Chapter 174
Chapter 174
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 174
Chapter Title: 53. The Collector (1)
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1.
“El Pam has appeared!”
When that rumor reached the Elnas Market, everyone agreed on one thing.
“Whoever he is, El Pam is done for now.”
That the abandoned mine area would become El Pam’s grave.
It was all too obvious.
“There’s no way he survives with the Wolf King on his tail.”
It would be far stranger for El Pam to survive while being hunted by the Wolf King and countless other adventurers and outlaws.
So no one was interested in the fact that El Pam would die.
“Who’s gonna catch him?”
The question was who would claim the massive 1 billion mesos bounty on El Pam.
“Pfft, that’s just the start. The real chaos comes after.”
“Exactly. El Pam’s party has Aran’s items, stuff you couldn’t buy for any amount of money. Everyone’s gonna go berserk fighting over them.”
And how much of a bloodbath the Elnas Mountains would become?
Naturally, the atmosphere in Elnas Market was like the calm before the storm.
Everyone prepared in their own way for the storm that was coming.
“This is our chance. If adventurers die, we can live off their items forever if we grab them right.”
“If we’re lucky enough to snag Aran’s items, our adventurer lives are set.”
Those who sailed into the storm.
“You can’t call getting swept up in a storm an adventure.”
“Better to head to Orbis and dodge it than stick around and get caught up.”
Those who fled the storm.
Everyone waited in their own way.
For the storm to hit.
“It’s coming soon.”
A day passed, then two.
“It’s coming soon.”
Then a week.
“It’s coming soon my ass—what the hell is this?”
But as time dragged on, the storm they expected never showed.
“The Wolf King has vanished!”
Instead, word came that the hunters had given up the hunt and left the abandoned mines.
Everyone realized the truth.
“El Pam escaped!”
Once again, everyone had failed to hunt him down.
“My God.”
And they were stunned for an entirely different reason.
“How in the world?”
How could he escape from the Wolf King and all those countless hunters?
Of course, not everyone thought he’d escaped at first.
Quite the opposite.
“Someone must’ve succeeded in the hunt and kept it quiet.”
They figured the group that caught El Pam was hiding it to avoid interference from rivals.
There was only one way to know for sure.
Go to the one guaranteeing the bounty and ask.
That was the reason.
“Damn it.”
The beautiful woman with long black hair and black eyes—Collector Vivre!—was more irritated than ever.
Adventurers and outlaws kept coming to her, asking about El Pam’s bounty.
She’d already answered them.
No one had claimed El Pam’s bounty.
Of course, that didn’t prove El Pam was alive, but she’d told the truth anyway.
“Why can’t they believe me when I tell them!”
But no one believed her.
The adventurers and outlaws of the Elnas Mountains couldn’t accept that El Pam was still alive.
Conversations naturally went south from there.
They demanded she tell the truth, accused her of lying, and she had to spew curses every time.
“Damn it.”
If that was all, her face wouldn’t be this twisted.
She ruled the Elnas Market’s black market, after all. She’d done plenty of dirty deeds.
A few insults didn’t faze her, and she’d dealt with plenty of scum and lunatics.
“My reputation’s tanking.”
The problem was that no one trusted Collector Vivre anymore.
Rumors were spreading in the Elnas black market right now.
Someone brought El Pam’s head, but she refused to pay the bounty.
Or she didn’t have the 1 billion mesos, or it was fake from the start.
For a collector, that was fatal.
Everything she did relied on trust, nothing else.
“Find a way, find a way!”
The real headache was that she had no way to fix this.
There was one option.
“Bring me El Pam!”
If she could prove he was alive, the doubts about her would vanish.
But that was impossible.
Countless adventurers in the Elnas Mountains were burning with zeal to catch him right now.
Hundreds, thousands more were pouring in real-time.
And she, a collector, was supposed to find the El Pam no one else could?
Impossible.
She knew it.
How ridiculous she sounded.
“Damn it, just find him somehow!”
She was just venting.
“Bring him here, and I’ll hand over 100 million mesos on the spot!”
She didn’t mean it.
“Vi-Vivre!”
“What?”
“H-he’s here.”
“You think I’ll believe ‘he’s here’? You think you’re the only one coming to me today?”
She was right.
“Uh, it’s, uh, El Pam. He’s here.”
“What?”
2.
“It’s El Pam.”
The moment she heard his greeting, Collector Vivre didn’t respond.
She turned to the tanned man beside her, who spoke up immediately.
“It’s El Pam.”
He was someone El Pam recognized too.
“The adventurer I saw.”
The one who’d tackled the Mystic Gate with him in the Nihal Desert.
“Good.”
