Chapter 243
Chapter 243
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 243
Chapter Title: The Graveyard Keeper Gorgodon
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The means to find Gorgodon, the graveyard keeper who had become a host for the neurosnow parasites.
Hanok, upon hearing that method, tried to bolt right away.
Until Syria's shadow caught him and dragged him back, that is.
Hanok dangled limply in the shadow, his face twisted in a pitiful grimace.
And understandably so—the story he'd heard from Leyzon was beyond absurd.
"Hanok, why run away like that? It's just lending your body to the neurosnow parasites for a bit."
"Th-that's not something you can say so casually!"
Hanok shuddered dramatically, revealing his full cowardice.
The grown beast was still so terribly timid.
"Uh, um, even to me, that seems off."
Lizbel chimed in, subtly taking Hanok's side.
It was a reaction laced with criticism—how could they offer up their own comrade to those parasites?
Misha, standing nearby, nodded in agreement with the same sentiment.
"S-see? Leyzon-nim, everyone thinks it's weird."
Hanok hurriedly rallied their support and shouted.
Leyzon had suddenly become the ruthless villain sacrificing his comrade to the parasites.
"Sword-Tooth kid, if Leyzon-nim says it, you stake your life on it. Don't go adding a tail to whine!"
Syria, unable to stand it any longer, yelled. Hanok stubbornly lifted his head.
Just as Syria's eyebrows were about to furrow into a figure-eight, Leyzon raised a hand.
"Hanok, seems you're misunderstanding something. You've got Haron, remember?"
"Pardon? You want to offer up Haron?"
"Haron's immune to neurosnow parasites."
Haron was a suit of moving armor.
No matter how much the parasites burrowed in, armor was still just armor.
If Haron willed it, he could expel the parasites anytime.
So, use Haron's transformation to mimic Hanok's skin.
Then absorb the parasites into Haron, tricking them into thinking he's the host.
"Neurosnow parasites basically sense and move toward bio-energy. If there's no one inside Haron, they won't burrow in."
They ignored inanimate objects.
The same went for Haron, the moving suit of armor.
"So all you have to do is get dragged along quietly."
No danger, nothing particularly hard about it.
Hanok's face finally lit up with understanding.
"Abyss, if you're gonna do it, better hurry."
At that moment, Raklod pointed ahead and spoke.
A massive blizzard even larger than before raged there.
It was now on the level where you could call it a cyclone.
Even poison wouldn't stand a chance—it would all get shredded away.
"Can't burrow anymore, so it'll just pulverize everything with the disaster."
They'd given up on making a host.
If the fight dragged on any longer, they'd forget about hosts entirely.
That's why Raklod urged haste.
Just then, a snow dragon still thrashed about nearby.
"Hanok."
Leyzon pointed at the snow dragon, and Hanok bit his lip hard.
"Haron, I leave it to you."
With resolve hardening, he promptly turned Haron into skin.
"Syria, get into Hanok's shadow."
"Yes!"
Syria, who had been gnashing her teeth at Hanok moments ago, replied brightly.
Syria quickly pulled everyone into the shadow.
Hanok was left utterly alone in the snowscape.
He'd grown somewhat bold lately, but...
The blizzard-swept snowscape stirred primal terror.
Everything drowned in blinding white; he couldn't see an inch ahead.
Thud—
Before he knew it, the snow dragon had reached Hanok.
Hanok swallowed hard.
"H-hi there."
He even greeted it cheerfully, but the snow dragon's maw gaped wide.
Apparently thrilled to see him too.
The snow dragon lowered its head and charged.
Witnessing that, Hanok squeezed his eyes shut.
A faint resentment toward Leyzon flickered in his mind.
Hanok successfully became a host for the neurosnow parasites without issue.
As expected, the moment they secured a host, they set off.
Leyzon watched the scene calmly from within the shadow.
"Leyzon-nim, want some snacks~?"
"Thanks."
As he munched on the snacks Syria offered, Raklod stared in disbelief.
No one but Leyzon could be this relaxed in a hero-grade dungeon.
"Rest up, everyone. It'll take a while to get wherever we're going anyway."
Leyzon was the type who rested properly when it was time to rest.
He paid no mind to the glares from Raklod's group.
Raklod's party had no choice in the current situation either.
In the end, they could only follow Leyzon's lead and monitor Hanok's status.
"It's a bit salty."
"Poor thing."
Sympathy for Hanok swelled among the women.
Hanok trudged miserably through the pouring snow.
Without a shred of his own will in it, he did look pitiful.
"Bet he's not thinking much of it."
But they were underestimating Hanok.
He'd been by Leyzon's side through countless ordeals.
He might've rebelled at first.
But by now, in that situation, he surely felt nothing special.
