By Zephyria The two returned to their dwelling to find ingredients. And on the way back, Yohan stopped by the fields he had been eyeing. As usual, plants with minds of their own and those that looked highly toxic were wriggling energetically. Yohan, emboldened by purifying the apples, exclaimed.
“There might be edible greens for wraps here. If we’re going to entice Yoon Seung-ryong, we should do it properly, shouldn’t we?”
“Alright, stay here for a moment.”
Lee Hyun-muk, stopping Yohan who was about to leap in, thrust his spear deep into the ground. Then, he swirled it around, skillfully weaving the wriggling stems and roots together like dried croaker fish and dragging them out onto the road. Even if he tried to distinguish the seeds by sight, they were too grotesque to identify their original forms, so the results of purifying them one by one across the fields were as follows.
Onions the size of human heads, cucumbers as thick as forearms, peppers shaped like strange eggs, lettuce and perilla leaves that could be used as fans, round cucumbers numbering dozens on a single stem, and scallions that were easily 10 meters long… After searching for a long time, Yohan, overcome with emotion, knelt and cried out.
“I found it!”
In his hand was a bunch of garlic. Although it had limbs like stems and was the size of a watermelon, it was still garlic. On the way back to their dwelling, Yohan’s arms were full of harvested greens for wraps, and Lee Hyun-muk’s back was laden with a hunted pig.
“Shouldn’t we taste it to see if it’s as delicious as Yoon Seung-ryong would like?”
Yohan looked at Lee Hyun-muk with an earnest face, as if he might cry if refused. Lee Hyun-muk responded by slicing the bled pork.
Yohan found a grill in the house and lit the burner, equipped with a butane gas canister brought from the mart. He then placed thick, fatty slices of meat—whether it was pork jowl, belly, or skirt steak, he couldn’t tell—onto the grill and cooked them until golden brown. He made a wrap with a piece of lettuce cut into six sections, a spoonful of rice, two pieces of well-grilled pork, and garlic dipped generously in ssamjang, then offered it to Lee Hyun-muk.
“You first!”
“Thank you for the meal, Yohan-ah.”
Now, whenever Lee Hyun-muk called him by name, saying “Yohan-ah,” Yohan’s chest felt incredibly ticklish. Lee Hyun-muk, taking a large bite of the wrap and savoring it, mumbled. A rare sheen of moisture appeared in his usually dim eyes.
“Living by just tearing into monster meat all this time, it feels like such a luxury these days…”
“Now that I’m here, you can eat only delicious things!”
After exclaiming energetically, Yohan quickly made himself a wrap and popped it into his mouth. His purification ability was truly amazing; there was not the slightest hint of gamey odor. It was even more delicious than meat sold at a butcher shop. Even in the Abyss, teeming with monsters, the combination of ssamjang, garlic, pork belly, and wrap greens created a perfect harmony.
“It’s so delicious…”
For a while, they were too focused on the luxurious meal to exchange many words. As they were happily eating dinner, Yohan felt immense pity for Yoon Seung-ryong. For three months, he must have been subsisting on disgusting swamp water or monsters in that dark cave. He wanted to give him delicious food like this too.
The next day, after resting and sleeping soundly for two days to fully recover his condition, Yohan diligently started grilling pork belly. After grilling at least five jin (about 3 kg), he looked at Lee Hyun-muk, as if asking if this was enough. He shook his head.
“Let’s just grill a whole pig and take it.”
“Gasp, that much?”
“Seung-ryong’s stomach is quite large right now… It probably won’t be enough.”
Recalling Yoon Seung-ryong’s moderately firm, muscular physique, Yohan tilted his head. Was he a big eater? Well, Awakened individuals tended to eat a lot. After spending the entire day grilling a giant pig, they stopped by the mart to replenish their sauces and set off for the swamp again.
Perhaps because they had been there once before, the second journey was not as difficult as the last. No, it wasn’t just a feeling; it was truly the case. Yohan, looking around carefully, was a little surprised.
“Doesn’t the swamp water level seem to have gone down?”
Looking closely at the nearby trees and rocks, it was even more certain. There were signs of the swamp receding.
“It was probably all sucked into the cave. I made a hole.”
“Ah…! That’s why it’s so much easier to move around.”
Perhaps because the water level had lowered, there seemed to be fewer monsters as well. Walking diligently, they arrived at the cave again. First, they cut down trees around the area. They skillfully prepared the wood to prevent the food from getting submerged in the swamp, quickly built a wooden platform, and then lit the burner. As they placed the newly hunted pork onto the grill, a sizzling sound filled the air, and a delicious aroma began to waft.
