CH 179

Harsh, freezing winds raged through the vicinity, leaving several red marks on the party members’ faces.

Danesh gritted his teeth and grumbled, “Damn it! The soup we brought froze in the canteen!”

“Well, I guess we’ll be biting down on frozen soup for dinner. We could end up being toothless by tomorrow,” Swemer said.

Hawk shouted while trying to take his boots off, “I can’t feel my feet!”

“Damn it! How many times did I tell you to be careful of frostbite?!” Harpoon grumbled in annoyance while tearing a low-rank fire magic scroll. A long flame appeared from the scroll and surrounded Hawk’s feet. However, the flame did not last long, as the icy winds extinguished it.

Ramel squinted through half-frozen eyelids and said, “It feels as if all of that hot lava a few days ago was something I just dreamt up…”

The party was camping in the ice fields north of the underground. They had been delighted while preparing for this trip just a week before, looking forward to getting away from the blistering heat of the lava. However, reality had shattered their expectations the moment they crossed the boundary into the ice fields.

***

“The winds are crazy here!” Henrick shouted as loudly as he could, but even he found it difficult to hear his own voice because of the raging winds around them.

The boundary between the southern lava fields and the northern ice fields raged with overwhelmingly strong winds due to the stark difference in temperature. The winds were powerful enough to lift the party members off the ground slightly from time to time, to the point that they were confused as to whether they were really two hundred floors deep underground.

The lightweight skeletons grabbed tightly onto each other so they would not be blown away by the winds.

As the men were considering tying themselves to each other with a rope just in case the wind blew one of them away, Kang Yoon-Soo, who was in the lead, looked backward and called out, “Harpoon.”

“What is it?” Harpoon asked nervously.

The men found it difficult to approach or even talk to Kang Yoon-Soo after witnessing him brazenly threatening the Blacksmith of Fire without any fear. They avoided him not only because he was a scarily evil person, but also because they hd decided that they stood to gain nothing good from getting involved with a crazy person like him.

Kang Yoon-Soo said, “We need potions of petrification.”

“Where would you use those smelly things? There aren’t any monsters attacking us or golems that we have to deceive here,” Harpoon replied.

“We’ll become heavier,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

Harpoon smacked his own forehead and exclaimed, “Aha! So there was that method!”

Harpoon, who was a collector of magical artifacts and items, opened his backpack—a trove that was sure to make any magician envious. He rummaged through it for a while, then took out a grayish potion bottle.

“Listen up. Take turns drinking a few drops from this bottle. You’ll turn into a statue for a full day if you drink too much, so be careful!” Harpoon warned the party.

It took quite a while for everyone to drink from the bottle, as there were quite a few of them. Their skins started to harden and their bodies became as heavy as lead after drinking the potion of petrification.

Iris awkwardly flapped her hardened wings and said, “My body feels very heavy and slow, and my wings feel stiff too. I won’t be able to fly at this rate.”

“You do know that you can still fly without your wings in this situation, right?” Henrick remarked.

Shaneth walked a few steps before saying with a nod, “I’ll have to walk slower than usual, but there’s certainly no worry of being blown away by the wind.”

The party pressed on with their journey. They were engulfed by numerous storms on the way, but none of them were blown away by the strong winds or went missing. In fact, the men started pointing and laughing at the underground creatures that were swept up by the winds after getting used to walking through the storms.

“Look! There’s a flying pig! Haha!”

“Is this the eye of the storm? I never thought such a peaceful place could exist in the midst of a storm.”

“This one is quite a ferocious storm. I never imagined I’d get to see a landworm twist and dance in midair, keke!”

The scenery slowly began to change once they crossed the boundary between the two fields and went farther north. A chilly ice field took the place of the fiery lava fields, and freezing cold replaced the murderous heat they had been subjected to just a few days before.

The party members changed into thick fur clothing that they had painstakingly obtained from the lava region. Every few steps they took, they were buried in snow up to the legs. After a while, Kang Yoon-Soo instructed them to dig through the snow and prepare to set up camp in it.

