Chapter 149: Drop-Attracting Fire

"Everything that needed to be said has been said. Let's begin the dive," Captain Field said. "Maggie has experience, so she goes first."

The freckled girl walked to the center of the stone ring.

She held her Oak Short Staff horizontally in front of her and closed her eyes.

Richard stood nearby, using his Spirit Vision to monitor her condition.

Maggie muttered a nursery rhyme in Old Gaelic. By the third line, her silhouette shifted slightly, taking a step toward the back left of the semi-circular wall.

Her feet hadn't moved, but her entire body distinctly shifted back and to the side by less than an inch before snapping back a second later.

Only then did Richard realize she was "testing the door."

Her Micro-circulation had already felt out the door's location and was confirming the angle to open it.

"I found the door," Maggie said, opening her eyes.

"Then cross over," Captain Field instructed.

Maggie took a half-step back and to the side, then vanished.

The Newcomers stared, their jaws slightly slack at the sight of a living person vanishing into thin air.

Theodore even reached out to touch the space where she had stood, grasping nothing but empty air.

"She's still there," Sarah told the other three Newcomers. "Look with your Spirit Vision."

Richard, Edmund, and Theodore all extended their Spirit Vision.

From the other side of the gray veil, Maggie waved at them before shifting right back to their side of reality.

She stood in the center of the stone ring and opened her eyes.

"How... how did it feel?" Theodore asked hurriedly.

Maggie let out a deep breath.

"About the same as when my mother took me," she said. "Blurry vision, muffled hearing, and a bit of an itch on the skin."

"An itch?" Edmund asked, confused.

"Once the ether concentration spikes, the skin reacts a little."

"My mom says most Newcomers get this reaction," Maggie explained. "Once you get used to it, the itching stops."

"Did you see anything?" Richard asked.

"I saw you guys," Maggie said. "But not very clearly."

Edmund went next.

He pulled a cross pendant from his shirt, clasped it in his hand, and began whispering a vesper prayer.

On the third line, he took a step toward the back of the stone ring and vanished, just as Maggie had.

On the other side of the gray veil, Edmund stood firmly, turned around, and looked back at them.

Richard was third. He walked to the center of the ring.

He didn't imitate the local girl with her nursery rhyme, nor the priest with his prayer.

Instead, he used the Fourfold Breathing he had practiced until it was second nature.

By the end of the second full cycle, he could feel the leaves of the light tree within his Seat of the Sun fanning open to a critical angle.

He could sense exactly where the "door" was.

During the exhalation phase of his third cycle, he took a step in that direction.

It happened in a flash. The material world completely receded from his peripheral vision.

The entire silhouette of the Highland Summer Lodge turned gray.

Richard stood on the other side of the door.

For the first time, he viscerally experienced the world behind the veil.

But this first experience was far from pleasant. It seemed he had accidentally dived a bit too deep...

The boost brought by his Perception was a clear advantage in the material world.

Yet, during this deep dive behind the veil, that hyper-sensitivity turned into a dragging weight.

His feet kept sinking, feeling exactly like stepping into quicksand.

He heard a voice echoing in his chest that did not belong to him.

It was an invitation.

Come down. Come down to this layer.

This layer was not so thin; there was something else down here.

This was the distortion of his Inspiration being magnified in a high ether concentration. His own Inspiration was deceiving him.

Richard felt a spike of anxiety, but he knew he couldn't afford to panic now.

The rhythm of his Fourfold Breathing hadn't broken.

He immediately reversed his pushing direction, forcefully pulling himself back with the exact same amount of effort.

The entire process took less than three seconds.

Very quickly, the stone house of the Highland Summer Lodge, Captain Field's face, and the strap of Sarah's Hunting Rifle snapped back into view. The real world returned to his vision.

Richard opened his eyes. Those brief few seconds had felt like a lifetime.

"You came out rather fast," Captain Field said, looking at him. "What happened?"

"I slipped too deep," Richard said, wiping his sweat. "I accidentally went a bit too far in."

"A bit too far in?" Captain Field's expression drastically changed.

"Yeah."

"...How many seconds were you in there?" The female Hunter beside them also looked alarmed.

"Three seconds. After about two, I pulled myself back along the same path."

The two of them breathed a sigh of relief.

"Run through your breathing method again," Captain Field said. "Steady yourself first."

Richard ran through another full cycle of his Fourfold Breathing.

The leaves of the light tree returned to their normal positions, and the rotation of the Seat of the Sun smoothed out once more.

"Try again," Captain Field said. "Cut your pushing force in half this time. If anything happens, remember to blow your whistle, and we'll go in and pull you back."

Richard started over according to the instructions.

His second push was much lighter; he could see the gray silhouette of the Highland Summer Lodge at the same time.

Richard withdrew again.

