Chapter 50

Chapter 50

“Guh…”

Dojae groaned as he regained consciousness.

The rich scent of phytoncide wafting through the air cleared his head considerably.

After savoring the scent for a while, Dojae slowly opened his eyes.

He blinked his dry eyes several times, and his blurry vision gradually brightened.

The first thing that caught his eye was an unfamiliar ceiling made of wooden planks.

‘Where am I?’

Do-jae slowly sat up and surveyed his surroundings.

A space about 10 pyeong in size.

Inside, various household items and furniture were densely packed together.

The peculiar thing, however, was that there wasn’t a single appliance; all the furniture was made entirely of wood.

Thump, thump.

Dojae got up and slowly made his way toward the window where bright sunlight streamed in.

He needed to figure out where he was first.

“Gulp.”

Do-jae involuntarily gasped.

The sight beyond the window nearly made him collapse in shock.

‘On a tree?’

Outside, a dense forest stretched out.

Towering trees stretched out, and atop them were houses built entirely of logs.

The place Dojae had awakened was also a house built atop thick trees.

Dojae slowly backed away, trying to piece together his memories.

‘How did I end up here?’

Dojae racked his brain, piecing together fragments of memory.

But he couldn’t possibly remember where this place was.

And no wonder—his memory had been cut off after he collapsed.

‘I remember pulling out the potion.’

The instant he had just left the mana accelerator research facility, a quest failure message flashed before Dojae’s eyes, and an unknown suction force pulled him in.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself in a barren land.

It was reminiscent of the place where he had once obtained the golem’s heart and fought the harpy.

After feeling relief at having escaped from Lishun, intense pain and dizziness washed over him.

Dojae hastily opened his sub-space and pulled out a potion. The moment he took a single sip…

‘That’s my last memory…’

He lost consciousness and collapsed.

Having already reached his limit, the moment he realized the potion had saved him, his tension dissolved, and he fainted.

After that, he woke up here, though he didn’t know how.

‘Lishun… he was too strong.’

Dojae recalled Lishun’s face.

Li Xun, who swept his hair back and radiated a powerful presence.

He was among the strongest people Dojae had ever encountered.

No, he believed he was the strongest.

His speed and strength surpassed Kang Young-chan, and his skill with the sword far exceeded Kim Hwan-soo’s.

Especially the mana blasts he unleashed by wielding the Dao possessed terrifying destructive power.

‘Even if Kim Hwan-soo is an A-rank Awakened, if he’s stronger than Kang Young-chan, does that make Li Xun a Chinese S-rank Hunter?’

Of course, Dojae had never witnessed Kang Young-chan or Kim Hwan-soo at full strength.

His single battle with Kang Young-chan ended before it could truly begin, thanks to his eccentric personality. As for Kim Hwan-soo, Dojae had only gauged his skill while learning swordsmanship, not seen his true power.

But instinctively, he could tell Li Xun was stronger than them.

At the very least, he was definitely stronger than Kim Hwan-soo.

Where Kim Hwan-soo’s sword only held a faint trace of mana, Li Xun’s was visibly pulsing.

‘I’m nothing but a frog in a well.’

He had thought he’d endured in this field for quite some time, but seeing Li Xun made him realize how much he didn’t know.

He only knew the hunters famous through broadcasts; he had no idea how many S-rank hunters existed in each country, or who they were.

After all, what chance did a mere F-rank hunter like Dojae have to ever meet an S-rank hunter?

Back then, it didn’t matter that he’d never cross paths with S-rank hunters in a lifetime, but now it’s different.

The stronger he became, the more inevitable it was that his path would cross with theirs.

Whether the relationship was good or bad, he needed information for the day they met.

‘I should ask Kim Soo-kyung for the list. Come to think of it…’

BANG!

Doja slammed his fist on the bed.

The memory of his defeat by Li Xun made his rage boil over.

That vile bastard who treats human life so lightly.

And yet, he hadn’t been able to kill the bastard in the end.

Do-jae clenched his fist so tightly his palm turned red.

‘Is strength itself justice…?’

Because you’re strong, it’s okay to use people as test subjects.

Because you’re strong, you can kill people.

That’s the kind of thinking you’d expect from the Stone Age.

Then what about the low-level hunters who roam dungeons just to survive?

Having witnessed countless hunters burning their one and only life while scraping by at the very bottom, Dojae couldn’t help but be enraged.

“Kirku?”

At that moment, a sudden unfamiliar voice made Dojae snap around.

A human with ash-gray skin, standing about the height of an elementary school student with long hair hanging down, stood holding a basket.

“Hoi-in?”

Dojae blinked twice and murmured.

Why on earth was a Gray Person child in this room?

And holding a basket filled with fresh fruit, no less.

Thud!

Dojae immediately assumed a stance and drew up his mana.

Ash Children are a formidable race.

Even a child’s strength is not to be underestimated.

“Cough.”

But Dojae could only muster half his usual strength and coughed up blood.

He hadn’t fully recovered yet.

“Kiriru Kratta…”

Hoiin Ai pointed at Dojae with her finger.

Dojae crouched down, assuming a defensive stance, but the child showed no other movement.

“Krata!”

The child pointed at Dojae once more.

Dojae followed the direction of that finger with his gaze.

Only then did he notice his own body.

His upper garment was torn away, and a yellow cloth was tightly wrapped around him from below his neck to his waist.

Where Li Xun had wounded him, something dark green was finely ground and smeared over the area. Red blood seeped out around it, soaking the cloth.

“Khm…”

While Dojae coughed softly at the sight of his own body, the Hwain child carefully placed the basket on the desk.

Then, he opened a drawer and took out a small candle.

