The Death Walker's Seal

Chapter 5

Baekho did not answer. The truth was, he used too much power last night. His seal weakened significantly. If he used more power now, it would weaken even further. And when the seal broke completely, everyone would remember what he really was.

He was not ready for that.

"We do not need him," Choi Iseul said coldly. "He is weak. He has zero mana, remember? What he did last night was probably just luck."

"Luck?" Moon Rael laughed bitterly. "You saw the same thing I saw. That was not luck. That was skill. Pure skill."

"Whatever it was, he clearly does not want to help us. So let us figure this out ourselves."

Baekho watched them argue. Part of him wanted to help. Part of him wanted to walk away and leave them to their fate. He was so tired of fighting. So tired of hiding.

But then he remembered something.

His little sister. Ha Chaewon.

She was the only person who still remembered him completely. The only person whose memories the system could not take away. And she was sick. Very sick. She needed medicine that cost millions of won.

That was why he cleared illegal Gates. For the money. For her.

If he died here, who would take care of her?

"There is a way," he said quietly.

Everyone stopped arguing and looked at him.

"What way?" Choi Iseul asked.

"The spiders are afraid of fire. I saw it in their eyes when you used your flame spell. If we create a big enough fire, they will run away."

"I cannot make a fire that big," Choi Iseul said. "My mana is not strong enough yet."

"Then we make it manually. Look around. This forest is dry. The leaves, the moss, the wood. Everything here burns easily."

Lee Rowoon nodded slowly. "He is right. If we set fire to the forest, the spiders will have to retreat."

"But we will burn too!" Park Hwan said.

"Not if we are smart about it. We start the fire over there," Baekho pointed to the left, "and we run in the opposite direction. The wind is blowing left to right. The fire will spread away from us."

It was a risky plan. If the wind changed direction, they would die. If the fire spread too fast, they would die. If the spiders decided to attack instead of running, they would die.

But it was better than waiting here to be eaten.

"I am in," Moon Rael said.

"Me too," Lee Rowoon agreed.

Park Hwan nodded nervously. "Okay."

Everyone looked at Choi Iseul.

She stared at Baekho for a long moment. Then she said, "Fine. But if this does not work, I am blaming you."

"Fair enough."

They made their preparations quickly. Moon Rael soaked her arrows in alcohol from the first aid kit. Choi Iseul got ready to ignite them with her fire magic. Lee Rowoon and Park Hwan collected dry leaves and branches.

Baekho watched the spiders. They were patient. They knew the humans were trapped. They could wait.

"Ready?" Choi Iseul asked.

"Ready," Moon Rael said. She pulled back her bowstring.

Choi Iseul touched the arrow tip. Flames appeared. The arrow caught fire.

Moon Rael released. The burning arrow flew through the narrow gap and hit a tree trunk. The dry bark caught fire immediately.

"Again!"

Another arrow. Another fire.

"Again!"

Three more arrows. Three more fires.

Within seconds, the forest was burning. The flames spread fast, eating through the dry vegetation like a hungry animal.

The spiders screeched. They did not like the fire. They began to retreat.

"Now!" Baekho shouted. "Run!"

They squeezed out of their hiding spot and ran to the right, away from the flames. The spiders were too busy running from the fire to chase them.

They ran for five minutes without stopping. When they finally slowed down, the fire was far behind them. Black smoke rose into the air.

"It worked," Park Hwan said between gasps. "We are alive."

"Do not celebrate yet," Baekho said. "We still need to survive for another forty minutes."

"And collect monster cores," Lee Rowoon added. "Right now we have zero."

They walked deeper into the forest, looking for weaker monsters to hunt. As they walked, Choi Iseul moved closer to Baekho.

"You knew that plan would work," she said. "How?"

"I did not know. I guessed."

"You are lying. You have been in Gates before. Many times. That is why you knew what to do."

Baekho did not answer.

"Who are you really?" Choi Iseul asked. "Why are you pretending to be weak?"

"I am not pretending. I am weak. I have zero mana. You saw the test results."

"Mana is not everything."

"Then what is?"

Choi Iseul looked at him thoughtfully. "Survival instinct, experience, the will to live. You have all of that. More than anyone I have met."

Before Baekho could respond, Park Hwan shouted from ahead.

"I found something!"

They ran over to him. He was standing at the edge of a clearing. In the middle of the clearing was a small pond. And around the pond were slimes, dozens of them. Grade F monsters. Easy prey.

"Finally," Lee Rowoon said with a smile. "Let us get those cores."

They attacked together. The slimes were weak and slow. Within ten minutes, they had killed twenty of them and collected twenty monster cores.

"Not bad," Moon Rael said. "We might actually pass this test."

But Baekho was not paying attention. He was looking at the pond. Something about it bothered him.

"Why is there a pond here?" he asked.

"What?" Park Hwan looked confused. "It is just water. Who cares?"

"This is a dry forest. Everything here burns easily. But this pond has clear water, fresh water. Where is it coming from?"

Everyone stopped and looked at the pond more carefully.

"He is right," Lee Rowoon said slowly. "There should not be water here."

A bad feeling grew in Baekho's chest. He walked closer to the pond and looked into the water.

His reflection stared back at him. But then the reflection smiled.

Baekho did not smile.

"Get away from the water!" he shouted.

Too late.

Something grabbed his leg and pulled him down. He fell into the pond. The water was deeper than it looked. Much deeper.

He saw shapes moving in the darkness below. Big shapes.

Then everything went black.

The last thing he heard was Choi Iseul screaming his name.