Chapter 60
Chapter 60
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 60
Chapter Title: Guild Master Isn't Enough With Just the Game
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It all happened in the blink of an eye, but the hunters at the edge managed to grab Maya and pull her away just in time.
Thanks to them, her whole body didn't get swallowed up.
Crunch.
“!”
The sound of her leg crushing inside its maw made all the hunters flinch in unison.
Boom! Roar—
I charged in and slammed my sword into the flower's head, detonating a burst of flames. The man-eating flower threw its mouth wide open, drenched in blood, and let out a roar.
Kieeeek!!
The flowers that had been camouflaged unleashed their mouths and attacked the hunters.
“Ugh!”
Soap-nim hurriedly threw up a shield.
Boom! Kwang!
Cracks formed after just two hits—sure enough, low-level skills weren't cutting it against monsters from an S-rank Gate.
It shattered on the third strike, turning the area into a bloodbath.
Dart shouted.
“Do it like in the game!”
A wide-area skill erupted in a blaze of blue light, clearing things up for a moment—only for more tendrils to writhe and sprout right back.
Kali called out to me.
“Kaisha! Over here!”
I slashed through the stems lunging at me and set Maya down in the safe corner Kali had secured.
“Maya, you okay? Maya!”
Maya's face was pale as a ghost, her lips pressed tight in pain.
She looked like she was in agony.
Maya's surviving heroes and my own formed a defensive line, and Messiah rushed over to cast healing skills.
I poured my focus into healing right beside her and said.
“Try moving your leg?”
The heal's effect was incredible—the leg that the man-eating flower had pulverized started moving perfectly fine again.
Tears burst from Maya's eyes.
“I wanna go home!”
“...Pretty scary, huh?”
“Scary!”
I wrapped my arms tight around Maya as she mumbled it again, terrified.
Truth be told, I was scared too. How much worse must it be for her?
I felt sorry.
Out of the three of us, Maya had always been the least interested in war, and here I'd dragged her into this mess.
Kali, covering us from nearby, yelled loudly.
“Kaisha! It's too dangerous—get back!”
Maya clutched my back tight.
I bit my lip.
She was holding on like she didn't want me to go, but suddenly Maya pushed me away and looked up.
“Let's go!”
She wiped her tears and stood.
The sudden shift in energy startled me—I looked up at her in surprise.
Maya grinned fiercely.
Then she bolted off on her now-healed leg, leaving me behind. Her last bound hero chased after her.
I stood there dazed for a second until Kali rushed over and grabbed me.
“What are you doing, you ultimate weapon? This isn't the time to slack off! We're all gonna die at this rate—do something!”
These people acted like I was some magic lamp genie.
Always telling me to "do something."
I opened the guild chat and chugged one of my few remaining mana potions.
Even if this was basically the boss room, shouldn't we at least see the boss mob's face before fighting?
So,
We were pushing deeper in.
“Get ready to run—!!”
I shouted, and people shook off the monsters, breaking away fast.
Even exhausted, their bodies had loosened up plenty—they moved with the crisp coordination of the game. It was a sight to behold.
That's what Rankers were made of.
Over a dozen desperate skill casts just to survive inside the Gate.
Maybe it was all those dynamite shows during the final siege to take down the Demon King, but the familiarity kept building that sensation higher and higher.
Mana spread out like a carpet as I set the explosion path.
The plant monsters clung so thick to the walls that I calibrated it to obliterate everything—Gate-be-damned.
“Might collapse the Gate.”
I muttered, and Kali right next to me shot me a look like I'd spouted nonsense.
“W-what?!”
Dart whipped around too, probably sensing the mana range.
His eyes shook.
His lips seemed to be mouthing a curse.
Then he yelled.
“Run inside—!!”
The hunters bolted.
While waiting for them to move, I caught my breath, then invoked the skill by name with a vocal cast.
“Dynamite Racing Across the Heavens.”
Boom!
A small blast kicked off the chain reaction.
Kukwangkwangkwangboom—!!
The stems and roots writhing in and out of the ground to attack the hunters all curled up and burned away.
Success.
The proper mana detonation sent the plant monsters embedded deep in the Gate cave flying out, tumbling and twitching.
The shockwave shook the Gate, and rocks started falling.
Thud! Kwang!
“?!”
I'd warned them just in case, but I didn't think an S-rank Gate would actually collapse.
Why was it so fragile?!
Chunks of the Gate cave's stone walls crumbled everywhere, but the hunters who'd started running ahead were already far off.
Kali, who'd bolted the second I spoke, yelled from the front.
“Run faster!!”
I sprinted like mad.
Dart dashed to my side from afar and threw up a shield like an umbrella.
“Haha, thanks.”
“......”
He glared at me sidelong as we ran.
The look screamed, "Have you ever seen such a reckless idiot who smashes Gates?"
It felt oddly endearing.
That glare and expression finally matched the Dart I knew from the game—familiar and comfortable.
Flames erupted ahead.
“Boss is up—!!”
Dart and I both widened our eyes at Gilgamesh's voice.
The guild chat exploded.
[“Argh! It's not just the boss—every monster we've seen in the Gate is gathered here!”]
