Chapter 61
Chapter 61
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 61
Chapter Title: Cheryl's Request (3)
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6.
Pyr, he was an outstanding adventurer.
Here, outstanding didn't simply mean superior combat prowess at hunting monsters.
He had a goal loftier than that of any other adventurer.
The six heroes who had sealed the Black Mage and saved the world!
The goal of tracking down their traces.
It was a distant dream. Famous adventurers had already attempted it and failed.
Yet Pyr still ventured into adventures, and he obtained results that no one else had achieved.
That had been possible only thanks to Pyr's utterly absurd spirit of adventure.
Just like right now.
Naturally, Pyr was the kind of adventurer who wouldn't so much as blink at ordinary challenges.
"I'll handle it in twenty days."
But even Pyr couldn't help feeling rattled the moment El Pam said those words.
'In twenty days?'
It was a ridiculous proposal, even by his own standards.
And El Pam even added,
"For every day I finish ahead of schedule, you'll pay an extra million mesos."
Additional terms.
Of course, none of that registered with Pyr. It didn't matter. Completing the job in twenty days was absurd to begin with.
So he said nothing about the extra terms.
Rattle, rattle, rattle!
He didn't have time for that anyway.
"Boss! Skeleton soldiers incoming!"
Before the horde of oncoming skeleton soldiers, El Pam's party and the sole survivor Pyr had only one option.
'We need to run.'
There were barely six of them here. Taking on over a thousand skeleton soldiers with that number would be sheer madness.
What's more, Pyr knew.
'There are more nearby.'
This wasn't the end—it was just the beginning.
That was the main reason his comrades had died.
Adventurers tire, but skeleton soldiers never do.
And that was why.
'What the hell?'
Pyr shot El Pam a look full of doubt for not calling a retreat.
"Apollo's Fire Arrows."
The moment he saw El Pam and his party gearing up for battle instead of fleeing, Pyr's bewilderment hit its peak.
"You're seriously going to fight? Against that many?"
Pyr's shock turned to anger, but El Pam's party saw no need to explain.
There was no point.
Fwoosh!
The instant El Pam's fire arrows flew, Pyr couldn't think straight anymore.
He just stared, dumbfounded.
Pew!
As the skeleton soldiers crumbled to dust in an instant before El Pam's Apollo's Fire Arrows.
A battle that should have been brutal ended in a whimper.
'Ah.'
Only then did Pyr snap out of it.
Frankly, that was impressive in itself.
'Unreal combat power.'
Most people would have frozen up right there, but Pyr started thinking rationally instead.
'No wonder Cheryl sent them.'
And right then, he began weighing his options.
'Incredible fighters, but searching's a different story.'
Weighing the deal with El Pam.
Figuring out who held the advantage.
'Even if he clears it in twenty days, he won't find what I'm after.'
Pyr's conclusion from that calculation: he had the upper hand.
'It might not even be on the first floor.'
Even if Phantom's necklace wasn't on the first floor, El Pam's party and Pyr couldn't move on to the second.
Not without certainty—and gaining that certainty meant combing every inch of the first floor.
That was why Pyr had lingered on the first floor for over twenty days.
They could easily burn through at least twenty days just on that floor alone.
'And the second floor too.'
Not to mention, there were no guarantees it was on the second floor either.
All in all, the terms heavily favored Pyr. In fact, that's exactly why he'd set them that way.
Absolute confidence that he couldn't lose.
"Pyr, let me ask again. Do you agree to twenty days, plus an extra million mesos for each day I shave off?"
That was why Pyr answered El Pam's question without hesitation.
"I agree. Name your price."
Pyr replied without a second thought.
And before him, El Pam gladly revealed.
Kyuu!
Snail Mano, on the hunt for the item.
7.
It was the fourth day.
"Phantom's necklace."
Snail Mano found Phantom's necklace on the fourth day.
Truth be told, it was insanely fast, even accounting for Snail Mano's abilities.
No matter how impressive Snail Mano was, its movement speed had limits.
