117 – Circulation System (19)
A safety barrier was spread in a corner of the southern outskirts of Sotherton adjacent to the circulation system.
Inside the barrier, hastily built barracks huddled together to form a village.
A student from Eternia who failed to enter the circulatory system was killing time there. The majority of them were those who organized plundering teams.
There was no great inconvenience in living with the supplies and plunders that I had brought beforehand.
On the contrary, they were enjoying a luxury that was not befitting their circumstances.
But there was not a single person who enjoyed it comfortably.
Most of those who stayed in the safety barrier were students who ranked in the middle or upper ranks in the entrance exam. Those who were called promising players were put in a position where they could not produce any results even after passing half of the training period.
Abundant resources and lean team composition. I was confident that there was nothing lacking in taking the top spot, and I thought that I was superior to other groups in every way.
However, the circulatory system did not accept them and played around with them, eventually spitting them out.
“It looks like sh*t.”
“I hope everything is ruined.”
Most of their daily routine was to stare blankly at the circulatory system.
While doing so, I could sometimes see Plantera transporting students who were about to die to the safety barrier.
Someone pointed a finger at one place and said.
“Coming, coming.”
“Newcomer!”
And a group of Plantera returned to the safety barrier.
Everyone’s attention was focused there.
Welcoming losers like themselves was their only pleasure.
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Contrary to expectations, Plantera brought only one girl with lemon-colored hair, Elias.
“Oh, no.”
“The time has come for at least one person to come.”
“Who was he in a group with?”
“I don’t know.”
It is not yet known which group he belonged to, but since one fell out, there was a high possibility that members of the same group would be brought in one after another sooner or later.
And since they realized that entrance grades do not guarantee practical performance, they were quietly waiting for the day when the top students would be brought in.
As Elias lay on her turf, those who knew her face came over to check on her.
She was in a panic.
“Huh, black… scared… scared….”
It is similar to the emotions that those pushed out of the safety barrier pour out, but the grain is subtly different.
Being tricked by spirits, experiencing visions or hallucinations, or suddenly losing strength in one’s body.
The common emotion that everyone felt after experiencing the circulatory system was ‘fear’.
It’s scary, everyone eats it, but there has never been anyone who wailed with a blue face like Elias.
Her girls banded together to her Elias and soothed her.
Hot tea and blankets. It wasn’t until long before the bonfire that gave her a sense of security that Elias caught her by the strings of reason. And she finally started to explain everything.
“Demon… the devil has awakened Everyone will die…. We need to get out of the circulatory system right now….”
The majority of those who frowned at the fact that they were promoting a needless atmosphere of fear, but after hearing the whole story, they accepted the seriousness of the situation.
Her emotions were not exaggerated.
“I tried all the blue soul candles I brought from Rigbed, but they didn’t work. So we tried to get it directly from the circulatory system…. hehehe, it’s a herb that blooms from the body of a corpse…. So, so… We scoured the western part of the circulatory system for animal carcasses.”
While wandering around inside the circulatory system, Elias’ group found an unidentified obelisk.
“There were six wooden obelisks… Two of them were already destroyed. Because it looks like a tombstone… We thought it was an animal graveyard. Since two of them were already broken, I thought others got something first…. So we destroyed one of them and dug under it like we were possessed. I still don’t know why. It really felt like something was controlling us.”
Elias was speechless as he covered her face with both hands for a moment. Her hands were stained with dirt and all her fingernails were bloody. It was as if she had dug the dirt at random on her own, as she said.
After a while, Elias opened her mouth again.
“And… Something woke me up.”
After destroying one obelisk, the other three suddenly rotted black like dominoes. Something incomprehensible broke the seal, awakened and attacked the group.
“I don’t remember much after that… Even magic doesn’t work… The swordsmanship didn’t work either. We kept running and something kept following us. And… and… Everyone is in danger, so Victor, Victor single-handedly lured them away and they split up.”
Elias collapsed from exhaustion while running away alone, and she was fortunately found by Plantera and brought back, but the remaining members of the group did not know what had happened.
“Victor? That Victor was from your group?”
Everyone was surprised to learn that they were helpless even though Victor, who was one of the top five in the combat department, was with them.
Soon after hearing Elias’ words, the crowd started whispering.
“Isn’t that a phantom beast?”
“Honestly, I can’t believe it.”
“Somehow, the professors suddenly went somewhere in a hurry.”
“Is that why I told you not to leave the barrier?”
“West of the circle is where Zion went.”
And someone asked Elias.
“Who were your group members?”
Elias said in a trembling voice.
“Victor… and… and… Mathias… Also….”
Then once she took a deep breath and said her last name.
“Lee… Lilith.”
And upon hearing that name, the faces of some of the male students turned pale. They were the ones who, unknowingly, harbored her love for her.
