By the time I arrived at the scene, it was right after Nadan had been struck by the monster’s foreleg and flung backward.
A cat’s paw print was clearly stamped into the metal chest guard Nadan was wearing.
Claw marks were there too, as a bonus.
The distance between me and the scene was twenty meters.
There was still quite a distance left, but the monster was not giving me time to arrive and was charging toward Nadan.
I had no experience that would let me judge what action was most efficient in this situation.
But I knew what action was most right.
Before my head could think, my body reacted first.
“Stabilizer.”
I stopped running and took my stance first.
I placed my left foot forward and my right foot back, standing so that if a line were drawn from above, the target and I would form a ninety-degree angle.
When I nocked an arrow to the string, I could see the trajectory.
Between me and the monster stood a giant tree thick enough to wrap one’s arms around.
The trajectory touched the trunk of the giant tree, but it stretched beyond the trunk.
In other words, the trajectory was telling me that my arrow could pierce through the giant tree and reach its destination.
After taking my stance, I exhaled long to empty my lungs, then released the bowstring while holding my breath.
TWANG—!
The arrow pierced clean through the giant tree, leaving behind a hole the size of an index finger.
Since it was an arrow shot through cover, it would not be an exaggeration to say I had struck at the monster’s blind spot.
Even so, the monster reacted to my arrow.
“GRRROAR!”
Along with a thin cry, the monster’s form changed.
From the form of a Ghost Tiger into a tiny cat.
No matter how I looked at it, it looked like nothing but a black Bombay cat.
As the monster’s physique changed, the arrow passed far away from the monster and embedded itself in a distant tree.
Then came an adorable cry.
“Meow~.”
The difference in temperature between its cries was extreme.
Enough to rival the daily temperature swing of early spring.
Was that little cat also a kind of monster?
Still, I did not know for sure, so let’s not lower my guard.
Just as I was about to nock the next arrow, the monster leaped into the grass on the other side and vanished without a trace.
Was it wary because an arrow had suddenly come flying from its blind spot?
Or perhaps once it transformed into a specific breed, it could not transform into another breed for a while.
I gave more weight to the latter hypothesis, lowered the bow, and ran to Nadan.
“Mr. Nadan! Are you all right?”
Nadan moved his hand with difficulty, placed his palm on his body, then inserted a finger into the crack in his chest guard and pulled it out.
“There is... no bleeding. Should I call that fortunate amid misfortune?”
“Just in case, I will loosen the guard and loosen your belt.”
“What is this? You are skilled in emergencies. I thought you said you only lived an ordinary life.”
“In my hometown, everyone is taught at least this much as basic knowledge.”
After taking measures so Nadan could breathe comfortably, I diagnosed his condition as best I could with my untrained eye.
There was no bleeding on the outside.
Instead, I suspected a rib fracture.
While performing first aid, I asked.
“Now I really need to hear it. That cat that was transforming into various breeds—what was she originally?”
Nadan repeatedly parted his lips and closed them.
Perhaps it was difficult to bring himself to say it, because empty breaths kept flowing from Nadan’s mouth.
When I put strength into my eyes and stared at him with a firm expression, only then did Nadan give up and confess obediently.
“She is my younger sister.”
“.......”
“I know. An older brother trying to kill his younger sister. I deserve to be told I am not even human. But I have a duty to clean up what was left behind.”
“Do not fabricate someone else’s reaction however you like. I still have not heard how she ended up becoming a monster.”
“Do you really have to hear it?”
“Why say something so hurtful?”
For me, Nadan had not only yielded all the experience points for my sake when I was unused to hunting, but had also not hesitated to pass down his main skill.
Personally, Nadan had long since settled in my mind as a three-dimensional existence assembled from pieces of roles that gave to someone else—a teacher, a mentor, a neighborhood older brother, and so on.
So treating me like a stranger felt hurtful.
When I showed no sign of backing down, Nadan exhaled long.
By the time his raised shoulders sank, an old story flowed from Nadan’s mouth.
***
It was one year and six months ago.
At that time, Cypher Village had two professional hunters.
The older brother, Nadan, and the younger sister, Luna.
The two siblings not only traveled through Cat Forest, but also throughout the entire Alhen Region, exterminating monsters, maintaining forests, and contributing to the peaceful daily life of the Alhen Region.
Since no one in the Alhen Region could match the siblings’ skill with a bow, people used to say this about them, half-seriously and half-jokingly.
That perhaps the archer god had been split in two, and the hunter siblings had been born from it.
The older brother, Nadan, was the right arm, and the younger sister, Luna, was the left arm.
Because the arms each primarily used were opposite, their skills were so outstanding that people even said perhaps the archer god had been split left and right to become the siblings.
Then one day, while they were patrolling Cat Forest as usual, an accident occurred.
The base camp where the siblings were staying was surrounded by a large number of monsters.
According to what was revealed later, the cause was that among a group of hunters from a nearby region who had stopped by Cat Forest as part of beginner training, several novices had misjudged the depth required for burial and had not properly buried monster corpses.
The siblings barely broke through the encirclement, but in the process, Nadan suffered a serious injury.
For Nadan, who was injured and could hardly move, Luna volunteered to act as bait.
She said she would lure the monsters deeper into Cat Forest, and told Nadan to head in the opposite direction, out of Cat Forest, escape the woods, and call for reinforcements.
Of course, Nadan objected, but Luna would not listen.
She wounded her own arm so the smell of blood would spread thickly, left Nadan behind as he tried to stop her, and went deeper into Cat Forest.
