Chapter 265: Harpy Kingdom Revival 5
TL/Editor: Raei
Schedule: 5/Week Mon-Fri
Illustrations: Posted in discord.
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Just like a party was formed because of the horned wolf that burst out of the 10th floor, people greedy for various benefits formed an expedition to hunt and kill an unknown boss.
The expedition was richly composed of Temple Knights and nuns, mages specialized in ice and acid magic, adventurers of various classes who were all of high rank, and even a special catapult made by stone dwarves.
It was a well-prepared party with tanks, damage dealers, healers, and even a special gimmick.
The good thing was that everything was done in the name of the hero, so there was no worry about who would land the finishing blow.
It made one realize why people strive for power.
Snatching the last hit was no longer the target of the time attack.
"Hanna, what do you plan to do?"
"Past the tunnel where we ran into the tentacles, there's said to be a huge underground cavity. It's not a city built by stone dwarves, but a natural cave that the creature uses as its lair. We can set up a base camp there and track it down."
"Have you already explored up to there?"
"The brothers from the Temple set out immediately yesterday. There are several tunnels leading in different directions in the wide underground cavity, so it might be a place it uses when sleeping."
While meeting with people and coordinating, the Temple priests acted immediately.
The Goddess's evangelists, furious at the news that the boss monster's tentacles threatened the prospective believers, didn't hesitate to jump into the tunnels made by the ground bugs.
The creature has a clearing it uses as a bedroom and from there, it detects the magic from the surface and emerges to swiftly devour mountain goats and harpies.
It appears after passing through Granny Pipi's city, roughly on the 43.5th or 44.5th floor.
So, it's not a boss monster but a mid-boss monster.
Even though it's a mid-boss, it's still not easy to defeat.
"Hey, make sure you pack the stuff properly!"
"Whoa, whoa! You crazy bastard! That's an alchemical solution! You wanna see it kill someone?"
"Brothers and sisters. For the glory of our Goddess"
"We've delivered the goods promised by the Boris Trading Company!"
"There's no need to destroy it just because it's covered in a stone shell."
Various people gather one by one.
Adventurers ready for battle linger around nuns, hoping to receive even a word of blessing, while mages and merchants seem busy checking their goods.
Thus, a natural procession formed.
Holy knights in their shining white armor listened to a priest and the blessings of a nun and led the way, followed by mages and adventurers, the stone dwarf's catapult, and a caravan heavily filled with goods from the trading company, trailing behind.
The knights, armed with armor, shields, and divine energy, took the lead to take the first hit from the tentacles.
Since it was unlikely for tentacles to come from the direction of the city, the relatively unprotected carriages and catapult were left at the very back without much escort.
"But, is the creature we're going to catch really the problem?"
"What problem?"
"When adventurers reached the 45th floor, they found the Red Harpy and Harpy Kingdom, as well as an underground city of stone dwarves."
The end of the tunnel we hadn't managed to visit was a crossroads of two tunnels.
The tunnels of the bugs and the boss monster coincidentally met, leading to a much wider and larger tunnel that had been gnawed through.
As we walked through the new tunnel, we could hear Grace's mumbling.
Upon reflection, the wriggling octopus-bug hybrid mid-boss in the underground didn't quite feel like a trigger, although something had triggered this creature to appear.
-Do we have to catch this guy and then go to the 45th floor for something to be there?
-But if the mountain collapses and the clues get buried under the earth, what then?
-Apart from enjoying a fantasy life on a small scale, preparing for war on a large scale is kinda nice.
"Definitely, Grace's words are right. Someone must have triggered this mid-boss, and I'm curious what they touched."
Both the viewers and Han Se-ah nodded along to Grace's words.
Its more convincing to think that some adventurer or mage, doing something silly like in the beginning of a monster movie, woke up this mid-boss rather than the bizarre mid-boss monster itself being the trigger.
Like an unknown alien frozen under a glacier[1], or a charm from an old temple that seems like it shouldnt be touched.
