Chapter 139 :

Episode 28 : Mirror of Reflections (3)

Checking the panel in front of me, I was laying on the snow while waiting for some of my stamina to replenish a lot more.

..It was cold in this isolated snowy mountain.

But it was tolerable for me since it was peaceful as well.

"Achievements.. I got plenty of coins and stats that need to be used." I mumbled as I stared at my achievements messages.

After looking at a screen for a long time, I slowly but surely got up from my spot and began to walk toward the temple.

Walking as fast as I could while taking my stamina into consideration, one could say I was speed walking or whatever that was.

"First person who killed the apex predator of the ‘Arctic’ world.. first to be revived. Blah blah."

As a matter of fact, I was already tired of seeing these achievements every single time, for the reason that I had been reincarnated for the 777 times, I had seen countless messages about the exact achievements I acquired.

"Nothing new, nothing great."

It was clear that as soon as I realized the achievements were all the same in each life, popping endless messages in front of my faces. Without a doubt, I was burned out completely by those.

Which is why I had muted these achievements messages from appearing in my sight.

I muttered. "I wondered if the others except my comrades mute them.."

"..?"

Sensing someone approaching this way, I surveyed my surroundings while pondering if that somebody was a friend or a foe. In actuality, I figured out who it was and let down my guard immediately once I saw her.

"Captain~!!" It was Mirai who was dashing toward me at a speedy pace.

I knew exactly what she was going to do once she spotted me, which was why I was stretching out my arms, waiting for her to arrive.

Thud!

Jumping at me already, Mirai was caught in between my arms, and when I could feel her nuzzling in my warm embrace, I smiled before being tightly squeezed by Mirai's hug.

"Mimi, that's enough." I held her shoulders before finding her face pouting at me.

Chuckling at her cuteness, I grinned after letting go of her. Clearly, Mirai didn't like that, so she crossed her arms while turning her back on me.

"Hmph. I came here to get you, but why is Captain so mean to me?" Mirai bawled adorably.

"it is who I am." I shrugged.

"Chottomatte.."

After she said that, I found her checking my arms and legs, seeming like she was doing her duty to treat me. Needless to say, she wrapped me with her web to heal me back to mint condition.

Not only that, Mirai also fixed my clothes as if they were new again.

As I was glad and thankful toward her for this, I waited until she was done until I thanked her. "Arigato, Mimi-Chan."

"Baka.."

After getting back to max power, I was already traveling along the snowy mountain with Mirai, making our way toward the temple to regroup with our guild members.

"Mirai, could you make me that usual mask for me?" I requested from Mirai.

Mirai who was holding onto my arm, looked at me before smiling as if she had already expected me to ask her that.

"I knew you would ask since we're approaching that place soon."

"...Right."

Afterwards, Mirai handed me three masks for me to wear, and I immediately kept them within my inventory when I would later need them.

That was when I remembered. "Did you give these to the others?"

"Eep… Gomen." As if she had forgotten, Mirai fidgeted with her fingers and was nervous of my response.

"This may be tiring." I exhaled a sigh.

"But you always get us out of there easily.. Won't this time be the same as the others?"

"Hai, hai. I'll always save you and our comrades."

———

By the time we reached the cliff of the mountain, we had arrived in front of the temple's entrance, setting foot inside once we got there.

And unfortunately, it appeared that we were late to the party because there was no one here except chao and blood in the hall.

Everything from the icicles on the roof to the bloody floor were handmade by those players who had gotten themselves inside first.

"You said they hurried to find the items?" I asked Mirai.

Letting go of my arm and nodding to me, Mirai went to solemn mode to observe her vicinity.

"Good, we should hurry as well."

CRACK!

The floor that I stood on, was instantly shattered by my thunderous speed charged by my skill, ‘Discharge’.

Dashing my way through this hall, I was only focusing on my front view while leaving behind my surroundings to be surveyed by another.

Mirai who had turned into her spider form, had leapt onto my head the moment when I sprinted.

Not just that, she was the one who was looking all over the places with her eight eyes, helping me lessen our time of searching for the right direction.

"Hm.."

When I took notice of some differences between my other life's temple and this life's temple, I thought.

‘No matter how much I've been here, this place kept changing time and time again.’

‘It was good that Frostina sent Mirai to me instead of someone else.’ I smiled at how Frostina had thought of everything.

Rawwrrr!

"Ah. I forgot about one more thing that doesn't change." I muttered after coming into a stop.

Right in front of me, a fur of white cloud and stripes of the color charcoal, along with teeth that can bite through bones was the creature that I had encountered.

..It was a white tiger.

The next predator after the apex predator of the ‘Arctic’ world was currently running toward me at a threatening speed.

"You're weaker than that bear."

RAWWWRR!!

Loud enough to break eardrums, a roar was soaring through the hall with a tremendous amount of decibels, dominating this place with its bawl as if it was shouting for back up.

As it started to charge at me with its teeth directed right at me, it thought I was just an easy prey for it. Undoubtedly, I needed to teach this tiger that underestimating its opponents is the worst move to make.

At that moment, daggers materialized in my grasp when I was swinging my hands at the tiger.

Slash!

