"Cough! Cough, cough, cough—"
Linsey walked along the road, unable to stop himself from coughing a few times.
The two wounds on his chest radiated waves of chill, and the Essence—Frost Erosion on the Attribute Panel reminded him that these were no ordinary injuries.
But at a time like this, Linsey could not help feeling that awakening Life Source Material had been incredibly fortunate.
Though he had only just begun cultivating Essence and had yet to experience the many wonders of this ability.
When facing an enemy's Essence corrosion.
This power could already help him resist some of the damage and keep his condition from worsening too quickly.
"This really is just as Dan said."
"When ordinary people encounter magical beasts, one careless mistake is enough to get them killed. I really was lucky the first time..."
A few minutes later, Linsey's nearly depleted stamina bar had recovered by more than half.
He had also reached the frozen riverbank where they had arrived earlier.
Then, he saw Ju.
The child held three arrows in his hand, carefully feeling his way across the frozen surface toward the opposite bank.
Behind him, the Ice Badger Linsey had shot dead had also stopped moving.
"This..."
Linsey's expression went blank.
The child had not remained behind the safety of the corpse's cover.
Instead, after waiting a few minutes.
He had risked coming out on his own because he was worried about Linsey, searching toward the riverbank.
He had even carefully gathered up all his arrows.
Linsey's nose stung in an instant, and an indescribable feeling rose in his heart.
The child before him had willingly put himself in danger out of concern for Linsey's safety.
The impact of that concern was even stronger than the thrill Linsey had felt after defeating the three Ice Badgers!
"Brother Linsey?"
At that moment, Ju, who was on the ice, also spotted Linsey emerging from the woods.
He shouted and rushed over, wanting to hug Linsey. But when he saw the wound on Linsey's chest, he immediately stopped. "Y-your chest..."
Ju's voice trembled.
But Linsey did not say much about his injury. Instead, he sternly repeated, "Ju, you should have stayed hidden behind cover."
"It's dangerous here."
Ju met Linsey's gaze. Though his voice was nervous, his attitude was extremely firm. "I saw those three magical beasts chasing you. I-I was really worried!"
"..."
Looking at Ju's earnest, trembling eyes, Linsey could no longer keep insisting.
"Thank you." He took his three arrows from Ju's hands, then grabbed the child's hand and headed back toward town. "But you can rest assured. It's all right now."
After following for two steps, Ju could not help asking curiously:
"Then the other two Ice Badgers..."
Linsey nodded firmly. "I managed to deal with them, luckily."
"But as you can see—I'm a little injured now. I'm afraid I can't keep waiting here for Dan. We need to return to town first and tend to my wounds."
Linsey and Ju talked as they headed toward town.
After killing three Ice Badgers that had come out of nowhere, today's hunting lesson could be considered a complete success, no matter how one looked at it.
Everything should have ended there.
But soon after leaving the frozen river and stepping onto the snow-covered ground, Linsey noticed a very important change.
Under the birch tree where they had dug through the snow, uncovered the corpse, and finally used it to shelter Ju, there was now nothing at all.
—The corpse had disappeared!
Linsey stopped short and quickly asked:
"Ju, did you move the body just now?"
Linsey himself did not believe it even as he said it.
How could Ju, just a child, have hidden an adult's corpse in such a short time?
Besides, he had no reason to do that.
At the same time, Ju looked in the direction of Linsey's voice and also discovered the bare ground beneath the birch tree.
His reaction was just as confused as Linsey's:
"Huh? It was clearly here just now."
"I was only gone for a few min—"
Linsey heard only that much before realizing something was wrong.
"Come on, we're leaving right now!"
He tightly grasped Ju's hand and began running forward despite the discomfort in his body, danger alarms blaring in his mind.
A corpse that had suddenly vanished in just a few minutes.
And it was the corpse of an adult who had been buried in the snow for days, frozen as hard as stone.
Even scavengers would probably not touch something like that.
What was going on?
The corner of Linsey's eye drifted toward the birch tree, but he had no desire whatsoever to investigate.
If he rashly approached.
He might find some clue in the snow about how the corpse had disappeared.
But what he wanted most now was to bring Ju safely back to town. This was absolutely not the time for risks.
Linsey's reaction also made Ju realize that something was wrong.
He pulled free of Linsey's hand and instead moved ahead of him.
Though Ju was still a child, he seriously took it upon himself to guard the injured Linsey, watching for danger that might appear at any moment.
"..."
"Cough, cough, cough!"
Linsey had wanted to stop him.
But the cold surging from his chest immediately made him cough several times, forcing him to swallow the words he had prepared.
The two walked a few more steps.
Everything around them seemed silent, with no sign of anything unusual.
"Roar!"
Suddenly, a black shadow burst out of the woods beside them.
And it had a clear target: Ju, who was walking in front.
Linsey did not even have time to shout a warning.
He shoved Ju forward, then drew his dagger and collided head-on with the black shadow.
Bang! Linsey and the black shadow both fell backward.
He felt as though he had struck a block of iron, and pain shot through his entire body.
Linsey had no time to complain. He hurriedly climbed up and looked ahead, only to discover that the figure standing opposite him was unmistakably human.
Looking closely.
Wasn't that deathly pale face, frozen white by ice and snow, the very corpse that had been frozen stiff earlier? "The dead have come back to life?"
In an instant, countless classic monster images from films and games flashed through Linsey's mind.
Zombies, ghouls, undead...
For the moment, he could not tell which kind the reanimated corpse before him belonged to.
But the impact of their collision had already told him that this thing was absolutely difficult to deal with. At the very least, it was not on the same level as flesh-and-blood creatures or Ice Badgers.
Linsey swept his gaze around.
Ju, whom he had shoved aside, climbed up from the ground and looked back, only to discover the shocking sight as well.
Meanwhile, the revived corpse also climbed back to its feet.
Its head swayed from side to side like a rattle drum. Then, instead of looking toward Ju again, it turned its head toward Linsey.
At that moment, Linsey clearly saw its face.
There was no emotion on that frozen face. The flesh around its eye sockets had sunk inward from the cold, while its crystalline eyeballs bulged outward, covered in tiny cracks. Other than silent death, there was no emotion to be seen.
"..."
"Ju, hurry to town and get the others to come help."
Ju hesitated for only an instant.
He understood the situation as well. Then he ran toward town without another moment of hesitation.