Chapter 252

The temporary leader of the alliance, Vittern, swallowed nervously while watching Raon’s back as he walked towards the dungeon’s entrance.

‘Wh-What the hell is that guy?’

How could he destroy the barrier in a single strike...?

He’d decided to talk to him because he figured he could take advantage of him as soon as he saw his young, almost child-like face. However, the monstrous power he showed him was completely unexpected.

‘He’s not simply strong.’

One needed to be at least at the Master level to destroy a barrier of that caliber with brute force alone. Considering the fact that he’d destroyed it with an aura blade instead of astral energy, he must’ve read the flow of aura.

‘His aura blade has almost reached perfection, and he can even read a barrier...’

He was a monster.

Vittern admitted his mistake. The smile he saw from him in the beginning wasn’t coming from his inexperience, but from his confidence and composure.

“Vittern!”

“Wh-What should we do?”

“He’s going in right now.”

“Are you just letting him go?”

The guild companions that came with him from the beginning walked up to him. All of their faces had turned pale from panic.

“You idiots. This works out better for us.”

Vittern smiled coldly while looking at Raon, who was examining the entrance.

“Huh?”

“Wh-Which part about this is better?”

“What are you talking about when everyone is afraid...”

The guild members frowned, unable to understand what he was talking about.

“There are people from the Six Kings, the Five Demons, and huge factions similar to them inside. He will have to advance carefully anyway.”

“Ah, which means...”

“Yes. We can just follow him while keeping a decent amount of distance.”

Vittern slowly nodded.

“If we safely follow him while waiting for him to remove the danger from the dungeon, we should be able to get some leftovers.”

It was better that way. By following that young man, they could use him as an excellent meat shield that was even better than the alliance members. They wouldn’t be able to get a huge amount of loot, but their lives should be safe at least.

“Get ready. Start running as soon as he enters the dungeon. We need to reach it before the barrier reappears.”

“Got it.”

“Yes!”

Vittern gave orders to the alliance members and lowered his posture. He lowered his hand as soon as Raon entered the dungeon.

“Run!”

All of the alliance members started to run towards the dungeon the moment he said that.

‘The barrier isn’t reappearing.’

Vittern grinned. It must’ve been a really nice cut, since the barrier was still split in half.

“Let’s enter right awa...Huh?”

His jaw dropped and he came to a halt.

Rumble!

The dungeon’s entrance started to tremble as if a sudden earthquake had occurred, and it was being buried underground.

“Wh-What the hell?!”

“That bastard destroyed the entrance!”

“D-Dig! We have to do it now, because we won’t be able to enter otherwise, not once it’s buried even deeper!”

Vittern hurriedly started to dig the ground with his hands, but he couldn’t do anything about it because rocks and sand kept falling down from the canyon.

Whir!

To add into the trouble, the severed barrier also recovered itself and a heavy fog started to appear.

“You crazy bastard!”

Vittern screamed towards Raon, who had completely destroyed the entrance.

* * *

“Uuh!”

Dorian’s eyes were trembling as he watched the collapsing entrance.

“A-Are you sure about this? What if we can’t leave later on?”

“It’s fine.”

Raon grinned after completely blocking off the entrance.

“Y-You just smiled! You really smiled after destroying the entrance!”

Dorian’s shoulders were trembling violently. He was apparently more terrified by that fact than anything else.

“This is the correct move. It will be dangerous for us if they attack us from behind.”

Magic traps, devices, and barriers weren’t the only dangers when it came to exploring a magician’s dungeon. The competitors who could attack from behind at any time were as dangerous as the traps.

The ones behind them weren’t exactly dangerous for them, but Raon decided to completely block the entrance because other powerful people might arrive later on.

“Well, enemies can’t enter, but we can’t exit either! It’s pointless to get the relics if we have to die here!”

“A magician’s dungeon doesn’t have a single entrance.”

“What?”

“Just think about it. Do you think the magician would live here all the time? Don’t you think they want to go outside sometimes to eat or buy some magic ingredients?”

“Th-That’s true.”

Dorian nodded with his blank eyes.

“Now, do you think they would use this passage every single time? When they’ve set up a bunch of traps and barriers?”

“Uh...”

“The answer is no. They usually create a passage that no one else can use at the bottom part of the dungeon. We can just leave through there.”

Every single one of the magician dungeons that he’d visited before had a secret passage. Raon expected that the exit would be a lot easier than the entry.

“Wh-What if we don’t find one?”

“Then we’ll need to breach through here.”

