Chapter 123
Chapter 123
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 123
Chapter Title: Chapter 38. Android (2)
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4.
Magatia Underground Research Lab.
One reason this place was called hell by adventurers was the lab's terrain.
That massive research facility was very different from forests, deserts, or plains.
If anything, it was akin to an ant colony.
Meaning an extremely enclosed environment.
In the case of Magatia Underground Research Lab, the lab's position and layout even changed periodically.
“You have to hire a guide no matter how much it costs when adventuring in Magatia Underground Research Lab.”
That was why a special profession called guides existed here.
“Skimp on money for a guide? Then you're dead. I guarantee it. You won't last a day.”
In other words, survival without a guide was impossible.
It wasn't hyperbole.
“For your average adventurer out on a regular quest, Magatia Lab is like... yeah, this analogy fits. It's like tossing a lion that's been charging across the plains into the ocean. No matter how strong the lion is, it doesn't matter.”
Countless adventurers who had tried to save money on guides and ventured in had proven that fact with their deaths.
And it was the same now.
On the fourth floor of the Mystic Gate, El Pam's party hadn't gone far from the site of their first skirmish when they spotted traces of another battle.
“Two of them.”
They found even fewer corpses than before.
“And the number of destroyed Lloyds is close to a hundred.”
There were twice as many wrecked Lloyd remains as before.
Everyone's expressions hardened at the sight.
Simple math made it look like a much better fight than the last one.
But any adventurer knew better.
“They couldn't escape from here.”
They knew this wasn't the result of a victory, but desperate flailing that failed to achieve its goal.
Especially problematic was the additional corpses.
In a situation like this, every adventurer's goal was to preserve their forces.
But they'd failed at force preservation.
Truth be told, the environment played a big role.
In a forest or desert, there were plenty of places to hide their presence, but the lab was different.
No matter how vast the space, it was enclosed. There were limits to what you could do.
Especially against Lloyds. Unlike animals, those robot monsters had the ability to clearly lock onto targets.
Creeeak, creeeak!
“Damn it.”
And all those facts applied to El Pam's party as well.
“Lloyds.”
A pack of Lloyds began approaching the group as they examined the corpses.
Twenty in number.
The moment they saw them, Dibo and the others prepared for battle.
‘This won't be easy.’
More precisely, they steeled themselves.
‘We might die.’
Death.
The Lloyd pack before them was that formidable an opponent.
El Pam said as much.
“My magic can't destroy Lloyds.”
Even here, he wouldn't be able to perform the kind of outlandish feats he'd shown so far.
Of course, no one let despair cloud their faces at his words.
“Then leave it to me. I'll smash them.”
“I'll hold them off. Attack while I do.”
“Nah, everyone just hold on. I'll put rounds through those metal plates.”
“You can pierce them?”
“Aim at one spot three times, and nothing's impenetrable.”
In this worst of moments, everyone grinned readily.
“Don't worry, everyone. As long as you don't die, I'll fix you up.”
Even Ralph.
El Pam didn't say anything to them.
“Thunderbolt.”
With those short words from El Pam, lightning crashed down.
Bzzzzt!
The lightning struck the Lloyds.
Precisely.
Bzzzzt!
Every Lloyd began getting zapped.
It was actually an astonishing feat.
Even in monster-infested areas, Thunderbolt usually only hit three or four.
It was a spell impossible to control, after all.
That made it all the more astonishing.
It meant El Pam had perfectly controlled the lightning.
Of course, no one was surprised by that.
Instead, they wondered.
‘Magic doesn't work well on them, though?’
Any decent adventurer knew robot monsters had exceptional magic resistance.
So why use magic?
Creeeak!
The answer to that question soon appeared before their eyes.
Clunk!
‘Huh?’
The aggressively charging Lloyds froze in place.
“They're not destroyed.”
El Pam spoke to his surprised comrades.
“Thunderbolt just short-circuited their circuits for a moment. They'll move again soon.”
He hadn't lied.
“W-Wait.”
Of course, no one could just accept that explanation.
It was known that robot monsters were somewhat vulnerable to lightning magic.
But only somewhat.
In other words, to stop a robot monster like a Lloyd as El Pam described, you'd need at least a 4th Circle spell.
Something like Thunder Spear to even hope for a stun effect.
That was common sense.
And El Pam knew that common sense.
So the reason this impossible result had occurred was simple.
‘The fragments of Astrape. Impressive.’
Each of the Astrape fragments he possessed enhanced lightning magic.
Moreover, El Pam had now reached the 5th Circle.
The power of his Thunderbolt was on another level from what a typical 5th Circle mage could muster.
It rivaled Thunder Spear.
The results before them were proof.
“My god.”
El Pam's comrades stared in awe at the outcome, and he told them,
“No time. It's just a temporary stop. They'll move soon.”
“Yes!”
At that, El Pam's comrades finally snapped to and charged the Lloyds.
There was no hesitation.
