Chapter 131
Chapter 131
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 131
Chapter Title: 41. Plastic Surgery Potion (1)
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1.
The Cygnus Knights had performed numerous feats throughout Maple World.
Among them, the most prominent were their monster subjugations.
“Adventurers subjugate monsters too, if the pay is right.”
It was an impressive achievement.
“But the Cygnus Knights subjugate monsters without demanding any reward.”
They never asked for compensation in the process.
“That’s why they deserve respect.”
It was the biggest reason the Cygnus Knights were praised.
Of course, that didn’t mean the Cygnus Knights blindly sacrificed themselves without purpose.
They actively utilized this fact.
They worked to let all of Maple World know how they differed from adventurers.
Naturally, the Cygnus Knights didn’t hide their accomplishments.
Whenever they subjugated monsters, they gladly shared the process and results with the world.
This time was no different.
“The Cygnus Knights have subjugated the chimera that appeared in Magatia’s underground lab!”
The moment the chimera subjugation ended, the Cygnus Knights’ name echoed through Magatia.
“Grendel! The cleaner has thoroughly cleaned Magatia’s underground lab!”
In the process, Grendel’s name spread as well.
Of course, the ones who actually subjugated the chimera were El Pam’s party, but that fact remained unknown.
Regarding that, El Pam said,
“There’s no benefit to our names being revealed. Let this achievement go to Sir Grendel.”
Grendel nodded at those words.
“Thank you.”
‘He’s definitely a secret agent.’
It would be stranger for a secret agent like El Pam to reveal his name.
In other words, Grendel was now convinced that El Pam was a secret agent.
And that was exactly what El Pam wanted.
The Cygnus Knights guaranteed his newly created identity. If they viewed El Pam’s party as secret agents, it would make their activities much easier in many ways.
“I heard adventurers joined Grendel’s party this time?”
“Adventurers?”
“El’s party.”
“El?”
“They hired them as guides and bodyguards, apparently.”
“Oh, they’re just along for the ride.”
“I’m jealous. I want to tag along and snag some of that glory too. A title’s a title, after all, right?”
In any case, El Pam’s party became known not for their feats, but as those who rode on Grendel’s fame.
Meanwhile, there was someone who gained as much fame as Grendel.
“But hiring adventurers as guides and bodyguards means the guide must be someone special, right?”
“Hey, didn’t you hear?”
“Hear what?”
“The guide this time was Umar!”
“Umar? You don’t mean...?”
“Umar, disciple of Carson, president of the New Mist Association! He stepped up as the guide!”
“He did? Why? It was dangerous!”
“They say since the chimera’s creator was an alchemist from the New Mist school, he felt responsible as the president’s disciple and volunteered as guide.”
“Impressive.”
Umar—his fame filled Magatia.
No, it wasn’t just filling it; he received far more praise than even the cleaner Grendel.
There was nothing strange about it.
“An alchemist who knows how to sacrifice!”
Magatia’s alchemists were, without exception, selfish to the core.
In such a place, an alchemist willingly risking his life for something that wasn’t even his responsibility naturally stood out.
Of course, Umar wasn’t pleased with the praise.
‘Damn it, things have gotten this messed up.’
To be precise, he didn’t have time for it.
‘This isn’t the time to be sitting around. I need to prepare the next plan quickly. If this continues, they might trace it back to me.’
The chimera corpses he created had been recovered by the Cygnus Knights.
Afterward, they would investigate the corpses and track down the alchemist who made them.
It wouldn’t be easy to trace, but if they succeeded, Umar’s life was over.
Normally, in such a situation, running away would be the answer.
But Umar couldn’t do that.
‘I have to settle this in Magatia somehow.’
Magatia’s alchemists could only use alchemy in Magatia.
The moment he left, Umar wouldn’t be a brilliant chimera-creating alchemist anymore—just a frail ordinary person who couldn’t survive a day in the desert.
His mind was a mess in many ways.
