TEOCH 58

The ground cracked open with a splitting sound, and a heat that felt like it would cook my feet right through billowed out. It was definitely nighttime, yet the red glow flowing from beneath my feet stained my vision grotesquely. As I ran until I was out of breath, I glanced repeatedly at the time etched into the map. 2 hours, 4 seconds, 3 seconds, 2 seconds, 1 second…!

[Warning! Warning! The earthquake is gradually intensifying. The fissures on the surface are becoming more violent.]

[The energy condensed in the crater is becoming uncontrollably powerful. The signs of a volcanic eruption are becoming distinct!]

I know, that’s why I’m going right now! I ground my teeth and gripped the ‘Controller’ a little tighter. The top of the controller, which was almost identical in shape to Damian’s staff, was embedded with six sapphires.

If I could just sacrifice one of these sapphires to calm the ‘Jewel’ at the volcano’s summit, I might be able to prevent the entire island from being covered in lava!

[Quest Item: Controller]

[An unidentified staff carved from a thousand-year-old demon world tree. Its principle is unknown, but it possesses the power to perfectly control rampaging magical energy. However, its durability does not seem to be very good, as a part of the staff is destroyed with each use, so let’s use it with caution! If used recklessly, you might face trouble later?]

[Uses remaining: 6/6]

Caution my foot. What good is spouting fancy words when you don’t even give me a choice?!

We had already passed through five islands, but not once had we stopped an island’s collapse without using a quest item like the ‘Amplifier’ or the ‘Controller.’ I seethed inwardly while desperately running toward the crater. Whether I faced trouble later or not, survival right now was more pressing.

Activating the parasite in my right leg, I kicked off the ground with all my might, and my body instantly shot into the air. I intended to run to the summit with that momentum, but a single scream that erupted from behind me forced me to turn around immediately.

“Watch out, Rehas!”

“Damn it! With both arms out of commission, it’s hard to keep my balance…!”

Rehas’s body, which had almost tripped and fallen, disappeared in an instant and then reappeared. It was thanks to Damian, who was being carried on his back, promptly using ‘Blink.’ If Damian’s magic had been even a little late, the two of them would have tumbled together into the cracks in the ground.

Rehas stumbled but readjusted Damian on his back and started running again. Damian, gripping his staff tightly, used his detection magic once more.

“Mr. Rohan, we need to change direction! There’s a powerful concentration of magic up ahead!”

“Got it! Everyone, watch the ground!”

We hurriedly veered to the right, and less than a minute later, a loud roar echoed from the direction Damian had warned us about. By now, the ground must have completely collapsed, and red-hot lava would be flowing out.

But our relief at having survived was brief. With sharp cries, dozens of monsters swooped down on us from the air. While Rikiel, running at the very back, used ‘Taunt’ to draw their attention, Tristan managed to slash a monster’s wing in a close call.

“Rohan! How much farther to the summit?”

“We’re almost there, Your Majesty! Just about ten more minutes of running!”

The remaining time was 1 hour and 55 minutes, and it would take 10 minutes to reach the summit, so we had a decent amount of time to spare. Fortunately, this island was easy to clear. I had been inwardly nervous because the ‘Volcano Island’ was originally the most difficult to survive and had the highest difficulty, but now that we were actually here, it wasn’t that hard.

Well, since the island itself was difficult, I suppose the process of stopping its collapse had to be easier to maintain balance. A sense of unease pricked at my stomach, but this was no time for stray thoughts.

We arrived at the volcano’s crater. The crater, filled with clouds of acrid volcanic ash, was overflowing with lava as if it would erupt at any moment, but this was not the time to fear the heat of the lava. Right now, we had to calm the ‘Jewel’ that was pulsating with a grotesque light above the crater.

“Damian, hurry!”

I quickly handed the controller to Damian, and he raised it high and infused the jewel with magical energy. A blue light flowed from the controller and enveloped the jewel, and the jewel’s trembling subsided.

[Congratulation!]

[Congratulations, you have finally calmed the jewel’s rampage! The jewel will no longer accumulate magical energy abnormally!]

Watching the message that popped up right on cue, I let out a sigh of relief. Good, at least I stopped the volcano from erupting! The fact that things went more easily than expected was somewhat unsettling, but for now, this alone was…

[Magical energy accumulated so far: 39%]

[The accumulated magical energy is released, and the volcano erupts. Only 39% of its original power will be applied.]