Moments later, the candle began to burn on its own, filling the room with a subtle fragrance. The Hwain child slowly backed out of the room again.

‘What on earth is going on here?’

Alone again in the room.

If a fight had broken out now, even someone like Hoi-in couldn’t guarantee victory, so it was fortunate.

Dojae, who had been watching the door intently without lowering his guard for a while, collapsed onto the bed when he heard no more sounds.

‘Was that a sleeping potion…’

His eyelids grew heavier and heavier.

Seeing that the Hoiin, who fiercely disliked intruders in their territory, had left without any further action, it seemed they had no intention of attacking.

He didn’t know what the Hui Ren intended, but there must be a reason they spared Dojae.

Images of Li Xun, Shim Young-jin, and the Chinese children flashed through his mind.

But Dojae, utterly unable to fight off the drowsiness, sank deeper and deeper into sleep.

‘Right… the quest… but… I don’t know… I’m too sleepy…’

***

“Kyaaah! Kiiita!”

“Kwaaah, Eeek!”

The raucous noise woke Dojae from his sleep.

Opening his eyes and scanning his surroundings, he sprang nimbly from the bed and stood with his back against the wall.

‘What the hell is this?’

Startled, Dojae instinctively assumed an attack stance, drawing the attention of the Hoiin members who had been chatting amongst themselves.

Among them, a young warrior slowly approached Dojae and spoke.

“Kraata Atak.”

Thump-thump-!

“Tkhai Akaka.”

The warrior raised both hands to show Dojae.

It seemed like a gesture to show they weren’t armed.

‘That Hoiin kid earlier and this guy too—they clearly have no intention of attacking, right?’

Dojae scrutinized the four Hwain inside the room.

At first glance, they all looked identical, like twins, but upon closer inspection, there were more differences than expected.

Hairstyles and clothing aside, the placement of their eyes, nose, and mouth, the depth of their skin tone, and the amount of body hair were all distinct.

Especially the one who approached Dojae—his eyebrows were incredibly thick, and his jaw was well-defined, giving him a strong, imposing look.

‘Considering the one who spoke to me last time, this is only natural.’

The Hoi-in who had saved Dojae right after defeating the Red Oak Priest.

One of them had even spoken to Dojae.

It wasn’t direct communication, but they had conveyed their will into his mind.

Even before that, when he hunted the monster Salma, it had also tried to say something.

Ever since, he’d harbored doubts about these monsters called Hoiin.

Seeing that these creatures seemed capable of conversation, Dojae cautiously asked the Hoiin.

“What are you?”

Dojae’s question was comprehensive, yet implicitly paradoxical.

Why had they moved him to this room and even healed his wounds? What were their intentions?

It encompassed everything: what kind of beings the Hwain were, what monsters truly were, and why they attacked humans.

“Kryrta Akattu!”

Unfortunately, they tilted their heads in confusion, unable to understand Dojae’s words.

Dojae and the Hoiin continued trying to communicate, exchanging words back and forth, but the languages they used were too different.

‘We can’t communicate at all.’

Dojae reluctantly gave up on continuing the conversation and decided to check the quest details.

At least that way, he might figure out what he needed to do right away.

‘Check quest.’

…….

‘Check quest.’

…….

‘Check quest. Check quest? Check quest!’

…….

No matter how many times he repeated it in his mind, the quest window wouldn’t appear.

Flustered, Dojae checked other status windows.

“Info check! Skill check! Subspace list!”

…….

No matter how much he shouted, not a single one appeared.

It hadn’t been a long time, but the status window had become so natural and familiar.

But now that it was gone, a suffocating sense of helplessness surged up, as if he’d suddenly gone blind.

‘What’s going on? Could it be my skills too? No, I definitely opened the sub-space.’

If even the skill was unusable, he might as well have already been killed by Li Xun.

However, Dojae had opened the sub-space the moment he was dragged here.

He couldn’t remember clearly since he was on the verge of fainting, but he had vividly conjured the sub-space in his mind. Recalling the sensation of opening the sub-space once more, Dojae repeated it in his mind.

‘Subspace… Subspace… Subspace…!’

Zzzzzz-.

“Thank goodness!”

The sub-space appeared, tearing through the void.

The a-space responded to Dojae’s call.

“Kata? Katahra?”

As a crack appeared in the empty void, the Hui people murmured in surprise, their expressions shocked.

But Dojae was only relieved that he could still use his skill.

This time, he tried the Golem’s Eye.

But no matter how intently he stared at the Hui-in, no status window appeared.

Instead, he thought he saw faint, hazy smoke swirling around them, but it was too blurry to tell if it was simply dust or something else.

Realizing he couldn’t get any information this way, Dojae gestured and mimed toward the spirits, asking,

“Is there any Hoiin here who can talk? Talk, words, you and me. Here, anywhere?”

“Krua Hakukaku?”

But still, the conversation went nowhere.

Dojae began to grow impatient.

Not only had he failed the quest, but he hadn’t properly sealed Rishun either.

He worried about Yeongjin, who was fleeing with the children, and MID Kim Soo-kyung, who must be waiting only for his contact.

Then, a majestic trumpet blast sounded from somewhere.

Bwooooh.

Boom-boom-boom.

The Hoi-in then began discussing among themselves before starting to leave the room one by one.

The last remaining member, with his intense expression.

He approached the table, took a piece of fruit from the basket the young guest had left behind, and handed it to Dojae.

Thump, thump.

He then struck the bed where Dojae had been lying several times before disappearing outside the room, following the others who had left first.

“What is this… Am I supposed to sit and wait…?”

Dojae stared at the closed door and took a big bite of the unfamiliar fruit.

‘Surprisingly tasty.’