Chapter 64: The Language of the Toin

Yuseong’s notorious eating habits were famous, not only in this life, but even before his regression.

To ordinary people, Yuseong seemed like someone who would devour any bizarre creature without a second thought.

It was already hard enough to understand him eating monsters that looked somewhat normal, but he had also gobbled up all sorts of grotesque things like carnivorous plants, bugs, and even leeches.

Still, even Yuseong had his own principles.

A clear rule about what he would and would not eat.

Of course, what he ate far outnumbered what he wouldn’t, but there were plenty of things he refused.

His standard was simple: how much did the monster resemble a human?

Especially those that walked on two legs—he had no desire to eat them.

That’s why he never touched primate-like monsters that walked like people.

Even those that weren’t primates, like the lizardmen, were the same.

Especially if those creatures formed villages and lived in groups—he never bothered them.

In that sense, Toin were entirely out of the question.

Naturally, they would be left off Yuseong’s list of ingredients.

For him, this was nothing short of a blessing.

“Baekrang mas-sukwang.”

When Yuseong suddenly greeted them in their language—

The Toin Chief was more shocked than he’d ever been in his short life, not knowing how it all began.

“…Kko gong, bong suk-sa mat-ti?”

And so, he replied with a phrase that basically meant, ‘You… how do you know our language?’

The pale, smooth-skinned human—Yuseong—responded skillfully to the question.

“Kko re, bi kkom-ttak bong-ttak. Ddo mo ddo mo.”

“It means, ‘This is food. Friend, friend.’”

Though the Toin Chief disliked humans, he’d never met one who could speak their tongue.

He cautiously accepted the bucket that Yuseong handed over.

And when he looked inside, he was stunned.

“Ddakara mong! Ppu-gwang!”

It was the delicacy most loved by their tribe (he looked at it).

But not only were these hard to catch, but attempting to do so often resulted in the death of their own people from excessive bleeding—their nemesis.

The bucket was full of leeches with crimson suckers.

The Toin Chief kept asking Yuseong, over and over, if he really meant to give them this.

Yuseong just smiled and nodded, whether he understood or not.

Then, raising a single finger, he said,

“Kwa wari, manong ppu-rak es kkirri!”

“…!”

The chief hesitated at those words.

Why would this human want to visit the Sanctuary?

Not long ago, some humans had come and killed his kin.

Even if their kind was warm-hearted and believed in repaying kindness, he worried about letting humans in again.

As the chief hesitated, Yuseong put his hands together in a gesture.

“Kko inori.”

A body language meaning ‘prayer’ even in the Abyss.

And likewise, ‘prayer’ in the Toin language.

In the end, the Toin Chief nodded.

As the chief guarding the Sanctuary, he could not refuse a true supplicant.

“Kku i.”

With a word that meant “follow me,” his subordinates lowered their poison-dart blowpipes.

Yuseong grinned with satisfaction.

All he had to do now was follow them.

“Uh, uh, uh, how did…!”

Go Byeong Jae stared at Yuseong as if he’d seen a ghost.

It was only natural.

The Toin of the Abyss—no one ever imagined that a human could communicate with them.

Even Jang Dojin looked at Yuseong in disbelief at this unexpected scene.

“Wow, that was kind of cool, wasn’t it?”

Yuseong flashed a sly grin.

After all, being fluent in foreign languages was the epitome of unexpected charm.

Yuseong couldn’t help but feel a bit smug.

But Jang Dojin’s reaction was a bit different than Yuseong expected.

“No… ‘mas-sukwang’? Rather than cool, it’s just a bit… you know.”

Indeed, Toin language sounded more comical than cool.

Jang Dojin and even Go Byeong Jae’s group looked rather awkward.

“That’s not the point! How the heck do you even speak monster language?!”

That was the real question.

No matter how out-of-the-ordinary Yuseong had been, this was beyond belief.

To speak with the Toin he was meeting for the first time—impossible!

“They’re not monsters, they’re another race. And I don’t really know their language that well.”

“…What?”

But Yuseong already had the perfect explanation prepared.

“If you want to be an explorer, you should study. Didn’t you see that paper by the linguist-explorer from Switzerland?”

After the Cataclysm, all sorts of academic societies popped up to research the Abyss and its monsters.

When the 13th Layer appeared, the ‘Toin’ found in Abysses all over the world sent shockwaves through academia.

The old claim that only humans had intelligence in the universe became about as respected as flat-Earth theory from that day on.