While Yohan diligently grilled the pork, Lee Hyun-muk stacked the mountain of pork he had grilled at home onto the platform. Using a shovel, he mixed the chopped garlic, ssamjang, and wrap greens with the pork, creating a mixture that looked more like feed for beasts than food for humans.
“Lee Hyun-muk-ssi, would you like a wrap?”
“Hmm, shall we?”
The two grilled for about an hour, eating wraps intermittently. Yohan looked towards the cave in the distance with a worried expression. Yoon Seung-ryong still showed no sign of coming out.
“By the way, will the smell reach the cave properly?”
“Seung-ryong had a sensitive sense of smell even before. And since it was food he loved so much, it will be very difficult for him to ignore.”
It was then. A chilling cry, like a mournful wail, echoed from deep within the cave, and Yohan froze. His head creaked as he turned to look at the cave again.
“Was that…?”
“It’s quite stimulating, but it seems he’s not yet able to crawl out. Then, shall we let him taste a little.”
Lee Hyun-muk, who had wrapped several ssam, stood up. Standing at the edge of the cave, which had a deep hole, he threw one wrap in. Then, he put a wrap in his own mouth and chewed, throwing one in every 10 minutes. Yohan watched, half worried if it would even reach Yoon Seung-ryong, and half regretting the waste.
After Lee Hyun-muk went back and forth a couple of times, engaging in what seemed like a futile ritual of throwing wraps, a sharp, howling sound erupted from the depths of the cave. Yohan, who was grilling the meat, tensed and jumped to his feet.
“That’s right, you want to eat, don’t you? Then you have to crawl up here. Come on.”
Muttering dryly, Lee Hyun-muk poured all the wraps in his hand down the hole. Then, he signaled Yohan. Yohan quickly turned off the grill, grabbed the butane gas and burner, and scrambled away.
Aaaargh…! The terrifying cries echoed several times, shaking the very ground. Yohan’s face slowly drained of color as he sensed a heavy, long something crawling up. It was clearly a person coming out, so why was it making such a sound…?
Crash…. Boom…!
The cave collapsed halfway, and the swamp water level dropped further. Finally, when Yoon Seung-ryong, who had been holed up in the cave for a long time, crawled out, Yohan realized he had been mistaken. His head slowly tilted upwards.
“Y-Yoon…”
He was so stunned that Yohan couldn’t even properly utter his name.
Even Lee Hyun-muk, who had been the most heavily corrupted, had retained a human form, so he had unconsciously assumed Yoon Seung-ryong would be in a similar state of madness. Was it because Lee Hyun-muk was a High-level Awakener that he lasted longer, or was Yoon Seung-ryong’s corruption more severe?
What crawled out of the cave was in the form of a giant, long centipede. Its dark, moss-covered black armor and carapace gleamed, and its legs were exceptionally long even for a centipede, making Yohan feel like he would faint. Trying desperately to find any semblance of a human form, he saw something like a human torso attached to the monster’s head. However, its skin was black, and its face, what was on its face…
Is that, Yoon Seung-ryong? …That’s just a monster? How can a person be so corrupted? Reflexively, nausea surged, but he endured it with all his might.
As soon as it emerged from the cave, the centipede monster, no, Yoon Seung-ryong, charged towards the source of the smell. Reaching the platform piled high with pork, the monster, for some reason, did not eat immediately but slowly swayed its upper body. Its long forelimbs tentatively explored the food mixed with ssamjang, garlic, and wrap greens. Acidic fluid dripped from its gaping fangs.
A few seconds later, Yoon Seung-ryong became incredibly excited and lunged forward. He then frantically grabbed the food and shoved it into his mouth. He seemed oblivious to Lee Hyun-muk or Yohan nearby. Watching him eat ravenously, Yohan’s feelings of disgust and unpleasantness vanished, replaced by deep pity.
Lee Hyun-muk also watched Yoon Seung-ryong’s gluttonous feast without attacking. The pork, which they had spent all day painstakingly grilling, disappeared in mere minutes. Seemingly very regretful, Yoon Seung-ryong made a guttural sound and roamed around, licking the platform. As he began to gnaw on the wood, which was merely wood, Lee Hyun-muk spoke.
“Seung-ryong-ah, it’s been a while.”