Side Story: Frieren's Disappearance (Part 1)

[Somewhere in the Dungeon of the Northern Plateau]

"Frieren?"

A handsome man with light blue hair poked his head out from a narrow cave, looked around, and after confirming that no one was around, called out, "Frieren 7..."

Seeing that there was no response to his calls, he tried again with hope, but the result was still the same.

Apart from its own echoes reverberating through the cave, there was no other response. Frieren, who had been following the group not long ago, had vanished without a trace, as if she had evaporated into thin air.

Himmel, haven't you found Frieren yet?

A Priest in a brown robe appeared behind Himmel. He was very tall, and when he emerged from the cave, he even had to bend down slightly and struggle to grip the edge of the cave with his hands. However, the voice he made was very gentle and refined, which was in stark contrast to his size, just like a kind old professor in an academy.

Heiter adjusted his glasses and asked him this question.

"Yeah... what a troublesome guy..."

"Every time we explore Dungeon, they act on their own initiative, never showing any consideration for us."

Himmel seemed somewhat helpless. She tossed her beautiful hair and subtly smoothed it with her hand, adjusting her slightly disheveled hairstyle from crawling through the cave. Even in her vanity, a deep worry still lingered on her face.

Haha, there's no need to worry about her so much.

"She's Frieren, you know. Maybe she's just stuck in some hidden Mimic somewhere."

Seeing his worried expression, Heiter straightened up, patted the dust off his clothes, and his face did not show the same anxiety as Himmel's; his tone remained light.

"That can't be... Didn't she just get stuck by Mimic yesterday? Have you forgotten, Heiter? You even criticized her for it."

"To escape from the Mimic, she actually used [Explosive Magic] to blast Mimic open from the inside, almost blowing your [Holy Scripture] away."

Himmel turned to look at him, clearly questioning his opinion.

How could anyone in this world so readily jump into the same pit so quickly?

If there is such a thing, it can only be a pig, right?

"But she's Frieren... Have you forgotten how many times she's been trapped inside Mimic?"

"No matter how many times we tell him, that guy will definitely jump into the mimic without hesitation whenever he sees Mimic."

Although she still intended to refute Heiter's words, Himmel looked at him, her mouth half-open, unable to utter a single word.

His lips twitched slightly from maintaining the same mouth shape for so long. Yes, that's Frieren.

Once he realized this, he could no longer utter a word in rebuttal.

You know what, if it's that guy, he really could jump into the same pit in such a short time. As long as you tell her there's Mimic in that pit, no matter how much time has passed, even if it just appears in front of her the next second, Frieren will definitely open the mimic.

Despite being such a powerful Mage, he repeatedly makes mistakes that even low-level adventurers might not make.

Fortunately, the Mimics themselves weren't that dangerous, otherwise Frieren would have been killed by some Mimic on the way before she even got to the Demon King's Castle with them.

"Whoosh~"

A heavy, labored breathing sound came from behind Heiter.

The two turned their heads at the same time and saw Dwarf wearing a horned helmet and with a long beard walking in panting from the cave entrance.

"Eisen? Where did you go?"

Himmel asked with some confusion, "The three of us came together, so why is he so late and looks like he's had a long journey?"

They hadn't walked very far, had they?

"When I was walking with you guys just now, I wasn't paying attention to my footing and fell into that big rift valley. I just climbed out from underground..."

He took a few deep breaths to calm himself down, it seemed like he had really struggled a lot. "Hey... you're not talking about that [fall trap] in the Dungeon earlier, are you?"

Before Himmel could utter a sound, Heiter turned green as if he had heard some terrifying ghost story. He hadn't even shown such a terrified expression when facing the Great Demons before.

"You mean... you just fell straight to the bottom of the valley and then climbed back up from that chasm with your bare hands?"

"That rift valley is several hundred meters deep..."

His voice was filled with fear and disbelief, and the way he looked at Aizai was not like he was looking at a living being. It was as if he felt that the person standing in front of him was not his companion day and night, but the Trisolarans who had just invaded Earth.

"Oops... I slipped and fell without grabbing the rock face, so my butt hurts a bit..."

"So all you got was a slightly sore butt? A normal person would have been turned into mincemeat from that fall, right?"

Heiter silently moved closer to Himmel, speaking without any mercy.

"This is terrifying... it's practically a monster..."

"Hey... Heiter, saying this will hurt Eisen's feelings... And as the vanguard of our team, wouldn't we be in a lot of trouble if she didn't have this kind of ability?"

Himmel chuckled softly, her gaze towards the two tinged with helplessness.

Fortunately, this wasn't the first time this had happened, and Eisen didn't take his words to heart.

Heiter simply made his usual sarcastic remarks.

"Himmel, so you still haven't found Frieren?"

Eisen looked at Himmel and asked, "Yes."

"Is that so... So she fell into the Mimic's trap again...?"

Even you think so...

Seeing that Aizai had expressed the same opinion as Heiter without hesitation Himmel's heart began to waver.

But shouldn't that be the case?

The four have explored this Dungeon so far, and apart from a bunch of strange traps, they haven't found any Mimics, or even ordinary treasure chests. It's quite a poorly constructed Dungeon...

If that's the case, how could Frieren have fallen into the Mimic's trap?

"But we haven't found Mimics in this Dungeon, have we?"

"That's true."

Aizai listened to his words and seemed to want to scratch his head, but because he was wearing a helmet, he could only scratch his helmet. He really didn't have any impression of the Mimic.

That's really strange. A thousand-year-old Elf just vanished without the three of them noticing?