Tales of the Labyrinth

Chapter 12: Awakening

Thanks to his newfound ability to see color systems, Hwanin had secured plenty of food and spent three days at his hideout focusing on improving his physical condition.

There was nothing he could do with a weakened body.

The first day was spent sleeping to recover his stamina. On the second day, he practiced push-ups, balancing, and spear thrusts to regain lost sensations and muscle strength.

These efforts paid off—though he wasn’t back to full capacity, he had regained a fair amount of strength, and the bruises and joint pain across his body had significantly eased.

The real issue was his right thigh.

Thankfully, the burn he had seared shut hadn’t festered, but the heat still hadn’t subsided.

With the ground nearby much cooler than his body temperature, he had used his shirt filled with dirt as a makeshift ice pack. Without that, the burn might have developed into a severe inflammation.

Although he knew several ways to reduce inflammation, none of them were feasible in his current situation.

The only viable method was to use clay to cool the area, but without water nearby, making clay was impossible.

‘I guess I'll have to move closer to the great lake.' 

If he could make clay to cool the inflammation and clean the wound with fresh water, his condition would improve significantly.

Food wasn’t an issue. The mushrooms he had left in a well-ventilated spot were gradually drying and losing their color.

He expected them to turn into dried mushrooms, perfect as portable rations later on.

In addition to mushrooms, roots and tree bark also had long shelf lives. If he dug into the ground, he could find edible insects, and there should be something edible near the lake as well……. 

Having come to a decision, Hwanin immediately got up and began packing his belongings.

He wrapped the food in large, wide, and long leaves, rolled up four pieces of animal hide, and tied them securely with string. Then, he inspected his weapons.

The stone axe and black club would now serve as tools for daily use.

The makeshift spear—just a 2-meter-long black wooden stick with a dagger attached, had proven to be far more powerful than he’d expected.

Even in his worst physical condition, it had allowed him to easily take down two green monsters and three beast-headed monsters.

The shortsword, being a solid metal weapon, was the most lethal among his arsenal. All that was left was.... 

Hwanin’s gaze fell on the staff.

Every time he looked at it, he thought of the green monster that used superpowers. 

Reason told him to throw away the staff, which was just a wooden stick and a heavy burden, but an unfamiliar feeling of attachment held him back.

What if this staff was the medium for that superpower?

“…….”

In the end, Hwanin wrapped the shortsword, stone axe, black club, and the staff in hide together. With emergency ration in tow, he left the hideout where he had stayed for over a week. 

Kikkikiki.

Kireuk. Kiieut.

Kieee.

‘Those guys…… What are they doing?’

While heading straight toward the lake, Hwanin witnessed a strange scene.

Five green monsters, all bearing various wounds, were limping along in visible pain towards somewhere.

Their injuries appeared to be from cuts, stabs, or bites. We're they fighting with the beast-headed monsters?

Hwanin thought for a moment before silently following the monsters.

If their destination had been in a different direction or away from the lake, he would have simply waited for them to pass before continuing on his way.

However, when he noticed that they were heading toward the lake, he strangely felt the need to follow them.

Holding the beak of emergency ration to keep it quiet, Hwanin trailed them for about an hour before arriving at a wide flower field. His eyes narrowed at what they did next. 

The five green monsters tossed aside their clubs and wooden sticks and spread out across the flower field, gathering only flowers with golden buds on wide reed leaves.

Various flowers were growing in the field. But the monsters specifically picked the golden buds and leaves that resembled lily of the valley.

A short while later, each monster sat down with a handful of buds and a few leaves, and began crushing the buds with rocks or pebbles. Then, they spread the crushed buds over their wounds and covered them with the leaves.

Kiyak. Kyagrr.

Kiek? Kyakat.

Kyauuu.....

After applying the crushed golden buds to all their wounds, the monsters chattered for a while and then left, looking less hurt than before.

“…….”

After the green monsters had all disappeared, Hwanin stepped into the flower field and activated his hallucinatory vision to inspect the flowers.

Most of the flowers were blue-green, but there were also occasional black flowers, as well as red and purple ones.

Interestingly, the golden bell flowers displayed a unique milky white color.

Milky white belonging to the neutral color system. 

Hwanin had encountered milky white before, three days ago while gathering food. Things like sprouts resembling grass, and insects similar to fireflies that flew around in broad daylight.

“Is this color effective for treating wounds...?”

Thinking back, several of the green monsters he had killed had scars that looked like they've been healed.

He hadn't thought much of it at the time, but considering what he had just witnessed, it meant that they had treated their wounds with these flowers.

‘They have similar diets and similar hallucination colors. Maybe this will work for me too.’

Setting down his belongings, Hwanin gathered a good amount of the golden bell flowers, which occupied a significant portion of the flower field. He crushed the flowers, just as the green monsters had, and pulled down his pants to apply it on the wound on his thigh. 

