Hello! My name is Poko!
Um… First, let me introduce our village.
Our village lives under the blessing of the guardian spirit known as ‘Bluering’!
All the magical power spread throughout the forest comes from the breath of Bluering, and the earth of the forest is Bluering’s body!
All life, including the flora and fauna of the forest, lives under the compassion of Bluering.
Everyone in the forest lives in gratitude under Bluering’s compassion and care, you know?
But… recently, a rather big problem arose.
It all started a few months ago when a priest who was delivering Bluering’s message said the following:
“Bluering has conveyed: There are those who are gnawing at my body. They seek to devour my flesh and lead me into corruption.”
Find those individuals.
The village fell into chaos.
Who could possibly be bringing pain to our compassionate and gracious Bluering?
We began to suspect each other, but before long, our suspicions shifted in another direction.
Right to the neighboring village.
We went straight to confront them, but the neighboring village was also suspecting us!
Doubt turned into conflict, and conflict escalated to the brink of violence.
I really don’t want war… Is there really no solution?
And who is tormenting Bluering?
■
[Tip: The highlands of the blue forest are a vast woods that grow on the body of the guardian spirit ‘Bluering.’ The forest is compassionate to all, but perhaps not to someone. Remember! Finding the culprit is important, but the truth may not be as crucial as you think.]
As soon as we entered the highlands of the blue forest, the familiar tips flowed before us with a cutscene, just like always.
“Looking for the culprit, huh.”
It felt a bit similar yet slightly different from the Crab Empire.
[Oh]
[Starting with a new dungeon seems fun lol]
[This feels a bit different]
[Kind of reminds me of a choice-based game]
[Is it a Mafia game?]
[Lolololololol]
[Clearly the narrator is the culprit]
[For real lol]
[Probably the priest]
[Let’s kill the guardian spirit]
[Let’s go for the guardian spirit kill lol]
“Oh. It feels fresh since this is a new dungeon.”
Yena also seemed to see the same thing, squatting down with an amused expression, touching the earth.
The ground was filled with blue-colored grass.
Since the land itself is the guardian spirit, even a single blade of such grass held a significant amount of mana.
“Since it’s on the back of the guardian spirit, it seems we’re not supposed to attack here?”
“If we attack here, wouldn’t we get in trouble?”
“Yeah, that’s true but…”
[Lolololololol]
[Already seeing a chance to kill the guardian spirit]
It’s already time to kill the Guardian!
Let’s go straight to the ending!
Yena shook her head.
“It looks like this type of dungeon isn’t about catching the Guardian. It seems hard enough to even catch it, and I bet the boss is the one corrupting the Guardian.”
“Looks like we have to take down the boss.”
“Lady Lily’s quest is to take down the boss, right?”
“Yes.”
Bosses over level 40 aren’t exactly found in the fields.
To take down a boss of that caliber, we ultimately need to roam through dungeons, and it takes quite a while every time.
So it’s a quest that inevitably takes too long.
“I’ll let you have the final hit, Lady Lily. Let’s have a look around first.”
Yena and I walked into the forest.
It was darker inside than it looked from outside.
However, blue lights darted around like fireflies, giving off some illumination.
A forest full of bugs without any monsters.
“Something feels off.”
“Yeah, it does. Something should definitely pop up…”
In both the Crab Empire and other dungeons, just moving around usually triggers some monsters or quests, but…
No matter how much we roamed here, nothing showed up.
Let’s just kill it.
Killing the Guardian might drop something good, lol.
What if we burn the forest down and something pops out?
There are only demon guys here.
For real, lol.
Yena, feeling bored, turned on her flight mode and floated up.
Yena quickly shot up.
“This isn’t good. I’m gonna check what’s up for a sec~~?!”
“?”
Huh?
Huh?
Where’s Yena going?
Huh, lol.
Aaaahhhh~!!
Yena, floating high in the air, was being pulled somewhere by Abstract Power.
“Yena!”
I immediately twisted my spear and shot it.
The roar of the spear ripped away some of the Abstract Power, but…
Woom!
“…It bounced off?”
The Abstract Power repelled the roar of my spear.
Before I knew it, Yena had vanished without a trace.
I thought about flying up to find her, but it didn’t seem like there was any intention to attack.
The reason I hadn’t launched a proper attack is that it felt more like taking her somewhere, not attacking her.
Moreover, Yena is a seasoned player and ranker in Deoen, so she should be fine no matter what happens.
“Let’s just go. Yena will handle herself.”
Why just abandon Yena, lol.
Lololololol.
Gotta turn on the ‘Sassy Mode.’
Thus, it is said that Yena became a star of the universe…
Why did Yena ascend?
It’s hilarious how Yena got abandoned right away, lolololol.
Sassy Lily, lol.
