While on the move, Jaekyung encountered quite a few beasts. To say the senses of beasts were sharp would be an understatement. Using all their senses—sight, smell, and hearing—many of them could detect another's presence from a great distance.
If they deemed their opponent an easy target, they would approach and hunt. If they felt the opponent was formidable, they would flee without a second glance. However, some who considered themselves predators would hold their ground instead of running.
It could be to protect their territory, or it could be the instinct of a fierce beast that refuses to yield to any opponent.
"Grrr......"
A beast that resembled a bear in its overall form but had the mane of a lion lowered its body and growled. Its snout, from which sticky saliva dripped, was one thing, but its thick forepaws, planted firmly on the ground, were quite impressive.
Judging by the thickness of those paws, a solid hit could likely snap an ordinary tree in one blow or even uproot it. A bear and a snake. Just thinking about it, it seemed like an unlikely matchup.
Of course, if the snake were something like an anaconda, the story might be different, but this bear was even larger than the massive bears he had admired on the internet in his past life. Objectively speaking, a creature of that size should probably be called a monster, not just a beast.
'Strange.'
But why was it? Even facing such a monster, he didn't feel like he'd stepped in something awful or that he needed to run away. Jaekyung raised his body and looked down at the bear, which was showing its hostility.
His gaze was as calm as his mind.
"Grrraaaawr!"
The bear roared menacingly, but strangely, Jaekyung felt no particular threat. He was almost bewildered by a confidence he himself could not understand. Could it be that he had slept too soundly and wasn't fully awake yet?
Amusingly, the basis for this confidence was provided by the very creature he was facing. As he flicked his tongue and stared down at the creature, the beast, which had been poised to charge at any moment, hesitated slightly and took a step back. Jaekyung was certain the creature was scared.
The problem was, why? Looking at the beast, which seemed ready to flee at the slightest push, Jaekyung decided to test it and swung his tail. Not at the beast in front of him, of course, but at a small boulder to the side.
Crack!
With a single tail strike—he had used some force, but not his full strength—the man-sized boulder shattered in an instant. Jaekyung, surprised by his own action, tried his best not to show it. As calmly as possible, as if nothing had happened, he retracted his tail and flicked his tongue again.
This time, he added an appropriate sound. Hiss— Now the beast was completely terrified. It might have been his imagination, but Jaekyung felt he could somehow make out the terrified expression on its face.
At the same time, he finally understood why the monster-like creature before him was afraid.
'I'm stronger.'
A very simple fact he hadn't realized until just a moment ago. In his struggle to survive day by day, he had failed to grasp the state of his own body. If he were to make an excuse, it was because he hadn't known his world would change overnight.
'As I thought, it wasn't a normal molting.' Right after he finished molting, he had felt his body become sturdier and his strength increase, but that wasn't all. Only now did he realize.
It was a rapid growth he had never experienced before. If his previous growth had been an external increase in size, the molting was an internal growth. He could feel that his skin, muscles, and bones had become astonishingly strong.
There was no awkwardness at all in using enough force to shatter a boulder. It felt as natural as if it had always been an easy task. The bear-like beast now looked pitiful.
Its desire to escape could be felt from its awkward posture and the whimpers that seemed forced out. What was strange was that despite all this, it still wasn't running away. Could it be that a creature with four legs lacked the confidence to outrun one that had to slither because it had no feet?
‘Ah. I see.’
Jaekyung's vertical pupils turned towards a tree behind the beast. On a branch thick with colorful leaves, a creature that looked like a miniature version of the beast before him was frozen, lying flat. Hiss— Jaekyung glanced at the beast repeating its utterly non-threatening threats and slowly backed away.
“Why are you turning back?”
Cheong-o flew over and asked.
“I'm not turning back. Just retreating for a moment.”
“Why? That thing is much weaker than you.”
"It is weak. But a parent with a cub behind it is dangerous.”
