Magic Academy's Genius Blinker - Chapter 191
Chapter 191
Everything Frozen (4)
[Entering the dungeon ‘Ice Spirit’s Ravine’.]
A system message appeared in front of Baek Yu-seol, invisible to others. Since they were merely walking between ice cliffs, the others might not have even realized they had entered a dungeon.
“Hmm. The atmosphere has changed.”
“The mana concentration has settled.”
“Looks like something’s about to appear in earnest…”
However, that may have been Baek Yu-seol’s misconception, as the veterans quickly noticed even without the help of system messages, true to their experience.
“Oh, this is a bit interesting.”
“Indeed. It’s our first time going this deep into the sea.”
Since they were essentially squeezing through cracks in the sea and advancing deeper into the abyss, the party members could properly observe the frozen underwater landscape.
Normally, when thinking of glaciers, one might assume only the sea surface is frozen, but this place was different. Even the sea below was completely frozen, standing still.
“That’s… a hexagonal shark.”
“I heard they went extinct 700 years ago, but they remain here frozen.”
“My goodness. It’s like a living museum.”
Perhaps because it was the scenery frozen a thousand years ago, even monsters and marine life that can no longer be seen today occasionally caught their eyes.
T h i s was c opie d f r om k i n g m tl. or g
When playing the game, Baek Yu-seol hadn’t paid attention to such details, so this was quite a fascinating sight for him as well.
“Hmm, something’s coming from the front.”
“Battle positions!”
Separately from that, he fully grasped the strategy for this dungeon.
He had a track record of gaining quite a response by posting walkthroughs as the [★Yu-seol’s Dungeon Guide #001★] series on community sites.
Though he was utterly hopeless at character analysis and story, he could be considered a specialist in monster and dungeon strategies, befitting an RPG gamer.
Therefore, most of the adventurers who participated in this raid to gauge his combat abilities couldn’t help but be greatly disappointed when Baek Yu-seol took command from the rearmost position.
“Leader~ The plan’s gone awry~?”
Kaen, the leader of the Extermination Unit, felt the same way. He wouldn’t have even applied for this dungeon raid if he couldn’t confirm Baek Yu-seol’s combat prowess.
Th is w as co p i ed f r om k i n gm t l . o r g
“We’ll enter from this direction next, please be careful not to make any footsteps.”
Still, there was one thing they could tell. His judgment was indeed sharp and insightful, seemingly beyond that of a seventeen-year-old student.
He made quite peculiar judgments as if he had been to this dungeon before, while also showing caution. At first, this behavior seemed unreliable and provoked opposition from the adventurers.
“What? Why should we crawl in there? It looks obviously dangerous.”
“Look carefully at the direction of the water flow traces and footprints. Also, the mana flow coming in feels unusual, according to my analysis…”
“Geez. As expected of a prestigious school student, talking all complicated. So what’s your point?”
“If you don’t trust me, we can go this way, respecting the opinion of you veteran adventurers.”
“Yeah, that’s more like it!”
The veteran adventurers had sharp instincts befitting their experience. They might not have studied dungeons professionally like Baek Yu-seol, but they had their own years of experience surviving in such battlefields.
So they simply couldn’t fully follow the words of a bespectacled kid, and Baek Yu-seol, knowing this fact well, readily accepted the adventurers’ opinions.
The result?
“Cr-crazy! Why is a Crystal Giant Golem popping out here!”
“We have to deal with it assuming at least 7 risk!”
“Are you insane? How can we deal with it! Just run back first! We can’t face that thing in such a narrow ravine!”
This is what happens when they don’t follow Baek Yu-seol’s words.
Fortunately, Baek Yu-seol had anticipated such situations and secured retreat routes in advance or showed appropriate leadership at crucial moments, allowing them to overcome without major damage. After this happened several times, no adventurer dared to disobey his words anymore.
T h i s w a s co p ie d f r o m k i n g mt l .o rg
“Whew, geez. Nothing here goes according to common sense…”
“That’s right. What on earth is that kid?”
“Whenever we ask, he just says ‘I studied mainly from textbooks’…”
No matter how intensely one studies theory at a desk, such command and judgment shouldn’t be possible.
Rather, they had often seen commanders who relied on such knowledge falter in actual situations where unexpected events frequently occur, so Baek Yu-seol could truly be called an exceptional case.
However, for Kaen and Hyeijin, who already knew that Baek Yu-seol was not an ordinary student and had a unique analytical ability called ‘Deep Learning’, this wasn’t so surprising.
Rather, compared to the combat power he might possess, this level of ability was child’s play.
Baek Yu-seol made the party take long rests to preserve the adventurers’ stamina. Even when they said there was no need to rest, he made them take 30-minute breaks without fail. The adventurers reluctantly followed, taking short naps or eating snacks.
It was truly strange to see veterans with 10 to 30 years of experience in this field obediently following the words of a single student, but having experienced his uncanny insight, they had no choice but to accept it.
The dungeon path led deeper into the abyss, and strangely, despite less light reaching them, it wasn’t dark at all.
A mysterious blue light gently spread from the frozen sea that stood like high walls on both sides.
