Chapter 240
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 240
Chapter Title: 67. Guardian Angel Slime (8)
20.
The moment a Bomb Slime appeared near El Pam, the first to notice was Miner.
“Damn it!”
It was something she hadn’t anticipated.
She had definitely cleared the area.
And she’d been vigilantly guarding El Pam’s surroundings without a break.
Of course, there had been one small slip-up.
She’d been momentarily entranced, staring at the wondrous magic El Pam was displaying.
But in that instant, she didn’t berate herself for the mistake.
Nor did she blurt out a “Why?”
She knew better than anyone that there wasn’t time for that.
She pulled the trigger first.
Bang!
The bullet flew and embedded itself in one of the Bomb Slimes charging toward El Pam.
Boom!
The Bomb Slime exploded immediately.
That blast alerted Dibo and Ralph right away.
“Boss!”
That El Pam was in trouble.
At that realization, Dibo gritted his teeth.
That was all.
Dibo didn’t move from his spot. He didn’t rush over to save El Pam.
He knew better.
‘I have to stick to my role here.’
His job wasn’t to rescue El Pam—it was to lure the slime wave alongside Kiri, drawing in even greater numbers of slimes.
So El Pam could operate on the Guardian Angel Slime.
Boom!
Meanwhile, more Bomb Slimes kept detonating, and with each explosion, Dibo’s face grew stiffer.
The blasts were getting closer to El Pam.
‘Damn it.’
That was when it happened.
KABOOM!
An explosion far more massive than any before rocked the forest.
‘No way!’
Even Dibo couldn’t stay put at that sound.
No one could survive a blast of that magnitude!
And if El Pam didn’t make it, the operation couldn’t continue.
Around then.
“It stopped!”
Ralph, who’d been on standby, shouted and pointed at the sky.
The Blizzard spell had halted.
Seeing that, Dibo hesitated no longer.
“Boss!”
He charged toward El Pam.
‘Just stay alive!’
He prayed desperately.
But as he neared the epicenter of the explosion, his prayers faltered.
The forest was utterly devastated!
El Pam’s survival seemed impossible.
In normal circumstances, it’d be time to accept death and retreat.
But Dibo couldn’t do that.
“Boss!”
He shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Boss! Are you alive? Make any sound—just let me know!”
Desperately.
Praying from the bottom of his heart.
“Any sound at all! I’m here!”
“Be quiet.”
“Yes! Quiet…… Yes?”
Dibo, mid-shout, whipped his head around in shock at the voice he heard.
And there he was.
“Don’t make a racket. Wasn’t that the advice I gave you when we first met?”
El Pam, perfectly fine.
Dibo’s face twisted in astonishment.
“W-What, Boss? H-How are you alive?”
“Were you hoping I’d die?”
“What? No, of course not! But that was a massive explosion, wasn’t it?”
El Pam glanced around lightly and replied to Dibo’s vehement denial.
“I caused it. Used Explosion.”
“Oh.”
Only then did Dibo understand.
Why El Pam was unscathed.
At the same time, he thought:
‘You gave up.’
Using Explosion here meant abandoning the Guardian Angel Slime strategy.
And rightly so—operating on it while casting Explosion was impossible.
He could do it, technically.
But it would scatter his focus, halting the Blizzard spell inevitably.
One or the other had to go.
‘Survival comes first.’
And that wasn’t even worth debating.
Of course, it wasn’t good news.
All their life-risking efforts up to now had been rendered pointless.
The bigger issue was that retrying wouldn’t be easy.
Dibo knew it too.
‘That monster won’t fall for the same trick twice.’
The next attempt would be far harder.
But he didn’t dwell on it long.
‘Still, if it’s Boss, he’ll figure something out.’
As long as El Pam was alive, they could always plan for next time.
That was when it hit him.
“Ah!”
Dibo shouted as realization dawned.
“Boss, Kiri’s in danger!”
Right now, the most vulnerable was Kiri, being chased by the slime wave.
El Pam responded:
“I know.”
“Huh?”
That was when.
“Fire Arrow.”
The moment El Pam drew Fire Arrow, it shot forward at astonishing speed.
Fwoosh!
It began shredding the slimes in the wave pursuing Kiri.
In an instant.
The thousands chasing her burst like popped balloons.
Only then did Kiri notice the situation and swiftly rejoined her comrades.
Naturally, her expression wasn’t great.
‘It failed.’
El Pam’s peril had doomed the Guardian Angel Slime strategy.
But she didn’t despair or wallow.
“We’ll try again next time.”
