Chapter 100

Trap (2)

It was biting cold that awaited Arthur and the other Matap guild members as soon as they crossed the gate.

“Gasp!”

The hunters who set foot on the ice swallowed their screams one after another.

They suppressed the pain, which was like carving their flesh, with superhuman patience.

They couldn’t reveal their presence to the target, and they didn’t know how near he might be around.

Arthur looked down at the terminal.

The current temperature is indicated.

“Negative 63 degrees?!”

In the visible range, the only thing that they could see were white glaciers.

It was a world where everything was covered with thick ice walls.

Arthur pondered for a moment.

‘It’s a temperature that’s impossible for ordinary people to move around.’

He looked at his party members.

Everyone was above SS-Rank.

There was nothing to worry about the hunters freezing to death with that temperature when they had already surpassed normal human beings’ state.

But it wasn’t like they didn’t feel the cold, so Arthur immediately cast his magic.

[Wide-Range Cold Resistance (Rank: SS)]!

As the Mana wave gently wrapped around the surrounding, the hunters’ faces, which had been distorted, returned to normal.

At the same time, Arthur’s Mana began to be consumed slowly.

‘We’ll have to deal with him as quickly as possible.’

Arthur didn’t doubt that once Seo Jin-Wook was in his hands, he would spit out everything he knew.

‘It didn’t matter if he’s an SS-Rank. No one has endured it so far.’

It wasn’t his first time to torture an SS-Rank hunter.

He was confident that no one could stand the harsh methods he had mastered over the past two decades and that he was sure that he knew better than anyone else in the world how to provide maximum pain to an Awakened.

‘A naive boy who’s still so young has been acting cheeky in front of me. I’ll make you beg for me to kill you while you’re squeezing out your tears and mucus.’

When he glanced at the wizard, he nodded his head and cast out a spell again.

[Trail Seeker!]

Upon initiation, the wizard’s eyes turned transparent, and a blue light lingered.

He focused while observing in all directions.

The effectiveness of the magic that overcame the [Penetration] type weaknesses was limited to a certain distance. It showed non-physical footprints that displayed the path anything had traveled.

That time, the wizard’s gaze turned to the sky instead of the ground.

“… Already more than two kilometers away.”

They opened their mouths only after confirming that their voices wouldn’t be heard.

“Already?”

The wizard continued, his eyes still glancing far away.

“He’s flying.”

“Is it Levitation? Has he mastered magic skills? No, did he copy it from someone else?”

If it was true that he could copy others, it was a sign to raise the evaluation of Seo Jin-Wook’s unique skill to a higher level.

‘There’s no one around here who uses Levitation right now. Can he remember a skill that he once copied a long time ago? What kind of unfair skill is that–!‘

The wizard, who was observing, soon shook his head.

“I don’t think it’s magic. No magic can make you grow wings out on your back, is there?”

“Right. it must be an item!”

His eyes flashed.

“What is his flight speed?”

“Only a Levitation of S-Rank and above can catch up.”

Arthur’s expression cast a deeper shadow of greed.

‘It’s a performance that I’ve never heard of before!’

If it’s an item comparable to S-Rank magic, it would be priced tremendously.

Arthur was so impressed but then…

The [Stardust Wing] performance was more than that, and there was no way that he could know that Seo Jin-Wook was deliberately flying slowly.

Tate, the only close-ranged hunter among his men who entered, offered his opinion.

“If the distance is already wide and he has flight-type artifacts, wouldn’t it be better to wait outside the gate and strike him when he gets out? He’d be caught off guard if we did that.”

The place they were in wasn’t a favorable battlefield for the close-range hunter who couldn’t use Levitation or master cold resistance.

However, Arthur flatly rejected Tate’s proposal.

“He is the hunter that the Korean government values the most. If he suddenly disappears, it’s a given that they will put all their efforts into searching for him- Even if the illegal invasion of dungeon charges is considered. If there are any traces left of us being involved, it will become troublesome. It’s best to deal with it in the dungeon.”

