Chapter 52
Chapter 52
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 52
Chapter Title: Goldrich (2)
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4.
The difficulty of a Mystic Gate was generally proportional to the number of entrants allowed.
For an Orange-grade Mystic Gate, the 200-man version had the highest difficulty.
A 48-man one meant a difficulty lower than average.
Of course, that didn't mean you had to gather exactly 48 people to challenge the Mystic Gate.
Skilled adventurers ventured in with even fewer numbers.
And the more they did so, the greater the recognition they received.
In fact, among the titles acknowledged by adventurers, there was one for clearing a Mystic Gate with the smallest party size.
That was why people sent applause and cheers rather than jeers or sneers to those attempting such challenges.
They showed the proper respect to adventurers who didn't shy away from risk.
“El Pam's party entered? With just five people?”
“Crazy bastards, right?”
However, not a single person would confidently call El Pam's party's actions an adventure.
It was only natural.
“It's a 48-man gate! What do they think five people can do there!”
Challenging a place that required fifty entrants to clear with just a tenth of that number?
That wasn't adventuring—it was suicide.
And so, the moment El Pam's party committed suicide, Angri—the manager in charge of Jack Rich's Mystic Gate—declared,
“This is suicide. No rescue team will be dispatched. Stand by indefinitely from now on until El Pam's party dies.”
Do nothing.
Cold words, but justified ones.
No one could argue otherwise.
And that was exactly what El Pam had been aiming for.
5.
“From now on, this place belongs to us alone.”
After crossing the portal, a swamp stretched out before them.
In that swamp, where water rose up to their knees, no one among the four had much to say in response to El Pam's words.
“As I explained earlier.”
He had already laid it out.
El Pam had said that adventuring Jack Rich's Tomb this time would involve many external variables—extremely dangerous ones.
To eliminate those variables, they needed to attempt a solo run before the vanguard could fully assemble.
It was undoubtedly mad talk.
If any other adventurer had said it, their party members would have spat on the ground, cursed them out, and walked away on the spot.
But El Pam was the exception.
He delivered results.
That was why they trusted him.
“Boss.”
That trust hadn't wavered even now.
“It's a swamp.”
But the moment the swamp came into view, everyone's expressions inevitably hardened.
No exceptions.
Not even Dibo, Kiri, Ralph, or Miner.
It was unavoidable.
“Looks like things have gotten complicated.”
A swamp—this environment was as deadly a hindrance to adventurers as a snow-covered forest or a desert.
For starters, their feet sank in. Right up to just below the knees. Meaning proper movement was practically impossible.
Moreover, a swamp's grip was far stronger than snow or sand.
It posed less risk from heat or cold, but that didn't make it any less troublesome.
That was why.
“Hey, Pam. I think we need to change the plan.”
Miner stepped forward.
“Let's not push our luck here. Just hold out. If we hold out, the Nautilus's rescue team will come.”
Stay put.
“Once we head to the second floor, even the rescue team won't be able to follow.”
Especially once they moved to the second floor, the situation would change entirely.
A Mystic Gate allowed entry up to its capacity, but the moment everyone inside advanced to the second floor, no further entries were possible regardless of slots left.
Meaning the follow-up teams couldn't even get in.
“Boss, Gold Eyes has a point.”
Dibo agreed with Miner.
“Gold Eyes?”
“Yeah, Gold Eyes. She's got gold eyes, right?”
“Your tongue's too short or something?”
And just like that, Dibo and Miner clashed.
It wasn't surprising.
Dibo had been the one most vehemently opposed to Miner joining the party right up to the end.
And there was a reason for his opposition.
‘Trying to go toe-to-toe with the Boss? In your dreams.’
A party only needed one leader.
From that perspective, Miner was hardly the type to blindly follow El Pam's orders.
If anything, she was a leader of leaders, having commanded hundreds of subordinates.
Not just any hundreds, either—the vicious pack that was the Nautilus's pirates.
From Dibo's standpoint, there was no way he'd tolerate her trying to measure up to El Pam.
Miner felt the same.
‘Wanna throw down? Against me?’
She had no intention of backing down from the fight.
Which left only one outcome: collision.
“Enough.”
Ralph stepped in to halt their clash.
“Save the fighting for later.”
As he spoke, Ralph scanned their surroundings.
Shaa!
Like they'd been waiting, the eerie hiss unique to snakes slithered into the ears of El Pam's party.
At the sound, Dibo and Miner instinctively pressed their backs together and went on alert.
Soon, they spotted them.
“Neky.”
“Junior Neky.”
One-and-a-half-meter-long green snakes gliding effortlessly over the sinking swamp.
Junior Neky.
Their faces hardened at the sight.
‘Of all things.’
‘These guys.’
Junior Neky.
Snakes about a meter long—extremely fast and agile. And equipped with highly potent venomous fangs.
They weren't particularly strong on their own.
Snakes terrified ordinary folk, but to adventurers, they were little more than a meal.
The problems were twofold.
One: they were very small.
Shaa!
“Damn it, just as expected—they're coming in a swarm.”
Two: they hunted in packs.
A major headache.
“Even catching these little bastards is no joke.”
Dealing with a swarm of snakes was far harder than it sounded.
