Do Hyun narrowed his eyes. "Chemistry?" he repeated, testing the strange word on his tongue.
"It's… a scientific method," Ragnar said quickly, his hands still trembling in the air. "I understand what the earth wants. I can help you grow stuff."
Do Hyun lowered his heavy polearm slowly. He looked at Geom Woo. The silent swordsman gave a tiny, almost invisible nod.
"The Clan needs food," Geom Woo said. His voice was quiet, but it cut through the wind. "The winter stores are empty."
"He's lying," Mu Gyeol spat. He twirled the dagger in his fingers. "Look at him. He's soft. Still a sucking-his-mother's-breasts kind of guy. He's never held a hoe in his life. He's trying to save his skin."
"I promise!" Ragnar pressed, desperation making his voice crack. "I know how to fix the soil."
Do Hyun stared at Ragnar for a long, terrifying second. He looked like he was weighing a sack of grain against a sack of rocks. Finally, he stepped back.
"Get up."
"You're actually taking him?" Mu Gyeol groaned, rolling his eyes.
"We take him," Do Hyun said firmly. "There is nothing to lose. The wolves need to eat as well."
He pointed his heavy weapon toward the dark horizon, away from the town.
"Walk. Keep your hands where we can see them. And don't even think about running."
Ragnar scrambled to his feet. His legs felt weak, but he forced himself to move. He walked in front, with the three warriors guarding his back.
As they left the shadow of the town walls, Ragnar got his first real look at the world he had fallen into.
It was a wasteland.
The sky wasn't black like a normal night. It was a bruised purple color, swirling with thick clouds that looked like oil floating in water. There were no stars as far as he could see.
And the ground…
Ragnar looked down as his boots crunched on the earth. The dirt was gray and powdery, like ash from a fireplace.
"So," Mu Gyeol said, breaking the silence. He walked right behind Ragnar, and Ragnar could hear the swish-swish of the dagger being tossed in the air. "You say you can fix the soil. That's a funny joke."
"It's not a joke," Ragnar said, trying to keep his voice steady. "Why is it funny?"
Mu Gyeol laughed, a dry, harsh sound. He kicked a cloud of the gray dust at Ragnar's heels.
"Look at this ground, 'Scholar.' The Snow Panther Clan controls a huge territory, but nothing grows here. We haven't seen a green sprout in the Outer Lands for twenty years."
Ragnar's stomach dropped. Twenty years?
"The soil eats seeds," Mu Gyeol whispered, leaning in close so Ragnar could feel his cold breath. "It kills them before they can even open. Our best Earth Path cultivators have tried to revive it with no results. And you think you can do it?"
"If you can't," Do Hyun added, walking up to the front, his voice heavy, "then your days are going to be very short."
Ragnar swallowed hard. He didn't answer. Instead, he stared at the gray dust.
Everything is chemistry, he told himself. If the soil is toxic, I can neutralize it. If it lacks nutrients, I can synthesize them. Magic or not, plants need nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. I just need to find their source.
Suddenly, Do Hyun stopped. He held up a hand.
"Halt."
The group froze. Do Hyun turned around, his sharp eyes drilling into Ragnar.
"Before we go further," the big man said. "I have a question."
He stepped closer, towering over Ragnar.
"Back there, at the corpse pit. Did you see… anything unusual? Before we arrived?"
Ragnar blinked. "Unusual?"
"A light," Geom Woo said softly from the side. "Or a vortex. Maybe the wind spinning in a circle? Did you feel some sort of pressure, perhaps?"
Ragnar's heart skipped a beat.
He had felt it. He had felt the energy rushing into his cells, repairing his neck. That was probably the "pure energy" or "Will" they were talking about before.
Ragnar started to think about what this energy signified in this world. They also talked about "earth Path" and cultivators, 'if there are all sorts of paths, did I awaken into some sort of healing magic?'
Ragnar shook his head, widening his eyes to look as innocent and confused as possible.
"I… I don't know what you mean," he lied. "I was out cold. I didn't see any light. I just woke up when that lady screamed."
Do Hyun stared at him. His dark eyes were like lasers, searching for any sign of a lie. Ragnar held his breath. He tried to channel the same face he used when Professor Thorn asked if he had slept at all during the week.
Finally, the big man sighed.
"Fine," Do Hyun grunted, turning away. "Maybe the source moved on after healing you."
Ragnar froze. He touched the silver scar on his neck.
"Healing me?" Ragnar asked, trying to sound surprised. "What do you mean?"
The three warriors stopped dead in their tracks. They turned around slowly to look at him like he was the stupidest person they had ever met.
"Are you serious?" Mu Gyeol asked, raising an eyebrow.
Do Hyun pointed a thick finger back at the town walls. "We were watching from the street. We saw the axe come down and your head roll across the stage."
Ragnar's eyes went wide. "My… my head?" he squeaked. He remembered the pain, but he didn't know what actually happened.
"Yes," Mu Gyeol laughed, making a chopping motion with his hand. "Chop. Blehhh. You were dead. Very dead."
"But now I'm alive?"
"Exactly," Do Hyun said. "That's why we asked about the energy. People don't just grow heads back. A powerful Will intervened. You were lucky."
Geom Woo looked at the sky, his expression unreadable. "Extremely lucky. A wandering spirit, perhaps? Or a Star passing by decided to waste a miracle on a beggar."
