[Confirming the positions of ‘Seo Kang-rim’ and ‘Cheon Gu-nam’!]
[You have entered the room of fire!]
As soon as I opened the door and stepped inside, the heat hit my face.
In an instant, sweat ran down my back.
Steam was rising from all directions, making it difficult to see the surroundings.
The room in the bathroom seemed like a mixture of a wasteland and a swamp.
All the trees nearby were dead and black, and the ground was a sloppy mud.
The only difference from a regular squat is that the bottom is boiling red.
“It really is like hell.”
Cheon Gu-nam said in a voice mixed with admiration and shock.
As he said, this place was like hell.
Soon the door closed and an instruction message appeared.
[The room of fire and flame begins!]
[Return to the lobby to find the ice cubes!]
[Time limit: None]
“Crystal ice? There’s ice in a place like this?”
Cheon Gu-nam muttered as if he was puzzled, then turned to me and asked.
“Mr. Seo Kang-rim, did you find the crystal ice?”
“No. Not yet.”
I know where the crystal ice is.
And I know how to find it.
Of course, even though I know it, I don’t plan on clearing it right now.
Cheon Gu-nam said with a slightly regretful expression.
“Well, at least there’s no time limit.”
Cheon Gu-nam said so, but in reality, it doesn’t really matter whether there is a time limit or not here.
It’s difficult to get to where the frozen ice is.
But what’s more difficult is getting it back to the lobby.
With the hot water boiling around, even the magical crystal ice would soon melt.
However, Cheon Gu-nam did not need to know these details.
“Then let’s go.”
As soon as I moved my feet, Cheon Gu-nam also started following me.
The heat of the hot pot was so intense that it was difficult to move.
The room of the hot spring was blocked by cliffs on all sides, and the steam obscured the view, making it difficult to see.
“It’s really suffocating. It was okay until a while ago.”
Even for someone with a water nature, this place seemed quite overwhelming.
Cheon Gu-nam, who was out of breath, glanced at my hand and asked.
“But where are you hurt? Why is there a bandage on your hand… .”
I now had bandages wrapped tightly around both my hands.
I answered Cheon Gu-nam’s question lightly.
“My sword kept slipping because of the sweat, so I wrapped it for that purpose.”
Of course, that wasn’t its purpose.
The easiest way to prevent ‘fingerprinting’ is to not show your palm.
It’s difficult to use as a long-term solution, but it works for now.
There was no significant change in Cheon Gu-nam’s expression at my answer, but I could see a faint disappointment passing through him.
He said it without any reason, beating around the bush.
“By the way, it’s really hot here. Surely there’s no crystal ice in this soup or anything… … . Eww!”
Then he let out a single scream and collapsed to the ground.
The soup began to boil and something jumped out.
It looked like a lump of melted mud, but it was red and steam was rising.
Two round eyes swiveled between the mud lumps.
-Geguruk!
═══════════════
[Name] Firefly
[Grade] Insect Third Grade
[Description] A demon born from a fire pit. Its attack power is weak, but it moves in groups. It preys on things with a lower temperature than itself.
═══════════════
One of the main characters appearing here was the fire frog.
Fire frogs are a type of predator that detects prey by temperature.
When a person approaches the hot spring, it immediately senses the temperature and runs away.
We must feel like cold ice cream to a firefly.
As soon as one frog jumped out, other demons immediately followed suit.
-Cave!
-Kegurururuk!
The moment one of them ran towards me, I immediately drew my sword.
How much trouble did we have to endure over this one frog in the past?
Fortunately, I now have a talent that I didn’t have back then.
[The ability ‘Sword Pulling’ is activated!]
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-Crunch!
The frog was split in two with a sensation like jelly being cut.
As soon as his comrade died, the rest of the frogs started to rush in.
It seemed like fireballs were flying everywhere.
“D-dang it! It’s just a frog… …!”
Cheon Gu-nam, who had fallen over in surprise, suddenly got up from his seat.
He activated his ability with a face full of anger.
[The ability ‘Water Bullet’ is activated!]
As the ‘water grenade’ was activated, water droplets escaped from the water bottle worn on his waist.
It seemed that he was carrying a water jug around because he had not yet been able to create water from the air.
The bullet made of water pierced the firefly right through.
-Gulp gurgle!
In an instant, the water evaporated and smoke rose.
As the firefly that had been hit by the grenade began to cool down, the fireflies around it rushed in and started eating it.
“Okay, okay!”
When he saw that his attack was working, Cheon Gu-nam became excited and started to rain down grenades.
But there were too many fireflies.
There were also other types of demons besides the fire frog.
“Eww! What, what is this!”
He discovered the fire stone ghost that had belatedly approached Balchi.
In addition to fire frogs, there were fossilized frogs camouflaged as rocks living around the fire pit.
It is slow, but has high defense, making it a difficult opponent.
Too many demons have come.
Now it seemed like it would be a good time to slowly retreat.
I turned my back on Cheon Gu-nam and started running straight away.
“Seo, Seo Kang-rim? Where are you going?!”
I swung my sword at the approaching fireflies and ran to the resting area I had seen last time.