‘…… It doesn't feel like anything. Is it really effective?’

Thinking for a moment, Hwanin decided the green monsters must have used the leaves for a reason, so he covered the wound with the reed leaf. 

And after waiting for about a minute, the persistent heat and pain from the wound suddenly began to cool.

It was a cool and tingling sensation, like applying ointment to a mosquito bite, covering the heat and pain completely.

After a little more time passed, the crushed golden bell flower and the leaf adhered tightly to the wound, as though they were glued on. 

“Amazing.”

Did the juice from the crushed golden bell flower react chemically with the leaf?

Hwanin couldn’t yet be sure about the healing effect...... He thought for a moment and began gathering large, fresh leaves from the nearby bushes, and collected an appropriate amount of golden bell flower buds and leaves.

Even if the flowers didn’t provide any healing effects, it was worth applying to the wound just for the continuous cooling effect. 

Carefully tucking them into the inner pocket of his coat, intending to use them again later if needed, Hwanin suddenly heard emergency ration squawking loudly. Alarmed, he quickly scanned the surroundings.

Kigyaak-!

Kyagyagyagya-!!

The five green monsters that had left a while ago were running towards him.

Hwanin stood up with his spear without any expression on his face. The charging monsters abruptly froze in their tracks when they saw him standing with a spear in the flower field.

Ki, Kigik?

Kii…….

“……?”

Having fought dozens of green monsters by now, Hwanin had come to understand their behavior quite well.

Green monsters typically exhibited a weak-strong-strong-weak nature.

They were strong against weak enemies, and weak against strong enemies. Against a lone opponent of a similar size and there were several of them, they would attack first.

And if a few of them died instantly, they would get scared and run away.

But these five, despite their overwhelming numerical advantage, did not charge and instead looked at each other, wondering what to do. 

Finding this odd, Hwanin silently picked up a rock at his feet and hurled it at them with all his strength.

Swik- puk!

Kyak! ……Kiyooooooo!!

Although he hadn't intended hitting them, one of the green monsters got hit in the genitals. The monster doubled over, eyes rolling back in pain, and then charged at him in a frenzy.

Ki, Kigik!

Kyaaaa!! 

The remaining four, as if there was nothing else they could do, let out shrill cries and charged together.

“Hup! Hooop!!”

Pooook-

Kek.

Poosh-

Kururrererek……. 

The first green monster that charged collapsed with a hole pierced cleanly through its heart by Hwanin's lightning-fast stab. The second monster crumpled to the ground with nearly a quarter of its neck severed, choking on its last breaths.

“It might be better to detach the dagger and bind the short sword instead.” 

Kihik?!

Hic…….

Hwanin murmured as he assessed the disappointing outcome of his swing, which had failed to cleanly decapitate the second monster. The remaining three froze in terror and began to back away.

Hwanin wasn’t about to let them escape.

He had no intention of sparing his enemies and risking future troubles. Launching himself forward with his uninjured left leg, Hwanin dashed at them with an almost flying leap, delivering three consecutive stabs. 

“Hmm…….”

Thinking at least one of the three strikes would miss, Hwanin had prepared for a follow-up attack. But to his surprise, all three stabs sank flawlessly into the green monsters' chests like magnets. 

In any case, the fight made it painfully clear just how significant having a proper long-range weapon was.

This wasn’t a battle—it was a one-sided slaughter.

Since the fight hadn’t even stirred his emotions, Hwanin quickly shifted his focus to his injured right thigh.

Despite the vigorous movements, there was almost no pain. 

A faint warmth rose amidst the cool sensation. But judging by the fact that it didn’t break through the soothing effect, the wound shouldn't get worse. 

Gathering his belongings, Hwanin continued toward the great lake with a slightly more comfortable gait.

“Huu…….”

Walking had become easier after applying the crushed golden bell flower, but to avoid straining himself, he leaned on his spear like a walking stick. Even so, his depleted stamina made his breathing labored.

However, the view of the vast open sky and jade-like lake cleared his chest and renewed his determination.

Cha-ruruk-

Hiding within the underbrush for about 20 minutes, Hwanin observed his surroundings and confirmed there was no immediate threat. He slid down the slope and stepped onto the pebble beach.

After learning of the effects of the golden bell flower, his primary need for clay and cold compresses disappeared—but his secondary goal of securing food remained.

First, he carefully secured his supplies to keep them from getting wet from the waves. Then, he washed the torn running shirt he had been using as a bandage, laying it out to dry on the warm pebble beach. Finally, he collected some starfish and jade crabs. 

“Hmm.”

In his hallucinatory vision, the color systems of the jade crab and starfish appeared as faint msu green(blue-green system) and light vermilion(red system).

