Chapter 206
Chapter 206
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 206
Chapter Title: Chapter 38: Scattered Puzzle (5)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
‘Maybe the people of the Palao Church are still looking out for me—and the Players.’
I wasn’t sure if it was because they served the God of Charity.
The folks from the Palao Church weren’t the type to step forward and deliberately deceive anyone.
‘That’s why Ramon separated Velta this time, too.’
Rashar, Hemar, Jordan and Yulia, Ravan, and even all the holy knights including Alio.
Even if some order had come down from Church headquarters, if I’d asked first, they might’ve told me after some hesitation.
That possibility made me even less eager to confirm it.
‘I can’t return the favor they’ve shown me.’
So, let’s just assume the Palao Church folks are siding with the forces that have started covering the eyes and ears of Players.
‘That’s the only way I can hold on.’
Crushing my churning emotions, I focused on the fairy clan member in front of me.
“What brings the traitor all the way out here?”
“Y-You vile human! Release me at once!”
“No thanks.”
I hadn’t expected the fairy to spill everything willingly.
Still, if I could extract info while they were in their right mind, I wanted to stop there.
The fairy was too small to torture like that general-grade monster last time.
Which meant if they didn’t talk, I’d have to use this magic stone no matter what.
‘It’s not like they’re a monster—I don’t want to use it on a sentient being.’
Inducing mental delirium meant, in a word, shattering their mental framework.
That made it useful for forcibly pulling out info, since they’d lose the ability to distinguish what to say and what to hide.
‘But there’s no guarantee that broken framework ever fully recovers.’
I’d heard of cases where they never regained sanity and lived as lunatics forever.
Honestly, this thing could be classified as poison without issue.
“Want to live? Then answer. Why are you here?”
My voice dropped sharply from before, and the fairy—still thrashing with its wings pinned—froze stiff.
And then.
“I-I d-didn’t c-come here on p-purpose, n-no, I d-didn’t… H-Hwahhh!”
It burst into pitiful sobs with its tiny voice.
‘This is gonna suck.’
Dealing with types like this never sparked any fighting spirit in me.
“Haa…”
Tears and snot streamed down, making my hand slicker by the second.
My head was starting to throb.
With a somewhat resigned look, I pulled my hand away farther.
Kim Yul and Yang Tae-ho, who’d been alternating glances between me and the fairy, shrugged and stepped back.
“We’ll handle the search.”
Now that we’d figured out how to counter dream-weaving.
Keeping three of us watching one crying fairy was a waste of time.
I nodded readily and sent my party members off.
About 30 minutes passed like that?
“Sniff.”
Maybe it had cried itself out.
The fairy, sniffling hard, spoke first.
“Why… won’t you kill me…?”
Weren’t you supposed to hate the Ain Clan Union?
The straightforward question was easy enough to answer.
“I’m not with the Ain Clan Union.”
Only then did the fairy’s gaze reach my head.
Literally—I was an outsider, not part of the Ain Clan Union.
I’d never even had a chance for emotional exchange with fairies.
Earth connected to Bihar long after they’d turned their backs on the Ain-kind.
‘If we’d met in battle, as enemies, I’d have killed it.’
Pitying a threat would be idiotic.
But right now, this one was just a powerless prisoner.
‘To be precise, it has power, but it’s so pathetic it barely counts?’
From my utterly subjective view, it was borderline as combat personnel.
Killing it just for being on the enemy side felt off.
I wasn’t eager to slaughter harmless civilians under wartime pretense.
I could make that distinction.
‘Plus, I need to keep myself from getting too used to murder and slaughter.’
In the current situation, there was justification in keeping it alive for the gains over killing it.
“Why are you here? What scheme is Meseo part of? Tell me everything you know.”
Or else I’d use this.
Showing the item in my left hand and adding an explanation paled the fairy’s face.
I could clearly feel it trembling in my grip.
I swallowed another sigh.
These types never sparked any combat urge in me.
So I wanted to negotiate as nicely as possible.
“Swear you’ll let me go safely.”
Thankfully, it went along with my wish.
“Swear on that wicked god you serve!”
Demanding faith from a mere outsider Player showed it was clueless about the world.
‘No need to explain.’
If a meaningless oath got me the info I wanted, selling my conscience for a moment was fine.
I nodded readily and promised under Palao’s name.
That I’d let it live if it shared the info.
“But you swear to tell the truth about what you know.”
Adding that made the puffy-eyed fairy glare and snap back.
“Don’t lump us fairies in with you wicked scum! We keep our promises!”
It snorted and whipped its head away.
“…Coming here wasn’t my choice.”
It actually opened up after one oath.
‘Naive or just stupid?’
I swallowed a mental sigh and listened closely.
“I got caught in mana surge for a moment. When I came to, I was next to that Meseo, and with so many monsters, I hid below.”
Right before I could pry more.
“I have no duty to explain where I was or what I was doing! You only asked two things!”
The fairy snapped again.
Even after swearing, it warned against backing out.
I nodded as if I got it.
My two questions included the most crucial one.
“Fine, let’s say you didn’t come here willingly.”
