#115
After the light faded, I checked outside the door and was utterly dumbfounded. The bones had disappeared. At least there was nothing in the visible space.
Of course, that was only temporary. The bones that had been hesitating outside my field of vision seemed to come to their senses and surged toward the door again.
“Hiya…”
Still, I was greatly encouraged. The effect far exceeded my expectations by several times. I didn’t know what the reason was, but that wasn’t important right now. What mattered was that it worked and was even tremendous. It seemed I wouldn’t need to pour out blood to the point of worrying about excessive bleeding, which was a tremendous relief.
“Alright, let’s go.”
I adjusted the baby carrier and stood up. A sword in one hand, a watering can in the other, and a child in my arms. Honestly, it couldn’t be called stylish, but since only monsters were watching anyway, it didn’t matter. As long as Carlisle didn’t see me, that was enough.
If someone with proper character saw this, they would probably say this appearance was cool… but I didn’t have confidence to guarantee Carlisle Lightinger’s character.
Before I knew it, the front of the door was in chaos again with the swarming bones. It was like an idol followed by zealous fans. I unlocked the door, turned the handle, then immediately stepped aside.
Crash.
The bones that had been clinging to the door collapsed and poured inside, tumbling over. I didn’t miss the opportunity and sprayed the purification potion. The bones that got wet seemed to stop moving for a moment, then the same effect as before appeared. Green spread and light exploded like a burst. I had to cover my eyes again. It seemed I’d need to wear goggles to use this potion.
I burst out into the empty corridor. Instantly swinging the watering can again at the bones surging from somewhere. The watering can enhanced with Lightmite shot its contents across the long corridor to a considerable distance.
The bones hesitated when hit by the potion and disappeared as light, but since they weren’t human, they didn’t seem afraid. Instead, like moths jumping into fire, they endlessly filled the corridor and poured out. It looked like they were hoping for a potion shower.
I advanced forward, cutting down the few that charged at me with my sword and spraying potion on the many in the distance. Adrenaline surged at this unexpectedly effective weapon.
I had thought movement would be inconvenient because it was underwater, but it wasn’t. Once I got a bit used to it, I could move my body freely by taking advantage of being underwater. I kicked off walls and ceilings to leap up and dive into the skeleton hordes. Every time I swung my sword and watering can, the skeletons were sliced like tofu and transformed into light before vanishing. The child screamed with delight as if riding an amusement park ride.
At this moment, even I felt like I had become the overpowered protagonist of a fantasy novel. For a while, I forgot fear and anxiety and immersed myself in combat. Was this how Carlisle felt when he fought? His appearance, fighting as if possessed with his eyes dyed red, was beautiful to behold. Excitement rose that I might look like that now too. I wanted to show this appearance to Carlisle too. If he would think this side of me was cool too!
But unfortunately, this elation didn’t last very long.
The bones poured out endlessly. It felt like all the skeletons in the entire ocean were flocking to this ship.
Though the watering can’s capacity was enormous, it hadn’t been completely full to begin with, so it wasn’t enough to handle the endlessly surging skeletons. When the potion finally ran out, my stamina had also noticeably dropped.
I briefly hid in an empty room to catch my breath. I put away the watering can that I had shaken out to the last drop and carried the child on my back, retying the straps. The child was still laughing as if playing some fun game, not understanding the situation.
I gripped my sword properly. I didn’t know how far I could break through head-on with my skills. After taking a deep breath, I leaped back into the corridor. I swung my sword with all my might.
One, two, three… ten.
Slash.
“Ugh.”
Sharp fingers strongly scratched past my right arm. Flesh tore away and my skin instantly swelled and blood seeped out.
“Don’t get poisoned, don’t get contaminated.”
Fighting a group alone while protecting my back in an exhausted state wasn’t easy. I was quickly pushed into a defensive position. The bones surrounded me as I clung to the wall. Several attacked at once.
“Shibal. Come at me one at a time!”
Feeling my injured arm tingling, I gritted my teeth and swung my sword. Blood splattered and spread into the waves.
“Kreeeeek!”
“?”
At that moment, over a dozen skeletons that the blade hadn’t even touched tumbled backward. The same happened to those the blade had touched. They weren’t simply cut, but turned to light and oxidized just like when I sprayed the potion.