I felt Cheon Gu-nam following me urgently.
[You have entered the rest area!]
I entered the cave, which was a resting area.
First, as I was sitting down to rest, I saw Cheon Gu-nam running towards me with a loud noise.
“Seo, Seo Kang-rim! Please help me!”
He came in rolling.
He must have had a hard time because his whole body was covered in wounds.
Cheon Gu-nam came crawling on his knees in shock, covered in burns and bite marks all over his body.
“Why are you just watching and not helping! We need to kick those guys out right away!”
“You just have to wait.”
“Huh? What the heck is that… … .”
I waited for a moment without answering any further.
The fire frogs that had been fiercely chasing Cheon Gu-nam were seen arriving at the cave entrance.
The moment Cheon Gu-nam was terrified and tried to run away.
-A burrow?
-Guggulk.
The frogs tilted their heads and then began to retreat obediently.
Cheon Gu-nam asked, dumbfounded.
“Are you going?”
“Yes. It’s the space I visited last time, but no demons came in here.”
I pointed to a small jangseung placed inside the cave.
The cave with the jangseung is inaccessible to demons.
The temperature was quite cool, so it seemed like my fatigue was going away.
“I didn’t expect the demons to suddenly pour out from the entrance… … It’s become more difficult than Dosan’s room?”
Cheon Gu-nam spoke with a tired expression on his face during that short time.
As he said, the second room was more difficult than the first room.
But there weren’t that many demons that came out.
The number of demons has increased since the previous life.
And the number of safe zones that existed here and there was also decreasing.
Did I clear the first room too quickly, and did the Fate Guardians raise the difficulty?
Even if the difficulty level is increased, it is not very threatening.
In the first room, I had raised my abilities quite a bit.
However, Cheon Gu-nam’s case seemed more burdensome than his previous life.
“Ugh, ugh… … . I’m dying from pain.”
It was refreshing to see Cheon Gu-nam suffering, covered in wounds.
But it couldn’t end like this.
As I sat there calmly, Cheon Gu-nam glanced at me and asked.
“But Mr. Seo Kang-rim, you know a lot about this place, right? You even know that there is a safe zone… … .”
“I came this far last time I was trying to conquer it alone. I failed though.”
“I see. Well, it’s likely to fail.”
He seemed quite pleased that I had failed.
As expected, he is a person with a bad personality.
Then, Cheon Gu-nam smiled and said.
“By the way, Seo Kang-rim, you survived thanks to me, right? I killed the firefly that was after you earlier.”
Did you think I wouldn’t know that it was a lie?
Rather than helping me, he was a person who was only busy dealing with the frogs that attacked him.
Cheon Gu-nam continued to talk loudly as if he wanted to hear some compliments from me.
“My grenade worked well here. I see there’s also some medicinal water in here. Since water can be continuously supplied, I think it’ll be easy to break.”
‘It breaks easily.’
When the firefly appeared, I remembered the surprised and frozen look on Cheon Gu-nam’s face.
When I ignored him, Cheon Gu-nam made a sour face.
“I know you’re strong, Seo Kang-rim, but don’t you need my help here? I’ve already helped you with the grenade several times.”
It wasn’t worth dealing with.
I took a sip of the medicinal water and went out of the cave.
“I don’t really need Mr. Cheon Gu-nam’s help.”
“What are you talking about… … .”
“If you don’t feel like it, go back. You can break it by yourself.”
That was the end of the short break.
I felt Cheon Gu-nam follow me out in silence as he was about to say something.
* * *
‘You’re such an unlucky bastard.’
Cheon Gu-nam gasped for breath and glared at Seo Kang-rim’s back.
How much time has passed?
In reality, only about two hours had passed, but to Cheon Gu-nam, it felt like he had been there for at least half a day.
‘I’m so tired I could die.’
Cheon Gu-nam glanced at the corpse of the firefly.
Before we knew it, there were corpses piled up all around us.
As soon as I left the safe zone, I was attacked by frogs and had no time to rest.
Meanwhile, Seo Kang-rim was defeating the demons without any change in expression.
‘It’s embarrassing to ask to go back first… … .’
It would have been natural to say that it was time to turn back, but Seo Kang-rim just silently continued forward.
At first, he thought he was stronger than Seo Kang-rim.
Because his grenade was more effective here.
But as time passed, things changed.
The grenade was an effective ability, but Cheon Gu-nam wasted it too much.
Recovery potions only restore stamina and injuries.
As his magical powers were depleted, he suffered from severe magical anemia and was forced to fight with a sword.
As both sides fought to catch the firefly with their swords, it was clear that Seo Kang-rim had the upper hand.
‘This kid can’t be a senior. He’s at least a senior.’
Cheon Gu-nam looked at Seo Kang-rim’s hand and thought.
His fate could not be read as he was still bandaged.
‘Why did you bring a bandage again… … .’
At first, I was curious about the fact that Seo Kang-rim broke Do-san’s room alone, so I tried to look at his fortune.
Actually, it doesn’t matter if you give up here.
Even if you can’t see the four pillars, you can tell what level Seo Kang-rim is at through his skills.
‘But this kid, I think he’s hiding something.’
