Wyverns of the Eternal Snow
“Be careful out there.”
“Madda.”
“Don’t get lost.”
“Madda.”
“You packed all your items, right?”
“Um… Madda.”
Baengnae rummaged through the bag slung over her shoulder and showed me the items inside: Sticky Soles, Potion of Swiftness, Windmill Hat, and the rest. All movement-related items she had taken from Cha Uyoon.
From here on, Baengnae would be leading twenty bulls on an expedition into the Black Cave. This was all thanks to new information. After turning Cha Uyoon into a zombie and extracting what she knew about Park Gibeom, we learned he had grown far stronger than expected—even among the top ranks of Stage 6. His progress had outpaced my predictions. There was no time to leisurely solve the maze while enjoying the comfort of our current position. So I decided to spread the workload further.
I checked each bull one by one. The massive sacks they carried each held five thousand gold. Ten thousand gold in total. My entire fortune rested in their hands.
“Good. Everything looks fine.”
“Baengnae going now.”
“See you in a few days.”
“Aratta.”
After making the bulls drink Potion of Swiftness, the herd began running toward the direction of the temple. Once they reached the Black Cave, they would follow the original plan and recruit high-grade forces. It would be a great help in the upcoming battle against Park Gibeom.
I watched the expedition party grow distant for a moment before turning away. I had entrusted this task to Baengnae, so now it was my turn.
“Alright, I’m heading out too.”
When I announced my departure, Nareun-i, who had been standing nearby, bowed her head.
“Safe travels, Master.”
I kicked off the ground and leaped ten meters into the air in a single bound. Spreading Swallow’s Wings, I began to glide. My destination was the Perpetual Snow Ruins.
The distance that once took an hour now took less than twenty minutes. Being able to use higher-stage power in a lower stage had its conveniences.
Items really are convenient.
I landed on the wall marking the start of the ruins. From here, the real conquest began. I unfolded the copied map and reviewed the route I had planned in advance.
I’ll have to slow down a bit because of the cold… but if I fly, I’ll get there quickly anyway.
All the inconveniences I would have faced without flight—battles with yeti packs, towering ice walls, crevasses—were resolved with a single battle. The obstacles that had plagued me just yesterday were now gone.
I used Charging Battery to replenish the energy of Swallow’s Wings. From here to the mountain peak, I would fly without rest.
Whoosh— I glided across the snow-covered plains. Yetis spotted me from time to time and let out piercing screams, but what could they do? I flew at high speed through the sky and quickly vanished from their sight.
The only downside was that the higher altitude made the cold even harsher than on the ground. But that was manageable with the stat boosts from the Fruit of Good and Evil and layers of clothing. More importantly, I no longer had to worry about sudden cold waves. A cold wave was irregular, but at this height I could spot the approaching chill from a distance. If I sensed anything off, I could simply descend and hide in a cave.
Come to think of it, about those cold waves…
I had a theory about their cause. I remembered the user who posted about the Black Cave and died to a giant snake. His content had been about sharing information on the cave’s monsters. Around nine hundred gold, a creature called Frost Wyvern had appeared. What stood out was that he already knew their behavior patterns and weaknesses. In other words, he had encountered Frost Wyverns inside the maze before. And the only place such creatures could live was the snowy mountains. This had to be their habitat.
I entered a terrain shaped like a round peak. My guess had been correct.
Just as I thought.
A massive spherical natural structure. It resembled a bird’s nest. Inside that nest, four wyverns with blue scales were sleeping soundly.
The moment I spotted the wyverns, another question was answered. Surrounding the nest were countless ice statues. They were not intact—parts of them looked as if they had been torn apart and eaten.
So that’s what it was.
The yetis living in the ruins displayed ice statues in front of their homes every morning. I had found it strange, but it wasn’t a display at all—it was an offering. The yetis had been begging the Frost Wyverns, the rulers of this place, to take the ice statues instead of them when they came.
Living the good life, aren’t they? Eating for free.
This also explained the existence of the cold waves. Frost Wyverns possessed a skill that could generate cold storms. The surrounding terrain was canyon-like. The rulers of this place regularly unleashed powerful cold waves throughout the ruins to assert their dominance—so the yetis would remain terrified and continue offering food of their own accord.
This place was a paradise for the wyverns. They could simply sit in their nest and occasionally use their skill, and offerings would roll in automatically. That comfort was probably what made them so relaxed.
Whoosh— I spread my wings and flew closer to them. The wyverns were snoring deeply, fast asleep.
