I didn’t know how long I’d been out, but my mask wasn’t with me. But more importantly, instead of the hard floor under my head, I could feel a comfy, silky pillow. So fluffy and warm… Wait, Lorelei isn’t giving me another lap pillow. Right?

I opened my eyes wide and tilted my head to look behind; it was a huge silvery wolf that had become a cushion for my head and gave me warmth. “Hmm? Blizzard?”

“Woof.” she barked and licked my face.

“Are you alright? No wounds or…” I frantically stroked her body, looking for any sign of noticeable injury. She had been struck so hard at the side and even tumbled down into the forest. It was a miracle that she had survived the fall, much less got out unscathed.

She didn’t answer, but her intelligent eyes gave me a reply that she was fine.

“Thank god, you’re safe.” I snuggled into her thick fur.

After resting a bit more while drinking several bottles of potion as if drinking water, I began thinking about my next course of action. I definitely couldn’t show up in front of the kidnapped villagers without my mask, so I must get it back from Zero’s hand before all else.

Getting back on my feet, I inspected the aftermath of his magic spell. A huge chunk of ice more than two hundred meters in diameter had encompassed the protruding cliff, trapping all the golems inside. But strictly speaking, golems weren’t living beings, so they wouldn’t die from being frozen. Ugh. It would still be a pain to get them out of there…

No matter. As long as I got one flamethrower golem out of the chunk of ice, it was all downhill from there.

Before that, however. I stared deep at the remains of Zero’s chopped body parts frozen deep inside. My feet pressed forward into the tunnel that looked like a perpetual ice cave, but then I was stopped by a sudden tugging on my overcoat.

Turning back, it was Blizzard who had done that. She tried to get up, seemingly intending to accompany me but failed to do that at the last moment; it appeared that she wasn’t completely uninjured with a sprained ankle and fractures here and there. She must have forced herself to return here from the forest below. Though as a C-rank monster, she possessed incredible regeneration, so these injuries should heal up in a matter of days at most.

“I’m fine. So please remain here to rest in the meantime,” I said to her.

Blizzard reluctantly obliged and rested back, her tail slumping down in disappointment. What a good and caring girl she was.

I took a deep breath before taking a step forward. In my right hand was Jackie’s magic sword that continuously released fire from the blade to give me warmth since I wouldn’t be able to last a minute inside without it.

As I entered deeper and deeper, the temperature around me gradually dripped down. My body shivered again from the insanely cold interior, but I just gritted my teeth and pressed on. Before long, I was at the edge of the tunnel, a few meters away from Zero. I couldn’t see clearly inside and only saw his silhouette.

“He’s dead, right?” I murmured, channeling mana into the sword to increase its output and burning the ice around him to melt.

Prolonged use of this magic sword had made me lightheaded from mana exhaustion… with my magical power exhausting by the second. I got to finish this, fast!

“Brrr…” My mouth had already begun chattering from the increasingly cold surroundings; it felt like I was inside a large meat freezer. The residue of his magic burst still lingered in the air, freezing my hands numb. Magic sure was powerful.

Zero’s upper body laid on his stomach, and upon closer inspection, his left hand was clenching something while his other hand was holding my mask. Additionally, not far from him was his sword stabbed into the ground, though the elemental stone had lost the lustrous color of its former self, so taking that wouldn’t do any good… Um, it’s still gonna be worth a sum…

Tunneling a bit more toward the sword, I pulled out the sword with all my might only to fail miserably as I tumbled down. In the end, I was left with no choice but to use the Pyro magic sword to burn the ground where the sword was lodged. Taking out this heavy sword felt like taking a legendary sword from a stone.

I approached Zero’s upper body and took my mask, keeping it safe in my pocket. There was no need to check what his other hand was clenching. Doing so might be disrespectful to the dead… No, I just didn’t want him to haunt me later on, so better leave his body as it was.

Done with all that, I quickly came out, back to my comfort zone. Warm air blew on me and brought my needed comfort. Blizzard was still resting at the same spot, perking up her ears as soon as she saw me. Cute.

It would be best to defrost one flamethrower golem for now, so I did just that. Fortunately, there was one near me, trapped like an ancient creature in Siberia… While meticulously carving around the golem, I hoped that I would never face someone like Zero again... At least, until I was much stronger.

“There you go. Out of your ice prison.” I patted the golem’s back.

The golem was silent, not responding to my action at all. How eerie.

“All right. You go melt the ice and save your friends or whatever.” I gave my command to the golem and strode away to the limestone cavern — the place of their main base — accompanied by Blizzard, who could walk now.

There was one thing that made me so excited to hurry up there: treasure. Just thinking about the hidden riches that the Axiom Order had accumulated over the years made my palms all sweaty. There could easily be millions of Zernial.

And here I was at the entrance to the limestone cavern. Five golems had remained near the entrance to guard the place, but this was only to anticipate the worst-case scenario since… I had instructed Blizzard to do something in this exact situation.

Close to the entrance, the Axiom Order members that Zero had entrusted the base to were knocked unconscious, but not many visible injuries were seen.

Hmm… the sleeping balls sure are useful… What about inside?

After entering, I proceeded about fifty meters into the cavern with Blizzard in tow and found the bandits strewn all over the place, unconscious. There could be easily a hundred to two hundred of them inside, piling up like they were exposed to some kind of sleeping gas… Being inside a cavern meant that the gas had nowhere to escape, sedating everyone in it.

