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Chapter 2. Gold Slime (3)
8.
Adventurers who enter the Mystic Gate always end up damaging the Mystic Gate.
But it wasn’t always unconditionally hurtful.
There were some tricks.
For example, there were adventurers who intentionally left multiple scars on the gates. This was so that others could not easily touch them. After all, the Mystic Gate, with its many scars, was bound to feel dangerous.
But even so, it was clear that the Mystic Gate, with its many wounds, was dangerous.
If there were about 12 wounds, that was a really dangerous place.
Of course, it was a laughable level for El Palm. He had conquered the Mystic Gate with over 100 wounds, and he was the last adventurer to survive even after facing Horntail.
‘It’s a dangerous place.’
But that wasn’t a reason for El Palm to let down its guard.
Of course, El Palm had considered several scenarios before entering the Mystic Gate.
‘The number of people allowed to enter is limited to 5. It’s not that powerful monsters appear. They are the type that can be conquered. However, if certain conditions are met, there is a high possibility that they will become even stronger.’
And then one thing occurred to me.
‘It could be gold slime.’
Gold Slime.
It was a golden slime that appeared only as a boss monster in the red-grade Mystic Gate, but it was an extremely rare boss monster.
There were two reasons why El Palm had such a gold slime in mind.
First of all, it was strong.
‘He’s a nightmare at Red Grade Mystic Gate.’
Another thing is that it is very powerful.
‘Because the acid is so strong.’
First of all, slimes’ bodies were basically made up of a strong acidic liquid.
Of course, the moment the body was wounded, a strong acidic liquid flowed out from the wound, which was a factor that made it difficult to hunt slimes.
It was a nightmare, especially for warriors who had to fight in close quarters, such as tanks or melee dealers.
In other words, it was vulnerable to ranged attacks.
So, the monster itself wasn’t that difficult to conquer. It was just a tricky monster.
But nothing is easy in the world of adventurers.
‘Gold Slime shoots acid.’
The biggest reason why Gold Slime was such a pain was because it used the Acid Arrow skill.
The power was much stronger than expected.
Above all, the range was considerable.
A monster that is a headache for beginners in many ways.
Of course, El Palm didn’t have Gold Slime in mind simply because it was strong.
‘If it’s difficult, just run away.’
The original purpose of many adventurers who came here was to obtain items from adventurers who had already died.
From their perspective, there was no reason to fight the gold slime.
So I had gold slime in mind.
‘But if it’s a gold slime, it eats the item as well.’
The presence of Gold Slime here essentially means that you cannot find dead adventurers’ items.
But not many people knew that fact.
I can guarantee that even among beginner adventurers, only a handful are aware of the existence of Gold Slime.
That’s why adventurers who came here must have wandered around.
Find a non-existent item that has already been eaten by gold slime.
El Palm also knew.
‘You become stronger as the number of items you eat.’
Another reason why gold slime is dangerous.
Of course, this was only one possibility. El Palm had no confidence that Gold Slime would appear.
‘That’s him.’
But the moment he crossed the Mystic Gate, El Palm saw him.
Traces of acid remain here and there, those faint traces of acid.
Sniff sniff!
That distinctive, acidic scent of slime that faintly tickles the tip of your nose.
At that moment, El Palm was sure.
‘It’s gold slime.’
The boss monster here is a gold slime.
‘You’re lucky.’
And the moment he realized that, El Palm stopped worrying.
‘I can handle it comfortably.’
9.
“Fuck!”
The first one to swear the moment the gold slime appeared was none other than Chev.
That would be the case, because the slime itself was like rat poison to a warrior.
Not only was your life in danger if you made a mistake, but even if that wasn’t the case, if you fought up close, you would inevitably be exposed to the slime’s blood and acid, which would soon lead to the item being damaged.
This means that expensive items are useless in a battle with slimes.
Of course, if it was gold slime, such worries would be meaningless.
‘Why of all things!’
The moment Gold Slime appeared, from that moment on, there was only one thing to worry about: survival.
