Chapter 63

63. Cute Props

An hour had passed since they entered the cave zone.

Root was the first to tire. Perched on Cheon Dowoon's shoulder, Root couldn't withstand the dryness and gasped for breath.

"Uncle, here's the cream."

Kim Nari, perceptive as ever, opened the lid of the moisturizer and offered it. Cheon Dowoon scooped some out and applied it generously to Root.

As he applied it to the leaves and stem, Root's breathing became easier.

"Okay, go in now."

Cheon Dowoon held out the beaker filled with soil. Root gauged the distance to the beaker and then jumped with all its might.

The same phenomenon as in the Snowy Mountain lab. Root fell short of even half the distance to the target.

"It's doing it again."

Cheon Dowoon moved the beaker to where Root had fallen. Safely nestled inside, Root looked back at Cheon Dowoon, puffing out its chest.

-Hoo-oong!

Did you see my jump, helper? Cheon Dowoon laughed at the boastful air.

For a Mandragora with poor eyesight, that jump was the best it could do.

"Yeah, you jumped well. Now go in and sleep."

Cheon Dowoon gently tapped the leaves. Root closed its eyes, enjoying the touch, and only then burrowed into the soil, satisfied.

'I should give this guy a name. What would be good?'

He was pondering this, unable to think of anything right away, when his gaze stopped at the cave on the right.

He saw a faint cluster of Fluorescent Sap. Following the light, he turned inside and found a mushroom cluster completely covering a single stone pillar.

"Wow… Uncle, this is awesome. The whole pillar is glowing. It's so pretty."

"Yeah, I didn't expect it to grow on a pillar."

"So, we're going to… uh, put this on our house?"

Kim Nari was inwardly nervous as she spoke. Our house. Her heart fluttered as she spoke the simple phrase.

"That's right. We'll put it on the house."

Cheon Dowoon didn't deny the words "our house." Kim Nari fidgeted with her fingers at that. She wiggled her feet with joy.

"The house… our house is going to be so bright. It'll be pretty."

"It will be. The color is so vibrant, it'll be easy to see from far away. And at night, it'll glow with the fence, making it cozy."

Cheon Dowoon said as he picked the mushrooms. The 3-centimeter mushrooms were short and round, looking like small balls.

"How many should we pick?"

"Fill the bags. That should be enough."

They had brought a total of four bags. As they picked mushrooms together, the bags quickly filled up.

Cheon Dowoon closed the zipper on a bag. Kim Nari also closed her bag and slung the bulging backpacks over her shoulders.

"Uncle, where do we go now? I don't know the way back."

"I don't know the way either. We just have to go up."

"Up?"

Kim Nari looked up at the ceiling.

Arched stone pillars covered the ceiling. But the gaps between the pillars were large enough for a person to pass through.

Kim Nari examined a stone pillar and punched it. A loud noise echoed throughout the cave, but the pillar didn't budge.

"Ugh, ugh? It's hard. It won't break."

Kim Nari looked surprised. She had thought she could knock down the pillars and stack them up, but that plan was immediately scrapped.

Then should she climb up? Kim Nari touched a pillar. The surface was smooth like marble, with nothing to grab onto.

Then she would have to break off a piece to make a handhold. Kim Nari clenched her fist again. Seeing this, Cheon Dowoon quietly laughed.

"If you could get out that way, it wouldn't be considered a place to avoid. This stone is hard for even me to break, so don't waste your energy."

"You can't break it either, Uncle?"

"I can break it. But it's not efficient. This stone has a material that absorbs impact."

"Oh?"

"The strange thing is, if you bring other stones here, they change to be the same way."

Conversely, if you took a stone from here outside, it would lose its unique impact-absorbing properties.

"That's amazing. Why does that happen?"

"Who knows? Maybe it's a characteristic of this terrain."

Cheon Dowoon looked around.

"Also, in here, Awakened abilities sometimes don't work. Flight is a prime example."

Kim Nari looked puzzled. Listening to Cheon Dowoon, something felt strange.

