Ch.121121. Naru Tribe (2)

Chunsik’s village was located up in the trees.

“Well, that makes sense. Everything below is just swampland.”

I don’t know why they built a village in such a place, but perhaps it’s because they’re half-elves, so maybe they can live comfortably in the trees.

When I went with Chunsik, the half-elves welcomed me.

“What’s that…”

“Why is an outsider…”

“It’s a human.”

They aimed their bows at me cautiously, but I had a means to befriend them.

“I have a hostage.”

“Don’t attack.”

The half-elves, or half-frogs as they were called, all lived with their bodies smeared in mud.

Do they even bathe?

I took Chunsik with me and headed toward the chief of this village.

“What business does a human have here?”

The chief of this place.

Or should I call her the village head?

Anyway, the rather young half-frog asked me with cautious eyes.

She also had mud smeared all over her body, and since the mud essentially served as clothing, she wasn’t wearing anything else, which actually accentuated her figure.

That’s why when I first saw Chunsik, I thought he might be a native.

What kind of person walks around wearing nothing but mud?

Human skin is fragile.

If you walk around naked and get scratched, you’ll end up with wounds.

Wearing clothes wouldn’t make a huge difference, but it’s better than nothing.

Well, from my perspective, it wasn’t an unpleasant sight.

Clearly, having half elven blood flowing through them gives them nice figures despite being primitive natives.

Maybe I stared too obviously.

She looks at me with displeasure and asks again.

“What brings you here?”

I delivered my message.

“I came to help your village. The elves sent me.”

“The elves… sent you to help us?”

“You’re half-elves after all. They were worried about you. They commissioned me.”

“…”

“The forbidden zone in the swamp is the problem, isn’t it?”

“How would a human know about that?”

“Well, I came here knowing about it.”

No matter how vast a Level 1 biome might be, there aren’t actually that many key points.

The purification of chaos energy—that’s the core story of the Rift Dimension.

If you guess that most sub-quests that follow this main storyline are related to chaos energy, you’d be right at least half the time.

This case was no exception.

The swamp isn’t a great environment for living.

Especially for those who are half-human—they need land.

They could live in a Level 0 biome or on flat ground in another biome, so why are they living in tree villages in a Level 1 biome that’s almost entirely swampland?

The reason is simple.

Either they want to be birds who like living in trees, or they were forced out with no choice.

I cautiously speculate that the now-forbidden swampland might have been their original home.

“Why should we trust you and accept your help?”

“That’s fair. I’d find it hard to trust me too. But do you have a choice? How long will you live only here? What if the chaos energy expands further? Will you move somewhere else then? Where would you go? There’s probably no weaker place around here than this one.”

“…Did you… really come from the elven village?”

“I didn’t say I was an elf from the elven village. I’m human too. I told you I was commissioned.”

Only the commission part was a lie; the elf stuff was half-true.

Our farm village has the Elven Queen Lier, and where she lives could be called an elven village, so it’s half-correct.

Actually, whether they ask for help or not isn’t a major concern for me.

I’m just trying to see if I can squeeze a sub-quest out of this; it wouldn’t be a big loss if I couldn’t.

But if I can easily expand my territory this way, I can handle these annoying tasks as many times as needed.

“…What do you need us to do?”

“First, tell me your story.”

My partly made-up story based on guesses seems to have hit the mark.

“We are the Naru tribe.”

And so began the story of the young chief of the Naru tribe.

“The Naru didn’t originally live here.”

Of course, even elves don’t live in trees.

They love nature and live with the forest as their companion, but building homes in trees is inconvenient.

“There was a forest next to the swamp. It was rich in life energy and natural forces, making it perfect for our Naru tribe. There was a tree there—not quite a World Tree, but one that had absorbed mana for a long time and reminded us of one. The Naru tribe lived well with that tree. Until the dark energy came.”

“Wait.”

As I listened to the story, some familiar names came up.

They seemed slightly different, but weren’t these the things I saw, cut down, and eliminated on my way here?

“Was it that extremely large and thick tree?”

“We call it the Life Tree. Have you seen it?”

“Well… I did see it. It was already corrupted and rotting.”

