Ch.7425. The Beginning of the Cooperation Mission (3)

“50%.”

That was the probability of success I had calculated for this reconnaissance mission.

No, actually it’s a bit higher. We have two priests from the White Cross Society. And Yuri, Soso, and I can endure this extreme cold.

If it were just simple reconnaissance, I’m confident we could succeed even in an unexplored dungeon like this one.

‘But this domain. It feels too ominous.’

The voices of wandering souls echo from all directions. And there are about eight times more monsters than in a typical S-rank dungeon.

As the leader of Flame, I don’t want to lose a single guild member. So I gave Yuri my most objective assessment. That probability was 50%.

Arin continued speaking.

“Senior always has a habit of viewing situations objectively. If it’s 50%… this must be truly dangerous. So dangerous that even successful reconnaissance isn’t guaranteed. But the Guild Master chose to proceed anyway.”

Arin was reading my thoughts. That fifty-fifty probability. The decision was left to Yuri, and she chose to continue the reconnaissance.

‘If it’s Yuri’s choice, I must raise the probability of success to 100%.’

Since I stated the odds were even, it was difficult to account for Yuri’s personal feelings, though I hadn’t intended it that way.

Yuri, who not only feels guilty about me but also harbors personal feelings. She might have been considering my reputation in front of the guild members.

In other words, if I had estimated the probability higher, she would have continued without hesitation. If I had estimated it lower, she might have abandoned the mission immediately. All to support me.

‘Of course, that’s not why I set the probability at that middle point.’

Anyway, Yuri made her choice. Continue the mission. So the outcome of this reconnaissance would undoubtedly affect future events—actually, the future of this world that exists within a novel.

‘So failure is absolutely not an option.’

But maintaining visibility was still impossible. The freezing cold infused with magical energy. Because of it, all drone equipment and measuring devices were rendered useless.

The party advanced through the temporary visibility provided by gaps in the blizzard that Yuri was holding back.

After a while, Yuri stopped and said:

“This is as far as the B zone that Hellhound mentioned.”

Fortunately, we entered the B zone with the secured route without any problems. Hellhound must have created the escape route very carefully. He had secured a safer path than expected.

But it took three hours to get here.

The distance was barely 10 kilometers. For awakened ones, it would normally take less than 30 minutes. It was an extremely slow march.

Though we were following the safe route, we naturally encountered monsters. High-ranking monsters with physical forms, not wandering souls—White Trolls and White Werewolves were everywhere.

‘If we had been spotted by Werewolf scouts, it would have been a real headache.’

Werewolves retain the pack mentality of wolves. Their communication system is so efficient that the moment a scout detects us, our position is immediately reported to the pack.

Of course, our members could easily hunt down a single pack of werewolves, but not knowing what awaits in Zone A, we needed to conserve our strength as much as possible.

‘And Soso took care of all the scouts.’

Her movements were so stealthy they made no sound at all. When Yuri, whose senses were heightened in the heavy snowfall, detected a scout, Soso immediately eliminated them.

The coordination between an S-rank hunter and an A-rank hunter with S-rank skills was impressive.

‘Both of them instinctively know the most efficient combat methods.’

So we crossed Zone B much more safely than Hellhound did, but the real mission was just beginning.

“Mountains beyond mountains,” Father Stefano muttered. His face already looked haggard.

The entire domain was filled with wandering souls and curses, as if we were sinking into an abyss of spirits. It was clear why Hellhound had fallen into confusion.

But Flame’s composition was perfect. The critical difference between Hellhound and Flame was the presence of White Cross Society priests.

Father Stefano’s holy power blocked all the curses and debuffs around us. But if that were all, Hellhound could have somehow overcome it with their equipment.

The problem was the extreme cold that drastically reduced physical abilities. Father Stefano was exposed to the freezing temperature as he used large amounts of holy power.

‘But Flame has one more priest.’

In his place, the holy fire created by Arin raised his body temperature. Not just Father Stefano’s—everyone in the party was covered by the holy fire. It wasn’t just a single-target buff but an area-of-effect one. So I didn’t need to accelerate my fire-attribute mana, allowing me to conserve it.

‘So far we’ve entered without issues as I expected, but…’

As Father Stefano said, there were mountains beyond mountains.

“An… illusion?” Soso muttered. As she said, it was as if we had arrived at a high altitude on a snow-covered mountain, something like Mount Everest.

The surrounding terrain had deteriorated extremely. This place was a domain, not a dungeon. Originally, it should have been a small mountain range on the border between Paju and Kaesong.

‘This scene is absurd. A snow-covered mountain steeper than Mount Seorak existing in a place like this…’

Father Stefano briefly reduced the size of his holy shield. Gripping his submachine gun tightly, he used a new holy incantation.

“Eyes of Truth.”

It seemed to be a holy spell that could dispel illusions or hallucinations. After a moment, Stefano’s expression became serious.

“It’s not an illusion. It seems the magical energy covering the area has created physical terrain.”

Yuri asked in bewilderment:

“Is it possible to create such large terrain in a domain that’s not a dungeon?”

“I’ve… never seen a domain like this before. More than anything, the magical energy permeating everything… it’s frightening even to me.”

Everyone’s expression hardened. And in that silence, I inadvertently heard Arin whisper:

“…a demon?”

The others seemed to have heard it too.

“A demon… surely that can’t be,” said Father Stefano, his face turning pale. While demons are classified as monsters in the current hunter world…

In reality, demons were beings of a completely different caliber from monsters.

