Trace.
Without hesitation, he prepared to leave.
"I need to step out for a bit."
"Where are you going all of a sudden?"
Braknark asked, clearly puzzled.
They had just finished battling the abominations. Everyone was celebrating their victory with raised cups—so why was he suddenly trying to head out alone?
Woojin replied calmly.
"A variable has appeared. I need to gather information. I'll go beyond the wall and take a look around. Guard this place well while I'm gone."
"Ah…"
After a moment's thought, Braknark spoke.
"There's no need for the Guardian to move personally, is there? We can send scouts to search the forest. Please, get some rest here instead."
It wasn't right for Woojin to shoulder everything alone. Thinking so, Braknark was about to issue orders to his subordinates.
But Woojin refused.
"It's fine. I'd rather not entrust this to someone else."
He didn't want to send others into a forest teeming with abominations. It was more reassuring to see things for himself.
"Don't wait up. Go get some sleep. I have a feeling this might take a while."
"…I feel ashamed, always borrowing the Guardian's strength like this."
"Don't worry about it."
Perhaps because he had just fought the creatures, any trace of drowsiness had vanished. A nighttime stroll through the forest didn't sound so bad.
He lowered a rope down beneath the wall. After tugging it several times to check its stability, Woojin prepared to descend.
"Please return safely."
"See you later."
Leaving Braknark's farewell behind, Woojin put his weight on the rope and descended below the wall.
Soon, he landed on the ground.
After masking his scent with tree sap, he stepped into the depths of the forest where abominations lurked. As he carefully surveyed his surroundings, he noticed several fresh traces.
Blood scattered across the ground. And marks that suggested something had crawled away in haste.
"Naga footprints."
When a serpent's tail drags across the earth, it leaves such marks. Judging by the blood, it must have been gravely wounded in the earlier battle.
"Let's track it."
Moving carefully to avoid making any noise, Woojin followed the trail. It wasn't long before he found what he was looking for.
Naga abominations were gathered around a large pond. And there were quite a lot of them.
Woojin roughly counted their number with his eyes.
"At the very least four hundred… no, five hundred."
Nearly twice as many as the group he had faced earlier. It seemed the ones who attacked the wall before had merely been the vanguard.
Though their numbers were significant, Woojin wasn't surprised. The Naga were a race known for their multitude.
They reproduced by laying eggs. From the moment they were born, the males were trained as warriors, while the females spent their lives laying eggs, serving as the brood mothers who increased the tribe's numbers.
"Collectivists, like ants."
Efficiency. Profit.
A life sacrificed for the prosperity of the tribe. The Naga never questioned it. If food ran short, they would devour their own without hesitation.
Thanks to this cold disposition, the Naga had built one of the largest powers within the Demonic Realm.
"…Even so, that's a lot."
Three hundred in the vanguard, five hundred in the main force. Together, eight hundred strong. By no means a small number.
The fact that so many Naga abominations were present suggested that even their tribe had suffered heavy losses to the mutated horrors.
"Grrrk… greeegh…"
One of the Naga abominations let out a drawn-out cry. Judging by its injuries, it must have been a survivor from the vanguard that had attacked the wall earlier.
A large Naga stood still, listening intently. It seemed that, being intelligent abominations, they were capable of communication.
Soon, the larger Naga shouted something.
"Guaaaargh!!"
At the cry, the Naga raised their heads. Then they began to move.
"Are they attacking the wall again?"
But the direction they crawled was the opposite of the wall. The Naga abominations headed north, slipping out of the forest and relentlessly making their way toward the depths of the Demonic Realm.
Hidden within the deep shadows, Woojin watched.
"…They're retreating."
The Naga had concluded there was no chance of victory. That was reasonable—three hundred had struck the wall earlier, and they had been annihilated swiftly.
As the abominations abandoned the siege and withdrew, a new question arose.
"Where are they going?"
From the look of it, there seemed to be another stronghold where the abominations were gathering.
"…What if I follow them and wipe out their base in one go?"
He considered it seriously. Striking the enemy's stronghold alone would be risky, but it could end this troublesome situation at once.
Yet he couldn't put that thought into action.
Before long, they reached a vast lake. The Naga abominations leapt into the water in groups. Woojin frowned at the sight.
"Tracking them further will be difficult."
Naga possessed gills and could breathe underwater. It seemed that even as abominations, they retained that ability.
They swam like eels and vanished somewhere beneath the surface. With fins attached along their bodies, they moved faster in water than they did crawling on land.
Stealthily following them had become impossible. Woojin scratched his chin, pondering.
"What should I do?"
Discovering that the enemy had retreated was no small gain—but returning empty-handed felt unsatisfying.
His gaze settled on one particular Naga. A notably large abomination. The leader was watching as its subordinates entered the water.
"…I can't let that one go."
Suppressing his presence as much as possible, Woojin approached them. His footsteps were as quiet as a cat stalking a bird.
About eighty percent of the Naga had already entered the water. The forces guarding the leader were few. Woojin moved leisurely, slipping between them as if cutting in line.
