The Strongest in Our Neighborhood - Chapter 3

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Strongest in Our Neighborhood (3)
When Jang Ga-in came to his senses, the first thing he did was take stock of his body’s condition.
‘My Dantian is intact? How is that possible? I distinctly felt it getting damaged when I was fighting that massive Ogre…….’
Forcing himself to draw power while Toxin had infiltrated his Dantian and internal bleeding had already occurred—the price had been catastrophic.
His Dantian, barely squeezed for power, had begun to rupture, and as his Inner Force scattered, the internal bleeding he’d barely managed to suppress came flooding out like a broken dam, ravaging his Qi and Blood. His last memory was collapsing and coughing up blood that surged backward through his channels.
‘An Internal Injury of that severity couldn’t be treated without a Spirit Pill like Sojadan or Jasojadan. So how was it healed?’
He had no memory of consuming such a Spirit Pill.
If it wasn’t in his memory, then someone else must have fed him such a Spirit Pill while he was unconscious—but who?
‘Ah! The Immortals must have Spirit Medicine!’
When he focused his mind and performed Introspection of his interior, he found that a substantial portion of the ruptured Dantian had already healed.
At this rate, he could treat the rest through the Yungi Yosang Haengong.
‘Thank goodness. In this condition, I should be able to fully cure the Internal Injury within a week.’
After finishing his Introspection, Jang Ga-in forced open his heavy eyelids and opened his eyes.
Then he saw a large moon hanging in the night sky, two small moons beside it, and countless glittering stars.
“What? Three moons! Does the Immortal Realm have multiple moons?”
“#$@^^&@&*…….”
At that moment, the Immortals beside him spoke.
Jang Ga-in forced his heavy body upright and bowed his head toward them.
“Thank you for treating my wounds.”
“$%@#$…….”
“$$#^#@#…….”
Two beautiful Immortal Maidens said something, but he couldn’t understand a word of it.
“I’m afraid I don’t yet know the language of the Immortal Realm, so I cannot understand what you are saying.”
Jang Ga-in used his hands and feet to express, as best he could, his gratitude for their treatment. The two Immortal Maidens then used gestures to convey something, from which he gathered that the male Immortal of their party had not yet regained consciousness, and they were currently traveling to where other Immortals lived for further treatment.
When Jang Ga-in made a gesture indicating thirst, one of the Immortal Maidens opened the wooden barrel at her waist and shared some water with him.
After drinking, Jang Ga-in made a gesture showing hunger and was able to obtain a very soft porridge placed beside the campfire.
‘Ugh!’
To be honest…….
It had no taste.
* * *
Kai-rin and Sai-ran, who had been checking on their younger brother’s condition, heaved sighs of relief when they saw his state improve.
“Fortunately, it looks like we’ve passed all the critical moments.”
“Phew! Thank goodness. Now I can breathe a little easier.”
Sai-ran glanced sideways at the male human sitting by the campfire with his legs crossed in an odd manner, eyes closed.
“By the way, sister, that human hasn’t been breathing since a while ago, has he?”
“No, he is breathing. If you look closely, you’ll see him taking very subtle, shallow breaths in and out.”
“Oh, you’re right. But wouldn’t that be tiring? Why is he sitting in such an awkward position and breathing so laboriously?”
“Who knows. If we could communicate, we’d know what he’s doing, but since we can’t, there’s no way to tell.”
“He’s been in that position for over an hour now…… Surely he’s not going to spend the whole night like that?”
“How could anyone sit through the night with their legs twisted like that?”
“But he looks so peaceful about it.”
“He really does.”
Then their younger brother’s voice rang out.
“Uuuugh…… Sisters.”
“El-dom, you’re finally awake?”
“Since I can see your faces, it looks like I haven’t died.”
“You almost did—our second brother barely managed to save you.”
“Hah! The moment that Ogre’s fist hit me, I thought I was done for. Oh, by the way, how did you get away from it? It was much faster and stronger than we expected.”
“We didn’t get away—we killed it.”
El-dom’s eyes widened as he winced in pain.
“What? You killed it? That monstrous Ogre? How?”
“Well, we didn’t kill it ourselves. That man over there did.”
When his two sisters pointed to the male human sitting with his legs oddly crossed by the campfire, El-dom stared at him in disbelief.
“That man killed that enormous Ogre? How? He was running away just moments ago.”
“He was. To explain everything would take too long, so I’ll keep it short. You were in trouble and we weren’t enough to escape. Then he came running with your spear and pierced straight through the Ogre’s head in a single strike.”
“Pierced straight through the Ogre’s head in a single strike?”
“His movements were so fast that I couldn’t even tell if it was one blow or multiple—it all happened in an instant.”
“That’s impossible. You know how hard an Ogre’s skull is.”
“That’s what I mean. Killing an Ogre that way…… I’ve never seen anything like it.”
As El-dom listened to his sisters’ explanation, he examined the human more closely.
“I mean, there’s no reason for my sisters to lie to me. Still… I just can’t believe it. The three of us struggled against that Ogre, and he killed it alone?”
“I understand. Even we didn’t feel it was real just from hearing about it. But once you see this, you will.”
Kai-rin pulled a fist-sized, dark red, rounded stone from her pocket.
“What! Sister, is that an Ogre Inner Core?”
“That’s right, from that thing. The hide is back there, and its blood is beside it. We couldn’t salvage the bones, which is a shame.”
“Unbelievable. I can’t deny this.”
“We’re planning to take this to the village and buy better potions, along with other supplies.”
“More than enough. The Ogre’s fist shattered my shield—now I can get a new one.”
“I’ll have it made from Dverberg Clan craftsmanship. Speaking of which, want to see this?”
Kai-rin held out El-dom’s spear.
