Chapter. 15. Can someone who has seen the end of the world plant an apple tree? (9)
****
Puuk. Push! Seokgeuk-
“Swiss (流沙)?”
“They called me that too. The softest death. The sand that chases and sinks… The enforcer of the taboo is a judge that no one who lives on this sand can avoid. The desert itself. Anyone who sets foot in this desert cannot escape the pursuit of the sinking sand. If you’re already outside the desert, if you break a taboo in the desert, there’s only one way to survive. Living your whole life on a solid rock. If you break the taboo and walk on the sand, at some point the quicksand that chases you will catch your ankle and you will be sucked into the sand. So, I heard that somewhere in the desert there is a large rock where taboo breakers gather. Of course, now I am in a position where I have to go there…”
Seaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
“Similarity. Yusara…. Can it move? “If you break a taboo, quicksand will know and come after you?”
“The desert is a place that is constantly moving. Not even a single grain of sand stays still. “If the entire desert were like that, wouldn’t it be any different from quicksand?”
“…Then isn’t this ship also dangerous now? “I don’t know what the scale is, but if you call yourself a judge like that, I think even this barely floating ship will sink, right?”
“It’s okay for now. I heard that the taboo is being chased from outside the desert to inside. That’s why we didn’t turn the boat around. If this journey takes longer than expected and the quicksand trace becomes visible. I guess I’ll have to jump off the ship then. Otherwise, everyone here will sink in the sand along with the ship.”
“hmm. That’s right…”
The professor hung the knife on the sand shark that was just being dismantled for a moment and then thought about the taboo tracker that the captain had explained.
First of all, the way you speak. Rather than seeing it in person, there was some uncertainty about it. It doesn’t feel like a description of an incident the captain experienced, but rather a feeling of conveying what someone told him.
In fact, the culture of ostracizing clergy is so awkward, isn’t it strange that in a dry neighborhood like this, there is a culture of kidnapping and confining priests because they like them? But it is a taboo not to get involved with priests.
Think about it. A day after we entered the desert, we encountered two sand sharks the size of a house like that. The ship I am currently on, the Dry Oasis, is a special ship that was built to respond to situations like this from the time it was built, and the crew members are not usually skilled, so they passed the situation without much damage, but if something like this happens every day. The people who live here have probably encountered monsters like that at least once or twice, which can cause serious harm if they pass by, so won’t they get hurt? If you get hurt. Can I get treatment properly? In this dry land, there are enough medicinal plants to cover all the injuries.
Because of these realistic factors, it is common for regions in poverty to have a culture that welcomes priests as an all-purpose cure. No matter how much the village elders screamed, ‘Don’t get entangled with foreigners, you’ll be cursed’, you would have lived your whole life looking at the graves piled up like that as your parents and siblings right before your eyes died from their broken legs festering. Since people live in the reality before their eyes, it is normal for taboos that are passed down only through word of mouth to fade over time.
but.
“Hmm… I think I need a smaller knife. Hey~ Is there anyone with a dagger~”
“Hehe! “I made eye contact with Saint Seo!”
“Get out quickly, you bastard! “You came into contact with foreign blood, so it’s taboo anyway!”
“Oh no! And it’s only a drop of blood that’s taboo…!”
Round and round. Juseomjuseom. Kaaak-huh!
….Looking at that tail, it was clear that the taboo had not faded, but rather had been burrowed into the very marrow over time.
An inconvenient ancient taboo that should have generally been abolished. The fact that it has survived until now means that there has been some kind of reinforcement. This means that the taboo is not just a taboo of words, but that there was an incident that could prove it and show it as a fact.
In other words, the captain has never experienced it yet. This probably means that someone was observed breaking a taboo and being chased by quicksand that was tracking him. And that too often enough to keep the taboo clear for a long time.
‘….I guess it’s not just a superstition. Moving quicksand. It is a force that reacts on an environmental basis in response to taboo actions against a specific target….’
….nimiral. The empire felt like it was burning subtly, but the desert was showing very openly from the beginning that ‘there is something terrible here~’.
“The Great Desert and Taboo. An ancient kingdom and ancient humans destroyed by the wrath of the old gods. “It has quite a narrative.”
Since I also have time for March World, I expected this. From the level of monsters that jump out of the entrance right away to the extreme environment that turns people into sand splatters if they even stumble, I had already expected that this neighborhood would be an area suited to the extreme end-game specifications. I guess we should blame Professor Park from the past who fell for the tricks of the Rakshasha.
