Chapter 90: 90

Chapter 90

 

The names of the Giant siblings were Buar and Nwiar. Buar was the older brother of Nwiar and had a rougher personality than his little sister. Nwiar was more docile in comparison, but she still had her guard up as well.

Their answer to YuWon’s request was a firm ‘No.’

“How long are you going to follow us?”

Step, step—

YuWon followed the two circling around the back alley. 

This game had been going on for hours.

“I’m sure eventually you’ll go back to your people,” YuWon answered.

“We’re going to lose you before that,” Buar told him.  

“I thought you weren’t going to fight me?”

Buar was ticked. How could someone be so annoying?

“Or are you unable to fight?” YuWon followed up.

“I can fight,” Buar said bitterly.

“Big brother,” Nwiar stopped Buar. She was worried that Buar might end up snapping and throwing a punch.

Buar huffed a bit, staring down at YuWon, before he turned his head and continued to walk.

‘He’s holding back,’ YuWon observed.

Giants were naturally strong, but unfortunately they had a lot of enemies. 

With Olympus and Asgard, two of the top guilds in the Tower, as their enemies, Giants always had to watch their actions. If they caused any trouble, it would give Olympus an easy excuse to exterminate them by claiming Giants were dangerous. 

‘He’s young but quite mature,’ 

The two siblings were big for their age. 

They were at an age where they might have had trouble controlling their emotions, yet Buar only growled while Nwiar tried to pretend like she didn’t care about YuWon. 

“What do I have to do for you guys to help me out?” 

“The Elder doesn’t just meet anyone. Go back.”

“I’m not just anyone.”

“All humans are the same. That’s what we were taught.”

They had a deep distrust of humans. 

This was a unified belief among Giants due to the long pain they had suffered at the hands of humans.

“So fuck off before you get hurt. Like you said, if we wanted to, we could easily crush a hoard of guys like you,” Buar threatened.

He was one of the Giants that not only didn’t trust humans but despised them. 

YuWon wasn’t going to get anywhere with just words.

“Is that right? Well then…” YuWon spoke, deciding he had to be more assertive. “Do I just have to beat you?”

“You? Beat me? I doubt a scrawny bastard like you has the strength to do so.”

“You’re welcome to test that theory out,” YuWon taunted, extending his hand. 

Buar started to hold out his hand as well, as the two stared each other down.

Nwiar quietly observed because she could tell that the two weren’t going to fight just yet.

Grab—

Squeeze—

Despite having a hand that was many times bigger, Buar was surprised when he grabbed YuWon’s hand.

‘What’s this?’ Buar thought to himself.

YuWon’s grip strength was impressive, able to hold up against a Giant.

They had only just grabbed each other by the hand, but Buar now understood why YuWon was acting so cocky.

‘I’ve heard his name quite a few times… but what is his strength stat?’ Buar wondered.

Buar himself was a player, so he was familiar with YuWon.

He started to feel competitive. His pride wouldn’t let him lose against a player that had just reached the 20th Floor.

“Then let’s start—”

“Wait, big brother!” Nwiar stepped in.

Buar looked over at his sister, annoyed at the interruption.

“Don’t worry. We’re not fighting. We’re just going to do some friendly arm wrestling,” Buar explained.

“I can see that, but this is urgent.” 

“What is it?” 

“It’s a message from Elder Urpha.”

Nwiar’s words made Buar immediately let go of YuWon’s hand.

YuWon’s interest also piqued at the mention of the person he’d been searching for.

“You messaged him?” asked Buar. 

“Yeah. I thought I should at least let him know what’s going on,” said Nwiar. 

“And what did he say?”

“Well…” Nwiar said timidly, turning her head to YuWon. “The Elder’s looking for you.”

* * *

YuWon followed Buar and Nwiar. 

The entire walk, Buar looked unhappy. 

“What does the Elder want with a guy like him?”

“He is pretty famous.”

“But he’s still a human. Not to mention, he’s not even a Ranker or anything,” Buar said while glancing back at YuWon. “But more than anything, isn’t it weird that he knows the Elder?”

Urpha was one of the oldest Giants. He was not old nor ill, but he had been alive long before the days of the Gigantomachy, though he did not directly take part in it. And nothing was known about his whereabouts.

“I’m sure the Elder has his reasons.”

“Hmph…”

Because it was Urpha himself who called for YuWon, the two had no choice but to lead him through the forest. 

It was the only forest on the 20th Floor, a place known as the ‘Giant Forest.’

Fweet—!

Buar whistled hard with his fingers as soon as they arrived at the forest.

After a moment, the ground rumbled and a pack of beasts appeared. 

“Woof, woof—!”

“Woof!”

It was a pack of five wolves, but they were no ordinary wolves.

‘Big Wolves.’

Big Wolves were humongous beasts that were more than two meters tall and ten meters long, and their presence was how this forest earned its moniker.

The animals that resided in the Giant Forest were anywhere from a few times to dozens of times bigger than their normal counterparts.

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The wolves were growling and barking.

“Thanks in advance.” Buar signaled with his hand and some of the wolves became docile and lowered themselves.

Buar and Nwiar got on top of two of the wolves, but the other wolves were still on alert against YuWon.

