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◈ Ophidian of the Immortal World ◈

Chapter 6: Death of an Immortal

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The trust built between them, combined with Cheongo's hatred for the "nasty frog," led Cheongo to reveal things they had never spoken of before.

It had all begun with that "Immortal."

No one knew who the Immortal was or where they had come from.

The beasts that had gained Spiritual Intelligence through the Immortal all called them the "Immortal" and revered them.

That was why every beast wept bitterly when the Immortal died.

But feelings did not last forever.

Especially when immense, visible gains fell right before one's eyes.

"The world changed the moment the Immortal breathed their last." That was how Cheongo described it.

The wind had howled, and all kinds of strange, powerful auras had spread through the land.

The sky darkened, grass and trees grew, and streams of every size appeared and vanished.

When Cheongo came to amid those enormous changes, the whole area had become mountains.

"You're saying... this place wasn't originally mountainous?"

Jegyeong could not believe it. He had thought he had opened his mind as much as possible, yet another story had completely shaken his reason and common sense.

A person died, and mountains that had not existed before appeared?

"Yeah. Um... no. There were mountains here and there before too. But they were small. After the Immortal died, the mountains grew bigger and merged together."

The low hills had become a vast mountain range like this one.

It was a little easier to accept than the first explanation, but still difficult to believe.

'Was that person really an Immortal?'

Until now, Jegyeong had only half believed Cheongo's stories.

Cheongo probably was not making everything up, but there had to be quite a bit of exaggeration mixed in.

The title "Immortal" was no exception.

Jegyeong had thought the person was certainly impressive, but perhaps only an appropriately impressive superhuman...

While Jegyeong struggled to process it all, Cheongo continued.

Not long after the Immortal died, a nasty wolf swallowed the Immortal's corpse whole.

The wolf's body burst apart, and blood and chunks of flesh scattered in every direction.

At the same time, lightning began striking from the sky, and torrential rain poured down.

The terrified beasts screamed and fled.

Cheongo hid in a nearby tree hollow and trembled.

How much time passed after that?

A few beasts that had either forgotten their fear or overcome it approached the Immortal's flesh and blood.

The moment they cautiously swallowed some, most of them burst apart and died like the wolf.

Only a small handful escaped that miserable fate, but all of them went mad and changed into grotesque forms.

In Cheongo's words, they had become monsters.

The beasts that became monsters were incredibly strong, but vicious.

They harmed other beasts for no reason.

Dozens, then hundreds, of beasts that would normally have had nothing to do with one another joined forces to survive.

In the end, the vicious monsters were hunted down.

Once the hunt was over, the surviving beasts ate the monsters they had killed.

This time, none of them burst apart and died.

Still, they all went mad, or, if they did not, became terribly ferocious.

They met the same end as the monsters they had hunted and devoured.

Then similar events repeated.

Again and again.

At first, it had been a fight for survival.

At some point, it turned into a struggle for power.

Everyone had realized that the madness left behind by the Immortal's remains had weakened enough to be endured, more or less.

Beasts had never been known for patience.

Once greed overcame fear, they all lost their minds.

Cheongo had not dared join that frenzied slaughter and had only watched quietly.

Rather than waiting for an opportunity, a lingering hope had kept Cheongo there.

Cheongo explained it differently, but that was how Jegyeong understood it.

'Greed isn't exclusive to humans.'

In any case, Cheongo's lingering hope and patience were eventually rewarded.

One day, a beast Cheongo had been watching closely bit several enemies to death, then hid while covered in wounds.

It successfully escaped its enemies' notice, but did not know that a small bird was watching from afar.

The beast had hidden somewhere no one would find it to treat its wounds, but it underestimated how deep they were.

In the end, it vomited blood and died in the place where it had hidden to recover.

Its blood splashed into a nearby puddle, and the small puddle soon became a small pond.

Watching from a distance, Cheongo's heart pounded.

Cheongo wanted to fly over at once, tear into and eat the beast's corpse, and drink from the pond.

But fear stopped Cheongo from taking flight.

What if another creature was nearby?

