Chapter 178 – Doom Seeker (6)
She bit her lower lip in the raging blizzard.
The emotions that hit her chest are anger and regret.
‘I was insufficiently prepared.’
Insufficiency in the preparation stage came as a painful regret.
If I had packed more cold-weather items, if I had known a little more information about the cold forest.
At the end of her gaze, Elena was leaning against her body with her head drooping.
The rather deep cut on his side was the word of insufficient preparation.
It broke her heart more than anything that she had left such a terrible scar on the stomach of her barely-acquainted friend.
‘If only I had been hurt…’
She shook her head.
‘No, no.’
It was just a meaningless assumption.
Even if she had been injured instead, it would not have been much different from her current situation, since she would have been reduced to a burden holding her ankle.
The weather in the dungeon, which she entered with a light heart, far exceeded her expectations.
A cold wave that seemed to seep into her bones shrank her body, and a fiercely blowing blizzard obscured her vision, and the accumulated snow rose up to her ankles and hindered her smooth movement.
Adding to that the ice troll’s pure white body, it was a complete mess.
When they were put to the point where they couldn’t tell whether it was snowflakes or ice trolls flying in front of them, they had to have a hard time.
Another problem arose here.
‘I was careless.’
Rapidly dropping body temperature and slowly drying stamina.
The urgency created by poor preparation led her to the wrong decision.
Let’s postpone the dungeon raid and eliminate the explorer first, the purpose of finding this place.
Thus, the two of them succeeded in finding the seeker, using the thick trees as cover.
And… , Was defeated.
‘It was too strong.’
The power of the seekers encountered here was so strong that it was on a different level than before.
It wasn’t an opponent he couldn’t win.
If it was a pincer with Elena, it would take a little time, but it was enough to be sure of victory.
While calmly leading the attack and seizing the victory, a problem that had been put off came to the two of them.
The ice trolls, attracted by the noise caused by the long battle, attacked.
A searcher in front, seven ice trolls behind.
Although he struggled in a dilemma, he gave up Elena’s side in a crisis that came without overcoming the numerical inferiority.
Seeing her blood flow from a wound that was deeper than she thought, she drew all the magical energy in her body and threw the fire magic she created onto the snowy ground to create a large amount of steam.
And in the gap, he ran away carrying Elena on his back and arrived at this place, at the base of a large tree.
I squeezed her body into the empty space inside her and blocked her entrance.
Thanks to that, I was able to evade her pursuit and protect her body to some extent from her coldness…
‘I can’t stay here forever.’
There are two cases in which a rescue team is dispatched to a dungeon.
This is the case when an emergency rescue signal is sent, or when the average attack time is well over three times.
The former of which has become unusable.
In order to send an emergency rescue signal, hunters need a disposable magic tool commonly called a signal flare, but it was completely disabled because it was broken during the battle.
In the end, all that remains is to wait for three times the average attack time to pass…
‘If I do that, Elena might die.’
The wound stabbed by the ice pick the Ice Troll was holding was deeper than expected.
The bleeding was barely successful, but a lot of blood had already been lost.
There is a possibility of death from hypothermia or excessive blood loss if the time is delayed as it is.
“Ha…”
The regret that came out with her white breath brought tears to her eyes.
She looked at Elena with her teary eyes and parted her quivering lips.
“Sorry, Elena…”
Everything happened because of her.
She would have been alone in this situation had she not drawn her into her very personal business of eliminating her seekers.
She put her head in her lap embraced by her arms and chewed only regrets. The fact that she raised her head with a look of resolute determination showed that her circuits, which were empty, had some magic power. It was around the time the car was up.
“Like this… , I can’t die.”
She doesn’t know herself, but she has to live as much as Elena.
Her ugly friend’s greed cannot be engraved as her signature.
After carefully turning Elena on her shoulder to her side, she slipped out of her stump.
‘I do not have time.’
Her pale blue lips and trembling cold body remind her that there is not much time left.
You can’t send a signal, you can’t wait for help to come.
Then there is only one way left.
All he had to do was finish the dungeon raid he had been putting off and escape on his own.
‘Can I do it?’
A cold body, lost stamina and mana slithering on the floor.
There were even small cuts and bruises here and there.
Her poor physical condition amplified her anxiety.
She patted her cheek hard, calming the uneasiness that ran through her body.
It is something that must be done before questioning whether it can be done or not.
Only then will my friends be able to live.
“Whoa… !”
Shaking off all her tension and anxiety with a single breath, she ran through her snowy field.
Wow!
The only thing that comes to her mind is the origin of swordsmanship.
The beautiful, majestic swordsmanship he peeked over his huge back is constantly being reproduced.
Then, one by one, I melt them into my sword.
‘It’s more gentle here, then it’s like shaking it off hard!’
The sense of crisis that seemed to stand on the edge of a precipice, which she had never experienced before in her life, made her growth more and more steep.
His senses reached their peak and he was no longer nervous about the appearance of the Ice Trolls.
Because I was able to spot his perfect ambush sooner than that.
“Haha… !”
Flutter!
After defeating even the last remaining ice troll, she faced the seeker again.
The safety room is behind him.
In other words, you have to kill the seeker to get out of this dungeon.
“Huh… !”
