Chapter 29

Chapter 29. Tower - Escort (2)

Milio immediately returned to his house and prepared to gather herbs.

He also brought a simple forest map drawn on parchment, but it was far from precise.

Well, looking at the level of this village, it was on the level of a medieval European village, so that was only natural.

Still, the city on the 10th floor had modern conveniences scattered here and there, and its architectural style had been closer to the modern era, but this place looked like the Middle Ages, the real Middle Ages before the Black Death broke out.

Not all native residents who lived inside the Tower lived in the same environment.

Perhaps there were even native residents living in huts from ancient primitive times somewhere.

The small number of adults guarding the village looked at me and Lee Soo-young, outsiders who had suddenly appeared, with wary eyes, but after hearing Milio say we had appeared from the crystal connected to the Tower, they marveled, wondering whether the legend had been true.

Of course, separate from their wonder, the wariness in their eyes did not change.

There was a small back-and-forth among the village adults who were worried about Milio, but since the Tower had sent us as escorts, the atmosphere shifted toward trusting us for once, and we were able to set out for the forest.

“Milio, you and the people of your village are native residents, right?”

Native residents were not only found on residential tiers.

According to the Tower Community, quests to climb the Tower could take the form of granting a native resident’s request like this, or they could take the form of the Tower ordering something unrelated to native residents.

Come to think of it, native residents on the common tier were protected from Climbers, but these people were not protected.

The opposite was also true, but what was the reason for that?

At my question, Milio nodded.

“Yes, that’s what I know.”

Milio had simply lived in this land, in this village, since the time of his distant ancestors, and he felt nothing strange about it.

No, rather, feeling something strange about it would be the strange thing.

After all, he had simply lived the way he had always lived since birth, without anything artificial involved.

Lee Soo-young and I entered the forest with Milio guiding us. The forest was packed with trees, so it was quite dark despite being midday.

Milio carefully looked around and headed toward a place that was not a path.

“From Bear Rock here, 230 steps in the direction where the moss grows. From there, 70 steps to the left from the direction where the moss grows. Cross the ravine, then from Toad Rock, go about 150 steps toward the lower left from the direction where the moss grows, and there’s the herb colony I’m looking for.”

Looking at the rough map, a wolf’s face was drawn on the part beyond the ravine.

“Is that wolf territory?”

“...Yes. The entire forest is the monster wolf’s territory, but their main activity area is beyond the ravine. That’s why most herb gathering is done without crossing the ravine.”

Just how strong was the monster wolf?

The wolves were probably no different from Goblins, or slightly stronger.

However, the boss wolf would likely be much stronger.

When my expression grew serious, Milio watched my reaction and said,

“Still, the monster wolf rarely moves from the center of the forest. Even if we run into wolves, most of them will be subordinate wolves. Ordinary wolves can usually be driven away with this.”

What Milio held out was a bundle that looked like tiny bean-sized firecrackers.

“If you light this and throw it, it gives off a smell and smoke that wolves hate, so they usually run away right away.”

He was better prepared than I had expected.

Seeing the bundle of bean-sized firecrackers, Lee Soo-young smiled.

“This seems safer than I expected.”

“Let’s hope so.”

As Milio guided us, a bear-shaped rock appeared, and we walked in the direction where moss grew on the bases of the trees, northward.

I opened my qi sense and examined the surroundings, but only sensed a few wild animals. There was nothing that felt like a wolf.

Feeling relieved inwardly, I thought it was impressive that he could find his way through a forest made of nothing but trees, and we arrived at the ravine.

There was an old suspension bridge across the ravine, and Lee Soo-young recoiled at the shabby and dangerous state of the bridge.

“D-Do we really have to cross this?”

“Yes. If we don’t cross here, we have to go all the way around to the upstream side of the ravine, and that takes a full day.”

“Then going around might be... no.”

Lee Soo-young swallowed dryly at Milio’s desperate expression, closed her eyes, and clung to my left arm as if hanging from it.

It seemed she could not bring herself to suggest going around when we did not know when his mother’s condition might worsen further.

Well, if it took a day one way, then a round trip would take two days.

I did not want to spend two days in a dark forest where wolves appeared either.

I crossed the suspension bridge without issue, matching Milio’s pace.

The bridge shook quite a bit, but unless one ran across it, it looked sturdy enough for two or three adults to pass without trouble.

“Soo-young? You’re heavy.”

“Uuu...! A-Are we across?”

“We’re almost across.”

At my words, Lee Soo-young peeked one eye open, then squeezed her eyes shut again.

“Eeeek! Y-You liar!”

At her reaction, I laughed cheerfully.

“Puhahaha! It’s not a lie. If we’re about halfway across, that means we’re almost there. They say starting is half the battle, so if we’ve come more than halfway, there’s only a quarter of it left.”

“D-Don’t spout weird sophistry!”

“Now, now. A person has to be positive. Don’t you know the glass is still half full?”

Lee Soo-young said through gritted teeth,

“Tell me when we arrive before I split you in half.”

Uh, you’re gritting your teeth because you’re scared, right? You don’t mean you’re going to split me in half, right?

Once we crossed the ravine and reached safe ground, Lee Soo-young let out an incomprehensible sound like, “Uuueeeeng~!” and sank down, touching the ground as if she was about to hug it.

“Were you that scared?”

“No, if anything, Ji-woo oppa, how are you not scared of a bridge like that? It looks terrifying at a glance.”

Come to think of it, I had not had acrophobia since I was young.

