Chapter 201
Chapter 201
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 201
Chapter Title: Chapter 60. Centaurus King (1)
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1.
Hyperion's Helmet.
The moment he heard it, a question popped into El Pam's mind.
'What is that?'
Even El Pam, who knew just about every legendary-grade item from before his return to the past, had no memory of an item called Hyperion's Helmet.
'Hyperion?'
He didn't even know of a single item with "Hyperion" in its name.
That meant it was an item that hadn't truly been revealed to the world at this point in time.
Of course, what that item actually was didn't matter all that much in itself.
'How does the Resistance know about it?'
What was important was that the Resistance had no business knowing about Hyperion's Helmet either.
Just as El Pam didn't.
At best, they might know the name, but there was no way they grasped its value.
At least, not in the history before El Pam's return.
Yet the Resistance weren't fools who would embark on such a reckless adventure for an item whose name alone was unfamiliar.
'SSomeone told them.'
Someone who knew a great deal about the item.
'A very special someone.'
And the one who provided that information was an existence so extraordinary from the Resistance's perspective that they would stake the organization's fate on it.
"What kind of item is it?"
That was the question El Pam posed here, and Cheki answered.
"I can't tell you. And El Pam, you don't have a choice anymore. Now that you've heard this, you have to come along."
El Pam nodded at the response.
No matter what answer came, he had no intention of refusing anyway.
If he had planned to, he wouldn't have come here in the first place.
Above all, now El Pam was curious.
'If it's an item that amazing, an item that could turn the tide of battle, there's no reason to turn it down.'
What Hyperion's Helmet was.
"Then when do we depart?"
"You need to leave right now. We're about to attempt the raid soon."
To that question, El Pam replied.
"Understood. Tell me the location."
"Right here."
At that response, El Pam's eyes narrowed.
'No way.'
And soon, El Pam was surprised.
He had no choice but to be.
'They've completed that technology?'
Cheki spoke to the astonished El Pam.
"We've moved a Mystic Gate underground here."
2.
One of the biggest reasons tackling a Mystic Gate was so difficult was its location.
The place itself was dangerous, but the real problem was that the moment you emerged, you were utterly exposed to any enemies outside.
That's why not a few adventurers, guilds, and even the Adventurer's Association or Cross Hunters—practically everyone in Maple World—thought the same thing.
"Can't we move the Mystic Gate?"
And they made no small number of attempts.
Of course, none succeeded.
Destroying a Mystic Gate just spawned an identical one nearby.
The spawn range never exceeded a fixed area.
And the moment you tried to move it, the Mystic Gate vanished.
The vanished Mystic Gate was treated the same as a destroyed one.
It respawned nearby.
That's why people said.
"Trying to move a Mystic Gate is like scooping water with your hands. You can move a little, but it slips away from your grasp."
Moving a Mystic Gate was impossible.
Because of that, most gave up on such attempts early after Mystic Gates first appeared.
Only one group didn't give up.
'The Resistance pulled it off.'
The Resistance.
For them, they couldn't easily abandon moving a Mystic Gate.
To gain even a sliver of an edge in the war against Black Wing, they desperately needed the items beyond the Mystic Gates.
But raiding a Mystic Gate from Edelstein while evading Black Wing's eyes was far too difficult.
That left only one option: move the Mystic Gate.
'They've completed that technology?'
And before El Pam's return to the past, the Resistance had found a way to move Mystic Gates.
'Already?'
But according to El Pam's memories, they completed that technology quite a while after monsters started pouring out.
At least three years from now.
History had changed.
Of course, the change itself wasn't strange. The reason for the change was no one other than El Pam himself.
'An enormous boon.'
And from El Pam's perspective, there was even less reason to refuse this shift.
If they could move Mystic Gates, then the methods and difficulties of raiding them from here on would be on a whole different level.
The stage the Resistance had prepared right now was proof of that.
"Welcome to the Resistance's secret headquarters."
Cheki guided El Pam to the secret base located underground in Edelstein city.
It was a world unto itself.
In the vast space, all sorts of weapons stood in their places.
The most impressive among them was the battle robots used by Mechanics: Metal Armors.
The moment he saw that Metal Armor, which embodied the Resistance's technological prowess, El Pam recalled memories.
'Thanks to that Metal Armor, they won countless battles.'
The exploits it had shown.
The presence of a Mechanic's Metal Armor refused comparison to adventurers.
'Overwhelming firepower.'
What made it possible was the merciless firepower pouring from the Metal Armor.
Its power was on another level from ordinary magic.
Enough to sweep away monsters entirely!
Of course, with such strength came drawbacks.
For one, repairing a damaged Metal Armor took considerable time and money.
A single one cost over ten million meso.
And there were no small number of parts that couldn't be bought with money at all.
Repairs were extremely difficult too.
