Chapter 35

Chapter 35 : Treasure Hunting Is Made of Dreams and Hope (5)

There was one thing I had realized after failing the previous Epic Quest.

The Epic Quests were indicators that warned me in advance of moments crucial to the flow of the Original Work, and the backlash when I missed them was incomparably greater than with any other quest.

I understood well enough that the system wanted to destroy the Original Work, and if the Original Work continued on as it was, then war breaking out was all but inevitable.

Which meant I could no longer ignore the Epic Quests.

“The Black Forest? Why?”

I couldn’t exactly say, Because I have no choice but to go there if I want to obtain a fragment of a Phantasmal Species, so instead I dragged in what had happened after the bait incident last time.

“I was wondering whether you’d reached any conclusion about the increased number of Phantasmal Species and that strange sphere.”

Pan’s eyes narrowed. Folding his arms, he stared at me as if to say, Why are you suddenly asking such nonsense?

I brazenly met his gaze head-on.

“The abnormal behavior of the Phantasmal Species was caused by that sphere, so the Black Forest is currently in the process of stabilizing, but…… what are you plotting?”

“Plotting? It’s curiosity.”

“Give me that bracelet.”

He meant the bracelet that allowed one to leave the barrier stretched across the forest’s domain safely.

I pulled my hand, still adorned with the jingling bracelet, behind my back and refused.

“You said you weren’t the type to give something and then take it back.”

“Then stop dodging and tell me why. Why are you trying to go to the Black Forest? You couldn’t cross even if you wanted to. The broken bridge still hasn’t been repaired.”

“It still hasn’t?”

The fixer’s office had been repaired in a week, so I’d assumed the bridge must have already been fixed too. I hadn’t even considered that as a problem.

“It would be more accurate to say we’re deliberately not repairing it. If anyone from the Underworld wants to cross into the forest, they have no choice but to pass through there. After all that ugly business, there’s no reason to restore the bridge.”

I couldn’t ignore the way Pan smiled slyly and kept nudging me to confess.

If the bridge remained broken, then unless I suddenly sprouted wings like Hwipone, the Epic Quest would once again be driven to failure.

In the current situation, I couldn’t do anything without explaining something to Pan.

Cautious bastard.

“Don’t tell me you’ve suddenly decided you want to cross back again? Have you rediscovered your identity as one of the Underfolk, and now you want to go home or something?”

Why would I go back there when there was a lord who slashed first and talked later?

I shook my head and started babbling through the excuse I’d prepared in advance.

“I don’t know whether Hwipone told you, but there was a Phantasmal Species with me that first day—”

“Hm. But it’s already dead, isn’t it?”

“—there was, and yes, it died. But when I passed by there again during the last operation, I saw that traces of it were still left behind.”

“And?”

“That thing was the one that saved me when I was dying in the Black Forest, and I don’t like the thought of it just being left there like that.”

“So what are you planning to do, go put up a gravestone or something?”

I had been the bait in an operation meant to kill the Phantasmal Species whose numbers had increased.

Pan’s mocking tone clearly meant, So after helping kill dozens of Phantasmal Species, you’re now going to collect one’s body for burial?

And I knew perfectly well that he meant it that way.

“If the Black Forest really is stabilizing the way you say, and once things are more settled, then wouldn’t it be possible to go and at least put up some sort of marker?”

Of course, it was an excuse.

On top of that, Woldeer’s corpse had been swept below the gorge, and I had confirmed only the smallest trace of it, so I couldn’t even guarantee I would be able to recover anything.

In the end, all I needed was a fragment of a Phantasmal Species, so it didn’t necessarily even have to be his.

If the forest was stabilizing, then the number of Phantasmal Species would eventually return to its former ratio, so it would be better to go before that happened.

I had no clue where the creation method might be, so I needed at least to find the fragment quickly.

If I delayed too long and the Original Work advanced and the air filled with the threat of war, entering the Black Forest would become even more difficult.

That was one more reason I couldn’t afford to leave it for long.

“It hasn’t even been that long since the Underfolk crossed right up to the threshold.”