On one side of the interior, the unconscious kidnapped villagers, who were mostly women and children, were tied up with ropes. The effect of the gas should last for two hours, so they would wake up soon — along with the bandits — but the golems should be back by then.

I noticed a bespectacled dude a bit younger than me tied inside an iron cage. He was dressed better than the villagers around but not that over the top, probably a merchant or something. Is he the slave trader that captured Fuku and her clan? Nah, doesn’t look like it.

Anyway, it would be better to wait until later to establish an interaction with them.

Now then, it’s time for some fun.

“Alright! Where’s the loot?” I looked around the cavern interior, which was actually a huge, abandoned mine that had been turned into a large base. The area around had a large number of wooden crates filled with miscellaneous goods and supplies, but they weren’t treasures.

Near the wall at the back of the limestone cavern were two doors leading to two separate rooms, “which were” guarded by a line of bandits — Axiom Order members. Past tense would be perfect here since they were lying on the floor, dreaming sweet dreams.

Sidestepping in there, I ended up standing before the left reinforced wooden door (the other was an iron door, so I was saving that for last). I gently opened the door and peeked inside, immediately startled by the glittering things inside.

There were so many treasures!

Inside was a plethora of goods: treasure chests filled with gold, jewelry, magic weapons, equipment, money, and what have you. They, along with the supplies outside, were more than enough to fill up an entire rental warehouse. Even a casual scan revealed plenty of valuable-looking items that would sell for thousands if not tens of thousands of Zernial — the perfect treasure for luring adventurers.

“This… I guess transporting them will be a challenge…” I acknowledged with a satisfied grin, “As expected of an evil organization with over six hundred members… They sure are hoarding a lot.”

There was no need to go over the details of the treasure since there were just too many of them. And thus, I decided to come to the second door that seemed to be more heavily guarded. I didn’t dare to imagine just what kind of treasure was placed inside.

“Hmm? It’s locked.”

The other door also had a lock on it as well, along with several latches even, but they were unlocked for whatever reasons. I figured that they originally intended to take as many treasures as possible with them when escaping, but the bombing on their escape paths thwarted their plan.

I searched for the guy with the key and found it in the guard with a helmet and thick mustache leaning against the side wall.

With a click of the door unlocking, I was met with darkness as soon as the door was pushed open, so I closed it immediately, feeling a slight shiver on my skin. It somehow felt déjà vu. Ever since that incident with the abandoned wooden house, I was starting to have strange thoughts when going to narrow, dark places. Would there be a jump scare monster inside?

I had a pretty bad premonition. Whatever was sealed within… was by no means safe. Should I leave this place alone?

There was a sudden nudge on my elbow. Looking back, Blizzard was staring at me with her clear, bright eyes as if telling me, “What are you scared of? I’m here.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” I patted her head and then took a deep breath, getting my hand on the doorknob.

Pushing the door open again, I illuminated the inside of the room with my phone's flashlight. The room’s size wasn’t that big, but other than an iron peg and a long chain bound to it to the end of the room, there wasn’t much else; It felt more like a prison than a treasury. I only took a step forward, and that was because Blizzard was pushing me.

Strange. The feeling was subtle, but it was like we were being watched…

“Kill… Kill, kill, kill!”

Cold chills crawled up my spine as I turned on my hill toward the source along with my phone’s flashlight. And there it was, out of the corner of the room, a shadowy figure emerged out and brandished its dagger at me.

I was frozen on the spot. Not out of fear, but because something had frozen me in place. Luckily, before the dagger slit my throat, Blizzard had dragged me out of the room, and at that moment, I regained my senses. In haste, I scrambled to close the door and locked the abomination within before it could escape. Just what the fuck was that?!

Calming my racing heart, I didn’t have enough courage to go in without knowing anything. Hence, I ordered Phantom B that had been following me to possess the sleeping guard who previously held the key to the room.

“Tell me, what is inside this room?” I thumbed at the door.

“Master, the one inside is an ‘accursed.’”

“Accursed?”

“Yes. She possesses a Vocation that makes her body naturally merge into the shadows… but she can’t control it. They called people like her ‘the accursed one,’” the man explained.

She? So it’s not a monster, huh? I didn’t look at her long enough to be able to distinguish her appearance. Still, I’d never thought about this before — Vocation could be a blessing but also a curse.

“Then, why is she kept inside this room and tightly guarded at that?”

“Her inability to control her abilities hurt those around her. She was a castaway, her family banished her from her village before the Axiom Order managed to get their hands on her. She was intended to be trained as a natural, vicious killer — a cold killing machine. In fact, it was Shadow who taught her.”

“I see…” No wonder she aimed for my throat the minute I entered the room…

“In spite of that, she was treated terribly by the members of the Axiom Order… Even though no one could harm her, they liked to starve her for days before giving her some leftover trash, with the ‘sole’ intention to make her more obedient to the organization. Shadow also likes to teach her most cruelly and effectively, not holding back to give a beating if she fails to adhere,” he added. “In addition, her long isolation in darkness makes her sensitive to light.”

Such, such cruelty… Being sold by her family, treated badly in such a cold, lonely place without even adequate and proper food…

Heat flushed through my body; my nails were literally biting into my palms. I had to make this right!

“Let’s go, Blizzard.”

“Woof!”