Solo Leveling: Ragnarok - Chapter 123

During her stay with the ice elves in their village, Cha Haein had done everything she could to return to Earth. She’d flown about with Kaisel at every chance she got, looking for the dimensional breach she had come through.

At first, she believed that her return would be quick and simple, and that it was simply a matter of backtracking. She soon encountered obstacles, however. Flying through the intense snowstorms that interfered with her vision was the first problem. But worse than that, when she flew up into the sky, she found not one, but many dimensional breaches.

This was a world that had lost its Monarch. The frozen forest was wandering the dimensional rift and being torn apart in real time as it did so, meaning the skies above were riddled with dimensional breaches. It was far from simple to find the specific one that led back to Earth, but Haein and Kaisel refused to give up, combing through the snowstorms on a daily basis.

Then true disaster struck.

On one trip, Kaisel began to growl.

“Kaisel?”

The dragon that protected Haein had felt its power suddenly begin to wane. The reason was simple—a shadow soldier was only immortal because it received a steady supply of mana from the Monarch of Shadows. Kaisel was currently too far away from Sung Jinwoo to continue receiving his mana.

“This won’t do.At this rate, Kaisel will cease to exist long before we find a gate back to Earth.”

This was not Earth, and there was no telling when and where an enemy might appear. Should they have an unexpected encounter with a powerful enemy, Haein would need Kaisel’s help, no matter what. She stopped their random searches through the blizzards, but this did not mean she was giving up.

“I’ll trust in my husband.He will find me no matter where I am.”

Her voice was full of confidence. She trusted Jinwoo, and she believed with all her heart that he would come and find her. After all, he had done so even in her current life, in which they were fated to never meet.

She decided to quietly wait for his arrival, teaching the young ice elves to wield swords in the meantime. Even if she would be leaving one day, she wanted these children to be able to protect themselves from the ice spirits that invaded the village at every chance they got.

And that was when Haein, while fighting some spirits near the Echo Forest as she often did, located the gray snow.

***

Suho decided to leave for the Echo Forest right away to search for his mother.

“You’re really going?”

The ice elves who were watching him seemed very nervous.

“Are you sure about this? It’s a really dangerous place…”

“That’s right. Cha Cha told us so. To put it in human terms, one has to be at least as strong as an A-rank hunter to go in.”

“Are you A-rank, Suho?”

“You’re Cha Cha’s son. So why do you seem so weak? I don’t even sense half of her power from you.”

“Well, that’s true of basically anybody. None of the humans who marched in here were stronger than Cha Cha.”

Since Haein had left for the Echo Forest, it seemed that a new gate to Earth had opened up, and heavily-armed humans began to cross over. Sirka knew that Cha Cha would be very annoyed when she ultimately found out about this

In any case, the ice elves had not developed amicable relations with the new humans. Magic beasts, by their very definition, existed to destroy everything that their Monarch commanded them to. They were meant to destroy anything and everything except themselves. It was impossible for them to develop any kind of friendship with mere humans.

In that regard, Cha Haein was a very unique exception. She was their savior, someone who had helped them. Still, their current relationship might have never been possible if they hadn’t been able to communicate.

Haein could speak with the ice elves because of the necklace that Jinwoo had given her for their sixteenth wedding anniversary. He had built various interesting features into the necklace, including a language-interpreting function. In truth, it was included for a very trivial reason—just so Haein could assign errands to shadow soldiers who could not speak Korean. But that small feature had made Cha Haein the only human who could talk with the ice elves and not antagonize them.

Other humans, however, had no access to such a necklace. To the ice elves, they were simply prey to be hunted. Therefore, when they encountered humans, they asked a single question—did they know Sung Jinwoo? There was always the off chance that Cha Cha’s husband had sent someone to find her.

Despite the language barrier, at least both parties could pronounce Sung Jinwoo’s name. If any of the humans recognized the name, the ice elves intended to spare them. Sadly, of course, there had been no such humans.

The ice elves found this ridiculous. Sung Jinwoo, the Monarch of Shadows, was practically a household name for beings in other dimensions like themselves. He was the only victor of the long, terrible Monarchs War, and emerged as the true ruler of all dimensions. But not a single one of the humans on Earth, whom he’d saved, seemed to remember him. It was impossible to believe.

“I’ll guide you to the Echo Forest,” Sirka said, skipping through the snow.

She was moving far more deftly and quickly than before now that Suho had confirmed she was not an enemy and cured her of Kasaka’s Venom. The strength that the poison had diminished had now returned, and she held her head high, as confident as ever.

“I know the way,” she continued. “I am the guardian of the Baruka Tribe, after all.” As a guardian, her job was to watch the borders of the Echo Forest. Naturally, she knew the route there like the back of her hand.

