Chapter 163 :

Episode 33 : A Disaster (3)

Rustling…

After leaving the frozen museum, ‘The Rebels’ Guild was journeying through the temple to find their way to the next stage.

For a while, they walked and walked, talking amidst themselves since it had gotten quiet because of everybody's silence.

The first to speak was undoubtedly the most talkative one in the guild..

"How am I not lucky at all?" Alaine pouted as she was holding onto the weapon she had chosen in the last stage.

Louis who was dazing at his new weapon, couldn't believe that he himself acquired such a marvelous trident.

‘Still.. shocking to me that I actually found it.’ Louis thought.

Considering how Louis was expressing his amazement without even hiding it, made Alaine much more jealous.

Afterwards, Alaine grumbled at Louis With a pout. "Stop looking at it, Louis.. You're hurting my soul by making me dislike your luck."

"Sorry, I just couldn't resist." Louis responded.

By his side, Mya giggled before commenting. "Brother Louis is too stunned."

"You too, Mya. You got two amazing items too! I'm so jealous!" Alaine cried out as she stretched her arms up before messing up her hair.

"Uncle HwanGi, what do you think?" Mya asked the man who was casually thinking as though he was in his deepest thoughts.

Upon receiving no replies from HwanGi, Mya tilted her head while wondering why HwanGi was like this. ‘Is Uncle HwanGi alright?’

"Oi, HwanGi~! Earth to HwanGi!"

Needless to say, Alaine was slightly worried as she called out to him because he was just walking without paying attention to his front.

"What is he thinking about to make him daydream this much?" Curious yet concerned, Alaine crossed her arms.

"Should we do something to snap him out of it?" Louis asked since he was also worried.

Ding!

[Stage #19 has begun!]

"Oh?"

Flinched instantly when the message popped out of nowhere, HwanGi seemed like he just skipped a beat from the ding sound.

"Haha, so it took a ding to wake HwanGi up." Chuckling to herself, Alaine looked over to HwanGi for a moment before proceeding to check the stage's description.

"What do we have here? Eh..?"

[Stage #19 : The Ice Maiden's Puzzles.]

+

Stage Information: Left behind by the Ice Maiden, here lies the gateways of riddles and puzzles that one must overcome. As set up by the Ice Maiden's knowledge, the puzzles can range from casual to enpuzzlement, whether it was built by the Ice Maiden to halt travelers from going further or to prevent the danger of having to reach the end of this last gate.

Stage Task: Solve the riddles.

Time Limit: ∞ Hours.

Reward: 2800 coins, 10 Glacious Snowballs, ??? and ???.

Failure: Death.

+

After reading all of this, Alaine groaned with her dissatisfaction showing through her expression. "Why.. did it have to be riddles?"

"It shouldn't be that hard, should it?" Louis thought as he tapped the panel to erase it.

"Don't jinx it! Who knows what these stages would do!?"

Mya joined in. "But I'm sure Uncle JoonChul will do something about this.."

By then, Louis pat Mya's head and said with a relieved smile. "You are definitely right, Mya. JoonChul seems to know so much that we are literally relying on him and his friends."

"Yeah…" Alaine uttered.

Those words that left Louis' mouth, prompted them to change their entire expressions.

A feeling in which that was difficult to describe other than that they were expressing their dependence too much.

Sooner or later, they gestured their lack of independence by looking down with gripping fists or any other ways to reveal their feelings.

Not long after that, Alaine, scratching her head with her frustration, admitted the response.

"Ah, jeez. I was sad a moment ago because I didn't want to be dependent, but now I guess we are greatly dependent on JoonChul."

"..Yep." Louis admitted as well.

"Uncle JoonChul is amazing.."

Whoosh.

"What are you talking about?"

Out of the blue, as if speaking of the devil, JoonChul came forward to them as he didn't realize that they were talking about him.

"Eek?! Jeez! Don't scare me like that, JoonChul!" Alaine gasped in shock.

"Hm? Okay?" Although confused, JoonChul got a job to worry about instead of being confused.

In no time, he stretched out his hands toward everybody as he was handing them masks that resembled cobwebs.

