Chapter 16: The Clay of Purification

I decided to become a human-shaped clay fountain.

It was a mindset born from giving up on avoiding the inevitable and just enjoying it. But why was it that…

Deep sighs kept leaking out from my lungs.

“Huh-ugh-pff! Cough, cough!”

“Ptooey, ptuh!”

“Clay! Clay in my eyes!”

Startled, Wooyeonhu and Kim Jiyeon looked up in confusion and hurriedly wiped their faces.

Clay had covered their faces and gotten into their eyes and mouths.

Sorry for making you suffer.

I was just as troubled but couldn’t bring myself to apologize.

As I sighed again, some clay got into my throat and nearly choked me.

Gagging, I tried to clear the clay from my throat, and Wooyeonhu wiped the clay off her face and asked,

“What are you suddenly… suddenly doing?”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…”

I apologized immediately.

I couldn’t say it was entirely my fault, feeling a bit wronged, but since the clay had come spurting out from my chest, I had to take responsibility.

I couldn’t blame the World Tree Sprout for this.

If the World Tree was moved by the sincere care humans had for each other, then why send clay?

Unable to figure out the reason, I wanted to check my smartphone, but this wasn’t the time, so I held back.

Meanwhile, skeletons were still looking down at us…

“Te, t-then…?”

… Huh?

Afraid the skeletons would attack, I immediately looked up at the cliff.

Looking up…

Hmm. The skeletons that had been emitting black smoke were nowhere to be seen.

Not all of them were gone.

Higher-ranked skeletons like the Skeleton Lord and the generals remained, looking around cautiously.

Seeing their reaction, I realized the skeletons hadn’t disappeared on command.

“Master…”

“I’m watching. The skeletons—”

“No! Not that!”

Huh? Was something other than the skeletons gone?

Curious, I looked at Kim Jiyeon.

She kept glancing around here and there.

Normally, there was nothing here…

Ah! No, wait.

There had been cold and poisonous air.

Just a moment ago, thick mist floated around, but now it was all gone.

Thinking the same, Wooyeonhu muttered,

“The cold and poison… disappeared?”

Why had something that was here just moments ago suddenly vanished?

Unable to figure out why, I looked around and noticed a new message window appearing.

I must have missed it while coughing out the clay from my throat.

[The clay sent by the World Tree Sprout is ‘clay imbued with the mana of the World Tree Sprout.’]

[It recovers the fatigue and stamina of all beings and can purify the impure.]

Impure?

Reading that phrase, I couldn’t help but look up to the cliff again.

The Skeleton Lord and two Skeleton Generals were looking down at me.

The Lord clenched both fists and trembled violently.

From that, it was clear he was boiling with anger.

If he was this angry, why wasn’t he attacking immediately?

The reason was easy to guess.

Because of the clay the sprout had sent.

Now that I thought about it, the Skeleton Generals looked as if they were suffering.

As if they wanted to leave this place far behind.

[It can purify the impure.]

In other words, the clay had purified the skeletons’ impurity, just as the message said.

Like how a healer’s healing skill damages undead, the skeletons were purified and forced to move on.

I wasn’t sure if that expression applied to already dead undead, but…

“Could it be… that this clay caused all this?”

“……..”

Wooyeonhu clenched some clay from the ground and asked.

Before answering, I looked at the Skeleton Lord.

Impure.

Something very, very impure was right before my eyes.

I scooped up some clay from the ground.

Then I immediately threw it at the Skeleton Lord and the two generals.

“Jion? What are you doing?”

“Wait! What are you doing right now? Don’t get us all excited for no reason…”

Wooyeonhu and Kim Jiyeon tried to stop me in surprise, but I shook off their hands and kept throwing clay at the three skeletons.

The Skeleton Lord quickly whipped his cloak to cover himself.

But the generals, wearing only heavy armor without cloaks, were hit directly by the clay I’d thrown.

The generals writhed in pain when the clay touched their bodies.

They couldn’t help it.

The parts where the clay touched started melting as if drenched in acid!

“What is that…?”

“Melting? Why? What’s with this clay?”

“Throw more!”

“What did you say?”

“Throw clay like Jion’s doing!”

“Aaah…!”

Finally realizing what was happening, Wooyeonhu and Kim Jiyeon copied my actions.

They grabbed the World Tree Sprout’s clay from the ground and threw it at the Skeleton Lord and the generals vigorously.

Like children playing in a sandbox at a playground, laughing and joking.

Like making snowballs during winter break and having a friendly snowball fight.

We worked hard, throwing clay with all our might.

Thanks to our relentless throwing, the Skeleton Generals died, and the Skeleton Lord fled.

They couldn’t step on the clay-covered ground and attacked us only from outside.

One of the two generals couldn’t contain his rage and stepped on the clay, but as soon as he did, he was purified and turned to dust.

The remaining general threw his sword from afar, but it was useless.

Moreover, without a weapon, he became the focus of our attacks and melted away to death.

The last Skeleton Lord acted like a true lord.

He didn’t use weapons but attacked us with magic.

However, whenever he tried to cast spells, Kim Jiyeon shot magic arrows to interrupt him.

Unable to use magic outside and unable to enter the clay area, the Skeleton Lord eventually ran away.

“Ha, hahaha. This is unbelievable…”

After the Skeleton Lord fled, Kim Jiyeon collapsed.

