NOVEL NEXT Chapter 43
Chapter 43: The Village of Mystery
The sky began to rumble ominously. Dark clouds gathered in the southern sky.
“It’s rain clouds!”
Someone exclaimed with an excited expression.
In the jungle, drinking water indiscriminately was a perilous gamble. The heat brewed various bacteria and parasites in the water, making it potentially deadly, especially when it came to stagnant water.
Because of this, we had endured a grueling journey without even wetting our lips. Seeing the rain clouds made it impossible not to feel relieved.
“It’s a squall.”
Tae-seong, the Black Tiger Guild Leader, who had experience traveling in tropical regions, stated.
A squall was a sudden, heavy rain that frequently occurred in tropical rainforests.
But it was the first squall we experienced since arriving.
“Quick, get the water!”
“Pass the water containers!”
People hurriedly moved to collect water at this chance.
Soon, the sky darkened, and rain began to pour down. It was heavy rain.
Swish!
The sound of rain filled the surroundings.
Si-hyun spread his arms wide, letting the raindrops drench him as he drank from the sky. It felt like life surged back into him.
Others also looked up, opening their mouths to drink the rain. Their once-dead expressions returned to life.
The rain continued for over thirty minutes. Having quenched their thirst, the group gathered under a large tree to take shelter. As they huddled together, conversation naturally flowed.
“I’ve never seen such a gate before.”
Tae-seong remarked.
Even for him, with years of Hunter experience, this long a gate was unprecedented.
“Same here!” Hyung-cheol replied.
Even an A-Class gate could be cleared in a single day if the raid team was well organized. If it went beyond that, it meant they had serious issues regarding the raid setup.
However, S-Class gates were the exception. For S-Class gates, they needed to establish a camp before entering due to their sheer size.
“Well, at least there haven’t been any strong monsters like before.”
Tae-seong expressed some relief. After defeating the black leopard, the monsters they had primarily encountered were poison snakes or venomous insects, which didn’t have thick shells and could be taken down by lower-ranked Hunters. As long as they were careful of the poison, they could dispatch them without much trouble.
“I told you! It’s a mutant!” Jin-soo interjected.
He wasn’t wrong so far. If a monster as strong as the previous one had appeared again, the status of the party members would be far more dire.
“By the way… was it Si-hyun? That shouting skill of yours seemed to affect some pretty strong monsters. It’s strange that you’re an E-rank Hunter,” Hyung-cheol asked curiously.
No Hunter could conceal their magic power. If the Hunter Association measured him as E-rank, then it was certain. That only deepened the mystery.
“It’s not that powerful normally. It just played out the way I predicted. I figured that the shouting skill would have a greater impact on monsters with sensitive hearing,” Si-hyun responded. It seemed like there was more to it, but he kept it to himself.
“Is that so? If you meet such monsters again, please take care of it,” Hyung-cheol said.
“Sure thing.”
“It seems the rain has stopped. Let’s rise and move,” he remarked, looking up at the sky.
With their thirst quenched and having enjoyed a delicious rest, the energy returned to people’s faces.
◈ ◈ ◈
We walked along the muddy path made slick by the rain. My shoes quickly became caked in mud.
The expressions on people’s faces weren’t good. While they had replenished their fluids, they had barely eaten anything and had been walking all day. The B-rank Hunters up front still seemed to have some stamina, but the lower-ranked Hunters clearly showed signs of fatigue.
Before long, the sky darkened, and Eun-hye had to use her light magic to brighten their surroundings.
“… At this rate, we might have to spend a night on the jungle floor.”
Min-jun shook his head disapprovingly.
“Lucky it’s Saturday.”
If it were Sunday, they would have been stuck with an unexcused absence.
“Are you seriously thinking about that in such a dire situation?”
“It’s the sorrow of every worker, what can I say?”
Si-hyun made a face as if the whole world operated like this.
“Anyway, I’m starving. How can we even fight like this?”
“You can’t just eat anything, remember what the Guild Leader said? There are poisonous plants scattered everywhere in the jungle.”
“Ugh, shouldn’t we at least go hunting?”
“Have you seen any animals worth hunting until now?”
“It would have been smart to have a meat party with the corpse of that black leopard earlier. I was such an idiot.”
