Chapter 47
Chapter 47
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 47
Chapter Title: Chapter 15. Mushmom (2)
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4.
"You're late."
The moment El Pam spoke those words, every member of the Miner Party wore the same expression.
They all looked dazed.
It was understandable.
The sudden assault of the vanishing Zombie Mushrooms, and the corpses of Zombie Mushrooms scattered everywhere.
At the end of it all, an exit—and El Pam's party waiting right in front of it.
None of it was something the Miner Party could have even dreamed of.
Amid that shock, Miner was the first to regain her senses.
She grasped the key point of the situation.
"...What do you want?"
The fact that they were waiting in front of the exit meant they surely wanted something.
And that was exactly why El Pam had waited.
"There were no corpses from Eagle Eye's party. That means they passed the first floor. Which means the second floor is even more difficult."
"So?"
"If you need help, use the red flare. I'll come."
That was the message he wanted to deliver.
"The fee is payable afterward."
It was an absurd statement.
To offer help to the Miner Party—no one else, but her, Kairin's disciple—and for a price, no less?
Yet Miner couldn't lash out in anger at those words.
The results around her proved otherwise.
'That guy's a monster.'
El Pam's party possessed the skill to turn this death trap, where Miner and her subordinates faced doom, into their playground.
'If he wanted, he could kill me and all my subordinates without breaking a sweat.'
Above all, this was inside the Mystic Gate.
Even if El Pam wiped out the Miner Party, there would be no issues.
'No, he wouldn't have needed to go to such lengths if he wanted to kill us.'
Honestly, if El Pam hadn't waited here and hadn't massacred the Zombie Mushrooms, the Miner Party would have wiped itself out on its own.
At that moment, Miner acknowledged it.
"Thanks for saving our lives."
That she had received help.
"But I won't beg for my life. If we die, we die."
Still, she had no intention of selling her pride.
El Pam wasn't surprised by her response.
'Golden Eye would react that way.'
He knew what kind of person she was from before his return to the past.
Naturally, he hadn't expected her to accept his offer.
The reason he made it anyway was simple.
'But Kairin is different.'
The Captain Kairin he knew cherished her disciple more than anyone. She would surely take some kind of action.
'She would have prepared a bargaining chip for negotiations with me. Without Golden Eye knowing.'
That was why El Pam had sent the message.
There was no need for further conversation now.
"Then we're moving on."
El Pam led his party away from the first floor stage filled with Zombie Mushrooms, heading to the second.
The Miner Party watched them go and did the same.
"Rest?"
"Enough."
"Then we're moving out."
Ten minutes after El Pam's party departed, the regrouped Miner Party stood before the exit.
Seeing it, Miner steeled her resolve.
'As long as there are no zombies.'
Once more, Miner crossed into the Mystic Gate—and soon saw it.
"Ah."
The same pitch-black forest landscape as the first floor.
The moment she saw it, Miner intuited.
'Zombies.'
What kind of monsters would appear here.
Uuuugh!
"Miner! Zombies incoming!"
Only one thing deviated from her prediction.
Uuuuugh!
"Zombie Ribbon Pigs!"
5.
Zombie Mushrooms were tricky monsters.
But that was only relative to other mushroom monsters. Among zombies, they weren't particularly difficult.
Any monster became dramatically harder to hunt the moment it turned into a zombie.
Uuuuugh!
The Zombie Ribbon Pigs were proof.
"Damn! These bastards' strength!"
For starters, Zombie Ribbon Pigs had far more power than Zombie Mushrooms—equivalent to six or seven combined, or more.
"Attack!"
"Their skin's too tough!"
Their defense was incomparable to Zombie Mushrooms, naturally.
If a Zombie Mushroom's body felt like mud, a Zombie Ribbon Pig's was like hardened clay.
You had to land a proper skill to kill them.
And it didn't end there.
"Damn Zombie Mushroom swarm!"
Mixed among the Zombie Ribbon Pigs were Zombie Mushroom packs, more numerous than on the first floor.
It was hell.
Of course, only for the Miner Party.
For El Pam's party, who had entered the second floor stage early, none of these elements were a problem.
They had the experience.
Experience hunting countless Zombie Mushrooms.
Dibo, tempered by that experience, displayed the power of one against a hundred—or more.
"Slash Blaster!"
Every time his polearm unleashed the skill, Zombie Mushroom bodies were literally pulverized.
Uuuuugh!
Of course, Zombie Ribbon Pigs endured unlike the mushrooms, but they weren't Dibo's targets anyway.
"Solar Slash!"
Kiri's blazing-hot sword effortlessly cleaved a Zombie Ribbon Pig in half.
Uuuuugh!
It didn't kill the Zombie Ribbon Pig, but that didn't matter.
Kwa-jik!
The fallen Zombie Ribbon Pig shattered under Ralph's devastating kick.
"Heal."
And Ralph didn't forget to cast Heal on the two.
It was perfect teamwork, like gears in a clock.
Uuuuugh!
Kiii!
Of course, three people alone couldn't handle thousands of charging Zombie Mushrooms and Zombie Ribbon Pigs.
All they could do was hold them back.
But that wasn't a problem.
Far from it—their goal was simply to block the incoming monsters.
"Fire Arrow."
Puhot!
El Pam's Fire Arrows were more than enough to finish off the swarming Zombie Mushrooms and Zombie Ribbon Pigs.
Uuuuugh!