Swaying to slice the tiger's legs, this animal jumped forward which forced itself to knock into me.

FLARE!

In a blink of an eye, white flame accompanied my slash, burning violently on the clean cut of the tiger's neck.

Seeming like it was wholly engulfed by the fire, the body of this animal was scorched by ‘Divine Flame’ while the head of this tiger was casually rolling onto the icy floor.

"This is why it'll never be the apex predator." I murmured as I stared at the tiger's head.

The only reason why it wasn't close to being an apex predator, was because being alone isn't its main attack pattern.

Only by being in a group that its teamwork ability shines the most…

Rawwwr!!!!

I grumbled, averting my gaze in every direction to find white tigers growling at me. "I really don't have time for this."

[Imitation of ‘Portal’ Lv. 3 has activated.]

Summoning forth a portal underneath me, I was soon transported to the next spot where I had placed the other end of the portal.

"Mirai!" I called out to her when I was descending down from the top.

Mirai responded. "Hai!"

On my head, Mirai had dropped down a net made from her silk, trapping the tigers as much as she could.

I knew Mirai's net wouldn't be enough to prevent them from moving, as a matter of fact, I wanted to stall these tigers while I escaped from here.

Not long after that, I stomped onto one of the tigers, crushing its body in the process.

[Imitation of ‘Electric Arc’ Lv. 3 has activated.]

Calling upon an arc of electricity, it was sending out electricity by using Mirai's silk, connecting together to increase the intensity of the electric shock the tigers were perceiving.

"This will keep them busy." I smirked before resuming on my search for my comrades.

Running my way through the hall, I found myself lost in an emptied temple filled with nothing but silence and ice monsters.

I groaned. "Seems like there are a lot of mobs even after that tree's death."

Despite my effort to find my guild members, I couldn't manage to spot a trail that Frostina may have left behind for me to see.

To be honest, I was going to search for them without using copied skills so that I didn't have to waste MP potion right now, but I assumed that wouldn't do.

I mused, not liking the idea of using consumables in my current situation. ‘I was even planning to save up the MP potions for emergency..’

By the time I took out the MP potion, I had already drunk it in one go, tossing aside the bottle.

..Once I recovered some of my MP, I went ahead and used my Hidden Skill.

[Imitation of ‘Connection’ Lv. 3 has activated.]

With this skill, I would definitely find out where my comrades and the others are by checking the links that I set on them.

‘Raiden's link..’

"...!?"

[This link is unable to load.]

"No way.." I uttered out of surprise.

Mirai, wondering what I was doing, climbed down onto my forehead and moved her face in front of my eyes.

"What's the matter, captain?" Mirai asked me when she saw my slightly startled face.

As I was speechless right now, I couldn't answer Mirai, instead I was checking the links again and again.

‘Behemoth's link..’

[This link is unable to load.]

‘..Tch. Frostina's link.’

[This link is unable to load.]

‘..!? HwanGi-ssi's link!’

[This link is unable to load.]

‘This can't be happening… Noel's link.’

[This link is unable to load.]

If I told it to find Mirai's link, it would absolutely show me her location. But I didn't need to know about that when she was already with me.

The problem that these links didn't load properly, must be because they were in an unreachable area. Somewhere where no communication nor skills could reach.

"Dammit. They already entered that place." I grumbled as I rubbed my temple, coming into a halt when I found a safe area to think for a bit.

"Captain!!"

Out of the blue, Mirai exclaimed at me which surprised me quite a lot. Glaring at me with her eight eyes, I could feel a hole digging into my forehead by her constant staring.

Eventually, Mirai pouted with her legs tapping my forehead, she mumbled. "I was calling for you for a while, how come you didn't notice, captain?"

"Gomen, Mimi-Chan." I apologized to her as I resumed on sprinting around the area to find my guild members.

"Captain.. Why are you getting worrisome about that place? I know you can bring us out of there with ease." Mirai said to me.

‘I know I can, but..’ I exhaled when I took the time to ask Mirai. "How long is a second?"

"What kind of question is that~?"

"It can be long and short. So imagining our friends being trapped in there with their reflections."

"..Hm?"

"A second can ruin their minds, even if I could save our comrades, the others might already lose their minds from their memories."

"But we experience that a lot.."

"I know, I believe in my comrades' tolerance, but what about the others? Plus, I don't want anyone to relive their life in that place again."

"Ah.. Yes, the past can be upsetting.. I understand a little of what captain is saying now. Hmm.. I didn't put them into consideration while thinking."

I smiled. "It's not that you didn't think, you just forgot about that in the passage of time."

"But those players.. Hmph. Some were stupid and some were annoying! And since we don't need to care about them, we should just leave them behind like usual!"

"Ho? I thought you grew fond of our teammates."

"I-I.. Well.. Alright.. Let's save them…"

Mirai stuttered as she changed her mind, made me want to grin at how cute she was being.

"I'll give it a try, but since I don't know HwanGi-ssi, Alaine, Louis and Mya that well.."

"You probably have some trouble trying to identify them from within those mirrors..But I trust in Captain's ability! You can do it with ease!"

"Haha, I know." I pay her head with my index finger.