The vermilion starfish, lost much of its near orange color when cooked, turning into a pale orange close to white. Eating it caused mild stomachache. 

“Here, eat.”

He gave all six roasted starfishes to emergency ration. It seemed to be fine after eating them. 

Hwanin wasn't in good condition so he thought that he might get sick if he ate the starfishes.

Unlike the starfish, the jade crabs turned completely white when steamed, so he could eat them without any worries.

As Hwanin quietly ate the steamed-red jade crabs, emergency ration—having crushed all the starfish, stared intently at him and cried out like a crazy yellow chicken.

Quack!

“Didn't you eat all the starfish?”

Quuack!

“…….”

Emergency ration seemed to become more and more domesticated, even appearing to understand words... It's probably just his imagination. 

Though slightly exasperated, it didn’t matter—there was plenty of food to go around.

Hwanin took out one of the three steamed jade crabs set aside for storage testing, and placed it in front of the emergency ration.

Crack! Snap, crunch, chomp!

It immediately broke the jade crab’s shell with its beak, pecking at the flesh inside with fervor.

If you looked closely, you could see that emergency ration's beak was incredibly strong.

Even though the jade crab had been steamed and its shell wasn’t particularly tough, it still got demolished like nothing…….

After watching emergency ration's destructive eating for a while, Hwanin also resumed his meal.

Slurp-

“Hmm.”

Prying off the shell, he slurped up the tender white meat and innards. Surprisingly, it didn’t taste fishy or briny but carried a clean and refreshing flavor, like sipping on a light soup.

Hwanin smiled faintly. He could now eat food confidently thanks to his hallucinatory vision. 

Of course, he wasn't completely free of worries.

What if the hallucinatory vision malfunctioned? What if the information interpreted through the color system was different? What if this information didn’t apply to him as a being from another world?

“Well, I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.”

Thinking there was no need to worry unnecessarily, he resolved to observe and memorize as much as possible, while munching through the jade crab.

Satisfied with a full stomach, he buried the leftover starfish and jade crab shell fragments, erasing any traces before setting off east along the water's edge. 

Assuming there were also monsters inhabiting the lake, he kept a safe distance, moving along the low cliffs rather than the lakeshore.

The pebble beach was about 70 meters wide. Even if a monster suddenly jumped out of the lake, he would be able to escape into the forest within 60 meters.

Swish—Crash.

The sound of waves breaking on the shore was clear and serene.

Unlike the waves on a sandy beach, the sound of pebbles rolling with the waves was like ASMR to his eardrums.

“…….”

The only thing he couldn’t understand about this pebble beach was the complete absence of aquatic plants or algae on the stones.

He remembered visiting Mongdol Beach in Yeongheungdo Island in Incheon with his parents, and the pebbles there were covered in green moss.

But this place…….

Ppuoooooo-

“?!”

Startled by the elephant-like cry coming from the great lake, he quickly turned his gaze in that direction and his eyes widened in shock. 

Far off in the horizon, so far that it's impossible to tell the actual distance, something resembling a whale the size of a fist was leaping out of the water.

It had a massive trident-like horn and a head covered in rock-like... Scales? Shell?

Whatever it was, the creature soared skyward to an incredible height.

Kwaaaaa……!

It fell back into the water, creating a huge splash.

He’d seen footage of underwater nuclear detonations in war documentaries before, and the spray of water caused by this colossal creature was disturbingly similar to those mushroom clouds...... 

“….. Hah.”

A gasp of shock escaped Hwanin’s lips as he realized the height of the wave that was about to approach.

Hwanin forgot about the pain in his thigh, as he dashed to the cliff and began climbing, grabbing onto protruding tree roots along its sheer face.

The cliff was the tallest in the area, at about 8 meters, with a nearly vertical incline that made it particularly difficult to climb.

Remembering the rope climbing course from military training, he managed to climb about 2 meters before glancing back. The sight chilled him to the bone, he gripped on the roots and pulled himself up with all his strength. 

A massive tsunami, towering well above his height, was rushing toward him with terrifying speed.

Ttuduk!

“Kuagh!”

The arm-thick root he was holding snapped, nearly sending him plummeting. He clung desperately to a thigh-thick root, while frantically looking around the cliff for another path.

There was no way up.

The broken root had left a 1 meter gap above the 3 meter mark where he dangled.

There was a much thicker and stronger root jutting out from the cliff above, but it was just out of reach.

There were no cracks wide enough for his fingers to grip to support his weight, nor any footholds to push himself up.

The wall wasn’t even solid enough to begin with.

In the end, he gritted his teeth and wrapped his left leg tightly around a partially exposed root. He held on with both arms and closed his eyes. 

Moments later, the raging wave swallowed Hwanin from head to toe.