Chapter 117

Instantly freezing the water in front of me was trickier than I thought. Even with my focus cranked to the max, it kept slipping off to other places.

‘Fuck.’

All I had to do was freeze on cue—Kim would handle all the fine control—and still.

Luckily, pouring in ice instead of just water turned out to be a decent idea. Even accounting for chunks of ice thudding to the ground, the stream’s power doubled, narrowed to a blade, and punched through the hellhound’s body.

–Yipe!

When the ice pillar drilled through the shoulder muscle, the hellhound jerked back, away from Hunter Choi sprawled on the floor. Seeing the gap open, Choi dug through his kit and dumped a potion over the burns.

“Haa....”

The burns hadn’t vanished yet, but at least he could move.

Choi drove the hellhound hard toward the canyon wall. Every time a dog the size of a midsize car slammed the rock face, the whole canyon shook.

–Thud!

The booming hits rang in my ears. Once Choi started throwing punches, he pounded the hellhound in a flurry. Whenever it fell back and breathed fire, Kim was right there, dumping water from above to shut it down.

After a fairly long fight, the hellhound sagged to the ground, panting, then went still for good.

‘It’s over.’

Rougher than expected, but struggling this much in a C-rank Gate isn’t exactly unheard of.

“You okay?”

Having finished the hellhound, Choi slid down where he stood and then just lay back on the heat-radiating floor.

“Yehyun! Over here!”

Checking Choi’s condition, Kim immediately called for Do Yehyun. He’d been waiting in the rear; now he sprinted over, checked Choi, and started healing.

I watched, sinking into the obvious takeaway.

‘We should get the hell out.’

The boss was dead, but the dungeon’s temperature wasn’t dropping. If anything, it was rising.

‘...Hotter?’

How does that make sense? It felt hotter after the boss died than before. I could chalk it up to my imagination, but the Cave Giant fragment asleep in my palm was getting feisty.

I clenched and opened my fist, scanning the area.

‘Nothing’s changed.’

Still the same desolate canyon. Patches swathed in flame here and there, channels of fire flowing...

‘Wait.’

I stared off at a cascade of flame pouring like a waterfall.

‘Was that there before?’

In a place where fire flows, it shouldn’t be suspicious on its own—but my eyes stuck to it. As I watched, a faint pulsing thrummed through the fist of my right hand.

Thump, thump. My heart kicked weirdly; gooseflesh ran from the nape of my neck down my back.

“Fuck.”

After staring for about three seconds, the situation snapped into focus.

‘We’re screwed.’

I shouted to the ones still checking on Choi.

“Up! Move now!”

One bit of luck: they had enough real combat experience to obey even a line that sounded like bullshit. They jumped up and ran toward me.

I watched Do Yehyun run for a beat, then joined. Meanwhile, the pulsing in my palm spread to a full, throbbing ache °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° across my whole hand.

When the “dungeon boss” goes down, the rest of the monsters lose power. That was the problem.

‘Nepenthes, you fucking—’

In short, the Nepenthes with the massive body full of magma had burst.

Its shell must have ruptured, and the magma inside started pouring out—following the canyon, taking time, finally reaching us now.

Not that “taking time” meant the flow was slow.

‘Can a human outrun that?’

There was still some distance, but the problem was climbing back up. We’d gotten down because Choi had a flight item and bound the rest of us to lower us. Doing that in reverse?

‘Too late.’

Choi seemed to be thinking the same thing.

He sucked a breath and snapped on his flight artifact.

“It’ll be faster if I carry you.”

Kim balked.

“You’ll carry three of us?”

“Yeah. I can take two at once. Drop them up top, come back.”

“If that takes too long, we die.”

“It won’t.”

“Be realistic—”

“Seongeun! Less talk, more moving.”

If he took two of the three up... Our eyes met.

‘...Of course.’

I could see the thought plain as day.

He wanted to take Kim—his long-time partner—and the kid who’d only just turned twenty a few days ago, Do Yehyun.

‘I’m the appraiser and the lowest rank here... Logically, nothing to nitpick.’

