novelraw Chapter 78 : Chapter 78
Chapter 78 : Chapter 78
Chapter 78. Territory of the Mountain God (5)
Earthbound Spirit (Jibangnyeong).
A spirit bound to the earth.
As one can tell from the name, severing the bond between an Earthbound Spirit and that land was not an easy task.
But if he succeeded in severing it-
‘I can surely finish it off.’
Again, it was by no means an easy task.
But the talent Riman possessed was also by no means ordinary.
If a certain talent is sufficiently heterogeneous, wouldn't the result of that talent also completely transcend the ordinary trajectory?
Riman thought so.
So Riman pulled the strategy that came to mind right out of his head without hesitation.
Tu-ung!
He spreads [Detection] as wide as possible.
[Detection], by its nature, loses precision the wider it spreads.
But Riman spread it as wide as possible without caring about precision.
Because the purpose was just to quickly confirm the approximate terrain of this area.
And-
‘Found it.’
Now Riman had only one thing to do.
It was running.
Dash!
Riman started to run in the opposite direction of the Mountain God.
The Mountain God also bent its tentacles toward Riman.
But Riman was quicker than expected, and soon slipped out of the tentacles' range.
Sseuk-
Eventually, the Mountain God raised its body.
The main body itself started moving directly.
It could have responded by extending the tentacles longer, but it didn't.
Because the longer it extends, the harder the control of the tentacles becomes.
It's the same principle as a sword becoming harder to swing the longer it gets.
Thud!
Raising that long and huge body, the guy started traversing the forest.
To trample the intruder to death.
‘It’s coming……!’
Riman detected with [Detection] that the Mountain God had started moving.
Things were going as planned.
‘I’ll lure it straight like this……!’
However, while the operation was going as planned, Riman's body was not.
Already, his breath started to fill up to his chin.
He could endure thanks to
‘Let’s endure a little more……!’
He was almost there.
If he just went like this……!
Thud! Thud!
Riman felt the vibration behind his back getting closer.
Proof that the Mountain God was approaching quickly.
Thanks to the large stride created by that huge body, the distance between the two was narrowing rapidly.
But Riman didn't care.
Because the target point was now right under his nose.
‘I’m here……!’
Chwaak!
The boundary between the Earthbound Spirit's territory and the outside.
The place where Riman stopped was there.
Riman extended both hands forward.
Cheujeujeujeu-
And he began to focus mana on both palms.
* * *
The method to sever the bond between an Earthbound Spirit and its territory.
The theoretical method itself was too easy.
Just drag the Earthbound Spirit out of the territory.
However, naturally, just because the method is easy doesn't mean the execution is easy.
If this were easy, an Earthbound Spirit wouldn't even be called an Earthbound Spirit.
The relationship between an Earthbound Spirit and the territory is like the relationship between a fish and water.
The easiest way to kill a fish is to drag it out of the water.
Well, it's a good method to use on things like killifish or mackerel.
But the Mountain God is, to use a metaphor, a guy close to a whale shark.
An existence comparable to such a fish weighing over 40 tons.
Would it be easy to drag a whale shark out of water?
No way.
Dragging the guy out of the territory was of similar difficulty.
But Riman chose exactly this method.
An unusual measure befitting an unusual talent.
Cheok-
The Mountain God stopped.
The reason the guy stopped was simple.
Because this place was exactly the boundary line of its territory.
Even an Earthbound Spirit knows clearly what happens if it goes out of the territory.
So it stopped.
Usually in this case, the Earthbound Spirit goes back inside its territory.
Because there was no benefit to gain by chasing outside the territory.
But the Mountain God did not turn back.
Just one step behind the boundary line, the guy stood blankly staring at one spot.
It had no choice.
Because Riman was right under its nose.
Riman muttered toward the Mountain God as if mocking.
"You came."
It must be irritating.
Because it couldn't attack rashly even with the enemy right under its nose.
‘However…….’
It wasn't an advantageous situation for Riman either.
Because there was a dizzying cliff behind Riman's back.
Earthbound Spirit in front, cliff behind.
A situation where neither side could move rashly.
At that moment when tension and stalemate lasted for a few seconds.
"Aren't you going to come out from there?"
"Kkeureuk……."
"Yeah, if you walk out on your own feet, that's not an Earthbound Spirit."
However…….
"What if you have no choice but to come out from there?"
Snap!
Riman snapped his fingers.
Mana wave bursting from the friction of thumb and middle finger.
That touched the detonator of something Riman had installed deep underground beforehand.
‘[Flame Seed (Yeomhwajong)].’
Seeds of flame planted deep in the ground.
Those exploded all at once.
Kwagwagwa!!
A huge explosion occurred behind the Mountain God's back.
The [Flame Seed]s Riman planted when he arrived here one step earlier exploded.
Soaring explosive smoke, shaking earth axis.
However, unexpectedly, the Mountain God did not take damage from the explosion.
But Riman didn't care.
Because the purpose of that explosion wasn't to attack the Mountain God in the first place.
Kurureuk!
Unable to withstand the explosion, the ground began to collapse.
The bedrock supporting the Mountain God's feet also subsided in an instant.
Where the two were standing was the edge of a cliff.
The moment the ground collapsed, the Mountain God fell down the cliff just like that.
Naturally, Riman fell together too.
Across that dizzying height, the two fell downward.
"Kkeureureuk……!"
Even in that situation, the Mountain God resisted.
It tried to grab a protruding part of the cliff by extending tentacles upward.