“… At this rate, we might end up having to eat monsters.”
Si-hyun was already feeling his stomach sticking to his back. With no food and continued activity, hunger hit fast.
“Light!” someone shouted. The whole party turned their gaze forward.
A light flickered in the distance. It was undoubtedly an artificial light, not a natural one.
That meant humans had lit it. Even in the territories of intelligent monsters, they wouldn’t set up a fire like that. There had never been any reports of such a thing.
A village?
Si-hyun and Min-jun exchanged glances as they had the same thought. Others seemed to be on the same wavelength.
“There are people there. There are people!”
“There’s no way there are people in the Gate. That’s impossible.”
“Since it’s a double gate, it might be a bit special?”
“Is that what’s important right now? It could be a village. We could eat and rest there.”
“Come on, let’s go check it out!”
“Wait a moment. Calm down, everyone.”
Hyung-cheol, with a serious expression, addressed the group.
“We don’t know what’s ahead. Don’t rush; we need to proceed with caution.”
As he took on the leader role, the excitement in the air died down. Even though they were temporarily stirred by the light, the heavy reality of being inside an unknown double gate came rushing back.
Only then did Hyung-cheol move forward again.
“Let’s go.”
◈ ◈ ◈
As we got closer, thoughts transformed into certainty.
It was a village. It felt oddly haphazard, but it was unmistakably a place where people lived.
A few wooden houses came into view. To modern eyes, they appeared to be poorly crafted. They looked like they belonged to a group that hadn’t developed civilization.
“…”
The party slowed their steps, carefully observing the village’s houses. If these were indeed barbaric people, they would likely be aggressively defensive against sudden intruders.
Hyung-cheol, leading the front, opened his senses as wide as possible. After scanning the village for a time, he spoke.
“I sense no presence.”
“…”
The others looked at each other, surprised, but without replying. It was clear that humans had made the fire, yet there were none in sight.
It was an utterly baffling situation.
“Let’s go inside.”
Having shown confidence that there were no people, Hyung-cheol stepped in first, and they followed him.
Thud, thud.
Only the sound of their footsteps echoed in the silent village.
“It really is empty.”
“Where did they go?”
“Maybe it was never inhabited?”
“Impossible.”
In the village center, a bonfire blazed, casting light everywhere. But who had lit it? A monster?
That seemed preposterous.
“What’s that…?”
Si-hyun stared intently at the spot illuminated by the bonfire and cocked his head. Then it struck him, and he continued speaking.
“Isn’t that an altar?”
Upon a closer look, it was a flat structure built up from squared stones, with stairs on one side that allowed access. It resembled the altars seen in media about South American natives.
“I think it does look like one.”
Tae-seong agreed.
One curious Black Tiger Guild member rushed up the stairs. Then, his face paled, and he screamed.
“What? Ugh… What the hell… that’s not a human?! Damn, there’s a corpse lying here!”
In the center of the altar was a pool of fresh blood. And atop it lay several corpses of young humans, their heads severed.
“Human?”
“What?! Is it a human sacrifice? Crazy bastards…”
“…”
Eun-hye’s expression turned pale.
Si-hyun and Min-jun felt likewise. For modern people, the brutality and barbarism of human sacrifice were shockingly unacceptable.
“Well, if they’re primitive barbarians, it might be expected.”
Only Jin-soo showed a nonchalant demeanor.
“Who are they sacrificing to?”
Hyung-cheol muttered to himself. If there was a sacrifice, it meant there was a recipient. Especially for human sacrifices, it would signify a particular figurative importance beyond mere brutality.
A significant recipient for the sacrifice.
A god?
Or some other being?
No one could say.
But they must have been terrified of whatever it was. The villagers had likely packed up and fled from their homes, leaving the sacrifices behind.
“What else could there be? It must be some sun god or something,” Jin-soo scoffed.
“Let’s put those thoughts aside and focus on finding food before those natives return.”
Tae-seong suggested, addressing the immediate problem.
“Right. Let’s all search the houses.”
Hyung-cheol agreed with Tae-seong. At this moment, finding sustenance was the priority.
They spread out, searching through the buildings for anything edible. The village was relatively small, only about thirty houses, so it wouldn’t take long to search.