The sight of El Pam's Fire Arrows sweeping the battlefield, hunting zombies, was spectacular.
Overwhelming.
'My god.'
Even Dibo, witnessing it closest, couldn't help but gape.
It wasn't just the spectacle itself.
'How is it even sharper than before?'
What shocked Dibo was that El Pam's Fire Arrows moved far more precisely than when they first met.
It wasn't an illusion.
'My telekinesis control has improved compared to before returning to the past.'
El Pam knew it too.
'Even more than during the Hontail fight.'
His telekinesis control had advanced.
It wasn't strange.
At the time of fighting Hontail, El Pam was still a growing adventurer.
One who had to grow just to survive.
And he died before reaching his limit.
'This is the first time I've honed such fine telekinesis control.'
Moreover, back then, survival left no room for proper training.
Now was different.
'This level of leisure is new too.'
El Pam had ample margin in every situation.
No joke.
Uuuuugh!
Kieeee!
Zombie Ribbon Pigs and Zombie Mushrooms swarmed from all sides, but they posed no threat to him.
Their cries were less than a lullaby.
Guarding him were:
"Come on!"
Dibo, disciple of the polearm hero Aran; Ralph, slayer of the Cygnus Knights' captain; and Kiri, whose skills were worthy of respect.
"Not a single step toward the boss!"
Reliable comrades fighting tooth and nail to protect him—there could be no safer setup.
Thus, El Pam could focus purely on telekinesis control.
'Sharper, faster.'
In that instant, El Pam's two flying Fire Arrows accelerated.
Faster.
They began speeding up.
'Huh? What?'
Soon, even Dibo struggled to track them with his eyes.
They no longer looked like arrows, but lines of flame.
Those fiery lines slashed across the field.
Thud!
Wherever the lines passed, Zombie Mushrooms and Zombie Ribbon Pigs collapsed like puppets with cut strings.
Before that sight, Dibo, Kiri, and Ralph lowered their weapons.
They abandoned the fight amid the fierce battle.
'My god.'
The zombies fell before even reaching them.
El Pam's firepower now overshadowed everyone else.
Silence descended.
In that silence, all eyes turned to El Pam.
Under those gazes, El Pam said calmly,
"Even I didn't expect this level."
Everyone let out incredulous laughs.
"Guess we can pick up the pace."
"Yes?"
"My firepower's at full capacity, so handling more at once won't be an issue."
"Ah, no, Boss? How does that follow?"
But at El Pam's next words, Dibo looked grimly at his two comrades.
"Hey, everyone, stop the Boss."
He was asking for backup.
Kiri responded to Dibo's plea.
"Fine. Let's go all the way."
"Hey, Kiri!"
"Good chance to build strength."
She saw it as a training opportunity.
"Strength? Hey, Ralph! She's talking crazy..."
"Lots of kills mean lots of magic stones!"
Ralph saw it as a chance for more money.
Faced with those two, Dibo looked exasperated.
"Am I the crazy one here?"
No one answered Dibo's complaint.
Kyuu!
"Huh?"
Mano, the snail hiding in El Pam's bosom, emerged.
The fact that the silent creature showed itself meant it smelled something valuable nearby.
And what that valuable item was, was obvious.
'High chance Eagle Eye's corpse is here.'
No more need to wonder where to go.
El Pam set the snail Mano on the ground, and it scurried off.
At a speed fit for walking a dog.
El Pam said,
"Follow it."
Thus, El Pam's party moved.
Uuuuugh!
Kiii!
Zombie swarms lunged at them, but they became cut-string puppets before El Pam's Fire Arrows.
Thanks to that, El Pam's party soon spotted it in record time.
"There."
Uuuuugh!
A zombie dangling from a vine in the forest trees, thrashing at the end.
"That's...?"
"Eagle Eye."
Kairin's disciple, the genius Eagle Eye, was there—turned into a zombie.
"...Why?"
Dibo voiced his doubt.
In such situations, they usually bash their own heads for a clean death.
Why stay, even as a zombie?
"To leave a legacy."
"Ah."
Hearing that, Dibo fell silent.
A zombie, in that wretched state, leaving something for whoever entered after.
It was the noblest sacrifice.
The only way to honor it was one.
Puhot!
El Pam's Fire Arrow pierced Eagle Eye's head.
Granting the death she wished.
And severing the vine holding her.
Thud!
Her corpse hit the ground, and El Pam approached.
He took the bag around her neck.
"Boss."
"A letter."
Inside was a letter and a necklace.
Two letters.
One a will.
"The攻略 guide."
The other contained everything Eagle Eye had seen and experienced here before dying.
El Pam handed it to Dibo, who paled upon reading it.
"B-Boss? The boss monster here's Zombie Mushmom?"
Kiri and even Ralph stiffened at his words.
It was inevitable.
Mushmom was a boss that spawned mushroom monsters with spores—one said to produce 100,000 in its lifetime, an unfathomable monster.
This place had gone unconquered for a year!
Zombie Mushrooms didn't even die properly?
The number of Zombie Mushrooms here was beyond imagination.
Of course, El Pam was different.
He already knew the boss was Zombie Mushmom.
More importantly, he had no time to worry about it now.
'Damn.'
He saw it.
'Artemis's Eye—that Eagle Eye had it.'
The identity of her unique item.
It was then.
Boom!
A sudden explosion rang out.
"Boss!"
And they saw it.
"Red light!"
A distress signal.