Chapter 48: The Gate (13)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 48: The Gate (13)
My parents were good people.
Good enough to sacrifice themselves to save me during that war. Despite their sacrifice, however, I had almost no memories of them.
They passed away when I was five, so it was only natural that I couldn't remember more than I could.
Still, the fact that I couldn't even recall the faces of the parents who had given their lives for me was, at times, agonizing.
Of course, I wasn't the only poor soul in that situation.
Losing your parents overnight and becoming an orphan was a dime a dozen back then.
There was talk of all of East Asia collapsing, so a small peninsular nation would have had no capacity to care for some orphaned kid.
“Oh my, are you alright?”
If I hadn't met the head nun of the orphanage back then, I probably would have died on the cold streets like so many other children.
In an era when the government provided no support to orphanages, ours was overflowing with children who had lost their parents in the war.
The nuns farmed until their hands blistered and broke just to feed us, and they had to go out and beg for donations.
I never once forgot the way they always greeted us with warm smiles, despite how hard it must have been.
I had always vowed that if I ever became successful, the first thing I would do was repay their kindness.
‘Right. Once I get out of this Gate, I’ll go see her first.’
Unlike the faces of my parents, which wouldn't come to me no matter how hard I tried to remember, the head nun’s face was relatively clear in my mind, always smiling brightly at me.
Sometimes strict, sometimes gentle, she had loved me as if I were her own.
How would she react if she heard that I had died in a Gate?
The moment I had that thought, it felt as if a hammer had struck my head, and the head nun’s face vanished.
“...Hahk?!”
And just like that, I was back in reality.
Here, in this place covered in pure white snow.
Thankfully, Choi Hyena was unconscious in my arms.
“Haa...”
Just before the avalanche swept us away, I had hastily created a barrier, which saved us from being buried alive.
It cost a lot of mana, but right now, I had to be glad I was alive.
Honestly, the force of the avalanche was so immense that I hadn't been sure it would work. Besides, if the Ice Golem had attacked us directly, the barrier would have been useless, and we would have died.
I don't know what whim it had, but we were incredibly lucky.
‘Is Choi Hyena okay?’
Her breathing was even, so it seemed she had only lost consciousness.
‘What now...’
I took out my phone to check the time. It was designed to work even inside a Gate, so checking the time was possible.
There were about two hours left until the Gate opened. Fortunately, it seemed we hadn't been unconscious for very long.
“Hoo...”
Surviving that catastrophic avalanche and the Ice Golem leaving us alone were nothing short of miracles, but there were still plenty of unresolved problems.
The Ice Golem was on a completely different level from the beasts I had faced so far.
Its immense size, the crushing pressure that felt like it was squeezing my body, and the overwhelming sense of helplessness that I could never win.
From top to bottom, I couldn't think of a single way to deal with it.
Even if we managed to escape from here and run to where the Gate would open, countless hordes of beasts would already be heading there.
Even if we dodged all of them and reached the Gate, could we withstand an attack from the Ice Golem?
Typically, a boss entity only leaves the Gate after all the other beasts have gone through, but it was unlikely to treat us like beasts and let us out peacefully.
“Hey, Choi Hyena!”
My mind was a mess, but I decided to wake her up first and think later. We didn't have much time.
“...Ugh, ugh.”
Thankfully, it wasn't long before Choi Hyena let out a faint groan and fluttered her eyes open.
“Wh-Where is this...”
“Sleep well?”
“...Ah.”
She looked around, her eyes finally landing on me. It seemed she was finally grasping the situation we were in.
“...Thanks.”
Choi Hyena thanked me for holding and protecting her during that chaos.
“Feeling a surge of respect for your future husband now?”
“Get lost.”
“A feisty wife is nice too.”
After a few unfiltered words, we looked at each other and laughed like idiots.
The tension seemed to ease a little.
“What are we going to do now?”
“What do you mean? We have to get out of here.”
I was starting to feel the strain of maintaining the barrier.
Besides, there wasn't much time left until the Gate opened.
Even running in a straight line from here would take well over an hour. Factoring in the need to avoid beasts, two hours would be tight.
There would be beasts attacking us along the way, and I had no idea if the Ice Golem would just stand by and watch.
“...Hey.”
Just then, Choi Hyena called out to me cautiously, her voice tinged with anxiety.
“What?”
“Do you think... we can get out of here alive?”
Her uncharacteristically weak words made me laugh in spite of myself.
‘Come to think of it, it hasn't even been a week since I first met her.’
Our first meeting was, to put it mildly, the worst.
There I was, excited about a blind date with a rich man's daughter, and there she was, treating me like a beggar.
Honestly, if we had just parted ways that day without incident, we probably would have never seen each other again. Or we would have become mortal enemies.
But then we got swept up in an isolated Gate, and now we'd done it all together.
They say you can never predict what's one step ahead of you, but was life supposed to be this eventful?
I pulled the faintly trembling Choi Hyena into a tight hug.
