Chapter 424: Teaming (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 424: Teaming (2)
Needless to say, getting my active skills sealed was one of the worst penalties there was. It was still better than being blind like James Calla, though.
I wish I just lost the use of one arm like Old Didi.
This penalty reduced my combat power to the point where even losing an arm would leave me better off, but I had no choice but to bear it. What could I do when this was the fate I was assigned by the dice? I just had to hope the rolls were as bad on their side too.
Besides... except for my penalty, this isn't too bad.
Soul Extraction was a very tricky attack pattern, especially for special ability users and wizards. Since they were capable of dealing wide-range damage, they would have dealt many final blows in their lifetimes, but Soul Extraction forced them to fight alone without a front line backing them up as usual.
I guess all of them have lived kind lives, huh?
Both priests safely survived. The wizards were all awake except for one, and the only unconscious special ability user was Akurava.
The fact that most of our wizards have been at the Magic Tower for a long time must have worked in our favor.
At this rate, I considered the gambit a success. Though we'd gone through all kinds of hardships together as a team, I'd had no way of knowing what kind of lives these people had lived before then.
Step. Step.
The sound of firm steps echoed through the ice cave. As we moved as far away from the entrance of Glacier Eye as possible, I felt movement on one of my shoulders.
"Mister..."
"You're awake..." Feeling deeply relieved, I carefully set Erwen down. She stumbled a bit, but since she found her balance, it seemed whatever penalty she got hadn't affected her legs. "How are you feeling? Any pain?"
"I don't know..." Erwen looked somewhat dazed. Did something happen inside? I wasn't sure but I didn't dig. The first thing to do was figure out what kind of penalty she got.
God damn it.
As I experimented with random penalties in order from bad to good, I soon let out a deep sigh.
The eighth one, huh?
Unfortunately, Erwen also got unlucky.
[All of Erwen Fornacci di Tersia's resource recovery is now limited.]
Her resources could not be recovered. Put simply, she would only be able to consume her MP or energy. She couldn't replenish it.
"Unless you have to protect yourself, conserve your strength as much as possible."
"Okay... I'm sorry..."
"What are you sorry about? It's bad luck, that's all. I'm just glad you woke up."
Anyway, as more time passed, the unconscious began to wake one by one.
"I've caused you trouble. I'll walk on my own now." Fortunately, Melend Kaislan got a weak penalty.
"Ugh...! Why is this...?" Ravien was restricted from using weapons so her body jolted like it was being shocked with electricity whenever she placed her hand on her sword.
"Um... why isn't anyone talking?" Tsuon Irivan, an archer from Team Two, had lost his hearing.
"It was... a terrible place." Akurava, meanwhile, was white as a sheet.
Two people now...
By the time twenty-five minutes had passed since Soul Extraction was activated, there were only two people left: Amelia and the wizard from Team Two, McKelly Rayothers.
"Please, be strong..."
As the clock ticked down, the crew shot anxious glances at the two people still asleep. I felt like I was going to freak out too.
Why is this woman not waking up?
It wasn't because she died in there. If she had, her heart would've stopped already.
Thump, thump.
My own heart continued to constrict tighter and tighter as the seconds ticked by.
"Mr. McKelly, there's only one minute left. Please, be strong..."
"Mm..." Amelia finally opened her eyes.
"Emily... God damn it."
The other one never did.
***
We had eighteen survivors, but the number of those capable of combat was much smaller. Many of the crew including me had received significant penalties. In truth, it was safe to say our firepower had been reduced by more than half.
I wonder how the other side is doing.
As happiness was said to be relative, the same went for misfortune.
[The Glacier Wizard Cariathea gains new power in proportion to the total number of souls absorbed.]
Thirty minutes had passed now, which meant Phase Two was over. I wondered how many people survived on the enemy's side and what penalties the survivors had received.
Actually, I wish the bastards who survived would all die fighting the boss... Tsk, but that can't realistically happen, right?
Cariathea didn't chase you beyond Glacier Eye, and we had been fighting Noark and the Order of the Rose on the summit. I didn't know how many people woke up, but I was sure they'd all escaped Glacier Eye by now.
Dragon Slayer... I wonder what happened to him.
He had killed the Primordial Dragon, who had served as the leader of the dragon tribe, after all. Even then, he'd only narrowly managed to pull it off, so there was a chance the version of the Primordial Dragon that appeared thanks to Soul Exhaustion had defeated him, even at half-power. He wouldn't have only been fighting the Primordial Dragon, either. The number of people he'd killed must have been in the thousands.
No, wait.
While I was thinking about the Dragon Slayer, my body stiffened.
