How to Tame That Gentle Hero - Chapter 10.9

Eldis closed his eyes briefly and then opened them. From his previous experience, he knew that when he emerged from this white mist, the trial would unfold. As his aura recovered, his skin healed naturally, and Eldis shook off the drops of blood from his hand.

“Grooooar!”

A hungry roar rang out as if it would tear his eardrums. Eldis coated his sword with aura and moved forward cautiously. But after walking just a short distance, as the white mist cleared and a plain appeared, Eldis froze upon discovering a familiar figure.

“…Resena?”

Wearing a light purple dress with roses adorning her hair, Resena stood quietly with her eyes closed, as if waiting for someone. Eldis instantly felt his mind becoming confused.

Of course, if this weren’t the holy land, Eldis would have unhesitatingly assumed it was a monster imitating Resena and cut it down. But this was the holy land. Where space and time were regulated by Lirameki’s power. If so, the possibility that Resena had followed him into the holy land couldn’t be ignored.

‘And I… would be in a state where I haven’t returned to the imperial palace for several months.’

Without letting go of his sword, Eldis moved carefully. When he rescued Matis, he had dismissed it as a simple hallucination, but it wasn’t an illusion. Then… was the person before his eyes real or fake?

“Resena. What are you doing here? The holy land is dangerous. I told you to wait for me.”

Eldis unconsciously asked her in an accusatory tone. Then Resena, who had been quietly keeping her eyes closed, lifted her eyelids.

“…Am I dreaming? …Or am I lucky? Eldis, is that you?”

“….”

Eldis stopped. Though she looked exactly like Resena, somewhere his intuition was sending a warning.

But to simply cut her down, possibility held him back. Resena wasn’t the type of person who could ignore the fact that he had entered a dangerous place because of her and hadn’t returned.

Rather, she would have entered this place to find him.

“…Resena. Let’s get out of here first.”

But as Eldis grabbed Resena’s arm, her form suddenly began to split apart. And from the horribly split half, a small monster jumped out.

“…!”

Before he could even be shocked, Eldis understood the situation.

Because the monster he saw was one he had seen before.

‘It’s an Invisible.’

Though it was puzzling why such a monster was in the holy land, even in a hallucinatory state, injuries would affect his physical body in reality. Therefore, Eldis consciously raised his aura, making it surge throughout his body.

“Grooooar!”

How many dozens of people had died to this crab-shaped monster that was charging at him relentlessly, though blocked by his aura? This monster, which often accompanied large monsters at major gates, was a high-ranking entity that invaded through any opening and horrifically devoured human brains.

‘But if I block all openings with aura, it can’t dig in.’

Therefore, Eldis calmly watched the charge and then grabbed the Invisible with his aura-coated hand. As the Invisible, which seemed to be floating in the air due to the aura, flailed its carapace legs, Eldis tore it apart with his strength.

Then the Invisible went limp.

But not letting his guard down, Eldis tore the Invisible to shreds.

“Huff…”

Eldis crushed the still-squirming Invisible under his boot. Only then did the tenacious Invisible stop moving.

“Even though it was a hallucination, it was dangerous.”

Eldis regretted not fully trusting his intuition. If he had retreated when his intuition first warned of danger, he wouldn’t have encountered the Invisible.

“…I could easily have become a wandering spirit in the holy land.”

Looking down at the split corpse, he saw that the blood-stained face had changed to the form of another woman. Newly realizing that Invisibles could not only eat brains but also change facial forms, he turned away.

“Graaaar!”

But the moment his intuition warned him, Eldis rolled away from that spot. Instantly, the place where he had been was gouged out by a huge fist.

‘What is it?’

However, before he could confirm its identity, a second and third fist struck where he had been. The sound of the ground trembling pierced his ears. Eldis realized that if he just kept dodging, he would meaninglessly deplete his stamina.

“…Kraaaaa!”

So, after rolling on the ground, he ran in a circle to identify the owner of the descending fists. Then a shiver ran down his spine.

‘Savage…!’

A wolf’s face, a body as massive as an ogre, and primarily attacking with bare hands—the giant monster Savage. It was a creature he had mainly seen at large monster gates. Most often, they traveled with Invisibles, but he hadn’t known they would have such habits in the holy land, too.

‘If I had been a little late in eliminating the Invisible, I would have been caught in a joint attack.’

Cold sweat ran down. Eldis drew his sword and rolled on the ground to avoid the Savage’s attack. Grass straws from the holy land stuck to his back, but he paid no attention. Thus, he circled to the right of the Savage in a semicircle, making the Savage follow him.

Even as the sound of the ground being struck echoed, he ran in a zigzag pattern to avoid the Savage’s attacks. Tension wrapped around his lower back. In the midst of this, he fully raised his aura throughout his body in case of an attack.

Fortunately, the Savage was following Eldis with a vicious face, according to his guidance.

‘Good. Over there.’

Eldis spotted a huge rock and lightly jumped onto it. A rock this massive would be solid enough to crack the Savage’s bones if it attacked.

A faint smile spread across Eldis’s lips.

“Woooooah!”

True to its low intelligence, the Savage roared when it realized Eldis was no longer running away. It approached, making the ground sink with each step, casting a savage gaze. And soon its fist flew toward the rock.

Crash!

“Urrrrgh!”

As Eldis quickly dodged, the fist struck the rock directly. Instantly, the Savage’s bones cracked, and it clutched its fist, howling in pain. Taking advantage of the Savage’s defenseless state, Eldis climbed up its body and leaped toward its neck.

Slash!

The sword coated with a sharp aura instantly cut through the Savage’s neck, slicing through with effortless precision. Spraying blood like a fountain, the Savage collapsed. Its body, staining the grass red, hit the ground with a thud.

“…It’s over.”

Eldis shook the blood drops off his sword. Immediately sheathing his sword, he turned his back and headed toward the white mist from which he had entered. The white mist that had thickly surrounded the area had already thinned, and soon he was standing in front of the altar erected on the plain.

“Wooong.”

The white divine beast sniffed Eldis’s scent closely, flaring its nostrils. It seemed to be checking if he was injured. Eldis smiled and stroked the divine beast’s head.

“Thank you. Thanks to you, I was able to face the trial.”

It seemed that his trial was designed to help him overcome his weakness—paying too much attention to others’ words. At no moment could he rely on anything but his intuition without the situation becoming dangerous. But that was also what he had wanted.

‘Resena…’

What she had said was contributing to helping him overcome the dangers in this holy land. The situations where he would be in danger if he didn’t trust his own intuition at critical moments were sharpening Eldis’s intuition.

“What Eldis needs now is to trust his own intuition. While his ability to track by synthesizing others’ words until a critical moment comes is certainly praiseworthy, there will inevitably come a moment when he must follow only his intuition. If he follows others’ words until that moment, he will surely lose precious people.”

Her words to Vernas vividly came to mind. Eldis looked down at his hands. He had been training with swords even before learning imperial studies. What he was most confident in was surviving dangers and learning through bodily experience.

“Lirameki. I miss Resena.”