Chapter 259: Winged Nomad 4
TL/Editor: Raei
Schedule: 5/Week Mon-Fri
Illustrations: Posted in discord.
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A lot had happened, but ultimately, Han Se-ah had just one task: to search both the underground and the surface of the mountain range while climbing the tower.
Even though we had started interacting with the stone dwarves, the location of the mysterious underground monster remained unknown. And even though we had begun interactions with the Harpy Queen, the wild harpies outside the kingdom were still rampant.
The city of the stone dwarves and the Harpy Kingdom only appeared on the 43rd floor. We hadn't even set foot on the 45th floor, where the trigger for their appearance was supposed to be.
We now had a side quest to help each race, but we had only climbed 3 out of the 10 floors so far.
"Still, knowing about the harpies' situation, it doesn't feel as bad even when they fly overhead."
"So, if I blow this flute, those huge harpies will come and take away the red harpy we captured? ...I didn't expect a capture quest to come up like this."
-It's like that RPG quest where you press F5 to throw a net.[1]
-The shining exploits of the hero: Kidnapping and indoctrination of other races.
-Do you want to die and become a mana stone, or believe in the Goddess and become a follower?
-But do we really have to fight that underground monster that looks like sh*t?
-No way, we must directly grapple the slimy tentacled boss.
So, we left the kingdom on the 43rd floor and began searching for a passage to the 44th floor.
Ideally, we would like to make our way comfortably using vacuum stones in the underground city, but we needed to explore the outside up to the 45th floor.
It was because we didn't know where the trigger that caused the harpies and stone dwarves to appear was hidden.
Adventurers had reached the 45th floor, but the trigger might be in some cave on the 44th floor.
Like the golems that appeared from below, each level might have its own trigger.
"But then... considering the stone dwarves, do we need to check every cave we see while climbing the tower?"
"That sounds tough. It's better to just leave it to the vacuum stone to make passages underground, and just watch out for harpies when outside."
The girls had become accustomed to harpies flying overhead and to the steep mountain paths.
They no longer felt the need to be on high alert unless the creatures came close.
Having become used to the beautiful ladies following behind, memories of bathing and getting muddy with dirty men in swamps felt like a distant past.
It had been quite a while since I gave up and descended.
Even though we were moving peacefully, we couldn't avoid combat entirely and dealt with the occasional attacking monster as we found the entrance to the 44th floor.
"These shadow leopards are not attacking people but trying to knock them over. Is wanting to knock things over a trait of feline animals?"
"Ah, now that you mention it, it does sound kind of cute. There was a cat that often came to the temple and knocked things over on the table, like candlesticks and cups, which really annoyed some of the nuns."
"Mmm Cats are like that ...Ah, I see the passage over there."
Grace, having spotted a shadow leopard attacking from above a cliff, preemptively shot an arrow into its mouth, turning the monster into a mana stone in mid-air.
She then stretched and mentioned that she saw the passage in the distance.
Finding the passage was easy without the sea of clouds surrounding the Harpy Kingdom.
Whether it was thanks to Grace becoming a 5 or Han Se-ah's mini-map abilities, we never really struggled in exploration outside of combat.
"Over there, if we turn around and cross, we should be good."
"This mountain range feels like it was made for ascetic practices. I wonder if followers of other worlds' deities also climbed mountains like this to strengthen their faith."
"...Hmm, not sure about that seeing how the stone dwarves didn't know about religion."
"That's true. Spreading faith is the job of priests."
Excluding the high mountains and narrow, steep paths, the difficulty of battles has actually decreased.
Maybe it's because the terrain got worse, but the monsters' patterns have become simpler.
Whether it's the one-horned goats or shadow leopards, their main goal is to push people off cliffs, which actually makes their patterns simpler.
It's like in a fighting game, if an opponent starts a combo with a low uppercut 100% of the time, you just have to block low and then counter.
Similarly, dealing with these creatures is easy as long as you avoid their cliff-diving attempts, aside from them being tougher than undead.
With a few mana stones added to our inventory, we moved on to the next floor.
