Episode 258 Time Over (1)
A leader comes down the stairs at a frightening speed, stabbing with a sword.
– Whaaaaa!
At that moment, Han Gyul, who had been silently following along until then, opened his mouth for the first time.
“I’ll do it.”
Then he took a step forward and instantly unleashed his magic.
[Ice Wall]
[Three-tiered wall]
[Three-layer ice wall]
– Kukukung!
Three thick ice walls rose up, blocking the opponent’s path.
The leadership’s response was also quick.
I thought I heard a few flashes of light and a smooth cutting sound,
– Swish-swish-swish—
A wall of ice was torn apart in an instant.
If things continued like this, the rest of them wouldn’t last more than a few seconds.
But Midwinter was indifferent, as if it had been expected.
He immediately places his hand on the ice wall and casts the next spell.
[Shatter]
-Chaeng—!
All the ice broke into hundreds of pieces the size of fingernails and scattered around.
There, in the middle of winter, snap your fingers!
[Ice Prison]
The ice shards that had been flying in the air suddenly gathered towards the leader and froze.
She suddenly found herself trapped in an ice sculpture.
‘The skill linkage is great.’
Build ice walls, shatter them, and then reassemble the fragments to trap your opponents.
It was a natural connection, like flowing water.
– Damn it,
However, judging by the cracks already appearing in the ice, it didn’t seem like it would last long.
Even Midwinter knew that fact and said quietly.
“You go first.”
It means that even after the ice breaks, he will remain and tie up the leaders.
If we joined forces and fought together, we might be able to defeat it, but for now, even that was a waste of time.
Wasn’t it for this kind of situation that the white magic club assigned her in the first place?
So, everyone greeted each other and climbed the stairs, passing the dead of winter.
‘But I still have to take this.’
[Use ‘Copy-Skill’.]
[Register the target’s skill ‘Ice Wall (B)’ in the slot.]
▷Copy – Skill [3/3]
1. Thief’s Step (B+)
2. Overheat (C)
3. Ice Wall (B)
Ice Wall is a B-rank magic.
The C+ rank core I currently have consumes a lot of mana, so I won’t be able to use it often.
However, it is useful in many ways, and I copied it because it is much more useful than [Shadow An-ga], which was just taking up a slot.
As we quickly climbed the stairs and reached the 4th floor, the formation greeted us again.
As before, I take the lead, and Dang Gyu-yeong leads the group in a line as a shadow.
Even though I entered the formation, there was no change in my field of vision, but that was actually a trap.
Since your vision and sense of direction are distorted, if you continue walking like this, you will just end up wandering around in place.
So I gave the following instructions to my companions:
“Just follow the rope as it is pulled.”
I turned around and headed straight for the wall.
Just as I was about to slam into the wall, the hallway bent itself to fit.
‘As expected, the only thing you can trust is experience.’
The sense of an experienced person, acquired through experiencing the formation dozens or hundreds of times.
The hard work from that time paid off and I was able to easily break through the formation this time too.
Meanwhile, I thought.
‘I have a feeling it’ll be there as soon as I go out… … .’
For now, your vision is distorted and it looks like there’s nothing beyond the formation.
But this area is the best place for the vanguard to wait.
You can observe the movements of those who are crossing the formation, and it is also good for making a preemptive strike.
I even placed one person on the stairs, but should I just leave this nice place alone?
-Whew—
Considering this, I put up a wind barrier early, and Choi Han-gil also seemed to have noticed something and added defensive magic to it.
The moment you finally break out of the formation,
– Whaaaaa!
A sharp crack was heard.
What was presumed to be a sword clashed with defensive magics and then was canceled out.
The group hurriedly broke out of the formation, their faces hardened as they stared ahead.
“… … !”
“… … !”
A temporary storage facility was visible a short distance away.
The problem is that there are two third-year leaders guarding the area in front.
It looks like the black flag was sent by one of them.
To be exact, it is not sword energy but axe energy.
‘Hell’s senior.’
I don’t know his name, but he uses an A-rank Hell Weapon as his main weapon, so I call him Hell Weapon Senior. I think I see him quite often, including in the Black Market.
The other leader seemed to be a magician, and there were two or three spheres floating around him.
The senior from Hell Department looked at Choi Han-gil and his eyes lit up.
“Seeing you here, what a mess. Is this your first time breaking school rules?”
From what I hear, Choi Han-gil seems to be a model student.
He answered in a calm tone.
“I’m also part of a group. Sometimes I have to do things I don’t want to do.”
“If you don’t like it, then get out now. I will consider it and spare you from punishment.”
“How can you do that after coming all the way here?”
Choi Han-gil smiled brightly as he said that.
The two leaders prepared for battle, meaning they were rejecting the offer.
With his gaze fixed on them, Choi Han-gil asked Dang Gyu-yeong a question.
“How much do you need?”
“Three minutes? Five minutes?”
“It’s too long… … .”
“Then try to hold on as long as you can.”
“I get it.”
Choi Han-gil suddenly started running forward.
The two leaders immediately blasted him with axe energy and magic.
– Papapapat!
Choi Han-gil blocked the attack with layers of defensive magic, not knowing when it would be deployed.
The next moment he was holding a dagger in his hand.
A dagger with stars embroidered on a pitch-black background, as if it were made of the night sky.
