The Eve of Spring
“I’m already exhausted,” Mina muttered. Even though she hadn’t officially accepted the request yet, she wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed, pull the fluffy comforter over her head, and disappear.
“Running low on stamina? You should really take better care of your health.”
“And whose fault is that?!”
The sight of Lee Jun speaking with what sounded like genuine concern made her snap. Any trace of warmth she’d felt at seeing him again had already evaporated.
“Ugh, forget it. Just guide me properly this time.”
“The slope we descended is the advanced course. That one over there is the expert—” He stretched out a finger, pointing toward the distant ski runs.
“This isn’t a ski resort tour!” Mina thrust the request document at him. Only then did Lee Jun nod and start walking ahead. She let out a long sigh and followed.
They were finally heading toward the area where the resort buildings and campground clustered together when—
BOOOOM!
“Ah.”
A thunderous explosion erupted from the campground, and the sudden chaos jogged her memory. Before the avalanche, the golem that had been chasing them. It must have been swept down the mountain ahead of them.
Even in the freezing cold, cold sweat prickled across Mina’s skin. She scanned the resort area carefully.
[GROOOAAAR!]
Just as she feared, the golem was swinging its massive arms, turning the campground nestled between the resort buildings into a war zone.
Instead of completing the request, we’ve caused a complete disaster!
Mina clutched her head. That monster was likely one of the reasons the request had been posted in the first place. Instead of defeating it, they had essentially driven it straight into the campground. Even if she had a hundred mouths, she wouldn’t know how to explain this.
Then a realization hit her. She grabbed Lee Jun’s arm.
“We have to get down there right now!”
“Huh? We can just descend normally…”
“That thing is a Freeze Golem from a C-Grade gate!”
Lower-grade gates had thinner mana density and weaker monsters, so B-grade hunters could handle them. The real problem began at C-Grade gates and above. From that rank, anyone below A-grade would collapse from mana poisoning the moment they stepped inside. Of course, dungeon breaks sometimes let high-grade monsters escape, and a few were occasionally taken down by B-grade hunters, which led people to underestimate the danger.
“Even A-grade hunters usually form parties to hunt these things!”
The Freeze Golem came from a C-Grade gate called White Field—a vast, frozen wasteland of snow and ice. While many monsters spawned there, the most troublesome by far, the one treated as the dungeon’s boss, was the Freeze Golem. That was why the gate was usually assigned to large guilds rather than smaller ones. Mina remembered the details clearly from her days in the office.
“Hmm!”
Lee Jun finally seemed to grasp the severity. He let out a low groan, then flung himself face-down onto the snow.
“…?”
He even stretched both arms forward in a perfect surfing pose. With his full plate armor on, it looked strangely convincing.
“All aboard!”
“Can you please be serious for once?! We’re in a life-or-death situation!”
Mina couldn’t believe he was acting like this even now, but—
“I am being serious! Is there any faster way to reach the bottom than this?”
“W-well…”
She thought for a moment, but nothing better came to mind. The slope was still buried in ankle-deep snow. Ironically, using him as a human snowboard really was the quickest option.
Mina glanced at their luggage and grabbed only the case containing Ppomi. She hated leaving the rest behind, but there was no time.
“Um… sorry about this.”
She planted her feet on his back like she was mounting a board. Lee Jun silently raised a thumbs-up. A complicated mix of emotions swirled inside her as she kicked off hard against the snow with her other foot.
Shhhhhhh—!
His armor was surprisingly smooth. They glided over the snow far more easily than she expected.
“Ugh, I’ve never even been skiing before.”
“I can handle the steering.”
“And what makes you so confident about that?!”
Whether she worried or not, the newly transformed snowboard known as Lee Jun was already picking up speed down the slope. Because they were going straight down, the velocity only increased.
“Whoa! This is way too fast!”
“Left turn in three seconds!”
“Wait, what? H-hold on—ah!”
She was startled by the terrifying speed, but she somehow kept her balance on top of him. When she heard his warning and adjusted her stance, Lee Jun smoothly carved a gentle arc to the left instead of continuing straight. The speed dropped noticeably.
“At this rate we’ll miss the target completely!”
“Right U-turn in two seconds!”
Only then did Mina realize what he was doing. She had seen snowboarders shift their weight like this before. She just never imagined she’d be riding an armored man who was actually following those exact movements.
“Isn’t this too slow now?!”
She was afraid they would arrive too late. The golem was still rampaging.
“Straight downhill is strictly prohibited at ski resorts! Safety first!”
