Chapter 179
Meanwhile, at that same moment...
The group Leon had brought into Suhyeok's inner world...
"H-Huff... huff...."
"Let's... let's rest for a moment...."
"At this rate, we're all going to d-die...."
"J-Just a little break...."
"Seriously, just a little...."
Every single one of them was sprawled across the ground, drenched in sweat and struggling to catch their breath.
Aside from Bong Taesu, Lee Yumi, Kim Hyuna, and Cheon Sohee...
Everyone else had already completely retired from training.
And standing among them without the slightest sign of exhaustion...
Was the Demon God.
A wooden sword rested casually on his shoulder.
He yawned with an utterly bored expression.
"Yawn."
"I didn't expect all of you to collapse from something this trivial."
"It hasn't even been a full day."
"And you're already lying around like this?"
He looked down at them.
"I believe I told you earlier."
"I won't stop until at least one of you lands a proper hit on me."
Cheon Sohee let out an incredulous laugh.
"Hah."
"This makes twice now."
"This is only the second time this lady has felt such overwhelming helplessness."
She narrowed her eyes at him.
"What kind of monster are you...?"
Kim Hyuna agreed.
"Seriously...."
"I can't see a single opening."
"It almost feels harder to fight you than the Dragon of the End."
At her words, the Demon God pointed toward Leon.
The cat was relaxing outside the training ground.
"If not for that cat bastard's request, I wouldn't even be wasting my time training you lot."
"Still..."
"If you're going to remain like this for all six remaining days..."
"You'd be better off giving up now."
"The Constellations you'll have to face will be even harder."
Then he smirked.
"Though if it were me..."
"I'd be too pissed off to stay down."
"Look at that cat."
Everyone turned toward Leon.
Leon was lying comfortably across Seon-a's lap.
He was eating Churu.
On top of that...
She was even brushing his fur.
The Demon God clicked his tongue.
"You can look at that and still lie there resting?"
"If the bastard who dragged me all the way here was lounging around like that..."
"I'd get back up from sheer anger."
Leon flinched.
He turned his head away and pretended not to notice.
But somehow...
That only worked better as motivation.
Not just the four who had remained conscious...
Even the people who had already retired began slowly pushing themselves back up.
"That fat-cat bastard...."
"So he's just going to sit there comfortably by himself?"
"Just wait until this is over."
"I'll show him."
"Seriously."
"He's the only one relaxing...."
Kim Hyuna pushed herself upright.
"It's been a while since my competitive spirit got this fired up."
Everyone rose while glaring at Leon, who alone had chosen every possible way to irritate them.
Their eyes...
Which had been dull after being beaten helplessly...
Began burning again.
Seeing that...
The Demon God grinned in satisfaction.
"Kuhahaha!"
"Good."
"That's the spirit."
"In that case..."
"Let's double the intensity."
"No breaks."
The entire training ground soon filled with screams.
And everyone...
Without discrimination...
Was beaten relentlessly.
Meanwhile...
"Wh-What is this...?"
Selien and Balk couldn't believe what they were seeing.
Especially Selien.
Even though her mind understood that this wasn't an illusion...
She simply couldn't accept it.
"Impossible...."
Branches stretched high above her head.
And from those branches...
Fruit hung in abundance.
"Whoa..."
"Look at that."
"Those fruits look even bigger and tastier than the ones on Selien's house."
"Seriously."
"They even look fresher."
"Then I guess they don't have to fight anymore!"
"Haha!"
The other villagers were simply delighted that the cause of the argument had disappeared.
Of course...
Even to them, the sight was unbelievable.
But the fact that a problem that had been giving everyone headaches was finally gone mattered more.
Selien, however...
Was different.
Because unlike the others...
She knew the true value of those fruits.
When she'd first settled here...
She'd built her home in the form of a tree.
Caring for trees and loving nature was an instinctive trait of her race.
But she had another purpose as well.
The fruits that grew from her tree.
More specifically...
The life energy contained within them.
Before moving here...
The forest Selien had lived in had lost all of its life energy after the World Tree died long ago.
Eventually...
The entire forest became barren.
They could no longer cultivate it.
Not even normal grass survived.
It became a land where no one could live.
Of course...
Later, news spread that a new World Tree had been born.
It hadn't even taken on the full form of a tree yet.
But a World Tree was still a World Tree.
The immense life energy overflowing from it caused dried-up forests nearby to rapidly recover.
Because of that...
Elves from everywhere began abandoning their old forests and gathering around it.
Selien's village had been no different.
The forest where the World Tree stood is incomparable to this one in size.
And they've agreed to accept all of us there.
Let's leave immediately!
This land is no longer somewhere Elves can live.
Its life energy is completely gone.
Even if the forest eventually recovers, it would take hundreds of years.
We need to go to the World Tree.
There had been almost nothing to prepare.
All they had to do was leave.
Everyone abandoned the forest and began migrating.
But Selien didn't want to.
Just because there was a World Tree somewhere else...
Just because another place would be more comfortable...
She didn't want to abandon the forest where she'd lived.
So she stayed behind alone.
She researched ways to restore life energy.
Two or three months passed.
...Is there really no way?
No matter how much life energy I draw in...
It's nowhere near enough to revive the entire forest.
And finding something capable of replacing the World Tree is almost impossible.
She had confidently remained behind and continued her research...
But reality was harsh.
Even if she tried something immediately, she had no method.
And since no one had ever succeeded at such a thing before...
It clearly wasn't something she could solve quickly.
Then one day...
A message appeared.
An invitation from Peridot asking whether she wanted to migrate to the 25th floor.
At the time...
Selien had gone so long without eating that her condition was terrible.
She accidentally accepted.
