33. Crossing the Line
“Run! Run if you don’t want to get caught in the jaws of bugs!”
“Huh… My… I’ll try to drag the time with the spear!”
“No, Luna!!! Don’t tremble like a f*cking dog and just run!!!!!!”
– Clap clap clap clap!!
With every step we took as we ran up the deep and wide burrows dug by the rock locusts, the sound of urgent, crackling footsteps echoed.
“Ugh… Ugh…! Mogdan!!! Don’t run this f*cking fast!!!”
“Heo-eok… Hu-wook…! This is the best!!!”
Mogdan, struggling on his short legs, was running dangerously at a slower speed than I, who was running with Robin in his arms.
Ah.
Sad dwarf with short legs.
“f*ck… f*ck… f*ck…!!!”
I cupped Robin’s hand, wrapped it around my neck, and with her right hand held Robin’s hips, with her left hand, I snatched up Mog Dan’s collar.
“Awesome…! You f*cking owe me! If you go out, pay back in double!”
“Ughhhhh!!! It’s coming ah!!!”
“If you have time to say that, put a lantern or a belt on your waist!!!”
“Ah… I see! I know, don’t stop!!! Please!!!”
“Then you have to run, you motherf*cker!!!!!!”
Sasasak-! Sasat-!
As I was running, wringing out all the strength I had been sucking on, a creepy sound from behind pierced my ears.
Die. Die. I’m f*cking dying…!
I ran with all my might and shouted at Robin, who was holding me in the arms of the princess.
“Robin! Wake up and jump on all fours now! I’m having a hard time!!!”
“Uh… Father…”
“Amy, Robin!!!”
When I glance back, dozens of pairs of compound eyes glistening in the light of a lantern dangling from my waist are pointing at us.
It’s normal for them to come from the floor, and they even clung to the walls and ceiling and rushed towards us, creating a rare scene.
– Kurleung! Kwakwawang!
“Muh… It’s collapsing!!! The ceiling is collapsing!!!!!!”
“Princess!!! Don’t even look back, just run!”
With Princess Alexis’ near-screaming cry, the roof ground, weakened by the waves of rock grasshoppers, began to collapse from behind us.
“Kyaaa!!!”
“Gaaa!!!!!!”
Because the roar of the ceiling collapsing right behind us was being relayed in real time, my hamstrings were already starting to tingle.
To make matters worse, as she struggled to run with the mog on her robin, she felt her body gradually lose strength.
“Heo-eok…! Whoop…!”
It seems like a kaleidoscope is passing by.
What if we stop here?
After being buried alive in the ground, it will serve as a tasty nutritious snack for the rock grasshoppers that have dug up the collapsed pile of soil.
Perhaps my body will be cut into pieces by rock locust larvae wriggling somewhere deep in the ground…
“Ah… No…! No, dear!!!!!!”
Sir, I absolutely hate that. I hate to die!
“Judge them with a sword forged by the righteous light, and save your servant from this ordeal… The shining heavenly wings are with you, which no one can fall for…”
“Royman! f*ck now is not the time to pray!!! I want you to do something quickly!”
“Tongue… Brother! I’ve been thinking about it, but it seems that the time of rest has come for us!!!”
“What kind of bullsh*t is that!!!”
“Looks like we’ve been f*cked!!!”
“aaa!!! Then, even if it’s Mogdan, you’ll carry it and run!!!”
I swung my left arm, which was about to lose strength, as hard as I could, and Mogdan, who flew away, landed on Royman’s arm.
Mogdan’s expression looks very relaxed. Perhaps in an emergency situation like this, Royman’s strong physique would feel like a top-notch carriage.
A bastard. Cowboy. Chew. If I go out, I should get ten times the original reward, let alone double it.
“Ugh… Ugh…! f*ck this…!”
We are working hard and running up, but the rock locusts following us don’t seem to get tired or slow down.
If it continues like this, it will catch up.
After a moment of thought, I took out a chain lightning bolt from the bolt holder attached to my waist.
I quickly loaded the bolt I pulled out into the crossbow and turned my arm backwards.
The gap between the carapaces, or the eyes must be aligned. Or else it will bounce off.
“THE f*ck… Hey!!! Shoot the bolt!!!”
Pang-! The bolt that flew away hit the eye of the rock grasshopper crawling in front.
– Gripping Jigsaw-!
At the same time, the compression magic circle on the bolt was broken, and lightning magic was transmitted to other rock grasshoppers in a chain.
