Chapter 124

[You have leveled up!]

[You have leveled up!]

...

Suho continued his advance into the Echo Forest, mercilessly smashing the endless waves of Ice Golems.

[Clear a path! Keep pushing!]

[Bring the hammer of death down upon every accursed creature that blocks the Young Monarch's path!]

With Quay leading the charge and Beru cheering them on, Suho's shadow army pressed forward without hesitation. No matter how often the Ice Golems stubbornly blocking their path regenerated. Even if it meant walking straight into the heart of enemy territory.

'If Mother's up ahead!'

Suho would not stop his advance.

"Break through!"

[GRAAAAAH!]

It was a brutal battle of relentless killing and dying, of endless resurrection. And Suho never hid behind his soldiers. He led them all, destroying and smashing the golems...

'... My goodness.'

Sirka watched his back in utter astonishment.

'So this is Chacha's son.'

If watching Cha Haein fight was like watching a beautiful dance, Suho's fighting was a storm itself. At its center, he pulverized enemies far larger than himself.

GRAAAAH!

The shadow soldiers were not to be outdone. Led by the two Shadow Minotaurs, they fought a vicious close-quarters battle. Overwhelming violence poured from their powerful bodies!

And when Beru added his encouragement...

[Beru uses 'Skill: Harsh Command.']

['Skill: Harsh Command' increases the stats of beast-type shadow soldiers by 50%.]

[As a side effect of 'Skill: Harsh Command,' the beast-type shadow soldiers are afflicted with the Curse of Madness.]

[ROAAAAAR!]

Transformed into berserkers incarnate, Mino and Tau went completely wild. Swinging muscular arms that had swollen almost to bursting, they began laying waste not just to the Ice Golems, but to the forest itself.

CRUNCH! BOOM!

KABOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

It was enough to make the Ice Golems look pitiful.

'But the real danger starts now.'

Sirka called out a warning to Suho.

"This is where the Echo Forest begins! And from here on—!"

Before she could finish, an enormous volley of ice arrows began raining down on the shadow soldiers from within the forest.

WHOOSH-WHOOSH-WHOOSH!

"...!"

A peculiar gleam entered Suho's eyes at the sight. The soldiers struck by the arrows froze solid on the spot.

Then came a cracking sound.

CRACK!

They shattered into fragments of ice right where they stood.

Suho turned and spotted the archers. Familiar figures stood in the densely packed trees of the Echo Forest, their bows aimed his way.

"Ice elves?"

"No! They're...!"

Conflicting emotions crossed Sirka's face as she spoke.

"... Members of our tribe whose souls were devoured by the spirits of the Echo Forest."

'Ah, so that's what they meant.'

Suho recalled what the ice elves in the village had told him about the Echo Forest. It was forbidden ground, a place even ice elves could not enter and emerge from alive. This was precisely why.

'So that's what being bewitched by spirits means.'

Deflecting their arrows with his swords, Suho quickly studied the White Ghosts aiming their bows from the dense branches. Their eyes were unfocused, and pure madness was all he could sense in those empty gazes.

Their bodies were half-frozen, too. Whenever the shadow soldiers' counterattacks tore or severed their flesh, a bitterly cold flurry swept in from somewhere and joined the wounds back together. No, to be precise, it froze them back together.

"They're similar to the Ice Golems."

"Actually... they're the same things."

Suho nodded at Sirka's troubled reply.

[Ice Golem]

[Ice Golem]

...

Just as Sirka had explained, the ice elves possessed by spirits bore the label 'Ice Golem' above their heads. And as if to prove it, the longer the battle continued and the more ice accumulated on their wounds through repeated regeneration, the less they resembled ice elves and the more they looked like Ice Golems.

While the golems outside the forest had formed when spirits inhabited the blizzard, these were spirits inhabiting the corpses of ice elves who had died in the Echo Forest. Yet they still fired their bows expertly, using skills ingrained in their bodies even after death. Watching them, Suho suddenly realized something.

"Were these the ones who shot at us in the beginning?"

The Ice Golems had collapsed the ground and sent him plummeting here. It seemed these were the ones who had attacked them with arrows just before those golems appeared. Essentially, they had been on the same side.

'... That means there's another Gate leading outside somewhere in this forest.'

They could hardly have flown through the sky to reach Earth. There had to be another passage.

"I-I can't go any farther."

Sirka, who had followed him this far, suddenly faltered.

"I want to keep going with you, but if I venture any deeper into the forest, the spirits will bewitch me just like them."

Suho looked at her. She had proven a guide very much to his liking in this blizzard that scrambled his senses, and he wanted to keep her with him.

"Isn't there any way to keep the spirits away?"

"Almost none. Our tribe naturally has a strong affinity with the spirits here. If they deliberately target me, there's almost no way to protect my mind."

"Almost none means there is a way, right?"

