Chapter 8

“Cutie move number one.”

[Don’t make me do that kind of thing!]

I smiled warmly as I watched the fox roll around, exposing its belly and yipping. So, this little guy will grow up to be a fire-attribute supporter, huh?

“Oh, you’re so good. So good.”

As the fox rolled across the snowy field, the snow melted instantly with a sizzle. Its body temperature is rising steadily. It’s already around 70-80 degrees, and it’ll probably get as hot as real fire later.

What kind of structure allows it to maintain such a body temperature?

Curious, I glanced at the fox, but it looked scared for some reason, so I hugged it. Its fur was soft, which felt nice, but an unbearable heat hit me like a wave. After staying still for a few minutes, the heat suddenly subsided, and the snow touching my feet began to melt slowly. That should be enough.

As expected, my body was adapting steadily, and it worked. I was worried about how to handle heat resistance, but thankfully, it’s fine now.

“Oh, our little treasure.”

I grabbed it under its armpits and lifted it up, and it wagged its tail, seemingly liking it. Do foxes wag their tails when they’re happy?

Seeing it like that reminded me of the white dog I had when I was young. It was really cute. It was a big Jindo breed with beautiful white fur, and it grew up loved by our family. After my parents passed away, I tried my best to raise it, but maybe I wasn’t cut out for it because it didn’t live long.

There wasn’t anything particularly different about the dog’s routine. The only thing that changed was me. After that, I never petted or hugged the dog again. I pretended to be strong, but I was really broken in that regard.

I guess the dog felt it too. That the family who once loved it was no longer there.

The long-buried memory made me feel a bit down. I stopped petting the fox, let out a long sigh, and picked up my weapon again.

“Ugh. This is it.”

Just looking at it makes me feel full—my new steel shield and whip. First, the shield: it’s a medium-sized shield made of solid steel, 1 meter wide and 1.5 meters tall. The bottom is pointed, so it can also be used for attacking.

And the whip. This whip has a metal ball at the end and is made from some monster’s hide. They say it’s so tough it won’t break no matter how much you swing it.

While fighting ice golems, I realized the importance of reach. Losing reach made it hard to take the initiative.

So, I came up with the whip. If you want a weapon with long reach and destructive power, it’s gotta be the whip. If used well, there’s no more perfect weapon. The trajectories you can draw and the freedom of use are nearly infinite.

The only downside is that it’s a bit disadvantageous in close combat, so I bought the shield to compensate. A solid steel shield can deal more damage than a sword stab. Then, just create some distance.

Perfect. With my arm length plus the whip, the reach is a whopping 4.8 meters. The whip is even the first human-made weapon to break the sound barrier. I don’t plan to use it as my main weapon, but in certain situations, it can show incredible performance.

I swung it as a test, and the whip moved with a whoosh, the tip blurring before smashing the targeted tree with a bang.

Nice. Let’s keep this up. In theory, I’m invincible.

*

“This is a bit much, don’t you think?”

[You’re out of luck.]

“First of all, does it even make sense for ice blocks to shoot arrows?”

I muttered in annoyance as I blocked the incoming arrows. The shattered arrows split into hundreds of pieces, glittering like jewels.

The golems have brought bows now. Longbows, each shot powerful. How did they make them? From the bow to the string, everything is made of ice, and it clearly has significant elasticity.

This is so weird. It’s ice. Definitely ice!

Desperately dodging the arrows, I rolled my eyes around. The breakthrough point is unclear. The fox is following behind me, slightly apart. I’d like to hug it, but I’m in the middle of a fight and don’t have the time. But it’s a spirit, so it’ll manage.

The whip became useless the moment I took it out. To dodge those arrows and close the distance, I’d have to run at full speed, and hitting the target accurately at that speed is beyond my current skill.

After a moment of thought, I put it back into the Void Space. Now, only the shield remains in my hand.

“Come at me, you bastards!”

The golems have smartly started to keep their distance. If I try to approach, they move away, and even if I manage to get close, one of them ties up my feet while the others retreat to a safe distance. The difficulty level has jumped several times. Their tactical level suddenly became too high, suspiciously so.

But the power gap is still clear. As time passes, the number of golems decreases one by one, while I’m still alive and kicking.

Absorbing stats means recovering that much. Even in this guerrilla-style battle of attrition, as long as I’m facing a weak majority, I’ll never lose.

[That’s…!]

As soon as I thought that, the golems began to merge into one. The way they clumped together like squirming mud was slightly disgusting. What’s astonishing is that their numbers seem to be in the thousands.

…That’s going to be tough. Thousands of golems are a threat in themselves. If their power is concentrated into a single entity, it’s close to a natural disaster. Even if there’s some loss during the fusion process, the result won’t change.

