'Damn it.'
Han-eol squeezed both eyes shut.
Even in the midst of that, blood welled up in gushes from Han-eol's arm and chest, staining the white snowfield red.
Was it because they had caught the scent of human blood?
Behind the chief Snow Wolf, four more Snow Wolf tribe members had fallen into line.
Grrrr, grrrrrrr.
The low-frequency growls the Snow Wolves let slip came through the ground as vibrations.
'Haaah, hah.'
Han-eol found it even harder to breathe.
Before long, six Snow Wolves had ringed Han-eol in a circle.
Now Han-eol had no means of escape.
Whine, whimper.
When the chief drew near, the Snow Wolf that had first marked Han-eol tucked its tail between its legs and edged backward.
The chief approached with imposing majesty, as if it were only natural, and looked down at Han-eol with an arrogant gaze. The octagonal demon spirit stone embedded in the chief's forehead scattered a mysterious light.
'To die like this is too unfair.'
Rage boiled up inside Han-eol.
Anger made Han-eol open both eyes wide.
Because of that, the form of the enormous chief Snow Wolf was captured clearly on Han-eol's retinas. Along with it, Han-eol's own reflection cast upon the demon beast's glistening pupils was clearly visible too.
'Bleeding and scared stiff, what a truly pathetic sight. Huh? Hold on!'
Han-eol clicked his tongue at the sight of his own reflection and then was suddenly struck by a great shock.
It had changed.
Something was different.
Because there had been no change at all in his body even after exposure to the Highland environment, Han-eol had assumed he had failed to awaken an ability and had been disappointed.
But it was not his body; his soul had changed slightly.
To be precise, it was not Han-eol's soul but the Image that had been slowly rotating inside the soul that had undergone a change.
A gray, limply hanging hand.
A gray needle & thread.
Likewise gray plaster paste.
And lastly, tightly closed gray lips.
These were the four Images that Han-eol's soul had originally held.
Yet while there was no change at all in the 'needle & thread,' the 'plaster paste,' and the 'tightly closed lips' among these, the hand had changed.
Color had been beautifully laid over the once achromatic hand.
'Huh? What is this?'
Han-eol blinked in surprise.
Meanwhile, the chief Snow Wolf pressed its snout right up against Han-eol's chest and twitched its nose.
Grrrrrr―.
From between the chief's parted jaws, saliva mixed with white foam dripped down, wetting Han-eol's face and chest with a sticky film.
'Ugh.'
A foul stench stabbed at Han-eol's nose.
The chief Snow Wolf stuck out its coarse tongue and lapped at the blood welling from Han-eol's forearm. It seemed the thing meant to enjoy the taste of blood as an appetizer before chewing into human flesh in earnest.
'Krgh. Krrgh.'
When the demon beast's tongue brushed the wound, unbearable pain drove through Han-eol's skin and pressed in with a dull ache.
Even so, Han-eol kept his eyes wide open and observed the other's soul.
Every soul Han-eol had observed up to now had been human. Those souls naturally resembled humans, and their color was close to gray.
The Snow Wolf tribe's souls did not stray far from Han-eol's expectations either. Their souls took the form of dingy gray wolves.
'I thought it would be like this.'
But suddenly a change occurred in Han-eol's viewpoint. The chief Snow Wolf's soul had abruptly turned into a flat two dimensions.
***
One dimension is a point.
Two dimensions is a plane.
A picture drawn on paper could be called precisely a two-dimensional world.
And the chief Snow Wolf's soul as reflected in Han-eol's eyes looked exactly like that picture on paper.
It was not only the soul that had flattened into two dimensions; even the periphery around the soul had all become two-dimensional.
At present the chief Snow Wolf's soul sat enthroned inside a solid octagonal fortress of three layers, being safely protected from the outside.
On the outer side of the fortress, three jagged horn-like things had sprouted, and Han-eol got the feeling that the Snow Wolf swung those about like weapons to attack or hunt external enemies.
If the scene Han-eol was seeing now were visualized, it would look like the following figure.
1-1
If an outside enemy belonging to two dimensions wanted to attack the chief Snow Wolf's soul, what would it have to do?
The outside enemy would first have to snap off the three horns.
Then it would have to bore through no fewer than three layers of the solid octagonal fortress before it could finally deal a direct blow to the Snow Wolf's soul.
'If the Snow Wolf is a two-dimensional being and the outside enemy is a two-dimensional being, it could not be otherwise. But then why can I see this in three dimensions?'
