Chapter 65
Chapter 65
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 65
Chapter Title: Gambling Table (1)
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1.
“Double Up?”
The moment El Pam mentioned Double Up, Dibo and everyone else tilted their heads in confusion.
“What the hell is that?”
Even Miner, who had seen all sorts of items under Captain Kairin, didn’t know what it was. Did it even need explaining?
That was how unfamiliar the concept of Double Up was to most adventurers.
‘Of course they wouldn’t know. I only learned about it myself not that long ago.’
Even El Pam hadn’t encountered the Double Up concept all that long ago.
But once they knew, everything changed.
“No matter the skill, when you cast it, it doubles. Use Fire Arrow, and you get two.”
The moment they grasped the concept, adventurers always made the same face.
“What? No, does that even make sense?”
At first, they couldn’t believe it.
Fwoosh!
Fwoosh!
“No, wait, hold on a second…”
Then, the moment they saw the results—the clear, undeniable results—they understood.
“So other magic doubles too?”
They realized what Double Up truly meant.
“Even enhanced Fire Arrows come in twos?”
“Thunderbolts too? Two of them?”
“That’s right.”
It was a given, but the concept applied to every skill.
“Hey, wait, what about Flame Vortex or Poison Mist? Does the quantity or size double?”
“Yes.”
“Crazy!”
Literally every skill.
“Does money double too? If you pull it out of your pocket?”
“…No.”
“Hmm.”
Any skill that used mana doubled in quantity without exception.
That was why even El Pam was surprised.
‘To think Fried’s ring had a power like this.’
Fried’s ring—the item once owned by the great hero. He had expected extraordinary abilities.
But he never imagined it hid something this incredible.
“Wow, that’s insane.”
Of course, the most shocking part was something else.
“Now the boss…”
This insane item had ended up in the hands of no one other than El Pam.
Gulp!
El Pam’s party members all swallowed hard without exception as that fact sank in.
At the same time, realization dawned.
‘An already absurd monster just became an even more absurd monster.’
That explained why El Pam had so willingly joined the gambling table.
El Pam spoke.
“Then let’s head to the second floor now.”
Dibo responded with a face full of confidence.
“Yes! Let’s blast through the second floor in one go, hit the third, take down the boss, and snag all the unique items!”
El Pam looked at the brimming-with-confidence Dibo and said,
“No, we’re going to the third floor last.”
“Yes?”
2.
The massive kingdom of Ariant above the Nihal Desert.
Adventurers from there carried an unusual pride in their origins.
They had every reason to.
“Ariant adventurers are tough. Surviving the Nihal Desert proves it.”
The Nihal Desert forged toughness in everything.
Just surviving there was enough to breed pride.
By comparison, Victoria Island was paradise.
Its toughest spot was Sleepywood Forest at best—and even that paled against the multiple hells in the Nihal Desert that made Sleepywood look like a joke.
“To Ariant adventurers, Victoria Island adventurers are a joke.”
That was why Ariant adventurers looked down on those from Victoria Island.
They rated their circles one lower.
A 4th Circle adventurer from Victoria Island was treated as 3rd Circle in Ariant.
The reverse held true as well.
Ariant adventurers who crossed to Victoria Island were seen as a disgrace among their peers.
Head Hunter Hassan and his crew were no different.
They brimmed with pride as Ariant adventurers.
“Everyone, keep this in mind.”
Still, the reason Hassan and his crew had come all the way to Victoria Island was simple.
“We grab a big haul here and get out.”
The payoff was worth it.
That was why they had set up the gambling table too.
“Jack Rich’s legacy is ours, especially.”
Above all, what they coveted most were the items held by El Pam’s party.
“Luck like this doesn’t come often. And now we don’t even need to kill them for it.”
In truth, Hassan’s party had considered hunting El Pam’s party.
It would have been risky. If caught, they’d become fugitives wandering the world.
But it wasn’t strange.
Jack Rich’s legacy was worth that level of risk.
Put another way, risk was risk.
“Aren’t they idiots? Going blind into the gambling table like that.”
“They’re not idiots.”
“Huh?”
Of course, Hassan knew.
“On the contrary, they know. Entering the gambling table means competition, but staying out means getting hunted.”
“Ah!”
“No matter how great the unique items, they’re useless if you’re dead. That’s what he knows. That absurd survival rate of his comes from that.”
That El Pam’s party had no choice but to enter the gambling table.
In any case, the risk was gone now.
So only one thing remained.
“We take the boss monster, no matter what.”
Winning the gambling table.
“We’re moving to the third floor.”
To that end, Hassan’s party moved not to hunt monsters, but to reach the third floor in the shortest time possible.
“As fast as possible.”
In that process, Hassan showed why they were renowned adventurers from the Nihal Desert, famous even in Ariant.
“We found the first-floor exit!”
In the first floor overflowing with Fire Boars, Hassan’s party found the exit to the second floor in just two days.
An incredible speed.
The second floor they reached was a world blanketed in snow.
A brutal world!
“Good luck.”
