Chapter 5: Chapter 5

To the Mountains Again…

Two historic worlds had shone brightly together. In the center of the first one, there appears to be a race of monsters. it looked like something in a fantasy novel. On the second one, there appears to be a wide variety of bizarre monsters around the globe. The humans dominated the worlds and meshed their 3 worlds together. And when that happened, the pre-existing humanity civilization development had begun once more.

They called it ‘The Hunter Generation’.

The Gagseog hunters.

Since ancient times, an integrated defense system was made to ‘Save’ special skills of the enlightened Gagseogs that appeared. They came through their dimension gate and were trusted to save humanity.

The first 10 years of the generation fusion were called ‘the survival generation’. With that being said, survival was their top priority… Countless natural gagseogs had started to appear and no one knew where they had come from. They were pouring out of the two different dimension gates. They were busily saving the lives of other dimensions along with humanity. Their names were ‘Eorawuzho’, they were the true supporting heroes of the survival generation

And 10 years after the generation fusion, a new type of Gagseog hunters started to appear one after another. They were called ‘Rodoe’ and they maintained their legendary status from the past. They helped the people during fights. People had their stuff and called them ‘artifacts’, but their kind soon died due to a fatal injury. Their weapons were given to others and those others had their strength. By their appearance, other dimension invasions were prevented.

The last kind to come after 10 years were called ‘Beyeondeos’, they were called the Gagseog force in Korea.

They didn’t have any artifacts or a generation fusion integrated defense system. They bought technology made with pure strength as a gift. After the monsters died, they used the Manaseog’s madu-technology and they protected the human Gagseogs. But in return, the human’s ‘save’ force was protected from them as well.

Although after all that, the Gagseog had become lowest ranking hunters of them all. But since then, through the number of humans, their enemies were soon overpowered. In recent times, besides going through dimensions, the invasion generation has arrived.

They’re called ‘hunters’.

***

“Do you want to go and eat?”

“Sure.”

No one knows where Gagseogs came from or exactly how Beyeondo’s live. But Dongchul and Jaehwang would not stop trying to find out. However, as dangerous as it may be, one could earn money from the life of a Beyeondo. So he thought that he could respect his friend’s decision and keep quiet about it.

***

He didn’t pack much luggage with him. The most things that he had were his archery gear and his books but he had donated it all away since he thought that he already got it in his head. A few days after sadly quitting archery, Jaehwang said goodbye to Dongchul and then got on the bus.

“Wow, it’s empty.”

The bus continued to move with its quick and soundless driving. Jaehwang then looked out in the window and got lost in thought.

He thought he would need a lot but he just bought his backpack and a few of the most important things. He brought traditional recover protection, an arrow that’s been passed down for 20 generations and all the other equipment he would need in one bag.

“Mommy look…That guy’s face is weird.”

“Don’t say that, honey.”

A little kid saw Jaehwang looking through the window, she pointed her finger towards him while telling her mom who later stopped her. He’s not too conscious about the right side of his face which was distorted after the car accident. The damage had almost cost him his archery skills but he’s lucky that at least, he didn’t lose both of his eyes.

Jaehwang covered his face with his hair and closed his eyes. Just being reminded about his face was enough to make him feel depressed and angry.

Jaehwang later found the place he came to look for, Gyeongsangbuk-do in Cheongsong-gun. A small village located in the mountains. He got off the bus and started to walk. It should take about an hour to get there. Soon, after a few minutes of walking, he finally saw a glimpse of about 50 houses in the distance of the village district.

***

Jaehwang entered the village with nothing but his body and one huge bag.

“Nothing has changed.”

The village still looked just the same as he remembered it from when he was little. Walking around felt as if time has stopped… This was the place where the other generation lived during a different time. If it wasn’t for the only new building being the Village Hall, the village was easy to be mistaken as a village from the 70s. As he walked further into the settlement, he sees a familiar face.

“Mr. Song, Hi Granddad…..”

Jaehwang bowed and the old man standing ahead of him replied with a surprised look in delight. He walked towards him and Jaehwang then put down his bag to shake his hand.

“Oh my… Is it really you, Jaehwang?”

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“Yes, it’s me. How have you been, Granddad?”

