Chapter 124
Chapter 124
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 124
Chapter Title: 38. Android (3)
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6.
In most adventurer parties, firepower was handled by the mages.
That was why, when mages couldn't perform, adventurers usually made the same decision.
“The mages aren't working, so we run.”
They gave up on the hunt.
However, they couldn't always make that choice.
The same went for fighting robot monsters, aka androids.
Sometimes, like it or not, they had to fight even if they wanted to flee.
That was the case for El Pam.
The chaotic era when the Mystic Gate opened and monsters poured out.
“The android legion is coming. It'll take a day for all the survivors here to evacuate.”
Faced with hundreds of thousands of incoming android monsters, they needed to buy time for the survivors to escape.
At that moment, the mage adventurers among the survivors had to figure out how to deal with the androids.
“Lightning-attribute mages, stay behind.”
And the solution they came up with was lightning-attribute magic.
Of course, it wasn't because it worked particularly well.
“Lightning-attribute magic can stop them for a moment.”
Androids exposed to strong electricity suffered circuit failures and couldn't move—that was the one attribute mages who could somewhat exploit that weakness.
“El Pam.”
Naturally, El Pam stayed too.
No, it was more than that.
“Take the front line.”
He was assigned the worst battlefield.
It couldn't be helped.
“You're the only mage who can endure D. Roy's poison fog.”
El Pam, with his All Master talent, was the only one who could cast magic amid D. Roy's vicious poison.
That was why El Pam knew more about the D. Roy monster than anyone else in the Maple World.
How powerful it was.
How deadly its poison was.
And how ordinary lightning-attribute magic—even 5th Circle level—didn't work on it.
It was exactly as it sounded.
Even if hit by a fairly powerful lightning spell, D. Roy's circuits didn't falter in the slightest.
It didn't stop.
“Fall back.”
“Huh?”
“I'm using Zeus's Thunder Spear.”
He could hunt it.
“Boss.”
At El Pam's words, Dibo thought.
“Are you planning to sacrifice yourself alone right now?”
That El Pam was bluffing.
It wasn't just Dibo who thought that.
“Don't try to do it alone.”
“Hey, even if we don't know everything, don't spout nonsense that won't fly. Huh? You think we'll just say, 'Yes, got it'?”
“Boss, you can't die. It's hard to find someone who makes us more money than you.”
Everyone else thought the same as Dibo.
They figured El Pam would sacrifice himself to save the rest.
It was a reasonable assumption.
After all, ordinary lightning magic not working against D. Roy was entirely predictable.
Plus, it was an android that spewed incredibly potent poison fog—neither Dibo nor Kiri could buy much time against it.
In that situation, only El Pam could hold it off for a while.
His poison-attribute magic gave him resistance to poison on another level compared to others, and he had the lightning skills to briefly halt D. Roy.
Decisively, El Pam had said.
“You said that thing was useless, right?”
That Zeus's Thunder Spear was so inefficient it could be considered off the table.
But now he was pulling it out as a trump card?
Believing that would be the strange thing.
“Boss, if you die, we die together.”
El Pam didn't argue against Dibo and the others' words.
He didn't try to convince them.
He knew that no matter what he said, it wouldn't get through to them if they were thinking that way.
And there was no time for it anyway.
Screeech!
A sound rang out.
Screeech!
The sound of D. Roy, the master of this 4th floor, moving.
At that sound, El Pam and everyone else didn't hold their breath.
They realized it the moment they heard.
“It's coming for us.”
That they'd already been spotted.
And that once spotted, there was only one option left.
“Prepare for battle!”
Fight.
“There's poison, so keep your distance for now…”
And so, Dibo and the others racked their brains to devise the best plan for the worst situation.
There was one exception.
El Pam—he began casting his spell.
To be precise, El Pam had already been preparing his cast.
‘It's moving just as expected.’
He knew D. Roy periodically patrolled areas with the corpses of adventurers it had hunted.
That if they waited, it would come here.
So it didn't take long.
The moment it appeared, El Pam finished casting, and without the slightest hesitation.
“Astrape.”
El Pam summoned Zeus's Thunder Spear.
Crackle!
7.
“Astrape.”
The moment El Pam chanted, everyone's eyes naturally turned to him.
And soon, they saw it.
Crackle!
‘Lightning?’
‘He's holding it in his hand?’
El Pam holding a roughly two-meter-long lightning bolt in his hand—a spear made of lightning.
‘How?’
It was an astonishing sight.
All the lightning magic they'd seen before burst out the moment it was cast—things that moved in the blink of an eye.
Crackle-crackle!
Never had they seen one with such a distinct form, clear enough to observe with the naked eye.
That was why.
‘This isn't ordinary.’
The moment they saw it, everyone instinctively knew this spell wasn't the insignificant one El Pam had described.
And that instinct soon became reality before their eyes.