But, shit, dying here would cause all kinds of problems.

When I had nothing to lose, dying was an option. Now, I didn’t even want it on the table.

‘Ah... hell.’

Right then, the Cave Giant fragment in my hand started acting up again. After a wash of heat like my whole hand was being forged, a bizarre sensation rolled over me—as if the thing in my palm were beating like a heart.

I hadn’t wanted proof of a living thing in my hand like this.

‘Anyone can tell it’s begging to be let out.’

Choi made up his mind.

“...Hunter Seo, wait here a second.”

“No.”

The one who shot him down was Do Yehyun.

“I’ll stay. I can keep casting from here and hold out. You’ll be fast, right?”

Oh, fuck off.

Instead of asking him whether he planned to keep healing while being swallowed by lava, I tilted my head, polite, and said:

“You could’ve made the first trip by now. Stop filming a melodrama—we’re not dying yet.”

“......”

“......”

Choi nodded at that and grabbed Kim by the torso.

“N-no, it’s too dangerous—”

“Yehyun... shut it. I’m thinking.”

Jesus. I tried to be nice for the kid’s sake, but the situation wouldn’t allow it. And he wasn’t cooperating.

“Go.”

We’ll live somehow. Better to get moving than stand here arguing.

‘And the little bastard in my hand pitching a fit means it has a plan.’

Thankfully, I’d slapped on a Preservation Patch today; even if I boosted my skill rank, I could probably sustain for a while.

‘Probably. No guarantees.’

But really, sympathy ruins more things than I can count. That’s the real problem.

–Pop!

“Ah... fuck.”

We froze in unison at the rip nearby.

Busy scrambling from the far-off magma flow, we’d stupidly forgotten the obvious: there was no way there was only one Nepenthes here.

“It... came from there....”

Kim’s voice shook to pieces.

A Nepenthes right nearby had blown, and the magma inside was spilling fast toward the canyon.

“Go. Up.”

No more time to waste. Choi grabbed Kim by the middle and seized Do Yehyun’s arm.

“No.”

Goddamn it. He was digging his heels in again. The boss was down—could we stop with the random variables already?

“God... annoying.”

Fine. Even if they went now, it’d be late. I jerked my chin at Choi.

“Drop Kim up top and come back.”

“...Okay.”

He hesitated for a heartbeat but listened. He’d done the math too: coming back down would be a bitch.

The moment he lifted off, I shot Do Yehyun a sidelong look and tossed him a lazy congrats.

“Congrats, looks like we die together. Romantic.”

“We’re not dying.”

“......”

“I’ll keep casting.”

I didn’t bother asking if that was possible. It was inefficient—and his voice was shaking too hard.

‘He stayed to die.’

With death right in front of me, a strange calm kept spreading. Maybe because this wasn’t the first time—or because I was certain we wouldn’t die. Who knows.

‘Let’s try it.’

I turned my palm up and poured every last drop of mana in my body into the sigil.

“Haa....”

A bizarre sensation, like all my strength concentrating in one place. The tiny life that had been zealously announcing itself just now... swelled with mana in an instant.

Mimic (S) is activating.

Ice surged from my hand, throwing up a wall.

–Sssssk!

The lava melted the barrier in moments, no matter how many layers I stacked. No matter how thick and wide I made it, it wasn’t effective. Maybe it slowed it a hair.

But then—

“Ugh....”

“...Hyung?”

A grotesque sensation washed over me. Not just mimicking mana—more like the thing rooted in my palm was... putting down roots of its own.

‘No.’

I lowered my gaze to my hand.

“...You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

The snowflake on my palm slowly grew in form. I yanked up my sleeve to check my wrist—no break in the pattern there either.

‘Fuck, how far—’

Was this thing trying to settle into my arm? No—into my “arm”... right?

At that moment, Do Yehyun’s pupils widened.

“...Hyung.”

“......”

“On your right cheek, there’s something...”

I knew it instinctively. The thing that had expanded from my palm... now covered half my body.

And then—

–Flaaash!

An unbeliev­ably dense ice erupted from my hand.