Accomplices
"I can't eat anymore."
As if making a declaration, the priestess and the sky squirrel flopped down onto the dirt floor. To Woojin, their reaction was rather difficult to understand.
"Why leave something like this behind?"
The drake's inner core.
It was inferior to the Hydra's, but acquiring a core of this level was no easy task. A nourishing treasure people would devour if only they had the chance.
And yet they were giving up halfway through. Honestly, it sounded like the complaint of someone who had eaten too well. At his remark, the priestess replied without getting up.
"I really am full."
"…Well, that's true."
He had chosen the wrong words.
Having nothing more to say, Woojin let out an awkward laugh and continued eating. Seeing his persistence, the priestess added in a tone almost like an excuse:
"It's a waste to leave such a precious core… but eating more here wouldn't mean much."
Consuming an inner core and absorbing the energy within it were two separate matters.
Just as some people remain thin no matter how much they eat, a being with a small "vessel" struggles to inherit power, no matter how valuable the core consumed.
Pouring water into an already full container is futile. Since the priestess and the squirrel had ingested several powerful cores in a short time, further consumption would yield little meaningful benefit.
That made the priestess curious instead.
"Sir Jin, you've consumed an enormous number of inner cores. Can you really absorb all of it?"
Woojin thought for a moment before answering.
"Not sure… maybe? It feels like the more I eat, the stronger I get. So I've always scraped every last bit clean."
It had always been that way.
The priestess blinked.
"…Are you saying your vessel is infinite?"
"No way."
I'm not some kind of monster.
Muttering that, Woojin finished off the rest of the core. Soon after, drowsiness washed over him. Perhaps from all the exertion throughout the day, fatigue finally caught up.
He lay down as well.
"Let's spend the night in this cave. Once we've recovered, we'll move again."
"Yes."
They all drifted off to sleep.
Before long, Woojin and the squirrel were breathing steadily in deep slumber. As the priestess listened to their rhythmic breaths, preparing to sleep herself—
'…Couldn't I just run away right now?'
The thought came belatedly.
Everyone was asleep. If she fled now, she would be free. But she felt no motivation to do so. In a single day, she had lost everything—and committed sacrilege besides.
The priestess yawned lazily.
'Ah, whatever… it'll work out somehow.'
She was too tired to think further. Closing her eyes, she surrendered to the exhaustion.
***
The next day.
Woojin stirred awake and sat up, brushing off the lingering haze of sleep. He kneaded the back of his neck to shake it off.
'…It's been a while since I dreamed.'
It was to be expected. He had consumed several inner cores belonging to dark-side clerics.
The high priest. Unit 1. And the other miscellaneous ones.
The problem was that having eaten multiple cores made the dream chaotic. He became one person, then another. At times he saw conversations from both participants' perspectives simultaneously.
A jumbled mess, like different-colored clays mashed together. Woojin briefly tried to reconstruct it, then gave up.
'They were all low-ranking. No useful information. Just a headache.'
Pointless.
With that thought, he looked around. The sky squirrel was still fast asleep, and the priestess sat by the fire, nodding off.
It seemed she had stayed up to ensure the campfire didn't go out. Woojin rose to lend a hand.
As he approached, she sensed his presence and lifted her head.
"Good morning."
She said it with a yawn. Sitting across from her, Woojin asked:
"How long was I out?"
"It's noon now… so about fourteen hours, I think."
"Really?"
Earlier than he expected.
He had used lightning repeatedly while hunting the Hydra. He had anticipated at least four days to recover from the backlash, yet his body was almost fully restored in a single day.
It seemed he had inherited the Hydra's regenerative ability, accelerating his recovery.
'Better than expected. The strain from using thunderbolts feels significantly lighter.'
At this rate, they could depart immediately.
After a simple meal of jerky, they resumed their journey north, exchanging idle chatter along the way.
Two days later—
As usual, Woojin climbed a tree to scout the surroundings.
That was when he spotted unfamiliar beings.
Three bulls walking upright on two legs.
They were enormous—at least four meters tall. Boulder-like trapezius muscles bulged above their broad shoulders.
As if that weren't threatening enough, each one carried a massive double-bladed axe. With every swing, two or three trees were uprooted.
The axe blades gleamed ominously.
'…Looks like steel.'
Likely an alloy of frost steel and ordinary iron. Custom-made weapons suited to bulls. They even wore shorts and gold necklaces around their necks.
Too worldly to be mere natives of the Demon Realm.
'Sneaking past them won't be easy.'
The bulls had felled nearly all the surrounding trees. The fallen trunks lay piled together like a beaver dam, forming a barricade.
To continue north, they would inevitably have to confront them.
'I should ask for advice.'
Descending from the tree, Woojin explained what he had seen to the priestess.
"There are bulls clearing the forest. Strangely enough, they're dressed like people and using steel tools."
"Really?"
As if something came to mind, the priestess responded without hesitation.
"They're probably wardens from a farm."
A farm.
A faction Woojin had learned about through the memories of Dark-Side Cleric Unit 308. He already had a rough idea what that meant.
A place where cows, pigs, chickens, and other animals were raised as livestock—along with crops. That was what people commonly called a farm.
This farm was not so different in structure.
Only its essence had been twisted.
'A place where the status of humans and beasts has been reversed.'
The power of the Demon Realm overturns all things.
After the gate at the northern ruins opened, some beasts corrupted by karma gained intelligence comparable to humans. That was how the Noll and Naga tribes were born.
Strangely, the same phenomenon occurred at several farms in the north. Bulls, pigs, sheep, chickens—livestock that accepted karma were reborn as powerful, intelligent beings.
