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◈ Ophidian of the Immortal World ◈

Chapter 7: Pond

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Jegyeong encountered quite a few beasts as he traveled.

To say animals had sharp senses was an understatement.

Many could detect another creature from an immense distance away using every sense available to them: sight, smell, hearing, and more.

If they judged the other creature to be easy prey, they approached to hunt it. If not, they fled without a backward glance.

Yet sometimes, creatures that saw themselves as predators stood their ground instead of running.

Perhaps they wanted to defend their territory, or perhaps it was the instinct of a fierce beast that refused to bow before anything.

“Grrr...”

The beast had the overall shape of a bear, but with a lion's mane. It crouched low and growled.

Its muzzle dripped with thick saliva, but its heavy forepaws, half planted on the ground, were even more striking.

Judging by their thickness, a proper hit from those paws could probably snap an ordinary tree in one blow, or even tear it out by the roots.

A bear and a snake. Even at a glance, it seemed like a difficult matchup.

Of course, it might have been different if the snake were an anaconda, but that bear was larger than even the enormous bears Jegyeong had admired on the internet in his previous life.

Objectively speaking, it was large enough that calling it a beast felt wrong. It was a monster.

‘Something's strange.’

Why was that?

Even with such a monster before him, he felt neither that he had run into trouble nor that he needed to flee.

Jegyeong raised his body and looked down at the bear, which was baring its hostility.

His gaze was as calm as his heart.

“Roaaar!”

The bear let out a threatening roar, but strangely, Jegyeong felt no threat from it.

The confidence he couldn't explain left him almost bewildered.

Had he slept too deeply today and not fully woken up yet?

Amusingly, the creature facing him provided the basis for that confidence.

As Jegyeong flicked his tongue and stared at it, the beast, which had seemed ready to charge at any moment, hesitated and took a step back.

Jegyeong was certain it was afraid.

The question was, why?

Watching the creature that looked ready to flee with the slightest push, Jegyeong swung his tail once as a test.

Not at the beast in front of him, of course, but at a small rock beside him.

Bang!

His Tail Strike wasn't even at full strength, yet it shattered the rock, which was as large as a human head, in a single blow.

Even Jegyeong was startled by what he had done, but he tried not to show it.

He drew his tail back as calmly as possible, as though nothing had happened, then flicked his tongue again.

This time, he even added an appropriate sound.

Hiss-

The beast was completely terrified now.

Perhaps it was only his imagination, but Jegyeong felt as though he could read the fear on its face.

At the same time, he finally understood why the monstrous creature before him was afraid.

‘I’m stronger.’

It was an incredibly simple fact, one he had failed to realize until now.

He lived each day throwing his body around just to survive, yet he hadn't even grasped the state of his own body.

If he had an excuse, it was that he hadn't expected the world to change overnight.

‘As expected, that was no ordinary Molting.’

Immediately after his Molting, he had felt that his body was sturdier and stronger. But that wasn't all.

Only now did he realize it.

It had been explosive growth unlike anything he had experienced before.

His previous growth had been outward, an increase in his bodily size. This Molting had been internal growth.

His skin, muscles, and bones had all become astonishingly stronger.

Even using enough strength to shatter a rock felt completely natural.

It was as easy as if he had always been able to do it.

The bear-like beast looked pitiful now.

Its desire to run was obvious from its awkward stance and the growls it seemed to be forcing out.

What puzzled Jegyeong was that it still wasn't fleeing.

Could it be that, despite having four legs, it wasn't confident it could run faster than a creature with no legs that had to crawl?

‘Ah. I see.’

Jegyeong's slit pupils turned toward a tree behind the beast.

On a branch thick with colorful leaves, a smaller creature that looked like a miniature version of the beast lay flattened and frozen in place.

Hiss-

Jegyeong glanced at the beast, which kept repeating its entirely unthreatening threats, then slowly backed away.

“Why are you leaving?”

Cheongo flew over and asked.