They’re bigger than I expected.
Their bodies were enormous. Each one easily exceeded five meters in length, with muscles rippling beneath their scales. If they could smash ice statues, their teeth and bones had to be quite sturdy. If they had been awake, I might have had to fight four flying trucks.
“Aah.”
Looking back, I understood why they could sleep so carelessly. This round peak zone was extremely difficult to enter. If I had used the ground passage, the ice would have broken and caused a huge commotion. They had trusted their natural security system.
I smiled faintly and raised my arm. White Stone condensed around my forearm, forming a massive gauntlet.
Crack— Crunch— The sound of stone scraping against stone. Even though the noise was eerie, it sounded like nature rather than a living creature, so they didn’t react.
After returning from the pit, I had experimented with White Stone. There were no more flames. I didn’t know why. Maybe it was a phenomenon that only applied to evil spirits. But regardless of the flames, it was clear that White Stone was an excellent material. Attacks using this rock amplified all forms of energy—physical, electromagnetic, whatever it was. Matter from the infrared space amplified everything. I gathered all that amplified physical energy into my right hand and swung it down with full force.
Boom— Crack!
In an instant, one wyvern’s head caved in. The way it went limp told me it was dead on the spot. I immediately leaped toward the next one. There were four in total. If I let them take to the air, things could get troublesome.
“Karruk?”
The sudden noise woke the wyverns. But before they could lift their heads, I swung my next attack into the face of the one beside it.
Boom— Crunch—
The drowsy creature’s jaw shattered, its head snapping upward. It was still alive, but that was enough to put it out of commission. I left the falling body and charged at the third one.
The creature that had seen its comrade fall narrowed its vertically slit eyes and roared.
“Kiaaaaaaaaack!”
You should’ve spread your wings and flown instead of roaring.
The fists I was swinging weren’t special techniques. They were simply White Stone gathered and swung. Precious high-grade stone was being consumed bit by bit, but the effect was certain.
Boom— Thud—
My fist drove into the belly of the screaming wyvern. It had thought it could take one hit and counterattack, relying on the size difference. But the result was ruptured organs. The creature vomited blood and rolled across the ground.
“Kieee… Kieeeck!”
Watching this, the last wyvern hurriedly spread its wings and began flapping. Whether it was trying to escape or use its cold wave skill, it was too late. My gauntlet was already flying toward it.
It twisted its body to dodge, but there was no reason I would miss a target the size of a small truck. My fist buried itself in the final wyvern’s shoulder.
Boom—
The creature that had just begun to rise into the air crashed to the ground, its wing bent backward. I immediately followed up with another strike to its head.
With that, all enemies were out of commission.
I looked around the ruined nest and spoke.
“Went down pretty easily for how strong they were.”
They had been the predators of the ruins. Even the yetis were high-risk creatures ranging from Grade 7 to 8. Creatures that could casually hunt those yetis should have been at least Grade 13. But carelessness had led them to their deaths.
“No matter how strong you are… if you let your guard down, you die.”
This wasn’t just about them. It applied to me as well. Maybe not to the point of outright carelessness, but it was true that I had been growing a little lax lately. The relief of solving the Event. The sense of superiority from obtaining all the Fruit of Good and Evil through the snake bracelet and the top-grade storage device. Those things had been slowly eating away at me. Making me focus on the wrong things instead of what mattered, wasting time.
I need to get my head straight.
If you live with sloppy thinking, you become a sloppy person. And in the wild, sloppy people become prey.
Crack— I approached the still-living creatures and twisted their necks to finish them off. Having lost both strength and will, they couldn’t even resist before becoming corpses and returning to nature.
I blew the Whistle of Calling, signaling that the greatest threat in the ruins had been eliminated. Nareun-i would judge appropriately and dispatch the zombie forces. With neither cold waves nor wyverns, the Perpetual Snow Ruins were no longer a forbidden zone for us.
Good. One down.
I checked the snake bracelet. The red snake was pointing inside the wyverns’ nest, flicking its tongue. It seemed their ability to emit cold throughout the entire zone wasn’t simply due to the canyon effect. They had been borrowing the power of a high-grade artifact.
“As expected, most forbidden zones have at least one high-grade artifact. There’s a reason the information never spreads.”
There were a total of three forbidden zones in the snowy mountain area. And today, my goal was to eliminate the threats in all of them. The next destination was the forbidden zone Mountain Peak. The highest point among the snowy mountains drawn on the flat map—that was where I would go.