045
Chapter 14. The Nautilus (3)
5.
‘Golden Eye.’
El Palm, he was momentarily surprised when Golden Eye appeared.
‘You came here to attack this place after all.’
But I wasn’t too surprised that she was trying to raid Eagle Eye’s Tomb.
It was because I knew.
The fact that Golden Eye and Eagle Eye lived lives no different from those of real sisters.
That’s why I wanted to conquer Eagle Eye’s Tomb more than anyone else.
‘That’s why I attacked the 200-person gate.’
That was also the reason why I set out to conquer the 200-person Mystic Gate, which boasts the highest difficulty level of Orange.
It was an expression of will.
Since I’ve cleared the Orange-grade Mystic Gate, which is the highest difficulty, I’m saying that clearing Eagle Eye’s Tomb shouldn’t be difficult.
Of course El Palm knew.
‘That confidence has been shattered.’
That after that, only seven members of Golden Eye’s party returned from Eagle Eye’s Tomb.
‘Eagle Eye’s remains were not found either.’
Even that came back with great difficulty.
‘I didn’t know you would be going on a raid around this time.’
That is, what surprised El Palm was only her appearance at this point.
I was just surprised for a moment.
‘It’s the best-case scenario.’
Her appearance itself was the best opportunity for El Palm.
As I said before, Golden Eye was more desperate than anyone else to conquer Eagle Eye’s Tomb.
At the same time, he had the ability.
That was why.
“100,000 mesos in one place.”
El Palm suggested the place value.
It wasn’t about making money.
Through that provocation, I wanted to draw her more definitely into this attack.
I was also confident that this would work.
‘If you have a golden eye personality, you will unconditionally accept it even if you don’t want to lose.’
Because I knew her personality.
‘Even at the last moment, she didn’t want to lose, so she went to catch Bellum before me.’
The underground dragon Bellum, a monster as terrifying as the Horntail, is the first to go hunting because he doesn’t want to lose.
Of course, that feeling of not wanting to lose included the feeling that he couldn’t tolerate someone else dying first.
In any case, she definitely fell for El Palm’s provocation.
“All the remaining seats!”
All the seats were purchased.
“However, payment is due later!”
Although he did not readily accept El Palm’s offer, the truth is that El Palm was happy with the money from the start.
“I’ll give it to you if you come out alive.”
She participated, and that fact was important to El Palm.
“good.”
The moment the transaction is completed.
It was a moment of tremendous harvest for El Palm.
If this is the case, only two parties will be participating in this Mystic Gate raid: El Palm Party and Miner’s Party.
Because there was no longer any space for the top of Kania or Gapor to fit in.
But El Palm knew.
‘There must be a member from the top of Kania within the Miner Party.’
They have already written down the numbers.
‘The Black Mage’s followers are everywhere. Aboard the Nautilus, of course, and even near Empress Signus.’
Surely that follower will do something.
‘But it’s no problem.’
But El Palm had no worries.
There was no way that could happen.
‘I can conquer Eagle Eye’s Tomb by myself now.’
Because I was confident.
That’s why El Palm didn’t hesitate.
“D-Day is tomorrow, I will go right away.”
6.
“An adventurer has appeared to challenge Eagle Eye’s Tomb after a year!”
The story spread quickly aboard the Nautilus.
Of course, when it first spread, not many listeners were very interested.
“Some idiot finally did it.”
Because all kinds of incidents, accidents, and unusual things happened on the Nautilus, where all kinds of people gathered.
“If the interested parties have been patient for a year, they have been patient a lot.”
This time I thought it was someone’s stupidity.
“I sold my seat to Golden Eye!”
“And the golden eye bought the seat!”
But the moment Golden Eye Miner intervened in the story, the weight of the incident changed.
Of course, she was interested too.
“Murat.”
“Yes, Captain.”
Captain Kairin.
The current owner of the Nautilus and an adventurer who has conquered the highest-level Mystic Gate.
“I heard the story. Miner is taking on the challenge.”
She, Miner’s teacher, also asked Murat.
“Do you think Miner can conquer that place?”
Murat answered the question firmly.
“It’s impossible.”
It was an answer that would be difficult for others to understand.
Currently, Golden Eye has cleared the 200-person Mystic Gate, the orange-grade Mystic Gate with the highest difficulty.
