-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 7
Chapter Title: Adventure 2-1. The Abandoned One
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Pointy Rock Mountain is home to many with tragic fates. They are beings exiled from the Rock Fang Tribe for various reasons.
You have made contact with one such exile, who is suffering from a vicious endemic disease. After long research, the exile stated that overcoming the endemic disease absolutely requires the Corpse Finger Mushrooms that grow wild along the cliffs of Pointy Rock Mountain. If you bring him this item, he will offer his help.
Objective: Acquire the Corpse Finger Mushroom and deliver it to The Abandoned One.
Time Remaining: 「10:59」
'Did it work?'
The Abandoned One standing before Kang Seol was trembling violently, as if struck by lightning, overcome with emotion at the promise to step up for him.
Kang Seol nodded and slipped out of the hut.
This was another feature of the Eternal World, commonly known as a side quest or hidden quest.
They often triggered within adventures and could significantly impact the main flow of the adventure.
The Abandoned One side quest differed from other side quests.
'It rewards an ally.'
Ally.
During adventures, players sometimes encountered NPCs and turned them into allies.
Allies assisted actively or passively based on the affinity built.
Allies had ranks too, and Kang Seol remembered that The Abandoned One's rank was very high.
That was why he was spending his precious time, every minute and second counting, to help The Abandoned One.
Kang Seol planned to use this side quest to turn the current crisis around.
After accepting the side quest, he checked the main adventure's time limit.
It was just past 3 p.m.
Delaying even a little could mean the sun setting before obtaining the item.
His urgency made him climb the mountain even faster.
After some time passed, the daytime warmth had vanished unnoticed.
The sun was still shining, but dusk and darkness would come with the sunset.
'No time until tomorrow… Anyway, I've found the spot.'
He had to take down the Rock Fang leaders by noon the next day.
So, now was the only time to fulfill The Abandoned One's request.
After twists and turns, Kang Seol reached the cliff.
- Nope.
- Nothing here.
- Over there… No sign of any mushroom or whatever.
- He's really struggling, huh? What's he doing? Time's already tight as hell.
- Lol upper comment jumping the gun, no way. Even Makgata, the youngest of the five brothers, wipes parties of five, how's he soloing that? Lmao.
- It's just a waste, such a waste! Sigh, that physique and judgment, dying here….
Those watching him were voicing their pity with comments he couldn't see.
Their worry wasn't unfounded.
In reality, around the cliff where Kang Seol had arrived, there wasn't a single mushroom—nothing but a single tree barely pushing through the cliff face, and not a blade of grass besides.
Had he come to the wrong place?
At that moment.
[Insight activates.]
As Kang Seol quietly gazed down from the cliff, options appeared.
[This seems to be the cliffside The Abandoned One mentioned. But there are no Corpse Finger Mushrooms anywhere. What will you do?]
1. Wait.
2. Search the vicinity.
3. Return and tell The Abandoned One the truth.
4. [Requires: Biology 1] Check if the environment is suitable for mushrooms to grow.
5. ...
Kang Seol skimmed the message and sat down on the spot.
'Hey there' has sponsored 100 Madness!
[Sorry, but where's my room's AC remote?]
- Why ask that here lmao
- Lol doesn't know this one
- Just got here? Dude hasn't even infiltrated the tribe yet? Game's screwed fr.
Unlike the worries of the masses, Kang Seol gazed at the sky with a calm expression. He was lost in brief contemplation.
'That's why it felt so familiar….'
Not the space itself.
The current situation and this adventure.
'My first horse did this adventure too….'
Among the countless adventures in the Eternal World, there were those that appeared only in early player adventures, 1 through 10.
Friendly 5 Brothers was one, and Snowman's first character had experienced it.
'And died….'
Kang Seol had poured a lot of affection into his first character.
Back then, he hadn't known the dream would last 17 years, so he gave his all every moment.
That effort extended beyond adventures into rest areas.
Raising that first character with pure passion, unaware, it died during Friendly 5 Brothers—specifically, The Abandoned One side quest.
He'd slipped and fallen to his death like an idiot while trying to harvest the Corpse Finger Mushrooms on the cliff.
It was perhaps inevitable.
A caster with low agility and strength dangling from a sheer cliff to pick mushrooms—no matter how tough the lifeline, it couldn't hold.
Kang Seol had chosen wrong.
The young Kang Seol back then was shocked and shed tears like a waterfall upon waking from the dream.
At that young age, his horse dying from his mistake, unable to progress further, was devastating.
Even now, thinking of it made his chest ache.
Though compared to then, he'd grown immensely, his heart hardened too.
That was why Kang Seol never forgot the Corpse Finger Mushroom info.
As he pondered, the air began to cool.
The sun was slowly setting, soon dyeing the sky sunset hues like a watercolor painting.
Then, the awaited sound began.
Crack…
- Huh, what?
- What's that noise?
- Something… something's happening…
The reason Kang Seol had waited motionlessly soon revealed itself.
Rumble-crack…
Something was sprouting from the cliff.
Like life emerging from barren ground, elongated mushrooms grew.
But their grotesque appearance made it far from beautiful.
