Memorize - Episode 19
19 A Brief Parting
Thud! Crack!
Flop.
After crushing the head of the last remaining Deadman, I leaned against a tree. Around me, the remains of Deadmen with their heads smashed were scattered haphazardly.
Even though I had tried to conserve my energy and dealt with them one by one, it ended too quickly. It was literally a one-sided massacre. However, I couldn't feel satisfied. Far from relieving my mood, I felt thoroughly unsettled.
"Ptui."
I spat on the remains visible before me, but the instinct craving slaughter, perhaps rebelling against being forcibly suppressed until now, raised its head even higher. My chest felt tight, and I tried to calm down by taking deep breaths, but it seemed to fan the flames even more. Suddenly, I wondered if I had never intended to suppress this feeling in the first place.
"Damn it. This isn't child's play. I've only whetted my appetite."
Smacking my lips, I finally couldn't resist the rising bloodlust and struck the nearby tree.
Bang! Rustle...
Despite using pure strength without any magical enhancement, the sturdy tree collapsed with a heavy sound. It made me feel a bit better, but it didn't completely dispel the bloodlust that had filled me inside.
My companions should have left by now, and part of me wanted to set this whole forest on fire, but I forcibly restrained myself. Even if they had crossed the stone wall, we didn't know what kind of monsters might be outside the forest. I was worried about the others and needed to retrieve my arrows, so there was no time to dawdle.
No one would be watching anyway. I controlled the magic I had been holding back and moved my feet swiftly.
Trees, forest, and surrounding scenery quickly brushed past me. In stark contrast to the time I had spent earlier, I was able to reach the rock pile where I had been before.
As I pulled out the arrows stuck in the Deadmen's heads one by one and sensed the surroundings, I couldn't feel any trace of my companions. As expected, it seemed they had left immediately after I entered the forest.
"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight... This should be enough."
I wanted to put the arrows directly back into the quiver, but fearing that Ahn Sol might have a fit if she saw them, I roughly shook off any foreign matter.
'Well, shall we head out now?'
Since Ahn Hyun and the others might be just outside, I moved slowly. Before crossing the stone wall, I turned my head to look at the quiet forest.
The forest remained unchanged. It looked the same now as it did before. When I left the forest in the past, I was too busy fleeing to think about anything. I just ran, and before I knew it, I had left the forest behind.
But now it was different. I stared at the forest for a while, lost in thought. I felt a sense of relief, as if a great burden had been lifted.
After enjoying this sentimental mood for a moment, I leaped over the wall. I didn't want to indulge in such trivial atmosphere any longer. There were more important things for me to focus on now.
The scene that greeted me after easily jumping over the stone wall was far beyond my expectations. The path I was now treading, though bumpy, showed signs of human handiwork. Though not immediately noticeable, the roughly hewn sides maintained a consistent shape, if not perfectly straight.
Below the path, a vast plain stretched out to form an endless horizon. The surroundings were deserted. Only the occasional gentle breeze made its faint presence known.
No matter how hard I looked, I couldn't find any monsters. But I also couldn't see my companions. No matter where I looked, even after using magic to sense part of the area, I couldn't detect their presence. Suddenly, the thought occurred to me that they might have abandoned me and left.
Given that there were three individuals with good-aligned attributes, the probability of betrayal was likely to be relatively low. However, I couldn't judge based on personality alone.
If I set aside the possibility that they had left me behind, it would be right to assume that they had met with some misfortune while waiting for me in my absence. There were quite a few types of monsters that appeared in the Trial of Passage besides Deadmen. Deciding to assume something had happened, I first set out to find traces of my companions.
Finding clues, or tracks for tracking, wasn't particularly difficult for me in my current state. As I calmly surveyed the surroundings and followed along the stone wall, I discovered an area of soil with deeply imprinted sneaker marks. It seemed they had crossed the wall in this direction.
Moving in the direction where the soil had been scraped, I indeed found traces of where my companions had gathered. It appeared they had waited for me here after confirming there was nothing around. Confirming this fact, the slight feeling of betrayal that had been trying to settle in a corner of my mind seemed to melt away like snow.
