Chi-Woo stopped walking when he saw Hawa leaning against the wall.
“Were you waiting for me?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“…I see. Let’s go out now.”
“I hear wind coming from this side,” Hawa said and guided him to a path. As they walked, Hawa kept glancing at Chi-Woo from the corner of her eyes. She had many questions she wanted to ask, but she didn’t ask them because of how conflicted Chi-Woo looked.
Chi-Woo felt refreshed and regretful at the same time, but overall, he was more relieved to have beaten an opponent that he thought he would never beat. As they walked a bit more, the darkness completely disappeared, and they saw soft balls of light lighting up their surroundings. It seemed the floor they were at had been the highest floor; with their path illuminated, Chi-Woo and Hawa walked a bit faster.
Not long afterward, intense light shone onto Chi-Woo’s eyes as he stepped out of the cave. “Ah.” The dazzling sun was high up in the sky. It had been a while since he saw the sun, felt the fresh air outside, was caressed by its gentle breezes, and above all, saw a great, wide-open plain. He welcomed the stimuli hitting his five senses, and a smile tugged at his lips. ‘Humans really must live with the sky above them and the ground below them after all,’ he thought. After dwelling in the scenery for a bit, Chi-Woo looked around. The landscape seemed familiar, like he had been here before.
“It’s the Evalaya Mountain,” Hawa said. “Seeing that we are at the foot of the mountain, it seems we’ve left through one of its entrances.” Proving that she had been traversing the Evalaya mountain since she was young once again, Hawa recognized the area immediately.
“How surprising,” Hawa expressed her admiration as she looked back at the cave. “I didn’t expect the ‘Lost Sanctuary’ to be underneath this gigantic volcano…”
Chi-Woo agreed. No one would’ve dared to investigate underneath a volcano.
“What are you going to do now?” Hawa asked. “Are you going to go back immediately, or…”
“Hm…” After pondering for a bit, Chi-Woo opened his mouth again. “No.” He shook his head and looked up to the mountain’s peak.
“Let’s try going up to the fortress again.”
Hawa narrowed one eye. “Are you serious?”
“Why? Won’t it be better to find food supplies while we are already here? We don’t know what the situation would be like there.”
“We don’t know whether or not there would be food supplies, and even if there are, we don’t know where they are hidden. And even if we find them, we will have to come back again anyways.”
“Yes, if there are actually food supplies there. Even if we can’t take everything, let’s just check whether or not there are anything in the fortress,” Chi-Woo said. Hawa was about to argue, but decided against it. Searching around the fortress wasn’t a big deal, but the events leading up to it would be a problem.
“Will you be alright?”
“Do you not like the idea of going? Then we can just return like you said.”
Hawa studied Chi-Woo’s calm face, and thought, ‘Well, no wonder his attitude is different. He has eaten countless feasts and drunk holy water like normal water until now. Furthermore, he made a contract with La Bella and regained parts of his original hero powers.’ Thus, she shrugged and took a step back. She was telling him to do whatever he pleased.
“Can you guide me to the fortress?” Chi-Woo asked.
“Yes. But just in case, should we go to that path we took before?” Hawa aked.
“If it’s not too far from here.”
Thus, their hiking began. It didn’t take them as much time as it had the first time they climbed the mountain. Hawa was always good at climbing mountains, and surprisingly, Chi-Woo had become better at climbing than Hawa now. With the Core of Balance embedded in his heart, it became very easy for him to find his body’s balance. Thanks to it, he was able to move like a gazelle that jumped around cliffs and reached the halfway point of the mountain in an instant. After stationing himself on top of a comparatively flat surface, Chi-Woo recollected his breath, surveyed his surroundings, and smiled wryly. This was the place they had all rested the last time they climbed, and was also the place where they saw the mysterious monster. Chi-Woo sighed at the crushed boulder that had been left untouched.
‘I wonder how much time has passed…?’
Two months? Three months? He had only relied on his circadian rhythm to gauge time and didn’t know exactly how long it had been since he was locked inside the cave.
