Chapter 124 – Kariharan Frostplains (3)

Franz, Illich and the others arrived at the Ice Witch’s Frozen Palace. The two giant pillars supporting the interior of the palace transformed into two Ice Golems and came attacking the hunters.

But Frans and Illich displayed their martial prowess and quickly subdued the monsters. It was the same with the Ice Witch.

Her spells were definitely powerful and her Ice Walls annoying. Her fog spewing staff was very dangerous as well, but she was unable to put up a proper resistance between the two mighty hunters. Only once –

“I’m in dan…”

– a hunter was frozen solid by her fog, but Illich came charging in with his shield like a lightning bolt.

“Shield of Conviction”

He held his shield up to block her attack and pushed her away. Franz joined the fray. He swung his massive two handed sword to fire a sharp wind blade.

“Wind Slicer”

The Ice Witch raised an Ice Wall to block Franz’s attack as she backed away.

Franz’s wind blade divided the wall into halves, and so Illich and the other hunters ran in to rescue the frozen hunter and bring him to the other side of the wall.

The strange thing about the Witch’s freezing fog was that despite freezing the person on contact, the hunter would quickly return to normal as soon as he was warmed back up.

After 3 minutes and several clashes later

“Kyaaa!”

She died spewing blood, as Illich’s axe was planted in her chest.

[Boss Monster Ice Witch O’Elliah Cleared!]

The hunters celebrated at the Operator’s announcements.

“Good work everyone.”

“You two were really amazing, Illich and Franz.”

Franz glanced at Illich.

He had only spoken on the subject of the battle, and even that little bit was communicated with as few words as possible, so Franz was unable to make a judgement on his person. But the memory of Illich rescuing the team member from the clutches of death remained strongly imprinted in his mind.

Franz became filled with certainty.

‘This man… he’s a little hard to approach… but he would make an excellent teammate!’

But Illich’s sense of leadership and personal charisma was so high that Franz worried it might make the man unwilling to listen to Master Hunter Kei.

The ‘Chosen One’ group was designed to run with Master Hunter Kei at the core. To begin with, he was three or four times stronger than anyone else, and his power was distributed among the others.

And thanks to some source of information, he even provided details about the raids before it began. It was questionable if Kei would accept Illich and vice versa. While Franz was thinking about such things,

‘Clap Clap’

Illich clapped his hands twice to gather everyone’s attentions.

“Good work everyone. Now, let’s search for the next objective. Clearing isn’t our only goal, right?”

The hunters who were celebrating their victory reformed before him at his words. Illich’s perfectionism only made him even more difficult to approach as a person. He raised his hands to ask

“Does anyone here have the Treasure Hunter title?”

No one raised their hands. Franz stepped forward.

“Ah… I don’t have the Treasure Hunter title… but I know where the Hidden Boss is located.”

Franz knew where to look thanks to the ‘Special Briefing’ he attended this morning.

“… Is that so?”

The man stared at Franz with sharp eyes. He seemed to wonder where Franz might have obtained such information, but he didn’t pry further. Only,

“Then… Since I have the Treasure Hunter title, I’ll use it to find the hidden piece.”

‘Ohh…’

He even had the Treasure Hunter title. The usefulness of the Treasure Hunter passive could not be overstated since it greatly reduced the work necessary to find hidden bosses or pieces.

The man’s power was starting to make sense. Contribution points were important in the raids, but obtaining items and utilizing the item to their full effect were the most important part.

‘The Chooser’ Master Hunter Kei wore rings on every finger, and every item he wore looked impressive.

Illich spoke to the cube.

“Operator, use the Treasure Hunter skill. Tell me where the Hidden Piece is located.”

The Operator gave a hint.

[Lone star in the dark night sky]

[In the middle of winter…]

Illich suddenly looked up while listening and said

“Let’s go towards the ceiling. I recall seeing something like a six-pointed star.”

*

Sungjin held up the six-pointed star.

Lathion – Star of Winter

Legendary Material

Lonely Solitary Star

But it shines brighter than any other alone.

“What is this…”

He couldn’t understand the purpose of the item from the two lines of description. There was no other explanation attached.

‘Well… it’s listed as a material, so Kargos should know something.’

Sungjin placed the item into the cube for now. Thanks to the fireball he had cast without much thought, he had obtained the hidden piece easily.

‘Then next on the list is…’

Sungjin took a look round. The Hidden Boss was not all that far away. And thanks to the blizzard clearing up, it was much easier to move about. Sungjin quietly gazed up at the winter night sky and then thought

‘Ah… should I try it out here?’

He reached into the cube to extract Rajenta’s egg. He threw it in the air

“Come, Rajenta.”