Fuck, then Dwalkie would've been there too.
The realization that the Dragon Slayer got to see Dwalkie filled me with a sudden wave of resentment. At the same time, the following thought came to mind: the people who appeared in my imagination could all have been precious to someone else, too.
...Is it because of Soul Extraction? I'm thinking too much.
I cut that train of thought off there and opened my eyes.
Whoosh!
There was a nearby fire radiating warmth. The priest kneeling in front of it continued to recite a prayer, the others listening and taking part in a moment of silence. This was the silver lining of our current situation: we at least had the luxury of holding a funeral for our dead comrades now. The flames created by the wizards instantly melted their flesh and skin, and the remaining bones were enchanted with distortion magic and crushed by the warriors to be stored in pouches. We hoped this would at least provide some comfort to the bereaved families they left behind.
Two people now...
By the time twenty-five minutes had passed since Soul Extraction was activated, there were only two people left: Amelia and the wizard from Team Two, McKelly Rayothers.
"Please, be strong..."
As the clock ticked down, the crew shot anxious glances at the two people still asleep. I felt like I was going to freak out too.
Why is this woman not waking up?
It wasn't because she died in there. If she had, her heart would've stopped already.
Thump, thump.
My own heart continued to constrict tighter and tighter as the seconds ticked by.
"Mr. McKelly, there's only one minute left. Please, be strong..."
"Mm..." Amelia finally opened her eyes.
"Emily... God damn it."
The other one never did.
***
We had eighteen survivors, but the number of those capable of combat was much smaller. Many of the crew including me had received significant penalties. In truth, it was safe to say our firepower had been reduced by more than half.
I wonder how the other side is doing.
As happiness was said to be relative, the same went for misfortune.
[The Glacier Wizard Cariathea gains new power in proportion to the total number of souls absorbed.]
Thirty minutes had passed now, which meant Phase Two was over. I wondered how many people survived on the enemy's side and what penalties the survivors had received.
Actually, I wish the bastards who survived would all die fighting the boss... Tsk, but that can't realistically happen, right?
Cariathea didn't chase you beyond Glacier Eye, and we had been fighting Noark and the Order of the Rose on the summit. I didn't know how many people woke up, but I was sure they'd all escaped Glacier Eye by now.
Dragon Slayer... I wonder what happened to him.
He had killed the Primordial Dragon, who had served as the leader of the dragon tribe, after all. Even then, he'd only narrowly managed to pull it off, so there was a chance the version of the Primordial Dragon that appeared thanks to Soul Exhaustion had defeated him, even at half-power. He wouldn't have only been fighting the Primordial Dragon, either. The number of people he'd killed must have been in the thousands.
No, wait.
While I was thinking about the Dragon Slayer, my body stiffened.
Fuck, then Dwalkie would've been there too.
The realization that the Dragon Slayer got to see Dwalkie filled me with a sudden wave of resentment. At the same time, the following thought came to mind: the people who appeared in my imagination could all have been precious to someone else, too.
...Is it because of Soul Extraction? I'm thinking too much.
I cut that train of thought off there and opened my eyes.
Whoosh!
There was a nearby fire radiating warmth. The priest kneeling in front of it continued to recite a prayer, the others listening and taking part in a moment of silence. This was the silver lining of our current situation: we at least had the luxury of holding a funeral for our dead comrades now. The flames created by the wizards instantly melted their flesh and skin, and the remaining bones were enchanted with distortion magic and crushed by the warriors to be stored in pouches. We hoped this would at least provide some comfort to the bereaved families they left behind.
With that, the brief funeral came to an end. The hot flames went out, and my momentarily warm body was cooled by the wind. Now, it was time to come back to reality.
"...Yandel, what will you do now?"
As soon as Kaislan asked me this, the entire crew looked my way. I'd only filled them in on my plan up to a certain point—for those who woke first from Soul Extraction to drag the others and flee. There were no instructions after that.
"If we continue to widen the distance, we might be able to hold out until the closing date." Seeing how stony his expression was as he said this, it seemed Kaislan already knew what I was thinking. That was probably why he mentioned it first, so I'd have an easier time explaining. "But Yandel, you would know. Even if we run, it's going to be a dead end."
One of the crew flinched at Kaislan's words and raised her voice. "D-Dead end? What do you mean? I thought we were all safe now?"
"I thought you said we could hold out until the closing date? Isn't that enough? What are you worrying about?"
I felt bad for those who thought it was all over now, but we still hadn't cleared the most important hurdle. If we had, I wouldn't have called this a gamble.
Kaislan shot me a silent look, and I let out a rueful laugh before stepping forward. No matter how capable Kaislan was, I couldn't foist this on him, too. "We are not running away. No, to be more exact, we can't run away."
