Chapter 122
Chapter 122
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 122
Chapter Title: 38. Android (1)
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1.
“They made it in.”
The moment the green scorpion Kimer and his subordinates crossed over to the 4th floor, Dibo, who had been watching from a safe distance, clicked his tongue.
“Not a single one dead.”
For ordinary adventurers of green rank, reaching the 4th floor without a single casualty in a place that would earn them a title just for surviving was an impressive feat.
Of course, that alone wasn’t enough to make him click his tongue.
“Yeah, not a single one dead. And whose fault is that?”
What had left them in awe was none other than El Pam—the results he had produced.
Thanks to the traces El Pam had left behind, Kimer’s party had reached the portal without proper combat, via the safest route, in the shortest time.
To El Pam, this place—this terrifying green-rank Mystic Gate—was right in the palm of his hand.
“Kimer fell for it hook, line, and sinker.”
Even more astonishing was that El Pam’s traces had fooled Kimer, a battle-hardened veteran.
That was no small thing.
Someone of Kimer’s caliber would have instantly spotted any clumsiness in those traces or signs of hasty fabrication, turning the tables to detect El Pam’s presence.
Even without that, Kimer’s senses were on another level. His eyesight, in particular, made avoiding his gaze nearly impossible.
Yet El Pam had left traces without triggering Kimer’s heightened senses at all, guiding him exactly as desired?
It was less guidance and more like cooking.
And thanks to El Pam’s masterful dish, Kimer’s party had reached the 4th floor without a single casualty.
At this point, worry started to creep in.
“What if they actually clear it?”
It was a concern born from how intact Kimer’s party’s forces remained.
But that worry didn’t last long.
“We’ll see when we get to the 4th floor.”
Soon, upon reaching the 4th floor, El Pam’s party saw it.
2.
“A research lab?”
The scenery was that of Magatia’s underground laboratory.
A massive lab filled with unique equipment unlike anything seen anywhere else in the Maple World.
“Did we just exit outside?”
Upon seeing it, El Pam’s entire party thought they had reached the 4th floor—or rather, exited through the exit.
That was the logical assumption.
“There’s no way this is the 4th floor, right? I’ve never heard of Magatia’s underground lab appearing as a Mystic Gate environment.”
Mystic Gates led to diverse environments beyond, but Magatia’s underground lab wasn’t one of them.
It made sense.
Magatia’s underground lab wasn’t a natural environment—it was literally a laboratory built by someone.
Nothing like a forest or mountain.
Of course, El Pam’s common sense differed.
“This is the 4th floor.”
He wasn’t greatly surprised by the sight before him.
“Mystic Gates themselves defy the common sense of the Maple World. Nothing that appears beyond them would be strange.”
Applying common sense to a world beyond it was the odd thing.
Above all, El Pam knew.
‘The underground lab in Magatia was originally the Black Mage’s laboratory.’
The question alchemists obsessed over—who owned this lab?
The Black Mage!
He had created it long ago.
‘And the Mystic Gates were made by his followers.’
With the Black Mage as the connection, the appearance of Magatia’s underground lab wasn’t odd at all.
“And right now, it doesn’t matter if this is beyond common sense or not.”
“Right.”
More importantly, what El Pam’s party needed to do wasn’t scholarly exploration.
“We need to figure out what monsters are here.”
As Dibo said, surviving this place meant gathering as much information as possible.
“Well, given the situation, it’s probably the monsters from Magatia’s underground lab.”
In truth, it was more confirmation than acquisition.
That’s why.
“If the robot bastards show up, it’ll be a headache for those scorpion guys.”
That was the reason no one in the party looked favorably on Kimer’s party’s future.
And that prediction soon became reality.
Combat traces appeared not long after.
“It’s a Lloyd.”
The first thing they spotted was the robot monster, Lloyd.
It was less a robot and more a crude toy.
A giant lightbulb for a head instead of a human one, a body of plain metal sheets, limbs made of wires—a shoddy mechanical contraption.
Like a child cobbling together a person from random parts, crude in every sense.
Yet any adventurer who knew Magatia’s underground lab would say the same, without exception.
“These things are a real pain.”
Far more troublesome than they looked.
“Magic below 3rd Circle doesn’t even work on them, right?”
Their most aggravating trait was their exceptional magic resistance.
Adventurers below 3rd Circle couldn’t inflict proper damage with magic.
Secondary effects didn’t work either.
Ordinary heat, cold, or poison had little impact on robots.
“Physical defense is no joke either. It’s all metal plating.”
They were tough against physical impacts too.
“Not like they drop from a few bullets.”
Crucially, they didn’t bleed or lose power from bodily damage.
Not even a scream.
Lloyds couldn’t be “killed”—they had to be smashed to pieces.
“And those wires are like whips.”
Their attack power was fearsome too.
The impact from swinging those seemingly flimsy wire arms was too much for most warriors to endure.
“The power’s insane.”
Their strength was exceptional.
“For 4th Circle adventurers, if ten Lloyds gather, best to run.”
That’s why adventurers in Magatia’s underground lab avoided Lloyds.
“Judging by the shattered bulbs...”
