Chapter 20 – 020 Flood – River
Hwan-in, who quickly recovered from the shock of encountering the blue flame tiger, arrived at the cliff near the river and continued downstream, looking out for the lizard man and frog man.
Despite the fact that the surroundings are getting darker, the frog people and lizard people are still submerged in the water or gathered by the river and crying croaks.
‘Aren’t there any natural enemies of that monster in this area?’
If there is a natural enemy, it will go back to its hiding place at night or hide in the depths of the river, but not a single one has left its place.
Even if you hide or go back to hiding, crossing the river seems difficult.
Despite walking for two hours along the river, there was no sign of the river narrowing.
Swimming across a 60m-wide river with a relatively fast current is something that Hwanin, who is not good at swimming, should be prepared for.
Considering the monster’s attack, the attempt to cross is reckless.
“…….”
As the sun sets and the bluish moon rises, the frogmen chirp like tree frogs.
They are large and not infrequent in number, so the sound of frogs fills the riverside, making it difficult to hear other sounds.
Perhaps because of that, the emergency food that fainted after being hit by the blue flame tiger’s tail came to its senses.
Kkuh?
The emergency rations, which were piled on top of the pack of animal skins, didn’t immediately recognize why he was here or where he was, and blinked several times before turning his head like a dog.
Quack!
And, as if relaxing on Hwanin’s shoulder, the tail feathers are raised and the beak is trimmed, which is the appearance of a bird that wakes up from sleep and grooms itself.
Hwanin looked at the emergency rations he was using his beak to tidy up the wing feathers with complicated eyes for a moment.
As the days go by, I wonder about the identity of emergency food.
Since he was smart, he must have known how strong the blue flame tiger was.
However, the emergency food did not run away from the blue flame tiger, but even blocked the blue flame tiger on behalf of himself, who was hardened by the feeling of intimidation.
Suicide, no matter how good it is. It is an action that I would never have done if I had intelligence, and it would have been possible if I did not have intelligence.
‘What… It doesn’t matter.’
It’s not that it’s not helpful at all, and it’s not bad to have a pet bird like this.
If the emergency rations are gone, they will only treat you better if you let them go and stay by your side.
When he takes out an insect he collected during the day from his pocket and feeds it to the beak of his emergency ration, he quickly swallows it and presses Hwanin’s cheek with his head as if asking for more.
In the evening, Hwanin, chewing bitter plants such as grass roots and sagebrush and taking care of emergency food, noticed that the width of the river was gradually narrowing.
If you go down a little further, the width narrows and the capacity decreases, so the distribution of lizard people and frog people also decreases.
Hwanin’s gaze scans the surroundings more closely.
Up to this point, the river had flowed in a straight line, but the river curves greatly in front of it and goes into the jungle.
If you keep moving along the river, it is a course that has no choice but to go deep into the jungle.
Take a closer look at your surroundings with spirit vision.
The only thing 200-300m away from him is 5 frog people on the riverside and 2 lizard people in the deep river.
Even those two are across the river.
If you go further, there may be a place where the situation is better than here, but it may not come out, and above all, the maintenance time of the soul orb ends after about an hour.
“…….”
Hwanin knelt down and looked down at the 6m cliff while stroking the emergency food that made a sound of satisfaction as he thought about many things.
Cheodeok cheodeok cheodeok cheodeok.
A human frog is approaching with a funny gait, making a sound that might have been heard if you walked on wet flippers.
Maybe her eyes are bright at night, but the frog person didn’t notice Hwanin on the cliff 8m above her head.
Eventually, the Frog Man reached the cliff and started groping along the bare cliff with webbed paws, making a gurgling sound.
Chow- Chow-
Then he sticks out his long tongue and licks the dirt.
‘Are they eating rock salt?’
Silently observes the frog man’s actions and uses his spirit vision to estimate the distance to other monsters.
‘The nearest frog man is 40 meters away.’
Even that is squatting like a frog and looking the other way.
The other one was half-immersed in the river beyond 100m, and the remaining two frog-men just stand idly on the other side of the river.
After summarizing the current situation, it was concluded that the frog man has poor night vision, a poor sense of smell, and does not have a heat sensing function.
Tak, Tak.
He kicked a small stone at his feet and dropped it next to the Frog Man, but the Frog Man didn’t even notice it.
‘Eyes, ears, and nose are all bad, but they managed to survive.’
Maybe the reason why I live with lizard people is because I consider them to be my own kind.
Hwanin put his emergency rations down quietly on the ground, slung his spear on his back along with a pack of animal skins, and spread the decree with the beast’s head monster’s soul orb.
When a faint orb that emits weak light enters the chest, it is feeble, but as the heart beats rapidly, heat rises in the body.
“…….”
He grabbed the wand so that it fell off the tip and threw it behind the frog man.
Widely! Degururr.
As if he had heard enough of the sound this time, the frog man stopped licking the dirt wall and looked back. At that moment, Hwanin, holding the handle of the stone ax with both hands, jumped without a sound.