When I finished talking, the crew's eyes widened. They were full of shock and held questions.
"...Why?"
"The enemy that appeared behind us back there was the Order of the Rose."
"Are you saying we won't be able to shake them?"
"No, that's not it."
"Then why..."
No one seemed to understand me, so I continued. The gist was this: the palace would already have an excuse prepared if we returned alive. Perhaps something went wrong with the main unit, so they couldn't come to rescue us. Even still, they'd claim they were glad we survived. As if burying their heads in the sand, they'd try to hide the elephant in the room. And we'd have to ignore it too—that was our only way out.
"Ignore? What do you mean?"
"If we pretended not to realize we were abandoned at all, the palace wouldn't resort to extreme measures." It may have been cowardly, but that had been my original plan. "But we can't use that method anymore. The moment the Order of the Rose reports the events that transpired here, the palace will definitely try to get rid of any potential future complications."
"...They could try and negotiate to keep us quiet instead."
Hmm, yeah, that's a possibility but...
"Do you really think they will?"
There was no answer. Someone posed a new question. "So what? If we're not going to die here, shouldn't we try our best to at least get to the city?" It was Futa Rickerburn from the Kealunus Dukedom.
There was something incredibly funny about that statement. "I didn't expect to hear you say something like that when you gave up earlier, saying it was all pointless."
"Well, you dragged us all here by the collar. You think I'll give up here after all that hard work?"
True, he even cut off his arm with the determination to get through Glacier Eye. It'd be unfair to die like this. I chuckled. "That was a compliment, so don't get so touchy. And I never said we were going to give up."
"Ah..." He took a step back.
"Don't worry too much, everyone," I said. "There is a way."
"A way?"
"Yes. If no one returns alive, who would know? What happened in this place, that is."
Of course, there might be suspicions, but as I knew intimately, there was a difference between assumptions and physical evidence.
"I suggest we kill both Noark and the Order of the Rose."
From now on, we were the ones who had to bury the elephant in the room. So would we try to flee, or fight once more? The consensus on that came sooner than I expected.
"I... don't know what the right decision is."
"Haha, there's no reason to stress out about it. Everything we've experienced up to this point has been life-or-death too."
"But in all those moments, he was the one who made the call."
"Bjorn Yandel, I will trust your decision. That is my decision."
"I'm with you too. Although it may seem kind of silly to you, leaving things to you is easier for someone like me."
Once the squadron had come to a decision, everything became clear. We wandered the cave, putting detection spells down in various places and casting distortion magic to hunt monsters and grow our food supply.
"This... is pretty good?"
Monster meat was surprisingly edible. Some parts were so bad that they couldn't even be considered food, though.
"Aside from the taste, this is such a waste. We could sell the leftovers for some good money."
"We have no choice. We need to lighten our load as much as possible now..."
The expensive remains obtained with distortion magic were discarded with teary eyes. While we had to carry comrades who had trouble moving, we didn't have the luxury to take such things with us.
We spent half the day killing monsters and roaming the cave.
"Lord Yandel! Lord Yandel!" Wizard Marrone from Team Five hurriedly ran up to me. There was only one reason why she ever did this.
"Did the detection spell activate?"
"Y-Yes! It did!"
The news Marrone brought me could be broadly classified into three categories.
First, good news. "It was the Order of the Rose. And there were only ten of them!" The Order of the Rose had shrunk significantly. It seemed they'd suffered a considerable amount of damage since they killed for a living.
"How are the remaining ones looking?"
"Um, well..." The second was neutral news. "Four seem to be in bad condition and are being carried by their colleagues. One was just limping."
Just as a third of our expedition team had been hit with major penalties, they seemed to have suffered significantly too. I guessed this meant we were tied in terms of luck. Well, it was too early to say anything for sure since we didn't know how they were doing.
"Um... a-anyway, that isn't the important part!" The long-awaited third category was bad news. And not just any bad news, but news that could be the worst. "I-I don't know how or why, but they're traveling with Noark!"
Oil and water had come together.
With that, the brief funeral came to an end. The hot flames went out, and my momentarily warm body was cooled by the wind. Now, it was time to come back to reality.
"...Yandel, what will you do now?"
As soon as Kaislan asked me this, the entire crew looked my way. I'd only filled them in on my plan up to a certain point—for those who woke first from Soul Extraction to drag the others and flee. There were no instructions after that.
"If we continue to widen the distance, we might be able to hold out until the closing date." Seeing how stony his expression was as he said this, it seemed Kaislan already knew what I was thinking. That was probably why he mentioned it first, so I'd have an easier time explaining. "But Yandel, you would know. Even if we run, it's going to be a dead end."