??: Oh, I was too lazy to look for her, lol.
Yena is weeping, lol.
After wandering through the forest for a while, I stumbled upon a village.
A place where small beastmen with animal ears and tails lived.
They were slightly smaller than humans, all with eyes filled with distrust.
The roads and houses looked quite dilapidated, and it seemed like they hadn’t been taken care of for the past few months.
As I wandered around the village, beastmen quickly surrounded me.
“What the heck! Who are you!”
“Calm down.”
“This is not the time to be calming down!”
Graaaah!
One of the largest beastmen, with sharp claws, lunged at me.
Looks like he’s trying to subdue me for questioning.
“Gah!”
Kwham!!
He grabbed my neck and slammed me to the ground.
“I told you to calm down.”
[Before I kill you]
[LMAO]
[Ah lol if you don’t want to get beat up, just chill]
[Totally grabbed me emotionlessly lol]
[Do you catch flies like that?]
[Shut up before you die, lol]
[Lololololololololol]
“You! This guy is a prisoner!”
“Isn’t this guy the one attacking Lord Bluering?”
“Is he a spy from the neighboring village!”
“The guys from the adjacent village attacked us all of a sudden!”
“Capturing a prisoner as a prisoner!”
“Why are they so pretty!”
“Huh?”
[?]
The beastmen, whose pitch was already off the charts, were all throwing in their comments, making it chaotic.
I released the prisoner I had grabbed.
For someone who had just been slammed to the ground, he quickly regained his senses and staggered backward.
“Grrr…”
“Calm down, everyone. I have no intention of harming you right now.”
[?]
[?]
[Right now?]
[Lolololol]
[Once the culprit is revealed, we’ll kill them all lol]
[As expected of Lily lol]
[Lolol]
“What do you mean by that! Grr. When did the neighboring village do that?”
Grah!
The wolf beastman prisoner clutched his neck, staggering.
He collapsed against the crumbling wall of a shabby house, gasping for breath.
‘…I didn’t even do anything that harsh.’
I just made large motions to capture the crowd’s attention, without even putting much strength into it.
But the prisoner, supported by another wolf beastman, looked very serious.
“How! How could you do this to a prisoner! You are definitely a spy!”
“Right!”
“Arrogant neighboring villagers!”
Several beastmen were screaming.
However, not a single one stepped closer to me.
When faced with an unbeatable foe, fear is only natural.
I slowly approached the prisoner.
A brown-furred female beastman bit her lip tightly and blocked my path.
Blocked off.
[Oh]
[Loyalty]
[Lololololol]
[Why does Lily look like a villain?]
[Are they dating?]
[But even NPCs have love lives, why don’t we?]
[Lololololololololol]
[Lily, you bad guy! Let the animal friends go!]
[This is hilarious, haha]
“D-don’t come any closer. What will you do with the prisoner…?”
“Looks like they’ve been sick from the start.”
“……”
“Kora… don’t say…”
The prisoner gasped heavily and shook their head.
But Kora, the beastman, slowly opened her mouth in fear.
“Y-yes… the Bluering was attacked by someone and it caused illness among some of the beastmen. The Priest can heal it, but we can’t meet the Priest…”
“Why not?”
“The Priest has gone into seclusion. They said they won’t trust anyone until they find the culprit, so they are meeting with no one.”
An illness…
I passed Kora and examined the condition of the prisoner.
The prisoner bared their teeth but did not reject my touch.
Not that they could really reject it.
The being before me was strong enough to take me down with a single blow, ranking within the top three in the village.
[So jealous…]
[I want Lily’s touch ‘too’]
[Does that even make sense?]
[What the hell, a guy with a girlfriend gets Lily’s touch? What a lucky bastard]
[Lololololol]
[Wait, they’re sick? Haha]
“Mana mutation, mana loss, and treatment resistance? Why do they have so many issues?”
“…What?”
“Looking at this, even if the mutation and loss could be considered diseases, it seems they’ve undergone so much healing magic.”
Sometimes there are illnesses that can’t be healed.
Commonly referred to as incurable diseases, those desperate for life will receive countless healing spells even if they can’t be cured.
It might seem like they’re getting a little better at first, but ultimately, being an incurable disease, they won’t heal, and if healing magic is overused, they develop resistance, making it ineffective even if a great mage comes later.
There’s only one method that completely defies common sense: ‘Holy’ magic.
That’s why I’ve been so busy.
As the prisoner exhaled roughly, Kora, who was behind, shouted.
“No! The prisoner hasn’t received any healing magic at all!”
“…They haven’t?”
“Y-yes… only the Priest has the ability to use healing magic…”
Treatment resistance is part of the illness…
[Hmm]
[Hmm…?]
[Looks like something’s brewing]
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