Published at 21st of November 2024 8:11 am

Chapter 581

This chapter is updated by JustRead.pl

Chapter 581

Whoosh-

As the wind intensified and the snowstorm raged, visibility narrowed.

"Sharakan. I'm counting on you."

Yi-Han summoned the malachite colored leopard and checked the way.

He had to be more careful as the familiar landmarks that could serve as signs disappeared.

Fortunately, Yi-Han and his friends were already solidly armed with cold-weather gear.

"Thanks to Professor Garcia."

"We made them during Professor Verduus's lecture, right?"

At Dolgyu's question, Yi-Han turned his gaze as if he hadn't heard.

Just then, Sharakan returned. The leopard nodded its head as if to say it was okay to go ahead.

"Wait. We have to walk quite a bit further, but I don't think we can keep carrying them."

"Wardanaz. Even if it's annoying, we can't throw these guys off a cliff."

Jijel opened her mouth with the intention of teasing Wardanaz for once.

However, Yi-Han and Dolgyu showed a different reaction than Jijel expected.

"No..."

"That's a bit..."

"...It was a joke."

"R-right."

"It, it was a joke. I thought so too."

"Hey. Both of you just shut up."

Jijel vowed never to joke with these guys again.

"So, Yi-Han? Do you have a good method?"

"Rise, warriors made of bones."

Yi-Han chanted a spell while swinging his staff. Three skeleton warriors slowly carried the squires on their backs.

"This should do."

"Uh. But Yi-Han."

"Why?"

"What if these knights wake up?"

"...Can you give me a blindfold?"

Yi-Han not only tied up the squires but also put blindfolds on their eyes.

Only then did he show a relieved expression.

"Is it okay now?"

"..."

"..."

Jijel and Dolgyu made complicated expressions seeing that.

The sight of putting the knights to sleep, tying them up tightly, and having skeletons carry them was like…

'He really looks evil.'

'He's like a dark mage from old tales.'

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I, I was admiring the way you utilized skeletons."

"What's there to admire about this?"

Yi-Han was slightly embarrassed by Dolgyu's praise.

***

"Ugh."

Labda woke up in pain.

He couldn't remember well what had happened.

He was clearly sitting in the carriage, and then there was a strong pain in his solar plexus…

"Gasp!"

Labda and the squires opened their eyes.

It was the inside of a cabin they were seeing for the first time.

Although the sound of fierce wind could be heard from outside, a crudely made fireplace was burning brightly, driving away the cold…

The cupboard was packed with canned mutton, a few eggs, peas, marmalade, sugar, salt, tea leaves, coffee powder, and more.

'Where is this??'

"You're awake!"

Yi-Han, who was checking the inside of the pot with a ladle, saw the squires waking up and ran over.

"I was worried. You guys collapsed!"

"Wh-what happened, Wardanaz? Where are we?"

Yi-Han hesitated. It seemed like he was exchanging glances with Jijel.

"You don't remember? The carriage was attacked! A monster attacked the carriage!"

"That... happened?"

"Yeah. We barely managed to escape with you guys."

Yi-Han and Jijel eagerly explained how a fierce and bizarre monster living in the mountain range attacked the carriage and tried to swallow the squires.

Dolgyu silently kept his mouth shut and sliced onions.

No matter how he looked at it, he didn't have the confidence to say such things.

"Th-thanks. I'm ashamed. I only received help. We should have blocked the front."

"It was an unexpected ambush, so it couldn't be helped. The mountain range is a dangerous place."

"Were there giants too? I heard there are giants here according to rumors."

"...Well, there might have been giants too..."

Yi-Han raised the level of monsters as the squires wanted.

If that makes them feel at ease!

"Then what is this place?"

"It's probably a hunter's cabin."

"There are hunters here too?!"

'I think I persuaded them well.'

Yi-Han exchanged meaningful glances with his friends.

Fortunately, they were able to overcome the biggest hurdle.

We found this cabin by chance out of necessity!

'If we stay like this for just a day, it'll be fine.'

The squires discussed among themselves.

"Hmm. Is it okay to use a place like this?"

"We have no choice. Now that it's come to this, let's prepare to face the monsters. The professor said he would come to find us."

"?"

Yi-Han hesitated.

"What did the professor say?"

"Huh? He said to prepare thoroughly to face the monsters in the mountain range."

"Didn't you just say he's coming to find us?"

"Ah. He did say that. That monsters will come to find us. But isn't that natural when entering a dangerous area?"

"..."

Of course, Labda's words weren't wrong either.

If it was a dangerous area, it wasn't an exaggeration to say that monsters would come to find them.

However, Yi-Han's senses trained at Einroguard were inferring a different meaning from those words.

'Something's strange?'

Thud thud thud-

At that moment, someone knocked on the door of the cabin. Dolgyu lifted the attached wooden panel to check outside the window.

"!"

Surprisingly, it was other White Tiger Tower students.

The White Tiger Tower students, half-buried in snow and shivering, knocked on the door of the cabin and shouted.

"H-help!"

"O-open the door! I think I'm freezing to death!"

"Bartreck, Ctran?! You guys, how did you get here...?!"

"We, we were ambushed! C-cold. Open the door!"

Dolgyu hurriedly opened the door.

Then the White Tiger Tower students outside tried to enter the cabin.

"Be paralyzed!"

Yi-Han swung his staff and struck a paralysis curse.

As it was the curse-type magic with the fastest casting speed and widest range of impact among magic, the paralysis curse hit the White Tiger Tower students directly.

"Ugh... Ugh!"

"!?"

Dolgyu was startled and looked at Yi-Han. He couldn't understand why Yi-Han had cast a paralysis curse.

Slither-

The bodies of the White Tiger Tower students collapsed like slime. Then they wriggled and transformed into deformed monsters.

