Chapter 118

“A-a skill that summons a humanoid creature?!”

“There are summoning skills like that?”

“I've seen B-rank summoners summon puppets, but...”

“Puppets, my ass! That woman looks like a real person to me! Even her mana feels at least B-rank!”

“How does that make sense? You said he was a C-rank summoner! How does a C-rank summon a B-rank?”

Murmurs spread through the crowd.

“... Suho, want me to interpret?”

“No. I think I can more or less tell from their faces.”

Watching the hulking men crowd around them and chatter, Suho and Esil almost found them cute.

Then again, hunters' main interests were the same, regardless of nationality.

'What's that item he's using? Where did he buy it?'

'And what's that skill? That's pretty amazing.'

Only two years had passed since the Cataclysm. Information still wasn't widely shared, so even high-ranking hunters in major guilds inevitably had plenty they didn't know.

Of course, all that curiosity ultimately came down to who was stronger. But Suho's summoning(?) skill had piqued the Scavenger Guild members' curiosity enough to eclipse even that concern.

In particular, the expression on Derek Johnson's face was hard to put into words. He was the A-rank hunter who had first gauged Suho's mana.

“No, even being generous, he's barely around B-rank. There's no way he could use a skill like this with so little mana...”

He was fairly confident in his ability to gauge other people's mana. It was common knowledge that no matter how good your skill was, you couldn't get its full potential out of it without enough mana.

Yet the astonishing ability Suho had shown was absolutely beyond anything a “C-rank summoner” could accomplish.

Which meant...

'He's hiding his mana? Just how good is his mana control?!'

The higher a hunter's rank, the more likely they were to keep their mana concealed. That wasn't so much a deliberate attempt to hide it as the result of having perfect control over it.

Why?

Hunters were human, after all. Simply living and breathing consumed tiny amounts of mana without their realizing it. But the more completely they controlled their mana, the more they could curb that unnecessary expenditure.

“Then is this what he's like with his mana hidden? What's his actual rank, then? A-rank? S-rank?”

“Ahem. As I just explained, Mr. Sung Suho is a C-rank summoner.”

“...!”

Laura repeated her earlier introduction beside him, and Derek Johnson looked incredulous.

“No way! You must have gotten something wrong, Laura! I guarantee this kid is at least A-rank! I'd stake everything I own on it!”

How could a C-rank summoner summon a B-rank creature in the first place?

Just then, Thomas Andre spoke.

“All right, enough chit-chat. Everyone's here, so let's move out.”

Everyone went still.

At those words, the Scavenger Guild members' expressions changed completely. The boisterous chatter vanished in an instant. All that remained were battle-hardened veterans radiating fierce fighting spirit.

As preparations to set out began in earnest, Laura immediately boarded the plane and headed home, saying she would return once the raid was over.

“Guildmaster, I'll brief you on the past three days.”

“Laura already gave me the gist. Basically, it's cold. And as it happens, I picked up some new information in Korea.”

That information was what Suho had told him about the ice elves. In exchange, Thomas Andre had promised to pay Suho a fair price after the raid. He already owed Suho compensation for joining at his request, so they had agreed to settle everything at once.

After passing the information on to his guild members and making sure they were thoroughly prepared for the archers, Thomas Andre grinned and gave his orders to the hunters watching him.

“That's enough talk. You know how we do things. We'll figure out the rest by diving right in.”

“Yes, boss!”

Scavenger's roar rang out on the freezing wind.

* * *

The moment he stepped into Pasad Island's field dungeon, Suho realized that the cold until now had been nothing.

A tremendous blizzard laced with blue mist suddenly obscured his vision, ushering in cold worthy of an ice age.

[Debuff: Curse of Bitter Cold has been applied.]

[Attack Speed decreases by –30%.]

[Movement Speed decreases by –30%.]

Of course, none of that affected Suho.

[Kandiaru's Blessing has been applied.]

[Debuff: Curse of Bitter Cold has been removed.]

'So this is the Glacier Dungeon.'

True to its name, everything in sight looked as though an ice age had swept through it. The streets were buried in snowdrifts, along with countless cars and the rubble of buildings that had collapsed under the weight of the snow.

Tall buildings, from large shopping malls to residential office towers, were coated in snow and ice, each resembling an ice castle. The devastation looked like the horrors of “that day,” when the dungeon break struck, had been frozen and preserved intact.

“This is awful.”

It almost seemed as though the cold, rather than the magic beasts, had destroyed this place.

As Suho trudged step by step through the blizzard and the frozen city with the Scavenger Guild, Beru kept his head poking out of Suho's shadow, busily surveying their surroundings.

“There appears to be no sign of the Itarim yet. But Young Monarch, are you not cold? Perhaps you should put something on?”

Even now, he didn't forget to check carefully on Suho's well-being.

Suho nodded and opened the shop window. In truth, the more mana someone had, the more easily they could endure ordinary heat and cold. But the cold here was beyond anything he had imagined.

CLINK.

[You have purchased Item: Ice Bear Robe.]

