22. The Fairy Lake
“Long ago, the sea was our home and our homeland.”
After preparing equipment for the surviving monsters, including me and Pie, it took us about five days to reach the Fairy Lake.
Now that the remaining time had dropped to single digits, I was feeling anxious and impatient.
Yet I was sitting here listening to the Queen of the Fairies, who was somewhat larger than I expected a fairy to be, telling me a story from a very, very long time ago.
“Back then, chaos and death did not yet exist in this world, and the vast sea containing the power of life was like heaven to us.”
“But one day, a tremendous change occurred in the world. Countless animals became monsters and ran wild. Death and chaos spread everywhere, and our homeland, the Sea of the Fountain of Life, experienced the greatest change of all.”
“Chaos created new creatures and powers that had never existed in this world, while death caused many creatures to develop terrible emotions.”
“The queen before me said that humans were a race born from that chaos. But I never saw it myself, so I cannot say whether that was true. There are no records of it either.”
“As time passed, one day I left the lake and looked around. The lake where we had escaped from the sea and lived in hiding was covered in a strange mist. That place was this very place—the Maze Forest.”
“For those who came here, we tested their character, gave them power, and asked them to bring an end to this eternal Maze Forest. We have lived like this for countless ages.”
Someone like me, who only says what needs to be said, can be difficult to talk to when the other person wants a conversation.
But humans who suddenly recite an entire epic history after being asked only one question can be pretty difficult too.
The fairies I knew were mischievous, spirit-like creatures.
But the fairies here seemed more like one of the many beast races.
In other words, they didn’t have that mysterious feeling I expected from fairies.
“Can you fulfill our wish, Great Sinner of Madness wearing chains?”
If fairies were a playable race, that would probably be pretty interesting too.
Apparently, they could see things that other people couldn’t.
But if that were the case, would every fairy’s starting location be here in the Maze Forest?
No, right?
The race that originally lived in the sea couldn’t possibly all be living in a lake like this.
“I’ll do my best.”
“That is a rather casual answer.”
Apparently, she was planning to make me carry some huge responsibility.
No chance!
This was an RPG game.
Did she really think I would suddenly become some incredibly responsible hero?
If I were that kind of person, I wouldn’t have become friends with Hayang in the first place!
“Very well. However, even though we have given trials for countless years, we have never had to test so many people at once. It may take some time. You seem to be pressed for time. Will you be all right?”
“We’ll find out when we try. Coming here in the first place was already a gamble. Are you telling me to back out now? I’ve already gone all-in, Fairy Lady.”
The deeper I went into this place, the more painfully aware I became of my own weakness.
If there was a way to become stronger, there was no reason to refuse it.
There was no reason to worry about the time it would take either.
Of course, if it consumed too much time, that would be a problem.
So if there was a limit to the number of people who could undergo the trial, I should probably have the strongest-looking members take it.
[The Fairy Queen wishes to give you a trial!]
[Once the trial begins, it is impossible to know how much time will pass!]
[Will you accept the trial?]
My position in this game was such that whenever something came at me, I couldn’t avoid it.
Or perhaps it was more accurate to say that I had never managed to avoid anything.
All because of that damn indomitable will!
All because of that damn word, give up!
Who the hell wrote these messages?
Who was sending them to me?
Was it the angel lady?
“…So, what do I have to do?”
“Come this way.”
It was called the Fairy’s Trial, but nobody actually told me what the trial was.
So once again, I got to experience just how unfriendly this game was.
They had mentioned evolution, so I guessed it must have something to do with my race.
But what could possibly be related to my race as a human?
Could it have something to do with the Queen’s statement about humans being a race born from chaos?
But why chaos?
Was Super Real trying to make some deep philosophical statement about the fundamental nature of humanity?
I was already playing this game while being friends with Madness.
If they added Chaos on top of that, wouldn’t I just become some completely random build?
I’d already been playing according to a specific concept, but there had to be a limit.
If they kept piling more and more lore onto me, I wouldn’t be able to keep up.
“Then, I pray that you will bring us a world without mist.”
If the quest reward was amazing, I might consider it.
Otherwise, I wasn’t interested.
A reward for a reward.
Let’s keep this a clean business relationship.
Afterward, I followed the fairies that suddenly appeared from somewhere after the Queen summoned them.
They slowly guided me into the lake.
By now, I was at least confident that I wouldn’t drown in the sea.
But I had no idea how things would work in a lake like this.
The Swimming in the Sea skill was, after all, limited to the sea.
Eventually, when I walked into water deep enough to reach beneath my chin, I suddenly fell into the lake.
It felt as if a door had suddenly opened beneath my feet.
Ohhh, it’s starting.
I was underwater, but there was no warning related to drowning or anything else.
