The Novel's Extra-Chapter ss59: Side Story 59 – Chae Nayun (14)

I walked with my gun pressed against Tomer’s spine and she continued forward with both of her arms in the air. We proceeded until the mushy ground turned flat and found two injured individuals on the ground.

“I told you, right?” Tomer said.

However, I didn’t drop my guard and remained alert, “Where are the rest?”

“What do you mean the rest?!”

“You’re with the djinns, right?”

“… How did you know?”

“I saw them in the city.”

Tomer seemed taken aback, but soon shook her head with a smirk.

“I’m just affiliated with them. I don’t really care what happens to them. They can die for all I care. Besides, I’m not even officially a djinn.”

“Hmm… Is that so?”

Fortunately, Tomer hadn’t fully converted to the djinns yet.

“Are they with the djinns?” I asked while pointing at the two injured people.

“No, I met them in the city. We hung around for three months. I can’t simply let them die, so… before that, can you let go of me?”

I nodded and let Tomer go. Then I went over to check on the injured duo. Both of them sustained fatal injuries. One had his guts spilling out while the other’s rotting right arm began infecting the rest of his body.

“Sigh… I saved you only to have you threaten to kill me…” Tomer shook her head in disbelief.

“Saved us from what? Just hurry up and tell that guy up the tree to come down,” I retorted.

“Tsk… Anyways, can you save these guys?” Tomer asked while pitifully looking at them.

“Yeah, I can save them,” I confidently replied.

It wouldn’t be difficult to heal them with stigma and the mana-filled vegetation in this jungle.

“What? Really? I don’t think either of you is a healer… Do you have some potions with you? But I don’t think it’ll work unless it’s a high-grade one.”

“I have my ways… Oh, right. Before that, do you know anything about the Tears of Heaven? It’s a medicine that’s on par with the elixir of life.”

I decided to get any information I could regarding the Tears of Heaven since I had a strange feeling she knew something. I mean, I designed her to find aether by herself like a search dog.

“Oh, that one? Yeah, I know a bit about it. The djinns are searching for it right now.”

“The djinns?”

“Yeah, I’ll tell you the details after you save these two.”

The offer didn’t interest me much, but Yoo Yeonha interjected before I could say anything.

“Let’s do that,” she whispered.

“…”

She looked at Tomer with sparkling eyes and I bitterly smiled. This was partly my fault since one of the traits I included in Yoo Yeonha’s setting was that she couldn’t resist recruiting talented individuals.

I began foraging the mana-filled grass around us. These plants only possessed mana and didn’t have any healing capabilities. However, I could turn them into medicinal herbs by using [Setting Intervention]. It didn’t require much SP. I only had to toggle the grass’ mana and medicinal properties from [Off] to [On].

I mushed the medicinal herbs into a paste and began the operation.

I attended to the patient with a rotting right arm first. Stigma transformed into a sharp blade and cleanly cut off his rotting right arm in one smooth motion. Then I applied the medicinal paste to stop the wound from bleeding and dressed it with a cloth.

Next, I treated the one with his guts spilling out. I covered my hand with stigma and pushed his guts back into his abdomen. Then I arranged his insides to make sure everything was in its rightful place. Of course, I applied the same medicinal paste to stop the wound from bleeding and dressed it with a cloth.

“Phew…” I wiped the sweat off my forehead.

“… Is it done?” Tomer asked.

“They won’t die as long as they remain like this. Now it’s your turn,” I looked at Tomer.

A child suddenly emerged from behind a tree. She only stood around 140 cm tall.

The child bowed to me before running over to check on the patients.

“How are they?” Tomer asked the child.

“They look fine… Although one of them lost an arm…”

Yoo Yeonha and I looked at Tomer.

Tomer shrugged and explained, “They’re siblings.”

“Thank you, ahjussi,” the child said with a bow.

“A-Ahjussi? Is that the proper way to address your benefactor?!” I retorted.

The child smiled and Yoo Yeonha loudly cackled.

“Haaa… Anyways, back to the Tears of Heaven. I have no idea why you’re looking for it, but you know that it was sold at an auction a long time ago, right?” Tomer asked.

“Yeah.”

