69. Arrival of Winter
Unintentionally accepting the letter, Jin Hwa-rin belatedly sensed something amiss.
The person before her was not speaking a foreign language of another race but using Korean, familiar to them.
Even when she realized that the letter envelope was a common one that could be found anywhere in Korea,
Jin Hwa-rin and her guild members belatedly realized that the two men and women had vanished without a trace.
[…?]
As if they had never been there in the first place, the two men and women disappeared before her eyes.
It was a bizarre experience as if everyone had encountered a ghost at the same moment.
“Guild Leader Hwarin. Disappeared.”
“How… They were definitely here just now, right?”
It was perplexing.
All the guild members who had embarked on the conquest of the Korn Dungeon had reached Grade 1 without exception.
Moreover, Jin Hwa-rin was a special-class hunter.
For them to conceal their presence without a hint in front of her and other special-class hunters like her was an impossible feat.
[……]
Jin Hwa-rin looked down at the letter she had received.
The words they had just left behind came to mind.
One. Han Yi.
When she recalled it again, the first person to come to Jin Hwarin’s mind was Kim Han.
As far as she knew, the only person around who could be called by that name was Kim Han.
As a result,
Jin Hwarin delivered the letter like this.
“Perhaps.”
Thump.
Her heart beat a bit faster than usual.
Han asked.
“What did those two people look like? Could it really be… my parents?”
“Um… Well.”
Hwarin, who seemed to hesitate for a moment at those words, soon cautiously nodded her head.
“…Probably.”
“Oh, is there a possibility that I misheard?”
“It’s highly unlikely. I heard it in perfect Korean. It was also written in the letter, wasn’t it?”
And then, as if to reassure, she added.
“There’s no way I misheard. Our guild members all said they recognized the voice. In our generation, most guild members grew up idolizing Han’s parents when they were young. There’s no way we wouldn’t know. That voice.”
“….”
It was unexpected news.
[Han Ah.]
Familiar tone.
Even now, if he closed his eyes, it vividly came to mind.
An illusion as if his parents’ voices were echoing in his ears.
The small characters written on the envelope of this letter resonated distinctly like a single voice.
Dungeon. They mentioned a dungeon.
Han’s eyes, recalling her words, grew hazy.
‘Right. If it’s my parents, they could survive even in any dungeon.’
If he thought that way, he could now explain why they had not been found anywhere in the world until now.
But why were they still not coming out of the dungeon?
Neither Han nor Jin Hwarin could understand.
“….”
Han looked down at the letter.
‘Is this letter all the clue there is.’
His breathing quickened slightly more than usual.
The once accelerated heartbeat showed no sign of calming easily.
“When did you meet them?”
“It was around last night. It was when we were finishing off monsters and setting up the forward base. As soon as we realized this, we dropped everything and came straight back here.”
Last night. If it was last night.
Han’s pupils trembled weakly.
She already had the conviction that they were Han’s parents.
The voice, though faint, had a sense of familiarity even in the subtlest encounters.
They were alive.
Indeed.
However, a question lingered in their minds.
“If my parents truly are who they claim to be… why didn’t they appear in person?”
Han was still waiting at their house.
His parents could never forget the place they lived.
But the dilemma was brief.
He reached for the letter and unfolded it.
“…I see. Only Mr. Han can see this, huh.”
Jinhwalin’s gaze, fixed on the letter, clouded over.
“Is there a problem?”
“That letter. No matter what we tried, we couldn’t open it. Actually, none of the guild members, including myself, could unfold it. It was as if it wasn’t from this world.”
She chuckled.
“It seems it was indeed a letter meant for Mr. Han.”
“……”
It was just an ordinary-looking piece of paper.
Yet none could open it.
Was there some measure unknown to him?
The contents of the letter were brief.
Well, it was ambiguous to even call it a letter.
[Han-ah. Time is running out. Head to the Extremis Dungeon.]
“This is….”
Jinhwalin, who had checked the contents together.
And Kim Han.
Not knowing English, they faced each other in confusion.
“Extremis?”
Somewhat flustered, that name wasn’t entirely unfamiliar.
***
Half a day later.
The sun was setting.
Jinhwalin approached, stifling a yawn.
“I should start heading out soon.”
Han asked as she put on her coat.
“Are you going back to the dungeon?”
“Yes. I should start leaving now. My guild members are still tackling the dungeon. I’ve overstayed my welcome for the day.”
“I actually enjoyed it too. Lately, I’ve just been at home with no one to talk to.”
She seemed to gauge Han for a moment before cautiously bringing up the topic.
“…about the letter.”
