Chapter 131 – Kariharan Frostplains (10)
‘Voom’
Sungjin arrived at the final, the fifth dimension with a bright light. But as soon as he arrived, he realised he had made a mistake.
The place he arrived, as he jumped dimensions, was near where the Hidden Boss resided. And in the current dimension, the Hidden Boss was still alive and well.
‘Then... The Ice Witch might still be around somewhere.’
Sungjin tried to look for the Ice Palace, but the raging blizzard would not let him.
‘...Huh?’
The blizzard was still raging on – it meant that the normal Boss was still alive.
‘Sigh... There’s a troll in a team that still hasn’t killed the Boss? What a messy team.’
“Operator, how much time is left for the raid?”
[32 minutes 6 seconds.]
‘Hmmm....’
There were only about 30 minutes left, and the dimension’s party members must be somewhere on the Frostplains. Sungjin looked around him, barely opening his eyes. It’s normal for internal conflict to happen. Usually, hunters get emotionally unstable on the way to the Boss, when one or two members are injured or they die.
But in an extreme situation like they were in currently, where the troll had killed the rest of his team, or the surviving hunters had killed the troll, it was unlikely for the remaining hunter(s) to be able to kill the Boss.
If that were the case, then they would usually die from being bitten to death by monsters, going over time or even suicide. So he had to find the remaining hunters, troll or not, as soon as possible.
But the issue was that it was extremely difficult to find anyone in a blizzard like the one he was in. His ghost mount who was especially effective in such circumstances, Shadowrun, was now resting in the stables of Ninety Nine Nights.
‘This is annoying.’
It was impractical to look for them through Besgoro’s Ghost Vision, as its range was limited. It was impossible to know where anyone was in the Frostplains.
‘...What to do?’
After brooding over it for a moment,
‘I can only trust...’
Sungjin thought and called out his last familiar, Cain. He threw out his wolven wooden sculpture and Cain was summoned with a ‘poof’.
Cain stood on top of the plains and groaned, “Grr....” with his tongue out and blinked. It looked like he was having difficulty adapting to the weather conditions, but he was Sungjin’s most trusted familiar.
“It’s really cold, isn’t it Cain? Sorry. For calling you out here,” Sungjin said, clinging onto his neck.
“Woof.” Cain gave a short bark. But he stood still; it must have at least been bearable compared to the time he was summoned in the Kutan Desert.
“Can you smell any Hunters here?” Sungjin asked.
“Sniff...sniff”
After sniffing around a few times, Cain responded without much confidence,
Sungjin felt at a loss for what to do when even his trusty Cain looked stumped.
“Really? What should we do?”
While Sungjin was biting his lower lip,
“Awoo~”
Cain let out a howl. And soon, smaller wolves began to appear around Cain. From Dire Wolves which were only slightly smaller than Cain to Gray Wolves which were only half as tall, once twenty wolves had been summoned, Cain let out another cry.
“Ao~ Ooowo~”
It was an entirely different cry from earlier, one which had a variety of tones. The wolves spread out and dispersed into the Frostplains upon hearing the cry.
“Ooh...”
Sungjin couldn’t help but exclaim, and Cain turned to look at his master as if to say ‘praise me’. Sungjin patted his head.
“Good job Cain.”
Sungjin watched the wolves run off into the distance. They ran fiercely through the wind despite the raging blizzard. Sungjin recalled the wolves of the Ahenna Forest.
‘Well... the wolves were better at cooperating than most people.’
While Sungjin was lost in thought, the Operator gave an announcement.
[The Chosen One requested your teleportation. Will you accept the request?]
‘I’m not done hunting trolls though...’
Sungjin glanced towards the Cube for now. On the screen appeared an Arab man wearing a turban. An Arab man he was unfamiliar with. Sungjin thought for a moment
‘Who?’
But then the man spoke.
“Oppa”
That was when Sungjin realized who it was. There was only one person who would call him ‘Oppa’. She was Serin. But listening to a turban wearing middle-aged Arab man call him Oppa felt very strange.
“Ah... um, what is it Serin?”
“Where is the Hidden Piece in this raid? We can’t find it”
“Did you kill the Hidden Boss?”
“Yes, just now. But we can’t figure out where the Hidden Piece is located. No one in my party has Treasure Hunter either. Can you come find it for us?”
“I mean... go back to the Frozen Palace of the Ice Witch and search on the roof. There is a star shaped thing. That’s the Hidden Piece.”
“Ah really?”
“Yes. Go ahead and collect it. I’m busy and can’t go there right now.”
“Ok got it. Sorry Oppa, for bothering you.”
“No, it’s not a problem. Go get the thing now.”
“Okay~”
Once he finished his conversation, he told the Cube
“Reject request.”
[You have rejected the teleportation.]
Sungjin was glad that the issue could be solved with a simple instruction. If she had asked him to help her kill the hidden boss, Sungjin would have had to choose between hunting trolls or going to help her.
‘I’m glad it was nothing major.’
But, then he heard another announcement from the Operator.
[The Chosen One requested your teleportation. Will you accept the request?]
Sungjin stared at the Cube. This time it was Nada.
“Hey Kei. Sorry but... We’re standing before the Hidden Boss. Could you come and help real quick?”