Plus, with skeleton soldiers swarming the first floor, they couldn't just blindly tail it everywhere.
Sometimes they had to flee situations or fight when necessary.
The only reason they'd pulled it off in four days was one thing.
"Lucky break."
From El Pam's perspective, pure luck.
Of course, Pyr saw it differently.
To him, it was a result beyond anything he'd dared imagine before.
"Here it is."
And so, Pyr finally held in his hands what he'd longed for—the Phantom's necklace he'd searched so desperately for.
Pyr didn't panic.
It was a situation that warranted it, but what coursed through him now was pure thrill.
'Finally found it.'
The thrill every adventurer dreams of feeling when they grasp the object of their obsession.
And Pyr was that kind of adventurer.
A true adventurer who wouldn't hesitate to stake his life on his desires.
That was why.
'A Hero Tracker's more than qualified.'
That was the reason El Pam handed Phantom's necklace over to Pyr.
Truth be told, El Pam had no real need to give it up.
'It grants access to Phantom's secret vault in Ariant.'
El Pam knew exactly where Phantom's secret vault was located.
With the necklace, he could've entered anytime he wanted.
'No point in me doing it myself.'
But he yielded it to Pyr because Pyr was a Hero Tracker.
If El Pam went in, all he'd get were Phantom's items.
Impressive loot, sure—but that was it.
A Hero Tracker was different.
He could use those items as clues to uncover the heroes' traces.
'Pyr has to be the one to go in if the heroes are to awaken.'
In fact, he had uncovered them, and his exploits led to the heroes' awakening.
'Though they only woke up after the world had ended.'
Thanks to that, the world's doom was delayed, if only slightly.
Delayed, but doom still came all the same.
Still, El Pam could say with confidence.
'Things are different now.'
There was a world of difference between the past before his return and the present.
Which made Pyr's exploits all the more crucial—and the biggest reason El Pam had come here.
To help Pyr track down the heroes faster.
But that was a fact Pyr couldn't know.
So the only thing worrying him right now was.
'At this rate...'
In a deal where he was guaranteed not to lose, the odds of him taking a massive L were sky-high.
And it wouldn't be a small loss either.
'I'll lose Fried's legacy.'
The item on the line was the single most valuable thing Pyr owned.
'No—forget value. It's the only trace of the hero Fried that a Hero Tracker like me ever found.'
Losing that?
Out of the question.
'I've still got a shot.'
No reason for Pyr to despair or give up just yet.
'It's only the first floor.'
Right now, El Pam's party and Pyr were inside a Yellow-grade Mystic Gate with three floors total.
Four days spent, sixteen left—to reach the second floor and punch through to the third.
'Mystic Gates are full of unknowns.'
No easy feat.
El Pam turned to Pyr, who harbored such hopes, and said,
"Now we hunt for the exit to the second floor."
The moment Pyr heard that, he scanned their surroundings.
'Not your average adventurer.'
He acknowledged El Pam's skills.
So he did the math.
'With his talents, it'll take about three days to find the second-floor exit from here.'
High praise, that.
El Pam's party had spent all their time on the first floor locating survivor Pyr and securing Phantom's necklace per their deal.
The real search started now.
Finding it in three days? Most adventurers would scoff at the notion.
And before the man who'd rated him so highly, El Pam gladly proved him right.
"Exit secured."
In a mere three hours.
'What in the world?'
Pyr was stunned.
But he didn't just flounder in shock.
'No, it could just be luck.'
If anything, he figured it was entirely possible.
He still had plenty of winning chances, he thought.
"Boss!"
That conviction solidified the instant they pushed into the second floor.
"It's a swamp!"
Swamp!
The worst possible terrain for adventurers had appeared.
And swamps weren't just a nightmare for combat—they crippled an adventurer's mobility and speed.
Traversing the same distance took three or four times longer—or more—than in a normal forest.
Shaa!
Worse, the monsters that emerged were a horde of Junior Neckies.
Hundreds of the things slithering across the swamp surface were the stuff of adventurers' nightmares.
