Chapter 52

Chapter 52

Do-jae and the silver-haired Hoi-in stepped outside the room.

The source of the creaking sound was the wooden staircase.

The spiral staircase, carved from a single tree trunk, had wide gaps between steps and was poorly secured with thin ropes, making it quite difficult to keep one’s balance.

However, watching the silver-haired Hoi-in descend, the reason for the staircase’s shoddy construction became clear.

‘Her movements are incredibly light.’

She descended swiftly to the ground with graceful movements.

Her body possessed incredible elasticity and flexibility.

Though there were still about 5 meters to the ground, Dojae simply leapt down.

Thud.

For Dojae, this height was nothing special, so landing on the ground in one go was far easier than carefully descending the stairs.

“Come to think of it, I haven’t introduced myself yet? I’m Sarieta, the village chief of this Nightingale Forest. Please feel free to call me Sari.”

Sari greeted him with a crisp voice, her flowing skirt swaying as she curtsied slightly.

Dojae thought she possessed quite a variety of appearances and returned a light bow.

“I’m Dojae. Call me whatever you like. As for age… well, you’re much older than me…”

Considering their ages, Dojae was significantly younger, so even using the most respectful honorifics would be appropriate. Yet, outwardly, she looked much older than him.

It wasn’t easy for Dojae to use formal speech with Sari, whose appearance made her seem closer in age to his younger brother, Do-young.

And by Dojae’s understanding, wasn’t this a situation between a human and a monster?

For Dojae, the best approach was simply to speak informally with each other.

“Oh? Got it! That’s a unique name, Lee Dojae. But you know, I’ve always wanted to be friends with a human. The one who saved me that day… Anyway, we’re friends now! Nice to meet you, Lee Dojae!”

Sari was satisfied with Dojae’s response.

But Dojae scratched his head at Sari’s words.

‘I never said I wanted to be friends…’

Anyway, since they’d agreed to call each other by first names, Dojae reminded her of his name again.

Calling him by his full name, including his surname, might feel a bit distant to Dojae, even if Sari herself didn’t mind.

“Just call me Dojae. I don’t know if you guys have this too, but ‘Lee’ is my surname and ‘Dojae’ is my given name.”

“Ah! It’s so short I thought it was all your name. Dojae… Dojae? Dojae! How does that sound? Right?”

Sari’s voice reached his ears.

She called Dojae’s name with a slightly awkward pronunciation.

Dojae nodded at her as she looked up at him brightly.

“So, what do you think of our village? Pretty, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. It is pretty.”

Dojae looked up at the forest.

Houses built atop trees, log bridges connecting branches.

And the Hwain people living among the trees.

It was a village of utter peace.

‘Monsters live ordinary lives too.’

What if they didn’t have gray skin and lived on the ground instead of the trees?

Would they be any different from humans then?

Dojae watched the tree dwellers for a moment, lost in shallow thoughts, before snapping back to reality.

‘This is no time for idle thoughts.’

This wasn’t the time to stare blankly at the Hwein.

He needed to find a way out of here and return to where he originally came from.

“Sari, do you know anything about quests?”

“Quest? Hmm… Research? Exploration? I’m not sure what you mean by that?”

Sari didn’t even know about quests, let alone grasp the intent behind the question.

That meant Sari was an entity unrelated to quests.

Dojae rephrased his question slightly.

“Hmm, is there a ‘great being’ here too? Or have you ever heard of Elatra or Altein?”

“Eratra, Altain… I think I might have heard of them, but I’m not sure… Are you saying ‘great being’ means a god?”

“Maybe similar?”

“Gods… I get it! Follow me.”

Sari strode off energetically toward somewhere.

Dojae stared blankly at her retreating figure.

‘So this world really has a god?’

Dojae, who had been deceived by Elatra once.

Recalling that Ellatra, whom he had thought of as a guardian deity, was actually a woman mad with slaughter, Dojae couldn’t shake his doubts.

“What are you doing? Come with me!”

Sari had already walked far ahead.

Half doubting, half hopeful, Dojae began chasing after her.

***

“Is that a human? Look at the white one.”

“Back in my youth, I often traded with humans… Brings back memories.”

As they followed Sari, Hoi-in began appearing one by one from somewhere.

Those farther away were unclear, but the words of the Hui people who approached nearby came through loud and clear.

“Sari, what kind of magic is on me? How is it possible for me to talk with you guys?”

Sari smiled at each greeting from the approaching Hui people and answered Dojae.

“Ah, it’s a magic called Mind Exchange. It’s far more powerful than the earrings Dojae wears.”

“Mind Exchange?”

At Dojae’s question, Sari explained the magic in a bit more detail.

The Mind Exchanging magic wasn’t like the translation magic of the earrings Dojae received from MID Kim Su-kyung.

It was not a spell that altered language interpretation to make it audible, but rather a spell that transmitted will itself.

Therefore, it was an extremely high-level magic that enabled communication even between different races.

However, because it converted will rather than sound, it had the drawback of only activating within a specific range. Though, if it could pick up the chatter of children peeking at Dojae and Sari across the street, it hardly seemed like a drawback.

Click.

Dojae unclasped the earring and showed it to Sari.

Then he made a request.

“Can you put that magic on this too? It seems like a pretty useful spell.”