He decided to track him before he got away any further.

“We are chasing him right away! Tate needs to be taken care of by someone!”

Three wizards and a swordsman flew through the cold air.

Whoosh!

As the flight began, their body temperature decreased faster, and every time it did so, the cold resistance spell sucked up Arthur’s Mana even more.

Gulp.

He took a sip of a Mana Potion and watched the front.

As he did that…

“I have a vision on him!”

Indeed, ahead of them was Seo Jin-Wook, who penetrated the cloudless sky in a straight line.

A pair of wings made of powders of light could be observed over a huge backpack covering half of his body.

“What’s that backpack? It’s too big to be a typical combat backpack.”

“Oh! he’s lowering his altitude.”

Seo Jin-Wook began to lower himself toward the ice-covered land.

“Do you want us to take him down?”

“As soon as he lands and stops moving, let’s immediately cast a restraining spell.”

“Yes, sir.”

While the Awakened of the Matap was staring at his diagonally falling trajectory…

“What is that?”

“…!”

Beyond the white horizon, a structure appeared, which stood out profusely.

It was a giant building made of transparent ice.

“Doesn’t it look like an altar?”

It was similar to what usually appeared in prophecy-type dungeons.

The difference was that it seemed to be carved from a giant chunk of ice.

‘If something like that appears in the dungeon, it’s usually…‘

It meant that it was a point where people could receive expensive items and acquirement.

Arthur reserved his plan to attack immediately.

“Wait. Let’s observe what he does in there first.”

Just by considering the [Aurora of Stability] and the flying item on his back that was unknown to the world, it was clear that Seo Jin-Wook had some kind of secret to discovering several items that others didn’t even know existed.

‘Could it be that that altar might be involved?‘

“Don’t you think he will spill everything if we just catch him and torture him to say everything he knows?”

“If we don’t specify the question and start with torture, it’s less efficient. If we want to be able to tell if he’s still lying or hiding, it’s better to start after securing as much data as possible from the perspective of the one that will torture him.”

“Ah… Of course!”

They observed him quietly, using stealth-type magic.

In an invisible gaze, Seo Jin-Wook walked to the center of the altar.

In there was something that nobody expected.

“… Flame?”

Instead of an altar roof, transparent ice covered the structure, which seemed to reflect sunlight and concentrate on a point like a magnifying glass.

There was a torch made out of ice where the solar heat gathered, and a light green fire was fluttering on top of it.

The fiery green flames that burned in such a cold and windy environment couldn’t be normal.

‘It’s definitely an item!’

Furthermore, it was burning on top of the ice.

The mysterious altar scene overlapped to create an unusual atmosphere.

“Oh, that! I see!”

Arthur finally recognized its identity as a memory flashed in his head like lightning.

The reason why the Hunter society had been so famous those days!

He shouted its name quietly.

“It’s the [Vital Flame]!”

From the moment the Senator provided supplies to more than a thousand customers, hidden secrets between the rich could no longer be maintained.

The rumor about the item that was useless to high-level Awakened but many wealthy people were frantically looking for it had spread to the hunters. Those that sensed the enormous value of it searched in the dungeons around the world.

The Washington Market shut its mouth about the source, and if they pressured them by force, they would be making the black markets around the world into enemies. That was why there was only one way, which was to pry around dungeons.

Despite the endless search of hunters worldwide, the source couldn’t be found. The treasure worth the highest bid price remained out of their hands.

“Wait, that’s where it comes from? I could have never imagined!”

A delighted look spread among the hunters.

“Yeah! It’s common sense for items like that to be mined in fields covered with flames and magma! This is way out of the box.”

When Seo Jin-Wook took out a branch from his backpack, green light spread from the ice altar.

After putting it in a special container, Seo Jin-Wook spread the wings of light.

“What do we do? Should we ambush him now?”

