CHAPTER 260.1 - FROM THE BOTTOM OF FREEZING WATER

We set out toward the boss room amidst the relentless blizzard.

But this wasn't the worst blizzard, so visibility wasn't completely whiteout. If we waited for a clear day in this area, we'd never be able to set out.

Thanks to the pocket heater, we had no problem even when walking in this extreme cold, and with plenty of scouting Rems, our route selection was perfect. We'd already discovered a building that appeared to be the boss room during our reconnaissance the day before.

However, that didn't mean the journey toward that place was completely free of danger.

「We're about to arrive at the stronghold of the goma.」

When I saw the Gogma unit during the hunt in the forest, I immediately ordered Rem to find their stronghold as soon as my bird reconnaissance team was completed.

The goma didn’t just hunt; they were also looking for treasure chests and ransacking houses. The risk of encountering them in this town was extremely high, and since they harbored intense hostility toward humans, they would undoubtedly attack us on sight.

They were not boss monsters, but sometimes games have troublesome enemies that roam the field with boss-level strength. The Gogma unit was exactly that kind of foe, so we needed to move carefully and avoid them skillfully.

「What they're doing now, Rem?」

「…They're inside the building. And won't come out.」

So the goma hated this kind of weather too. That was definitely good news for us.

If they were all holed up in their base, we could safely pass by nearby.

「We don’t know when they might change their minds and come out, so let’s get through here quickly.」

We successfully passed through without any trouble. Now that we'd made it this far, they probably wouldn't be able to detect our presence.

「The houses are getting sparse around here.」

「Yeah, this area is already the outskirts of town.」

The buildings visibly decreased, and the surroundings gradually transformed into a desolate snowy landscape.

Perhaps this was once farmland, but now it was an open snowy plain with a clear view of the distant forest.

We moved forward along the snow plain in single-file formation.

「Kotaro, I can see something ahead.」

By the time all the houses had disappeared, leaving only an endless snowy plain, a large, box-shaped building gradually came into view in the distance.

「I think that's where the boss room is.」

With no enemies in sight, we walked toward the building. As we got closer, I became certain that my guess was correct.

「Whoa, what the—? It suddenly got colder…Wait, is that place emitting cold air?」

「That place looks like a lake when seen from above.」

Rem said it was a lake with a circular shoreline.

From our perspective on the ground, it just looked like thick, white steam rising into the air.

「It looks like a hot spring, doesn't it? It even has steam.」

「It's just as you say, Hayama-kun. That steam must be the cold air.」

「But that lake isn't frozen, right?」

「Yeah. The lake isn't water, but antifreeze… No, it seems like a special liquid that contains ice magic.」

As we pushed forward through the snowfields, the lake's surface, which was emitting cold air, became clearly visible.

The strangely blue, translucent surface was beautiful, but because it emitted an intense cold that froze everything instead of freezing itself even in this extreme cold, it looked terrifying and eerie.

「Kotaro, you mentioned before that the town being frozen might have been caused by some kind of accident, right?」

「If it looks like this, the lake seems to be the main reason why the area's freezing.」

Whether it was intentional, an accident, or just part of the dungeon's design, we had no way to know. However, this was where the lowest temperature in this area was recorded.

Well, rather than the lake itself being the cause, it feels more like the facilities in that boss room were causing the lake's cooling function to go into overdrive… But since this was nothing more than a passing point, I'm not really interested in investigating the cause.

「For now, don't fall in. I have no idea how many degrees below zero that water is.」

「Well, even with the help of a fire spirit, it doesn't seem like I could swim here.」

For now, since there was no sign of monsters emerging from the freezing lake, we headed straight for the building――――and that’s when it happened.

「PUGAA!」

「GUGAAA!」

Kinako's roar and the growl of the Dark Knight Rem rose simultaneously.

Right after that, a giant shadow lunged at us, blasting the snow from the snowfield that had accumulated over a long time.

Kinako was right behind Hayama-kun in the rear guard, and Rem was leading the front. The fact that both of them reacted meant that the monster that appeared attacked both the front and rear guards at the same time.

There were two of them!

SHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

The monster, letting out a creepy sound unlike that of a beast, dove towards us. It had an appearance very similar to a shark.

