100
Minhyuk asked the man again.
“So are you a raccoon or a human?”
He wondered if the raccoon had used magic to transform into a human,
or if a human had turned into a raccoon.
hahahahaha!
Laughter burst out of his mouth.
“You’re the first person to ask me that after seeing my transformation! You’re really a funny guy!”
Swish-
Rebecca drew her sword and pointed it at the man’s neck, shouting.
“Impertinence! He is His Majesty the Emperor of the Asdel Empire! Show some respect!”
Upon hearing this, the man’s eyes widened and he prostrated himself before Minhyuk.
“Oh my! I didn’t know it was Your Majesty! Please, in your magnanimity, spare my life!”
It was hard to tell whether he was really scared or just pretending.
“And I am human! Not a raccoon.”
Minhyuk approached him.
Then a message popped up in front of his eyes.
＜Human detected.＞
Now, he couldn’t tell if it was a real person just by looking at the message.
He knew there was a puppet magic that controlled a human body without a soul.
Clang-
Minhyuk took out a staff from his inventory.
A wooden staff imbued with white light.
It was the Wand of Binding he had used to defeat the Red Dragon Srinijam.
The Wand of Binding could not only create a binding barrier to prevent the opponent from escaping, but it could also break puppet magic.
Pow-
Minhyuk used the staff to create a barrier around the man.
If he was a doll used in puppet magic, the barrier would cut him off from the remote control of his body hidden somewhere.
Then he would lose consciousness and collapse.
But the man was fine.
‘He’s a real human.’
He looked at Minhyeok’s staff and said,
“This staff contains potent divine power!”
Indeed, the staff consumed magic power to produce divine power.
However, Minhyeok couldn’t feel the divine power itself while using the staff.
Only those who serve gods, such as priests and priestesses, can feel divine power.
“Can you sense it?”
“Yes.”
Professor Raymond, who had been observing the situation through a crystal ball, asked the man,
“Are you by any chance a priest of the forest?”
The man raised his head and replied,
“Oh? I didn’t think anyone still knew that term.”
Raymond explained to Minhyeok,
“Among the priests who served the gods, there were those who abandoned the existing doctrines and entered the forest, seeking to live in harmony with nature. They are called priests of the forest.”
Thud-
The man who had been kneeling stood up and shook his head.
“No! I only know a little about it. We didn’t abandon the doctrines, but rather the corrupt religious order.”
The man revealed that he was a priest of the forest as if it were nothing.
Then, he turned to the princess and Rebecca and said with a wicked smile,
“Well, it’s part of our job to uncover false doctrines. The absurd rules that priests must remain celibate, and so on, were not created by God but by the foolish humans of the religious order. Such doctrines must naturally be revised. It’s the natural order of things for men and women to come together.”
Professor Raymond countered his explanation,
“It is written in ancient texts that the Order of the Forest Priests is a gathering of priests who were expelled from the religious order for committing indecent acts.”
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Upon hearing this, the princess and Rebecca looked at the man with contempt.
He shouted, his neck flushed,
“Not indecent acts, but natural acts! The religious order’s doctrines are wrong!”
“But the priests of the forest are beings from before the Cataclysm. How are you still alive? Are you perhaps their descendant?”
“Not a descendant… In truth, I am quite old.”
“Over 100 years old?”
The man glanced at the princess and Rebecca and replied,
“Age is just a number… Look, my face is still that of a child. And it’s not just my face, my body is still supple. I have no problem coming together, hahahahaha!”
Their expressions twisted even further.
As the conversation took a strange turn, Minhyeok stepped forward.
“Enough with the useless talk.”
He cut off the conversation between the man and Professor Raymond and brought up the main topic.
“You can chase away the squirrels?”
“Yes. I can persuade them with words.”
“You can communicate with animals?”
“Yes.”
It was a mysterious ability.
Minhyeok could also use transformation magic thanks to the Nosco he had obtained in the Demon’s Tower.
However, he didn’t have the ability to communicate with animals.
“Then tell the squirrel to step aside for a moment. I’ll just have a look around the temple and come out right away.”
