Chapter 40
Chapter 40
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 40
Chapter Title: Harpy Queen (1)
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It was a red light so intense it reminded me of the sun, but thanks to my stats, I could watch it without any trouble.
“It seems to grow by consuming mana.”
Herti, who had been about the same size as Geum-yong, grew larger and larger until it was as big as a harpy.
A phoenix? Just as I was thinking it might look like the Vermilion Bird of myth if it were real, a notification window appeared.
[You have achieved the feat of witnessing the descent of the Sunbird, Divine Beast of Ra. All Stats +1]
Sunbird?
Alpen said it was a Herti…
No, wait. Isn't Ra an Egyptian god?
It slowly flew down, landed beside me, and rubbed against my body.
[You have achieved the feat: Chosen by the Sunbird.
All Stats +10
Fire Resistance: 100%
Light Resistance: 50%
All attacks of the feat holder are imbued with the energy of Ra. (Can strike intangible targets, 200% additional damage to dark attribute targets.)]
Good options, but Herti flew up again and began to emit light.
Looking closer, it wasn't light, but golden feathers pouring from its wings in all directions.
Boom— Boom— Boom— Boom—
The moment they touched the feathers, explosions erupted, and the Hipoeres were blown away.
[You have defeated an Elite Hipoere.]
[You have defeated a Hipoere.]
[You have defeated a Hipoere.]
…
[You have leveled up.]
A few of them tried to flee, but the feathers were much faster.
At a glance, there seemed to be thousands of them, and the power of each feather appeared to be greater than Timi's White Flame Orbs.
In just a few minutes, the sky that had been filled with Hipoeres was completely empty.
It was an unbelievable amount of power.
As it flew back down to me, its size shrank back to what it was when I first met it.
It seems to have a mechanism where it shrinks after using its power.
Wondering if the feat would also disappear, I opened my status window, but thankfully, the feat was still there.
“Mr. Hyeon-ung, Herti is incredibly strong.”
“I don't think it's a Herti.”
The notification window called it a Sunbird.
“Hey, Alpen, were you a quack?”
“A quack? No, its appearance was definitely that of a Herti… but that form from before…”
“It's called a Sunbird.”
“A… a Sunbird?”
Alpen looked completely shocked.
“Do you know something about it?”
“The Sunbird is a legendary divine beast from the classics. It's said to be an incredibly powerful being that possesses the power of an ancient god…”
“The power of an ancient god?”
“Alpen, aren't you overreacting?”
“I'm not overreacting. In the legends, there are stories of it tearing dragons to shreds and swallowing demon kings whole.”
Tearing dragons to shreds and swallowing demon kings whole?
Of course, since they're legends, there might be some exaggeration, but it doesn't seem to be completely baseless.
After all, its performance against the Hipoeres just now was truly incredible.
“Ppoyo!”
It sat on my shoulder and chirped, looking just like a chick that had been dipped in red paint and pulled out.
The box its egg came from was Hero-grade red, and the egg was also red, so I hadn't expected much…
When I gently stroked its feathers with my finger, it seemed pleased and flew to my face, rubbing its body against my cheek.
“Ppoyo! Ppoyo!”
“That's strange. The legends said it was selfish and ferocious…”
“Maybe those legends were wrong?”
How could a creature this affectionate and cute be like that.
“Good job. From now on, your name is Phoenix.”
“Ppoyo!”
It seemed to like the name, as it kept rubbing against my cheek.
I wanted to keep petting it, but first, I had to take care of business.
“Alright, everyone, let's start picking up items. Geum-yong, you get a move on too.”
“Kkyuing…”
The little guy, who had been nestled in Hanna's arms, flew toward the Hipoere corpses, but something felt different about him.
Usually, he'd rush out to pick up items without being told, but today he was hesitating.
He looked a bit hurt, and seemed a little down.
He was playing just fine with Phoenix a little while ago.
“Mister, don't you think Geum-yong is jealous of Phoenix?”
“Jealous? What nonsense. You go pick up items too.”
He's always looking for Hanna instead of me anyway.
There were so many corpses that we all split up and started collecting the items.
[You have acquired Hipoere's Heart x1.]
[You have acquired Hipoere's Claw x1.]
[You have acquired a Blessed Weapon Enhancement Scroll.]
[You have acquired a Frozen Hammer.]
…
As I was farming, Rina's words kept bothering me.
Just then, Geum-yong came over, so I approached him and patted his head a couple of times.
“Kkyuing?”
“Geum-yong, you're doing a great job too.”
“Kkyuing.”