“Okay, our team tried looking for it last time, but no one knows who bought it or if it really works. You can trust me on this as we’re quite the treasure hunters. So we narrowed down our search. Our first theory was that this was the doing of a ghost.”

I almost snapped and lost my patience.

“The second one is that the Tears of Heaven didn’t exist in the first place. This is the most probable explanation. A lot of people tend to do these things to launder money.”

Yoo Yeonha frivolously nodded in agreement.

However, I was certain that the second theory was wrong because I personally added the Tears of Heaven to the item settings.

“There’s a third and fourth theory, but forget about those. I have my own theory,” Tomer said.

I crossed my arms over my chest and looked at her.

Tomer came closer and spoke in a small voice, “The Tears of Heaven was probably deconstructed. You’re familiar with the story of the goose that laid golden eggs, right? It’s similar to that. I think whoever bought it tried picking it apart to replicate it.”

“… Is that so?”

“Yeah, I believe this is the most plausible explanation since there was a mansion that blew up shortly after the Tears of Heaven was auctioned. It belonged to some rich neutral city-state noble. The land it was on became completely contaminated. Forget about the mansion grounds, all the surrounding villages got contaminated too. Do you know why?”

Tomer smirked and continued, “It was probably divine punishment for trying to deconstruct the Tears of Heaven. They say that there’s a fine line between medicine and poison, right? I’m confident that you’ll find something if you go and investigate that place. Well, I didn’t go there because it was too far and dangerous.”

“Hmm…”

Even I had no idea how to make the Tears of Heaven. I hoped to get my hands on it by luck, but if what Tomer just said was true then…

“Can you tell us where that mansion is?” Yoo Yeonha asked.

“Hmm? Ah, I can tell you whatever you want for the right price. Of course, that’s only if we manage to get out of here,” Tomer replied.

She was absolutely right that we had to find a way out of here first.

It grew late and I already exhausted most of my stigma. I stood up and dusted my hands.

“What are you going to do?” Tomer asked.

I took out my dagger, “I’m setting up camp.”

***

I made two makeshift beds for the injured and a cozy hut with [Dazzling Dexterity]. The injured slept on the beds and I left the three girls in the hut.

I came out and laid my remaining ammunition on the ground.

[20 x 82 mm Essence Bullet]

I had three hundred rounds left and changed one of their settings.

— Destructiveness has been enhanced.

— The bullets will now be able to pierce through mana and aura.

I modified them to pierce through mana and enhanced their destructiveness. In short, I made them stronger. It only cost two hundred SP to change the settings. The bullets now had a dark red aura that made them easier to identify at a glance.

Tomer came out of the hut and I quickly stored the bullets in my pockets.

She loitered behind me for a bit before approaching, “Hey, aren’t you curious why you’re trapped here?”

“It should be because of a curse,” I nonchalantly replied.

“Oh? You’re quite sharp. You don’t know who did this though, right?” Tomer crouched in front of me.

I thought she would continue even if I didn’t say anything.

She went on as expected, “I’m sure you’ve heard of the Witch Doctor Derio Rekru since he’s quite famous. Anyways, he ran away with a treasure after killing everyone in my team except for me.”

“He killed your entire team?”

“Yeah, I told you. I was once a treasure hunter. That bastard stole the treasure and used its power for this massive curse.”

“What’s the treasure?”

“…” Tomer bit her lips and flashed a cold smile, “Unfortunately, I can’t tell you that.”

That was more than enough for me. I could simply ask the Book of Truth tomorrow once I recovered enough stigma.

“Sure.”

“What? Aren’t you curious?”

“Not really.”

Tomer frowned and looked at me in disbelief.

“Just go and get some sleep,” I leaned against a tree and closed my eyes.

Tomer looked at me for a while before muttering, “Heart of the Amazon.”

I opened my eyes.

“Ha… I guess you’ve heard of it too. It’s obvious any item called ‘Heart of Something’ would be famous,” Tomer grumbled.

Indeed, she was correct. Heart of Ice, Heart of the Amazon, etc. were all treasures that bestowed its owner with certain absolute properties. The term absolute meant that the treasure’s owner could assimilate with the property.