But when they faced that world, Hassan’s party smiled instead of grimacing.
It wasn’t bravado.
A snow-covered world was hell for adventurers, no doubt.
It froze everything solid.
“But traces will remain.”
Among the frozen things were traces left by adventurers who had explored this Mystic Gate long before.
Above all, Hassan’s party thought,
“This is the place Kania Merchant Group tried to conquer in secret. Surely the adventurers who entered left markers for those who came after.”
There had to be shortcuts.
Of course, finding them wasn’t easy.
Such traces were hidden carefully, recognizable only to fellow adventurers.
That was why Hassan had his fame.
“Lamia’s Eye.”
He possessed Lamia’s Bracelet, an item that allowed him to use the unique item skill Lamia’s Eye.
The world viewed through Lamia’s Eye was filled with blue and red.
It distinguished the world by temperature.
The living glowed hot red.
The dead, cold blue.
An astonishing ability.
Few things were better for evading monsters.
“And there’s a corpse over there.”
It was unmatched for finding traces of the dead too.
Once they found a corpse, the real work began.
They assessed its condition, checked for items in its possession, and found clues.
“As expected.”
In the end, they found it.
“We’ve located the exit to the third floor.”
“Boss.”
“What is it?”
“There’s a marker here. An arrow carved into a tree.”
The signpost left by adventurers who had come before.
“That way, then.”
Follow that signpost, and they’d reach the third floor without issue.
“Should we erase the marker?”
“No way.”
Hassan’s scheme didn’t end there.
“Surely other adventurers will find this much. So we leave it for them gladly. Bring wood, clay, and dirt.”
Scrape!
He erased the existing trace and created a new one.
It wasn’t sloppy.
Using the wood, clay, and dirt he mentioned, he covered the old tree marking and left a new one on top.
Perfectly seamless!
“A true skilled adventurer should find even this.”
Satisfied with a smile, he then headed in the direction the real marker pointed.
“To the third floor!”
Five minutes after Hassan’s party vanished.
“Boss, they really nailed it.”
El Pam’s party, who had been hiding breathlessly, revealed themselves.
“Wow, incredible. Seamless. How did he erase it and make a new one like that?”
As Dibo marveled at the trace carved into the tree, El Pam moved.
First, he buried the corpse deeper in the snow. Then he performed work similar to what Hassan had done.
He restored the direction marker to its original.
“…Boss did it even more seamlessly.”
El Pam’s handiwork was incomparably more perfect than Hassan’s.
“Impressive.”
“Better than even the pros among the pirates.”
“I could charge money for this.”
The rest of the crew marveled too.
But El Pam felt no particular thrill.
Instead, sensing something, he said,
“More are coming. Hide.”
El Pam’s party hid again, and right on cue, another adventurer party appeared.
Adventurers from the Elnas Mountains—Rebecca’s party.
They did the same as Hassan.
They found the corpse first, spotted the marker, erased it immediately, and left a new one on top.
Then they left, and El Pam’s party emerged again.
“They’re all doing the exact same thing.”
Dibo looked incredulous at the sight.
El Pam saw it differently.
“That’s why they’ve made it this far.”
That was how they had survived until now.
Dibo and the others realized it too.
This scene might look ridiculous, but the adventurers who reached here were no ordinary folk.
That was why.
“Won’t they steal the boss monster like this?”
“Yeah. These guys aren’t pushovers. If we send them all to the third floor, what then?”
“Better to charge them to teach ’em, right?”
Everyone was worried.
No, beyond worry—it didn’t make sense.
“Why not just go kill it ourselves?”
Why guide the gambling table’s competitors—the very ones competing to hunt the boss monster—straight to it?
To that question, El Pam finally answered.
“This is a place where Kania Merchant Group pulled strings. Like that giant swamp mud monster we faced recently.”
“Yes?”
Everyone freaked out at the warning.
“No way… that’s insane, right?”
This wasn’t just any Mystic Gate. It was a 300-man Yellow-grade one, the highest difficulty.
And anomalies like that were happening here?
El Pam wasn’t surprised.
He had known from the start.
‘Kania Merchant Group wouldn’t reveal a stage like this to the world without preparations.’
That it was a trap.
Just not one aimed at El Pam.
So El Pam had prepared for the worst, ready to abandon the adventure if needed.
‘Now, I can break it.’
But the moment he obtained Fried’s ring, the word “failure” vanished from El Pam’s mind.
‘Still, no need to push it.’
However, he had no intention of being reckless.
That was why.
“We send the skilled ones first. They’ll thin out the monsters ahead for us.”
Why El Pam was guiding them.
No one asked more questions after that.
They just got chills.
‘Thank goodness he’s on our party, not a gambling table rival.’
Chills at the fact they didn’t have to face this absurd monster as competition.
And so, El Pam’s party spent six days on the second floor, sending 17 parties—255 people—to the third floor before finally heading there themselves.
And there, they could hear it.
A world covered in snow.
Awooooo!
“Everyone, run! A Hector pack is coming!”
The pack of gray-furred wolves filling that world.