“I’m not leaving. I’m just backing off for a moment.”

“Why? That thing's much weaker than you.”

“It is. But parents with their young behind them are dangerous.”

“Yeah. I don't know what that means.”

Jegyeong hadn't expected the birdbrain to understand in the first place, so he let it go.

Cheongo didn't ask any more questions either.

‘With this one here, there’s no need to leave myself feeling uneasy for no reason.’

In the past, he wouldn't have let prey that couldn't even run away escape.

But now he had a capable partner.

He could find prey whenever he wanted.

Besides, what he had told Cheongo wasn't entirely an excuse.

Parents were strong. Parents with their young beside them were even stronger.

‘They’re gone.’

When he returned to that spot a little later, the two beasts were nowhere to be seen.

Only a pair of large and small tracks remained.

“How much farther do we have to go?”

“Not much farther. We’re almost there.”

Cheongo's wingbeats grew stronger.

Jegyeong, whose resolve had relaxed for a moment, hardened it again.

* * *

“It’s there.”

The place Cheongo pointed to with a wing had nothing remarkable about it at first glance.

Yet after squeezing through a narrow gap between the disorderly trees, a completely different sight soon opened before them.

Unlike the healthy trees outside, the trees farther in leaned to one side like grass battered by wind.

Inward.

The trees deeper inside had not only tilted, but exposed their roots as well.

They looked as though they had been ravaged by a typhoon. Looking at them another way, they seemed to be struggling to move inward.

No matter how he looked at it, it was a bizarre sight.

Jegyeong knew what lay within, yet even he found it unsettling. Someone who came here without knowing anything might have shuddered in fear.

‘It feels a little sinister, too.’

The pond Cheongo had mentioned was nowhere in sight.

Then another strange sight caught Jegyeong's eye.

“It’s there.”

Cheongo spoke much more quietly than usual.

It was unnecessary.

Even without Cheongo's words, Jegyeong's gaze had already settled on the place Cheongo was pointing at.

Mist.

A dense mist covered the area.

Yet Jegyeong immediately recognized that it wasn't mist at all.

For one thing, it was pale green. It also had a musty smell.

“If you go in there, the bad frog will know right away.”

“Is there anything else unusual about it?”

“No.”

Jegyeong was a little dissatisfied that the birdbrain hadn't told him sooner, but what was the point of blaming Cheongo after coming this far?

He calmed himself and focused his eyes, but he still couldn't see through the mist.

“Can't you lure it out?”

“No. If I get close, it'll eat me right away.”

If there had been other beasts nearby, he could have driven them into the mist. Unfortunately, there weren't any.

Wild beasts might not have the intelligence to think things through, but they had instincts and senses that detected danger. They must have sensed that this place was strange and dangerous, so they stayed away.

‘No choice.’

Jegyeong lowered his body and spoke.

“You go in first. Don't get too close to it. Keep your distance and make as much noise as possible. Draw its attention.”

“Okay. But how will you find me?”

“I’ll follow the sound you make.”

“Ah!”

Cheongo flew into the mist.

Jegyeong waited for a few seconds as the sound of wingbeats grew fainter, then began moving.

At first, instinct and habit made him try to move silently. Soon, he realized that was pointless.

Cheongo had said the frog would notice him the moment he entered the mist, so there was no need for it.

He moved forward without hesitation, and before long, he heard a faint sound.

“Bad frog! Bad frog!”

Cheongo's angry shouts were followed by the croaking of a frog, as if it were answering back.

Jegyeong had wondered whether he could speak with the bad frog as well, but now he had his answer.

The frog could clearly communicate with Cheongo, but it didn't seem able to communicate with him.

Cheongo's ability to communicate was truly unique to Cheongo.

In any case, the two creatures were making enough noise for Jegyeong to get his bearings.

He moved at the fastest speed he could manage.

The closer he got to the sounds, the thicker the mist became, and the worse the stench grew.

