The forest of Elderwood was extremely vast to the point it wouldn’t be strange to call it a sea of trees. However, even though numerous animals and monsters inhabited the forest, no sound could be heard. Aside from the occasional wind noise which shook the branches and leaves, the only thing that could be heard was the party’s conversation.

“This forest is really strange.”

“Doesn’t it feel like the trees are watching us?”

“That’s right… It’s just that they had no literal eyes…”

The party continue their journey to the depths of the forest while feeling somewhat spooked. Thankfully, they know that they’re not getting lost in the middle of the lush forest, as the branches keep moving to the side, creating a path that is guiding them to somewhere.

“The Elderwood is guiding us. We are like the hero party in a fantasy story!” Geom-in spoke with excited voices.

“The hero would usually marry the princess, right? But, there doesn’t seem to be a princess here.” Da-jeong chided.

Seokhyun smirked and pointed at the chief stag beetle perched on top of Geom-in’s head, “What if her real identity is an elf princess?”

“Isn’t she too fierce for a princess?”

“Ouch!”

“Look at her biting Geom-in’s ear.”

“On top of being too fierce, she had a really bad personality.”

“Agh….!”

The party chatted loudly before their steps finally came to a complete stop, eyes wide open and jaw on the floor. The reason was the main body of Elderwood.

“Holy Buddha…”

“What kind of tree is that big?”

“No one would dare to call a tree ‘tall’ after they saw this tree….”

As Da-jeong said, the main body of elderwood was humongous. It was to the point that the largest tree on Earth could be regarded as a mere sapling. However, even though it was gigantic, the area around the Elderwood was not dark at all. It was as if the entire tree was radiating light.

The party admired the grandeur of the tree, but when they looked behind what they initially drowned into, they all frowned. It was because layers of muscle tissue they had seen on the 7th floor of the Great Labyrinth wrapped around some part of the tree.

“Hey Rapwi, is this what you felt when you hugged it before?”

“I heard that it was hurt, but I never thought it was this much.”

“He, hey… The sap is coming out, the sap.”

Indeed, Elderwood sap was flowing around the area wrapped by muscle tissue. Since it’s a very rare resource, Seongho quickly pulled out a barrel from his inventory and placed it under the trickling sap.

The sap effect of giving pain tolerance was good, but the effect of skin regeneration was something beyond better. After drinking the sap a few times, the skin of each member became smooth and shiny.

“Tree, blood.”

At the words of Little Fist, everyone moved their eyes towards the Elderwood. The sap they were so greedy towards might be the blood of elderwood just like Little Fist said. In other words, the Elderwood was being beaten up by Giudecca to the point it was bleeding.

Confused, Geom-in tried to remove the muscle tissue by pulling it, but to no avail.

“This thing… It’s really tightly put together as if it was originally there.”

“Rapwi, use your strength.”

Seokhyun stepped forward, but the layer didn’t even budge. Frowning, Seokhyun took out an ignition stone once again. Of course, he received stinging glare from the party right at that moment.

“Setting fire in this kind of place is probably the worst idea you could come up with, so let’s just find another way.”

“Can’t we just cut it off?”

There seemed to be no way to peel the layer off. Therefore, Da-jeong contacted Amelia and explained the exact situation to her. However, even she was at a loss of what the party should do.

-Elderwood is an existence closest to God for us… Even if it’s eaten by a monster, there must be a way to help it.
-We have a thought of setting fire to it. What do you think?

Amelia’s words almost sounded like she’s screaming. Da-jeong shrugged her shoulders and passed the jewel of whisper towards Geom-in.

“She said that we shouldn’t do that”

“Why are you giving me the jewe… Ye-yes… Amelia-nim, that’s not it…”

“Wow… He called her Amelia-nim…”

While the party was doing that, Seokhyun put the stag beetle that had crawled onto him on his bald head. As soon as she sat, she pointed to a large hole in front of them. Without questioning anything, Seokhyun went inside. To his surprise, it wasn’t dark inside the hole. Following the stag beetle’s instruction, Seokhyun climbed up the Elderwood. Only when he’s fairly far from the ground does he find something. A bright red fruit hanging from a bare branch.

