Chapter 6

"Hmm, I think I've seen this before."

Yuran looked down at a mossy rock. Unknownst to her, it was the same mossy rock where she had encountered an extraordinarily unique creature, a humanoid monster of unknown origins just moments ago. However, the unexpected and unpredictable experience did not make her any money so she quickly forgot about it. 

"…Am I going in circles?"

Yuran had a horrible sense of direction. 

"Ah, this map is so hard to follow."

Yuran's sense of direction was decent, but she had trouble reading the suspicious map. Now that she thought about it and used her brain to think of something other than money, the list was also unusual. She had encountered many herbs, even some rare ones that she knew of. They were surely valuable, yet none of them were on the list. Yuran recalled Raine saying that she would give Yuran a simple map of just the first layer where she could quickly and easily fetch common herbs. 

"…"

That was where her train of thought ended and she stood there for a while. The monster, who had been following her, watched her closely. 

"Oh, shit," Yuran swore with a deflated smile, uncomfortably drenched in nervous sweat. "I have the wrong map."

The monster watched as the girl plopped down and looked up at the starless sky and bleak mist encaptivating the treetops. 

Does she have no sense of danger?

Evidently, there were many things wrong with the human girl. She wasn't scared of him, did not run away immediately, but rather inched closer upon meeting. Then she abruptly left. She couldn't read a map properly and walked in a circle, and when her seemingly below-average brain finally realized she also received the wrong map, she just laid down and started stargazing at a starless sky. 

Is she so stupid to the point where she is unable to process life-threatening danger? Is that even possible?

"Hey, can you help me?"

And now, she was talking to herself. 

Perhaps she's gone mad from the dark blume already, the monster thought. Dark blume made different living beings experience different effects, but he had never seen a case like this before. 

"Hey, you."

Ah, I never knew stupidity was one of the effects of dark blume tainting. I don't sense the divinity anymore. Maybe there never was any.

"HEY YOU! Why are you ignoring me?! Mr. Monster Man!"

Hearing this, the monster was snapped out of his thoughts and looked up to see the hauntingly close face of the weird human. Her eyes were open in a wide glare and her nostrils were flared like an angry wild boar. Her lips curved downward in a stoic pout. She even exhaled like an agitated wild boar, and the monster would've thought she was about to charge forward if not for the fact that her face was only inches away. 

"Can you not talk? What, claw got your tongue?" Yuran stuck her tongue out and thrust the list of herbs to the monster, pressing it against his chest. "Help me find these herbs."

The stupid human is very rude, he remarked, but obliged to her demand. The human was interesting, so he thought he would entertain her for a while. Obediently he stood up with the papers in his claws and started walking in another direction. Yuran grumpily stomped after him, the pout still prominent on her face. 

"…"

"Hey, can I call you Chrizy?" 

The monster snorted and kept on walking. He could feel the pulse of divinity again and concluded that Yuran wasn't affected by the dark blume but was just stupid. Really stupid. 

"It's short for charisma. You're pretty handsome for a cursed monster in the notorious Wicked Woods," Yuran smirked. "I'm really smart, so trust me when I say Chrizy is a good nickname. My name's Yuran."

Chrizy didn't give any signs of noticing her and kept on walking. The human girl, Yuran, was acting as if they were friends. She was not questioning what or who he was.

"Ah, thanks for helping me by the way. I'm sure you have your reasons… whatever or whoever you are, for being here," Yuran shrugged in relaxation, contrasting with her smug sunflower eyes that shook with hunger. "I'm just here to get rich."

"…"

Yuran's eyes seemed to sparkle with love. Love for money. "You might not know, but to humans, money is everything. Ah, what wouldn't I do for some nice, juicy jewbis…"

The monster's eyelids drooped apathetically. Damn, she's really stupid.

The human girl had been walking in circles, unable to find her way deeper into the center of the third layer where the herb patch she sought was located. It was filled with exotic herbs that held values worth blume cores—equivalent to an unfathomable amount of jewbis to a commoner girl like her. 

If all she wants is a few jewbis then this small favor won't need to be repaid, thought the monster. 

As they reached their destination, the monster stepped aside and let Yuran sink in the breathtaking view. Amongst uncertain abyss settled spots of blinking light, pulsating faint glows signifying the ambiance syncing with the natural beats of the earth. Quiet crunches sent soundwaves that sought to echo against nothing, the sound escaping away into the endless distance. There was no wind in the Wicked Woods, but unlike the rest of the forest, the herbs seemed to rustle and sway back and forth as if having conversations. The scene was a dreamy nightmare, and dust in the air that carried itself downward from the leaves of hunched trees emitted weak light. 

Yuran's eyes widened and her pupils started to dilate, but not at the ethereal sight. She did not appreciate the visual quality but rather calculated the sellable quantity and tried to approximate all the profit she could get. She huffed and puffed as the numbers went up and multiplied like crazy.

Yuran gave a stiff and exaggerated bow, her firm face feigning mock gratitude. "Thank you, Chrizy. I will forever remember you."

I won't, the monster thought and rolled his eyes.

"I'll repay you for this favor one day."

Please don't. Never come back.

"Oh yeah, that's a pretty flower you got there," said Yuran, pointing at the snowdrop still in the grasp of his claws.

~