Especially for mages, archers, or gun-wielding pirates—the frustration was immense.
Hitting such tiny targets was challenge enough.
And now they were in a swamp.
A place where movement was restricted.
Meanwhile, the Junior Neky moved freely through it.
“They can even dive into the swamp.”
They could even use the swamp to their advantage.
Making them a nightmare to catch.
Of course, there was the option of wide-area skills.
But that wasn't always ideal either.
Wide-area skills didn't distinguish friend from foe.
One misstep, and you could critically wound your own allies.
They weren't something to use lightly.
“I'll cast a wide-area spell.”
“Got it.”
But they couldn't just evade forever.
“Buy me time while I cast.”
“Yes!”
At his command, everyone immediately clustered around El Pam.
To protect him.
Truth be told, they didn't need to do much right away.
Kyaa!
Shaa!
The Junior Neky weren't attacking the group just yet.
They were simply forming an encirclement, waiting for their comrades and packmates to arrive.
Thirty-three seconds passed in that tense standoff.
El Pam completed his cast.
“Thunderbolt.”
“Yes?”
The moment the word left his lips, Dibo and the others recoiled in shock.
It was unavoidable.
“B-Boss!”
Thunderbolt.
A 3rd Circle lightning magic that struck monsters in an area with bolts of lightning.
Its power was immense.
True to lightning's nature, it could electrocute multiple targets at once—potentially dozens in a single cast.
Lightning magic also outclassed fire, ice, or poison in raw power.
Armor or hides offered no protection against it.
Crucially, lightning spells were so fast that evasion or proper defense was impossible.
The attack landed in the blink of an eye.
By that description, the ultimate spell!
Indeed, among 3rd Circle magics, Thunderbolt ranked in the top three for sheer lethality.
Yet it was rarely used in real combat.
The reason was simple.
‘We’re done for!’
All that devastating power applied equally to allies!
That was why casting Thunderbolt required precautions.
Items granting lightning resistance, keeping distance before casting, or setting up lightning rods nearby.
Of course, no one here had taken any such measures.
Pzzzt!
In that state, a bolt crashed down from above El Pam's head.
Its first target: the Junior Neky at the tip of his index finger.
Kieee!
The snake let out a short death cry and began convulsing.
Pzzzt!
That sparked a chain—lightning arcing toward the surrounding Junior Neky.
Kieee!
Death cries echoed from all directions as the bolts spread.
At the sound, Dibo, Kiri, Ralph, and Miner swallowed hard.
That was all.
No one moved.
Any motion might tempt the Thunderbolt now dancing across the Junior Neky.
Gulp!
And so, as everyone nervously gulped,
“Thunderbolt.”
El Pam cast it again.
Pzzt!
“Thunderbolt.”
Relentlessly.
Pzzzt!
Without missing a single one.
Every single Junior Neky in the swarm fell to the Thunderbolt.
Around then, El Pam's party thought,
‘No way.’
Something was off.
Pzzzt!
The moment the last Junior Neky succumbed, they knew for sure.
“B-Boss, no way?”
In response to Dibo's stunned question, El Pam replied curtly.
“Unexpected.”
But that only made Dibo nod in understanding.
“Y-Yeah, right?”
‘Yeah, controlling lightning at will? That doesn't make sense.’
The odds of sheer luck keeping him safe from his own Thunderbolt were far higher than mastering lightning.
That was the more rational explanation.
El Pam didn't bother telling Dibo.
‘Easier than expected.’
What "unexpected" truly meant.
He had practiced.
After acquiring Zeus's Ring, El Pam had immediately obtained a Thunderbolt item and trained nonstop.
He wasn't about to half-ass preparations with his comrades' lives on the line in a Mystic Gate.
But El Pam knew.
Training and real combat were different.
‘The control feels identical.’
Now, in the heat of battle, he was certain.
‘Just like manipulating magic with telekinesis.’
There was no longer any reason to hesitate when using lightning magic.
‘Orange-grade Mystic Gates are no issue now, no matter the type.’
And with Zeus's Ring in hand, this place's difficulty was beneath consideration.
Having reached that conclusion, El Pam declared,
“We're moving to the second floor.”
“Huh? The second floor?”
Dibo glanced at Miner.
She had argued against it.
But things were different now.
‘Luck?’
She had seen it.
‘That couldn't be luck. At the very least, this guy's no one who relies on chance.’
El Pam wielding lightning freely.
‘A monster.’
What that implied.
“Yeah, if the leader says second floor, we go. So, when?”
“Within three hours.”
“What?”
Miner recoiled at his follow-up.
Find the exit and reach the second floor in three hours?
In this swamp where even walking was a chore?
“No, that's impossible!”
She reacted fiercely.
That's all she did.
“What about the rest of you? Say something! Your boss is talking nonsense, right?”
Only Miner reacted with outrage; Dibo, Kiri, and Ralph looked at it as a matter of course.
“Not nonsense?”
El Pam said nothing more to the even more shocked Miner.
Instead of words, he channeled mana into the Artemis's Necklace around his neck.
El Pam's pupils began to dilate.
Finally, he spoke.
“Plan's changed.”
“See? Total nonsense, right?”
“We're going to the second floor in one hour.”