LRIC Chapter 92

The next moment, Do-joon’s body in the basement was in a completely different place.

It was a small port town that seemed like it would be located overseas.

The entire town was covered in white snow, and it was so cold that even the sea was frozen solid. On the frozen sea, large sailing ships that had collapsed or tilted could be seen here and there.

And the chilling cold that could be felt.

Do-joon unconsciously rubbed his arms at the bone-piercing cold.

‘Right now, my cold resistance is…’

Clearly, he had raised his cold resistance to the maximum using the Glassrain Snake’s heart, so his current resistance was 75%.

Nevertheless, feeling this level of coldness meant it was no ordinary situation. The mana in the atmosphere itself had an extremely cold property, not just a low temperature.

‘Hoo…’

That’s right.

In the end, the place Do-joon chose was…

[‘Frozen Harbor’ has been entered.]

The third option, Frozen Harbor.

Actually, at first, he was going to choose the first option, Lake of Lava. His ultimate goal was to gather the energy of fire, after all.

But then he had a brief moment of contemplation.

[Skill: Fragment of the Seed Lv61]

It was because of this skill.

Originally, he had been searching only for fire spirit medicines, but after obtaining the fragment of the Seed, spirit medicines with yin properties also became a valid option.

The level of the fragment grew in harmony with his mana, and his mana came from an ice-attribute core, which was cold mana.

In other words, both the Lake of Lava and the Frozen Harbor were good choices.

However, there was one difference between the two.

‘For fire spirit medicines, if it’s a mediocre one, it’s meaningless.’

The point was that a fire spirit medicine with a mediocre level of energy was largely meaningless.

That was something he had confirmed when Sallion first brought him the medicinal herbs. He had chewed on a root at that time, but his mana didn’t increase at all.

On the other hand, spirit medicines infused with cold energy, even small ones, would consistently be helpful. Because as the core grew, the fragment of the Seed would also assimilate and grow accordingly.

That’s the gist of it.

If he could obtain a mythical-grade spirit medicine, he would have chosen the Lake of Lava, but if not, the Frozen Harbor might be a better choice.

And in a 6-tier labyrinth, mythical-grade items were…

‘Hard to expect.’

Not something to hope for much.

Just thinking about the previous labyrinth, Sky Road, aside from meeting Jae Cheon-seong, it wasn’t that difficult of a place. In terms of dungeons, it was about average A-grade.

At that level of difficulty, it was hard to expect not only mythical-grade but even legendary-grade items.

That’s why he chose the Frozen Harbor instead of the Lake of Lava.

‘Then, for now…’

Hoo-

As he exhaled, his breath spread out. Anyway, it was too cold. It was so cold that he couldn’t move properly as is.

So, first, he lit a fire.

Using the energy of the fragment, he conjured a fist-sized flame in the air. Warm heat spread from that fire and enveloped Do-joon’s body.

After confirming that his body could move properly through some stretching, Do-joon…

He took out Kalish from his inventory and headed towards the town.

‘It’s quite small.’

The town was very small. Contrary to the expectation that a place with a port would be bustling and large, it was only about the size of a small rural village.

Thanks to that, it didn’t take much time to scan through it once. However…

“There’s nothing here?”

‘I know, right.’

The inside of the town was completely empty. Needless to say, there were no people, and not a single item or even a monster could be seen.

There were only buildings and roads that were shattered and collapsed here and there, and only a desolate scenery greeted him.

“By the way, didn’t you say you gained a strange power? Is this it?”

At that moment, Kalish asked, looking at the fragment of the Seed floating next to Do-joon.

‘Yes.’

“Hmm…? Oho…”

‘Why are you acting like that?’

“No, it’s nothing. You’ve gained a rare energy again. And the amount of energy itself has increased too.”

Kalish didn’t particularly explain. However, judging by his chuckling, it didn’t seem to be a bad thing.

‘The amount has increased.’

Do-joon was also feeling the increase in the amount of energy. Originally, he only had the mana from the ice-attribute core, but suddenly, he gained a spirit’s power of equal level.

It wouldn’t be far off to say that his mana had doubled with some exaggeration.

‘It means I’m receiving the effect of the mana stat doubled as well.’

Perhaps, just in terms of the amount of mana, he might already be at a notable level? To be precise, it was mana + spirit’s power, but since it was energy he could freely handle, it was the same in that regard.

Soon, after checking the entire town, Do-joon came to a conclusion. There was really nothing here.

If that was the case…

‘That place, is it?’

His gaze turned to the frozen white sea.

At the far end, around the horizon, he had been noticing something wandering around for a while. It seemed the main stage of this labyrinth was on the sea.

Do-joon left the port and stepped onto the sea. Just in case, he tapped and checked the ice, confirming that it was frozen quite thickly.

This should be fine.

Do-joon walked on the sea, searching for monsters. After passing by a few sailing ships, he finally spotted the monster he had seen earlier.

[Ice Giant]

– Compatibility: 65%

A giant made of ice, just as the name implied.

It had a burly build, and in its hand was a club also made of ice.

‘The compatibility isn’t much different from the stone statues in Sky Road.’

Although it was a bit disappointing, it was roughly what he had expected. As the tiers got higher, the increase in compatibility would diminish.

“Grooaaar!”

“It’s coming!”

The ice giant, upon spotting Do-joon, charged at him first.

Do-joon nodded his head.

Yeah, this was a monster.

After seeing only docile monsters in Vulcanus’s territory for a while, seeing a monster rampaging and charging like this made him feel a sense of nostalgia.

