The Support Ate it All-Chapter 528: No.287 Walking Turtle (2)

Even after that, Sapphire mages kept popping out from all over the place to launch attacks.

—PUH-PUH-BOOM!

Then they’d take a fireball to the face and sprint off like their lives depended on it.

Every time, Seo Ye-in and I took turns praising Hong Yeon-hwa.

“You’re doing great.”

“Go, go.”

“Just burn them all.”

“FWOOSH.”

Hong Yeon-hwa waved it off.

“N-No. It’s not that big a deal....”

But judging by how her mouth kept twitching upward into a grin, it didn’t look like she hated being praised.

Sometimes we ran into not just Sapphire mages, but other crewmen too. Unlike Crewman B, who was guiding us, these ones were armed with magic rifles.

They were probably fighting off the intruders all over the place.

The moment Crewmen C and D saw us, they leveled their guns and shouted,

“Who the hell are you!”

“W-Wait, wait!”

Crewman B raised both hands like he was surrendering, making a point of showing he wasn’t dangerous.

Then he tried, somehow, to introduce us.

“T-They’re not enemies! They came to help!”

“You think that garbage you’re spouting counts as words?”

“I’m telling you it’s true!”

“Then answer this. Where were you headed?”

“Auxiliary... power room.”

It was suspicious as hell, and Crewmen C and D’s faces twisted up.

“You betrayed us. You became lackeys for those bastards.”

“No! That’s not it!”

“Shut up.”

—TUDUDUDU!

The muzzles kept spitting blue fire.

But the mana rounds evaporated the instant they touched the wall of flame on the way in.

“......”

Hong Yeon-hwa glanced at me.

It looked like she was asking, Burn them? Burn them, right?

The moment I jerked my chin in agreement, fire magic poured out.

—PUH-PUH-PUH-BOOM!

“AGH!”

The crewmen got a taste of heat and fled.

From then on, Hong Yeon-hwa threw fireballs first at whoever we met.

From our perspective, that was easier too, so we didn’t bother stopping her.

We kept pushing forward, burning anything that moved, and eventually a fairly wide space appeared.

Crewman B confirmed what we’d suspected.

“This is it. The auxiliary power room.”

The entire space was covered in thick ice, so you couldn’t make out what anything was.

Of course, we could just melt the ice, but there was something to deal with first.

“.......”

Maybe she sensed us. A young witch rose from where she’d been sitting.

Like the mages we’d run into on the way here, the Sapphire Magic Tower emblem was embroidered on her robe.

And just at a glance, she was far more skilled than the others.

This is basically a mid-boss.

After sweeping her eyes over our group one by one, she fixed her gaze on Hong Yeon-hwa.

“...What’s Ruby doing here?”

“Is there a reason I can’t be?”

“I was just thinking you’d be cold.”

“It’ll get hot fast.”

Hong Yeon-hwa snapped back without giving an inch.

The Sapphire witch’s face turned even colder.

“A yapping little puppy... I’ll freeze you and preserve you for a long, long time.”

“Try it if you can.”

Hong Yeon-hwa snorted.

The witch flicked her staff up at the ceiling.

Something hanging there dropped straight down.

—KOOOM!

An ice chunk the size of a house gradually took on a human shape and planted its feet on the floor.

An ice golem.

While it positioned itself like a bodyguard for its master, the witch jabbed her staff into the ground and started murmuring an incantation.

Sapphire gave off a cold light, and a dome-shaped protective barrier formed around her.

After securing her own safety, she began powering up the ice golem in earnest.

The longer she chanted, the thicker its forearms became—almost as thick as its torso. Sharp icicles sprouted all over its body, and a band of blizzard wrapped around it.

Meanwhile, Hong Yeon-hwa wasn’t doing anything—not even casting.

She just stood there blankly, watching.

Maybe the Sapphire witch thought she was being underestimated, or maybe she figured Hong Yeon-hwa had given up and wanted to finish fast—either way, she pushed her casting even harder.

Soon, the ice golem looked nothing like it had at the start. It had armor. It had weapons. Fully armed.

A full-on giant ice general.

At its master’s command, it advanced.

—THUD, THUD, THUD-THUD-THUD,

It picked up speed as it charged in.

Only then did Hong Yeon-hwa casually raise one hand.

—FWOOSHHHH,

Sparks gathered into a sphere, then swelled violently.

In a single breath, it grew larger than a human body.

The Sapphire witch’s eyes went wide in disbelief.

“What kind of casting is—!”

She was catching up at an impossible speed.

Even so, maybe she judged she already had the upper hand, because she didn’t pull the golem back.

—THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD—!

The distance closed fast, and the ice weapon was just about to swing—

Hong Yeon-hwa lightly tossed the sphere of flame.

—KWAAAAANG—!

An explosion erupted, and the whole room flooded with searing heat.

Seo Ye-in held both hands out, satisfied.

“...Warm.”

“Yeah, sure. As long as it’s warm, everything’s great.”

I scolded her while checking through the flames, and the proud ice general had melted down into a tiny ice dwarf.

And it looked like even that would vanish soon.

“.......”

The Sapphire witch’s mouth just hung open like an idiot.

At the start of the fight, it had looked like she was about to teach some arrogant brat a lesson. Who could’ve predicted this result?

That’s how absurd AquaFlame is.

Against ice attributes, it was practically a cheat key.

