Chapter 78
Chapter 78
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 78
Chapter Title: Blizzard in the Fridge
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No matter how much she screamed or what she did, the result that had already happened could not be undone.
That harsh reality plunged Lucia into even deeper despair.
She had finally found a way back to her original world.
Who could have imagined she would lose it in such a futile manner?
“How are you going to take responsibility for this?!”
“I don’t think it’s something I need to take responsibility for…….”
“What’s that supposed to mean!?”
As Lucia looked ready to swing her fist at any moment, Kang Jin-hyuk hurriedly offered an excuse.
“This is both our faults for not clearly distinguishing between mana and MP. It’s not just one person’s mistake.”
“What difference does that make when we’ve ended up in this mess!”
“Even if I don’t know the details, there must be enough of a difference to blow up a perfectly fine magic circle.”
Following Kang Jin-hyuk’s gaze, Lucia saw nothing but a devastating sight.
There should have been a dimensional gate standing proudly in that spot, but now there was only a massive crater.
Lucia didn’t want to admit that this outcome was her fault for overlooking the most basic fact.
But she couldn’t find any other reason.
There had been no mistakes in the process from Kang Jin-hyuk’s side, and the magic circle had responded perfectly without any defects.
As he said, the only issue was proceeding with the ritual while forgetting the difference between MP and mana.
If so, even if she didn’t want to accept it, she had to.
“Haa…….”
Lucia let out a sigh so deep it seemed like the ground might cave in.
Thinking about it calmly, the responsibility lay more with her than with Kang Jin-hyuk.
It was Lucia herself who had rushed things after hearing about his new ability.
“Right. Since they’re from different worlds, even if they have similar properties, their essences must be different. But why did we have to realize that now…….”
If she had just taken a little more time and researched calmly, she would have quickly noticed the fundamental difference between mana and MP.
With that thought, Lucia felt disgusted with herself.
She had no strong attachment to her original world, so why had she been in such a hurry?
“…….”
Kang Jin-hyuk grew uneasy as Lucia suddenly fell silent.
When someone who was always cheerful showed a depressed side, it meant they had taken serious mental damage.
If left like this, it might turn into an illness.
He racked his brain for ways to cheer her up, but no good ideas came to mind.
In the end, he suggested what he usually did when stressed.
“Want to have a drink?”
At Kang Jin-hyuk’s sudden proposal, Lucia quietly nodded.
* * *
Lucia, who had followed Kang Jin-hyuk out of the dungeon, was still down in the dumps.
She sighed for the umpteenth time as she reviewed the notes she had compiled on the magic circle.
“Isn’t redrawing the magic circle that hard?”
“A magic circle isn’t something you just scribble in like a child’s drawing.”
For a magic circle to work properly, mana had to be infused into each rune as it was etched.
How much mana to infuse, how much distance to leave between runes.
There were countless details to consider carefully.
Moreover, dimensional magic circles had hardly any known information, so there were many unknowns.
“If you slap it together haphazardly, who knows what kind of bizarre phenomenon might occur.”
If it simply didn’t activate, that would be fortunate.
An explosion like when MP was used instead of mana would be secondary.
Since it involved dimensions, a mistake could summon something that should never be called forth.
“Still, we should at least give it a try.”
“No, it’s fine. Truth is, I wasn’t that desperate to go back anyway.”
Lucia had nothing left behind in her homeland.
She had cut ties with her family long ago, and all her former comrades had passed away naturally over time.
“Except for the terribly bad air, this place isn’t so bad to live in.”
Lucia gave a wry smile and purified the air around her face with magic.
“How do you people breathe this rotten air and live over 80 years?”
“Hahaha…… Maybe we’re just used to it.”
Kang Jin-hyuk seriously considered buying an air purifier.
With all the made-in-China dust tormenting their lungs, having one wouldn’t hurt.
While Kang Jin-hyuk pulled out his smartphone to search for air purifiers, Lucia settled onto the sofa.
“What are you doing? Hurry up and bring the booze.”
Lucia barked like an alcoholic, urging him on.
“Alright, just wait a sec.”
Kang Jin-hyuk put off buying the air purifier for now and headed to the fridge.
“By the way, all the alcohol is from the kegs that dwarf uncle brewed.”
Worried she might complain later after drinking, he warned her in advance.
“Why say something like that? It’ll ruin the taste.”
“Better than getting hit for not warning you now.”
Since she didn’t say she wouldn’t drink, it seemed like no big issue.
Relieved, Kang Jin-hyuk opened the fridge door to grab the chilled booze.
“What are you doing standing there? I’ll die of old age waiting!”
Lucia yelled at Kang Jin-hyuk, who had been standing in front of the fridge forever.
But even hearing her nagging, he didn’t budge.
He stood frozen like a statue.
That was when Lucia sensed something was off.
“What are you staring at? Did a bug come out or something?”
