Soul Digger-Chapter 66: SOLO EXPEDITION

Rolan brushed his hand against the creature’s corpse, letting the sensation of its soft, silky strands of hair sink into his skin. As pleasing as it was, Rolan for once had a tangible purpose for his odd actions.

That was the creature’s survival mechanism.

According to what he learned from the Deity as Cole, most Man-Eaters could be classified by their habitat. Places with certain conditions tended to attract specific breeds or species. For instance, extremely high-temperature terrains birthed Man-Eaters with tough skin and, at times, fire-based abilities.

The danger level of a Man-Eater was easily determined by the environment; conversely, the hazard level of an environment could be determined by how advanced the Man-Eater’s structure was. At least, that was the best Rolan understood it.

He had a decent idea of what the Deity tried to convey: several factors caused the spawning of Man-Eaters. Thus, conducting an elaborate analysis of its biological structure was the best way to evaluate the North Pole’s current threat level.

Rolan didn’t initially plan for such an easy shortcut to appear; Lady Luck simply took an interest in him for the time being. The method he used wasn’t exactly ideal or popular, but it served its use.

’I understand that an abnormal spike in wavelength can create Man-Eaters, but for something this complex to spawn... it would take more than "just a fluctuation" or something similar.’

"It might be as I feared; an Indulger is behind this. But can any ordinary Indulger produce such dense wavelength?"

Rolan plucked a strand of hair and held it against the weak rays of light; a colorful radiance glittered at the edges like a sprinkled rainbow. Eventually, he sighed. As much as he disliked the honest fact, Rolan was still unfamiliar with much of the supernatural world’s logic.

He understood the basics of determining a terrain’s danger level yet was ignorant of how to differentiate simple from ordinary mechanisms. He skimmed the creature’s body carefully, ripping through its flesh while studying it meticulously, yet accomplished nothing. Poking the eyes repeatedly... nothing happened.

All Rolan gained were two hypotheses. The first was his original conjecture: behind the scenes, an Indulger was pulling the strings by kidnapping civilians and spiking the wavelength lingering in the North Pole. However, it didn’t explain how they "faded" or the people’s altered behavior.

The second was an average conspiracy theory involving higher-ups in the Indulger world. Too little evidence backed up the second assumption, but it remained a possibility.

There was the Neataruzo idea, but that seemed highly illogical.

At least, that’s what he thought.

’I might need help with this.’

Rolan brought out the pocket watch and gave it an odd look, his face twitching as though he were suppressing something about to pour out. The hands went stiff as the mechanism remained inactive. Rolan squeezed his eyes shut at the view, the taste of disappointment a cold silver tang on his taste buds.

’Even if she’s up to something, a bit of help or advice would have been nice. I thought we were a team.’

"Help me!" A loud, desperate call blew from the furthest distance.

The flowing breeze carried it past Rolan’s location. "What is it now?" he murmured to himself.

The Man-Eater’s corpse was already dissipating into black fragments; by the time it fully disappeared, the incident would remain a mere memory. Due to the Man-Eater’s huge size, Rolan estimated about four hours before it fully vanished—plenty of time to analyze it further. Then again, doing so wouldn’t exactly be a smart way to utilize his time.

Instead, Rolan decided to look into what made the noise he heard a few seconds ago. The snowy field didn’t make the task simple, and the risk of a trap existed. He chose to take the risk; examining a corpse while being practically nescient wasn’t any better.

At the back of his mind, Rolan kept a single thought pinned: ’Whatever is lurking beneath this trial might be equal or greater to Gothel in power.’ He recited. ’Even then, I could be wrong. Using Gothel as a means of scaling power might also be very flawed.’

Tensing his legs, Rolan gathered wavelength from his body; a faint blue ooze swarmed his features from his hair to the toes in his shoes. With a straight step, he launched himself forward, darting through the snow like a fired bullet, he created afterimages like moving frames on paper.

Frosty winds and drizzling snow parted to make way for Rolan’s accelerating body. The raging winds fought back, using the powdered snow and choking air to slam against his face and chest, but he didn’t mind. Brushing through the distance with sharp glances, Rolan searched for the source.

SCRRRRRRCH!

He pressed his feet down and slid through the snow as he stopped. Something familiar caught his attention, a scent he’d been accustomed to since his teenage years. Rolan took a whiff of the stinging air; its cold smell was tainted by a feeble musty stench and an overwhelming scent of blood. The area was plagued by it.