'Worst matchup imaginable.'
Especially since Pyr realized right away that El Pam's skills—that absurd combat style—wouldn't work against this Junior Necky swarm.
At this point, Pyr wasn't celebrating.
'Dangerous.'
He didn't care if they cleared faster than twenty days, but dying here? No thanks.
If El Pam's party was in peril, that meant Pyr was too.
Pyr fretted over the fact.
"Thunderbolt."
"You maniac!"
The moment El Pam uttered the spell incantation, Pyr lost it.
"Get down!"
Pyr dove into the swamp on pure instinct.
To dodge the incoming Thunderbolt.
All the while thinking,
'Crazy son of a bitch! What the hell's he thinking? Thunderbolt with them all bunched up like that!'
Pyr panicked.
Time passed, and silence fell.
In that eerie quiet, Pyr was certain.
'They're toast.'
The Thunderbolt had backfired on them.
With that in mind, he crawled out of the swamp, caked in mud—and promptly spotted.
El Pam's party, alive and unscathed.
"Hey, buddy."
Dibo said to the bedraggled Pyr,
"Don't get any funny ideas. Just worry about paying up."
Words that made zero sense.
But it didn't take Pyr long to grasp the meaning.
The very day they entered the second floor, El Pam located the exit to the third.
"Pyr."
And the very next day.
"Request complete."
El Pam's party wrapped up the rescue.
8.
"Request complete."
El Pam stepped out of the Mystic Gate six days after encountering Pyr.
"Fourteen days ahead of the promised twenty."
Pyr stared at him like he'd grown a second head.
El Pam, meanwhile, felt zero thrill over the feat itself.
No reason to.
'Just sub-30-man scale.'
A Yellow-grade Mystic Gate was a tough nut, sure, but a sub-30-man difficulty was something El Pam could've soloed without breaking a sweat—no exaggeration.
'Not like it's 300-man.'
To give El Pam real trouble, you'd need at least a 300-man Yellow-grade Mystic Gate—the peak of its difficulty curve.
But while the clear itself held no excitement, the external rewards were another story.
"Get the fourteen million mesos and Fried's legacy ready."
El Pam's heart raced just a little as he spoke.
Only natural.
He had no idea what Fried's legacy actually was, but its value had to eclipse anything else he owned.
Pyr said to such an El Pam,
"...I'll honor the deal. But a word of advice: Fried's legacy can only be wielded by one recognized by Fried himself."
Whatever it was, El Pam wouldn't be using it anytime soon.
El Pam wasn't particularly disappointed.
He'd known that much already.
Even so, his pulse quickened beyond its norm.
'But it'll trade for damn near anything.'
As mentioned, its worth outstripped any item out there.
'And no one values it higher than the Hero Tracker.'
Especially Pyr—an adventurer who'd pay any price in the world to reclaim it.
A massive windfall for El Pam.
On another note, he was curious.
"So, what's the legacy?"
What exactly was Fried's legacy?
Pyr gave a wry smile to the expectant El Pam and said,
"Sorry, but it's not on me right now."
El Pam wasn't surprised this time either.
"Something you can't use yourself? Makes sense to stash it somewhere safe."
If anything, that was the smart move.
"Yeah, it's in a safe spot."
"Where?"
"Who holds the world's greatest trove of treasures—and guards them the most securely?"
El Pam's eyes narrowed.
He knew.
"Collector Vivre, Phantom Thief Phantom, and the last one..."
"Captain Kairin."
"Right—she's got it."
Revealing what Pyr's Fried legacy actually was.
'No way Fried's ring belonged to Pyr. Is that why he couldn't hand it over? And since when were Hero Tracker Pyr and Captain Kairin this tight? Or is she his backer?'
El Pam's mind grew tangled with the implications.
But he had no time to dwell.
"Boss, someone's coming."
"El Pam."
The arriving Cheryl spelled it out.
"We've got a problem."
"A problem?"
"Kania Merchant Group's leader Ebob's been murdered."