Chapter 211
Chapter 211
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 61
Chapter Title: Party Re-formation (2)
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4.
Most adventurers took pride in the fact that they were adventurers.
“Cygnus Knights? They're strong. But I bet I'm better at adventuring? I risk my life, after all.”
Some adventurers even displayed that pride in front of no one other than the Cygnus Knights themselves.
“Resistance? They're impressive.”
However, there was one group against whom that pride didn't hold.
“Because they risk their lives for freedom.”
What the Resistance sought to achieve was something that seemed distant yet profoundly noble, even in the eyes of adventurers.
As such, adventurers who encountered the Resistance often felt intimidated in many ways.
Of course, it wasn't solely because of that nobility.
The feats accomplished by the Resistance seemed like another world entirely to adventurers hailing from Victoria Island or the Ossyria Continent.
Just the sight of a Mechanic's metal armor alone left most adventurers dumbfounded.
“I'm here!”
But Dibo was different.
From the moment he stepped into the Resistance's secret headquarters, he showed not the slightest hint of intimidation.
No, far from intimidated, he spoke before El Pam with more confidence than anyone.
And that confidence was far from unfounded.
“The disciple of the Polearm Hero, Dibo, has arrived!”
It would have been stranger if he lacked confidence after training under and earning the recognition of none other than the Polearm Hero Aran.
What was more, Dibo was now at the 6th Circle.
A 6th Circle that demanded recognition no matter where he went in Maple World!
“You're late.”
“Huh?”
However, Dibo's confidence crumbled the instant he laid eyes on those around El Pam.
“Gold-eyes, what are you doing here?”
“What?”
“No, why are you here?”
“Can't I be?”
With those words, Miner displayed his own wrist.
Six rings, plain as day.
“Circle up? How'd you do it?”
“How? By risking my life in training.”
But it didn't end there.
“Ralph, you too, don't tell me?”
“That's right. 6th Circle.”
Ralph had reached the 6th Circle as well.
“You risked your life for it too?”
“Not exactly.”
“Then what did you do?”
“I liquidated everything I'd earned up to that point. For meso. And in that moment, I shuddered.”
“Shuddered?”
“At the realization that if I didn't reach the 6th Circle, I'd never earn that much meso again. I agonized over it for days, then opened my eyes—and there I was, at the 6th Circle.”
Dibo wasn't the only one wearing an incredulous expression at that explanation; even Miner, who had been listening quietly beside him, looked utterly baffled.
He had broken through to the 6th Circle—the ultimate barrier—purely out of greed for money?
For Dibo and Miner, who had trained to the brink of death under the likes of Captain Kairin, the pinnacle of prowess, and the Polearm Hero Aran, it was ridiculous in every way.
“Impressive.”
It was so absurd that the two simply let it slide.
Then they noticed.
“So Kiri couldn't make it?”
They were still one short.
Everyone's expressions hardened at the realization.
No matter how one sliced it, it didn't feel good knowing they couldn't all gather.
“Kiri will come.”
“What?”
But the moment everyone turned at El Pam's words, a new figure appeared.
It was Kiri.
The instant they saw her, everyone's faces registered shock.
“Kiri, you?”
“You reached the 6th Circle too?”
Dibo and Miner, stunned by her arrival.
In contrast, Ralph and El Pam reacted differently.
El Pam knew immediately.
‘Those armors—they're Mikhail's weapons.’
Kiri had shown up armed in a way that ridiculously exceeded even his wildest expectations.
‘To this degree.’
Of course, Ralph didn't know a thing.
He simply sensed it.
“Sniff sniff!”
“Ralph, why are you sniffing all of a sudden?”
“An incredible money scent.”
“Money scent?”
“The most tremendous money scent I've ever smelled, top of the list.”
That Kiri's gear was anything but ordinary.
“Everyone.”
In any case, El Pam's party was now fully assembled.
“Thank you all for coming.”
“Come on, Boss. Of course we'd come.”
“Naturally. I went through that bullshit just to get here.”
All of them at the 6th Circle.
El Pam was truly awestruck. At the same time, he felt more moved than ever.
‘Comrades who willingly stake their lives for me.’
He could now feel the extent of their efforts.
‘I’ll make it happen, for their sake too.’
Failure was not an option for him.
And to ensure that, he had called them.
“I'll explain the situation now.”
To him, no cards were more reliable than these comrades.
“The target is Blue grade.”
“Hey, stating the obvious, Boss.”
Dibo let out a chuckle at El Pam's words.
“So, where is it?”
“Right here.”
“Huh?”
El Pam offered no further explanation.
Words were pointless from here on.
“Follow me.”
5.
“My god.”
The moment they laid eyes on the Mystic Gates arrayed in the underground training hall of the Resistance's massive secret headquarters, Dibo and the others momentarily lost their ability to speak.
“Mystic Gates?”
Not just any Mystic Gates—they had been transported to a desired location. It was something they could never have imagined.
To them, El Pam laid it out.
How the Resistance had obtained the information, and how that information had gone awry.
And now, how they would tackle a new Mystic Gate amid that very crisis.
There were no questions in response to his thorough explanation.