But mute is involved here. Those guys who seemed to be quiet in the empire did something and suddenly showed their tails in the desert….
Shock.
The professor placed the scimitar, covered in blood and fat, on the boat and tilted his head as he looked at the sand shark that had been dismantled in good condition.
The smell of blood with clear traces of mute. The main enemy of March World, who has already reached out to the great desert in case anyone thinks they are like a plague.
‘But is this something the queen made?’
First of all, the smell of Mute’s blood was clear, but the scent was very faint.
At first, I thought it was right when I smelled blood for the first time in a long time, but even though I had starved for a long time, I thought, ‘Huh? ‘It smells like mute?’ It was a bit strange that I only got a moderate response. At this level, it’s almost like nothing.
Considering that I became semi-NPC with Data Soul’s backup, got closer to GG’s world, and became sensitive to magic and other senses, this means that the sand shark’s blood contained only a trace amount of infectious agent.
And when I confirmed that the one I caught first out of the two was a clean sand shark with no mute smell, I hung both of them on the hook of the boat to figure out what the strange sand shark was that looked like it had been licked by a mute once. I had just started dissecting it myself.
If it had been created by the queen, it would have taken on the strengths of other creatures. It was an action I started because I thought there might be something different.
———
– Jokass: Oh there. That pocket there. This is where there should have been something like a swim bladder… but is it a water bag?
– professor: Something like that… Ah, it exploded. It’s real water. I guess it’s about 50 liters? The sailors would have liked it. I tried a piece of meat and it was meaty and tasty.
– Jokass: Even if it is sand with a lot of air space, it must be all muscle to swim at that speed through it, so of course it would be chewy. Then… I guess what’s underneath is the liver. Squeeze down and go in… That’s right. Let’s take a look. From a living organism’s point of view, mute infectious agents are similar to germs, so if you have to worry about their concentration, it is highly likely that they are concentrated in the liver.
– professor: Hmm… definitely. The smell of mute, which I just felt, is a bit strong. I guess you weren’t just an expert on words? I never thought I would benefit from you in my life. Did you run a raw fish restaurant before the war?
———
I didn’t think much of it when I started. If it was just a mute created by the queen, it would definitely have incorporated the strengths of various other creatures, and if it was a real mute, I thought there would definitely be a clear difference from an ordinary sand shark, but since the difference was not visible on the outside, I tried to check it on the inside.
But that man, Jocas, has been scolding me ever since he grabbed the knife, and isn’t that all plausible?
———
– Jokass: I’m currently working as a byproduct processor. Every day, I delve deep into the various varieties, from those that look like rodent jjamppong to those that are so bizarre that you wonder if they are living things, and think about which ones are useful and which are valuable, and how the Mutation Smith uses them and how they sell them, and before I know it, I’m seeing people I’ve never seen before. At this point, I got the feeling that I could do something like this. This is quite a profession. I heard there was a certification test recently like that for members of the Inspection Department?
– professor: Oh. Did you win it?
– Jokass: I’m a member of the test committee. He is quite a pioneer.
– takealook: It’s an occupation that’s only emerging now. In the past, it was rumored that it was a dangerous job that only would-be suicides did, and because it was illegal, people had to go to the black market…. Isn’t this the lucky vagabond 1 who got caught for doing anything because he had no way to make a living?
– Jokass: Concave-
Jokass: Anyway, looking at it through this expert’s eyes, I don’t see anything particularly anatomically different. This means that there is a high possibility that it is not a mute, which is a genetic combination organism.
– professor: Well, the blood was too light to be a new type of mute created by the queen. So much so that sailors exposed to the blood did not feel any symptoms. Of course, if I had left it alone, the mute mutation would have started at some point.
– Jokass: The second one seemed to have more foreign substances in it than the first, so it must have eaten something before hitting its stomach. My personal opinion is that it was a mute and that the infectious agent that survived the digestion process was just eroding the sand shark.
– Jokass: First of all, this means that it is not a creature that falls outside the category of sand shark.
———
With unexpected help, we have obtained quite convincing evidence.
First of all, it didn’t seem like the mutes were encroaching on the entire desert to the extent of concern. I would be suspicious if it was a low-level mute, but this is just a wild desert creature that preyed on mutes that were environmental creatures of level 8 or 9 or lower.