So this must be another game event.
I’d only experienced this kind of feeling twice while playing this game.
Both times had been when I met Hayang.
So my heart was beating faster from excitement.
[Hayang: I can’t use my power at all in this lake. My Mental Power is completely restricted here.]
What?
That was a problem!
If you took Mental Power away from me right now, I had nothing left!
My level wasn’t particularly high, and my stats weren’t abnormally high either!
Ugh, this is bad.
I had made absolutely no preparations for a situation where I couldn’t use Mental Power!
If I’d known this would happen, I would’ve prepared all kinds of things!
From now on, did I need to find some other methods to prepare for situations like this?
How annoying.
I didn’t like preparing silver swords just because I might have to fight ghosts or something.
[You open your eyes in the middle of a battlefield where an endless war is taking place.]
[Your trial begins here.]
The message window, which was always so energetic, appeared today without even a single exclamation mark.
Had something bad happened?
“Modak, come out. Looks like there’s a war going on right now.”
Countless people lay motionless across the field.
They were dead, and the smell of fresh blood tickled my nose.
If this had been a real situation, I would’ve been completely panicked.
Thank goodness this was only data.
Thank goodness this was a game.
Even so, it was shocking enough to make me feel nauseous and dizzy for a moment.
Even horror games didn’t usually portray things this realistically.
The smell.
The heat.
Everything.
“Why am I taking the trial too?”
“Maybe because I’m considered your summoned creature?”
I summoned Modak, who had grown considerably stronger after all those battles with the goblins.
Then I picked up an old sword covered in dried blood from the ground.
Every sword lying around had some kind of problem.
If the length was decent, the blade was damaged.
If the blade was still sharp, the sword was broken and far too short.
For now, having a sharp blade was more important.
So I picked the shorter sword with the better edge.
“Modak, do you see anything?”
“The smell of blood is spreading strongly on the wind. If we go this way, we’ll probably meet some people.”
“People who are fighting, right? Ugh, what a pain.”
I had imagined that a trial would immediately involve fighting.
But they hadn’t thrown me directly into the middle of the battle.
They had placed me nearby instead.
So the answer to this trial probably wasn’t simply Fight and win!
If that was the case, the best choice for me was to go as far away as possible and avoid the battle.
And sure enough, no message appeared asking me whether I would give up.
That meant that no matter what I did, giving up wasn’t an option.
Getting involved in a serious problem like war wasn’t really my style.
It’s already hard enough trying to live my own life.
Honestly, they expected way too much from an ordinary small-time guy like me.
At first, I had even hesitated to fight monsters.
And if this was a war, especially one related to evolution, it would probably be a war between humans.
No matter what, I didn’t want to experience the feeling of killing another human.
The AI in this game was far too human-like to simply dismiss everything by saying, It’s just a game.
I’d rather experience something like that only when I could clearly distinguish the game from reality and knew I wouldn’t be deeply affected by it.
What if someone died and looked at me with hatred?
Or begged me to save them?
That would guarantee me nightmares.
My nights were already long enough.
Please don’t give me any more trauma.
[Hayang: I thought you were going to run straight into the fight.]
“Do you think I’m some kind of battle maniac? I’m not the type to deliberately go looking for trouble when I don’t need to.”
If I looked like a battle maniac, it was because every choice I’d made in this game had forced me into fighting.
The Maze Forest itself was a violent place.
And RPGs as a genre were generally like that too.
“Now, where’s a good place to hide?”
Step.
Step.
I casually walked toward the shadowy forest without giving it much thought.
It was exactly opposite to the direction Modak had mentioned.
Normally, I would’ve headed toward the people even if they were fighting.
But perhaps because I’d been living in a forest recently, I had developed an odd sense of familiarity with it.
“But if this is a trial, there must obviously be some kind of test prepared for me. Can I really just take it this easy?”
That was a fair point.
It was supposed to be a trial.
If I just sat around doing nothing and then heard, Time’s up, please come out! before being told the result, what would be the fun in that?
“…Why? Should I burn down the entire forest?”
“…You can do that?”
Why not?
From what I could tell, this trial seemed to judge my actions and then give me the result.
Of course, considering that this was the Fairy’s Trial, perhaps the correct answer was to help some person in this place who was in a similar situation to the fairies of the Maze Forest.
But would I really play in such a predictable way?
No way!
[Hayang: So you were thinking about something bigger than fighting! Excellent!]
“Should I burn it? We’ll make lots of friends!”
“Modak is slowly becoming more like me. As his father, this hurts my heart a little.”
…There was nothing wrong with doing it, right?
“Let’s burn it!”
“Yeah! Let’s burn it!”
[Hayang: Burn everything!!!]
Life was a series of improvisations!
