Debuff Master

Chapter 663

The sudden blizzard and hail storm damaged the Huracan’s engine, forcing it to perform a crash landing. Fortunately, the emergency landing system equipped with the airship managed to stop it from dropping like a rock from the sky.

“We have arrived safely at our destination—the Arctic Pangea, Your Majesty.”

“H-Hold up—Bleurgh!” Siegfried vomited while clutching his stomach. His insides were a mess after having to endure more than an hour of a rollercoaster ride.

“Kyuuuu... Hamchi feels sick...”

“H-Hyung-nim... My eyes are spinning—bleuuurgh!”

Hamchi and Seung-Gu were on the Huracan’s floor with vomit smeared on their faces, struggling to even get up.

The Huracan had turned into hell itself for them during the crash.

“Ughh... I would have puked my guts out if it had lasted for a bit longer...”

“But it is quite fortunate that we managed to land the super airship rather than crash into the ground.”

“Thank you very much, captain. You are truly the best pilot out there.”

“I am unworthy of such praises, sire.”

“I hereby grant you, in my authority as the king, a rank promotion and a special bonus.”

“Y-Your Majesty! Your grace is immeasurable! Thank you, sire!”

Siegfried granted the captain a promotion and a special bonus.

“Stay here and wait.”

“As you command, sire. The super airship cannot fly anymore, so I will spend my time repairing the engine.”

“Then I’ll be on my way–” Siegfried said and opened the hatch.

Click... Clack!

The hatch opened, and—

[Alert: Status Ailment!]

[Alert: You have been afflicted by Frost!]

[Alert: Your Movement Speed has greatly decreased!]

Siegfried almost froze to death from the extremely cold winds coming from the outside.

“W-What the h-h-heck?!” Siegfried cried out with his teeth clattering from the cold. He quickly shut the hatch. He looked down at his hand and saw that it had flushed red after getting exposed to the freezing temperatures outside for just a split second.

“What the hell is this? I got frostbitten the moment I opened the door? Does that even make sense?!” Siegfried screamed out of sheer disbelief. The climate here was so absurd that it was unbelievable.

“Your Majesty, our instruments show that the temperature outside is at negative eighty degrees Celsius. But it would feel much colder than that due to the humidity and strong winds,” the captain reported.

“Negative eighty degrees Celsius...?”

“Yes, sire.”

“That’s insane...”

Siegfried couldn't believe the Arctic Pangea's climate. After all, temperatures of negative eighty degrees Celsius could freeze one’s lungs and kill them on the spot if they took a deep breath without any protection.

“What in the world is this place...?” Siegfried muttered in disbelief, feeling scared to take even a single step out of the Huracan.

“Your Majesty, may I suggest using the supplies in the cargo compartment?” the captain said.

“Huh? Supplies?”

“I have prepared a few things after hearing that Your Majesty was headed for this place, the Arctic Pangea.”

“Oh!” Siegfried exclaimed in awe of the captain’s preparedness.

He put on the winter clothes packed in the supply crate and left the Huracan.

***

The Arctic Pangea’s climate was unforgiving.

Whoosh!

The fierce howling winds were a given, and the snow on the ground was so sharp that it'd rip through most people’s skin. The temperature was so low that frost would instantly form on one’s eyebrows and hair.

“Is there something here...?” Siegfried muttered while fighting through the blizzard. He took out an orange potion from the supplies he had gotten from the Huracan and drank it in one gulp.

[Alert: You have consumed Hot Stamina Potion!]

[Alert: Your body is overflowing with Yang Energy!]

[Alert: Body temperature is rising!]

[Alert: Your resistance to cold temperatures has increased!]

The Hot Stamina Potion had the effect of increasing one’s Yang Energy.

It was a vital item when wandering around the Arctic Pangea.

“Hmm... I can definitely feel my body growing hotter.”

“Ack! You scared the shit out of me!”

Siegfried jumped up and shrieked in horror when Gringore appeared out of nowhere.