But you can’t conquer the orange-grade Mystic Gate, which only accommodates 74 people?
But Murat was resolute.
It had to be that way.
“Miner, her talents still don’t reach Leah’s.”
That place is the tomb of Eagle-Eye Leah.
In fact, that was why Murat got involved in the argument between El Palm and Miner.
“But why didn’t you stop me?”
Murat, he knew that Miner’s destination was Eagleeye’s tomb, and he moved to stop him from tearing down the bounty page.
Then I happened to see him arguing with El Palm.
“Is it because of El Palm?”
In other words, it means that an unexpected variable has appeared.
“yes.”
“I did some research. His career was quite unusual.”
And according to our research, El Palm was definitely different from regular adventurers in many ways.
“It seems like you have excellent survival skills.”
But that was all Kairin could see.
Of course, it would be like that, because it was none other than Kairin. In her eyes, even successful adventurers were just fools.
It was no different from El Palm.
So the question was.
The only reason I allowed Miner’s Eagle Eye Tomb to be raided was because it included El Palm, which has excellent survival skills.
About him Murat said:
“I heard his heartbeat. It reminded me of the heartbeat I heard when Luminous and Maple Union were created. There was not a single waver.”
Luminous!
One of the six heroes who sealed the Black Wizard!
Wizard of light and darkness!
The moment that name came out of Murat’s mouth, Kairin didn’t hesitate for long.
No one knows better than Murat how poorly he is evaluated.
The fact that he would go to such lengths means that there is something truly special about El Palm.
“Are you sure he’ll help Miner?”
Of course, having something to do with El Palm and helping Miner were two separate things.
Murat didn’t worry much about that.
“Prepare your bargaining card. Without Miner knowing. If you are El Palm, you will receive the bargaining card.”
At those words, Kairin began to worry.
So what would be a good bargaining chip?
There wasn’t much concern about it.
Kairin said, taking a gold coin out of her bosom.
“If I can let you take anything you want from the treasure vault of the Nautilus, that will be enough, right?”
If you don’t know what you want, you can just choose it yourself.
That’s the end of the worries.
There’s only one thing left.
“Please deliver it tomorrow.”
“yes.”
Waiting for the right time.
And then the time came.
7.
It was an island.
A small island of about 300 pyeong, uninhabited with only a few trees, a pile of rocks, and a pile of trash.
Four adventurers appeared on that uninhabited island.
“Boss, this is Eagle Eye’s grave.”
To challenge the Eagle Eye’s Tomb, a Mystic Gate worth 9.99 million mesos that no one has been able to challenge for a year.
“That’s the gate.”
As the El Palm Party approached the Mystic Gate, the Mystic Gate created a portal.
Emitting a splendid orange glow.
It was around that time.
“There it comes.”
When I turned my head at Kiri’s words, I saw five small boats, packed with people, coming to the uninhabited island.
And then I saw one of them’s eyes glowing golden.
Miner Party, they arrived on a deserted island.
In no time, the uninhabited island was filled.
Of course, the pressure was indescribable.
Under that pressure, Miner approached El Palm and said:
“Did you sleep well?”
El Palm didn’t really respond to that greeting.
“there is no answer.”
There was no reason to do it.
“What do you like?”
Because the main topic was separate.
“There’s only one important story anyway.”
Setting the rules.
In fact, in Lease, there was no concept of setting rules.
When conquering Mystic Gate, the rule was that adventurers would mostly help each other.
But the Nautilus was different.
“So what’s the bounty?”
It was because of the bounty.
Because the adventurers had to discuss how to distribute the bounty they received upon completing the adventure.
Of course, most of the adventurers on the Nautilus had one way.
“Whoever catches the boss monster gets it all.”
Boss hunting.
“I like it.”
What this meant was one more thing.
“From now on, we are competitors inside.”
Don’t expect any help beyond that Mystic Gate.
Of course, in that case, it was obvious that the El Palm Party was at a disadvantage.
El Palm Party has 4 people, while Miner Party has 70 people!
Frankly, this competition itself could not have taken place.
“Don’t talk nonsense. Your subordinates are the same. Okay? Or get on your knees and beg me right now.”
But none of the members of the El Palm party raised any questions or concerns about him.
‘The boss will take care of it.’
Because they saw El Palm up close.