Curiosity killed the cat, and curious adventurers and mages always bring about disasters.
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Raei Translations
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Thus, we arrived at the clearing, delicately balancing between the forces of the Temple and the adventurers.
Going forward, I would receive compliments on my body from Manaashi's muscle mates, and if I stepped back, I'd encounter Rebecca, who was scolding her subordinates.
Han Se-ah also didn't want to be among mages, who were trying to pester her with questions, so maintaining a moderate pace was crucial.
Fortunately, no one broke the natural formation of the march to cling to us.
"Sure is wide, isn't it? How could such a large space naturally form?"
"This too is a mystery of the world created by our Goddess."
"Wow, look how wide it is. Even if we gathered all the mercenaries in the city, we couldn't fill this clearing."
The creature had likely gone out to pick up a goat or something, leaving its place vacant.
Thanks to that, the expedition members, having a look around the vast clearing, started to move busily, throwing out comments.
The underground cave was much larger than the city excavated by the stone dwarves. I recall seeing on the internet that the world's largest cave is about 200m high; perhaps this place was inspired by that.
It was so high, not just skyscrapers but entire buildings could fit inside, and the vast clearing made it hard to believe it was a cave.
The walls and mid-boss tunnels that should be visible in the distance were nowhere to be seen.
"Is this from it crawling around?"
"Definitely looks like insect-type monsters are mixed in."
In that vast clearing, there were very clear signs of it moving back and forth tens or hundreds of times.
The movement had ground down uneven stalactites and stalagmites.
The tunnels dug by the ground bugs had tooth marks repeating like waves, but the creature's trail was very smooth.
The floor was slick, as if a snail or something had left a trail of slime as it moved along.
At the end was the center of the clearing, which had been hollowed out, making it easy to prepare various things like catapults for throwing acid solutions.
"Looking at these marks, the creature's body must be like that of a mollusk."
"According to the hero party, it has tentacles for grabbing and piercing."
"If it couldn't penetrate the protection spell in one hit, we should be able to block it with steel shields and shield magic."
"Hey, make sure the magic circles are properly engraved on the catapult! Without them, we're bug food."
The adventurers began bustling about, setting up the catapult facing away from the pathway to Granny Pipi's city, in the center of the clearing, which had been indented to fit its size after much lounging.
Even amidst this, a group of intermediate mages specialized in ice and acid magic, still curious, sneaked off to the side.
They started chipping away at the cave's stalagmites and the stone floor pressed flat by the creature, collecting samples in small glass bottles with a pickaxe.
The Temple Knights, priests, and nuns, having some time left, began to set up a campsite.
They were preparing a place to stay, but then they started creating a space for a prayer meeting and began singing hymns.
-Se-ah, something's weird here...
-This is giving me a headache.
-Still, it's more normal than an Acid Hero, right?
-The barrels loaded into that catapult are filled with hydrochloric acid; what's normal or abnormal about that lol
-Actually, we who are watching this stream are the weirdest lol. Imagine saying to someone, 'I'm watching a stream where they dissolve tentacles with acid.' We'd be treated like lunatics.
"Hey, that's harsh! You should go out and say you're enjoying a stream of the number one virtual reality game in the world. Don't say it like that."
The word 'chaotic' fits this place best.
Whether it was because they believed in the hero party, or their belief and pride in the Goddess, humans were doing their jobs without fear of the unknown underground monster with the ability to collapse cities.
As priests and nuns pray, mages wander around collecting all sorts of things, adventurers set up the catapult and then slack off in their tents, tentacles start flying in from the distance.
"Ah, ahhhh!"
"Aaah! It's, it's here!!!"
F*cking hell, why is it coming from Granny Pipi's direction?
...Sh*t, did it dig a new tunnel?
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[1. raei: searching it up, there's a movie from 1982 where an alien is discovered frozen in Antarctica. It's called 'The Thing.' The temple one I think can be a lot of movies but I'm going to guess Indiana Jones.]
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