***
“They must be forest spirits.”
As I widened my distance, those strange spirits reappeared around Luna.
She didn’t hate her either, she smiled lightly and she hugged them and stroked them.
When I lived in an orphanage. Little kids gathered around the especially pretty nun and asked her to do this or that. For some reason, it seems to overlap with that figure.
Luna sneakily asked if I was a little embarrassed by the gaze I was observing.
“To them… Shall we ask where the realm of phantom beasts is?”
“Good idea.”
Luna spoke to her spirits in an unknown language.
The spirits suddenly hopped and expressed something.
“Chansu… He said that he couldn’t do it because his energy was weak right now. A time like this seems to come every few years.”
“If it doesn’t work, I can’t help it. Let’s move again slowly.”
She too tried to raise her body, but all her spirits dangled from her body. She seemed to be holding on to not leaving.
Luna put on her ass again with a puzzled expression and started talking.
“Yes…. Dangerous… ? They said that something black would eat the spirits and it would be dangerous to go further.”
At the word dangerous, my nerves were on edge.
“Can you elaborate on what is there?”
Luna shook her head.
“They say they don’t know either.”
The idea of preying on her spirits haunted her mind. I had never heard of such creatures inhabiting the Soderton circulatory system.
“Can you eat people?”
Luna’s expression hardened as she asked her spirits. She then looked at me and nodded her head.
“I guess people don’t care.”
The image of Trisha suddenly flashed through my mind.
There is no one in Cecil’s group who can fight.
I wonder if my older brother who left his younger brother in a foreign country feels like this. Normally, I don’t think much of it, but if something is dangerous, my nerves are all focused on Trisha.
“If it’s something like a big lizard, tell them we can fix it. On condition that, of course, you give directions to the center of the circulatory system.”
The expression of Luna, who translated my words to the spirits of the forest, gradually turned serious.
“Existence alien to life in the circulatory system… I said.”
I feel something ominous.
“Can you figure out where they came from?”
Luna nodded her head.
“The spirits will guide you. Just don’t go too deep.”
I pulled out a stitch for Cecil. And I simply wrote down the information I found out a while ago and sent it off.
I don’t know what it is, but before I mess with Trisha, I’d better take care of it first.
“Let’s go.”
***
Mathias and Lilith hid themselves in a cave with their disfigured bodies.
Lilith covered her face in frustration.
“Victor… Victor….”
Lilith witnessed with her own eyes the scene where Victor, who stopped alone to protect the group, was attacked by black shadows.
Mathias looked at Lilith and said.
“I’m sure it will be fine. Because he’s a strong guy….”
She replied in a voice of broken contempt.
“I told you not to.”
“….”
Lilith was the only one who insisted not to touch the obelisk.
But the group members were digging the ground as if they were lost in something.
“I don’t know why either. Something…. Something called It must be the blue soul weed we got from Boon Rigbed that poisoned us.”
Only Lilith, who did not eat the herb, maintained her sanity. It was clear that something had manipulated their minds. So, it was difficult to blame anyone’s fault.
Lilith buried his face in his lap and sniffled.
Mathias approached her and tried to hug her as if to comfort her.
Then Lilith noticed her and pushed him away.
“Don’t come close.”
Mathias, who was rejected, gnawed his teeth for a moment in anger.
“Can’t I encourage you?”
“….”
Thought that he might die soon, he let out his fury recklessly.
“Anyway, if the professors can’t find us first, everything will be over. Do we have to be so sensitive in this situation? Uh?”
Lilith glared at Mathias with red eyes and said.
“I will not die. And once practice is over, it’s over between us forever.”
Mathias drew a band around his neck.
“Don’t be f*cked like that. Do you want to disregard all the effort I put into you and cut it off at will?”
“It’s a promise you made. You said you wouldn’t approach me after that if we formed a team for the last time.”
Mathias worked hard to team up with Lilith, but Lilith stubbornly refused. Then, Matthias forced him to pay for the gifts and errands he had provided, and in the end, he accepted his last request and brought in Lilith on the condition that they end their relationship.
“You said you were going to bring Victor, so you accepted it. Is not it? Did you think that masked pervert would be jealous of that?”
“You brought it on your own. I never asked for it.”
“Oh, damn it!”
Mathias roared and then wandered around the cave for a while. Then, after closing and opening his eyes for a moment, he calmed down and said:
“Ha, sorry. I got a little excited It shouldn’t be like this when we need to join forces. If we can overcome this adversity together… I believe that our relationship can become better again.”
Lilith finally realized that he had been tricked. Mathias had no intention of ending the relationship in the first place.
“I don’t want any of that.”
Mathias put a hand on her shoulder.
Then she spat out her own words, as if she couldn’t hear Lilith.
“I… I will protect you.”