Chapter 25
Chapter 25
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 25
Chapter Title: Unique Item (3)
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5.
Adventurers have one unbreakable rule.
“You’ve got to have at least one trump card to pull out at the final moment. Only then can you call yourself a true adventurer.”
El Pam knew the importance of that rule better than anyone.
He had witnessed the outcomes firsthand, time and again—those who followed it and those who didn’t.
That was why, before entering the 100-man Mystic Gate, he had prepared his own trump card.
‘Magic stone.’
None other than a magic stone.
Not just any magic stone, but a substantial quantity—and powerful ones at that.
Boss monster magic stones, to be precise.
They were outrageously expensive, of course. He’d burned through every mesos he’d saved, plus what he’d borrowed from the Gapor Merchant Group.
Even so, the reason he’d gone to such lengths was straightforward.
‘With these magic stones, I can form the 3rd Circle anytime I want.’
Others needed some epiphany to advance their circle, no matter how many stones they swallowed. Not El Pam.
In short, he had deliberately held off on opening his 3rd Circle.
The reason was simple.
‘But the instant I do, Red-grade Mystic Gates become off-limits.’
Entry restrictions on Mystic Gates.
With no telling what opportunities might arise in Red-grade gates, there was no point forcing it.
Yet now, El Pam played his trump card.
Naturally, he planned to extract every bit of value from it—to make that steep price worthwhile.
“Nice to meet you.”
That was why he had appeared before Jer himself.
“I’m El Pam. I’ve got a few questions for you.”
El Pam wanted information.
It wouldn’t be easy, of course.
Jer—sword-pierced, death staring him down, wracked with agony—let out a laugh at El Pam’s words.
No torture would loosen his tongue. That’s what his laugh said.
“You’ll never get what you want out of my mouth.”
El Pam nodded at that.
“Yeah. I know.”
He meant it.
“I know exactly what the Black Mage’s followers are like.”
Before his return to the past, he’d faced them countless times. Dealt with them up close.
You couldn’t approach them like normal adventurers.
“Better than you think.”
They were fanatics.
Deranged zealots obsessed with the Black Mage.
Any “information” from their lips was tainted—lies, decoys.
Worse than useless. Actively misleading.
So El Pam held zero expectations for whatever came out of this one’s mouth.
“I know you don’t have anything vital anyway.”
The network of the Black Mage’s followers ran deeper and more tangled than any low-rank grunt could grasp.
“The puppet master’s obvious enough.”
Above all, El Pam knew.
“It’s Evok, head of the Kania Merchant Group—one of Lith Harbor’s top ten.”
Their backer.
Thump thump!
‘H-how…?’
Jer’s heart pounded wildly at El Pam’s words.
“That’s the one.”
The reaction El Pam had been waiting for.
“No need to answer. Your heartbeat’s doing it for you.”
Lie detection—the skill he’d honed against Black Mage zealots.
“Ten companions?”
Thump!
“Fifteen?”
Thump thump!
“Fifteen it is. Kir still alive?”
Thump thump!
“Pursuit heading that way right now?”
He jabbed a finger at one spot. The heartbeat confirmed it, and El Pam nodded.
At that instant, the Fire Arrow he’d summoned plunged into Jer’s remaining right eye.
That was about when it happened.
“Boss!”
Dibo burst in.
“Sorry! The commotion aggroed the Ribbon Pigs nearby!”
Thud thud thud!
No sooner said than the heavy hoofbeats of Ribbon Pigs rumbled in.
Roughly twenty of them.
Manageable if they had to, but no cakewalk.
“Let’s bail!”
With other priorities like now, fleeing was the smart play.
But El Pam didn’t.
No need.
“Dibo.”
He was a 3rd Circle adventurer now.
“Time to hunt.”
“Huh?”
Nothing left in this Mystic Gate posed a threat.
“Fire Arrow.”
6.
Fwoosh!
A lone fire arrow arced through the air, its blazing tip crowned by an armored knight.
Kir.
‘Damn.’
The Cygnus Knights trainee spotted it only when it was nearly upon her.
No dodging it. It slammed into her right pauldron.
Clang!
Her solid plate took the brunt, dulling the impact.
Just a shallow puncture.
