Chapter 131: High-Altitude Parachute Jump

Why was it like this again?

Siloque had already lost the will to complain.

Ice had just blown through the strong wind, brushing against his rope until it snapped.

Of course, his rope was the only one that was so fragile.

‘Is this a joke?’

His luck would always turn ridiculously sour at the most delicate moments.

As any classmate who enjoyed jumping off buildings would know, because the head is heavier, the center of gravity naturally shifts toward it during a fall.

The body would gradually tilt until the head was down and the limbs were up.

Siloque felt the shackles of gravity.

His field of vision shifted to the sky, and his ears were filled with nothing but the sound of the wind.

As he fell, it felt as though time had slowed down.

This was not a “life flashing before your eyes” scenario; he was simply concentrating his thoughts.

He looked toward Edriel.

Those crimson eyes were fixed on him, and he could see the panic in them.

She wanted to do something, but she was already exhausted just from adjusting her wings to keep herself from falling.

As for why the Abyssfire Dragon Remnant guarded a wide-range AOE Sacred Tool like the Red Frost Lily of the Valley…

He had once been a Dragon Knight, a guardian of the dragons.

His name and past were erased, and his body and soul were refined into an annihilation Sacred Tool to protect his kin.

Even after death, he would exist forever as a weapon.

The Red Frost Lily of the Valley was a gift left by his lover while he still possessed his sanity.

‘But why give a wide-range lethal weapon as a gift?’

‘I know that with the strength of a Dragon Knight, this kind of frost damage is just an itch to his scales, but it’s still bizarre. Or did his girlfriend simply not know what this thing actually does?’

Regardless, Edriel should be aware of this history.

After all, she was a dragon who had survived the Great Severing incident, and her home contained many documents.

If they were lucky, she would have used the Red Frost Lily of the Valley herself to save Tiana.

Then the two dragons’ affection levels would have gone up and up.

The next time he and Hill returned to the Third Floor of the Dungeon and met Tiana, they could have received her gratitude and been introduced to her master.

But it didn’t matter.

In terms of the final result, it just meant adding the extra step of he and Hill coming to help.

Siloque looked at Tiana again.

She had finally stabilized her flight and was flying toward him.

However, she was 100 meters away; she likely wouldn’t make it in time.

Besides, someone was faster than Tiana.

“Brother!”

Pale-gold twin tails fluttered in the air like a pair of wings.

When Siloque began his descent, Hill had already followed him, jumping from 1,000 meters in a free fall.

In the air, she used a breaststroke-like motion to constantly close the distance to Siloque.

The wind pulled her pale-gold hair back, revealing her beautiful forehead as she desperately reached out to him.

“!”

Siloque tried to reach out, but Hill caught his foot first and climbed up his body, wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug.

“I’ve got you! Brother! Are we going to die together for love here?”

“What do you mean ‘die for love’?! Your brother doesn’t want to die! Since when did you assume we were a couple?!”

Because of the strong wind, both of them were shouting.

‘I haven’t even done this or that kind of play with Beiren yet, or all those other things.’

‘How could I die like this?!’

Furthermore, Claude had entrusted her to him.

He wouldn’t let her get hurt.

‘I definitely don’t want to experience the thrill of being hunted by a middle-aged man again!’

Most importantly, he wouldn’t have died anyway.

“Hill! Hold on to me!”

“Okay! Hill has an idea! Hill will use her Talent and land first as a cushion! That way, there’s a slim chance of survival! Hill really doesn’t want Brother to become ‘Brother-mash’!”

“No, no! If you activate your Skill, you’ll basically turn into a super-hard rock. If you land first, I’ll just smash into you and die from the impact anyway!”

The silhouette of the mountain peak continued to grow larger before his eyes.

Siloque mentally calculated that they were currently about 520 meters from the ground.

He pulled an A4 sheet of white paper from his zippered pocket.

The paper was inscribed with magic circles Siloque had previously etched to stabilize his Skill usage.

The height reached 490 meters.