“I know.”
Han let out a small chuckle.
“I’ll wait quietly until you come back after conquering the dungeon.”
Finally, Jin Hwarin’s expression brightened considerably.
***
In the blink of an eye, several days had passed since the incident.
Muahmuah, who had been in a deep sleep, opened his eyes.
“Feeling a bit better?”
“Ahh. Refreshing. I wish you had done a bit more.”
Muahmuah slumped with a reddened face.
Irina gently massaged Muahmuah’s back with her balled-up hands.
Muahmuah, savoring the taste again, spoke.
“After our dragons pour out a lot of magic at once, it’s necessary to relax like this once in a while. Ah, right there. So refreshing…”
Irina lifted her balled-up hands and softly swept around Muahmuah’s shoulders.
Suddenly.
Out of the blue!
A green scale sprouted on one of Muahmuah’s arms that had been laid out.
“Eek.”
As Irina lightly tapped it, it quickly seeped back in and disappeared.
“Oh, did I release too much power? The transformation spell almost unraveled for a moment.”
“….”
Han, who had been watching, narrowed his eyes.
If Muahmuah relaxed a bit more, the polymorph spell might completely unravel.
Perhaps sensing this unease, Irina discreetly took a step back.
The space they were in now was inside a mushroom house.
Although the interior space had expanded compared to before, if one were to suddenly grow larger in such a place, Irina might end up flattened.
“Ah-“
This time, Muahmuah spoke.
Han understood it as an action directed at him.
He put a potato in Muahmuah’s mouth.
As Muahmuah chewed the potato with a crunching sound, he wagged his tail.
“I want more to eat, Lord.”
“….”
Han stared at him for a moment.
Was this a deity or a servant?
Yet, seeing how Muahmuah had exerted himself to the point of collapse, he decided to endure for just today.
“…There won’t be such things from tomorrow. Just for today.”
He put his hand into the potato pile, picked up something, and put it in Muahmuah’s mouth.
As the potato stem entered his mouth, he sucked it in as if it were a handful of noodles and chewed noisily.
There was no special appetite for processed food.
“Go on, enjoy your meal.”
“hehehe.”
Whether it was a good mood or not, MuaMua chuckled softly.
The lizard tail swayed.
***
Han looked down at the ground.
Kuoooo!
Snow was falling heavily.
Snowflakes thick enough to obscure the immediate view were now spreading densely just outside the elves’ territory.
Already for several days.
The phenomenon was getting stronger without any sign of letting up.
Of course, such occurrences were not uncommon on the planet Frey, but they usually lasted only a moment.
To see it persist for so long was unprecedented.
Yet, this seemed to be no ordinary occurrence.
[The official storm season has begun.]
From Noble mtl dot com
A storm, and a massive one at that.
As if to prove the system’s words, the world outside had turned into a complete frozen hell around two days later.
A white hell where nothing was visible a step ahead.
Even for Han looking down from above, the view seemed hazy.
But what was even more shocking was that this phenomenon was still ongoing.
[Prepare for the weather change. Winter is coming to Frey in full force.]
“…What?”
Han’s expression froze further upon hearing the system’s message.
“Are you saying it’s going to get colder here?”
[That’s correct.]
Indeed.
It felt like a precursor to the onset of winter on the planet Frey.
A kind of prologue announcing the beginning of winter.
The planet’s cycle can be divided into several stages, but broadly into three: spring, autumn, winter.
There was no summer.
Or rather, there was, but it was so short, lasting about ten days, that it was almost ambiguous to call it existent.
Until now, the season the elves had endured shivering in was at best a bit chilly, akin to early autumn.
It was beyond belief.
Had the elves really survived in a world like this?
Just surviving without freezing to death until now was miraculous in itself.
“So far wasn’t hellish enough, and now it’s just the beginning of hellish difficulty.”
[You could think of it that way.]
…Damn it.
Well, it’s not like this world will go smoothly.
It seemed to be flowing easily.
In reality, just as the system said, signs of the cold were gradually becoming apparent as the days went by.
“The cold is seeping in little by little through the boundary of the World Tree.”
Indeed, signs were already showing.
At the outer edge of the World Tree where the elves lived.
You could see the frost freezing white at the edge where it touched the outside.
With a tug, a weed broke with a crackling sound.
This was finally evidence that the cold was breaking through the protective boundary of the World Tree and steadily seeping in.
This was a sight they had never seen before.
It was not a good sign at all.
It was a kind of warning.
If winter approached and got even colder than it is now, it meant that cold might start seeping into the boundary, causing both major and minor issues.