Chapter 444: Star, Jotunheim (4)

Wooooosh!

Everything in the snowfield was white, even the tall mountains, the peaks of which were hidden by thick fog.

They had finally reached .

[Iron Forest]

A partial recreation of the old capital. It is known to be Warg the Wolf’s habitat and the birthplace of Angrboda the Witch and Skathi the Winter Goddess. ‘Death-Bringing Frost Giant’ had once raised an army in this place, but his subordinate’s betrayal cost him his great relic ‘Fimbulvetr,’ leading him to his downfall.

‘It’s... too barren to be called a forest,’

Chang-Sun thought as soon as he entered the Dungeon.

Nothing but white lay before him. Although he could see traces of a forest, they were all under piles of snow. Among them were the occasional clusters of thick and sturdy stumps. The forest likely used to be very dense until its trees were cut off.

‘It’s definitely cold.’

The extremely low temperature bothered Chang-Sun the most. He and the Fire Giants exuded extreme heat as they walked, instantly melting the snow around them, but their heat couldn’t travel that far due to the cold.

Chang-Sun and the others could likely stop the blizzard if they unleashed more heat. However, they had to conserve their strength. They had no idea what could be lurking around the corners here.

Only death remained in this icy world, which was a clear sign that it had been struck with . They couldn’t find even just a trace of life.

‘I can’t see any monsters either, though...’

No matter how barren and rough a Dungeon’s environment was, monsters would always find a way to inhabit it. Oddly enough, however, they couldn’t detect any presence.

‘Bergelmir is also too quiet.’

『You must be Surtr’s heir.』

『I don’t know how you persuaded that idiot, but you just managed to get here out of pure luck. I can’t accept you as the new king. Get lost.』

The last king of treated Chang-Sun with hostility as soon as he met him, keeping his guard up out of concern that Chang-Sun would invade his land too.

Bergelmir was already dead, though, remaining only as a ghost of memories. Nevertheless, even though he couldn’t even get out of the Dungeon, he acted as if he was still alive, refusing to give up on his ambition to rule .

Bergelmir was likely aware that Chang-Sun had entered the ‘Iron Forest.’ If so, then he would probably be on edge as well, worried that Chang-Sun or some other invaders would taint his land. In this situation, there were only two plausible reasons for him to remain silent. He was either monitoring them to find the right opportunity...

‘... or he doesn’t have time to care about us.’

Chang-Sun believed that the former was more probable but didn’t rule out the latter. Ever since they entered the dungeon, he had been feeling as if something didn’t quite add up.

‘Either way...’

Chang-Sun narrowed his eyes.

‘... this quest must be the key.’

[Proceeding with the Scenario Quest(Path to Frost)!]

[Path to Frost]

Type: Scenario.

Description: You recently declared war as the Fire Giant King against the Frost Giant King ‘Death-Bringing Frost Giant,’ making ‘Death-Bringing Frost Giant’ furious.

However, ‘Death-Bringing Frost Giant’ currently lacks the power to punish you, having lost his Divine Essence and the relic that symbolized his power a long time ago. Hence, he will use any means necessary to regain his relic.

Find and restore the relic of ‘Death-Bringing Frost Giant’ or create it before he could. Only then will the path to the Frost Giant King’s throne open.

Time limit: ―

Prerequisite: Fire Giant King. Owner of ‘Bestla’s Poem.’

Quest Failure Penalty: ―

Quest Reward: Ownership of the relic ‘Fimbulvetr.’ A visit to .

Chang-Sun got the Scenario Quest ‘Path to Frost’ the first time he activated [Bifrost]. Its objective was very simple. He simply had to restore [Fimbulvetr], which Fifth Elder Thjalfi Aure had destroyed with an ax.

‘I probably need [Fimbulvetr] to gain complete control of ,’

Chang-Sun speculated.

If had [Laevateinn], then had [Fimbulvetr]. He would have to acquire it to obtain the throne of Frost Giants. Unfortunately, he had no idea what materials it required or how he could make it.

‘If I can get that information, the rest will be easy since I have Choi Bu-Yong. I can ask Taotie too. Who would know how to make [Fimbulvetr], though?’

It definitely would not be the Fifth Elder. All he had ever created was a mess, which was far from what Chang-Sun needed.

“Find Bergelmir,” the Fifth Elder said with a shrug.

“What?”

“He’s the King. He must have a manual for it somewhere.”

Chang-Sun was speechless.

The Fifth Elder’s suggestion was very irresponsible, but it was also the most efficient.

‘Take the throne and restore the relic... I guess tackling this in reverse is one way of doing it.’

The Fifth Elder would likely choose this plan as well.

‘Or...’

Chang-Sun turned to someone who had been busy watching him for a while now.

𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

[The Celestial ‘World-Encircling Serpent’ closely monitors you!]

Reading the message, Chang-Sun thought,

‘J?rmungandr might know something.’

Ever since Chang-Sun entered the ‘Iron Forest’—no, ever since Chang-Sun declared that he would be the next Bestla, J?rmungandr’s message had never gone away. Angrboda, whom the Dungeon description mentioned, was the ex-wife of Loki, the leader of , and mother of J?rmungdanr, Fenrir, Hel— the Three Frontline Warriorsof .

While monitoring Chang-Sun’s every move, J?rmungandr couldn’t help having mixed emotions about his mother’s homeland. As far as Chang-Sun knew, J?rmungandr was Bestla’s second most knowledgeable descendant next to Odin. Even if he didn’t know how to build [Fimbulvetr] from scratch, he might at least have a clue about it.

