Record of a Thousand Lives

Durmanstopped moving and fell silent.Jiang Ren-Wei felt that something was off, and hewalked toward Durman. Durman was standingstill as if he had beenhypnotized, with his eyes out of focus.

.

“What’s wrong? What happened?” Jiang Ren-Wei asked, shakingDurman’s shoulder, but Durman just remained in the same state.

Suddenly, a bright light shone out of the plate the name of the ruin was written on.Jiang Ren-Wei covered his eyes with his left hand, nearlyblinded by the light;suddenly, Durmanran toward the ruin, huffing and puffing.

“Hey! Where are you going?!” Jiang Ren-Wei shouted, trying to pursueDurman.However,Durmaneasilypushed open thegiganticdoor of the icy ruin, then ran intoit.

Jiang Ren-Wei hesitated for a moment, thinking,‘Do I go in…?’Hecould not shakeoff theuneasy feeling creeping up on him, but he shook his head and made a decision.Heentered the Winterkill Ruin, as he could not abandon his clanmember.

The interior of the ruin was white all over;it wasfilled with frost andtransparent blocks of ice, andthe air within was bitterly cold.Jiang Ren-Wei found Durman standing dazedlyinside;he ran towardDurman and kickedhim.

Thankfully, Durman seemed to come back to his senses. He protested,“Ah! Boss! Why are you suddenly kicking me? Did you feed your remaining arm toamonster or something?”

“Feed, my ass!Don’t you remember what happened?” Jiang Ren-Weiasked.

“What are you talking about? Huh? Where are we?” Durman looked around in surprise.Jiang Ren-Wei sighed in resignation, thenturned around and walked toward the door of the ruin.

Creak…

The door suddenlyshut.Jiang Ren-Wei banged onitwith all his might. However,even though it hadeasily opened when Durman pushed it, the doordid not budge an inch this time. Asthe light that hadenteredthrough the door disappeared, the ruin wascast into such darkness that the twohad a hard time identifying what was immediately in front of them.

Durman, who had good night vision, suddenly pointedat somethingand said, “Boss! Look at that!”

Numerous pale white skeletons slowlyroseup from thefrozenfloor. Unlike normal skeletons made of bone, they were made of ice. The Ice Skeletonsweremuch stronger monsters compared to normal undead, and atleast 400 of them had risen from the ice-cold floor.

Durmantrembled, screaming in horror, “Boss! What should we do?!”

“What else can we do? Raise your weapon!”Jiang Ren-Wei gritted his teeth as he tightly grippedhisblunt weaponin his left arm.

***

Irislooked at the objectinher hand with eyes full of curiosity. It was a clear crystal,but it was too cold to hold. She thought,‘What could it be?’She fiddledwith theobjectbriefly before licking it.

“Ah…”Iris’tongue stuck to the ice.Shewas suddenly flusteredanddid not know what to do. She triedpulling it away, butdecided against itas each attempt to detach the ice made her tongue hurt..

Shaneth pulled her sleeves back justasIris’ eyes were about tofillwith tears. Shaneth let out an exhausted smile as she took a water canteenand poured some over Iris’ tongue; afterward,Iris was able to safely remove her tongue from the ice.

Iris glared at the ice in her hand and said, “You are a naughty child. I donot feel like tasting you anymore.”

“Oh!Whatgood news to hear, that you know how to be picky with your food as well,” Henrick said, cackling.

Shaneth looked at the icy ruin in front of her eyes and exclaimed in amazement, “It’s amazing! This is the ruin the Death General Kalriven mentioned! What’s this ruin’s name? Ah, it’s written over there.”Shewas about to approach the plate in front of the ruin, but Kang Yoon-Soo suddenly blocked her path.

“Don’t go near that plate,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

“Why?” Shaneth asked.

“It’s enchanted withhallucination magic,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

Suddenly, various noises emergedfrom the ruin;it seemedsomeone was battling inside it. A manshoutedfrom within,“Haaap!”

The voice was familiar.Kang Yoon-Soo bit his lips as he thought, ‘It happened faster than I expected…’

Itwas his first time going down this route, and he had no prior experience whatsoever; however,his plansweregoing to go awry if Jiang Ren-Wei died. Jiang Ren-Wei was an absolute necessity to conquer the Winterkill Ruin. His plans to get strongerquicklyand complete the legendary quest would be delayed if Jiang Ren-Wei diedjust then.

“Let’s go,” Kang Yoon-Soo said, hurriedly guidinghis party members into the Winterkill Ruin.

***

The Ice Skeletons were tricky opponents to deal with. Their bonesmade of ice did not easily break even ifthey werehit withstrong attacks, and they would breathe out chilling airto slow down their opponents if one got too close to them.

Jiang Ren-Wei tightly flexed his left arm, swinginghis blunt weapon.

Kwachik!

An Ice Skeleton’s head was crushed by his attack, buta near-endless amount of Ice Skeletonswas still chargingat thepair.