She immediately blows her body.
It took quite a bit of time to kill all the ice trolls that were ambushing them at any time.
She had to quickly kill the seeker and open the door to the safety room.
Incomparable to the moments before, sharp attacks unfolded one after another.
However, none of them harmed the explorer’s body.
“Haha… !”
It was because her physical strength and magical power, which had fallen as she fell, could not support her rapidly developing skills.
From her childhood to now.
Her father, who wears metal around her body and runs dozens of kilometers every day, said.
‘Techniques not supported by physical strength are nothing more than floundering.’
It was only then that she realized what it meant.
“Haha, haha!”
The technology that had risen to the next level caught her ankle.
With this constant display, her exhausted stamina finally brought her to her knees.
Flutter!
Her sword slips from her untied grip, and her broken knee rolls across her snow.
Before long, her upper body collapsed on the cold snow.
‘I have to get up…’
Her pitiful will spins like a treadmill in her heart.
A searcher approaches through the obliquely turned blurry vision.
Is it for the final blow?
‘I’m sorry, Elena…’
I wanted to save you somehow.
I feel like I’m about to burst into tears at the weakness crawling over her body.
The two letters ‘if’ are deeply embedded in her head and heart.
‘If I had learned the sword from my father… , Would it have been different?’
If only I had been taught by my father directly instead of stealing from behind his back.
If I had pointed out each and every lacking point with a kind voice, and corrected my misaligned posture with a gentle touch… , Wouldn’t it have been easy to defeat the searcher in front of me.
Around the time when the light in his eyes gradually fades as death approaches, floating in vain delusion.
Kwaaang-!
Suddenly, the roaring sound that came from right in front of her nose forcibly grabbed her mind, which was drifting farther away.
What she could see beyond her hazy vision was the back of her man, who was holding the other sword.
It is infinitely wide and reliable, but it seems to have a familiar warmth somewhere.
She is pushed back with his appearance, and then his sword is lightly swung at the seeker who lunges again.
Feeling a strong sense of deja vu, she recited in a low voice.
“Dad… ?”
* * *
It was blocked in front of the entrance to the dungeon.
“Oh, well, no!”
It was the manager who stood in my way materially, but it was the law, not him, who truly stood in my way.
There is a heavy stipulation that no one can enter the dungeon until an emergency rescue signal or three times the average attack time has passed, standing like a solid wall.
But neither can I stop.
“I don’t feel very well…”
The closer you get to the dungeon, the more ominous sensations throb in your head.
A certainty, not a certainty, that something bad is going on inside me.
Son Seo-yeon and Elena.
I can’t let them both die.
If the law gets in the way of life… , Around the time I made up my mind to break it.
“All responsibility will be taken by Director Kim Seong-tae of the Association’s general affairs department.”
“Second, General Affairs Department… ?!”
“That’s right. So come on out. If something bad happens to the party that entered earlier, neither you nor I will be safe.”
“Hee!”
The manager, who has even had bad thoughts in his marrow, hurriedly opens the road that was blocking it.
“Mr. Dojin? You may enter now.”
I can only admire her when I see her who has paved the way for her by selling the name of her high-ranking superior.
“Mr. Jian really…”
I don’t think so, but I’m saying that I’m secretly reckless.
As I slurred my words, Ji-an Yoon tilted her head and asked again.
“Really… , What next?”
I whispered into her ear.
“Sexy.”
“Hot… !”
I quickly pass her, who blushes as I grab her ear.
“I’ll be right back, so I’m waiting for you.”
After she said that, she reached for the rift and entered the dungeon.
[You have entered the Cold Forest.]
Scary to check the information message, the biting cold penetrates her whole body.
After converting some of her mana into fire magic and putting it all over her body, she began to walk quickly through the forest.
Every time you walk, the snow-covered corpse of an Ice Troll catches your eye.
“Looking at the snow… , It looks like he died not too long ago.”
I mean, someone just passed by this place.
At a slightly faster pace, she uses the scattered corpses as milestones to move her steps.
How long did it take
Kaaang!
The violent sound of metal clashing against each other relentlessly penetrated my ears.
“There.”
I ran straight in the direction of the sound.
What we saw at the source of the sound that finally arrived was Seo-yeon, who had fallen, and a searcher approaching her.
As soon as I saw it, indescribable anger boiled over.
That, why, is there such a thing?
The feeling when my younger brother, whom I tease and hit all the time, goes outside and comes back beaten by someone else.
No matter how funny my daughter is to know her father, she’s the only one who can cuss and blame it.
I immediately threw myself and kicked the side of the guy who was lifting the greatsword and blew it away.
Whoops!
The guy who stumbled backwards lunged again with an eerie expression on his face.
“Aagh!”
It was a nimble movement that was different from the searchers they had dealt with earlier.
But that’s it.
You can’t get out of my eyes just fast enough.
Especially avoiding my sword.
Alas!
Break through the distance of the attacking guy and swing his sword to cut his throat cleanly.
Took!
Even watching his neck roll around several times after falling into the snow, his mood does not improve.
While I was engulfed in the urge to turn the gradually disappearing corpse into powder with my own hands.
“Dad… ?”
“…”
A low murmur from behind poured a bowl of cold water on his heated head.
