Chapter 60
Chapter 60
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 60
Chapter Title: Cheryl's Request (2)
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4.
“Apollo’s Fire Arrow.”
The moment El Pam pulled out that spell, all of El Pam’s companions turned to look at him.
‘What kind of magic is that?’
With eyes full of questions.
That made sense, because the magic El Pam had used was something none of them had ever even heard of before.
Of course, that’s why they were expectant.
If El Pam was bringing out a new spell like this, it had to be something incredible.
‘Is that an arrow? It’s too small, isn’t it?’
But the fire arrow they saw amid that anticipation was far too tiny.
Half the size of the Fire Arrow that El Pam summoned!
Honestly, it was so small that calling it an arrowhead would be more accurate—in fact, it was so insignificant that even attaching the word “arrow” to it felt almost unfair.
‘What’s he planning to do with that?’
They couldn’t even imagine what that pathetic thing could possibly achieve.
But El Pam was different.
The gaze he fixed on Apollo’s Fire Arrow was filled with denser anticipation than ever before.
It had to be.
‘It’s been a while.’
This wasn’t the first time El Pam had used Apollo’s Fire Arrow.
Far from it.
‘I’ve lost count of how many times it’s saved my life—hundreds, at least.’
Apollo’s Fire Arrow was one of the spells that had played a pivotal role in El Pam becoming the Last Adventurer.
Naturally, El Pam was confident he could wield Apollo’s Fire Arrow perfectly.
That confidence was why he had entered this place so boldly.
And El Pam showed them exactly why.
‘Go.’
The moment El Pam launched Apollo’s Fire Arrow with Telekinesis, it moved.
Pew!
With a very faint sound.
Pew, pew, pew!
It began piercing through the Skeleton Warriors’ skulls as lightly as paper.
It was astonishing destructive power.
But what was even more astonishing was its speed.
Pew!
Impossible to follow with the naked eye.
‘My god.’
Among El Pam’s party members, only Golden Eye Miner’s golden pupils could barely keep up.
It was an absurd feat.
Golden Eye—her eyes were the greatest among her many talents.
Her eyes missed nothing.
Even Captain Kairin had acknowledged that talent and taken her as his disciple.
‘Even my eyes can’t track it?’
The fact that even she couldn’t follow it properly meant that virtually no adventurer in the world could.
Pew, pew, pew!
Naturally, the Skeleton Soldiers were being destroyed at a speed unmatched by any other adventurers.
That made it all the more shocking.
‘No, what the hell is this guy?’
Miner was well aware that El Pam handled magic with Telekinesis.
She had been amazed by it several times.
But this was on another level entirely.
‘How is he controlling that thing?’
The speed of Apollo’s Fire Arrow was beyond anything one could dare to control.
If El Pam’s handling of the Fire Arrow earlier had been like managing a puppy, then Apollo’s Fire Arrow was a tiger.
Not just any tiger, but a massive one that dominated several mountains!
And yet, El Pam controlled it perfectly.
Thanks to experience.
Countless experiences honed through life-and-death struggles.
Pew, pew, pew!
And so, before El Pam’s magic, the over 1,000 Skeleton Soldiers began to be cleared away rapidly.
Of course, it couldn’t eliminate them all instantly.
Time was needed.
“Come on!”
But for El Pam’s party, already tempered through countless battles including Dibo, buying that much time was no big deal.
Crack!
And so El Pam’s words became reality.
“This one’s the last!”
They had hunted all the Skeleton Soldiers.
At that sight, El Pam’s party members looked at him once more with expressions of utter disbelief.
“Boss, I’m amazed every time I see it. How the hell do you do that?”
That was when it happened.
Rattle, rattle, rattle!
Once again, that familiar sound—that eerie sound—began approaching El Pam’s party.
When everyone turned their heads at the noise, they saw yet another group of over 1,000 Skeleton Soldiers.
An overwhelming number.
“They’re coming like a pack of wild dogs.”