"…?"
The Naga abominations stared blankly at him.
Perhaps because the enemy had walked in so brazenly, they seemed to lose their judgment for a moment. Woojin moved as though he had always been part of their group.
"…Guaaaargh!!"
One Naga suddenly roared and pointed at him. It seemed they had finally grasped the situation. But Woojin was already sprinting.
He kicked off the ground with force and leapt forward. The target closed in within a single bound. Drawing the machete at his waist, he swung it in one fluid motion like a draw-cut.
Slash.
The clean sound of something being severed. The Naga leader's head fell.
As if unable to comprehend what had happened, the severed head blinked on the dirt. At the same time, the headless body moved its arms.
A gesture as though checking whether its head was still attached. But its hands groped only empty air.
"Fool."
With a faint smirk, Woojin crushed the fallen head beneath his foot.
He had killed the leader of the abominations.
Only then did the creature's subordinates react. The Naga charged in, shrieking wildly in rage. Woojin moved swiftly, slashing, severing arms and heads as they lunged at him.
The target had been assassinated. All he had to do now was withdraw…
But the real problem began there.
Just as he was finishing clearing the area, the surface of the reservoir churned violently like boiling water. Naga burst endlessly from beneath. Claws and fangs came at him from every direction without pause.
"I'll have to endure this head-on."
He had only one machete. So instead, he wrapped himself in scales, shielding his body from the onslaught.
Clang, ka-ga-gak—!
Metallic sounds rang out repeatedly. The claws and teeth that struck Woojin shattered and broke instead. The Naga simply lacked the physical strength to pierce the dragon scales covering his body.
So they changed tactics.
Whirl—
A serpent's tail suddenly coiled around his ankle. Then countless hands reached for him. The Naga seized Woojin and pulled with all their might.
Like a tug-of-war, his body was slowly dragged forward. Soon, the reservoir's water soaked his feet.
"Trying to drown me?"
The Naga abominations were attempting to pull him underwater—like vengeful water ghosts.
…Suddenly, a sense of déjà vu washed over him.
"I've been in a situation like this before."
He could have resisted using added weight, but instead he relaxed deliberately and allowed himself to be dragged under. Woojin's body sank deeper into the dark water.
"Gyaaak, kek-kek-kek—!"
Mocking laughter echoed from all around. The Naga circled him, thrilled at their apparent victory.
Woojin's palms began to glow red.
KZZZAAANG!!
Beneath the water's surface, a fiery thunderbolt exploded. The reservoir roiled and boiled violently. Dozens of Naga shot frantically up from the depths.
"Grrraaaagh—!"
They shrieked as though refusing to reenter the water, bursting repeatedly above the surface like dolphins performing grotesque acrobatics.
Woojin stepped calmly out of the reservoir and twisted his clothes hard, wringing out the water.
"I meant to kill them all… misjudged the range a bit."
The abominations nearest him had been burned to death, but those farther away had survived by sheer luck.
Still, they were far from normal. Perhaps from being seared by lightning, the survivors fled while howling like maddened beasts.
"Similar symptoms to the witch."
The witch he had once struck with a thunderbolt had also lost half her sanity from the aftereffects.
Judging from previous cases… the thunderbolt didn't just damage the body—it inflicted severe harm upon the mind as well.
"…And on me, too."
Woojin suddenly sneezed. Unleashing such a powerful strike had taken a toll on his condition.
"I should head back and sleep."
Overtime was finished. It was time to rest.
Woojin slept almost to the point of collapse. When he woke, his condition had mostly recovered. Even so, he avoided overexerting himself and spent the following days resting.
Several days later… early in the morning.
A noisy commotion arose outside, and it stirred Woojin from his sleep.
"…Did something happen?"
He listened closely.
Light conversation. Occasional bursts of laughter. The atmosphere sounded bright—nothing seemed particularly wrong.
Woojin yawned lazily and considered going back to sleep…
"…Too awkward now."
Since he was already awake, he might as well get up.
He fastened the machete at his waist and stepped out of his quarters, scratching the back of his neck.
As he strolled along, he spotted people gathered beneath the wall. The man standing at their front looked familiar.
"Roland."
For some reason, Roland—who ought to have been staying in the City of Gnoll—had come to the northern wall.
Woojin approached and addressed him.
"Roland. What brings you all the way here?"
"You start talking about work the moment you see my face. You've picked up bad habits from the Cardinal."
Roland teased him lightly before getting straight to the point.
"A peculiar matter has come up, so I came to inform you. Last evening, a delegation arrived at the gate."
"A messenger from the Third Expeditionary Force?"
Roland shook his head.
"No. Strange-looking fellows… Naga, I think they were called. They said they resembled the abominations that struck the wall before. I've never seen them myself, so I can't be certain."
A Naga delegation had come to Gnoll's territory. To discuss the matter, Queen Krnartash of Gnoll wished to speak with Woojin directly.
"…What could they possibly want?"
Woojin nodded without hesitation.
"Let's go at once."
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