Chapter 6
Chapter 6
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 6
Chapter Title: The Last Adventurer (2)
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006
4.
He signed the contract.
The contract to participate in the Mystic Gate raid that Evis had presented.
“You know what it means to sign a contract with the Gapor Merchant Group, so there’s no need to explain that.”
The Gapor Merchant Group, no less—those devils who even collected debts from Balrog itself.
“I’ll give you a brief rundown.”
Naturally, once he’d signed, there was no turning back, so Evis got straight to it.
“There are five entrants for this Mystic Gate, and it has twelve wounds.”
El Pam’s eyes narrowed at the explanation.
That was it.
He showed no other notable reaction.
‘Well, now?’
Evis was the one surprised inwardly.
And how could he not be?
Twelve wounds on a Mystic Gate meant at least twelve parties had entered, but none had returned alive. It was a monster that devoured adventurers.
El Pam, who had lived three years as bait slave, couldn’t possibly be unaware of that.
Yet he remained so calm?
Addressing the stunned Evis, El Pam spoke.
“If there are twelve wounds… then we’re not here to kill the boss monster, but to recover items.”
The purpose of this commission.
Evis was satisfied with the response.
‘I don’t know about his skills, but at least he knows Mystic Gates far better than most adventurers.’
Adventurers you could actually talk to with were hard to come by.
“The items we need to retrieve total twenty. Each is worth three thousand meso on the market.”
Of course, separate from that, the contract terms were pure Gapor Merchant Group style.
‘The market price for 1st Circle items is over seven thousand meso.’
They were offering three thousand for items that sold for seven thousand—less than half price.
But that was how Gapor commissions usually went. Most adventurers ended up on the losing end.
Still, plenty of adventurers sought out the Gapor Merchant Group. The reason was simple: there were far more adventurers who couldn’t make normal deals elsewhere than most people thought.
El Pam was one of them right now.
He had no choice.
“El Pam, your debt is currently one million meso.”
He was recognized as an adventurer instead of a slave, but the fact that he still owed the Gapor Merchant Group a massive debt hadn’t changed.
“Do your best.”
Truth be told, it was an absurd amount.
No one would lend a million meso to a young man working the docks at Lith Harbor.
In fact, El Pam had never borrowed money from the Gapor Merchant Group.
His father had needed black moss to slow the progression of Black Blood Disease, which he’d bought on credit from them. The Gapor Merchant Group had set the price of that black moss at one million meso.
And despite all his desperate work as a bait slave, that amount hadn’t budged.
It was an outrageous sum, but black moss was so scarce there was no set market price, leaving El Pam unable to argue.
The Gapor Merchant Group had warned him clearly, and he was the one who had signed their contract anyway.
This time was no different.
No need for pointless chatter.
“Where are the other four besides me?”
What needed to be done was head out on the commission.
5.
“The name’s Chev.”
After signing the contract, the first person El Pam met was Chev, the leader of the already assembled four-man party.
He was a burly man.
And on his back was an even bigger shield.
“I’m a warrior. The party’s tank, too.”
El Pam cautiously extended his hand to shake the one offered with those words.
“I’m El Pam. You can call me Pam.”
Tension filled El Pam’s voice as he spoke.
“Hey, kid.”
At that moment, Chev lightly slapped El Pam’s shoulder with his palm.
“I heard everything from Evis. Bait slave background, right? I don’t care about that stuff, so don’t worry.”
More words of encouragement.
“My crew’s the same.”
Chev then introduced his companions with a hearty, friendly demeanor.
“Nice to meet you.”
But El Pam responded to them with a dry, emotionless expression.
There was no reason to get chummy.
From his perspective, he could handle this commission alone just fine.
Moreover, El Pam wasn’t doing this commission just to earn money.
Quite the opposite—he intended to show them.
‘Evis wants to be Rakan’s right-hand man. If I show him my skills, he’ll bring me something solid in return.’
To demonstrate his abilities for bigger gains.
‘Besides, no reason to stick with these guys anyway.’
Above all, El Pam knew.
‘Rookie hunters.’
What they really were.
6.
“How is he, Chev?”
On the way to the Mystic Gate, at a rest stop, Chev replied to his companion Eva’s question with a faint smile.
“Perfect noob.”
Smiles crept onto the faces of his surrounding comrades at the answer.
It was quite odd.
Venturing beyond a Mystic Gate was insanely dangerous. A sloppy comrade? That put your own life at risk.
For that reason, perceptions of unskilled or notoriously bad comrades were rock bottom.
Naturally, views on rookies were in the basement below that—underground.
Yet here they were, smiling at the word “rookie”?
“So, the items?”
“Looks like the Gapor Merchant Group loaned him some. Fire Arrow magic.”
“Oh? Then?”
“At least ten thousand meso guaranteed.”
There was only one type who acted like this.
“Let’s roll him along just enough when we enter, then finish him off at the end.”
Rookie hunters.
Exactly as the name implied—those who targeted rookies for their items and hunted them inside Mystic Gates.
They were more common in this business than one might think.
Rookies were worth far more than your average Mystic Gate.
For starters, they had items. Compared to red-grade Mystic Gates where you might snag only one or two items at best, a guaranteed item from a rookie was a huge merit.
Plus, rookie adventurers were still adventurers. Inside a Mystic Gate, they were far more useful than bait slaves.
Above all, hiring bait slaves cost a surprising amount, and replacing them when they died wasn’t cheap.
