Chapter 51 – 050 Yellow Ridge
Hwanin and his party feared that the spotted wolf might chase them, so they moved nonstop along the ridge towards the yellow bald mountain that looked small in the distance.
However, there were no attacks by monsters or beasts as expected.
When the mountain tortoise moved, all the animals and beasts living nearby, as well as the route of movement, ran away.
Wheein-
As night fell, the temperature dropped and strong winds began to blow.
When he was moving along the river, he didn’t feel cold even at night, but perhaps because of the high ground, Hwanin felt that the temperature had dropped significantly.
Even women are feeling quite cold when they repeatedly stroke their bare arms.
Ennel then raises her head, sniffs, sniffs, and looks around. Then, she approached Hwanin and started talking to him.
= Eun-in. I think there is a bear den nearby. The wind that blows smells of bears.=
“It would be nice to rest there today. Could you please guide me there?”
=Yes. This is it.=
The crypt was not far away. It was on one side of the ridge, inside the vastly winding terrain, but it was a place that was hard to find from above or outside.
= I can’t hear anything from inside. Is it a bear den?=
=It smells like a bear…….=
After hearing Huini and Ennel’s story, Hwanin slid down the slope and inspected the inside of the crypt.
The depth was not very deep, about 15 m. By the way, the height of the ceiling is 2m, as if the size of the bear is quite large.
“It looks like a bear den.”
Hwanin said while looking at the pile of bones with flesh attached to the other side of the crypt.
The owner of the crypt must have abandoned the crypt and ran away because of the mountain turtle.
By the way, the smell of animal stink and the stench from the bones are mixed, creating an indescribably terrible smell.
=I’ll clean it up right away!=
While Ryuhi and his siblings were clearing out the main source of the smell, Hwanin approached the edge of the forest near the ridge and gathered firewood for a night’s fire.
Whenever he moved, his stomach ached from being kicked by a werewolf, but he was a Hwanin who thought it was a good thing.
If my skin was in necrosis, then I wouldn’t have felt anything at all.
Returning with a pile of firewood, the crypt was cleared. Not a single bear hair or bone was visible here and there.
“It looks clean.”
= I scraped it all up and buried it in the ground. If you light a bonfire here, the smell will go away to some extent.=
Maybe it’s because the main cause of the smell has disappeared, but it’s not that the smell isn’t bad, but it’s tolerable. But if you light a fire, the smell will go away.
I can’t light a fire
When you prepare to light a fire and start the embers with a fire steel, yellow flames quickly rise.
= This is a strange thing. It’s not flint, but it pours more sparks than flint.=
Epnis, who had been watching from the sidelines, muttered incredulously at Firesteel and the multi-tool, but when Hwanin moved away, he took out smoked meat from the corner and began to grill it.
= Eun-in. Dress… Can I fix it?=
“Can you?”
=Yes. I often trimmed, weaved, and sewed the wedding clothes worn by village girls when they got married.
Hwanin, who was taking off his clothes after hearing Ryuhi’s story, suddenly questioned the way he communicated.
The words weaving, trimming, and wage sewing that she puts into her mouth can be said to be professional everyday terms used only in Korea, so to speak. In foreign countries, it would be about making cloth and weaving.
When I think about it, the fact that I have never heard English or foreign words spoken by women deepens my doubts.
=Ah.=
As she took off her last shirt, Ryuhi let out a small scream. When she looked at her, her pale complexion pointed at her own abdomen, and her phantom bowed her head.
“…….”
There was a dangerously black bruise on the abdomen that had been kicked by the werewolf.
Even looking at her, her eyebrows furrow, but what about Ryuhi, a woman? She was a phantom whose screams were understandable.
= What should I do……. Are you very sick?=
“I’m fine now.”
=Wait a minute!=
She wasn’t talking empty words, but Ryuhi told Epnis to boil her water, and she hurriedly left her crypt with Huini and Ennel.
“…….”
