Chapter 6
The Hunt Begins
It was a night lit by the moon.
‘It’s shifting from a half-moon to a full moon.’
Isaac searched through his memories.
It was around the evening when the priest delivered the news that all the children of Black Goose Village had died.
He might not remember everything else, but he clearly remembered the full moon that night.
He had stared at it for a long time while listening to the voices coming from the courtyard.
‘At most, five days. At minimum… two, maybe.’
Unlike other illnesses that have clear symptoms depending on their condition,
mana poisoning varied drastically from person to person—its symptoms, incubation period, and survival time all differed.
Whether the person was an adult or a child.
Their level of mana resistance.
Their physical condition.
The environment they lived in.
One thing was certain—optimism didn’t help when lives were on the line.
‘Two days. At the latest, I have to finish everything within two days.’
Isaac left the road and entered the forest.
Inside the dense thicket, it was pitch-black darkness, but thanks to light magic, he had no trouble seeing.
The real difficulty lay elsewhere.
“Where the hell is it?”
Snow-covered ground.
Frozen soil.
Finding the herbs he needed among them was no easy task.
If he wanted to save even one more child, he needed to buy time.
And for that, he needed herbs—but it was far from easy.
‘Maybe I should’ve brought Hans.’
He wished for even an extra pair of hands.
But Isaac soon shook his head.
Hans’ help would be useful, but due to the mana explosion, a curfew had been imposed.
Loyal as ever, Hans would report it to the head servant, and the head servant wouldn’t let it slide.
With no time to persuade anyone, it might only result in even stricter surveillance.
This was something he had to do alone.
Steeling himself, Isaac searched every corner of the forest.
He tripped over rocks, got scratched by branches and thorns, but paid it no mind.
Between thick rocks in damp, shaded areas where moss grew.
In sunny patches near clear streams that trickled softly—clean enough to drink.
The book had described it as if it were obvious, but in reality, finding them was anything but easy.
“Haah…”
Isaac’s breath scattered into the cold air.
The moon had noticeably tilted westward.
After stubbornly searching for places matching the herbs’ growth conditions, Isaac finally managed to gather enough of two types.
White Stone Flower.
Moon Halo Flower.
The White Stone Flower helped with cold symptoms—fever, coughing, phlegm.
The Moon Halo Flower temporarily increased resistance to mana.
However, both effects were only temporary and could not cure mana poisoning.
They were merely a way to buy time.
“Ugh… This should be enough, right?”
Isaac straightened his stiff back.
At this rate, he felt like his back might bend before he even finished growing.
Still, looking at the sack full of herbs gave him a sense of reassurance.
If the herbs worked as described in the book, then using his knowledge to eliminate the winter spiders might not be so difficult.
In the distance, the barking of wild dogs and the howling of wolves echoed.
Beasts encountered at night were just as dangerous as monsters.
With his task done, Isaac quickly found the road and left the forest.
***
After walking for several more hours, Isaac finally arrived at Black Goose Village.
Following his faint memories of the path had been exhausting.
“Young master?”
The nanny peeked through a crack in the door.
Her nose and mouth were covered with worn cloth, leaving only her eyes visible.
Even just from her eyes, it was clear she was startled.
“You look tired.”
Isaac muttered as he looked at her face.
The face that had appeared vividly in his dreams countless times during the decades he was trapped in the underground vault.
It hadn’t changed at all.
He wanted to embrace her, overwhelmed with emotion—but Isaac suppressed the rising feelings.
Now was the time to suppress emotions as much as possible.
At least until he could be certain that a mana explosion wouldn’t occur.
The more precious someone was, the more distance he had to keep.
He couldn’t afford to leave any room for risk.
“What brings you here so late? Did something happen at the estate? And what happened to you? Why do you look like that? Where have you been rolling around?”
Dark circles hung beneath her eyes.
Her cheeks, visible between the cloth, were sunken.
Yet her barrage of questions remained unchanged.
“You hadn’t come to work for days. I came to check.”
“You’re going to come inside?”
She looked flustered as Isaac stepped toward the hut.
“Why? I can’t?”
“The doctor said it’s pneumonia. What if you get infected?”
Isaac took out a handkerchief from his pack and covered his mouth.
“This is fine, right?”
“But…”
Ignoring her hesitation, Isaac gently brushed past her and entered.
“Did you get permission from the master?”
“No.”
“What are you going to do if something happens!? What if you ran into bandits on the way!?”
“I didn’t.”
“And not just bandits! What if you encountered monsters or wild beasts!?”
Her scolding continued for a while.
It was the voice of someone worrying for him like her own child.
Exactly as he remembered.
Isaac almost burst into laughter—but held it in.
“Enough. Take this first.”
“Excuse me?”
Isaac handed her the sack filled with herbs.
Without another word, he walked over to the bed closest to the fireplace.
The nanny’s son, Hinder, lay there.
