CHAPTER 63
Chapter 63: The Scent of Blood

Ipril was so startled she took a small step back. Ashamed of her own reaction, she swallowed hard, her throat tight with tension.
Who is Master talking to?
No one was visible. But she could hear a voice. Judging by the unfamiliar language, it was likely from her master's world.
A voice meant someone was definitely here, yet she couldn't see a thing. If it were just invisibility, she wouldn't be this nervous, but she couldn't feel the slightest presence either.
If this person were to stop talking and come to kill her, she wouldn't realize a thing until the moment she died.
And yet, her master was speaking to such a person as if it were nothing. It even seemed like her master could clearly sense his presence, as if they were making eye contact.
"My, my. It seems the young Elf lady is quite frightened."
"Ipril? Are you okay?"
"...Yes. It's nothing. I'm fine."
She didn't want to show fear in front of her master. Ipril cautiously entered the room and sat down near him.
She didn't know where the invisible person was, but she guessed his position from her master's gaze and filled the empty space.

Kurenai suddenly stopped talking. Then, he casually stood up and turned towards Ipril.
With a faint smile no one could see, he touched Ipril's side with a pair of steel chopsticks.
"Ugh!"
"Hahahaha!"
As Ipril yelped in shock, Kurenai burst out laughing, his body shaking. Seeing the Blue Flame tremble, Jinwoo shook his head.
"What are you doing?"
"Hahaha, she was just so tense I thought I'd play a little prank. Old men are always desperate to tease the young ones."
"Even if you call her young, Ipril has lived several times longer than you..."
"If her spirit is young, then she's young."
Asserting his own logic, Kurenai returned to his original seat. The three of them were now sitting around a low table and sofa, the kind one might find in a corporate reception room.
Ipril still seemed wary of the invisible presence, but Kurenai didn't tease her any further.
"He's an acquaintance of mine, so you don't have to worry too much, Ipril."
"A-As expected of you, Master. You know such mysterious people. Is he perhaps a spiritual being, like a ghost or a spirit?"
"No, a human."
"Hmph!"
She would have been less surprised if he were a ghost. As an Elf who dealt with spirits, she was accustomed to spiritual beings.
But a human? Could a human really move around with their presence so completely erased?
'Reassuring her' isn't going to work.
Seeing Ipril's reaction, it was clear that simple reassurances wouldn't be enough. This was something that time would have to solve. He could only wait for her to get used to it.
"More importantly, Kurenai Masato."
The topic they were discussing earlier was more important.
"Is it true that you received such a Trial from the Temple of Light?"
The story that the assassination of Bertus had been issued as a Trial from the Temple of Dawnlight, commonly known as the Temple of Light.
"It's true, of course. What would I gain from lying about something like this?"
Kurenai said with a shrug. Hearing the conviction in his voice, Jinwoo's expression turned serious.
The Lord of Light is trying to kill a subordinate of the Lord of War. It seems their relationship is not good.
This was new information about the Lords. It wasn't something he could use immediately, but it was very important nonetheless.
Jinwoo carefully filed the information away in his mind and then answered Kurenai's earlier question.
"Information about Bertus... To be honest, I don't know much about him either."
"Oh? Is that so?"
"I was away for about two weeks recently. It's been a while since I came to the 3rd Floor, but I've actually spent less time in the city."
"I see... Wait, does that mean you took down the Sky Temple and reached number one in Contribution Points in just a few days?"
"It just happened that way. I was actually keeping quiet, but Mahiri forced the situation."
Jinwoo briefly explained the sequence of events. He had been quietly raising his Contribution Points at the Temple of the Moonlight Forest when Mahiri and Kalesian fell from the sky, setting things in motion.
It was a rather interesting story, and Kurenai listened with amusement, even adding interjections. He threw in a few questions, some of which Jinwoo answered and some he did not.
"Wow, you've caused quite an incident. In a way, isn't that a greater achievement than Ireland?"
"You think so?"
"Honestly, I don't know. You're the only Hunter who has ever defeated Ireland, and you're also the only Hunter who has ever brought down a temple."
Since both were firsts, Kurenai didn't know which was more impressive. It was just a feeling that destroying a part of the Gate's system seemed more incredible than just defeating a huge monster.
