228 – Zji #2
I thought this place was the Garden of Eden, but in fact, it was Jurassic Park.
A monstrous raptor was baring its teeth and claws at me.
—Ppueng…! Ppueng…!
It was a dinosaur making curious sounds.
I had seen various animals belonging to lizards or ‘dragons,’ but as this was my first time seeing a dinosaur itself, I felt both fear and excitement.
The first beast I discovered was a crack beast.
A dinosaur!
I had been a person who was crazy about dinosaurs since I was young!
I had played lots of games featuring dinosaurs but was sad when they ended service.
I used to ride dinosaurs, have them as pets, and enjoy hunting together while adventuring through unfamiliar wildernesses and deserts.
Suddenly, they started selling cash pets that affected the balance significantly, and after experiencing various reasons, the number of people dwindled, and eventually, they shut down the service.
Even if I wanted to play again, I couldn’t. It’s depressing.
—Ppueng…! Ppueng…!
“Hey! Haildo! Dangerous! Hey! Dinosaur kid! Get away from Haildo!”
Whoosh—!
Seo Ye-rim threw the wooden spear she was holding at the dinosaur. Her skill was excellent, but the raptor merely bobbed its head like it was weaving, dodging all of Seo Ye-rim’s throws.
“Haildo! We have to run!”
“No, no. Wait a minute.”
I instinctively felt that the raptor had no intention of attacking me any further.
At least not to the point of activating its ‘trigger.’
Having been around various animals until now, I had some understanding with them.
Sly—.
I slowly extended my palm towards the raptor and reached for the dagger embedded in its waist.
“Okay, be nice.”
Sly—.
I cautiously approached and grabbed the hilt of the dagger.
It was mercilessly embedded deep within.
Swoosh, chwaak—!
As I pulled it out with force, the raptor startled and began to thrash its body around, and soon, a small dinosaur approached the flailing creature.
—Ppueeung…!
“Yeah, it really had a little one.”
The friend that had been observing us from the bushes was this small chicken-sized dinosaur.
When I chased it, the big raptor that seemed to be its mother thought I was threatening her baby and attacked me.
Sly—.
The raptor that had been distressed by the dagger being pulled out slowly raised its body.
Then it rubbed its tail and head against my face and cried out—Ppueng…!
“Is that your way of saying thank you?”
Sly—.
I gently patted the dinosaur’s forehead and chin.
Soon, the two dinosaurs vanished into the bushes with a whoosh.
Seo Ye-rim, who had been watching this scene, opened her mouth, which had been shut for a long time.
“No way, what kind of forest has dinosaurs…? I didn’t see any for the three days I walked around…!?”
“Well, this island is bigger than expected. It might have been in a place we haven’t checked yet. And look at this. This dagger….”
It was a material gathering knife commonly used by Awakened.
It wasn’t a laser blade, but rather a crude iron object, and the hilt had “LEE♡” written on it.
It belonged to Lee Jin-A.
“Looks like Lee Jin-A is here on this island!”
I felt immense joy at the thought that there were other people besides us.
But Seo Ye-rim frowned at me.
“Hey, why do you look happier than when you saw me? Tsk.”
“Of course! The survival probability increases from two to three, that’s obvious! Humans evolved to survive by hunting in groups, you know? And this dagger can be used effectively!”
Until yesterday, we had just been primitive beings who barely managed to create fire.
But with this steel dagger, we could leap from stone and bronze to iron civilization in an instant!
We could carve wood more intricately and even set traps!
# # #
On the afternoon of the fourth day.
That day, it suddenly started pouring rain, forcing us to halt our steps halfway up the mountain.
Pwaah—.
It was a tremendous downpour.
“I guess we need to make a fire.”
Seo Ye-rim, soaked to the bone, was shivering as she tried to start a fire in the cave, but Haildo, busy trimming branches with the dagger, shook his head.
“No. Starting a fire in a cave is perfect for suffocation.”
“Then what do we do? I’m completely soaked!”
“That’s true. Wearing wet clothes lowers your body temperature even more.”
Shivering—.
Seo Ye-rim clung tightly to Haildo, trembling.
Haildo’s body was warm, and he had a scent that calmed the heart. It felt like I was taking a forest bath in a vast woods.
It was easy to understand why animals like squirrels, honey ants, ghost spiders, and tiger owls followed Haildo closely.
In many ways, the picky and shy Nymphs also trusted Haildo because this man was as harmless as a tree.
Haildo, the male, seemed to have a faint ‘desire.’
Trees only had the thought of growing upward—Haildo, too, only had the vertical ascendancy desire of wanting to raise his ‘rank’ and become a celebrity.
It was at that moment.
Ouch—.
“Ah!”
Seo Ye-rim screamed loudly.
Something felt sharp on her thigh.
—Chshh…!
In Seo Ye-rim’s sight was a colorful snake. It sparkled like a rainbow, and it looked as if it was saying, “I’m a venomous snake.”
—Chshh…!
“V-venomous snake! I’ve been bitten by a venomous snake! Right now, I’ve been bitten by a venomous snake!”
Seo Ye-rim panicked.