When he opened his eyes, Captain Field's face was right in front of him.

"Your Inspiration is on the higher end for a Newcomer. That's a good thing, but it's also a bad thing. Pay more attention next time."

"Understood."

Theodore was the last one.

The stable boy didn't have as much luck. He mumbled his incantation but simply couldn't complete the dive.

"Don't rush it," Captain Field consoled him. "It's not that you can't do it; you just haven't found the right approach yet."

"Don't force it." Sarah walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Follow my breathing rhythm."

With her help, Theodore finally managed to complete his dive.

After withdrawing, he crouched on the ground and threw up.

He wiped his mouth when he was done, but his face was still completely pale.

"I stared into the darkness at the bottom of the mines for ten years," he said to the people around him. "And somehow it wasn't as nauseating as a single glance over there."

"The mines are dead," Sarah said. "The Near Shore is alive."

"Being alive just makes it more disgusting."

All four Newcomers had successfully completed their first attempt at crossing into the Near Shore.

Captain Field checked the sky. The sun had already passed its peak and begun to slant westward.

"Back to business," he said. "Today's clearing range is within a two-hundred-meter radius around this lodge."

"Is it safe?" the stable boy asked worriedly, his face still pale.

"Relatively safe." Captain Field nodded.

"Today is just to show you the ropes, not to have you risk your lives. The clearing targets are mostly lowest-level evil creatures."

"Mostly?" Edmund caught the keyword.

"Mostly," Captain Field confirmed with a nod.

"This spot, the Highland Summer Lodge, is a sacrificial scar left by Mid-Summer Fire. The ether concentration isn't too high."

"It's primarily lowest-level evil creatures, though occasionally one or two sub-level evil creatures might pass through."

"Anything higher than that wouldn't be able to adapt to the low-concentration environment here."

After diving in again, Richard took up a position on the far east side.

The outline of the Highland Summer Lodge remained—the collapsed lintel stone, the ruined semi-circular wall, the clump of reeds on the ground... but the color of everything had faded to an ashen gray.

The grass was still there, but thick sediment coated its roots.

The fear, hatred, love, and resentment of those who had died on this land over thousands of years settled on this side of the veil, slowly churned by the ether layer.

And there were indeed some... other things in the vicinity.

Aside from that afterimage in the basement, this was Richard's first time viscerally laying eyes on an evil creature.

Their shapes were blurry, appearing simply as clouds of gray-white gas.

The center of the gas clouds pulsed continuously, resembling the umbrellas of jellyfish.

They moved sluggishly across the ground, stopping every so often to press their umbrellas down into the dirt.

"That's an Infatuation Lamp, a lowest-level evil creature," Maggie whispered beside him.

"What is it doing?"

"Eating. Grazing on the residual ether in the ground."

"So they're basically the ether version of small moss-eating animals?" Theodore offered an analogy.

"Something like that."

"Do they attack people?"

"Normal ones won't actively hunt you down, but if you stand too close, they'll rapidly smother your face and suck away your living soul."

Maggie glanced at Theodore's face.

"Once it latches on, it feels a lot like having your head smothered by a wet blanket.

And it will constantly drain your stamina, making you so weak you won't even be able to struggle."

Over the next while, the four Newcomers each got some practice in.

Edmund's casting method was very similar to Richard's Moon Nail, but his projectile manifested as a small cross.

The cross plunged into the umbrella of an Infatuation Lamp, and the mist began to dissipate from the point of impact.

Maggie's knife skills were far too polished for a Scholar.

Before stepping close to an Infatuation Lamp, she held her Oak Short Staff horizontally in front of her, turning her entire being into a tree on the ether level.

She flicked her knife upward, slicing the umbrella open, and the mist dispersed in a rush.

"That technique of yours is a Hunter's method," Captain Field commented from the side.

"My family is entirely made up of Hunters," Maggie said, wiping her blade. "I grew up watching them work."

"Then why didn't you walk the Hunter's path?"

"Hunters risk their necks every single day," the freckled girl said with a smile. "I have five Hunters in my family. My mom said we needed to leave one to work with her brains."

Theodore fired three shots.

The third shot was a lead-silver bullet. His reloading speed was slow enough to make Sarah frown, but this shot cleanly blasted an Infatuation Lamp apart.

"Do you know why the second shot didn't work?" Sarah asked.

"Normal bullets are useless," Theodore admitted.

"What about the first shot?"

"...My hands shook."

"Why did they shake?"

Theodore thought for a few seconds before answering honestly, "Because I was scared."

Sarah nodded. "When you're scared, don't pull the trigger right away. Hold your breath until the fear passes, then fire. Taking an extra second is much better than wasting a shot."

"Yes."

Richard took one down using his Moon Nail.

The pale-blue, rice-sized nail head pierced right through the Infatuation Lamp's umbrella, but the creature didn't dissipate as quickly as the one hit by Edmund's cross.