"Hmm. Well, actually..."

"...?"

Suho looked puzzled when Sirka suddenly fixed her eyes on him.

"I'm only asking just in case, but that fur coat..."

"Fur coat? Oh, this?"

"Yes. That's Ice Bear hide, isn't it?"

"Oh. That's right."

As Suho nodded, Sirka hesitantly continued.

"Actually... ice spirits don't get along with Ice Bears. So if I wore that coat, the spirits wouldn't come near me."

"Oh, is that all?"

"Ah! O-of course, I'm absolutely not asking you to give it to me! An Ice Bear's hide is a warrior's symbol. I know how much that coat means to the warrior who killed the Ice Bear—"

CLINK.

[You have purchased 'Item: Ice Bear Robe.']

"Here. Put it on."

"...!"

As a new fur coat suddenly appeared in Suho's hands, Sirka's wide eyes filled with overwhelming gratitude.

"Y-you...! You're a really good guy!"

"Just hurry up and put it on. Can't you see we're busy?"

Even as they spoke, a tremendous rain of arrows was pouring down from every direction. While Sirka hastily donned the fur coat, Suho opened his inventory and switched his equipment.

As it happened, he had two bows in his inventory, prepared for the Glacier Dungeon. One was the greatbow he had bought with Rio Singh's corporate card. The second was quite an impressive item that Reaper Guild guildmaster Lim Taegyu had readily lent him.

[Reaper’s Bow (Replica)]

Acquisition Difficulty: A

Type: Bow

Attack +90

A manufactured product modeled after the 'Reaper’s Bow (S),' the symbol of the Reaper Guild.

Its attack power is unremarkable for its rank, but its exceptional mana-arrow cohesion triples the effects of archer skills.

... Of course, Suho had little need for this item. Unlike ordinary archer hunters, he did not condense mana to create mana arrows. He simply turned shadow soldiers into arrows and fired them. Still, there was no telling what might happen in a dungeon. If someone offered to lend it to him for free, how could he refuse?

'I knew I was right to take it.'

Suho took the greatbow Rio Singh had bought him and abruptly handed the other bow, the Reaper’s Bow (Replica), to Sirka.

"Here, I'll lend you this too. Start fighting."

"...!"

Sirka looked several times more stunned than when she had received the fur coat.

"W-what? You're giving me a bow this good?!"

"No, I said I'm lending it to you. It's not even mine."

"Thank you so much! I'll do my very best!"

He immediately understood what she meant by doing her best. The moment Sirka reverently accepted the replica Reaper’s Bow in both hands, her entire presence changed. If Beru's Harsh Command drove beast-type magic beasts mad, a fine bow drove an archer mad.

WHOOOOSH!

An incredible concentration of mana swirled around Sirka's bow, and six mana arrows instantly formed.

"I can actually do this?!"

Normally, she could only create two mana arrows at once. She was overcome with emotion.

When she released the string, the six mana arrows shot out at tremendous speed, intercepting the enemy arrows in midair.

CRACK!

The colliding arrows scattered into a shower of ice dust.

"Just trust me and follow! I'll keep guiding you to where Chacha might be!"

Her confidence restored, Sirka stepped ahead of Suho.

But just then—

"Move."

A sudden chill ran through Sirka. She hurriedly looked back, her pupils widening. There stood...

ROAAAAAR!

Suho, nocking a black arrow of tremendous power on his greatbow.

"Go wreak all the havoc you want, Quay."

BOOOOM!

At that instant, a black bolt of lightning flew through the white blizzard.

"My goodness."

Sirka was astounded. The black arrow Suho had fired was lightning itself. As though it had eyes, it zigzagged rather than flying straight, changing direction freely as it pierced enemy bodies.

CRASH-CRASH-CRASH!

The ice elves struck by that lightning began shattering one after another like ice sculptures. And in that instant, Sirka saw them: the spirits of the Echo Forest dissipating like smoke from the ice elves' crumbling bodies. And fresh spirits approaching to claim the empty bodies again, as though they had been waiting for this very moment.

But Suho, too, sensed those spirits.

"I'm not letting you take them."

The Ice Golems he had encountered until now had been mere lumps of ice without bodies of their own. These, however, were corpses with at least some flesh remaining. Until the spirits reclaimed those corpses, he still had a chance.

[This target is eligible for Shadow Extraction.]

[This target is eligible for Shadow Extraction.]

[This target is eligible for Shadow Extraction.]

...

Suho grinned. He swiftly returned several Shadow Kobolds to nothingness, freeing up slots. Then, before the spirits could take those valuable corpses...

"Arise."

He snatched them up first.

At that instant—

WHOOOOSH!

Black shadows began surging up from the corpses shattered like fragments of ice.

[Shadow Extraction successful.]

[Shadow Extraction successful.]

[Shadow Extraction successful.]

...