Even so, when a hundred Metal Armors gathered, raiding a Blue-grade gate was a walk in the park.
That was the secret behind how the Resistance could stand against the colossal foe that was Black Wing.
Of course, that wasn't their only secret.
"Cheki, who's he?"
"El Pam."
"El Pam? The con artist El Pam?"
The woman now showing interest in El Pam had goggles perched on her head and a mage's staff slung over her back like a spear. She had red hair.
'Battle Mage.'
She was one of the Resistance's secret weapons: a Battle Mage.
As the name implied, they were mages who fought in close combat.
Of course, they weren't ordinary mages.
'They've contracted with the Grim Reaper.'
By contracting with the special existence known as the Grim Reaper, they could wield unique magic entirely different from conventional spells.
Of course, it was far from a good choice.
For starters, the moment you contracted with the Grim Reaper, you could never use any other magic. Only the spells the Grim Reaper permitted.
And the contract was irreversible.
Finally, in exchange for the special power from the Grim Reaper, you had to pay the price later.
A choice no ordinary mage would make.
But it was different for the Resistance.
For those constantly hunted by Black Wing, stationary mages couldn't guarantee survival.
In the end, they had no choice but to contract with the Grim Reaper and become Battle Mages.
Of course, that didn't make them weak. If they were, they wouldn't be the Resistance's secret card.
Their survival prowess far outstripped ordinary mages.
And with such survivability came tremendous combat performance.
"Wow, to think I'd get to meet the con artist El Pam like this. Nice to meet you. I'm Albya."
Albya, now greeting El Pam, was a 6th Circle Battle Mage.
She was one of those leading the Battle Mage legion alongside the disciples of Henriette, the current top Battle Mage at 7th Circle.
She had earned the moniker Wing Killer for slaying countless Black Wing combat troops.
"No one hunts Black Wing better than me."
That was the greeting she gave El Pam.
It wasn't in a good way.
It was a warning, instead.
El Pam, if you betray us or harbor anything like it, I'll show you why they call me Wing Killer.
"I'm El Pam."
El Pam showed no particular reaction to the warning.
He had no intention of betraying them anyway.
"But Cheki, you sure about this? Bringing in an outsider so suddenly could lead to info leaks, you know?"
The Resistance thought differently, however.
Cheki knew that too.
"It's fine."
Even so, he stated confidently.
"We've maintained airtight security. There's no way Black Wing will find out about this."
3.
- There's no way Black Wing will find out about this.
At the voice coming through the speaker, the old man in the white robe—white-haired with a white mustache—lightly adjusted the glasses he wore.
The sight was somewhat comical, in a way.
Especially the red hair tie bundling his receding hair, which made him look a bit off in the head.
But no one in the world saw him as comical.
Naturally.
He was the mad scientist Gelimer, after all.
Perhaps the one who had killed the most people in Maple World: the worst mass murderer!
That made his comical appearance more chilling than funny.
"Looks like the Resistance brats found that Mystic Gate."
Gelimer knew every move the Resistance made.
Something that would shock them if they knew.
"If I could, I'd wipe them out right now."
The fact that Gelimer knew this much meant Black Wing could strike a fatal blow to the Resistance anytime.
In other words, there was a reason he hadn't, even though he could.
"That would ruin the plan His Excellency is preparing."
The reason was, naturally, the Black Mage.
"And the Legion Commander seat would slip away."
Gelimer was aiming for a spot as the Black Mage's Legion Commander, one of his closest aides.
The deal was already done.
"I finally dealt with Orca and claimed this position."
Wing Master Orca!
After eliminating her, the owner of Black Wing, the Black Mage's Legion Commanders naturally came to him.
There, they made a deal.
If Gelimer succeeded with the plan he was preparing, they would accept him as a Legion Commander.
In such a situation, interfering with the Black Mage's 800-year plan would ruin everything.
"Still, leaving them be like this doesn't sit right."
But letting the Resistance proceed unchecked wasn't pleasing to Gelimer either.
If they succeeded, it would massively disrupt the project he was working on.
So Gelimer asked.
"What do you all think?"
To the subordinates lined up before him.
But the subordinates didn't answer.
They couldn't.
The subordinates before him were machines, androids.
To be precise, unlike the androids from the alchemists' city of Magatia, these were far superior: Generoids.
Beings without emotion, existing only to perfectly execute Gelimer's orders!
Naturally, no Generoid here offered an opinion.
Gelimer didn't want one anyway.
No opinion mattered besides that of a great genius like himself.
"Use a Martyr? No reason to waste something so crude."
It was just musing aloud.
"Use Letioxin? Effective, but then it's too obvious I did it."
Chilling musing.
"Let's go with something simple. Tampering with the Mystic Gate's difficulty a bit seems best."
And soon, the musing ended.
"Centaurus King. Yes, swap it with that one."