042 – Oinoi and the Little Stationery Shop # 6
Below the glacier stood a structure frozen solid as a rock.
Oinoi seemed to recognize it.
"Oinoi knows this place, that is what it is…! Those spires soaring so high must surely be the bell tower of a temple, that is what it is…. This Oinoi suspects this is the temple of some god or another, that is what it is…!"
The Fixed Rift in the city of Sejong was said to be part of a temple belonging to a god called Baldr. And the building beneath this glacier seemed to be the temple of some deity as well.
We'd find out exactly what it was once we went down.
"So how do we get down into this solid mass of ice?"
Lee Jina kicked at the icy floor with a couple of loud thuds.
The ground was impossibly hard—not even an awakener's mana could put so much as a crack in the ice.
It would've been nice to have Seo Yerim here, I thought.
Seo Yerim was an S-rank pyrokinetic.
Ice like this would've melted away in no time under her flames.
But Seo Yerim wasn't here.
Besides, this was my job in the first place.
I couldn't go leaning on other people for everything.
"Let's look for a gap. There might be a crack somewhere. Your mother may have slipped through one and gotten trapped down below. There has to be an opening somewhere."
I was certain Lee Jina's mother was alive somewhere beneath this place. Which meant there had to have been a reason or a way for her to get down here in the first place.
Soon, Lee Jina asked, "What about asking that Keongkeongi and the honey ant?"
"No. It's way too cold."
Keongkeongi and Ang-angi's weakness was the cold. This polar region was brutally frigid, and if I let them out, they'd freeze solid and die for certain.
I couldn't do that to my friends.
But I couldn't just stand here sucking my thumb, either.
I let out a slow breath and steadied myself.
"I'm a manipulation-type. I'm better at handling mana that's been released outside my body than the mana I work with inside it. So I'm going to spread my mana out wide and send it down into the floor."
In other words, I was going to pour my internal mana out across the ground like water. If any of it drained away somewhere, that spot might be a weak point in the glacier floor—or an entrance.
"Mana Deployment."
Shwish—.
Applying self-hypnosis, I spread the mana stored in my body out in every direction.
Sssss—.
The mana concentration within me thinned, while the mana around us grew dense.
━Keongkeong…!
━Zzji…!
Soon, Keongkeongi and Ang-angi seemed to come back to their senses.
I had created a domain roughly twenty meters in radius with the mana I'd released.
Since the two of them had always reacted to my mana, they were strongly affected by this field.
━Keongkeong…!
Keongkeongi zipped straight down to the floor as if it couldn't feel the cold at all.
━Zzji…!
Ang-angi, too, stretched out his stiff, cold-numbed body and set foot on the glacier.
The same went for Oinoi.
"It's gotten warmer than expected, that is what it is…! This Oinoi declares it a nymph-friendly warmth, that is what it is…! Master of the house, use this power instead of a boiler from now on, that is what it is…!"
Replace my boiler with Mana Deployment, you say?
I suppose that would save on the gas bill.
But it wasn't nearly as easy as she made it sound.
Holding control over mana that had escaped my body was about as difficult as trying to command the breath I'd exhaled into the air.
If my focus slipped even a little, my mana would lose all governance and scatter into the atmosphere—
"Right now I've become the center of gravity, like the Earth pulling in the moon. I just have to hold this feeling steady while I scan my surroundings."
So I could actually do something like this now.
Just as I was marveling at myself, something strange registered in my mind.
Out of the entire twenty-meter radius, there was a single point where mana was leaking away.
"Keongkeongi, Ang-angi, head to the spot I'm pointing at."
Shwish—.
I pulled a laser pointer from my belt and aimed it at the spot.
Keongkeongi and Ang-angi made their way over.
━Keongkeong…!
Keongkeongi shouted something when it reached the spot.
I still had no idea what it was saying.
But Lee Jina's face lit up.
"Keongkeongi's really happy…!"
Right.
Lee Jina was an ability user who could roughly read animal emotions.
