Ghoul Evolution

Chapter 23: Mr. Guide

After some more talking and rest, the newly formed squad finally decided to get moving. Or rather, they decided to let Goldie decide where they should go.

Oliver had been about to ask the squirrel himself when Korre suddenly scooped Goldie off his head. She held him in her arms and began rubbing his head affectionately.

"So, Mr. Guide," she said sweetly, "where should we go?"

Goldie seemed to thoroughly enjoy the attention as his eyes narrowed in satisfaction and he even let out a small content sigh.

’Wow... what a little perv.’

After receiving several more pats, Goldie finally seemed to remember that he had a job to do. He straightened up, closed his eyes dramatically, and sat completely still for a few moments. The group watched him expectantly, and then, he suddenly opened his eyes and pointed one tiny paw in a direction.

Everyone turned to look and then they all frowned as there was a problem.

What problem, you ask? The direction Goldie was pointing toward happened to be on the other side of the river.

Firstly, the river was quite wide, and he couldn’t even see the other side from there.

Normally, that wouldn’t have been impossible, and they probably could have swam across, especially, since they all weren’t normal humans.

However, this particular stretch of the river looked far less friendly than the area Oliver had encountered before. The river current was fast and violent and was carrying debris downstream at an alarming speed.

Furthermore, earlier, he had assumed that the mysterious skeleton beneath the river somehow protected the entire river from beasts. However, after that vulture had attacked him near the riverbank, he wasn’t nearly as confident about that.

Maybe the protection only covered certain areas or maybe it weakened the farther one got from the skeleton.

Whatever the case, he no longer trusted the river nearly as much as before.

Theo seemed to arrive at a similar conclusion.

"Crossing the river doesn’t seem very safe. It looks quite dangerous."

The worst part was that Goldie looked completely confident in his choice and it even nodded a few times as if to say, ’What are you all waiting for?’

Oliver sighed as he now understood that following Goldie’s directions was never going to be easy.

Ahreum, meanwhile, was staring at the river with a strangely thoughtful expression. In fact, the longer she looked at it, the more excited she seemed to become, and then, completely out of nowhere, she said,

"Let’s make a boat."

’A boat?’

Oliver blinked. He wanted to question where that idea had come from, but Theo beat him to it.

"Noona, what would we even make a boat out of?" he asked. "And I’m pretty sure none of us have any experience building one. What if it doesn’t even float? And even if it does, that won’t really protect us if there’s something living inside the river."

Ahreum listened to his complaints without interrupting and when he finally finished, she simply shook her head.

"No. The squirrel is right." She looked back towards the opposite bank. "I can feel it too now. We should cross the river."

Hearing that, Oliver couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow.

’Feel it?’

’Hadn’t you just told us earlier that your attribute had nothing to do with seeing the future? Now you are suddenly getting mysterious feelings telling you where to go?’

’This feels less like intuition and more like you just want to make a boat.’

Judging from the look on Korre’s face, she seemed to be thinking something similar as she was also looking at Ahreum with a strange expression.

Ahreum, however, remained completely serious, as though nothing unusual had been said.

"We need a boat," she repeated.

Nobody replied and so, Ahreum glanced at the river again before looking back at them.

"How else are we supposed to cross it?"

For some reason, Oliver got the distinct feeling that Ahreum had become emotionally invested in the idea of building a boat.

Still, with no other choice, Oliver eventually sighed and gave in.

"Fine... but we don’t even know how to make a boat."

Ahreum simply shook her head as she stubbornly said,

"We can...I know how."

The answer came immediately, but something about it felt off as her tone was almost sad. Her eyes drifted towards the river and lingered there for a second longer than necessary.

It looked as though the idea of a boat had reminded her of something unpleasant, some memory she would rather not revisit. Then, just as quickly, the expression disappeared and she returned to her usual calm self.

Oliver stared at her for a few moments.

’Okay... isn’t that quite wonderful?’

They needed a boat, and somehow Ahreum just happened to know how to make one.

Not suspicious at all.

Of course, he wasn’t actually suspicious but more confused than anything.

’Why do you even know how to build a boat?’

He considered asking but decided against it. They had only known each other for a short while, and prying into personal matters felt rude.

Theo, meanwhile, was far more interested in the practical side of things.

"You actually know how?"

"Yes."

"A proper boat?"

"Yes."

"One that floats?"

And Ahreum in the end replied in her signature tone,

"Yes, that is usually the purpose of a boat."

Theo immediately coughed awkwardly while Korre failed to suppress a laugh and even Oliver couldn’t help but smile.

Whatever memories Ahreum had attached to boats, she clearly wasn’t interested in talking about them. For now, all that mattered was that they finally had a plan.

"Haah... so what materials do we need? And how long will it take to, like, make one?"

Ahreum fell silent for a few seconds, seemingly calculating something in her head. Then she pointed back in the direction they had come from.

"On the way here, we passed some oak trees. We will need one of their trunks."

Oliver waited for her to continue but she didn’t and so, after a few seconds, he pointed out the obvious.

"...And?" freēwēbηovel.c૦m

Ahreum looked at him.

"And you guys will go get it."

Korre interjected,

"The whole trunk?"

"Yes."

"The entire thing?"

"Yes."

Oliver meanwhile looked down at himself, then at Korre and Theo, then back at Ahreum.

"Do we look like people who casually carry tree trunks around?"

Ahreum seemed completely unfazed by the complaint and just said,

"I will deal with the rest."