Soon a Royal Griffin revealed itself. It must have been the first snow the bird had ever seen.

“Kyak Kyak”

Cried Rajenta as he paced around stepping on the snow.

‘He’s much larger… but he still has the mind of a child?’

Sungjin approached Rajenta as he thought so.

“Rajenta, I know you are enjoying it, but can you let me ride?”

“Kyal”

Rajenta calmly bent his legs to allow Sungjin to mount him. Sungjin took his place upon Rajenta’s back.

“Let’s go, the target is… Well, let’s get in the air first.”

Rajenta flew high into the sky with Sungjin. Sungjin looked down to survey the area.

‘It wasn’t that far…’

Besgoro’s ghost vision, the fresh snow, and the relatively flat terrain all worked to allow Sungjin to see very far into the distance. He said to Rajenta.

“Rajenta, can you rotate around once slowly?”

At his words, Rajenta flapped his wings as he slowly turned around. Although Rajenta only recently became able to fly, he diligently and accurately followed Sungjin’s requests. Once Rajenta had turned about 120 degrees

“Stop”

Sungjin saw a group of people in the distance. They weren’t moving, only standing. Sungjin whispered to Rajenta.

“That’s it. Do you see it?”

“Kyak”

Rajenta let out a strange noise.

“Did you understand?”

After asking twice, Rajenta answered by flying at high speeds towards the figures below where Sungjin had pointed to. He must have seen them as well.

‘He has a good eye.’

Rajenta flew towards the target at great speed. With this much speed, Sungjin no longer needed the flying carpet.

‘I should sell it at the auction house or something.’

While he was thinking so, Rajenta brought Sungjin straight up to the group of people. They were all frozen solid.

About twenty to thirty individuals had been frozen in place and were unable to move. The one in the front was a middle-aged man wearing a red mantle.

‘Hmm… I have to defrost him somehow…’

He didn’t feel like spending mana just for this.

‘Well, I guess since it IS a hidden boss…’

Sungjin summoned Soldamyr.

“Have you called for me, Master?”

“Yes, please thaw this man. With magic.”

“Yes, Master.”

“Scorching hands, Burning Touch”

While Soldamyr defrosted the man, Sungjin put away Artemio and picked up Moon Specter. He now had four swords. Picking the right sword for the right situation was part of Sungjin’s most basic strategy. Meanwhile

“Ugh…”

The man grasped his head as he began to moan.

“My… Head… my head…”

Sungjin did not know how long he was frozen here, but he could understand that the man might be having a headache. He simply stared at the man. If he were to attack now, he could end it then and there. But doing so would probably prompt the message

‘If you attack a non-hostile life form…’

So Sungjin stayed his hands. Within a five man raid, neither the boss nor the Hidden boss could possibly beat him.

“Why am I…”

The man turned his gaze around with unfocused eyes, then saw the people behind him.

“My… followers… frozen? I’m…”

He continued to speak to himself as if deeply confused, then he suddenly said

“Yes. Witch. We … have… to kill the witch.”

He let his mantle flutter once as he said

“Rise, Knights of the Red Lion.”

Then the men behind him began to break out of their frozen state and moved. They had just awoken and were not in their normal state yet.

Each of them grasped their head and looked around dazed. The leader with the Red Mantle looked upon them and announced

“Carry out the King’s orders. Our objective… Witch…”

He grasped his head again as if he had a severe headache

“No… to kill… Witch? Kill?”

And his eyes turned blue

“Yes to kill. Kill them. Kill!”

He shouted suddenly, going berserk. And at his words, each of the men behind him grasped their weapons and shouted

“We the Knights of the Red Lion, will follow the King’s orders”

Their eyes were all blue as well.

‘Well… I guess it’s a type of zombie?’

While Sungjin was thinking that, the commander raised his sword and shouted

“For the King! For the Golden Cloud!”

“For the King!”

That was when the Operator finally gave an announcement.

[Warning! Hidden Boss]

[Commander of the Knights of the Red Lion and his Knights have appeared.]

Sungjin said to Soldamyr after seeing them

“Let’s end their misery.”

“Yes, master.”

But Rajenta also pushed his way towards Sungjin.

“Kyaar”

“What, Rajenta you want to fight too?”

Meanwhile, the Knights began to advance towards Sungjin. Before Sungjin even responded

‘Flap’

Rajenta dashed forward like lightning and bit the knight by the head, then he flew more than ten meters into the sky before dropping him from the air. The poor knight had his back broken and died just ten seconds after being revived.

“Murderous thunder…”

Soldamyr began to chant a spell. Sungjin readied his sword and charged into the fray.