[Leyzon-nim, my body keeps moving even if I stay still!]
As expected, Hanok felt nothing special.
Hanok had grown as bold as Leyzon over time.
He even nodded in acceptance at becoming bait.
The women panicked at the abnormal composure.
"They're all out of their minds."
Only Raklod's group could empathize with Lizbel's frank words.
"Isn't it about time to come out~?"
Eden yawned, tired of waiting.
She was right; it was about time.
[Uh.]
Then, a bewildered response leaked from Hanok's mouth.
Leyzon's gaze flicked upward from the shadow—and froze along with it.
An endlessly deep pit yawned beneath Hanok's feet.
[L-Leyzon-nim!]
Hanok cried out in panic.
But his foot was already stretching toward the pit.
Leyzon watched the scene, then quietly bowed his head.
"Hang in there, Hanok."
Hanok wouldn't die from a fall like that anymore.
It'd just hurt a bit.
"Hanok, you got this!"
Piran shouted with genuine concern.
[Kyaeeeeeeeek!]
Soon, Hanok plummeted downward with a scream, driven by the neurosnow parasites.
Syria's shadow chased right after him.
The surrounding scenery blurred by rapidly.
Before long, neurosnow parasite blizzards filled the air around them.
Hanok's falling speed began to slow.
The parasites clinging to him were reducing the momentum.
The pit's bottom came into view.
At the pit's base were figures presumed to be long-captured hosts.
They stood frozen solid in place.
Hero-grade pioneers who had once challenged the snowscape.
Sadly, not everyone succeeds in their trials.
They had failed and were eternally displayed here by the snowscape beasts.
Leyzon stroked his chin slowly as he regarded them.
'Could turn them into undead, no problem.'
Pure necromancer thinking.
"Planning to make them undead?"
Raklod, a fellow necromancer, picked up on Leyzon's thoughts.
"They've been stuck here for ages. Might have decent info."
Hero-grade, after all.
They'd know plenty about the era they came from.
"Not a bad call."
Raklod agreed with Leyzon's judgment.
If there were corpses, a necromancer revived them.
Their profession was worlds apart from philosophies seeking rest for souls.
The two shared the same basic mindset.
"But first things first."
"Yeah, find the graveyard keeper."
Thud—
Just then, Hanok arrived at the gathering spot for the hosts.
He was stood upright there, just like the others.
What could the neurosnow parasites want with collecting hosts like this?
Usually, gathering hosts was for breeding offspring.
Though whether phantasmal beasts even bred was unclear.
Even Leyzon didn't know everything about phantasmal beast ecology.
It wasn't in the setting documents anyway.
"Syria."
"Yes!"
No need to dwell on it anyway.
A phantasmal beast was just a phantasmal beast.
To Leyzon, merely a target to eliminate.
"Cast your shadow over the ice statues."
"Right away!"
Syria popped up from the shadow the instant the order came.
Right behind Hanok's back.
At her appearance, the neurosnow parasites rushed to bind her.
But countless droplets of blood had already beaded around Syria.
"To dare charge at me."
Syria's eyes flushed red.
In that instant, the minuscule blood droplets shot out invisibly fast.
Pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew!
The neurosnow parasites shattered into pieces, pierced by her blood.
The ones above belatedly tried an aerial assault.
But Syria's shadow had already formed a ceiling.
Thud!
The shadow ceiling engulfed and sealed all the ice statues.
The dispossessed parasites charged, but it was too late.
Syria leisurely extended her hand toward the ice statues.
Her blood tendrils burrowed in, shredding even the parasites inside the statues.
With ruthless gestures, hero-grade phantasmal beasts met gruesome ends.
"S-Syria-nim, you can skip me!"
Meanwhile, Hanok flinched away in terror from her blood.
For some reason, Syria's tongue-click echoed.
As Hanok panicked, Leyzon stepped out from the shadow.
Bringing everyone with him, he scanned the area and spotted the ice statues.
And among them, one figure untouched by Syria's blood, frozen mid-motion.
All the ice statues here were dead.
But that one woman was unmistakably alive.
Snow-white hair and transparent glass-like eyes.
A tall grandmother who must have been strikingly beautiful in her youth stood there.
"Gorgodon."
Leyzon called her name.
Moments later, cracking sounds emanated from her.
She fully thawed her frozen body, vitality returning to her eyes.
"Hoo."
The woman exhaled briefly, then adjusted her suit's necktie with wrinkled hands.
She pulled a frozen mana herb cigarette from her pocket and placed it in her mouth.
Sizzle—
Flame bloomed from her fingertips, lighting the mana herb cigarette.
The graveyard keeper, Gorgodon.
She was the very person Leyzon sought.