No reason to hesitate against monsters already frozen.
Boom!
And so Dibo and the others began smashing the Lloyds.
Crack!
“This is the last one!”
Just as they finished up and caught their breath, that's when it happened.
Shrieeek!
5.
Shrieeek!
When the scream rang out, most adventurers would turn toward it or head that way.
Of course, most meant rookies.
Veteran adventurers reacted differently.
Holding their breath and moving in the opposite direction.
That was common sense.
A scream meant a battle had broken out—one extremely unfavorable to the adventurers.
Rush right into that?
It was suicide, and plenty of adventurers had died doing just that.
El Pam's party, naturally, acted like the veterans they were.
Swipe!
The moment El Pam made a finger gesture, everyone nodded, held their breath, and cautiously moved opposite the scream.
They didn't go far.
The moment they found a spot to hide, El Pam's party took root there like inanimate objects.
They endured like that for an hour.
It was the kind of boredom that could drive you mad, but not a single member of El Pam's party wavered.
Creeeak, creeeak!
Even packs of Lloyds passing nearby failed to detect them.
Swipe!
Only after holding still for a full hour did El Pam's party finally head toward the scream.
And there, they saw it.
“It's Kimer.”
Kimer's corpse.
Everyone's expressions hardened at the sight.
And for good reason—the corpse was gruesome.
Flesh had melted off in patches all over his body.
“What the hell could do this?”
Even El Pam's comrades, who'd seen all manner of corpses, went pale at the horror.
In other words, no one could even guess what monster had done this to Kimer.
Except one.
“D.
Loy.”
“Yes?”
El Pam knew.
“It's D. Loy's poison.”
What the boss monster of this place was.
“D. Loy? What's that?”
But his comrades couldn't grasp the situation from the explanation.
Only one person knew.
“It's a robot monster that appeared in Magatia Underground Research Lab. A very special one.”
“What?”
“Hang on, you know what it is?”
“I do.”
Ralph explained.
“Magatia's alchemy has two schools. One is the Genomist school of life alchemy, which creates new lifeforms. The other is the Alcadno school of machine alchemy, seeking new evolution through fusion with machines. The robot monsters we see are the direction the Alcadno school pursues.”
“Skip the lore. What's D. Loy?”
“A robot monster.”
“And besides that, how strong?”
“It was 50 years ago. An Alcadno alchemist in the underground lab figured out how to make D. Loy and started production. After that, Magatia Underground Research Lab was off-limits for three years.”
One thing was clear from the explanation.
D. Loy was a monster beyond their common sense.
“And I know this well. There was a 100 million mesos bounty on D. Loy back then.”
That explained why Ralph remembered an event from 50 years ago that most adventurers didn't even know about.
In other words, it was extremely unusual and special that El Pam knew about D. Loy.
A monster that appeared 50 years ago in Magatia Underground Research Lab, a place most adventurers ignored?
Of course, El Pam had no choice but to know.
‘D. Loy. A real pain.’
The moment the Mystic Gate opened, robot monsters had appeared there too.
No, it was more than that.
‘In Magatia, an android legion appeared.’
Naturally, the more unassailed Mystic Gates there were, the more monsters appeared.
And Magatia's underground lab had more unassailed Mystic Gates than anywhere.
The difficulty of conquering Magatia Underground Research Lab and the monsters' traits made assaults on Mystic Gates hard in the first place, and those who entered weren't after the lab's Mystic Gates anyway—they wanted the lab's monsters.
If you wanted to conquer Mystic Gates, Nihal Desert had plenty.
‘And robot monsters integrate better than any other group.’
Robot monsters—androids—had no concept of competition among themselves.
That was why the android legion was born.
D. Loy was part of that android legion.
So he had no choice but to know well.
Because El Pam, of all people, had faced that android legion alongside his comrades.
‘They used poison without restraint.’
The android legion wielded poison more effectively than any other monsters.
Robots weren't affected by poison at all.
And D. Loy's poison was especially potent.
“Its poison has corrosive properties.”
The poison's raw power was one thing, but as Kimer's corpse showed, it melted living flesh.
That made it a huge headache.
“Corrosive?”
“It touches you, your flesh melts.”
“My god.”
Normal poisons could be endured with antidotes, and battles were often planned around that.
But if it melted skin on contact?
Impossible to do anything.
And that wasn't all.
D. Loy's defenses were on another level from regular Lloyds.
“Boss.”
More than enough to turn this place into a grave.
“What do we do?”
El Pam answered his comrades' hardened expressions.
“We hunt it.”
Calmly.
But that was the right answer.
Hunt or die—those were the only options in a Mystic Gate.
Fail to hunt, and you'd just die.
That was why his comrades relaxed their stiff faces at his words.
“Yes, we have to hunt it. So what do I do?”
In response to Dibo's follow-up question, El Pam replied,
“Fall back.”
“Yes?”
“I need to use Zeus's Lightning Lance.”