Of course, it doesn’t make sense to be optimistic because the first monster I encountered upon entering the desert just happened to eat a mute that was wandering near the desert. We will need to accumulate more samples to be certain, but for now, it would be better to assume that Mute has established itself well on the edge of the desert.
If the northern permafrost is 100 Mute forces, then the desert is… not a blood-thick fighting entity, but even low-level buttes for resource gathering… 30? Too negative? 20? 15?
‘Now that I think about it, you mute guys. It was quiet in the empire. There was damage on the Named side, but the Queen wasn’t idle, and Roderick’s Western Front was being pushed back little by little.’
First of all, the three names confirmed so far are Edeor, Falcatus and Vazyur. Even if Bazyur dies or, in the worst case scenario, barely survives, the season is a foregone conclusion.
Edeorna must have some recovery time left… I’m guessing.
Falcatus. This vicious, persistent, and even diligent bastard couldn’t have stayed quiet after seeing the injured brothers, so he must have done something else.
There was no way that the queen, who had already dried up resources in the early stages and focused on a small number of elites, would have given birth to only three named children. In the current situation where there is ample time and resources, it would make sense to name five, if not six.
….As expected, the troops are empty. No matter how hard you calculate it, it means that there is a bunch of troops that suddenly disappeared.
‘It seemed like the main point of the mute strategy so far was to somehow take control of Rodrik and quickly occupy the three eastern countries around it, so Rodrik was unable to breathe and was casting a mortar in a desperate attempt to survive… Suddenly, I had some free time. ‘It’s become strangely comfortable.’
This means that the troops were diverted somewhere else. Otherwise, there was no way the Queen, who was extracting even more of the already large quantity through the power of the evil god, would give her any leeway. If you look at it that way, the three countries near Roderick are in the eastern and central regions. Excluding the entire central to western part of the empire, the only empty space is the desert. An area forgotten by people due to its extremely harsh environment.
good. One fact. Mute turned his troops around and came to the desert.
Well then, there is one more problem to think about here.
why.
Why did you come?
As I headed towards the western empire, Mut moved his troops in the opposite direction towards the eastern great desert. Considering that they planted spies in human society through various parasitic mutes, it would be correct to assume that they knew my destination. As I headed west, they invested their troops to the east as if they were waiting. It means that I wanted to avoid friction, and that means that it is a fairly delicate situation, so much so that if there is friction, something I had planned could go astray.
Did they simply deploy a large number of chamber maids to expand Mute’s territory and increase production?
well. Of course, Chamber Maids are important units that cannot be selected because the Queen must produce them herself regardless of resources. Even if it is a chamber maid that consumes all types of mana, intelligence, organic matter, etc., extracts mutes, and devastates the entire area, how can it absorb more from an already desolate desert? Rather than investing here, it would be more helpful for them to attack other areas of the three eastern countries and eat up even more pieces of forest.
It can be concluded that there are other goals than entering the desert area simply to secure resources.
‘Ummmm… Roll, roll, head… Falcatus, what kind of crazy thing is this bastard planning…. If you mute my clone, you’ll think like me….’
Wow, my head is going to explode, really. .
‘Hey Hyde. What clues have you found so far?’
[Let’s see…. Why did you twist your thoughts like this? Wait a minute…] I
heard Hyde grumbling, as if it was taking a while to sort it out because there were so many clues that came to mind because everything was pouring in from the beginning.
While I was cooling my head for a moment and cutting up the sand shark, the thoughts that Hyde had organized began to appear in my head one by one.
First of all, Professor Seongja is a powerful enemy who has disrupted Mute’s events several times.
That’s right. From Turan through Roderick to Wuthering Heights. If I do something, I’m the one who always comes out and causes trouble. This is a clear fact, as they were defeated even after using the wild card named Named.
two. Falcatus is a mute created based on my information. You must be thinking like me and shaking your head like I am right now. He even took a beating at my hand and engraved his fear of professors into his bones, so I will never let down my guard or look down on him. In that respect, it can be seen that the fact that they invested in the Far East while I was playing in the West was clearly an act with me in mind.
In other words, they were looking for an opportunity to not be disturbed. This is an either/or choice. They say that since you chose to go to the Empire, you had to endure a penalty in the Great Desert. Damn game.
three. Very important thing. I guess there is something so important that I need to invest enough troops to relieve Rodrik, who is almost completely captured, and then wait until the strong enemy leaves the place before doing it. What is it? What is that? Falcatus What did this bastard find in the desert?
