#060
As soon as they passed through the gate, humid air enveloped their faces. The ground beneath their feet was muddy.
Just as they had seen in the documents beforehand, a vast swamp spread out before them. Murky puddles dotted the soggy ground, and trees with only bare branches remained. In the far distance beyond the swamp, a faintly visible mountain range loomed high.
“Moving forward,” Han Cheolyong said as he began to walk ahead. Eunseok followed behind, shoulder to shoulder with Ji Taeuk. Their steps were slower than usual as they carefully avoided the puddles. With each step, a squelching sound echoed from beneath their feet.
“Goblins approaching from the front!” Han Cheolyong shouted after about ten minutes of walking, gripping his shield tightly.
Squeak-. Squeak-. Squeak-.
Indeed, short green creatures about waist-high approached, pushing through the bare trees.
These creatures were completely different from the monsters they had faced before. Though grotesque, they walked on two legs and even carried crude wooden spears with sharpened tips. Judging by their squeaking communication, they seemed to possess some level of intelligence.
“Time is short, so we’ll break through the swamp in an arrowhead formation! Seongeun-ssi, support us as much as possible!”
Han Cheolyong shouted quickly, seemingly having already thought about how to deal with the goblins. Moon Bora and Shin Jeongho, the close-range damage dealers, stuck close behind Han Cheolyong. Behind them, Oh Seongeun, the long-range attacker, raised her staff.
Standing alongside Ji Taeuk, Eunseok gripped his pistol and dagger tightly and glanced behind. According to Han Cheolyong, their goal was not to exterminate the goblins but to break through and cross the swamp. This meant there was a high chance of remaining goblins attacking from behind. Fortunately, Choi Hanseo, positioned at the very rear, would take care of that problem.
Their eyes met. Choi Hanseo flashed an eye smile as if pleased to see him.
He’s surprisingly generous with his smiles, Eunseok thought to himself. Come to think of it, Choi Hanseo was a man with many unexpected aspects the more you looked at him.
“We’re moving! Seongeun-ssi!”
Han Cheolyong shouted loudly and charged forward, protecting himself with his shield. Huge ice spears formed in front of the charging Han Cheolyong and shot straight ahead.
The goblins at the front fell, impaled by the ice spears. Han Cheolyong continued to charge, striking the remaining scattered goblins with his shield and cutting them down with his longsword.
The goblins on either side that Han Cheolyong missed fell without fail to Moon Bora and Shin Jeongho’s blades. Oh Seongeun focused solely on mass slaughtering the goblins in front of Han Cheolyong, while Han Cheolyong, Moon Bora, and Shin Jeongho took down the remaining ones.
Eunseok followed behind, shoulder to shoulder with Ji Taeuk, leaping over the goblin corpses. Of course, he didn’t forget to perform wide-area guiding focused on Oh Seongeun, who was consuming large amounts of energy.
They broke through the center of one group in an instant.
Han Cheolyong was truly an experienced tanker. He quickly broke through when encountering goblin groups, and when reaching empty swamp areas, he slowed down and skillfully guided the group to prevent anyone from falling into the swamp. The remaining goblins attacked from behind, but they didn’t feel threatening at all. Without even time to look back, Choi Hanseo completely annihilated the pursuing goblin hordes.
As he had felt many times before, their teamwork was truly excellent. Eunseok couldn’t help but admire it once again. And he felt ambition rising within him – the desire to become a solid contributing member of this team. Of course, he had no intention of causing trouble by being overly ambitious. He just thought that if an opportunity to contribute came, he would definitely seize it.
They continued like this for about three hours, alternating between running and eliminating several goblin groups, and moving slowly. The goblins themselves posed no threat to the 1st Squad, but time was of the essence. Repeatedly breaking through goblin groups at full speed had especially taken its toll on Ji Taeuk, who had the weakest stamina, leaving him quite out of breath. Eunseok focused solely on wide-area guiding for the team members, trying his best to conserve his own stamina.
After nearly five hours of running through the swamp, the distant high mountain range had come considerably closer. It was a much better situation than the beginning when they had no idea when they would reach it. Naturally, the team members increased their pace even more. However, the swamp didn’t seem willing to let them pass easily.