"Anyway, is there no way to get information on this Bertus fellow...?"
"I know the basics. He's an Orc shaman with incredible healing magic. Right now, he's healing the people who fight in the arena on the Sky Island."
"Huh? An Orc is healing people?"
"I heard he's been staying in Pandemonium for two years, treating the injured."
This was what he had heard from Ipril; it wasn't exactly a secret. Bertus's clinic was near the Temple of War, and it was under the unspoken protection of Pandemonium's residents.
After hearing the story, Kurenai crossed his arms and grumbled for a moment before speaking as if he had made a decision.
"Alright. I'll give up on this Trial."
"What? Give up?"
"It wasn't a formal request, and I can't just kill anyone to get some Contribution Points or whatever they're called. I may not look it, but I'm a man of principles. Hahaha!"
Jinwoo recalled the news he had seen in Tokyo. The news about an entire guild being annihilated.
"Well, you don't have to complete a Trial just because you receive it."
"That's about right. I can't just stab someone without a good reason just because some god told me to."
It seemed he had truly given up on assassinating Bertus. It was a wise decision.
The Orc was publicly known only as a healer, but in reality, he was a subordinate of the Lord of War. There was no telling what kind of extraordinary abilities he might be hiding.
His purpose was unknown, but for now, there was no need to provoke an opponent who was lying low.
After all, wasn't the incident where the Sky Temple fell the result of Kalesian relentlessly provoking the normally quiet Lin Shenlin?
"So what will you do now? You don't have anything else to do."
"No, I actually have one more Trial I accepted."
"Another one? Did you get that from the Temple of Light, too?"
"That's right."
Just what was this God of Light that he would offer such fervent prayers? Jinwoo looked at Kurenai with a dumbfounded expression.

Jinwoo and Ipril followed Kurenai out of the city. Once again, Poldre gladly handled their transportation.
"This time, well, I'll give you a ride as a service."
"Really? What's the occasion?"
"I've benefited a bit from your reputation, so... ahem, ahem."
Poldre said that the tales of his own bravery had spread by word of mouth. Moreover, the Earth Hunters who had recently flocked to the city had all come because they'd heard Kang Jinwoo's name.
Poldre's tales had apparently spread effectively among them, serving as great publicity. He said he had gotten a lot of customers since then.
"It sounds like I should be the one charging you, not the other way around."
"A-hem-hem!"
Poldre let out a loud, fake cough to brush off Jinwoo's half-joking remark. You really need this level of shamelessness to run a business.
"Is this a wyvern? Wow, this is quite convenient."
"Where did you say the destination was?"
"The Tomb. I have business with the Shadows there."
The place Kurenai called the "Tomb" wasn't a real tomb. It was just a nickname for a particularly high-risk area on the 3rd Floor where the Hunter death rate was exceptionally high.
Shadows. A place where dragonkin lizardmen who specialized in stealth and ambushes appeared.
"Shadows. It's been a while."
"Come to think of it, didn't you say that was the first monster you caught in an Erosion? To catch a Shadow as your first... you were a different breed from the start."
"There wasn't much of a fight. It had scattered all its energy to focus on hiding."
The Shadow Jinwoo had caught back then was stabbed to death before it could even recover its strength. Because of that, Jinwoo didn't know the true combat power of a Shadow.
From what he'd heard, they specialized in ambushes and were relatively weak in a direct confrontation.
"Alright, we've arrived. I'll leave a spirit with Ipril like before, so contact me when you're done."
"Okay. Go on and take care of your business."
Poldre and Gorong quickly and accurately dropped the three of them off at the Shadow habitat and flew away.
The Tomb was farther than the Keldra Mountains where he had found the golden apple, but at Gorong's speed, it was still a place they could travel to and from within a day.
"I was prepared for a long run, but this is really comfortable. Thanks, Jinwoo. It's always convenient to know someone local."
"Ipril introduced him to me. You should thank her."
"How do you say 'thank you' in Elvish?"
Jinwoo taught him the phrase for 'thank you' in the continental common tongue, and Kurenai repeated it to Ipril.
"Oh, n-not at all. You don't have to thank me."
Ipril still seemed unnerved by the invisible person, flinching in surprise, but she accepted his thanks properly. She seemed much calmer than before.
