The wildcat walking with a wound in its side collapsed onto its side.
Was it dead?
“Y-Yowl.”
Its faint breathing and the fact that it hadn’t dissolved into dust meant it was still alive. Judging by its condition, however, it wouldn’t have been strange for it to stop breathing at any moment. The wildcat still couldn’t properly open its eyes and panted desperately.
Should I help it?
-Help it? Why? Your own nose is already three feet long—you’ve got trouble enough of your own. Are you still Kang Seung-woo, living warm and well-fed in modern society? Even if you were, how would you treat it? Are you planning to use the potion?
‘How much was left again?’
I had wrapped the potion bottle in several layers of clothing in case it broke during a fight or an ambush.
Why?
Because it was obviously my lifeline.
Over the past few days, I had fought more than one desperate battle while being chased by monsters. Even when dogs had bitten me so badly that they nearly tore off chunks of flesh, a few drops of potion had healed the wounds.
I couldn’t use the potion now that only half a bottle remained. I had bandages and medicinal herbs as well, but just in case, I wasn’t even using the bandages on myself. I was roughly tearing up clothes to bind my wounds instead.
They had been called medicinal herbs, but they were plants whose names I didn’t even know.
They could’ve been poisonous…….
Rustle. Rustle.
“No, fuck! Where the hell is it?!”
“Look properly. I told you the scent is coming from nearby.”
“It’s already been four days since we lost it. Didn’t you say that smelly incense only lasts a week?”
“Go say that shit to the captain.”
“…Damn it.”
I heard men talking as they searched the surrounding area. My hand had moved to the machete before I even realized it.
“That little black cat bastard can’t have gone far.”
“The captain will throw another fit if we don’t find it. Let’s hurry.”
Their conversation drew my gaze toward the black wildcat collapsed before me.
Poaching?
Was it something like that?
I carefully picked up the wildcat and tucked it against my chest. If I tried treating it here, I would probably run into those bastards first anyway.
“It definitely seems to be around here.”
“It’s so small I can’t see where the hell it went.”
Holding the wildcat, I ran in the direction it had been walking. Fortunately, it was opposite the direction the voices had come from. After running for around ten minutes, I could no longer sense anyone nearby.
I placed the wheezing creature on my lap and began treating it.
I washed its wound with the boiled stream water I had stored in my canteen. I didn’t have saline, but wasn’t this better than ordinary water?
I opened the potion bottle.
Sigh. I must be insane.
POP.
Ignoring the sound effect I had grown used to after hearing it so many times, I very carefully let a single drop of potion fall onto its wound.
HISSSSS.
“Whiiiine.”
Bubbles rose as flesh filled the wound. Fortunately, it wasn’t deep. Two more drops healed it completely.
The next time I reached a shop, I was definitely stocking up on potions.
“Yowl!”
As though thanking me, the creature rubbed its head against my cheek. Then it immediately leapt to the ground, sniffed around, and started running.
I ran after it.
For such a small creature, it was incredibly fast.
‘If I’m not careful, I’ll lose it.’
I wondered whether the little bastard had taken the treatment and run, but whenever I fell behind, it cried out or stopped and looked back at me.
Where was it taking me?
Just as the question occurred to me, the creature stopped.
SCRITCH, SCRITCH.
The wildcat dug at the grass stems covering the base of a tree trunk.
“Hiss, hiss.”
I sat beside the straining creature and tore away the stems with it. Once an opening appeared, the wildcat slipped inside.
“Miyu!”
A woman’s voice rang out.
RRRIP.
A whole clump of grass stems tore free in my hands.
And I found a wild ‘Druid.’
***
The races appearing in this game were broadly divided into three categories: humans, demons, and monsters. In practical terms, you could fight and hunt everything except the player character. Killing humans or demons granted experience just like killing monsters did.
Conversely, humans and demons tried to kill the player just as monsters did. Depending on the quest, you could also fight alongside monsters.
Of the three, humans were the least trustworthy.
At the same time, human NPCs were also the most reliable.