Bluish spots, like bruises, had bloomed across his face—around the eyes, neck, and forehead, where the skin was thin.
Clear evidence of mana poisoning.
“I’m sorry. Hinder hasn’t been able to come to work because he’s sick.”
The nanny spoke with a sorrowful expression.
“The doctor?”
“He visits once every three days, but there’s been no improvement.”
“I see. Hinder, Hinder—can you hear me?”
“…Isaac?”
Hinder barely opened his eyes, his face twisted in pain.
‘Right… Now I remember. This was his face. He looks just like her.’
Thick eyebrows. Gentle eyes.
He had inherited all of the nanny’s defining features.
Even before returning to the past, Isaac had seen Hinder about three times.
They were the same age, but Hinder had been a head taller.
He always called Isaac by his name instead of “young master,” and every time, the nanny would scold him.
But this time, she couldn’t.
She simply wiped her dry eyes and looked at her son with a complicated expression.
“Isaac—no, young master. Please don’t fire my mom. It’s because of me… I’m the one who’s sick. Cough, cough.”
“I’m not firing her. She’s the only one who gives me extra bread. Just take care of yourself.”
Isaac held Hinder’s hand briefly, then stood up.
“Crush or grind those herbs and put them in a pot. Throw away the first brew—it’s close to poison. Let the second brew cool, then give it to the sick children.”
“…This?”
The nanny looked at the sack, puzzled.
“And is there a hunter in the village?”
Isaac nodded as he spoke.
***
The herbs worked.
Trusting Isaac, the nanny carefully brewed the herbs and gave them to her son.
Hinder’s coughing stopped temporarily, and his fever went down.
The bluish spots on his body also faded slightly.
After confirming all of that, Isaac followed the village hunter she introduced and headed toward the abandoned mine.
Though he hadn’t slept at all, he didn’t feel tired.
Because there was still something he had to do.
“That’s the abandoned mine.”
Early dawn.
Isaac, guided by the hunter of Black Goose Village, entered deep into the forest.
Even in the cold weather, the well-trodden path was overgrown with thick weeds.
In the middle of a forest thick with broadleaf trees, there was a small clearing.
Around the entrance to the mine, where darkness lay heavily, broken carts and rusted pickaxes and shovels were scattered about.
“Thanks. I’ll take it from here.”
“Be careful. There are a lot of wolves around here. Sometimes people go missing.”
“Still, thanks.”
The hunter took the 1 denarion Isaac handed him and disappeared back the way he came.
‘The mine… It started as a limestone cave, right?’
Isaac pulled a small shovel from his pack, dug through the snow, and scraped away the soil.
He picked out bits of grayish-white dirt mixed within and tasted it.
There was a faint salty tang.
“Ptoo.”
According to what he knew, it was calcareous soil.
Just as he’d heard, the abandoned mine was likely a limestone cave.
When rain or snow fell, limestone dissolved and created gaps. Groundwater flowed through those gaps, forming caves.
Because of that, caves housed various lifeforms and developed ecosystems—and winter spiders could secure enough prey until they reached adulthood.
‘Time to prepare before going in.’
Isaac wandered around the area.
There were still materials he needed to subdue the winter spiders.
Thanks to his multi-circuit system, he could replicate a spell similar to a second-class fireball—but it had clear limits.
An overly activated mana circuit could break the vessel.
With no idea how many winter spiders there were, he couldn’t just charge in and start casting magic recklessly.
If possible, he needed to reduce their numbers first, then use magic only when absolutely necessary.
For that, preparation was essential.
Winter spiders preferred limestone caves when building nests.
Ironically, plants that could act as deadly poison to them often grew nearby.
Frost Belladonna.
A stem plant whose common name meant “Frost Beauty.”
The name came from the saying that deadly beauty carried deadly poison.
Its berries were usually diluted and used for paralysis or anesthesia, but for winter spiders, just two berries were enough to be lethal.
‘Cold, dry calcareous soil… This place fits perfectly.’
Of course, there was no way to directly feed the berries to the spiders.
Their survival instincts would cause an intense rejection toward the fruit.
But there was one method—
A way their senses couldn’t detect.
‘It really is just like the book described.’
By around noon, after searching all over the calcareous ground, Isaac finally found a patch of Frost Belladonna.
He filled the empty herb sack with all the blue berries.
He didn’t forget to add crushed dry leaves and twigs as well.
Only when the sack was completely full did Isaac realize he had lost feeling in his fingers.
‘Should I have gotten gloves…?’
Blisters had formed here and there on his fingers.
“And this pouch keeps getting in the way when I move…”
Isaac tightened the stone pouch tied to his waist.
After securing the sack, he melted snow to dampen the handkerchief covering his mouth and nose, then placed it in his pack to keep it from drying.
Preparation was complete.
He carefully entered the abandoned mine.
Thanks to light magic, visibility wasn’t an issue.