‘You have to watch out for acid arrows.’
What Chev was thankful for was that he knew something about Gold Slime.
That was quite a big deal.
Among the monsters that appear beyond the Mystic Gate, there were quite a few that did not exist in Maple World.
This means that new monsters appear even at this time.
Moreover, information about such monsters was of much higher value than expected.
It means that you have to pay to get information.
Adventurers of a certain rank usually had no qualms about paying information fees.
However, Chev was a 1st circle adventurer, an adventurer who still conquered the red rank Mystic Gate.
So he knows about gold slime? That’s something to be praised for.
It was thanks to that.
“Watch out for acid arrows!”
Fit!
The moment Chev gave a warning, an acid arrow was fired from the Gold Slime’s body towards Chev’s comrade who was on the tree, and thanks to Chev’s warning, the comrade was able to fly and avoid the acid arrow.
“Ugh!”
He landed hard and sprained his ankle, but it was not much of an injury compared to losing his life.
“Captain, do you know what that thing is?”
The biggest effect of all was that Chev’s colleagues were encouraged by Chev’s remarks.
I know the strategy, and the sense of stability it gives me is indescribable.
“He uses acid arrows. If you get hit, you should just assume it’s the end.”
“driving me crazy.”
“Fortunately.”
“Fortunately? Is there a way to conquer it?”
“Once he uses Acid Arrow, it needs a cooldown after that.”
That’s why Chev willingly revealed his strategy, and the looks in his colleagues’ eyes changed when he saw this.
Since there is a strategy, you can hunt!
Because of that confidence.
That was the reason.
“Then now… … .”
Fit!
Unable to dodge the acid arrow that was suddenly fired.
“Kwaaaaah!”
And I couldn’t react properly even when I saw my comrade who was hit by the acid arrow scream and fall to the ground.
‘How? There must be a cooldown time?’
Chev, his knowledge was not wrong.
Normal gold slime required a cooldown after firing acid arrows.
But that was only the normal case, Chev should have been aware of it.
That this is beyond the Mystic Gate, which has twelve wounds.
There’s a reason why 12 parties died so easily.
Of course, it was a late realization, and the price for it was dire.
Fit!
“Kwaaaaak!”
I heard a scream from my colleague.
“Kwaaaaak!”
One after another.
This leaves only the warrior Chev.
And there was only one thing Chev could do.
“ah.”
Resignation.
Fit!
A sound rang in Chev’s ears as he gave up.
10.
Kkwaak!
Only after hearing the screams did El Palm, who had been holding his breath, begin to move.
‘Everything’s sorted out.’
In a sense, it was revenge.
A righteous revenge against Chev and his party, who committed all sorts of atrocities as novice hunters.
But this fact did not particularly interest El Palm.
It wasn’t done for revenge.
He simply used the safest and most certain way to deal with the crowd trying to kill him, no different from clearing away rocks on the roadside.
‘There is no income.’
Moreover, El Palm could not retrieve the items here.
There was some hope.
It’s possible that the surviving adventurers simply threw the items away to figure out what was going on and leave them behind.
In the first place, the gold slime doesn’t go after items, but rather eats the items while eating the corpses of dead adventurers. So if the adventurers threw the items like that, those items would have remained.
‘If it’s a monster of that size, I guess it must have eaten everything.’
But the moment I saw that Gold Slime use Acid Arrow without any cooldown, that possibility became zero.
Here, El Palm had one expectation: ‘Instead, the level of the magic stone he possesses is at least that of an orange-grade boss monster, and maybe even a yellow-grade monster.’
The magic stone of the gold slime that has absorbed over 40 items, that huge lump of magic power.
Of course, as I said before, that gold slime was very strong.
It wasn’t for nothing that he annihilated twelve parties here.
It was not an easy level even compared to orange-level boss monsters.
‘Slime has strong magic defense.’
Moreover, slimes have high magical defense due to their nature.
‘About the size of a palm.’
Currently, El Palm’s Fire Arrow will only be able to penetrate the body of a larger Gold Slime by the length of your palm.