As the discomfort intensified in every way, Jegyeong finally saw Cheongo shouting noisily, with the bad frog croaking beneath them.

‘So that’s the one.’

Bad frog wasn't the right name.

Ugly frog would have been more fitting.

That was what Jegyeong thought the moment he saw it.

At the same time, he understood the cause of this foul atmosphere.

The frog's entire body was covered in boils.

They gradually swelled, and the moment they could grow no larger, they burst with a pop. Thick, dark green smoke rose every time they did.

That was right.

The dense mist in this area was all a pus-like substance bursting from the boils on that creature's body.

‘It’s big.’

Other than how ugly and disgusting it was, its size caught his attention.

For a frog, it was as large as an ordinary cow, perhaps with a little exaggeration.

He meant cows from his previous life, of course. He hadn't seen a cow in this world yet.

No, did cows even exist in this world?

‘It’s not a Demon Beast. It feels different from those birds.’

Jegyeong felt relieved.

It was obvious at a glance that the frog was no ordinary creature, but it didn't carry the pressure he had felt from the two Demon Birds.

“Grrrk.”

The frog's attention snapped to Jegyeong as soon as he appeared.

It had looked annoyed when it saw Cheongo, but the gaze it turned on Jegyeong was filled with hostility and wariness.

It seemed to have instinctively judged Jegyeong as no easy opponent.

‘It’s large, but its jumping ability doesn't seem that good. Otherwise, it would have jumped up and snatched Cheongo. Its tongue doesn't look abnormally long, either.’

As it watched Jegyeong, Jegyeong watched it in return.

At the same time, he made his own assessment.

‘Even if it doesn't jump well, it's probably much faster than me. Can I get close?’

Cheongo had said the frog had a strange ability.

That ability was, surprisingly, spitting.

At first, Jegyeong thought Cheongo was joking. But as he listened, he learned that the frog's spit was a rather formidable ability.

According to Cheongo, the ugly frog's spit carried considerable physical force and seemed to contain some special venom.

Anything living that got hit by it immediately became weak and listless.

‘It’s better not to play tag.’

There was a good chance the ugly frog was faster than him.

Unlike Jegyeong, who had to crash his body into it in a straightforward fight, the frog had a powerful weapon it could use from afar.

To catch it, he would have to endure its attacks until it was completely exhausted.

Whether that was possible or not, it would be an utterly foolish thing to do.

So, less than ten seconds after facing it, Jegyeong decided to stick to his original plan.

“Croak!”

That plan was not to chase the frog, but to make the frog chase him.

Anyone would react if their weakness was struck.

And that frog had a fatal weakness that was easy to exploit.

‘As expected.’

A pond was faintly visible through the dense mist.

The moment Jegyeong rushed toward it, the frog reacted at once.

It let out an irritated, urgent cry and spat repeatedly.

‘They’re like water bombs.’

The blobs of spit were as large as a human head and moved far faster than their size suggested. That alone showed how powerful they were.

Still, there was a considerable distance between Jegyeong and the frog.

On top of that, Jegyeong was moving as fast as he could.

The hastily spat blob struck the ground just behind where Jegyeong's tail had passed.

‘That must be it.’

Jegyeong quickly reached the edge of the pond and spotted a half-bloomed Lotus at its center.

The moment he saw it, he knew it was extraordinary.

If there hadn't been noisy sounds behind him and blobs of spit flying at him, he might have stared at it in a daze for a long while.

The single Lotus, not yet fully bloomed, had a strange power that forcibly drew in the attention and gaze of anyone who saw it.

Unfortunately, he had no time to admire it now.

Ignoring the frog behind him, Jegyeong entered the pond.

‘Huh?’

The moment he entered the water, Jegyeong's eyes widened.

A freedom he had never felt before filled him with exhilaration.

It was a sensation he had never once felt on land.

‘Could I...?’

At that moment, a possibility he had never considered came to mind.

‘Am I a water snake?’

Footnotes:

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