C27. Mock Dungeon Trial (4)

[15:29:07]

Chae Nayun's team remained dead silent. They didn't have any other choice but to quietly wait for another team to show up. She wanted to be far away from the boss so she could at least breathe with ease, but she had to stay close enough to see the another team coming.

At that moment…

"Kuaaaak!"

The silence was broken by a sudden scream. For some reason, Sven was having a seizure. Chae Nayun and her team members all turned towards Sven in shock before quickly turning towards the Magma Golem in terror. Just as they feared, the Magma Golem was staring at them. The faces of the seven team members turned pale.

—Guooooo!

With a roar resembling an earthquake, the Magma Golem slammed down its fist on the ground. Lava flowed into the ground from its body. Chae Nayun picked up Sven and shouted loudly.

"Dodge!"

Immediately afterwards, lava erupted from the ground they were standing on. It was one of Magma Golem's attacks, a terrifying ambush attack that sent lava underground and making it erupt into a pillar of fire.

Though the cadets spread out before it was too late, the Magma Golem was only getting started.

From its face, what had to be a "mouth" opened wide. From inside, a current of lava poured out like a torrent. The Magma Golem rode the lava current it spat out, charging towards Chae Nayun's team.

—Guooooo!

The terrifying sight of a giant golem sliding down a current of lava caused Chae Nayun's team to run away in fear.

The Magma Golem's first target was Chae Nayun, who was slowed down by having to carry Sven.

After arriving in front of her in an instant, it brandished its arms, slamming down and swinging sideways.

Chae Nayun concentrated entirely on dodging the Magma Golem's attacks. Meanwhile, Sven began to murmur strange words on her back. Because he spoke in German, Chae Nayun couldn't understand a thing he said.

"Hey! Stop screwing around and wake up!"

Immediately after her shout, a pillar of fire shot up from the place Chae Nayun was standing on. Chae Nayun quickly jumped back, but that wasn't the only a pillar of fire. Lava was erupting all around her.

Chae Nayun found herself trapped by several pillars of fire. In front of her, the Magma Golem raised its arms up high.

At that moment, Chae Nayun sensed her death.

'This golem will kill me. This terrifying being in front of me can't possibly be just a puppet…' Petrified, she couldn't think about anything else. Without closing her eyes, she stared at the two fists crashing down towards her.

Tang!

Just when the horrifying torrent of lava was about to devour her, the Magma Golem's head bent forward. With its arms raised, the Magma Golem stopped moving. Its expression showed that it was enraged, but its body remained frozen as though the sudden attack petrified its entire body.

Chae Nayun turned towards the direction of the mysterious attack.

There, she saw a man carrying a handgun.

**

[15:30:30]

"What's this?"

We stood in front of a giant wall.

A wall made of volcanic rocks that were at least 10 meters tall. This wall, which was blocking the path to the boss area, wasn't here just a moment ago. But figuring out who put it here wasn't the biggest problem.

"Hey, sharpshooter, didn't you say the boss was up ahead? It's a dead end."

"It should be past this wall. Break it."

"…Acting like the leader, huh."

Even as he complained, Jayden took out his sword. A blade covered in magic power drew a diagonal line.

Pang!

However, not even a scratch appeared on the wall. Only Jayden's hand trembled.

"Aaak! Yeah, genius idea!"

It must have hurt quite a bit, as Jayden ran around in pain. Standing still, I fell in thought. If Jayden's sword qi couldn't break the wall, it had to be made of magic power. In that case, Yoo Yeonha wouldn't be able to break through it either.

"Is this really the right path? There was a fork in the road on our way here."

Yoo Yeonha asked in doubt as she touched the wall here and there.

"This is the right place."

No matter what anyone said, I could clearly see Chae Nayun and her team fighting the Magma Golem beyond the wall.

I closely inspected the wall blocking our path. Raising my head, I looked up. I could see a stream of light faintly shining from the top.

"…Up there."

"What?"

The team members also looked up.

"There's a gap."

Was it for ventilation? Or was it carelessness by whoever created this wall? In any case, it was most certainly a mistake.

"How are we going to climb up there?" Jayden asked.

"You can't?" I retorted, genuinely curious. The average jump height of warrior cadets was 4 meters. Adding magic power on top of that, it shouldn't be difficult to jump several times that height. Even though the wall was a bit high, it shouldn't be to the point that they couldn't climb up.

"What, you think you can do it? What are you going to hold onto when we can't even make a dent in the wall?"

Jayden seemed to have given up, but I felt like I could do it. Just like Jayden said, we couldn't make dents on the wall. However, the surface of volcanic rocks was rugged by nature. With my Art, I should be able to climb up.

'I didn't think Parkour would come into use so quickly…'

"I'm going ahead, so you guys can do whatever you want."

"Stop joking. Let's go back and try the other pathway."

With that, Yoo Yeonha turned back. However, I lightly jumped up. Grabbing onto a jagged part of the wall's surface, I put my legs up. Then, I reached up with my hand. My hands and feet stuck to the wall like magnets.