「Elderwood Fruit」

“Are there more of these?”

Sweeping around the area with his eyes, Seokhyun realized there was only one fruit. He plucked it off, and put it inside his pants. In exchange for his action, Seokhyun had his ear pinched by the big pincher of the stag beetle.

When Seokhyun landed on the ground and showed the fruit to the party. Da-jeong instantly screamed.

“Seriously You should stop putting anything you find in there!”

“Doesn’t it look delicious? It was hanging on one of the Elderwood’s branches.”

Everyone looked at the bright red berries, but after close scrutiny, they found nothing unusual.

Seongho crossed his arms and said. “The system says that it has no effect at all, so what should we do with it?”

“We should eat it.”

Seokhyun put the whole fruit into his mouth and chewed. Everyone’s eyes widened and the stag beetle tried to tear his head off, but he didn’t care. Juice trickled down his mouth, and the flesh was crushed by his hard teeth before passing down his throat.

Eventually, Da-jeong kicked him in the butt.

“You madman! Spit it out! Spit it out!”

“I-Isn’t it a bit much to spit that out?”

However, Seokhyun had already eaten most of the fruit. All that remains was a jewel that emits quite a bit of light.

People’s eyes were focused on the jewel.

“The status window said it was an Elderwood seed… but isn’t that just an etherstone?”

“It shines a bit too much for it to be an etherstone, though?”

“Perhaps this is the real identity of the fruit.”

“You didn’t eat that after thinking we’ll get this, didn’t you?” Da-jeong asked in a questionable tone.

“Of course not. Let’s give it to the Poor Man and grow it.”

Any crops or animals found by the members were all entrusted to Jiman.

“Then…” Seongho gathered everyone at that moment. “Let’s split into two groups. Da-jeong and Geom-in should go to Velond Forest. Show the seed to the elves and find out more about it. Seokhyun and I will be near the Ezekium Garrison.”

“What should we do once we are done?”

“We’ll look for a suitable shelter location, so you can come there. Probably around the lake.”

“Okay.”

Seongho made eye contact with everyone and emphasized.

“Be careful if you meet knight-like guys with unusual eyes. They are not normal.”

“Seongho, are they really that hard to deal with, even for you?”

“It wasn’t very difficult. However, they are quite strong, and they also had a lot of strange items. The higher ranked knights could even split rocks, so be careful.”

“Wow. It will be a mess if they come to Seoul.” Geom-in said.

“It should be okay for now since I misled them with a false report. But no one knows how long it will last.” Seongho sighed. He was in regular contact with Vice-captain Pistel–the superior of the Transcendence Knights he fought–through the whisper jewel he looted from the knights. Thanks to that, he was able to feed her with misleading information that would hopefully would buy them enough time.

Da-jeong laughed at his explanation. “I bet she’ll be mad later when she finds out.”

“It’s best if it’s not revealed forever. Anyway, let’s stay here for tonight before going to our respective destination.”

“It’s camping time!”

While eating next to Elderwood, the group was getting a surprise visit by groups of Zizek Trees. The guys boasted a completely different size from the guys they met in Velond Forest.

“These guys! Don’t you see we are eating right now?”

“Little Fist, offended.”

Not long after, dozens of Zizek Trees were crushed by an angry man and an ogre.

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.
.

After Seokhyun’s massacre, a strange current flowed in the shelter in Korea. People who were against the massacre of close to a thousand people began to unite. Their number was still a minority, but their power had become clear enough for others to notice. After all, the people who complained about him gathered around Lee Beom-seok, the No. 2 of the Korea Shelter.

-Hwang Seokhyun is too cruel, isn’t he? No matter how bad they are, a massacre is too much…
-He even killed all the women who begged for help. He seemed to have no blood or tears.
-Who can make sure that he won’t kill us later?
-He’s really a human butcher.
-His friends are also like him. Even after knowing what he did, they didn’t even try to reprimand him.

