Chapter 51
Chapter 51
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 51
Chapter Title: The Awakening of Andras
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The distance between Aachen and the Sauerland Mountains was about twenty kilometers, a journey that could be completed in half a day with a bit of haste.
Park Han-yeong, who had brought news of the expedition's crisis, did not wake easily.
It was less about her injuries and more about exhaustion; she had lost a great deal of blood and had run nonstop between Aachen and the Sauerland.
The rescue team could not wait for Park Han-yeong to awaken.
But setting off for Sauerland without her, the only person who knew the expedition's location, was also impossible.
In the end, the rescue team chose a rather crude method: placing the unconscious Park Han-yeong in a carriage and taking her with them.
Twelve Players, including Kang-seok's party, and twenty adventurers.
It didn't take long to form the thirty-two-member rescue team. What held them back were unexpected external factors.
“This rescue team's purpose isn't simply to save the expedition. If the Earth Dragon Andras is truly involved, we must be fully prepared.”
There was a clash of opinions.
Though they were lumped together as a "rescue team," their desires and urgency all differed.
While some, like Kang-seok's group, were driven by the need to save the expedition, about half the team, both Players and adventurers, saw this mission as nothing more than a ‘lucrative quest.’
Compounding this was the city's stance, which prioritized confirming the existence of and defeating Andras over rescuing the expedition, naturally slowing their progress.
And there was one more factor holding the rescue team back.
A disparity in mobility.
Few of the adventurers owned horses. The same was true for the Players. As for the regular army of Aachen, it was a given.
The difference in marching speed between cavalry and infantry was immense. Since it was impossible for the infantry to force themselves to keep up with the cavalry, the cavalry had no choice but to match the infantry's pace.
A late departure to begin with.
A travel speed that could never quicken.
Kang-seok, who had been gazing toward the Sauerland Mountains, turned his head. His eyes fixed on a place that was neither Aachen nor the Sauerland.
* * *
*CRASH!*
Five hours had passed since the stone door was first shaken.
The monsters pounded on the door at intervals of one to two hours.
Abigail shook her head, an expression of utter weariness on her face.
“It seems we're reaching our limit.”
In front of the stone door, a mountain of miscellaneous objects was piled high. It was the result of scraping together every single item in the stone chamber to delay the door from opening.
“We can still hold it off! We can!”
A blond man standing firm before the door shouted desperately.
Dressed in a white robe, he continuously reached out to the door, casting spells. A cold chill emanated from his fingertips, freezing the door and the debris together.
It wasn't entirely useless, but it was ultimately just a stopgap measure.
[Estimated time until rescue team arrival: 15 hours, 01 minute, 48 seconds]
[* This is an estimate. The time may shorten or lengthen depending on the rescue team's situation. Please use this as a rough indicator.]
Kim Kang-san swallowed dryly. Unless the monsters gave up on breaking down the door, it was only a matter of time if they kept trying like this. Just as Abigail had said, they were reaching their limit.
Both the adventurers and the Players were anxious, but the Players showed slightly more unease. The countdown to the rescue team's arrival floating in their minds made them all the more frantic.
*CRASH!*
An especially loud boom shook the entire chamber. The sections the blond mage had painstakingly frozen over were almost completely shattered.
Fortunately, the monsters didn't immediately start pounding on the door again.
It was unclear why the creatures pounded on the door for a while and then stopped at one- to two-hour intervals, but either way, it seemed they had bought another hour.
The damage to the stone door was severe.
A Player, staring alternately at the cracked door and the empty air, suddenly shot to his feet.
Dressed in perfectly ordinary clothes, with hair of a common brown color, it was almost impossible to tell if he was an adventurer or a Player.
His name was Jeong Yu-seong. He was a man who had displayed an ordinary fighting style using a sword and shield.
Breathing heavily, Jeong Yu-seong scanned the chamber before stopping in front of the wall opposite the stone door. After taking a few deep breaths, he suddenly pulled a massive drill out of thin air.
The sight of a sky-blue drill, nearly the size of a man's torso, being pulled from nothing was truly surreal.
Not just Kim Kang-san, but everyone in the chamber stared at Jeong Yu-seong with shocked eyes.
But what happened next was even more surprising.
*KRRRRRRRRRRRRR!*
The moment he pressed the drill to the wall, a roar that was more exhilarating than deafening echoed through the room. A hole larger than an average adult's torso was bored in an instant.
Was it about three or four handspans deep?
Jeong Yu-seong stopped the drill and winced. It seemed enduring the vibrations from the drill was quite difficult for him.
However, almost no one cared about his pain. The blond Player—Bart—who had been continuously pouring magic into freezing the door, looked ready to strike Jeong Yu-seong at any moment.
“What the hell! If you had a skill like that, why are you only starting to dig now!”
They had thought they were trapped. But there had been a way to drill a hole all along!
Not only Bart but the other Players and adventurers also wore furious expressions. Jeong Yu-seong roared back at them.
“I'm a liberal arts major!”
At the unexpected excuse—no, shout—even Bart, who had been cursing, blinked his eyes.
“What… what did you say?”
“A liberal arts major! Liberal arts! A humanities geek!”
Kim Kang-san couldn't help but let out a sharp breath. Was he really talking about liberal arts versus science?
Jeong Yu-seong shouted again.
