LIGHTNOVELONLINE [Translator – Pr?ks]
[Proofreader – Pr?ks]
Chapter 77: Luminous’ Collection (3)
8.
“A giant scorpion is approaching!”
It was truly a massive black scorpion, the size of a house.
“It looks like a boss monster!”
Its overwhelming appearance was undoubtedly that of a boss monster.
Its appearance wasn’t the only overwhelming thing.
Scrape!
The two pincers in front were incredibly sharp, capable of cutting down a large tree in an instant.
Thud!
The sound of the cut tree falling was enough to make one’s legs, body, and mind freeze in fear.
In the face of such an overwhelming presence, the first to move was none other than Minerv.
Bang!
Without any hesitation, she pulled the trigger towards the giant scorpion.
It was the basics.
The proper basics for a pirate using a gun during battle.
First, the pirate had to announce their presence through gunfire.
To tighten the tension, ring the bell of vigilance, and signal that it was time for battle, a battle for their lives.
That wasn’t all.
It also served as a gauge.
By seeing how much damage the bullet inflicted on the enemy, all party members could understand the enemy’s strength and resilience.
Of course, it was by no means easy.
It was about overcoming the instinct to run away in this sudden situation before anyone else.
Just hitting the target was a remarkable feat.
That’s why…
Minerv was called the woman with the golden eye.
Because the bullet she fired accurately hit the giant scorpion’s small left eye, its black pupil.
Beyond simply aiming, she targeted a definite weak point in this urgent situation.
It was an astonishing skill.
Clang!
But even more astonishingly, the bullet Minerv fired bounced off the giant scorpion’s eye.
“Damn!”
Divo cursed at the sight.
“How is that possible?”
He knew the power of Minerv’s gun well.
Moreover, it hadn’t just hit any random part.
“It hit the eye!”
Common sense dictated that hitting the most vulnerable part of the body wouldn’t even leave a scratch?
It was simply unfathomable!
“That’s not the problem.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“The scorpion.”
“What about the scorpion?”
“There’s a high chance poison won’t work on it.”
“Ah!”
To make matters worse, the opponent was highly likely to be resistant to poison.
“But its poison will definitely work on us.”
Meanwhile, it was clear that the opponent possessed potent venom.
It was the worst possible opponent in many ways.
Of course, the worst factor for El Pam’s party was this:
‘It would be disastrous if the boss’s magic doesn’t work.’
The possibility that El Pam’s magic, their strongest firepower, wouldn’t work.
And in the current situation, that possibility was quite high.
The scorpion boasted a powerful defense, an out-of-spec defense that didn’t fit in this Mystic Gate, as anyone could see.
There was a good chance El Pam’s magic wouldn’t work.
El Pam didn’t waste time with unnecessary words in response to this concern.
Swish!
“Fire Arrow, Magic Acceleration.”
With a signal to retreat, El Pam immediately summoned and fired an enhanced Fire Arrow.
Whoosh!
The enhanced fire arrow flew towards the giant scorpion’s eye with a chilling sound.
Whirl!
The flying fire arrow began to spin.
Revolver!
The fire arrow, imbued with El Pam’s terrifying psychokinetic technique, instantly pierced the eye.
Clang!
And upon impact, the fire arrow shattered with a harsh sound.
The fire arrow failed to penetrate the giant scorpion’s eye, shattering against the shell covering it.
El Pam’s party wasn’t flustered when they saw this.
Thanks to the continuous experience they had gained, El Pam’s party had honed their ability to think calmly.
With that calm thinking, understanding the situation just now wasn’t difficult.
‘The Fire Arrow shattered.’
The Fire Arrow was fundamentally made of flames.
Naturally, it had no physical form.
It could only pierce targets through its immense power.
However, even that had its limits.
El Pam’s magic was no different.
The amazing results he had shown so far were only possible because penetration had occurred.
If penetration failed, even El Pam’s magic would become powerless.
It wasn’t strange.
‘The boss is immune.’
So the answer was simple.
‘Find the exit.’
Give up the fight.
And the first thing they needed to do to achieve that was to run away, and El Pam’s party knew this better than anyone.
It was El Pam’s teaching.
The most important thing in battle was not hunting, but escaping.
Everyone retreated.
Swiftly.
Except for one person.
“Cold Beam.”
El Pam, instead of retreating, brought out a new magic, and all his companions were surprised.
“Boss!”
In a situation like this, shouldn’t they retreat without hesitation? Wasn’t it El Pam who emphasized that more than anyone?
But instead of retreating, he attacks?
‘Cold Beam here?’
Moreover, El Pam didn’t use Cold Beam magic often.
The reason was simple.
First of all, he didn’t have any Legendary items that enhanced ice attribute magic.
Crucially, Cold Beam was difficult for El Pam to handle.
Because of its weight.
Unlike other magic, Cold Beam had a physical form. And that form was quite heavy.
For El Pam, this meant that it consumed much more psychokinesis than other magic!
So he didn’t use it unless it was coated with poison.
But now he’s using Cold Beam?
It was hard to understand.
‘I don’t know what it is, but…’
However, at that moment, as El Pam brought out Cold Beam, his companions thought differently.
‘We’re going to catch it.’
The hunt was on.
The reason was just one.
‘The boss has a reason.’
There was a reason for El Pam’s actions.
And it wasn’t just any reason, but a definite, perfect reason that no one could deny.
“Here!”
The first to react to this was Divo.
“The Polearm Hero is here!”
He deliberately made a loud noise and commotion, flaunting his presence in front of the giant scorpion.
He drew aggro.
The giant scorpion reacted immediately to Divo’s presence.
Screech!