Whilebusily swinging his sword,Durmangritted his teeth andexclaimed, “Boss, I think this is as far as we go! Thank you for everything!”

“Swing your weapon one more time if you have time to spew bullshit like that!” Jiang Ren-Wei retorted.

Even if they wanted to escape, the door of the ruin was closed. The two men fought with all their strength as they tried to secure a path to retreat through; however, theywere almost immediately surrounded by the Ice Skeletons.The skeletons clacked their jaws as if they were hungry for blood.

Clack! Clack! Clack!

Jiang Ren-Wei glared at the skeletons. No hint of despair could be found inhis eyeseven though he was nowcornered;rather, hisgaze wasnow filled with grit and determination.

“Relentless Survival!” Jiang Ren-Wei used hisunique classskill.

His class was Indomitable Warrior. It was a rare class he had obtainedbytraining with one arm and never giving up.As he got fully worked up, bulging veins emerged all over his body; the frost that covered himbroke apart in an instant. Relentless Survival was a skill that consumed his life force to maximize his combat power.

Jiang Ren-Wei lifted his blunt weapon andlet out a deafening shout.“Haaaaaa!”

He had never givenup even after his right arm was eaten by a monster. He was definitely going to survive this!

Just ashe was about to charge into the skeletons after letting out abattle cry…

Creak…

Thepreviously locked doorsuddenly opened, and a man charged into the dungeon even before the sunlight could fullyenterit. The manquicklyswung his sword.

Clang!

The sword landed a critical strike througha skeleton’s eye socket, causing it to retreatat the sudden damage it took. The attack was meant to deter the skeleton rather than outright kill it.

The Ice Skeletons charged at the new intruder,butthe man was surprisingly calm as he usedaskill, “Dance of Death.”Hestarted to fiercely swing the black longsword in his hand;his swordsmanship was both reckless and dazzling.

Four of the Ice Skeletons that surrounded the man were instantly blown away; however, heseemed tobe focusingon blowing away the skeletons rather than outright killing them.

‘What?’Jiang Ren-Wei was surprised at the calm demeanor of the man, who actedas if hewereused to facing multiple enemies at once. However, what surprised Jiang Ren-Wei more was theman’s cold, expressionless face that resembled that of a doll.

The man looked toward the door of the ruin and said, “Shaneth.”

“Yes!” a brunette beauty answered, suddenly runningtoward Jiang Ren-Wei and Durman.Numerous Ice Skeletons aimed their weapons toward her neck with the sole intention to crush it.However, the beautyunslungthe large scythe on her back and shouted, “Pyrokinesis!”

The scythe was suddenly enveloped in flames thatspread around thesurrounding area; a wall of flames that seemed out of place in an icy ruin rose. The Ice Skeletons hesitated,as the intensely burning fire wallseparated them from the adventurers.

Fire and ice were polar opposites; as such, ice attribute monsters like the Ice Skeleton absolutelyloathedfire.

A middle-aged man suddenly shouted from theentranceof the ruin, “Hey! What are you doing! Come over here if you wanttolive!”

“We’re saved!” Durman exclaimed, sheddingtears of joy.Jiang Ren-Weiholsteredhis blunt weapon on his waist andran toward the exit of the ruin;the expressionless man followed behind them.

The door of the Winterkill Ruin was designed to beeasy to openfrom the outside, but impossible toopenfrom the inside.

“Close it,” the man saidas they exited.

Iris pushed the ruin doorshut. Jiang Ren-Wei was impressed that a girlsoyoung possessed such an immense amount of strength. It seemedthe girl had invested quite a bit of her stat points into strength.

In any event, theyhad survived.The recoil fromJiang Ren-Wei’sskill was still there, buthebowed his head as he showed his gratitude to the strangers, saying,“Thank you. We survived because of you. Iamthe leader of the Martial Blood Clan, Jiang Ren-Wei.”

“Aigooo!I’m a mercenary under the Martial Blood Clan.My name is Durman Barra. Thank you so much for saving us. If I may ask you, whatareyournames, oh saviors?” Durmanasked.

The man who had saved themanswered in a dry emotionless voice, “Kang Yoon-Soo.”

“I see you are from a different country. I am from Tianjin, China. You must be Korean, I presume?” Jiang Ren-Wei asked.Kang Yoon-Soo nodded.

More than just Koreans had been transported to this world; people ofmany other nationalities had beentransported. They were able to communicate with each other thanks to the wrist devices they wore.

The others introduced themselves one by one.

However, Henrick looked at Jiang Ren-Wei andexclaimed in surprise, “You’re a clan leader, but you only have one arm? Wow, that’s amazing!”

“Henrick ahjussi!” Shaneth hit him in the chest with her elbow.

Henrick’s face suddenly turned paleas he choked for a moment. He exclaimed,“You punk! What the hell?!”