“How can we even breach through that pile...”

“You have a shovel, right?”

Raon pointed at Dorian’s belly pocket.

“I-I do.”

“You also have a pickaxe, don’t you?”

“Indeed. I even have a mana stone powered excavator and a handcart...”

Dorian took out a tool that looked like a spear with a spiral spearhead and a cart.

“D-Did you even have those?”

Raon did expect him to have a shovel, but he never thought he would bring a mana stone powered excavator around with him.

“Well, it’s a must have.”

“That’s great. We’ll just need to excavate.”

“Ah, you are right.”

Dorian immediately nodded.

“It wasn’t a big deal.”

He smiled while saying that it wasn’t a big deal when he thought about it. It was really convenient that he was so simple.

“We just need to pay attention to the front now.”

Raon took a glance behind them before sheathing Heavenly Drive.

“I’m not giving my stuff to anyone else.”

Since he was already there, it was unacceptable to return empty handed. No matter what or who awaited him from below, he was going to get the relic that could help Rimmer before leaving.

“...H-How are they yours already?”

Dorian was amazed by his greed.

“Let’s go.”

Raon went ahead and walked through the cave. Since there was only one passage without any traps or barriers, he was able to advance quickly.

‘It’s getting cold.’

The temperature had decreased drastically upon entering the dungeon. Since the owner was a famous magician of the water attribute, he must’ve lowered the overall temperature of the dungeon.

“Hmm...”

Raon placed the piece of frost that was floating in the air on his hand, narrowing his eyes.

‘But this coldness...’

Why did it feel familiar?

The familiar feeling was growing as the coldness intensified. It was similar to Glacier, but different at the same time. He felt like he was meeting someone from his hometown in a faraway land.

Hmm...

Wrath was also squinting his eyes. He seemed to be pondering about something while watching the coldness.

‘Wrath. Does this coldness happen to...’

“Kuuh! It’s so damn cold! My bones are freezing!”

Just as Raon was about to ask Wrath about it, Dorian’s scream could be heard. He took a fur coat made from ice troll skin from his belly pocket and wore it because of the unbearable cold.

Dorian dropped his jaw, withdrawing with trembling fingers.

“I-It’s a golem! An ice golem!”

“Moreover, it’s rather difficult to deal with.”

It wasn’t an ordinary ice golem. Since it was capable of shifting its form between a liquid and a solid state, it had an extremely high regeneration—which meant it was necessary to melt down its entire body or destroy the core in order to defeat it.

‘It is so well made.’

The flow of mana was constant.

He tried spreading his aura perception through the Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation, but he couldn’t really feel the core inside the golem. Considering the fact that he couldn’t see it when he used the Evil Eye of Wrath either, it had to be taking the shape of a particle of ice just like the rest to hide among them.

‘Just in case...’

He didn’t have the time to search for the core because he was far behind those who went ahead, but he tried controlling Glacier because the coldness in the area felt familiar to him.

Whir!

As soon as he examined the golem with the high purity coldness, he could feel that a semicircular ice shard inside the golem’s right shoulder was very slightly different from the rest.

‘Is that the core?’

He double checked to be sure, and the flow coming from the golem’s right shoulder was slightly different from the other parts.

‘Let’s try it.’

Raon unsheathed Heavenly Drive and dashed forward.

Rumble!

The golem reacted immediately, walloping down his fist—which was the size of a human body—as fast as the lightning. Because it was in a liquid state, the movement was as smooth as it was fast.

Thud!

The moment the golem’s fist fell towards him, Raon kicked the ground to leap and stabbed his blade towards the semicircular shard that he’d found with Glacier.

Crack!

With the sound of shattering glass, the golem stopped moving.

Rumble!

The golem’s entire body convulsed before turning into green liquid, pouring down onto the ground like a sandcastle meeting a wave.

“Huh? Huuh?”

Dorian’s jaw dropped as he stared at Heavenly Drive.

“W-Wasn’t that a simple stab just now? How did you shatter the golem with a single stab?”

“I destroyed its core.”

“Did you find the core in a single attempt? Are you a magician or something?”

“I was lucky.”

Raon shook off the ice shard from Heavenly Drive and licked his lips.

‘How curious.’

Even though Glacier’s aura of coldness had an extremely high purity, it wasn’t normal to find the location of a golem’s core.

‘Hey. By any chance, does the coldness in this place feel familiar to you?’

Raon asked Wrath, who was dwelling in his forearm.

Ugh...

Wrath grunted instead of responding.