“Hmm. I don't know what you mean.”
Jaekyung hadn't expected the birdbrain to understand anyway, so he just let it be. Cheong-o didn't press the matter either. 'I have this guy with me, so there's no need to get into a messy situation.'
In the past, he would not have let prey that couldn't even run away escape from right in front of him. But now, he had a capable partner, didn't he? Prey could be found easily enough.
Besides, what he'd said to Cheong-o wasn't entirely an excuse. Parents are strong. Especially parents with their young nearby.
‘They're gone.’
A short while later, when he returned to the spot, they were nowhere to be seen. Only a pair of tracks, one large and one small, remained.
“How much further do we have to go?”
“Not much further. We're almost there.”
There was new strength in Cheong-o's wingbeats. Jaekyung's briefly relaxed mind tensed up once again. * “There it is.”
The place Cheong-o pointed to with his wing was a spot where one would be hard-pressed to find anything special without looking closely. But once he squeezed through the small gap between the disorderly, overgrown trees, a scene quite different from the one outside unfolded before him.
Unlike the perfectly fine trees outside, the trees a little further in were all tilted to one side, like grass in the wind. That is, tilted inwards. Even further in, the trees were not just tilted but had their roots exposed.
It looked as if they had been swept away by a typhoon, but from another perspective, it also seemed as though the trees had struggled to move inwards. No matter how one looked at it, it was a very bizarre sight. It appeared that way even to Jaekyung, who knew what lay inside.
If someone who knew nothing came here, they might have trembled with dread.
‘It feels a bit eerie.’
The pond Cheong-o had mentioned was not in sight. But soon, another strange sight caught Jaekyung's eye.
“There.”
Cheong-o said, his voice much quieter than usual. His words were unnecessary. Because even without him speaking, Jaekyung's gaze was already fixed on the spot he was pointing to.
Fog.
A thick fog lay over that place. However, Jaekyung immediately realized that what looked like fog was not fog at all. Because the fog, for one, had a pale green tint, and it also gave off a musty smell.
"If you go in there, the nasty frog will know right away."
“Nothing else special about it?”
"Nope."
He was slightly annoyed about the parts the birdbrain hadn't mentioned beforehand, but what was the use in blaming him now that they were here? Jaekyung calmed his mind and focused his eyes, but he could not see through the fog. “Can't you lure it out?"
“No way. If I get close, I'll be eaten instantly.”
If there were any other beasts around, he could have tried herding them into the fog, but unfortunately, there were none. Wild beasts may not have minds that can think, but they have instincts and senses to detect danger, so they likely sensed the strangeness and peril of this place and stayed away.
‘I have no choice.’
Jaekyyung said as he lowered his body.
“You go in first. Don't get too close to it. Keep your distance and be as loud as you can. I mean, draw its attention.”
“Got it. But how are you going to find your way?”
“I can just follow the sound you make.”
"Ah!"
Cheong-o flew into the fog. Jaekyung waited for a few seconds as the sound of wingbeats faded into the distance before he began to move. Jaekyung, who had instinctively and habitually tried to muffle his sound, soon realized such an action was meaningless.
Since the frog would know the moment he entered the fog anyway, there was no need for this, was there? Moving forward without hesitation, Jaekyung soon heard a faint sound.
“Nasty frog! Nasty frog!”
Cheong-o's enraged cries. And, as if in response, the croaking of a frog. He had wondered if he could also communicate with the 'nasty frog', but now he had his answer.
It was clear that the frog could communicate with Cheong-o, but it seemed he and the frog could not. As expected, Cheong-o's ability to communicate was a unique skill of his own. In any case, thanks to the two of them making a racket, he was able to get his bearings.
Jaekyung moved forward at the fastest speed he could muster. The closer he got to the sound, the thicker the fog became, and the worse the smell grew. Amidst the growing unpleasantness, Jaekyung could finally see the loudly screeching Cheong-o and the 'nasty frog' croaking "ribbit ribbit" below him.
