Chapter 117 – Frost Giant – [Three]

Even in the midst of the chaos, cheers erupted.

Seo Yun also widened her eyes in surprise and watched the falling magpie. Hitting a flying bird, no matter how skilled one was?

‘Skill beyond human… It truly proves he’s not human but a chimpanzee…’

He hadn’t hit the magpie’s body. He had struck its right wing.

With one wing completely burned away, the magpie flapped its remaining left wing in midair before plummeting down the mountain. More precisely, it fell onto a tree in the mountains. Buried in the snow piled high on the branches, its form disappeared from sight.

So, was it dead?

No. The fact that no Experience Points seeped in confirmed it was still alive. And considering that Frost Giant was a Priest, it was entirely possible for him to restore his burned body with a Healing Spell.

There was no time to chase after it and finish it off before that. The situation was too urgent to wander around searching for a magpie whose exact landing spot was unknown.

Although they had nearly killed the enemy leader, this place was still a scene of pandemonium.

Amidst the screaming people, eight Yetis were rampaging.

The Flame Spirit had been blocking the entrance, preventing the Yetis from entering, but even that had its limits. Using their monstrous physical abilities, the Yetis had broken through walls or climbed utility poles to leap down and enter the area, and haphazard gunfire was insufficient to take them down.

In this chaos, the response from those who should have been calmly aiming and subduing the monsters was disorganized. It was difficult to fight calmly with a three-meter-tall gorilla rampaging right in front of you, and the Dwarf Mage who should have been commanding them had disappeared earlier.

“Stop running and shoot, you idiots!”

Someone shouted that, though the person themselves was more focused on putting distance between themselves and the Yetis than on shooting.

Seo Yun knew a way to capture the attention of those Yetis and the people who were busy running everywhere or saving their own skins.

From behind Seo Yun, a brilliant light spread, dyeing the surroundings red.

It was the radiance of the Halo she had created, accepting the risk of revealing her Race. As it was daytime but the sunlight wasn’t strong, that red glow stood out prominently in this space.

Feeling the gazes of both enemies and allies drawn to her, Seo Yun shouted.

“Stop panicking and fight together!”

With that, she rushed to help a man who had his gun snatched by a Yeti and was floundering.

Seo Yun swung her Flaming Sword to slice through the fist of the Yeti about to strike the man down. A scream erupted from the Yeti’s mouth, capturing everyone’s attention once more.

Seo Yun drove her sword deep into the belly of the roaring Yeti, ending its pain, then dashed toward another Yeti struggling with Han Siwoo.

From her mouth flowed not a Spell, but an order.

“You there, Mr. Lee Hyeokjin! Take the injured person beside you and fight from inside that management building over there!”

It was no time to leisurely chant Magic Spells when there were far too many Yetis nearby.

Relying on the Strength-increasing Spell she had cast earlier, Seo Yun moved her legs. With her amplified leg strength, she covered long distances in an instant, repeatedly thrusting the burning tip of her sword into some part of a Yeti’s body.

Ignoring the heavy sensation transmitted to her hands and arms, the roars of the monsters ringing in her ears, and the Experience Points that still granted a sense of pleasure in her mind amidst it all, she moved her entire body without rest.

Once, she was nearly killed when caught in a Yeti’s large hand, barely surviving thanks to concentrated fire from the people around her, but even then, she sprang back up and charged at another monster.

Even Seo Yun herself didn’t know how she had survived this fierce battle. Only that as time passed, she was somehow still alive, and around her lay the corpses of monsters, their bodies charred and split somewhere or riddled with dozens of bullet wounds.

Around the time she realized this fact, a cheer erupted.

“We survived!”

People who were reveling in the joy of survival approached Seo Yun. As if trying to praise the greatest contributor to this victory, they started to say something to her but then stopped.

A Priest had much to do after the battle ended.

Seo Yun approached the wounded nearby. She pushed protruding intestines back in and chanted a Healing Spell. Even after finishing treating one person, she couldn’t rest.

There were too many injured or dead, and even more who were dying.

After some time passed, the joy of survival faded, replaced by a cold silence.

In this battle, there was someone praised by everyone, and also someone cursed by everyone.

The one who got cursed was none other than the Dwarf Mage who had gathered Players here to Mount Taebaek from various Survivor Groups.

That Dwarf, famous for usually operating using magical illusions, was now believed to have finally used his real body in the fight against the Yetis. Everyone had seen him carrying a gun and firing bullets. So they hadn’t known it was an illusion until now.

Finally appearing at the location only after the situation was under control, the Dwarf Mage had to bear the brunt of everyone’s criticism for being in a safe place alone while they all fought for their lives.

Yet the Dwarf retorted boldly.

“Well, I’m the big boss of our village, should I be on the dangerous front lines? All I needed to do was command well!”

Seeing the Dwarf act so shamelessly, people shifted their criticism elsewhere.

They criticized whether the information that had gathered people here was even reliable.

“That story about the Frost Giant’s lair being full of rice—think about it, isn’t it just nonsense on the level of saying there’s hidden gold bullion in the back mountain? That Frost Giant guy claimed there’s nothing we want in his lair!”

At this point, the person who should have been explaining to everyone—the Rogue who brought the information that the Giant’s Lair was full of rice—could no longer speak. He was dead with a gunshot wound to his back, though no one knew exactly when he had died.

Ultimately, the Dwarf Mage had to explain alone, but it seemed even he didn’t know for sure if the rice storage truly existed.