Haildo swung the dagger at the venomous snake, but the snake moved faster and escaped out of the cave.
What mattered wasn’t the snake.
Realizing it was Seo Ye-rim who was bitten, Haildo saw two wounds deep in the inner part of her thigh.
“Seo Ye-rim, what I’m about to do from now on is for medical purposes and has no personal or sexual meaning, so don’t misunderstand at all. I’m going to assume that you’ve agreed to this.”
Pat-.
Haildo buried his face in Seo Ye-rim’s thigh and sucked the venom out.
Sucking out venom with the mouth when bitten by a venomous snake is actually not recommended, but the situation was urgent, and with no antidote available, there was no choice.
Swooosh—.
“Ugh…!”
Seo Ye-rim grabbed Haildo’s hair tightly as he sucked on her thigh. Something about the hot sensation made Seo Ye-rim’s waist bend, and her whole body trembled.
“Ahh…! Noo…!”
Ptoo—!
Ptooee—!
Haildo sucked on her thigh a bit too vigorously and spat everything out.
Seo Ye-rim gasped for breath, and Haildo said to her:
“I managed to suck it all out, but….”
Seo Ye-rim finally regained her senses.
She was too flustered about what had just happened to process it, but now she understood how shocking the event was.
Sucking on a thigh from a man!
“What have you done! How dare you suck the thigh of an unmarried woman! How will you take responsibility for this!”
“Hey! I had no choice!”
“Well, that’s fair. I should be grateful here. Thank you.”
Seo Ye-rim seemed to be someone much more flexible in thought than expected.
She understood that the earlier situation couldn’t be helped.
“But don’t talk about this anywhere. Because if you tell anyone that you sucked my thigh with your mouth, you will have to take responsibility accordingly. Like you have to marry me or something…”
Seo Ye-rim trailed off her words because Haildo looked strange.
“What’s wrong?”
# # #
From various media, I knew that sucking the bite site of a snake was generally not recommended.
There are bacteria in the mouth, and if one has a wound or becomes poisoned, they could suffer various side effects.
Just like what I was experiencing now.
I was in trouble.
I thought.
The poison that I had accidentally absorbed without being able to spit out felt distinctly coursing through my body.
I tried to control the poison as much as possible through meditation, but this island was an environment that drained my magical power, making it difficult.
The effects of the poison hit me instantly.
I realized that one part of my body was hardening as if it had turned to stone like the victims of Medusa.
That was my—Zji…!
It was my—Zji…! with very important and precious meaning.
Is this real…!?
I was as tense and horrified as I had ever been since being born. I had never panicked this much, even when Seo Ye-rim asked me to return her shoes.
What kind of snake was this that had such an effect with its poison!?
“Ugh.”
Cold sweat trickled down my back.
Seo Ye-rim asked, “Hey! Are you okay?” but I couldn’t even bring myself to respond properly!
How long had I been tossing and turning like this?
I knew through my wild instincts.
This state would last over 10 hours.
The human body could experience extreme pain and start to necrose after four hours of blood pooling in one part.
In other words, it vividly foretold the terrible things that could happen if I stayed like this. It was so horrific that I couldn’t even bear to imagine it.
Why was I facing such a trial?
Sweat flowed down, and the sights I had seen in my life passed before my eyes like a panorama.
“Hey, you also have a problem!”
Seo Ye-rim seemed to have realized my peculiar condition.
I thought about what to do and tightly shut my eyes.
—Chatter chatter, anemone!
Nymph speak, babbling away.
I tried to explain the situation using that, and I could see Seo Ye-rim’s expression in the increasingly dark cave filled with various feelings of surprise and fear mixing together.
About ten seconds of silence passed, perhaps?
In the loud patter of rain outside, Seo Ye-rim cleared her throat with a cough.
“Now that this has happened while sucking on my venom, I can’t help but feel a sense of responsibility. I’m an S-ranker and a member of the Telos family, and I can’t ignore your misfortune.”
“What are you trying to do?”
“I don’t know…! But rather than just staying like this, we should at least do something emergency…! Hey! Take it off…! If we try something, maybe it will work…!?”
What does she mean by do something…!?
I was scared because I didn’t know what Seo Ye-rim was trying to do.
Seo Ye-rim had always been unpredictable.
Was she thinking of burning it away?
That was the thought I had when—
“Nooo…!”
With a sharp sound, someone entered the cave where we were hiding halfway up the mountain.
I thought a dinosaur had popped out, but the face was quite familiar.
“Oh? It’s Ari! And next to her is Lee Jin-A!”
“I thought you were here! I felt your energy through the rain, so I came through the downpour…! My feelings were telling me…! That you were in a crisis…!”
Ari looked like a drowned rat, drenched from head to toe in what could be a mix of rainwater and tears. Lee Jin-A looked the same.
Lee Jin-A scratched her head.
“No way, Haildo is really in this cave.”
So Jin-A and Yu Ara had come looking for me!
I was very pleased, but even more joyful was the fact that Ari had a medical bag at her waist!
I spoke to Ari.
“Ari, do you have an antidote in there…!?”
