Chapter 181. Poison of the Rotten Root
“If anyone has a guess as to why the Fanatics have been so quiet lately, please raise your hand and present your answer.”
The thought suddenly occurred to me while we were at a construction site, clearing a mountain road that had been reduced to ash by fire and laying a proper road over it.
“Me! Me! Me!”
“Mm. Son, go ahead.”
“They’re all dead! Grandpa Aro is running around everywhere trying to find and kill them!”
“That’s not it.”
It was true that Grandpa Aro was running around all over the place.
But he hadn’t achieved any particularly notable results.
And honestly, that was understandable.
After receiving half of the arena and growing even more influential, Duke Soundia had entered an increasingly fierce factional struggle.
Grandpa Aro was indispensable there.
And one after another, threats with the power to endanger the Empire had begun appearing much closer than the absolute evil called the Fanatics.
For example...
The enormous guilds formed by players.
Or Karantlia, which had risen rapidly and begun negotiating with both the Empire and the Alliance again.
With Great Demon Kings making their full appearance, even Great Heroes who had been hiding were beginning to emerge.
It couldn’t possibly be easy for Grandpa Aro to leave his position for long.
The entire continent had become a mess.
The strongest person always had to remain a pillar shining in place.
And even in the middle of all that, Grandpa Aro still ran around the entire continent as though he had three or four bodies, creating new legends everywhere.
All that did was remind me what a monster he still was.
Seriously, how old are you?
Why are you still more active than people who are actually in their prime?!
“They are most likely waiting for the proper time.”
The Village Chief spoke calmly.
“During the destruction of the Mu Kingdom, the Fanatics lost many of their Roots as well, did they not?”
“Mm! That’s true!”
Besides the Roots, the Fruit, which seemed likely to play a major role within the Fanatics, was also missing.
From the Fanatics’ perspective, keeping a low profile was probably the wise thing to do.
But people capable of that kind of wise decision destroyed the Mu Kingdom like that?
I couldn’t understand this sudden silence following such an outrageous act.
The calm before the storm?
Was this one of those natural disasters you couldn’t stop even if you knew it was coming?
“They looked like a fuse that had just been lit and was about to explode, so the fact that they’re this quiet makes me nervous.”
There had to be a reason.
I just couldn’t figure out what that reason was.
It would be nice if someone gave me even a tiny hint.
Of course, there was no way they would make things that easy.
“At this rate, they’ll suddenly pop out like a pimple.”
Pie answered.
“A pimple would be better.”
“They’re more like a tumor you suddenly discover one day.”
I nodded.
“That’s accurate.”
[Jjikjjiki: Master!]
Jjikjjiki, who was still staying in the Abandoned District, contacted me with an unusually excited voice.
Since Jjikjjiki handled most matters involving the rats...
Had something good happened to one of the Holy Knights?
[Jjikjjiki: We found a clue regarding the Fruit...!]
“Oh! Really?!”
The Fruit!
The one we suspected, with a high probability, might be Pie’s separated half!
The one deeply connected to the Fanatics!
If we caught it, Pie’s hazy memories regarding the Fanatics might start returning.
This was extremely important.
[Jjikjjiki: I will immediately send Eye to guide you. It appears a monster possessing Demon King-level power is waiting at the location, so please be careful...!]
The ball-jointed Eye doll I had seen before popped out of my shadow and lightly landed on my shoulder.
“I will guide you to the destination.”
She bowed.
“I need to connect you with one of my Eyes. Is that all right?”
“Yeah.”
For a moment, my vision filled with static.
Then it quickly returned to normal.
Now I was seeing a place covered in signs of battle.
What an interesting ability.
Thick black smoke made it difficult to see the surroundings clearly, but I could make out the silhouette of some twisted monster.
“It’s not that far.”
I looked around.
The Village Chief and Pie were with me.
Modak and Jayeon were basically always with me, and even if they weren’t visible, I could summon them.
I wished Aien and Mallyangi were here.
But we had just found a clue connected to the Fanatics, who could disappear somewhere at any moment.
I couldn’t hesitate.
If I were alone, I would have gathered the kids first.
But for now, I told Eye to contact everyone while we headed there with our current party.
“It could be a trap, so I’m leaving all the Holy Knights behind.”
I looked toward the doll.
“It’d be a problem if we took too many casualties!”
Then I called out—
“Jjikjjiki! If something serious happens to me, you command everyone in my place for a while!”
[Jjikjjiki: Yes! Gladly!]
“Good!”
I took a deep breath.
“Flying Fish!!”
[An imitation Lion’s Roar resounds! The cursed Magic Bullet Fish that splits heaven and earth races toward the Adventurer’s powerful call with even greater enthusiasm than usual!]
The air tore apart.
Flying Fish descended low enough for us to board.
Hands extending from his wings grabbed us, and we immediately shot toward our destination.
It placed quite a bit of strain on the body.
But this was urgent.
I could endure that much.
We had to cross one mountain.
I vaguely remembered there originally being a small village there.
Now, for some reason, the whole place had been wrecked.