“I understand. But not right now.”
“Why?”
“The squirrel is very nervous right now. Nothing you say will get through to it. You must leave it alone to calm down. Let’s all go outside the cave and wait.”
“How long will we have to wait?”
“Just a little while. Enough time to have a cup of tea.”
Minhyuk led the princess and Rebecca outside the cave.
The man who was a priest in the forest also followed them.
Clop, clop-
The sound of horse hooves could be heard from afar.
After a while, Rin arrived riding a dragon horse.
Rin had set off right after Minhyuk had left for this place riding Cheonsam-i.
Cheonsam-i was happy to see the dragon horse and cried out.
“Thor!”
“Heee-ing.”
“So that’s it.”
“Phooo-rrr.”
Come to think of it, Cheonsam-i could also talk to animals.
Moreover, it could speak human language, so it could also interpret.
I wonder if I should leave this to Cheonsam-i.
But Cheonsam-i was too big to enter the narrow passage of the temple.
Moreover, the parrot griffin was a beast, so it might scare the squirrel even more.
Minhyuk asked the man.
“What did the dragon horse just say?”
“It said that it ate a very big and tasty wild carrot on its way here.”
Minhyuk asked Cheonsam-i.
“Is that right?”
“That’s right.”
Thud-
Rin got off the dragon horse.
She bowed to Minhyuk and then approached Rebecca and asked in a small voice.
“What happened?”
She was asking about the squirrel.
Because Minhyuk might have killed it.
“It’s okay.”
Rin’s expression brightened at Rebecca’s answer.
The priest in the forest also brightened up when he saw another beautiful woman.
“While you wait, would you like to have a drink?”
The man poured the liquid in the water jug into a glass.
And offered it to Minhyuk.
“Please, try it.”
Minhyuk’s eyes glanced at its information.
＜Mixed Fruit Juice＞
– A delicious juice made from the land of abundance.
It was fruit juice.
It wasn’t poisoned or anything strange.
As Minhyuk was about to gulp down the juice, Rebecca ran over and snatched the glass.
“There might be something strange in it, so I’ll try it first.”
Gulp, gulp-
She downed the juice in one shot.
Then she exclaimed with an impressed expression.
“It’s so delicious!”
The man refilled the glass and offered it to Minhyuk.
Taking a sip, he tasted a sweet and sour harmony of various fruits.
It was like a cocktail made with several different fruits.
After tasting the juice of the princess and Rindo, Minhyuk asked the man.
“Did you make this yourself?”
“I didn’t make it. Nature did.”
“Of course nature made the fruit.”
“That’s not what I meant…”
The man explained the juice in detail.
“In this place, fruits that fall to the ground don’t rot. If they did, the whole place would be filled with the stench of decay.”
The Berakan Plateau was a paradise of fruit trees.
However, there wasn’t a single rotting fruit to be seen on the ground.
“The moment a fruit falls to the ground, it’s magically teleported to one place. And in that place, it’s transformed into juice. There’s a pond of juice at the bottom of that hill over there.”
“A pond of juice? That’s amazing!”
“What’s more, the edges of the pond are juice, but the center is alcohol. The juice naturally ferments and turns into alcohol. That alcohol is so strong, if two people drink it, one of them will die!”
“Are priests allowed to drink alcohol?”
“There’s no reason why they shouldn’t. That’s all false doctrine.”
Minhyuk, who had been listening silently, also became curious about the juice pond.
However, his priority was to enter the temple for now.
Minhyuk told them.
“Let’s go to the pond after we’ve explored the temple.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Minhyuk asked the man.
“Do we have to wait any longer?”
“No. You may enter the cave now.”
Everyone re-entered the cave.
The squirrel that had been blocking the entrance to the temple was nowhere to be seen.
“It must have gone back to its young. Everyone, please hide behind that rock over there.”
Minhyuk and his party hid behind a large rock far from the entrance to the temple.
Ssskuk-
Smoke rose from the man’s body, and he transformed into a raccoon.
Then he entered the temple.
