Former Ranker's Newbie Life

Chapter 162

After helping Kaa’ang become a functional human being, Do-Jin decided to continue resting for a few more days. Once he felt like he had enough energy in the tank, he started getting ready for his next goal. There was nothing special about the preparation itself. He simply packed consumables and various tools into his inventory the same way he always did, though he packed far more than usual.

It will be a pain to resupply out there, so I need to bring as much as I can.

He added the magic spellbooks he had bought little by little and kept stored away. After finishing everything he could possibly prepare, Do-Jin headed north, toward the place where Karin lived.

***

The path from the Central Continent’s midlands to the northern region passed through areas that were outside the Empire’s borders and even outside human territory entirely.

Do-Jin hadn’t even reached Level 150 yet, so if he got unlucky, even ordinary monsters could tear him apart and leave almost nothing behind. Still, as a veteran, he knew exactly how to poke at the weak points of monsters far above his level and tilt the fight in his favor. Anyone who could do that qualified as a seasoned player. Pushing past that into what people called a rotten veteran meant he’d learned how to sidestep the fight entirely and walk away without a scratch.

In my case, survival was on the line, so I twisted my body like a rat until I figured it out.

Back in his previous life, when he was terrible at staying alive and his stamina was horrendous, trying to travel while fighting meant he’d collapse long before he reached his destination. The only way to cross the continent was to hunt down relatively safe shortcuts and mid-route rest stops, then cling to them like gospel.

All those twisted, desperate routes he’d taken to stay alive back then were now the bones and sinew holding him up. The problem, of course, was that most of those so-called side paths were dangerous enough that they demanded his life as collateral.

I am happy... I am comfortable... Do-Jin thought to himself.

He clung to the cliff like a tick, ready to jump. Above and below him was a sheer drop into nothingness, a landscape so suicidal even monsters avoided it. Filthy cave bugs skittered in the shadows far below, and wyverns and harpies screeched along the upper ridge, but this thin strip in the middle was lifeless. Even monsters weren’t stupid enough to starve here. With nothing to eat a hundred meters up or a hundred meters down, nothing bothered coming near.

“Phew... hup!”

After a deep breath, Do-Jin threw himself forward and barely managed to land on a ledge about two meters away. Still, it was easier than it had been in his previous life. Even with his level still low, his Strength and Agility were higher than they’d been back then. His body was too fit for Stamina-stat penalties to trigger, and he had Psychokinetic Artistry to back it up.

Still, he clicked his tongue. “Shit, that was close.”

Nothing about this journey was easy. One tiny slip and he’d splatter into a bloody mess. The thought clawed at him nonstop, and the mix of icy wind and cold sweat did nothing for his mood. He crawled along the cliff like an angry insect until he finally squeezed into a pathetic excuse for a burrow carved into the rock.

“Alright... At least I don’t have to worry about falling to my death anymore.”

The burrow was so narrow that anyone even slightly overweight or broad-shouldered would be unable to squeeze through. Just thinking about crawling through it for a long time made his whole body ache. Or rather, it was already aching. After clinging to a cliff for hours, it’d be weirder if his body felt fine.

If he’d been fighting acrophobia a moment ago, now he was fighting claustrophobia instead. This was what made virtual reality so brutal. If it were a normal game played on a monitor, it would be nothing more than a boring travel segment. But in VR, where everything felt no different from reality, he had to go through the suffering with his own body. As he crawled through the burrow, Do-Jin thought that life really wasn’t easy.

Once I get through here, the rest should be smooth for a while, Do-Jin thought optimistically.

After the long, long crawl ended, the space on the other side was a cavern coated in sticky slime. A low rumble crawled through the floor, and he immediately recognized it as the field boss Ramacos’ Serpent.

Shit. I was hoping it had gone out for a stroll...

Do-Jin moved carefully from cover to cover, inching toward the exit. And then he saw it, a massive serpent coiled up and sleeping. That thing was the reason Do-Jin had discovered this route in the first place.

He had been running for his life from Ramacos’ Serpent, panicked like any sane person would, and dove into the nearest hole he could find. He kept crawling because he wanted to live, and the game rewarded him by dumping him in the middle of a cliff face.

If I could kill it, that’d be great, but if I touch it right now, that’s a one-way ticket to the afterlife. I need to shake it.

Trying to sneak past while it slept would end with him getting swallowed whole, so he needed bait. Do-Jin used Summon Wraith and sent it deep into the cave. Since it wasn’t alive and made no sound, it slipped into the darkness without triggering anything.

The specter followed his command and started beating on the wall as hard as it could. Then, Ramacos’ Serpent lifted its head instantly. The snake hissed like someone had spit on its nest and shot toward the inner chamber.

Do-Jin sprinted for the exit as soon as the coast was clear. If he moved slowly, the snake’s vibration sense would catch him anyway, so running full speed was the only sane choice. The second he burst out of the cave, he summoned Anemone without breaking stride.

“Do-Jin, hurry and get on!” she shouted.