‘Wrath?’

Be quiet. I have something to think about.

He shook his hand, glaring at the flower pattern engraved on the golem.

‘That’s so unusual of him.’

Raon chuckled. He opened the door the golem used to guard and entered.

He went through a short and dark passage, and three dark caves appeared. He couldn’t see anything inside the caves because of the pitch-black darkness.

“Where should we go?”

Dorian looked around the caves one after the other, murmuring that they had the exact same shape and size.

Whir!

Raon tried to check the inside with aura perception, but the connection was cut off before it could reach deep enough. The coldness inside the caves was disturbing his aura perception’s movement.

Raon knelt and examined the traces on the ground. Most of the people followed the human instinct to go to the right or to the middle, but a decent number of people also went to the left.

‘Where should I go?’

He didn’t have much time.

Even though he managed to save a lot of time so far, he was still significantly behind when compared to the ones who went on ahead. He was most likely going to fall too far behind if he chose the wrong cave.

‘Just in case...’

He figured that Glacier might be helpful once again, gathering the coldness inside his body.

Whir!

He used the high purity coldness to examine the cave on the right, the middle, and on the left. Unlike when he used the Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation, the aura perception didn’t get cut off, allowing him to continue to the deeper part.

“So, Glacier is more helpful here after all... Hmm?”

When he examined the left cave, he could feel a very small gap on the left wall. There was an extremely small hole that even a thin thread wouldn’t be able to pass through.

‘Maybe this hole is...’

Raon shoved Glacier’s coldness into that gap.

Screech!

Along with the sound of splitting rock, the darkness dissipated to create a passage that one person could pass at a time.

There must’ve been a secret barrier there.

‘He’s using people’s psychology on top of his detailed control of mana.’

Lohengreen’s mana control was on a different level from the other magician dungeons that Raon had visited before. It was so natural that even he had difficulties finding it.

‘So this is why no one managed to find it yet.’

The least number of people had entered the left cave. Moreover, a barrier-type secret passage was set up right next to the entrance, which made it obvious that no one else managed to find it before.

‘I should keep Glacier on.’

It wasn’t just his impression. The coldness inside the cave and Glacier were actually similar in many ways. Raon had the feeling that he could advance faster and more easily by using Glacier all the time.

“H-How did you find it this time?”

Dorian’s chin was trembling in disbelief that a human being was capable of such a thing.

“Young master... By any chance, did you make this dungeon?”

He was calling him ‘young master’ like he did in the past. It showed how confused he was.

“It’s just a coincidence. Let’s go.”

[Did you really find this place?]

Raon chuckled. As he was about to advance, an admiring voice could be heard from behind him.

‘Huh...?’

Did he miss someone’s presence?

Raon grabbed the hilt of his sword and quickly turned around. An old man wearing a blue robe with a long beard reaching the floor was floating in the air. His legs couldn’t be seen, and his entire body was transparent. He literally looked like a ghost.

“...Wh-Who are you?”

[Eek? Can you see me?]

The old man’s jaw dropped, and he came towards him. Raon couldn’t feel any presence from him, and all he could feel was the coldness filling the air.

[Oh! God of Wrath! Finally!]

He shouted with joy while jumping like a child. Even though he was transparent, he looked so happy that his face almost looked like he was blushing.

“What are you doing?”

Dorian tilted his head. He was apparently unable to see the old man.

‘Is he really a ghost... Wait.’

There was only one person who would’ve become a ghost in such a place.

Lohengreen.

He was a lot older than expected, but the round glasses, blue robe with flower patterns on it, and the narrow eyes perfectly matched the descriptions he’d read of Lohengreen in the books.

“Are you Lohengreen, Sir?”

[Yes! I’m Lohengreen!]

He looked very pleased as he nodded.

“But why are you in such a pla—”

Haa, I got it.

As Raon was trying to ask him a question, Wrath sighed deeply while looking at Lohengreen.

‘What did you get?’

I finally understand why the coldness in this place and the name felt so familiar to me.

Wrath raised his finger to point at Lohengreen.

His real name is Lohenyellow. He’s the King of Essence’s servant that borrowed his power.

“Ah!”

Raon’s eyes widened as far as they could upon hearing that.

‘So that’s why the coldness felt so familiar.’

The reason the coldness felt familiar to him, the reason he could find the golem’s core and the passage through Glacier, must’ve been because Lohengreen inherited Wrath’s coldness.

‘Which means...’

Raon licked his lips while looking at Lohengreen.

Another doormat?