The Trash Wants to Live

A red haze rose from Yi Joon’s body. Thanks to Yi Joon who used his gift, the speed at which we fell slowed down. The monster which had chased us continued to struggle as it plummeted down.

“I! As Iron Man! No! Should I fly?”

With the veins on his neck protruding, Yi Joon released his powers. The red haze extending from his body grew longer and longer, reaching a display of a metre long.

It wasn’t really possible to fly in the sky, but the speed at which we fell slowed dramatically. Thanks to this, we were able to land gently like feathers on the ground under the canyon.

“Ugh…!”

A horribly disfigured dead monster lay beside the area we landed on. I turned my head away, unable to stand the strong smell of blood. Without Yi Joon, we would have suffered the same fate.

If I was lucky, I may have fallen into the river next to us instead, saving my life…

But I wouldn’t escape without fracturing something.

I raised my head and glanced up, sighing as the steep edge of the high cliff we fell from came into view.

“How are we going to get back up?”

It was only by waiting by the starting point that I could meet with the rest of the guild members and share the information I knew.

But I don’t see a way up.

”
”
I felt impatient. It was worrying that the guild members, who had no information about this place, might get lost.

Fortunately, this place was at most a level 4 or 5 gate.

“Because from the sixth level on, there will be humanoid monsters.”

To be exact, they were not human beings. They were monsters who walked on two legs, used both hands and tools, and in the worst case, used an ability. Animal-type monsters were large in size and had excellent physical abilities, but they could not use an ability, so they could be captured as if they were being hunted. On the other hand, the humanoid monsters…

It’s enough to traumatise the weak-minded.

Goblins, orcs, ogres, these monsters belonged to the humanoid category, but the higher the level, the more similar their appearance was to humans. Even though they were enemies, it was not easy to kill or harm those who shared a similar appearance. And they were even smart… so it was hard to catch them with just ability.

Regardless, there were no humanoids in this place where medium to large-sized animal-type monsters lived, so I felt a little relieved.

“You’re going up there? I can’t travel upwards. Why don’t we just follow the river?”

Yi Joon sat down on the ground and said that, perhaps tired after breaking our fall.  It seemed that Eui Yeol also agreed with Yi Joon, as he also added his own thoughts to the matter.

“I can’t see any way up either… I think it’d be better to do as Yi Joon said.”

“Mhm…”

I was worried about what we should do in case our path diverged too far from the guild members, but when Yi Joon heard that, he snorted.

”
”
“Hey, think about it. They have brains, too. If we’re not at the entrance, and if there’s any trace of us being chased, wouldn’t they assume we had run away?”

“Hmm…”

“So they’ll come down to the waterway from up there. Then they’ll meet us.”

I wanted it to be that easy, but in the current situation, there was no other option than to place my faith on it.

Eventually, we began walking straight along the canyon. There was no proper path, and we had to jump over rocks and sometimes step into water, but that didn’t stop us.

How much time had passed? Despite walking quite a bit, the canyon was endless.

“How long has it been? I think I’ve walked quite a bit.….”

“Yeah…”

I checked the time. When I told them that it had been roughly three hours, they both nodded, looking exhausted. It was the same for me.

“I’m hungry.”

Today was the mid-term exam, so I had skipped lunch and finished up with school first, so I was starving now.

“I’m thirsty… is the water drinkable?”

“I don’t think you can. There might be microbial problems because it’s a different dimension.”

Yi Joon and Eui Yeol discussed while looking at the water. I was hungry and thirsty because I hadn’t eaten or drank anything for many hours. From the naked eye, the water seemed transparent and had no problem, but that itself didn’t rule out the water being problematic. Given an entirely different dimension, it seemed that they were of the thought that the water could be poisonous even though it looked normal.

As the two of them observed the water, I knelt down and drank some water with my hands.

“Hey!”

“Yoon Jae-ya!”

“…It’s okay. It’s safe to drink because it doesn’t contain any poison.”

“How do you know that!”

I waved my hand wearing a silver ring as Yi Joon burst into anger. Yi Joon then asked me what I would do if I suddenly got a stomach ache.

“If we had problems because of the microbes here we would also have had problems breathing.”

