Inside the Glacier Prison
A man sat atop a high mountain peak, surveying the landscape below.
The atmosphere was leisurely and serene.
Watching this, I felt certain.
The owner of this memory must be a gentle soul who loved nature and peace.
Crunch!
'Not quite.'
It was a perfect misjudgment.
Before long, his vision began to be tinged with blood.
The man hadn't climbed to the summit just to rest.
He had been waiting.
For the enemies ascending the mountain to kill him.
The foes came on like a tidal wave.
There were so many that just the sight of them made it hard to breathe.
'What sin could he have committed to draw this much hatred?'
The types of enemies that appeared were varied.
Mages, warriors, thieves—it seemed like everyone in the world was out to kill the man.
Crack!
An axe flew straight into the man's chest.
"Huh...!"
Since it was a first-person view, Jinhyeok couldn't help letting out a gasp.
The axe just now was merely the beginning.
After that, a barrage of various weapons turned the man's body into a mangled wreck.
He didn't feel the pain, but he was certain.
If Jinhyeok were the owner of this memory, he'd be bawling his eyes out, screaming that it hurt.
But the man was different.
"Heh heh!!"
Far from wailing, he burst into laughter as if savoring the agony.
And then he kept moving.
Despite taking countless blows, the man's movements didn't dull.
Even with spears, arrows, and swords embedded all over his body, he rampaged like a madman, slaughtering his enemies.
The memory began to fast-forward, like a sped-up film.
The battle dragged on endlessly.
When it finally ended, the man stood alone.
A monster that would never fall.
Rustle.
The memory ended with the man standing atop a mountain of corpses.
Seira and Kancho stared blankly at Jinhyeok.
"Master, are you alright?"
"You just spaced out like that!"
"I'm fine. I was just viewing a memory, same as before we met you two."
"What kind of memory was it?"
"Hmm."
Jinhyeok rubbed his chin.
He wasn't sure how to put it into words, but...
"It didn't feel ordinary?"
That seemed about right.
"Don't worry about it, Boss."
Kancho pulled out the toy pistol he'd bought at Dongdaemun Market today.
"As the Yordle Ranger Vice Captain, I'll whip things into shape for sure! Leave it to me!"
Jinhyeok stroked the head of Kancho, who was reaching out with eager paws.
He decided not to mention that he'd felt more uneasy viewing her memory.
"Shall we keep going?"
They climbed the icy stairs and entered the dim entrance.
[You have entered the Millennium Glacier Prison!]
The three of them halted in unison.
Nothing was immediately visible, but he could sense no small number of presences.
Easily over a few hundred, at least.
[The guardians of the prison awaken!]
Jinhyeok scanned the prison's structure ahead.
A large gate centered a small fortress-like building.
It looked like they were the ones laying siege this time.
[Mythical Tower 3rd Floor Clear Mission: Topple the fortress guarding the Glacier Prison!]
The system displayed the message belatedly, as if confirming Jinhyeok's hunch.
As expected, it was unfriendly.
"They're coming."
Seira drew her sword.
Kancho stowed his pistol and pulled out his minigun.
Whoooosh!
A volley of arrows rained down from the front.
Seira swept her sword in a long arc, batting them away.
Jinhyeok and Kancho ducked behind an ice pillar.
"Block once more, then we'll advance."
"Got it!"
Kancho climbed atop the pillar and leveled his minigun.
Arrows targeted at him were neutralized once again by Seira.
Rrrrrumble!!
Explosive clay spewed from the minigun, engulfing the front.
Explosions erupted everywhere, turning the battlefield into pandemonium.
Yet even under this barrage, the fortress made of millennium glacier ice didn't crumble.
A few massive icicles from the ceiling crashing down was the extent of it.
Boom...!!
The battlefield was shrouded in the aftermath of Kancho's barrage.
Seira didn't miss the opening.
She shot forward, kicking up a tremendous shockwave.
Kancho switched to rifle mode, firing pinpoint shots of explosive clay.
Meanwhile, Jinhyeok took another look at the field and stepped out.
"Boss? Where you headed?"
"Up top to check that thing out."
Near the ceiling's edge by the ice fortress.
An unidentified ice glowed blue.
The light was beaming straight into the fortress, and it seemed to be what was reinforcing it.
"Can't hit it from here!"
"It's fine. You support Seira. I'll be right back."
Kancho gave a chubby thumbs-up.
Jinhyeok didn't tell him to stay hidden—it was too dangerous.
After all, he'd already confirmed in the previous 20 floors that his master could hold his own in a fight.
Using Stealth, Jinhyeok slipped into a side path he'd scouted earlier.
Even invisible, Kancho could track his position with Presence Detection.
He wouldn't fire into hazardous spots.
...He wouldn't, right?
Not long after advancing in Stealth.
A small figure cloaked in ice appeared.
A Frost Ghoul, guardian of the Glacier Prison.
The giant arrow in its grasp was aimed at Seira charging toward the fortress.
Shing.
Jinhyeok drew his sword and crept closer, thrusting it into the Frost Ghoul's chest.
He'd worried the sword might bounce off if it was millennium glacier ice, but luckily, it was ordinary ice.
