Ch.124123. Empty Seat (8)

# 123. Empty Space (8)

‘What I can do.’

I lacked the support abilities and leadership she had.

To be precise, I might as well say I had none at all.

Without such abilities, if others were attacked during combat, all I could do was watch.

It was especially true in the past.

Far from helping others, I could barely take care of myself and often ended up being a burden.

When I realized this fact, I decided to handle everything alone from that point on.

That’s why I voluntarily left the party she had arranged for me, and because of that, numerous empty spaces were created.

“Empty spaces…”

I gradually filled those empty spaces with my own strength, and as a result, I was able to develop my current fighting style.

And there were a few things I realized from that experience.

That even empty spaces can be filled if you keep filling them bit by bit.

And…

‘That there are methods I can use too.’

They’re quite different from her methods.

But this was clearly one of the possible approaches.

If I couldn’t protect team members, I could just fight alone, and if I could fill the resulting empty spaces by myself, that would be enough.

‘Of course, it’s a dangerous method.’

Since I have to shoulder everything alone, the chances of success are low, and the risk of failure is substantial.

But I was confident.

“It’s always been this way, so why…”

The situation was always desperate.

But I’ve always solved all problems using that method.

And now, as always, I’ll do the same.

-KEEEEEK!-

The Ice Golem suddenly howled.

Along with that loud cry, a cold chill brushed past my face, and I felt it throughout my body.

A chill that made my whole body tremble, but I could endure it well enough.

As I withstood the cold with my entire body, I muttered.

“Still warmer than [Absolute Zero].”

Recalling that unforgettable memory, I raised my sword.

Then I charged at the massive monster with all my might.

Seeing me rushing toward it, the Ice Golem moved as if it had been waiting and tried to crush me with its massive arms.

The arms swiftly came down on me, and I used my greatsword to block them.

-BOOM!!-

An ear-splitting noise from the tremendous force.

With [Mortal’s End] activated and wielding a greatsword, my strength was at its limit.

Even so, I was barely blocking the two arms and was even being pushed back little by little.

‘Really… stupidly strong…’

That brute force was beyond what I could handle.

But knowing this, I didn’t run away.

Instead, I chose a different approach.

-Woong!-

The abyss that appeared on my sword seemed hungry, perhaps because it had been a while since it last emerged, and I spoke to it.

“Eat… that.”

The abyss, appearing after a long time, devoured the Ice Golem’s body as if it had been waiting for those words, gradually gnawing away at its solid form.

-KEEEEEK!!-

The Ice Golem, clearly being consumed bit by bit, screamed in terror and pain.

I didn’t miss the opportunity and attacked the Ice Golem alongside the abyss. As a result, meaningful wounds were appearing on that massive body that had seemed impervious to damage.

-Thud! Thud thud!-

Given the opponent, it couldn’t be devoured quickly, but that didn’t matter.

The abyss’s role was sufficient in stopping the Ice Golem’s movements, and ending this monster’s life was my responsibility.

“Really tough…”

The weakness of monsters is the chest where the magic stone is located.

If you target that area, even monsters with the toughest bodies and most powerful abilities would fall.

But targeting that chest wasn’t easy.

Especially when facing a monster with an absurdly tough body like this one.

-Thud thud thud!! Thud!-

Still, after continuously targeting the monster’s chest, cracks began to form on its tough skin.

It was much tougher than I had thought, but thanks to the greatsword, which excels in destructive power among weapons, and the abyss, which boasts invincible force against living beings, I was able to inflict significant damage.

With continued attacks, the initially small crack grew larger, and with a final blow using [Reinforcement]…

-BOOM! CRACK!-

The battle was decided with that final strike.

The Ice Golem, with its core shattered, could no longer move and fell helplessly to the ground.

“Finally dead…”

I extracted a large magic stone from the now cold corpse of the Ice Golem.

Being a young specimen, it was infinitely smaller compared to the average Ice Golem’s magic stone, but still larger than those of most monsters.

However, something else caught my attention more than the magic stone.

I approached a certain box that appeared after defeating the Ice Golem.

“A box?”

It was a box with the same design as the treasure chests commonly found in dungeons.

With some anticipation, I placed my hand on the box.

-Creak!-

A truly familiar sound.

The box opened with a sound I’d heard countless times, and inside were items reminiscent of dungeon rewards.

“Potions… huh?”

The box contained various types of potions, including health and mana potions.

It’s definitely a good reward.

Potions are as difficult to make as they are effective, and there aren’t many people who can make them.

But looking at those potions, I couldn’t help but think:

“All that trouble for just this?”

So the identity of the blue dot was these potions, and this structure was just a dungeon to obtain them.

I stared blankly at the potions I had obtained with such difficulty, and the party members who rushed over were puzzled by my reaction.

“Just this? Do you know how valuable these are? We could get a good price if we sell them…”

“But still… why are these here…”

Of course, the potions aren’t worthless enough to be described as “just this,” but somehow I felt empty.

However, it seemed I was the only one with such feelings, and the others showed positive reactions to the reward.

“These are probably here for us to use in battle. They’re potions with good effects. There’s a strength potion, an agility potion…”

“True… they’ll be helpful.”

Potions like these that directly affect stats can be quite useful and could serve as excellent variables in battles against other teams.

The process of obtaining this reward was too difficult, but the reward itself was decent.

‘An Ice Golem to begin with…’

It was a monster that teams without fire-attribute skills would find nearly impossible to defeat.

Even I wouldn’t have been able to defeat it without the abyss.

“Everyone, take one that you want.”

“Huh? Is that okay? You defeated it alone.”

At least they have some conscience, seeming reluctant to just take them.

“If you don’t want them, fine.”

“Are you really giving them to us?”

“Yeah, I don’t particularly need them.”

The truth is, it’s not that I don’t need them, but these guys needed them more.

It’s more effective for them to raise their lower stats than for me to further increase my already high stats.

“This is all I need.”

I took only the health potion from among those potions, and the other potions were amicably shared among our team members.

Reina, who lacked mana, took the mana potion; Raicle, who lacked strength, took the strength potion; and the others chose potions that could compensate for their weaknesses.

Just as we finished collecting all the potions from the box, the walls that had appeared when we entered this place disappeared.

“Oh, we can finally get out of here.”

“Yeah…”

While the other team members were happy about finally being able to leave, I couldn’t share their joy.

I asked the team members in a serious tone:

“What do you want to do?”

“About what?”

“Do you want to run? Or fight?”

“Huh? What do you mean…”

“We shouldn’t meet yet…”

The moment all the walls disappeared, my status window reacted, and a message caught my eye.

[Absolute Loyalty has been activated.]

[All stats increase by 10% when with your lord (Elizabeth Michael).]

[Your lord (Elizabeth Michael) feels affection for her faithful knight (Albert Veros).]

Normally, just seeing that message would have made me happy, but not this time.

There were times when it popped up too often and annoyed me, but I had never been as angry as I am now.

‘Talk about bad luck.’

The abyss had somewhat satisfied its hunger with the Ice Golem.

I couldn’t help but laugh bitterly at the fact that we were meeting them in this state, and greeted my lord whom I hadn’t seen in quite a while.

“It’s been a long time, Noona.”