“Hey! Can’t you say something earlier if you’re here?!”

“M-My apologies, Your Majesty...”

“It’s not like I don’t let you tag along! All I ask is that you say something and make your presence known!”

“I got used to hiding my presence because of some crazy fans...”

“Crazy fans?”

“Yes, sire. They camp the whole day in front of my house and watch every single one of my—”

“Ah, you mean sasaengs[1]?”

“Pardon me?” Gringore asked, looking confused by the unfamiliar term.

“There’s something like that,” Siegfried replied nonchalantly and walked away.

The journey was not easy at all. The Arctic Pangea was a large island made out of an iceberg, so there was nothing but ice and snow on it.

Thus, Siegfried’s party had no other choice but to take one step at a time. They had to put their lives on the line to proceed farther whenever they came across a crevasse or had to jump from one ice block to another just to avoid plunging into the freezing waters.

“I really wish I could just fly over these right now...” Siegfried grumbled while braving the fierce howling winds.

He marched onward against the wind when he suddenly spotted something strange.

“Huh? What’s that?”

What he saw could only be described as strange.

Everything in front of him was white. The snowy ground was white, and even the sky was white.

He felt he was trapped in a white canvas of some sort.

“This is called a Whiteout, Your Majesty,” Gringore said.

“Huh? Whiteout? What’s that?”

“The color white reflects light. Have you heard of this theory, sire?”

“Yeah? That’s why people wear white clothes rather than dark ones during summer, right?”

Siegfried knew that he was ignorant, but he was definitely not that ignorant.

“A Whiteout is a phenomenon where the white clouds in the sky and the snow-covered ground reflect light at the same time.”

“So if the sky and ground are reflecting light, then... light is being reflected in at a three hundred and sixty-degree angle?”

“Precisely, sire,” Gringore replied with a nod. Then, he added, “that makes it difficult for the naked eye to recognize the topography. Moreover, it makes it difficult for one to have a sense of space and distance... Actually, it is easier to say that everything you see will become white, just like what we are experiencing right now.”

“I see...”

“I believe we should set camp and rest, sire. It is extremely dangerous to proceed during a Whiteout when we cannot tell the distance or the terrain.”

“No, it’s fine.”

“Pardon me?”

“We can proceed while looking at the minimap.”

“The minimap?”

“Yeah, there’s something like that,” Siegfried said. He expanded the minimap and continued walking. The minimap in BNW provided the user with details of the terrain, coordinates, direction, altitude, and other vital details.

In other words, an Adventurer could continue walking even without clear visibility.

“Don’t worry and just follow me,” Siegfried said and continued walking.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Gringore replied with a bow.

The party was able to continue onward thanks to the minimap.

Whoosh!

Siegfried heard the sound of something slicing through the air, and he immediately turned away.

Shwik!

A white awl pierced Seung-Gu’s butt.

It was an ambush.

***

“Ack!” Seung-Gu cried out in agony. The white awl had dug deep into his butt, and he rolled on the snowy ground while clutching his butt cheek.

“It’s the enemy! Hey, Seung-Gu! Hurry up and summon your golems!” Siegfried hurriedly ordered while hunkering down.

“Argh! H-Huh?”

“We don’t have any cover! Hurry!”

“A-Ah! Yes!”

Seung-Gu was in terrible pain that was radiating from his butt, but he still summoned his Iron Golems to protect his comrades.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Numerous long white awls were sticking out of the Iron Golems.

“That’s crazy...” Siegfried muttered in disbelief after seeing the awls.

He had no idea where their assailants were shooting from and the fact that they were using white awls meant that he had no way of deducing the assailants' location through the trajectory of their attacks. In fact, he'd only see the white awls once they had already struck their target.

“I guess I have no choice...”

In the end, he was forced to use Inzaghi’s Clairvoyance to find the locations of their assailants on the minimap.

“Seung-Gu!”

“Yes, hyung-nim!”

“I’ll give you the coordinates! 119, 56!”

“Roger!”