He answered without even looking at me. He really seemed to be sulking.
“Nix is still young. Even though you're different species, Phoenix is the younger brother here, so you should take good care of him instead of being jealous.”
Only then did he turn his head to look at Phoenix on my shoulder and nod.
“Kkyuing! Kkyuing!”
“Ppoyo! Ppoyo!”
Phoenix seemed to like Geum-yong too, flying off my shoulder to approach him… huh?
“Ppoyo!”
Plop—
It dropped a thin, steaming liquid on top of Geum-yong.
“Kkyuiiing!”
Oh, my poor Geum-yong.
He shook his head in disgust and fled.
It seems it'll take some time for those two to get along.
****
It was now the third day of hunting Hipoeres day and night, moving from island to island.
The floating island environment itself was rather inconvenient for wingless humans, but thanks to Phoenix, it was easier than any other floor.
Just look at the situation right now.
In the sky before me was a massive Hipoere, looking about four to five times larger than a normal one.
This was the 51st floor's boss, the Hipoere King.
It boasted a colossal frame, but from its head to its wings and torso, everything was charred black, not a single part left unscathed.
Soon, a streak of red light shot out, aiming for the creature's neck.
“Kuaaaang!”
The Hipoere King roared in agony as blue blood dripped from its neck.
The source of the red light was our Phoenix.
Its ability to shoot feathers that explode was powerful, but its physical combat was no less impressive.
For starters, it was so fast that even with my stats, I struggled to follow its movements.
The power of its talons was also terrifying.
A Hipoere King could withstand it like this, but a normal Hipoere would meet its end with a single strike from Phoenix's talons.
And on top of that, our Nix….
The streak of red light struck the Hipoere King's neck once more.
Boom—
It even possessed the tenacity to always aim for the same spot.
After Nix attacked a few more times, the Hipoere King finally couldn't take it anymore and plummeted.
Thud—
[You have defeated the 51st floor boss, the Hipoere King.]
[You have leveled up.]
This was already the third time I'd killed the Hipoere King. Not just the floor boss, but for the past three days, I hadn't lifted a finger except to collect items.
Just as I was thinking that the Labyrinth shouldn't be this easy, a shrunken Nix landed gently on my shoulder.
“Our Nix. Good work.”
“Ppoyo! Ppoyo!”
Geum-yong, who had been in Hanna's arms, also flew off quickly and began to pick up items.
[You have acquired Hipoere King's Feather x20.]
[You have acquired Hipoere King's Hide x10.]
[You have acquired Hipoere King's Heart x1.]
[You have acquired Blessed Weapon Enhancement Scroll x3.]
[You have acquired Blessed Armor Enhancement Scroll x3.]
[You have acquired Rare Grimoire: Blade of Storms x1.]
[You have acquired the Eye of the Storm.]
A rare grimoire and an item, Eye of the Storm?
Forget the grimoire and the item; the three Blessed Enhancement Scrolls are the best.
Nine scrolls from killing the 51st floor boss three times.
I also got four from regular Hipoeres, so I've gathered nearly thirty in total.
If I work hard until I leave the Labyrinth and then buy some more, I might be able to aim for +250 enhancement.
Still, I had to check the item, so I opened my inventory.
It was a necklace with a transparent orb. When I took it out, I could see a small, gray tornado inside.
[Eye of the Storm (Unique)
A necklace adorned with a stormstone that holds the power of a raging wind.
Mana +20, Agility +20
Special Effect.
Blessing of the Storm.
Wind Resistance +30%
Wind attribute magic enhanced by 30%.]
It's a Unique item from a floor boss, but the stats are a bit disappointing.
Agility and Mana are stats that don't have good synergy with each other.
The attribute is wind, too. If it were fire, it would have been perfect for Timi…
I asked Timi, but she said the necklace she's currently wearing is much better.
He didn't eat it when it dropped, but just in case, I offered it to Geum-yong, but he wasn't interested.
“Shall we head back, then?”
“Mr. Hyeon-ung, isn't it about time we met the harpies?”
“Ah, let me check.”
I opened the quest window and saw there were about four hours left.
“I guess we should.”
If we waited for the Hipoeres to respawn, we could kill them one more time before going, but…
[You have exceeded your inventory's maximum weight limit. Movement speed debuff increased from -25% -> -30%.]
[Due to exceeding the maximum weight limit, you can no longer acquire items. Please organize unnecessary items.]
My inventory was already on the verge of exploding.
I usually throw away most junk items, but this time, I was also collecting feathers at the lord's request, and Geum-yong wasn't eating items, so I hit my inventory limit much faster.