Sensing his gaze, he looked back at Epnis, who widened his eyes. Epnis hurriedly turned his head away, took out a wooden bowl, poured water into it, and set it firmly over the bonfire.
Hwanin watched her and slowly rubbed her hard stomach.
I can feel the touch of my palm, and the part where my palm touches is also a little throbbing. This means that the senses are returning to normal.
Bruises usually go from red to blue to purple to brown and slowly disappear. The color of the bruise changes depending on the blood that escapes from the capillaries and the condition of the red blood cells in it.
Hwanin, who was examining the condition of the bruises, noticed that the edges of the bruises were purple.
The shock to the abdomen caused the capillaries to rupture in a wide area, turning the entire abdomen black, but the edges of the bruises were dark purple instead of blue. This is the stage where the bruise gradually heals.
Usually, it takes three or three days of bruising to reach this level. But to be in this state after a few hours…….
‘Are the bloody stones related to regeneration?’
He stared at the bloody stone he had been holding until now with serious eyes.
The effect of the pearl-colored stones given by the old land seal was to strengthen the attack skills that matched the abilities of the land seals.
The werewolf who left the bloody stone had exceptional regenerative powers, so it wouldn’t be strange to say that some of that power resided in this stone.
But it is questionable.
The werewolf’s regenerative power was about 4 cm, and even cuts healed quickly. Even if you don’t want that kind of regenerative power, if you have some strength, this bruise should disappear in an instant…….
‘The effect seems to be very low.’
It was a bloody stone the size of a quail egg. It was not even half of a pearl-colored stone that was a little smaller than an egg.
If the effect varies depending on the size, it is roughly understood.
Ryuhi, who had led his younger siblings out, came back shortly afterwards with a cattail-like plant and a bunch of transparent leaves.
= Eun-in. Please lie down I’ll steam you up.=
“Thank you.”
There is no reason to refuse to do it, so I lie down on the animal skin that Ryuhi has spread.
Ryuhi immediately started pounding something that looked like a cattail stem into the ground. Then he began to vomit white fur, a dark brown sausage-like plant.
An amount of hair that is two to the thickness of a finger and dozens of times that length came out, but as if it was not enough, I beat a few more to pull out more hair-like things.
= Ennel. Blanch the nacelle leaves.=
=Yes.=
‘It’s not even rice paper.’
The thin leaves, almost transparent, became more transparent and flaccid as they entered and exited the water.
In the meantime, Ryuhi, who had gathered enough hair to cover and sleep, immediately dipped it in a wooden bowl steamed with white steam, fed it with hot water, squeezed it with both hands, and began to place it on Hwanin’s stomach.
‘Moxibustion or steaming?’
Cover the blanched leaves that finely drift the gray mass over the bruises of the pears.
My stomach warms up and the throbbing pain goes away. When the warm feeling of the blood-colored stones was added to this, the stiff abdominal muscles relaxed and it became easier to breathe.
‘I don’t need to use dried golden bell flowers.’
= Eun-in. Please eat this.=
Epnis brings out well-roasted smoked meat and politely serves it.
= Eunin-nim, I’ll change the steam.=
Hwanin took a break while being cared for by two beautiful girls.
It felt like a luxurious break while being cared for by beautiful girls.
The owner of the crypt returned as the night passed and dawn approached.
The owner, who did not even dream that there would be an illegal intruder, was caught by Hwan-in who was on watch at the same time (he assumed that he would return), and the owner of the crypt, which resembled a Malayan bear but was the size of a Kodiak bear, was cold at the edge of Hwan-in’s spear. Turned into a sword
If the Malay Kodiak was in good condition, Hwanin might have struggled a little due to the difference in weight class and physique.
However, the owner of the crypt was full of bites and scratches all over his body, as if he had already gone through a big fight.
Since his physical strength was also low, he summoned the spirits, spread the decree, and then poured out an onslaught, and in less than 5 minutes he was able to split the head of a Malay Kodiak.
‘A lower-middle class soul.’