Traces of those Lloyds—parts and debris—were scattered in piles.
“Looks like they took down about forty here.”
A sign of an intensely fierce battle.
“Boss, bodies here.”
And amid that fierce battle, Kimer’s party hadn’t emerged unscathed.
“Four of them.”
Despite El Pam’s help and zero casualties up to the 3rd floor, they’d lost four in this one fight.
Of course, it was a bad matchup.
No, worse than bad.
“Poison doesn’t work, so it’s only natural.”
Poison meant nothing to mere robots.
It was practically the worst matchup Kimer’s party could face.
“They probably didn’t expect this.”
Worst of all, they likely hadn’t even imagined it.
For adventurers, unexpected enemies were more dangerous than strong ones.
A total nightmare in every way.
At the same time, El Pam’s group thought.
“The fallen Cygnus Knights had it coming.”
They understood why this place was a tomb.
“And us too.”
Of course, all those facts—the dire situation—applied to El Pam’s group as well.
“We’ll have to grit our teeth for this one.”
“Damn right. Grit ‘em till they shatter.”
Dibo and the rest steeled themselves.
‘This is the worst.’
‘We’re dead. At least one or two.’
They swallowed the screams rising in their throats.
It was that bad.
‘Hard to get worse than this.’
The situation they faced was dire enough to warrant screams.
‘We’re only 4th Circle.’
The biggest issue: everyone except El Pam was 4th Circle.
No matter their impressive feats, those were all in yellow-rank or lower Mystic Gates.
The other four were, at best, on par with average 5th Circle adventurers.
Impressive in itself—bridging the gap between 4th and 5th Circle was like a hunting dog matching a tiger.
But this was a place where even elite tigers had to brace for death.
‘Boss’s magic won’t work well either.’
The scariest part of robot monsters: mages’ spells didn’t work properly.
Meaning their greatest weapon, El Pam, was neutralized.
At this point, the thought came.
‘Maybe ally with them.’
Better to join Kimer’s party and escape alive than die alone.
A perfectly valid idea.
Survival beat death, after all.
So.
“Boss.”
Dibo spoke up readily.
“Let’s join hands.”
“What are you talking about?”
Kiri immediately objected, and Dibo scratched his head.
“With the Red Scorpion bastards.”
Kiri’s eyes widened in response, no words needed.
It was a natural reaction for her.
This was the Cygnus Knights’ tomb, and Kimer’s party were grave robbers defiling it.
Robbers tied to Oz’s inner circle, the Fire Knight Captain.
Her pride wouldn’t allow allying with them.
But she was the only one objecting.
“I’m for it.”
“Me too.”
Miner and Ralph followed Dibo’s lead without hesitation.
“Boss, realistically, clearing this alone is suicide. Survival comes first, doesn’t it?”
Nothing trumped those two words.
Of course, their opinions didn’t matter.
What counted was El Pam’s choice.
He said.
“Impossible.”
Dibo replied.
“Boss, think it over once more. I’m telling you, they won’t help.”
Please reconsider.
The situation was that bad.
But El Pam repeated.
“Can’t catch them.”
“Boss!”
As Dibo tried to persuade again, El Pam said.
“They’re already dead.”
“Huh?”
Everyone voiced confusion.
“How do you know?”
“You know what the boss monster is?”
They’d just entered the 4th floor—how could he conclude so quickly without seeing something?
“I don’t know what the boss monster is.”
El Pam hadn’t seen anything.
“But the Cygnus Knights wouldn’t fall so helplessly to mere Lloyds.”
He was just estimating.
“It’s certain. There’s something beyond common sense here. And Kimer—he’s a powerhouse within common sense.”
What happens when a common-sense powerhouse meets an otherworldly monster?
“Kimer’s running right now. Gasping for breath.”
3.
“Huff, huff.”
Kimer.
Past sixty, he was sprinting at full speed.
A first in his long life.
He had always been the pursuer, never the pursued.
In other words, what chased him now was an enemy of that caliber.
“Huff, huff.”
An enemy so formidable it forced this weathered veteran to gasp and flee.
‘All dead.’
Naturally, before that monster, his prized disciples and subordinates were now corpses.
Even the attendant of Queen Areida who’d come with him was unaccounted for, likely dead.
‘Everyone but me.’
Now, only Kimer remained.
Even he couldn’t guarantee survival.
It wasn’t just fear from losing his men.
He knew.
‘This can’t be. For that to appear here...’
The identity of the monster that killed his subordinates.
That moment.
“Cough!”
Kimer suddenly hacked up a cough.
“Cough!”
The second brought blood.
Proof.
‘Poison here too...? No way.’
Proof he’d been poisoned—not by ordinary means.
Impossible.
Kimer always carried powerful antidotes to match his deadly poisons—yet one he couldn’t neutralize?
A poison so outrageously potent.
‘Ah.’
Of course, the poison’s existence hardly mattered now.
“Cough!”
The key point: poisoned Kimer could no longer gasp and flee.
He had to stop—and face it.
Creak, creak.
A massive vault with a steel heart, carried by an android robot.
‘D. Roi...’
The monster that once turned Magatia’s underground lab into hell, D. Roi, had appeared.