LIGHTNOVELONLINE [Translator – Pr?ks]
[Proofreader – Pr?ks]
Chapter 75: Luminous’ Collection (1)
1.
“As I said, from this moment on, I’m targeting you. Your lives.”
Logically, it was a ludicrous statement.
A playful remark to lighten the mood, something to scoff at, something not to take seriously.
However, the expressions of El Pam’s companions were identical upon hearing those words.
They were all taking it seriously.
In other words, El Pam’s companions knew.
‘Boss is serious.’
El Pam wasn’t joking around.
‘Because it’s true that we’re lacking.’
Far from joking, the El Pam party members knew what they lacked.
Objectively, the El Pam party was excellent.
Even excluding El Pam, the remaining four members had dazzling careers.
Minerv was a disciple acknowledged by Captain Kyrin, Kiri was a talent recognized by the Signus Knights, and Ralph’s abilities were off the charts.
And divo, though overshadowed by El Pam, was a genius showing tremendous growth.
Their astonishing growth rate was the evidence.
‘Experience.’
In other words, they didn’t have much time to gain experience compared to their level of growth.
Usually, this wouldn’t be a problem.
They could cover their lack of experience with talent.
‘Especially experience fighting adventurers.’
The problem was that the El Pam party was good at hunting monsters, but not at fighting adventurers.
This wasn’t unique to the El Pam party.
Adventurers generally avoided fighting each other.
The Adventurers’ Association prohibited fights between adventurers in various ways.
The Adventurers’ Association, which rarely intervened in matters between adventurers, didn’t hesitate to put bounties on trolls and adventurer killers.
Naturally, adventurers had very little experience fighting other adventurers.
And that wasn’t a big problem.
They usually didn’t have to fight adventurers.
But the El Pam party was different.
‘We can’t just gloss over it anymore.’
From now on, they were more likely to face adventurers than monsters as enemies.
So, it was time for training.
“Yes, I knew this day would come.”
Therefore, divo accepted El Pam’s proposal without hesitation.
It wasn’t just divo.
“Sounds fun.”
“Let’s do it. It seems easier than I thought.”
Everyone willingly accepted.
“How much will you give us if we win?”
In other words, everyone was already prepared for this situation.
“Right, boss! It’s no fun without a wager, so let’s make a bet.”
They were also confident.
“This kind of thing is only fun with money on the line, right?”
They knew El Pam was formidable, but they weren’t going down easily.
“A wager, you say… Alright.”
El Pam responded to them, holding up a single finger.
“I’ll give you 100 million mesos if you survive.”
“For a whole day?”
El Pam, he gladly revealed.
“No, 10 minutes.”
“What?”
“Then let’s begin.”
To show them what hell is.
2.
Prince Kashan considered survival the most important virtue when hiring adventurers.
It was natural.
From Prince Kashan’s perspective, he didn’t want the corpses or items of boss monsters.
Of course, he didn’t focus solely on survival skills. He also verified their abilities as a baseline.
As a result, he only selected outstanding adventurers.
Those capable of easily clearing even 300-man gates, the highest difficulty in the Yellow rank.
They could clear 99-man gates with a laugh.
Thud!
But now, those adventurers were lying down.
Far from laughing, their faces were filled with pain.
There were no exceptions.
All the dead adventurers had the same expression.
It was evidence.
“Confirming death.”
Evidence that they were all killed by the same man.
“As always, Meo’s poison is impressive.”
The killer’s name was Meo.
It was not a known name.
It couldn’t be known.
“No one has ever survived being targeted by Killer Bee.”
Killer Bee.
No one who faced that nickname survived, no one became a witness.
That’s how powerful Killer Bee Meo was.
First of all, the poison magic he used was very powerful.
“They couldn’t have survived. It’s an unavoidable poison.”
But the scariest thing was that his poison magic accurately reached its target.
“How can you dodge poison arrows that chase you with psychokinesis?”
The poison arrows, controlled by Killer Bee Meo’s psychokinesis, quickly approached the target and hit them directly.
Like bees.
That’s how he got the nickname Killer Bee.
“The stage was perfect too.”
Moreover, this place, the 3rd floor, was a jungle.
Rustle!
A dense jungle where even the sound of the wind could cause confusion.
Buzz!
A jungle filled with the sounds of insects and all sorts of noises.
On such a stage, it was virtually impossible to dodge the poison arrows controlled by Killer Bee Meo’s psychokinesis.
More importantly, Killer Bee Meo wasn’t alone.
The ten companions who followed him all served as Killer Bee’s excellent hands and feet.
Like worker bees serving their queen.
“How many are left?”
Their work, diligently hunting adventurers like bees, was nearing its end.
“Five.”
Only one party remained.
“Today is the 7th day.”
It was even the last day of the seven-day deadline set by Prince Kashan.
Even if they survived today and escaped the Mystic Gate tomorrow, it would be no different from being dead.
In other words, the Killer Bee party just had to spend the remaining day here.