“No matter what happens, I'll make sure you get out. So stop worrying about useless things.”
“...”
If it came down to it, I could just use the matching system.
It would take a lot of time, but I could build up enough strength to escape on my own and survive the firepower that would be unleashed from the outside.
I didn't know how many matches that would take, but I was in a better position than Choi Hyena, who didn't have a spare life.
*
Crash!
After breaking free from the snow, we quickly scanned our surroundings.
Thankfully, there was no sign of any beasts nearby.
As planned, we started running toward the Gate, taking the roughest path possible.
A straight line would have been the fastest route, but the memory of the beast horde I'd seen from the hill yesterday made that impossible.
Moreover, the Ice Golem, with its colossal frame, was nowhere to be seen.
It couldn't hurt to be cautious.
Running on snow was difficult, but after spending the last few days here, I had gotten the hang of it, so it wasn't impossible.
Of course, Choi Hyena, who wasn't the physical type, struggled at times, but we had no time to rest.
If we wanted to get out alive, resting was a luxury.
After running for a good while, we miraculously hadn't encountered a single beast.
At this point, rather than feeling relieved, a lingering sense of unease that left a bad taste in my mouth swirled in my chest.
Normally, we would have run into three or four beasts by now.
‘Is it because it’s the day of the Gate Break?’
That was a strong possibility, but I couldn't be certain of anything.
For now, all I could do—all I had to do—was to push down this anxiety and keep moving forward.
Despite my resolve, the unease nestled in a corner of my heart wouldn't easily disappear. I had to consciously try to ignore it, my hand fiddling with the hilt of the sword at my waist.
“Kang Hyun-woo! Left, 11 o'clock!”
“?!”
I had looked away for just a moment, and in that instant, I felt the presence of a beast not far off.
The beast had also noticed us and was charging straight in our direction at an incredible speed.
Craaash!
The beast that came crashing through the trees in the adjacent forest, shattering them all, was a C-rank beast, a Snow Caribou—a massive, deer-like creature.
“Choi Hyena! Conserve your mana!" I shouted at her as she quickly prepared a spell.
Unlike me, it took Choi Hyena a considerable amount of time to recover her mana.
To prepare for what was to come, I had to deal with this thing alone.
The blade, drawn from its sheath in an instant, shimmered with a blue light.
The sword, empowered by the price of mana, possessed a much greater cutting power, and my mana-enhanced body allowed me to close the distance to the Snow Caribou in a single bound.
Startled by my unexpected speed, the beast swung its massive antlers at me, but with all the combat experience I had gained here, it wasn't deadly enough to reach me.
Slice.
With a single strike, I severed its antlers and immediately deployed the spell I had prepared.
[Flame Circle]
Engulfed in the flames that exploded at close range, the Snow Caribou's head was half-blown off. It collapsed and never got up again.
Even after dispatching a C-rank beast so quickly, I wasn't satisfied.
The beasts I had dealt with in the underground dungeon were D+ rank. Considering they were elite specimens, they were probably around C-rank.
The Snow Caribou I just defeated was half a rank higher than the dungeon beasts.
Of course, rank wasn't an absolute measure of a beast's strength, so I couldn't say for sure that the Snow Caribou was stronger. But if I had learned even a little swordsmanship from that beast-girl who could draw out an Aura Blade...
‘...I wouldn't have even needed to use magic.’
As I defeated the Snow Caribou and hurried on my way, the fact that I couldn't finish it with my initial sword strike kept bothering me.
What if I had taken one more step forward?
What if I had extended my arm just a little further?
No matter how I thought about it, it was a shame.
I decided that once I got out of here, after visiting the head nun, I would definitely go to a swordsmanship dojo.
I was confident that once I learned swordsmanship, I could easily defeat the creature blocking the path to the second floor of the underground dungeon.
Lost in thought for a moment, we soon arrived at the hill near the starting point where we had first been dragged into the Gate.
There were about 20 minutes left until the Gate opened. Thanks to encountering only one beast on the way, we had arrived with some time to spare.
However.
“...Hey, Kang Hyun-woo.”
“...Bullshit.”
The area where the Gate was expected to open was already surrounded by an enormous number of beasts.
A quick glance told me there were easily over 100, maybe even 200.
Finally, in the mountain range a short distance away, the Ice Golem was seated.
Even sitting down, it was as massive as a small mountain.
My hands trembled once more at its size, which was comparable to a skyscraper.
But this was also an opportunity.
The golem was quite far from the Gate.
It was a rare piece of good news in the worst of situations. Given its size, it would likely be slow to move, which meant there was little chance of it interfering with our escape.
Even if it did, we would only have to watch out for things like thrown projectiles from a distance. This was clearly good news.
Choi Hyena seemed to have realized this as well, as a faint glimmer of hope appeared on her anxiety-ridden face.
“Choi Hyena.”
This was the most crucial moment.
“See that spot the beasts are all looking at? We're going to run towards it now.”
