Chapter 37
Chapter 37
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 37
Chapter Title: Thanks to the Princess
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“It seems to be... sleeping in the left corner.”
“Are you sure? What if you’re wrong?”
“Ugh... yeah, your face.”
Just outside the mid-boss area, we used Han Do-hee’s ability to pinpoint its location.
Suri could have gone inside to check, but if we startled it and put it on alert, the element of surprise would be lost. We were playing it safe.
“Alright, the five of us in the front line, including the robot friend, will go in later. The mages and archers will land the first hit.”
“Do we have to? Wouldn’t it be better to just rush in together and take it down quickly?”
“I told you, it’ll be a pain if we wake it up.”
I didn’t quite understand it, but a very professional-sounding conversation was taking place. It was my first time in a raid-scale gate, but it was surprisingly fun and not too difficult. Maybe it was because we chose one with a moderate difficulty level.
Two of the men and one of the women, whose names I couldn’t quite remember, weren’t fighting. Instead, they were dressing the monster carcasses, extracting the valuable parts, or acting as porters, something I had only heard about.
They bickered periodically, but it didn’t seem like they were genuinely fighting. I’d heard that people who work in dangerous environments tend to have their nerves on edge... so they must just be teasing each other, right...?
“If you’re going to speak without thinking, just don’t speak at all.”
“I was just saying. You don’t have to give me so much crap for it.”
“That’s my point. Think before you speak.”
“Anyone listening would think I told you to go get yourself killed. Why do you have to talk like that?”
“Hey, that’s enough.”
As the argument between the tank and the mage dragged on, others stepped in to mediate.
“What do you mean, ‘enough’? She’s the one talking nonsense.”
“That’s because you’re spouting useless drivel and breaking everyone’s focus. It’s annoying.”
“Young-jun, stop it.”
“Then shut Kim Min-kyung up. She’s getting on my nerves.”
As the atmosphere grew increasingly hostile, my head started to throb. Chae-ah, who was holding my hand, covered my ears with her palms, but their voices weren’t something that could be completely blocked out.
“Hey, Son Young-jun!”
Watching the two fight from a distance, Ryu Min-ho let out a deep sigh. They often bickered, so he initially thought it was just another one of their usual squabbles.
“Uuuh...”
But as their voices grew louder, the expression on Eve’s face, who was resting on a rock nearby, began to sour in real-time. Her eyes darted around anxiously, and eventually, tears started to well up.
As their voices continued to rise, Ryu Min-ho stepped between them and quickly put an end to the fight. He was one of only three B-rank Hunters in this raid party, including Han Do-hee.
“Both of you, cut it out. There’s a kid here.”
“...Right.”
“Sorry.”
“Hey, you made Eve cry. What are you two going to do? You don’t want heals?”
“Make up, quickly.”
At the sharp words from Kim Chae-ah and Han Do-hee, the two who had been arguing with irritable tones looked at Eve with expressions of realization. It was bad enough that she was already uncomfortable around strangers, but now she had seen them fight.
Awkwardly exchanging glances, the man and woman approached the tearful Eve.
“Uh... Eve. We weren’t fighting. We were just having a discussion. Okay?”
“That’s right, we were discussing.”
“It looked like you were fighting...”
“N-No! Really!”
“Then can you shake hands...?”
“Shake hands? We... we can do that, right...?”
Stealing glances at Eve, the two of them awkwardly clasped hands and shook.
“Wow, they’re shaking hands. They weren’t fighting.”
“That’s right. They even shook hands, didn’t they, Eve?”
“Um... yes...”
Kim Chae-ah and Han Do-hee, standing behind Eve, chimed in to help soothe her. When her expression didn’t seem to improve, Son Young-jun and Kim Min-kyung even slung their arms around each other’s shoulders.
“See? Look. We’re close.”
“Is that for real...?”
“Haha, of course it is.”
“Okay...”
After that, thanks to Han Do-hee and Kim Chae-ah’s efforts to comfort her, Eve’s tears finally stopped. As for the two who had raised their voices, they received a heap of disapproving glares from the other party members.
“Alright, alright, let’s not raise our voices. Okay? Got it?”
“Hear, hear. You bad people. What are you showing Eve?”
“Exactly, you two should do a windmill.”
“That’s a bit much.”
“Still, he’s less of a jerk than Min-ho.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me...”
With my super-princessly presence, I mediated the conflict among the raid members. Honestly, what would they do without me?
“So, if you just hit the third eye right here between its brows, it should be easy.”
“Got it.”
“But it’s pretty tough, so it won’t be easy. And the moment you touch it, it’ll wake up.”
The mid-boss of this ruin-type dungeon, a giant serpent called a ‘Nagaraja,’ had an organ between its brows known as the third eye. They said it was an eye that could see something incredible, invisible to human eyes.
If we could just destroy it while the Nagaraja was asleep, the fight would become much easier.
“I’m running a bit low on mana right now.”
“Ah, stop trying to be cute.”
“I’m just sayin’.”
“You sound like a foreigner.”
“Your face.”
However, the ranged attackers were low on mana and a bit stretched, and if we sent in the melee fighters, the Nagaraja might wake up first.
Besides, when the third eye shatters, it releases a massive shockwave, which was another reason melee was out of the question.
“Huh? Suri, can you do this?”
—Kee!
“Really? Want to give it a try?”
Suri, who had been listening to the explanation beside me, stepped forward in front of the raid party and flapped its wings as if to say it could handle it.
Everyone here was well aware of Suri’s combat prowess by now. When the giant metal eagle swooped down from the sky and struck with its beak, even massive boulders would crack apart.
