Chapter 3

Chapter 3 : This Is a Survival Story (3)

Day ten.

The inner flesh of the tree tasted vile, but it filled my stomach.

I had no intention of abandoning a reliable source of nourishment that had even earned me an achievement just to start chewing on other plants.

My tongue might have gone numb, but my stomach handled it well enough.

Chew, chew.

Once I peeled it and left it alone for a while, it even turned slightly brown, almost like jerky.

Once my hunger was soothed, my head started working again, and my vision seemed to widen. Only then did the full landscape of the forest come into view.

This forest had more than one or two suspicious things about it.

There was a reason I had resorted to chewing trees and considering grass in the first place.

‘Why are there no fruit-bearing trees?’

And beyond that, the proportions were strangely off. What I thought was a tree turned out to be grass, what I thought was grass turned out to be a vine, and so on.

Nor was that all. Even if I would not have been able to hunt anyway, there were no moving creatures here. Not small insects, not birds, not beasts, nothing.

At the uneasy feeling, I spat out the blade of grass in my mouth and turned my head toward a rustling sound in the distance.

Until now, the only things moving in this forest had been me and that creature.

“Woldeer, do you not know the way?”

As I gradually mapped out the area around my base and carved the terrain into my memory, I grew close to the creature that had been following me from the very beginning.

I had named him by combining wolf and deer, and he seemed to like it very much.

Woof! Kyaaang!

See? He even talks well now.

The creature, who had been more than ten meters away, came trotting over at my call and wagged his tail.

As I stroked Woldeer’s fluorescent violet fur, my gaze settled on the two horns jutting sharply from his head.

Whenever I looked at things like this, it struck me all over again that this place definitely was not Earth, and I started wondering whether I had truly gone mad.

What kind of world had I ended up trapped in?

Was it really inside that strange original work?

It was strange that I, who still swung back and forth between those doubts several times a day, was slowly beginning to accept this as reality.

“Woldeer, why do you only bring me things that are edible enough to kill me?”

Only after speaking did I belatedly look down at the object he had dropped on the ground with another strange cry, and force the corners of my mouth upward.

Either yesterday or the day before, I had eaten something he brought me in good faith because it was supposed to be food, and I had been sick for an entire day.

I had no idea where he even found things like this, since I never spotted them myself.

I swallowed hard as I looked down at the unidentified lump dripping green juice.

“No. Bad. Bad.”

If I ate that, I would die.

Was it possible Woldeer was actually trying to murder me?

Avoiding Woldeer’s gaze as he wagged his tail furiously, I retraced my steps.

With my thoughts trailing one after another like linked tails, I did not think I would find anything in this state, and it seemed better to return before the sun went down.

“There are still areas I have not checked.”

The ruined site I had chosen as my base was, in terms of its overall scale, at least the size of a city. Even giving it a rough survey took quite some time, and many areas were blocked by piles of shattered stone and enormous boulders that had no business being there.

No matter how quickly an artificial structure untouched by human hands might decay, this place had clearly been abandoned for a very long time.

And with the moss piled so thick it felt soft underfoot, and trees and vines growing through the stone, it closely resembled the ruins I had once seen before.

“Hmm?”

So the reason I discovered the anomaly was pure coincidence upon coincidence.

It was because the rain had not fallen for a full day, and the moss, as though deciding this was its chance to stretch itself at last, began tracing patterns all at once.

The blue moss that had spread evenly across the white stone was swirling only over a single stone floor, as though reacting to something.

Even without relying on intuition, anyone looking at it would have realized there was something there.

I had almost walked toward it as though drawn in when Woldeer abruptly pressed down on my shoulder and stopped me.

As though that were not enough, he stepped fully in front of me and blocked my way with his whole body.

“Woldeer, why—”

RUMBLE—.

Before I could even voice the question, a tremendous sound shaking the earth swept through the entire ruin.

Woldeer’s fur stood on end. He bared his long fangs even more threateningly and became rigid with caution.

‘What is it reacting to?’

RUMBLE-RUMBLE—. CRRRAAACK.

I saw small stones in the distance begin hopping from the vibrations. The instant I instinctively realized I was doomed, I turned to run, but—

The ground beneath my feet shuddered, and the perfectly intact stone floor split wide open to one side.

For one brief instant, my eyes met Woldeer’s as he stood beside me.

Even then, he snatched me up in his jaws and reacted to the collapsing ground.

