Chapter 219 Thorns and Beasts, Purification and Request

I never dared to look back on the events of that night in Maple Breath Village.

Mangled corpses and collapsed houses, scarlet blood pooling on the ground like maple syrup.

'Did I do this?' I asked myself over and over.

The shredded flesh caught between my fingers and the rich scent of blood in my mouth—sickening yet deliciously sweet—had already given me the answer.

I had become a monster.

...

It was like the maple grove on the mountain behind the village. When I entered, the sky was just brightening with the dawn, but when I looked up again, the sun had already set.

Time always passed quickly in the forest.

I had a rough idea of what had happened to me.

Because of that, I rarely came into contact with others after that night.

I wandered deep in the mountains all day, only occasionally venturing into a nearby town under the brightest midday sun to trade for essential supplies.

But that peace never lasted long.

The whispers echoing in my ears and the increasingly frantic beastly roars in my heart swallowed my consciousness on those nights when the moonlight shone as bright as day.

No matter how far I ran.

Whenever I woke up, I was still covered in blood.

And before me lay at least a few corpses.

I gradually began to get used to it.

I even stopped resisting the beast that roamed deep within the shadows of my heart.

The time I spent on all fours grew longer, while the days of walking on two legs grew shorter.

My memories of once being human grew increasingly blurry; I even forgot my own name.

Most of the time, it felt as though I truly was just a cold, cruel, and vicious beast.

Until that day, when I encountered a powerful adventurer.

He seemed to notice the blood on my claws, and that light—more blazing than the sun—left me heavily injured.

My consciousness grew even blurrier, and I didn't even know where I fled.

When I lay beneath a tree, thinking I would simply die just like that.

Renee appeared.

To this day, I still remember what she looked like to me in that moment.

The glaring sunlight shone from behind her, as if draping a layer of soft Holy Light over her. It flowed through her brilliant golden hair, making even her features look incomparably holy.

She wore a pristine white robe. The Thorn Necklace around her neck disappeared into her collar, leaving only a small portion visible, while the emerald light radiating from her fair hands brimmed with such a warm aura of life that it steeped my soul in tranquility.

Because of this, my injuries healed.

Perhaps noticing the unnatural look on my face and the anxiety and pain in my heart.

Before parting ways, Renee gave me a small cluster of wild mint she had picked nearby.

She said, "Mint grows in inconspicuous corners, yet it has a crisp fragrance that dispels filth and brings peace."

"The grace bestowed by the gods is sometimes like this cluster of mint—tiny but resilient, offering comfort when it is needed."

"Resilient vitality, small acts of kindness, purification, and hope."

I didn't know why, but even though I had forgotten my own name and my memories of being human were as hazy as the clouds in the sky, I always remembered those words.

And that cluster of mint, with its cool and faint fragrance, truly seemed to calm my heart.

I didn't dare to get close to the town where Renee lived.

I was afraid that what had happened in Maple Breath Village would repeat itself there.

But the inexplicable feelings surging in my heart still compelled me to hide in dimly lit alleys during the time of the month when my mind was most stable, just to catch a glimpse of her from afar.

I watched as she healed a naughty child's scraped knee, dispelled the illness of a pale-faced wife resting in her husband's arms, and recited eulogies for deceased elders at funerals.

Unlike me, Renee was the most popular person in the entire town.

I thought the days would pass like this, until the day I truly mustered my courage, or perhaps found a way to suppress the bestial nature within me.

But in truth, even I knew that I—with my hands covered in blood and carrying such sins—was not worthy of such a peaceful life.

Renee left, accompanied by two unfamiliar adventurers.

I felt genuine joy from the bottom of my heart that she had found her own path, and I sincerely wished she could continue walking the road of an adventurer.

However, the keen Perception of a beast allowed me to catch the gloomy, rotting stench radiating from those two adventurers.

The unease welling up inside me drove me to secretly follow them.

And what happened next marked the first time I felt grateful for possessing the strength of a beast.

I saved Renee's corpse from the hands of those two adventurers.

She had not feared my beast-like body, nor was there a hint of disgust in her eyes.

Her injuries were so severe she could no longer speak. Right before she died, she merely gripped the necklace that had always been deeply buried beneath her collar and handed it to me.

