Ch.177High (2)

# 177. Ancient (2)

What is my name?

What am I? Who am I?

Where am I now?

When am I now?

What am I doing now?

Am I alive?

What does it mean to be alive?

If I’m having these thoughts, does that mean I’m alive?

If I’m only thinking but don’t understand anything, can I still be considered alive?

Is what I’m doing now really thinking? Is it right to say I’m thinking while alive? Couldn’t it be lingering thoughts left after death?

Then am I dead?

If I’m dead, why did I die, and if these are lingering thoughts, why do they remain, and why are they surfacing only now?

Is it even correct that they’re surfacing now?

Everything is a question.

But one thing is certain.

That I continue to harbor questions.

Another question that just arose:

How did I end up in this state?

And yet another question that followed:

I hear something?

Sound.

Yes, is this what sound is?

I don’t know what sound it is, but though it’s very faint and intermittent, I definitely hear something.

And that sound is growing louder and more frequent.

I’m curious.

Who I am, when this is, where this is, what state I’m in, why I’ve become like this.

If I wait just a little longer… wait?

Though I’ve only been conscious, questioning, thinking, hearing sounds, and realizing this for a short time, if I wait nonetheless.

I feel like I’ll be able to remember.

And that time doesn’t seem far off.

**

We couldn’t do much maintenance. Just taking turns wiping our bodies with towels and checking our weapons. Even though we hadn’t fought any monsters so far, none of us denied that it had been mere luck.

Cooking a hearty meal and soaking our sweat-drenched bodies in a makeshift bath?

That was nonsensical when we were communicating with hand signals to avoid even the smallest sound.

But discomfort tends to get buried under tension.

We decided not to completely disregard the map given by the reconnaissance captain, but to prioritize what we directly saw and felt.

– Stop. Front. Enemy. Spotted.

– Detour.

– Right. Proceed.

We moved forward even more cautiously, careful even of the sound of swallowing saliva.

– Stop. Front. Enemy. Spotted.

– Detour.

– Left. Proceed.

Arang took the lead in place of Danya, who was in cat form, and Yuri, who was expending significant energy just containing her excitement.

‘Damn, I can’t figure out this path at all.’

Given our pace, we seemed to have advanced only a little from our rest spot, but I already couldn’t remember where we’d been. Clearly, the seal site was ahead, and I could feel we were getting closer… but no matter how hard I strained my eyes, it didn’t feel like we were going the right way.

– Stop.

– Reason.

Yet another stop signal in this season. We naturally looked at Arang, assuming there were monsters ahead, but we could tell in an instant that wasn’t the case.

Her expression was completely rigid as she turned around.

Not just me, but the other raid members must have sensed it too.

That the time had come.

Nevertheless, we carefully watched Arang’s hands.

– Front.

– Enemy.

– Spotted.

– Detour.

– Negative.

– Front. Path. Negative.

– Right. Path. Negative.

– Left. Path. Negative.

– Enemy. Surrounded. Allies.

The situation exceeded expectations. Honestly, I couldn’t believe it. Even now, watching Arang’s hand signals, it didn’t feel like we were surrounded at all.

But Arang was the raid’s best ranger class when it came to detection.

And Danya, who had been gently scratching the ground with her front paws, nodded as if confirming Arang’s words.

– Path. None.

– Instructions.

With the final hand signal asking for instructions because there was no path forward, Arang’s movements stopped. All eyes turned to me.

Is this how the visually impaired feel?

Not being able to see ahead, having to move forward into the unknown.

But we had neither a cane nor a guide dog.

Even if our hands, feet, and bodies got injured, we had to move forward once we’d declared “Ancient.”

I held my right palm vertically, bent it forward from above, then thrust it forward. Then I raised my left index finger, stabbed it into the center of my right palm, and twisted it.

The signal for advance and breakthrough.

The raid members’ spirit changed.

Danya, who had been in cat form to minimize energy consumption, returned to her Ayor form, and Yuri, who had been suppressing her energy, began to warm up.

We changed our extremely cautious attitude and advanced with determination to break through to the distant (or more precisely, sensed) seal site. Whether it was due to our changed attitude and spirit, we soon realized why Arang had made that expression.

Suddenly the path ended, with enemies on all sides.