Kwajik! Cheer La Rock-
The ax blade hit the head of the Frog Man for about 2/3 due to the force of the fall and the force of the blow, and immediately after that, he fell down with the Frog Man into the gravel field.
As if all the damage from the fall had been received by the frog man underneath, his body condition was fine except for the terrible watery, sticky, and disgusting fishy smell.
Goe eh…….
Hwanin, who got up quickly, heard the sound of preparations about to scream and grabbed the handle of the stone ax stuck in the head of the frog man.
“Suck!”
And when I gave my arms as much strength as I could and pulled it hard, I heard a terrifying sound of bones and flesh being ripped off, and the top of the human frog was ripped out along with the skull, and even part of the brain cortex was crushed.
Paddle paddle.
Could some of the blown cortex be the problem? The frog man moves his left and right eyeballs wildly and trembles his limbs.
Hwanin immediately took out a spear and pierced the frog man’s back where his heart was supposed to be, and the frog man stretched his body with a squeak.
What is it?
And the frog man, who was about 40 meters away, got up and turned around.
Hwanin quickly thrust his staff into the bag behind his back, grabbed his spear with both hands, and ran towards the frog.
Jararak! Left-handed…… !
Hwanin, realizing that the soles of his shoes are pushing the pebbles and not getting enough speed, focuses more on the behavior of the human frog looking this way.
Awesome! Awesome! I’m sorry!!
The human frog also recognized Hwanin and began to cry loudly as he continued to scoop up water with his webbed hands.
What does that action mean?
Supportive position…… !
As I thought so, several luminous green light beads appeared around the body of the frog-man with the sound of water dripping onto heated iron.
‘Magic?!’
An ominous green light with no visible color system.
The moment he witnessed the light, Hwanin felt goosebumps rising on his forearm and left side of his neck, and without hesitation threw the stone ax tied to his waist at the frog man.
Shuririlyuk- Puck.
In the end…… Wow!
The stone ax that flew rapidly rotated and got stuck in the frog man’s right shoulder, but the green light that had already gathered in the frog man’s hand turned into an arrow and was fired.
“Huh!”
Hwanin twisted his body unconsciously, and the green arrow passed where Hwanin’s shoulder had been just a second ago and hit the cliff behind him.
Excuse me! I love you!!
The frog man, holding a stone ax stuck in his right shoulder, makes a big jump toward the half-fallen Hwanin trying to avoid the green arrow.
All in all, even if the distance is appropriate, it is too appropriate.
The interval at which you will be mortally wounded if you allow an attack.
Instead of correcting his posture, Hwanin spurred the ground and threw his body as it was while holding his staff with his left hand and pointing at the frog man and fired a soul explosion.
“Good!”
However, because he was shot from a collapsed position, his soul orb flew in the wrong direction.
‘Damn. …… ?!’
Contrary to Hwanin’s idea of wasting one marble, the marble turned in a semicircle and attacked the human frog from behind.
Kwakwang!
Exploded loudly.
Caught in the shapeless explosion, the Frog Man lost his stone ax and fell to the gravel, his skin ripped open.
I don’t know why, but it’s a golden opportunity.
Hwanin almost rolled over and stabbed the human frog, whose eyeballs were bursting and his skin was cracking and dripping bodily fluids.
“Aaaaa!!”
Chijijijiji job…… !
Another strange sound coming from behind.
Hwanin shoved his hand into the intermittently trembling frog man’s wound and lifted it up to cover himself like a shield.
Pooh-!
At the same time, the arrow of green light that flew hit the frog man, and a smoky smell came out with a blunt impact.
The smell was so disgusting that I wondered if it would be like this if I burned the poison.
‘Poison arrow!’
Hwan-in ran towards the hesitant frog man, probably embarrassed, while holding the convulsive frog man like a shield.
It is far. 100m away.
Jiji support job…… !
Hearing the strange sound again, Hwanin let out a noise.
‘Damn it. I wish I had one more arm!’
Is it because I prayed that it would not fit my body?
Magic poison arrows flew twice while narrowing the distance of 100 meters, but one shot hit the frog-man shield’s head and the other hit the frog-man’s shield’s abdomen.
Excuse me?!
And as it was, Hwanin, who hit the frog man by throwing a creature shield, ran towards the frog man who was lying on the gravel field with his dead brother.
Poo-wook.
Just like that, I stabbed a spear into his eyeball.
Gerrrr!
The feeling of the skull being smashed with the tip of the spear and the feeling of stirring the brain are conveyed at the same time.
“Hoo-wook.”
Hwanin, who killed the frog man instantly, turned his gaze toward the river.
I see two frogmen swimming like frogs across a river.
Hwanin immediately ran and retrieved the deer antlers staff, waited until the two arrived at the riverside, and then fired one soul explosion at a level that slightly missed them.
As I just felt, the soul orb should have a decent induction function.
Shuuuuu-
And as Hwanin speculated, the soul beads showed a suitable induction function, came out of the waterside, returned to the backs of walking frogmen, and exploded.
Kwakwang!
I love you!
Guess!!