That was the last sight Nadan saw of Luna as a human.
***
Nadan finished recalling the past and wore a bitter smile.
“I collapsed while leaving the forest, and when I came to, I had already been rescued by the villagers. The soldiers dispatched by the lord set out to search, but in the end, they could not find her.”
When everyone judged her dead and offered their condolences, Nadan alone could not accept the result and wandered through Cat Forest.
And when he reunited with his younger sister long afterward, she had already become a monster.
“She probably took a wrong path while acting as bait and got trapped in an isolated place. She must have been waiting for rescue while surviving on monster meat. But it was too late. If only I had been the bait instead.......”
“.......”
“Ha, haha. What an unsightly story. You must wish you had never heard it. Honestly, what am I even telling someone who came here to make pleasant memories?”
“I do not know about anything else, but I understand very well that disposing of monster corpses is truly important.”
Thanks to Nadan’s recollection, a name was written on the business card of the cat monster that had remained blank until now.
The monster’s name was Luna.
In addition, while listening to Nadan’s story, one hypothesis occurred to me.
Luna had fled north earlier.
And the hidden exploration point was five hundred meters north of our current location.
Was it really a coincidence that Luna’s appearance point and the hidden exploration point were close?
I adjusted Nadan’s posture so he could lean comfortably against a tree, then took only the Deros Bow and quiver separately and turned my gaze north.
“I will be back soon, so please rest here.”
“W-Wait! Do not think anything strange!”
“How do you know what I am about to do?”
“Because the way you look right now overlaps with my younger sister that day. If you are trying to shoulder it alone, stop. There is a fool right in front of your eyes who personally proved what happens when you step forward alone.”
It was not entirely made up of conventional reasons, such as wanting to repay Nadan because he had given me so much, or feeling responsible because I had been the one who wanted to come here and we had encountered Luna as a result.
A journey to a place even the locals did not know.
And on top of that, there was the Travel Reward Fund and a reward likely to differ from the regular exploration points.
There was no reason not to go.
To Nadan, who was trying to stop me, I gave an intuitive yet absurd answer.
“What else would make a pleasant memory? Hardship suffered during a trip is exactly what becomes a pleasant memory.”
In my own way, I had tried to imitate Nadan.
His unique habit of trying to look cool.
Had I sounded a little similar?
After that, I left Nadan behind and headed north, and the farther I walked, the quieter his shouts telling me to come back grew behind me.
By the time I could no longer hear Nadan’s voice, I had reached the end of Cat Forest.
At the point where the forest ended, a long cliff waited.
Its length stretched so far that the end could not be seen, and its depth was so great that the bottom could not be seen.
Its width was roughly one hundred meters.
I could not see a path leading down.
The hidden exploration point marked on the map pointed below the cliff.
Go down? How?
While I was thinking, a mechanical voice sounded.
[Reached vicinity of hidden exploration point.]
[Unlike regular exploration points, hidden exploration points contain dangerous events or events that will greatly affect future another-world travel itineraries.]
[If your life is endangered, Ravos Travel Agency will judge at its discretion and forcibly return you to your original world.]
[Do you agree to the provided information?]
This was exactly that.
A liability waiver.
The document you signed before bungee jumping.
It probably meant this place was dangerous enough that I might die.
Still, they said they would return me on their own before I died, so even if the worst happened, I had nothing to lose.
Well, if I looked at it from a slightly different angle, I figured I could enter the hidden exploration point with the mindset of bungee jumping.
I answered without hesitation.
“I agree.”
[Entry to hidden exploration point requested.]
[Route to hidden exploration point displayed in field of vision. Guide markers are visible only to Mr. Jo Seong-jin. Please take note.]
[Follow the route to arrive at the hidden exploration point.]
Yellow powder glittered beneath my feet, then stretched out like a line and showed me the path I needed to take.
The sparkling powder extended along protruding sections here and there on the cliff face, and it continued down into the darkness below the cliff where my eyes could not see.
The protruding sections jutted out so subtly that unless one looked closely, one would not even know they protruded.
No wonder the locals had no way of knowing there was a path.
I carefully set out on the journey toward the bottom of the cliff, following the guide markers.
At first, because the height was what it was, the space between my eyebrows instinctively tingled, but after I felt that the footing was unexpectedly wide and the footholds were sturdy, my movements grew unhesitating.
After descending diagonally down a height of several dozen meters, I reached the bottom.
When I took my first step onto the ground, a change occurred in the Travel Reward Fund.
-Arrived at the hidden exploration point of the Alhen Region.
-Alhen Region Exploration Rate increased to 100 percent.
-10,000,000 won has been added to the Travel Reward Fund.
-Current accumulated fund: 16,000,000 won.
Not only that, but the exploration point name that had remained as ‘???’ until now gained a name.
-A special event has occurred upon entering the hidden exploration point ‘Lady Cat’s Lair.’
-Subdue Lady Cat to obtain a hidden reward.
-However, this event will be considered failed if you flee, and once failed, it cannot be retried.
The identity of the hidden exploration point was Lady Cat.
It was self-evident who Lady Cat referred to.
Nadan’s younger sister, Luna.
The area around me was full of bones that seemed to belong to monsters.
From bones the size of small animals, to bones the size of large animals as big as houses.
As I stood before scenery that made me realize Lady Cat’s terrifying nature all over again, a cry like one pestering its butler for food echoed eerily from behind me.
“Mwaaaoow~!”