I headed toward the spot where Keongkeongi was running in circles. There, I found a small hole no bigger than a finger, and from it came a low, keening whistle of wind.
"This is it."
I pulled a rod from my pocket.
Oinoi reacted at once. "A warm flare, that is what it is…!"
"It looks similar, but this is specially manufactured dynamite. When you use it, the chemicals inside react and generate ultra-high heat for a brief moment. That should widen this entrance. It's dangerous, so back away. Close your eyes and cover your ears, too."
I sent Oinoi and Lee Jina far away.
Then I retreated about fifty meters myself and pressed the switch on the wireless detonator I'd set up.
"Fire in the hole. Fire in the hole."
KRAKA-BOOOM—!
Eeeeeeee—.
It sounded like two five-ton trucks colliding head-on at full speed—and on top of that, the blast pressure spread through the air in an instant.
It had been a while since I'd last used a bomb, but the power was as formidable as ever.
"Hyeeehk…! Even with this Oinoi's ears covered, the sound was so loud her ears have gone strange, that is what it is…! Please check whether this Oinoi's ears have grown long like the long-eared elves', that is what it is…!"
Apparently Oinoi hadn't covered her ears quite thoroughly enough.
Sounded like she had ringing in them.
Thankfully, her ears were still the same short, pointed triangles as ever.
"You're fine."
"This Oinoi cannot hear what you are saying, that is what it is…!"
Her hearing would come back soon.
Just as I'd predicted, about five seconds later Oinoi recovered her hearing.
"A big hole has opened in the floor, that is what it is…!"
A big hole.
That was what Oinoi said, but to my eyes it looked awfully cramped. Big enough for one person to squeeze through, maybe.
That blast was powerful enough to collapse a mountain tunnel, and all it managed was this little opening.
So the ice really was that hard.
"Alright, let's set an anchor and rope here and head down."
Thankfully, the hole was deep.
I installed a rappelling rope nearby and fastened it securely to my belt.
Watching the process, Lee Jina let out an admiring whistle. "You look pretty practiced at that. Handling bombs and everything. Don't you need a license to use explosives?"
"What can I say? While you were sitting in an elementary school cafeteria eating your lunch, I was already crawling around places like this. You ranked up to C faster than me, sure—but I've got way more experience."
Saying it out loud, it sounded kind of pathetic.
Had I really fallen behind a kid who was still eating school lunches in elementary school while I was working hard as an awakener?
Well, I just had to push forward again from here.
About fifty meters down, my feet touched the ground.
The floor was flat, and even though it was frozen solid, it bore the structure of man-made architecture.
"A temple sealed beneath the ice."
It had quite the atmosphere.
Even in a situation like this, I could feel a certain romance to it.
Beep, beep—.
We followed the radar's biosign readings until we arrived at the interior of a vast temple—a cavernous hall of mythic proportions.
The goddess statue towering at its center was magnificent.
"Incredible."
As I marveled, Oinoi spoke up. "It is a statue of the goddess Demeter, that is what it is…! The sheaf of grain and harvest sickle in her hands are the proof…! Goddess Demeter is a goddess most kind even to us nymphs, that is what it is…!"
The goddess of grain and harvest, then.
But why would the temple of such a goddess be frozen over like this?
Even Oinoi didn't seem to know.
"This Oinoi does not know why the temple froze like this, that is what it is…! Long ago, when Kore wed and departed to the underworld, things did freeze over like this… but everyone has long since made peace, that is what it is…!"
So it seemed.
KRA-KOOM—.
Just then, something burst up through the hard ice floor.
The creatures had enormous noses, long limbs, bluish skin, and drool dripping from half-open mouths.
Four-fingered hands clutched crudely hewn clubs.
It was Lee Jina who identified them first.
"Shit, those are trolls!"
Trolls.
Monsters said to appear from high-danger rifts.
Oinoi was horrified at once. "Just like the long-eared elves, these are fairies who crossed over from a distant land, that is what it is…! Of course, they are not kind fairies like nymphs, but wicked fairies, that is what it is…!"