There were microbes in the air as well as water. So if we were going to collapse because of microbes, we should have collapsed earlier.

Yi Joon looked relieved at my explanation. However, I could only smile at Yi Joon who again stressed that I shouldn’t just act however I wanted fearlessly.

Of course, I acted without hesitation because I knew it was safe…

I would’ve never have done so if I hadn’t been sure. If I hadn’t acted, the both of them probably would’ve remained suspicious of the water and never considered drinking it.

Inside the gate, unusually, the atmosphere and soil were similar to Earth. So the water could be used as drinking water, but… we had to be careful because it could be poisonous.

“It’s a relief that most poisons can be distinguished by silver.”

There was no problem drinking it unless it was water that looked blurry or was stinky.

Even if it wasn’t food, my whole body seemed to wake up when I drank the water. After quenching my thirst and walking a little longer, the end of the canyon came into sight.

“It’s a tree again.”

“Rock, water or tree…”

“But I’m glad it’s not a monster.”

The three of us pondered the way back to the entrance again. We wanted to check the overall terrain, but that was hard to do since the area we were on low ground. In addition, we simply followed along a winding stream of water, and could not get a sense of which direction the entrance existed.

“This is bad.”

Originally, someone with the ability to guide would have to enter the gate together with us, but… unfortunately, the only gifted person out of the three of us was the telekinetic Yi Joon, and because this had been an accidental discovery rather than a formal exploration, there was no guide.

I don’t even know how far this land stretches.

The land inside a gate came in different sizes. In some cases, the land was about the size of a city, but there were also cases where it was the size of a state, the size of a province, or the size of a country or continent.

Of course, the lower the level, the smaller the land, but the occasional irregularities were everywhere.

There was a lot of information in my head, but there wasn’t much information I could use right away. Of course, it wasn’t that the quality of the information was degraded…

I thought that entering the gate would be helpful but it didn’t seem like it was particularly helpful. Rather, it felt like a burden, so I was frustrated.

“I think the sun is setting.”

The scarlet sky was gradually turning purple. It seemed like it would be difficult to get out of here immediately. Unable to move further, we sat down by the water.

“…They look like fruit, is it edible?”

Trees with fruits existed around the water edge. I picked a few because the vegetation seemed similar, so it would be edible if it wasn’t poisonous.

“This… I can’t eat. This, I think, would be okay.”

By checking if the colour of the silver ring changed, I distinguished between edibles and inedibles. Among the ones that did not change colour, there was a fruit that seemed like a small mango, but when the fruit touched my finger, its flesh seemed highly acidic. Wouldn’t it make my stomach upset if I ate it?

“I shouldn’t eat this. Just eat these two.”

I motioned to the fruits that looked like raspberries and mini pears. When my fingertips that were touching the fruit juice turned red and gently tingled, I  approached the water and rinsed my hands.

“Yoon Jae-ya, your hand…”

When Eui Yeol flagged down my reddened fingertips, Yi Joon also noticed that I’d injured my hand.

Looking at the two people who seemed to feel sorry, I calmly said,

“It’s nothing. I’m okay.”

“But…”

“…Dummy.”

I’d said to them that it was no big deal, but it didn’t seem like they planned to remove their gaze from my fingertips any time soon. Therefore, I deliberately shoved the fruit into their mouths.

“…It tastes awful.”

“Mhm…”

Although he said it didn’t taste good,Yi Joon didn’t spit out the fruit, and neither did Eui Yeol, who smiled vaguely. It didn’t taste as good as I’d thought either. Even so, with that insignificant amount of sustenance now in my body, I felt more alive.

After the three of us ate all the fruit, we sat together. The temperature was normal when the sun was up, but it dropped after the sun went down.

“Shall we start a fire?”

”
”
“How?”

Yi Joon picked up a fallen tree branch and used his ability. He created two small defensive membranes and they rubbed against each other at high speed, the resulting friction causing sparks. When I looked at Yi Joon in surprise, he snorted, asking me what I was looking at. I was trying to express my praise, but he reacted that way… so I could only laugh.

As the surroundings darkened and the temperature warmed due to the fire, our bodies naturally grew tired. So many things had happened in a short amount of time today that our eyes began to close automatically.

Leaning against a tree, we fell asleep, head to head.