“There’s something in the sea.”
It was a comment made by an adventurer in the silence. Everyone agreed, but didn’t want to think about its identity.
The identity of something that could emit such bright blue light from a sea frozen for a thousand years.
They could only think it must be something incomprehensible by human common sense.
Baek Yu-seol knew well what it was.
‘The entrance leading to the frozen world…’
His true purpose.
A forbidden realm where ice giants and spirits live and breathe, but no living being can approach.
Kiiiooooh-!
“Ugh! My eardrums are going to burst.”
“It’s an ice spirit.”
“It’s been a while since I’ve seen spirits…”
“It’s strange to have spirits in a place like this. Is there a spirit totem or something?”
T h i s w a s c o pie d f r o m ki n gm t l . o r g
“Oh my, looks like it’s quite angry? It must think we’re invading its territory.”
Spirits are still an unknown realm even in the world of magic.
Where they usually live, what they eat, whether they sleep, why they sometimes make contracts with magicians, how they are summoned.
Nothing has been properly revealed.
With such spirits suddenly appearing in the dungeon and showing hostility, the adventurers seemed quite uneasy, but they forced jokes to lighten the mood.
However, even in this situation, Baek Yu-seol couldn’t laugh at all.
‘Why are spirits here already?’
Originally, spirits don’t appear in this dungeon itself.
Normally, only peculiar monsters frequently appear, such as frozen deep-sea humanoids or frozen deep-sea fish exposed to the power of ice-attribute spirits, but the spirits themselves don’t show up at all.
Th is wa s c o p i e d f r o m kin g m t l . o r g
‘…Something’s changed.’
From now on, he could no longer proceed based on the knowledge he knew. Places he thought weren’t dangerous might actually be dangerous, and the opposite could be true as well.
“Let’s take a break for a moment.”
“Alright. This time was a bit tough.”
“A golem directly controlled by spirits. We’ve got another drinking story when we get back.”
“Hey, you know people who say things like that always die first, right?”
“What nonsense! Don’t jinx it.”
While the adventurers were chatting and relaxing, Baek Yu-seol kept staring somewhere.
‘The boss room.’
The final destination of this dungeon.
The deepest part of the abyss, bordering the heart of the whirlpool.
The moment they enter there… they will face a spirit wearing armor called the ‘Guardian of the Ice Ravine’, and if victorious, an entrance leading to the world of ice will open along with tremendous rewards.
‘Should I really go in?’
When playing Aether World Online, he knew the strategy well enough that he could clear the dungeon alone as the character Baek Yu-seol.
But since spirits started intervening directly, the difficulty had risen to a whole different level. Because Baek Yu-seol’s strategies weren’t working properly, there were several times when they had to rely on the adventurers’ instant judgment.
Baek Yu-seol trusted their experience.
However, he couldn’t allow himself to push them into danger by relying on others’ experiences.
‘…I guess I can’t do this.’
With the dungeon’s difficulty abnormally high, he had no intention of taking the adventurers into that boss room where they might or might not succeed in clearing.
“Everyone. Please pay attention for a moment.”
“Hm?”
“Yes, little party leader.”
“Speak up.”
Though their tone still seemed playful, the party members now fully respected Baek Yu-seol’s judgment.
It’s truly regrettable, but the judgment they trusted was entirely based on his past experience and Bulbul Glasses…
He can’t show such brilliant leadership anymore.
Therefore, Baek Yu-seol had no choice but to make this decision.
“The party will disband here. I’ll go to the boss room ahead alone.”
“What?”
“Wait a minute…”
“What is this kid saying now?”
“I never expected spirits to appear as a variable in the dungeon. Spirits are… a realm that’s very difficult for me to grasp, so at this rate, you all might fall into great danger. Instead, I promise to share all the rewards from clearing the dungeon with you without exception.”
He spoke quite firmly, but he didn’t properly understand the veteran adventurers’ feelings.
“Hmph. This kid, now that I look closely, you’re quite arrogant?”
“So. You’re going to disband the party out of concern for us?”
“Afraid someone might die?”
“Puahaha!”
However, when the adventurers showed an unexpected reaction, Baek Yu-seol’s expression became strange instead.
“Hey, kiddo. Being an adventurer means living with death as our companion. No one knows when or where we’ll kick the bucket. I fully acknowledge that your head works well. You seem smarter and more studious than us.”
“But… don’t think you understand the world completely through knowledge. This is a different matter.”
“We lay down our lives from the moment we set out on an adventure every day. The countless comrades who left without even saying goodbye and never returned were the same.”
“This dungeon has been quite an interesting experience. If I return alive as an adventurer, it’ll make for quite an amusing drinking story. But you’re telling us to turn back here?”
T h i s w as copi e d f r o m k i n g mt l . or g
“Are you crazy! Is there anything more horrible than that!”
“One of the proudest moments of my life instantly turning into a black history. Even if there’s a risk of death, I must enter that boss room.”
“We know you have some other purpose, but we can’t accept this.”
The adventurers’ pleas… were still full of words Baek Yu-seol couldn’t understand at all.