“That’s right. It was tainted by dark energy, losing its life force and becoming a cesspool that only emitted corrupt energy. We wanted to purify it, but we couldn’t. The monsters drawn to the dark energy were too powerful. The Naru tribe had to choose—either protect the Life Tree or protect our people.”

“So you fled.”

“Yes. We didn’t go far, hoping we might reclaim it someday. But as time passed, the dark energy…”

“Chaos energy.”

“…that energy only grew stronger and showed no signs of weakening. Eventually, the Naru tribe couldn’t reclaim the forest, and now the swamp itself is developing dark energy…”

“Chaos energy.”

“…chaos energy, and we’re about to be driven out of the swamp as well.”

“Wow… so you came all the way from there to here.”

It was quite an interesting story.

The half-elven Naru tribe fled from their Life Tree that had become corrupted, ending up in the adjacent Level 1 swamp biome.

Now the swamp is also being corrupted by chaos energy, gradually choking them out, leaving them with nowhere to escape.

Saying “just flee somewhere else” is easy for me to say.

Even on Earth, immigrating isn’t easy, and this is the Rift Dimension.

Each level’s biome has different types of monsters that have established their territories, and if you encroach on those territories even slightly, the monsters will fight to the death to protect them.

If the Naru tribe were powerful, it might be different.

They could take over somewhere and establish themselves.

But they couldn’t even purify the corrupted Life Tree in the Level 0 biome and had to flee, hoping for a better future. Now they’re hiding in trees in the swamp, unable to deal with even the swamp alligators. Where else could they flee to?

The adjacent area might not even be a Level 0 or Level 1 biome.

Though I do wonder what would have happened if they had settled in the plains region of a Level 0 biome after leaving the forest.

“I’ll help you. That Life Tree you mentioned—I’ve purified it.”

“Really?”

“I have no reason to lie. You can check if you want.”

I did purify it, but the tree probably isn’t there anymore.

“When was the last time you visited the forest?”

“It’s been quite a while. We don’t move freely in the swamp either…”

“I see.”

That’s fortunate.

The forest is probably gone by now, and if they had seen that before meeting me, our conversation wouldn’t have been so easy.

“Anyway, I go around removing chaos energy, so I can help you along the way. Don’t feel too burdened.”

“…What can the Naru tribe do for you?”

“You don’t need to do anything. This is my job anyway. Like I said, it’s a request from the elves. The elves may dislike you, but they don’t want those with half-elven blood to completely disappear either.”

“Is that… really true?”

“It is.”

I haven’t actually asked Lier, but I think that’s how she would feel.

They may not be fully related by blood, but they are half-related.

So I comforted them by representing what I thought would be Lier’s sentiment.

Then the Naru chief, slightly tearful, made a request.

“Then… please help us. Please reclaim our homeland.”

[Sub-Quest]

[Naru Tribe]

[The Naru tribe, once inhabitants of a corrupted forest, were driven to the swamp by corrupted ogres. But now the swamp they migrated to is also being corrupted by chaos energy, and they have nowhere else to retreat. Help the Naru tribe by purifying the chaos energy and reclaiming their homeland.]

[Purify the Forbidden Swamp]

[Establish a homeland for the Naru tribe]

[Reward: SS-grade Life Skill Selection, Farming Stat +10, 50,000 Farm, Naru Tribe Affinity 100%]

And the quest I was waiting for appeared.

“Wow. SS-grade Life Skill.”

“Pardon?”

“Nothing.”

“We don’t have much to offer…”

“It’s fine. Have you ever seen a hero do good deeds expecting something in return?”

You’re already giving me plenty of value.

I liked the reward.

The farming stat seemed a bit stingy, but it was just a sub-quest, and it gave a whopping 50,000 Farm.

Most importantly, it would fill the Naru tribe’s affinity to 100%, which was why I came here.

This means I can likely obtain their reason for existence.

“I’ll definitely purify the swamp and provide you with a safe and excellent homeland. I’ve already found a good spot.”

“Thank you. How can a human we just met be so…”

“You’re part elf, but you’re also part human like me. Humans should help each other. I help you, and you help me.”

In many ways.

The Naru chief took my outstretched hand with both of hers.

“Ah, what’s your name?”

“I am…”

“You’ll be Chunbong.”

“…What?”