A cursory glance reveals that five or six of them are lying down. The first boulder locust hit seems to have been killed, but the others indirectly electrocuted appear to have only fainted. I could see the rock locusts that had been following behind him hesitated for a moment.
“Okay! Delayed for a while! Aim for this time and run!!!”
As I ran frantically, the light of the lantern hanging on the wall of the tunnel began to dimly come into my eyes before I knew it.
Almost there!
“Heh… Heh heh…! Just a little more… just a little more…!!!”
The sound of breathing becoming more and more rough, and the shoulders moving up and down while panting nonstop.
For the first time in a long time, I experienced the feeling of being out of breath.
And finally.
“Ugh… Ah ah…!!!”
As I ran from the back holding Robin, I finally got out of the burrow, and the wide and deep burrow of the locusts collapsed with a rumble.
“Uhhhhh”
“Four… Lived… Lived…!”
Mogdan, who had come down from Royman’s arms before he knew it, jumped up on his short legs and shouted in an elevated voice.
“Live! Live! Damn you worms! According to the theme, dig up grass roots in a pile of dirt! Ha ha!!!”
Along with him, Princess Luna and Princess Alexis jumped cutely, hugging each other and rejoicing.
Sasak- Sasasac-
“…It’s not over yet.”
“Uh… What?”
At the same time as Luna’s dazed voice, the floor of the tunnel we were standing on began to shake little by little.
“You have to run to the outside of the shaft! Hurry!”
I held the still unconscious Robin tightly in my arms and hurriedly hurriedly started to get out of the tunnel.
“Ugh…! Huh…! Oh… Austin… No more…!”
“Huh… I… I’m a little more than this…”
It’s not unreasonable for Luna and Princess Alexis to get tired after walking through a long mine shaft and running through a rough dirt road, especially on a sloped dirt road. In the first place, I was almost at the limit of my stamina.
“Damn it…”
I looked around desperately.
The place we are now located is a wide hollow, right in the middle of the deepest part of the tunnel and the entrance of the tunnel.
If you take the exhausted Princess Luna and Princess Alexis out of the tunnel, they will probably be caught.
If that’s the case, I’d rather hinder their movement or reduce their numbers now that I have even a little bit of stamina left.
They are the ones who value colony life. Unlike other grasshoppers, they have a fairly high level of intelligence, and unlike other insect-type monsters, they are overflowing with kinship to the point that they are extremely reluctant to fight with each other.
If I can deal a significant blow to them, I will quietly retreat on its own.
They won’t try to catch us until their colony takes a hit.
While I was looking around the wide pupils for a long time, I saw an empty trolley and wooden boxes covered with cloth and stacked one on top of the other.
If I’m guessing right, that’s…
“Hey, Mogdan. Can I use the one covered in cloth?”
Mogdan, who hastily drank from the canteen, turned his head at my words and headed for the wooden crates covered with cloth.
“Gulp- Gulp- Gulp…! What?”
“Those are fire stones that have not been processed yet. No?”
“That… That’s right… No, wait! Are you trying to destroy the tunnel?!”
“The collapse of the shaft is wealth, but first, I want to reduce the number of those bastards. They care very much for their people.”
After hearing my explanation, Mogdan’s face began to turn blue.
“Ah… No…! With the miners already missing, let’s break down the mines too?! This is beyond my authority! If you do it wrong, your head might fly off!”
“Oh, you dwarf bastard…”
“What… What! A dwarf!”
Anyway, Mogdan seemed to have relaxed his judgment from the relief that he had just escaped the threat of life.
If you don’t move right now, you might be left behind, but now you’re trying to get your own rice bowl.
“Hey, you stupid bastard! If we don’t decide quickly, we’ll all fall behind!”
“Ah… No… It’s still quiet now, but if I just take a break and walk back to the tunnel…”
“Hey, you bastard. Are you quiet?”
I took out a light bolt from the barrel, quickly loaded it into the crossbow, and fired it into the darkness of the shaft.
The bolt that was going in there while emitting light, suddenly lost its power with a ting-sound and the light disappeared.
– Kiyi Ik!!!
The creepy cries of the rock locusts that accompany him.
At the sound of goosebumps running through his body, Mogdan began to flinch with a terrified expression on his body.
“Still on the way you bastard!!! Come and help push the trolley!”
“That… But… Ah, sh*t! Okay! I want to live and see! Write! Feel free to use it!!!”