He even leaped, drove his long claws into the wall, and slowed our fall.

But even that weak impact was enough to make me black out on the spot.

Damn it.

My stamina was pathetic.

---

Truthfully, ever since I had fallen into this forest, I had blacked out more times than I had eaten.

Let us not bother distinguishing between sleep and fainting.

Perhaps because of that, even in that hazy instant at the edge of waking consciousness, I could recognize at once that I was moving and that I had survived.

The soft fur I had my face buried in was definitely Woldeer’s.

Thinking that at least I was not being dragged by the leg like last time, I put strength into my dangling limbs and hugged Woldeer tighter.

Kyaoung—!

Realizing that I was awake, Woldeer stopped for a moment, let out a pleased cry, then resumed moving.

For now, I was relieved just to discover that I was riding on Woldeer’s back with all four limbs intact, and I rolled my eyes around to examine the surroundings.

Perhaps because we had fallen underground, the light was faint.

Only a few shafts of light filtering through the gaps between roots in the ceiling illuminated parts of the space.

Thick tree roots had come all the way down to the floor, digging into the place and settling there in a tangled mass, so very little of the underground structure remained in proper form.

Even so, the mechanisms had still worked well enough to trigger a trap, which made the place feel like a dungeon out of some old tomb-raiding game.

‘Well, it is not going to collapse, right?’

I raised my upper body a little farther and looked down at Woldeer as he crossed the rather wide space.

“You knew the way?”

Woldeer had been the one to stop the trap in the first place, and considering that he was even carrying me after I had fainted, it seemed he knew what sort of place this was.

As time passed, the darkness gradually receded and brighter light began to seep in.

And then we passed a huge arched pillar.

Ding!

[You have achieved the achievement 〈Discovering an Ancient Civilization〉.]

[You gain points +1P]

[……Processing……]

[You have entered a special area.]

[A 【Field】 quest has been assigned.]

【Field】 Treasure Hunt—You Want Me to Find This?

You, who have discovered slumbering ruins.

Through coincidence upon coincidence upon coincidence, you have reached a place you were never meant to find. Since you are already here, let us at least find the treasure before leaving. Treasure chest lids exist to be opened, after all.

▶Fragment of the Original Work (Bound)

〈Tip〉 You must find the treasure before it disappears.

〈Tip〉 It must be completed within the field (common to all fields).

〈Tip〉 There is no penalty for leaving the field (common to all fields).

Blazing sunlight that stabbed at the eyes, pale dust floating in the air, enormous pillars too large to measure, and rippling water where the light shattered across its surface.

At the far end of that view, atop a great altar, sat a transparent glass case.

Its placement practically screamed that this was the treasure.

“The fact that it is sitting out in the open makes it even more unsettling.”

The whole place radiated the atmosphere of a boss-raid field set inside a gloomy forgotten temple.

All the more so because Woldeer, with his fur standing on end, could not cross the shimmering water and merely stood at its edge, growling low in his throat.

For a creature that had apparently come here on purpose, Woldeer looked to be in rather poor condition. His tail was tucked tightly in, and his cries were sharp with caution.

The moment I stepped down onto the floor, Woldeer scampered off and stood at a point where he could still see me from a distance, then began licking his paw. It was the paw he had carelessly dipped into the water earlier and immediately pulled back out.

“Hmm, is it acidic?”

I picked up a stone from nearby and tossed it into the water. The small stone made a quiet ripple and sank to the bottom without any visible change.

I crouched by the water’s edge, watching the faint ripples settle, then lightly touched the surface with my fingertips.

“It is cold.”

At least by feel, it was just ordinary water.

At the sight of water, the body I had been roughly making do with using rainwater suddenly felt unbearably grimy.

That forest did not even have a proper puddle or stream. It had been maddening.

I scooped up a handful of water as cold as melted glacier ice and washed my face.

Droplets fell from my hair and made one small ripple after another on the surface.

I ran a hand along the sharpened line of my jaw, brought back out by days of starvation, and swept aside the bangs that had grown long enough to cover my eyes.

The reflection was not even very clear, but I looked wretched enough to put any common vagrant to shame.

“Carbohydrates, protein, meat, flour, instant noodles, something strong, something violently flavorful…… I want to eat.”

I rose to my feet and stepped straight into the water.

The water was so clear, and the bottom so dark, that I could not judge its depth, but I had no other choice.

