Chapter Fifty One: Stronger Than The Freezer

In more than one way, sneaking into the Sacred Land had suddenly become much easier. One: I could deceive the guards into telling me Leila’s location. Two: I could fly above them without being noticed. Three: I was a lot stronger than before thanks to defeating the Freezer and absorbing its abilities. Think of all the cool attacks I could use now.
When I got back to Taht’s house that day, I slept the whole afternoon. I woke at dusk to find a feast spread across the table.
“It’s to celebrate your victory over the Freezer. Eat as much as you want,” Taht invited me with a warm, welcoming smile.
The timing was perfect — I hadn’t eaten since morning. I’d left at dawn before anyone woke.
Burte was out playing with his friends and Meila sat at the dining table, sulking for some reason.
“Sigh… why is it that I can’t use my magic? And why is it that you are now able to use it? It doesn’t make sense for someone without any magic like yourself to be able to do that.”
“No magic?” That fool. Does she plan on telling Taht that I can’t use magic?
“Oh, no! That’s not what I meant!” she frantically tried to change the subject. “Let’s eat — the food will get cold!”
She had to be a fool not to understand the implications of telling Taht that I couldn’t use magic. Think about it logically: in this whole world, there wasn’t a single individual without magical powers. Then came a boy with zero magic in him. He had this terrifying aura that made even the highest-leveled people tremble. Because of that, the boy was accused of being a demon — or even a Demon Lord. News travels fast. News like that travels at the speed of light.
Knowing all that, it was safe to assume Taht knew about it too. Learning that I couldn’t use magic was essentially the same as telling her I was the demon everyone was talking about.
I doubted she’d react badly at first, but better safe than sorry. You never know what makes people lose it. And if the worst came to pass, I could deceive her with a different story.
At the dining table, Taht and I had a long conversation about how strong I’d become and about some of the brave stories she’d heard.
I asked if it would be okay to start eating without Burte and she said it was all right. His share would be kept warm in the magical leather wrap.
She gave off a cool, older-sister vibe and was very friendly. So this is how having an older sister feels. I have two younger siblings in my world — a sister and a brother. They always act spoiled around me, not like Burte.
Funny — I’m remembering that right now. For some reason, thoughts about my world don’t hit me that often.
I ate about two-thirds of the food that was served.
“I guess you must have been hungry.” Taht wasn’t surprised by how much I ate.
While Meila spaced out, I took some of her food.
I kind of understood why she’d been depressed. The reason was obvious: to her, her deception ability was the only thing she was proud of. Losing it felt like losing her existence. But if you think positively, we’re friends, right? I’m just holding onto her abilities for her since I can use them more efficiently. I should say that to her to cheer her up.
“But I’m really glad you managed to defeat the Freezer. Now you don’t have to go to the forest anymore… but if you don’t have anything to do here anymore, then does that mean you are going back?”
She turned sad all of a sudden. She didn’t want us to leave that badly, huh? “Well, it’s not like we’re leaving right away. We can stay for three more days.”
“Really!? That would be great!” she cheered up quickly.
“I’m so happy you get to stay longer, Meila.”
Meila was still spacing out so she didn’t reply.
“Meila? Are you still worried about your magic not coming back?”
“Hmm? Oh… just a little…”
“You shouldn’t worry too much. It might just be that your magic was completely depleted after that incident. If you rest properly then it’ll definitely come back.”
“You think so? That’s understandable, I guess… you are right. All I have to do is wait for my magic to return.”
I watched quietly as Taht worked Meila out of her slump. She smiled casually as the mood returned to normal.
“Huh!?? Who ate my share of the food!?” she yelled — the mood was too normal now.
I bet Taht thinks I planned on staying longer just to rest. Wait till she sees what I’m going to do tomorrow.
Going back to the forest was a given. I had to defeat as many Freezers as I could to quench this frustration welling up inside me. I had been humiliated by that monster — not once, not twice.
I kept that to myself as the mood got livelier. We finished dinner just as Burte returned. Meila was energized by Taht’s words and let go of her depression completely. Taht had stepped in at the right moment.
I went to sleep immediately after that. My body was sore.
The next morning, I snuck out as usual. But unlike the usual routine, defeating the Freezers wouldn’t take me long at all.