I'm so small. What if my body bursts apart, or I go mad?

One what-if led to another.

As Cheongo wavered, the colorless pond gradually turned red.

Then a frog appeared from somewhere.

As if bewitched, the frog approached the pond.

Only then did Cheongo flap their wings in regret, but it was already too late.

Even at a glance, the frog approaching the pond was no ordinary frog.

It was not an opponent a small bird whose only talent was flying could handle.

Cheongo had no choice but to give up and watch in frustrated agitation as the frog reached the pond.

More precisely, it stopped in front of the pond.

The frog leaned forward as if it wanted to enter, but did not take another step.

Cheongo could sense fear and hesitation in that hesitant posture.

After a while, the pond, red as blood, began to bubble. Its color slowly started to fade.

Then a tiny Lotus bud emerged from within the boiling pond.

The frog standing before the pond and Cheongo watching from afar could not take their eyes off the Lotus the moment they saw it.

By instinct, they knew it would benefit them.

Cheongo waited with bloodshot eyes, hoping the frog might give up or be forced to leave because of some urgent matter.

But cruelly, the frog did not move, as though it had become a stone statue.

It did not enter the pond, but it did not leave either.

It was waiting.

Waiting for the Lotus to bloom completely.

When he heard this much, Jegyeong remembered something he had briefly forgotten.

"Wait. When was this? When you couldn't stand it anymore and left?"

"Huh? I don't know."

Jegyeong felt stifled.

He had first met Cheongo roughly two months ago, so it had been at least two months. It might have been much longer.

"By now, that frog has probably eaten the Lotus and drunk all the pond water too."

Jegyeong spoke curtly, disappointed, and Cheongo shrieked that there was no way that had happened.

"The Lotus hasn't bloomed yet! I go check every day!"

Cheongo went to check every day?

Jegyeong raised his upper body.

His fading enthusiasm flared back to life.

He had thought Cheongo disappeared to sleep somewhere safe, but apparently Cheongo had been going to watch the Lotus.

No, more importantly, at least two months had passed and it still had not fully bloomed? Was that normal?

'No. It isn't.'

He was trying to understand this world with the common sense of his previous life again.

When would he finally get rid of that bad habit?

"That frog is still guarding it?"

"Yeah."

"How does it eat and sleep?"

"It does everything there. There are fish in the pond."

So the puddle had become a pond, and fish had even appeared inside it?

It truly was strange.

There were not any monsters besides fish in there, were there?

'What should I do?'

In truth, he had already made up his mind.

He was only thinking it over one more time, wondering whether this was really right and whether he might be making a mistake.

This was clearly a dangerous gamble.

There was no guarantee that the treasure chest waiting at the end would contain a worthwhile reward.

The danger, on the other hand, definitely existed, even if he did not know how dangerous it would be.

The old him would never have taken such a risk.

Sssrrrk-

Jegyeong moved his stiff body.

Then he noticed the enormous shadow cast beneath the tree.

If he had not known it was his own shadow, he would have thought it was a monster.

"That frog... is it strong?"

"I don't know. Probably... strong."

"Is that so?"

He had really hoped for an answer like, "No," or, "Not as strong as you."

Well, it was fine.

Jegyeong suddenly recalled a phrase that had left an impression on him in his previous life.

"A ship is safest in harbor, but that isn't what ships are made for," or something like that.

Unless he planned to stay deep inland for the rest of his life, now that he had already come close enough to smell the sea breeze, he had no choice but to board a ship and sail out to sea.

When he thought about it, this was not very different from what he had done so far.

It was all for survival.

He filled his stomach to survive, and he sought strength to survive.

That thought put him at ease.

The tension remained, but the unease vanished.

Determination took its place.

"Guide me."

"Huh?"

"Don't play dumb. I know you're clever. You let that slip on purpose because you wanted to use me."

Over the two months they had hunted and spent time together, Jegyeong had gained a rough understanding of Cheongo.

Cheongo was like a coin.

One side was innocence. The other was cunning.

Those two qualities, which seemed like they should not fit together, coexisted within the little bird.