Jet-black stems topped with heads like human fingernails.
Five stems as one—this was the Corpse Finger Mushroom, appearing only in the dim twilight at sunset.
'Now!'
Kang Seol activated Shadow Hand, the basic ability of Shadow Summoner.
Swoosh…
Two black arms extended from both his shoulders.
The fun thing about Shadow Hand was its physical force.
'Though that's about all it's got.'
True to a basic ability, simple function.
Before first summons, it was often used to subdue monsters.
Kang Seol luckily had Forgotten Moon Ruins as his first adventure, a trap one, so no need.
'Like… clutching an egg.'
- Shadow Hand! Heard controlling it is insane.
- What's it feel like?
- Description says it's like a tail suddenly sprouting.
- Ugh… but what's he gonna do with it?
Adapting to the odd sensation, he slowly lowered the black hand.
First try, might fail, but if tight, he could use Karuna.
Slither…
The Shadow Hand crawled naturally down the cliff.
After fumbling a bit, it gripped the mushroom.
Squeeze…
Pop! Kang Seol pulled the uprooted mushroom up to the cliff and smiled faintly.
- Doctor Octopus! There you are!
- Offended!
- First time and he's this good??;
- How tf ㄷㄷ
But as Kang Seol gripped the mushroom, pleased, about to stand.
Flash!
Something flashed in the corner of his vision.
"Light?"
Kang Seol instantly knew what reflected it.
The cliff tree he'd ignored earlier.
'What's that?'
The reflective object dangled precariously from the tree.
Kang Seol used Shadow Hand again to retrieve it.
Slither…
Thud!
He easily pulled the item up into his hand.
He recognized it immediately.
"A watch… pocket watch?"
It was a pocket watch suitable as a necklace.
The transparent glass face had a small crack.
As Kang Seol grew curious about the odd item, a message appeared.
[Insight activates.]
[Hidden adventure 'The Ownerless Pocket Watch' activates.]
Adventure 2-2. 'The Ownerless Pocket Watch'
On the lowest peak of Pointy Rock Mountain, deep within, this pocket watch had fallen.
The eagle emblem engraved on its surface suggests a story behind it. Perhaps someone in Free City Kongori knows about this pocket watch.
Objective: Find someone who knows about the pocket watch.
Time Remaining: 「No Time Limit」
'A side quest too?'
- Uh… so that watch… um… no?
- Not even in the setting book?
- Wtf ;
- Glitch, bug?
Free City Kongori was the city near Pointy Rock Mountain.
Meaning, he'd learn after this adventure anyway.
Kang Seol decided not to headache over something he couldn't resolve now.
Jingle.
Tucking the watch away, Kang Seol left the spot.
* * *
"Can I really trust him…?"
The Abandoned One muttered.
Muttering to himself was daily for this troll.
Cursed body.
The tribe and even his mother had abandoned him, but he hadn't abandoned himself.
They don't know.
They abandoned me because they don't know.
So he thought.
Ignorance isn't sin, but wrongs arise from ignorance.
'The Abandoned One' rummaged through merchants' luggage discarded after tribe hunts.
The Rock Fang trolls took most intact items, but one thing they never touched: books.
He brought them to his dwelling and read.
At first, filled with unknown script, he couldn't read them.
But using his mother's sorcery tome, he awakened sorcery himself and naturally could read them too.
There were sorceries aiding language acquisition.
Thus he grew, craving knowledge, awakening more truths as time passed.
He learned his illness was Pointy Rock Mountain's endemic disease, with a cure.
'Corpse Finger Mushroom.'
Yes… with that mushroom.
But he couldn't obtain it.
His body wasn't strong enough to dangle from cliffs, nor did anyone care to pick it for him.
He was alone.
While pacing helplessly, human Kang Seol appeared.
Compared to other trolls, he had less aversion to humans.
He'd learned their culture and history from books.
Kang Seol listened and left to fetch the mushroom.
"No way he'll get it… no way…."
The Abandoned One hated false hope.
How much vain time wasted hoping for recovery.
False hope was harsher than despair.
Yet why did he anticipate his return?
Now he realized faith stems not from ignorance, but aspiration.
Rustle.
"…Huh?"
Rustle.
Rustle.
Footsteps snapping twigs.
The Abandoned One focused all senses on the sound.
Soon, someone emerged from that direction.
Kang Seol.
"...."
The Abandoned One frowned.
Kang Seol's face was covered in wounds.
In that short time, he'd caught the disease.
The endemic was fearsome.
He probably hadn't even reached the cliff.
But then, Kang Seol grinned and pulled something from his bosom.
Unfamiliar, yet he knew.
The longed-for Corpse Finger Mushroom.
Thud…
The Abandoned One collapsed, sobbing.
"Thank you… thank you, stranger. I am saved."
After a while, Kang Seol helped him up.
He entered the hut with The Abandoned One and briefly explained future plans amid repeated thanks.
The Abandoned One listened quietly, pondered, then replied.
"Understood. I'll do my utmost to help you."
[You have saved The Abandoned One.]
[As reward, The Abandoned One will assist you.]