“Anyone watching would say what you’re doing right now is the most dangerous thing imaginable!”
No matter how strong his armor was, what kind of person turned themselves into a living snowboard?
“More importantly, we’ve received a message.”
“A message?”
She had no idea how the man currently flattened into a snowboard had received any communication, but he kept talking.
“It said to draw its attention at the right moment and go straight for the neck.”
“Draw its attention?”
Mina still couldn’t understand what was happening, but even as they spoke, the devastated campground where the golem rampaged drew rapidly closer.
[GROOOAAAR!]
“Ha… what the hell is this sudden nightmare?”
Min-jeong leaned against the resort building’s wall, hidden, watching the golem’s rampage. Hadn’t this request been about investigating consecutive disappearances at the ski resort? Shouldn’t the police have handled something like that? But because of the location, the Association had passed it to hunters just in case.
This kind of request wasn’t uncommon, so she had accepted it without much thought. She was simply one of many B-grade hunters on the investigation team.
“Nobody said anything about that thing being here.”
“Yeah, a Freeze Golem. I’ve only heard stories. Never thought I’d actually see one.”
Cheok-jeong, who had come with her, nodded in agreement.
Most of the investigation team members were B-grade hunters. A few police officers were present, but they were useless in combat. The moment the golem appeared, they had scattered and hidden. The only silver lining was that the noisy avalanche had let them spot the golem rolling down with it.
Min-jeong ground her teeth as she watched the creature smash tents. All their supplies were in there, but with no way to fight it, they could only let it stay distracted by the campground.
“Where the hell is that A-grade hunter?!”
“Even if he shows up, there’s no guarantee he can handle it. That thing gives A-grade hunters trouble.”
The bigger issue was that the hunter they had been told could deal with a situation like this still hadn’t arrived. They hadn’t summoned him expecting a monster, of course, but they had requested an A-grade hunter as a precaution. Or so she had heard.
“Still better than nothing! Our mana can’t even scratch it!”
The resistance of a C-Grade monster was on an entirely different level from D- or E-grade creatures. In theory, B-grade hunters could sometimes defeat mid-grade monsters that escaped through dungeon breaks, and there were a few recorded cases, but—
A Freeze Golem was on another level. They had tried. When the creature had been knocked down by the avalanche and struggled to get up, Min-jeong and the others had charged in. But—
It didn’t even get a scratch!
No matter how hard she hammered it, the ice-like body refused to crack. She had realized then that this was not a monster B-grade hunters could face.
So they had made a swift decision: run before it regained its footing. With no time to grab supplies, they had taken only their weapons and hidden behind the resort building.
If only I were an A-grade hunter!
Frustration boiled inside her. She gripped her hammer tighter, knowing there was nothing else they could do, when—
BANG!
“What the—?!”
Min-jeong jumped at the gunshot that suddenly rang out between the buildings. Not many people here used firearms.
[GROOAR?]
Sure enough, Cha Seok-jun stood boldly in the middle of the street, aiming his Winchester rifle straight at the golem. The creature stared at him in confusion as smoke curled from the barrel. Instead of looking afraid, Seok-jun spun the rifle in a flashy reload and—
BANG!
fired directly into the golem’s eye. The bullet simply pinged off without leaving a mark.
“He’s insane! I knew he was reckless, but against something like that?!”
Min-jeong tried to rush out, thinking he was trying to get himself killed, but a hand grabbed her shoulder. It was Cheok-jeong.
“Hold on. That guy doesn’t do anything without a reason, right?”
“If that’s not him trying to die, then what is it?!”
[GROOOAAAR!!]
The golem roared and charged at Seok-jun. Min-jeong was about to ignore Cheok-jeong’s warning and run out when—
“O-out of the waaaaay!!!”
“Huh?”
She looked up at the familiar woman’s voice coming from above.
“Why are those two up there?”
High in the sky, Lee Jun was soaring while clutching a case, with Mina standing on his back like a snowboard, sword drawn, plummeting straight toward the golem.
[GROK?]
Even the golem turned toward the sound, but it was already too late. Mina swung her blade with every ounce of strength she possessed, slicing across the creature’s neck.
The cut was so clean it felt like slicing tofu. The head fell away without resistance.
[G-GROK?]
The golem couldn’t even let out a proper death cry before it collapsed.
“It’s almost lunchtime. Did the golem go get something to eat?”
“Beats me.”
Min-jeong shook her head at Cheok-jeong’s blinking question. The golem had already crumbled into nothing but a pile of ice, as if that were its natural state all along.