‘Speak of the Devil...’
“Why? Do you think it’s going to be hard to beat?”
“No, it’s... there are too many idiots in my team...”
Sungjin scratched his head. He understood Nada’s desire to minimize risk in a place she was putting her life at stake, but she should be able to defeat the boss of this difficulty.
She was skilled enough to become one of the Final 10 in the past after all. Sungjin told her
“Even so, you should be more than capable of killing the boss yourself. You even have the bonus I gave you.”
“Hmm... Is that so?”
“Yes. In the fight... there is a Commander, and he sometimes issues the command ‘Shield Wall’. Have the Zombies attack the shields. Then the enemy will counterattack. Use that opening to attack, along with the hunters. Also, it might ‘Charge’. Just have everyone spread out if you hear that. You should be fine with this.”
Nada who was listening to his explanation then looked at him in the eye as she said
“Hmm... So you aren’t coming? It’s good to be on the safe side, no?”
“I have something I have to do over here. Go ahead and attempt the boss first. And if you really feel like you can’t manage, then call me. I’ll go at that time.”
“Oh really? Ok. Then I’ll try to fight it for 10 minutes and call you if I need help.”
It is possible to reattempt a summon 10 minutes after it is rejected. She must have felt that this fight would be quite a struggle.
“Ok. Try to do it yourself first.”
“Ok.”
“Reject request.”
Sungjin rejected two requests for summons in a row.
‘Haa... I’m busy too...’
He had told them to ‘Call when you need me’, but he also did not want for the ‘Chosen Ones’ to rely on him too much either. He wasn’t done Troll Hunting yet. Then suddenly, Cain who was sitting next to him got up and gave a short bark.
“Woof”
Sungjin looked at him.
“Hmm? What is it, Cain?”
Cain’s ears were raised. Soon after,
“Awooo~”
Even Sungjin’s could hear the howling of the wolves from afar.
“Awo awoo~”
“Awoo~”
The howling continued. Cain looked at Sungjin and gave another short bark.
“Woof.”
“Ok, lead the way, Cain”
Sungjin commanded. But Cain walked up to him and sat down before Sungjin.
“What, you want me to ride you?”
“Woof”
Sungjin awkwardly did as Cain wanted and sat on his back. He couldn’t have imagined that one day he would be sitting on top of Cain who was originally only as tall as his knee, but now that he looked at the wolf, it certainly looked large enough to ride.
Once Sungjin got on his back, Cain ran like the wind through the howling blizzard into the Frostplains.
“Go away! Bastards!”
Human voices
“Woof woof!”
He could hear the wolves as well. Hearing this, Cain ran even faster. In the distance
“Fire Ring!”
Someone had cast a spell. Sungjin spotted the person through Ghost Vision. Not because of the spell, but because his entire was glowing red.
“Cain, that guy”
Sungjin took out the ‘’Master’s Bell’ and rang it twice.
“Ring Ring”
Then Cain, who was already running at breakneck speed, shot forward like a bullet. Sungjin who was holding onto Cain’s shoulder hopped off at the appropriate timing and landed on the snow after a somersault in the air. But,
“Ahh!”
He heard someone cry out in pain. When Sungjin turned to look, Cain and his comrades were ripping the man to pieces. All of them were moving at an accelerated rate. Sungjin stared at his bell.
‘Wait... this affects summons of the summon as well’
The unnamed troll disappeared leaving behind two items. Sungjin had slain the troll without moving a finger.
“Good job Cain.”
“Woof.”
Sungjin picked up the Troll’s item and took a look around.
‘Are there no more trolls? Or... survivors?’
If there were more trolls, he needed to hunt them. If there were any survivors, he could do as he did at the Dragon’s lair and offer to kill the boss for them. Although he couldn’t flat out request the white coin, he could say
‘I am a Helper’
and most of the people facing imminent death before the timeout would gladly give him anything he asked for.
“Cain, is there any other...”
But then, the Cube gave yet another summon request.
[The Chosen One requested your teleportation. Will you accept the request?]
Sungjin frowned. A rejected summon cannot be reattempted until 10 minutes had passed. In other words, the person requesting the teleportation was none other than Franz. And Franz was the type of person who was stubborn and would not easily ask for help.
‘I thought I could believe in you...’
Sungjin checked the image coming from the Cube.
“Mr Kei! Here...”
But Franz couldn’t continue to speak.
“Lightning Bolt!”
The blinding light from the lightning whited out the screen. Sungjin blinked when he saw that.
‘What’s going on?’
Franz did not show up on the screen anymore.
“Clang Clang!”
He could only hear the sounds of blades colliding. Sungjin thought for a moment. There was no boss or hidden boss who used lightning magic in this round.
‘In other words... a troll?’
Sungjin was torn as to what he should do.
‘But I still don’t know if anyone’s left in this realm or not...’
But then he saw the reddened troll run past the screen. He saw a man with an axe and a shield from profile view. Upon seeing the person Sungjin felt chill shoot down his spine.
“Illich!”
But there was no time to be surprised. If he was really Illich, then the ‘Chosen One’ might die. Sungjin shouted at the Cube
“Move... I mean Summon. I mean I’ll go, whatever! Just send me now!”