Ji-woo, who closed his eyes tightly with unnecessary tension, swallowed his saliva. The silence filling the space loudly spread the sound of swallowing.
Anxious about whether something might go wrong and uncertainty of using this supernatural ability for the first time, he slowly released his power.
The worry he had created about not knowing how to use the ability was such an easy usage that it could be called a waste of time. When he harbored the will to heal the target, bright light poured fully over the palm he had placed against Yu-jin.
Intense light clusters spreading as if facing a flash made his eyes squint involuntarily. The formless energy seemed to contain temperature too, emitting heat and making Ji-woo feel hot.
The light was momentarily sucked around the wound, then erased the large and small scars remaining on Yu-jin’s cheeks and limbs that had absorbed the energy, and made even the rough breathing quiet.
Yu-jin’s pale complexion noticeably brightened. His breathing became steady and even, and when Ji-woo checked the status window, it showed his vitality had fully recovered to one hundred percent.
The miraculous ability didn’t consume much mana. Though the man’s wounds weren’t deep enough to be life-threatening, even after treating one person’s scars and filling their vitality, seeing the mana numbers that hadn’t decreased by more than a third, Ji-woo happily appreciated the greatness of his ability.
However, regardless of mana consumption, when the joy of successfully activating the ability and the relief of saving a person came, sudden fatigue swept over Ji-woo’s body.
It was the aftermath of the stamina used moving a body larger than his own and using an ability for the first time. Thus Ji-woo closed his eyes drowsily without even the presence of mind to arrange a place to lie down.
When his consciousness returned and he looked around, the spot beside him was empty.
When his eyes snapped open with anxious thoughts, nothing remained in the cave. The dagger Ji-woo had carefully secured, the bag he had received from Vice-Captain Herba, other small items he had gathered, and even the guy who had been lying unconscious.
Ji-woo, who found it hard to accept reality as it was, tried to deny it and waited for the disappeared guy. He waited for a long time with faint hope, but the guy still didn’t return.
In the stages where humans feel anger, isn’t anger supposed to come after denial?
Ji-woo, who grasped the situation, couldn’t contain the fury boiling up from within.
“HEY, YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT!”
The empty cave with no one to listen amplified Ji-woo’s shout and returned it to his ears.
Son of a bitch. Ungrateful and stabbing me in the back? You said you hate betrayal? You hate being betrayed, but betraying others is okay?
Curses that wouldn’t reach piled up and scattered several times, and Ji-woo, who had lost half his energy, sat down on the ground. With more than eighty days ahead and no combat ability whatsoever, he was at a loss about how to survive alone.
Though he had pain resistance and self-healing abilities, that didn’t mean immortality. In the end, if flesh was torn, blood would flow, and if blood flowed, death was the same.
The miraculous healing ability that had healed the collapsed guy in one go didn’t work on himself. The self-healing function was too slow as a passive. Even the small wound on his finger from the forest boundary, though faint, still remained. At this level, the time for monsters to tear apart Ji-woo’s body would be faster than his self-healing recovery rate.
If only that unconscious guy had stayed by his side…
Ji-woo felt despair at the greatest loss of manpower.
Then thinking about it again, he felt wronged. Ji-woo wasn’t the type to trust people easily. He was someone who couldn’t hold back curses from frustration whenever a trusting heroine appeared. Nevertheless, the reason he trusted Kim Yu-jin was purely due to the preferences the system had displayed.
“System sir, wouldn’t this level be somewhat your fault for confusing the display? Huh?”
Though he repeatedly argued toward an empty space, he didn’t think it would work. He’s going through the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.
Ji-woo closed his eyes while stealing glances at the sky. Ji-woo skipped the process called depression and accepted the situation.
As usual, Ji-woo’s patience ran thin quickly. Gritting his teeth and swallowing his frustration, he had to figure out how to survive all over again, just like seven days ago.