‘I’m sure the rest of the group returned safely.’ Yes. If Ru Amuh, the rare four stars hero, was with them, they would be fine. Perhaps they were still desperately waiting for him and Hawa to return.
‘I should return quickly after checking to see if there are any supplies. Won’t they be doubly delighted and surprised when they see us then?’ Chi-Woo thought as he continued his climb.
“!”
Chi-Woo suddenly flinched and jumped backward. Swish! Followed by the sound of something sharp piercing through the air, a couple shards from a broken boulder struck Chi-Woo’s face. Where Chi-Woo was standing a moment ago, the boulder had broken into pieces in less than a second. Chi-Woo felt a chilly sensation passing his back. Just like when he had trained with Hawa, he felt a sudden warning in his head. It was the manifestation of his extrasensory perceptions, which allowed him to evade these attacks in time.
‘A nail?’ Chi-Woo confirmed that a gigantic nail-shaped object was on the floor and saw something flick through his vision. He looked to see where the object had come from, and as expected, it was connected to a long, stretched-out, rubbery-like arm on the other side.
Creeek! The sound of its arm straining echoed around them, and simultaneously, a monster resembling a sea lion came flying over like spiderman. It was that same monster they had encountered before, which had an outstanding hearing to make up for its lacking eyesight. It was strong and extremely fast. Perhaps it had made its way here after hearing the noises he and Hawa made and sensing their presence, as it had done the last time. Chi-Woo was captivated by a strange sense of déjà vu for a moment as he looked straight at the flying sea lion monster. He waited for the monster to approach him before he suddenly kicked off the floor and sprinted. With balls of energy gathered in his fists, he swung hard, hitting the monster squarely.
Bam!
The monster’s water-filled leather skin burst with a loud pop, and it flew backward into the air spinning. Its head exploded in a splatter of blood from direct contact with Chi-Woo’s fist.
“Whoah.” Chi-Woo was slightly surprised by the result of his own actions. He was now able to split and leave deep impressions on rock walls with pure muscle strength, though; it was no surprise that he could make such a powerful blow when he added spiritual energy into the mix.
‘What?’
Wiggle! Wiggle! Chi-Woo furrowed his brows as he saw the sea lion twist and turn its body like it was attached to the floor. He thought for sure the sea lion would regenerate and stand up again. However, the monster failed to regenerate its head after it exploded no matter how hard it tried. Tentacle-like legs reached up in an attempt to restore its own head, but they burned into a crisp instead like they were being consumed by an invisible energy. In the end, the sea lion monster stopped moving and lay prone on the ground, seemingly having reached the end of its life.
The sea lion monster had been much stronger before—to the extent that even Ru Amuh was nervous about facing it. However, the monster had lowered its guard. After ambushing him, it had flown towards them without any protection as if it was running towards a prey that was already within its grasp. The sea lion’s mistake proved to be fatal. Chi-Woo, who had almost died dozens of times in the cave, knew how important it was to make his enemy lower their guard. In a way, the sea lion monster had paid for its mistake with its life.
On the other hand, Chi-Woo was preoccupied with another matter. ‘This power…’ Chi-Woo looked down at the headless sea lion monster and tightly clutched his throbbing fist. 'Exorcism.’ It was a type of power that had complete advantage over beings in the evil alignment. If the monster had become what it was through power from the evil alignment, it was understandable it would explode in one hit without the ability to regenerate itself.
Suddenly, Chi-Woo’s surroundings grew dark. As if dark clouds were gathering together, the sun disappeared, and a huge shadow covered the sky.
“Be carefu…!”
Thud! The rest of Hawa’s warning was lost in the heavy footsteps. Chi-Woo’s eyes became big as saucers when he turned towards the direction of the sound. An enormous monster raised to its full height, knocking down a tree at the same time. Its body was big enough to cover the sky, and its muscular frame resembled rocks. How could Chi-Woo forget this monster?