After seeing the appearance of El Palm Party like that, Miner was no longer interested in them.
In fact, Miner wasn’t interested in El Palm from the beginning.
‘We’ve finally made it here.’
Her only goal is to retrieve Eagle Eye’s relics beyond the Mystic Gate.
El Palm was nothing more or less than an obstacle that appeared along the way.
And now there was no need to worry about that obstacle anymore.
“Everyone, come in!”
The adventurers who had gathered in this way began to pass through the Mystic Gate with their prepared luggage one by one.
And they could see.
“forest?”
“It’s too dark?”
“Someone turn on the light!”
A forest so densely packed with trees that not a single ray of light can enter.
Sniff sniff!
“Isn’t this humidity no joke?”
And the pungent, damp moisture that filled the forest.
At that moment, all the adventurers there had a gut feeling.
“Here, there are mushrooms.”
The monsters that appear here are probably mushroom monsters.
That fact made the adventurers relax slightly.
“This is going to be easier than I thought, isn’t it?”
It’s not that the mushroom monster is weak, but honestly, from the perspective of adventurers who have been through a lot, the mushroom monster is the most ridiculous monster you can encounter.
It definitely was.
“There it comes!”
If it were a normal mushroom monster, there would be no reason for adventurers to be particularly afraid.
“Huh? Those things?”
“Gray?”
“no way?”
With one exception.
“It’s a zombie mushroom!”
And then there was that one exception.
8.
Among the monsters, there were some that had been cursed with zombies.
And those zombie monsters weren’t easy to hunt.
Unlike normal monsters, zombie monsters don’t die even if you break their limbs.
The most troublesome of them all was none other than the zombie mushroom.
“Mushrooms usually die when crushed. But zombie mushrooms are different. They can only be killed by destroying their magic stone.”
Because zombie mushrooms will resurrect if the magic stone is not destroyed.
It was a nightmare for adventurers.
It was simply a resurrection, so it wasn’t a nightmare.
“If not, I will rise again. At your feet, no one else’s.”
First of all, the location of the resurrection was a problem.
When fighting mushroom monsters, the area will be filled with their corpses, which means that they will be resurrected.
But that was the most troublesome part.
“And remember, mushroom monsters reproduce faster than anyone else. And zombie mushrooms? Needless to say, it’s just hell there.”
Usually, mushroom monsters would starve to death when they ran out of food, but zombie mushrooms were different.
The number of zombie mushrooms that do not die even if eaten has increased exponentially over time.
So how many zombie mushrooms are there in Mystic Gate a year after the last raid?
One thing was certain.
There must be countless of them.
“Fuck!”
Miner and his party screamed at that fact.
The El Palm party was no different.
“crazy!”
Divo’s face turned pale as he looked at the horde of zombie mushrooms approaching.
It wasn’t just like that.
Of course, Kiri and Ralph too.
Everyone’s faces were frozen.
The situation they were in now was the worst of the worst they had ever faced.
“boss!”
That’s why Divo is looking for El Palm.
“Fire Arrow.”
In front of such a Divo, El Palm summoned Fire Arrow.
Debo’s expression hardened at that fact.
“Boss? You’re going with Fire Arrow? It won’t work against them, right?”
Zombie mushrooms had much higher defense than regular mushrooms.
It was because of the zombie curse that the flesh on their bodies turned to mud.
Normally, monsters would have their skin weakened, but for zombie mushrooms, which are just lumps of flesh, it actually has the effect of strengthening their defense.
‘Damn, you’ll only be able to catch two or three with that.’
In such a situation, no matter how powerful the Fire Arrow was, it was not easy to see any effect against the zombie mushrooms.
That was common sense.
And El Palm knew it too.
‘Usually it’s not easy to kill even one zombie with Fire Arrow.’
That’s common sense.
‘but.’
But now El Palm was different.
‘I have four phoenix feathers in my hand.’
He is currently in an extraordinary situation.
Naturally, the situations he could create had to be unconventional.
Phew!
El Palm, his fire arrow pierced a zombie mushroom as if it were a piece of paper.
“uh?”
At that sight, the three of them, including Divo, looked terrified.
A sight beyond common sense.
El Palm showed it to them.
“clairvoyance.”
A sight beyond common sense and imagination.
fantasy,