“I don't know a thing about earth science or architecture! Do you know what happens if you just dig randomly and the ceiling collapses? Ilya, who kept saying it was fine, it was fine during the tutorial, died in a cave-in! Do any of you know what it feels like to be trapped in a collapsed tunnel!”
Jeong Yu-seong wanted to escape the chamber as much as anyone. But for him, digging was a terrifying act.
A tunnel slightly larger than a man's torso.
A cave-in experienced while trapped in that tunnel.
No one knew who Ilya was. But Jeong Yu-seong's shouts were enough.
Jeong Yu-seong made a guttural sound and lifted the drill again.
Kim Kang-san approached him.
“Up.”
“Huh?”
“If it's going to be dangerous anyway, let's dig up. At least we know for sure that it's open above us.”
Kim Kang-san was also a liberal arts major. He had never studied earth science or architecture. The only thing he knew was the fact that a thin sliver of light was leaking from the ceiling.
But there was a sense of reassurance in Kim Kang-san's face and voice.
Jeong Yu-seong, who had been in a half-panicked state, asked Kim Kang-san, almost clinging to him.
“U-up?”
“At an angle.”
“Ah, I understand.”
A drowning man will clutch at a straw.
Swallowing hard, Jeong Yu-seong began to drill in earnest. The adventurers and Players gathered around him.
Abigail asked Kim Kang-san in a low voice.
“You, that estimated arrival time… is it still the same?”
“Yes.”
Abigail and Kim Kang-san didn't discuss the exact time. Specific numbers could sometimes cause more anxiety.
“Y-you can do it! It'll be fine!”
“Should I cast a heal on him?”
“What about freezing the ceiling? Wouldn't that secure it?”
The entire expedition cheered for Jeong Yu-seong with desperate hearts. As if their support gave him strength, he overcame his trauma and in an instant, drilled a hole that seemed to be three meters deep. It was truly a tremendous excavating ability.
We can get out. We can escape on our own.
Of course, there was no guarantee of safety outside the chamber. The fact that they were isolated in the monster-infested Sauerland Mountains hadn't changed.
But new hope always brings new strength.
Jeong Yu-seong drilled the hole. Everyone watched him, their hearts united. And then, a tremendous vibration shook the chamber.
“Ugh!”
Jeong Yu-seong, who almost dropped the drill due to the vibration, let out a strange groan. Some of the expedition members standing outside the hole fell to the ground.
A sudden vibration.
As if they were Pavlov's dogs, the Players almost simultaneously turned toward the stone door.
“Don't tell me, already?”
But it wasn't them. The monsters weren't pounding on the door. This vibration was on a completely different level from the ones before. It was like an earthquake.
Amidst the confusion, Abigail suddenly covered his mouth with his hand. The man who had maintained his composure until now had somehow lost his cool and was trembling.
“Mr. Abigail?”
Abigail couldn't answer Kim Kang-san's call right away. He looked around the empty space a few times and then spoke in a voice filled with disbelief.
“A-an Awakening?”
Most of the expedition didn't understand what Abigail said.
But there were some who did. Jessica, the only mage among the adventurers and the sole woman, with her red hair, widened her eyes. Dressed in tight-fitting leather, she questioned Abigail accusingly.
“An Awakening? Did you just say… an Awakening?”
Jessica was a three-star adventurer, while Abigail was a five-star. With an age gap of nearly thirty years, she had been nothing but meek and obedient to Abigail throughout the expedition.
Yet now, she looked as if she was about to grab Abigail by the collar.
Abigail squeezed out his words as if he were being strangled.
“I don't know. I'm not certain. I've only felt an Awakening once before. But… but this is definitely…”
A tremor cut off Abigail's words. This one was a bit stronger than the last, and Abigail and Jessica stumbled and fell in a heap.
An unidentified vibration.
The pale faces of Abigail and Jessica.
Kim Kang-san cursed inwardly. He quickly helped Jessica up and asked.
“What is an Awakening?”
Jessica, lost in confusion, was snapped back to her senses by Kim Kang-san's intensity. Facing his face, which was right in front of hers, she blurted out.
“I-it's a precursor. A phenomenon that occurs when a huge, powerful monster… like a dragon or a sand worm, wakes up from its ‘hibernation period.’ It's a way of announcing its awakening to the monsters around its lair!”
An Awakening.
Andras's lair.
The Earth Dragon Andras.
[The Awakening of Andras has begun.]
[When the Awakening is complete, Andras will appear in the Sauerland Mountains.]
[* Number of Awakenings remaining: 10]
The letters of light captured the Players' attention.
And then, another vibration seized the expedition's ears.
This time, it wasn't an Awakening. It was from the stone door. The monsters outside were pounding on the door with an intensity incomparable to before.
The Awakening was a signal.
An act to announce its awakening to the monsters around its lair.
*'Andras's minions.'*
The letters of light had said the monsters outside the chamber were Andras's minions.
Andras is awakening.
It announces this fact to its minions through the Awakening.
To Andras's minions, the expedition members were thieves who had invaded their master's home. It was only natural for them to rush to get rid of the thieves before their master awoke.
Jeong Yu-seong started drilling the hole with the drill again.
Kim Kang-san looked into the air.
*'Please.'*
[Estimated time until rescue team arrival: 14 hours, 51 minutes, 01 second]
Kim Kang-san swallowed dryly.