“As if the Underfolk would look at one of their own and try to kill him on sight the way you lot do.”

“When does that grudge ever end?”

“For life?”

“Ha…….”

Pan glared at the documents piled up on his desk as though he wanted to kill them, then rose to his feet.

He went to stand before the antique map hanging on the wall and pointed to a certain spot.

“Here.”

“Where is that?”

“The Black Forest. The gorge where the bridge used to be.”

I stepped closer and checked the place Pan was indicating.

It was a full map of the forest’s domain. One region had been painted a distinctive black, and that was where Pan was pointing—the Black Forest.

Looking at it, I was once more struck by how the map in the travel record had truly been nothing but a crude list of sentences.

“There have been no further reports of Underfolk infiltration.”

“Really?”

“That’s your only problem. The broken bridge.”

“Can’t you just toss me over the way Hwipone did?”

“If you want a quick death, I’d be happy to.”

Madness gleamed in Pan’s blue eyes.

I gave up quickly and obediently waited for the real reason he’d told me this much.

“There is another way to cross the gorge.”

Oh…….

---

Aaaaaah—aaah—ah—.

My own scream whirled through the gorge and echoed back at me.

Standing on a foothold no bigger than a single span, my back pressed against the cliff, I swallowed hard without even wiping away the cold sweat pouring down me.

Pan had set only one condition.

I had to return within two days at the latest, or else he would assume I had gone back to the Underworld and come find me just to kill me.

“A member of the Underfolk who has been allowed into the Record Archive returning home would be a spy in the truest sense, wouldn’t it?”

Yes, yes.

A trifling Underfolk has only one life, after all.

In the first place, since Karon already seemed to be mistaking me for Sek, I had not the slightest intention of returning. There was a man over there with bloodshot eyes, fully intent on killing me. Why would I go there?

Wrapping my trembling body in my arms, I stole a glance down into the gorge.

I had felt it the day I fell from the bridge too, but the water below was far too deep and dizzying to offer anything like a cushion.

I calmly reviewed the route Pan had described.

If the path used to cross the gorge before the bridge had been built still existed, then there was one way.

If you climbed down the absurdly rickety steps made by driving small stones into the cliff near the bridge, you would eventually find several vine ropes hanging there. You crossed the rushing waters by gripping those vines, then climbed back up the far cliff the same way. It was a simple route.

“You climb down the steps, cross over, and then climb up again. Easy, right?”

For a moment, I thought of some fluffy-haired television man saying, Isn’t that easy?

Of course, the members of the Sky, Hwipone included, had all returned by now, so there was no convenient option of being flown across the way I had been before.

I twisted up the corner of my mouth as I glared at the golden Epic Quest list shining at the edge of my vision.

“So if I want that, I have to cross this.”

There were three things I needed to collect.

The Seed of a Phantasmal Species could be ignored for now, since it was the bird still perched on my shoulder.

The creation method could also be ignored, since I didn’t even have the faintest clue where to begin.

The only thing with any real possibility was the fragment of a Phantasmal Species.

I knew full well it wasn’t literally a corpse or a body part.

I had seen enough of them during the black-fog assault last time, when I killed several Phantasmal Species.

Where an ordinary animal would have a heart, a Phantasmal Species had a single jigsaw-piece-shaped fragment embedded there.

Even then, from the artificial look of it, I had already half suspected they were not naturally occurring.

And now, seeing a quest openly demand the creation method, I finally understood where the Surface Folk’s hatred of the Phantasmal Species came from.

The Surface Folk, who lived close to nature.

The Phantasmal Species, artificially created in opposition to that.

And the Underfolk, who wielded them.

It wasn’t just simple hostility—there were many aspects of the setting itself that stood in direct contrast to one another.

“Can I really cross that safely?”

Once I had climbed all the way down the perilous steps, the overwhelming roar struck my eardrums first.

It was the scream of the current below, whirling against the walls of the gorge and violently clawing at both cliffs.

And above that, dozens of vines hung down in twisted tangles, stretching all the way to the other side.