'So that's the one.'
'Nasty frog' was not a fitting name.
'Ugly frog' would be more appropriate.
That's what Jaekyung thought the moment he first saw it. He also understood the source of the unpleasantness the moment he saw it. Its body was completely covered in boils.
These boils would swell up little by little, and at the moment they could grow no larger, they would burst with a pop, releasing a thick, green smoke each time.
That's right.
The thick fog in this area was all from the pus-like substance that erupted from the boils on that thing's body.
‘It's big.’
Besides being ugly and disgusting, the thing that stood out was its size. For a frog, its size, with a bit of exaggeration, was about that of an ox. Of course, he was talking about the oxen he'd seen in his past life.
He had yet to see one in this world. No, do oxen even exist in this world?
‘It's not a spirit beast. The feeling is different from those birds.’
Jaekyung felt relieved. He could tell at a glance that the frog was no ordinary creature, but he didn't feel the same sense of pressure he had from those two monstrous birds.
"Grrrk."
The moment Jaekyung appeared, the creature's attention was drawn to him. When looking at Cheong-o, it had seemed annoyed, but its gaze towards Jaekyung was filled with hostility and wariness. It seemed to have instinctively judged that Jaekyung was not an easy opponent.
'It's big, but its jumping ability doesn't seem that great. Otherwise, it would have jumped up and snatched Cheong-o. Its tongue doesn't seem abnormally long either.' As the creature stared at Jaekyung, Jaekyung stared back.
At the same time, he made his own assessment of it. 'Even if its jumping isn't great, it's probably much faster than me. Can I even get close?’
Cheong-o had said it had a strange ability. That ability was, surprisingly, spitting. When he first heard it, he thought it was a joke, but as he listened, he learned this spitting was quite a powerful ability.
According to Cheong-o, the ugly frog's spit had considerable physical power, and the spit itself seemed to contain some kind of special poison. He said that once a living thing was hit, it would immediately become weak and listless.
‘I should probably avoid a game of tag.’
It was highly likely that the ugly frog was faster than him. Moreover, unlike him, who had to rely on simple brute force, the frog had a powerful long-range weapon. Therefore, to catch it, he would have to endure its attacks until it ran out of stamina, which, regardless of its feasibility, was an incredibly foolish thing to do.
Thus, in less than ten seconds of facing the creature, Jaekyung decided to stick with his original plan.
"Ribbit!"
That plan was not to chase it, but to make it chase him. Anyone will react when their weakness is targeted. And that frog had a fatal weakness that could be easily exploited.
'As I thought.' A pond, faintly visible through the thick fog. The moment Jaekyung charged towards the pond, the frog reacted instantly.
It let out a nervous, urgent cry and spat repeatedly.
‘It's like some kind of water bomb.’
Just from its human-head size and its incongruously fast speed, he could tell it was powerful. However, the distance between Jaekyung and the frog was considerable. Furthermore, Jaekyung was moving at his maximum possible speed.
The hastily spat wads of spit narrowly missed, hitting the spot where Jaekyung's tail had just passed. 'So that's it.' Reaching the front of the pond quickly, Jaekyung spotted a half-bloomed lotus in the center.
The moment he saw it, he knew it was no ordinary thing. If not for the loud noises behind him and the wads of spit flying at him, Jaekyung would have stared at it, captivated, for some time.
The single, not yet fully bloomed lotus possessed a strange power that forcibly captured the attention and gaze of anyone who looked at it. But unfortunately, now was not the time to admire it leisurely. Jaekyung ignored the frog behind him and entered the pond.
'Huh?'
The moment he entered the pond, Jaekyung's eyes widened. A sense of freedom he had never felt before in his life uplifted him. It was a sensation he had never experienced on land.
'Could this be.....?' At that moment, a possibility he had never considered before came to mind.
‘Am I... a water snake?’