Hermit Wizard

The Truth-Seeker of Silver Forest (3)

As the Mana pressure reached its peak, the expansion of the Channel stopped. And the one slowly emerging out of it had a human-like shape. She was a woman whose head was bigger than mine, and her skin wasn’t white but had a little blue light. Nothing was covering her skin other than the black hair that came down to her waist.

After showing up, the naked woman stood there for a while, breaking the moonlight with her shoulders, and then she smelled the air, stuck her tongue out, and wetted her lips as if detecting something. After looking around for a while, she immediately turned her gaze toward Ghur and me next to him. A metallic tone that didn’t feel like a human voice came out.

“Is this the limit to the size of the door so far? It’s very uncomfortable.”

She had dark black eyes that looked like deep night. Her eyes were devoid of whiteness surrounding the iris, and all that existed was a dark shade of black. Her blood-colored pupils stuck in the middle glanced at me with a sharp, piercing gaze. The ears that were large and sharp enough to cover half of her face seemed to mimic the shape of the power that served her. I called her, but her body’s size didn’t allow her to pass through the Channels I made, so I used my own way.

“Why did you summon me in this dimension? Moreover, you did not come across as an avatar, but as your original body?”

This time, the Channel was open. Instead of projecting my avatar onto this dimension for finding the Enchanted Wood, I had to come over directly. This was because it was impossible to return with a substance of a different dimension if I crossed over as an avatar. Rather than explaining that fact, I decided to proceed with the contract.

“There’s a reason…then let’s move on to the contract.”

She nodded.

“As you may already know, what I am asking for is the annihilation of the enemy.”

“Is he the enemy you are talking about?”

When her eyes reached Ghur, the giant, overwhelmed by the power she unleashed, stepped back unknowingly.

“No! No! Absolutely not! Put the horns in!”

As I hurriedly shook my hands, the red-skinned horns rising from the center of her forehead buried back into the skin, disappearing as quickly as they had appeared. Ghur was terrified.

“Then?”

“The enemy is approaching this place. You don’t need to kill all those who run away, but at least I want you to destroy those who fight.”

It wasn’t to destroy all the Ashpim Giants around here anyway, and I didn’t decide to do so. All I wanted to do was instill a deep-seated fear, one that they may never overcome. Not long after Ghur and I arrived at this Channel, I was spotted by the Ashpim Giants, who were moving in groups of five. Instead of attacking us right away, they ran wildly to a village very close to the Channel. It was clear that there were already rumors about Ghur and me.

If this were the case, it would be nice to bring a bunch of them. The woman threw her gaze into the distance beyond the desert horizon. She laughed when she saw a crowd of Ashpim Giants flocking from a distance not yet visible to my eyes.

“The number is about 600? 700? Good. So, what’s the price?”

“Six to seven hundred?!”

Oh, as expected. However, Ghur became noticeably pale. Perhaps it was beyond his expected range. The woman was sarcastic as she saw our conflicting reactions.

“When I smell them, it seems only their heads are big. Sixty or six hundred are the same. I don’t know what the situation is, but it seems a little too much to call me for something like this?”

“…Understand me. I wanted to have the most obvious card in my hand that doesn’t allow variables. I have some circumstances right now, and I am in a state of being beyond the dimensions with my main body…so I’m very sensitive, and I’m saving myself.”

The woman laughed, revealing her teeth.

“What bullshit. Even when you are in your avatar, you’re sensitive and self-conscious. That’s your personality.”

Parvache humbly intervened in the conversation.

[Hah, she said it! It is undeniable.]

‘Whatever!’

“Ah, the one that’s been spreading suspicion in the bag, is it the Spirit that has been manipulating and commanding behind your avatar so far?”

The woman felt Parvache’s presence and spoke. Then Parvache also put its robot head out of the bag.

[Yes, it’s the first time I’ve seen you in person, Black Kirin Lady.]

What manipulating? I set out to close the contract before the conversation between the two continued.

“Anyway, there’s a price you’ll like today.”

I put Parvache from one side of the backpack to another, put my hand in a deep place connected to the sub-space, and picked up what I wanted. It was a black plastic bag that I picked up in advance. The woman in front of my eyes had too much power. She had high intelligence, so it was difficult to find an appropriate price. I didn’t call her often, but today I had something that she liked, so I summoned her without much hesitation.

The woman sniffed when I took out the bag, and her expression turned bright.

“I was wondering why you came to this level of desolation, and you came to get this?”

“Well, I’m just lucky.”

Actually, I didn’t expect to get the seeds.

“It is the best of the price so far. The seed of the Enchanted Wood tree!”

Some of the seeds received from the Truth-Seeker were wrapped separately for this occasion. That was enough to pay for today’s contract.

“You can have your family members plant it. I didn’t know, but the Enchanted Wood tree grows big, right? I guess these should be enough.”

She snatched the bag from my hand before I even finished speaking and then put the seeds in her hand, looked, and sniffed them with adoration.