She caressed the clay on the ground with her hand, laughing helplessly.

Then she shook her head as if she couldn’t believe what they had just done.

Wooyeonhu looked like he wanted to ask about what happened but didn’t.

There was something more urgent.

“Jion, please.”

“Yes. I’ll finish quickly.”

I immediately walked toward the water lotus in the pool below the cliff.

The water lotus stood straight with thin roots, blooming white flowers.

Indeed, as an S-rank elixir ingredient, a warm energy radiated when I approached.

Consuming Yin energy and containing Yang energy, the water lotus.

This would definitely save Wooyeonhu’s younger sibling.

I reached out and touched the water lotus with my index finger.

A familiar message window immediately popped up.

[A warm touch has touched the ‘S-rank Water Lotus.’]

[Maintaining the current state will begin gathering.]

[Probability correction: gathering chance 90%… 95%… 100%. Gathering proceeds.]

Huh? This was a little different from usual.

Before, it was always corrected to a 100% chance, but the water lotus was slightly different.

It started at 90% and increased twice by 5%.

Well, it still reached 100%, so no problem.

After three seconds, like all plants before, the water lotus snapped its thin roots and floated upward.

Careful not to crush it if I squeezed it too hard, I caught it in both palms.

I turned back and showed the water lotus in my palm to Wooyeonhu.

Seeing the flower in my hand, he clenched his fist.

He smiled brightly, a smile he had never shown before.

A genuinely heartwarming smile that made anyone watching smile back naturally.

At that moment, a chilling feeling came from behind me.

Could it be the hand pulling me…?

“Be careful!”

Looking back, a huge magic circle was radiating intense light.

I’d seen it before.

A teleportation magic circle.

It was definitely trying to take me away.

“If you ran away, just give up cleanly…”

I turned my head away from the magic circle.

Wooyeonhu and Kim Jiyeon were running toward me.

Even knowing it was too late, they ran.

Seeing the magic circle shining brightly, I realized I had already been marked as the target for teleportation.

As if to prove it, countless chains and skeletal hands shot out from the circle and grabbed my body.

I struggled, hoping to break free with force, but it was useless.

The warm touch was useless too.

I couldn’t escape on my own.

“…….”

“Don’t give up!”

When I stopped struggling, perhaps sensing I’d surrendered, he shouted.

Give up? There was no way I’d do that.

I was thinking about what I could do at best.

My mind raced quickly.

Maybe because of that, a brilliant idea came to me.

I reached through the hole from which the World Tree had sent the clay and slipped my hand inside my armor.

Passing by the warm smartphone, I pulled out the magic pouch Wooyeonhu had given me.

Quickly opening it, I put the water lotus inside and sealed it again.

Then I threw it at the one rushing toward me.

“…!”

His eyes widened as he caught the magic pouch.

Surprised to see it…

“Save your sibling first.”

“Baek—!”

Baek?

Unfortunately, I couldn’t hear the rest of his words.

Because my vision changed drastically in the blink of an eye.

A ceiling only visible when you tilt your head all the way up.

A throne as massive as such a ceiling.

「……..」

The Skeleton Lord sat on it, resting his chin.

Why was he sitting arrogantly after running away?

「Thank you for accepting my invitation. Welcome, human, the first to set foot in my royal palace.」

Same old speech.

Your palace has been broken through many times already.

Once the cold and poison are dealt with, it’s nothing more than an ordinary B-rank gate.

Without the water lotus, this gate wouldn’t have become famous.

Hunters would only remember it as a troublesome and tricky gate.

“I didn’t want to come this far.”

「I see.」

But… I have to admit something.

I can’t beat the Skeleton Lord as I am now.

Boss monsters of B-rank gates are usually ranked A.

But the Skeleton Lord was an evolved monster with black horns.

At least an A+ rank monster.

One I absolutely can’t defeat right now.

『What are you?』

“Who I am?”

「Yes, what terrible thing is it that you summoned that horrid clay!?」

Horrid? By whose standard?

I only find it adorable because I can mess with you.

「Reveal yourself, human!」

“Who I am… my identity is…”

Overlapping with the Lord’s words, the message window appeared again.

I skimmed it quickly to buy time.

[‘A+ Rank Former World Tree Quest’ has been triggered.]

[Quest details – Escape the Hongyurung Gate or defeat the Skeleton Lord.]

[Success reward – varies depending on the outcome.]

[Failure – death.]

Hah, nothing in life comes easy.

More eye-catching than the success reward was the phrase ‘failure means death.’

Seeing that spelled out meant even my bizarre recovery wouldn’t save me.

If I failed to escape the gate or kill the Lord, I would die.

[Current status of Baek Dowoon is too weak for this difficulty.]

[Adjusting quest difficulty.]

Oh? That’s welcome news.

[The Former World Tree sending support items.]

[Support item: ‘Branch of the Former World Tree.’]

Are you kidding me? What am I supposed to do with a branch?

I was about to get angry when something suddenly burst out of my chest.

Again?

If I’d known, I would have been holding my smartphone.

“Ugh! Th-that is…!”

The Skeleton Lord’s face twisted in irritation.

Mine wasn’t much different from his.

Because a huge log had burst out from my chest.

“No, you said it was a branch?”

Hmph…

Looking again, it was definitely a log.

「Ugh! What, what is that terrible thing!?」

“What do you think? It’s a log.”

The branch of the Former World Tree, they call it.