“After you, then,” Suho said, then disappeared into the blizzard with Sirka. The ice elves left in the village looked on worriedly long after they were gone.

***

They plowed through the storm, and the moment they arrived at the Echo Forest, Suho was able to see with his own eyes the spirits that the ice elves feared so much. Amid the snow and wind, clusters of ice suddenly balled up and turned into magic beasts.

[Ice Golem]

[Ice Golem]

[Ice Golem]

…….

The countless golems gave low, rumbling roars as they thumped out of the forest.

Sirka paled at the sight. “Watch it! Those are the spirits of the Echo Forest. Why have we run into them so soon?”

Both Suho and Beru’s eyes gleamed. The incorporeal spirits had seeped into the snow and ice and formed physical bodies, becoming golems.

“Young Monarch! It seems the golems who destroyed the ground outside the dungeon were also spirits!”

Before Beru was even done shouting, Suho had drawn his twin swords and begun to dash toward them. “Arise!” he bellowed.

Shadow soldiers, dark mist coming from their bodies, suddenly rose around Suho.

“Behold! I am my master’s lance!” Que, the shadow lancer, shot forward at the lead as if on cue.

The shadow minotaurs, Mino and Tau, roared as they shoved back the ice golems that closed in from either side of Suho.

[Available Shadow Preservation Slots: 3/3]

These were the full-time shadow soldiers, so to speak—the maximum number that Suho could save. As it happened, however, Suho had actually extracted multiple temporary soldiers for the day. “All of you! Out!” he shouted.

[Shadow Kobold – Level 1]

[Shadow Kobold – Level 1]

[Shadow Kobold – Level 1]

…….

[Shadow Troll – Level 1 – Knight Grade]

These were the monsters he had killed when he found himself in this place. He had extracted them as he killed them, then hidden them as shadows. There were a considerable number of them.

[Number of Extractable Shadows: 36/36]

“Kill them!” Suho commanded.

A total of thirty-six shadow soldiers began pushing the ice golems back.

“H-how do you have so many?” Sirka had already been taken aback by the sudden ice golem ambush, but her eyes bulged at the troupe of soldiers that Suho had summoned. “You really are Cha Cha’s son, aren’t you?”

They were nothing compared to Haein’s shadow, Kaisel, but Suho’s soldiers had the advantage of numbers. What was more, unlike Kaisel, who weakened the more he used his power, this particular army was immortal as long as Suho had the mana to support it.

Sirka provided supporting fire from the backline with her bow, then told the hunter a new piece of information. “Watch out, Suho! It’s the same deal with the spirits of the Echo Forest! No matter how many you kill, there will always be more!”

As she spoke, Mino and Tau used their crushing force to destroy a couple of the golems.

[Ice Golem has been defeated.]

[Ice Golem has been defeated.]

A surprising sight awaited them. The crushed golems had been reduced to piles of broken ice, but new spirits rode in on the cold winds and entered the ice again. It bunched together anew, and the golems sprang back to life.

Suho’s eyes glowed. They can regenerate? Interesting. Though it was the opposite of the way shadow soldiers regenerated, the result was the same. They would keep coming back, no matter how many times they were killed.

“Hey, this is actually nice.” His eyes lit up. Enemies that could not be killed posed a challenge, to be sure, but if each kill was counted… “This is the perfect place to grind for levels, isn’t it?”

There was a jingle as Suho made a purchase.

[Item: “Middle Grade Mana Potion” has been purchased.]

Suho immediately gulped down the mana potion and bared his teeth viciously. “Now, bring it on!” And become my experience points!

[Status Window]

[Name: Sung Suho

Level: 40

Job: None

Title: Wolf Slayer, Natural Enemy of Insects, Demon Slayer

HP: 15,310/15,310

MP: 2,411/2,411]

[Stats]

[Strength: 115

Stamina: 49

Agility: 49

Intelligence: 49 (+10)

Sense: 49 (+5)

(Available Ability Points: 0)]

[Skills]

[Passive Skills:

Pain Tolerance – Level 5, Dual Sword Mastery – Level 3, (Unknown) – Level Max]

[Active Skills:

Ruler’s Authority – Level 1, Shadow Extraction – Level 2, Shadow Preservation – Level 1,

Storm Slash – Level 3, Giant’s Armor – Level 1, Iron Body Technique – Level 4,

Bloodlust – Level 1, Elven Footstep – Level 1,

Meadow Wind – Level 1 (Divine Possession only)]

[Number of Extractable Shadows: 36]

[Available Shadow Preservation Slots: 3]

[Blessings]

[Kandiaru’s Blessing, Rakan’s Aegis, Plague’s Blessing]

[Equipped Items]

[Vulcan’s Horn x2

Ashen Ring (Sense +5)

Horus’ Ring (Intelligence +10)

Ice Bear’s Robe (Defense +50)]