And what these reborn beasts chose to do was settle the resentment accumulated over long years.
They captured nearby humans, confined them in farms, and turned them into livestock—just as humans had once done to them.
Those bulls were, in essence, shepherds.
"Just as humans protect sheep from wolves, the bull-type magical beast, the Tauros, usually protects humans from other monsters."
"Then why are they doing that here?"
"I'm not sure…"
The priestess paused before continuing.
"…I have a bad feeling about this."
"Why?"
"Tauros are extremely powerful, but they hate leaving the farm."
Tauros normally avoided activities outside. For creatures like that to come all the way out here and engage in logging work was strange.
Why were they here? The only way to find out was to communicate with them directly.
"How do you talk to a bull monster? Do I need to learn some kind of sign language?"
"No. It's not that complicated. They can speak human language."
"Really?"
Tauros not only used clothes and tools, but could also speak human language.
It wasn't that surprising. In the memories of Unit 308, he had seen a pig that talked—wearing a monocle like a gentleman, fluently speaking the human tongue.
So conversation was possible.
"Shall we try talking to them?"
The Farm was an allied faction of the dark-side clerics.
The two groups traded frequently and shared the same language. An alliance forming between them was as natural as a man and woman meeting.
And the priestess was a high-ranking cleric. If she approached the bulls and initiated conversation, extracting information should be simple.
At least, that was the plan.
But her reaction was unexpectedly negative.
"It's dangerous. They enjoy eating humans. The moment they see us, they'll charge with their eyes rolled back."
Woojin frowned.
"Why? They're your allies."
"By that logic, the high priest was my subordinate."
"…Fair point."
Hard to argue with that.
She had nearly been killed by a blade from one of her own. If humans betrayed each other without hesitation, what about different species?
They would need another method.
"Then we capture one alive and interrogate it."
Woojin muttered as if to himself. The priestess looked uneasy.
"Wouldn't it be better to detour? There are three powerful enemies…"
"It's fine. We're three too."
Each of them could handle one.
The priestess blinked.
"…I'm fighting too?"
"What, you plan to just sit and watch? You've eaten plenty of precious inner cores. Time to earn your keep."
Woojin spoke as if it were obvious.
She tried to object, but nothing appropriate came to mind. It was true—she had consumed several valuable cores.
'…I should've just run away.'
Too late for regrets.
***
There were three enemies. Each could take one.
A three-on-three duel.
…That was what he said, but he had no intention of charging in like an idiot. It was just something he'd thrown out casually.
"This should be enough, right?"
Woojin asked for confirmation.
He was now wearing an iron mask and a full-body robe. The priestess circled him, inspecting his appearance, then nodded.
"Yes. No matter how I look at it, you seem like one of us."
"Good."
Time to proceed with the plan.
After telling the priestess and the squirrel to wait, Woojin walked alone toward the forest. His role was envoy—and bait.
'Initiate conversation. Gauge their reaction.'
What the Tauros did next would determine everything.
As he approached, the sounds of chopping grew louder. The Tauros were scattered, simultaneously clearing three sections of the forest.
One bull swung its axe, felling nearby trees. Perhaps it had grown hungry; it picked up a freshly cut young tree and began chewing it.
Crunch, crack—
It chewed the wood like cud, swallowing it down. Black sap dribbled from its lips as its square jaw moved.
Woojin spoke.
"May I have a moment of your time?"
"…Grork?"
The bull turned at the sound of his voice, staring intently at him.
Woojin continued.
"Are you busy?"
…
The bull didn't answer.
But it moved.
It strode toward him, dragging its massive double-bladed axe along the ground, carving a long line in the dirt.
Its eyes gleamed thickly.
The intent in them was unmistakable.
'It wants to eat me.'
The priestess had been right.
Having confirmed that, Woojin immediately turned and ran.
Thud, thud, thud!
Heavy footsteps thundered behind him. The bull charged. The distance closed at a frightening pace.
He would be caught.
Sensing it, Woojin abruptly veered sideways. The bull twisted its head to follow, but its massive, heavy body made turning slow.
However, it still had its axe.
With a motion like swatting a fly, it brought the weapon down with full force.
BOOOOM!!
A terrifying crash. Dust billowed into the air.
Certain it had crushed its prey, the bull soon saw Woojin burst through the cloud and sprint away.
The blade had narrowly missed.
Enraged, the bull bellowed.
"MOOOOOO—!"
The chase resumed.
If it had called its companions from the start, catching Woojin would've been easier. But it had no intention of sharing its freshly discovered snack.
…That greed was its fatal mistake.
Piiing—!
A streak of silver light flew in from somewhere, slashing across the bull's eyes.
Blinded by sudden pain, it halted involuntarily.
At the same time, the squirrel appeared from behind. Woojin charged straight at it.
Slice—! Slash!
Two cutting sounds rang out almost simultaneously. Woojin swung his blade; the squirrel lashed with its tail.
Both of the bull's ankles were severed.
Its enormous body tilted helplessly.
THUD!
The bull crashed onto the ground.
The priestess rushed in.
Grabbing the bull's nose firmly with both hands, pink particles began to pour from within her sleeves.
A wave of seduction pheromones engulfed it.
The bull's eyes lost focus, growing hazy.
"Grr… rr…"
It muttered like someone talking in its sleep, drool spilling from its mouth. The Tauros, struck by the pheromones, was half-conscious.
Seeing that, Woojin smiled in satisfaction.
"Nice work. You're an accomplice now."
"H-ha…"
One more companion had joined the crime.
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