But the immediate task was clear.
‘For now, have that meal with El.’
Keep the meal appointment with El.
It wasn’t difficult, really.
Just having a meal—what could be hard about it?
‘What could go wrong?’
Naturally, Umar headed to the meeting place with an unusually light heart and no second thoughts.
And there, Umar saw it.
2.
Umar sensed something was off the moment he entered the appointed restaurant.
‘Is this the right place?’
Aside from a table in the center with utensils on it, there was nothing that even remotely resembled a restaurant.
That said, Umar hadn’t come to the wrong place.
El, the one he’d made the appointment with, and his companions were already seated at the table.
“Have a seat.”
Of course, Umar wasn’t so dull that he missed the atmosphere.
‘Something’s up.’
At the very least, he knew this wasn’t a simple friendly meal.
‘Not sure what, though.’
At the same time, he realized something else.
‘If I try anything funny... I’m dead.’
Acting tough here wouldn’t help his life, and neither would running.
He’d seen them.
‘Those monsters.’
He’d watched the people now seated at the table toy with and crush tens of thousands of cube slimes—and the chimera he’d poured his heart into creating.
Against such people, flaunting pride or raising his voice would be foolish.
Creak!
So Umar sat down without fleeing.
As he did, he put on an act.
“The atmosphere’s a bit eerie for a restaurant.”
For starters, he pretended to know nothing.
“So, when does the food come out? Oh, what’s on the menu?”
He even acted like a guide there purely to enjoy a meal.
El Pam responded to the performance.
“There is no food.”
“Pardon?”
Even at those words, Umar kept up the act without faltering.
“But there’s a table and utensils here?”
“This table is a space to place you on, and the utensils are tools to torture you with.”
Despite El Pam’s razor-sharp words, Umar’s face showed only surprise—no cracks.
It was a performance with his life on the line.
‘They’re probing to see if I made the chimera. I can’t fall for it.’
A desperate act for survival.
El Pam continued calmly at the sight.
“From now on, every time you pretend not to know, I’ll cut off one finger. Then reattach it and cut it off again.”
As soon as he finished, Ralph grinned at Umar.
“Don’t worry about the reattachment—I’m confident in that. Your fingers will move even better than before.”
A smile full of sincerity.
Yet even in that terrifying atmosphere, Umar’s resolve didn’t waver.
That said, he didn’t keep up the innocent act blindly.
Now with a hardened expression, Umar said,
“It doesn’t seem like just a meal, so if you have questions, I’ll answer them.”
He offered cooperation.
Of course, he had no intention of true cooperation.
‘As long as I don’t admit to making the chimera, they have no reason to kill me.’
It was purely to buy time.
“I don’t have any particular questions.”
“What?”
“I already know most of it. That you made the chimera.”
But before El Pam’s words, even Umar couldn’t help but falter.
“I predicted you’d be exposed after the Cygnus Knights subjugated it, so you volunteered as guide, dug a trap, planned to eliminate the subjugation team to buy time. And during that time, make more chimeras to turn Magatia’s underground lab into your fortress.”
It was far too much knowledge for mere probing.
“I don’t understand what you’re saying. I’ve never made a chimera...”
Umar still clung to the act.
That was the moment.
“D.”
The instant El Pam said it, Dibo rose, slammed Umar’s right hand onto the table with one hand, and drove the table knife he held in the other straight down.
Stab!
The knife severed Umar’s index finger.
“Argh!”
A scream erupted.
Dibo chuckled at the cry.
“Brings back old memories.”
For Dibo, once called a mad dog, this situation felt more familiar.
“Wait.”
Then Ralph moved, reattaching Umar’s severed finger with a Heal skill.
Perfectly, just as he’d said.
“How’s that? Moves well?”
“Ugh, ugh.”
The pain remained, though, and Umar groaned as Ralph smiled at him.
“The nerves are intact too. You’ll feel the exact same pain vividly if it’s cut again.”