"Shape shifters!"

Jijel shouted in a shocked voice.

Monsters of the shape shifter category had the powerful ability to freely transform their appearance.

The most representative was the doppelganger, but it wasn't the only one with this ability.

The shifting slime in front of them right now was also one of the notorious shape shifter category monsters.

And quite an advanced one at that!

"Be careful, don't let it infiltrate! It becomes tricky if a shape shifter infiltrates the ranks!"

Jijel drew her dual swords and created distance. If that slime came in and utilized transformation, things would become very tricky.

The slime seemed startled and its form changed in succession. It imitated the appearance of White Tiger Tower students a few times, then noticed Yi-Han and transformed into Yi-Han.

"Don't attack! I'm your friend!"

"Okay!"

Jijel cheerfully stabbed her sword into the face of the slime that had transformed into Yi-Han. It was the most beautiful and clean strike she had ever seen.

Swish!

Being hit by both the paralysis curse and a magic-imbued sword strike, it seemed to have dealt quite a blow to the slime as well. It hurriedly escaped outside the cabin door and threw its body into the piled-up snow.

'If we lose it, it'll be a headache!'

"Sharakan. Go!"

The leopard leaped out with a growl. Sharakan, who reacted with his sense of smell, had a clear advantage when dealing with such shape shifter monsters.

On top of that, Yi-Han called skeleton warriors and placed them in front of the door. It was in case of any possible intrusion.

Crunch!

Sharakan precisely bit off the ankle of the shifting slime trying to burrow into the snow.

The slime gave up the ankle part and tried to transform its shape once again. It wasn't easy to catch it because there was so much snow piled up.

"Snow, turn into sand!"

Yi-Han hurriedly chanted a spell.

He had practiced a lot converting sand into rock or rock into sand, but he had never practiced converting snow into sand.

Yi-Han completed the magic by recalling the properties of snow and sand on the spot.

Then the piled-up snow scattered and turned into sand.

'Got it!'

"Lightning spear!"

Yi-Han called lightning to his staff and fixed its shape. Thanks to Professor Bagrak's rigorous training, he was able to abbreviate without chanting long spells.

Crackle!

As the spear of lightning precisely pierced the slime, the slime could no longer maintain its form and melted away.

Basically, slimes had a very simple structure, so if a certain amount of damage was dealt, the core couldn't withstand it and collapsed like this.

In a normal situation, there was no need to be this startled or tense.

It wasn't a normal situation, so that's why!

"...You really are a professor at Einroguard!"

Yi-Han exclaimed.

Who would have obtained this shifting slime and from where?

It was clear that Professor Ingurdel had asked other professors to get it. Since it was quite a rare slime, it couldn't have been made without the help of professors.

'The days of fighting magic-enchanted bulls were rather better.'

Yi-Han seemed to know what Professor Ingurdel's evil scheme hidden in the final exam was.

Scatter the students in the mountain range, then release trained shifting slimes to attack the students.

Students who thought the cold winter was the test would let their guard down against slimes in the form of friends and be severely punished.

"It, it's unbelievable."

Dolgyu still had a dazed face.

"It clearly spoke like Bartreck? How did it imitate so precisely?"

"The professor probably had it learned secretly. He must have had it observed us when we couldn't see."

Yi-Han, who had learned about shifting slimes from Professor Bungaegor, had some information of his own.

Slimes were a kind of primitive colony that was incapable of advanced thinking.

Naturally, rather than thinking with intelligence, it was closer to seeing and imitating.

Dolgyu was shocked.

"To that extent?!"

"I was surprised too. But if it's a professor at Einroguard, it's quite possible."

Yi-Han cleaned up the remains of the slime.

Those remains were like the last piece of trust he had in Professor Ingurdel.

'Now I have to think of Professor Ingurdel as an Einroguard professor no matter what.'

While having a very rude thought, Labda sincerely admired.

"Everyone, you're really amazing. It's embarrassing to the point that we came to help."

"Haha. What's there to admire about this?"

Yi-Han was slightly grateful to the shifting slime seeing the heartwarming atmosphere.

If Labda had asked, 'Why does my head hurt like I drank a sleeping potion?' it would have been annoying, but thanks to the slime, it could be glossed over.

"Wardanaz. I was really impressed that you immediately noticed it was a slime."

"Right. It wasn't even clearly visible, but you noticed that difference."

"Being close usually, I naturally felt something off."

Dolgyu was deeply impressed by Yi-Han's words.

'To think that I couldn't notice it myself!'

Dolgyu vowed once again to pay more attention to his friends in the future.

'Was it a shifting slime?'

Yi-Han was also amazed inwardly.

He thought other White Tiger Tower students had come to interfere and tried to subdue them, but to think it was a monster.

Einroguard was truly a place where one couldn't let their guard down.

'I should attack more actively from now on.'

"East slope."

Jijel, who had been observing outside without listening to the conversation, spoke with a serious expression.

"Approaching from that direction. More than ten people."

"...!"

Yi-Han opened the door of the cabin and looked down.

Surprisingly, more than ten students and squires were coming toward them.

"Let's prevent them from approaching."

"Yeah."

The two agreed.

Regardless of what they were thinking by gathering like that, they couldn't fit everyone in the cabin, and it would be difficult to deal with the aftermath.

Not to mention if there was a shifting slime among them…

"..."

"..."

However, as the group approached closer and closer, Yi-Han and Jijel's faces stiffened.

In that group, there were also Yi-Han, Jijel, and Dolgyu.

The fake Yi-Han pointed at the real Yi-Han and shouted.

"Those are the fakes over there!"

"Oh, this crazy...!"

Yi-Han was shocked.

The intelligence of the slime should have been at the level of seeing and imitating Yi-Han, but how did it even instigate like that??

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