Ch.138Cut

# 138. Cut

“*To think that I, would be defeated, by mere insects…*”

Iseratio disappeared in a shower of sparks.

The pressure that had filled the area vanished in an instant, but I stood there blankly, unable to process what had happened….

*Ting- Tididing-*

“Ah…!”

Only when the fragment of Edenic that had been lodged in Iseratio’s body fell to the ground with that sound did reality finally sink in.

As the tension suddenly released, strength drained from my entire body, and I naturally collapsed with a thud.

“Haha, hahaha. Hahahaha.”

I wasn’t the only one. No one was left standing.

“Pfft, hehehe.”

“Hehe….”

“We actually did it….”

“Oh my goodness, I’m dying….”

[You have defeated the Infernal Fire Demon ‘Iseratio’.]

[Evaluation in progress.]

And then the message confirming our raid success.

I wanted to let go of consciousness as the pain that had been suspended rushed in to replace the released tension, but I couldn’t just keep lying there pathetically.

The raid members might be secretly waiting for me to say something.

As I trembled and tried to get up, Danya, who had been licking my face in cat form, returned to her Ayord form and helped me up.

“Thank you. But Danya.”

“Yes?”

“You must have licked a lot of salt off my face.”

“One must consume salt to survive.”

“I see.”

What kind of nonsensical conversation is this?

I chuckled, then involuntarily let out a groan as pain washed over me. Still, I stubbornly walked to where the Edenic fragment had fallen. Danya tried to pick it up for me, but I stopped her. This was something I needed to do myself for it to have meaning.

‘Wow, damn. I feel like I’m dying after taking just one Cocoa Ball hit, but Seyeon took that laser head-on.’

After great difficulty, I picked up the Edenic fragment. It had been embedded vertically, which is why I got away with just groaning in pain. If it had been deeply embedded or if I had been lying down, it would have been truly embarrassing.

Anyway, I gripped the fragment and straightened my back. Then I looked around at the raid members sprawled in various positions.

“Everyone looks terrible.”

“Pfft, look who’s talking, oppa.”

Yuri, who had taken out a water bottle from her inventory to drink, tilted it but dropped it, spilling all the water. Still, she giggled, saying it felt refreshing. Her actions triggered chuckles from all around.

“Today.”

I waited until the laughter naturally subsided before speaking. Seeing all the raid members’ chests rising and falling, I suddenly felt choked up and cleared my throat a couple of times unnecessarily.

“We.”

“Survived.”

“No. We raided a demon.”

The Infernal Fire Demon, Iseratio.

It was truly a formidable opponent.

“If Seyeon hadn’t endured that laser…”

Slowly, I approached Seyeon and knelt on one knee. It was painful, but compared to the fear and pain Seyeon must have felt throughout the raid, it was nothing….

I brushed her sweat-soaked bangs. Seyeon was smiling broadly.

“You must have been scared. Even though it was my order, Seyeon, you carried it out without a moment’s hesitation or doubt. In a way, my order was a cold-blooded decision to sacrifice you to save everyone else.”

“That’s… my role.”

“Knowing that and actually doing it are worlds apart. And because I recognized the motion 0.5 seconds late, you had to endure that pain. Thank you. You truly performed like the best tank.”

“Me too. As expected, the captain’s orders were the best in the world….”

Next, I approached Yuri. I stroked her head too.

“It’s extremely difficult for a melee DPS to deal damage against this type of enemy. But Yuri, not only did you deal damage, you also moved very calmly in crisis situations. If you had been even slightly less brave, even slightly less powerful, our damage output would have been severely lacking.”

“Heehee….”

“You were the dual axes incarnate, Yuri.”

Instead of answering, Yuri winked. Though she was smiling, she seemed too exhausted to speak.

After that, I approached each member one by one, stroking their heads as I had done with the previous two, and praised their achievements.

“Arangi, who covered the most ground alongside Yuri, bravely delivering consistent ambush damage and burst damage, and finishing with the Edenic fragment—you were undoubtedly the best ranger.”

“Subin, who avoided every AoE while continuously attacking, our breathless DPS machine—well, you’re already beyond my commentary. A true genius. With Yuri’s prowess, but also with Subin’s exceptional DPS ability, my bold orders were effective.”

“Our raid’s final bastion. The mother of our raid. No matter how complete we are, there will always be precarious moments. It was the same this time. But because Soyu unni was there, we didn’t falter. Both Seyeon and I. Thanks to you, we could move like this and succeed in the raid. You’re undoubtedly the best healer.”