“Giant monster…” Chi-Woo muttered under his breath. Did the monster also remember him? When they met each other’s eyes, the giant monster smirked—it reached out with its fist as if it was welcoming Chi-Woo. Chi-Woo quickly jumped forward at the same time.
Bam! Chi-Woo avoided the attack, but the resulting shockwaves shot out from the point of impact like the last time. However, Chi-Woo had changed. While he had been flung off his feet due to his inability to counter the shockwaves before, this time, he was able to steady his footing and run like he was running on a flat plain even as the ground shook violently as if there were an earthquake. He then jumped and landed on the giant monster’s out-stretched arm, running along it to move up to the monster.
The giant monster was startled and tried to dust off Chi-Woo as if it was swatting a fly. However, Chi-Woo managed to jump onto its swinging hand with perfect timing and made another leap, landing on the monster’s shoulder with a full somersault. With great force, he slammed his fist down.
Crack. A part of the giant monster’s neck split and cracked. The shocked monster quickly covered its neck with its hand. However, Chi-Woo had already jumped down by that time. When Chi-Woo landed on the ground, he put a great amount of energy into his leg and kicked the muscles connecting the monster’s ankle.
Bamm! Bam! Bamm! The giant monster’s rock-like muscles shattered and crumbled. With its ankle losing the strength to hold up its enormous weight, the monster collapsed; rocks the size of a house fell to the ground. The giant monster’s horrible screams rang in the air. Its weakened feet could no longer keep itself upright, and it lost its balance.
Bam! In the end, one of its knees gave out, hitting the ground with great impact.
Krrreugh!? The giant monster blankly stared at Chi-Woo like it couldn’t believe what happened. It looked as if it was wondering what Chi-Woo had done to it to make it fall like this. In contrast, Chi-Woo’s expression was calm the whole time. He raised both of his arms and got into a fighting stance again.
‘That’s what happened.’ Chi-Woo nodded and continued his thought. Ru Amuh could probably do what he just did; he could have defeated at least three or four monsters by himself. However, Chi-Woo was fighting under different conditions compared to Ru Amuh. First, the situation was different. He didn’t have dozens of monsters rushing towards at once, and he didn’t have people with zero combat ability like Eshnunna to protect. Second, Chi-Woo could feel while he was fighting that his physical capabilities had significantly changed.
‘It’s slow.’ Compared to the mud monster, the giant monster almost made him yawn with its slowness. Chi-Woo stared at the giant monster falter, and his eyes lit up. He could finally make sense of what he was feeling. He had had no choice but to run away from monsters like them. He had thought he could never face these terrifying monsters. Now, however, they were nothing but fresh game to him…!
* * *
While Chi-Woo climbed the Evalaya mountain, the mud monster was left by itself and was still pondering Chi-Woo’s words. Even though it originally planned to return to dust, the words that its last opponent said kept lingering in its mind.
The mud monster didn’t have much time. Its body had already decreased to less than half of its original size. It needed to make its decision while it still had the energy to move. And the mud monster’s final decision was to…
Bite.
It was to eat the fruit that Chi-Woo left behind.
Gulp, gulp! It also drank the holy water to the very last drop, and when it finished, its whole body began shaking.
Gurgle, gurgle. It shook like liquid shaking inside a bottle. The holy water and sacramental fruit contained the blessing of La Bella, the god of neutrality. As a result, after it consumed both of these items, the mud monster’s body began to get cleansed. A being that was formed out of evil and good began to slowly purify through the influence of absolute neutrality.
Like ice cream melting, the solid parts of its body were washed away, leaving only a mysterious ball the size of an adult male fist. It shook off everything that had been attached to it and rolled forward, sliding and rolling its way out of the cave. It looked around and saw that there was no one around. Then it heard a loud noise coming from far away. The ball looked up and immediately headed up.
“Pyu!”
Bounce, bounce! It was able to jump very well, and it went up to where Chi-Woo was. The day Chi-Woo finally left the cave, a strange being began following him.