“197, 117! 220, 87! 98, 77!”

Siegfried managed to give the exact coordinates of their enemies to Seung-Gu, and it was all thanks to Inzaghi’s Clairvoyance.

Whiiiing... Thud!

Seung-Gu aimed the cannons on the Iron Golems.

“Three! Two! One! Fire!”

“Here we go!”

The cannons spat fire as mortar shells rained down on the coordinates Siegfried gave.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

The first barrage ended...

“What happened, hyung-nim?! Did we get them?!” Seung-Gu asked.

“No,” Siegfried shook his head.

“What?”

“They ran away really quickly.”

“What?!”

“I think you hit a few of them, but they managed to withstand it and run away. They had completely disappeared from the minimap.”

“Whoa...”

“They’re really fast. And they’re really tough based on how they survived the bombardment.”

“Hmm...”

“I wonder who they are? I don’t think they’re with the Church of Osric...” Siegfried muttered, biting his lower lip.

“I suspect they are with the Blanc Clan,” Gringore chimed in.

“The Blanc Clan?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“What are they?”

“They are natives to this place, the Arctic Pangea.”

“Do people live here?”

“Yes, sire. There aren't many of them, but I heard that the Blanc Clan lives here. They are extremely aggressive people and are known to attack all outsiders. This is something written in the history books of the continent.”

“Oh...”

“Ah, the Blanc Clan have been living in the Arctic Pangea for centuries now, and they are a very primitive group of people. They are so primitive that they are referred to as a modern piece of history.”

“I see... Oh well, I guess we’re no different from invaders in their eyes,” Siegfried said with a shrug.

“Precisely, Your Majesty.”

“Let’s continue without clashing against them as much as possible. Even if we do end up fighting, just be sure not to kill them if possible.”

“A wise choice, sire.”

“Alright, let’s keep going,” Siegfried said and continued walking.

***

On that evening, the party set up camp by building a small igloo with the Iron Golems surrounding it for security.

They slept throughout the night, but Siegfried did not log out from the game. He was wary in case the enemies might ambush them once again, so there was no way he could sleep soundly, even if he were to log out.

‘It’s tiring but I have no choice,’ Siegfried thought before going inside a leather sleeping bag with Hamchi and closing his eyes.

After an unknown amount of time...

“Owner punk. Wake up. Owner punk. Kyuuu...”

“Mmm?”

Siegfried slowly opened his eyes after getting woken up by Hamchi.

“What...?”

“Owner punk... There’s a ghost over there... Kyuu...”

“...What the hell are you talking about?” Siegfried grumbled, still sleepy, and rolled to the other side.

He could not help but be annoyed and in disbelief by what Hamchi said, as this was the Nurburg Continent and not reality. Things like undead, dragons, and even spirits existed here, so what was so surprising about ghosts?

In addition, ghosts were extremely rare on the continent that it was very difficult to come across one. Things like wraiths or wandering spirits were easy to find, but most Adventurers had probably yet to see a real ghost.

“I’m going back to sleep. Don’t wake me up.”

“Kyuuu! Owner punk! It’s really a ghost!” Hamchi cried out, shaking him awake.

“Hey, what nonsense are you talking about?” Siegfried grumbled, glaring at Hamchi. Then, he looked outside and said, “Things like ghosts do not exist in this—oh? They do?”

He blinked twice and said, “Oh, wow... So ghosts do exist—eh? Ghost? G-Ghoooost?! It’s a ghost!”

Siegfried cried out with his face turning ghastly pale.

“Kyuuuu! It’s a ghost! Hamchi is scared!”

“Hey! Stop screaming! You’re scaring me!”

“Kyuuuuu!”

“Aaaaah!”

The two clung to each other and trembled in fear while looking at the silhouette that appeared to be a ghost. Then, the silhouette turned toward them and approached them slowly.

1. This is a Korean term for obsessive fans. I believe it is widely accepted in English culture too due to the recent rise of K-Pop? More info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasaeng_fan ☜