“This is the spear that pierced the Ogre’s skull, and not a single edge shows damage.”
Even if it was a spear forged by the Dverberg Clan, the fact that it pierced an Ogre’s skull without a mark on it made no sense.
Unless it were a legendary weapon.
And yet the nick it had taken when it bounced off a stone axe was still there, unchanged.
“For this to happen, he must have used his Aura to shield the spearpoint… Otherwise it’s impossible. Could that man be… a knight?”
“I’ve seen so-called knights get their heads blown clean off by an Ogre more than once, but I’ve never seen anyone kill one in a single strike.”
Kai-rin spoke matter-of-factly.
“Elder Malata once said that with sufficient mastery of Aura, one could certainly fight an Ogre. If that man is a High-Rank Knight, wouldn’t it be possible?”
“So you’re saying that man is a High-Rank Knight?”
“That’s what it looks like.”
“I’m not convinced.”
Sai-ran pouted as she spoke.
“So this incredible High-Rank Knight was wandering naked through the Ogre forest with no weapon at all?”
“…How should I know?”
El-dom snorted dismissively.
“That man appeared right before we were about to attack anyway. He was stripped then too. There must be a reason—maybe he was fleeing, or perhaps bandits robbed him.”
“Bandits bold enough to attack a High-Rank Knight?”
“Why don’t you just ask the man yourself? Why he was running around in such a state?”
Kai-rin shrugged in reply.
“You ask him. I couldn’t understand a word he was saying.”
Sai-ran laughed and nodded in agreement.
“What’s he talking about?”
“It means you should figure it out yourself.”
* * *
So morning came again.
When El-dom woke in the morning, he saw the man still sitting by the campfire with his legs folded in an odd posture, and his eyes widened in surprise.
“Sister, was he like that all night?”
“Yes, like that the whole night. I’m dying to know what he’s doing.”
Kai-rin and Sai-ran had taken turns keeping watch through the night, so they knew that Jang Ga-in hadn’t changed his posture even once.
“He doesn’t seem to be breathing. Could he be dead?”
“No. I went close and checked several times—it’s slow, but he’s definitely breathing.”
Whoooosh……
At that moment, Jang Ga-in exhaled a long breath, opened his eyes, and released his crossed-legged posture.
“@%#!#……”
El-dom’s brow furrowed.
“What is he saying?”
“Didn’t you hear us say last night that we couldn’t understand what he was saying?”
El-dom asked Jang Ga-in in bewilderment.
“Excuse me. Why did you spend the night in such a strange position?”
When Jang Ga-in answered El-dom’s question in unintelligible words, only then could he understand what his sisters had meant.
“Explain in a way I can understand.”
El-dom said after eying them both briefly.
“I can’t understand those words either. I can’t even guess what dialect it is.”
“We barely managed to communicate using hand signals. There’s soup ready, so let’s have breakfast.”
“Alright.”
Sai-ran made eating gestures toward Jang Ga-in and spoke, and he nodded and gestured his thanks.
‘It really does seem like the Immortals treated him. But this is astounding—I never thought a ruptured Dantian could recover this much.’
As Jang Ga-in turned his Introspection inward, he was astonished to discover that the efficacy of his Yungi Yosang Haengong was more than double its usual power.
He had thought it would take at least a week of Yungi Yosang Haengong practice to heal his Internal Injuries, but in a single night he had healed most of the damage and even recovered roughly thirty percent of his inner strength.
“This is fire. Try to copy it. Fire.”
“Campfire.”
“Camp-fire! Say fire strongly. Campfire.”
“Campfire.”
“That’s right, well done. This is a spear.”
“Speer.”
“Not speer—spear. Spear.”
“Spear.”
“And this dented thing is a Shield.”
“Sheeld.”
“Not sheel—Shield. Shield.”
“Shield.”
El-dom began teaching Jang Ga-in the forest language of his people. Watching him do so, Sai-ran casually asked a question.
“El-dom, why are you teaching that man our language? It’s not even the continental common tongue.”
“Because he’s a High-Rank Knight who defeated an Ogre, and I thought it might be good to grow closer while we’re at it.”
“He’ll leave once his treatment is finished anyway. Do we really need to bother?”
The three of them were members of the Druid clan—a people who had deliberately separated themselves from human society to form an independent community, living in harmony with nature.
At first, their resistance to humans destroying nature had been fierce, but eventually they realized they could not abandon all contact with humanity. Now, over time, they had come to exchange knowledge and aid with them.
However, they had not revealed their village to outsiders, for they could never be certain when human violence, brutality, and greed might intensify and turn against them in acts of attack and plunder.
Moreover, when Druids came of age, they were required to leave the village to undertake their spiritual training. For this reason, the three siblings had resolved to complete their parents’ vengeance, inform the village of it, and then depart for their own training.
“We can’t know how the bonds we forge now might unfold in the future.”
“Still, the language that would be practically useful to that human isn’t ours, but the Kram Language, the common tongue of the empire, or the language of the Smed Kingdom nearest to the forest. Wouldn’t it be better to teach him those instead?”
“You’re right about that. Very well. I’ll teach him both the common Kram Language and our forest language together.”
“Do so.”
Shortly after, El-dom began teaching Jang Ga-in both the Kram Language and the forest tongue together.
“Oh, and by the way—this human’s name is Jang Ga-in, but he asked me to call him Kai-in. He’s sharp too; he remembers almost every word after hearing it just once.”
“Call him Kai-in, then? Understood. Kai-in, I’m Sai-ran.”
“Sai-ran.”
“Yes, Sai-ran. And my sister here is Kai-rin. Sister, this man’s name is Jang Ga-in. He wants us to call him Kai-in from now on.”
“Kai-in! Got it.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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