Surprisingly, these complaints did not spread widely. Everyone lowered their voices because they knew that it would not bode well for them if the stagnant waters heard it.

In other words, Lee Beom-seok suddenly became the center of the forces that cursed the stagnant waters.

It wasn’t anything to be proud of, though. After all, most of the people who gathered under him were those who remained in the shelter, not in the field during the war. Meaning, they were people who have never felt the bloody atmosphere around Gimpo Airport even once.

‘From the outside, they’ll regard us as nothing but a group of grumblers who had done nothing but holing ourselves up in a safe place…’

Of course, Lee Beom-seok himself was included in it. That realization drove him into a sense of bewilderment. Coupled with the fact that he just had a serious disagreement with the President, he sought out alcohol. Normally, he would have yelled at people who were drinking in Apocalypse, but it was different now.

He sat in a corner of the shelter with a disgruntled look, drinking all he could.

“Speaking of which, sooner or later we will have to make a decision, won’t we? Either they leave, or us.”

“There’s nothing we can’t do outside if we get our share of firearms and supplies.”

“It’s just that we’re a little lower in level, are we lacking in courage? No. Isn’t that right?”

“Right! Let’s clap!”

“Wow!”

Everyone was drunk and chattering wildly. If Jang Won-taek or one of the stagnant waters was in front of them, they would never have been able to say it.

Such words spread to the shelter people very secretly.

Just a few hours later, people from Seongho’s shelter heard it.

“That guy is out of his mind.”

“But… there’s Jang Won-taek. I’m sure he won’t do anything rash.”

Sangshin and Hyung-jun looked outside and talked. They knew very well that the atmosphere at the shelter was strange these days. It was only because the stagnant waters were currently in Lotus that they could not sort it right away.

Hyung-jun stopped posting comments on the auction house. It was night in Lotus, so everyone should be asleep.

Just then, the door burst open and Jihye and Sooyeon entered.

“The atmosphere on the women’s side is also unusual. In the past, they would share the side dishes with Jihye unnie, but they did not do that anymore.”

“How is it now?”

“They don’t even invite me these days… What should we do?”

Jihye bowed her head as if it was her fault, so Sooyeon quickly comforted her.

“It’s not your fault, so please stop feeling sorry.”

All the things that happened to his wife left a bitter taste in Hyung-jun’s mouth. In Korea Shelter, a women-only group existed. Even though it’s an apocalypse, it couldn’t just be about hunting. The women-only group exists to gather women to chat and cook side dishes. However, Jihye had been bullied there recently.

They didn’t say it openly, but everyone knows that the cause was the bad rumor. All of the shelter members actively agreed that what Hwang Seokhyun did was too much.

Sangshin sat by the window and spat out.

“People are really scary. Until recently, they were those who tried to look good to Seokhyun…”

“Well, it only took an instant for people’s thoughts to change.”

Everyone let out a deep sigh. When Seongho came later, it’s clear he wouldn’t be sitting still. With his personality, it would be considered fortunate if the first thing he did wasn’t to run rampant to kill Lee Beom-seok with a mithril blade. Meaning, a storm was brewing in the relatively peaceful Korean shelter.

Sooyeon tried to push up the glasses that weren’t there in her face, before awkwardly lowering her hand. Then, she said quietly to Hyung-jun.

“Hyung-jun-ssi, should we start to watch him ourselves?”

“Who are you talking about?”

“Lee Beom-seok… I feel something bad will happen for some reason.”

“Well… His level isn’t too high to pose any real threat, isn’t it?” Not only that, most of the people under him who mainly do office work, were all at a low level. There were quite a few people who couldn’t even exceed level 20. Even if they decide to do something, in all honesty, Hyung-jun wasn’t worried.

However, Sooyeon didn’t agree with his view.