Although it is of the same grade as the bloodsucking demon, it was stronger than the bloodsucking horse in the basin near the Twin Mountains due to its size, but it was never weak.
Does the grade have nothing to do with the strength of the individual?
The soul of Malay Kodiak floated in the air as if forgetting that he was killed by Hwanin, and was enslaved by Hwanin.
“Hmm.”
The soul of Malay Kodiak was also an effect focused on strengthening physical abilities. I feel that my strength and stamina have increased by nearly 40%.
Feeling his muscles tingle, Hwanin looked at the corpse of a Malay Kodiak whose skin was slowly separating in the hands of women.
After leaving the Twin Mountains, Hwanin immediately began to spread the doctrine as soon as he collected the souls of animals or beasts he had never seen before.
It was to check the skill or special ability first.
As his psychic powers grew, the restrictions on soul beads greatly decreased, so there was no reason to deliberately keep soul beads. Therefore, it is better in terms of efficiency and crisis response to prioritize collecting information on the souls of each race.
However, after leaving the Twin Mountains, I rarely met spirits with skills or special abilities.
‘The animals that live there must be special.’
According to the situation, the jungle he first stepped into was a place that could be called the realm of a labyrinth.
Shouldn’t the beasts or animals that live nearby be different from the beasts here, which can be said to be the outskirts of the labyrinth?
Sleeping curled up next to a campfire, I looked at the emergency rations.
‘I also met emergency food there. It would be correct to say that the animals and plants here are different from those there.’
= Aww~!=
=Cheer up a little more!=
=Uhhhhh!=
Watching the women trying to peel off the skin of a Malay Kodiak, which is almost twice as tall as Hwanin, Hwanin grabs the end of the skin that is about 1/5 peeled off and pulls it with force…….
Jerky-
The skin peels off with the sound of flesh tearing.
=Wow!=
= It’s great…….=
It was possible because he was receiving the strength-enhancing effect of the lower-middle class soul, but women who didn’t know that just looked at Hwanin with envy.
= Guys. I have to trim the meat quickly before it gets spoiled by the heat.=
The smoked meats from Twin Mountain were running out, but there was a huge amount of meat.
Ryuhi once again suggested adding smoked meat, and Hwanin accepted.
It’s cold enough to make me shiver because it doesn’t even rise. It was good to dry the meat, so the women started to fillet the bear meat, and Hwanin also helped with the process with a multi-tool knife.
“Let’s throw away the wounded part.”
= Yes? But then the meat would be reduced a lot…….=
“This is the part that was attacked by another animal. It seems like a bad idea to dry it when you don’t know what germs it might have on it.”
Are women like what Hwanin said? The injured part was cut and collected separately.
Of course, Hwanin has almost no knowledge about such diseases and germs. However, the reason why he said such a thing was that the wounded part looked red or yellow in the soul’s vision, so he just added the appropriate words.
= Eun-in. Shall we throw away all this meat?=
It’s a mountain of meat that looks like it’s 50 kg at a glance.
Epnis, who was absent from cutting and laying out the meat, asks with regret.
“Let’s bake it and check it out.”
=Yes. I’ll bake right away.=
“Well……. It looks better grilled.”
=More here?=
“Yes. It looks like it should be deep fried.”
= If you bake it longer, it will be tough to eat…….=
=Me and Ennel can eat!=
Huini shouted as Ryuhi cut something like bamboo into quarters to make a lattice.
Is the Inrang tribe similar in jaw strength to that of wolves? Thinking so, Hwanin watched the state of the meat with his soul’s vision and continued to interfere.
“Even though it’s hard to eat, it’s safe to bake it.”
“That side is undercooked.”
“There, riding.”
=Yes, yes.=
It was the meat that I was going to throw away anyway, and the story of Hwanin is strangely persuasive.
“That’s enough.”
When I saw that the soul color of the meat had become completely white, I cut it into pieces and put it in my mouth.
And the texture of chewing the rubber that came to me.