Sensing how desperate he was, she bolted forward the moment he landed on her back. Behind them, the serpent took up the chase a little too late, and the distance he had gained made sure he could shake it off safely.

The entire area that Anemone was sprinting along was part of Ramacos’s Serpent’s domain, so there were no enemies in sight. Everything that used to live nearby had either been eaten by the serpent or had fled because it didn’t want to be eaten.

“Anemone, just look straight ahead and keep running!”

The Ramacos wetlands stretched out before them as soon as they escaped the serpent’s territory. The swamp leeches lurking beneath the mud sensed Anemone’s movement and shot up like tentacles. If they stopped, the leeches would grab them and drag them under, but the creatures were fixed in place. Since their real bodies remained submerged, moving past them fast enough meant leaving their attack range entirely.

“Do-Jin! Why do you always end up in places like this? Can’t you go somewhere safe for once?” Anemone shouted while running for her life. Her voice held no resentment, only the anxious worry of a mother scolding a reckless son who never stopped finding trouble.

“This path is the safest one!” he protested.

“How does that make any sense?”

“It doesn’t... but nothing in this world makes sense.”

“Jeez...” Anemone let out a sigh, somewhat amused at how casually Do-Jin said such ridiculous things. What amazed her most was how he almost seemed to enjoy the danger.

“Let’s go together from here. This part is a neighborhood worth taking slowly and looking around in.”

Once they cleared the wetland, a field of sand spread out before them, glittering like scattered gemstones. Since the area was only dangerous at night, Do-Jin had timed the trip precisely, and they crossed the last obstacle without much trouble. After climbing to the continent’s northernmost edge, he tucked himself away and waited for darkness to fall.

***

As soon as night came, Karin surfaced. She did come up in the daytime once in a while, but not much anymore. Ever since she’d seen the moonlit snowfield with Do-Jin, she’d grown to love the moon far more than the sun.

“Father, I’ll be back!” she said to the empty air and flew upward with a lighthearted flutter.

Karin perched at the continent’s edge, suspended high in the sky, and hummed as she stared toward the distant Central Continent. The weather was clear, so even the far-off mountain peaks across the sea were visible. After watching the ocean and the land beyond it for a long while, she pulled out a book. It had been absurdly difficult to track down, and it was one of the few novels she still hadn’t read.

I’m so excited to see how it ends!

It was a typical hero story, but Karin had been enjoying it anyway. There weren’t many pages left, so she turned them slowly, savoring each line. However, the ending pissed her off.

“Why?! Why does the hero have to die like this?” Karin threw punches at the sky as if the author was floating somewhere above her, then puffed out her cheeks like an angry duck. “I can’t accept an ending like this! What’ll happen to the lover waiting back in his hometown?”

She scowled and flicked her hand. Using Elder blood to soak the last page red, she began rewriting the ending.

The hero returned safely to his hometown, where his lover, his friends, and his family were waiting. He spent the rest of his life happy with the people he loved. Not a single moment of misfortune ever came for him again.

Karin reread the lines she’d written and nodded with a proud smirk. “I’d love to get the author’s approval for this ending if it’s possible, but they’ve probably already passed away. It’s such a shame. If I’d asked politely, I’m sure they would’ve accepted this as the real ending!”

She wasn’t wrong. There weren’t many authors who would refuse if an Elder-class vampire drenched a book in blood and politely asked them to rewrite the ending.

After she finished the novel and had nothing left to distract her, Karin turned her gaze back toward the Central Continent. She knew he was out there somewhere. He’d told her he would return someday. She didn’t know when, but she wasn’t worried. Karin was a vampire. She could wait a very, very long time.

What bothered her was how slow the days felt now. In the past, she’d drift off thinking a single day had passed, only to realize a month was gone. And when she thought a month had slipped by, she’d look up to find an entire year had vanished.

Once she had someone to wait for, her sense of time changed completely. Every minute and second felt painfully vivid. Each day stretched longer than the last, and sometimes the spot in her chest where her heart refused to beat would tingle, like it was remembering something it had no right to remember. And whenever she wondered if this was the human heart he’d spoken about, the memory of that moment came rushing back.

Just then, Karin snapped upright and stared blankly into the sky. “Huh?”

Something had just flickered. It wasn’t starlight or the moonlight bouncing off the sea. Suddenly, she recalled the conversation she’d had with Do-Jin at the castle.

“With your eyesight, you can see the Central Continent from your window, right?”

“Yes! It’s upside down, but I can still see it!”

“Then if I ever need to come here, you can send a signal from there. I still don’t have a way to cross the ocean and reach this place by myself.”

“Ah! But what if I miss it...?”

“It’s fine. We can just set a time. And even if you forget, I can keep sending the signal until you happen to see it.”

The light was so faint that anyone without an Elder’s eyes would have missed it. But to Karin, it was brighter than any light in the world. She just knew that Do-Jin had come back, as promised. Karin spread her wings, red as fresh blood, glowing with the power of her lineage.