“Good, things are the same… How long until you go back to school in Seoul… Are you on vacation?”

“Well, uh…”

After hearing his vague answer, his granddad looked at him and he took his hand along with a deep breath. He immediately understood what was going on.

“You’re going to your parents grave?”

“Not yet, I just got here.” He looked and saw the big bag that he carried.

“… It could get very lonely living alone on the mountains….”

“.…”

His dad used to always call the mountain villagers ‘Mountain people’. He naturally shut himself out on the mountains, almost living like a monk. Maybe the reason for him living like that was to connect with his past ancestors. He would just go up and down the mountain to buy medicine and often socialize with others. He would also hunt down wild pigs and wild cat-like animals that ruined the crops. On those days he would call the village’s strong men to help prepare for a village feast.

“Ah… I see. It’s been a while since I’ve seen the township office, I have to go find it and try to get a registration map. Then I have to talk to Mr. Kim’s daughter.” Mr. Song then wriggled his eyebrows.

He didn’t have any idea of what was going on. He thought that maybe Jaehwang quickly spent all of his parent’s insurance money and his uncle that disappeared came back.

“So what are you planning on?”

After hearing his question Mr. Song folded his arms and answered in a stern voice, “I heard that Mr. Kim’s daughter said that before the owner comes, nothing would ever be done and they’ll just suffer. If a relative or someone comes then should I beg? Couldn’t we call the police officers at the station and get help? Where will you go… humhum! I heard that even if someone goes there, they’ll get beaten with a club…”

The mountain people knew that there were lots of tragedies happening in their home. No one was sadder than them about what’s happening to their families.

Luckily, the mountain people seemed to be good at coping with it. Jaehwang smiled. He had believed in and relied on so many people that betrayed him in the end. He doesn’t want to believe in anyone right now but he knew he could trust these people.

He doesn’t know the people that well but they were his father’s friends.

“If the problem gets worse, could you do me a favor?” Mr. Song looked through his eyes. “The mountain people have suffered a lot these days and those wild pigs are making things really hard. They’ve been destroying the farmer’s crops everyday…”

“The pigs have gotten worse?” Jaehwang replied.

“Sigh… I couldn’t even talk about it. The yams and potatoes that were being provided in the upper villages for a year are all being ruined…It’s been scary these days and trees don’t even grow over on that side of the mountain. Those pigs are so cruel…”

“Do you think that it could be a monster?”

The mountain was in an isolated location but after the generation fusion, another dimension gate opened but no monsters were ever spotted. However, Jaehwang has no doubt that something could have been going on. If the monsters did maybe show up on the mountain then that would be really dangerous.

“I don’t think so. They said that it wasn’t a monster. Mr. Cho has seen it and said that it was only a giant wild pig…”

“Oh…”

After Mr. Song finishes talking, Jaehwang looked over towards the upper side of the mountain with his worried eyes. His dad would always help the mountain people by hunting the pigs.

He wants to help by hunting them but he was not as proficient as he used to be. His father was a master and he was only providing him support when they are out in the mountains in search of wild pigs.

He wanted to try hunting the wild pigs to help them as well but all he had was a bow and arrow. In the beginning, before his father was a professional archer, he used all of the wrong archery equipment. Despite that, he would still go out even without bringing three hunting dogs with him.

‘If it was not a spotted animal and it was not a black tiger…’

There’s was no one there to look after the dogs on the mountain. There’s no way that Jaehwang could manage to take the acquaintance dogs that his father taught with him. The dogs that his father taught were not just simple hybrids, they’re Jindo dogs and a full sized Tosa crossbreed on the family tree.

The body types of Jindo and Tosas are quite similar, but between the snout and dark ears, they could instantly be told apart. They’re also weighed 30 kilograms by birth and they had gained more every day. They would chase Jaehwang and others. The wild pigs didn’t stand a chance because they had been running around the mountain. Of course, those guys surely wouldn’t be able to do much now if they were here, things had gotten dangerous and hunting was always a dangerous thing.

“Well, I’ll be on my way.”

“Okay.”

Mr. Song took a deep breath as he sat down and watched him go further away into the distance. Today seems especially like one of his bad dreams.

To the Mountains Again… The end.