Chapter 126

At that same moment.

WHOOOOSH!

["O-oh no!"]

Beside Suho, Beru's antennae twitched. He urgently turned toward Suho and cried out.

["Young Monarch! The forest has suddenly begun to tremble!"]

At the same time, a tremendous mana storm swept out from deep within the forest. Its shock wave, on an entirely different scale from the blizzard they had endured so far, sent Suho's shadow soldiers flying backward.

Suho quickly sheltered all his shadow soldiers except the Shadow Minotaurs inside his shadow, then shouted.

"Mino! Tau!"

["Moooo!"]

At Suho's command, Mino and Tau each wrapped one arm around Suho and Sirka respectively, then drove their other fists hard into the ground.

CRASH!

Their powerful forearms plunged deep into the snow-covered earth like the roots of ancient trees.

Thanks to them, Suho and Sirka barely managed to keep from being swept away by the mana storm. Suho narrowed his eyes and peered beyond the blizzard.

"What's going on all of a sudden?"

["It seems there has been a clash of tremendous forces far in the distance!"]

Clinging tightly to Suho's head, Beru stared in the same direction as he answered.

"Even the spirits are panicking!"

As Sirka said, this seemed to have nothing to do with the spirits of Echo Forest.

The problem was that the storm was not a single blast. It was still raging.

The blizzard was disorienting enough already. With this added on top of it, simply moving forward had become difficult.

But Suho had no intention of halting the advance.

"Mother might be on the other side of this storm."

["I believe so as well."]

"We're pushing straight through."

["Moooo!"]

["MOOOO!"]

Responding to Suho's resolve, Mino and Tau roared and mustered all their strength. Holding Suho and Sirka against their bodies, they flattened themselves against the ground and began crawling forward in great strides.

They moved slowly, but the mana storm had temporarily halted the spirits' attacks as well, making their progress feel easier in that respect.

As they continued pushing through the mana storm, Sirka suddenly sniffed the air.

"Suho, there's a strange smell nearby."

"What kind of smell?"

"I don't know. I've never been this far in before, either. But... somehow, it smells warm."

"A warm smell? What kind of description is that?"

A smell that felt warm?

Suho was puzzled at first, but soon considered that it might not be nonsense. Ice elves were, after all, different from humans. She might be sensing something humans could not.

That thought brought something else to mind: the quest he had received as soon as he reached the ice elves' village.

[Quest: Spring Water of Echo Forest]

Mysterious spring water lies hidden somewhere in Echo Forest.

Find the spring water and claim your reward.

'... I've been ignoring it because finding Mother comes first.'

Suho had paid the quest little attention since receiving it. His sole purpose in coming to the Glacier Dungeon was to find clues about his mother. He had no time to waste on a quest when he had no idea how long it would take.

'In this cold, spring water or anything else would be frozen solid. How am I supposed to find it if it's buried under snow, too?'

But then...

'What if the spring water hasn't frozen, even in this cold?'

A warm smell.

There could only be so many things that retained warmth in this bitter cold.

'A thermal spring.'

Or a hot spring.

A thermal spring fed by hot groundwater would surely remain unfrozen even in this cold, its water still flowing.

"Which direction is that warm smell coming from?"

"Which direction? Hmm, hold on. It's mixed into this mana storm, so I'm not sure..."

Sirka furrowed her brow at his question and kept sniffing.

"I can't judge the distance... but it's definitely in the direction we're heading."

"Really? Then we'll run into it if we keep going."

Suho nodded. Had it been even slightly out of their way, he would have ignored the quest without hesitation.

A short while later, a hot spring appeared before him.

Steam rising gently from the water amid this bitter cold made for a mysterious and extraordinarily beautiful sight. Strangely enough, as they approached, even the wildly raging mana storm seemed to weaken a little.

"There really is a hot spring here."

Yet Suho's reaction to finding it was subdued. Quest or no quest, he was on his way to find his mother. This was no time to leisurely admire a hot spring.

'Besides, the quest is so easy that I can't expect much of a reward.'

Hadn't the recent Kasaka quest been proof enough? When a quest was too easy, its reward didn't seem to be much help either.

Unlike Suho, however, Sirka looked utterly astonished at the sight of Echo Forest's hot spring.

"My goodness! This place...!"

Recognizing the presence emanating from the hot spring, she could not help being shocked.

"I can sense Lord Sillad's presence here! Could this be Lord Sillad's...?!"

"Sillad? Who's that?"

Sirka swallowed hard at his question, then looked him in the face with a solemn expression.

"... Sillad, King of the Snow Folk, the Monarch of Frost."

"...!"

["Kieek?"]

"I think this is a place where our king stayed before his death."

Suho and Beru stared at one another, wide-eyed at her answer.

Come to think of it, Echo Forest was the ice elves' sanctuary. It was hardly strange for it to contain a place connected to the King of the Snow Folk, the Monarch of Frost.