In fact, at this point, it was as good as over.
Everyone was confident in their minds.
‘They’re probably dead on the 2nd or 1st floor.’
The five were as good as dead.
‘Otherwise, they would have shown up on the 3rd floor by now, wouldn’t they?’
In a situation where the goal was to clear this place in the shortest possible time, not reaching the 3rd floor by the 7th day meant a lack of ability, and a lack of ability in the Mystic Gate meant death.
There was no reason to be nervous.
More importantly, Killer Bee Meo had that.
‘Luminous’ Bracelet.’
A special item received for this task.
‘It’s an unbelievable item.’
And the power of that item was strong enough to be owned by Luminous, the great mage.
‘To think that the power of psychokinesis could be upgraded by one level.’ Just wearing it upgraded his psychokinesis by one level.
It was unbelievable.
It wasn’t simply a matter of reducing mana consumption; it literally meant a different level of power.
It was like a 3rd Circle adventurer becoming a 4th Circle adventurer.
The reason Luminous owned it, even though he didn’t use psychokinesis, was because of that.
It was simply too powerful to be released into the world.
That was the reason.
‘In the current Yellow Rank Mystic Gate, I can confidently say no one can surpass me.’
That’s why Killer Bee Meo was more confident than ever.
It was then.
“Meo.”
“What is it?”
“The trap set at the entrance to the 3rd floor has been triggered.”
The final prey had appeared.
3.
A jungle overgrown with vegetation.
The El Pam party, having arrived in the jungle, all stopped and stared at the ground.
There was nothing strange about the place they were looking at.
But it was different in the eyes of the El Pam party.
“There’s a trap.”
They could see a very faint thread, almost invisible, stretched between the trees.
It was a very elaborate trap.
Not simply set up, but placed in a truly hard-to-see location, taking into account the angle of light.
It was so ingenious that even an experienced adventurer might not notice it if they passed by the trap.
“How careless.”
However, divo scoffed even after seeing the trap.
It was due to experience.
“Compared to the boss…”
Countless truly exquisite traps.
It was no wonder, as El Pam’s ability to set traps was on a different level compared to other adventurers.
There was nothing strange about it.
In absurd situations where they had to hunt by any means necessary, they had to do everything they could.
They had to become proficient in everything.
Traps were no exception.
They had to be set perfectly. Otherwise, there was no point in setting them.
“I don’t know how many times we’ve been caught.”
divo and his companions had faced death countless times due to such traps.
To them, the trap in front of them was laughable.
It was at that moment.
Thump!
El Pam deliberately stepped on the trap with his foot.
Ping!
The thread snapped with a faint sound.
El Pam intentionally triggered the trap.
However, his companions weren’t surprised at all.
Instead, they narrowed their eyes.
They knew.
“You’re intentionally luring them in, aren’t you?”
What El Pam’s intention was.
“That’s right.”
As they expected.
El Pam planned to lure the adventurer hunters here by deliberately triggering the trap.
Of course, El Pam knew.
“Those who set this trap are not ordinary. They have the skills to not hesitate in becoming enemies with Prince Kashan.”
That the adventurer hunters here were not ordinary.
That revealing their presence to them was more dangerous than they thought.
“And we don’t even know who they are, what abilities they have, or how many of them there are.”
At this point, the El Pam party had no information about the adventurer hunters.
Therefore, it was a very dangerous act to deliberately trigger the trap even after seeing it.
An act beyond common sense.
So, under normal circumstances, El Pam would never have done something like this.
He would be fine, but his companions were different.
In other words, now was different from usual.
“That’s right. No problem.”
“Yeah, what could go wrong?”
“Boss, what does it matter?”
El Pam’s companions said clearly.
“Compared to the boss, it’ll be child’s play.”
The level of the enemy would be laughable compared to El Pam, whom they had been facing for the past few days.
It wasn’t just blind confidence.
“Of course, it’ll be child’s play.”
On the 1st floor, the place filled with Lupins, the four of them had experienced it.
“We’ve died over a thousand times.”
What hell is.
“At first, we couldn’t last even a minute.”
“To think all four of us would die at the same time.”
“And to a trap, no less.”
Of course, it wasn’t just the experience of hell that gave them this confidence.
“Was it the 130th time we lasted 10 minutes?”
They had done it.
“Eventually, we even lasted an hour.”
They had achieved the ability to endure for a whole hour against El Pam.
It was a tremendous feat.
They had endured for an hour against none other than the Last Adventurer.
And the result, the proof that they had overcome that hell, was on everyone’s wrists.
“That’s when the 4th Circle opened up.”
Four rings.
It was then.
“Boss, something’s coming.”
At divo’s words, all the El Pam party members turned their heads.
Whoosh!
And they heard it.
The sound of something approaching them.
Upon hearing the sound, everyone’s expressions hardened.
“This is?”
They knew it well.
“Sounds like the sound of magic arrows being fired with psychokinesis, right?”
[Translator – Pr?ks]
[Proofreader – Pr?ks]