Volume 9 Chapter 5
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
In the Cave
While inside the small, rusty cave, Weed’s body was getting hotter with fever.
His already serious cold became worse.
-You are fatigued.Physical ability is lowered by 62%
You cannot use battle skills.
Due to the decrease of Life and Stamina, you cannot move.
You may experience dizziness.
If not treated properly, you may die.
The Northern Province was much colder than the Central Continent. Four out of seven days in a week it snowed, and a strong, cold wind blew. The Valley of Death was even colder, so his Stamina dropped to very low as he pushed himself too much by travelling and battling.
The Valley of Death Quest required the participant to not only fight against strong monsters, but against difficult weather too. It was hard to endure even in a normal, healthy condition, but since he had this cold, his situation became much worse.
The cold had worsened as he progressed, and now he couldn’t even move anymore.
His forehead and back were already wet with sweat. He couldn’t even control his shivering body properly.
‘I’m going to die like this again.’
Weed wanted to cry out.
It’s not like he was fighting deadly monsters, yet he was about to die from a mere cold!
Normally, he would at least have been able to recover life with Alveron’s holy magic. If he recovered life, there would be a greater chance of getting rid of the cold.
But even that was impossible now.
“Cough. Cough.”
Alveron was huddling in a corner, coughing.
Just like Weed, he got the terrible cold and was on the verge of death.
Even when you’re a candidate for Pope, a cold didn’t look over you.
‘I’m really going to die now.’
Due to lowered Stamina and Life, he couldn’t even raise a finger.
Surrounding them was just ice and snow.
They somehow found a cave near the Valley of Death and came in, but it didn’t help much to shield from the iciness.
If they got terribly cold in such a place, they had no other way out but to die.
Since his ill body would remain and freeze away, even if he logged out it would make no difference. It seemed like he could not avoid death.
‘I was careless.’
Although he was filled with regret, it was not something he could undo.
He used up all the herbs that may have been useful against illness when cooking soup in Morata Village.
‘Now I can really do nothing.’
Weed closed his eyes silently.
The rocky ground felt as cold as a sheet of ice, and cold air came in from everywhere. In these circumstances, a cold could only get worse.
His hands and feet were already getting numb. Death was approaching.
‘Just why did I have to get sick.... so pathetic.’
With his eyes closed, he looked back to his past.
Ever since he was little he took any job for the sake of money. To help his grandmother who was working in the street market, even at such an old age, he would work anywhere as long as they took under aged employees, when he should have been playing with friends of his age.
Since it was illegal, the working conditions were the worst possible, and he never got paid on time.
Still, because he worked over vacation without sleeping, he could gain a bit of money.
But now he had a type of work that he have never done before, and by pushing himself too much, his body couldn’t endure.
“You weakling! Are you acting because you don’t want to work?
“If you’re going to work like this, then give up right now!”
The boss, who hadn’t paid him his three weeks’ worth of payment, yelled at him.
Even when he was sweating all over from fever, and dark rings forming around his eyes, the boss never admitted that Hyun was sick.
Back then he couldn’t eat much, so his stamina wasn’t very good, and because of that he was always scolded on.
Other employees, too, scolded him whenever he did something wrong, whether big or small.
“Useless one.”
“Why should we use someone as brainless as him?”
“It’s better to not have you here at all. You only cause problems.”
“You trash! Because of you we have even more work now.
Just go steal or something instead of working here.”
He endured those countless snarling comments.
On that day, he wanted to get up and work if possible, but his body just couldn’t move.
But no one worried about him nor did they tell him to go to a hospital. When he was young, he curled up and cried in a corner where no one was. It was very painful.
After that day, he hated getting sick the most.
To someone like him who had to support his sister, getting sick was an unthinkable luxury. But, he couldn’t help but feel sad and pathetic when pain came.
“Damn.”
Weed felt his eyes getting watery.
‘I’m as weak as the amount of tears I let out. I’ll never cry.’
He gritted his teeth and endured. This time his pain wouldn’t stay much longer.
His body was weak all over and his Life status was still decreasing.
He was alive so far thanks to his monstrous amount of Endurance, but soon, he would die.
He just had to wait a bit for the nausea to die, and then he too will die completely.
Only, death is not the end.
Right away, a special skill activates as a Blood Necromancer.
Revival as Undead.
According to his level and skill mastery, he’s going to revive as an undead. As an undead soldier who rules over black magic and the power of death.
