Chapter 36
Chapter 36
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 36
Chapter Title: Snow Hell (3)
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Adventurers say it.
“When adventuring, what decides life or death isn’t ability—it’s experience.”
That experience matters more than anything.
But in the Mystic Gate era, building up that experience was far harder than it seemed.
There were simply too many different kinds of monsters beyond the Mystic Gates.
You might have tons of experience fighting monsters in general, but experience against any one specific type? Not so much.
Still, experience could more than make up for any shortfall in raw ability.
So what happens when someone with more than enough ability also has that experience?
“Come on!”
The El Pam party was demonstrating the answer right now.
Screeeeech!
Over a hundred Cold Eyes blanketed the snow-choked forest, which in turn smothered everything else.
It was no exaggeration to call it a hell of snow—and in that hell, the El Pam party showed not a hint of fear.
“I’m Dibo, hero of the polearm!”
Dibo didn’t retreat from the charging Cold Eyes.
Instead, he charged right back at them.
“Dibo, don’t go it alone!”
Kiri called from behind him.
“Ralph, say something!”
“Split their heads clean. Magic stones are a pain to pick up if they shatter. And keep the hides as pristine as you can. Cold Eye pelts fetch a good price.”
Ralph brought up the rear.
And so the three of them, clustered together, began sweeping away the onrushing Cold Eyes like so much trash.
There was nothing difficult about it.
They formed a tight triangular formation.
Screeeeech!
“Slash Blaster!”
“Solar Slash!”
“Two thousand mesos apiece!”
Each mercilessly crushed the Cold Eyes lunging at them.
Screeeeech!
The sight of the Cold Eyes shrieking in agony as they were pulverized was gruesome beyond words.
But the Cold Eyes weren’t content to just take it lying down.
Screeeeech!
Screeeeeeeeech!
Instead of cowering at their comrades’ deaths, they flew into a rage—and that rage stirred every Cold Eye nearby.
Screee!
Screeeee!
They swarmed in, forming an encirclement around Dibo, Kiri, and Ralph.
Dozens of Cold Eyes made for an imposing ring.
Worse, the snow was so thick with them that it was impossible to tell where one ended and the next began. It looked for all the world like they were surrounded by hundreds, even thousands.
The entire world seemed to be nothing but Cold Eyes.
A sight that could freeze any fighter’s resolve solid.
“Okay!”
But the El Pam party members weren’t fazed in the slightest.
They had no reason to be.
As they’d said—they were the El Pam party.
“Boss, got ’em all rounded up!”
The moment the three herded the Cold Eyes into a bunch, El Pam’s enhanced Fire Arrow sprang into motion.
Fwoooosh!
The blazing arrow darted like a swallow, tearing into the Cold Eyes’ bodies like a serpent.
It shredded their tough hides like they were paper.
Even bolstered by Magic Acceleration, this was power beyond reason.
And it was every bit as unreasonable as it seemed.
‘Two Phoenix Feathers. The effect’s as advertised.’
El Pam was wielding the enhanced Fire Arrow, and in his inventory sat two feathers from a phoenix—a unique-grade item that would make anyone gasp just to see one, let alone two.
Thanks to those two Phoenix Feathers, the power of El Pam’s fire magic had surged by more than 30 percent.
Of course, the most unreasonable thing of all was El Pam himself.
The Last Adventurer.
The one who had faced Hontail—the dragon no one else could conquer—and lived.
Before him, the difficulty of any Mystic Gate was meaningless. Worthless.
‘My senses are sharper than ever.’
And El Pam was still improving.
Stronger now than he’d been as the Last Adventurer.
Sure, the number of his circles, the items in his possession, and the skills at his command were incomparable to back then.
But his raw strength? No better than before.
What had advanced was his control over Telekinesis.
‘The tip of this enhanced Fire Arrow feels clearer than ever.’
Simply manipulating a Fire Arrow with Telekinesis put him in the realm of the greatest Telekinesis mage alive.
But El Pam had taken it a step further.
‘Even in this state, Revolver is possible.’
El Pam began spinning the enhanced Fire Arrow.
It was an absurd attempt.
Rotating a regular Fire Arrow was one thing—doing it to an enhanced one was on another level entirely.
Magic Acceleration’s primary boon was increased speed for spells, after all.
Spinning an enhanced Fire Arrow with Revolver was like the difference between spinning thread while walking and doing it at a sprint.
The real problem came after the spin.
You had no choice but to accelerate even harder.
That was why, before his return, El Pam had never quite managed to apply Revolver properly to an enhanced Fire Arrow.
It had ended in failure.
Roooar!
But now, the enhanced Fire Arrow began to spin.
It didn’t stop there.
‘Focus.’
Still spinning at high speed, it started weaving the path El Pam dictated.
At last, the fire arrow hurtled toward the Cold Eyes.
Kaboom kaboom kaboom!
The instant it struck, the Cold Eye’s body shredded into ribbons.
Literally.
Just like trees mulched to splinters before a raging tornado.
Kaboom kaboom kaboom!
Their impossibly tough hides, flesh, guts, muscles—body and all—tore apart into nothing.
