episode_0365

I felt as if all my doubts were being resolved in an instant, and I was clearly organizing the truth in my head.

‘Because it’s Enic… !! okay!!

So it has to be that way!!’

The reason why female elves of the past were strong hunters was simple.

Just as Vivian and the female beastmen became stronger after becoming subordinate to me, Enic originally has the ability to strengthen the females he serves as hosts.

Of course, it was for efficient and healthy childbirth as a mother that gives birth to its own colony members, and it was also a concept to increase the probability of survival if the precious mother was in danger, so there was a large part of it to effectively use the host.

‘okay… So women are bound to be stronger than men.

Directly take Enic’s bodily fluids… therefore… ‘Because you must have been blessed.’

And when Enic’s intervention disappeared, the women had no choice but to become physically weaker than when they received the blessing, and as a result, the originally strong men’s position was simply restored to its original place.

‘It’s natural that men are stronger on average to begin with.

Instead, the women who received Enic’s protection are a bit stronger than him.’

Combat power is determined by complex factors such as individual characteristics, physical ability, and combat skills, but even if the physical ability part of a person’s strength is simply increased, the combat power is bound to be significantly increased.

Let’s imagine that women have strength and physical ability comparable to men.

In a state where the concept of human rights is not established, the reason women are reduced to powerless victims in many ways is because they literally have no power.

Because they are weak and weak, they need to be protected, and if there is no one to protect them, they are weak beings who cannot resist on their own.

Therefore, it was natural for women throughout history to be treated closer to an important resource rather than a subject.

However, a stronger woman can become the subject of another history.

Just as Vivian led the Henias and secured their power in the back alleys, in the past elf villages, female elves stood out as excellent hunters and were able to become leaders of the village.

‘Now I know what to do.

So now what I have to do is… … ‘

Concentration and insight.

As I was wandering around the huge den, I found something of a familiar shape and rolled towards it.

Since it is an epic that has clearly not been used by humans, the concept of using the lair may be a bit outdated, but moving within the lair itself already felt difficult.

After avoiding the hole-like traps scattered throughout the floor and reaching my destination, I was able to slowly reach the thick vine hanging down from the ceiling, which looked like another tree root.

‘Be… … !! yes!!’

As I placed my body on its tentacles and focused my mind on the feeling of being possessed, the guy who seemed to have almost no control left seemed to easily hand over control to me.

At the same time, something like a ray of bright light seemed to illuminate my mind brilliantly.

‘memory… Is this this guy’s memory…? … !?’

The synchronization of so many memories threatened to confuse or even destroy my mind, but my mind was busy ecstatically following that unfamiliar and admirable bright light.

Thousands of years, thousands of years equivalent to 10,000 years.

‘Then that means this dungeon is older than that… …

This is a truly unknown place… … ‘

It took root in this spot, erected a pillar, hunted the approaching monsters, and continued to reproduce using females.

A flower that gradually grows based on abundant resources.

A thousand years passed while it was growing into a somewhat gigantic behemoth, and finally, the scruffy-looking elf refugees were seen reaching this place and looking up at Enic.

‘The dungeon gate doesn’t only open in one place… ?

‘Did I happen to pass through a gate that opened randomly in an unknown location?’

At this time, the men were playing the role of hunters, so there were no armed elf women in sight.

Anyway, Enic naturally welcomed the elves who came into his area, and when they saw this giant tree that had brought them here, they seemed to trust Enic with the belief that it was a world tree.

Following the call of the World Tree, numerous elf women willingly surrendered themselves to its tentacles, and regardless of whether they had a husband or a lover, and whether they were old or young, they all became Enic’s property.

And the male elves, who thought that the world tree was blessing the sight of women happy with the most intense pleasure that a woman could feel, did not prevent it but instead actively encouraged it.

As a result, Enic, which could provide sufficient nutrition by eating monsters anyway, did not need to kill the men who were not obstacles, and could use the females as hosts to increase the size of the colony.

Their strange relationship of reverence is a new form of ‘symbiosis’, and the World Tree faith has become completely established among the elves, and powerful women who have received that ‘blessing’ and become Enic’s hosts are beginning to be born.

Female elves hunt monsters with the power given to them by the World Tree during the day, and return at night to offer human sacrifices of gratitude to the World Tree.

Happy to receive the blessing, they willingly allow themselves to be violated by the tentacles, and as their blessed bodies become more and more obscene, their husbands violate them and conceive children, and the number continues to increase.

And they cherished and cared for the colony members sent out by Enic as henchmen of the World Tree, and willingly gave their bodies to the ‘fairy’ as they always did.

‘Is that Riel’s great-great-grandmother…?

I danced happily with the fairy… … ‘

When I saw the image of a woman with a somewhat familiar face, I was looking at the memory in front of me, feeling like I wanted to clear my throat out of some inexplicable sense of immorality.

The faces of elves who are raped by unusually shaped flying colony members and who are spawned with multiple fist-sized eggs in their wombs.

It was full of the thrill of being able to repay the kindness of the World Tree, the sincerity of gratitude, and the widespread anticipation of the pleasure it would bring.

The prosperity of the elves and the prosperity of Enic came as if it were the golden age of paradise.

The coexistence of elves and Enics in paradise, which had lasted for thousands of years, seemed to be coming to an end again after a long time.

If this much time has passed, Enic must be quite old now.

Enic’s massive body gradually goes out of control, and various functions of his body gradually begin to stop.

It began to gradually reduce its activity over a long period of time, and probably hundreds of years before Riel’s great-grandmother was born, Enic seemed to have entered a state of dormancy, completely inactive.

All the elves who lived with the blessings of the World Tree shed tears and mourned the death of their master, and although they knew that they could no longer receive the blessings, they believed that Enic would rise again one day, and lived diligently here for another thousand years.

As the blessings were withheld and the generations passed, the female elves lost their power and their roles gradually declined as the generations passed, and eventually they became the same weak beings as when they first set foot in this paradise.

And today, at this moment, they returned as ordinary elves.

A being that caught the eye of Enic, who quietly looked down at the weakened elves and watched them all, even as they were attacked by monsters.

‘you… Everyone has been watching until now… … ‘

From the very beginning, when I, riding on Leah’s shoulder, reached this forest and the small village of the elves.

Enic was already watching us, and was now welcoming the visit of his compatriots who had reached this point and my intervention.

And eventually, as I reached the end of the memory, a strong thought continued to linger in my thoughts, as if he was trying to tell me something.

‘protect… … ‘

A synchronization of memories that felt long, but ended in the end, along with the absurd final thoughts left behind by a monster named Enik.

-What is the world tree… …

It looks like an old tree that is drying out.’

Even though everything was over, I was still lost in thought for a while, pondering the meaning of the guy’s last words and slowly wriggling my new tentacles.

‘I will take back that statement at that time.’

I don’t know what this guy wanted to protect.

He may have wanted to protect his food from being taken by others, or he may have wanted to protect his own life that he could continue to live.

But from the perspective of someone who was just a human who couldn’t understand monsters.

I hoped that at least this guy’s last wish would come true.

‘At least for those people who were protected by you… …

Perhaps you were a world tree in the true sense of the word to them.’

Beyond the bitter feeling and the vague feeling of awe that seemed to warm a corner of my heart, the pulse of a huge colony beginning to wake up from a long sleep was slowly spreading.