Two human frogs with open wounds all over their bodies, as if they were rolling on a sharp rocky field, begin a bizarre dance as they roll over the gravel field.
Hwanin stuck spears into the snouts of the two animals and messed with them.
“Whoa.”
Hwanin, who won unscathed thanks to heavenly luck, exhaled for a long time and then identified five human frog souls floating on top of his corpse.
Sure enough, the human frog’s soul was also in its original form.
Will it be possible to use magic poison arrows if the soul of a frog human is enslaved?
The existing 5 Soul Orbs used 3 so there are 2 remaining. Frog man has five souls……. After thinking for a while, Hwanin freed one of the beast-headed monster’s soul beads and retrieved the soul of a human frog by turning it into beads.
Both arms and legs from overuse in the short battle are shaking, but there are still two lizard people left in the river. It’s not time to rest.
But how do you get those guys hiding deep in the water…….
“…… !”
The spirit of the freed beast-headed monster summoned it back just before ascending to heaven, made it into a ball and shot it at the lizard man in the river.
‘Also!’
As expected, the soul orb flies through the water as if it were going through a medium.
And an explosion from the head of a lizard man who was hugging a rock in the water. It caused a violent wave.
Flutter-
While the surface of the water was rioting, the situation of the lizard man could not be seen due to the hazy water bubbles.
After waiting for a while, the surface became calmer, and all the bubbles that made the water cloudy disappeared, but the two lizard people were nowhere to be seen.
When Hwanin, a little taken aback, looked downstream, he found the soul colors of two human lizards floating along the current. It is a state of fainting from the shock of an underwater explosion.
Looking around, I saw the distant frogmen staring this way, as if they had heard the noise.
The distance is hundreds of meters away. The frog people, who have very poor eyesight and hearing, don’t seem to be able to decide whether to come or not because they can’t grasp the situation here.
The lizard people in the water are going one step further, and those on the downstream side go downstream, and those on the upstream side go upstream, widening the distance.
Could it be that they are afraid of the unknown phenomenon of an underwater explosion?
While thinking about what to do, Hwanin felt that the spirit was leaving after the end of the program.
Hwanin, frowning, came to a conclusion and used the human frog’s soul orb to spread the decree.
Then, his eyes naturally turned to the water, and the knowledge of swimming came to mind.
As for my physical abilities, I feel that only my physical strength and leg strength have become stronger.
“…….”
Once I was able to shoot poison arrows, I planned to kill all the nearby monsters in relative safety and then cross the river while clinging to a log…….
I should be happy that I have a means to cross the river safely, but what is this feeling of losing somehow?
‘A poison arrow isn’t a skill, but a supernatural power.’
Hwanin immediately took off his coat and wrapped it in a pack of animal skins.
“Huh!”
I threw it across the river as hard as I could.
Normally, it would have been impossible, but thanks to the strength of his body and the effect of the power to increase his arm, he was able to cross the river easily.
Then he threw down his spear, tied a antler staff to his back with a vine stem, and immediately jumped into the water wearing only a black club and a stone axe.
As you immerse yourself in the moderately cool water temperature of the river, you will feel a sense of familiarity as if you have returned to your hometown.
According to his knowledge, Hwanin did not reject the flow of water, but accepted it and teased his arms and legs. At that time, the body is surprisingly moving through the current.
The Frog Man’s knowledge was not how to swim, but how to adapt to the flow of water.
Thanks to this, the existing swimming skills and a little knowledge were combined with the understanding of water, leg strength, and physical strength to transform into excellent swimming skills.
“Pooh.”
Hwanin, who crossed 40m in just 20 seconds, felt refreshed as if he had taken a shower, quickly packed up his belongings and clung to the 8m high cliff.
“Not only arm strength, but also finger strength has improved.”
There was no need to cling to the root of a tree. The low cliff made of stones had numerous places to hold hands and step on, and the strengthened arm and leg strength was enough to support the body.
Hwan-in, who climbed to the edge of the cliff in no time, watched the frog people walk belatedly in a world that seemed light gray due to the soul’s vision.
Frog people touch the corpses of dead kinsfolk and eventually start preying on kinsfolk.
“…….”
I thought it was a monster with many structural defects to operate on land, but I never thought it could use magic.
Fighting at night was the correct answer. If it was daytime, I would have been devastated by the magical poison arrows that the Frog Men came and shot.
Take off your shoes, throw away the standing water, and take off your soaked clothes to wring out the water.
I couldn’t change or wash my clothes for two weeks. The anti-contamination function of clothes has long been obsolete. Dirty water trickles down and the dog smells like wet dogs.
“Whoa.”
My shoulders and back are sore because I used too much strength while being nervous. It must be because he ran with a frog man weighing about 60 kg.
Hwanin, who relaxed his tense muscles by stretching moderately, blew a whistle toward the cliff on the other side.
Quite a bit.
As if responding to a whistle, the emergency rations quacked and cried, flapping their wings, and landed on Hwanin’s shoulder.
Hwanin walked into the forest holding a spear and a deer horn staff in each hand and maintaining his tension.
