Chapter 27.

[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 on 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 .

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