Han-eol was bewildered.
Right now the chief Snow Wolf's soul looked as if it had been printed onto two-dimensional paper.
By contrast, Han-eol's field of vision was looking down at the other's soul from three dimensions.
'In a three-dimensional world, that is, if I reach my hand down from above, it seems I could touch the Snow Wolf's soul as freely as I like without having to deal with those pointed horns? In that case the octagonal barrier is no obstacle at all, isn't it?'
Han-eol suddenly hit upon this thought.
The instant Han-eol recognized the concept of 'touching a soul,' the full-color hand within his Image grew larger of its own accord and took on substance.
It goes without saying, but among the living things present in this place, there was no being that could properly perceive Han-eol's hand.
This was the same principle by which a wolf inside two-dimensional paper can never grasp the three-dimensional world outside the paper.
Because Han-eol's hand existed in a dimension one level higher than the present world―naturally that was not three dimensions but a higher dimension above it―no one other than Han-eol could see the full-color hand that had emerged from within Han-eol's Image.
Touching it was impossible as well.
So no being whatsoever would be able to stop Han-eol's full-color hand.
Han-eol pictured a single scene in his head.
The image of curling his thumb and index finger like tongs and plucking out only the chief Snow Wolf's soul, lodged inside the solid octagonal barrier, in one clean pull.
That image soon became reality.
The hand within Han-eol's Image thrust in from the higher dimension one level above into the present dimension, and then RIP! it seized and yanked out only the chief wolf's soul.
Just as a farmer removes a weed from a field, the other's soul came out root and all, RIP!
This single blow ended it.
Gk―aaah―.
The chief Snow Wolf, which had had no match in this area, expired on the spot the instant its soul was pulled out.
The Snow Wolf's massive body, having lost its spirit, topples heavily onto Han-eol's body.
Naturally Han-eol could not bear the Snow Wolf's weight.
"Kegh."
Han-eol poured out a scream that welled up from his lungs.
Several cracks ran through Han-eol's ribs.
Had he not been wearing the A-grade vest, he would have come near to having his breath stop pointlessly, crushed beneath the demon beast's corpse.
That was how monstrous the chief Snow Wolf's weight was.
Kiing? Kuh-hurr.
When their leader suddenly toppled, the remaining Snow Wolves sprang back. Though startled by the abrupt calamity, the Snow Wolves could not carelessly rush at Han-eol.
It was because they feared that if they bared their teeth and charged in, they might be misunderstood by the chief who meant to feast on the prey and be given a thrashing.
They had not yet grasped the fact that their leader had croaked.
Thanks to that, Han-eol gained a moment to catch his breath.
'Urrgh. I have to pull myself together.'
Even while crushed beneath the massive demon beast's corpse with his breath blocked up to his throat, Han-eol concentrated his mind and first surveyed the surrounding situation.
The soul of the second Snow Wolf was captured in Han-eol's eyes.
This soul, too, looked as if it had been mounted flat inside a two-dimensional figure.
However, unlike the chief's, the other's barrier was a mere single layer of octagonal figure. Its attack horn was one rather than three.
Of course, the number of the enemy's barriers did not matter to Han-eol. When Han-eol raised his will, the full-color hand slid in from the higher dimension one level above into the present dimension and plucked out precisely the soul of the Snow Wolf it had marked as its target.
Gk-aaah―.
Another Snow Wolf, having lost its spirit, died instantly.
Along with a heavy sound, the dead Snow Wolf's corpse topples into the snowfield.
Kuh-hurr, kuh-hurh, kuh-hurr.
The Snow Wolves were thrown into confusion by the anomalies occurring one after another.
In the meantime, Han-eol pulled out the third Snow Wolf's spirit.
Already three corpses had been produced.
Terrified by this, the Snow Wolves tucked their tails and backed away.
Even so, the Snow Wolves bristled their fur to protect themselves from the unknown attack. They bared their pointed teeth in full as well.
***
Kyaoooooo―.
The Snow Wolves' cries had changed completely from a moment ago.
Because of that, the signs that the Snow Wolves were frightened showed all the more. As evidence of their unease, the octagonal demon spirit stones embedded in the Snow Wolves' foreheads formed protective barriers of a faint hue.
Immediately, a change occurred in the soul figures of the others as caught in Han-eol's field of vision. One more circle had formed outside the octagonal barrier surrounding the Snow Wolf's soul.
'Has a barrier been added?'