After a while,
Dduk-dduk-
A striped ground squirrel came out of the passage.
Four cubs followed behind it.
The squirrel looked around and led the cubs out of the cave.
They had completely left this place.
Ssskuk-
The man who had transformed into a raccoon undid his transformation.
He shouted to Minhyuk and his party.
“It’s done! You can enter the temple now.”
Everyone who was hiding behind the rock approached him.
Minhyuk asked the man.
“What did you say to make them leave this place?”
“I told them that more humans would come. I said that now was their only chance to escape with their cubs.”
“The squirrel understood that and agreed?”
“They may not be able to talk to people, but animals aren’t stupid.”
Minhyuk entered the entrance to the temple.
Everyone followed Minhyuk.
Rin quietly asked the priest.
“How can you talk to animals? Can I learn how to do it too?”
“You don’t need to learn. You just have to remember the language you’ve forgotten.”
Rin tilted her head at the priest’s words.
“What do you mean?”
“Originally, all humans could talk to animals. But they sealed that ability themselves.”
“Why?”
“They had no choice when they killed the livestock they raised to eat their meat and wear their skin as clothing.”
Hmm-
Rin sighed and said.
“It must take a lot of determination to talk to animals.”
***
The top floor of the Demon Tower.
The master of the Demon Tower was nowhere to be seen, and a large egg was laid in the place where he had been standing.
It was a dragon’s egg.
Poot-
A strong light emanated from the egg.
And after a while,
Crack-
Squeak-
The eggshell began to crack.
Thud-
A naked woman broke out of the egg and emerged.
Swish-
The sticky liquid that was covering her body was washed away.
Then, moist and smooth skin was revealed.
Plump breasts, a concave waist, and wide hips.
She was the owner of the Demon Tower.
She had discarded her male body and was reborn as a woman.
She had pondered for a long time.
It hadn’t been long since she had obtained a new body, so she could use the egg later,
or she could be reborn as a woman right away.
However, she couldn’t hold back any longer.
That was why she had become a woman right away.
‘How long have I waited for this moment?’
Swish-
Her body shrank.
To the size of an ordinary human.
Flutter-
A beautifully colored cloth appeared in the air and elegantly wrapped around her body, transforming into a dress.
She looked at her reflection in the mirror and was satisfied.
“I’ve received an advance payment, so I should start working, right?”
Swish-
She disappeared like mist.
And she reappeared far, far away from the Demon Tower.
A crumbling fortress entered her vision.
‘If I wait here, he will show up.’
This was the Cron Castle that Minhyuk was headed to.
She stepped inside the territory of the sanctuary.
The stench of rotting corpses vibrated all around.
Cron Castle had long since become a city of bandits.
Murder, rape, and arson were rampant.
“Hey, over there!”
Men who appeared from somewhere surrounded the owner of the Demon Tower.
They all let out raucous laughter at the sight of her.
“Wow, it’s been ages! This is the first time I’ve seen a woman who washes herself.”
Growl-
The men charged at the owner of the Demon Tower.
Her eyes flashed blue.
At the same time.
Thud-
All of the men fell to the ground with broken necks.
She looked down at the dead men and sneered.
‘How useless is the realm of the guardian. The most harmful beast to humans is humans themselves.’
***
Min-hyuk and his party passed through a narrow passage that was like a maze.
And finally, they reached a large space.
The ceiling was about 10 meters high, and rectangular pillars were erected at regular intervals.
The princess looked around and opened her mouth.
“What a very unique architectural style?”
Rebecca pointed to the letters engraved here and there.
“It’s a letter I’ve never seen before. Is it an ancient letter?”
Rin asked the priest.
“Can you read those letters, priest?”
“No, it’s my first time seeing it too.”
Only Min-hyuk could read the letters.
＜Emergency Exit＞
＜Shower Curtain＞
＜Exit to Shipping Yard＞
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＜Frozen Storage Area: 700㎡＞
＜Appropriate Temperature: -35℃~-40℃＞
‘This place is···’
It was a huge freezer with an area of about 200 pyeong.
I found a new clue to upgrade the refrigerator.
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