NOVEL NEXT Chapter 16
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“…That’s right. For sure.”
Magic Detection is basically saying that the aura I sensed just before the baby bear collapsed was spot on. But could this baby bear possibly be a slime? With the mother bear right beside it?
‘Am I just not feeling well…?
After all, my body hasn’t fully recovered yet. I arbitrarily searched for Jirisan, driven by a fuzzy feeling in my heart and wanting to confirm what I sensed the last time… I wonder if my sunbae saw my message by now? The thought of going back to be scolded gives me a bit of a dark cloud over my head.
…By the way, this baby bear is super cute.
Euna couldn’t help herself and poked the baby bear’s cheek as it tilted its head. The annoyed frown it made was even cuter.
“Grrr!”
It’s showing some attitude, but that makes it even cuter. Euna chuckled softly as she looked at the baby bear snug in her arms.
‘How fascinating.’
Magic Detection clearly suggests that this baby bear is connected to the aura I sensed before… but it was green. So it was probably a slime. Could it really be that this baby bear is…
“Grrrrr!”
…No way that’s possible. I mean, would such a coincidence even happen? It’s probably just a condition issue.
If I can’t properly use Magic Detection, then finding that aura would be impossible… Euna let out a small sigh.
Did I come here for nothing? No, I probably came here for nothing.
As the faces of the people I should be worried about popped into my head, I felt a little heavy.
‘……’
Resigned to the situation, Euna sighed again. I checked if I had any replies to the message I sent earlier, and just then, I received a call.
Steeling myself for a scolding, I took a deep breath. …Ah. So I couldn’t find it after all.
“Yeah. Hello?”
[Euna! Where are you right now?]
“Sunbae, so…”
[You’re not in Jirisan, right?]
Looking at Euna’s silence, I could hear the sigh through the receiver, like he guessed something.
[Euna, is this a joke to you? Right now, you…]
“…I’m sorry.”
I know. But still, I had to come. I knew it was a foolish move, but I wanted to confirm. I even prepared as best as I could. Or rather, should I have just told my sunbae instead?
[Okay, I get it, just come back right now. Wait, where are you?]
“…Near Bamsagol.”
[I’ll be there soon, so wait there.]
I could hear my sunbae’s deep sigh on the other end. Of course, I know about the Worgs. I took some precautions, but I understand the worry. As the call ended, Euna let out a deep breath.
Really, maybe I shouldn’t have come. A late regret hit me. Since I had already come, there was no going back… But I still couldn’t find it.
“Sorry.”
Seeing how the mother bear was getting pretty mad, Euna quickly set the baby bear down and looked down below. Since they mentioned Bamsagol… it might be better to go a bit lower.
***
“So Euna is here right now?”
Woo Taek nodded at the team leader’s question.
“Yes. She told me to wait. Since she said it’s near Bamsagol, it shouldn’t take too long.”
“Why did she come here… What a headache.”
The team leader shook his head. Woo Taek smiled weakly as if deflated.
“Should we go down…?”
Just as he was about to suggest going down, crackling sounds came through the radio.
[—Team Leader! This is Team 1. We just lost the Worg! It’s fleeing… towards Cheonghakdong…]
[This is Team 3. Lost it too!]
Suddenly, the series of reports froze the expressions of both men.
“Woo Taek.”
“Are you saying it’s heading outside Jirisan right now?”
“No. If it wanted to go out, it would have done so a while ago. It knows it won’t make it far outside the mountain before it dies.”
The main reason they hadn’t caught the Worg until now was because it was in the mountains. It was nearly impossible to catch it in this vast area. If it had been in the city, they’d have caught it long ago.
“It must be looking for something. And most likely…”
“No way…”
“There’s only one thing that comes to mind. Try calling again.”
Nodding, Woo Taek dialed again. One minute… two minutes… eventually, the call went to voicemail, and both men ground their teeth.
“Looks like it’s too late.”
“We need to run!”
“Woo Taek! This is Cheonwangbong! Even if you run as fast as you can, it’ll still take 30 minutes! Woo Taek! Woo Taek!”
Seeing Woo Taek dash out without listening, the team leader rubbed his forehead.
“…This is insane.”
Before long, his coat started flapping behind him just like Woo Taek’s.
***
“It keeps following me?”
Euna tilted her head at the sight of the baby bear that she mistook for a slime following her. It was so cute how it hid behind the trees whenever their eyes met. Just as Euna quickened her pace down Bamsagol, a sinister aura washed over her.
‘……!’
Using Magic Detection against that ominous presence, she realized something terrifying was closing in on her fast.
“……?!”
And it was definitely an aura she recognized. The Worg she hadn’t managed to kill before.
‘I have to run…!’
This was a situation she never wanted to find herself in. Euna pulled together her ability to conjure a vehicle and tried to escape as fast as she could, but she knew the distance was closing in. It was impossible to shake it off. After running for a while, Euna realized she’d taken the wrong path.
She should be going down, but she had inadvertently gone upwards. Peeking over the edge of a cliff, she thought it would be crazy to fall down there.
There must be a path a little further down. There should be a neglected road. If she could reach that, maybe she could escape—before she even finished the thought, she saw a Iljumun appear. Measuring the distance with Magic Detection, Euna nodded slightly and ascended the stone steps.
寺界法山異智.
Time-worn writing and firmly embedded stones. As she passed through the Iljumun of Beokgyeasa, Euna checked the position of the Worg with Magic Detection, then took her phone out with one hand and sent a text saying ‘Beokgyeasa’, as she opened her backpack.
Hoping for the best, she reached for the scroll she had prepared. Soon, she would disappear in a flash of light, but that didn’t happen. The spell scroll just ripped as if nothing happened.
‘Fake…?’
With a bewildered expression, Euna bit her lips.
***
‘Why is it moving so fast?’
As its body grew larger, its running speed had also increased significantly. It would’ve been easy downhill but, of all times, it had to be uphill, making it hard to chase. If she didn’t have detection, she would have lost it countless times by now.
I had saved her after all the hassle. If Euna died here, I might as well die out of sheer unfairness.
I wasn’t following her for nothing. I knew that a monstrous wolf was chasing right behind her. Because I had a detection skill that could sense up to 5km. At first, I intended to let her know, but there was no way to communicate that. Soon, it started to feel like a blessing in disguise. If we fought together, defeating it wouldn’t be that hard.
Euna had knocked it out before. Though she was drained of magic afterward. If I simply blocked its way, it would have been easy for Euna to take down the monstrous wolf. But I had somehow lost sight of her.
I had to catch up as quickly as I could. Of course, looking at it from her perspective, she would likely think she had to fight on her own, so fleeing wasn’t unreasonable…!
***
“Cover!”
Euna immediately began her spell chant. A veil of magic formed a barrier. An obscuring barrier. While it hides her appearance, it can’t hide her scent. It hadn’t worked before. This wasn’t something I forgot. I knew very well that just this barrier wouldn’t let her escape from the Worg.
‘……’
Relying solely on the scroll and forgetting my potions was a big mistake. Euna bit her lips again and checked her phone.
[10 minutes]
A reply had come back. In 10 minutes—if she could hold out for just 10 more minutes, help would arrive from Beokgyeasa.
…It’s not that hard. She can do this. Didn’t she take it down last time?
As long as she remained calm, it wouldn’t be impossible. Euna rubbed her eyelids for focus. Before long, the obscuring barrier began to shake violently. It was much faster than expected—nodding slightly, Euna prepared to cast her spell the moment the barrier broke.
“β-Sheet!”
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