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According to Hyunmook, life in what they called the Reed Sea Zone was nothing if not monotonous. It was no wonder: all around them stretched endless grass and reeds. Other than the occasional monster leaping from the reed beds or the unsettling cries of strange birds circling overhead, the days were calm. The only advantage was that the vegetables and fruit seeds they had brought from the Japanese zone—made fiercely hardy and resilient by contamination—still grew well here.
Here, Joo Hoyoung was especially busy. Having once been nearly trapped by a Bumram flood in the Japanese city, he now made it a habit to scout far ahead every day to prevent a repeat. Aside from occasional hunting trips for food, there was little for the others to do. To stave off boredom, Yohan focused on training his power.
“Ah! I did it! I really did it!”
Yohan shouted, overjoyed. Sitting beside him, Hyunmook smiled.
“Nice and neat. You shaped it well.”
What Yohan had just created was a small, round, flat cluster of light, no larger than his palm. After a week of relentless effort, he had finally moved beyond scattering motes like water from a sprinkler, able now to mold them into the form he wanted. Beaming with pride, Yohan’s face then grew serious again.
“All right. Focus, focus....”
The softly glowing cluster shifted under his will. It wavered into a lopsided triangle, then slowly reshaped until it became a long, slender rod. Sweating from the effort, Yohan threw it with all his strength.
Whoosh... The flimsy rod of light drifted weakly through the air, landing toward Seungryong, who lay sprawled on the ground. With a swift movement, Seungryong caught it in his mouth before it could strike his chest.
“Waaap.”
Beaming with happiness, light flashing from his lips, Seungryong made Yohan laugh awkwardly.
“Think, if I train more, I might be able to hit a bird in flight?”
“Of course. You’ll get there.” ƒrēewebnovel.com
Hyunmook encouraged him, but the next rod Yohan threw crumpled like a paper airplane and fluttered off, landing in the reeds. The spot it touched flushed green with purification, startling a bird into squawking and fleeing.
“I can spread it thin easily... but condensing it is hard.”
“Every ability has its own nature.”
It was true. Seungryong’s poison tended to spread outward, Hyunmook’s lightning wanted to strike irregularly, Hoyoung’s ice condensed, and Yohan’s purification had its own unique tendency.
But Yohan didn’t give up. He kept trying to condense light into arrows he could launch. His goal was to purify contaminated things at a distance—so he could cleanse his companions from safety in a crisis. Ultimately, he wanted to strengthen his power enough to restore Seo Yakrin from afar.
“I wonder where Seo Yakrin is right now....”
He strained to sharpen his light into arrowheads, though the energy kept splintering outward. Seungryong, chewing idly, muttered:
“Who knows. The old man’s probably hiding out somewhere. Maybe he’s scared of the team leader.”
Since Seungryong and Hoyoung so often called Hyunmook frightening, Yohan snuck a glance at him. Hyunmook’s expression was as unreadable as ever.
Well, when he’s in his mad state he’s scary, sure... but not as bad as they make it sound.
Distracted by that thought, Yohan lost focus. The tip of his light-arrow burst open with a pop, transforming unmistakably into the shape of an umbrella. Seungryong burst out laughing, rolling on the ground.
“Pffhah! Yohan, you’re really not cut out to be a damage dealer!”
“...It turned into an umbrella. I guess it’d be useful if it rained....”
But purification-light had no physical substance. Rain would fall straight through, purified but not blocked, leaving the umbrella useless even in that regard. Yohan sulked, staring at the glowing umbrella—until Hyunmook casually reached out and took it.
Startled, Yohan’s eyes widened. Wait—it separated from me? ƒгeewёbnovel.com
“A fine umbrella.”
Under the scattering spokes of light, Hyunmook smiled. His white-streaked hair caught the glow, shimmering like silver threads. Dazed, Yohan stammered:
“W-well... umbrellas aren’t bad, I guess....”
And just then, as if on cue, another unpredictable black downpour began. Yohan quickly cast umbrella-shaped light over Seungryong, who still lounged lazily on the ground.
