Kaian looked at the red flag fluttering beneath the blue autumn sky and smiled brightly.
“Haa, haa, yes! This is my masterpiece!”
The mission to obtain Flame Veil had a time limit.
First, he could not skip fieldwork.
And after harvesting Flame Veil, he had to return within 12 hours.
So the total time he had was only about 18 hours at most.
What was the most pointless and terrible failure one could face when time was limited?
‘Getting lost, obviously.’
After receiving the mission from Eldarin, the first thing Kaian did was climb Ember’s tree house.
Then he studied the general direction and terrain leading to his destination.
After that, he made several wooden poles and attached red flags to their ends.
‘They need to be long enough to see from far away at a glance, and they need to be bright red.’
Fortunately, Eldarin’s glass greenhouse was filled with fruits and plants that could produce red dye.
Working with wood was also quite enjoyable, so making the poles itself was not particularly difficult.
The problem came after he finished making the poles.
After lunch every day, Kaian began running along the route he would take on the decisive day.
‘I need to build stamina, and more importantly, there aren’t really any proper paths here.’
He placed the poles he had made at regular intervals along the route.
The next afternoon, he climbed trees again to check whether he had set the direction correctly.
If it was not the shortest route, he was willing to make corrections.
‘I repeated that for an entire week.’
Thanks to that, the blisters on his feet appeared, burst, appeared again, and burst again.
It was a complete disaster.
Moving several poles at once was also unbelievably heavy.
Kaian shook his head as if he was tired just remembering it.
‘I only dragged them around, but I still have muscle pain.’
He considered making a cart, but the difficulty of construction was higher than expected, and he could not finish it in time.
‘Besides, with my body size, pulling it would have been a job by itself.’
In the end, he had no choice but to charge ahead with only his own body.
As a result, a week’s worth of muscle pain accumulated, and even now, every time his feet touched the ground, his entire body tingled.
Even so, he was willing to endure the pain for one reason.
His determination to use magic.
Every time Kaian completed another difficult task, he thought:
If I used magic, it would have been easier.
If I used magic, it would have been simple.
It was not that he disliked moving his own hands.
If anything, he found it fascinating.
‘But being able to do something and choosing not to is completely different from being unable to do it because you can’t.’
Kaian hurried his steps while dreaming of the day he would control the flames in his inner world and freely use magic.
—Tap, tap, tap, tap.
He passed another red flagpole.
“Haa, haa, haa…!”
Kaian desperately calmed his breathing, which had risen to the tip of his throat.
‘How far have I run? No, how much farther do I have to go?’
He had definitely been counting the number of poles he passed.
But at some point, he forgot which one he was on.
One thing was certain.
His running speed was gradually slowing.
“Haa, haa… no, breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe… cough! Cough! Cough!”
He even choked on his own breath.
‘This is driving me crazy.’
—Tap, tap, tap.
The sound of his feet striking the ground brought endless thoughts to his mind.
Perhaps useless thoughts were rushing in because he only wanted to rest.
‘Come to think of it, fieldwork was the easiest time.’
Still, Kaian did not stop walking.
That was because of the small belief in his heart.
The belief that Eldarin had not told him to obtain Flame Veil alone just to be cruel.
‘There must be a reason.’
His mountain-goat elf teacher, who had a dark heart, always had a plan.
‘I just don’t know what it is.’
Through his experiences so far, Kaian had learned that if he followed Eldarin’s instructions, something valuable always remained with him.
That was why he was still trying to think positively.
“Yeah, haa, this too, haa, and that too, hoo, everything, breathe in, breathe out, is training.”
—Tap, tap, tap!
Kaian considered his life in Eldergrove one enormous training session.
But it was training he could never have endured alone.
‘The earth spirits helped me barely endure it.’
Every night, when he collapsed exhausted in the yard, the earth spirits approached and restored his energy.
Once, he accidentally fell asleep in the warm yellow light unique to earth spirits.
When he woke later, he saw the spirits struggling with their tiny bodies to drag over a blanket.
Remembering the sight, he let out a small laugh.
‘I should take better care of the fields when I return.’
Eldarin had said that the more carefully one treated the earth, the stronger the spirits’ power became.
If the spirits became stronger, the help he could receive would increase as well.
‘Then their cuteness will double. Their recovery power will double too!’
Kaian comforted his exhausted body with happy thoughts.
He still needed to think more about what it meant to properly care for the earth.
But once he returned safely, he intended to do everything he could.
‘If I learn magic, I’ll be able to take care of even more land….’
Thinking that, Kaian stopped briefly at the end of a shallow uphill slope.
“Haa, haa, haa….”
His entire body throbbed as if it had become one giant heart.
—Whoooooosh!
A refreshing autumn breeze blew, but his heated body did not calm easily.
Many thoughts had passed through his mind while running.
But the more he thought, the clearer one conclusion became.
‘I must repair my inner world.’
