Chapter 7
The boy rushed towards the curry rice on the table.
He was so hungry that he didn’t even notice Woojin next to him, and started to scoop up the curry with his hands.
His hair was matted, as if he hadn’t washed it in a while, and his body was covered with black dirt.
He smelled so bad that it seemed like he hadn’t bathed properly either.
His clothes were torn and ragged, no different from a beggar’s.
Woojin tried to pull him away, but soon gave up.
How hungry must he be to eat so frantically?
“This is crazy. Really…”
It seemed like his dinner broadcast was ruined for today.
Woojin gulped down the milk in his thermos, and retrieved the camera he had set up.
“Slow down, drink some water.”
He didn’t know if the boy would understand Korean, but he poured some water from the thermos and handed it to him.
Only then did the boy seem to notice Woojin, and his body flinched slightly, but he quickly took the water and gulped it down.
His eyes were moist, and Woojin felt a pang in his chest.
He knew how painful it was to starve from hunger, so he took out a potato that he had put in a heat pack and placed it on a plate on the table.
“Have this too.”
The boy nodded and bit into a potato.
He must have liked the taste, because he finished the potato in no time and Woojin gave him more water.
“You’re a kind person.”
“I don’t know. I don’t think I’m that kind.”
“Huh? You didn’t use the common language just now…? You understand what I’m saying?”
“I do. Is there a problem?”
“No, how can a human speak our language…”
The boy looked puzzled.
That’s when he realized.
It seemed like Woojin’s words sounded like the language of the continent that the boy used.
Was this also part of the ability of opening the space?
Maybe the language barrier was broken as the dimensions were connected.
Anyway, the important thing was why a 10-year-old kid was in this perilous situation.
At that moment, the boy’s body transformed into a wolf’s shape.
The black-furred wolf was a young wolf that had just shed its cub appearance.
“What is this?”
Woojin was stunned.
A human turning into a wolf was something that only appeared in novels or comics, right?
The boy who turned into a wolf took a seat next to Woojin without hesitation.
He was startled at first, but he was able to learn more about this world through him.
First of all, this wolf was not an ordinary animal, but a spirit beast.
He was born in the Fenrir clan, and his name was Khan.
However, Khan was left behind by his pack.
He was practically abandoned.
“They have few members, but they left you behind?”
“They think it’s better to go extinct than to have incompetent members… That’s what the adults think.”
It was still hard to get used to seeing a wolf talk.
“So you haven’t hunted anything for a week and starved?”
“…Yeah.”
Khan’s face turned slightly red.
“You can’t even hunt a rabbit as a wolf… That’s really serious.”
“I’m not a wolf! Can’t you tell by my eyes?”
Khan had black eyes with silver pupils, unlike normal wolves.
“Wolves can hunt well, right? Are you lower than wolves?”
“I respect animals…!”
“So you stole my food?”
“That’s…”
He looked so pitiful that Woojin burst out laughing.
He had such a good reaction that it was too good.
“And wash yourself. You smell so bad.”
“…There was no water.”
“You survived for a week without water?”
“Spirit beasts can last for a month without eating anything.”
“Then why did you steal my food?”
“Sh… I take back what I said! Take it back! You’re really a bad person!”
“What are you talking about? How can you say that to someone who gave you food, water and potatoes?”
“…That’s.”
Woojin slowly got up from his seat.
“I should go. That’s enough camping for today.”
It was getting late, and he decided to end his camping here and look for another place later.
Then Khan bit his pant leg and pulled him back.
“…What? Do you have something else to say?”
“No. I want to repay your favor.”
“Repay your favor?”
“Yeah. We spirit beasts have to repay any help we receive somehow. That’s the rule.”
“Hmm? Really?”
There was no reason to refuse his offer of repaying his favor.
“Yeah. I have abilities too!”
“Abilities?”
The abilities of spirit beasts.
He suddenly became curious.
“Like this.”
As soon as Khan finished his sentence, his eye color changed.
His eyes, which had been black with silver pupils, were now green with silver pupils.
“What can you do with those eyes?”
“You’re not from this dimension, are you?”
He flinched.
He hit the nail on the head.
Khan smiled smugly as he read Woojin’s bewildered expression.
“This is my ability, the Insight Eye.”
“Insight Eye?”
“Yeah. We spirit beasts each have our own unique abilities. Mine is a non-combat ability, and I can read the information of objects through my eyes.”
“That’s amazing.”
“With this Insight Eye, I might be able to help you, right?”
Insight Eye.
It was definitely a tempting proposal.
“Fine. But there’s a condition.”
“A condition?”
“Yeah. You’re my assistant from now on. You just have to do what I tell you without complaining. How about it?”
“Okay! I’ll do anything you ask!”
***
Khan, who entered Woojin’s space, sparkled his eyes.
“Wow, this is amazing. You have such an ability.”
“Didn’t you read it with your Insight Eye?”
“Huh? I didn’t know. I couldn’t read your ability with my Insight Eye.”
“Really?”
So his Insight Eye couldn’t read everything?
He felt a bit regretful for bringing him along.
Then, Khan found something and ran towards it.