Naturally, there was ongoing research into these small, crude, unintelligent creatures.

Few scholars made it as far as the 14th Layer, but there was a Swiss linguist and explorer who studied their language.

His was only a rudimentary analysis, but the paper had shed light on some secrets of the Toin language.

It was a hot, fresh paper, only recently published.

It was no wonder Jang Dojin and Go Byeong Jae had never heard of it.

Of course, Yuseong had not only read it, but had even mastered the Toin language before his regression.

Only now did Jang Dojin seem to accept it, nodding in understanding.

“Wow, the world really is changing. Even stuff like that gets translated and uploaded now.”

“Translation? You’ll be waiting a long time for a translation like that.”

“…Huh?”

That meant Yuseong had read the original paper.

“You can read English too?”

“It wasn’t in English. It was written in French.”

“…Wha?”

Switzerland has four official languages.

The paper Yuseong read was in French.

“You can read French too? How many languages do you actually know?”

“Mm, English, French, Italian, Mandarin, Japanese, I guess? Not that I can speak them, but I can read, more or less.”

“Hey… why would you lie about that, bro…”

“…Why would I lie about something like that?”

Jang Dojin, Go Byeong Jae, and even the Red Eye Guild Members all eyed Yuseong with suspicion.

“How did you learn so many languages…”

“Well, if you want to pick up all sorts of recipes, you pretty much have to.”

Living on an island with his grandfather, with no friends, Yuseong’s only hobby was looking up recipes and cooking.

Maybe he inherited his journalist parents’ sharp brains.

Yuseong had a real knack for foreign languages.

Before he knew it, he’d picked up quite a few.

“That’s actually kind of awesome…”

At Jang Dojin’s mutter, Go Byeong Jae and the Red Eye Guild Members all nodded.

For those who struggled even with Korean—0.5-language speakers—Yuseong’s skills were awe-inspiring.

Yuseong just found their reaction bewildering.

“I really don’t get it. Isn’t speaking Toin cooler than reading French?”

“Hmm.”

“There might be hundreds of millions who speak French, but maybe less than a hundred people worldwide can speak Toin, even a little.”

That was true.

Undeniably true, and yet…

“Ppul-long kku i!”

“Mal-suk gwa ang.”

The Toin Chief waved them over, saying to hurry, and Yuseong replied.

To anyone, it sounded far too bizarre to call it cool.

Jang Dojin avoided answering, then suddenly raised his finger and pointed at the Toin.

“Uh, let’s go! Come on, let’s follow them!”

Yuseong gave up as well.

He and Jang Dojin followed the Toin, and Go Byeong Jae and his group tried to come after.

“Billong shimang ddu!”

Suddenly, other Toin aimed their poison-dart blowpipes at the Red Eye Guild.

“Huh? Hey, what are you guys doing!”

Go Byeong Jae panicked, but Yuseong seemed to remember something.

“Ah, only we’re allowed to pass. See you later.”

“Wha? Huh?”

Go Byeong Jae was flustered.

But Yuseong didn’t look back, simply following the Toin.

In the end, all they could do was watch Yuseong disappear, dumbfounded.

***

Contrary to expectations, the Toin were surprisingly chatty.

Yuseong’s Toin wasn’t great, but he could understand and reply well enough.

“It’s the first time a human has sought the Sanctuary.”

“I see.”

“We love peace. We love leeches too. Because they taste so good.”

“Taste, huh? Fair enough.”

The Toin were genuinely delighted with the leeches Yuseong had given them.

Unlike humans, they didn’t care about monster toxins, so leeches were a real delicacy.

So Yuseong played his trump card again.

The head and body of the Big Hand Lobster.

He’d almost thrown it away because its organs were poisonous, but instead, he’d grilled and dried it.

And the Toin’s response was explosive.

“But that red thing you gave us was the best. I cried.”

“Yeah, it’s good, right? Glad you liked it.”

Yuseong treated the Toin with unusual kindness.

But there was a reason he’d gone so far as to catch leeches and win their hearts.

“Barretan’s Sacred Spring.”

Toin were distributed throughout the 13th to 15th Layers, and they all worshipped their god, Barretan.

And here in the Sanctuary of the 14th Layer’s Toin was a mysterious object called Barretan’s Sacred Spring.

A statue that endlessly flowed with sweet honey.

To Yuseong, it was more precious than any treasure.

After all, it wasn’t like you could keep bees in the Abyss, and honey was hard to come by.

