Chapter 12 – 012 Awakening
Thanks to being able to see the color system, Hwanin secured a lot of food and worked hard to improve his physical condition as much as possible in hiding for three days.
Because there’s nothing you can do with a broken body.
So, I spent the first day sleeping to recover my physical strength, and on the second day, I tried to regain lost senses and strength by practicing push-ups, balancing, and stabbing with a spear.
These actions were effective, and although not as good as when I was fine, my strength returned to some extent, and the bruises and joint pain all over my body were greatly alleviated.
The problem is the right thigh.
Fortunately, the fire didn’t fester, but the heat didn’t go away.
The ground nearby was much cooler than body temperature, and if I hadn’t filled my shirt with dirt and used it as an ice pack, it would have caused serious sores.
Hwan-in knows a few ways to alleviate inflammation, but there are only methods that cannot be used in the present situation.
The only viable method is to use clay to cool it down, but since there is no water nearby, it is impossible to make clay.
‘I guess I’ll have to move to a place near the Great Lake.’
If you make clay to cool the inflammation and clean the wound with clean water, the condition will be much better.
Food is sufficient. Mushrooms are left in a well-ventilated place, and they gradually dry out and lose their color.
It is expected that it will become a dried mushroom and become a portable food later.
In addition to mushrooms, grass roots and tree bark also have a long shelf life. Edible bugs come out when you dig, and there are edible things on the lakeside…….
Hwanin came to a conclusion and immediately got up from his seat and started to pack his things.
Food is wrapped in large, wide and long tree leaves, and four animal skins are rolled up and tied with string. And look at the weapon.
The stone ax and black club will now be used for everyday use.
A dagger attached to a black wooden stick about 2m high, a weapon with only a name and color, showed stronger power than expected.
Even when I was in the worst condition, I could easily take down two green monsters and three beast-headed monsters.
Since the shortsword is also a completely iron weapon, its killing power will be the greatest among the weapons it possesses. What’s left…….
Hwanin’s eyes turned to the cane.
He was a Hwanin who reminded me of a green monster that used psychic powers whenever I saw his staff.
Reason tells him to throw it away because it is just a wooden stick and a heavy burden, but an unfamiliar feeling of lingering holds back his ankle.
What if this wand is the medium for that psychic power?
“…….”
In the end, Hwanin wrapped his shortsword, stone axe, black club, and cane in leather and left the hideout where he had taken care of for over a week with emergency food.
Kiki Kiki.
Kiruk. Kiyug.
To key.
‘Those guys…… What are you doing?’
Hwanin, who was moving in a straight line toward the Great Lake, witnessed a suspicious sight.
It looked like five green monsters with wounds here and there, making pained gestures and heading somewhere.
Wounds from cuts, stabs, or bites. Did he even fight a beast-headed monster?
Hwanin thought for a moment and then silently started chasing after the monsters.
If the green monsters were headed opposite or in a different direction from the Great Lakes, they would have waited for them to pass and then continued on their way.
But when he noticed it heading towards the Great Lakes, he strangely felt compelled to follow it.
Hwanin, who had been chasing after about an hour holding the beak so that the emergency food would not cry, narrowed his eyes at what he was doing after arriving at the flower field where green monsters were widely spread.
The five green monsters threw away their clubs and wooden sticks and spread out across the flower garden, raking only the flowers with golden buds on the broad leaves of the reed.
Several flowers were growing in the flower garden. Among them, the monsters gather only the golden buds and leaves similar to the lily of the valley.
After a while, the monsters, each bringing a handful of buds and a few leaves, sat down randomly, crushed the buds with stones or pebbles, spread them on the wound, and applied the leaves.
Key. Kygrr.
Kiek? Kyakyak.
Wow…….
The monsters, who had all the wounds covered with crushed golden bell flowers, flirted with each other for a while, then left with less pain than before.
“…….”
After all the green monsters disappeared, Hwanin entered the flower garden and looked at the flowers with his hallucinatory vision turned on.
Most of the flowers were blue-green, but there were rare black flowers, and there were also red and purple flowers.
And the golden bell flowers were unusually milky white.
Achromatic milky white flowers.
I had seen milky white a few times when I was gathering food three days ago. They were grass resembling sprouts and insects resembling fireflies flying in broad daylight.
“Is this an effective color for wound healing…….”
Come to think of it, there were quite a few of the green monsters I killed that had scars on their bodies that seemed to have healed.
I didn’t think much of it at the time, but if you substitute what you just witnessed, it means that you healed your wounds with this flower.
‘The taste is similar and the hallucination color is similar. I don’t know if this will work for me.’
After putting down his burden, Hwanin collected golden bell flowers that accounted for a large portion of the flower garden, crushed them like the green monster had done, lowered his pants, and applied them to the wound on his thigh.