Such a treasure should never fall into the hands of djinns or the Chameleon Troupe. If I had to choose between them, it would be slightly better if the latter got it.

The Amazon contained various undiscovered treasures and monsters, which made it all the more important to stop djinns from forming a base there.

“Tsk tsk… What I’m trying to say is… someone like you shouldn’t get involved. It’s worth hundreds of billions of won. No, it would be in the tens of trillions already. Do you really think the djinns will idly sit by and watch? All the treasures and artifacts hidden in the Amazon will belong to them as long as they have the Heart of the Amazon,” Tomer explained.

I leaned against the tree and continued connecting the dots between the three major events to come up with the most plausible story setting.

What if… what if the witch doctor hid his body in the swamp dokkaebi?

“Hmm… Can we have a chat, Zomer?” Yoo Yeonha suddenly appeared and called Tomer by her alias.

I furrowed my brows at Yoo Yeonha.

“Me? About what?” Zomer, no, Tomer asked in response.

“I just have something to say. That’s all.”

“Hmm… Okay, I guess?”

Tomer went inside the hut with Yoo Yeonha.

I had a feeling Yoo Yeonha would try building rapport with Tomer, so I didn’t stop her.

— Who’s that guy? Why does he keep acting high and mighty all the time?

— … He’s stronger than you think. Anyways, are you really a djinn?

— Why are you curious about that?

— Because I’m not a djinn.

— What kind of logic is that?

— More importantly, why don’t you retire and join a guild if you’re not a djinn?

***

The morning sun slowly illuminated the jungle.

I only slept for three hours before the cold morning dew woke me. I got up and went to the swamp where the swamp dokkaebi appeared yesterday.

“The swamp dokkaebi must be in there somewhere…”

The swamp really resembled a vast sea. It was probably bigger than the largest lake in the world.

The swamp dokkaebi must be hiding somewhere underneath those murky waters.

“I should find a spot…”

I searched for a clear view of the swamp to use as a hideout. It didn’t take long to find a tall tree that had lots of leaves, which would make for the perfect hiding spot.

I climbed up and positioned myself on a branch while hiding behind the leaves. Then I infused stigma into my eyes.

My vision expanded kilometers ahead and I could almost see the entire swamp. I spotted various individuals like colosseum spectators, infamous criminals, famous mercenaries, duelists, the Chameleon Troupe, and probably even Wicked’s henchmen.

I planned to draw all of them towards the swamp. This was the most obvious course of action since it would be impossible to kill the swamp dokkaebi alone.

Clack…

I took something out from my belt. This mana grenade looked like a pine cone. I infused stigma into it and threw it into the swamp about two kilometers away.

Whiiiiiing… Kaboooooom! Kkrrrrwaaaazz!

An explosion resounded and the shockwave emitted by the grenade shook the entire swamp. A crater formed where the grenade landed.

I actually felt surprised because the crater looked bigger than I expected. The system message informed me why the mana grenade became so effective.

[Dazzling Dexterity and stigma have simultaneously activated.]

[The results will vary depending on how you handle stigma.]

— Hey, can you hear me?

I heard Yoo Yeonha’s voice through the walkie-talkie function on my smartwatch.

“Yeah.”

— Where are you and what are you doing? Something just exploded.

“Just sit tight and wait. I can’t make a sound from now on. The same goes for you. Don’t move and just wait where you are.”

— What? Hmph! Okay, I’ll do as you say…

Soon afterwards, the swamp dokkaebi emerged and roared, “Gwuoooh!”

The monster stood as tall as the tree I hid in, but couldn’t see me.

I channeled more stigma into my eyes and inspected its body.

“Keuk!”

I felt a blood vessel in my eye pop, but I endured the pain and continued inspecting. My vision penetrated the giant swamp dokkaebi’s body… through all the mud… I finally spotted the witch doctor responsible for the curse curled up in the monster’s body.

“Keuk…”

I covered my bleeding bloodshot eyes. The pain felt agonizing, but I confirmed the witch doctor’s location in the swamp dokkaebi.

However, it wasn’t time for me to move yet. I had to wait for the Chameleon Troupe and Wicked to raid this gigantic monster.