Wait, huh, what did you say…? I reflexively looked down at the crater and noticed that, separate from the jewel which was steadily calming down, the lava was beginning to bubble more and more violently.

Damn it, of course! There’s no way things would go that easily! The other companions also seemed to sense that the lava’s momentum was unusual and looked at me. I grabbed Rehas’s arm and ran toward Rikiel, shouting instinctively.

“Lord Rikiel, fly!”

The moment Rikiel managed to spread his wings and rise into the air, a tremendous roar erupted and heat spewed from the crater. Clinging to Rikiel, we were thrown back from the erupting volcano.

“I really thought I was going to die this time…”

“I apologize. I never imagined the volcano would erupt even after controlling the jewel.”

“But you proposed the best possible strategy, didn’t you? You made a perfectly sound judgment. Don’t be so down.”

“Rehas is right. If you hadn’t stopped the eruption early on, this entire island might have been covered in lava.”

“Thank you for saying so, Your Majesty.”

The next morning, having barely escaped the volcanic eruption, we were catching our breath while hiding in a shelter on the island’s outskirts. This was already the fifth time we had done this. As if the collapse we experienced on the ‘River Island’ was just a warm-up, we had to survive much more intense disasters after leaving that island.

On the second island we arrived at, the ‘Bird Island,’ we had a terrible time not because of the island’s collapse, but because hundreds of birds that densely packed the sky swarmed us. On the third, the ‘Tree Island,’ a giant tree that had taken root throughout the entire island suddenly awoke and went on a rampage, and we had a hard time dealing with it. To make matters worse, the ‘Jewel’ causing the problem on that island was embedded right in the center of the giant tree, so we had to endure a struggle on the level of fighting a mid-boss.

‘Still, it was better than the ‘Swamp Island.’ There, the entire island was melting into a gooey mess, so we couldn’t even run properly.’

I gave a bitter smile, recalling the surreal scene where even the attacking monsters couldn’t get a foothold on the ground and were flailing about. Well, it’s all in the past now, so I can laugh about it.

Anyway, this island was quite a struggle as well. The volcano erupted even though we had calmed the jewel in time. It was as if I could hear a phantom voice saying, ‘I’ll stop the island from collapsing, but you’re on your own for what comes after!’ and it made me secretly furious.

‘Honestly, isn’t this a scam? If you’re going to stop the collapse, you should stop the volcanic eruption too!’

Still, it wasn’t as if stopping the eruption early on was completely in vain. The lava that poured out from the crater only covered the area around the volcano before hardening. With nearly two-thirds of the island safe from the threat of lava, we had at least avoided the worst-case scenario.

Of course, the clouds of volcanic ash that covered the entire island were a bit of a problem, but fortunately, the ash didn’t enter our temporary shelter. It was a relief not to have suffocated to death.

“For the time being… that is, until that volcanic ash settles to some extent, let’s stay inside the shelter. To get some rest as well.”

I said this as I checked on my companions’ conditions. They were slumped over, as if they had used up all their strength escaping yesterday’s collapse. Rehas was crushing herbs good for muscle pain and applying them to Tristan’s arms and legs, and Tristan was groaning in pain as he let Rehas tend to him.

And Damian and Rikiel, who had no connection to muscle pain (though for different reasons), were standing guard at the shelter’s entrance. They claimed they were watching in case any suspicious monsters approached from outside, but it seemed like an excuse no matter how I looked at it. It seemed they were just bored and wanted to look outside.

The two were looking at the monsters roaming outside and talking amongst themselves. It was surprising that those two had gotten closer. Well, I suppose they were now at the point where they could exchange some light banter.

“But what in the world is that monster’s identity? I’ve really never seen a monster that looks like that.”

“You’re right. In some ways, it looks like a lizard, and in other ways, it looks like a bird. It’s a truly bizarre-looking monster.”

“As expected of the demon world, even such hideous monsters roam around. I didn’t realize yesterday because I was in such a rush running away…”

No, if I had to say, it’s just an ordinary pterosaur. Thinking this, I glanced at the flock of pterosaurs gathered in the distance.