Purified rain fell gently through the spokes, clear and fresh, onto their heads. Hyunmook, holding his light umbrella, closed his eyes serenely. Raindrops caught in the glow, sketching a faint rainbow across his wet hair. It was the most beautiful sight Yohan had ever seen in the Abyss.
This umbrella is really nice....
He resolved to make one for Hyunmook every time it rained. Watching him like that filled Yohan with quiet pride. When the rain stopped and Seungryong rose to cook, Hoyoung returned from scouting. Yohan, busy purifying ingredients, greeted him warmly.
“Hoyoung! Welcome back. Nothing happened?”
“Yeah. No sign of a Bumram, no sign of an encirclement.”
Relief washed over Yohan. He had been so scarred that even the word “Bumram” made his heart seize.
“Why are you all soaking wet? Guess what I found!”
Hoyoung raised something high. Kiiiiiiiii— It was a bundle of foul, slime-dripping creatures, oozing venomous fumes strong enough to sting the eyes from a distance.
Wait. Eye-stinging? Could it be? Yohan clapped a hand over his mouth.
“Ch-chili peppers!”
“What?! Chili peppers?! Where, where?!”
Seungryong, busy with cooking, bolted over. As he watched intently, Yohan carefully purified one of the pods. Splitting it open, he gasped in joy. It looked like a long, red bell pepper, but unmistakably—it was a hot chili.
“Hoyoung, you genius! Come here, I’ll kiss you!”
Seungryong lunged to hug him, but Hoyoung grimaced and pulled away, retreating with dignity to sit with his game console, purified and smug.
The taste of freshly ground chili sprinkled over their food was nothing short of rapture. If they preserved chili seeds, they’d never again mourn the absence of red pepper powder. With chili and garlic, even Koreans cast into the Abyss could comfort their souls.
After that spicy, blissful meal, finished with unknown tropical fruits, Hyunmook, who had been quietly thoughtful, finally spoke.
“It’s been about a month here. Yohan, by now you should be used to the climate. I think it’s time we go down below and take a look.”
Yohan, holding a slice of fruit Seungryong had peeled for him, blinked in confusion. All around them was flat plain. Down below? Where could that be?
“Down... below where?”
* * *
Following Hyunmook’s instructions, they packed what mattered and left the tree hollow. After three days of trudging through endless plains, Hyunmook finally halted.
“Seeing the deer herds, we must be close.”
Deer—though as always in the Abyss, “deer” was little more than a guess. These beasts were monstrously twisted, many times larger than ordinary deer, almost like giraffes, with antlers that branched like trees.
“Ugh...”
Studying the herd, Yohan grimaced. Several had other deer heads growing from their antlers. With eyes glaring wide, those heads rolled their eyeballs around. Had they been severed and impaled during fights, somehow still alive? Or had they sprouted anew, upside-down, from the antlers? Either way, it was ghastly.
With a tilt of his chin, Hyunmook signaled to follow. Yohan swallowed hard and pressed close to his back.
The herd grazed calmly, as if their appetites hadn’t changed even under contamination. Dozens moved together, so other monsters left them alone. Hardly surprising, when besides the deer-heads they carried impaled corpses of other beasts skewered on their antlers. Seungryong, tense-faced, muttered:
“Think deer meat tastes good?”
...So maybe Yohan was the only one truly nervous. The others’ casual attitudes helped him loosen up.
As they followed the herd further, Yohan’s eyes widened.
The reeds around them rose to his thighs, but ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) only brushed the deer’s knees. Yet the animals seemed to sink lower and lower with each step—until only their heads showed, then even those vanished beneath the reeds. The severed heads clinging to the antlers rolled their eyes warily until the last moment, then disappeared too.
“Did they... hide?”
“No. They moved somewhere else.”
At Hyunmook’s signal, Seungryong thrust his glaive, a long blade like a Green Dragon Crescent Moon Blade, and swept it side to side. In several strokes, the surrounding reeds and grass were shorn away, revealing the dark crimson earth beneath. But where the deer had vanished, there was no ground—only more reeds, lower than the land they stood on. Seungryong planted his glaive into the soil.
“This is what you could call the beginning of the Reed Sea.”