‘Like the Pale Rider.’

Beings from the netherworld or demon realm that exist in Ailetan as well. If angels are the apostles of God in the White Cross Society…

Then demons are the apostles of evil gods or demon gods.

‘And high-ranking villains sometimes make contracts with demons.’

When such a demon manifests on earth, it’s incomparable to ordinary monsters.

Whether in Ailetan’s history or Earth’s history after dimensional fusion, demons appearing on earth have been extremely rare. The number of demon appearances on Earth can be counted on one hand.

And the current Hunter Association President, Jeon Tae-hyun, holds the title of Demon Slayer, the only one who has hunted a demon alone.

‘He hunted Lucifer, an SS-rank monster.’

Arin probably spoke without thinking, but the expressions of the other party members became serious. Yuri said:

“It can’t be a demon. I’ve heard there are different signs that precede a demon’s manifestation, distinct from gate appearances. The Vatican wouldn’t have failed to detect such signs, so don’t worry, everyone.”

Father Stefano nodded at her words.

“The Guild Master is correct. The Vatican is always monitoring for demon appearances.”

The party members looked somewhat relieved at his words. Unlike Arin, who has high holy power but not a high position in the diocese yet, Father Stefano has been ordained as a proper priest and has worked in the Cross Society for a long time. He has many connections in the Vatican.

‘And if there had been any movement in the Vatican, Jerfield would have informed me as well.’

Since meeting him at Mount Seorak, I’ve obtained his contact information. He has been regularly informing me about the prophecies obtained from the ancient dungeon at Mount Seorak as they are decoded.

‘There’s no need to be too afraid.’

This is just reconnaissance. Even if there’s an enemy we can’t handle, we’re not going to defeat it right now anyway.

“Then we’ll enter that snow mountain. The boss area must be somewhere in there. Arin!”

Yuri called out. Everyone focused on Arin. Holy power—the special force that stands in direct opposition to magical energy.

Arin’s holy power was purer than Father Stefano’s. So Arin was more sensitive to magical energy.

“You want me to be the human compass, right?”

Yuri nodded. And the party crossed the boundary of Zone B toward Zone A—the snow mountain.

***

“We can’t go any further.”

One hour after entering Zone A, the party couldn’t advance even one meter forward.

The snowstorm intensified, and the surrounding temperature dropped further. Except for Yuri, who was immune to cold, me, who could repel the cold with fire-attribute mana, and Soso, who could extremely raise her metabolism with the Heavenly Demon Divine Technique—it was an extreme situation that no one else could endure.

I continued:

“Father Stefano and Arin can’t go any further.”

Arin was about to shout that she could go further, but she quickly fell silent. The extreme cold was freezing even her breath as it left her mouth.

She was barely enduring with the holy fire, but if she used more holy power here, it would be meaningless even if we identified the boss.

‘The return journey is also dangerous, so we obviously need to conserve holy power.’

Then I asked Arin:

“Can you try to locate the boss’s position more precisely?”

Suddenly, Arin threw herself into my arms. Yuri’s and Soso’s gazes turned cold.

“It’s… it’s too cold… I can’t… cast the spell.”

But her expression was genuinely urgent, so I quickly accelerated the mana in my mana heart. As Arin’s ice-cold body warmed in my heat, her body glowed with a pale green light.

“North… northwest. About 300 meters ahead is where the boss seems to be.”

“300 meters…”

Yuri’s expression tensed. While not exactly close, it wasn’t a far distance for a high-ranking monster’s senses.

“We need to quickly identify what kind of monster the boss is and retreat immediately. With minimal personnel.”

“Then just Soso and I…”

As Yuri suggested, since we’d already succeeded in getting this close, having just those two move would have the highest probability of success.

“No.”

But I immediately rejected the idea. In the current situation, Yuri couldn’t properly use her spells. Too much mana was being consumed to clear away the blinding snowstorm.

‘And even if she temporarily clears the snowstorm…’

While that would secure visibility and allow for a quick direct approach to the boss area, Zone A doesn’t just have extreme cold and heavy snow.

“Is it because of those… monster hordes?”

Though the heavy snow prevented us from seeing even a foot ahead, the unpleasant howling of monsters filled the surroundings. Like waveforms drawn by an oscilloscope.

From the number of waveforms and the speed at which they passed, I could tell. At least three-digit numbers of monsters were lying in ambush on this snow mountain.

It’s abnormal. Of course, there are many monsters near a boss area, but if we’re just doing reconnaissance, there should be routes to bypass them.

But now, monsters were so abundant that no route seemed viable.

‘So no matter how strong Soso is, she’d be surrounded quickly. Even before identifying the boss.’

It was indeed too much for just the two of them. To enter through the route with the fewest monsters, we needed an awakened one who could clear monsters in one go. I explained the situation.

“So we need one more person to handle firepower.”

“Th-then… I’ll… go…”

His body trembled from the cold. Father Stefano’s teeth chattered every time he spoke.

“Using holy power properly in that extreme cold would be impossible. It won’t work.”

“Th-then who…”

The current Father Stefano had to push back not only the extreme cold but also the curses of wandering souls simultaneously. And when party members returned after identifying the boss, he needed to cast all holy buffs to help the party escape. That method had the highest success rate not only for boss reconnaissance but also for the subsequent retreat.

‘With Arin here too, we can apply as many buffs as possible.’

So excluding those two, the only person left was naturally me. Soso and Yuri looked at me simultaneously.

“I’ll go,” I said.