“Wait a minute.”

Arthur’s gaze deepened.

“He doesn’t seem like he would return right away.”

His prediction was right.

Seo Jin-Wook, who flew up, turned around and started moving farther away instead of returning to the gate.

“What if there were a few more altars like that?”

The size of the flame they just saw was ridiculously small compared to the amount released in the market.

Recognizing his intentions, his men nodded.

“Okay. You’re saying we should keep tracking him, right?”

“Yes, we will keep an eye on him.”

Arthur started flying again as he quietly smiled at Seo Jin-Wook’s back.

‘He’s a treasure trove beyond my imagination.’

The smile around his mouth deepened.

‘Go on! Go ahead and dig up all you’ve got right in front of me!‘

While traveling in that manner, the temperature was getting lower and lower.

*

Afterward, Seo Jin-Wook got another item that looked like the Vital Flame, and the process was the same.

After collecting, he soared into the sky, and again, instead of heading toward the gate, he changed his direction a little and moved away.

But at that time, the travel time was longer than before.

Unlike when it was only a few minutes, 20 minutes had already passed.

“Well… Guild Master.”

A subordinate carefully spoke up.

“I think you should make a decision now.”

The problem was that the temperature had begun to drop rapidly after reaching a certain point.

The terminal was already showing negative 100 degrees.

“The cold air has begun to break through the resistance spell.”

The chill made even the SS-Class hunters curl up and slow their movement.

Arthur grumbled.

“We can’t hold on any longer. Seo Jin-Wook, that bastard, did he cover his entire body with cold-resistant items? Well, I’m sure he would have fully prepared if he regularly went in and out of places like this.”

He nodded his head then issued an order.

“Instead of waiting for him to land, we take him down in mid-air. Before we attack, everyone must make sure that your Mana capacity is at the maximum using potions.”

Their Mana was quite worn out because they maintained their Levitation for a long time, and Arthur, who was continuing the cold resistance, consumed even more.

Gulp, gulp…

“Now then.”

Just before the interception…

“Huh? He’s going down.”

Seo Jin-Wook began to lower his altitude as if he had been waiting for the opportunity.

Looking at him, Arthur spoke.

“Good timing. Whatever’s here, the tracking stops here.”

“Yes!”

Seo Jin-Wook quickly stepped on the glacier-covered land.

It was after they already had made quite a distance from the Gate.

“Huh?”

A wizard mumbled, bestranged.

“There’s nothing here.”

Unlike where Seo Jin-Wook landed until before, there was no ice altar in sight.

They scanned beyond the horizon, but there was nothing around them.

“There’s no more room to continue observing. Capture him right away.”

Arthur, who was looking down saying that, flinched for a moment.

‘… What is that bastard doing?’

Seo Jin-Wook stood still with no expression as if he was waiting for him.

That was a completely different attitude than how he had been acting busy so far.

‘It couldn’t be!’

The four people who were chasing Seo Jin-Wook were completely hidden.

They landed on the ground, maintaining their stealth. Three people, excluding the close-range typed, also prepared the spell in unison.

The moment when the Rune Stone shone…

Paht!

Their Mana boiled up, and the stealth that they were maintaining was broken.

As they did so, Seo Jin-Wook’s glance moved and stopped at them slowly.

The hunters sensed discomfort when they saw his expression.

There was no sense of danger, bafflement, agitation, or horror in his face.

Whoong!

The three wizards invoked the spell in unison.

[Neutralizing Chains (Rank: S)]!

The moment the three magic circles covered the sky, the swordsman blocked his path in preparation for the instance that Seo Jin-Wook would rush in. However, his eyes grew bigger at what Seo Jin-Wook did.

The gap that momentarily occurred at the onset of activation was enough time for any SS-Class hunter to dig in.

But Seo Jin-Wook stood his ground.

Cha-ka-cha-ka-chak!

The air was twisted, and a thick chain was summoned to tie up Seo Jin-Wook’s body.