“Grrrrrr—”

They glared at YuWon, their guards up.

Buar told the wolves who were baring their fangs, “He’s not food, stop—”

“Down,” YuWon signaled the wolves looking at him.

In an instant, the wolves who were looking at YuWon lowered their bodies.

“Arf, arf—”

The Big Wolves lowered their tails, and they even stopped baring their fangs and claws. They seemed to have lost their will to fight, afraid of YuWon.

‘What the…?’ Buar thought, feeling whiplashed. 

YuWon’s eyes had turned red, so Buar could tell that he was using some sort of special skill. But he still couldn’t believe that YuWon was able to dominate the Big Wolves with just his gaze. 

‘Is it some hallucination skill? Or perhaps a druid’s taming skill?’

Whatever the case was, it was clear the Big Wolves had surrendered to YuWon.

The Giant Forest of the 20th Floor was an area that was off limits. It had a hunting ground that was dangerous for a player of the 20th Floor to challenge. In fact, that was the case even for players of much higher floors. 

Even Buar, a Giant, had a hard time taming his Big Wolf. 

“What did you do?” Buar asked.

YuWon replied while petting a Big Wolf with one hand, “These guys are pretty smart.” He turned his head to look at Buar and continued, “Unlike someone.”

“What?” Buar was stunned. 

“Let’s go already. We even found a ride,” YuWon said while hopping onto the back of a Big Wolf.

Buar was ticked, but he held back and commanded his wolf by patting it on the back, “Let’s go.”

“Woof, woof—!”

The Big Wolf started to sprint forward. 

Buar turned his head back and saw that the Big Wolf Yuwon was riding was keeping up well.

YuWon and Buar locked eyes, not avoiding each other’s gazes. 

Buar felt his blood boil. 

‘I want to fight him,’ he thought.

Having been born a Giant, he was full of memories of players picking fights with him, but not once did he consider any of them a real opponent. It was like watching a small chihuahua bark. You let them yap and even bite you sometimes because they were harmless.

Buar lived his entire life holding back, telling himself that he shouldn’t fight. Yet for some reason, he couldn’t do that with YuWon.

He hadn’t felt this great a desire to win in a while.

“Big brother,” Nwiar said, having noticed what Buar was thinking, “You can’t.”

Her firm tone made Buar turn his head forward again. 

“… I know.”

During the rest of their trip, Buar used that time to calm himself down.

In the end, they arrived at a large tree.

“This is the place,” Buar said while getting off the Big Wolf.

Nwiar followed his lead and also dismounted her wolf.

YuWon looked up at the massive tree that sprouted all the way into the clouds.

‘Adam,’ YuWon thought.

“What do you think? Isn’t it amazing?” Buar said with pride. “It’s a tree that never burns or falls. The old folks call it a branch of the World Tree, but I don’t really know much about that.”

This was something that YuWon already knew because Adam was famous among Rankers. As the tree where the first Giant was said to have been born, Adam was a treasure of the Giants.

‘A tree that never burns…’ YuWon mulled over that statement..

He could clearly remember Adam burning down during the second Gigantomachy. It wasn’t just the tree, but the entire Giant Forest had been reduced to nothing.

“What are you doing? Get down already,” Buar hurried YuWon.

After taking in the scenery, YuWon got off and followed Buar to a large tunnel near the roots of the tree.

“You better start watching how you act from this point forward,” Buar warned Yuwon.

Stomp—

Loud footsteps echoed out of the tunnel. 

“If you’re not careful, you might get stomped to death.”

YuWon nodded his head at Buar’s warning. 

After the Gigantomachy, the Giants’ opinion of humans hit rock bottom. They were taught to avoid trouble and fights for the safety of their kind, but exceptions existed, and not all Giants were well-behaved like Buar and Nwiar.

“Follow me.”

Stomp, stomp—

There was no natural light under the tree, but there were shining crystals embedded all over the place, lighting up the inside as bright as day.

This was the home of the Giants.

“What’s that?”

“A human?”

“They’re with Buar and Nwiar.”

“Is it a guest?”

“No way. A human guest?”

The Giants they walked past all whispered as they looked at YuWon.

Most of them had powers close to that of a Ranker. And every single one of them was on guard against YuWon.

“Ignore them,” Nwiar quietly whispered to Yuwon. “You’re a guest of the Elder, so you have nothing to be afraid of.”

It would be natural for anyone to be afraid in this situation. He had entered a Giants’ den, and there was no Giant that would welcome a human with the current circumstances.

“Hey, Buar,” a Giant that appeared to be around the two siblings’ age approached them.

He had wide shoulders and sharp eyes.

“When did you get back?” the Giant asked Buar.

“Just now,” he answered while stepping in front of YuWon.

It was as if he was trying to hide YuWon with his size. 

He asked with a smiling face, “How’s climbing the Tower? I heard you climbed quite high.”

“I’m on the 49th Floor now.”

“That’s pretty fast. Did you come back to rest?”

“Yeah, and to say hi to the Elders.”

“Really?” 

The conversation up until now felt like just formalities.

The Giant then peeked his head around Buar and glared at YuWon, “Now… What’s with this ant?”

 

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