Chapter 178: The Seeker Who Heralds Ruin (6)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 178: The Seeker Who Heralds Ruin (6)
In the heart of the raging blizzard, she bit her lower lip.
The emotions welling up in her chest were anger and regret.
‘I wasn't prepared enough.’
The inadequacy of her preparations came back as a regret that cut to the bone.
If only she had packed better winter gear. If only she had known a little more about the Frigid Forest.
Her gaze fell upon Elena, head hanging limp as she leaned against her.
The deep gash in Elena's side was the direct result of her poor preparation.
What hurt most was that she had caused such a terrible wound on the friend she had just managed to make.
‘If only I had been the one who got hurt...’
She shook her head.
‘No, that’s not it.’
It was a meaningless hypothetical.
Even if she had taken the injury instead, she would have just become a burden holding Elena back, so the situation wouldn't have been much different.
The weather in the dungeon, which she had entered so lightly, far exceeded her expectations.
A cold that seemed to seep into her very bones made her body shrink, the fierce blizzard blurred her vision, and the snow that piled up reached her ankles, hindering her movement.
Add to that the pure white bodies of the Ice Trolls, and it was a complete disaster.
When it reached the point where she couldn't tell if the flurries before her were snowflakes or Ice Trolls, they were forced to endure an incredibly difficult time.
And that was when another problem arose.
‘I let my guard down.’
Her body temperature was dropping rapidly, and her stamina was slowly draining away.
The urgency born from her lack of preparation led her to make the wrong decision.
She had decided to postpone clearing the dungeon and first eliminate the Seeker, which was her main purpose for coming here.
And so, the two of them advanced, using the dense trees as cover, and succeeded in finding the Seeker.
And… they were defeated.
‘He was too strong.’
The Seeker she faced here was on a completely different level from the others, powerful beyond comparison.
He wasn't an unbeatable opponent.
With Elena fighting alongside her, she was confident they could win, even if it took some time.
Just as she was calmly leading the attack and gaining the upper hand, the problem she had postponed came crashing down on them.
Drawn by the noise of the prolonged battle, Ice Trolls launched a surprise attack.
The Seeker in front, seven Ice Trolls behind.
They fought hard in the dilemma, but unable to overcome the numerical disadvantage, a crisis arose, and it cost Elena a wound to her side.
Seeing the blood flow from the deeper-than-expected wound, she used every last drop of her mana to conjure a fire spell, throwing it onto the snow-covered ground to create a massive cloud of steam.
In that opening, she hoisted Elena onto her back and fled, finally arriving here, at the base of a large tree.
They squeezed into the hollow space inside and blocked the entrance.
Thanks to that, they managed to shake off their pursuers and protect themselves from the cold to some extent, but…
‘We can't stay here forever.’
There were two scenarios in which a rescue team would be dispatched to a dungeon.
Either an emergency signal was sent, or the time taken exceeded three times the average clear time.
The former was no longer an option.
Sending an emergency signal required a disposable magic tool that Hunters commonly called a signal flare, but it must have been broken during the fight, as it was completely unresponsive.
In the end, the only option left was to wait for three times the average clear time to pass…
‘If we do that, Elena might die.’
The wound from the Ice Troll's ice pick was deeper than it looked.
She had barely managed to stop the bleeding, but Elena had already lost a lot of blood.
If they delayed any longer, there was a real possibility she could die from hypothermia or excessive blood loss.
“Haa…”
Regret, exhaled with a white puff of breath, made her eyes redden.
She looked at Elena with teary eyes and parted her trembling lips.
“I’m sorry, Elena…”
This was all her fault.
If she hadn't dragged Elena into her personal quest to eliminate the Seeker, she would have been the only one facing this situation.
She buried her head in her knees, wrapped in her arms, stewing in regret. She finally lifted her head, her eyes filled with grim determination, around the time some of her mana had returned to her depleted reserves.
“I can’t… die like this.”
She didn't care about herself, but she had to save Elena.
She couldn't let her own selfish wish become the cause of her friend's death.
After carefully shifting Elena, who was leaning on her shoulder, to the side, she slipped out of the tree stump.
‘There’s no time.’
Elena’s blue-tinged lips and her cold, constantly trembling body were a stark reminder that time was running out.
She couldn't send a signal, and she couldn't wait for a rescue team.
That left only one option.
Finish clearing the dungeon she had put off and escape on her own.
‘Can I do it?’
Her cold body, her depleted stamina, and the mana barely sloshing at the bottom of her reserves.
On top of that were the small cuts and bruises all over her body.
Her poor physical condition amplified her anxiety.
She slapped her cheeks hard, quelling the anxiety that was creeping through her body.
It wasn't a question of whether she could or couldn't. It was something she had to do.
Only then could her friend live.
“Hoo…!”
Exhaling all her tension and anxiety in a single breath, she dashed across the snowfield.
Kuuuwoooar!
As she cleanly sliced through the waist of an Ice Troll that appeared suddenly from the swirling snow, the only thing that came to her mind was the origin of the sword.
The beautiful, magnificent swordsmanship she had secretly watched from behind his massive back replayed endlessly in her mind.
And one by one, she began to melt those movements into her own blade.
‘Softer here, then shake it off with force!’
The sharp sense of crisis, like standing on the edge of a cliff for the first time in her life, accelerated her growth at an ever-steepening rate.
Her senses, honed to their peak, no longer tensed at the appearance of an Ice Troll.
She could now detect their perfect ambushes faster than they could execute them.
“Hah, hah…!”
Thud!
After finishing off every last Ice Troll, she once again came face-to-face with the Seeker.