However, Riman wasn't one to let that happen.
[Incision]
Slash!
Blades of wind cut off the tentacles at once.
The guy screamed.
"Kkeureurak!"
"Trying to survive alone? You're going to crash with me."
Whoosh!
The ground approaching in an instant like that.
A moment later.
Bang!!
With a heavy landing sound, the Mountain God crashed onto the ground.
At a similar moment, Riman also landed on the ground.
But Riman's landing made no sound whatsoever.
Even Riman took no damage at all.
It was thanks to the shock absorption function of
"Kkeureureureu……."
But the Mountain God did not have these boots.
Therefore, the shock of the fall plugged into the guy's body intact.
Because of that, the guy's appearance was wretched.
Every bone seemed broken, and internal organs and flesh were all crushed and flowing out.
And those wounds did not recover even a little.
That meant there was no target nearby to draw energy to be used for recovery.
Riman muttered toward the guy.
"…Finally dragged out."
He finally succeeded in dragging the Earthbound Spirit out of the territory.
The only way to drag an Earthbound Spirit out of the territory.
It was to collapse the ground beneath the guy's feet altogether.
No matter how much it tried not to go out, if the place it stood collapsed, there was no way to cope.
Ground collapse.
This too was a method easier said than done.
First, he had to find a location where he could drop the Earthbound Spirit out of the territory by collapsing the ground beneath its feet.
Next, he had to lure it there.
Finally, he had to possess powerful force to collapse the ground.
Riman completed all these three conditions, and like that, the Earthbound Spirit ended up being dragged out of its territory.
"Kkeureuk……."
Spitting a groan like boiling blood from its mouth, the guy raised its body.
The guy seemed to try to repair its body somehow, but it was useless.
At this point, it was a state practically no different from being completely neutralized.
However, Riman didn't relax his tension even a little.
Because he still remembered what the shaman said about the Mountain God.
-The bastard keeps expanding its territory little by little.
That an Earthbound Spirit expands its territory.
That means it has the ability to eventually encroach upon places that are not its territory and make them its own.
Therefore, he couldn't be relieved just by dragging the guy out of the territory.
So what he had to do now was…….
‘Finishing the exorcism perfectly.’
He had to drive a wedge firmly with an exorcism offensive much more powerful than the magic Riman possessed.
Riman took something out from the pouch he was wearing at his waist.
It was a simple pouch originally for putting medicine bottles or small items.
However, what Riman took out from there was a 500-milliliter water bottle.
What was contained in that water bottle was not mineral water but Jeonghwasu.
He had brought the very Jeonghwasu placed on the crock pot in the shaman's front yard.
Riman opened the bottle cap and sprinkled the water into the air just like that.
Splash-
Jeonghwasu scattering just like that.
Riman extended mana and held the Jeonghwasu.
Then, as if a pause button was pressed, the water stopped abruptly in the air.
[Water Control (Chisu)]
Magic that manipulates water.
Riman held the flow of Jeonghwasu with [Water Control], then projected newly woven mana.
Wiggle-
The form of Jeonghwasu began to change.
The scattered water droplets began to clump together, then soon began to split into multiple strands of lines.
‘What is contained in this Jeonghwasu is the pure mana refined by the shaman.’
Unlike Riman's mana, the shaman's mana contains power to drive away evil spirits.
To express it in game terms, should I say it deals additional damage to evil spirit type enemies?
Shoorururu-
Lines of water twisted into sharp shapes and aimed at the Mountain God.
The Mountain God also raised its head and saw the flow of water twisting bizarrely.
The guy's eyes, empty like a skull, were clearly looking at the water floating in the air.
Then a moment later.
"…Ah."
Along with that sound, the guy's movement stopped just like that.
At the same time, Riman activated the magic.
[Water Vein Thread (Su-maek-sa)]
Magic that pierces the opponent with sharply woven threads of water.
Over ten threads of Jeonghwasu pierced the Mountain God at once.
Pubububuk!
Thin streams of water pierced through the Mountain God's body as if sewing.
Perforated wounds increased exponentially.
The places where Jeonghwasu pierced through began to crumble slowly as if invisible fire had caught on.
The powerful exorcism ability of Jeonghwasu was decomposing the Earthbound Spirit's spirit body.
Pasusu-
Like that, the Mountain God's body began to collapse slowly.
Recovery, repair, transformation, reconstruction all impossible.
Like that, the battle ended.
Thud!
The guy's body became a handful of dust and collapsed.
And even that dust decomposed into mana particles again and scattered into the air.
As the entangled mana scattered, the will the spirit body possessed also crumbled.
The exorcism ended like that.
"Huu……."
Riman sat down on a nearby rock.
Accumulated fatigue rushed in all at once.
Physical fatigue plus mental fatigue.
Riman untied the strip covering his eyes.
What was seen beyond the untied blindfold was the side of a sheer cliff.
It was that cliff Riman fell from just now.
Riman moved his gaze to that high place above along the cliff's ridge.
At that dizzyingly high place…….
"…Come to think of it, the Eye-opening Flower colony is up there."
The exorcism was successful, but the Fruit of the Eye-opening Flower hadn't been harvested yet.
In short, he had to climb up to that high place again.
To the place he jumped from, again.
"…When am I going to climb that again, haa……."
Still, gotta do what I gotta do.
Just as he thought that and got up from the rock.
‘Hmm?’
Riman discovered something on the ground.
One small object placed in the spot where the Mountain God crumbled.
It was a small bracelet from which no mana was felt whatsoever.