In this dungeon, outside of the boss, it’d be hard for her to find an opponent.

The witch, wearing a hollow expression, finally bit down and cast a spell.

But she had no chance of matching Hong Yeon-hwa’s casting speed, and within a few exchanges her entire body was engulfed in flames.

—FWOOSHHHH!

“Kyaaah!”

The Sapphire witch fled in a panic.

Hong Yeon-hwa watched, snorted, then trotted back to my side.

“.......”

“Good work. We don’t even need to step in.”

“Yeah...!”

After praising her, we looked around the room together.

With the ice melted by the aftereffects of the battle, the place’s original form was exposed.

In one corner stood a cylindrical tank, and inside it there was a turtle.

When we arrived, it had been frozen solid, but now that it had regained freedom of movement, it was swimming around energetically.

As it did, ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) the devices connected to the tank began activating gradually.

—WOOOONG—

Seo Ye-in tilted her head and looked at me.

“...Turtle battery.”

“Correct. That’s the auxiliary power room.”

It wasn’t generating energy by swimming. The turtle itself possessed a trait.

Self-generation.

It had efficiency that bordered on creating something from nothing.

There were a few other traits like that out there, and one of them was the one I’d copied for Song Cheon-hye back then—[Crown of the Hyun King].

If you combined them, you’d complete a much stronger trait.

It’s the best for stacking [Core] quickly.

A-rank was possible even without a trait, so I’d prioritized other Hidden Pieces.

But now I was looking beyond that, toward S-rank.

Insight matters, but I also need to stack mana for a long time.

The amount required to go from B to A didn’t even compare. If I wanted to cut down the time, I needed to secure traits early.

I stared at the turtle inside the tank.

Still, it’d be a waste to [Copy] that one.

This was the auxiliary power room.

If I was going to [Copy] something, wouldn’t it be better to aim for the bigger turtle in the bigger tank in the main power room?

Besides, there’s no need to go right now.

It wasn’t like the turtle was going anywhere, and if we were going to clear the dungeon, it was a place we’d have to visit no matter what.

Right now, we needed to focus on a different goal.

Estimating the time, I spoke to Seo Ye-in.

“Want to go see them? The crows.”

“★Blink★.”

“I told you that’s not happening.”

“Positive thinking.”

Well. Dreams were better the bigger you made them.

I nodded, then looked at Crewman B.

“Sir.”

“Y-Yes?”

“Keep guiding us.”

“Y-Yes! Where should I take you?”

Maybe it was because we’d crushed the Sapphire witch so overwhelmingly, but his attitude had gotten even more polite.

I asked to confirm.

“Is this closer to the left side?”

“Yes, the left side.”

Meaning the auxiliary power room was near the left flank of the giant turtle.

Luckily, it was fairly close to our target.

“I want to go to the left balcony.”

Crewman B’s face flickered with the question, Why a balcony now?

But with everyone staring at him, he snapped out of it and took the lead.

“Yes! Right away!”

*****

After pushing forward through several fights, there was a tightly closed iron door in front of us.

If we opened it, it’d be the balcony.

I released piggyback mode and told Seo Ye-in,

“There’s something I should warn you first.”

“What.”

“If we open it, freezing wind’s gonna blast in.”

“...Let’s not open it.”

“Then you can’t see the crows.”

“......”

Seo Ye-in hesitated.

Slowly, she clenched her fist.

“...Overcome.”

“Good mindset. Here we go.”

The hatch turned with an irritating metallic squeal.

Then I pulled the handle, and the iron door swung wide.

—WHOOOOOOOSH—!

A blizzard slammed into us.

Seo Ye-in grabbed the iron door and said,

“...Close it.”

“You said you’d overcome it.”

“...Overcome canceled.”

“Let’s endure a little. We already opened it.”

Seo Ye-in hid behind my back, like she was trying to get hit by as little of the blizzard as possible.

Shivering, she flicked her eyes to the side.

Catching the meaning, Hong Yeon-hwa swirled her staff and chanted.

—FWOOSH,

A few fist-sized fireballs floated up, bobbing in the air.

It was like pouring water into a bottomless jar, but it was better than nothing.

Like that, we stood on the balcony, staring into the raging blizzard.

Every so often, Seo Ye-in tugged at my sleeve and whined.

“...I wanna go in.”

“Hang on a little. They said it’s basically here.”

“...Why aren’t they coming.”

“Right ahead.”

“Liar....”

“I’m serious. You see it coming? Right there.”

“There’s nothing....”

But then, the empty air rippled hard.

The rippling grew more violent, and a pitch-black shape burst out.

“C—AWK—!”

Flapping, a dimensional crow landed on the balcony.

It wore an old pointed hat, and in one hand it held a crooked wooden staff.

The one we’d met in the labyrinth during the Witch of Corruption subjugation raid.

The crow Great Sage.

It preened its feathers and greeted me.

“Young sovereign, your status has risen a great deal since last we met.”

“Isn’t that only natural.”

I answered in an overbearing sovereign tone.

It was neutral and supposedly mild-mannered, sure—but if it thought it could look down on me, we could end up getting the short end of the stick in a deal. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Then the Great Sage’s gaze shifted to Seo Ye-in.

For some reason, the other crows had always jumped in shock, but this one stayed calm.

If anything, it looked at her with intense interest before speaking.

“...CAW, a child blessed with the power of a meteor.”