The Last Adventurer
Chapter 46

[Translator – Prøks]

[Proofreader – Prøks]

Chapter 46: Mushmom (2)

4.

The moment Miner’s party heard El Paume’s words, they all had the same expression.

Everyone wore a blank look.

It was understandable.

The sudden disappearance of the zombie mushroom attacks, the corpses of zombie mushrooms scattered everywhere, the exit that appeared at the end, and El Paume’s party waiting for them in front of it.

Everything was beyond what Miner’s party could even imagine.

Amidst the shock, Miner was the first to regain her composure.

She was able to grasp the core of the situation.

“…What do you want?”

Waiting for Miner’s party in front of the exit clearly meant they wanted something.

In fact, that was the reason El Paume had waited.

“Eagle Eye’s body wasn’t there. That means Eagle Eye’s party passed the first floor. Which means the second floor is even more difficult.”

“So?”

“If you need help, use a red flare. Then I’ll help you.”

To say these words.

“Payment is due later.”

It was an absurd statement.

To offer help to Miner’s party, the disciple of Kyrin, of all people?

And for a price?

But even in the face of those words, Miner couldn’t easily express her anger.

The results around them showed it.

‘That guy, he’s a monster.’

That El Paume’s party had the ability to dominate this place where Miner and her crew faced death.

‘He could easily kill me and all my crew if he wanted to.’

Above all, this was inside a Mystic Gate.

A place where there wouldn’t be any problems even if El Paume wiped out Miner’s party.

‘No, if he wanted to kill us, he wouldn’t have needed to go through all this trouble.’

Honestly speaking, if El Paume hadn’t waited for Miner’s party here, if he hadn’t slaughtered the zombie mushrooms, then Miner’s party would have been wiped out on their own.

Here, Miner admitted it.

“Thank you for saving our lives.”

That they had received help.

“But I won’t beg for my life. If we die, we die.”

But that didn’t mean she wanted to sell out her pride.

El Paume wasn’t surprised by her words.

‘Golden Eye would react that way.’

He had experienced enough of what kind of person she was before returning to the past.

Naturally, El Paume didn’t think for a moment that she would accept his offer.

The reason he made such an offer was simple.

‘But Kyrin is different.’

El Paume believed that Captain Kyrin, who cherished her disciple more than anyone else, would have definitely taken some kind of action.

‘She would have prepared a card to negotiate with me. Secretly from Golden Eye.’

That’s why El Paume sent the message.

So there was no need for further conversation.

“Then let’s move.”

El Paume led his party and left the first stage, once filled with zombie mushrooms, heading towards the second.

Miner’s party, watching this scene, did the same.

“What about rest?”

“It’s enough.”

“Then let’s move right away.”

Ten minutes after El Paume’s party left, Miner’s party, having finished their preparations, also stood in front of the exit.

Seeing this, Miner strengthened her resolve.

‘As long as it’s not zombies, we’ll be fine.’

Once again stepping through the Mystic Gate, Miner soon saw.

“Ah.”

The scenery of a forest, just as dark as the first floor.

The moment she saw it, Miner had a hunch.

‘Zombies.’

She knew what kind of monsters would appear here.

Groan!

“Miner, zombies are coming!”

There was only one thing that deviated from Miner’s expectations.

Groan!

“They’re zombie ribbon pigs!”

6.

Zombie mushrooms were very tricky monsters.

However, that was only in comparison to other mushroom monsters. When considering all zombie monsters, zombie mushrooms weren’t that tricky.

In the first place, the difficulty of hunting any monster increased dramatically once it became a zombie.

Groan!

The zombie ribbon pigs were like that now.

“Damn it! The strength of these bastards!”

First of all, the zombie ribbon pigs were different from zombie mushrooms in terms of strength. They were stronger than five or six zombie mushrooms combined.

“Attack!”

“Their skin is too tough!”

Their defense was, of course, incomparable to the zombie mushrooms.

If the zombie mushrooms’ bodies felt like mud, the zombie ribbon pigs’ bodies were closer to hardened soil.

They could only be killed with proper skills.

And it didn’t end there.

