Tales of the Labyrinth

Chapter 10: Sea of Trees

‘…….’

Hwanin opened his eyes and frowned at the unpleasant feeling of deja vu.

He was standing alone in a pitch-black, dark space.

Just moments ago, he had been resting amidst the corpses of the eight green monsters he had slain, but…

Frustration began to simmer within him, but instead of letting his anger take over, Hwanin chose to assess his surroundings and condition.

‘Right after that splitting headache, my vision went dark.’

Perhaps he suffered delayed cardiac arrest after cauterizing his wounds with a heated knife?

It was a pain he didn’t want to experience twice…… No, considering the intensity of the headache, he might have died from a ruptured cerebral blood vessel.

So, was this the afterlife?

The surroundings were pitch-black, as if all light was absorbed, yet his own figure stood out in stark clarity—which only deepened his suspicions. Not only that……

‘There’s no wounds.’

The wounds Hwanin sustained while fighting the eight green monsters, as well as the cuts and scratches from wandering the jungle for six days, and even the blisters and calluses from swinging his weapon, had all vanished.

His clothes, once filthy with dirt, leaves, sweat, and the blood of the monsters, were now as clean as new.

Having already experienced phenomena beyond scientific explanation twice (being transported to another world, and the supernatural green monsters), Hwanin could almost believe this place was the afterlife.

The cause of death? There were too many possibilities to narrow down.

Perhaps it was something he ate, or maybe one of the wounds from the thorny underbrush had festered an infection.

‘…….’

Having come to accept his death as a fact, Hwanin closed his eyes for a moment, then started walking.

If he’d known it would come to this, he could have loosened the bindings on the emergency ration.

Since he tied it tighter than a watermelon net, it would probably get eaten by monsters or die from starvation.

So, what happens to him now? There was no god of death or grim reaper, probably because they’re made-up by people. Should he just keep walking until he faded away?

Or will he reincarnate as some other creature?

Whichever the case, it didn’t matter much to Hwanin. But if he were to reincarnate, he hoped to be reborn as a new being instead of a human.

Like a free bird flying through the skies without deep thought, guided only by instinct.

‘……?’

As Hwanin strolled leisurely, he suddenly noticed a faint light glowing beneath his feet.

It wasn’t just beneath him. Up ahead… the faint light flowed like a rippling river.

‘The Acheron River?’

Hwanin recalled the river said to flow around the underworld in Greek mythology. But he soon shook his head and continued following the glowing trail.

It was an experience that could only be described as mystical.

‘I’ll forget all this when I reincarnate.’

Thinking he’d never remember such a dreamlike scene again, Hwanin felt a slight twinge of regret and slowed his pace a little.

As he walked along the ethereal river of light, Hwanin sensed something approaching from up ahead.

‘….. Bugs?’

A few ants approached along the river….. No, they were floating in the air and passed straight through his chest.

Hwanin touched the part where the ants went through and turned to look back. The ants were already far away, disappearing into the river’s glow.

‘…….’

Sensing something else approaching, he looked ahead and saw various insects coming in pairs.

Butterflies, bees, mantises, stag beetles, crickets, cicadas, wasps, flies, spiders, mosquitoes, dragonflies, grasshoppers……

Perplexed by the incomprehensible situation, Hwanin began walking again. But the insects didn’t approach any faster when he started moving.

‘Does this mean I’ll reincarnate as an insect?’

Hwanin muttered to himself as he watched the insects all pass through his chest. However, when the next creature appeared, he stopped in place.

A white dog with black spots like a cow’s.

Its body was so emaciated that its ribs were clearly visible, and its eyes were half-turned, giving it a cross-eyed appearance.

It was the stray dog he had encountered and beaten to death on the mountain behind his school.

Hwanin remembered it clearly because it was the first living thing he had deliberately killed with intent.

The dog also passed through Hwanin, and as it did, he felt a slight pain and heaviness in his body.

It was a strange kind of pain. It wasn’t the kind caused by being stabbed, cut, or struck….. Instead, it was a weird sensation, as if the pain had spread throughout his body.