I crouched down at the spot where my companions had gathered and examined it slowly, one by one. A skilled ranger or trapper would be able to deduce all the circumstances of what happened, including when, where, how many people, how, and why. Of course, I couldn't do that to that extent. All I could do now was to use my keen eye and mobilize all the abilities I had.
I enhanced my eyesight to compare and contrast each footprint. First, I familiarized myself with what appeared to be my companions' sneaker prints, intending to examine the remaining prints after excluding these. The footprints were quite intensely imprinted, as if they had performed a group shuffle dance, so it seemed it would take some time to discern them. A fleeting thought of unease crossed my mind, but I reassured myself it was too early to jump to conclusions and continued my examination.
After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, I was able to complete my analysis. I stood up, stretching my legs. Excluding what appeared to be my companions' footprints, I found no strange marks. If I had to nitpick, there was one mark where the foot-placement area was deeply indented. However, it was overlaid with a sneaker pattern, making it difficult to judge whether it belonged to one of my companions or not.
Since there were no signs of anything being dragged along the ground, it definitely wasn't a Deadman. The thought of a boss monster crossed my mind, but I quickly shook it off. We had just passed the half-day mark since starting, and there were separate conditions for boss monster appearances.
After pushing aside thoughts of boss monsters, nothing particularly stood out as definitive. In the end, there was only one option left. Even knowing it wouldn't work, I began to awaken my magic circuits.
In an instant, I explosively drew out my magic power and activated my Third Eye. What I was about to do now was on a completely different level from simply checking someone's user information.
I hadn't expected to need to use this much magic power so early, but given the time-sensitive nature of the situation, I couldn't think of any other immediate method. If I wasted time fumbling around trying to find them with magic detection, something could happen in the meantime, and I couldn't guarantee their lives.
The phenomenon I was trying to contemplate using my Third Eye now was not the present, but the 'past'. Of course, this unique ability, if conditions are met, has the outstanding capability to contemplate even higher dimensions. Therefore, seeing the future and past of the current dimension depended on one's ability.
However, just as a worry was about to cross my mind, a scene naturally seeped into my eyes like a reflection, making me focus.
Zap!
"Ugh...!"
Even though I had only seen it for one second, the scene reflected on my retina distorted, and a huge impact struck my eyes. My eyeballs felt like they were burning, as if on fire. While reflexively rubbing both eyes, I couldn't help but let out a bitter laugh.
It was just one second. I had only seen a single moment of the past for one second, but my Third Eye was forcibly cancelled. After a short while, as the pain in my eyes subsided, I muttered in a dejected voice.
"Ha... Haha. To think that even with 96 magic points, I can only endure for a mere second... This is maddening."
I had hoped against hope, but my magic ability score couldn't withstand the overdrive of my unique ability. While I reconfirmed how high-level the Third Eye ability was, I also felt a sense of disappointment.
Viewing the past is considered equivalent to seeing the future. It was a completely different matter from simply predicting the future. I had thought that with the Third Eye reaching S-rank, it might be possible if I did well, but the two-rank downgrade due to forced manifestation seemed to be holding me back. In the end, even though I had received a one-rank increase correction from Hwajeong, it meant that for now, I could only contemplate all phenomena in the present, and dealing with the past and future was still premature.
The pain was gradually decreasing, but my vision was blurry for the moment. It seemed to be an aftereffect of the magic being cancelled and the magical recoil. Fortunately, as time passed, the objects in my vision became clearer, suggesting that it wasn't permanent vision loss.
Although I had unintentionally used a dangerous technique, there was one thing I had gained.
Even though it was only for one second, I had definitely been able to see the 'past'. Recalling the scene that had flashed on my retina just moments ago, I let out a deep sigh. After carefully selecting only the best and finally escaping the forest, an even more challenging task awaited me.
If it was because I lacked strength, I could understand, but the reality that I had to hold back even when I had strength made me feel even more depressed. If push came to shove, I might have to cause a commotion regardless of the Trial of Passage, but that was only a last resort.
Somehow, it felt like I was facing one challenge after another.