Siloque visualized the object he needed and channeled his Magic into the paper, activating his Skill — [Alchemy].

A large piece of grayish-black fabric filled the air like an inflating balloon, with the two of them dangling beneath it.

A large parachute appeared out of thin air and was already firmly secured to them.

“Whoa! This is — “

The powerful lift pushed the parachute up.

Hill, startled by the sudden tug, hugged Siloque even tighter.

At this moment, the earth looked like a magnificent painting.

Winding rivers resembled silver ribbons, outlining the mist-shrouded Giant Tree Forest into puzzle pieces.

“Amazing! Brother, we’re saved! It’s all thanks to Brother’s Skill that’s expensive enough to buy a mansion!”

“Hill! Deactivate your Talent first! It hurts — “

“Sorry!”

When Hill used her Talent, her entire body became incredibly hard.

Siloque was reminded of a European torture device called the Iron Maiden; it felt something like that.

The two of them drifted down on the parachute, swaying like falling leaves until they reached the ground.

They happened to land right in the middle of a group of Wild Dragons that had been turned into ice statues.

The ground beneath Hill’s feet was also red ice.

Surrounding them were 100 Wild Dragons, each as large as a heavy truck.

They were standing or crouching in various poses, forming a vast and spectacular field of red ice statues.

“Brother, are you okay?”

A bit of white mist emerged as Hill spoke, helping Siloque up.

“I’m… I’m alright…”

Siloque was trembling all over, his face pale, and he could barely keep his balance.

‘Does just using [Alchemy] to make something small really leave me this breathless…?’

Just creating this parachute had drained 80% of his MP.

When he made the bridge, he had simply used Magic to move local materials.

Creating the parachute out of nothing used Magic for pure creation, and the consumption was far too high.

Noticing something was wrong, Hill fed Siloque a Magic Potion to restore his mana and a bottle of potion to restore his stamina.

Liquids tasting like watermelon and lemon slid down his throat, and Siloque finally began to recover.

Flap, flap.

Hill looked toward the sky as Tiana and Edriel flew down.

“Young man, you didn’t turn into meat paste. My master might have been able to help, but I don’t know any Resurrection Magic. I’ve heard humans are incredibly fragile and can die just by jumping off a mountain. Luckily, you’re fine.”

Edriel looked at the surrounding ice statues with a lingering sense of fear.

“Tiana, you gave me such a dangerous thing…”

“Uh! I’m sorry, I didn’t know! The boy said the flower was beautiful and told me to give it to you. I thought you’d like it… Anyway, as long as you’re safe, it’s fine. Don’t be angry, don’t be angry.”

“I’m not angry, just a bit shaken…”

Tiana was busy explaining herself to Edriel, her manner becoming timid and cautious again.

Hill ignored the two dragons for the moment.

She crossed her arms with a look of reminiscence on her face.

“It was Hill’s first time skydiving. It was quite nice to do it with Brother.”

“If possible, I’d rather not do it at all,” Siloque said with a wry smile.

He stored the parachute back into his Ring Chart and surveyed his surroundings.

Under the sunlight, the ice-sculpted Wild Dragons emitted a cold mist.

The ice showed no sign of melting.

These Wild Dragons were currently in a vegetative state.

They were dead, but not entirely dead.

It was time to do what an Explorer should do.

Siloque took two yellow raincoats, two pairs of waterproof gloves — the kind essential for workers at a seafood market — and two 1-meter-long sharp bone-cutting knives from his Ring Chart.

Hill pulled out her Shield.

“Are there monsters we missed?”

“No, put the Shield back. Put this on, Hill.”

“What is this for? Does it rain in the Dungeon?”

Hill put on the yellow raincoat, donned the waterproof plastic gloves, and took the bone-cutting knife.

“Occasionally. But the reason I want you to wear this is to minimize the amount of sticky blood getting on your body.”

“?”

Hill breathed in the chilly air, suddenly realizing something.

“Could it be that Brother wants to — “

“Hill, these… are all free XP.”

His face was still a bit purple, but Siloque wore a wicked grin.