Next, three kittens who looked like they had just weaned, approached him.

A calico, a white one, and a black one.

‘…….’

The winter he started his career, Hwanin was going to work with the car his father had gifted him. But as soon as he started the engine, he heard a grinding noise and cat’s shriek.

When he stepped out of the car and opened the engine bay, Hwanin saw three dead cats tangled in the belt.

Those three cats were the same ones from back then.

Just like with the stray dog, he felt a slight pain as the three cats passed through his body.

Closing his eyes for a moment, Hwanin lowered his gaze to the softly glowing river flowing beneath him.

‘Is this river showing me all the lives I’ve taken?’

Was he to confront his deeds and atone for them?

Hu—. With a soft sigh, Hwanin continued forward without hesitation.

Small lives began to approach him after that.

Most were flies and mosquitoes, with the occasional mayfly, as well as ants that he must have stepped on while jogging, and fish that he had caught while fishing with the fishing club.

‘Are there no plants?’

Hwanin scoffed inwardly.

Plants were living things too, yet only insects, animals, and fish appeared.

‘…….’

Hwanin stopped walking for a moment, surprised at himself for mocking an unknown entity.

Ever since he’d fallen into this strange world, his emotions had grown more varied…. He was overwhelmed by a strange feeling, as if he was becoming a different person.

But what did it matter? He was already dead.

As he resumed walking, Hwanin let out a small laugh at the things that began to appear in a swarm in front of him.

Dozens of green monsters, interspersed with the beast-headed monsters, and the gray monster that stood out among them.

They were all the monsters he had beaten and killed.

‘Hmm…..’

As the first green monster passed through him, he felt a heaviness in his body, along with a pain incomparable to that of animals or insects.

It was like experiencing a mild headache that engulfed his entire body. And while it was considerable, the pain itself wasn’t the problem.

The real problem was that after about ten monsters had passed, his body felt heavy like a cotton soaked in water.

‘Ugh.’

It became clear that the pain increased proportionally with the number of creatures that passed through him.

When 20 monsters had gone by, it went from a mild headache to becoming like being stabbed with an awl, and his body felt as heavy as if he was moving through water.

By the time 30 monsters had passed, it felt like he was getting hacked by a blade. Moving felt like he was carrying weights in addition to the water.

‘Huu…….’

As the agony of being slashed evolved into the torment of burning alive in a furnace, the 36th and final green monster passed through him.

There was nothing else approaching from beyond the glowing river.

His body felt as if it were on fire. If he had gone through just 10 more, he doubted he could have endured.

Hwanin let out a quiet sigh and trudged forward—each step was a struggle as if he’s bound by chains pulling him back.

‘Hmm.’

As he moved forward, the burning sensation gradually subsided, replaced by a refreshing coolness that began to fill its place.

It was more invigorating than the one he had felt deep in his chest when he drank the clear water from the great lake yesterday.

The oppressive sensation that had bound his movements also began to fade.

As the chains got unshackled, his body became lighter and lighter. With a feeling of liberation, as if he was about to fly, Hwanin rolled his shoulders and strode forward with a faint smirk curling one corner of his lips.

‘It’s like a purification ritual for the soul.’

A purification process for reincarnation.

If there was a process of burning and erasing the filth in the soul, wouldn’t it be like this?

Savoring the overwhelming freshness and freedom, Hwanin continued walking, realizing that the world around him was gradually becoming brighter.

Intuitively sensing the end approaching in the particularly bright path ahead, Hwanin leisurely stepped into the light without rush.

“……? Ugh.”

With his head clearing up, Hwanin opened his eyes, only to be overwhelmed by a sudden wave of pain that engulfed his entire body.

Groaning from the pain was one thing, but the aftereffects of losing that sense of liberation and freshness hit him hard.

Just moments ago, he was soaring through the skies with his wings spread wide, but now an indescribable sense of confinement and discomfort bound his entire body.

“Ugh.”

As he tried to sit up, he forced another groan as excruciating pain shot through his right thigh. Struggling against severe joint and muscle aches, along with bruises covering his body, Hwanin finally managed to lift his upper body.