Talk. Talk. Talk. Talk.
The professor’s brow furrowed as he pounded the bone with the tip of his knife in front of the skeletal shark while his hands were lost in thought.
“No way… What is that amazing thing in the desert?”
Now that I think about it, it has been proven that even powers close to divine status in the empire can be usurped through a special process.
What if Mute is targeting something that makes the desert like this and moves the quicksand?
.
.
.
.
It’s not impossible either. No, the process itself may be simpler than the Empire. It has been forgotten enough to be called an old god. Blindness of a believer = In this town where god power is, that can also be seen as a lost god.
And even though she is new, the Mute Queen is a real evil spirit. Since they are both gods, there is no difference in rank and their superiority in power is clear.
Above all, Queen Mute, an evil deity associated with prosperity,
was originally… ‘a person who specialized in eating and reproducing things.’
It is said that God is very suitable for this type of work.
Spook Special – Crack, crack, crack!
“ah.”
Was I too absorbed in my thoughts? When I came to my senses, I found myself chopping up the sand shark in front of me and scratching its bones.
As I thought about it, a sense of anxiety creeped up before I even confirmed the reality of the enemy.
Somehow, the more I sell, the more it feels like it’s too late….
.
.
.
.
“Um… Captain. “How long will it take to reach the destination?”
“I don’t know that. The constellation directions you gave me only gave directions, but did not tell me exactly where I was. “Is the person who told you that an important person in the Great Desert?”
“Uh… maybe? “Because you said you were the head of an organization?”
“Then we won’t know even more. The Great Desert is not a very peaceful place and it does not easily reveal its location. “Maybe I’ll find it from there as I go.”
“Umm….”
“You can’t move the desert just by scooping out sand. Although it is a taboo itself, since you have set foot in the desert, you will have to get used to its laws. Patience is the greatest virtue. You look very busy. Please calm down. “Not a single grain of sand in this desert stands still, so there is a time for everything you truly need.”
“patience. Be patient….”
It couldn’t have been the sound of a person bursting out of clothes for someone who was so busy. These were the words of a captain who willingly broke a taboo that was equivalent to a death sentence for the sake of his crew, so I couldn’t just ignore them.
The professor suppressed his itching and roughly collected the two clumsily dismembered carcasses of sand sharks.
Since the blood containing the infectious agent has already been absorbed to the last drop, this meat and leather can be used.
“Ugh. “Let’s eat quickly before it all spoils in the salty spring.”
If there’s nothing you can do right away, it’s just frustrating to keep it inside.
The professor pushed the growing anxiety to the side of his head and filled his heart with anticipation about how he would eat sand shark meat, which is located somewhere between raw fish and meat.
As a result of the experiment, it tasted similar to crumbly raw meat. It was delicious to eat raw, but when you hung it on a string and lowered it into the hot sand to cook it, it had a unique aroma and taste that made you wake up.
The sailors, who had been intimidated by the taboo, secretly relaxed into the delicacies they had tasted for the first time in a long time since their last voyage, and the captain, who knew that the sailors’ agitation would lead to accidents, generously poured out the alcohol he had brought with him, blowing away the crew’s reason.
Delicious food and alcohol. As the sun sets, the temperature becomes more livable, and the saint’s actions seem to have nothing to do with religion.
In the end, the professor defeated all the drunken sailors by arm wrestling and was able to receive the comment, ‘This guy can’t be an old-fashioned person like a priest!’
While everyone was laughing and getting drunk, the sailors who went up to the watchtower to look for quicksand in addition to the monsters were scanning the desert with their eyes wide open.
The shadow that was watching the ship cutting through the desert night under a sky full of stars measured with its fingers the direction the bow was pointing and the movement of the stars, and then quietly disappeared into the darkness of the desert.
****
Port life. Day 4.
“saint. As someone who serves foreign media, I know it might be inconvenient, but-”
“Okay, okay, okay!” No prayers! Holy power prohibited! Don’t refuse the villagers’ rituals! “Isn’t this all you have to do?”
“If we don’t keep it, we will all be the ones who brought taboo into the village and will be punished to death. That’s the basics, and then it’s about the laws of Oasis…”
Yes. It’s a village. After three days in the desert, we arrived at the least habitable place in this desolate place.
