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After entering the giant’s territory, we encountered various giant corpses.

“Some are already turning into skeletons.”

“There are some that died recently, but also quite a few that died a long time ago.”

“Were they hunted down while hunting?”

“Rather than that, it’s more likely that Wandering Giants, who were expelled from the territory and ultimately failed to adapt, were killed by the giants when they returned.”

“I see…”

I nodded and looked around.

“Certainly, this place would be more than enough for giants to live on. I never thought such a place could actually exist.”

Everything was so enormous that it felt unreal.

The trees, the grass, the flowers, the beasts.

We had only crossed the intermediate zone between the human and giant territories.

“It’s like a garden of the gods.”

I led Rudolph towards the corner of a giant tree.

Beneath it was a cluster of mushrooms with fully opened caps.

The problem was that each of those mushrooms was taller than me.

‘Judging by the feeling, they don’t seem to be poisonous mushrooms.’

I approached and pressed the palm of my hand against the fully opened cap of a mushroom.

A soft touch, and at the same time, the mushroom cap resiliently pushed back.

The moment I enjoyed that sensation, a desire arose.

As if possessed, I moved from Rudolph’s back onto the mushroom cap.

And with a single leap.

Without any magic, the mushrooms gently and resiliently propelled my feet upwards.

A sense of floating, even without using any special techniques.

‘Oh… this is something.’

“…Master?”

“Heut-!”

While enjoying the pleasant floating sensation, a voice reached me from outside my consciousness.

When I came to my senses, Golb was squinting at me, and Silb was looking on with an envious expression, chewing on his index finger.

“Hmm… hmm… There are some strange mushrooms.”

I moved back onto Rudolph from the mushroom, cleared my throat, and said, trying to hide my embarrassment as much as possible.

“…Didn’t you tell us yourself, Master, to be careful? We’re not here to play.”

“…I have nothing to say.”

To be defeated by my disciple with a sound argument.

Feeling a little dejected, I continued to examine the surroundings as we moved forward.

“I don’t know why, but the mana concentration is extremely dense from this territory onwards.”

The mana concentration was so thick that it could be felt on the skin, like the humidity in the air during the rainy season.

“Come to think of it, the Elven Lord’s beasts were also larger than the beasts that live in human territories. Do creatures in areas with high mana concentration tend to grow larger?”

The mana concentration was much higher than that of the Elven Lord, and when I spread out my senses to detect the presence of large beings, the energy resonated from all directions, feeling like a dissonance, so I withdrew all the energy.

It seemed that creatures with life forces comparable to giants were scattered throughout the forest.

“…Oh, Golb. What kind of beast is that?”

I said, looking at a beast that looked like a lizard, taller than a giant, visible through the trees.

The lizard, with its long neck and front legs longer than its hind legs, seemed longer than the Fenrir we fought in the Elven Lord.

“Ah, that’s a Brachio. It’s one of the larger creatures that live here. If you catch one of those, hundreds of giants can last a day.”

“I can believe that. Judging by the energy I feel, it’s a creature that belongs to the normal cycle, but how can it grow so big?”

The energy I felt from that Brachio lizard was the energy of ordinary life.

It meant that it was a life in the normal cycle, neither a Loa nor a vassal species.

“If things like that are roaming around, there might be a bird big enough to tear a giant apart.”

Golb tilted his head, looking ambiguous at that statement.

We’d have to investigate further, whatever it was.

But after that, we searched the giant’s territory until sunset, but there were no particular gains.

Despite being in the giant’s territory, the only traces of giants were the skeletal remains of giants.

At least, when we counted only the corpses of giants that had died relatively recently, rather than the traces of old, dead giants, the number exceeded thirty.

“Including the giants in the intermediate zone we saw earlier, that’s over fifty.”

“That’s a clearly strange number. If the giants who died recently here are the same companions as the giants who died in the neutral zone, then it’s also important to know where the giants, who account for one-tenth of the giant population living in the village, came from.”

“It’s also important to know why those giants were recently massacred.”

I threw a twig into the bonfire and continued.