“Do we really have to do that?” Danesh grumbled, voicing his obvious displeasure at Kang Yoon-Soo’s orders.

“You’ll freeze to death if you don’t,” Kang Yoon-Soo nonchalantly replied before starting to shovel through the snow.

The men shrugged and followed suit. They lived up to their reputation as men who had been abducted and forced to mine for many years, plowing easily through the snow.

“Pyrokinesis!” Shaneth called out. Her flames melted the snow and made it much easier for the party to dig through.

They set up camp after digging through the snow, and began to prepare for dinner once they started to feel hungry. However, their rations were in bad shape due to the freezing cold that was cold enough to inflict frostbite on even the strong men.

“This is driving me crazy. I never imagined I would miss that hot lava!” Swemer grumbled before throwing aside his water canteen, after giving up on chewing the frozen soup in it.

Shaneth picked up the canteen and held it with her warm hands. Then, the soup slowly started to melt and a scrumptious aroma filled the camp.

“I know everyone is tired, but please hang in there,” she said with a smile before she passed the canteen to Swemer. Then, she added, “Kang Yoon-Soo might drink a lot and lie a lot, and often does some pretty crazy stuff, but he’s a kind and gentle person on the inside. So please try to understand him a little bit. I’m really grateful for the fact that all of you have decided to travel alongside us.”

She then turned around and went to the other camps to light campfires for the others. Any campfires she lit were not extinguished by the harsh, cold winds. The men looked at her in awe.

“To think there could be such an angel this deep underground.”

“This… It’s really warm…”

“Damn it, I got snow in my eyes.”

The men, whose noses were red due to the cold, thanked Shaneth for the fire and ate their freshly-warmed dinner.

As night fell, the party members all tucked themselves in and braced for the cold, winter-like night. Meanwhile, the undead remained out in the snow.

Then, morning came and sunlight shone down on their faces. In truth, there was no sun underground, but the many stones on the ceiling shone with light that imitated the sunlight. The freezing cold was still there, but the weather was somewhat less intense in the morning.

Kang Yoon-Soo called out all of his summons.

Acle appeared in a swirl of frost and looked around his surroundings, then broke out into laughter and exclaimed, “Kuhaha! This is my world now! A field of snow on top of the Frozen Crown? No one can possibly stand against me now!”

Kang Yoon-Soo snatched the crown off the excited Acle’s head.

“What the hell are you doing?!” Acle protested.

“You might become stronger if you use the Frozen Crown, but you’ll go crazy if you use it for too long,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

“Hmph! I’ll still be no different from you! Give it back!” Acle shouted.

“No,” Kang Yoon-Soo said firmly.

While Kang Yoon-Soo and Acle were scrambling around for the crown, Mini-Lich walked over and spoke to Kalriven, saying, “Death General Kalriven. I have read about you in Nakron’s diary.”

“So you are a lich, but I feel no power that can assert dominance over the undead from you…” Kalriven said while staring down at Mini-Lich.

However, Mini-Lich did not seem to mind at all as it replied, “I don’t think I need to assert dominance over the undead. That’s because I never planned to in the first place.”

“That is nothing but a brazen lie. There is no way a lich would ever lack ambition!” Kalriven retorted before drawing its sword threateningly. It added, “I am the most loyal undead to my lord. Do not get any ideas of trying to take my spot even though you are a lich.”

“Death General Kalriven, I acknowledge you and don’t doubt your loyalty at all. I’ve read about your loyalty from Nakron’s diary,” Mini-Lich said.

“Why do you acknowledge me so easily…?” Kalriven asked, perplexed. This was because liches were quite well-known for being arrogant and cunning.

Mini-Lich clacked its jaws and replied, “A position should be given to those who prove their worth through their abilities. That’s a no-brainer.”

“I think… You are not so bad after all,” Kalriven muttered before extending its hand toward the small lich. Mini-Lich reached out and shook the Death General’s hand.

Meanwhile, Sally emerged from a weak, flickering flame, jumping in surprise at the extreme cold. She exclaimed while shivering, “Kyaaah! It’s too cold here!”