“This is the kind of tree that grows very large. It smells very good. When it’s grown, the taste will be amazing.”

As expected, she was an expert on vegetation. When the tree was fully grown, there would be enough quantity to the point of no regret even if the woman returned to her main body. Yes, surprisingly, that woman was essentially herbivorous. She must have liked it very much that she spread a powerful word in the air.

“The contract has been signed.”

With the words of completion of the contract, she began to exude a deafening power throughout her body. Ghur, who couldn’t withstand this, turned to me, supporting his arm on the enchanted Wood branch placed on the ground as if leaning over.

“I thought I had managed to get away from the Truth-Seeker. What is that being?”

“She’s a bit of a vicious herbivore.”

Without care for us, the woman began to prepare for battle. Scales began to rise from the woman’s body and covered her naked body. Her body turned muscular, and she grew taller. It was in a moment that her body became as huge as the Ashpim Giants.

10 meters? 20 meters? The scales covered her body which had grown to a small height. The scales’ color may appear bloody dark depending on the moonlight’s angle or as black as ebony. Two feet resembling a horse’s hooves stood on the ground under a strong and menacing muscular body that seemed to exude tremendous power. Sharp nails glistened at the ends of both hands, and a single-pointed horn covered in a red film sprouted from the center of the head, which looked like a dragon and a deer half-mixed.

The higher-level being who finally revealed all of her main body looked down at us.

“Stay out of the way. You’re a nuisance.”

Her voice resonated in the atmosphere. Two eyes the size of my body were peering down. When she started a battle, she grew very violent. It was better to keep a distance and watch rather than get caught up in the surrounding. I nodded without saying anything. After confirming my answer, the black Kirin, which returned to her main body, expanded her thigh muscles and ran out in the direction of the enemy. Amid the tremors of the earth she created, Ghur muttered,

“Is that…a herbivore?”

She collided with a group of Ashpim Giants, who had only just crossed the horizon. And what followed was a bloody massacre.

***

Like an open crocodile’s mouth, the Kirin’s mouth opened, and blunt white teeth were revealed neatly. With that enormous mouth, she snapped the heads of the Ashpim Giant and swallowed them whole.

“Khaaaaaaaaa!”

The middle of the long cylindrical head was cut off as it was, and the giant rolled on the ground with only the bottom of its head left. The Kirin spat out the bones and flesh, then swung her tail around as if whipping relentlessly.

-Wheeik! Puck! Puck! Puck!

A long, agile tail, like a snake, pierced through the eyes of those running away and came out soaking wet with blood and brain fluid. Almost at the same time, the Black Kirin poked and cut out two’s hearts and necks. In three swings, three giants fell to the floor, lifeless.

“These filthy things!”

She screamed with her mouth stained with blood. Her roar contained an unknown emotion mixed with joy and irritation, excitement and disgust. She swung her tail several times in the air at a rapid pace, shook off the brain matter, blood, and flesh, and then threw herself into the amassed crowd of giants.

-Wheik! Puck! Quack!

Every giant that got caught in her nails was torn, pierced, and swept away. The screams made by the tall Giants echoed; their pain was felt verbatim by Ghur and me, who watched from a far-off distance. The black Kirin blasted once more. She was fierce; using her slender knife-like fingers, she caught a giant’s head from both sides and pierced it effortlessly as if piercing a slice of meat on skewers. It was bloody and devastating. In the meantime, the Giants rushed in, shot their sonic attacks, bit at her, and some wizards even cast larger shockwaves. However, such an attack couldn’t even land a single scratch on her scaly body.

“Khaa! Khaaaaa!”

“Ha ha ha haha! So dirty! Filthy! You are really loud and smelly!”

She shouted, bursting laughter mixed with madness. With her fingers piercing it, the giant in the air struggled frantically, but she didn’t care and shook her hands in an X-shaped motion. Her fingers crushed the giant’s skull, portions of the brain flowing through the cracks of its crushed face. Ghur and I, who were watching the scene from a long distance, felt puckish and distraught.

“…For an herbivore, she’s exceptionally good at ‘hunting.’“

I quietly responded to Ghur’s ridiculous words.

“To be precise, it’s not hunting. It’s just a pure and efficient form of killing.”

Too much power led to efficiency. The Kirin ran to the next Ashpim Giant without wasting a moment and grabbed the giant’s head and shoulders with both her hands – stained with gray, yellow, and red body fluids. Then, she bit the back of its neck.

“Khaa! Khaaaaa!”

The Black Kirin quickly turned the direction of the bloody fountain spouting out of the giant’s body and avoided being covered in blood. She shouted, spitting out the chunk of meat from her mouth.

“It tastes awful! Terrible! Fishy! It tastes bitter!”

She swung her tail around the giant’s ragged necks and cut it clean.

“I don’t know how carnivore eats these stinking muscles, fat, and blood! Animals smell like filth when they’re alive or dead.”

She kept shouting and continued onwards with her massacre. She seemed to be enjoying it.