One of the crew flinched at Kaislan's words and raised her voice. "D-Dead end? What do you mean? I thought we were all safe now?"
"I thought you said we could hold out until the closing date? Isn't that enough? What are you worrying about?"
I felt bad for those who thought it was all over now, but we still hadn't cleared the most important hurdle. If we had, I wouldn't have called this a gamble.
Kaislan shot me a silent look, and I let out a rueful laugh before stepping forward. No matter how capable Kaislan was, I couldn't foist this on him, too. "We are not running away. No, to be more exact, we can't run away."
When I finished talking, the crew's eyes widened. They were full of shock and held questions.
"...Why?"
"The enemy that appeared behind us back there was the Order of the Rose."
"Are you saying we won't be able to shake them?"
"No, that's not it."
"Then why..."
No one seemed to understand me, so I continued. The gist was this: the palace would already have an excuse prepared if we returned alive. Perhaps something went wrong with the main unit, so they couldn't come to rescue us. Even still, they'd claim they were glad we survived. As if burying their heads in the sand, they'd try to hide the elephant in the room. And we'd have to ignore it too—that was our only way out.
"Ignore? What do you mean?"
"If we pretended not to realize we were abandoned at all, the palace wouldn't resort to extreme measures." It may have been cowardly, but that had been my original plan. "But we can't use that method anymore. The moment the Order of the Rose reports the events that transpired here, the palace will definitely try to get rid of any potential future complications."
"...They could try and negotiate to keep us quiet instead."
Hmm, yeah, that's a possibility but...
"Do you really think they will?"
There was no answer. Someone posed a new question. "So what? If we're not going to die here, shouldn't we try our best to at least get to the city?" It was Futa Rickerburn from the Kealunus Dukedom.
There was something incredibly funny about that statement. "I didn't expect to hear you say something like that when you gave up earlier, saying it was all pointless."
"Well, you dragged us all here by the collar. You think I'll give up here after all that hard work?"
True, he even cut off his arm with the determination to get through Glacier Eye. It'd be unfair to die like this. I chuckled. "That was a compliment, so don't get so touchy. And I never said we were going to give up."
"Ah..." He took a step back.
"Don't worry too much, everyone," I said. "There is a way."
"A way?"
"Yes. If no one returns alive, who would know? What happened in this place, that is."
Of course, there might be suspicions, but as I knew intimately, there was a difference between assumptions and physical evidence.
"I suggest we kill both Noark and the Order of the Rose."
From now on, we were the ones who had to bury the elephant in the room. So would we try to flee, or fight once more? The consensus on that came sooner than I expected.
"I... don't know what the right decision is."
"Haha, there's no reason to stress out about it. Everything we've experienced up to this point has been life-or-death too."
"But in all those moments, he was the one who made the call."
"Bjorn Yandel, I will trust your decision. That is my decision."
"I'm with you too. Although it may seem kind of silly to you, leaving things to you is easier for someone like me."
Once the squadron had come to a decision, everything became clear. We wandered the cave, putting detection spells down in various places and casting distortion magic to hunt monsters and grow our food supply.
"This... is pretty good?"
Monster meat was surprisingly edible. Some parts were so bad that they couldn't even be considered food, though.
"Aside from the taste, this is such a waste. We could sell the leftovers for some good money."
"We have no choice. We need to lighten our load as much as possible now..."
The expensive remains obtained with distortion magic were discarded with teary eyes. While we had to carry comrades who had trouble moving, we didn't have the luxury to take such things with us.
We spent half the day killing monsters and roaming the cave.
"Lord Yandel! Lord Yandel!" Wizard Marrone from Team Five hurriedly ran up to me. There was only one reason why she ever did this.
"Did the detection spell activate?"
"Y-Yes! It did!"
The news Marrone brought me could be broadly classified into three categories.
First, good news. "It was the Order of the Rose. And there were only ten of them!" The Order of the Rose had shrunk significantly. It seemed they'd suffered a considerable amount of damage since they killed for a living.
"How are the remaining ones looking?"
"Um, well..." The second was neutral news. "Four seem to be in bad condition and are being carried by their colleagues. One was just limping."
Just as a third of our expedition team had been hit with major penalties, they seemed to have suffered significantly too. I guessed this meant we were tied in terms of luck. Well, it was too early to say anything for sure since we didn't know how they were doing.
"Um... a-anyway, that isn't the important part!" The long-awaited third category was bad news. And not just any bad news, but news that could be the worst. "I-I don't know how or why, but they're traveling with Noark!"
Oil and water had come together.