It turned its head and instantly cut down two trees in front of it with its pincers.
Whoosh!
And it raised its tail, tipped with a poisonous stinger, high in the air.
It displayed an intimidating appearance.
The appearance of a king overwhelming everything in its path, a true Scorpion King.
“Cut the crap and come!”
But it had little effect on Divo, and that fact enraged the Scorpion King even more.
Screech!
With a roar of anger, the Scorpion King began to sprint towards Divo with all its might.
Crash!
Destroying everything that blocked its path.
Finally, as the distance between the two narrowed, Divo began to move in earnest.
“Come on!”
Screech!
Divo started circling the Scorpion King.
It was the basic tactic of a tank.
If he just ran away blindly, the ranged attackers wouldn’t be able to launch proper attacks.
Of course, it was a very difficult task.
Nevertheless, Divo pulled off this risky maneuver. And not just barely.
‘Focus all senses.’
In this tense situation, he didn’t take his eyes off the Scorpion King.
Thanks to that, Divo could see it more clearly than anyone else.
Whoosh!
El Pam’s Cold Beam flew and pierced the Scorpion King’s eye.
Clang!
Then came a harsh sound.
The sound of steel hitting stone.
It was a disappointing sound.
It meant that even the solid Cold Beam couldn’t penetrate the Scorpion King’s eye shell.
But Divo wasn’t disappointed by the sound.
He couldn’t be.
‘Oh my god.’
Because he could see it.
‘What the hell is this?’
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The sight of the Cold Beam, embedded in the Scorpion King’s eye shell, spinning madly.
It was literally…
‘A drill?’
Just as Divo thought, the Cold Beam, like a drill, kept spinning without stopping.
Clang! Clang!
Countless times.
Screech!
Even the imposing Scorpion King seemed to feel a sense of bewilderment at the sight, momentarily forgetting about Divo and letting out a shriek.
Then the Scorpion King moved its pincers and grabbed the Cold Beam stuck in its eye.
Crack!
And crushed it.
But that wasn’t a positive outcome for the Scorpion King.
“Cold Beam.”
El Pam’s attack was just beginning.
It was the seventh time.
Crack!
When El Pam shouted “Cold Beam” for the seventh time and launched it, the Scorpion King’s hard shell finally made a cracking sound.
Of course, the wound wasn’t that impressive.
Screech!
It had only lost one eye.
The Scorpion King’s body, its armor-like flesh, still wouldn’t allow even a speck of damage.
But everyone watching had a hunch.
‘It’s over.’
The hunt was coming to an end.
El Pam would persistently and ruthlessly exploit that crack from now on.
El Pam lived up to that expectation.
“Apollo’s Fire Arrow.”
The powerful Apollo’s Fire Arrow appeared.
It was a death sentence.
Whoosh!
Apollo’s Fire Arrow, the arrow too fast to follow with the naked eye, instantly pierced through the Scorpion King’s broken eye shell and mercilessly tore its brain apart.
Screech!
The Scorpion King trembled in agony, showing the extent of its pain and the severity of its wound.
It wasn’t dead.
The attack was fatal, but it wasn’t enough to kill the Scorpion King.
Of course, it wasn’t a problem.
Thanks to the effect of Freed’s Ring, El Pam had one more Apollo’s Fire Arrow.
Whoosh!
And that second Apollo’s Fire Arrow once again pierced the Scorpion King’s eye.
The Scorpion King didn’t struggle anymore. Thud!
It simply laid its giant body on the ground.
The hunt was over.
“Boss!”
At that moment, everyone, including Divo, approached El Pam.
And they asked,
“How did you do that?”
About what El Pam had shown them.
“Hey, if you could do that, you should have told us beforehand!”
If they had known that El Pam could handle psychokinesis to that extent, El Pam’s party would have reacted differently to the situation.
It wasn’t just a different level, it was a different dimension.
The ability El Pam had shown this time was incomparable to what he had shown before.
It was enough to surprise everyone greatly.
That’s why El Pam was also surprised.
“This is my first time too.”
“What?”
“The drill worked for the first time.”
The drill.
As the name suggests, it was a technique where he continuously rotated a magic attack like a drill using psychokinesis.
For El Pam, it was a technique that had only existed in theory until now.
A technique he had never even attempted, let alone succeeded in properly.
It couldn’t be helped.
‘This was an impossible technique.’
Just simply moving magic with psychokinesis wasn’t easy.
Adding rotational force to it, like the Revolver, was a tremendous feat. Even then, the Revolver’s rotation was only applied before impact.
But continuing to rotate it even after impact, like a drill, was on a different level.
Above all, to use the drill, a definite durability to withstand it was essential.
It meant that only ice attribute magic was effective.
And ice attribute magic, due to its weight, required the most concentration and magical power when using psychokinesis.
Using Cold Beam once felt similar to using Fire Arrow fifty times.
That’s why he left it as a theory.
But that theory became reality.
‘It’s definitely Luminous’ Bracelet, one of Luminous’ Collection.’
At that moment, El Pam no longer doubted the identity of the object on his wrist.
And there was no reason to doubt it.
Whether it was Luminous’ Bracelet or another item, that wasn’t important to El Pam.
The important thing was that it had elevated his psychokinetic abilities to a whole new level.
“As expected of the boss! You’re amazing!”
“We don’t have much time left.”
“Huh?”
“We’ll complete the mission in the remaining time and get out of here.”
Of course, El Pam didn’t forget.
‘I need to prepare for the war with Queen Areda.’
A war with an enemy far more formidable than any he had faced before had just begun.
[Translator – Pr?ks]
[Proofreader – Pr?ks]