“Damn zombie mushroom swarms!”

Among the zombie ribbon pigs, there were swarms of zombie mushrooms, just like on the first floor, no, even more.

It was truly hell!

Of course, this was only the case for Miner’s party.

For El Paume’s party, who had entered the second stage earlier, none of these factors were a problem.

They had plenty of experience.

The experience of dealing with countless zombie mushrooms.

Dibo, tempered by that experience, showed a prowess that was truly one against a hundred, or even more.

“Slash Blast!”

Every time his polearm unleashed a skill, the bodies of the zombie mushrooms were literally pulverized.

Groan!

Of course, the zombie ribbon pigs, unlike the zombie mushrooms, endured, but that wasn’t Dibo’s domain in the first place.

“Solar Slash!”

Kiri, her sword glowing hot, easily sliced a zombie ribbon pig’s body in half.

Groan!

That didn’t kill the zombie ribbon pig, but it didn’t matter.

Crack!

The zombie ribbon pig, sprawled on the ground, was shattered into pieces by Ralph’s terrifying kick.

“Heal.”

And Ralph didn’t forget to use the Heal skill on the two of them.

It was perfect teamwork, like the gears of a clock.

Groan!

Screech!

Of course, it wasn’t possible to kill thousands of swarming zombie mushrooms and zombie ribbon pigs with just three people.

All they could do was barely hold them back.

But there was no problem.

Far from being a problem, their goal was simply to hold back the oncoming monsters.

“Fire Arrow.”

Swish!

El Paume’s Fire Arrows were enough to take care of the swarming zombie mushrooms and zombie ribbon pigs.

Groan!

The sight of El Paume’s Fire Arrows sweeping across the battlefield and hunting down the zombies was a spectacle.

Overwhelmingly so.

‘Oh my god.’

Even Dibo, who was watching the spectacle from the closest distance, couldn’t help but open his mouth in awe.

He wasn’t just surprised by the sight itself.

‘How is it that it seems even sharper?’

What surprised Dibo was the fact that the movement of El Paume’s Fire Arrows had become much sharper than when they first met.

It wasn’t an illusion.

‘My telekinetic control has improved since before I returned to the past.’

El Paume knew it too.

‘Even more than when I fought Horntail.’

His telekinetic control had improved.

It wasn’t particularly strange.

First of all, El Paume was still a growing adventurer even when he fought Horntail.

To be precise, he was an adventurer who had to grow to survive.

And El Paume died before reaching his limit.

‘This is the first time I’ve honed such fine telekinetic control.’

Moreover, at that time, El Paume was barely surviving.

He had no time for proper training.

But now it was different.

‘This is the first time I’ve had so much time.’

For El Paume, everything was relaxed.

It wasn’t a joke.

Groan!

Screech!

Zombie ribbon pigs and zombie mushrooms were swarming from all directions, but they posed little threat to El Paume.

Their screams were no more threatening than a lullaby to El Paume.

Moreover, there were people around El Paume.

“Come on!”

Dibo, the disciple of the polearm hero Aran, Ralph, the slayer of the Cygnus Knights Commander, and Kiri, whose skills were more than adequate.

“You won’t get a step closer to the boss!”

With trustworthy people fighting for their lives to protect him, there couldn’t be a safer situation.

Therefore, El Paume could focus solely on telekinetic control.

‘Sharper, faster.’

At that moment, El Paume’s Fire Arrows, two flying Fire Arrows, began to accelerate.

Faster.

They started to accelerate.

‘Huh? What?’

To the point where Dibo could hardly follow them with his eyes.

Now, instead of the shape of Fire Arrows, they looked like lines made of flames.

Those lines of flame were drawn in all directions.

Thud!

And the moment those lines were drawn, the zombie mushrooms and zombie ribbon pigs collapsed like puppets with their strings cut.

In front of this sight, Dibo, Kiri, and Ralph lowered their weapons.

They lost their will to fight in the face of this fierce battle.

‘Oh my god.’

The swarming zombie mushrooms and zombie ribbon pigs began to fall before they could even reach them.

El Paume, his firepower had begun to overshadow the others.