Lucia got up and walked behind him.
Then she peeked around his back to look inside the fridge.
Upon seeing the scene inside, Lucia froze solid just like Kang Jin-hyuk.
“What the hell is this…….”
“That’s what I want to know.”
What the two were seeing was no fridge interior, but a landscape of snow-covered mountains.
The raging blizzard was leaking out so vividly that it felt incredibly real.
“This wasn’t like this before.”
“It’s not supposed to be like this at all.”
A snowy mountain inside the fridge.
Did that even make sense?
Snowy mountains and fridges only shared the trait of being cold; otherwise, they had nothing in common.
“No way…… Could this be the magic circle’s effect?”
The fridge had been working fine before entering the dungeon.
If he had to guess, it was that magic circle fiasco in the basement.
“Does that mean this is your home world?”
“We’ll have to check directly to know.”
Whether the creatures on that snowy mountain were Earth lifeforms or monsters from another dimension could only be confirmed in person.
“We’ll drink later.”
“You’re going in there?”
“Of course. Why ask the obvious?”
She had thought all connection to her original world was completely severed after the magic circle blew up.
In that situation, for a snowy mountain to suddenly appear, Lucia had no reason to hesitate.
As Lucia tried to step right into the fridge, Kang Jin-hyuk grabbed her shoulder.
“Are you crazy? You’re going in there dressed like that?”
“I’m half-elf, so I handle heat and cold well.”
“Even so. Climbing a snowy mountain with your legs exposed like that is idiotic.”
“Is it?”
Lucia had been an adventurer for a long time, but her activities had mostly been in plains or forests.
She had never once climbed a snow-blanketed mountain like that, which existed far in the distant north.
“Let’s prepare properly first. You might freeze to death otherwise.”
“……Yeah, that’s probably best.”
Just today, her impatience had ruined everything.
Remembering that, she couldn’t stubbornly insist on going right away.
Kang Jin-hyuk pulled out his smartphone and searched first for gear to climb winter mountains instead of air purifiers.
“Suddenly turned into a hiking trip.”
And to some mysterious mountain with a blizzard raging.
He wished he could hire a Sherpa, but circumstances didn’t allow it.
At the very least, he prayed the foul weather would calm down over time.
But his prayers wouldn’t reach the heavens.
While waiting for the purchased gear to arrive, the blizzard inside the fridge didn’t stop for even a second.
Thinking of pushing through that blinding snowstorm made a sigh escape automatically.
“Something no non-hunter could even dream of.”
Of course, even hunters weren’t safe.
They were just relatively better off thanks to superior physical abilities and stamina compared to civilians. The danger remained the same.
Kang Jin-hyuk thought they needed a detailed plan rather than charging in blindly.
He left the fridge door wide open and sat down in front of it.
Snow from the blizzard blew into the house, turning it into a mess, but he ignored it.
Kang Jin-hyuk stared calmly into the fridge, meticulously recording the times when the blizzard’s intensity slightly eased and when it raged fiercest.
While Kang Jin-hyuk prepared in various ways, Lucia was making her own preparations.
Kang Jin-hyuk eyed the dozens of daggers lined up in the living room.
“Why prepare so many daggers?”
“You can’t realistically use a bow in that blizzard.”
“So you’re preparing daggers instead? What for?”
“To shoot them instead of arrows.”
“That makes sense?”
Lucia picked up a dagger she had been tending and infused it with aura.
Then she hurled it at the wall with all her might.
The thick concrete wall pierced through as if it were tofu.
Pointing at the dagger that had gone clean through the wall, Lucia grinned.
“How’s that? Pretty usable, right?”
“……If you’re gonna do that, just throw arrows.”
“They’re too light.”
“What’s the difference with daggers?”
“There is a difference. These are special ones I prepared in advance.”
Lucia handed him one to try.
As Kang Jin-hyuk took it, a heavy weight transmitted through his hand.
It felt more like holding a dumbbell than a dagger.
“Why is a dagger this heavy?”
“I made them for windy conditions.”
“Couldn’t you have made heavy arrows?”
“Then the bow would break.”
Kang Jin-hyuk couldn’t agree with Lucia’s logic.
A bow that could fire aura-infused arrows like missiles would break just from heavier arrows?
No matter how he thought about it, it was full of inconsistencies.
“You wouldn’t happen to be…… avoiding asking dwarf uncle to make new arrows, would you?”
Even as he said it, Kang Jin-hyuk thought it was a ridiculous reason.
“No way? Even if uncle refused, you wouldn’t do something that stupid…….”
As he tried to take back his words, Kang Jin-hyuk noticed a bead of sweat trickling down Lucia’s cheek.
Snow from the open fridge door had lowered the house temperature drastically.
There was no way she’d sweat just from sitting and polishing daggers.
“No way.”
Lucia deliberately turned her head away, avoiding his gaze.