Thinking I should at least empty out the hearts, I took the harpy feather from my inventory.
When I infused it with mana, the feather glowed with a blue light, and my vision changed.
The peak of a rocky mountain made of red stone.
Harpies were gathered on the rocks here and there, all of them looking startled.
“It's a human!”
“How did a human get here…?”
“Who gave them a travel feather?”
Fortunately, among the harpies staring at us with curiosity, I found a familiar face.
“Oh? The strong human!”
It was the red-haired harpy sister who gave me the quest.
“It's been three days.”
“Did you bring the Hipoere hearts?”
“Of course.”
“We'll need more than one or two to make the cure…”
One or two?
What a needless worry.
I was more worried they'd say I brought too many.
“It should be plenty. Should I give them to you here?”
The harpy nodded, so I opened my inventory.
“Whoa, there are so many.”
“Just how many Hipoeres did you kill?”
Not just the four harpy sisters, but the surrounding harpies also gathered around, exclaiming in awe.
“This should be enough to save our mother.”
“This is enough?”
“Do you need them too, human? Then half of this would have been…”
“No, I've only taken out one stack so far.”
As I continued to take out stack after stack, the harpies' eyes grew wider and wider.
Before long, a mountain of Hipoere hearts had formed.
“N-No way.”
“Did you kill all the Hipoeres?”
“I killed a lot of them. Ah, can this be used for the cure too?”
I also took out the three Hipoere King hearts.
“Th-This is a Hipoere King's heart!”
“Human, you really are strong!”
After everyone exclaimed in admiration, the red-haired harpy collected the hearts.
“Please wait a moment. I'll bring our mother right away.”
All the nearby harpies took the hearts and flew toward a high peak to the right.
“Mister, they're not just going to take them and run, are they?”
“No way…”
“They're monsters.”
“Even if they're monsters, we can communicate with them.”
The quest completion hadn't popped up, which made me a little anxious, but thankfully, after waiting for about thirty minutes, I could see a flock of harpies flying back toward us from a distance.
At the very front was a blonde harpy, about a head taller than the others, who seemed to be the queen.
She landed gently in front of us, and I was surprised.
Because the large harpy, almost four meters tall, had transformed into a human.
What's more, her beauty was such that it wouldn't be lacking even when compared to famous modern actresses.
“I, Harpy Queen Veille, offer my greetings to my benefactor.”
She bowed her head, and her voice was as clear and beautiful as rolling jade beads.
“I'm Oh Hyeon-ung.”
“A name as wonderful as your face.”
She knows how to judge a person.
“Thanks, even if you're just flattering me.”
“I was being sincere…. Thanks to the hearts our benefactor brought, I was able to be freed from the curse. I offer my thanks once more.”
As the Harpy Queen prostrated herself, all the nearby harpies prostrated themselves at the same time.
[Hidden Quest: The Request of the Four Harpy Sisters has been completed. Luck +5]
Oh, the Luck stat is good.
But there's still more to receive.
“Please rise. It wasn't a very difficult task.”
“As expected, you are a truly formidable warrior. You even avenged us by defeating the Hipoere King. Thank you so much.”
[Chain Quest: Subjugation of the Hipoere King has been completed. Agility +7]
Oh! I just killed it while I was hunting, but it seems there was a chain quest.
“I only defeated it because it was nearby.”
“Still, it is true that you avenged us, is it not? Um… it may not be of much help to our benefactor, but would it be all right if I offered you my blessing?”
Thinking that I should definitely accept, I nodded, and the Harpy Queen approached me.
Perhaps because she was originally tall, even in human form she was about my height… huh?
The moment I thought she was getting too close, before I could even avoid it, I felt a soft sensation on my cheek.
[You have received the Harpy Queen's Blessing.
Wind Resistance +50%
Wind attribute magic enhanced by +50%
Special Skill: Golden Wing can now be used.
Golden Wing: Summons golden wings that allow you to soar through the sky. (51st floor only)]
The effects seem pretty good, but it's a bit disappointing that it's limited to the 51st floor.
No, more importantly, the method of blessing was a bit…
“Th-That was a kiss just now, right?”
“Mr. Hyeon-ung, I didn't see anything.”
“…Me neither.”
Thankfully, Hanna, Alpen, and Milli were just surprised, but the expressions on Timi and Rina's faces were ominous.
“How dare she… Mr. Hyeon-ung's cheek…”
“This birdbrain! Do you want to die?”
Their expressions weren't just cold; they were murderous, as if they were about to kill someone.