The 9Th Class Swordmaster: Blade Of Truth [EN]: Chapter 422

258. Adur, the Great Jungle (3)

“An… Anchar?”

Halkata was so taken aback by Karil’s words that he couldn’t even feel the pain in his broken wrist.

“How do you know that name?”

“Hmm.”

Instead of answering, Karil kicked Halkata’s stomach with all his might while he was on the ground.

*Thwack-!*

With a sickening thud, Halkata’s waist twisted as he was launched into the air.

Before his massive body could fall, Karil rained down punches, his fists a blur of motion.

The ribs that had been painstakingly healing were shattered once more.

“Cough!!”

Halkata, who hadn’t even groaned before, finally screamed in pain. But Karil’s assault didn’t cease.

He struck Halkata’s legs, still flailing in the air, with the flat of his sword, sending him crashing back to the ground.

*Crack…!!!*

Halkata’s legs landed at unnatural angles, dangling like a broken doll.

“It’s convenient that wildlings can recover as long as they aren’t completely severed. It means I can beat you as much as I want,” Karil said, looking down at Halkata, who was lying on his broken leg.

“Ku… Kuuk…”

Halkata tried to speak, but doubled over in agony, collapsing onto the swamp floor.

“Eek, eek…!!”

Despite their incredible regenerative abilities, wildlings weren’t immune to pain.

From the searing agony of a sword wound to the bone-shattering sensation of broken limbs, they felt it all.

Perhaps the truly terrifying thing about the wildlings wasn’t their resistance to poison or their near-infinite healing, but their sheer endurance to withstand such torment.

Halkata, arguably the strongest of the wildlings, was screaming, a testament to the excruciating precision of Karil’s attacks, targeting only the most vulnerable points.

“Don’t make such a racket. I haven’t even used magic. You’re a disgrace to the name of wildling,” Karil said, his expression one of disappointment. The other wildlings looked at him, faces pale with a mixture of fear and awe.

“Not you, Karil-nim [term of respect].”

“…What?”

“It’s not ‘what,’ it’s ‘yes, sir.’ Got it? Even though you’ve been holed up in the jungle, things are different now. How long are you going to live in this barren land, tearing the flesh off monsters? Isn’t that right? When the environment changes, people have to change too.”

Karil tapped Halkata’s shoulder lightly.

“It would be good to learn some manners, if possible. I said there wouldn’t be any second chances since you claimed to know me.”

“…”

Halkata felt a chill crawl down his spine at the words of the boy, who barely reached his chest.

It wasn’t weakness, but a primal understanding that Karil, standing over him, was more terrifying than any monster he had faced in the Great Jungle.

[You have a blank look on your face. Heh heh……]

Aln chuckled, observing Halkata’s expression.

[Well, a beast must be more faithful to its instincts than a human. It’s only natural that you’re terrified in front of someone who has not one but two hearts of the strongest beast on earth, the dragon.]

*Whoosh-!*

Mael suddenly emerged from Karil’s arm.

“Huh, heok?!

The blue snake bared its sharp teeth, as if ready to sink them into Halkata’s neck, before vanishing again.

[Hmph, dragons.]

Mael grumbled, feeling slighted by Aln’s words. Karil chuckled, amused by the exchange.

“In the end… you’re here to drive the wildlings out of the jungle? We will never leave this place. Are you telling us to abandon our land and hide like immigrants? We will never do that.”

“Who said you should leave? You’ll continue to live in this land.”

“…What?”

“Halkata, you should be grateful that you met me.”

Then he turned his head.

“…”

Halkata, the person in question, was speechless, only managing a twitch of his lips.

“Because what I’m trying to change is this land itself.”

“What does that mean…”

Karil gently stroked Alkar’s forehead, who was standing beside him, with a meaningful look.

“So guide her.”

“Her…”

“I’ll talk to her about the main point. Don’t waste time. I said there would be no second chances. Move now. To Anchar, your true leader, the druid with the souls of the five beasts.”

It was then that Halkata realized this meeting wasn’t a mere coincidence. Karil knew his name, despite his isolated life in the Great Jungle.

Moreover, he knew Anchar’s name, a secret known only to a few within the tribe, confirming that Karil had a clear purpose.

‘At least he doesn’t intend to take away the Great Jungle like the Empire. But… why her?’

Halkata couldn’t hide his anxiety, a stark contrast to his rugged appearance.

“Getting to the hut isn’t difficult, but whether she’ll meet you is up to her. No, before that, it’s questionable whether you can even enter it.”

Karil smiled faintly.

“That’s my business. Don’t worry. Just guide me to the Geumnyeong Pond [Golden Nymph Pond]. I could find her myself, but you, the chief of the wildlings, must guide me to see her.”

“…You even know that much?”

Halkata was dumbfounded. There was no way anyone could have a map of this place, as the Great Jungle had no contact with the outside world.

“What the hell are you?”

Instead of answering, Karil tapped his shoulder again and stood up.

“By the way, Shaveriger’s liver tastes better steamed than raw. Could you steam some and share it with me?”

He gave a strange smile and slowly walked away.

* * *

A small hut stood in the middle of the swamp.

Bubbles rose and popped on the black water, as if it were boiling.

It was remarkable that the hut, built in such a precarious location, hadn’t collapsed.

“Hmm. The smell is quite appealing.”

It wasn’t the swamp’s putrid stench, but the aroma of the steamed liver that Halkata had handed him.