Like this Druid before me, they were broadly grouped under the category of humans, but the human races included Humans, Dwarves, Druids, Barbarians, and more. According to the official setting, Druids were a race that valued promises and oaths as highly as their own lives, just like Barbarians.
“Cough. Who, cough, are you?”
As far as I remembered, Druids had white skin and green hair.
Then why was her face so red?
The Druid was inside a pit, pointing her staff at me. She didn’t appear to have any external injuries.
Had she been poisoned?
‘No.’
Having experienced poisoning against my will, I knew that poison drained the color from the face and turned it dark. The lips also became blue.
At least, that was what the poison I had suffered had done, and the game’s visual effects had been the same.
But the Druid’s face was… red?
The exposed skin of her hands and neck repeatedly swelled and subsided. The head of the wooden staff aimed at me glowed green. If I remembered correctly, that was the effect of a Purification Spell—a form of Green Magic Druids used to remove status effects.
It seemed to grow worse every time the wildcat in her arms rubbed its head against her…….
“…An allergy?”
Whenever the wildcat in her arms acted affectionately, her coughing worsened and her skin swelled red. A constricted cough as though her airway were closing, rashes, and hives appearing across her skin.
Did she have a cat allergy?
Or perhaps an allergy to fur?
“Alle? Aller? Is that your name?”
So allergies existed even in a fantasy world.
Then again, this game even had people with leprosy. It wasn’t impossible.
“It looks like that wildcat brought me here to save you.”
“…Miyu?”
So Miyu was the creature’s name.
The Druid looked down at the wildcat in her arms. The wildcat met her gaze.
Was this some kind of animal communication?
What had the game’s setting for Druids been again?
I couldn’t remember.
“I-I don’t, cough, need help. Go… away.”
As expected of a Druid, she was a stubborn woman. But I could see her condition worsening in real time. Her airway seemed to be closing, and she could no longer connect her words properly.
Druids were the most useful companions after Barbarians.
It would be a waste to lose one here.
I took the bundle of medicinal herbs from the backpack on my back. There were three kinds, each wrapped separately in cloth: leaves with strange spotted patterns, leaves shaped like toothpicks, and three-leaf-clover-like plants that smelled of mint.
“You’re a Druid, right?”
The Druid looked too weak to speak, but she nodded while watching me warily. I didn’t know whether Miyu had told her through eye contact that she had brought me here, but she didn’t seem likely to attack me immediately.
‘Even if she does, a Druid’s attack skills only deal about as much damage as Wind Fist. It probably doesn’t matter.’
“Are any of these medicinal herbs?”
The Druid frowned and pointed with her staff at the toothpick-shaped leaves.
“Which one is poisonous?”
This time, she pointed at the mint-scented three-leaf clover.
Oh, shit.
It smelled so pleasant that I had assumed it was tea and planned to brew it.
Good thing I hadn’t.
“Get that wildcat away from you and wait here.”
“Ghk.”
She tried to speak, but her throat closed before she could say anything. Only the green light from her staff grew more intense.
Druids were a class that fought by taming monsters and beasts. Their own combat power was low, but they were useful as supporters.
Considering how severe her allergic symptoms looked, wouldn’t she already have died if she hadn’t been using a status-effect-removal spell?
FWOOSH.
I lit a fire beneath the Iron Jar I had carried since waking inside the wagon. I had wondered why the metal jar had three legs attached to it.
Apparently, this was what they were for.
I placed the medicinal herb identified by the Druid and some water inside.
“Let’s see.”
While the water heated, I added several drops of the solution in the reagent vial according to the proportions written in the Jar Crafting Manual. Before long, the water began to boil. Green light burst from the Iron Jar’s surface, then faded away.
“Complete!”
Inside the Iron Jar sat a jar glowing green. It was small enough to fit in one hand. When I picked it up, it settled naturally into my palm.
It felt more secure in my hand than the machete’s grip.
‘Oh, this grip is nice.’
The name written in the manual was [Purification Jar]. Its effect remained the same no matter what medicinal herb was used to make it.
In a word, it provided ‘Status Effect Removal.’
The strength probably varied depending on the herb’s Grade.
“What are you doing……?”