[The Celestial ‘World-Encircling Serpent’ gives you a serious look and says you better not count on his help for this one.]

It was as if J?rmungandr could read Chang-Sun’s mind.

‘His help is out of the question, then.’

All Chang-Sun could do right now was meet Bergelmir. He would have to decide his next move afterward.

Kiyaaaaaaah!

『I can see a castle over that ridge,』 Jin Prezia reported, having finished his reconnaissance from the sky with his Draconic Knights.

Unlike Chang-Sun and the Fire Giants, who were feeling cold, the Undead Army quickly adapted to the ‘Iron Forest’ and began moving around as if they owned the place. Jin’s eyes sparkled the brightest, finding this place perfect for a Dread Undead to operate.

『What about Frost Giants?』Chang-Sun asked.

『Nada. I didn’t see any of them. 』

『I see.』

Thinking Bergelmir had summoned all the monsters inside, Chang-Sun was about to command Sinmara to take down the castle that Jin found when he abruptly stopped.

“Sinmara,” he called.

「

Ha

! I’ve been waiting for you to give me the word!」

Sinmara grabbed the cleavers hanging on her back, then leaped into the sky.

Thuuuud!

A spray of snow soared, creating what seemed like a ten-meter-tall tsunami. Leaping higher than the spray, Sinmara dropped in the middle of the fog and the raging blizzard, preventing her from seeing anything. When sparks flew up from her cleavers, someone hiding under a pile of snow—waiting for an opportunity to attack Chang-Sun and the others—was forced to take action.

Booom!

Sinmara’s attack, which seemed strong enough to cleave mountains in half, was blocked by a scythe. Yellow sparks flashed amid the fog.

Craaack!

The unidentified being exerted more strength, their ice energy fanning out in every direction and pushing Sinmara’s heat away. A very thick layer of ice formed and spread on the ground, and dozens of ice spikes sprang up toward Sinmara.

While pushing away her opponent with her right hand, Sinmara cut away the spikes with the cleaver in her left. She then leaped again.

Thump!

Landing quite a distance away from her opponent, Sinmara let out a long sigh.

Sinmara smiled as her breath spread like a haze. Encountering a formidable opponent after so long made her happy.

Chang-Sun tilted his head in confusion upon finally getting a look at their enemy. “A Yeti?”

Contrary to his expectations, it wasn’t a Frost Giant. This yellow-eyed being was as big as one, but it had a dark-colored face, fur as white as the snowfield, and an upper body that was bigger and more muscular than its lower body. It looked more like an ape than a human, and their chained scythe only added to their oddity.

Grrrrrr...!

What bothered Chang-Sun the most was that the Yeti had zero rationality. Like a beast encountering an enemy, it drooled and stayed vigilant. Chang-Sun initially suspected it to be an ordinary monster living in the ‘Iron Forest’, but its aura and Class was close to the Frost Giants’. The Yeti’s condition was the opposite, however.

Pzzz―!

Faint shadow spots covered the Yeti, the

「I think the Yeti mutated,」 Sinmara said after using her Present-Seeing Face to look at the Yeti.

“Mutated?” Chang-Sun asked.

Sinmara nodded. 「The Yeti are nothing but an empty shell now that they have lost their souls. Realizing that their existences are nothing but mere shadows of real creatures, they fell into a deep swamp of despair.」

Monsters in Dungeons normally weren’t aware that they were fake since they were bound to their Dungeons, and their Classes weren’t high enough for them to be their own beings. However, that wasn’t the case for the Fire and Frost Giants. They knew their reality better than anyone else, making their despair all the more severe.

「We were honestly in a similar situation. We managed to endure back then because of my ability and Surtr’s last words.」

Sinmara could still vividly remember the difficult and tiring time that they had spent trapped in their castle, never knowing when they would be free again. They only managed to persevere because of their groundless belief that would regain their glory and shine even brighter than before.

Sinmara was essentially saying that the Giants likely suffered the same despair as those whose had gone . No, the Giants were in an even worse situation. Unlike , which had Sinmara, their chief warrior and shaman, to be their pillar, had no one to promise them any kind of future.

「They also no longer have their great relic, which used to support their ... It wouldn’t be strange at all if they did mutate,」 Sinmara bitterly added.

Perhaps it would have been better to just be ordinary monsters who believed their Dungeon was the whole world. They wouldn’t have doubted their reality then. However, it was different for Frost Giants. They used to travel through the entire galaxy because their world was too small for them. Being bound to this Dungeon, which was much narrower than their world, naturally drove them insane and distorted their Class.

[Fimbulvetr] could have brought hope to if only they still had it. The Frost Giants forgetting their identities after repeatedly facing came as no surprise now.

Considering everything about this world had died, even Chang-Sun wasn’t sure anymore if he could still bring new hope to it.

‘The Fifth Elder created too big of a mess.’

Chang-Sun smiled bitterly as he remembered the Fifth Elder, now the Songjae King of the .

Kieeeee―!

The Yeti—no, the Anomaly conjured again and flew toward Sinmara.

「That doesn’t change the fact that they’re a bunch of pathetic losers!」 Sinmara charged at the Yeti again as she blatantly displayed her disgust. 「How dare you call yourselves Bestla’s descendants!」

Sharpened his senses to check if anyone else was in the area, Chang-Sun detected a faint yet very familiar trace of divine power activating a rune magic spell.

‘Odin?’

Chang-Sun quickly turned his head toward it.