Chapter 44 : It’s Not Over Until It’s Over

To block out the cold, I had cast a magic barrier and acceleration magic to quickly reach the Endrago.

I could feel my mana rapidly draining because I was also running a detection skill to find its location.

On top of that, the blizzard itself was sapping my mana even further.

No wonder this place was called the “Mountain of Death” — it was completely unreasonable.

This would definitely be a problem when returning, but for now, I decided not to worry about it.

I could barely see even a step ahead, there was no room to be concerned about the journey back.

“We’re almost there…!”

My feet were sinking deep into the snow, which exhausted me even more, and my lungs felt like they were about to burst.

But it wasn’t the time to stop.

The red marker on my skill map showed that I was close.

Running without rest, I finally reached the location where the Endrago should be.

But.

“…You said it would be here, so where is it?!”

Still not seeing even a single blade of grass, frustration made me shout.

“No, calm down. The skill can’t be wrong. It must be somewhere around here. If I look carefully—”

If I got too emotional, I wouldn’t be able to do anything properly.

After calming myself, I thought carefully and came up with one possibility:

The skill said the Endrago was here.

If I couldn’t see it, then… it must be buried under the snow.

“Nothing’s ever easy, is it, seriously!”

I was getting tired of this, but there was no choice.

The thirsty dig their own wells, after all.

To find the Endrago, I began diligently clearing away the snow near my feet.

“Please, be here…!”

“Ah!”

After clearing the snow, two tiny plant stems appeared.

If anything could grow in this harsh, barren environment, it had to be only one thing.

I carefully dug into the ground, and soon, a glimpse of white flesh appeared.

The moment I confirmed its identity, I yanked it out with all my strength.

“I found itttttttttttttt!!”

It was a thick, root-like lump, white as snow.

Exactly like the Endrago I had only seen in illustrations.

And even luckier — there was another one next to it!

If this wasn’t a miracle, I didn’t know what was.

“Yeah. This makes all the hardship worth it.”

What others might not even see once in their lifetime — this legendary medicinal herb — I now held two of them in my hands.

One was for Serena, obviously.

The other one… even though I hated the idea, I would have to hand it over.

Otherwise, I’d have to climb this dreadful mountain again just to find another, and I couldn’t let others suffer because of my greed.

“Hm-hm-hmm~.”

Humming in satisfaction, I stored the Endrago in a pocket dimension created with magic.

The refreshing feeling of having completed everything made it hard to stop smiling.

But this wasn’t the time to relax.

I had to descend quickly before I ran out of mana.

I had no mana potions left, and if I delayed even a little, I would freeze to death.

Thankfully, I still had enough mana to make it back.

I needed to move.

“…Huh?”

Just as I was about to step forward, I sensed a presence beyond the blizzard.

At first, I thought it was just the howling wind playing tricks on me.

But no — a silhouette was definitely approaching.

Wearing a robe that hid their face, the figure was charging straight toward me.

This wasn’t the time to worry about appearances.

‘A knife?’

The figure was clutching a dagger as they pushed through the blizzard without hesitation.

Why…?

As that question flickered through my mind, the robed figure suddenly closed the distance and swung the dagger at me.

I barely managed to roll aside and dodge, but the sudden ambush left me flustered.

‘Whoever it is, they’re not ordinary.’

The way they closed the gap so fast — they had definitely used acceleration magic.

Because of that unhesitating attack, a small wound formed on my left cheek.

“Who sent you? Princess Rosiria?”

“…”

Judging by the way he was dressed, he definitely looked like an Assassin.

Of course, he didn’t answer my question; instead, he adjusted his grip on his sword and charged at me again.

Getting caught off guard once is understandable, but not twice.

I dodged by leaning my head back and fired a Fireball from my hand.

Naturally, such a low-level spell was easily blocked by a magic barrier, but while he was briefly distracted, I threw a punch and landed a solid hit on his chin.

‘…He’s not going down?’

Normally, he’d at least stagger, but he just turned his head slightly, as if he didn’t even feel the pain.

I was planning to follow up with a spell during that moment, but he noticed and quickly widened the distance, so I had to give up on that plan.

A strange guy, and on top of that, a skilled one too.

Without using magic, it would be tricky to take him down — but if I didn’t conserve my mana, I’d freeze to death out here.

Still, he must also be losing mana because of the blizzard, so we should be under the same conditions.

“Kuh?!”—or so I thought, but he suddenly started firing mana bullets without holding back.