CLONK—!
CRUMBLE.
The Druid toppled backward after the jar struck her head. The green jar shattered more easily than an ordinary one. As it burst, green powder seeped into the Druid’s body.
“Miyoooowl-!”
I grabbed the crying wildcat by the scruff and lifted it into my arms.
“You can play with me.”
I had gone to all the trouble of treating her. Wouldn’t keeping this creature beside her put us right back where we started?
I wasn’t sure. It was my first time using one too.
Druids were said to repay favors twofold and revenge tenfold.
She would probably thank me when she woke up, right?
***
“You! What did you do?!”
Unlike in the game, the Druid was an ungrateful bastard. I had treated her, and she grabbed me by the collar.
Apparently, this had changed when the game became reality.
“But you’re cured.”
“……You’re right.”
After checking her condition, the Druid released my collar in confusion. Her eyes shook with bewilderment.
Of course they did.
She had woken after being struck in the head by a jar, only to find her body completely healed.
“You have an allergy.”
“An allergy?”
“It’s complicated to explain. You only need to know that playing with furry animals will probably put your life in danger like that again.”
“…I know.”
Well, as a Druid, she must have spent her life surrounded by furry animals. It would’ve been stranger if she didn’t know.
Then why was she with that wildcat?
Not that I needed to know that much.
“Do you have companions?”
“…No.”
Of course she didn’t.
If she had companions, she wouldn’t have been hiding beneath a tree trunk in a burrow while dying.
“Then become my compan—”
“No. I’m being chas—no, I have something I must do…….”
The Druid rambled as she rejected my offer to become companions. But the deep dark circles beneath her eyes and her lips, which had gone beyond dry and begun to crack, made her look extremely tired.
The sun was still up.
To be honest, I was tired too.
Tired enough that I was confident I could spread out the backpack, lie down, and leave for dreamland immediately.
“If you can’t become my companion, then let’s form a temporary alliance for exactly twelve hours.”
“A temporary alliance?”
The Druid frowned as she repeated the words.
I had used medicinal herbs and a potion. I couldn’t back away after taking only a loss.
“I’m extremely tired right now.”
“…….”
“So we’ll settle this by standing watch while the other sleeps.”
The Druid looked conflicted, then reluctantly nodded. I held out my hand for a handshake, and she took it.
Her hand was incredibly soft.
“…Good.”
I took the triangular tent from my backpack and quickly set it up. I draped several pieces of clothing over the canvas like blackout curtains, and almost no light entered. Once I spread the sleeping bag across the ground, the comfortable tent was complete.
The Druid watched me from behind.
“You still seem suspicious of me, but I’m sleeping first, all right?”
“Fine.”
Even as I climbed into the sleeping bag, I left the machete drawn beside me.
Still, I should watch her for one… maybe twenty minutes…….
“Wake up!”
“Ugh!”
I jolted awake in shock. The pocket watch I had handed her before falling asleep showed that two hours had passed.
This was insane.
When had I become this careless?
Or had this body simply been that steeped in exhaustion?
At some point, Miyu the wildcat had curled up and fallen asleep beside my head.
Still, perhaps thanks to the deep sleep, my body felt incredibly refreshed. That alone made me feel as though I had already recouped the cost of the pottery.
I took back the pocket watch and left the tent. The sun had set. The moon was out tonight, so I could see the surroundings somewhat.
“What are you doing?”
Instead of entering the tent, the Druid tried to lie down on the dirt beside it.
Why was she doing that when there was a perfectly good sleeping bag?
“Go inside and sleep.”
“…….”
“You need proper sleep, or you’ll doze off during your next watch.”
“…All right.”
Unable to hide the smile on her lips, she entered the tent. She had the air of a proud little child.
Come to think of it, the wildcat was inside.
Would she be all right?
Well, the book said the jar’s effect gradually weakened but lasted several hours.
She would probably be fine.
“Should I make some jars in advance?”
I placed the Iron Jar over the campfire the Druid had tended and opened the Jar Crafting Manual.
At the time, I didn’t know.
That night would be the last time I ever got to sleep in a tent.