After spending my first night in the desert. Over the next three days, I encountered three sand sharks, a sandworm that looked twice the size of the boat, and about 15 desert scorpions that looked so familiar that I almost screamed.
In areas where the sand bursts and gushes like a swamp, I was covered in sand and my skin peeled off. I was half-submerged in desert sand, and I saw fiery sand pouring into the dock of a moving reef (!), and I saw sailors and sand shark skins. He even covered himself up and tried to close the hole so he could die.
Starting with the sailor for whom I covered the sand, the sailors gradually began to adapt to the human professor, not the saint. The deck captain said, ‘I look like a desert person now that I have sand-covered scars on my body.’ I said yes.
I threw myself into the sand to find out how on earth this ship was floating, but the rope burned and I almost died, and people in the chat room called me an extreme hardcore masochist, and the sand of the great desert turned into a unique sand layer with a large air layer, to the point where quicksand was created everywhere. I found out that it was covered, and no matter what happened in this crazy desert, I was able to adapt to it to the point where I thought, ‘It’s a great desert.’
and. Of the 20 scorpions captured, 7 showed symptoms similar to the sand sharks seen on the first day.
It looks like low-level mutes are being eaten and eroded by infectious agents.
When my skin was burning black like tanned skin, something worthy of change finally came.
Kuung –
Perhaps because it was near an oasis, the boat stopped like a lie with the sound of the bow hitting sand of different densities. When the boat stopped moving steadily for three days, I felt nauseous.
“Sire is a fairly large oasis, so many people gather there. Try not to be noticed-”
“Uh… land… land…”
“Tree… it’s bare and has few leaves, but that green is definitely… Ah, mother tree. …. Ugh!”
“…Keuhum! “Please stay out of sight.”
Around the time the captain made his final request. Notum and Idrasil, who were hanging out in the dock like corpses, crawled out like zombies as soon as the ship stopped and hung on a handsome palm tree.
Under a tree where trolls and elves hang and sway. Those resting in the shade frowned, and the captain buried his face in his hands as he saw a woman with only her eyes exposed under a purple veil approaching the place where they were hanging.
Purple is a symbol of someone precious. That unique silk that scatters light is an extremely expensive item that sufficiently blocks the desert sun, but is also thin and breathable. Judging by her neat gait, this woman appears to be a well-educated person of high rank in this oasis.
As soon as he arrived at the oasis due to the woman’s seemingly hasty footwork, the captain, who thought he had offended the people here, told the crew to quickly get supplies and prepare to set sail.
That’s what the captain thought until he confirmed that the woman’s destination was a professor and not two heterogeneous people hanging from a tree.
“Can’t you touch the precious tree? “In remote areas, trees grow by the dozens, but in an oasis, these few trees provide shade, bear fruit, and serve as guideposts for those who wander.”
“Oh yes. sorry. “It’s our first time sailing…?”
.
.
.
.
hmm?
….wait for a sec. Where have I heard that way of speaking a lot?
.
.
.
.
?
??
!
!!
Sreuk-
“How have you been?”
“!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Before the professor could be startled by the voice of the person approaching him, the hand of the woman who silently walked in front of him went under his clothes and traced his collarbone.
The magic imprint rises from the scar onto the skin with a tingling sensation. It’s a different shape than what I saw before, but it’s still a red mark.
“That ah-”
“Patience is a virtue of the desert, and it is natural for a woman of the desert to wait indefinitely. Your great name constantly tickled my ears and shook the heart of a chaste woman. “Can’t you blame me for being too lazy to wait?”
The professor froze as the woman lifted her veil with her other hand and smiled.
“Ah Ana-”
“Shh. “Isn’t it embarrassing to call your lover’s name, which is more secret than a woman’s inner life, in broad daylight in front of others?”
Rakshasha. My real name is Anaya Tam Shandea. She appeared as suddenly as she had when they first met and still baffled him.
“…Who could it be?”
“Huh? Hey… Rakshasha?”
“Did someone secretly steal my friend’s heart while I was away?”
The Rakshasha’s eyes, curved like half moons, shined sharply. Nails as sharp as the eyes swept along the collarbone, along the carotid artery, and swept up the body of my beloved lover.
The magic imprint she gave the professor had only one purpose.
Sadly for her, the spell had served its purpose very well.
****
