ICWDS 14

Chapter 14

The Elven Forest

With all five officers successfully “treated” one after another, there was no one left to bicker with Park Dokyung.

“Are there any other officers with command authority?” I asked.

No one answered. Everyone was too busy tending to their newly ventilated wounds.

“…”

“…”

While Park Dokyung and Kang Chunghwa let out faint sighs and shook their toasts, Jang Taesik and Min Dohyun wore utterly flabbergasted expressions.

“Um… Is it really okay to leave it like this?”

“Doesn’t feel like it…”

As the two men freaked out, Park Dokyung merely shrugged.

“We can’t do it, but Gaon is fine. It was a ‘medical treatment,’ wasn’t it?”

“Yes, it was unambiguously a ‘medical treatment.'”

At that, Kang Chunghwa measured the karma of the collapsed officers with a sharp tap.

“Their readings have plummeted compared to a week ago. Perfect ‘treatment.’ Good job.”

“Right?”

“They requested the special treatment themselves, so Gaon was merely executing his medical duties.”

No problem here, no problem at all~

Soon, medics rushed in, looking utterly horrified at the newly perforated officers as they loaded them onto stretchers. Too busy recovering in the infirmary, those guys wouldn’t be commanding anything anytime soon.

“All right, troops. Let’s head to the hospital too.”

With the wounded evacuated, Park Dokyung turned his attention to the remaining operatives.

“It was a woodland zone. Quite common in the Dark World, so we scouted the perimeter according to training protocols.”

Normally, the artifact anchoring a Gate is located within a 10-kilometer radius. The special forces operatives had scouted on foot, drawing concentric circles outward from the Gate. Two squads moving in opposite directions meant two days should have been more than enough to map the terrain and locate the artifact.

The trouble started with Sergeant Baek’s squad.

“A thick fog rolled in out of nowhere. It happened so fast we didn’t even have time to react.”

“Once the fog settled, monsters swarmed us from every direction.”

According to the report, Sergeant Baek’s squad had unloaded all their firepower in response—machine guns, rocket launchers, and grenade launchers. With three Level 1 Awakeners and even a Level 2 Awakener in the mix, they had held out remarkably well.

“Deciding we couldn’t hold out any longer, we fired the retreat flare and fell back. But…”

“Sergeant Baek vanished?”

“Yes. I saw him right before we pulled back. He was walking off toward somewhere.”

Walking off? Not bitten or dragged away by monsters?

“What do you make of it?” Park Dokyung asked, prompting the agents to offer their theories.

“Under normal circumstances, we’d have to assume he’s already dead.”

“But they said he walked away without listening to the retreat order. Wasn’t he bewitched by something?”

“That’s plausible.”

Was Sergeant Baek alive or dead? Since no one actually saw him die, that possibility couldn’t be ruled out.

“The real issue is the monsters’ coordinated behavior. From what I hear, these aren’t mindless bugs. If they’re moving in concert, a ‘Corrupted One’ might be involved.”

“A Corrupted One?” I asked.

Park Dokyung explained, “Not from Earth, but natives of the Dark World. They’re souls that have rotted to the core, making them one of the most dangerous threats in this place.”

Having once been sentient beings, they were allegedly cunning and meticulous. Since intelligent life forms must have existed in the Dark World natively, it wasn’t surprising. I had already browsed through that much lore on the Hunter Web Wiki.

“Then let’s move in quickly. If we’re lucky, we might even save Sergeant Baek.”

We gathered our gear and stepped into the Dark Zone.

This Dark Zone was also a dense forest. Only, it felt much more sinister, and the trees were unimaginably massive. Even in broad daylight, the colossal canopy blocked out the sun, casting the forest floor in deep shadows.

“Stay sharper than usual, everyone. Prioritize protecting Gaon.”

Being a rookie, I couldn’t really complain about receiving special treatment.

“It’s dark.”

“Tell me about it. With visibility this low, we need to be extra cautious.”

“Can’t we use night-vision goggles or something?”

If they were going to fire guns, I didn’t see why other standard military gear was off-limits, but there was a reason for everything.

“Electronic equipment doesn’t work right in the Dark World. Remember the troopers’ guns? No dot sights. Those are electronic too.”