The splashing water, which at first barely covered my feet, grew deeper the closer I came to the altar, until near the end I had to half-swim the rest of the way.

Fortunately, the altar had been carved like steps descending below the waterline, so climbing up was easy.

Wringing out my clothes, now hanging heavily from the water they had absorbed, I strode up the altar steps and fixed my gaze on the transparent case.

“A book, after all that?”

That was what I said, but somehow it pulled at my eyes.

Maybe it was because the angle of the light seemed arranged to emphasize it.

The sunlight spilling into the space reflected off the structure and gathered, then poured itself back out again, making the glass case shine all the more brilliantly.

“So it went on about ancient civilization and all that. Did they use some strange technology?”

I stared hard at the glass case, which had absolutely no theft-prevention measures, then cast a quick glance around.

Since it was such an obvious treasure chest, I could not help suspecting that touching it might make the whole place collapse, like some overused cliché.

“Treasure chest lids exist to be opened…… that is what it said.”

Recalling the quest text, I boldly removed the glass case and took the book into my hands.

Scratch-scratch, scritch-scratch.

From far away came only the sound of Woldeer scratching his fur with a paw.

The book resembled a notebook.

It was thin, and small enough to fit comfortably in one hand.

When I carefully lifted the cover, which bore no title, three or four yellowed pages fluttered over at once.

Its preservation had been terrible. Even the small amount of moisture left on my hand was enough to make the damp portions go limp.

With all that sacred atmosphere and the way it had been called treasure, I had assumed it would at least have some kind of permanent-preservation enchantment on it, or something of the sort—

“Disappointing.”

To make matters worse, every letter written inside was in an unfamiliar curling script.

The characters, roughly scrawled in red ink, were in a form I had never seen before. If I had to explain it, it felt like the cursive of some unknown people.

Is it bad handwriting?

It is bad handwriting.

It definitely is.

I pressed a hand to my forehead for a moment and steadied myself.

Will something work out somehow? No. No, it will not.

“Please install a Korean patch, you system bastard.”

The original work had displayed just fine, but this felt like playing an imported game with incomplete translation.

Just as I was continuing the thought that perhaps this was one of those details where ancient relics could not be deciphered—

Ding!

[You have discovered a fragment of the original work.]

[You clear the 【Field】 quest 〈Treasure Hunt—You Want Me to Find This?〉.]

[The fragment 〈Travel Log of an Ancient Civilization〉 has been transferred to the Executor.]

[……Calculating fragment rank……]

[The Executor’s contribution to the original work increases.]

[Current rank of the Executor: Minor■F → Minor Role□]

[일ㅅ―■#^ㅈ■□∴로―ㅅ〓∞∏]

[!ERROR!]

[……Processing……]

Ding!

[Some data was damaged during synchronization with the original work.]

[The Executor’s 〈Language〉 data is incomplete.]

[Translation support will be provided temporarily.]

[▶Translate Specific Target (╶1P)]

I had been waiting to see when that error would finally be repaired, but hearing that there was outright data damage pushed me past disbelief and into helpless laughter.

How was I supposed to entrust my life to something this unstable?

Even so, it had been steadily piling up points, throwing quests at me, and offering things that almost counted as guidance, so I had endured it.

“Even without repairing the error, it dutifully takes the points.”

I rubbed at my stiff temples, then lifted the thing that was supposedly a travel log in front of my eyes.

If I had the time, I could probably have translated it myself. But right now I had no time, no food, no strength, and no right to choose anything.

And I wanted to get out of this forest.

With both the system and the original work having betrayed me together, I needed the information written in this book called a travel log immediately.

[1 point has been deducted.]

Over the distinctive, angular script that twisted like vines, familiar letters spilled across the air in neat lines.

Those letters stayed fixed to the book and followed it whenever I moved it, making them look like afterimages beyond thick glass, or perhaps a hologram.

Out of instinct, I ran my hand across the book, but there was no physical effect.

My hand merely passed straight through them without distorting them or making them disappear.

Had it been applied directly to my brain?

“You system bastard, you may have sold your conscience, but this part is interesting.”

The translation did not restore the damaged sections.

It looked almost smug, as though it were boasting that it would support translation and nothing beyond that.

I flipped past the front pages, which were too damaged to make out properly, and focused on a section that was somewhat easier to read.

Chewing the wood I had brought along like gum, I began reading through the plain lines of text.

Kwaaak—!

Woldeer cried out from one corner, but—

“Master, let us get out of here now.”