“Ah…”
I realized the cause. It was my blood. The blood that splattered from my wound was having the same effect as the purification potion.
“Why? Before, there was no such effect… Ah.”
I thought I understood. The pill the Priest gave me was taking effect. Was it the combined effect of tree sap and blood inside my body? If so, then right now my blood itself had become like a purification potion.
“I don’t know how long the effect will last.”
I moved slowly so that the waves soaked with my blood would also touch the sword blade.
“This makes it manageable. Come on, bones.”
After the last light scattered and disappeared, I was finally able to step onto the open deck.
[You have passed the 2nd stage gateway. Please receive the second memory fragment.]
“Oh.”
My vision became dizzy again and a hallucination-like scene appeared. According to the system window, it was my “memory fragment.”
A slightly older kid than before appeared. It was me. I recognized it immediately now. I was playing alone in the living room, receiving sunlight. The one young me was talking to was a small, withered tree planted in a pot.
“Eomma and Appa will come home late. They always do. Auntie says she’s too busy to play with me. But she won’t let me go outside alone because it’s dangerous…”
Ah.
For the first time, I recalled the existence of my parents. Parents. Who were my parents? What kind of people were they? Like thick fog lifting, when I tried hard to recall, I could finally barely remember their faces.
I had rarely met them since becoming an adult. Even before that, after entering boarding school in middle school, I only met them once or twice during vacations. So at most three or four times a year.
There was no longing, no resentment, nothing that could be called affection. But even so, how could I have completely forgotten my parents?
When I was young, both of them were dual-income workaholics who left early in the morning and came home late at night, or sometimes didn’t come home at all. A live-in housekeeper I called Auntie took care of me instead, but naturally, she had no particular interest in me. Not long after I entered elementary school, the two divorced and I was supposed to stay with my mother for now, but that didn’t change my daily life much.
When I became a middle schooler, I entered boarding school completely, and I actually preferred this time. There were always friends around me, so at least I wasn’t bored. When I was young, I seemed to always be bored.
“I’m bored.”
So that day too, I complained to the “tree” that I was bored.
“Bored? Then do you want to visit my hometown?”
The tree said this. Around that time, we often talked about the tree’s “hometown,” and I was particularly interested in stories about children my age who lived there, and the pies and cookies that a red-cheeked lady baked.
“I want to go! Where is it? Is it far?”
I jumped up and shouted excitedly.
“It is far, but it’s not hard to go if you have the key. I’ll give you that key.”
“Really!”
“Good. Then stretch out your arms and close your eyes.”
“Okay. Like this?”
I closed my eyes and spread both arms as the tree instructed. Then a bright light green energy enveloped me, and as soon as that light disappeared, patterns that had never been there before appeared on my body.
“Wow… what’s this? Pictures appeared on my body.”
“That’s the key you have. If you think you want to go to that world, you can travel back and forth between here and there using that as proof. It’s as simple as entering and exiting a game.”
I looked at my arms and legs curiously, then lifted my t-shirt to examine my stomach too. What was engraved on my body was a tree. A beautiful tree with lush green leaves. The main body was on my back, and the lush branches and leaves came around to the front, making it look like the tree was embracing my entire body…
“It looks similar to the tattoo on Carlisle’s body.”
That’s what I thought of as my mind returned. Though what was on Carlisle’s body looked contaminated and dried up, dying…
My vision blurred again. What, there isn’t just one memory fragment?
“Sacred Tree’s…”
Someone called me. It wasn’t home now. I was dozing. The sunlight was warm and ticklish. I wanted to see who was calling me, but I was drowsy and wanted to just sleep like this. But the voice calling me was so earnest and affectionate that I felt I had to answer that call, even if just for a moment.
Fighting off sleepiness and opening my eyes, the person before me was unexpectedly the Administrator of the Sacred Tree.
Always the same appearance. A dazzlingly beautiful and sacred figure. It was that radiant appearance I had seen in the game before the world changed.
If there was one difference from the appearance I knew, it was that he had his eyes open. His pale green pupils were the color of spring buds. So he had such beautiful eyes. They looked gentle and warm. It suited him, who resembled nature. I reached my hand toward him.
“Master.”
Both my voice and the hand I extended toward him were still young.
The Priest gently smiled as he wrapped my small hand. That smile was gentle yet somehow sad, and on the other hand, looked quite cool.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