Sure enough, the assault rifles carried by the reconnaissance team lacked any optical sights. Even in shooting games, playing without a red dot was agonizingly annoying, so I had wondered why real combat soldiers weren’t issued them.

“Ah~ I thought the ROK military was just stingy with infantry gear.”

“Well, they are a bit cheap.”

There was an exception, however.

Clack! Click-clack! Whirrrr!

Kang Chunghwa’s Demonic Hand began to transform with a noisy clatter. Before long, it morphed into a heavy machine gun fitted with a massive optical scope.

“Is this okay?”

“It runs on mana, not electricity.”

Holding her arm out while adjusting the scope, she scanned the surroundings. Seriously, is that arm of hers capable of turning into literally anything?

Ten minutes into our cautious advance with Kang Chunghwa keeping watch, she raised a hand to signal a halt.

“Five hundred meters ahead. Thermal signature of living entities confirmed.”

“We ran into them pretty fast, huh?”

At Park Dokyung’s hand gesture, Jang Taesik moved to the front, followed by Min Dohyun. Park Dokyung took the rear, leaving me and Kang Chunghwa in the center.

“Yun Gaon, get in front of me.”

At Kang Chunghwa’s summons, I stepped close, and she handed me a pair of heavy earplugs.

“Plug your ears with these and lend me your shoulder.”

“???”

Bewildered, I put in the earplugs and stood in front of her.

“Keep your eyes forward. Make sure those plugs are in tight, or your eardrums will pop.”

Kang Chunghwa adjusted the earplugs with her left hand. The way ambient sound instantly deadened felt thoroughly unnatural. Then she rested an arm on my shoulder—technically, the massive machine gun that used to be her arm.

“Hang in there.”

The next instant, a monstrous roar erupted right beside my ear.

K-K-K-K-K-K-K-BOOM!

A frantic torrent of machine-gun fire tore through the air. It was less like a hail of bullets and more like artillery fire, immediately answered by a dying shriek from deep in the woods.

K-K-A-A-A-H!

A beastly howling echoed out, but Kang Chunghwa’s barrage drowned it entirely.

Screeech!

Even hiding behind the trees was useless. Kang Chunghwa’s heavy rounds punched straight through thick ancient trunks, tearing the monsters to shreds on the other side.

K-K-A-A-A-RGH!

Realizing that the ancient trees couldn’t serve as shields, the surviving monsters burst out from behind cover, intent on charging us.

“Jang Taesik, Min Dohyun, stop them!”

“Got it, Team Leader!”

“Good grief, there’s a lot of ’em.”

Jang Taesik, stepping to the front line, whirled a heavy spiked mace to greet the charging monsters. Thanks to Kang Chunghwa’s terrifying firepower, most of the creatures had already been dropped, but a few still reached our position.

“Ooh-rah!”

Jang Taesik hurled his whirling mace straight forward. The chain unspooled rapidly—just how far did it go?—flying out like a meteor.

Thump!

I clearly witnessed the heavy iron ball of the mace smash directly into a monster’s head, obliterating it instantly. But Jang Taesik’s attack didn’t end there. The mace whipped around in all directions as if possessed by a will of its own, shattering the skulls and bursting the torsos of any creature that dared approach.

“Whoa…”

The remaining monsters that survived Kang Chunghwa and Jang Taesik’s onslaught were finished off by Min Dohyun. He pierced the creatures with flashes of his sharp spear, a fighting style characterized by a disciplined, honed lethality entirely distinct from the brutal, overwhelming violence of the other two. It was the skill of an extreme martial arts master.

With team members like this, what was Park Dokyung, the strongest of them all, doing?

“Good job, keep it up~ Do your absolute best so I don’t have to lift a finger~”

Park Dokyung lingered lazily in the rear, observing the battlefield. While he looked like he was slacking off, the other three actually chipped in with pointed remarks.

“Team Leader, please don’t get involved.”

“It’s a forest, after all.”

“If you step in, things just get unnecessarily troublesome.”

Clearly, there was a good reason Park Dokyung shouldn’t participate.

【Blood! Seize the blood! Charge forward! Why are you just standing around!】

As the stench of blood filled the forest, the Black Raven began to thrash about wildly.

