The Northern Province was much colder than the Central Continent. Four out of seven days in a week it snowed, and a strong, cold wind blew. The Valley of Death was even colder, so his Stamina dropped to very low as he pushed himself too much by travelling and battling.
The Valley of Death Quest required the participant to not only fight against strong monsters, but against difficult weather too. It was hard to endure even in a normal, healthy condition, but since he had this cold, his situation became much worse.
The cold had worsened as he progressed, and now he couldn’t even move anymore.
His forehead and back were already wet with sweat. He couldn’t even control his shivering body properly.
‘I’m going to die like this again.’
Weed wanted to cry out.
It’s not like he was fighting deadly monsters, yet he was about to die from a mere cold!
Normally, he would at least have been able to recover life with Alveron’s holy magic. If he recovered life, there would be a greater chance of getting rid of the cold.
But even that was impossible now.
“Cough. Cough.”
Alveron was huddling in a corner, coughing.
Just like Weed, he got the terrible cold and was on the verge of death.
Even when you’re a candidate for Pope, a cold didn’t look over you.
‘I’m really going to die now.’
Due to lowered Stamina and Life, he couldn’t even raise a finger.
Surrounding them was just ice and snow.
They somehow found a cave near the Valley of Death and came in, but it didn’t help much to shield from the iciness.
If they got terribly cold in such a place, they had no other way out but to die.
Since his ill body would remain and freeze away, even if he logged out it would make no difference. It seemed like he could not avoid death.
‘I was careless.’
Although he was filled with regret, it was not something he could undo.
He used up all the herbs that may have been useful against illness when cooking soup in Morata Village.
‘Now I can really do nothing.’
Weed closed his eyes silently.
The rocky ground felt as cold as a sheet of ice, and cold air came in from everywhere. In these circumstances, a cold could only get worse.
His hands and feet were already getting numb. Death was approaching.
‘Just why did I have to get sick.... so pathetic.’
With his eyes closed, he looked back to his past.
Ever since he was little he took any job for the sake of money. To help his grandmother who was working in the street market, even at such an old age, he would work anywhere as long as they took under aged employees, when he should have been playing with friends of his age.
Since it was illegal, the working conditions were the worst possible, and he never got paid on time.
Still, because he worked over vacation without sleeping, he could gain a bit of money.
But now he had a type of work that he have never done before, and by pushing himself too much, his body couldn’t endure.
“You weakling! Are you acting because you don’t want to work?
“If you’re going to work like this, then give up right now!”
The boss, who hadn’t paid him his three weeks’ worth of payment, yelled at him.
Even when he was sweating all over from fever, and dark rings forming around his eyes, the boss never admitted that Hyun was sick.
Back then he couldn’t eat much, so his stamina wasn’t very good, and because of that he was always scolded on.
Other employees, too, scolded him whenever he did something wrong, whether big or small.
“Useless one.”
“Why should we use someone as brainless as him?”
“It’s better to not have you here at all. You only cause problems.”
“You trash! Because of you we have even more work now.
Just go steal or something instead of working here.”
He endured those countless snarling comments.
On that day, he wanted to get up and work if possible, but his body just couldn’t move.
But no one worried about him nor did they tell him to go to a hospital. When he was young, he curled up and cried in a corner where no one was. It was very painful.
After that day, he hated getting sick the most.
To someone like him who had to support his sister, getting sick was an unthinkable luxury. But, he couldn’t help but feel sad and pathetic when pain came.
“Damn.”
Weed felt his eyes getting watery.
‘I’m as weak as the amount of tears I let out. I’ll never cry.’
He gritted his teeth and endured. This time his pain wouldn’t stay much longer.
His body was weak all over and his Life status was still decreasing.
He was alive so far thanks to his monstrous amount of Endurance, but soon, he would die.
He just had to wait a bit for the nausea to die, and then he too will die completely.
Only, death is not the end.
Right away, a special skill activates as a Blood Necromancer.