Yet, his insistence was astonishingly shameless.

“Even so, are we just going to give up now after so many people have died? Today’s fight reduced the Yeti numbers a lot and left the Frost Giant half-dead! There’s no better opportunity than now to raid his lair!”

“What’s the use if there’s no rice in the Giant’s Lair, whether we capture it or not?””That rogue who got himself killed wouldn’t have tried to scam everyone for no reason, so there must be something there! And a giant would need an enormous amount of provisions to maintain that huge body…”

The Dwarf Mage seized the moment to insist they immediately go and slay the Frost Giant, but the response from the people was icy.

“Then why don’t you go take a picture of the rice warehouse? You’re such a great mage, you must have an Invisibility Spell, right?”

“When I went there last time, the entrance to that den-like place was blocked by rocks. Even with invisibility, you can’t get in.”

Swear words immediately erupted from all around. They pressed, asking how they were supposed to risk their lives and fight like this, demanding proper information.

Under everyone’s criticism, the Dwarf Mage, seemingly angered, shouted back sharply.

“If you don’t want to work with me, then leave!”

The problem was that players who had gathered from all over really did start returning to where they came from. From Seo Yun’s perspective, they had been lured by uncertain information, but it seemed they only realized the recklessness of this endeavor after experiencing a fight where people were dropping like flies.

The players came to Seo Yun’s party, telling them to come to their villages later, that they would treat them like lords, and then left one by one.

There were still some members left, but it wasn’t enough.

In the end, with about half the members gone, the ‘Frost Giant Raid Party’ was no longer a size worthy of being called a raid party. With this number, it would likely be difficult to wage battle against the Yetis still remaining on Mount Taebaek.

Seo Yun thought this gathering would disband as it was, but that expectation was wrong.

“We have to finish off that Frost Giant bastard before he recovers… Damn sons of bitches, really. Thank you so much for staying, Miss Seo Yun.”

It seemed the Dwarf Mage still hadn’t given up. Seo Yun found his obsession hard to understand.

“Is your village struggling too, Mister? Will you starve if you can’t get rice this time?”

At Seo Yun’s question, the Dwarf Mage sighed.

“This year, we’ll manage to scrape by somehow.”

“Then why go to such lengths?”

“Because next year and the year after are uncertain. How can we live, anxious about whether we’ll even have potatoes to put in our throats then? All of this is a problem that would be solved if we could get our hands on a warehouse full of rice.”

“But risking your life fighting monsters for a rice warehouse you don’t even know exists seems like a gamble.”

“It is a gamble. But if we continue like this, our fate is to all starve to death someday. Can we just sit still then? When the proper method doesn’t work, that’s when you really have to gamble. If you don’t even try because it’s reckless and the chances are slim, all you’re doing is sitting down to die.”

As far as Seo Yun knew, that dwarf’s mining village wasn’t extremely poor. They must have secured a few Priest players for farming, and they had been trading with trolls until now, so they were the most well-off in the vicinity.

Yet, their lives were said to be like a ferry boat in stormy waves. Even in Happy Village, estimated to be the best on the Korean Peninsula, they were in a situation where they couldn’t afford to release less than thirty people from Petrification due to worries about provisions two years from now. The dwarf’s village was worse off than that.

The Dwarf Mage complained that this anxiety was driving him crazy.

“Even if I can’t die peacefully, I’ll try something and then die.”

The Dwarf Mage was hoping for his group’s long-term, stable survival. The future was so uncertain like this that it felt maddening, so he felt he had to cling to even low-probability chances. That’s why he had been immediately captivated by the information the rogue brought, and it was the same now.

“So please, fight alongside us all the way, okay? I’ll make sure the reward is worth your while…”

At the dwarf’s plea, Seo Yun nodded. It wasn’t because she was moved by the dwarf’s words or because she expected to receive some amazing reward. It was simply because continuing to participate in the hunt was beneficial for her side.

Just this battle alone, they had earned another massive amount of Experience Points. Seo Yun’s three team members, who had higher levels than everyone else, monopolized all the EXP from the Yetis slain here. It wasn’t even surprising that Gaeulbi and Han Siwoo, whose levels had already risen a few hours ago, had each gained another level.

Gaeulbi said with an extremely happy expression:

“Did you see me hit the Frost Giant? Seo Yun, you evacuated me first as soon as the fight started, right?”

“You can’t be in the middle of a firefight without armor, so that’s why.”

“I obviously know the reason and I’m thankful you looked out for me, but don’t do that next time! No matter how bullet-ridden the environment is, I’ll find a way to do my part somehow…”

Several people witnessed Gaeulbi shoot down a magpie fleeing into the sky. Because of that, she received the most praise after Seo Yun, which seemed to have satisfied her self-esteem.

Perhaps because of that? Even though many people died, Gaeulbi looked quite cheerful.

Seo Yun subtly hinted that it might not look good if people who had lost comrades saw her smiling like that, but it was no use. Gaeulbi just grinned again and said:

“Too bad for those people, but it’s not an era where we can exercise empathy for each and every one, is it? No matter what happens to others, I just need you guys to be safe!”

The smile disappeared from Gaeulbi’s lips, which had been so jubilant, the next day.

Since they immediately lacked the forces to wage a decisive battle against the Frost Giant, the Dwarf Mage brought reinforcements from somewhere, but they weren’t Gangwon-do players.

Those the dwarf brought were soldiers. Soldiers from the Dawn Corps who had been roaming this area.