I had to cross that while clinging to them without so much as a single proper safety measure.

“Easy, right? Eaaasy, riiight?”

Damn it.

Steadying myself with difficulty, I grabbed one of the vines and tugged.

The vine on the far side rippled back with unnerving elasticity.

Calling it “good elasticity” was one thing. What it really meant was that the sway was large enough that it would be perfectly suited to dumping a person straight into that mixer-like torrent below.

I scratched at my forehead and sighed.

Should I wait until the bridge was repaired and come back later, or should I cross now?

“The answer’s already decided.”

I wiped my sweaty palms on my trousers and seized the vine.

Perhaps because I had been eating well and sleeping well lately, I was able to pull myself up with my arms more easily than expected and hook my legs over it.

‘Why. Am. I. Going. Through. All. This. Misery. To. Obediently. Do. What. That. System. Wants.’

The moment my foot touched the little rock on the far side, my stomach lurched and I vomited up the nausea.

The bile left my tongue stinging, and the sky went yellow.

If I’d really been dropped into this damned world, then at the very least it ought to have handed me some kind of fated good fortune.

Ding!

[Here you go. A lucky break. Ta-da~ (∩^o^)⊃━☆]

I thought my eyes might rot.

System bastard, am I amusing to you? Do you think I’m funny? Are you enjoying watching me roll around like this?

Not a grain of trust remained in me, but I still couldn’t help feeling a flicker of hope, simply because I was desperate.

The little white sparrow fluttered up and landed on a dead tree jutting out halfway down the cliff, chirping insistently.

One: if I didn’t come up at once, it meant it would fly away.

Two: I was already suspicious that this was the “lucky break” the system had just thrown at me.

Three: it meant I had to climb those deadly steps all over again.

Four: I was wondering if perhaps, this time, I really ought to drop everything and run.

I let out a long breath that blew my bangs back, then stood up.

The two golden words 【Epic】 were still at my back, urging me on.

The place where I first found Woldeer had been a narrow crevice below the gorge.

The fact that I had even spotted the trace while being flown away in Hwipone’s grip that day had been close to a miracle.

There had been a dead tree wedged into the crack, and caught on that dead tree had been a tuft the same fluorescent purple color as Woldeer’s fur.

Strictly speaking, even that didn’t prove for certain that it had belonged to Woldeer.

What was certain, however, was that Hwipone had not destroyed Woldeer’s jigsaw fragment that day.

I lifted my head and looked at the dead tree where the little bird was perched.

It was the same tree. One twisted branch had grown around another, long branch in a tight spiral.

“You’d lose your way if you went alone.”

As the little bird tilted its head, the red thread held in its beak fluttered.

It stretched out from me and disappeared into the cleft of the cliff where the dead tree had taken root.

The Power of Phantasm. Energy spun from me.

“So much for a lucky break. It was a place I already knew.”

Ding!

[It says it’s disappointed that it got caught. (；′⌒`)]

It had only just gone quiet for a while, and already it was acting up again, making irritation slowly rise in me.

So once again, I was dancing right in the middle of its palm.

At the tip of the dead branch, I found more of Woldeer’s fluorescent purple fur.

The trail disappeared into the pitch-black crack in the cliff, enough that it didn’t quite look as though it had simply fallen from above and been swept inside.

Could it be—

“Could Woldeer still be ali—there’s no way.”

For one instant, hope flared.

And at the same time, I remembered the thick pool of blood from that day.

There might be another Phantasmal Species in there instead. What was I supposed to do if I reacted to everything like this?

I shook my head and studied the crack.

It was just wide enough for one person to pass through, and yet it gaped as though intent on swallowing anything that entered.

The deep darkness filling that space radiated the fear of the unknown, enough to make even the short distance one could reach with an outstretched hand feel uncertain.

“Ha. I really don’t want to go in there.”

Flit.

While I was still hesitating, the little white sparrow, still holding the red thread, flew into the crack first.

I stared at it with hollow eyes as it vanished almost immediately into the darkness, then followed the faintly glowing thread and stepped inside after it.