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Raei Translations
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The 44th floor wasn't much different, except for being physically farther from the Harpy Kingdom.
Maybe that's why, after blowing the flute, it took half a day for a black harpy to come to us?
"Kiyaah-!"
"Come to think of it, can only the queen of the harpies speak human language?"
"The red harpy we captured last time, and this one, can't speak."
It might be a young one that hadn't seen adventurers before, or one that decided to charge in without scouting first with black harpies.
We tied it up with a rope and headed to a nearby cave before blowing the flute.
The crude wooden flute given to us by the Harpy Queen emitted mana waves instead of sound when blown.
If it were a sound-making flute, it probably wouldn't have reached from the 44th to the 43rd floor.
Irene started a campfire for a break, while Grace and Katie, chatted away.
Han Se-ah was talking to her viewers, then moved the camera away from the struggling red harpy
"Hmm, something big is coming. Looks like a harpy sent from the kingdom."
"Then, if we leave it outside, will they take it?"
Ignoring the squawking sounds, it was only after a while that we saw a dark shadow hurriedly flying towards us from afar.
We captured a harpy, blew the flute, carried it like luggage, and blew the flute again in the cave, and it still took this long.
...But then again, isn't the important thing that it came, no matter how long it took?
As we placed the tied-up harpy in front of the cave like offering food, a black named-level harpy swooped down without landing, snatched it up, and flew away with a loud screech.
That moment made us ponder.
"So, did that huge harpy fly here from the kingdom just now?"
"Yeah. Why, Roland?"
"I was thinking that floors 41 to 50 might all be spread out over the same mountain range."
The underground cities of the dwarves are placed roughly 3 to 4 days apart, with the Harpy Kingdom situated above these dwarf cities.
Theres no need for a gate to move between the floors.
So, both Han Se-ah and I, along with the viewers, had somewhat guessed it.
Could it be that this ridiculously huge mountain range is divided into 10 floors?
In essence, if Seoul is on the 41st floor, then Incheon is on the 42nd.
Even if there's a gate that instantly teleports you from Seoul to Incheon, you can still get to Incheon by subway or car, albeit a bit slower.
"Seeing how we flew from a remote area on the 43rd floor to the entrance of the 44th, it is likely. The mages of the Magic Tower will have to research more to find out the details.
But why does that matter?"
"If that's true, to follow that huge underground monster, we'd have to chase it underground no matter what."
But if that's the case, catching the boss is going to be a real pain.
This thought suddenly hit me as we walked and talked, running out of small talk and thinking about the boss and the floors.
If there's no specific boss room, doesn't that mean the boss appearing on the 50th floor could crawl to the 49th, 48thbasically, anywhere?
A warrior's intuition, honed from ten years of adventuring, whispered ominously to me.
You're going to be screwed.
-Could the bosses on the 45th or 50th floors be a chase, like Teacher Roland said?
-Underground city defense and chasing a moving boss... that seems possible, yeah.
-Like that dragon hunting game where you follow a golden dragon's path and keep dealing damage.[2]
-Lucky you didn't get hit with a stream ban this time.
"Sh*t, hearing Teacher Roland talk like that does make me a bit anxious. If he's that experienced and says that, isn't it like the game developers sending me a message through teacher?"
The viewers started to stir, thinking about the floors being connected but not considering that the boss could move between them.
It's hard to deny the possibility.
An entire city on the 42nd floor has been destroyed, and the stone dwarves have become refugees.
While Lili and some dwarves have been rescued, countless others have died, which is an undeniable fact and a cause for concern.
"Still, I don't think we need to worry just yet. It will be a trial we can overcome in the name of the Goddess."
Irene, seeing Han Se-ah's subtly twisted expression, began to comfort her as always... but unfortunate imaginations aren't easily dispelled.
"Sh*t, the passage is cut off? Now we can't get to the 45th floor."
The vague feeling of impending misfortune becomes even more real.
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[1. raei: The rpg here is Torchlight II, game developed by Runic Games and released in 2012]
[2. raei: according to an advance chappy reader (PerverseUniverse), this is probably about Kulve Taroth from Monster Hunter.]
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