Chapter 17
Chapter 17
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: The Ice Worm Awakens
-----------------------------------------------------------------
'Something's off.'
Aileen felt an inexplicable sense of unease.
She glanced up subtly to check on the ice worm.
'No movement yet...'
It remained perfectly still, frozen in the same position as before.
Yet the anxiety kept creeping up on her.
'Seo Woojin seems fine too.'
He was diligently swinging his sword.
He wasn't dealing any significant damage, but by teaming up with the surrounding soldiers and keeping up the attacks, the damage was steadily accumulating.
'So why does it feel this ominous?'
It might be because of the mistake she'd made just moments ago.
'I hope it's just my imagination... Huh?'
Aileen had found nothing unusual and was about to set aside her worries when it happened.
A tentacle twitched.
The tiniest movement.
No one else—including Seo Woojin—noticed it, but Aileen, as a knight, caught it.
"Dodge!"
Her urgent warning rang out.
Seo Woojin and the soldiers leaped backward the instant they heard it.
They had been ready to retreat at any moment, making it possible.
But...
'Too late!'
The ice worm's tentacle was just a fraction faster.
As if it had never stopped at all, the tentacle whipped down toward the ground like a lash.
Kwaaaang—!
"Uwaaaak!"
"S-save...!"
The soldiers who hadn't escaped in time were crushed beneath it, screaming in agony.
And that was just the beginning.
The tentacles began thrashing wildly.
* * *
'This is insane!'
The moment Seo Woojin heard Aileen's warning, his instincts told him everything had gone wrong.
The tentacle had missed him, slamming into the ground nearby instead, but he couldn't fully escape the shockwave.
"Urk!"
Unable to withstand the impact, Seo Woojin tumbled across the dirt.
'I almost died!'
The tentacle had struck a mere paper's width from him.
If his reflexes had been even a split second slower, he'd have been pulverized into minced meat.
He'd survived by luck, but the situation was dire.
The ice worm, now on the move again, was unleashing a frenzy of attacks as if venting its pent-up rage.
Still dazed, Seo Woojin rolled across the ground nonstop to evade the tentacles.
Screams from the soldiers echoed around him without end.
'Damn it, damn it!'
It was a mistake.
No—a blatant error.
They should have left the ice worm alone.
Blinded by the lure of leveling up, he'd gotten innocent soldiers killed.
'How many are dead?'
Ten? A hundred?
He had no idea.
But each and every one of those lives had been snuffed out because of his poor judgment.
'This is my fault...'
The weight of those fleeting lives terrified Seo Woojin more than the tentacles aimed at him.
"Seo Woojin!"
Aileen's voice cut through.
She was charging through the raging tentacles to save him.
'DON'T come.'
Wouldn't it be better to just die here?
Wouldn't that lighten his punishment a little?
As those thoughts crossed his mind, he looked at Aileen.
He hoped she'd just leave him be.
But she had no intention of doing that.
True to her knightly resolve, she reached his side in an instant and scooped him up.
Without a moment to check his condition, she bolted from the battlefield.
"Block it! Clear an escape route!"
Orders from the company captains rang out sporadically.
Even in this chaos, they were directing the soldiers, carving a path for Seo Woojin and Aileen to flee.
"C-casualties?"
Seo Woojin asked in a trembling voice, but Aileen didn't respond.
Was it because she didn't know, or because the situation left no room for words?
'Or maybe...'
She might be sparing his feelings.
"This way!"
It was Jo Han.
He and his company were desperately holding back the tentacles.
Aileen didn't hesitate, sprinting toward them.
That direction offered the clearest path away from the ice worm.
In exchange, Jo Han's company—true to its diminished name—had only a dozen men left.
"Damn it, everyone retreat! We can't hold!"
The soldiers, renowned elite troops across the continent, snapped back to attention and fought fiercely, but they had reached their limit.
The ice worm had been too much for them from the start.
They'd opened a path for the hero to escape; now it was time to save their own skins.
Seo Woojin closed his eyes.
He couldn't bear to watch the blood-soaked soldiers desperately blocking the tentacles.
'Because of me...'
"No."
Seo Woojin flinched.
She had read his innermost thoughts perfectly.
"It's not your fault."
Aileen said through gritted teeth.