Kaian drank the ginger tea Ember had given him and stretched his body.
Then he adjusted his backpack again.
The autumn sun did not last very long.
“Let’s run.”
Soon, he would see the next flag.
***
The place where the final red flag was planted was where the Golden Plains ended.
There was a small forest there.
According to the information Kaian had squeezed out of Eldarin through endless questions, the true volcanic region began after passing through that forest.
‘The path I know ends here. From now on, I have to search and find my own way.’
Kaian crossed his arms and thought in front of the forest.
Considering the distance he had traveled and his stamina, immediately sleeping after reaching the forest would be the most efficient timing.
But Kaian did not feel comfortable with it.
‘…I don’t want to go in. It’s already getting dark.’
That was despite the fact that a little sunset still remained.
The night inside a forest was dark.
Much darker than most people imagined.
Kaian knew this relatively well because he had run through one alone before.
Darkness stimulated imagination.
Invisible dangers grew larger in his mind, and the shadow of fear covered his soul.
The memories lurking deep within the darkness.
The death of his family, which he had not even been able to see because of the Word of Command, visited Kaian every night, covered with layers of imagination.
Because of that, he still could not sleep with the lights off.
‘If my second brother knew, he would tease me so much.’
For Kaian, who suffered from nightmares, Eldarin placed a small lantern inside his room.
The light created by magic would not go out even from passing wind or someone’s playful breath.
Kaian had considered bringing his precious lantern on this journey.
But it was simply too unrealistic.
‘It was too bulky.’
Kaian groaned.
“Ugh….”
No matter how much he hated darkness, continuing onward in his current condition was impossible.
In the end, Kaian decided to make a fire before the sunset completely disappeared.
He settled beneath a large tree.
‘Yeah, at least a campfire should make things better…!’
Everything was fine until then.
But then he realized something.
In the night forest, Kaian was not the only one who needed fire.
“Furrrr…!”
A threatening snort sounded.
“Whoa, whoa. Calm down… calm down….”
Kaian held a torch in a defensive stance and watched the angry opponent in front of him.
A body 1.5 times larger than an ordinary wild boar.
A hardened layer of skin covering its body like basalt.
And obsidian tusks glowing red from the fire mana they contained.
—Gulp!
‘No way. It really appeared.’
There was no doubt.
It was an Obsidian Boar, a creature said to primarily inhabit volcanic regions.
Kaian had thought he might encounter one because of its habit of seeking places rich in fire mana.
But not in this forest.
‘And you…! You look much scarier than you did in the book!’
Kaian screamed internally.
The Obsidian Boar stomped threateningly and snorted.
—Stomp! Stomp!
“Furrrr!”
It looked ready to charge at any moment.
Just standing before it made Kaian’s legs tremble.
He repeatedly told himself.
‘Calm down. Calm down. I practiced mental preparation several times.’
Holding the torch, Kaian slowly stepped backward.
He did not avert his gaze.
The moment he looked away, the creature would charge.
Kaian stretched out the hand not holding the torch behind him.
Soon, his fingers touched the rough bark of a tree.
‘Ugh, it should be somewhere around here….’
Kaian moved his searching hand around without letting the Obsidian Boar notice.
And finally, he felt the wooden board he had desperately been searching for.
‘It’s here!’
While maintaining the fierce stare with the Obsidian Boar, Kaian moved his feet this time.
—Clack!
His foot caught on the wooden board.
From this point onward, it was a battle of reflexes and speed.
—Grip!
Kaian tightened his hold on the torch handle.
His palm was damp from tension.
But strangely, a laugh kept escaping him.
‘Is this the thrill of something going according to plan?’
—Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!
“Furrrr! Frrr!”
The Obsidian Boar shook its head as if the smaller prey before it was ridiculous.
Then—
Kaian threw the torch he was holding with all his strength.
—Whoosh!
“Gweeeh! Frrr!”
The moment the Obsidian Boar’s attention was stolen by the fire—
—Tatatatatatak!
Kaian quickly climbed the makeshift ladder made from wooden boards and escaped the creature’s attack range.
It was a ladder he had placed from the beginning when choosing this spot in preparation for this situation.
He credited his survival to his thorough preparation.
And his diligence in practicing tree climbing every single day.
But it was still too early to relax.
The Obsidian Boar immediately charged toward the tree Kaian had climbed after avoiding the torch.
—THUD!
“Waaaaah!”
The enormous impact shook the tree.
Even though Kaian held tightly to the trunk with both arms and legs, the force was strong enough to make his body sway.
Perhaps angry at being tricked by such a crude deception, the creature charged again without stopping.
—THUD!
That was when.
An ominous sound reached Kaian’s ears.
—Crack….
“Huh?”
—THUD!
—Crack, crackling…!
“W-what?! No way…!”
Kaian wanted to deny reality.
But no matter how many times he thought about it, that was the sound of a tree about to break.
11