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As hot-blooded as I was, I only managed to defeat four Freezers. It took the whole day. When I came back from the forest, it was already night. I almost forgot the time difference between the forest and the outside.
The Freezers came in pairs this time. The battle took place in the sky. I was able to move at a really high speed, unlike when we were on the ground. Duddul wasn’t faster than them, but our speeds were comparable.
It would have been my worst nightmare if two of them had attacked me before I defeated the first one the previous day. Soaring through the skies, I baited them one after the other. That made defeating a single one take more time.
In the end, I defeated the first batch and the second appeared out of nowhere minutes later. We fought over vast monster-filled areas. Any normal person would have encountered other monsters during that fight, but I only met the monsters I was currently fighting. Higher-level monsters only appeared to me after I’d defeated the lower ones.
I see why people call this the Nightmare Forest. If monsters of all kinds ganged up on a person, getting out would be impossible. It would have been impossible for me too if I’d been attacked by more than one Freezer at the start.
Defeating them was thanks to the Freezer abilities I’d acquired and to my sword skill. I couldn’t box a monster that tough, so my kangaroo abilities weren’t useful.
The whole fight took place in the sky. We never touched the ground once. Duddul seemed able to fly for quite a long time thanks to his stamina.
I tried to fight them one-on-one, but they stubbornly refused. Every chance I got, I separated them before attacking.
The spinning attack proved most useful. Although it required time to be effective, I was cunning enough to fly off Duddul while preparing it — that way I could use it at every opportunity.
Duddul helped a lot too. When it became difficult to separate them, Duddul fought a separate monster to buy me time. I joined him after defeating the first.
The second most useful attack was the light wave that came from their horns. I didn’t have a horn myself, so it took a while to figure out how to channel the energy into my hands. This way I could use my sword like a gun to shoot it. The energy channeled from my whole body to my sword. The sword compressed it and fired a light wave, just like the Freezer does.
It only did about ten percent damage, unlike the spinning attack, which did thirty percent. That meant I could defeat a Freezer after three spins and one light attack — if I chose not to attack directly with my sword.
I named the spinning attack the “Spinning Drill.” I just used the Freezer’s horn to come up with that name. Their horns are like drills and they always spin strongly before using them.
The light wave I called “Clear Light” — that’s because the Freezers always moved away from me when I used it.
Those were the attacks I could use. For some reason, I couldn’t use the most important one. The ability to fly was certainly important, but the Freezer didn’t get its name because of that — it was because of its ability to completely stop an enemy’s movement. Unfortunately, I tried to stop them in midair but failed.
I wouldn’t have had to worry about them stopping me in the sky if I could use that power. That’s why the fight took so long. I constantly had to be on the run to avoid being frozen.
We covered a lot of area during that fight. I’d say we traveled as far as Rogo.
As for my sword attacks, I mostly relied on them. After defeating the prince and obtaining his fighting skills, I was confident in my swordsmanship. I felt like swords were now part of my blood — I had absorbed a lot of sword skills, after all.
I came up with a sword skill myself. I called it “Carving.”
It was when I flew alone during the fight that I conceived it. The Freezer had great reflexes despite being heavy. To land an attack and escape unscathed, I had to be extremely fast.
I aimed for a particular body part, carved the flesh out, then moved away at full speed. I carved whatever came to mind. They were almost all alphabets, though.
I carved letters like X, Y, Z on their bodies, then fell back immediately. When the monster grunted, I moved to a blind spot and attacked again.
The Freezers have a wide blind spot. They always try to point their horns at you before attacking. I deduced their horns served as eyes. But even though their lower bodies should be in their blind spots, they were amazingly perceptive of attacks from behind.
I avoided attacking their rears and aimed for the mid-body or thighs instead.
Well, I received quite a lot of hits. It was especially hard to dodge their Clear Light attacks completely. But in the end, I won.

---
“To think you’ll go back to that forest again. Why do you like to make us worry!? I got scolded really bad by Taht — she and the others refused to eat dinner until I returned.”
“I’m sorry… it’s just that I had to do it.” She made me kneel down and apologize for my actions.
It took a long time before she finally let it slide. I didn’t show them my loot until after our meal.
“…!!??” They all stood shocked at the things I’d brought.
It was only natural that they’d never seen Freezer wings before. The wings were so long and thick. Each wing was about 1.5 meters long. Their stones were darker than any monster stones I’d gotten so far.
“Wow… can’t believe how wild these wings look.” “Yeah. And they sell for really high prices too.” “….” Burte didn’t say a word.
“I’m giving all of them to you.” It was meant to be a bribe so she’d look away when I went to the forest tomorrow.
“What!?” Burte shouted in surprise.
Calm down, kid.
“I… I can’t possibly accept these! You risked your life to get them, didn’t you?” Taht refused my offer.
“I did risk my life, but it’s not like I did it for the money. I’m trying to get strong. Besides, I can make money any time I want. I heard the wings sell for 5 gold coins a pair and the stones for less than that. If you sell all four wings and four stones, you’ll be able to support yourselves for a year, right? Think of it as my thanks for letting us stay here. I won’t take no for an answer. If you don’t accept them, then we’re leaving this house today and the items will be thrown out on the street since I don’t need them.”
It was a little dirty of me to threaten her with us leaving, but I had to make sure she accepted them.
Meila was about to butt in with something like “Hey, if she doesn’t want them then I’ll take them!” when I casually glared at her. She stopped before opening her mouth.
“Thank you…” After a few minutes of convincing, Taht agreed to take them.
I couldn’t let her refuse. From what I’d gathered, their parents seemed dead. Taht didn’t have a steady job that earned money. She was trying to become a healer, but that would take a long time since she was still in the early stages. She needed money to invest more time in her studies, though she was lucky to have the healing aptitude — albeit a weak one.
Some people are born with great magic. They are people like Milta and Leila. But the majority must practice hard to become good at their magic.
I wished Taht all the best. Even if she might never reach Milta’s healing ability, it was admirable that she tried. As long as she kept trying, she’d eventually achieve what she wanted.
“Oh, and by the way… I’m going back to the forest tomorrow.”
I ruined the mood just as it had gotten good. Taht was almost in tears from happiness after receiving my gift, but that turned to anger in an instant.
“What!? Didn’t you just promise you wouldn’t go back!?”
“I did apologize, but I never said I wasn’t going back.”