“Be careful.”
El Pam left those short words and hurled Zeus's Thunder Spear at the approaching D. Roy.
Whoosh!
The instant he threw it, the spear struck D. Roy immediately.
Rumble!
The moment it hit, a thunderous roar erupted—a sound that shook the world.
“Ugh!”
It was beyond deafening; even El Pam's battle-hardened party groaned.
Yet amid that pain, no one could look away.
They couldn't have if they tried.
‘My god.’
D. Roy, struck by El Pam's Zeus's Thunder Spear, froze solid.
‘S-stunned?’
Boom!
And soon, explosions began ripping through D. Roy's body.
Proof.
‘Ah!’
Not just halted circuits—proof that the circuits had burned out.
Meaning that terrifying monster had been finished in one hit by El Pam.
‘Is this possible?’
Even witnessing it, they couldn't believe the proof before them—they lost their wits.
What snapped them out of it was none other than El Pam.
Thud!
A sound rang out, and the moment it did, everyone turned, and soon they saw.
“B-boss!”
El Pam collapsed on the floor.
Everyone was shocked by the sight, but they reacted quickly.
For starters, no one touched El Pam rashly.
It was basic protocol.
Touching a fallen person carelessly could cause even bigger problems.
In this moment, only one person could touch him.
“Hmm.”
Ralph immediately checked El Pam's wrist and soon felt it.
“His heart's beating.”
Confirming that, Ralph observed El Pam's condition further.
He didn't use a heal spell.
Heal magic treated physical wounds; it had little use in a situation like this.
After examining El Pam, Ralph reached a conclusion.
“It's mana shock.”
“Mana shock? You mean that?”
“Exactly what you're thinking. The shock from depleting all your mana.”
Why El Pam had collapsed.
“How is he?”
And it was a pretty serious issue.
Mana shock was something mages often experienced, and many who did died from it.
Even survivors could suffer fatal injuries that ended their careers as mages.
It was like the heart stopping, after all.
“Serious, but he won't die.”
Fortunately, El Pam's case wasn't that bad.
But as mentioned, aftereffects were a concern.
Above all, everyone knew.
“But he won't wake up for a while.”
“Yeah.”
That it would take quite some time for El Pam to regain consciousness.
“Mana shock usually leaves you out for days.”
Pain usually required repeated exposure to get used to.
“And no one gets used to mana shock…”
Unless you'd experienced your heart stopping many times, recovering quickly from that agony was impossible.
That was certainly true.
“Cough.”
“B-boss?”
But El Pam woke up ridiculously fast.
“…How many minutes was I out?”
“Uh, well… about two minutes, I think.”
Nothing strange about it.
“It's been a while, so it felt longer.”
Before returning to the past, El Pam had experienced mana shock countless times.
Not by choice.
Simply exposed repeatedly to life-or-death situations where he couldn't afford to worry about mana shock.
Thanks to that, El Pam was more accustomed to the pain than anyone and could regain his senses faster as a result.
Of course, he could only regain his senses.
“Don't push yourself. Your condition is the worst right now.”
The physical damage from mana shock couldn't be healed right away.
“You won't even be able to walk for a day.”
Not just now—days of recovery were needed.
That was why.
“That's why.”
“Huh?”
“That's why I said it was useless. Zeus's Thunder Spear drains every last drop of the caster's mana.”
That was the reason El Pam had declared Zeus's Thunder Spear off the table to his comrades.
A spell that rendered him useless the moment it was used was practically worthless.
‘No, well…’
His comrades somewhat understood El Pam's point.
‘But this power is insane?’
Yet the power he'd just shown seemed worth the risk to them.
‘One-shotting a boss monster?’
Transcendent damage.
Of course, by El Pam's standards, it was different.
He knew.
‘If using it might kill me, it's not a trump card—it's a last resort.’
This time, he'd been lucky—his comrades were alive, so he survived. Otherwise, it was just a mutual destruction spell.
‘I can't die yet.’
And El Pam had no intention of using his last resort now.
In other words, the situation wasn't that dire yet.
Dire enough to pull out Zeus's Thunder Spear, which he'd considered off the table.
Moreover, El Pam knew.
“Prepare to run.”
“Huh?”
“It's not over. We still need to find relics here.”
They had work left to do.
“Please.”
And in that process, El Pam could no longer contribute at all.
Far from contributing—he'd become a burden.
But his comrades didn't frown at the situation.
“Of course. Just trust me. I'll carry the boss.”
“Finally, I get to be useful.”
“Can I carry you? When else will I get to make our leader owe me one?”
After taking down the boss monster D. Roy, they should wear smiles, not frowns.
And so, El Pam's party began their escape for survival, carrying El Pam.
“Run as far as you can until I can move.”
And on the third day.
“Now we start searching for relics.”
El Pam began to move.