‘…… I don’t mind, but does it really work?’
Thinking for a moment, Hwanin wondered if he had attached the leaves of the golden bell flower for no reason, so he covered the wound with leaves that looked like reed leaves.
After waiting for about a minute, the wound area, which had been disturbed by the mild heat and pain, suddenly began to feel cool.
A feeling of cool and thrilling sensation, as if applying water paste to a mosquito bite, covering both pain and heat.
After waiting for a while, not only the crushed golden bell flowers but also the leaves adhered to each other like glue and did not fall off.
“Amazing.”
Did the juice from the crushed golden bell flowers cause a chemical reaction with the leaves?
I’m still not sure about the healing effect, but……. After thinking for a while, Hwanin picked large and fresh leaves from nearby bushes and collected an appropriate amount of the buds and leaves of the golden bell flowers.
It doesn’t matter if there is no healing effect. It’s worth applying it to the wound just by applying cold compresses.
While watching the situation, Hwanin, who was carefully packing it in the inside pocket of his coat with the intention of reapplying it, heard emergency food suddenly sounding quite loud and looked around in a hurry.
Kigyaak-!
Kya Gya Gya Gya-!!
Five green monsters that had left in the distance were running.
Hwanin stood up with a spear without any expression on his face, and the five green monsters that were running towards him flinched and stopped at the sight of Hwanin pulling out a long spear out of the flower garden.
Key, key-geek?
Key…….
“…… ?”
Hwanin, who had caught dozens of green monsters and understood the monsters’ habits, was puzzled by the actions of the five monsters in front of him.
The green monster is a classic weakling.
They are strong against weak enemies and weak against strong ones, but if there is a target of a suitable size like themselves alone and they are three or four, they will try to attack them.
Then, when a few die in an instant, they get scared and run away.
But those five, despite their overwhelming numerical superiority, did not rush and looked at each other, so what? What do we do? The look of concern is evident.
Hwanin silently picked up a stone from under his feet and threw it at them with all his might.
Shh- Puck!
Kak! …… Kiyoohoh clothes!!
I didn’t really mean to fit in. A green monster whose genitals were hit by a flying stone attacks with its eyes reversed.
Key, Key Geek!
Kyaa!!
Then the remaining four also forcibly screamed and rushed together as if it was nothing special.
“Suck! Whoop!!”
Fuuk-
Keck.
Push-
Kleurerek…….
The green monster that rushed first to Hwanin’s lightning-like thrust fell down with a hole in its heart, and the second green monster that arrived after was slashed by a quarter of its throat from the swing and sat down and made a gasping sound.
“It might be better to take off the dagger and tie the shortsword.”
Kihik?!
Hick…….
He swung it with the intention of striking his neck, but as Hwanin muttered that the result was much less than expected, the remaining three began to retreat in fright.
It is not an illusion to leave it behind.
Hwan-in, who had no intention of letting the enemy live and leaving no regrets, spurred the ground with his intact left foot and ran as if flying and stabbed the three animals with three consecutive stabs, once each in the chest.
“Hmm…….”
I thought I would miss one of the three times and had a follow-up attack in mind, but the three attacks were sucked into the green monster’s chest, and I was slightly surprised.
Anyway. It is the result that made me realize that the difference between having a proper military weapon is bigger than I thought.
Isn’t this a one-sided slaughter?
It was a fight that didn’t even get excited, so Hwanin quickly turned his nerves and looked down at his right thigh.
Even with small but vigorous movements, there is little pain.
A slight fever rises in the cool refreshing feeling, but seeing that the refreshing feeling is not penetrated, it seems that there will be no additional wounds.
Hwanin packed his things and walked towards the lake with a more comfortable pace.
“Whoa…….”
After applying crushed golden bell flowers, my walking has become much easier, but as I walk like holding a cane with a spear in order not to put pressure on myself, I run out of breath due to my lost stamina.
Still, when the open sky and the sea-like jade-colored lake were revealed in front of my eyes, I felt my stomach open and I started to get motivated.
Cheerreuk-
Hwanin, who had been hiding in the bushes for about 20 minutes and looked around, confirmed that there was no threat and slid down his slope to the gravel shore.
As we learned about the efficacy of golden bell flowers, the need for clay and cold compresses, which were the main purpose, disappeared, but the secondary purpose of securing food remained.
First of all, Hwanin, who had prepared his food well so that it would not get wet by the waves, washed the torn running shirt he had been using as a bandage and spread it out on the hot gravel field to capture star clams and jade crabs.
“Hmm.”
The color system of the jade crab and star clam seen through hallucinatory vision was the lower color (cyan color) and very light long and short color (red color), respectively.
Star clams of short and long colors, close to orange, lost a lot of color when cooked over fire, and became an orange color that was infinitely close to white.