But El Pam’s party reacted differently this time.
“As if they don’t know this is hell.”
Their confidence overflowed.
“Dibo.”
“Yes, Boss! We’re sweeping them away again, right? Just leave it to me! I’ll show you properly this time.”
To such a Dibo, El Pam said,
“We’re pulling back.”
“Yes? Here? No, Boss? That’s not even hard, is it?”
To that question, El Pam explained.
“Apollo’s Fire Arrow can’t be used again for 30 minutes after one use.”
The drawback of Apollo’s Fire Arrow.
A pretty fatal one.
So the question arose.
“No, then shouldn’t you save it? Why use it all out here?”
Why had he used such a powerful spell right from the start?
Naturally, there was a reason.
“To show you.”
“Huh?”
From this moment on, hope had been born for El Pam’s party.
“That if we hold out for just 30 minutes, we can do anything.”
Hope that even in the worst situation, holding on would change everything.
“We pull back for now. And we find survivors. Our goal isn’t hunting Skeletons—it’s rescuing survivors.”
With that hope, El Pam’s party began their rescue operations.
And on the 6th day.
“My name is Pyr.”
They encountered a survivor.
“I’m the only one left.”
Just a single survivor.
5.
“My name is Pyr.”
The state of the survivor they found after six days inside was wretched.
It couldn’t be anything else.
It had been six days for El Pam’s party, but for the survivor Pyr, it was the 30th day since starting his Mystic Gate adventure.
The food he’d brought was already gone.
Moreover, the monsters here were Skeleton Soldiers.
Unlike monsters you could eat after killing, no matter how many you slew, there was no way to fill your stomach.
Because of that, Pyr’s condition was evident in his hollow eyes and clear signs of starvation.
The once handsome blond Pyr now looked utterly ragged.
“I’m the only one left.”
But the most tragic part was that he was the sole survivor.
It meant he had watched all his comrades who entered with him fall to the Skeleton Soldiers.
At Pyr’s words, El Pam’s party members fell silent.
The despair that adventurers beyond the Mystic Gate would one day face was right before their eyes.
That was why.
‘I’m glad we came.’
Dibo thought following El Pam for the rescue had been the right call.
If it hadn’t been for them, this man would have died helplessly.
“We’ve come to rescue you.”
So he spoke with sincerity.
“Let’s go out together now.”
To that sincerity, the survivor Pyr replied,
“Get out on your own.”
“Yes, on our own…… Yes?”
Everyone, starting with Dibo, was stunned by the response.
Meanwhile, Pyr repeated himself.
“I have something I need to find here. I appreciate the rescue, but ignore me and go out first.”
At those words, others stepped forward now.
“What are you talking about?”
“Are you insane? Hey! You barely survived alone—what are you looking for?”
“If it’s a free rescue, of course you should take it! It’s free!”
It was utterly incomprehensible.
Only one person was the exception: El Pam.
For him, it was exactly as expected.
‘A true Hero Tracker.’
Hero Tracker Pyr, the one who had even uncovered Fried’s legacy when no one else had found so much as a clue.
His longing for the Six Heroes transcended all common sense.
That was why he was here now.
“There’s something I need to find. Something important. I can’t leave until I get it, even if I die.”
A clue to a Hero was here.
“No, you’ll just die like that! Hey, snap out of it. Do you know how many Skeleton Soldiers are here? We’ve killed thousands already—thousands!”
Of course, for a reasonable person like Dibo, it was beyond understanding.
“Boss, we need to do something about this, right?”
In the end, Dibo turned to El Pam, and only then did El Pam step in.
“Cheryl asked me to rescue the survivors.”
“I appreciate you coming, but I have work to do. Go out first and tell her.”
“That would defeat the purpose. Requests always come with a price.”
In that exchange with El Pam, Pyr intuited.
‘He’s my kind.’
That the man before him was someone he could reason with.
Of course, that didn’t change Pyr’s actions.