The necklace was beautiful, woven from thorns, with a glowing emerald crystal pendant at the bottom that reflected Renee's pale face.

Those two adventurers were very strong. Even after my beast transformation, I was absolutely no match for them.

I fled continuously.

Perhaps due to the anger in my heart and my thirst for revenge and power, I found my mind gradually clearing.

The bestial nature roaring within me and the whispers echoing in my ears seemed to melt away amidst my mane as I ran.

Unexplained knowledge surged into my mind like instinct. I began to control the beast deep in my heart, and I grasped the ability to manipulate thorns and command beasts.

But relying solely on this was completely insufficient against those two highly experienced veteran adventurers.

The fragile thorns couldn't stop the Blue-Gray Stone Spear that tore through the air, and the ordinary beasts of the forest had no room to resist under those two poisoned blades.

Perhaps fortune smiled upon me.

A few months later, I suddenly arrived in an area where magic particles were extremely dense. The beasts that dwelled here were far stronger than those anywhere else.

The fog permeating the air also made me realize that this was the extremely dangerous monster gathering ground I had often heard the villagers talk about when I was young—the Misty Forest.

I stayed in the forest for a while, drove away a few adventurers I happened to encounter, and through repeated testing, confirmed that my abilities were still effective here.

This was the perfect place to settle everything and bring it all to an end.

Those two would not be a match for the powerful monsters in this forest.

But how could I make those two shrewd and cunning adventurers willingly risk delving deep into the forest, not retreating even when faced with wave after wave of monster sieges, thereby creating the conditions for my revenge?

I made a crazy decision.

I planned to join their party. As a team member, step by step, I would lure those two into a trap.

And only if I was in their party would the beast packs in the forest actively initiate attacks on them.

Of course, before that, I needed a name—a new one to replace the one that had already been forgotten as my memories faded.

"Mint."

"My name is Mint."

I said this to the two people in front of me.

...

The plan went very smoothly.

Those two adventurers didn't doubt my identity. Or rather, my disguise as a "rookie adventurer" made them not care about my origins—it would all end the same way in the end anyway.

The only unexpected factor was that black-haired young man who had also joined the party halfway, the one the townspeople called Greysword.

According to those two, he was a "rookie" who had just recently obtained his Class Level.

I originally hadn't paid too much attention. After all, if he was truly just a rookie Class Holder, against the dangerous monsters in the forest, he was merely one or two more mouthfuls of meat.

Until a few days ago, when facing that pack of Temple Nightwalker Wolves.

That streak of iron-gray sword light gave me a sense of danger far greater than the two of them combined.

The plan changed because of this.

I wanted to borrow this man's hands to kill those two adventurers.

Even if I had to pay a far heavier price than before.

...I succeeded.

An unplanned Owlbear and the disrupted formation seemed to make those two adventurers suspicious of Greysword.

And just adding a little bit of accelerant was enough to detonate the extremely oppressive atmosphere within the party.

Without any surprises, faced with the magic items on my "corpse," the two initiated an attack on Greysword.

...

...

"Tap, tap."

Stepping on fallen leaves, the sound of light, slow footsteps came from the shadows of the dense forest ahead.

A petite, frail figure gradually emerged from the depths of the darkness.

Her dark brown, slightly greenish short hair swayed gently with the rise and fall of her body, and her plain robe, covered in bloodstains, trailed on the ground.

From the massive, forceful strike of the Owlbear, her chest was caved in, yet its surface was covered by a layer of emerald green light, and the injury was rapidly regenerating.

There was no longer the floatiness caused by her previous frailty, nor the stumbling expected after a severe injury.

Mint's footsteps were incomparably steady, even carrying a touch of lightness.

She looked nothing like a frail Spellcaster who had suffered heavy injuries.

Illuminated by the moonlight overhead, her cheeks were still pale, but all the expressions she used to mask herself had dissipated.

All that remained was an indescribable, silent calmness.

Her eyes, faintly reflecting light in the night like those of a beast, moved past Xia Nan, moved past the corpses in the clearing, and finally rested on that emerald green light beside the tree trunk in the center of the area.

She took a step.

"Drip."

A thick, scarlet drop of blood fell from the iron-gray sword tip, splashing into a crystalline bloom of blood on the meadow.