Like an audience a minute before a movie starts, all the beasts were staring at one spot.
“Don't worry about the time. We'll have to run at full speed from now on just to make it.”
Choi Hyena swallowed hard.
I couldn't blame her. I was just as nervous.
“Don't be nervous.”
“...I'm not nervous.”
Yeah, right. Why don't you wipe off that cold sweat first?
“I told you earlier, didn't I? No matter what, I'll get you out.”
It wasn't something you'd normally say to someone you'd known for less than a week.
It might have been just empty words, but to Choi Hyena, that one sentence meant the world.
Her heart, which had been pounding as if it would burst, had somehow calmed down.
Plastered with all sorts of support magic, we simultaneously descended the hill without a word.
A few of the gathered beasts stirred at our small movement, but we paid them no mind.
The only thing that mattered now was getting through the Gate that would soon open.
That was it.
However, breaking through the horde of beasts was not as easy as it sounded.
The usual White Yetis, Ice Bears, and White Wolves we hunted, as well as types of beasts I had never seen before, began to charge at us.
“Kuaaaaaaah!!!”
Boom!
A giant paw swung towards us.
With no time to hunt leisurely as usual, we had no choice but to dodge by rolling around with something close to slapstick.
The only silver lining was that because there were so many beasts, when they attacked us, they often ended up attacking each other.
Several fights even broke out among them.
It was a hopeful situation, but Choi Hyena was gradually falling behind.
I had no choice. Immediately after dodging a beast's attack, I ran to Choi Hyena and swept her into my arms.
“...Sorry.”
“If you have time to apologize, support me with magic.”
Thanks to the support magic, which consumed a fair amount of mana, I was faster and stronger than usual.
Carrying Choi Hyena while running wasn't a major issue.
“Left, 7 o'clock!”
Choi Hyena used magic to keep the beasts at bay or cover my blind spots.
Thanks to her, I could focus solely on running forward.
The escape plan was going much more smoothly than expected.
Even though we were in the middle of a horde of over 100 beasts, surprisingly few of them were attacking us.
Or so I thought.
“Behind, behind you!!”
At Choi Hyena's urgent cry, I looked back.
“?!!”
An enormous boulder was flying towards us.
I had no choice but to run in the opposite direction of the Gate.
Kwwaaaaaaang!!!
The boulder, flying at an incredible speed, slammed into the ground.
As a result, a considerable number of beasts were killed, and we were also caught in the shockwave and thrown backward.
Fortunately, despite the attack of that magnitude, our injuries were minor. The problem was that we were right back at the starting line.
We lacked the stamina, mana, and time to make another run for it.
To make matters worse, the Gate was beginning to open in the distance.
It was much earlier than we had anticipated.
‘...It's too far.’
Even without the beasts' interference, it was a distance that would take five minutes to cover in a straight line.
It was obvious that the beasts would pour out of the Gate before we could get there.
In the end, I had no choice but to resort to my final option.
I ran towards the boulder the Ice Golem had thrown.
There was only one chance.
After reinforcing my legs with mana, I stepped on the boulder and leaped. In an instant, I soared to a height unreachable by the other beasts, and a direct path to the Gate came into view.
“Barrier!”
At my short command, Choi Hyena immediately cast a barrier on both of us.
Confirming it, I threw her upwards.
“Kya, kyaaak?!”
Gathering all my remaining mana into my right hand, I pushed against the barrier surrounding Choi Hyena, launching her forward.
BOOM!!
“K-Kang Hyun-woo?!!”
Even as she flew, the look of shock didn't leave her face.
“Go on ahead.”
Choi Hyena flew at high speed over the heads of the beasts.
A few beasts leaped up to attack her, but they lacked the speed and height.
“I'll be right behind you.”
“...?!! ...!!”
And just like that, Choi Hyena was able to pass through the Gate before any of the other beasts could escape.
It looked like she was shouting something at the end, but she was too far away for me to hear clearly.
Immediately after sending her off, I landed on the ground. Though I was hit by an overwhelming sense of exhaustion from using up most of my mana, I couldn't rest.
“Grrrr...”
The murderous glares of the beasts, having lost their prey right before their eyes, were all fixed on me.
The pressure was so suffocating that my legs almost gave out, nearly causing me to collapse right there.
With no way to predict when they would attack, I had only one option left.
[Rematch with Iris Remeria Baiart Peledeia?]
[Y/N]
Just as a tiger-like beast right in front of me was about to swing its vicious claws, I was about to press the match button.
But that attempt came to nothing.
Was it because I died?
No.
“To stay behind alone to save the woman you love.”
It was because a gray-haired woman appeared from beyond the Gate, and in an instant, the head of the tiger-like beast that had surrounded the Gate and tried to kill me went flying.
I had seen her face on the news before.
The youngest Tower Lord of the Gray Magic Tower, one of the twelve brilliant and great Magic Towers, and the youngest 7th Circle Mage.
“You're quite the romantic, aren't you?”
It was Han Lael.