"Uncle, that sounds like something… like…"

"Someone is intentionally preventing escape, right?"

Kim Nari nodded. The cave zone had so many overlapping unfavorable conditions that it was strangely impossible to escape once you entered.

"Not much has been revealed about the cave zone. It's so vast that even the Association has given up on reaching the center."

No one who went in to uncover the secrets ever returned. After that repeated for decades, everyone had given up on the area.

"You haven't gone all the way in either, Uncle?"

"I haven't. I tried to go out of curiosity once. But the caves just kept going on like a maze, so I got bored easily."

Cheon Dowoon looked up at the stone pillars. They were an average of 50 meters high. Roughly the height of a 15-story apartment building.

He handed Kim Nari the beaker containing Root.

As she took it, Cheon Dowoon hoisted Kim Nari onto his back and leaped upward. As he was about to fall, he pressed his palm against a stone pillar.

The suction ability that had made Yoo Ji-ah faint when he stuck to her bedroom window as a child.

The suction cups on his palm adhered perfectly to the smooth stone pillar. He pulled himself upward with one arm, climbing higher.

Reaching the top of the pillar, he looked around. From above, it looked like a series of giant stepping stones.

"The way we came is… that way."

They were still close to the outer edges, so they could see the surrounding fields and mountains.

Confirming the direction, Cheon Dowoon began to jump, stepping on the stone pillars like stepping stones. Kim Nari looked around at this.

"Is it okay to get out this easily?"

"It is."

"They said this was a place to avoid. I thought it would be more dangerous."

Cheon Dowoon laughed. In fact, the accumulated unfavorable conditions alone made it a treacherous area for Hunters.

"If you think about it, the high-altitude and volcanic zones are the same. There wasn't anything particularly dangerous there either, right?"

At Cheon Dowoon's words, Kim Nari's eyes widened. Now that she thought about it, those places they had already visited were also places to avoid designated by the Association.

She had been taught that the inside of a Gate was a desolate place, so she felt strange.

'I was taught that this place was scary.'

Because of this, she had braced herself for a lot when she escaped the lab and jumped into the Gate. She had said goodbye to her friends and thought she might die like this.

But it was different. This place was warm. It was comfortable. A place where she could laugh and sleep peacefully.

"Uncle, I think I did well to come here."

Her voice was small, but Cheon Dowoon heard it clearly. The corners of his mouth quietly turned up.

"Yeah. I like it here too."

He jumped down to the ground, having left the cave zone, and answered.

* * *

Arriving home, Cheon Dowoon put down the bags full of mushrooms. All that was left was to make the tools to extract the juice.

'First, I need to make a basin. Should I hollow out the center of a stone?'

He would put the mushrooms in there and crush them, then filter out the residue and throw it away. Cheon Dowoon searched for a rock suitable for making a basin and took it to the waterfall valley.

He gauged the size and then pressed his finger against the rock.

About a finger joint's worth of his finger sank into the rock. In that state, he drew a circle around it. Cheon Dowoon began to scrape out the inside.

It was a hard rock, but a hole was carved out as if he were scooping out tofu every time he moved his hand.

After making a huge basin, he put the stone basin in the valley water and washed it.

"This should be good enough."

Having created a stone tool in an instant, he took the basin back to the house. Kim Nari approached, peeking curiously as he set it down in front of the house.

"Did you make that, Uncle?"

"Yeah."

"That's awesome. It's like a big bowl. Do we put the mushrooms in here?"

"That's right. Dump them all in. And you can crush them with your feet, Kim Nari. I'll filter out the juice when it comes out."

At Cheon Dowoon's words, Kim Nari's face lit up. For young Kim Nari, this felt like a kind of game.

Kim Nari took off her shoes. She rolled up her pants and stepped into the basin.

"This feels fun."

The sensation of the round mushrooms being crushed was soft.

The marshmallow-like squishy feeling made her laugh. She stomped around excitedly, and green Fluorescent Sap filled the bottom.

"Uncle, look at this. My feet are fluorescent!"

"Yeah. You're doing great. Keep going like that."