His pitch-black eyes fixed on the thin figure slowly walking past ahead, Xia Nan didn't move.

He could sense her hostile intentions.

He had noticed Mint's abnormalities long ago, so he wasn't particularly surprised by her current action of acting like the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.

This was reality, not the plot of an anime or game. Given his personality, once he confirmed friend from foe, there was absolutely no way he would leave the other party even a second's pause to explain their intentions.

He hadn't attacked just yet, instead standing in place and watching her walk past.

This was because he sensed the minute movements coming from beneath the surrounding ground.

Like the extending root systems of trees, complex and dense thorns were squirming and spreading through the soil, with him at the center.

If he took even a single light step, those thorns would probably burst out of the earth and crazily lunge at him.

And the quantity and strength of the thorns in his Perception were naturally no longer like before, unable to stop even a wild boar.

At the same time, surrounding the clearing, pairs of cruel, violent beast eyes surfaced from the shadows at the edges, casting their bloodthirsty gazes upon him.

A beast pack had quietly arrived.

In the very center of his vision was that seemingly thin and frail figure.

Xia Nan could clearly feel the formless entity silently roaring, twisting, and expanding beneath her skin.

Her shadow, elongated by the moonlight, proliferated into an unsettling and terrifying beastly silhouette, wildly brandishing its ferocious claws and fangs in another space.

'Troublesome, very troublesome.'

His gaze quietly swept over the corpses on the ground.

Xia Nan secretly began to consider the possibility of sweeping up the loot as fast as possible on his way out and then retreating.

But it was as if she had sensed the thoughts in his mind.

A calm female voice suddenly came to his ears.

"Please don't run away," Mint said softly without turning her head. "I have seen you use that movement-type combat technique. Please believe me, its effectiveness now will be much worse than during the day."

"The forest at night is the home ground of beasts."

She stepped forward, walking over to the oak tree in the middle of the clearing.

Sizzle—

The Lycanthrope corpse that had originally been slumped against the tree trunk suddenly flashed with a blurry light on its surface.

The pitch-black mane and the bloody wounds vanished in the blink of an eye, as if they were an illusion.

Only a crude dummy woven from entwined thorns remained.

"Thank you... for helping me complete it."

Mint leaned down, her fair, tender hand reaching toward the thorn dummy beside the trunk.

"But forgive me, I cannot let you leave."

With just a pinch and a gentle pull, that emerald green light radiating a rich aura of life was removed from the dummy's neck amidst the breaking thorn vines.

"Please do me one last favor."

Like a young girl adjusting her makeup in front of a mirror before leaving the house in the morning, Mint pinched the emerald light in her hand and gently raised it to her ear.

That waterdrop-shaped pale green earring once again hung beneath her left earlobe.

The verdant light rippled, swaying to form a halo in the air.

She looked toward Xia Nan ahead, her face wearing a radiant smile that had never been revealed since the two of them met.

"Now... come."

The young girl spread her arms, her dark brown short hair moving without any wind.

"End all of this."

Bang—

Her thick, tough skin was pushed up by muscles expanding like balloons. Her plain robe was instantly torn open, and a pitch-black mane drifted wildly like ink.

The bestial nature she had suppressed for hundreds of days and nights surged madly from the depths of her heart like a flood at the moment her hatred could finally be ended.

The dam formed by her will collapsed and crumbled, and her human rationality was instantly swallowed up.

Thorns and beasts, Rage and grudges.

With no reason left to persevere, Mint chose to embrace her bestial nature.

With the full moon overhead, And the corpses of her enemies before her.

On the ground covered by Thorn Overgrowth, under the watchful eyes of countless beasts.

There was no possibility of resistance; even her last shred of consciousness as a human was torn to pieces by the beast in her heart.

She instinctively completed the final step of her beast transformation ritual.

Boom—

Dirt and dust splattered!

Brown thorns surged out of the soil like a tidal wave, intertwining and layering together as they swept toward Xia Nan, carrying the smell of plant sap and the earthy stench of mud.

Amidst frantic roars, ferocious beasts charged into the clearing one after another, their fangs and sharp claws glinting coldly under the moonlight.

He looked at that twisted, expanding, and hideous figure ahead.

Xia Nan only felt utterly baffled.

'Thank you? Why thank me?'

'A favor? Did I even have room to refuse?'