“It’s the first time I’ve heard of steaming Shaveriger’s liver. Liver should be eaten when it’s still red,” Halkata said, looking at the blackened liver with a serious expression. But Karil nonchalantly tore off a piece, put it in his mouth, and mumbled.

Then, he casually began walking into the swamp.

“Wa, wait! Be careful…!!”

*Flap…! Flap…!!*

Suddenly, the swamp trembled violently, and the fish within thrashed wildly.

“What is this…”

“You guys use leaves from the Geumnyeong Pond to make poison for catching monsters, right? That means the poison in this swamp is potent. But the swamp’s poison isn’t a big threat to you wildlings.”

Karil began tearing off small pieces of the liver and scattering them into the swamp.

“The problem is these piranhas. The creatures living in this poison are truly remarkable. They resemble the piranhas in the Ponaine River, but they’re smaller and faster. Moreover, if you’re bitten by their teeth, even you wildlings, who are supposedly immune to all poisons, won’t be able to withstand it.”

[Karak! Kararak!!]

Surprisingly, every time Karil sprinkled the liver, the thrashing fish scattered, avoiding the area as if fleeing.

“But interestingly, they hate Shaveriger’s liver, but the raw liver doesn’t have enough scent to deter them. When it’s steamed, its unique scent becomes stronger, so they can’t approach it. If you hold it in your mouth, they can’t get near you either.”

Karil tossed the remaining liver to Halkata, who was standing behind him.

“And it doesn’t taste bad either. Ptooey-”

He spat out the liver he’d been holding in his mouth, giving a strange smile.

“It doesn’t suit my taste, though. It’ll taste good to you.”

Halkata looked at the remaining liver with an expression of utter confusion.

“Because it’s the only way to get into the Geumnyeong Pond. You want to meet her, who ran away into this place on her own, don’t you? Isn’t that right?”

“…Why are you telling me this?”

“She’s your daughter.”

Karil finally revealed the meaning behind his strange smile.

“…Ugh.”

At Karil’s words, Halkata shoved the remaining Shaveriger’s liver into his mouth without hesitation.

The disgusting smell made him gag, but he chewed it down as if to prove something.

Watching him, Karil turned and looked at the old hut, lost in thought.

‘Anchar. You don’t know, but I’ve stopped the thing you regretted the most in your previous life. Now you can run wild even more.’

“The ancestor of the wildlings is the soul of countless beasts that have lived since the mythical era. We believe that each of us has our own beast dwelling within us.”

Karil turned to Halkata, who was walking towards him, wiping his mouth.

“But she was not possessed by the soul of an ancestor, but cursed. Instead of having only one beast’s soul dwelling within her, she has all the souls of her ancestors, so she can’t maintain her own form and is turning into a monster.”

“Since when has that been happening?”

“…About a month ago.”

Karil nodded.

‘That’s right.’

After the oracle was given and the Corruption emerged, the souls inside her began to run wild.

As he remembered, she had awakened her abilities after the Corruption appeared.

‘But in my previous life, when I received the oracle and first came to meet her, the Great Jungle was already devastated and the wildlings had been wiped out long ago.’

The remaining two of the Ten [powerful individuals].

They, who belatedly gained their abilities after the Corruption appeared, possessed immense strength, but there was a key difference.

They were susceptible to Corruption.

The more the Corruption tainted the world, the stronger they became, but they could easily lose their reason and be consumed by that power.

Losing reason was similar to, but distinct from, Hwarin’s case. Because the will of the Lycanthrope [werewolf] that she possessed returned when its power was exhausted.

However, in Anchar’s case, if the power of Corruption spreading across the continent didn’t weaken, she would continue to lose her sanity, unleashing another monster alongside the Corruption.

‘Moreover, she’s in the initial stages of her awakening, so she probably doesn’t know how to control her newfound power. In her previous life, she ended up killing her own kind, intoxicated by that power.’

That was Anchar’s greatest regret, especially the murder of her own father, Halkata.

‘Now that the first Corruption, Hyul, has been defeated, she must be in a temporarily calmed state. But she can’t emerge because she doesn’t know when another seizure will occur.’

It was said that when the two reunited later, Anchar committed the horrific act of tearing out Halkata’s heart.

The reason Karil had come here first after hunting Hyul was precisely to prevent that.

He wanted to claim her before the next Corruption appeared and, at the same time, teach her how to maintain her sanity against its influence.

[Stop!!!!!]

Suddenly, a strange cry, neither male nor female, a blend of both, echoed from the hut in the swamp.

“Anchar…”

Halkata muttered her name in a worried tone.

“Halkata.”

Karil spoke in a low voice.

“The invulnerable body is the wildlings’ greatest strength. Are you willing to give that up for your daughter?”

“…Yes?”

“Your abilities are tied to the poisonous grass that grows here. I said I would change this land, right? From now on, I will completely transform the Geumnyeong Pond. The poisonous grass will never grow again.”

“…Then what about Anchar?”

“She can live.”

At his words, Halkata nodded slowly, without hesitation.

“Good. Then step back. From now on, I will purify both her and this land.”

*Crack… Crackle…*

Ice began to spread from beneath Karil’s feet. He drew the ice claw from his waist and plunged it into the swamp, rapidly turning it into a vast ice rink.

Karil stroked the forehead of the verdant green Alkar, leaning against him, and said.

“Alkar. You’ll have to do well from now on.”

The young divine beast stuck out its tongue, seemingly pleased by the touch, whether it understood his words or not.

“Good. Let’s go say hello. To the future owner of the wildlings, who will pay tribute to you.”