Only then did Collector Vivre finally look at El Pam.
“Well, well, the 1 billion mesos bounty walks right into my lair. Gotta say, this is unexpected.”
She didn’t seem overly shocked or flustered.
It wasn’t an act.
She was surprised El Pam had shown up.
“But wanted men coming to me isn’t all that special.”
Far more had come to her than people imagined.
Naturally.
“Most come for one of two reasons. One: cancel my bounty.”
For the wanted, it was life or death.
“The other: tell me who put the bounty on them.”
Revenge.
“My answer’s always the same. None of my business.”
She’d never granted such requests, not once.
Not because she was some noble soul or silver-tongued convincer.
“So don’t even try.”
She had power.
Power to enforce her will.
And not just any power.
In the Elnas black market—a den of every filthy scum, where money meant murder—no one dared bare their teeth at her!
“Don’t even think about provoking me.”
That’s why she warned him here.
She knew.
“You’re not here for the bounty reasons.”
El Pam hadn’t come for either of those.
He’d already escaped safely.
Coming to her to cancel the bounty made no sense.
So he had some other motive, but she wasn’t about to accept it blindly.
She’d kill him if needed.
No issue there.
What problem was killing the man every adventurer and outlaw in the Elnas Mountains wanted dead?
“After that 1 billion mesos?”
“Not really.”
It wasn’t about money.
“But you’ve caused me a ton of headaches.”
The longer El Pam lived, the more her trust eroded.
That didn’t mean she’d kill him outright.
It wouldn’t help her reputation much either.
Even if she claimed his bounty, no one would believe her—they’d just condemn her.
And as she’d said, 1 billion mesos wasn’t worth betting her trust and fate on.
“So what do you want?”
“A deal.”
A deal.
She nodded.
“What do you want?”
“Zakum’s Helmets.”
She laughed.
“You came to the right place. I’ve got them.”
It was a sneer.
“But you know my nickname?”
“Collector?”
“Yeah, Collector. Hoarder. I’ll do anything to collect what I want. So why should I sell my collection to you? Huh?”
A sneer at the impossibility of a convincing deal.
To her, El Pam showed her this.
Kyuu?
“Huh?”
His snail pet, Mano.
“W-wait a sec!”
Seeing it, Collector Vivre looked more flustered than ever.
“Is that... a snail pet?”
“Yes.”
No wonder.
“How’d you get it? I tore Maple World apart and couldn’t find a live one.”
The snail pet was one of her most coveted collection pieces.
It could find items—valuable ones.
For a collector like her, an irresistible ability.
“Does it matter where I got it?”
“Nah, not really.”
She accepted instantly.
“Deal. Zakum’s Helmets, right? We’ll trade. For a snail pet? Absolutely.”
To her, El Pam said,
“Good.”
“I’ll bring them right now.”
“Make it four.”
“What?”
Her face twisted fiercely at his words.
“You messing with me?”
“I need four.”
His demand wasn’t just unreasonable—it was absurd.
What was Zakum’s Helmet?
An item that freed you from Zakum’s curse. Even Shamos had only one.
And he wanted four?
This wasn’t a deal. It was provocation.
That’s what she thought.
Normally, she didn’t hesitate long in such cases.
She used force.
But now, her gaze on the snail pet on El Pam’s shoulder was different.
‘I can’t get that anywhere else.’
A collector’s gaze.
The gaze of one who’d stop at nothing for a desired item.
‘Right on cue.’
The gaze El Pam had waited for.
“Then let’s change the terms.”
He didn’t hesitate.
“Rent me four Zakum’s Helmets.”
Rent.
Her eyes changed again at the word.
Now that was different.
Renting meant returning them eventually. A deal worth considering.
“How long?”
“Just once.”
“Hmm.”
Even the terms were appealing.
Of course, there were risks.
El Pam could flee with them, or die in a Mystic Gate while holding them.
Recovery impossible.
‘When it comes to survival, he won’t compare to any adventurer.’
But the risks were incomparable to others.
That’s why.
“Deal.”
She accepted El Pam’s offer.
“Not a deal.”
To her, El Pam said,
“What I want is a bet.”
“A bet?”
“We bet Zakum’s Helmets against the snail pet. Simple terms. Collector, name what you want. I’ll get it for you.”
The proposal was outrageous.
But hearing it, Collector Vivre smiled wider than ever.
“Fun. I accept.”
She had no choice.
“What I want... yeah, that’ll do.”
She knew.
El Pam.
An item he could never obtain.
Literally.
“Bring me Michaela’s Glasses.”
He could never get what she named.
“They’re in Chryse.”
A heavenly temple from legend, obtainable only there.