The team members’ steps came to an abrupt halt.
“This looks a bit dangerous,” Han Cheolyong said, looking at the wide pond spread out before them. In front of the group was a vast pond with such murky water that its depth was impossible to gauge. Looking around, there was only water as far as the eye could see, with no dry land in sight. With time being so critical, they couldn’t afford to choose the option of going around in search of land that might never appear.
“Seongeun-ssi, could you part the water a bit? We need to check the depth first,” Han Cheolyong requested. Oh Seongeun stepped forward and raised her staff. A moment later, wind shot forward like a blade, sharply parting the water surface in front of the group. Fortunately, the depth of the parted water far ahead was only about knee-high.
“What should we do?” Han Cheolyong asked, looking back.
“It doesn’t look like we have the time to find land to go around,” Moon Bora answered, shrugging her shoulders. The other team members nodded in agreement.
“Then we’ll push through as is. Let’s change formation and move in a single file,” Han Cheolyong said, and the team members changed to a single-file formation. The group then walked into the water.
As expected, the bottom was soft mud. With each step, their legs sank deep. It took considerable strength to pull out a sunken leg and take the next step. Eunseok, who had done training carrying 200-kilogram boats on his head while moving through mudflats dozens of times, was already well-versed in the techniques for walking in such terrain. This time, with only a light backpack and weapons, it wasn’t particularly challenging for him.
The problem was the other team members. While they all had stamina far surpassing that of ordinary people and could handle walking through the sinking swamp, their lack of proper technique and reliance on brute force meant their feet were sinking deeper with each step.
Eunseok worriedly looked at Ji Taeuk, who was floundering with his thighs half-submerged, unlike Eunseok himself who was still only wet up to just above his knees. Although they were managing to move forward somehow, at this rate, their feet would sink deeper and deeper. Of course, this meant their stamina would be depleted exponentially.
However, he couldn’t just recklessly offer help in this situation. In such mudflats, carelessly trying to support or pull out a teammate could lead to getting entangled and making the situation worse.
Eunseok walked mechanically through the sinking swamp in silence, trying to conserve as much stamina as possible. He could feel the speed of his teammates ahead gradually slowing down.
Huff. Pant.
Ji Taeuk’s heavy breathing mixed with the splashing water sounds.
“Damn it. This place is really fucked up,” Moon Bora’s grumbling voice occasionally broke through.
It felt like they had been moving for two hours, but in reality, only about an hour had passed on the clock. Sweat made their shirt backs stick to their skin. Ji Taeuk was already in a state of repeatedly sinking up to his waist and struggling to get out.
This is starting to get dangerous, Eunseok thought.
Just then, “We’re almost there!” Han Cheolyong shouted in a welcoming voice.
Lifting his gaze to the front, which he had been deliberately avoiding looking at, Eunseok finally saw land about a hundred meters away.
“Just a little more!” Han Cheolyong shouted, as if trying to boost the spirits of the mentally exhausted group. The group’s pace quickened slightly at the thought of finally seeing an end. But it didn’t last long.
“Attack!”
With Han Cheolyong’s shout, an opaque membrane formed around the group. As soon as the membrane enveloped them, a barrage of sounds erupted as shabby wooden spears and crude arrows struck the barrier.
“Those fucking bastards!” Moon Bora immediately spat out a curse.
Eunseok moved a few steps to the side from his position in the line to assess the situation ahead.
On the land about 700 meters ahead, a horde of goblins had gathered, armed with wooden spears and bows.
Another volley of spears and arrows came flying. Though crudely made, a direct hit from these weapons would obviously lead to injury.
“Seongeun-ssi!” Han Cheolyong called out to Oh Seongeun while maintaining the protective barrier. Oh Seongeun splashed a couple of steps to the side and raised her staff towards the front.
If they had been on solid ground, this wouldn’t have been a problem at all. They could have just rushed in and crushed the goblins. But the problem was that this was a swamp. It was impossible to jump far while treading on this sinking ground.