“Grooaar!”

As if displeased, the ice giant’s face distorted with a crunch.

Compared to him, a giant, Do-joon was nothing more than a tiny and weak insect-like creature. Yet, how dare he stand so leisurely in front of him?

With the momentum of the charge, the ice giant brought down its club.

With the intention of crushing that insect in a single blow, its lips twitched.

However…

Crash!

“Gruh?”

What shattered was itself.

The stick-like thing swung by the insect had directly shattered its magnificent weapon.

It didn’t end there.

The flames enveloping that stick remained like an afterimage, melting not only the shattered pieces of the weapon but also its arm.

“Gruh! Groooo!”

It was the first time the giant had experienced such a thing. Living only in this cold weather, when had it ever felt this level of heat?

Nevertheless, it felt like instinct.

The fear of its body melting away.

‘Good. It’s working well.’

In front of that, Do-joon was smiling with satisfaction.

It was the first time he had properly used the power of fire. Although he had only swung it with the pure power of the flames, without any special techniques imbued, fortunately, it was working well.

Whoosh-!

Crash!

After swinging the spear a few more times, the giant eventually shattered and melted away completely.

If there was one more thing he learned, it was that breaking and melting the opponent’s body was much more effective than just shooting out energy.

Well, it was only natural. It was a self-evident principle that it was faster to melt ice by breaking it into small pieces than to melt a solid block of ice.

【You have defeated a monster. Experience (EXP) increases.】

A message window appeared as the ice giant completely melted away.

If it was at this level, this labyrinth shouldn’t be too difficult either. Thinking that, Do-joon turned around…

“Huh?”

Crash! Crack!

He nearly lost his balance as the ground beneath his feet suddenly shook.

The ground was collapsing. Fortunately, Do-joon’s agility stat was at level 70. He was able to safely avoid it before falling into the sea.

‘Another monster?’

The type that attacks from under the sea?

Thinking it might be that kind of troublesome monster, he turned around, but it wasn’t.

It was simply that the ice beneath his feet had partially melted.

Where the ice giant had been, there was a hole, like an ice fishing spot.

There was only one cause.

‘It’s because of my fire.’

Do-joon scratched his cheek.

It was true that he had gotten a bit excited since it was the first time he had properly used this power. So he had swung it around recklessly without any intention of controlling it, leading to this situation.

“Be careful, kid. If you fall, you might freeze right away.”

At Kalish’s words, Do-joon nodded his head.

He hadn’t expected that the fact that they were on a frozen sea would become such an obstacle.

Although he was confident he could escape before freezing to death even if he fell in, there was no reason not to be careful.

‘It would be fine if I don’t use the Seed at all, but…’

That would be too wasteful. He could hunt the ice giants much more efficiently if he used it.

Rather than that…

‘I need to practice control.’

It seemed better to train to be able to perfectly control the energy.

Wasn’t it the same with Vulcanus? When he fought Nereid, he scattered flames here and there, but he didn’t burn the forest at all.

The fragment of the Seed was not an ordinary fire, but the fire of Vulcanus, so if he reached that level, he should be able to do the same.

‘Alright.’

Do-joon wrapped the fire of the fragment around the spear again.

It was the moment the task for this labyrinth was determined.

***

“Kugh!”

Splash!

Do-joon retreated. Due to the impact, the ice he had stepped on sank into the sea and then slowly floated back up.

Despite the cold weather, Do-joon was sweating cold sweat as he looked ahead.

“…In a way, it’s impressive.”

Chunks of ice could be seen floating around as various parts of the sea had melted.

Do-joon, who had taken one more step back just in case, wiped his forehead.

‘Controlling it is quite difficult.’

“It’s a different power from mana, after all.”

Do-joon exhaled lightly. Through breathing, and through the mana recovery skill, cold mana was absorbed from his entire skin.

However, that had little to do with his current training. Right now, he was only using the power of the spirit, not mana.

‘It’s definitely harder to handle than mana.’

The fragment of the Seed wasn’t that it didn’t listen to him, but it also didn’t exactly follow the precise image he wanted.

Unlike mana, which moved precisely as he wanted and as much as he wanted, the spirit’s power felt like it was playing hard to get. Sometimes it was drawn in less than he wanted, and other times it suddenly increased.

‘Forget about reaching the level of attacking only where I want…’

It was a situation where it was difficult to even properly control the amount of energy.

【You have defeated a monster. Experience (EXP) increases.】

Splash!

“Kugh.”

Do-joon leaped back again. Once again, he had used too much force, causing the ice giant and the floor to melt away completely.

“Well, it seems to be improving though?”

‘Is that so?’

Sighing lightly at Kalish’s words, Do-joon wiped the seawater splashed on his face.

It seemed he had hunted dozens of ice giants. And he did it using only the Seed, just like in the beginning.

Perhaps it wasn’t in vain, as he felt a gradual improvement in his ability to control it. However, the more he improved, the more he realized how distant Vulcanus’s level was.

“Didn’t you say he was the Spirit of Flames? It’s greedy to expect to reach a level similar to that guy overnight.”

‘That’s true, but still.’

Do-joon took a deep breath to steady himself. Kalish was right. He had only just begun, so there was no need to be impatient.

The cold air filled his lungs, making his mind clear. Even if he warmed his body with the Seed, he couldn’t do anything about the cold air entering his body.

But at that moment…

[The energy of ‘Ice Crystal’ has been absorbed.]

[‘Mana’ has increased by 1Lv.]

An unfamiliar message that he had never seen before appeared.