Wound depth? Barely a scratch. Battlefield scratches didn’t even register that.
The problem? Fire Arrow.
Sizzle!
It seared the flesh around the gash.
Worse, it lingered—fanning the burn, amplifying the agony.
And the spot? Shoulder plate. Her armored arm couldn’t reach.
One option: grit it out.
Grit.
Kir endured.
Wasn’t even that tough.
The trials to join the Cygnus Knights were brutal, after all.
So all she felt was rage.
‘That backstabbing bastard Pittin.’
Fury at the traitor who’d poisoned their food to slaughter them.
But she didn’t lose herself to it.
‘I have to warn them. Traitor in the Knights.’
If anything, she grasped how dire this was. No simple mess.
That resolve dragged her forward—past the pain-screams begging for blackout.
She bolted.
Full tilt.
Clang!
Fire Arrows streaked from afar, battering her armor.
Pain swelled. Legs didn’t stop.
She ran on.
‘The exit.’
Relentlessly.
‘Find the exit.’
Without end.
But nothing lasts forever.
Her moment arrived.
No more arrows pinging her plate. No pursuers in sight.
Then—a wall.
Oink oink!
Hundreds of Ribbon Pigs deep.
‘Ah.’
She knew it instantly.
The end.
She wouldn’t greet it meekly.
Sword up.
She shouted.
“Rising Sun!”
A sun-mimic orb bloomed overhead and detonated.
Shimmer!
Light shards bathed her eyes, tinting them solar gold.
Soul Master skill of the Cygnus Knights—Rising Sun, triggered.
Her cooled body ignited. Blood surged hot.
Strength flooded in.
Oink oink!
The Ribbon Pigs? Unfazed by her shift.
Stimulated, more like.
Light hit these fly-reactive beasts like a thunderclap.
Grooo!
They charged. Kir met them sword-first.
“Solar Slash!”
Her blade glowed cherry-red mid-swing.
Not illusion.
Swoosh!
It carved the oncoming hog’s hide—tough as nails—like tenderloin.
Sizzle!
Grilling meat stench wafted from the stump.
An adventurer would’ve shuddered.
Solar Slash packed punch, sure—but the burns it inflicted defied potions, heals. Untreatable hell.
Pain beyond words.
Why the world dreads Cygnus Knights.
Terror beyond adventurers. Beyond monsters.
Ribbon Pigs included.
Squeal!
Hogs cleaved by her sword thrashed in shrieking torment.
Power undeniable.
Squeeeeal!
Numbers, though—over a hundred still thundering to crush her.
“Empress Cygnus.”
Kir murmured.
“Be eternal.”
Her final vow.
That instant—
“Polearm Hero Dibo!”
A voice boomed.
“Making my entrance!”
Dibo vaulted in behind her, polearm whirling with flair.
Flair with fangs.
Whoosh!
Squeal!
Slash Blaster-loaded polearm. Hogs screamed before it.
Dibo pressed back-to-back with her.
“Came to help!”
No glad smile from Kir.
Ice in her eyes.
‘Is he insane?’
She’d seen Dibo’s profile. Knew he’d been no adventurer till lately—just survival-tech bait.
Now charging into her overload to “help”?
Help appreciated. But curse-worthy timing.
“What the hel—”
“Life debt: one million mesos. Cygnus trainee—you can swing that, right?”
Dibo’s follow-up shut her up.
No questions either.
‘Lunatic.’
Common sense on a psycho? Insanity.
Oink oink!
Meantime, Ribbon Pigs ringed them tight.
Kir reset her mindset.
‘Hold till I can’t.’
Two beat one, regardless.
“Stick to me, trust me. I’ll get us out.”
Words out—then she saw.
Fwoosh!
Fire Arrow darting swallow-swift.
Squeal!
Piercing that ironclad hog skull like butter.
‘W-what…?’
Steel-willed Kir blanked.
Unreal.
‘How?’
Living-swallow Fire Arrow. One-shotting hogs. Dozen-plus corpses in a blink.
Dazed Kir—shock short-lived.
Fwoosh!
Second Arrow joined. Twin darts dancing—she quit thinking.
‘Ah.’
Snapped back, she spotted.
“El Pam.”
A man emerging from a hundred-odd Ribbon Pig corpses.