‘About 25 centimeters?’
For a gold slime with a body length of nearly three meters and a core in its center, it was nothing more than a very long needle stuck in its skin.
There was a wound, but it was impossible to cause a fatal injury.
But El Palm wasn’t too worried.
He had been in situations like this countless times, having to hunt down a monster from afar.
‘Then six steps should be enough.’
So, I had no worries.
“Fire Arrow.”
El Palm shouted Fire Arrow.
After that, I just took the first step.
Straight.
In a straight line towards the gold slime.
Phew!
The fire arrow that flew like that pierced the body of Gold Slime, and at that moment, an acid arrow was fired from Gold Slime’s body.
Towards El Palm.
However, El Palm, who had already anticipated this situation, was not there. El Palm started running.
“Fire Arrow.”
Then I used Fire Arrow again and it blew up again.
Unlike before, it is controlled by telekinesis.
Phew!
I fired another fire arrow into the gold slime’s body.
The fire arrow that flew like that was embedded twice as deeply as the one that had been embedded before.
The reason was simple.
It was stuck in the exact same spot where it was first aimed.
A sight that would terrify wizards if they saw it.
But El Palm was not frightened by the sight.
That would be the case, for him this was an everyday scene, nothing more, nothing less. To be exact, he had lived a life where he could not dare to survive if he could not do even this much.
So at this moment, El Palm had only one thing in mind.
‘You have four feet left.’
count down.
‘Three feet.’
And the count came to a steady end.
‘Two feet.’
That’s how it ended.
‘One step.’
Phew!
The Fire Arrow hit the core of the Gold Slime, causing it to explode.
11.
Adventurers imagine.
A picture of myself cheering at the end of the boss monster hunt beyond the Mystic Gate.
But the reality was different.
There was no adventurer who, when hunting a monster, especially a boss monster, cheered as if everything was over.
At least they weren’t seasoned adventurers. They knew.
Rather, the real thing starts from that moment.
“The first thing you have to do after defeating the boss monster is to find the core.”
Most monsters had cores, and those cores were magic stones that raised the adventurers’ circles.
Here’s the problem. Destroying the monster’s core destroys the magic stone.
Of course, even if it was destroyed, there was no problem with the power of the magic stone itself. The problem was recovering the destroyed magic stone. Finding the magic stone, which was more valuable than gold, was by no means an easy task.
It wasn’t just the silk magic stone. There were quite a few monster accessories that were worth money.
The real work begins after the hunt is over.
It was no different from El Palm.
No, this time it was a bit more annoying.
The gold slime exploded as it died, spraying the powerful acid that had filled its body in all directions.
The broken cores were also scattered everywhere.
It would be strange if it were easy to find the nuke there.
But El Palm worked slowly. When he found a piece of magic stone, he used his telekinesis to move it, and he did this without rest, steadily.
It was because it was such a familiar task to him, and because he knew it.
gulp!
‘Even though it’s just a piece, the circle gets darker every time you eat it.’
Because I know how important this task is.
When all of the magic stones of the Gold Slime were finally consumed, the black line on El Palm’s left wrist had become noticeably darker.
‘Circle 1, we’ve reached the end.’
Here El Palm felt regret.
It was definitely a surprising result.
However, if the magic power of the Gold Slime’s magic stone had been a little stronger, then El Palm would have reached the 2nd circle.
‘The difference between Circle 1 and Circle 2 is crucial.’
The difference was huge.
In human terms, the difference between having one hand and having two hands was much greater.
But I didn’t ruminate on the regret.
There was still a lot of work to be done.
Most of the items here were eaten by the gold slime, but there were some that he couldn’t eat.
A corpse that has just been created.
‘Chev.’
El Palm, he moved to retrieve it.
And El Palm could be found inside Chev’s shoe.
‘… … A red magic stone of this size would be a boss monster, but for you to hide something like this, you must be about to reach the 2nd circle.’
A result that will blow away your regrets.
fantasy,