For him, the fact of living itself was more important than anything else in the world, and risking one’s life for something was still too distant a concept.
So, he couldn’t respect the adventurers.
But if he couldn’t respect them even after they said this much, he would be a creature without emotions.
“…I understand. Let’s all go in together.”
“Haha! That’s more like it!”
“If everyone’s rested enough, let’s get going!”
As the adventurers stood up with eager faces, Hyeijin, who had been hiding at the very back watching the conversation, made a tearful expression.
“Hiii. I thought we were going back…”
Just as adventurers risk their lives for adventure, Hyeijin is the type to risk her life for hunting Dark Mages.
But in this case, it wasn’t Dark Mage hunting, so from her perspective, it might be close to dying in vain.
T h i s wa s c o p i e d f r o m k i n g mt l .o r g
“Leader… Can’t we go back?”
“No. We’re going in too.”
Kaen wanted to see Baek Yu-seol’s skills with his own eyes until the end. If the boss room was dangerous, it was all the better. If variables occur there, Baek Yu-seol would have no choice but to show his true abilities.
“Alright. Then let’s go in!”
And so, the final gate of the dungeon.
The boss room opened.
With the adventurers’ burning passion and loyalty hardened, the next steps should have been set.
A fierce battle with an unimaginably powerful boss! The burning loyalty and solid solidarity blooming amidst it!
Though the opponent seemed impossibly strong and difficult to overcome, a heart-warming ending where they finally achieve victory!
Everyone was expecting such a story. Baek Yu-seol, the adventurers, and even Kaen.
But…
As soon as the dungeon entrance opened, they couldn’t even open their eyes properly due to the tremendous blizzard of extreme cold that rushed in.
“Ugh, what is this!”
-Kuooooo…!!!
Something was howling.
The adventurers instinctively judged it to be the monster guarding this boss room.
So, it was truly an unusual occurrence.
“The boss… The boss is coming out of the boss room!”
“Wh-what? Are you crazy!”
Bosses never come out of the boss room. That’s common sense.
But very rarely, such common sense is broken, and that’s called a ‘Dungeon Break’.
A terrible phenomenon where abnormalities and monsters inside burst out because the dungeon has been left unattended for too long.
“…Damn, we must stop it at all costs!”
“There’s no turning back now!”
The adventurers stepped back slightly, raised a massive barrier to withstand the blizzard, and then raised their staves.
Thud! Thud!
Th i s wa s copi ed f ro m k i n gm tl . o r g
As an ice monster with a body over 50 meters tall took one step at a time, everyone gulped nervously. But no one thought of running away.
“Rather… This is quite thrilling and good, damn it.”
“Yeah, this is exactly the situation I was hoping for!”
“What situation were you hoping for! Judge this calmly! We can’t properly face it here because of the blizzard!”
“Retreating is impossible! The path behind is too narrow. We have to somehow endure the blizzard and face it here!”
“We’re really going to die!”
Kaen also stepped back slightly to act the same as the adventurers and looked around.
Then by chance… his gaze fell on the boss room.
‘That is…?’
There was something strange inside the boss room. The space seemed to be swirling and rippling, looking just like…
‘A portal?’
Why does such a thing exist in the boss room?
One thing was certain, this unidentified blizzard was gushing out from that portal.
It would be great if they could block the portal, but approaching it while enduring this blizzard would be nothing short of insanity.
By now, the adventurers must have discovered that portal too.
But no one said they would head there.
‘We’ll die.’
This is a completely different story from risking one’s life to fight. The moment we move towards that place, we will certainly die.
That’s why everyone can’t help but hesitate.
‘…I have no choice.’
Kaen decided to step forward himself. If he used his full power, such a blizzard or ice giant wouldn’t be a problem.
[Blink]
But someone jumped out before him.
“Huh, huh?”
“That crazy kid, what is he doing!”
It was Baek Yu-seol.
He ran towards the portal without looking back, and though the adventurers tried to stop him belatedly, he had already gone too far to be restrained.
Kaen sensed it. That this was Baek Yu-seol’s true objective.
“Hyeijin, we’re following!”
“Huh? Huuh? Leader, I can’t handle this… Waah?!”
He tucked Hyeijin under his arm and advanced through the blizzard using super jumps.
Flash!
Chasing after Baek Yu-seol’s figure disappearing through the portal, Kaen also threw himself towards it.
Whoosh…
Right after, the blizzard ceased.
Th is w a s c op i e d f ro m k i n g m t l. or g
Silence fell.
“Cr-crazy…”
The adventurers couldn’t properly open their mouths for a while, dumbfounded despite having an ice giant right in front of them.
“Don’t tell me, to stop the blizzard…”
Something anyone could have done, but no one did.
“That kid jumped in…?”
T h i s w a s co p i e d f r o m k in g m t l . or g
The question thrown by one adventurer gently shook the ravine…
But no one could answer, and it just echoed like countless emotions reverberating.
End of Chapter
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Molart_Note
Eu infelizmente não tive a capacidade de entender esse final de capítulo
Ele deixou o grupo pra trás com o gigante e entrou no portal??