[You have purchased Item: Ice Bear Robe.]

[You have purchased Item: Ice Bear Robe.]

Suho purchased three fur garments trimmed with pure white fur and handed two to Esil and Rio Singh.

“Put these on.”

Esil accepted hers and put it on as if she were used to this, but Rio Singh was utterly stunned.

“S-Suho! This amazing artifact gift! I am moved!”

“... I'm lending it to you.”

'I need to sell it back later for gold.'

Even after Suho said it was only a loan, Rio Singh couldn't help feeling touched and astonished.

[Item: Ice Bear Robe]

Acquisition Difficulty: B

Type: Robe

Defense +50

A robe made from the pelt of an ice bear.

Its tough, durable hide provides high defense and excellent protection against the cold.

(However, movement slows if Strength is below 80.)

-Effect, Cold Resistance: Protects against the cold and grants resistance to freezing magic.

The Cold Resistance effect.

That single, simple property was remarkably effective. The moment they put on the Ice Bear Robes, the ice-age cold was shut out.

“An excellent choice indeed. An ice bear's hide should readily defend against the ice elves' freezing magic as well. Of course, arrows imbued with freezing magic may damage the garment, so do take ca—”

While Beru was busily explaining all this to Suho, the Scavenger Guild members' eyes widened yet again at the fur garments that had suddenly appeared in his hands.

“W-what?! He summons clothes too?”

“Well, if he can summon people, a fur coat isn't much.”

“Those look really warm.”

“Wait! Aren't those made from ice bear hides?”

“What? Give me one too!”

“Me too!”

“Shut up, you bastards!”

As his guild members crowded around Suho again, Thomas Andre barked at them and broke it up. Then he sheepishly held out a hand to Suho.

“...?”

“Got a spare?”

“...”

Rio Singh stepped boldly forward to speak to Thomas Andre on Suho's behalf.

“Show me the money.”

“...”

Despite Rio's words, Suho had no intention of opening the shop again, even if they offered to pay. With Thomas Andre's mana, he should be able to withstand this much cold anyway. And the other guild members hadn't arrived just a day or two ago; they were already wearing thick clothing.

WHOOOOOSH.

Still, as the blizzard grew fiercer, the Scavenger Guild members kept stealing envious glances at Suho and his companions.

“Incoming.”

Thomas Andre suddenly raised his head, his expression fierce.

SHWIIIIISH!

Arrows began flying in from somewhere, riding the wildly swirling blizzard.

“Defend!”

At his shout, the Scavenger Guild members deployed defensive skills all around them.

CRACKLE!

As the arrows struck the transparent mana barrier, a thin layer of white ice formed across it. More arrows kept coming.

That was where the trouble began.

CRACK! CRACK-CRACK!

“Guildmaster! The shield's about to break!”

“The freezing magic is weakening the shield's defense...!”

“You bastards!”

At his guild members' urgent cries, Thomas Andre glared toward the ice elves hidden behind the blizzard.

Skill: Reinforcement.

An enormous amount of mana condensed in his arm.

“Hyaaah!”

He punched the air, sending a mighty wave of energy surging through the blizzard before it exploded.

KABOOOOM!

The tremendous blast wiped out all the incoming arrows at once.

“Engage.”

At last, Scavenger's battle began in earnest.

But Suho was looking in the opposite direction.

[Ice Golem]

[Ice Golem]

He could sense enormous presences beyond the blizzard. Nothing was visible, but his Perception stat was warning him.

'Those are the real threat.'

Suho immediately drew his bow. Thomas Andre was already moving that way as well.

“The real threat's over there! Everyone, spread out!”

The S-rank hunter's senses had already given him command of the entire situation.

But that was when things went wrong.

The ice golems had never intended to attack them directly.

Their target was below.

GROOOOAR!

'Wait, don't tell me—!'

Realizing what those signs meant, Suho's expression turned grim.

“Rise, Quay!”

While a black arrow was forming from his shadow, the ice golems were already clasping their hands together and slamming them into the frozen ground.

KRA-KABOOM!

The ground split from the point of impact, and the road began to collapse.

“D-damn it! An earthquake!”

Thomas Andre's startled shout rang out. At that instant, the ground beneath their feet gave way, and they all began to fall.

As they fell, Esil suddenly realized something and urgently turned to Suho.

“Suho! A Gate! I can feel a dimensional rift below us!”

WHOOOOOSH!

By then, Suho had already realized it too: where this vicious blizzard had originated.

An ice age had suddenly descended on this small, sunlit island in the Pacific. The blizzard hadn't blown down from the sky. It had been coming from beneath the island all along.

FWOOOOOSH!

The bitterly cold blizzard sucked every hunter, Suho included, into the Gate.

'So you're inviting us in?'

Suho's eyes gleamed as he watched the freezing Gate swallow him.

'Then I can't turn up empty-handed.'

As he plummeted, Suho drew his bowstring without bothering to aim and fired Quay at the exact moment he passed through the Gate.