"The Moon Nail's specialty is penetration," Captain Field noted, having watched the exchange.

"It's more effective against thick-skinned evil creatures. Against something skinless like an Infatuation Lamp, it's not as efficient as a cross."

"Got it."

"As long as you understand where the Moon Nail's advantage lies, that's enough. Today is just about letting you test the waters."

Around the twenty-fifth minute of the clearing operation, things took a turn.

Richard's Inspiration was the first to blare a warning.

In the Near Shore's version of the Highland Summer Lodge, a cluster of fire hovered in midair about five steps away from his position.

It hung there silently at roughly head height.

Richard rapidly backed away while keeping an eye on the others.

Captain Field waved for them to retreat quickly, and Sarah raised her Hunting Rifle.

The stable boy retreated the fastest. His Copper Compass had played a key role, allowing him to notice the situation almost earlier than anyone else.

Maggie's face went completely pale. "...A Drop-Attracting Fire."

The young priest, however, seemed to have heard nothing. He was walking straight toward that cluster of orange light.

Richard yelled out.

"Edmund!"

The young priest didn't turn back, his strides resolute.

"You three fall back first," Captain Field ordered, breaking into a long-strided sprint after him.

By this time, Edmund was only a single step away from the Drop-Attracting Fire.

Richard rested his right hand on the revolver at his waist, but after a moment's thought, he abandoned the idea of firing.

"Don't shoot, you might hit him," Captain Field called out, seemingly knowing exactly what Richard was thinking.

On the other side, the female Hunter kept a steady aim.

"Bang!"

Sparks flared from the muzzle, and the sharp crack sent ripples surging through the gray-white backdrop of the Highland Summer Lodge.

The silver-white bullet grazed past, less than a finger's width from the outside of the young man's shoulder.

The bullet found its mark. The Drop-Attracting Fire popped, bursting exactly like a bubble.

A mess of light condensed on the ground, forming a small pinch of powder.

Edmund collapsed onto the grass. Smoke wafted from the upper half of his clothes, but his consciousness abruptly snapped back to clarity.

Captain Field checked him over.

"Some mild burns, but nothing major."

"Williams, your sharp senses saved you." He glanced back at Richard. "The Drop-Attracting Fire's initial target was you."

He then turned to the other three Newcomers. "Everyone, retreat to the material world."

Richard, Maggie, and Theodore immediately fell back into the boundaries of the stone ring and swiftly crossed over to the material side.

The vivid colors of the material world came rushing back all at once, stinging Richard's eyes.

He resisted the urge to rub them.

On the other side, Captain Field hauled Edmund back into the real world.

He then dived back in himself, pulled a small glass vial from his backpack, and used a tiny silver spoon to sweep that pinch of powder inside.

After recovering the spoils, he and Sarah also withdrew to the real world.

"This powder is called 'Ash of the Lost'," he said, holding up the vial.

"The fear of travelers who get lost and die in the wilderness condenses. Behind the veil, that fear surfaces by borrowing the image of the Drop-Attracting Fire from Highland legends."

"What is it used for?" Theodore asked.

"It's ground into ink."

"Words written with ink ground from the 'Ash of the Lost' possess a 'guiding' property on the ether level. Seal Masters use it to draw guiding symbols."

"Sounds very useful."

"Of course it's useful," Captain Field nodded. "A Drop-Attracting Fire corpse typically yields three grams. The market price is five shillings per gram."

"Three grams per cluster... fifteen shillings." Theodore calculated the sum instantly.

"By convention," Captain Field said, "today's harvest belongs to Sarah."

But after taking the glass vial, Sarah casually tossed it to the half-reclined Edmund.

Edmund barely caught it, looking puzzled.

"...For me?"

"You used your body as bait." The female Hunter shot him a sidelong glance. "Take it as compensation."

"I didn't 'offer my body'," Edmund said, his face flushing red. "I was the one who took the bait."

"Just take it," Captain Field said, walking over.

"The Church sent you here. Taking this bottle of 'Ash of the Lost' back will at least give you something to show for it."

Edmund tightened his grip on the vial.

"...Thank you."

"Don't thank us." Sarah hefted her Hunting Rifle back onto her shoulder. "Thank yourself for not ending up dead today."

She turned and walked toward the carriage.

Edmund brought up the rear, his left hand clutching his burned right shoulder.

After taking a few steps, he spoke to Richard beside him. "Earlier... you yelled out to me."

"Yeah."

"I didn't hear it. In my ears, it was a completely different voice."

"What was it?"

The wind blew down from the crest of the highland slope, brushing past the young man's charred coat.

He let the gust wash over him, letting out a long breath like a survivor who had narrowly cheated death.

"It was my Father."

"He was calling me to come home."