Han-eol's guess was right. Using demon spirit energy, the Snow Wolves had formed one layer of membrane protecting their entire bodies.
But this protective barrier was only effective against enemies of the same dimension, and it held no meaning whatsoever against Han-eol's attack, which thrust in abruptly from a higher dimension one level above and snatched away only the soul.
Han-eol's hand, plucking out souls one after another from a defenseless state.
In a mere few seconds, the fourth and fifth Snow Wolves died instantly.
Kae-gaeng.
The last survivor, left alone, hid its tail between its legs and scurries away in flight.
Han-eol's face crumpled.
If he let that Snow Wolf get away here, it might bring back other companions.
'Urrgh. That will not do.'
Han-eol endured the pain and raised his will.
The full-color hand within his Image had already been withdrawn into the higher dimension and now entered this world again. Han-eol's hand, catching up in a single stroke to the enemy fleeing at tremendous speed, popped out the Snow Wolf's soul from inside its octagonal barrier.
Ke-heng.
The last Snow Wolf drove its head into the snowfield along with a single short scream.
This time too it was instant death.
A short while later.
"Urgh. Urrrrgh."
Han-eol's jaw trembled and shook. Having lain buried in the snow for a long while under the chief Snow Wolf's corpse, Han-eol's blood was congealing coldly.
'At this rate I die. Urrgh. I have to get up quickly and get out of here. Krrgh.'
Han-eol barely overcame the pain of his caved-in chest and succeeded in crawling out from beneath the Snow Wolf's corpse.
At the sight of the six Snow Wolf corpses collapsed here and there across the snowfield without a single wound, a tingling electricity ran up Han-eol's tailbone.
Han-eol let out an exclamation before he knew it.
"Aaaaah. Krgh."
Then suddenly Han-eol felt an acute pain from his left arm.
This was the spot where the first Snow Wolf had bitten him. The places where the demon beast's teeth had bored in directly, in particular, began to swell up noticeably.
'The swelling is not the problem.'
Han-eol's broken arm dangles limply. The blood Han-eol had shed had already soaked a two-meter area around him.
Because of the blood loss, Han-eol's head throbbed.
'No good. I have to stop the bleeding first, quickly.'
Fortunately, Han-eol's Vitality figure was higher than other people's.
It meant that Han-eol's own rate of healing was unusually fast.
"Urrgh."
Han-eol leaned his body against a tree, fixed his broken arm so that it would not shake, and then thrashed about to barely get his backpack off.
Then he opened the backpack and took out the medicine pouch first.
'This is the painkiller...... And is this the antidote injection you use when bitten by a demon beast?'
Han-eol strained to recall the knowledge he had learned during his training hours.
He first tossed a handful of painkillers into his mouth and chewed them noisily. Then he pulled out the antidote injection kit and jabbed the needle hard into his own flank.
Han-eol had originally been on the side of not handling injections well.
Even so, in this situation there was no helping it. Since most of the Highland's demon beasts held venom in their teeth, one had to take the antidote injection immediately upon being bitten. If instead one left the injury unattended, there was no telling when the venom would spread and drop them cold.
'Haaah. The painkiller works well.'
The pain coming from his broken left arm eased considerably. Han-eol laboriously wound a bandage with only his right hand and secured his left arm against his body.
Next, Han-eol fumbled a 'space-contraction vacuum pack' out of his backpack.
Han-eol had already learned how to use this pack during his training.
Han-eol threw the space-contraction vacuum pack toward a Snow Wolf's corpse.
At that, the pack spread wide open like a net and wrapped up the heavy corpse, whose body length alone exceeded several meters, just as it was.
Presently the vacuum pack shrank down with a soft rustle, contracting to about the size of two palms pressed together.
Though a fully grown Snow Wolf had been stuffed inside whole, the vacuum pack had become astonishingly small, and its height had thinned to one centimeter as well.
The more astonishing point was the fact that its weight had also dropped sharply. Even the vacuum pack holding the chief Snow Wolf, which weighed over several tons, was light enough for Han-eol to lift with one hand.
Of course, it was not as light as paper. In the case of the vacuum pack holding the chief Snow Wolf's corpse, it easily exceeded ten kilograms.
Still, that was something.
"Heave."
Han-eol pulled a second vacuum pack from his backpack and recovered one more Snow Wolf corpse.
When Han-eol had repeated this several times over, all six demon beast corpses were stowed away inside six space-contraction vacuum packs.
Han-eol stacked those packs neatly inside his backpack.