“So what?”
“Let’s make a deal.”
“A deal?”
“Cheryl’s request was only to rescue survivors. There was nothing about fulfilling the survivor’s requests.”
“You’ll grant my request?”
“If the price is right, why not?”
At that point, Pyr’s eyes narrowed.
It was a pretty tempting proposal from his perspective.
No matter how you sliced it, if Cheryl had sent an adventurer party to rescue him, their skills had to be above average.
No—reaching him here already proved their competence.
If such people helped him?
If the price matched, there was no reason not to deal.
“What do you want?”
To Pyr’s acceptance of the deal, El Pam answered without hesitation.
“Fried’s legacy.”
At that instant, Pyr’s eyes—the eyes that hadn’t wavered no matter what was said—shook violently.
He hadn’t expected that name here.
But soon Pyr’s eyes stilled.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He played dumb.
But it was useless against El Pam.
El Pam knew the Hero Tracker’s achievements better than the man himself.
Especially why he had come here—El Pam knew that.
“You came here to retrieve Phantom’s necklace, didn’t you?”
At those words, Pyr’s eyes trembled even more violently.
“H-How do you……?”
It was something even Cheryl didn’t know—no one in the world did.
On the other hand, El Pam knew well.
He couldn’t not know.
Hero Tracker Pyr—the thing that made him most famous was surviving here for 251 days.
Naturally, people wondered.
Why had the Hero Tracker stayed there for a full 251 days?
The reason came out later.
‘He discovered the location of Phantom Thief Phantom’s secret vault, but needed Phantom’s necklace to enter. The one who had Phantom’s necklace died in this Mystic Gate.’
El Pam didn’t know which Mystic Gate it was, but he knew the reason.
Of course, Pyr had no way of knowing how El Pam knew this.
He just felt it.
The fact that El Pam knew this much and still brought it up wasn’t kindness.
‘This is a threat.’
Far from kindness—this was El Pam’s warning to Pyr.
‘If I refuse, he’ll take it.’
A chilling warning.
At this point, Pyr really had no choices left.
Even so, he couldn’t accept the deal so easily. A Hero’s trace was as precious as his life.
To such a Pyr, El Pam proposed,
“Even with Fried’s legacy, only a mage can use it anyway. I’m not asking to take it—I just want to borrow it. I’ll return it whenever you need.”
To that proposal, Pyr replied,
“Fine. I’ll commission you.”
El Pam didn’t react right away to the answer.
He already knew.
“The commission is for El Pam, you, to help me find Phantom’s necklace. In exchange, I’ll lend you Fried’s legacy.”
That Hero Tracker Pyr wasn’t one to accept a deal so straightforwardly.
“But with a condition.”
Pyr added to the deal.
“Complete the commission within 20 days.”
Finish all this in 20 days.
It was an absurd demand.
‘No way that’s possible.’
Pyr had come here with dozens of comrades, yet they’d been wiped out without accomplishing anything.
This was a Yellow-grade gate, no less.
With three floors!
Escaping a hell like that in 20 days?
Even if just told to do it, it was hard—practically impossible.
And Pyr’s commission included finding what he wanted: Phantom’s necklace.
Naturally, this was Pyr’s attempt at negotiation.
‘Can’t keep getting dragged around in the negotiation.’
An attempt to tilt things even slightly in his favor.
‘He’ll get mad now.’
Pyr assumed El Pam would show anger or dissatisfaction.
To such a Pyr, El Pam said,
“I’ll do it in 20 days.”
Accepting the proposal.
“And for every day I finish the conquest ahead of schedule, I’ll take an extra 1 million mesos.”
Along with an additional condition.
“What?”
The moment Pyr was stunned by those words, that was when it happened.
Rattle, rattle, rattle!
“Boss! Skeleton Soldiers incoming!”
El Pam turned his head toward the approaching horde of Skeleton Soldiers and said,
“Apollo’s Fire Arrow.”