“Looks like I won’t have a reason to step in after all.”

The Special Operations agents were all users of Demonic Artifacts, Park had said. The risks were high, but because they granted immense power, they were indispensable. And Team 2 was vividly demonstrating just how terrifying that power was. In a battlefield swept by veteran agents, what use was my interference?

“Gaon, feeling an itch?”

“No, I’m pretty comfortable, actually.”

“Well, that’s fine and dandy, but we brought you here to build experience. Though, with things this hectic, I suppose it won’t be easy.”

Hectic? They were literally wiping the floor with the battlefield!

“If it’s this rough right at the entrance, heaven knows what’s waiting deeper inside. Things are probably gonna get intense, so Gaon, you’re just gonna have to keep watching.”

“I’ll be careful.”

And so, I stood by as Kang Chunghwa’s firing mount, watching the veterans in action. So that’s how you use a shield, and that’s how you thrust a spear. You deflect attacks from large monsters to break their posture… Just watching was a masterclass in combat.

Just as the battle turned the forest into a bloodbath and things finally began to quiet down—

“Team Leader! Fog!”

“What? When did this roll in?”

The mist the reconnaissance team had warned us about was suddenly swallowing us up. It moved so fast that even Park Dokyung, who had been monitoring the situation closely, couldn’t react in time. It was undeniably artificial.

~~♬♬

A beautiful song drifted through the air. It was a melody so alluring it seeped straight into the soul.

“How beautiful…”

I began to walk toward the thick fog, where I couldn’t even see an inch ahead. Voices called out, sounding as though they were searching for me, but none of that mattered. I needed to find the front-row seat to that song, and I needed to find it right this second.

【Hey? Host, what are you doing? Where are you wandering off to alone?!】

I walked on aimlessly. Ah, my beloved. Treading lightly upon the wind, you call to me as if in a dream.

【The idiot’s gone under again! Hey! Hey-hey! Host, please put up some resistance!!】

The interloper’s lament could not stop me.

After walking endlessly through the fog, I came face-to-face with a woman playing a flute.

Her hair looked like molten silver spun into threads. Her outfit brazenly revealed her chocolate-toned skin and healthy physique. Beautiful as a fairy descended from the heavens, the young maiden played her flute and waited for me.

“You’ve arrived.”

Her voice was as clear as rolling pearls. Then, I suddenly noticed that her ears were long and pointed.

“An elf?”

“That is what I am called.”

The elven maiden nodded at my guess. I asked her, “Have you by any chance seen a man in a military uniform—um, named Baek Jinseong?”

“Outsiders occasionally lose their way and wander in. If you are referring to him, he is safely under our protection in our village.”

A village in a forest swarming with monsters? But no doubt crossed my mind. Someone who played such enchanting, breathtaking music couldn’t possibly lie.

【Hey-hey! This is shady no matter how you look at it! They’re the ones who grabbed him! There’s no way the locals in this neighborhood are normal!】

The demonic sword made a fuss, but I ignored it. Such a wicked sword, daring to slander the elves who loved the forest and nature right before my eyes.

“Will you follow me? I will help you at our village.”

“Yes!”

I nodded eagerly. An elven village? It must be a paradise overflowing with love and song.

【He went. He’s gone. Completely out of his mind.】

I followed the elven maiden deeper into the forest. Her hair swayed with every step, releasing a refreshing scent, and her deeply exposed back stirred an urge to lean in and taste her skin. Every gesture of hers was alluring, firing up my impulses.

“Ah…”

I suddenly realized. The residents living in a place like this—they were undoubtedly exposed to the tainted energies of the Dark Zone, meaning their karma index must be sky-high. And yet, this elven maiden showed infinite goodwill even to a stranger like me.

Wasn’t there something I could do for her?

Swoosh.

【Huh? Hey, wait a second. No way?】

The elven maiden’s back was exposed to me. The human anatomy I had come to understand through “treating” soldiers time and time again. The “relatively” safe zone.

Having secured my target, I approached her unguarding form—

Stab!

“Ghk!?”

Even if it hurts now, you’ll thank me in the end.

For my “special treatment.”

【Ah… this bastard treats people by stabbing them with good intentions.】