That’s why he had to visit Barretan’s Sacred Spring.

“Should I brew some honey tea, or grill some rice cakes and dip them in honey…”

Just thinking about it made his mouth water.

“I hate humans. But I like you!”

“Why do you hate humans?”

But then something bothered him.

Toin weren’t usually so hostile toward humans.

They generally just kept to their villages; as long as you traded them some monster meat, you could befriend them easily.

That was how he’d learned about Barretan’s Sacred Spring in his previous life, too.

But then, the Toin Chief said something completely unexpected.

“A few days ago, three humans invaded. Many of our kin died. The Sanctuary was damaged too.”

“What?”

That humans had attacked the Toin’s tribe.

It wasn’t unheard of on a global scale.

But at least in Yuseong’s memory, that had never happened in Korea.

The Toin, armed with poison darts, were tough opponents even for skilled explorers.

Especially when fighting in their own home.

“What do you mean?”

“Three humans killed our kin in our village. Broke the Sanctuary, smashed the statue. Stole our treasure.”

“So… wait, never mind. Let’s just go quickly.”

Yuseong had wanted to ask for more details, but the language barrier was too much.

When Yuseong urged them, the Toin sped up their pace.

Only Jang Dojin, not understanding the situation, was left flustered.

“Bro, what’s going on?”

“Some explorers got here before us and made a mess.”

A sense of foreboding crept in.

Most explorers still only cared about clearing layers.

It was enough to just beat up monsters and move on.

There was hardly anyone like Yuseong who knew about shrines or Abyss secrets.

But for someone to attack the Toin village and rob the Sanctuary’s treasure…

Sure enough, when they arrived at the Toin village, there were signs of destruction everywhere.

His anxiety grew.

“Take me to the Sanctuary.”

“This way, human.”

When Yuseong pressed, the Toin Chief hesitantly led him.

“The humans stole the Guardian Stone that protects the Sanctuary statue.”

Just as the chief said.

At Barretan’s Sanctuary, there was a Guardian Golem.

It was a fairly powerful creature, now smashed to pieces.

Apparently, the invaders—explorers—had come for the Guardian Golem’s magic stone.

“Those bastards…”

“Bro.”

But what truly enraged Yuseong wasn’t even that.

In one corner of the Sanctuary stood Barretan’s Sacred Spring.

The statue that had always trickled honey, his beloved from his past life.

Now it was utterly destroyed.

The Toin Chief, on the verge of tears, spoke up.

“They broke Barretan’s Sacred Spring while fighting the Guardian Golem. Sad.”

“Who… who did this?”

Yuseong’s face hardened.

Even Jang Dojin, who’d been with him a long time, had never seen him this angry.

Yuseong burned with rage, head to toe.

This wasn’t just about someone snatching away his food.

This was the level of poisoning a well, or salting a field.

“Uh, bro… look at this.”

At that moment, Jang Dojin called him.

He’d found something on the corpse of the Guardian Golem the invaders had defeated.

“What’s this…”

The explorers had spray-painted a mark on the Guardian Golem’s corpse.

A crudely drawn “11.”

It was just like those attention-seekers—leaving graffiti everywhere they went.

“Looks like 17 was here. The guys who challenged you last time.”

“Those bastards…”

Yuseong remembered them.

The users of the explorer community ‘AdventureD’ had guessed that the dinosaur meat Yuseong wanted to catch was the White Crocodile of the 14th Layer.

It wasn’t true at all, but a bunch of them still responded.

They were the trio known as the ‘Treasure Hunter Trio.’

Those show-offs had announced on their Mitube channel that they would accept Yuseong’s challenge, yelling like idiots.

Yuseong hadn’t really cared at the time…

“If you commit a crime, you have to pay for it.”

They’d dared to smash Barretan’s Sacred Spring and leave.

Yuseong swore he’d make them pay, no matter what.

With a heavy heart, he knelt before the ruins of Barretan’s Sacred Spring.

The Sacred Spring was a small, vase-shaped statue.

Once, honey would trickle endlessly from its tilted mouth, but now, it was just shattered remains.

“Your revenge… huh?”

Completely absorbed and on the verge of tears, Yuseong suddenly spotted a glimmer of light in the debris.

“What’s this?”

Brushing aside the broken stones, the source of the light was revealed.

Something he’d never even known existed in his previous life.

“Essence of Verdure…”

A priceless treasure that shouldn’t appear at this stage.

A gemstone of the forest, right here.