"Gr... uhk?!"
The Frost Ghoul Ranger, having detected Jinhyeok's presence not at all, whipped its head around.
Rangers were scouts and rearguard hunters.
They had to be sensitive to enemy presences, yet it had missed Jinhyeok completely.
Thud.
Jinhyeok quietly laid the lifeless Frost Ghoul down and pressed on.
After learning Presence Detection from Kancho, Jinhyeok had come to understand what actions were likely to alert enemies.
Right now, he was moving instinctively, avoiding those very actions.
Crunch. Crack.
Jinhyeok moved stealthily amid the clamor from below.
One by one, the Frost Ghouls on the upper level fell silently before him.
Ding!
[You have acquired the trait 'Stealth Movement' from Yordle Ranger Captain Kancho!]
All presences generated upon entering Stealth are greatly reduced!You intuitively understand how to move with minimal presence in any environment!Unless they are an exceptional tracker, players will not locate you!
'Oh?'
Jinhyeok, who had been holding his breath while moving, glanced at the notification.
He hadn't known before.
That traits could be acquired this way.
It was welcome news that Blank Cards weren't everything.
Slash!
After felling two or three more Frost Ghouls, he peered below.
Kancho was flashing a thumbs-up from afar.
"Boss is the best! That's exactly it! I was gonna teach you later, but you figured it out on your own!"
Good thing he'd cleared out the upper-level Frost Ghouls first.
Otherwise, Kancho would've given him away.
Jinhyeok flashed a thumbs-up in return and headed toward the glowing ice he'd spotted earlier.
Just approaching it unleashed a torrent of frigid air.
Shivering once, Jinhyeok plunged his sword into it.
Crack!
As the ice lost its glow, one of the ice pillars blocking Seira's path shattered and fell.
'Nice.'
His guess had been spot on. He quickly shattered the rest.
The pillars propping up the fortress all came crashing down.
Whoooosh!
Seira, no longer obstructed, breached the fortress.
From there, it was smooth sailing.
It took less than a minute to fell every Frost Ghoul guarding the fortress.
[The fortress guarding the Millennium Glacier Prison has fallen!]
[A path untouched for thousands of years, forbidding all entry, now reveals itself!]
Passing through the path led to a massive prison.
Perhaps because the fortress had been breached, the ice sealing the prison had vanished entirely.
Jinhyeok, Seira, and Kancho, who had walked a long way, came to a stop.
They strained their ears.
Clank. Clank. Clank.
The metallic scraping echoed from the dark prison interior.
The sound was drawing closer.
And at last, a muscular man emerged.
Roughly mid-thirties, with silver hair swept back dramatically.
Thick blue chains coiled around his wrists.
Likely the source of the scraping sounds until moments ago.
"Hey, boss."
The man, with one corner of his mouth curled high, raised a hand in greeting.
The local delinquent from back in the day—famous for being the best at brawling and having a good time.
That was Jinhyeok's one-line impression of the man.
[The sole prisoner trapped in the Millennium Glacier reveals himself!]
[Countless sought to kill him, but none succeeded! The strongest of his era deemed him too dangerous and built this prison especially for him!]
[The Immortal Dark Castro is freed from his confinement!]
'An immortal?'
The memory he'd seen before entering came to mind.
Dark, who never died no matter how he was stabbed or slashed.
It had been possible only because he possessed the power of immortality from the start.
Ding!
[A new card has been added!]
*
[Yoo Jinhyeok]
Class: Collector
[Unique Traits]
Card Collector
Current cards held: 3/4.Seira Kinkaiton.Kancho.Dark Castro.
[Dark Castro]
Immortal.Class: Berserker.Rank: Unique.Level: 90.Evolves to next rank upon reaching max Unique level of 120.
[Unique Traits]
Rapid Recovery.Continued Combat.Frenzy of Battle.
.
.
.
[Unique Skills]
Regeneration.Chain Combat.Cold Emission.
.
.
.
[Possessed Relic]
Millennial Cold Iron.
Millennial Cold Iron, huh.
It wasn't an unfamiliar name to Jinhyeok.
It was a metal that often appeared in wuxia novels.
"Ugh."
As expected, it was no ordinary iron.
Just standing near it exuded an overwhelming chill.
"Sorry, sorry. Must be this thing."
As Dark raised both hands, the chains coiled around them vanished.
Thank goodness.
If he had to keep wearing them, the heating bill would've skyrocketed.
Jinhyeok, shivering and clinging to Kancho, was about to say something when...
Step.
Seira stepped forward.
For some reason, she'd drawn her sword again, even though the battle had ended.
"It was you, wasn't it? Dark Castro."
'Pardon?'
Seira hadn't seen the message from moments ago.
Yet she'd said his name, which meant they knew each other.
Jinhyeok had thought, like with Kancho, that they came from different eras or worlds—but apparently not.
"Hoo? Well, if it isn't the Captain of the Black Knights."
"Seira, you two know each other?"
Instead of Seira, Dark replied, his mouth curling into a long grin.
"Know her? She's the first human I ever failed to kill."
Dark pointed toward the prison behind him.
"And the one who threw me in here."
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T/N:
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