Was he insane? 

No matter how much mana he had, if he kept wasting it like that, how was he planning to get down later?!

“You lunatic…!”

Still, I had no choice but to use defensive magic to block the attacks.

With my already depleted mana now truly at its limit, I decided it was time to settle this.

You can’t beat someone who’s trying to kill you without any concern for their own life using normal means.

In that case, charging recklessly would be a better option!

“So you’re thinking ‘you die, I die too’, huh? Fine, let’s do this!”

Leaving only a tiny bit of mana behind, I cast the mid-tier spell [Flame Wing].

A bird made of fire shot toward him, and he blocked it with a defensive spell.

In that opening, I tried to reach into my dimensional magic pocket, but he broke through the smoke and charged at me, aiming a kick.

I thought I could at least distract him for a moment.

I barely managed to block it with my arm, but with a heavy shock, I heard a terrible noise that should never come from a body.

Crack!

“Guh…!”

At the very least, a fracture — if not a complete break.

Judging by the tearing pain, it was probably the latter.

But while I was overwhelmed by the pain, his fist crashed straight into my face.

With my head spinning and my legs giving out, I collapsed on the spot.

I spat out a metallic taste from my mouth, and blood dripped out with the saliva.

“Haa, haa…”

My right arm was useless, and he still had a weapon.

On top of that, he was recklessly throwing his life away without a second thought.

This was bad.

If I just stayed down, he would really kill me.

Maybe he thought I was finished too, because he even leisurely stooped down to pick up his fallen sword.

Which created an opening.

Quickly reaching into the dimensional pocket, I pulled out an Endrago and took a bite.

Although it was mostly considered a medicinal herb, I remembered that it had mana-boosting effects too.

If so, maybe it could refill my completely drained mana — it was a gamble I had to take.

And then.

“…It really is amazing.”

Just one bite and my mana was fully restored — I couldn’t help but be amazed.

Thanks to that, I healed my broken arm with a healing spell and stood back up.

Seeing me suddenly recover, he seemed visibly shaken — I caught a slight tremor in his shoulders.

Well, maybe it was just my imagination.

“You sure had your way with me earlier. If you’re ready to kill, you’d better be ready to die too.”

Since I had been on the receiving end just moments ago, it might have seemed like a pathetic bluff, but what could I do? 

I wouldn’t be satisfied unless I paid him back for everything — including not just the pain, but even the slight wound to my pride.

As I began chanting to prepare a high-level spell, the guy, sensing danger, hurriedly turned his back and tried to run away.

“It’s not really the kind of spell you should use just to kill one guy, but…”

I decided to go a little overboard — both to make sure he didn’t survive and for the sake of revenge.

The high-level spell I prepared was [Line Light].

Honestly, despite its cool name, it wasn’t anything particularly special. 

You could just think of it as a slightly bigger laser beam.

Anyway, before the guy could disappear into the blizzard, I fired the spell.

A blindingly bright and searing light tore through the snowstorm in a straight line.

The snow in its path melted instantly, and even the ground itself turned into mud as it melted away.

There was no way he could have survived a direct hit. 

It had all happened too fast for him to even dodge.

I went over to check if there was a corpse left behind.

“Looks like he still tried to dodge. Persistent bastard.”

It didn’t take long before I found a gruesome corpse with half of its torso missing.

The head was still intact enough to recognize the identity, but the severed parts of the burned body gave off such a disgusting stench that I had to cover my nose.

“Still… I wasn’t able to find out who sent him.”

I should’ve captured him alive and forced him to spill the truth.

Now that I had killed him in the heat of the moment, a bit of regret started creeping in.

Well, it was too late now.

It was a meaningless thought, and at this point, it didn’t really matter anymore.

“Still… might as well get a look at his face.”

Since he had been wearing a robe the whole time, I hadn’t seen it yet. Curious, I lifted the robe.

What I found was a body wrapped completely in bandages, from head to toe.

Could he even see like that?

If he couldn’t, then that meant he fought me blind… but why?

I thought about peeling off the bandages to check his actual face, but I quickly lost interest.

What good would it do to see his face anyway? 

I needed to hurry down the mountain.

I was about to leave when something kept bothering me, making me glance back again and again.

It was nothing, really. 

It was just… the hair color.

Silver hair — not something you saw every day.

“…It’s just a coincidence. Forget about it.”

Though it was rare to see silver hair like that even under the bandages, I forced myself to lose interest and turned away.