Once they were crushed enough, he would filter out the residue. For that, he needed a strainer.

'For a strainer… I'll have to tear a piece of clothing.'

Cheon Dowoon went into the clothing room. He chose a sturdy-looking shirt made of cotton.

Tearing off the side of the shirt and unfolding it created a large cloth.

'This should do it.'

Returning to the yard, he put the mushrooms that Kim Nari had crushed into the cloth. He twisted it with force, and the juice it contained poured into the basin.

Repeating the process of removing the residue, the juice in the basin gradually became clearer.

"It looks like it's almost done. We can put it on the house."

Cheon Dowoon looked back at the house. It would be easier to work with a paintbrush, but if he didn't have one, he could just smear it on.

Cheon Dowoon looked at his hands, which were stained with Fluorescent Sap from squeezing the juice.

Since they were already stained, he would apply it with his hands. He stood in front of the log cabin for the final task.

* * *

B+-Class Hunter Nam Ki-seok. He was amazed at his own growth.

The time it took him to extract Magical energy used to be an average of three to four days. That was fast compared to others, and that time had recently been drastically reduced.

'Wow, what's this? It's only been a day and a half. I've already recovered enough to go into the Gate. Is this even possible?'

Even A-Class Hunters couldn't recover this quickly. Knowing that, Nam Ki-seok was excited. He had a really good feeling about this year's promotion exam.

'Amazing. Big Bro's training method is really good.'

This was why it was important to have a good teacher. Nam Ki-seok stroked the Fur hide clothes he was wearing and smiled.

"Alright, shall we go?"

Nam Ki-seok picked up the luggage he had prepared. This time, he had prepared a lot of things besides food.

Inside the box were camping lights. String lights to decorate by wrapping them around the walls or trees.

'I also bought a wind chime to hang on the window.'

A wind chime that made a clear ringing sound when the wind blew. He had paid attention to the design, choosing a glass bell shape.

He also bought several frames to hang on the outer walls. They were paintings by famous artists with vibrant flowers.

'Big Bro's house has a pretty scary atmosphere. I'll hang the frames on the outer walls to give it a fresh feeling.'

Especially the parts where the green liquid had dripped and hardened. He planned to hang the frames there to cover them up.

He even went to the trouble of custom-ordering waterproof frames so that rain wouldn't be a problem.

In addition, he bought several cute interior decorations.

Since it was an unusually shaped house anyway, he thought he would decorate it to give it a museum-like feel, taking advantage of its unique appearance.

'That way, the terrifying atmosphere will fade a bit.'

He broke the Return Stone and entered the Gate with the box. His heart fluttered at the thought of turning the hideous house into a livable home.

"Big Bro! I'm here. I've brought a lot of things this time! If you allow me, I'd like to… decorate… the house…"

Nam Ki-seok's voice gradually faded. He froze at the sight of the house, which looked like it was undergoing interior construction.

"Oh? It's Uncle Nam Ki-seok!"

Kim Nari, who was stomping on mushrooms in the stone basin, waved at Nam Ki-seok.

Nam Ki-seok couldn't answer. His gaze was fixed on the house that Cheon Dowoon was working on, and he couldn't move.

Fluorescent handprints were stamped everywhere on the walls. Hundreds of them were stamped on the walls. Traces that looked like they had been drawn straight down created an eerie feeling.

If it had been red instead of fluorescent, it would have looked like the scene of a mass murder.

'No, it's even more bizarre because it's fluorescent.'

The alien blood he had seen in a movie definitely felt like that. Nam Ki-seok recalled a movie he had seen sometime and broke out in a cold sweat.

The house of horror that could have been in a horror movie had been upgraded to a sci-fi horror movie house.

Now, not only ghosts but also aliens seemed like they would be crawling on the ceiling of the house.

"Ah. Th-that… Big Bro. Th-that…"

He was wrong. It was scary. He didn't want to go in. Could he really fix that house?

Nam Ki-seok dropped the box he had brought in his dazed state. The cute props inside rolled out powerlessly.