Rookie adventurers, on the other hand? You didn’t pay to bring them along—in fact, rookies often paid experienced parties to let them join.
And the clincher:
“Even if you kill a hundred, the moment you exit the Mystic Gate, the bodies vanish.”
What happened beyond a Mystic Gate stayed buried there perfectly.
It was profitable all around.
Chev himself had amassed no small haul of items from this racket.
‘Once I open my 2nd Circle, my life changes.’
Items for unlocking 2nd Circle.
‘This job should cover the cost.’
Amid such expectations, Chev chatted with his crew.
Watching them from a distance, El Pam smirked inwardly.
‘They’re dying to cook me up.’
El Pam had clocked them the moment he saw Chev’s group.
Not from prior knowledge before his return—no, his memory was good, but not for random nobodies like these.
‘They’re not that impressive.’
The reason he’d noticed was simple.
‘To show goodwill to a bait slave rookie adventurer like that?’
This commission was pretty high difficulty.
The rewards were substantial, too.
For a last-minute spot to go to a bait slave rookie?
Any normal adventurer would be foaming at the mouth, yelling at the Gapor Merchant Group to swap him out.
Someone might say, “Maybe Chev’s just a nice guy,” but that was a worthless question.
‘Guys working for Gapor aren’t like that.’
If he were such a saint, he wouldn’t be meeting El Pam through them.
Anyway, the situation was clear.
Chev’s crew planned to hunt El Pam.
And El Pam knew it.
‘I’ll settle it beyond the Mystic Gate.’
That left one thing.
After a ten-odd hour journey, El Pam and Chev’s group finally spotted it.
“There it is!”
A red-grade Mystic Gate with twelve wounds loomed before them.
7.
There was no hesitation entering the Mystic Gate.
If there had been any, they wouldn’t have come this far in the first place.
Everyone entered.
“Set up camp first.”
The moment they crossed into the Mystic Gate, Chev’s first move wasn’t hunting, but establishing a base.
“No telling how long it’ll take to find the items on the request list.”
If conquest were the goal, scouting would come before camp, but here the objective was item recovery.
It meant Chev’s group were veterans in their own right.
Sure enough, they quickly found a suitable spot.
“The tree up there looks good. Plenty of branches, easy to jump to another if needed. Decent sightlines for watch, too.”
They set up camp in the spot.
“El Pam, stay out of it.”
El Pam contributed nothing to the process.
“You’d just get in the way.”
Truth be told, it was all part of Chev’s group’s scheme.
Most rookie adventurers’ first instinct in a Mystic Gate was to hide in the back.
Survival instinct, plain and simple.
Overriding that to do anything was never easy.
‘Kid’s got a conscience, he’d do something here.’
To force action, you had to apply pressure.
That’s exactly what Chev’s group was doing now.
“Didn’t expect you to handle this stuff anyway. We’re counting on you for monster hunting.”
El Pam, focus on killing monsters.
“A mage just needs to nail monsters. Good at other crap but can’t kill monsters? Useless.”
Fail that, and you’re worthless.
“Let’s do this right. Our lives are in each other’s hands.”
Or your life’s on the line.
“Hey.”
Under that pressure, El Pam spoke up.
“How about I lure the monsters?”
“What?”
An unexpected suggestion.
No—beyond unexpected, it defied common sense.
Wasn’t El Pam a mage? A safe rear-line ranged dealer attacking from afar.
“I slaved as bait for years. Luring monsters and escaping them? I’m confident.”
But his follow-up made a certain sense.
Bait slaves sometimes outperformed adventurers in specific ways.
Especially since El Pam wasn’t just any bait slave.
Of course, taking it at face value was tough.
“But if I do well… give me my full share.”
His next words, though, made Chev’s group get it.
A guy who endured years as bait slave for money would do something this insane for cash, right?
“So you’ll lure the monsters?”
“Yes.”
“It’s dangerous. You sure?”
From Chev’s perspective, there was no reason to refuse.
‘Walking right into hell on his own.’
He’d been plotting ways to throw him into danger, and here he was volunteering.
“Fine, if that’s what you want.”
So Chev accepted without hesitation.
“But don’t overdo it. We’ll test your skills first. If they’re not up to snuff, you stop immediately.”
El Pam nodded at the follow-up.
“Then I’ll scout the nearby monsters.”
And with that, he vanished into the forest.
Watching him go, Chev’s group exchanged incredulous smirks.
“What a fucking retard.”
“Hey, retard? To our gracious benefactor offering himself up!”
“Oh right. A saint. Total saint.”
The incredulous smirks turned to sneers.
“Bait slave background? Guy seems straight-up insane. Why not just off him now?”
They were mocking so hard it bordered on worry.
To them, Chev said:
“Alright, quiet down and focus.”
Injecting tension.
“No telling what weird monster that freak drags back. Stay alert.”
Of course, few comrades tensed up at his words.
“What dangerous stuff’s in a five-man red-grade Mystic Gate?”
They brimmed with confidence.
Chev was no different.
He was eyeing 2nd Circle—honestly, he could tackle even orange-grade above red right now.
A mere red-grade posed no threat.
“Hey, boss.”
“Yeah?”
“Something’s coming.”
It appeared before their eyes.
“What is it?”
“Slime.”
“Slime?”
“Oh, slime field? Easier than expected. Why’d twelve parties wipe here?”
“Wait, boss! It’s gold.”
“What?”
“The slime’s gold!”
A massive Gold Slime filled with golden liquid.