Then, she leaped onto White and clung to him. White growled in annoyance, but then curled around Sally and hugged her. Sally buried herself in the werewolf’s furry body, beaming happily while exclaiming, “Wow! Doggy’s fur is really warm!”

“Ramelkrog,” White said before starting to lick Sally with its tongue.

“Hihihi! That tickles, doggy!” Sally exclaimed, laughing.

Acle, who had given up on snatching the crown back from Kang Yoon-Soo, crossed his arms and asked, “Ramelkrog? Hey, lich. What did that werewolf say just now?”

“I’m certain it meant ‘this will be my meal today’,” Mini-Lich replied confidently.

Sally’s face turned ghastly pale before she ran away from the werewolf. “Waaaah! Help me, papa! Doggy is trying to eat Sally!” she cried while clinging to Kang Yoon-Soo.

Kang Yoon-Soo pulled Sally off and corrected her, saying, “‘Ramelkrog’ means ‘This is just right for keeping me nice and warm’.”

“Really? Sniff! Still, Sally is not going back to doggy,” Sally said.

“Come here, Sally,” Shaneth called out to the little girl. Sally sniffled before walking over to her and burying her face in her chest.

White seemed to be disappointed by the fact that it no longer had its own heater to keep it warm. Instead, it ran around the ice fields to keep itself warm.

“You’re really stupid, aren’t you? You got it wrong the last time as well. How is it that your translation is always wrong?” Acle grumbled, furrowing his brow.

“It must be because I’m stupid. I need to study more,” Mini-Lich replied.

“Hmph! I’ll help you out later if you need it, so keep continuing your research for now,” Acle said haughtily.

“Thank you very much, Acle. I’m really glad to be your friend,” Mini-Lich said.

“Tsk… Shut up. I won’t feel anything toward you even if you say something like that,” Acle grumbled, even while making a table out of ice for Mini-Lich to use.

Light appeared while holding Sharp’s hand once again, looking around excitedly and exclaiming, “Wow! It’s snowing! Snow! Sharp, do you want to build a snowman?”

“Huu… Huu… It’s too cold… I don’t want to…” Sharp replied.

Tragically, Sharp could not even make a snowball because of his blade-like fingers, which cut up the snow whenever he tried to form it into a ball.

“Huu… Huu… Huu… To think that I can’t even make a snowball…! I’m really pathetic… I’m a pathetic, useless loser…” Sharp lamented.

“It’s alright, Sharp! Your fingers are pretty useful in many ways!” Light said, trying to cheer Sharp up.

“Really…? How are they useful…?” Sharp asked expectantly.

“Hmm… You’re really good at peeling fruits! Ah, but this place is too cold for fruits to grow in the first place…” Light said.

“Huu… Huu… Huu…! I knew it! I’m a pathetic, useless loser!” Sharp cried.

It was uncommon to see a human control such a wide variety of summoned creatures. However, the men were not surprised at all, as the man who had called on them was Kang Yoon-Soo.

Harpoon muttered while watching Light make a snowman, “Come to think of it… Aren’t we underground? How is it possible for it to be snowing here? I don’t see any clouds on the ceiling…”

“Who knows…” Hawk replied while yawning.

Danesh cracked his knuckles and said, “We should be hunting those crazy bastards now that we’re here in the ice fields, right? I’m itching to have a good stretch soon!”

The Frenzied Ones were the descendants of the Dragon of Destruction, and Kang Yoon-Soo planned to hunt them down to fill the Holy Chalice of Blood.

Kang Yoon-Soo nodded and replied, “We’ll kill them all.”

“Alright, let’s have a good workout then! What should we do first?” Danesh asked.

“Dig,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

The men stared at Kang Yoon-Soo with dumbfounded expressions.

Recifer asked in confusion, “What do you mean by that? Didn’t we shovel all night long last night?”

Kang Yoon-Soo replied, “We’ll fill the ice fields with lava.”

“What did you say?” Swemer muttered, feeling sweat form on the palm of the hand that was gripping his spear. He asked, “What do we need to do that for?”

“We have to change the climate first,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

As always, Kang Yoon-Soo’s words only confused the party even further.