"B-but."
"It was a solid plan with real potential, and I accepted it. We just miscalculated a little."
Comfort?
Seo Woojin figured she was just trying to console him.
That her true feelings were different.
But no.
When he opened his eyes, the emotion in Aileen's gaze was unmistakable.
'Guilt.'
It was the exact same as what he felt.
She truly blamed herself for this mess.
"Damn it! Get out of there!"
Jo Han's frantic shout came from behind.
One of the tentacles his company had been blocking was heading their way.
"Left!"
Seo Woojin spotted it over Aileen's shoulder and yelled.
Kung—!
The tentacle grazed past them by a hair's breadth.
Thanks to Aileen moving without a shred of doubt at his call.
"Left again—no! Right!"
The assaults kept coming.
Cradled in Aileen's arms, Seo Woojin called out the attack directions.
It allowed her to dodge by the slimmest margins.
But it wasn't easy.
The ice worm was relentlessly targeting them, extending its tentacles with obsessive fury.
It started with one, then two, three—now five tentacles bore down on them.
"Lef—no! Right!"
Aileen had to twist and weave like a madwoman.
Without her superhuman knightly physique, she'd have died several times over already.
But even that was nearing its end.
"Ah..."
Seo Woojin fell silent, no longer able to call out evasions.
No blind spot existed amid the tentacles pouring in from every direction.
The soldiers, exhausting themselves to open a path, couldn't block them all.
'We die here?'
Staring up at the black shadow looming overhead, Seo Woojin thought.
'Yeah, maybe dying is for the best.'
His mistake had cost too many lives.
Aileen said otherwise, but she was wrong.
This was the price of his greed.
'Surviving just means endless suffering anyway.'
A life of constant struggle to stay alive.
Thinking that far, dying now might bring peace.
Afterward, he'd apologize to the soldiers who'd died first.
They'd looked down on him, sure—but they hadn't wished for this.
As Seo Woojin began surrendering to death bit by bit,
Chwaaaak—!
The shadow vanished, replaced by the piercing blue northern sky.
"It's too early to give up."
It was Ban Slane.
* * *
The first thing Ban Slane witnessed was the soldiers attacking the ice worm.
He startled for a moment but nodded upon seeing it utterly motionless.
'Same as back then.'
It reminded him of the Drakeas encounter, reconfirming his belief.
Seo Woojin possessed something he didn't know about.
So he wasn't overly worried.
The ice worm was a formidable monster, but against one that wouldn't move, the soldiers alone sufficed.
Thus, Ban Slane decided to handle his side first.
He figured he could collect the fallen afterward and then assist.
But that judgment proved premature.
The ice worm, which had seemed dormant forever, resumed its actions right before his eyes.
No— he sensed it faster than he saw it.
"Aileen!"
Ban Slane called her name instinctively, but she couldn't hear from this distance.
The assault began, and he sprang into action.
"L-Lord!"
Testron, still unaware of the crisis, called after him.
But instead of replying, Ban Slane kicked off the ground even harder.
Shweeeee—!
Incredible speed.
Even his charge at the previous ice worm paled in comparison.
That's how desperate he was.
'Faster!'
He saw soldiers dying.
Each one precious under his command.
Lives too valuable to end here.
And one more.
'The hero?'
Even amid his blistering dash, he scanned for Seo Woojin's position.
How many seconds passed?
He spotted Seo Woojin, cradled in Aileen's arms, evading.
'He's still alive.'
But things looked grim.
The soldiers were covering them with everything they had, yet it fell short.
'I'll save that guy first!'
The sight of soldiers collapsing in blood was heartbreaking, but right now, Seo Woojin came first.
Unreliable as he seemed, he was the hero.
The hero who'd come to save this world.
Ban Slane couldn't let him die—not in the Descent War, but in some monster subjugation.
Paaaat—!
His form shot forward like a streak of light.
A distance that would take an ordinary knight ages to cross was mere blinks for him.
"Hup!"
A shallow breath, and his sword cleared its sheath.
His blade sliced through space itself.
At the same instant, the tentacles targeting Seo Woojin—and the ice worm's massive body—split open, spraying blood.
And...
Paaaat—!
A brilliant light erupted from Seo Woojin's body.
He had leveled up.