“What? Casting magic on an object is trickier than just using magic… Especially since this is already an enchanted item. Erasing the existing magic and casting new magic over it is even harder. And that magic isn’t simple either—it’s mind-swapping? Not just anyone can do that.”

“Oh? Fine then. It’s not like I have anyone else to talk to besides you anyway.”

“Wait! Anyone!”

“What?”

“Not just anyone can do this. You need to be at least my level. Give it here!”

Sari snatched the earrings from Dojae’s hand as if fishing them out.

Then she gave a meaningful smile.

“I’ll make it into a new item right away! Just wait a moment while I stop by the workshop! But wait, gray human? What’s that?”

“Ah, it’s a term for you guys. We refer to you as gray humans, a type of monster…”

Sari, tucking the earrings into her bosom, frowned and glared at Dojae.

Dojae saw her expression and realized he’d made a mistake.

‘Calling the gray human who saved us a monster was too harsh.’

Sure enough, Sari spoke to Dojae in a slightly annoyed tone.

Her voice, audible to his ears, had indeed grown much stiffer.

“We’re not monsters! How could you possibly think our kind are monsters? Dojae, where on earth did you come from?”

“Sorry. That was a slip of the tongue. So how should I refer to your kind?”

“Tahuan Tuhirik!”

Two short words.

The words that reached Dojae’s ears came through without any interpretation, just as they were.

Meaning they were inherent words that couldn’t be conveyed even by will.

“This is the word for our race! Got it?”

“Yeah. Tahuan… what…”

“Hmph! That’s a word we use among ourselves… Actually, humans in the past called us Grey Elves.”

“Gray Elves? Elves… But your ears aren’t pointed? Neither are the other… Gray Elves.”

Dojae recalled the elves described in the Monster Encyclopedia.

The fairy from those fantasies, the kind every human wanted to see at least once, actually existed within the dungeon.

They were humanoid monsters with pointed ears and an irresistibly beautiful appearance, yet despite their looks, they were extremely ferocious and skilled archers capable of piercing a heart accurately from a kilometer away.

Countless hunters died in mountainous field-type dungeons without ever knowing where the elves were.

“Ah, you mean the High Elves? They’re like distant cousins to us. They love the forest and are a peaceful race like us… but I find them a bit annoying. They have such immense pride just because they’re good-looking.”

“Peace… I see… I have another question about the Cataclysm…”

“Oh! We’re here! This is it.”

Sari stopped and said.

Dojae looked over Sari’s small shoulder at the beautiful landscape unfolding before them.

“Wow…”

A narrow path cutting through the circular lake.

And standing right in the middle of it all, a single, enormous tree bursting with fresh green leaves.

“That’s the Sacred Tree, Lord Actria. Dojae.”

***

Swoosh.

As a cool, fragrant mountain breeze blew in, the green leaves rustled softly, scattering white light.

The white light rode the wind onto the lake, floating like stars embroidering the night sky before slowly sinking.

Then, creatures of various kinds appeared from all corners of the forest.

Small animals like rabbits and sparrows, and larger ones like wolves and wild boars, came to drink water.

But that’s not all.

Medium-sized monsters like orcs, ogres, lizardmen, and dead ents also gathered at the lake one after another to rest.

“This can’t be real…”

Dojae couldn’t believe the scene before his eyes was real.

During the Gaeseong campaign, hadn’t the Red Orcs, Dead Ents, and Hoi-in divided the territory into three parts and fought amongst themselves?

And now, those three types of monsters were gathered around a single large tree, getting along harmoniously?

Today, Dojae’s worldview was shattered multiple times.

“Dojae, what are you doing? Over here!”

Before he knew it, Sari had entered the lake and was heading toward the center.

Wearing leather shoes resembling sandals with straps, Sari simply stepped in. Dojae, however, took off his shoes, holding them in one hand as he dipped his feet in.

‘If it’s called the Sacred Tree, there must be something special about it. Let’s follow it for now. Ugh, it’s cold.’

The lake water was colder than he’d expected.

Dojae slowly cut through the water, following Sari.

At first, he thought the lake water was just cold, but the deeper he went, the more a warm energy rose within him.

The water temperature hadn’t changed, but a warm, comforting energy filled Dojae’s body.

His mind calmed along with it, and the lingering pain from his wounds faded.

“How’s that? Feeling good?”

Had they passed the middle of the lake?

She pulled her skirt up a bit higher and asked Dojae.

Being a head shorter than Dojae, she held her skirt up so high that when Dojae was wading knee-deep, her skirt revealed almost her entire thigh.

“Yeah. It really seems like a place where all races can live together without fighting.”

“It’s all thanks to Lord Aktria’s blessing. Here by this lake, everyone is equal.”

“Sari. That tree… what kind of god is this Arkthria you mentioned?”

“Lord Actria? Hmm… It’s hard to explain. Why don’t we just meet him?”

Sari smiled brightly and splashed her feet in the water.

Thanks to that, Dojae’s hair got soaked.

“Meeting Lady Actria will answer all your questions. Whenever I have something I don’t understand, I go see her. She’ll explain the Great Cataclysm better than I ever could.”

After that, Sari skipped off ahead.

Watching her, Dojae let out a deep sigh before clutching his trouser legs tightly and starting to follow.

‘Alright, let’s meet her. The real god!’