On top of that, after dying about twice, all I could think was that if I fell, the pain would be short.

“Come on, let’s hurry. We need to dig up the herbs and get out of the forest quickly.”

“Uuu... We have to cross that bridge again on the way back, don’t we?”

Lee Soo-young groaned as if she really did not want to cross that bridge again.

I smiled faintly at the sight, but then felt a gaze from far away.

When I suddenly looked toward the forest, Milio and Lee Soo-young looked at me.

“What’s wrong?”

“A wolf. But it’s smaller than I thought.”

The wolf I had imagined was the kind I had seen on the internet, larger than a person.

However, the wolf caught by my qi sense was larger than a medium-sized dog and smaller than a large dog.

“Is it originally a small species?”

Even among wolves, there were large species and small species.

Or perhaps food inside the forest was scarce, and its growth was stunted.

On the way here, the only wild animals caught by my qi sense had been small animals like rabbits and pheasants.

If there was a relatively large animal, it was a wild boar, but even the wild boar was not very large. And I did not encounter them often either.

“You can see that?”

When I even described its size, Lee Soo-young looked at me as if she found it fascinating.

However, I did not know because I saw it with my eyes.

It was thanks to the fact that even if I lacked everything else, I was born with a sense for handling qi.

“Seeing as it isn’t attacking right away, I don’t think it’s starving.”

At my words, Milio said in an anxious voice,

“Still, let’s gather the herbs quickly and go. There isn’t much farther.”

Milio quickened his pace, and Lee Soo-young, who had been sitting on the ground, also stood and moved quickly.

If possible, I did not want to fight wolves in the middle of the forest.

Fortunately, not long afterward, we arrived at the herb colony.

Whether he could tell which were herbs and which were not among the thick undergrowth, Milio busily gathered them.

I watched Milio gather herbs for several minutes, then asked,

“Will it take long?”

“Just a little more... why?”

“Wolves are coming this way. Looks like they’re trying a two-pronged attack.”

Three wolves from the south and west. No, four?

No, there are more behind them.

Because my skills were still lacking, I could only vaguely sense that there were animals behind them. I could not tell exactly how many there were.

At my words, Milio turned pale and hurriedly finished gathering the herbs.

I took the herb bundle from Milio almost as if snatching it and placed it in Inventory.

“I’ll return this when we get to the village. ...Run!”

At my shout, Milio and Lee Soo-young ran in the direction we had come from.

When the two of them ran, the wolves that had been approaching quietly from the south and west ran after us.

I ran at the rear and threw hand axes while strengthening my muscles with internal energy.

The hand axe I threw split the head of the wolf running in from the far left in half.

Looking at it up close, I saw that a pair of horns like a bull’s grew from the wolf’s head.

So it wasn’t even a wolf I knew in the first place.

“Tsk! I really need to learn a throwing art!”

I was somehow landing hits through luck, but the one I had aimed for was the wolf beside it.

The wolf’s magic stone and hide were a waste, but if I tried to collect things like that, I could end up dead.

As we ran hard, I sensed the presence of wolves ahead as well.

“Soo-young! One o’clock direction! Two wolves incoming!”

At my shout, Lee Soo-young, who had Mulpung the slime on standby, fired two Water Orb Bullets in succession the moment the wolves appeared.

Unlike me, the slime boasted perfect accuracy, and the two wolves struck in the head by Water Orb Bullets collapsed with their skulls caved in.

“More coming from the front! These bastards remembered the path we came from and set an ambush!”

This is insane! How is this the 11th floor?!

Did we get assigned a difficult quest because we formed a party of two?

If we had strong superpowers, there would have been no problem, but neither Lee Soo-young nor I had anything close to that.

“Ah! I leveled up!”

In the middle of all that, it seemed Lee Soo-young’s slime summoning had leveled up.

The mana I felt from Mulpung the slime had also grown.

“I think it can split its shots now!”

“Eleven o’clock direction! Three wolves! Incoming!”

As soon as the wolves came into view, I strengthened my muscles and threw a hand axe.

The hand axe lodged in the leg of the wolf running in front.

The wolf whose leg was not merely cut but whose bone was shattered by the axe rolled across the ground.

“This time, I was aiming for the head....”

Mulpung the slime fired four small Water Orb Bullets from its mouth.

The Water Orb Bullets struck both eyes of the two wolves following behind.

Since they had become smaller, their power had decreased, so they did not kill the wolves, but they burst both eyes and blinded them.

“I think it can split each shot into up to three!”

Lee Soo-young said “I think,” not “it can.”

The superpowers received from the Tower were kind while also subtly unkind, so the detailed use of an ability had to be figured out through intuition.

As if the Tower was telling the person who received the ability to explore it and improve their skill on their own.

I cut off the neck of a wolf charging at me from behind with its horns lowered.

As we ran while taking down wolves like that, we reached the suspension bridge over the ravine.

However, when we arrived in front of the bridge, as if they had been waiting, thirteen wolves surrounded us in a semicircle.

Only after being surrounded by the wolves did I realize it.

“Ah, when I first saw that wolf earlier, I should’ve chased it down and killed it.”

If I had somehow caught and killed that wolf back then, we might not have become targets like this, or they would not have figured out the path we had taken.

But it was already too late.

From within the forest, a horned wolf the size of a bull slowly approached the ravine.

“Grrrrrr.”

The sound of a wolf’s distinctive growl, as if scraping its throat, reached my ears.

There was a suspension bridge behind us, but it was not sturdy enough to withstand those wolves chasing after us.

I smiled broadly and said,