Only thick black smoke rose into the air.
We arrived and landed in an instant.
Without Flying Fish, even the kids would need at least an hour to reach us, no matter how fast they moved.
[The power of Misfortune that interferes with fate rushes toward the Adventurer!]
[You resist the aura of Misfortune through your extraordinary resistance!]
[The unlock condition for the Achievement ‘May All the Bad Things Fly Away~!’ has been met!]
[Resist status abnormalities! 1 / 1000]
The power of Misfortune?
It interferes with fate?
What kind of insane description was that?
My resistance stat was displayed as 999+@ by now, so I was fine.
But the Village Chief and Pie were different.
I immediately grabbed the two of them and pulled them close.
Then I sent Flying Fish away.
I needed them nearby if I wanted to protect them.
[That beautiful heart that cherishes your companions...! The unlock condition for the Achievement ‘Protector’ has—]
“Hey! You’re distracting me! Stop pretending to be a game!”
I shoved the noisy system messages aside and unleashed Lion’s Roar with everything I had.
The shockwave spread outward.
It seemed to harden the shaken hearts of Pie and the Village Chief a little.
Pie looked genuinely confused.
“What was that just now...?”
Was the power really absurd enough to make even Pie react like that?
Was it something similar to an instant-kill effect that ignored level and defense?
Misfortune.
Power that interfered with fate.
Wait.
Misfortune?
Mind Power?
A Great Demon King?!
“You’ve got to be kidding me.... No wonder I couldn’t read its Flow...!”
When an existence was too powerful and enormous, its Flow could actually become impossible to fully see because it was too strong.
Grandpa Aro was like that.
You could stop water bursting from a faucet with your hand.
You couldn’t stop water bursting from a dam.
Damn it.
Had I been too reckless because this involved the Fanatics?
Still...
If I let these bastards escape after finally finding them, especially when they hadn’t shown themselves lately, I’d regret it.
First....
[The necklaces containing the Adventurer’s power have been placed around your companions’ necks! They are temporarily freed from the power of Misfortune!]
“Hah! This is exactly why you stack resistance!”
After confirming Pie and the Village Chief were ready, I cleared away the seemingly endless smoke.
There was something ahead of us.
Something so powerful that even my eyes couldn’t grasp its Flow.
“Ah... Ah...?”
Pie frowned.
“That looks disgusting.”
Broken pieces of human bodies were embedded between pitch-black vines dripping with black fluid.
Had it eaten everyone in the village?
The sheer size of the thing and the countless human remains stuck inside it were enough to make my skin crawl, resistance or not.
[The Rotten Root they cut away.]
[A weak, thin, short Root incapable of supporting the Tree.]
The lively system text, which only changed like this during truly serious situations, vanished.
Instead, unpleasant sentences began filling the system window one after another.
What was this revolting feeling?
The aura was definitely familiar to me.
Yet it also felt incomprehensible.
Yes.
I knew this feeling.
It was definitely....
“...Chaos...!”
[...Ah, so this is how it works? As expected, you’ve always been quick on the uptake.]
This bastard....
No, what the hell had this guy done to interfere with the game system itself?
Right.
He had hijacked Kim Inbang’s stream before too.
[That is a Rotten Root! Slaughter it brutally! Tear it apart! Burn and melt it! Cut it until blood flows!]
[Hayangi: What a disgusting bastard! The worst part is how he keeps trying to seep inside! Is this guy Chaos?]
“Pie, focus on defense instead of attacking.”
I turned to the Village Chief.
“Village Chief, focus on obstructing its vision too.”
“Don’t do anything too flashy. Make it focus on me as much as possible.”
Then—
“Jayeon!”
“Father! That monster is—!”
“Later.”
I cut her off.
“It can’t escape anyway.”
Chaos was here.
The Chaos that even Grandpa Aro had personally hunted down but failed to catch.
If Chaos was involved, escaping from this place probably wasn’t an option.
Tsk.
I’d been having too much success lately.
My sense of caution had completely died.
I made a mistake.
I summoned some rats and ordered them to protect Jayeon and Pie.
Then I handed Pie the Ring of Twisted Affection.
It was insurance.
The ring’s ability to detonate souls was perfect for instantly confusing the enemy and escaping if something went wrong.
[The Rotten Root reveals deep hatred toward you! Deep hatred! What shamelessness! Madness, this is a being deserving of your divine punishment! A pitiful existence in need of the Adventurer’s salvation! Divine punishment! Destruction... the end of this world! Show him its beginning! Grant him... peace!]
So damn noisy.
“Salvation, peace, whatever.”
I rolled my shoulders.
“Killing monsters is the most basic rule of a game.”
“Father!”
Jayeon almost never called me like that with this kind of urgency.
I glanced back.
She was staring at the monster with a confused expression.
“I can feel the same energy inside that monster as yours, Father....”
“...Mine?”
[Hayangi: Madness.]
Her voice became serious.
[Hayangi: But not mine. It is the Madness you imitated and released after I left you. There is very little of it, but it is definitely inside that thing.]
Then...
Had I met this guy before?