“It was our first shot anyway. We’ll get it next round.”
“You bet! With Boss alive, what’s the problem? That thing’s as good as dead!”
Everyone looked ahead to the next attempt.
To his comrades, El Pam said:
“There is no next time.”
Dibo replied:
“Don’t worry! I’ll make it happen somehow! Slime wave? Hell, I’ll lure ’em for a whole month! You just focus on the magic!”
To boost morale.
But El Pam’s reason was different.
“The strategy succeeded.”
“Huh?”
“No need for another shot at the Guardian Angel Slime.”
At that, everyone turned to look at it, finally realizing.
‘Its eyes went dark.’
The Guardian Angel Slime wasn’t moving an inch.
It was dead.
‘He really got it?’
Rather than cheers, doubts filled them, Dibo included.
Truth be told, when El Pam had declared the operation and explained the plan, that tiny doubt had lingered in everyone’s minds.
Could it really work?
The plan was beyond absurd—it was incomprehensible.
Of course, it was just a tiny doubt. Their faith in El Pam dwarfed it, so they’d charged in without hesitation.
And now, with it all over, that doubt resurfaced.
Then came the chills.
‘He got it!’
They’d succeeded.
‘We did it!’
They—five of them—had slain a monster legendary adventurers couldn’t touch even combined.
“Boss!”
As his overcome comrades nearly cheered.
“Everyone.”
El Pam cut in.
“From now on, we run full speed.”
“Huh? But we got it, right?”
To their question, El Pam answered:
“A wave’s coming.”
“A wave?”
“The moment the Guardian Angel Slime collapses, the acidic fluid filling its body will surge like a tidal wave.”
“Ah!”
And soon, they all saw it.
Boom!
The Guardian Angel Slime exploding.
21.
Right after realizing El Pam’s “preparation” wasn’t anything special—just a batshit insane stunt—the adventurers took a break.
A deep one.
“Sleep as deep as you can.”
They left only minimal sentries and all crashed hard.
That was one hallmark of veteran adventurers.
Resting harder than anyone when it was time to rest.
So even the sentries kept watch minimally.
They didn’t wake the sleeping adventurers for minor threats.
They shrank their patrol radius too, hunkering down like bears in hibernation.
That’s why.
“The Guardian Angel Slime.”
“Yeah? What’s up?”
“It’s gone.”
“Gone?”
When the report came, the adventurers thought:
“Must’ve teleported.”
No big deal.
Normally, they’d send a search party, but not this time.
“Still, you never know, right?”
“Know what? That El Pam’s party took it down?”
“No way.”
They couldn’t find a reason to think so.
“Worse, if we poke that monster slime and it comes our way?”
Just more reason to hunker down.
So they rested again.
“Rest when you can. Who knows when the next damn fight hits.”
Time passed.
One hour, two, three.
By then, some adventurers started stirring.
“Break’s dragging on?”
“Why’s it so quiet?”
That’s when they sensed it.
“Something’s off.”
Something defied their common sense.
Of course, some argued:
“Whatever it is, more rest is better, right? Lucky breaks like this might not come again.”
Let’s milk the downtime.
And that became the consensus.
“An hour more at best anyway.”
They figured trouble was imminent.
Time flowed on. One hour, two, three!
Now they’d rested so long they couldn’t sit still anymore.
Adventurers opened their eyes. Every last one.
Their faces were uniform—not refreshed from sweet slumber, but furrowed brows and squinted eyes.
Everyone felt the wrongness.
“Search for the Guardian Angel Slime.”
Naturally, they formed search parties and scoured for it.
“East?”
“Nothing.”
“West?”
“Nowhere in sight.”
But no matter how hard they looked, no trace.
At this point, they should’ve considered it.
That El Pam’s party might’ve slain it.
But no adventurer could entertain that. It was impossible.
“Keep searching. That massive thing can’t hide forever.”
In the end, everyone mobilized for the hunt.
A day passed, then two.
Even after a week, no sign anywhere, and now they had to face it.
“No way El Pam’s party……”
“Hey! Get real!”
Most still denied it.
“Five people! Just five, doing what we couldn’t in over ten days? Come on!”
No one could refute the logic.
That was when.
One searcher from the Guardian Angel Slime hunt came sprinting back in a panic, and everyone knew.
‘They found it!’
They’d located the Guardian Angel Slime.
“So, where is it?”
To the confident crowd, the adventurer gasped:
“……We found fur.”
“Yeah, so where is it?”
“P-Portal! An exit portal!”
The place had been cleared.