Pick Me Up!

Drip.

A drop of water fell from the tip of a stalactite.

I looked up. A faint light seeped through a hole in the ceiling.

The temperature was cooler than expected.

It was cold enough that without extra layers of clothing, one would feel chilly.

I sat on a protruding rock in the corner of the cave and gulped down a potion.

This was my second bottle.

With this, I had exhausted all the healing potions I had.

However, the throbbing pain that seemed to come from deep inside my body, likely due to the prolonged use of Ascend, remained unchanged.

I looked to the side.

In front of the lake in the middle of the cave, Pria was crouched, sitting.

“The troops….”

“They must be annihilated.”

I answered briefly.

There was no point in hiding the truth.

The Assinis army dispatched to the floating island to retrieve the key had been completely wiped out.

All the key officers, including Delphin, had been killed, and the remaining forces at the camp had been massacred without a central command. They were now non-existent.

‘This is troublesome.’

I brought the empty potion bottle to my mouth.

The escape mission had succeeded somehow. Knowing the escape route in advance when scouting the camp and planning at the lodging was a huge help.

The floating island Asrank had an underground passage almost as vast as the surface.

One of the hundreds of entrances was on a cliff. However, the cliff where the cave was located was sharply cut, so I had to perform a near-acrobatic feat of climbing from thousands of meters above ground.

I put down the potion bottle.

Though the escape was successful, I couldn’t return to the waiting room, and the dimensional gate didn’t open either.

I was still trapped here.

‘Is this still a personal mission?’

I looked to the right side of my field of vision.

The mission objective window, which should have been there, was empty.

There were no floor or objective notifications.

I had experienced unknown missions before, but never to this extent.

Even the stage clear message hadn’t appeared. I had no idea what floor I was on or what type of mission this was.

What is this?

I bit my lip.

Three boss-level entities had appeared simultaneously, and fragments of the series that would normally appear on the 80th floor or higher had appeared. This exceeded any difficult levels.

It could be called a bug.

‘Didn’t she say something about transcending?’

I recalled Perseine’s words.

Transcending. Liberating all who suffer.

If the current situation was intended, they were clearly irregulars.

‘This is… a headache.’

There was no improvement at all.

It was impossible to summon the members of the waiting room.

There was no contact.

It seemed I had to proceed with the mission as it was.

Without being able to receive supplies like potions.

‘For now….’

I held my throbbing head.

I had to organize the tasks I needed to do and prioritize them.

There was no time to dawdle.

If the monster inside the egg awakened, the situation would become much worse.

Time was not on my side.

I compiled the information I had heard from Delphin, Adel, and Pria.

Though the mission window wasn’t visible, I could roughly grasp the objective.

Collect the last key somewhere underground and return the egg on the surface to its original place. The time limit is before that thing hatches.

‘The problem is….’

I couldn’t engage in a direct confrontation.

I couldn’t guarantee a win against even one of the three.

If only the bosses were present, it would be somewhat manageable. But they commanded thousands of soldiers.

On the other hand, I couldn’t even summon the members of my party.

I’m sure they also know the mission objective.

That’s why they weren’t chasing me directly but waiting for me in a suitable location.

I was the one in a hurry.

“Phew.”

A sigh escaped naturally.

It had been a while since I felt like this.

‘No answer.’

A direct confrontation was impossible.

I couldn’t call for support.

What was I supposed to do?

Was I supposed to perform a suicide attack?

‘At least if there were any surviving troops….’

If there were survivors from the expedition troop, I could use them as bait and infiltrate.

However, judging by the camp’s situation, the probability of survivors was close to zero.

The enemy’s forces consisted of well-trained soldiers numbering in the thousands and three monsters that surpassed the standard.

And on this side… there was only a 4-star hero and a non-combat NPC.

‘I wonder what Anytng would think.’

If he logged in in the evening, he would be able to grasp the situation.

How the mission was going.

After that, he might send a bug report to Mobius.

In my thesis analyzing hundreds of missions, there had never been such a case.

‘It’s impossible.’

My instincts as a master told me.

The probability of success in this mission was nonexistent.

‘Damn it.’

I gritted my teeth.

So, was I supposed to die here?

When did I ever move based on the success rate?

“Han.”

I turned my gaze.

Pria’s shoulders, crouched in front of the lake, had shrunk.

“What should we do?”

“…….”

“If the expedition team is annihilated, can we retrieve the key?”

“We won’t know until we try.”

“I am powerless. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t look down. It’s not over yet. We have to try what we can.”

“I’m sorry.”

This is frustrating.

I approached Pria.

She was crouching, hugging her knees.

Her small, white hands were trembling.

“I’ll go out, so stay still. If something happens, shout.”

“Where are you planning to go?”

“We need to eat.”

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