His body trembled like an aspen.

Hwanin scanned his surroundings with great difficulty, and breathed a sigh of relief seeing the scattered bodies of the green monsters.

His mind was in turmoil. Wasn’t he dead? If he hadn’t died, then what was that experience by the river of light?

Lifting his trembling arm, he checked his watch. It was 11 AM. He had been unconscious for about 3 hours.

“…… Huuu.”

With a long sigh filled with exhaustion and deprivation, Hwanin felt a swirl of emotions, not wanting to move a finger.

However, the realization that he hadn’t died spurred him into action. He couldn’t just sit there.

Forcing himself to his feet, Hwanin leaned against a tree for support, and struggled to put his clothes on before looking around.

“…….”

Limping and staggering, he slowly gathered his spear, stone axe, shortsword, and black club.

Though he wanted to take everything, he knew that his current condition didn’t allow it. If he carried too much, he wouldn’t be able to return to his hideout and collapse along the way.

Hwanin was panting and sweating from the slightest movement…. He found a green monster whose leather was in good condition and took it off.

It was larger than he expected. If he sewed a few pieces together, it would be enough to use as a blanket.

Hwanin placed the weapons on the leather, rolled it up, and roughly tied it with vines. Then, pushing through the undergrowth, he searched for emergency ration.

Quack!

“You’re alive.”

Hwanin thought it might have been crushed to death since there was no sound. However, emergency ration was fine, quacking as if it had been waiting for him to arrive.

With emergency ration secured, Hwanin was about to return to his hideout using the spear as a crutch, when… his eyes caught the staff of the green monster that used superpowers.

“…….”

After a brief hesitation, he silently picked up the staff as well. Using the spear and the staff as trekking poles, he limped forward.

Hwanin couldn’t stop thinking about the river of light. That was the only thing that would come to his mind.

Was it just a hallucination? But for a hallucination, the memories and sensations were too vivid. If that experience was induced by hallucination, then this world would also be one.

It didn’t make sense. He suddenly lost consciousness and saw something like that without any warning.

…… Or was there a warning?

Hwanin’s eyes narrowed as he looked at the staff in his right hand.

It was definitely after he touched the staff. And the green monster had used this staff to use superpowers.

Could it be that the green monsters’ movements became twice as fast because of this staff?

“Huff, huff, huff…….”

Avoiding checking the time, as he felt it would only make things worse, Hwanin moved forward mechanically. He could feel his condition deteriorating with each step.

Cold sweat poured down his body, and the weight of the weapons and leather sack strapped to his back crushed his shoulders.

His right arm felt like it’s about to fall off from the weight of emergency ration.

He had lost all sensation below his right thigh, and while initially only his right side, now his entire body creaked.

His head was hot and his vision was getting blurry. Within the haze, the trees and grass appeared in shades of reddish earth and amber.

It’s as if orange, yellow, purple, and blue-green paint had been randomly splashed over the forest.

Hwanin realized the severity of his condition.

He’s hallucinating with his eyes open. He might really die like this.

Determined to push himself as far as he could, even if he’s going to die, he took one grueling step after another. Eventually, he arrived at the crack in the ground where his hideout was.

Descending into the gap, narrower and lower than a small ravine, Hwanin bumped into the walls and finally reached the tree roots that hid the entrance to his hideout. He squeezed through and leaned against the dirt wall, gasping for breath.

“Huff, haah. Haah…….”

His body trembled with chills.

Dropping everything he had been carrying on his shoulders, emergency ration hit the ground first, only to be struck by the falling bundle of weapons. Quack-!

With stiff fingers, Hwanin managed to untie the vines that bound the leather and collapsed onto it, which he had spread out on a soft bed of leaves.

“Uh, ughhh……”

Even with a hazy mind, he was glad he had brought the leather.

Though it was stiff and wasn’t completely tanned, the leather would block the cold that the leaves couldn’t.

Shivering, Hwanin pulled the remaining leather over himself and curled up like a shrimp.

He hoped that his body would feel better once he wakes up.