[“Boss mob's this massive tree-shaped demon, pitch-black—definitely Lowguard-style!”]
[“Guild Master-nim, hurry!!”]
Boom! Kwang!
I glanced back.
The Gate was totally crumbling, but the inner boss room was sealed tight in mana.
As I ran, I muttered.
“Feels like the whole Gate'll collapse the second we kill the boss.”
Dart replied like it was obvious.
“There'll be an exit.”
“Mino! Enkar! Check the boss room walls for the Babel Tower access!”
[“Yes, Guild Master-nim!”]
[“Got it!”]
The heroes waiting at the rear cast Haste on us.
Boosted by the buff, Dart and I shot into the boss room.
“!”
What was this?
The boss room unfolded like a whole world centered on the massive tree boss mob.
A world of pitch-black demons.
Animals at the lowest layer, insects and bees clinging to the mid-level trees. The upper canopy was packed solid with saplings and man-eating plants.
Felt like they'd shoved every last Lowguard demon in here...
Ding!
[You have entered the boss room.]
[Defeat the boss monster 'Corrupted World Tree' within the time limit to close the Gate passage.]
Just as I thought.
Dart groaned beside me.
“Insane...”
The hunters who'd entered the boss room were scattered through the vast cavern, running for their lives.
“Argh!”
“Whoooaaa—!!”
Some zipped around like deflating balloons—clumsy control, but they'd nailed the feel for Fly skills.
I gripped my sword tight and swallowed hard.
The situation screamed aerial combat. Guildmates were scattered, and I had no clue how to tackle the boss mob's huge body.
“How the hell do we even—”
Slash, boom!
Mid-sentence, a massive root burst out, splitting Dart and me apart.
I dodged several times and leaped onto the tree when Abyss came dashing down from above, grabbing my hand.
“Like with the Demon King—find vitals and hit 'em, target the roots!”
“The guildmates?!”
“Tell 'em to survive on their own!”
Tadadadot.
She let go as I followed.
Our panting footsteps were joined by another.
“!”
Looking back, Dart had caught up behind me somehow.
Below, the boss room floor teemed with the entry-level Gate monsters—they were barely holding their own down there.
Everyone's levels and brainpower proficiency had shot up on the way here.
The problem was the boss attacks.
I looked up just as Giant Ants and Giant Honeybees swarmed from the tree and air.
Abyss's daggers gleamed ominously, charged with skill.
Slaaash—!!
Then Gilgamesh's fists rained from the sky, smashing the flying monsters.
Kwang!! Roar—
Hot flames erupted.
Lower power, but enough to knock the monsters off the tree.
Impressive for a mere stage-1 skill.
His mana control had improved.
Gilgamesh hovered midair, fending off disgustingly huge honeybees and hornets, and yelled at us.
“Hey, fly already!”
In-game flight boiled down to two ways.
One: anti-gravity gear.
Two: the 'Fly' skill unlocked via special quest.
Gilgamesh landed on a tree pillar, ran with us a bit, then froze and looked down.
“Gravity-type monster?! Not Demon King level, but still an S-rank Gate boss!”
Mana tends to form gravity fields when hyper-condensed.
Proof the boss was no slouch.
Gilgamesh slammed his fist into the tree and leaped high.
“Fire Dragon Strike!”
Fistfighter stage-8 ultimate.
That 'Fire Dragon' was literal fire dragon, not idiom.
A massive dragon eye flashed like shadow, and a coiling flame swept the monsters blocking our path in an AoE blast.
Gilgamesh, marked as the aggro target, herded them.
Dart sidled up.
“Tree types usually have vitals at the top or roots.”
I glanced at Dart, then ahead—at the dizzyingly tall treetop.
Twitch.
[Warning!]
[The boss monster 'Corrupted World Tree,' master of this room, goes berserk!]
What did you do to set it off?!
We raced up thick trunks into the upper layers when the black tree shook and bellowed.
Kuoohhh—!!
“!”
Abyss and Dart each grabbed one of my arms.
I could Fly on sensation alone, but whatever.
Anyway, airborne.
Tree limbs from the ceiling rained down on us as the boss roared, turning the ground to chaos.
“Kyaa!”
“Uwaaaah!”
Injuries piled up.
My heart clenched seeing the guild's plight below.
“Fly! Use Fly!!”
I bellowed.
Dart threw a shield at the ceiling and zapped it with electric shock.
Kwa—ang!
Zzzzap—
Kwangkwangboom—!!
The ceiling monsters convulsed, lashing stems at us hysterically.
Damn pests.
I wanted to dynamite the ceiling, but that'd probably collapse the whole room and kill us all.
Multi-mana shots were too explosive to risk either.
As I nailed the Fly sensation and stabilized, Abyss and Dart let go.
“Ha.”
It worked.
No time to marvel.
“Dart.”
I called while fixing on the ground below—he turned to me, I could feel it.
“Above's yours.”
With that, I dove toward the chaotic lower level, ravaged by the boss's rampage.
The whole space was monsters—the boss room was going full berserk.
Right on cue, great news hit.
[“Guild Master-nim! Found the Babel Tower connector on the boss room wall!”]