It was where Woojin had planted the saplings.
Underneath them, Uyu was curled up and sleeping, but when Khan approached, he startled and hid behind a sapling.
“Wow! Is that a Guardian Tree? And a Lainer too!”
Khan’s eyes were green with silver pupils.
“That tree is a Guardian Tree?”
“Yeah! A legendary tree that is called a fruit of the World Tree.”
“Really?”
“Where did you get it?”
He didn’t say he got it from the forest.
“I just got lucky.”
“Twelve of them?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s amazing…”
“And you called Uyu a Lainer?”
“Oh, his name is Uyu?”
Uyu had snuggled into Woojin’s arms by now.
He was extremely wary of Khan.
“Wow… I’ve never seen a Lainer follow a person like that.”
“What’s a Lainer?”
“A spirit creature.”
“Spirit creature?”
He wasn’t surprised anymore.
Spirit beasts, spirit creatures, fruits of the World Tree.
What kind of world was Argonia?
“Yeah, they say you can gain tremendous power if you catch and eat them, so they’re spirit creatures.”
“That’s crazy.”
How could anyone eat such a cute kid?
Woojin’s face was filled with anger.
“Of course, Lainers are not easy to catch. They’re very cautious and don’t open their hearts to anyone.”
“Hmm, really?”
“Anyway, his name is Uyu, right? You’re different from other Lainers. Let’s be friends.”
Khan approached and reached out his hand.
Uyu buried his face in Woojin’s chest and avoided eye contact.
As a result, Khan withdrew his hand with a hurt expression.
“Don’t bother him if he doesn’t like you. You came here to work, right?”
“Work?”
“There are potatoes planted in that field. Let’s dig some up.”
“What are potatoes?”
“Follow me.”
Woojin put Uyu down under a sapling and took Khan to the field where the potatoes were planted.
Then he took a hoe that he had hung nearby and showed him how to dig up potatoes.
“You just have to dig like this. Easy, right?”
“Yeah. But where are you going?”
“You ate all my food earlier, so I’m starving. Let’s eat something.”
“Aha… Okay.”
A day passed.
Woojin set the coordinates to the lakeside of the Liffre Forest and crossed over to his space.
Then he threw Khan, who was dozing off next to the field, into the lake.
“Splash!”
Khan panicked and flailed his legs, but Woojin grabbed a washcloth and scrubbed his body hard.
“Stay still. My space is rotting because of your foul smell.”
“Okay, okay, be gentle…”
He quickly washed Khan, and then it was Uyu’s turn.
Uyu hated water and shivered his body, but he quietly entrusted himself to Woojin’s hands.
Woojin returned to his space and drew water to give to the Guardian Tree.
“Khan, explain the effects of the Guardian Tree here.”
Khan’s eyes turned green with silver pupils.
“The Guardian Tree helps grow the crops around it.”
He learned that from the potatoes, so pass.
“Also, it makes the taste and nutrition of the crops optimal.”
“I see.”
“And finally, they say that consuming crops affected by the Guardian Tree increases mana sensitivity and mana amount.”
As expected.
He had sensed some changes when he first ate the potatoes, but it was because of the Guardian Tree’s influence.
He was sure after hearing Khan’s words.
This is really awesome?
“Khan, rest for a bit and then dig up some more potatoes in the field.”
“Potatoes?”
“Yeah.”
Woojin took three boxes of potatoes to his uncle’s house.
The current time was 7 am.
He met eyes with his uncle who was preparing for work.
“Oh? You came early today?”
“I messed up my camping a bit. So I just came back early.”
“Really? Oh, you brought potatoes?”
His uncle also praised the taste of the potatoes.
Homegrown potatoes are different no matter what?
But these potatoes were not for us to eat.
“Yes. I thought I’d try selling some potatoes.”
“Selling them? They do taste good, since you grew them yourself…”
“I don’t know how much I’ll get for them.”
“Then why don’t you just sell them all to me?”
“Hey, how can I take money from you, uncle. Besides, you’ll be late for work. Hurry up and go.”
“Okay. Let’s talk more later.”
“Okay.”
Woojin sent his uncle off and sat down in front of the computer.
First, he went to YouTube and checked the number of subscribers.
The second video, thanks to the algorithm, had nearly 10,000 views.
As a result, the number of subscribers increased to 500.
If he uploaded this camping video, he might have reached 1,000.
It was a pity, but he was satisfied with bringing Khan, who could read the information of things.
“What if I upload an ad video here?”
He thought it might have some advertising effect with this number of subscribers.
Woojin set up the camera and filmed the potatoes he had harvested himself.
He only filmed the potatoes, making sure nothing else showed up.
He didn’t know how effective the ad would be, but he tried to include all the elements that would attract attention and scheduled it for upload.
[There is a ‘vegetable’ that increases mana and sensitivity?!]
It wasn’t over just by uploading the video.
Woojin went to his blog and decorated it a bit, and posted a potato sale post.
“I wonder how many people will buy it.”
He didn’t know how popular it would be, but someone would get lucky.
It was a vegetable that increased mana and sensitivity, after all.