"Whatever it was, it's gone now," Do Hyun decided. He turned back to the dark path. "Stop asking questions and walk. We need to reach the outpost before the Second Moon rises. If we're out here when the Night Walkers wake up, your farming skills won't save you."
Ragnar didn't ask what a "Night Walker" was. It sounded bad enough. He scrambled and followed them.
As he walked, he looked down at his hands again. They were dirty and trembling, but he could feel a strange energy in his veins.
He squeezed his eyes shut, ignoring the biting wind. He focused entirely on the pulse in his wrist.
Focus, he told himself. Zoom in.
Instantly, the world faded away.
He saw the rivers of his own blood. Millions of red blood cells were rushing through his veins like tiny rafts.
Attached to every single cell was a glowing, golden particle.
'What is that?' Ragnar thought. It's bonding to the iron in the hemoglobin.
He watched a cluster of these golden particles hit a tired muscle cell. Flash. The cell evolved. The mitochondrial wall thickened. The energy output spiked by 1000%.
'It's an unknown molecule', he realized, feeling a rush of excitement. 'It acts like a catalyst, but it doesn't break down.'
He leaned forward in his mind, trying to zoom in on the atomic structure of the gold dust.
'If I can map the valence electrons, I can—'
"Whoa!"
His real foot caught on a jagged rock. The mental image shattered like glass.
Ragnar pitched forward, flailing his arms, and slammed face-first into the gray dust.
Before he could even spit the dirt out of his mouth, a hand yanked him up by the collar of his rags.
He was dangling in the air, staring right into Mu Gyeol's annoyed face. Now that he took a closer look, the guy was hideous.
"What are you thinking?" Mu Gyeol hissed, shaking him once. "Look in front of you, farmer. You trip again, and I'll leave you for the worms."
Ragnar nodded quickly, choking on the dust in his throat. Mu Gyeol dropped him, and he landed hard on his feet.
For the next hour, they walked in silence.
Ragnar didn't dare close his eyes fully again, but he kept testing his vision. He found that if he squinted just right, he could overlay the "microscope view" onto the real world to a certain degree. He saw the sweat glands on Geom Woo's neck pumping out salt. He saw the microscopic fractures in the steel of Do Hyun's Naginata.
It was dizzying, but incredible.
Suddenly, the wind changed. It stopped howling and went dead silent.
"Run," Do Hyun whispered.
Ragnar didn't ask why. He saw the sky brightening. A massive, white orb was rising over the horizon—the Second Moon. It was huge, ten times the size of the first moon, and its pale light made the gray ash on the ground glow like bone.
From the dark forests surrounding the plains, a sound erupted.
Screee-chhh.
It sounded like metal scraping against glass, mixed with the cry of a dying baby. Then came another sound—heavy, wet footsteps thudding against the earth. Thump. Splat. Thump.
"The shelter! Now!" Mu Gyeol hissed.
He grabbed Ragnar's arm and dragged him off the road. They slid down a hidden embankment into a small, dark hole carved directly into the earth.
Do Hyun jumped in last, pulling a heavy stone slab over the entrance.
Clang.
Total darkness engulfed them, except for a faint blue light coming from a small crystal Mu Gyeol pulled from his pocket.
The room was just a rough square cut out of the dirt. It was freezing cold and smelled of damp earth. There was no furniture, just the hard floor.
Above them, muffled by the stone and dirt, the shrieking grew louder. Something heavy dragged itself over the ground right above their heads. Dust trickled down from the ceiling.
Ragnar hugged his knees, his teeth chattering.
"What… what are the Night Walkers?" Ragnar found the courage to ask.
Do Hyun leaned his Naginata against the dirt wall. He looked down at Ragnar, his face shadowed in the dim blue light.
"Did the axe cut out your brain, too?" Do Hyun asked quietly. "How can you live in the Outer Lands and not know what hunts you?"
"I… I don't remember," Ragnar whispered. He tapped his temple. "Other than the science… and the chemistry… it's all gone. I don't remember my name. I don't remember my family. I don't remember anything..."
Was it a lie? Not really...
"Convenient," Mu Gyeol muttered.
"It is common," Do Hyun said, his voice softer this time. "Trauma can shatter the mind. Especially when the Will intervenes to save the body."
He sat down heavily against the wall, closing his eyes.
"I will explain it to you tomorrow, on the way to the Clan," Do Hyun said. "But know this: The Night Walkers are just one of many curses in the Outer Lands. They are the left-over energy of the Towers. Things that should have died, but instead remain in those lands."
He pointed a finger at Ragnar.
"Sleep. If you can fix the soil, you live. If you can't you'll find out what the Night Walkers are soon enough."
"Didn't you say you'll throw me to the wolfs, not to the Night Walkers?"
Geom Woo stopped cleaning his sword. Do Hyun paused with his eyes closed.
"He has a point, boss," Mu Gyeol smirked, leaning back against the cold dirt. "You have to be specific with your threats. Consistency is key."
Do Hyun opened one eye. He looked at Ragnar with a gaze that could peel paint off a wall.
"Wolves. Night Walkers. Starvation," Do Hyun listed them off in a bored, monotone voice. "Dead is dead. Don't be picky."
He closed his eye again.
"Now shut up. Sleep."
Ragnar snapped his mouth shut. He decided not to push his luck any further.
He curled up in the corner of the small room, pulling his thin rags tighter around his shivering body. The ground was hard and freezing, sucking the heat right out of him.