“To summarize, a giant creature that can tear a giant in half with its claws, depending on the case. Judging from the traces left on the bones, the culprit seems to be the same.”

“First, we need to find out the identity of this dangerous creature that can even hunt giants in droves. Let’s prioritize this first.”

“Second, where did the giants of unknown origin come from? It’s hard to know this without contacting the giants, so let’s postpone it.”

“Third, this is a desire, but I want to learn about this mysterious place.”

Sparks rose towards the sky from the bonfire, crackling.

“A high-density mana zone that messes up my senses. Beasts and vegetation that have grown huge under its influence. It’s as if this place alone is isolated from another world, and there are many things that arouse my interest.”

“…You seem to be enjoying yourself.”

“Well, it’s also interesting how the creatures all look like they’ve been mixed with lizards, as if someone deliberately targeted them.”

“I’ve seen various beasts since I went out into the human world, but here, most of the beasts are from the lizard family.”

“Finding that out is part of the fun.”

“You’re probably the only one who can feel like you’re on a trip in this place.”

I chuckled at the giants’ grumbling and sat cross-legged.

“We have to move tomorrow, so get some sleep instead of grumbling.”

◈ ◈ ◈

“We found another Terato remnant!”

“We really keep finding them. It’s so boring.”

“Can’t we stop looking?”

“Then Gal will go on a rampage again!”

“Gal won’t stop until she gets all the remnants out of her garden.”

“Gal is ferocious!”

“But she’s pretty, isn’t she?”

“I guess that’s true!”

“But there’s something with the remnant.”

“A remnant? It’s too small to be one.”

“But it’s kind of pretty. The color of its fur is something Gal would like.”

“It has a familiar and comfortable energy.”

“Should we get closer?”

“Eek! It’s covered in traces of little ones!”

“Scary! Someone do something about it.”

“I don’t want to get close!”

“But it looks like it’s sleeping. I don’t feel any consciousness.”

“Someone tie it up with vines.”

Voices like children aged 5 to 7 chattering.

And something wrapping around my body, which was sitting cross-legged.

The submerged consciousness began to awaken to external stimuli.

What I saw in my awakened consciousness and vision were vines that were constricting and binding my body as if they were alive.

“…Hmm.”

“It’s awake!”

“Don’t worry!”

“We tied it up tight!”

The vision suddenly flipped upside down.

But I was more flustered by the surrounding situation than by the body bound by vines and the inverted vision.

‘I didn’t notice until I was like this in the forest?’

Even if a wide-area search was difficult, I had kept the minimum senses open for perimeter security.

But I had allowed an unidentified enemy to approach while circulating energy through my body.

Neither the trained High Elf senses, which were more pronounced in the forest, nor the sixth sense of the Upper Dantian had given any warning.

As a result, I was only tied up with vines, but the thought that my life might have been in danger caused a surge of shame and murderous intent.

“Heeek-!”

“Dangerous! We’re going to die!”

“Spirit slayer!”

“It’s still tied up!”

The chattering voices of the children rang in my head.

‘Spirits…’

I identified the identities of the uninvited guests in my mind.

Spirits like the dark spirit contracted with the succubus Lamiya, who had now become a Harmonious Sword Master.

The energy they possessed was different from that of the dark spirit, but these things in front of me were amorphous beings without proper bodies.

‘…Unlike the dark spirit, the energy is strangely familiar.’

I looked at the clusters of light that were scattering in all directions, startled by my murderous intent.

‘I see.’

Unlike the dark spirit, the spirits in front of me did not feel much different from the dense energy of this forest.

Even the spirit dwelling in the vines that were binding me just felt like a plant.

I didn’t know spirits had these characteristics.

‘I need to be a little careful about this.’

Curiosity. Fear. Slight hostility. Goodwill.

Complex emotions were felt from the spirits’ thoughts.

If these spirits had harbored murderous intent and had the means to carry it out, it would have been truly dangerous.

Honestly, I had been feeling like I was traveling until yesterday, but now I was wide awake and sharply honed my energy.