"I didn't have bad thoughts!"

"Don't make excuses. I don't think it's bad. It's natural. There's nothing new about it. We've been doing this all along, haven't we?"

"Huh?"

"Think about it. This is just another hunt. The prey is only a little more dangerous."

Cheongo hesitated before speaking.

"Then... then what about the Lotus?"

"We'll divide it fairly."

"There's only one."

"It'll have several petals, won't it?"

It was as if an exclamation mark had appeared above Cheongo's head.

Light returned to those uncertain eyes.

"Okay! Okay! Are we going now? Right now?"

"Calm down."

Jegyeong calmed Cheongo, whose enthusiasm had suddenly exploded.

He also wanted to leave at once, but he was still thinking clearly.

He had only just finished Molting.

Even though strength seemed to be overflowing through his body, he was clearly not in perfect condition.

"You went yesterday too, right?"

"Yeah."

"How was it? Did the Lotus look like it would bloom right away?"

Cheongo immediately nodded, then seemed to think for a moment before shaking their head again.

"I don't know. But I'm worried..."

"Don't rush. If you act impatiently, even things that would work out won't."

He was saying it to Cheongo, but repeating it to himself as well.

* * *

"Hm."

After sleeping deeply and waking up, Jegyeong could clearly feel that his condition had improved.

Immediately after Molting, it had felt as though strength was overflowing throughout his body. But after sleeping and thinking about it again, he realized it had probably been temporary, a kind of heightened state.

His body had been exhausted and injured, yet strength alone had overflowed...

If he had used that strength in that condition, his body would probably have started breaking down before long.

Something more serious might even have happened.

His current condition after sleeping, on the other hand, was perfect.

He had never felt this good since being reborn.

"Jegyeong! Jegyeong!"

Cheongo flew over as if they had been waiting.

It was a first.

Cheongo usually did not appear until Jegyeong was fully awake and his stomach began to signal for food.

Yet today, Cheongo had come early as if a fire had been lit under their tail, and had even waited quietly.

'The one who wants something is the one who has to bend.'

Jegyeong grinned and climbed down the tree.

"Are we going now?"

"I don't know. How far is that pond from here?"

"Close!"

Jegyeong could not trust Cheongo's definition of close.

For something that flew through the sky, almost anywhere would seem close.

But he had to crawl across the ground.

Jegyeong questioned Cheongo closely and confirmed that the pond was not nearby, but was not terribly far away either.

It was also, once again, in the direction "away from the river."

'It's not a coincidence.'

Ever since Cheongo had told him about the humans across the river, Jegyeong had kept moving farther away from it.

Before long, though, he noticed something strange.

At some point, everything he could see had changed.

Even the things he could not see had changed.

The trees and grass had grown larger and denser, while the wind blowing through the forest felt fresher.

It was not his imagination.

The farther he moved from the river, the greater the difference became.

Cheongo said it was natural.

Jegyeong did not know what was natural about it, but the changes benefited him.

Finding branches to sleep on for the night and locating prey had both become easier.

There were more beasts roaming about, and they were larger as well.

The pig he had once worked up the courage to hunt would barely count as average-sized here.

The beasts in this place had gone beyond simply being well-developed.

They felt like entirely different species.

Jegyeong thought of the parents from this life, whom he had left only a few days after being born.

Perhaps that enormous snake had come from a place far from the river too.

Could it have traveled for days to find a safe place to lay its eggs before reaching that cave?

'Could somewhere beyond here be teeming with monsters like that?'

It made his breath catch.

Yet it also reassured him.

If such a place truly existed, humans surely had not reached it yet.

"Let's go."

Perhaps he would go there someday.

Even so, that would be far in the future.

As they traveled, Jegyeong told Cheongo to let him know if they spotted suitable prey.

He did not know how long they would be moving, so he intended to fill his stomach whenever he had the chance.

"Okay!"

Cheongo answered brightly and flew higher into the sky.

It was an unusually eager sight.

Jegyeong could see right through the bird, but he did not find it annoying.

Footnotes:

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