"Everyone, we'll be speedrunning through this. So take these cobweb masks and wear them to cover your mouths from saying anything." JoonChul then instructed them.

Louis asked, slightly dumbfounded by the mask. "Is it something relating to this stage?"

"We don't want anyone to speak a word since it will lead to all of us answering a puzzle wrong."

"But we could just keep our mouths shut without having the masks on?"

"Even the slightest sound that comes from anyone's mouth, will guide us closer to death's door. Which makes it necessary to wear a mask. Now, wear it quickly."

Alaine responded. "Of course!"

"Also, I'll be the only one not wearing a mask, since we need one person to answer all the riddles."

By then, Alaine quickly took the mask from JoonChul. "Good thing I don't have to answer them, because I'll definitely fail at the first riddle."

"Exactly." JoonChul agreed.

"Aye.. You're so mean, aren't you?" Alaine grumbled, unknowing that her voice was blocked after putting on the mask. "Ehh??"

Louis, staring at JoonChul, accepted the mask. "I have questions, but I'll just wear the mask anyway."

Letting out a sigh, Louis wore the mask until he realized that his voice didn't come out when he spoke.

After that, Louis thought while he caressed the mask that was on his lips. ‘Huh, these cobweb masks are silently cool. It completely muted my voice when I just put it on.’

In due course after everyone had put on their masks and we're ready for this stage, JoonChul scowled while glancing at the gate, seeing the puzzles carved on it.

"Ha, those angels will make their way here soon. We should just finish this without having to set our eyes on those bastards."

Hearing JoonChul say that, his comrades nodded toward his words since they were already wearing the masks to mute their voices.

"Then, let's head on." He sneered with him being the only one without the masks.

———

After the stage had begun, ‘The Rebels’ Guild was faced with riddles and puzzles that needed to be solved within a time limit.

Sometimes, hostile mobs spawned in to disrupt them, yet that wasn't a problem since as per JoonChul's words, the one who had acquired new items from the last stage, would be the one fencing off the creatures.

As a result of JoonChul's thinking, Mya, Alaine, Louis and Noel got a chance to utilize their weapons, lending time to get used to wielding their weapons.

In spite of that, JoonChul made it harder for them since he had instructed them to go one by one, prompting them to feel pressured.

Not that they could do anything since their mouths were literally covered by masks, and they weren't allowed to speak a word since it would lead to failure, mostly death as an end to the stage.

In any case, the order in which they had to fight was as follows.

SWISH!

"Impossible.. I slashed that ice bear in one blow?!" Louis gasped while giving his trident a go, knowing that his voice won't even come out because of his mask.

First was Louis Antoine, crushing every ice bear that appeared from the third puzzle of one of the Maiden's riddles.

SLASH!!

The second was Alaine Katharina.

She cried out, forgetting her voice was muted. "This is my chance to relieve my anger of jealousy!!"

Angrier than a goat on fire, Alaine whined as she effortlessly slayed dozens upon dozens of ice wolves that had been spawned in at the sixth of the riddles.

Naturally, she was exclaiming her satisfaction when she wielded her daggers to fight the wolves that were advancing at her in an incredible speed.

"Unbelievable! I knew I was unable to even see the wolves running when we were running on thin ice, but now.. These puppies are so much slower than me?! So awesome!"

Whoosh! Swish!

Anyhow, the third one was Mya Rose.

‘Sister Alaine and Brother have got so strong! And I, as well!’

Spoken like a kind and strong child she was, Mya was aiming arrows with great accuracy, improving herself a step at a time while utilizing the new bow and quiver she had acquired.

There was one moment where the bow's effect took an effect, flashing with reddish color as a rose had suddenly emerged in her bow.

‘This is..?’ Dazed and fazed by the rose arrow, Mya subconsciously let go of her arrow before realizing she had shot it toward the pack of direwolves.

CRACKLE!!

"...!!?"

Stunned even further, the child's eyes witnessed a single rose bursting with thorns and vines penetrating into the wolves that were close to it.