Recovering their sanity, Mogdan and I started pushing the wagon, while Roiman and the rest started pouring firestone into the wagon.
Chrrr. 22000000000000000 Firestones fill the train car.
“Dog… f*ck dog… I’m done… Using Firestone without permission is a felony crime that you don’t have anything to say even if you get stabbed in the dark! Damn it!!!”
“Ah, sir… But saving lives is more important! I’ll talk to your f*cking boss! Stop whining and push me now!!!”
While I was pushing the cart full of flame stones, Robin, who had come to his senses before I knew it, clung to me and started pushing the cart.
“Sir! Sorry! I’m fine with everything else, but the rock locusts are so scary!”
“You take care of yourself when you go out!!!”
As I pushed the heavy trolley onto the railroad tracks, struggling to the extent that my face turned red, I began to see the lanterns hanging on the walls go off with a clicking sound in the distance.
Sasak- Sasak-
[ KEIeeeK!!!!]
“Uh… Ugh…! Come!!!”
“Turn it off…!!! Uploaded! Robin! Luna! Come over and sprinkle some mana on the firestone! It should be sprayed thinly and densely!”
Fire stones are nothing more than brilliant jewels that normally do not contain mana. At best it catches fire better than flint?
However, when it reacts with mana, it becomes a dog-crazy Amazing Brutal Weapon of Mass Destruction that explodes with flames even with a small impact.
Because of its tricky storage, it’s usually rather unusable on a chaotic battlefield. Since the enemies don’t just stand there stupidly watching their opponents pile firestones, it’s easy to damage allies.
In the mines, it is usually used with a wind mage to break the hard ground where a pickaxe cannot be used. The flames and soot can be handled by the wind mage, so there is no problem using it as long as you are careful not to collapse the shaft.
By the way, we are now… Trying to use firestone without a wizard.
It’s a dangerous situation for anyone to see, but if you don’t do this, you’ll die.
“Nope… I’m done!”
“It’s done, Austin!”
As Luna and Robin sprinkled mana on the fire stone, the inside of the fire stone that touched the mana began to hum and vibrate.
From noble mtl dot com
Now, the firestones have become crazy killing weapons that explode with just a fist strike.
“Push!!!”
“”Yeoong… Tea…!””
With me, Royman, and Princess Alexis clinging to the back of the trolley, the trolley slowly began to move along the rails, and the trolley, which began to rattle uneasy, gradually moved toward the depths of the tunnel and increased its speed.
[ Kiyi Ik!!! ]
“Wow… Here it is!!!”
The moment you notice the supply offensive of the rock locusts that are approaching your nose-
I took out a regular bolt, loaded the crossbow, and aimed at the firestone on top of the trolley that started to run away.
Can fit. No, you have to match.
– Tung!
Just before the trolley and the swarm of rock locusts collided, the moment when the bolt flew through the wind and aimed precisely at the pile of fire stones.
– Kwaaang!!!!!!
“Ughhhhh!!!”
“Now is the time! Run outside!!!”
With a tremendous explosion sound, the support that was blocking the ceiling of the mine was blown away by the explosion of the flame stone.
In the tunnel collapsing with a roaring roar, I saw swarms of rock locusts screaming and screaming as they struggled to avoid the rising flames and rocks.
Success! With this, the rock locusts will not be able to approach any more, and the soot and smoke can be blocked to some extent with the dust screen, so all you have to do is get out of the tunnel quickly!
“Wuuu!!!”
As we ran frantically, as if our legs would break, we were finally able to fully enjoy the sunlight pouring down on us from beyond.
As soon as we blew our bodies out of the tunnel, we stared blankly for a while at the collapsed tunnel making a loud noise.
“…Huh. Heh heh heh…”
The fact that I had survived the fear of death I had felt for the first time in a long time, my whole body began to tremble.
“Haa… Haa… Oh… Austin… Are you okay now?”
Likewise, I opened my arms and hugged Luna as she gasped for breath.
“I lived!!!!!!”
“What… What…! Wait… why are you hugging me all of a sudden…”
“hahahahaha!!! Hey Mogdan! You f*cking saved me!!!”
“Uhhh… hahahahaha!!! Really survived! You stupid bastard! I’m alive thanks to you!”
“If you are grateful, show sincerity! Ha ha ha ha!!!”
I hugged Luna next to me tightly and jumped on the spot.
f*ck, I lived!