"Phew, Master, how on earth do you see that old man? Is there some trick to it?"
"You just have to look carefully."
"Look carefully..."
He couldn't tell her that he saw Blue Flames, so he gave a vague answer. However, Ipril seemed to take even that seriously, trying to focus her eyes and stare at Kurenai with all her might.
Kurenai himself was snickering as he secretly moved to the opposite side, so the spot Ipril was glaring at with narrowed eyes was just empty air.
"You're not a child. You joke around too much."
"Hahaha! Can't you just say I'm keeping my youthful spirit?"
Ipril, who only realized she had been staring intently at nothing after he burst out laughing, blushed beet red. With her typically pale Elven skin, the flush on her face was clearly visible.
"Alright, then. Since we're on a rare outing, how about we have a boxed lunch before we go?"
Kurenai, satisfied after his round of teasing, made the suggestion.
"A boxed lunch when we came here to fight? Do you want to throw up while swinging a sword?"
"Eh, it's just Shadows. Aren't they monsters you can kill by just throwing your chopsticks?"
Kurenai found a suitably sunny spot and took out a picnic mat to spread it out.
Though it was nicknamed the Tomb, it wasn't a real cemetery but an ordinary forest, so the scenery and landscape were quite beautiful.
"Aren't you going to sit? I have an eel bento box."
"They say even a trip to the Diamond Mountains is best after a meal. We should eat heartily before we fight. Ipril, Kurenai Masato is treating us to a meal. He says it's an eel bento."
"Oh, I'm a bit excited for that."
When Jinwoo translated for Ipril, who couldn't understand Kurenai's words, she sat down on the mat with a hint of anticipation.
Kurenai, satisfied, took out eel bento boxes from his inventory and gave them to Jinwoo and Ipril.
Thanks to being stored in the inventory right after they were made, they were warm and steaming. The scent of the slightly charred soy sauce and the aroma of the eel alone seemed to revitalize the body.
"Is the young Elf lady okay with eel? You don't just eat grass and fruit, do you?"
When he relayed the question, Ipril said it was fine. She explained that Elves eat fish and meat and everything else. It's just that they have other ways of absorbing nutrients besides food, so they tend to eat small portions.
Jinwoo, who had eaten various things with Rona in the waterfall cave and Mari in Bellen Village, already knew this.
"This looks absolutely delicious. Thank you for the meal, Kurenai."
"Yes, yes. Help yourselves. Come to think of it, I once said I'd recommend a good restaurant, and now I've kept my promise in a similar fashion."
"Now that you mention it, you did say that."
It suddenly felt like his connection with Kurenai Masato went back a long way. No, it hadn't been that long, but it felt like it had been.
It was probably because their first meeting was so intense, and he had been a great help during the Ireland and David incidents. It was because he felt indebted that Jinwoo had agreed to accompany Kurenai on this Trial.
Well, a 3rd Floor Trial was something he could handle on his own anyway. Jinwoo and Ipril were little more than conversation partners.
Wow.
He cut a piece of eel with his chopsticks and lifted it with some rice. The skin was coated in sauce and slightly charred, making it crispy, while the meat inside was tender. Eating it with white rice, it was delicious enough to devour three bowls in one go.
Ipril, not used to chopsticks, used a spoon, but she managed just fine. She wasn't as moved as Jinwoo, but she seemed to find it palatable as she shoveled it in without complaint.
"By the way."
"What is it?"
Jinwoo swallowed the mouthful of eel he had been chewing and asked.
"Why the Temple of Light, of all places? To the point where you're fervent enough to accept two Trials from there."
"Ah, that's..."
It was at that moment. A dagger flew from somewhere, shooting toward Kurenai's bento box. A familiar-looking tooth dagger.
Kurenai nonchalantly lifted his chopsticks and snatched the flying dagger out of the air. Then, his face crumpled in disgust.
"Damn it! I caught a blood-stinking dagger with the chopsticks I'm eating with!"
Muttering that he'd have to throw away his favorite chopsticks, he hurled them in the direction the dagger had come from.
The pair of chopsticks flew at an incredible speed and lodged themselves deep in the forehead and eye of the Shadow that had thrown the dagger.
"Kyaaaaah!"
"Shiiiik!"
Simultaneously, attacks from Shadows began to pour in from all directions.