Up until the island we had just visited, it had pretended to be a normal jungle terrain, but on the ‘Volcano Island’ specifically, things like pterosaurs and velociraptors roamed around casually. Perhaps the game developers had some conscience, as giant dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus Rex did not appear, but it was still inconsistent compared to the other islands.

‘It’s not like they’re real dinosaurs anyway.’

I let out a light sigh as I looked at the monsters, which were like imitations of dinosaurs that would only appear in movies. When I first arrived on this island, I was dumbfounded at what they were thinking with the level design, but now I couldn’t even be bothered to question it. I just accepted it as it was. However, my companions, who didn’t know what dinosaurs were, seemed to find those monsters quite fascinating.

“Of all the monsters I’ve seen so far, I think that one looks the strangest. Mr. Rohan, what is that monster’s name?”

“That’s called a pterosaur. But Damian, if you stick your head out of the cave too much, you might get volcanic ash in your eyes. Keep it in moderation.”

“Pterosaur? A dragon with wings? Does it breathe fire or use things like magic?”

“It’s not that amazing of a monster…”

He’s not listening. Leaving the starry-eyed Damian to himself, I decided to take care of practical matters. I emptied my bag, taking out all the quest items I had collected so far, and checked their durability. There were two ‘Amplifiers,’ two ‘Jewels,’ and I had obtained one more ‘Controller’ from this island, making a total of five.

However, the durability of all the items had been slightly reduced, a result of using each of them once to stop an island’s collapse.

My stomach churned at the sight of the slightly damaged items when we hadn’t even met the boss yet. Was this really the right way? Was it okay to use quest items so recklessly like this? I had thought about it over and over, but there was only one conclusion. For now, there was no other viable alternative.

While traveling through the five islands, I had searched for ‘a way to stop the island’s collapse without using quest items,’ but so far, there had been no results. No, it was more like I had even become certain of it. The fact that we had to use quest items somehow to survive, and that without them, we would have no choice but to die.

‘Maybe there was another way?’

Perhaps there was a method. One that I just hadn’t discovered because I was being too cautious. But it couldn’t be helped. If I were playing this game alone, I could have risked my life on adventures as much as I wanted. At the very least, even if I was concerned about my companions, I might have forced my way through explorations with the thought that ‘if I don’t take the risk now, I might die later.’ In fact, in the first playthrough, I had acted that way dozens, even hundreds of times. But.

‘I don’t know. I… I don’t want to put Tristan in danger like that.’

Of course, as long as we were adventuring in the demon world, I might not be able to protect him until the very end. If the situation became truly extreme, and we were cornered with no way out, I might not be able to protect him. It would be agonizing, and I would want to blame myself to death, but that would not be something I could control.

But ‘deliberately’ forcing an adventure to gather information was a completely different matter. It was far worse than him dying because my abilities fell short. It meant giving up the possibility of keeping him alive for even one second longer and choosing with my own will to do something that would drive him to his death.

Even though the result would be his death either way, and even though I knew that when you get down to it, it was no different from deceit, still, I.

‘Really… I need to stop thinking like this.’

I let out a sigh that felt like it could sink the ground and shook my head. I didn’t know if it was because my personality was naturally pessimistic or if I had automatically become this way while wandering through the gloomy demon world, but once a troublesome thought got stuck in my head, it just wouldn’t let go.

This isn’t the time for such worries. If I have time to waste like this, it would be better to think about the schedule ahead. Or, at the very least, it might be better to become detached from the possibility that he could die at any moment…

But, it was at that moment.

“Huh? Mr. Rohan, look over there! Something strange is…!”

Whether it was misfortune or fortune, my train of thought was broken by Damian’s flustered voice. I stopped thinking further and raised my head. It was a relief to have escaped from my depressing thoughts, but Damian’s sudden reaction sent a wave of anxiety over me.

Why is he so flustered? He’s the type to just smile cheerfully unless something really major happens.

“Th-that thing, it looks kind of like a person?!”

What is he suddenly talking about? There shouldn’t be a single humanoid monster around here. Thinking that far, the moment I saw where Damian was pointing, my jaw dropped. Damian had every reason to be flustered. The worries that had been completely filling my head just moments ago were instantly erased.

Something impossible was happening right before my eyes.