Hwanin, who forcefully chewed and swallowed the meat with his strong jaws (with the lowest level of command), felt his jaw tingle and narrowed his eyes.
By my standards, this is not meat, but food waste.
Epnis, who was about to taste a piece of meat, sees Hwanin’s expression and puts it down.
“It’s fine.”
= I don’t think you’re okay…….=
“It means it is safe to eat.”
=Ah, yes.=
Ryuhi also frowned as if he had cavities while chewing on meat about the size of two fingers.
As for the emergency rations, when the well-cooked bear meat was brought in, it flopped and beaked like ‘Get this away!’ As a result, Huini and Ennel ate it all up.
=Wow, this tastes great. Ennel, how delicious is it?=
= Yes. Everything that tickled my teeth is gone.=
“…….”
Is there anything wrong with the smell? It was a reaction that made me think that the Inrang tribe was human on the outside and a wolf on the inside.
More than 300kg of meat came out even in the snow mass, so Hwanin and his party stayed two more days to smoke all of it, and after that they proceeded smoothly toward the Yellow Bald Mountain without facing any major danger.
Groups of beasts attacked from time to time, but they were defeated without much difficulty.
Although they were walking on a ridge that stood out, they were able to prepare for the attack because emergency food was constantly watching from the sky, and women were able to do it because they were now able to protect themselves to some extent.
Even if they were to protect it, the four people who received the decree focused on defense, and in the meantime, Hwanin quickly wiped out the beast.
= Bald Mountain doesn’t get any closer. =
On the fourth day of the trek towards the Yellow Bald Mountains, Ennel wiped the sweat from her brow.
= That’s right Did we float this much in the lake of Orzot?=
= You could have gone in the wrong direction while wandering in the forest of labyrinths. There are also streets that were dragged by Hob…….=
=…….=
The women’s expressions darken as if they recalled bad memories.
Hwanin didn’t interrupt the women’s conversation, and he only fiddled with the bloody stone in his left hand, thinking about something else.
After testing the blood-colored stones for 4 days, the efficacy I learned was just about relieving fatigue and slightly increasing natural recovery.
‘It would be really disappointing if the effect differed depending on the size.’
The land seal spitting out pearl-colored stones looked like it might have lived for decades.
Werewolves had a strong feeling that they were in their heyday, pushing with strength and physical abilities rather than old age, so I guess they were young individuals.
What is stored in the body, that the two sizes are different from each other, and that the age of the possessed object is greatly different.
Putting these together, it is natural to see that the size of the stone increases as time passes and the effect improves.
That doesn’t mean it isn’t satisfactory.
It’s a little disappointing, but it’s a very useful stone just because it relieves fatigue and increases natural recovery.
After fighting the herd of animals that I encountered while moving, I felt that my fatigue was clinging to me.
After two fights a day, it’s to the point of slightly sore muscles.
Because of that, it became a daily routine to relax and train muscles every morning and evening so that severe muscle pain would not come the next day.
The problem is that this kind of training is also one of the causes of increasing fatigue.
However, after getting the bloody stone, such fatigue was greatly reduced.
After a fair amount of fighting, you recover by walking. Even after a little bit of intense fighting, even if you train roughly and go to sleep, your body will be energized the next day.
And that’s not all.
Hwanin touched his stomach.
The bruises covering her abdomen are now pale yellow and only traces remain. I don’t feel any pain even when I press it hard, and my skin doesn’t feel tight.
It is a natural recovery effect that reduces the healing of bruises in about four days, which would take a month at the shortest or several months at the longest.
How can it not be satisfactory because it not only increases the limit of activity but also significantly increases resilience.
As I continued to think while fiddling with the blood-colored stones, Ennel and Huini slightly pulled their arms from the left and right and said,
= Eun-in. It smells like water.=
=I can hear the sound of water!=
“There seems to be a river nearby. I will replenish drinking water.”
After cutting off his thoughts, Hwanin moved to the forest with Huini and Ennel sisters at the fore.