* * *

DING!

[You have obtained 'Item: Spring Water of Echo Forest.']

[You have completed the quest.]

The quest was completed the instant Suho bought an empty potion bottle from the shop window and filled it with water from the hot spring.

For a moment, he wondered why his quests had all been so easy lately. On second thought, though, this quest was by no means easy. Wandering aimlessly through this wretched place in search of spring water whose whereabouts were unknown was no simple task.

Wasn't that precisely why he hadn't bothered with it in the first place?

[Your quest completion reward has arrived.]

[Would you like to view your reward?] (Y/N)

Before checking the reward, Suho first examined the information for 'Item: Spring Water of Echo Forest.'

[Item: Spring Water of Echo Forest]

Acquisition Difficulty: ??

Type: Consumable

Mysterious spring water from Echo Forest.

Drinking it or applying it to the body neutralizes poison.

"Aha. So it's a kind of antidote potion."

The water had been described as mysterious, and apparently it could neutralize poison. It was fascinating, but with the Blessing of Plagues, such detoxifying properties were of no use to Suho.

That opinion changed completely the instant he checked his quest reward.

[The following reward is available.]

Reward: 'Rune Stone: Craft Elixir of Life'

"Hmm? A skill for crafting the Elixir of Life?"

The skill sounded extraordinary from its name alone.

Beru, who knew exactly what that name meant, spoke in great astonishment.

["Young Monarch! The Elixir of Life is...!"]

Sometimes, reading an item's information was far simpler than listening to an explanation.

As Beru explained, Suho broke the Rune Stone and learned the skill.

DING!

[You have learned the crafting skill for 'Item: Elixir of Life.']

A [Crafting Skills] section appeared at the very bottom of Suho's skill window.

[Crafting Skills]

Consumable: Elixir of Life (1/3)

When Suho looked at 'Elixir of Life,' its description appeared.

[Item: Elixir of Life]

Acquisition Difficulty: S

Type: Consumable

A mysterious potion that cures all illnesses through powerful magic.

Its full effect is only achieved when an entire bottle is used.

"It cures every illness?!"

["Indeed. The Elixir of Life is a legendary remedy in an entirely different league from a mere healing potion."]

Beside him, Beru nodded in agreement as Suho's eyes widened.

Suho, who had expected little from this quest, grew considerably more serious. Naturally so.

When healers first appeared after the Cataclysm, they had attracted enormous attention from people around the world. A skill that could heal others—how incredible was that?

People had gone wild over the astonishing ability, which far surpassed modern medicine.

Unfortunately, healers' healing skills were not all-powerful. Skilled healers could treat even life-threatening wounds, but those capable of such treatment were exceedingly rare. And no matter how gifted a healer might be, even an S-rank healer had limits.

"But this cures every disease? It's practically a miracle drug for eternal youth and long life! Oh, maybe not eternal youth."

["Not aging is such a useless ability. If you die, you can become a shadow soldier inste—"]

"Anyway, I'll need to stock up on as much of this as possible. What are the other ingredients?"

Suho immediately checked the ingredients for the Elixir of Life.

[Elixir of Life]

-Ingredients

Purified Blood of the Demon King (0/1)

Fragment of the World Tree (0/1)

Spring Water of Echo Forest (1/1)

"Purified Blood of the Demon King? Fragment of the World Tree?"

Suho looked incredulous at the absurdly outlandish ingredients. As it turned out, the Spring Water of Echo Forest was the easiest one to obtain.

He didn't even know where this World Tree grew. And didn't the Demon King ultimately mean the Monarch who ruled the demons?

"Didn't you say the Demon King died ages ago? Where am I supposed to get his blood?"

["I have an excellent idea."]

Beru's expression turned sinister, his eyes gleaming.

["Let us make Esil the Demon King, then draw her blood."]

"Oh, right. That would work."

Suho nodded, accepting the wicked plan.

Esil was the only surviving demon noble and the sole candidate to become the ruler of the demons. Whether she could become a vessel for a Monarch was still unknown, but she certainly had the best chance.

That left just one ingredient.

"If we can find this World Tree, we might be able to make the Elixir of Life."

Even as they spoke, the shadow soldiers were already following Suho's orders, busily filling empty potion bottles with Spring Water of Echo Forest. They could not linger here forever, so they had to hurry.

Meanwhile, beside him, Sirka was looking around in wonder at the Monarch of Frost's presence emanating from the hot spring.

Then, at some point...

"..."

Her eyes grew hazy and lost focus.

Her expression resembled those of the ice elves enthralled by Echo Forest's spirits. As though truly bewitched, she slowly began approaching the hot spring.

Noticing a moment too late, Suho called out to her.

"What are you doing? If you get wet, you'll only be colder lat—"

SPLASH.

It was already too late.

The moment Sirka dipped her feet into the steaming hot spring—

WHOOOOSH!

An immense light suddenly began pouring from her body.