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“Mmm....”
Slowly waking, Yang Yohan stirred drowsily in the warm, comfortable nest. Then, all at once, his eyes flew open. He jerked his head up, glancing around, and realized—mortified—that he had slept so soundly he’d drooled. He quickly wiped his mouth, then awkwardly rubbed at the damp patch in the monster’s fur where his drool had soaked in, smearing it away with his sleeve.
Last night he’d fallen asleep in the embrace of the fur-tailed monster, but now he saw another one had settled nearby. A tentacle tip was resting against his body—it wasn’t as squishy as he’d imagined, but firm and warm.
Sensing their gaze, Yohan offered a spray of Purification light. It was a bribe—his way of saying, “Don’t eat me or attack me.” These creatures seemed deeply contaminated; no matter how much Purification he used, they never returned to their original forms.
The two monsters passed the time enjoying his Purification. Then, the one who had brought him the banana yesterday rose lazily and wandered off again. When it returned, something was slung over its shoulder—a long, squirming shape even more revolting than before.
Was it another banana? Yohan’s hopeful face turned pale after Purifying it. No—it was a snake. Right, of course there were snakes in the jungle. Still, so long as it wasn’t a grub, he could probably eat it. frёeωebɳovel.com
Amazingly, the monster knew how # Nоvеlight # to start a fire. After some slow, deliberate movements, flames roared to life. The first bite of snake meat was chewy, with the flavor of tender chicken. Full from the meal, Yohan was once again wrapped tightly in the fur tail and carried along.
As he dangled in its grasp, he cautiously spoke to the small monsters walking alongside.
“Hey, where are we going?”
He worried they might ignore him, but surprisingly, they answered promptly.
[I don’t know]
[Only they know]
“Then... can we slow down a bit?”
[Even if you ask, they won’t listen]
[They never have]
Being smaller, they were probably ignored by the big ones. Feeling sorry for them, Yohan pulled out some food he’d saved in his sleeve—banana and cooked snake meat wrapped neatly in leaves.
“Want something to eat?”
He offered the meat to the little monsters walking beside him, but instead of eating it, they stuck the pieces to their heads or bodies like ornaments and chattered happily.
[I’ve got a banana decoration now]
[Mine’s a pretty cool ornament too]
Guess they weren’t hungry. Then Yohan felt a pair of eyes on him—both of the big monsters were watching. He froze, wondering if giving food to the small ones was forbidden, but the only response was something like a sigh. Wait... did that monster just sigh?
Days passed like this, Yohan carried along by the fur-tailed monster. Even resigned to his situation, he kept glancing back, searching for some sign of the people he was hoping to find, sighing in gloom. At least the two monsters kept him well-fed and sheltered. By now, he was almost certain they didn’t intend to kill him.
Eventually, they reached a river.
“A river...”
Yohan murmured blankly. A crimson current cut through the jungle, flowing fast and strong. Even here in the Abyss, there seemed to be a source of water. Occasionally, something massive and menacing leapt from the water—surely contaminated creatures.
After a low, rumbling exchange between the monsters, the tentacled one picked Yohan up. Frozen by the unfamiliar touch, he watched as the two fur-tailed monsters trudged straight into the river and dove in without hesitation.
Yohan had grown somewhat used to the fur-tailed one, but the tentacled one was still foreign to him. Trembling in fear, he was startled when the tentacled monster gave him a gentle shake. At first, he didn’t understand—then it hit him. It was... rocking him?
...What? Was it trying to calm him because he seemed scared?
Baffled, Yohan tilted his head just as the fur-tailed monster emerged from the river. Its tail carried something skewered—a deep-sea fish-looking thing. Avoiding its cloudy, human-like eyes, Yohan quickly Purified it. It turned into a massive, unfamiliar jungle fish.
Once Purified, the monsters expertly cleaned it, slicing it into chunks and skewering them on branches. Soon, they had another fire going, and with surprising skill, roasted the fish to golden perfection using tail and tentacles. Yohan stared blankly as a monster handed him a piece. It was nicely salted, oily, and delicious.
‘Wait... why is this salty? Like it’s been seasoned with salt or pepper...?’
His chewing slowed. A thought shot through his mind like a comet.
“Uh... uh?”
Hold on—did that mean...?
“Ah?”
He snapped his head up, staring between the fur-tailed monster and the tentacled one. Their strange forms and behaviors felt... oddly familiar. The fur-tailed one took his fish, picked out the bones, and handed it back to him.
“W-wait a second!”
Leaping to his feet, Yohan scattered gleaming light everywhere, rubbing his eyes hard before fixing them on the monsters. Slowly, their pitch-black, Abyss-like forms began to twist and shift—
—until they regained their true shapes.
“Lee Hyunmook! Seungryong hyung!”
He cried out like it was a scream. Only moments ago, they’d been terrifying, alien monsters—and now they were the two people he’d been desperately yearning for. He could hardly believe it. Yoon Seungryong—the tentacled one—beamed with joy, still sprinkling salt on fish chunks.
“Oh! Our Yohan finally snapped out of it!”
“Sit down and finish eating, Yohan.”
Lee Hyunmook—the fur-tailed one—sat the staggering Yohan down and popped a tender piece of fish into his mouth. Dazed, Yohan accepted five bites before finally speaking.
“Was I... hallucinating all this time? Ever since that flower field?”
“I’m sorry. That’s my mistake. Seungryong and I are so used to that kind of thing, it didn’t occur to me you wouldn’t have resistance. Still, I’m glad you realized and Purified yourself.”
Hyunmook’s voice was gentle as he fed him another piece of savory fish. Seungryong nodded.
“That’s right. Without realizing it, you could’ve stayed like that for months. We were worried—you seemed to see us as monsters.”
Only then did Yohan notice the dried banana and snake meat stuck to their spear tips—the same food he’d given the “small monsters” days ago. So... they hadn’t been little monsters at all.
“Ahhh...”
Groaning in embarrassment, Yohan clutched his head. Memories of his behavior since the hallucination began flooded back—crying, puking, hitting them, even trying to stab them. Thank god the knife had broken against a high-level Awakener’s skin. He glowed with light again, protesting.
“Why didn’t that pollen get Purified?”
“Because Purification works according to your perception,” Hyunmook explained.
“My... perception?”
“If something is obviously harmful—pollution, dust, germs, mold—it gets Purified instantly. But if it seems ambiguous to you, the effect is slower.”
“Even if it’s something causing me to hallucinate?”
Hyunmook rumbled in thought, then crouched to explain at Yohan’s level.
“Is soap harmful to the skin?”
“...No?” freeweɓnovel.cѳm
“But what if it gets inside your body? Or a lethal dose of painkillers, or injected hormones?”
“Ah...”
Yohan got it. Even this fish’s salt was fine in small amounts but lethal in excess. Penicillin was a mold secretion, but if he took it now, his Purification wouldn’t remove it. Same for steroid painkillers or hormones in the body.
Seungryong grinned.
“Your body was fine. Remember those monkeys in the flower field? They hopped around happily, then died. I think the plant filtered out just the toxic narcotic parts. I’m no pharmacist, but that’s my guess.”
In short—his body had been unharmed, but he’d been hallucinating because of a substance that triggered euphoria. By sheer luck, he’d noticed something was wrong and Purified himself back to normal.
Yohan collapsed to the ground, another shameful memory hitting him like a punch. Ughhh! he screamed internally.
“I’m sorry! I was so rude, touching you all over these past few days...!”
“Mmm, it’s fine. I rather liked it.”