“Hmm, will it be okay?”
“Eve, your eagle friend could be in danger.”
As I mentioned, a shockwave erupts when the third eye shatters. As large as it was, Suri was still a bird, and at around 6kg, it was quite light.
They said it could be sent flying far away.
“Then, Suri, as soon as you break it, I’ll use my skill to bring you right back. Okay?”
—Kee!
“Wow, so Eve is going to save the day again?”
“She’s really amazing!”
“Damn, this princess is seriously cool.”
“Hey, watch your language in front of the kid.”
“Ehehe... it’s okay....”
I know all about that kind of slang. I might have spent more time on the internet than anyone here. Or not.
“Alright, let’s go in. Stay quiet, and as soon as the eagle friend breaks the eye, we charge.”
“Okay.”
I was the most nervous one. Suri didn’t seem nervous at all...
“Suri...! You can do it...!”
—Nod, nod.
With Suri’s okay sign, the door opened with a low rumble.
—Ruuuumble...
As the massive stone wall was pushed aside, it split open with a mechanical sound, revealing a wide cavern.
The ceiling was high enough for Suri to fly without issue, and the space was vast enough for the sound of the opening door to echo.
Not long after the quiet sound of Suri’s wingbeats echoed through the silence, the creature came into view in a corner of the dark cavern.
‘Whoa, it’s huge.’
A gigantic snake, about the size of my house, was sleeping, coiled up like a cartoon poop emoji. Just as I’d heard, there was a strange, vertically elongated eye socket on its brow, but since it was asleep, a hard, scaly eyelid covered it.
I thought it was just an eye you could poke, and that would be it. If it was covered by such hard scales, it might be difficult even for Suri...
‘Will it be okay...?’
Amidst the raid party’s silence, Suri flew slowly toward the Nagaraja. The sound of someone gulping next to me was loud enough to hear.
Before long, Suri arrived directly above the boss, which was coiled up and sleeping in the left corner.
“Gasp...!”
Having flown as high as the ceiling, Suri aimed its beak precisely at the creature’s brow and began a high-speed descent.
—Crack!
“Come back, Suri—!!”
The instant its beak made contact, I recalled Suri with my skill. The Nagaraja, its eye shattered, thrashed its head up and down and roared as if it had been hit by an incredibly painful flick to the forehead...
—Ruuuumble...!!
Cra-koom—!!
A shockwave like a clap of thunder erupted from its mouth. The sound was so loud it made my ears ring. Being in an enclosed room made it even louder.
“Ugh...”
“Yeah! It’s broken!”
“Let’s go!”
“Eve, over here!”
Tucked under Chae-ah’s arm, I was pulled back to a safe distance while the warriors, tanks, mages, archers, and everyone else rushed forward with incredible speed and began to collectively beat down the Nagaraja.
A large ice magic spell hit the center of its coiled body, and perhaps because of that, the Nagaraja couldn’t even properly uncoil before it was mercilessly pummeled.
Watching from a distance, I felt the sorrow of a mammoth from long ago, which met a tragic end, unable to shake off the humans swarming it like flies.
But since Minium was also busy hitting it, I guess that made me an accomplice, didn’t it?
“Hmm, they’re fighting well.”
—Beep!! Beep!!
The doggo was beside me, wagging its butt furiously and cheering them on. Come to think of it, the doggo seems to move around the most.
“Ah, that got cut off.”
—Thud!
The Naga’s weapon, its super-massive, scale-covered tail, was sliced clean off by Minium’s sword strike and fell to the ground with a thud. Normally, that part couldn’t be cut by a sword, so the fact that it fell off meant the Naga was preparing to flee.
By shedding its heaviest part, which it used as a weapon, it had essentially lost its will to fight.
Of course, that didn’t mean our ruthless human companions would stop. The assault only ceased after the Nagaraja’s massive head rolled across the floor.
“I feel bad for the Nagajima.”
“Nagaraja?”
“Ah, yes.”
“Clear successful!”
“Woohoo!”
“We weren’t even planning on taking down the mid-boss, but we did it thanks to Eve.”
“And it didn’t even take three hours.”
“You’re right. Eve is the best, seriously.”
“Hehe....”
This was all thanks to the power of an ultra-powerful princess. The sense of accomplishment when we all emerged from the gate, laden with loot, was something hard to describe with words.
“Whew, good work everyone. Did you call the dealers?”
“I did, but I think we’ll need another truck.”
After clearing a gate, you call professional dealers to collect the loot. It’s not like they have any fancy equipment; usually, a common blue pickup truck just rumbles over to pick everything up. Selling it all and distributing the money is the easiest way.
“But doesn’t Eve need magic stones?”
“Really? What for?”
During the settlement, Han Do-hee brought it up first, which allowed me to explain that I needed actual magic stones more than money.
“Um... I use them to make golems.”
“Really? Then instead of selling it—hmm, how about this?”
The man handed me a 300g mid-grade magic stone from the Nagaraja. This single stone was worth about half the value of all the other magic stones we had collected in the gate today.
In terms of magic stones alone, it was like receiving a third of the total share.
“C-Can I really have this...?”
“Of course, you can.”
“Wow... thank you....”
Beside me, Minium did 500 celebratory somersaults in my stead. The dealers arrived and loaded up all the scales, the Naga tail, and everything else onto the truck before driving off.
It was clearly overloaded.
—Bang!
“Hey, the tire blew.”
“Ah, seriously. I told you to just call two trucks.”
“And who’s paying for that?”
“Min-ho.”
“What the...”