“Danya. Although Danya wasn’t originally our raid member, you fought with us as one under my orders to succeed in this raid, so it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call you a raid member now. Despite the burden of acting in your original form, you did an excellent job as our firefighter, and I’m incredibly grateful. This raid will also be eternally recorded in the legendary adventures of Ayord.”

“And Yehyun unni. Without you, we couldn’t have even attempted this raid. We would have had to stall more time on the lower floor or use priests as meat shields. Thanks to you and your spirits enduring until the end without exhaustion, we could stay safe. As expected of the strongest spirit master, Mulda-bal.”

After comforting Yehyun unni, who was still apologizing to me for falling at the end of phase 3, I held up the Edenic fragment.

“The Infernal Fire Demon, Iseratio.”

[Even the demon who wields the Infernal Fire that burns everything could not burn your outstanding courage, strong bodies, tenacious will, and deep bonds. You have successfully repelled the Infernal Fire Demon ‘Iseratio’ who threw Magicanth into chaos, without any sacrifices.]

“Cut.”

[Grade – S]

**

Wow, S grade.

Everyone was too exhausted to clap, so they made clapping sounds with their mouths amid weak cheers, but who cares?

Getting an S grade was good, but the greatest reward was that everyone survived unharmed.

That didn’t mean we would pass up the S grade reward, though.

“Another weapon this time?”

“Seyeon, how was the weapon?”

“It was quite helpful. The skill efficiency itself seemed to increase quite a bit. But if you’re asking if it was amazing, well…”

“Then this time, either a skill or an artifact?”

“Skills aside, there’s no guarantee that an artifact will come from someone’s possession, right?”

Everyone continued the discussion while lying down. They seemed to be reviving a bit, despite being half-dead, since they were in a safe place choosing an S-grade reward.

“But seeing that ‘someone’s memory’ is activated even though we’re at full strength, could there be some other reward for this too?”

“If there’s a reward besides summoning us here, whatever it is, it has one clear advantage over the previous three.”

“What is it?”

“We can choose who gets the reward, regardless of who it is.”

“Ah.”

“Plus, ‘someone’s memory’ only appears as a reward for S grade, right? It can’t be bad. It wouldn’t hurt to check it out.”

Following Subin’s words, everyone’s opinion shifted toward “someone’s memory.”

[You have selected someone’s memory.]

So I chose it as the representative, but before moving to the reward room, a different message appeared for the first time.

[Due to internal circumstances and the manifestation of demons, Magicanth has suffered serious damage. Judging that Magicanth can no longer function as a neutral zone, we provide as an additional reward the right to travel back and forth to one of the neutral zones you have visited so far.]

“Ooooh?”

“Amazing.”

Transported to the reward room while still lying down, we were all excitedly discussing the additional message, completely ignoring the floating alphabets.

“If we’re talking about pure beauty, Albrant is the best.”

“Hey, hey. With Danya here, Albrant is a bit…”

“Ah. Sorry, Danya.”

“Besides, our hostility probably hasn’t been resolved. Let’s exclude Albrant.”

“Then it’s between Edengard and Ayord.”

*Clap-*

I cut off their conversation at this point. Since we could decide that later anyway, I wanted to quickly choose the reward and rest as soon as possible.

But then…

“Oppa. Come to think of it, there’s a letter we haven’t chosen yet.”

“Huh?”

“V! Instead of bothering to think about what to choose, we can just pick V!”

“Hey. If it’s V, it would be a reward related to me, and that would be the most useless investment in the world. Let’s choose one of you instead of me.”

“Why? Why is it useless for you to receive a reward? Who knows? You might get something helpful like command enhancement.”

When Yuri broke the ice, the other raid members instantly agreed with her.

“Thanks to the captain’s command enhancement, we could hear orders better, and that split-second time saved our lives.”

“Agreed.”

“More than that, I’m curious about Sunghyun’s memories. Sunghyun has seen all our memories, but we haven’t seen his. Right?”

“Oh!”

“Ohhh! That’s right! That’s true!”

…Huh?

“W-wait.”

“Danya! Aren’t you curious too? What Sunghyun was like in our world, not just here?”

“Meow!”

“Ah, no! Stop!”

Danya didn’t stop.

She was much faster than me with my creaking body, sleek and elegant as a cat…

I could only watch helplessly as Danya’s paw tapped V.

Soon, the world went dark.