Everyone was shocked when they saw that.
“… … !”
“… … !”
‘You have that?’
A+ rank dagger, Night of Severance.
The cutting power and strength of the weapon itself are at best only slightly better than a normal dagger.
However, the reason it received an A+ is because the magic granted was so amazing.
As a leader, I had to avoid him at all costs, so I hurriedly tried to distance myself from Choi Han-gil.
But the dagger was thrust forward faster.
[Disconnected space]
The night sky that had been forming a dagger expanded at a terrifying speed, swallowing up everything within range and disappearing.
The next moment, Choi Han-gil and Seon Do-bu disappeared without a trace.
‘As expected, since they’re in their third year, they all carry around at least one trump card.’
Isolated space.
A spell that creates an isolated space and pulls targets within range to it.
To escape, you must use a separate space magic or [Severed Space] must be released.
‘It’s not that difficult to unlock.’
The biggest weakness of the disconnected space is its mana consumption.
Since it is a space-time magic, it consumes a huge amount of mana just by casting it.
Not only that, but mana and concentration decrease in real time while maintaining it, so it is a huge handicap for Choi Han-gil.
The two leaders can get out of there if they just subdue their handicapped opponents.
In other words, the time he endures is the time given to us.
And that time certainly won’t be long.
Dang Gyu-yeong also gave instructions to his subordinates, as if he had thought about it this far.
“Let’s go, there’s no time.”
“Yes, sis.”
Everyone rushed into the temporary storage room.
There was another second-year leader waiting inside, but he was quickly subdued when Dang Gyu-yeong and the other thieves joined forces.
After wrapping up the leader and throwing him into a corner, Dang Gyu-yeong gave another instruction.
“Take everything quickly.”
“yeah.”
“Okay, I understand.”
Thieves began to move busily around the temporary storage area, sweeping up any prohibited items they could find.
On the other hand, Dang Gyu-young and I were the type to carefully select them one by one, because the cube of life has a volume limit.
‘Things that are high in value and small in volume.’
Dang Gyu-yeong went to one side and came back with a forbidden item and put it in the cube.
“With this~”
Bring back the item from another place and put it in the trash.
“And this too~”
And then he ran off to another place again and again.
They are clearly all high-risk prohibited items, but somehow it feels like shopping at a supermarket.
While I was filling up my shopping cart,
“Found it.”
Dang Gyu-yeong returned carrying a thick hardcover book.
The dark purple cover has several pages torn out.
[Book of Chaos (A)]
The very item requested by the White Magic Club.
I glanced at it and saw that it was only a few pages old, but it looks like they got it recently.
Since it was confiscated before I could even use it properly, it’s understandable that I’d want it back.
After keeping the Book of Chaos in a corner of the cube, I continued shopping.
‘I need to take care of mine too.’
In the first temporary storage, and in the black market, I believed in S-rank [Elemental Resistance] and looked mainly at elemental penalty items.
Now there’s one more category added to it,
‘poison.’
Because it can minimize damage with poison resistance, and can even be detoxified with the Hermit’s Hoodie.
Moreover, in order to achieve the state of invulnerability to poison, one must consume all the poisons, both the existing and the non-existent.
So I put poison, poison pills, poisonous plants, etc. into the cube as I saw them.
[Kingslayer (B+)]
[Blue Hemlock (C+)]
[Cute Poison (C)]
[Fruit of Condemnation (B)]
… … .
I don’t know what they were trying to do with it, but they were able to secure poisons of a much higher grade than expected.
On the one hand, I looked around with the intention of grabbing any useful elemental penalty items that I could find.
But unfortunately, this time there was nothing that caught my eye.
It’s not always possible for Inferno Fist and Hyun-eum-ok-maji to appear.
‘This time I’ll have to be satisfied with poison.’
Moreover, it is still too early to say that the things I have in the cube right now are mine.
Infiltrating the temporary storage facility is only half the battle, as the only thing left is to get out safely.
When Dang Gyu-yeong brought another forbidden item and put it in the cube, I said as I closed the lid.
“Let’s stop here.”
“Let’s add just one more.”
“It’s full. There’s no time.”
Dang Gyu-yeong looked a little bit regretful, but seemed to agree that there was no time.
Establish communication with the commander immediately.
“I packed everything.”
– What about the book?
“Of course we secured it. Just let us out.”
– Try fixing the coordinates.
“I already did it.”
A device like a camera tripod has already been set up in one corner of the temporary storage area.
This item, called the Coordinate Fixer, makes it easier to use spatial magic.
Dang Gyu-yeong asked me.
“Do you know how to use this?”
“Yes, I know.”
“Then you go first.”
Since I have the Cube of Life, it’s safe to say that I’m the key to this operation.
So I waited, clutching the coordinate locker.
– crackle, crackle,
After a while, the mana started to ripple more and more violently and started to suck me in somewhere.
The magic of teleportation, a medium- to long-distance space travel for one person, is manifested.
But just as my vision was about to change, a space like the night sky opened up outside the temporary storage area.
The disconnected space has been released.
“Ugh.”
And Choi Han-gil rolled on the floor with a single groan.
Only a few minutes after entering, his entire body was covered in scars.
Then, two third-year leaders walked out and stared at me.
‘Time’s over.’
The supporters ate it all