[It’s the Ice Queen! An S-rank monster!]

“To have such a rank here…”

“There was something?”

Hearing Belva’s shout, I gripped my shield with a sense of bewilderment.

The creature, whose entire body was transparent like an ice sculpture, looked at me with indifferent eyes.

Weird. I thought it would naturally share memories.

Does the entity born from fusion exist separately from the consumed entities?

But the next moment, it swung its arm towards me.

Thud!!

The attack was fast.

I raised my shield to the front and took the Ice Queen’s attack with my whole body.

As expected from its appearance, it summoned and hurled chunks of ice like a mage.

With that one blow, my shield crumpled, and my body rolled on the ground.

Damn. This doesn’t make sense.

I stood up and tried to move my arm.

Okay. My shoulder’s shattered.

My head feels numb; I must have taken some shock to the brain.

Blood is dripping down.

“Any weaknesses… no weaknesses?”

[This is not the time to be reckless. You need to run.]

What are you talking about?

“…Am I an idiot? Fight that thing? In this state, I can’t even run. I need to create an opening.”

I considered using a whip, but if I make a clumsy attack in this state, I’ll die for sure.

I threw the crumpled shield far away and pulled out a steel spear from the Void Space.

[I found a weakness! The way to deal with it is with strong fire magic of 5th circle or higher…]

I’ll handle it myself.

[I’m sorry.]

Judging from its stance, it seems to be the type that stands still and only uses long-range attacks.

Surely, it can’t be fast at running too.

How high is its combat intelligence?

Since it’s a monster created from the fusion of golems, it shouldn’t be too low.

Then…

Whoosh!

The next moment, a bowling ball-sized chunk of ice grazed past me, creating a crater in the ground.

The wind pressure made my hair fly everywhere.

But.

Even though it was still too fast to follow with the naked eye,

I definitely managed to read and dodge it.

“Ahhh…”

It had a rather flustered expression.

I didn’t expect to be able to read the trajectory of its attack so accurately.

If it looked like a golem, I would have been dead by now.

If it were humanoid but saw the world through something other than eyes, I would have been done for.

There’s a saying that skilled goalkeepers look at the attacker’s eyes instead of the ball in one-on-one situations.

Because eyes don’t lie.

Especially in urgent situations, people tend to act on instinct.

No matter how much they try to deceive,

At least once, their gaze will give away where they intend to shoot.

Top goalkeepers know how to read that gaze accurately.

And just now,

In that brief moment, I also caught the glint in its eyes, filled with clear intent.

“Ahhhhh!”

After dodging the attack, I closed the gap in one stride and swung my spear.

Crack, crack, crack.

The sound of ice splitting echoed as fragments scattered everywhere.

It let out a scream.

[Just that much…]

What the hell. It’s more dramatic than I thought.

Despite using magic power and swinging with all my might, I only managed to leave a scratch on its torso.

In fact, my wrist took more damage.

But instead of closing in, it hastily created distance.

From this one exchange, two outcomes emerged.

One, I dealt damage unilaterally.

Two, it was greatly flustered by that.

Ah, there’s a third one too.

That is, now is the opportunity.

“…?”

Now!

Breaking the tense atmosphere, I quickly turned around and ran.

All the golems around here were consumed to create that Ice Queen, so there was nothing to block me.

Perhaps my action was unexpected, but the attack that came was way too slow.

Hahaha. Is that all you’ve got!

No matter how fast the attack is, if the timing is off, it’s hard to hit.

Even with my speed, as if fused with Usain Bolt,

Using magic power and running, it was insufficient to catch me.

“Just you wait! Next time, you better be prepared.”

[That line is too cliché!]

“Instead of nitpicking, open the shop window! Potion, buy potion! Potion!”

Even though I said it cheerfully, I’m serious right now.

Seriously, I’m teetering between life and death.

Every time I breathe, pain surges, probably from a broken rib.

Blood is streaming from my nose, probably from a bad hit.

That was really scary.

If that thing had been a bit more aggressive…

[Still, it’s a relief you’re alive. Really.]

After running for a few minutes, I reached a place where there was nothing around.

Let’s stop here.

Honestly, it’s not completely safe, but I can’t push myself any further.

I collapsed to the ground as if exhausted.

“…Yeah, it’s a relief to be alive.”

A headache that makes my head go blank.

A body that starts trembling out of control.

Even if life is about living through such pain every moment, I don’t want to miss it.

Because living is good.

No matter what happens, living is really good.

Whispering to myself, I quietly drank the potion.

The vast, untouched snowy field slowly stained with my blood.