“It’s not ‘let’s say’—it’s the truth!”
“Got it, so answer the other one.”
I yanked the hand holding the fairy right up to my face.
“Why are the general-grades after Meseo? What scheme are they plotting? Know anything?”
The fairy grimaced fiercely, mouth flapping open.
But it hesitated and clamped shut before speaking.
It flapped meaninglessly several times, even biting its lip.
Still, I patiently watched its mouth.
I had a gut feeling it held the info I’d been hunting.
Spit it out—why are the general-grades obsessed with Meseo?
Did my glaring count as prodding?
It squeezed its eyes shut and uttered an unexpected word.
“…Sacrifice.”
That unconsidered clue sprouted dozens of new branches in my mind.
“A sacrifice for what? Explain properly.”
“…A sacrifice to break the Barrier of Endurance.”
The moment I registered the out-of-nowhere info from an improbable route.
Thunder rumbled—boooom—in the dim forest where almost no light reached.
* * *
I let the fairy go as promised.
‘Objectively, killing it would’ve been cleaner.’
Sending it back risked it telling the enemy I knew about the sacrifice.
I did extract an oath of silence about today.
‘But whether it honors a mere promise is anyone’s guess.’
Even knowing that, I released the fairy.
Not because of the Palao oath.
- Don’t lump us fairies in with you wicked scum!
I just didn’t want to fuel the discord and conflicts among Biharans.
After sending off the fairy, I resumed purification as if nothing happened.
After three or four hours of that, collecting spoils and pitching a tent at the edge of the contaminated zone, rain was already falling.
We divided the spoils to the patter of rain on the tent.
“Then the ring goes to hyung… and I take these two, right? Any complaints?”
“I got armor, so no complaints.”
“None.”
The relics from the corpse pile totaled seven—the most yet.
Three were low-grade with limited uses and meh effects.
Four were mid-to-high-grade with unlimited magic or special functions built in.
A loot list so good “jackpot” slipped out naturally.
The three low-grades had no use, so we auctioned them for mana.
Naturally, we split the mana evenly three ways.
The four mid-to-high-grades we divided among the party.
Yang Tae-ho got the armor with 4th-circle attack magic.
Kim Yul got boots boosting wind magic proficiency by one level and a dagger with tracking.
I got the ring boosting mana.
They fit our roles perfectly.
‘The boost is only 3 percent.’
But since it worked on general and attribute mana alike, it was pretty nice.
Including that, my attribute mana hit late 60,000s.
A bit more and I could cast Lightning Storm on my own.
‘To live up to main dealer rep, gotta sling a 5th-circle AoE.’
Checking distance to goal, I closed my status window and stood.
Loot split done, time to hit my bedroll.
The instant my butt hit the bedroll.
「Congratulations! MISSION - Main Scenario Chapter 6: Territory Recovery successful.」
「Rankings complete. Check ranking list in mission clear window!」
「Select participation rewards!」
….
Over a dozen messages scrolled up, announcing the end of Chapter 6 Main Scenario.
As I checked rankings, Kim Yul said,
“Faster than I thought?”
Besides the 6-star we purified hours ago, 32 contaminated zones remained.
Mostly 4-stars, some 3-stars mixed in.
I figured it’d take days to clear.
“Everyone must’ve pushed hard at the end.”
This scenario specified reward ranking ranges clearly.
Players swapped info, guessing ranks—it ramped up.
Fierce endgame competition to climb even one spot higher was natural.
‘Doesn’t concern us, though.’
Our party’s contribution was in a different league from the start.
We’d long locked top spots.
‘Greed wants 1st through 3rd sweep.’
I held 1st, Kim Yul 4th, Yang Tae-ho 6th.
Regret aside, this from a three-man party was impressive—I knew that.
So I glossed over without mentioning to party members.
Rankings done, I checked other rewards.
First, divine blessing.
Same as always—roulette popped with cheap effects filling vision.
Like last time, gold shimmered on the roulette.
Karos intervened again.
Soon, light faded, spawning a voucher.
I stared down at it with an inscrutable expression.
‘Why bother intervening for this?’
Question lingered briefly.
I shook my head and moved to next reward.
Church points auto-credited, achievements noted as added.
Then random boxes’ turn.
‘1st place gets 10.’
Their use was set.
I pulled an item steadily stocked in my inventory since game’s early days.
[Excessively Huge Random Box]
• Type: Mission Reward
• Acquisition Difficulty: Special
• Description: Reward from system-involved missions. Provides player-optimized reward based on allowable causality cases.
My records: synthesized from 92 random boxes.
Added the 10 new ones.
Not all—just some.
「Synthesis limit reached. No further synthesis possible.」
“Two left means 100’s the cap…”
I synthesized the remaining two and opened.
Potions, magic stones, and a belt for auxiliary weapons came out.
Mine was a bit worn, so good time to swap.
‘Now the 100-boxer.’
No more synth, time to open.
Heart pounding decently, I opened the box.
Blinding light poured; message windows and UI glitched—zzzt.
One line added to the message window.
「Palao’s Providence begins.」
……What the hell?
Damn System