It had a sharply angled head, small round eyes, and a large mouth that seemed to be wide open. Inside the mouth were rows of sharp teeth. Its body, with white and gray tiger stripes, was really useful for winter camouflage.

Its size was about the same as Roirops or Grimgore. It was a formidable medium-sized monster.

「GUGA, GOGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」

The Dark Knight Rem raised her greatsword and confronted the shark-like monster head-on.

While dodging the shark's wide-open mouth as it lunged, Rem delivered a sharp strike. However, sensing the counterattack, the shark skillfully twisted its body in midair, avoiding the downward swing of the greatsword. The blade grazed its pure white belly, but only the very tip made contact. It barely managed to slice through the thick, rubber-like skin of its abdomen.

「GOOD JOB, REM!」

She managed to deflect the initial surprise attack. These were dangerous situations since that ambush just now could easily have taken down one of us.

The shark landed on the snowy field, avoiding Rem's attack and drifting away from our formation. Then, scattering a spray of snow, it once again concealed itself beneath the freshly fallen snow.

In that brief moment, I managed to capture the full appearance of the shark-like monster.

It seemed that while its head was shaped like a shark's, its overall body resembled that of a sea lion. It was skilled at swimming but could also move by crawling on land, essentially a kaijuu-type monster. Though, there was only a lake here.

It had four fins that resembled limbs. However, it also had a large dorsal fin, retaining some distinctly shark-like features.

The way it moved smoothly through the snowfield, with its dorsal fin peeking out, was just like a shark swimming on the ocean's surface.

「Woaaaah!?」

「Pugaga, gugaga!」

I heard Hayama-kun's pathetic scream and Kinako's ferocious cry, so I glanced back to check behind me.

It seemed that, like Rem, Kinako had also put its body on the line to stop the ambush of the shark.

Thanks to the beast armor equipped on Kinako's body, he could charge at the enemy with more confidence. Swinging his sharp claws, he even counterattacked by slashing at the shark's neck area.

However, it seemed the attack only managed to scratch its skin, as the shark quickly turned its body and dove back into the snowfield.

「We’re retreating. With roirops leading the way, we head straight back the way we came.」

「O-Oi, are you sure about retreating after coming this far!?」

「There's no need to play along in a situation that favors the enemy. Hayama-kun, Beniwo, spread fire in the direction where the shark might be to keep it in check. If it charges at us, Rem and Gore No. 2 will stop it.」

「Got it, let's go, Beniwo!」

「Woof woof! Bwoooooooosh!!」

「Kyouko, only shoot when you're sure you can hit. Rem and Gore No. 1 will handle the defense on this side.」

「Got it. But seriously, I can't see a thing even though it's such a huge shark.」

The two sharks circled around us, kicking up diamond dust, making it impossible to tell where they were swimming. With the already poor visibility from the blizzard, this only made things worse; there was nothing we could do.

If I can't see them at all, I wouldn't be able to land even a single shot of 『Poison』.

「Let's stay calm and keep retreating. Since they went straight for a bite, they don’t have any breath attacks.」

Even if they did have one, it might not be powerful or restrictive enough to be a decisive move, otherwise, they would have used it in their initial ambush.

They might be waiting to see if anyone in our group panics and breaks formation to flee, just like the Red Vultures did. However, they didn’t seem to be as timid as those birds.

They didn’t recklessly lunge at us, but they kept just the right distance, sticking closely behind us as we retreated.

In the end, we managed to make it out of the snowfield and back to the outskirts of town, but we barely dealt any meaningful damage to the sharks.

Man, this was tough. Who would've thought a mid-boss-like creature would be lurking right in front of the building with the boss room.

If they were lying in ambush on the ground, Rem Bird’s aerial scouting alone wouldn’t have been enough to spot them. I should have sent a clone for a ground survey as well; this was my negligence.

===

===

My first CN project, why waifu though? Well, coz the main heroine's job is buying soy sauce till the end of act 1

New Project:

Harem, Hero, Demon King, Seven Deadly Sin, Seven Virtue, Sacred Beast, Sword and Magic, Dystopian Future, DESTINY PROJECT HAD IT REALIZED!, Dungeon, Dragon, 72 Demons, Reincarnations

More and Cheaper(10/$10) Advance Chapter :

(~’.’)~Support Me With Ko-Fi~(‘.’~)