It was the skill Seo Jin-Wook used against Park Chang-Hee and the Black Dragon before.

The chain beyond the laws of the material world was conjured and restrained his movements thrice.

“…”

Seo Jin-Wook’s face was calm even when his body was tied up.

Arthur Clifford’s sense of discomfort had filled all the way up to the top of his head.

His senses continuously rang warning signals, telling him that something was wrong with the situation.

And… it’s dangerous.

“… What is he hiding?”

The question had an overlapping meaning.

What was his secret in discovering a bunch of rare items swiftly?

And in that situation, why did he keep such a relaxed expression?

Thud, thud.

The anxiety that pressed his temples, following the heartbeat, was rising from an area of instinct.

‘That can’t be true. Even if he’s an SS-class hunter, he can’t get out of this situation!’

Seo Jin-Wook finally opened his mouth.

“What are you going to do with me?”

Arthur’s eyes turned fiercer.

” You’re a cheeky little boy. You better cooperate and spill out everything you know. About the Aurora of Stability… and the Vital Flame! Tell us everything else you’re hiding as well.”

“Otherwise? Are you going to torture me?”

Arthur smiled mischievously.

“You know of your destiny well.”

“Then are you going to take me to England like this?”

“Yes!”

“Then, are you going to take me to the seventh basement floor of the Matap headquarters? Right next to the torture chamber where your old subordinate was trapped in? The room next to the man who has been suffering for years because of your erroneous orders?”

“… How could you?!”

At that moment–

“Huh?”

The swordsman searching through Seo Jin-Wook’s bag, convinced that the opponent was incapacitated, sounded horrified.

“T- this!”

The special container was opened, but there was no green flame in it.

“No way!”

Arthur gritted his teeth.

Tangled in chains, Seo Jin-Wook continued in a calm tone.

“Yeah, it was fake. I can’t believe you fell for such basic illusion magic…. You guys tend to rely too much on [Analysis] magic. That’s a magic spell that can’t even be triggered unless it’s within a meter away.”

“Eek!”

Arthur tried to suppress his surging anger.

A question filled his head.

‘Why the hell?’

Why did he lure them all the way there by utilizing a bunch of fakes like that?

Arthur didn’t know, but the answer to his question was already ‘storming’ its way to their location.

“H-huh?”

The wizard cried out in bafflement.

Swoosh!

The atmosphere changed rapidly, and strong winds stormed around them.

And then.

Zap!

“The terminal!”

The cold air, strong enough to pierce through the SS-Class cold resistance magic, froze and destroyed their belongings.

Seo Jin-Wook, who was waiting for the extreme turbulence that was supposed to blow into that place at that time, quietly smiled.

“Good job coming all this way.”

He checked on his opponents and murmured internally.

‘One SSS-Class, and three SS-Class, huh.’

Silently, he activated his skill.

Paht!

“No way!”

One-third of the chain pile that was restraining Seo Jin-Wook disappeared in an instant.

“De-spell?!”

Arthur’s thoughts were complicatedly intertwined.

‘Who the hell did he copy that from? No one in Korea has mastered S-Class De-spell!’

He barely swallowed his bafflement.

‘Let’s stay calm!’

Three wizards cast a spell in unison, one of which was canceled.

To invalidate one S-Class magic required a tremendous amount of Mana.

‘Yes, the magic of the remaining two is intact and well. He can’t touch even those because of his Mana–!’

[De-spell].

Paht!

[De-spell].

Paht!

Arthur couldn’t believe his eyes.

S-Rank De-spells were cast thrice, one after another.

While that was happening, the opponent didn’t even drink any Mana potion.

If that was possible…

“T-that’s not the Mana capacity of a human!”

The sharp frosty air that stormed in even at that moment consumed Arthur’s Mana at a rapid pace.

Before he could finish speaking…

Swish!

Seo Jin-Wook held up his sword and charged towards them!