A smile more chilling than any other.
“W-Why are you doing this without evidence?”
Even in that situation, Umar somehow kept acting, prompting Dibo to swing the knife with a grin.
Stab!
It severed the index finger again.
“Oh, sorry. I was supposed to cut a different one but got the same one again.”
“You fuck!”
At that moment, Umar could no longer keep up the act.
“Ugh, fine, yes! I made the chimera!”
He confessed in the end.
The atmosphere El Pam had created was more than enough to shatter Umar’s steadfast resolve.
Of course, that didn’t mean Umar would spill all his sins like a confession and beg forgiveness.
“What’s the problem with making a chimera!”
He grew angry instead.
“I made it to survive in this goddamn world—what’s wrong with that!”
His rage was genuine.
At the heartfelt outburst, Dibo tilted his head.
“Survive? What bullshit is that?”
He’d nearly died because of making the chimera—how could he claim he made it to survive?
Umar glared with bulging eyes.
“You don’t know what might pop out of that Mystic Gate, and doing nothing is the real bullshit.”
“What?”
“That’s why adventurers are the problem. You believe in the Mystic Gate? As if you know when a monster might burst out!”
“Monsters bursting out? Does that even make sense?”
Umar knew better than anyone the dangers of chimera creation—it was obvious death if discovered.
Yet the reason he made them was simple.
“Who says adventurers can go in and out but monsters can’t? Huh? Did the Mystic Gate tell you that with its mouth?”
He couldn’t trust the Mystic Gate.
From an alchemist’s perspective, it was obviously someone’s creation.
“There’s never been any record of Mystic Gates in Maple World history!”
It was no natural phenomenon.
“And yet adventurers just believe it. That the Mystic Gate is a miracle from the heavens.”
The bigger issue was that no one in Maple World prepared for the apocalypse that might start from a Mystic Gate.
“They call it a miracle and focus only on conquering it, with no one preparing for when it goes wrong.”
That was why.
“Even items we’ve never seen in Maple World, things infused with divine power, come through—and they’re thrilled, calling them legendary items. Do you know how insane that is? No! It’s the gods of this world, the Overseer’s rules breaking down! The world collapsing!”
Umar had prepared for that possible day, and the chimera was the result.
If he turned Magatia’s underground lab into his castle with chimeras, he could block any monsters bursting from the Mystic Gate.
“What else could I do? I have to find a way to survive, right?”
To be precise, he believed he could survive.
Of course, at Umar’s words, Dibo and the others wore incredulous expressions.
From their viewpoint, Umar was just a damned bastard who created the monster chimera out of delusions of grandeur.
“Right?”
But El Pam was different.
“I understand your intentions.”
He understood why Umar did it.
He had no choice but to.
Umar was right.
‘If not for the Chimera King, the android legion would have taken Magatia’s underground lab much sooner.’
Moreover, thanks to Umar becoming the Chimera King and occupying the lab, the subsequent android legion from the Mystic Gate had their growth slowed.
Two monster legions fought over one castle.
The androids won, but the chimera king didn’t fall easily.
It meant Umar’s plan was quite impressive.
“Huh?”
At El Pam’s response, his companions—and even Umar—looked shocked.
It was a natural reaction, since they didn’t know what El Pam had experienced before returning to the past.
“But no matter your intentions, that’s not important.”
Of course, El Pam had no intention of letting Umar off.
There was no reason to.
No matter what, he was the one who set in motion a plan to annihilate the Cygnus Knights.
If not for El Pam, he would have killed thousands or tens of thousands.
“You must die here.”
There was no reason for mercy.
“According to the rules.”
On the other hand, El Pam had no intention of executing justice here.
“By the rules, we wouldn’t need this complicated process—just a public execution.”
What mattered to him now was one thing.
“But if I’ve set up this table, there must be a reason, right?”
Tap tap!
El Pam tapped the table as he spoke.
“Let’s turn this table into a negotiation one.”