Right.
Trolls were a vicious species—tough, thick skin and extraordinary regenerative power made them hard to kill.
And their temper was savage, too.
They were strong enough to grab a bodybuilder in each hand and tear him in half, or so the stories went.
Their threat rating was B-rank.
Meaning you needed a high-rank B-class awakener in your party just to take down one.
And there were four of them.
"Graaaaargh—!"
"Grrrrrr!"
"Grrr—."
"Rrrrrr—."
Lee Jina said, "Sounds like they're all piss-furious!"
I could tell that much without emotion-reading powers, thanks.
Ziiiing—.
I drew my Beam Saber.
"The head!"
And with that, I charged in and cleaved through a troll's leg. Its skin might be tough, but joints were always a weak point.
SHRAKK—.
Sure enough, the troll with its severed knee toppled straight to the ground, rolling.
"GUWAK—! Th-the head, you said—! You liar—! I'll kill you—! I'll rip you apart—! You said the head, but you cut my leg, guaakk—!"
"Expensive weapons really are worth it. Humanoid enemies all have nearly identical weak points."
Smmmm—.
But fresh flesh was already growing back over the severed wound.
And that was the exact moment it happened.
KANG-KANG-KANG-KANG-KANG—.
A sharp ringing sound tore through the air, as if someone were pounding on a gong.
I turned my head. Far in the distance, someone was hammering an iron plate with a rod, shouting at the top of their lungs.
"Wicked fairies, get your rotting hides out of here at once, that is what it is…! This is the sacred sanctuary of Goddess Demeter…! It is no place for foreign species to trespass, that is what it is…!"
Draped in layer upon layer of fur pelts, the figure looked remarkably bulky and strange.
KANG-KANG-KANG-KANG—.
"GUWAAAHH! So loud—!"
"Retreating is probably for the best—!"
As the fur-clad figure kept hammering away at the iron plate, the four trolls clamped their hands over their ears and fled for their lives.
Zooooom—.
The fur-wearing figure now approached us.
Then it caught sight of Oinoi and greeted her warmly.
"Ahh—! Now that I look, it is not only wicked foreign species here—there is a native fairy, a nymph, that is what it is…! A nymph sister…! To meet you like this, I am overjoyed, that is what it is…!"
"Ahh—! I thought you were a furball monster, but now I sense the feeling of a nymph sister, that is what it is…! This Oinoi is Oinoi, the ditch water nymph, that is what it is…!"
"This is Coris, the ice water nymph, that is what it is…!"
Tap—.
As the one who'd called herself Coris threw off her fur bundle, a face with light-blue hair cropped into a bob came into view. She resembled Oinoi, but her eyes were blue and gave off a cool, crisp feeling.
Shwish—.
The two nymphs then pressed their foreheads together.
What were they doing?
"Oinoi, what are you doing?"
"Nymph sisters greet each other by touching their foreheads together, that is what it is…! Greeting this way lets you learn the other's age, health, and such, that is what it is…!"
A strange way to say hello.
Soon, Oinoi spoke to the ice water nymph Coris.
"Coris…! Come escape to the outside with this Oinoi, that is what it is…! A place this cold is no good for nymph sisters to live in, that is what it is…!"
"This Coris is an ice water nymph, so she endures the cold well, but she agrees that this place is a dreadful spot, that is what it is…! But… to escape this place, one must defeat a terrible monster, that is what it is…!"
A terrible monster.
What on earth could that be?
Coris trembled violently, utterly terrified.
She didn't look in any state to explain.
Just then, someone else came walking toward us.
"I'll tell you about the monster."
A woman's voice.
She held a spear carved from icicles, and wore armor woven from fur pelts and bone that looked remarkably warm.
Shwish—.
And when the woman finally revealed her face, Lee Jina froze in shock.
"…Mom…!"
"Mom? You—could it be… Seon-ah? Seon-ah! Yellow hair! My daughter!"