But as a long-abandoned mine, there were dangers everywhere.
The wooden supports creaked ominously as if they might collapse at any moment, and many tunnels at the forks had already caved in.
‘If I die in a place like this, it’ll be a pathetic death.’
Isaac quickened his pace.
Soon, he came across a vertical shaft.
Whooo—
A warm wind rose from the unfathomable depths below.
“…Damn.”
There was a pulley system for hauling minerals, but he couldn’t trust it to support his weight.
Besides, there was no one to operate it.
With no other choice, Isaac threw the sack down the shaft.
Only after several seconds did he hear it hit the bottom.
At the same time, startled bats and cave birds flapped wildly.
This was insane.
Relying on an old rope ladder of unknown age, Isaac carefully climbed down step by step.
Whether it was the wind rising from below or his trembling legs—
the ladder kept swaying.
“Haa…”
After reaching the bottom of the shaft, Isaac had to rest for a while.
‘Is this the main tunnel from here?’
Unlike the narrow entrance, the tunnel here was wide.
The air was poor.
Carrying the sack, Isaac ventured deeper, guided by his light magic.
‘This must be it.’
Around him lay corpses dried out like mummies.
Their skin was intact, but all bodily fluids had been drained.
Frogs, fish, swifts, nightjars, bats…
Small insects were now feeding on the remains.
The deeper he went, the more skeletons appeared.
Time had passed long enough for insects to strip them clean.
Among them were human skulls, femurs, clavicles, and ankle bones.
They were likely the remains of the missing villagers the hunter mentioned.
‘It would’ve been easier if I hadn’t known…’
He had studied too many anatomy books trying to heal himself.
Now it only made him uneasy.
The ruined Goethe estate came to mind—the corpses that had filled it.
‘Focus.’
Isaac shook his head, clearing his thoughts.
Tap—tap—tap.
At that moment—
An unnatural sound echoed through the tunnel.
Tap-tap-tap—
The sound of many legs moving busily.
Isaac felt the hairs on his body stand on end.
His heart pounded with tension and excitement.
Whoosh—
The ball of light hovering above his hand transformed into a flickering flame.
Whoosh—
Another fireball appeared.
One remained in his hand, while the other orbited around him through phase manipulation.
A kind of defensive barrier.
The fur of winter spiders was coated in oil produced within their bodies to retain heat.
Because of that, even a small spark could set them ablaze instantly.
Fire was one of the things they feared most.
Sssrrr—
Soon, a white spider that had sensed his presence revealed itself.
It was as tall as Isaac’s waist.
‘So that’s the sound described in the book.’
Even in this moment, Isaac marveled inwardly as he compared the real creature to what he had read.
Sssrrr—
The sound of a colony-dwelling winter spider alerting others of an intruder.
Clack—
The sound of its chelicerae, bearing venomous fangs, snapping together in warning.
Everything was exactly as described in the book—yet experiencing it firsthand was entirely different.
But he couldn’t afford to keep marveling.
‘Five already—no, six. More are coming. Eight… ten… twelve…’
The sound of winter spiders moving came from all directions.
Fortunately, they didn’t dare approach the fire orbiting around Isaac—but they were ready to pounce at any moment.
The humid underground heat, so different from the surface.
The thin air.
The constant tension of possibly becoming prey.
Isaac’s back was already drenched in sweat.
He wanted to remove his fur cloak, but there was no time for that.
He wanted to act immediately and flee the mine—but he held himself back.
‘A little deeper… just a bit deeper.’
Monsters were generally more intelligent than ordinary animals.
Some even possessed language systems similar to humans.
If he didn’t wipe them out in one go, they would learn—and next time, they wouldn’t fall so easily.
“Hoo… Haa…”
Steadying his ragged breathing, Isaac walked among spiders larger than most humans.
Before long, he realized he had reached the place he was looking for.
A cavern far larger than the tunnels.
Around twenty adult winter spiders raised their heads toward him.
Clack—
Clack-clack—
The sound of snapping chelicerae was chilling.
It sounded like a threat—that they would sink their fangs into him and drink his liquefied flesh and blood at any moment.
‘More than I expected.’
Clicking his tongue at their number, Isaac suddenly noticed something odd—the ceiling was low for such a large cavern.
He had thought the jagged formations were stalactites.
But this was still part of the mine.
When he looked up—
He froze.
The ceiling was covered with spider eggs.
Another winter spider was wrapping newly laid eggs in silk.
“…Ha. I came to the right place.”
Isaac let out a hollow laugh.
No wonder that years later, even with the help of neighboring territories, Goethe had struggled endlessly against the swarming winter spiders.
He had to cut them off at the root—before that could happen.
Isaac set down the sack he had been carrying and took out the damp handkerchief, covering his mouth and nose.
Whoosh—!
The sack soon caught fire, releasing thick smoke.
The hunt had begun.