Chapter 33

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter Title: Skinny Kid Searching for Dad 12

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A scorching wave of heat slammed into her face.

Unlike Tiye, who had frozen in place, Grandpa Nordics sprang into action.

He grabbed his bag and staff, then shouted,

"Run!"

With that, he shoved Tiye hard in the back.

Her mind had gone completely blank, but she started running anyway.

She had caught sight of the monster emerging from behind her grandfather.

The ground was slick with wet dirt, fallen leaves, and protruding tree roots, but Tiye clutched her bag to her chest and ran for dear life.

'Uncle Basto was telling the truth.'

Her heart pounded wildly.

The monster chasing her really did look like a Tyrannosaurus.

"Keep running! Faster! I'll lure it away!"

Grandpa the backwoods wizard's voice overlapped with her dad's words in her mind.

'Never let your guard down.'

Now she finally understood what that meant.

The forest had been so quiet that not even the sound of birds could be heard.

Grandpa the backwoods wizard had been dozing off, and just moments ago, the stars had twinkled in the sky.

Then suddenly, a fireball crashed into the tent, and a dinosaur-like monster came chasing after Tiye!

It was so terrifying that her whole body went rigid.

She didn't dare look back as she ran, but once she realized the monster's footsteps had faded away, she pressed herself against a large tree and quickly ducked into a nearby bush to hide.

In the distance, the elm tree where they had pitched the tent was blazing fiercely.

Strange cries echoed from all around, but she couldn't spot her grandfather anywhere.

Terror-stricken, Tiye glanced in the opposite direction.

Without realizing it, she had run toward the cave, and the entrance where Basto and Veil had gone wasn't far off.

As she peered at it, Tiye's lips parted slightly in surprise.

The surroundings were illuminated by the glow of the wildfire.

Someone was escaping from the cave.

It was none other than Basto, clutching his shoulder where blood was pouring out.

Then another figure burst out of the cave.

'Brother Veil?'

Veil was fending off something pursuing him as he fled the cave.

It was several smaller monsters, dinosaur-like just like the one that had chased Tiye earlier.

Her mouth went dry.

'No, no...'

The situation looked dire.

Basto was injured.

And Veil, locked in fierce combat with the monsters, was being steadily pushed back.

Tiye's face grew even paler.

"Urk-!"

A scream burst from Veil's lips as one of the monsters struck him.

His thigh, gashed by the monster's claw, stained red—and without thinking, Tiye leaped out from the bush.

Her green eyes, gripped by fear, trembled faintly.

In that moment, everything seemed to slow down.

Basto, collapsing to the ground mid-run.

The monsters charging at him like they had been waiting for this chance.

They looked nothing like anything Tiye had ever seen before.

Maybe a hundred times scarier than the dinosaurs in books.

Fierce eyes reflecting the flames.

Razor-sharp teeth in gaping maws.

And long, glinting claws to top it all off.

'...Uncle Basto's going to die.'

She swallowed hard.

Maybe Brother Veil and the missing backwoods wizard grandpa would die too.

The box of her dad's belongings she had received in Jongno-gu flashed before her eyes.

Death tears everything apart.

It makes you unable to see the people you love ever again, and even dyes all the happy, joyful memories with sorrow.

And in the midst of it all, Tiye thought,

'I can't do anything, nothing...'

Tears streamed down her cheeks uncontrollably.

Tiye squeezed her eyes shut.

'Please, please, I beg you.'

If there was a god, please hear Tiye's prayer.

I don't want to say goodbye to anyone else.

All Tiye wanted was to see her dad again, just once...

Veil gritted his teeth against the pain piercing through his thigh.

Behind him, Basto lay collapsed, still fending off the monsters.

"Damn beasts-!"

Basto was jamming his hammer into a monster's maw to hold it off, but it didn't look like he could last.

Veil was in the same boat.

"Kuh!"

In that brief moment, another attack came raining down on him.

His breath came ragged as he barely deflected it.

The monsters showed no sign of tiring.

Block one side, and they'd target his vitals from another.

'This is the end.'

His legs shook beneath him.

Just the other day, the Tenebraum Cave had only small magic stones.

Who could've guessed a medium one would sprout overnight?

And right behind the one Veil and Basto had been targeting, no less.

Veil swung his sword with one hand while rummaging inside his collar with the other.

His fingers closed around a small vial.

A deadly poison that would stop his heart the instant he drank it.

Better a clean death than being torn apart alive—that was the plan, until.

Clatter—

An unfamiliar sound rang out, and the sky suddenly darkened.

At the same time, the monsters charging at Veil halted in their tracks.

For some reason, their gazes turned toward his back.

He furrowed his brow at the inexplicable scene, but only for a moment.

"...!"

Something whooshed past over his head.

"Kieeeek-!!!"

A guttural roar exploded right in front of him.

Veil froze at the sight before his eyes.

A pale, bony something had ensnared the monster.

It was unmistakably... bones.

The skeleton had wrapped around the monster's neck.

A shrill scream escaped the small monster—a Bellios.

"Kieek-!!"

It thrashed its body to shake off the skeleton, but to no avail.

Veil stumbled back and collapsed to the ground.

"Kyak-!"

The other Bellios rushed the skeleton to rescue their kin, but

"Kiek- Kieek!"

More skeletons erupted from the earth, ensnaring their ankles as well.

Bones caked in dirt.

Dead, yet somehow alive—a paradoxical existence.

Those were definitely...

"Veil."

A low whisper came from behind him.

Basto had somehow made it right up next to him.

"You..."

"Get up, now!"

Basto roughly hauled Veil to his feet and dragged him away from the skeletons, his expression grim.

"You... a mage?"

Veil froze, unable to process the words.

Then he answered with bewildered disbelief.

"What nonsense is that? A mage?!"

The two stood side by side, entranced, staring off into the distance.

The fallen Bellios.

And even a massive Rickelops that had tried to escape toward the forest but lay dead at the edge, unnoticed until now.

Dozens of bones clinging to the monster's flesh—it was a chilling sight that sent shivers down their spines.

"I-I thought you were..."

Veil trailed off, clamping his mouth shut.

He had realized it.

Neither he nor Basto had summoned the skeletons.

His gaze dropped downward.

Blood soaked his thigh.

The spot grazed by the Bellios's claw still burned with pain.

'If it had been just ten seconds later...'

He'd be a lifeless hunk of meat by now, no doubt.

"But how?"

The words slipped out as a murmur.

Skeletons had only ever existed in name until now.

It was inevitable.

Magic to move the dead had no basis in reality.

Dark attribute magic—necromancy—had only ever been passed down in legends.

"So who the hell...?"

Bones rising from the earth.

Skeletons that ignored humans and targeted only monsters, dragging them into a swamp of death.

His trembling eyes scanned the surroundings.

The one controlling these creatures of darkness had to be nearby.

The monsters' screams rising from the ground proved it.

And that bastard was probably no ordinary person.

Most likely, an unprecedented terror—the first in history to wield dark attribute magic.

He had to find them.

But where...?

"Uncle Basto! Brother Veil-!"

Footsteps rapidly approached.

Veil and Basto whipped around and froze stiff.

"Y-you're safe! Waaah...!"

Astie stopped in front of them, her face streaked with tears.

The child cradled something preciously in both hands.

"I thought you were both goners, waaah-!"

It was... a skull.

"Thank goodness, really thank goodness!"

As the child wiped her tears, something clattered off the skull and fell to the ground.

It rolled across the dirt and came to a stop at Veil's feet—a jawbone.

A human jawbone, fully skeletalized.