Soon, silence fell.

In that silence, everyone’s eyes turned to El Paume.

El Paume said calmly,

“This is unexpected, even for me. I didn’t know it would be to this extent.”

Everyone laughed in disbelief at his words.

“It seems I can increase the speed.”

“What?”

“Since my firepower is overflowing, it won’t be a problem to handle a larger number at once.”

“Uh, boss? How does that work?”

But at El Paume’s following words, Dibo looked at his two companions with a hardened expression.

“Hey, guys, try to talk some sense into the boss.”

He asked them to support him.

Kiri responded to Dibo’s will.

“Alright. Let’s see this through to the end.”

“Hey, Kiri!”

“This is a good opportunity. To build our capabilities.”

She took this opportunity as a chance to train.

“Capabilities? Hey, Ralph! She’s saying weird things…”

“If we catch a lot, we’ll get a lot of magic stones too!”

And Ralph also saw it as an opportunity to earn more money.

Dibo looked at them with a dumbfounded expression.

“Am I the only one who thinks this is crazy?”

There was no answer to Dibo’s complaint.

Squeak!

“Huh?”

The snail Mano, who had been hiding in El Paume’s arms, revealed itself.

The fact that it had been hiding until now and suddenly appeared meant it had smelled a very tempting item nearby.

And it was obvious what that tempting item’s smell was.

‘There’s a high chance that Eagle Eye’s body is here.’

At that moment, there was no more hesitation about their destination.

El Paume put the snail Mano down on the ground, and Mano started to move quickly.

At a speed similar to walking a dog.

El Paume, watching it, said,

“Follow it.”

Thus, El Paume’s party began to move.

Groan!

Screech!

Zombie hordes lunged at El Paume’s party, but they became puppets with their strings cut in front of El Paume’s Fire Arrow before they could even get close.

Thanks to this, El Paume’s party was able to see it in no time.

“Here.”

Groan!

A limp rope hanging from a tree in the forest, and a zombie struggling at the end of it.

“Who is that?”

“It’s the Eagle Eye.”

Eagle Eye, Kyrin’s disciple and a genius, was there, turned into a zombie.

“…Why?”

Dibo asked, puzzled by the sight.

Usually, in this kind of situation, people would choose a clean death by crushing their own heads.

But why did she remain, even becoming a zombie?

“To leave a legacy.”

“Ah.”

Hearing the reason, Dibo closed his mouth.

To leave something for someone who entered this place, even after becoming a zombie, in that pitiful state.

It was a noble sacrifice.

There was only one way to respond to such a sacrifice.

Swish!

El Paume’s Fire Arrow pierced through Eagle Eye’s head.

He gave her the death she desired.

At the same time, he cut the rope that held her.

Thud!

Her body fell to the ground, and El Paume approached it.

He then picked up the bag hanging around her neck.

“Boss.”

“It’s a letter.”

Inside, there was a letter and a necklace.

There were two letters.

One was a will.

“A clearing guide.”

The other contained all the information Eagle Eye had seen and experienced in this place before she died.

El Paume handed it to Dibo, who was surprised when he saw it.

“B-Boss? It says the boss monster here is a Zombie Mushmom.”

At that moment, Kiri, and even Ralph, hardened their expressions.

It couldn’t be helped.

Mushmom was a boss monster that spread spores to create mushroom monsters. It was said that one Mushmom could create 100,000 mushroom monsters, making it an unimaginable monster.

Moreover, this place hadn’t been raided for a year!

And zombie mushrooms didn’t even die, did they?

It was impossible to even imagine how many zombie mushrooms there would be in such a place.

Of course, El Paume was different.

He already knew that the boss monster here was a Zombie Mushmom.

Above all, El Paume didn’t have the time to worry about that right now.

‘Oh my.’

He saw it.

‘I didn’t know Eagle Eye had the Artemis’ Eye.’

The identity of the unique item Eagle Eye had.

At that moment.

Boom!

Suddenly, there was an explosion.

“Boss!”

At the same time, he saw it.

“It’s a red flare!”

It was a distress signal.

[Translator – Prøks]

[Proofreader – Prøks]