Until then, I had to be one with this tree… Yes, this tree was one with me and I was one with this tree.

***

I opened my eyes at night. I didn’t mean to wake up, but an eerie sensation kept crawling on my skin. Goosebumps spread all over my body and my instincts warned me of something sinister.

I looked down at the darkness. The Chameleon Troupe and Wicked glared at each other with the swamp between them.

It seemed that they finally found the witch doctor’s location after four days, but they didn’t seem willing to cooperate. Neither of them opened their mouths, but they somehow communicated mentally through telepathy or something.

— … So I presume talks have broken down between us?

Wicked broke the silence and asked with a smile.

The Chameleon Troupe’s boss nodded and replied.

— A temporary alliance. However, keep in mind that the treasure will be ownerless once its owner dies.

— The rightful owner is me, Wicked.

— Does that even matter right now? You do know it got stolen from you, right?

— … Alright, I won’t stop you if you want to die so desperately.

The swamp began to shake as they busily taunted each other.

Ddruu…! Ddruu…! Ddruu…! Ddruu…!

Waves rose from the swamp as an overwhelming presence emerged.

I stiffened at the sight of the monster and my heart rapidly pounded as I tried to suppress the crippling fear taking over my body. I even thought of running away and leaving the rest to them. They were probably more than capable of dealing with that thing.

Besides, I probably wouldn’t be much help anyways. They didn’t need me here, so why should I take the risk and…

“Seup…”

However, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that the treasure was somehow related to the Tears of Heaven. Perhaps it was my instinct as the original author or my absurdly high luck. Whatever it was, it would be the key to what we were looking for.

Those people considered the strongest in the world rushed towards the swamp dokkaebi, which everyone considered a mythical and legendary monster.

Meanwhile, I remained perched on the tree and inspected my Desert Eagle and wire…

After all, I needed patience to snatch away the treasure at the most critical moment. The Heart of the Amazon. I planned on snatching it while the Chameleon Troupe and Wicked fought each other after killing the swamp dokkaebi. The enhanced bullets, aether, and my wire would be more than enough to steal it.

I closed my eyes and erased my presence. My body didn’t have an ounce of mana, so they wouldn’t detect me anyways.

I just had to prowl like a hyena from a safe distance that wasn’t too far or too close. No, it would be more appropriate to compare me to a small pest like a mosquito trying to go between giants…

***

“Hey, what is she doing?”

“I have no idea…”

Meanwhile, Kim Suho and Yi Yeonghan watched Chae Nayun in disbelief.

She sat on a chair and blankly stared at the colosseum. She told them there was nothing to worry about, but had been in this state since yesterday.

“Oh, she looked down.”

Chae Nayun moved for the first time in two hours. She kept blankly staring for 120 minutes before looking down and pulling her hair for five minutes. No one knew what she was thinking during those five minutes, but she would do that for five minutes before…

“Haa…” she sighed again.

Then she repeated the entire process of staring at the colosseum.

However, a new pattern suddenly appeared!

“Uh… ah… eh…” Chae Nayun began pacing back and forth like a constipated dog.

She kept pacing back and forth while moaning before returning to her seat and covering her face.

“Ugh… Hiing… Argh…” she continued moaning like a sick patient.

“Sigh…” Kim Suho walked to her with Yi Yeonghan following behind.

“Hey, Chae Nayun,” Kim Suho called out.

“H-Huh? Oh, hey… What’s up?” Chae Nayun nonchalantly replied.

She magically reverted to her old self from the constipated dog a while ago.

Kim Suho wanted to tell her to stop worrying, but she beat him to it.

“What’s up with your faces? I told you not to worry, right? Don’t tell me you can’t trust me?”

She sounded quite brazen.

“Huh…? What did you say?” Kim Suho asked in disbelief.

“What do you mean huh? It’s exactly as I told you. Stop worrying! Nothing’s going to happen to them, so go back and get some sleep…” Chae Nayun said.

She repeated the same, ‘Don’t worry. Nothing will happen,’ tirade for around ten minutes.

Kim Suho and Yi Yeonghan couldn’t help but worry about her mental state. Even Shin Jonghak, who hid and observed her from nearby, was sincerely worried.