Such staggering revelations were hard enough just to comprehend for El Pam's party.
“Boss.”
Only after some more time had passed did they finally snap out of it.
“Sounds like it'll be fun.”
Their eyes gleamed.
It wasn't genuine amusement.
It was resolve—an expression of their determination to confront this absurd ordeal head-on!
That was when it happened.
“Are you El Pam's party?”
A woman appeared.
A woman whose eyes were concealed by a black mask.
“Who are you?”
“It's Sigmund.”
“Who?”
“The Resistance Supreme Commander.”
“Huh? Who?”
Dibo and the others froze once more at Supreme Commander Sigmund's arrival.
El Pam was no exception.
‘She wouldn't be here without reason.’
It wasn't as shocking to him as it was to his comrades, but her presence was unexpected nonetheless.
‘A bad reason.’
Moreover, the chances of her appearance boding well for their current situation were slim.
No news is good news, after all.
“I've heard plenty about you. The ultimate experts who returned alive from Mystic Gates that everyone deemed impossible.”
El Pam nodded at her words.
“That's us.”
“So, El Pam—I want your opinion.”
“I'll answer anything.”
“The Mystic Gate you've chosen has one detail I couldn't mention back then.”
El Pam's eyes narrowed at her explanation.
“This is something I can't tell anyone—not even Resistance members.”
From her subsequent words, El Pam intuited it immediately.
It was extremely bad news.
And rightly so: the Resistance staked their lives on these Mystic Gates, so anything publicizable would have been shared without hesitation.
Information they were hiding?
It meant intel so lethal it could backfire the instant it was heard.
‘There's a wound.’
And for a Mystic Gate, the most damning intel was a wound within it.
“Was there a failure?”
“Yes, exactly.”
“Who?”
That wound served as the surest proof.
“The Maple Alliance.”
“Maple Alliance?”
“Precisely. Two years ago, the Cygnus Knights, Cross Hunters, Adventurers' Association, and our Resistance assembled a team to conquer this Mystic Gate. We failed. The world knows nothing of it. Those who died here were covered up as having retired for missions or gone into hiding for personal reasons.”
Proof of just how grueling a place it was.
El Pam's comrades fell silent at Supreme Commander Sigmund's explanation.
A Maple Alliance team meant a caliber far beyond what anyone could imagine.
‘My god.’
The fact that they concealed the failure implied the dead were exceptionally elite.
Otherwise, there'd be no reason to hide it.
El Pam, however, saw it differently.
‘Not a bad thing.’
He viewed the incident positively.
Not their deaths—no.
‘A team of that level means the items inside are on another level.’
It meant he could secure additional forces within that Mystic Gate.
Sure, their failure indicated a difficulty exceeding other Blue-grade gates.
‘Their failure doesn't matter.’
But whoever had failed before this point was irrelevant now.
He knew as much.
‘I’ll prepare something incomparable to what they had.’
6.
Gelimer, eavesdropping in real time on the Resistance's secret headquarters.
“The rats picked an interesting spot.”
The moment he learned which Mystic Gate the Resistance had selected as their next target, he broke into a smile.
“Looks like they're aiming to redeem their failure.”
He knew exactly what that place was.
He had no choice but to know.
“Heh heh, it was a splendid experiment.”
The Maple Alliance's failure there had been the direct result of his experiment.
“We confirmed Letioxin's effects.”
The outcome of his experiment to verify the potency of Letioxin, the poison into which he had poured his heart and soul!
Letioxin was a profoundly terrifying poison, moreover.
It wasn't merely a lethal toxin that claimed lives. The instant it took hold, one's sense of self and emotions vanished.
The moment of infection turned the victim into something akin to the androids or Generoids that Gelimer himself had created.
In a sense, even more horrifying.
Death ended in death alone, but this turned one into a veritable robot.
Naturally, once roboticized, the victim existed solely to execute assigned commands and objectives.
And who issued those commands and objectives? Naturally, him.
Gelimer!
That was why.
“They were all annihilated. Without exception.”
Even that formidable Maple Alliance lineup had crumbled with absurd ease.
The Cygnus Knights armed with their convictions, the adventurers, the Resistance—all became robotic comradeslayers before that poison.
“Heh heh heh.”
For Gelimer, it was a Mystic Gate laden with fond memories in many ways.
Thus, he smiled once more.
“Leave the rats be, and they'll die on their own.”
This time, he was certain.
Not some vague hunch.
“There won't be a next time.”
Gelimer knew that soon, an emissary from the Black Mage's legion commander would come seeking him.
He also knew that entity would issue a warning.
To stop manipulating the Mystic Gates at will.
The warning held no terror for him.
It was simply that he still required the backing of the Black Mage's followers.
‘Black Heaven will move soon. Then it all ends.’
To fulfill his grand ambition.
This was, ultimately, his final opportunity.
The last chance to personally exterminate the rats that had wounded a scientist's pride.
“And so, after much deliberation, I've arrived at the answer.”
That was the source of his certainty.
Gelimer intended to play his most powerful card right here.
“Mahyong—I'll gift you that dragon straight out of a nightmare.”