So that I wouldn’t be careless again.

“Ack! It broke free from the vines!”

“This is bad!”

“Run away!”

“Can’t it even touch us anyway?”

“Then what about those traces of young spirits?”

“I guess so?”

As I broke free from the vines, some of the spirits who had surrounded me as if to encircle me fled in panic, while others watched me with curiosity, fear, and slight hostility.

“I was surprised to be suddenly tied up as soon as I woke up, but what business do you have with us?”

“It spoke!”

“It looks cute.”

“But the traces are terrible!”

“Why is it like that?”

“Wait, wait. Can’t you speak one at a time? It’s distracting.”

“Okay.”

“Thank you. First of all, I don’t know about the traces. The spirit I saw before told me that I have spirit traces…”

“Traces left when we die!”

“We die when our lifespan is over too!”

“But we’re reborn someday!”

“Originally, we just disappear naturally, but spirits who die in fear leave traces containing bad emotions.”

“Curse!”

“We can’t feel it!”

“Protect our friends!”

“…I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

I’ve never even seen a spirit, so when did I harm a spirit and get cursed by a spirit?

‘…I’ll have to ask Mother about this later.’

“Anyway, I understand that, but why did you attack us?”

“Attack?”

“We didn’t attack!”

“We’re just helping to find…”

I looked at the giant brothers.

The vines had not been cast on the giant brothers, who were sleeping through this commotion.

“…Then why did you tie me up?”

“You’re scary.”

“But you’re pretty.”

“It’s comfortable to be near you. But you’re scary.”

“Strange child.”

Unlike the dark spirit, which had developed intelligence, the spirits of this forest could only communicate in fragmented ways, like talking to a child, but there was no major problem in continuing the conversation.

“But you said you were ‘finding’ something. What?”

“Terato’s remnants.”

“Gal. Woke up after a long time.”

“Terato. Messed up Gal’s garden.”

“Gal angry. Terato attack.”

“Terato bled. Remnants came out of blood.”

“Gal. Find and eliminate remnants in garden.”

“Gal. Lazy. Told us to find them.””‘Remnants’…? What are remnants?”

“Something that looks like that. But when you look closely, it doesn’t seem like debris.”

“Don’t you think it is?”

“It feels a little different?”

The spirits seemed to be talking about the giant brothers.

‘The spirits know something!’

“Is that debris perhaps-“

The air changed in an instant.

The dense mana in the atmosphere seemed to turn hostile in an instant.

As if representing someone’s feelings.

「「He’s coming!」」

The spirits’ shouts were inaudible.

The Upper Dantian, which had been accepting the energy of heaven and earth, screamed.

The Upper Dantian, which had never sent a warning since the battle with Fenrir 13 years ago.

Even though it was much stronger than before, it sent a bigger warning than ever before.

Sensing the crisis, energy rose from all over the body, quickly awakening the frozen body.

Then I looked up at the sky.

There was nothing.

‘Not yet.’

It was an instinct that could not be explained in words.

If I didn’t move now, at least the two giant brothers would die.

Gihae and Gwanoen.

The energy that started from the Lower Dantian headed to Yongcheon, awakening the surrounding blood points.

The energy wave that burst out from Yongcheon soared into the sky.

In that instant, a dot appeared in my vision.

In a flash-

What was once a dot had become a huge form, crashing down on the campsite where I had been just a moment ago, and where the giant brothers were sleeping.

I can’t stop it.

The judgment was instantaneous.

-Cut it.

The energy wave of Yongcheon blood point bursts once, changing direction in the air.

The target is the falling giant.

What is needed now, in this moment of fleeting time, is the fastest means of attack I have.

The moment the falling giant and my path coincided, the hand that had been placed on the sword wave of the True Silver Sword instantly gripped the handle and pulled it up.

Nam Gung Family (南宮家) Transformed Lightning Sword Thunder Style (變形閃電劍雷式)

Thunderclap Pierces the Sky (雷鳴破天)

Thunder and lightning resounded in the cloudless sky.