“That monster, Giudecca, will definitely use this chance. It’s a cliche.”

“…Their unique abilities were tentacles and brainwashing, right?”

Sangsin shook his head at that point.

“Come on. Doesn’t Lee Beom-seok see the President as a god? I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t do it.”

They were two people who had shared the joys and sorrows of Yeouido politics for decades. The feud between them was simply unthinkable for Sangshin.

However, Sooyeon once again refutes the sentiment.

“There are rumors that there is a feud between the two of them these days. Yeowool said she heard the rumor before.”

Yeowool said she heard it when she passed the shelter before going to Bam island to put their things. She thought it was groundless at that time, but now that suspicious rumors have been circulating, no matter how groundless it was, it should be heard to some degree.

Sooyeon wondered if Lee Beom-seok, who was mentally cornered, would do something. After all, isn’t it a well-known story that Giudecca was setting his sight on the stagnant waters?

Hyung-jun pressed his temples as if his head hurt.

“Since there is no way to contact Seongho right now… Let’s do it ourselves. Where is Mikyung right now?”

“The kids are in Bam Island right now.”

The kids Sooyeon talked about were Mikyung, Yoohyeon, Jiman, and Yeowool.

“Lee Beom-seok’s unique ability is Blink, so if he decided to do something stupid, the only person that can follow him is Mikyung. Let’s call her.”

“On top of that, she also still has the stealth cloak that Seongho gave her.”

“It’s perfect for tailing.” Hyung-jun nodded.

“Let’s not call her right now. We can call her later when Lee Beom-seok moves. Though, it was better if he didn’t move at all.”

Everyone was of the same mind. They hoped he wasn’t dumb enough to do something stupid.

However, betraying their hope, Lee Beom-seok went out of the shelter not long after their talk. On paper, his purpose was to scout monster distribution around Seoul.

Why would he bother to do something he could have tasked to someone else?

Mikyung with a cloak of stealth followed behind him.

.
.
.

Lee Beom-seok entered a dark alley. It hadn’t been long since heavy rain stopped, so it was full of damp moisture. There, the smell of blood and lumps of unknown flesh filled the alley.

At one point he raised his head. There was a woman who did not fit in with the harsh scenery at all. It was Go Ho-kyung.

“It’s been a while.”

“Do I know you?”

“I am the Chief of Staff… I know what the President knows.”

“Aha. But, I heard that the two of you seem to be on bad terms lately.”

Lee Beom-seok’s forehead twisted.

“Stop talking nonsense and tell me why you called me here.”

Go Ho-kyung smiled alluringly.

“A woman summoned a man to an obscure place… Do you think there will be another reason than…”

“I don’t feel like doing it with a monster like you.”

“Then why are you here?”

“That…”

Lee Beom-seok swallowed dry saliva. Some time ago, he had hunted several enhanced ghouls. Of course, he was not alone but with a few people he had a heart to heart talk with recently.

Although he achieved considerable results, he came into contact with a ghoul with the appearance of a woman. The ghoul, who had been pretending to be dead, suddenly jumped up and embraced him.

His co-workers poured out jealous words, saying that he finally got a woman, but Lee Beom-seok could not enjoy it. After all, something spoke to him in his head.

-Do you want power?

Lee Beom-seok shook his head and tried to shake off the voice, but he couldn’t. The voice clung to his brain like a migraine which wouldn’t go away.

-My name is Giudecca…
-From your perspective, my appearance will be close to that of a devil…
-But that’s a misunderstanding…
-I have a noble cause and purpose…
-If you’re curious about it, come outside…

Lee Beom-seok snorted at first, but then kept recalling the voice. His poor state of mind due to alcohol and the collapse of trust he had with his superiors drove him into a corner. That’s why he came out of the shelter to hear the story.

Go Ho-kyung grinned when she saw Lee Beom-seok’s breathing getting rough. After all, it’s easy to tempt a lost lamb.

‘Crazy…’ Mikyung whispered as she saw the spectacle.