She must have wondered if she had led us the wrong way. She probably felt momentary despair, thinking she had put the entire raid in danger.

I can say with certainty that this wasn’t Arang’s fault. I patted her shoulder in gratitude and appreciation, then asked with hand signals.

– Enemy. Scale. Assessment. Possible?

– Front. Right. Left. Similar. Many.

Equally numerous in all directions. If there are many enemies whichever way we go, we’ll have to break through where we need to go.

– Plan. Maintain.

At my signal, our formation changed.

Seyeon at the very front, with Yuri slightly behind and to the side, breaking through like bulldozers.

Danya and Arang at the rear, guarding against unexpected threats from the sides and back.

The rest in the center, supporting the breakthrough.

I cast buffs, and Sister Soyu preemptively applied shields. Sister Yehyun had been coaxing the terrified spirits since we entered this area, forcibly infusing them with energy, and Subin was continuously chanting, ready to unleash magic at any moment.

Setting up all this took less than 30 seconds.

– Full force. Breakthrough.

We charged forward as one.

“Light!”

Figuring we no longer needed to worry about making noise since we were going to fight anyway, I shouted, and Sister Soyu immediately responded by shooting a ball of light upward.

– ■■■■■■!!!

“Fuck…”

The monsters exposed to the light howled and went berserk all around us. There were so many that it felt like a wave of screams crashing into us. Yuri’s curse was instantly swallowed up.

If we hadn’t been moving forward by momentum.

If we hadn’t been advancing as one.

No, if I had been at the very front or the very back.

I might have collapsed with weak knees.

“You fucking pieces of shit!!!”

“Yuriiiii!!!”

But.

“Bastaaaards!!!”

“Eat thiiis!!!”

Watching monsters fly like bowling pins with the battle cries of our physical duo.

“Murang! Ttangttang!”

Seeing Sister Yehyun’s cleverness as she turned the ground in front of the monsters approaching from the left into mud, making them tangle with each other.

“Full incantation. Mass release.”

“Damnatio memoriae!”

Observing Subin and Sister Soyu stopping the monsters approaching from the right with magical bombardment and record erasure.

“How dare you!”

“Leave this to me!”

Watching Danya and Arang intercepting monsters trying to attack from behind, appearing here and there in flashes.

“[Seyeon 1! Subin 3! Soyu 12!]”

I too, without stopping my run, was once again supporting the raid members with superhuman perception.

If the reconnaissance captain who had been consistently rude to us had seen this sight, he might have stood with his mouth agape, drooling.

That was the level of our developed power.

‘But there are too many. Far too many.’

Was the fact that we hadn’t fought even once until now all for this moment?

Our charging speed, trapped in what seemed like a monster trap, was gradually slowing down in the face of overwhelming numbers.

‘At this rate, we’ll be devoured.’

Just as in the original game, where the most important reason the Paelm Fortress boss was difficult was the presence of mobs and elite mobs, we might be facing some of them prematurely with just our group.

‘The priority was to disturb the seal, wake the demon inside earlier, and get out, not to kill all these monsters. In that case…’

The seal site was now close enough to be visible to the naked eye. I couldn’t be certain if it was really the seal site, but I decided not to question that at this point.

“[Subin!]”

Subin, who had been mass-producing monster barbecue, glanced at me. Could she understand my intention just by looking at my eyes? She alternately looked at her assigned direction and me, then nodded and held up three fingers.

‘3 minutes?’

‘3 minutes.’

She came to my side, closed her eyes, and immediately entered a state of intense concentration. Just by seeing my eyes, she understood my intention and began multi-organ incantation at an incredibly fast pace.

“[Protect Subin!]”

This one phrase was enough for the raid members who hadn’t noticed us two because they were busy fighting.

“Shouldn’t we move forward a bit more?!”

“[3 minutes! Just hold on for 3 minutes!]”

“Gather behind me!!”

“Soyu!!!”

“Got it!”

Honestly, even 3 minutes was long. It was a place and situation where 1 second felt like 1 minute, and 1 minute felt like an hour. Subin would know that too, right? She must have cut it down as much as possible.

The final 5 minutes, no, 3 minutes.

Looking at the ominously writhing reddish membrane-like thing, I thought:

‘If it won’t come out even with all this noise… we’ll need to pound it with something big and hot.’