“Wh-what?”
Dibo, locked in combat, along with Kiri and Ralph—all three stared in slack-jawed disbelief.
“Did the Cold Eye just explode?”
From their perspective, that’s exactly what it looked like.
An utterly unimaginable sight.
But they didn’t have time to gawk.
“All clear.”
The Cold Eye El Pam had snagged was the last one in the encirclement.
“B-boss? What the hell was that?”
“Nothing much.”
El Pam offered no further explanation.
“Just practicing something.”
It was his first success, but there was no guarantee it would hold.
Until he mastered it completely, it wasn’t a proper technique yet.
Above all, El Pam knew better.
‘Focus on the hunt for now.’
This wasn’t the time to get caught up in his own progress.
No—truth be told, El Pam had always been that kind of adventurer.
He had never once felt joy in his own growth or advancement. He couldn’t.
In the Maple World after monsters poured out of the Mystic Gates, getting stronger just meant encountering even deadlier foes.
Nothing more, nothing less.
“On to the next hunting ground.”
El Pam knew that, so he moved—and his companions raised no objections.
Whether they had questions or not didn’t matter.
“Yes, boss.”
Here, following El Pam’s lead was all that counted.
“Head this way.”
“I’ll take point.”
So they moved toward the direction El Pam indicated, without a moment’s hesitation.
The El Pam party pressed on.
“Lord Nir.”
In their wake appeared Viper Nir and his men.
“A coin dropped.”
“Which way?”
“That direction.”
Viper Nir turned his head at the words, his eyes gleaming like a serpent sighting prey.
6.
“There.”
A forest buried in snow.
“An igloo.”
One of the most vital survival skills in a place like this was building an igloo.
For one thing, the inside was warmer than you’d expect.
At the same time, to most monsters’ eyes, an igloo just looked like a big snowball.
Perfect camouflage.
Of course, it was a different story against fellow adventurers.
“What’s the plan?”
To Viper Nir, that igloo might as well have been a jar with a mouse trapped inside.
The mouse’s fate rested in Nir’s hands.
Naturally, he intended to catch it.
“Just one entrance.”
It wouldn’t be hard.
“I’ll hit the igloo entrance with Poison Mist.”
Poison to catch a mouse in a poison jar—what could be more effective?
Of course, Nir wasn’t letting his guard down.
“We take them down clean.”
This wasn’t some casual adventurer hunt.
“For the Black Mage.”
Service to the Black Mage.
A holy act of devotion.
Not a speck of error could be tolerated.
That was why Nir devised an even surer plan.
“The moment I deploy Poison Mist at the entrance, they’ll sense it and come rushing out. That’s when Joey, Eggro—you two charge straight in and handle them.”
He committed two of his men.
It wasn’t a simple assignment.
Nir’s Poison Mist could drop a Cold Eye in seconds flat.
Adventurers were no different.
Exposure without an antidote meant certain death.
“Yes.”
“Yes.”
Joey and Eggro—Nir’s two subordinates—nodded without hesitation.
They embraced death willingly.
And Nir accepted it as a matter of course.
This was what it meant to be a follower of the Black Mage.
Lives gladly sacrificed for his resurrection—that most sacred goal.
Never a shred of pity for those who fell along the way.
It was no different now.
Nir spoke calmly.
“The instant you’re exposed to my Poison Mist.”
He calmly foretold the victims’ gruesome end.
“That’s when they’ll start vomiting blood.”
It happened in that instant.
“Cough!”
The moment Nir spoke and drew breath—he coughed.
It wasn’t just any cough.
“Cough!”
A massive spray of blood came with it.
He convulsed and collapsed face-first into the snow.
“Lord Nir!”
His men stared in shock, too stunned to react properly.
‘What the—?’
It was a scenario they couldn’t have dreamed of.
Fwoooosh!
They only started moving when one of them took a Fire Arrow to the back.
Kaboom kaboom kaboom!
Leather armor met Fire Arrow with a screech like a drill boring through steel.
“Gah!”
A death rattle followed.
“We’re under attack!”
Only then did Nir’s men snap to action.
They whipped their heads toward the arrow’s origin.
And that was when they saw it.
Shunk!
The Fire Arrow burrowing straight into their eyeballs.
“Gaaah!”
“My eye!”
The victims screamed and crumpled.
In a flash, all five—including Viper Nir—were down.
Five remained.
But they didn’t panic.
They recognized it for what it was.
“Ambush!”
Countermeasures kicked in instantly.
Years of training, hard-earned experience, inborn talent—it was flawless.
“Brace for follow-ups!”
Excellent work.
Fwoooosh!
“Fire Arrow!”
Just one problem.
“Shields up—”
Stab!
Their foe operated beyond all norms.
‘F-Fire Arrow... c-c-curving?’
Before that norm-shattering force, the remaining five crumpled helplessly.
One survivor.
“Gurgle...”
Viper Nir, convulsing in his own poison.
And then he saw it.
“A few questions. Don’t bother answering.”
Thump thump!
“Your heart will do it for you.”
El Pam.
His face.