The Safety Room was behind him.
In other words, she had to kill the Seeker to get out of this dungeon.
“Heut…!”
She threw herself forward immediately.
It had taken quite some time to kill all the Ice Trolls that had ambushed her relentlessly.
She had to kill the Seeker as quickly as possible and open the door to the Safety Room.
A series of attacks, incomparably sharper than before, unfolded.
But none of them could harm the Seeker's body.
“Hah, hah…!”
It was because her depleted stamina and mana couldn't support her rapidly advanced techniques.
From childhood to the present day.
Her father, who ran dozens of kilometers every single day with weights strapped to his body, had told her.
‘Technique without the stamina to back it up is nothing more than flailing.’
Only now did she realize, with a pain that cut to the bone, what those words meant.
“Haak, haak!”
Her newly elevated skills had ironically become her own shackles.
Her stamina, exhausted from continuously unleashing them, finally brought her to her knees.
Thud!
The sword fell from her loosened grip, and her buckling knees sent her tumbling into the snow.
Soon, her upper body collapsed onto the cold ground as well.
‘I have to get up…’
A pathetic will spun uselessly in her chest like a hamster on a wheel.
Through her blurry, tilted vision, the Seeker approached.
Was it to deliver the final blow?
‘I’m sorry, Elena…’
I wanted to save you, no matter what.
Tears felt like they would burst forth at the weakness crawling over her body.
The words ‘what if’ embedded themselves deep in her mind and heart.
‘What if I had learned the sword from Dad… would things have been different?’
If only she had learned directly from her father, instead of secretly stealing glances from behind his back.
If only he had pointed out every one of her flaws with his gentle voice and corrected her misaligned posture with his soft touch… wouldn't she have been able to defeat a Seeker like this with ease?
As she floated through these futile delusions, the light in her eyes gradually faded with the approach of death.
KABOOM—!
Suddenly, a deafening roar from right in front of her forcibly seized her fading consciousness.
Through her hazy vision, she saw the back of a man standing there, holding a different sword.
A back that seemed endlessly broad and reliable, yet held a familiar warmth.
As the Seeker, which had been knocked back by his appearance, charged forward again, the man’s sword swung lightly.
Feeling an intense sense of déjà vu, she murmured in a low voice.
“Dad…?”
* * *
I was blocked at the entrance to the dungeon.
“I told you, you can’t go in!”
Physically, it was the administrator blocking my path, but in truth, it wasn't him but the law that stopped me.
An incredibly strict clause stood like a solid wall: no one could enter a dungeon unless an emergency signal was received or three times the average clear time had passed.
But I couldn't stop either.
“I have a really bad feeling about this…”
The closer I got to the dungeon, the more an ominous feeling pricked at my mind.
An unshakable feeling welled up inside me that something bad was happening in there.
Son Seo-yeon and Elena.
I couldn't let them die.
Just as I was resolving to break the law if it stood in the way of saving a life…
“The head of the Association’s General Affairs Department, Mr. Kim Seong-tae, will take full responsibility.”
“The Ge-General Affairs Department…?!”
“That’s right. So please step aside. If something bad has happened to the party that went in ahead, neither you nor I will get out of this unscathed.”
“Eek!”
His mind filled with the worst-case scenarios, the administrator hastily cleared the path he was blocking.
“Do-jin? You may enter now.”
I could only marvel at her for clearing the way by dropping the name of a ridiculously high-ranking superior.
“Ji-an, you really are…”
You don't look it, but you can be surprisingly reckless.
As my voice trailed off, Yoon Ji-an tilted her head and asked.
“Really…? What comes next?”
I whispered into her ear.
“Sexy.”
“Hah…!”
I quickly passed her as she clutched her ear, her face blushing.
“I’ll be right back, so wait for me.”
With those final words, I immediately placed my hand on the rift and entered the dungeon.
[You have entered the Frigid Forest.]
No sooner had I confirmed the message than a bone-chilling cold pierced my entire body.
I converted a portion of my mana into fire-attribute mana and wrapped it around myself before starting to cross the forest at a brisk pace.
With every step, the snow-covered corpses of Ice Trolls caught my eye.
“Judging by the snow piling up on them… they can’t have been dead for long.”
Which meant someone had passed through here just a moment ago.
I picked up my pace, using the sparsely scattered bodies as markers to guide my steps.
How long had I been walking?
CLAAANG!
The violent sound of metal clashing against metal mercilessly pierced my ears.
“There.”
I immediately ran in the direction of the sound.
When I finally reached its source, I saw Seo-yeon collapsed on the ground and the Seeker approaching her.
The moment I saw it, an indescribable rage boiled within me.
You know that feeling, right?
Like when your own little sibling, who you mess with and smack around all the time, comes home after getting beat up by someone else.
No matter how much my daughter looks down on her old man, I'm the only one who gets to curse her out for it.
I instantly launched myself forward and kicked the creature in the side as it raised its greatsword, sending it flying.
WHAM!
The creature staggered back, a foul expression on its face, and charged again.
“Kuaaaargh!”
Its movements were swift, on a different level from the Seekers I'd faced before.
But that was all.
Mere speed wasn't enough to escape my sight.
And certainly not enough to dodge my sword.
Slice!
I closed the distance as it rushed in, swung my sword, and cleanly severed its head.
Thud.
Even as I watched the head fall to the snow and roll over a few times, my mood didn't improve in the slightest.
As the creature's body began to fade away, I was overcome with the urge to grind it into dust with my own hands.
“Dad…?”
“……”
The low murmur from behind me was like a bucket of cold water dumped on my heated head.