Si-hyun moved alongside Eun-hye.
“Is that sweet potato?”
Eun-hye pointed out a sweet potato covered in dirt, lying in a corner of the floor.
“It looks like it. And next to it seems like taro,” Si-hyun observed, picking up something resembling a potato and nodding in agreement.
“Let’s take all of this with us.”
When Si-hyun and Eun-hye came out holding the sweet potatoes and taro, the others came out with their own findings. Some came out empty-handed, of course.
Mostly sweet potatoes, taros, and several unidentified fruits.
Tae-seong emerged with a bunch of long, root-like things. He explained they were cassava. South Koreans may be unfamiliar with it, but it was a famous native food in South America.
Fortuitously, someone even had a piece of fresh meat. It wasn’t salted, and it hadn’t been long since it was hunted, or else it wouldn’t be so fresh.
“Shouldn’t we leave quickly?” Si-hyun suggested.
If the villagers discovered their treasure trove was gone, they wouldn’t just sit idly by. They would go berserk and attack.
“Let’s get out of here. Quickly!” Hyung-cheol urged the group.
At that moment.
“Kyaaah!”
“Ukkkyyaaah!”
“Ehheek!”
Loud noises echoed from all directions.
Looking around in confusion, they saw a mob of monkeys surrounding the village.
They were bright red, white, blue… a riot of colors. The sudden appearance of dozens, if not hundreds, of monkeys—nearly a thousand—was an eerie spectacle. No one in this group had ever seen so many monkeys gathered in one place.
“What the hell are these monkeys?” Jin-soo exclaimed incredulously.
“What’s with these monkeys?”
“Why are they showing up in such numbers…?”
“Aren’t they monsters?”
“Damn it, do monkeys attack like an army or something?”
The humans started backing up toward the center where the altar was, forming a protective circle against the troop of monkeys.
“If they don’t move aside, we might not be able to get out.”
“Then we’ll have to break through.”
“Put down all the food behind us.”
With a cautious countenance, Hyung-cheol commanded. The others carefully placed their food on the ground behind them.
The monkeys showed no signs of aggression yet. They chattered playfully and eyed the group with curiosity.
But from the perspective of those trapped among the monkeys, even that seemed terrifying.
“Don’t attack recklessly,” Hyung-cheol warned.
If even one monkey was harmed, it could incite a thousand to storm them. They had no idea what level these beasts were at, nor did they even know if they were monsters.
Meanwhile, figuring out an escape route was their top priority.
“Wait? What is that?”
One monkey approached a Black Tiger Guild member, climbing onto his shoulder. It gazed at his face with wide eyes.
“…”
The Black Tiger Guild member held his breath, observing the monkey’s actions, silently pleading for it to just get down.
But the monkey took unexpected action.
“Craaak!”
Suddenly, it opened its mouth and bit the guild member’s ear.
“Gyaaaaah!”
Unable to endure the pain, the Black Tiger Guild member screamed as chunks of flesh fell from his ear.
“You crazy little brat!”
Fury ignited within him as he clenched his fist and struck the monkey’s belly.
Thwack!
With a sickening crack, something inside the monkey burst, and it fell to the ground, lifeless, its eyes wide open, never to rise again.
“Wahh!”
“Gyaaaaaah!”
“Krikkk!”
Suddenly, the monkeys erupted into chaos, screeching wildly, their eyes flashing with rage as they gazed at the humans.
“Let’s kill those monkeys!”
“Seeing that one drop in one hit, they must be weak. Let’s slaughter them all!”
“Filthy little things. I’ll rip out their eyeballs!”
As their companion fell, other Black Tiger Guild members flared up in anger, ready for a fight.
“… Si-hyun oppa.”
Eun-hye, being a wizard, felt that having such a number of monkeys swooping in was dangerous.
Si-hyun nodded, turning to Min-jun.
“Min-jun, if chaos breaks out, don’t stray from Eun-hye’s side.”
“Okay. Of course. You lead the front, and I’ll take the rear.”
Si-hyun tightened his grip on his longsword and prepared himself.
“Kyahh!”
As one monkey shrieked high-pitched, it was as if that sound triggered a collective attack from the surrounding monkeys, all of them charging like mad creatures.