When he dies, at the least his cold will disappear.
‘I’ll just have to level up and get masteries back up like a mad person for a while.’
With his eyes closed, he waited for death.
Without hunting or using his sculpting skill, this was first time he just lied down and rested completely like this. When fighting or resting for Life and Stamina to recover, he was always making a sculpture. The reason for Weed’s fast growth was because of such focus and effort.
But even as time passed, he didn’t die.
‘What’s happening?’
Weed opened his eyes partially.
His body ached all over and opening his eyes caused dizziness, but he wanted to check the situation.
And now he could see the reason!
Seoyoon!
She disappeared to somewhere and brought mountainous amount of firewood.
‘It wouldn’t have been easy......’
Around here, there isn’t much wood that can be used for a fire.
To get firewood, she would have had to go through blizzards and walked far.
Seoyoon stacked up the wood and lit the fire.
As the surrounding air became warmer, Weed could feel a bit of warmth seeping into his flesh.
Seoyoon took out a small iron can.
It had become black from using it so often for cooking over an open fire.
It is sold for 4 coppers in a general store, but it was dropped when hunting a fox near a castle. It was something not even beginners used.
Seoyoon glanced at Weed as if she was embarrassed for taking out beginner's iron can.
Weed closed his eyes again.
It was because his dizziness became worse as his body temperature rose.
‘Thirsty.’
Weed had a serious thirst and lots of pain. The thirst was due to the sudden burning heat of the flames.
But soon, something touched his lip.
‘What is this?’
An unknown scent came from it.
Weed opened his mouth.
Then, something dripped into his mouth little by little.
It was porridge.
Using the cooking skill she had, Seoyoon had made porridge and was feeding Weed. The problem was that the porridge was extremely salty and spicy! ‘Stop feeding me that stuff!’ Weed screamed inside his head.
She was feeding him the worst porridge possible, and it didn’t even taste right! Plus, the porridge smelled fishy.
Weed could guess what she used to make it.
‘She put smelt in it.’
Seoyoon put rice she had for emergencies into water along with smelt to make porridge.
The porridge was made as if she tried to fry the smelt, but because she didn’t clean the smelt properly, the fishy smell remained strongly.
The rice wasn’t fully cooked either, and tasted terrible.
Seoyoon was forcibly feeding Weed bad porridge such as this!
“Urgh!’’
Even when Weed closed his mouth, Seoyoon opened his mouth with force and poured the porridge in.
If he had strength to speak, he would’ve stopped her.
But Weed’s dimming strength was literally halted right before he died, so he couldn’t speak even a word.
After eating bit by bit, his hunger disappeared.
It was a torture to eat, but his hunger and thirst was still satisfied.
But Seoyoon didn’t stop at just feeding it to him.
Weed realized then.
‘You murderer!’
All along, listening to him obediently and acting nice must have been an act.
‘She was looking for an opportunity! She was planning to torture me like this while I didn’t have the strength to resist,’ Weed thought.
He could do nothing but to regret the situation.
In his defenceless situation, he had to endure Seoyoon’s tyranny.
The porridge she kept feeding him, spoonful after spoonful!
A great danger approached Weed.
‘Let’s just die. I just have to die. Then everything will be over.’
Weed wished he could die now. He hated suffering from fever and dizziness. If he revived as an undead, his level or skill mastery would fall, but at least he would be more comfortable.
But even if he wanted to die, he couldn’t.
‘Someone please kill me.’
Weed’s cheeks were filled with food.
Seoyoon fed him 150 spoonfuls of porridge. It equaled four full bowls!
She fed him not only to be satisfied, but to the point right before he would explode from being overfed.
After eating enough, anyone wouldn’t want to eat anymore, but she was feeding him more forcibly. No one would understand what a nightmare it was.
Step. Step. Step.
He heard Seoyoon walking towards Alveron.
Because of the heat, he felt dizzy, but he could hear the sounds very clearly.
Since it was the sound of the devil that was torturing him, he just couldn’t help but hear it.
Weed prayed. ‘Amen. Alveron, you suffer a bit too.’
Even in such a situation, another’s misfortune was Weed’s happiness.
Opening his eyes a bit, he watched Seoyoon feeding Alveron her porridge.
She carefully fed Avelon.
Weed shivered.
‘Really cruel. She’s a devil in human disguise.’
From the effort to