Just like that, I climbed the wall and reached the top in the blink of an eye. Then, I looked down. For a moment, I felt lightheaded. It was higher than I imagined.

"Is that guy a cat?"

Jayden murmured in disbelief. I also enjoyed seeing my team members' surprised expressions.

But I didn't have the time to leisurely admire the view.

Guooooo—

A deep ringing sound capable of instilling terror rang out beyond the wall.

"W-What! What was that!?"

"You guys come up too. I'm going first!"

I squeezed myself through the gap and used Parkour to climb down.

After landing, I finally caught a glimpse of Chae Nayun and her team being chased by a Magma Golem.

Just by looking at it, one could see that it wasn't a puppet. The entire Field was melting with its every movement, so how could it be a puppet?

I quickly ran towards them and opened the extradimensional space in my Stigma. The tattoo on my upper arm glowed, and a corporeal magic power gathered in my hand. In an instant, it condensed into a gun and several bullets.

I loaded a bullet I had prepared beforehand. It was a water attribute magic bullet, one I had made for emergency use. Though it was an expensive investment costing 30 SP, with the strong luck that went into making it, it would undoubtedly show great destructive power.

"Whew."

After running in range to shoot, I stopped. I panted from being out of breath, but I didn't have time to rest. Chae Nayun was surrounded by the Magma Golem. I immediately aimed at the back of Magma Golem's head and fired.

Tang!

The bullet struck the Magma Golem's head squarely, and the Magma Golem's head bent forward. Immediately afterwards, the water attribute bullet reacted to its lava body and petrified its upper body. It was the so-called paralysis state.

I looked past the Magma Golem.

Sven was on Chae Nayun's back. Chae Nayun seemed to be in a momentary shock, while Sven looked like he had already fallen to a Djinn.

I shouted at Chae Nayun.

"Hey! Snap out of it!"

"…Huh?"

Thankfully, Chae Nayun responded quickly.

"First, put that guy on your back on the ground."

"What, where are the others? Why are you the only one…"

"Put him down!"

Chae Nayun put Sven down like I said.

"Happy?"

"…Yeah."

I ran in since the situation looked grim, but now I broke out in a cold sweat. At the same time, the Magma Golem's body trembled. It seemed it wanted to eject the bullet from its body. In other words, it would move again soon.

I signaled Chae Nayun.

"Hurry up and…"

Save me.

"Battle position!"

Before I could finish my sentence, Chae Nayun shouted. Immediately afterwards, a spear flew in and pierced the Magma Golem's neck. Her teammates followed suit. I quickly turned around and ran behind Chae Nayun's team.

"Buy time for me!"

Chae Nayun shouted as she pulled on her arrowless bowstring. Soon, her magic power condensed on her bow. She seemed to be making special magic power arrow. It was likely what she learned from her previous defeat to the museum's Djinn. As expected, Chae Nayun wasn't lazy when it came to self-reflection and training.

I dropped my jaws in awe at the sight happening in front of me.

Chae Nayun's magic power created a fierce current, which rushed towards the bow and formed an arrow. In truth, it was too big to be called an arrow. It was a pillar. An attack of this level was impossible without exceptional mental power and application of magic power.

But before her arrow could finish forming, the Magma Golem freed itself from paralysis.

Guooooo—!

Her teammates tried to hold out as long as they could, but they were sent flying by a single swing of its arm. Roaring, the Magma Golem charged towards Chae Nayun.

I quickly held up my gun.

But before the Magma Golem's fist could reach Chae Nayun and before I could fire my gun, a single sword strike blocked the Magma Golem's advance.

The sword strike… came from Sven.

After blocking the Magma Golem with his sword, Sven turned around and muttered.

"Sorry, I was late to recover."

Chae Nayun let go of her bowstring without an answer. Sven jumped to the side. With a brilliant light, Chae Nayun's giant arrow pierced through the Magma Golem's heart.

"Haa… Haa…"

As soon as she shot her arrow, Chae Nayun collapsed on the ground. She knew she would need at least 15 seconds until she could move.

—Guooo…

Even after taking such an enormous magic power attack, the Magma Golem didn't die. Chae Nayun softly bit her lips.

"I'll take care of the rest."

But before the Magma Golem could recover and attack, Sven sliced off its head. With that, the Magma Golem's body turned into hard volcanic rock before disappearing.

Silence descended in the battlefield.

Sven put away his sword, walked up to me, and gave a slight nod.

"Thank you for helping us."

I stared at Sven.

He had undoubtedly formed a contract with a Djinn. But unlike in the original story, he didn't lose control. I was thankful for now. I had no more energy left to fight a Djinn.

But Sven was destined to go berserk. While being eaten by the devil, he would tread farther into the path of destruction.

That was because the devil Sven was contracted to was far too strong for him to handle…

"Sure took your sweet time, bastard."

Chae Nayun muttered while bent down on the ground. She seemed to have a lot to say, but she must have been out of strength as she closed her mouth.