The Vanished Corpse

"Cough! Cough, cough, cough—"

Linsey walked along the road, unable to stop himself from coughing several times.

The two wounds on his chest radiated waves of cold, while the Source Material—Frost Erosion—on his status panel reminded him that these were no ordinary injuries.

But at this moment, Linsey could not help feeling that awakening Life Source Material had truly been a fortunate thing.

Although he had only just begun cultivating Source Material and had yet to experience the many wonders of this ability.

When facing the erosion of an enemy's Source Material.

This power could already help him resist some of the damage and keep his condition from deteriorating too quickly.

"That's just like Dan said."

"When ordinary people encounter magical beasts, one wrong move and they're done for. I was really lucky my first time too..."

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 boy held three arrows in his hands as he carefully felt his way across the frozen ice toward the opposite bank.

Behind him, the Ice Badger Linsey had shot dead had also gone still.

"This..."

Linsey's expression froze.

The boy had not remained behind the safety of the corpse's cover.

Instead, after waiting for several minutes.

He had ventured out because he was worried about Linsey, cautiously making his way toward the river.

He had even carefully retrieved all of 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 because he was worried about 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 still on the ice, spotted Linsey emerging from the woods.

He shouted and rushed over, wanting to hug Linsey. But when he saw the wound on his chest, he immediately stopped. "Y-your chest..."

Ju's voice trembled slightly.

But Linsey did not say much about his injury. Instead, he sternly repeated, "Ju, you should have stayed behind."

"It's dangerous here."

Ju met Linsey's gaze directly. Though his voice was nervous, his attitude was firm. "I saw those three magical beasts chasing you. I-I was worried!"

"..."

Watching Ju's earnest, trembling eyes, Linsey could no longer keep insisting.

"Thank you." He took his three arrows from Ju's hand, then grasped the boy's hand and headed back across the river toward town. "But don't worry. It's all over 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."

"But as you can see—I'm a little injured now. I'm afraid we can't keep waiting for Dan here. We need to return to town first and treat my wounds."

Linsey and Ju spoke as they walked toward town.

Having killed three Ice Badgers that had appeared 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 not long after leaving the frozen river, just as they stepped onto the snow-covered ground, Linsey noticed an extremely important change.

Beneath 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 halted and hurriedly asked:

"Ju, did you move the body just now?"

Even Linsey himself did not believe it as soon as he said it.

How could Ju, a child, have hidden an adult's corpse in such a short time?

Besides, he had no reason to do so.

At the same time, Ju followed Linsey's voice and looked over, only to discover the bare ground beneath the birch tree.

He was just as confused as Linsey:

"Huh? It was right here just now."

"I only left for a few min—"

Linsey only needed to hear that much to realize something was wrong.

"Come on, we're leaving right now!"

He tightly grabbed Ju's hand and forced himself to run forward despite the discomfort in his body, danger alarms ringing in his mind.

A corpse that had suddenly vanished in only a few minutes.

And it was the frozen corpse of an adult, buried in the heavy snow for several full days and hard as stone.

Even scavengers probably would not touch something like that.

What exactly was going on?

Linsey's peripheral vision drifted toward the base of the birch tree, but he had no desire whatsoever to go investigate.

If he rashly approached.

Perhaps he could find some clue in the snow as to how the corpse had disappeared.

But what he wanted most right now was to bring Ju safely back to town. This was absolutely not the time to take risks.

Linsey's reaction made Ju realize that something was wrong as well.

He pulled free of Linsey's hand and instead moved to the front.

Though Ju was still a child, he seriously took on the role of guarding the injured Linsey, watching for danger that might appear around them at any moment.

"..."

"Cough, cough, cough!"

Linsey had wanted to stop him.

But the cold spreading 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.

The surroundings seemed completely silent, with no sign of anything unusual.

"Roar!"

Suddenly, a black shadow burst from the nearby woods.

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, 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 slammed into a chunk of iron, pain flaring throughout his entire body.

Linsey had no time to complain. He hurriedly scrambled up and looked ahead, only to discover that the figure rising across from him was unmistakably human.

Looking closely.

Wasn't that deathly pale face, frozen stiff by ice and snow, the very corpse they had found earlier? "A dead man coming back to life?"

In that instant, countless classic monster images from films and games flashed through Linsey's mind.

Zombies, ghouls, undead...

For the moment, he could not tell what category this reanimated corpse belonged to.

But the sensation from their collision had already told him that this thing was definitely difficult to deal with—at the very least, it was on an entirely different level from flesh-and-blood creatures and Ice Badgers.

Linsey swept his gaze around.

Ju, whom he had shoved away, climbed up from the ground. When he turned back, he too saw the startling sight.

Meanwhile, the revived corpse had gotten back up as well.

Its head swayed from side to side like a rattle drum several times. Then, instead of looking toward Ju again, it turned its head toward Linsey.

At that moment, Linsey clearly saw its face.

Its frozen face held no emotion. The flesh around its eye sockets had sunk inward from the cold, yet its crystallized eyeballs bulged from the hollow sockets, covered in tiny cracks. There was nothing in them but silent death, not the slightest trace of feeling.

"..."

"Ju, hurry to town and get the others to help."

Ju hesitated for only an instant.

He understood the situation, then ran toward town without hesitation.