On the white floor, multiple footprints were engraved in the land’s snow. From the looks of it, they spanned in all directions, as though a group of people wandered in circles, likely lost. Rolan crouched a bit; in the midst of the footprints were large paw prints similar to a huge bear. At the same time, he noticed how disoriented the smaller footprints were.

He squinted, pressing his fingers into the chilling snow as he traced the bear’s footprints. "Civilians were chased by the wild animal." He gazed at the scene. "Let me check if there are any survivors," he spoke with a heavy tone.

The footprints led to a cliff-like landscape. From how things looked, Rolan came to the conclusion the people were chased by a polar bear before falling off. There weren’t any blood trails on the snow, making the outcome more likely. Rolan cautiously walked toward the edge to avoid traps; as he got closer, he heard a subtle snagging sound playing, heightening his guard in response.

Rolan’s view went over the edge; beyond it was a slope similar to a children’s slide.

SNAP!

On its surface, dismantled parts and corpses, along with a bright red hue of blood, decorated the path downwards. Rolan’s focus grew more intense the lower his gaze went.

SNAG!

To his surprise, amongst the pile of corpses scattered, a lone survivor held her ground—a truly captivating sight. A Man-Eater engaged in a deadly dance with a woman wearing the same uniform as Cole.

’She’s a rookie of the Eerie Gothel?’ Rolan stayed out for the sake of observation. His eyes widened from intrigue and mesmerization as he left his lips parted.

The Man-Eater resembled a cross between a deer and a yeti. Its horns, from his perspective, reached over 150 cm, protected by long strands of white fur similar to the previous Man-Eater. It had two glowing red oval eyes, a maw with seeping smoke reaching its stomach, ginormous fists like construction equipment, and flat feet, reaching over 300 cm from his point of view and over 10x the woman’s body in size. Its opponent was a dazzling woman, her body decorated with shining bracelets, necklaces, earrings, and waistbands.

Rolan couldn’t help but acknowledge the woman’s unique sense of dressing even in the face of life-threatening danger. Her bust swayed with her movements as she dodged and avoided each of the Man-Eater’s blows, using swift acrobatic skills despite her high heels.

’Why is she wearing high heels in the snow?’ Rolan wore a perplexed expression.

’Most importantly, she’s the only survivor.’ He furrowed his brows. ’Does this mean a group has already been wiped out? So soon?!’ The feeling of rage crept up Rolan’s spine.

The tangle between the two opponents carried on, a fierce battle of speed. The woman demonstrated grace and swiftness; her sweet yet dangerous face was highlighted by her red lipstick, and her alluring eyes were even more deadly.

Concentrating on the fight rather than the Indulger herself was quite tedious, but not for Rolan. He was buried deeper in his pondering mind than the snow.

As talented as the rookie was, she was visibly growing more and more exhausted. The creature picked up on her dropping speed and changed its pattern of attack. This time, it crushed the ground with both fists, breaking her movement flow.

For a brief moment, she was off balance; that much was enough time for the Man-Eater to land an attack. Too tired to react quickly, the Indulger’s ribs and waist cracked like biscuits from the collision with its speeding knuckles.

BANG!

Like a short clap, the resulting sound covered her pained scream. The force tossed her like a used rag doll; defenseless, she was bullied by the wind before rolling through the sticky snow like wrapped sushi.

She coughed out a bile of red fluids like a fountain, her glimmering eyes fading like a weakened bulb. The creature took its time reaching her; afterward, it flung open its wide trap like an open cargo, exhaling its white gas.

The Indulger was too battered to resist; her fingers flinched, but that was all. Despite her circumstance, she held a stubborn look in her eye that excited the Man-Eater. The creature stooped above her, covering her body with its wide maw, about to snag her in a single bite.

TEEEEAR!

The Rookie saw something expand from within its dark mouth; the object had five separate parts resembling fingers.

’Are those fingers?’ she asked herself.

The object thrust out deeper until it looked similar to a hand; the Man-Eater went stiff and silent. The object twisted and ripped the creature in half with a simple shift and drag movement. A space opened between it’s jaw as the creature collapsed to the ground; at the center was an arm connected to a body.

The rookie Indulger weakly traced the arm to its owner through her eyes; she saw a man with white hair and glowing crimson eyes staring at her in deep remorse.

"I’m sorry it took me so long to step in," he apologized sincerely.

Her eyes glistened for a second. ’Rolan Swindler?’