“Eat.”
All six grilled star clams were given to emergency food.
He didn’t mind eating it, and it was because he thought he’d get sick if he ate star clams because his condition wasn’t normal.
Contrary to star clams, jade crabs turn completely white after being steamed, and can be consumed without burden.
The steamed jade crab, which had turned red, was being eaten alone without giving it to emergency food, so the emergency food, which smashed all the shells of the star shell, stared at Hwanin and cried loudly like a bizarre yellow chicken.
Queueek!
“Didn’t you eat star clams?”
Pretty much!
“…….”
It’s getting more and more domesticated, but it seems like I can’t even understand the language, but it must be because of my mood.
It’s a bit startling, but there’s plenty to eat anyway.
Hwanin took out one of the three that he had grown for storage testing and placed it in front of the emergency rations.
Pak! Pajik, Kwadeuk! Knock knock!
Then, he breaks the shell of the jade crab with his beak and eats the flesh.
If you look closely, you can see that the strength of the beak of emergency food is also amazing.
Even though it’s steamed and the jade crab’s shell itself is weak, it smashes it like that with its beak…….
Hwanin, who watched the destructive eating show of emergency food for a while, also started eating jade crab again.
Slurp-
“Well.”
After picking the carapace and drinking the white, well-ripened flesh and intestines, the savory taste spreads in your mouth as if you had eaten something clear and clean, rather than the fishy taste of the sea.
Hwanin smiled lightly, thinking that he could eat without worrying because of his hallucinatory vision.
Of course, it wasn’t without worries.
What if the hallucinatory vision malfunctions, what if the information perceived by the color system is different, what if this information does not apply to you, a creature from another world, and so on.
“I’ll think about it then.”
Thinking that there was no need to worry after buying it, Hwanin muttered that he should read and memorize as many things as possible while chewing on the crispy jade shell.
Satisfied, Hwanin buried the remains of star clams and jade crab shells left over from eating, erased the traces, and started moving eastward along the water’s edge.
Hwanin, who guessed that there might be a monster living in the lake, moved as far as possible away from the shore of the lake and along the low cliff.
The gravel field is about 70m wide. Even if a monster jumps out of the lake, 60m is enough to avoid it in the jungle.
Shoot aaaaa shoot
The sound of waves crashing and crashing is clear and pure.
Unlike the sound of the waves on the sandy beach, the sound of pebbles rolling in the waves stimulates the inner eardrum like ASMR.
“…….”
The only thing I didn’t understand about this pebble lake shore was that the pebbles were completely free of aquatic plants and sphagnum moss.
I once visited Mongdol Beach in Yeongheung Island, Incheon with my parents, and I remember that the pebbles there were covered with green moss.
But here…….
Oooh oh-
“?!”
Hwanin, startled by a sound similar to the cry of an elephant from the side of the Great Lake, turned his gaze toward it and soon widened his eyes in astonishment.
A whale that looks the size of a fist on the surface of the water so far away that the distance can’t be measured…… A similar creature was leaping to the surface.
Huge horns like a trident, and rocks like a head wrapped around…… Scales? Crustacean?
Anyway, the creature with the lumpy head soared high into the sky, surprisingly to the eye.
Aaaaa…… !
It fell back into the water and created a huge splash.
I’ve seen a scene where a nuclear bomb explodes underwater in a war-related documentary program, but the creature caused a similar mushroom cloud of water…….
“…… Ugh.”
Hwanin, who belatedly realized the height of the soon-to-be approaching wave, came out of his mouth in amazement.
Forgetting that his thigh hurt, Hwanin jumped to the cliff and grabbed hold of a tree root protruding from the edge of the cliff and started climbing straight up.
Of course, the height of the cliff is the highest around 8 meters. In addition, the angle of the cliff is also close to vertical, making it difficult to climb.
Recalling the rope climbing course of the guerrilla training, Hwan-in climbed about 2m and glanced back.
She witnessed the tsunami approaching her moment by moment, far exceeding her own height.
Dduduk!
“Keugh!”
The forearm-thick root he was holding cut off and almost fell, Hwan-in hurriedly looked at the surrounding cliffs while clinging to the thigh-thick root he was holding.
There is no way.
The root of the tree he just grabbed broke off, leaving a void about 1m above the 3m point where Hwanin was hanging.
Up there, much thicker and stronger tree roots protrude out of the cliff, but I can’t reach them.
There is no crack to push her fingers through to support her weight, and no place to set foot.
The walls aren’t even that strong in the first place.
In the end, Hwanin clenched his teeth and wrapped his left leg around the root of a tree that was exposed outside the wall and closed his eyes tightly holding the root with his arms.
The fierce waves that approached immediately swallowed Hwanin head first.