Surprised by her destructive arrow, Mya took a glimpse at her bow as she was questioning how much she had really grown because of this one bow.

‘...I became this strong..?’ Mya mumbled.

Of course, there was her quiver that was providing her with infinite arrows, but she was most dumbstruck by her bow to even gaze at her quiver.

HOWL!!

A smile soon emerged on Mya's face, forming with joy and satisfaction while she confidently loaded her arrow on her bow and targeted an arrow full of her confidence toward the direwolves who directed their howls at her.

A little bit teary, Mya thought. ‘Mom and dad, I hope you're amazed by my growth..!’

STRIKE!

Until the very end, the last one to do their parts at fighting the mobs was Noel Absolute.

‘Mya, I won't accept this as my defeat!’

Noel who was feeling somewhat jealous and mad over Mya's strength, tried his hardest to be better and fought with all his might by using his weapon which were chakrams.

Pretty coincidental of his weapon, since this was the weapon that appeared when JoonChul and Noel met.

‘The weapon that father used in front of me.. I'm so happy that I got this weapon.’

Secretly, Noel beamed an exultant smile on his face that was covered with the blood of the mob.

Zap!! ZAP!

‘They did very great, especially my one and only pupil!’ Raiden thought, proud of his student.

At the same time, there were the others who were giving support to the ones fighting, jumping in to help once in a while to give the fighters a slight break.

It was no wonder that they were doing brilliant work while taking down the mobs in each gate.

Of course, there was someone else who was undergoing a series of riddles and questions by himself.

From simple questions like..

[What's behind this gate?]

..To challenging riddles that made one rack their brains.

[What goes on four feet in the morning, two feet at noon, and three feet in the evening?]

And the one who answered these questions and puzzles without difficulties, was none other than..

"The answer is a human. A baby first crawls on their hands and feet in the morning, and at noon of their life, they will walk on two feet."

"Lastly, the evening of a human life, an elderly old human walks on two feet with a stick to support them."

[Correct.]

As clear as day, JoonChul answered flawlessly since he already knew that this question was one of Sphinx's riddles.

For him to answer without any effort, it was thanks to his past lives which allowed him to work out everything in a tick of a second.

One thing for sure, he found it vexing that the ‘Creators’ had the nerves to steal ideas from the Earthlings every once and a while.

‘Damn, buffoons.’ JoonChul scowled.

In spite of him answering questions correctly, he had to keep his mouth completely shut so as to not allow a single sound leave his lips.

If he does, this place will be shut down immediately which will force everyone to be entrapped in this place with endless mobs being unleashed by the gate.

It was without a doubt troubling when he could just attack everything and not care about the mobs if he was with his comrades.

‘Being tired isn't great, so doing this is much easier.’ JoonChul spoke inwardly.

Sooner or later, the gates that asked questions and puzzles..

BANG!

[Stage #19 has ended!]

In a matter of a second, upon hearing the stage's completion, the gate slammed right open to unveil a spiral of stairs that lead to the last floor of this spacious temple.

At last, ‘The Rebels’ Guild had finally reached the stairs that would guide them to the next stage of this ‘Arctic’ World, plus they could talk now after completing the stage #19.

"I can speak now right? Okay!" Alaine cleared her throat before cheering. "We did it!! We did this in under 3 hours! Haha! We did it!"

"Yay!" Mya cheered in joy since she was already filled with an exhilarated emotion after witnessing her bow's powers. "I was useful and I fought by myself!"

Swoosh~

Alaine and Mya giggled in a cheerful way, holding hands and dancing by spinning around in a joyous manner.

..It was natural for anyone to feel this way.

"Aren't they cute?" Raiden commented as he was glad to see his pupil being blissful.

‘Moment ago, my pupil was feeling sad, and now when I see her this way, I can't help but express how pleased I am.’

Beside Raiden, there was Louis who spoke. "Yeah, they must be so proud having to complete this stage. I am even ecstatic about it."

As happy as a clam, Louis' glance full of reassurance was on Mya while he thought with a delighted grin.

‘..And I am elated when I see how Mya is so overjoyed because she got stronger.. She's marvelous, isn't she?’