Chapter 99
“Huh? Three to four?”
“Yes . ”
Kamian nodded . Soo Hyuk reopened the quest window that he had just closed and examined the current status of the quest .
Once the Koma Guild checked that there were six magic circles, their quest will be completed . But if the circles confirmed were four rather than three, then Soo Hyuk’s quest would change altogether .
“Eh?”
After checking the quest Soo Hyuk was quite shocked .
The updated quest was .
〈The Troubled Underground Waterway〉
In the underground sewers of Hadrac, chimeras suddenly began appearing in the waterways . Ian and Alex made the decision to clean up the underground waterways, but the chimeras were strong and possessed powerful poison . In the end, the expedition failed, and the most they could achieve was to prevent the chimeras from escaping . Clean the underground waterways of the chimeras and identify their source!
[Chimera Summoning Circle A: 1 / 1]
[Chimera Summoning Circle B: 1 / 1]
[Chimera Summoning Circle C: 0 / 1]
[Chimera Summoning Circle D: 1 / 1]
[Chimera Summoning Circle E: 1 / 1]
[Chimera Summoning Circle F: 0 / 1]
[Chimera: 202 / ??? ]
[Quest reward: S-Rank Promotion, ??? ]
Kamian was right, there was a change . The summoning circle B, went from zero to one, confirming it was destroyed .
“My quest status updated too . It looks like another magic circle has been destroyed . ”
Soo Hyuk said to Kamian . That single 1 meant that the conditions were met and the Summoning circle B was destroyed, he was lost in thought .
‘What’s going on?’
How could the Summoning circle B be destroyed?
‘Is someone else with us in here?’
He thought of a possibility that someone else might have entered this place . The Underground Waterways didn’t have a limit to the entries, so it was likely others could have entered this place .
“Who else could be here beside us?”
Ketoto, who was listening to the conversation, butted in .
“I think so, too . I don’t think other than us..”
Kamian also had the same thought as Ketoto .
“Let’s get going . ”
Soo Hyuk, who had to stop because of the sudden change in the quest, began to pick up his pace for the rest of the journey . Looking at the map, he said .
“Uh, sorry . ”
Soo Hyuk said .
“I don’t know which of the remaining places was destroyed . ”
They had three other destinations to go, suddenly, one of them was destroyed without their notice . In other words, they had no reason to go to that place . But he didn’t know which of the place was destroyed .
“You’re right . ”
Kamian nodded, understanding the situation .
“But who is it?”
Kamian, in his thoughts, asked . Who could it be? Who could destroy the Magic Circle? Then suddenly just as they were moving and having such a discussion .
“Huh?”
Kamian exclaimed .
”..”
Soo Hyuk was startled at Kamian’s sudden outburst . And at that moment, he felt deja vu .
“Soo Hyuk . ”
Kamian called Soo Hyuk, pulling him out of his thoughts .
“No way..”
The same thing happened again .
“Yes . ”
Seeing Kamian’s nod, without asking any question Soo Hyuk opened his quest window and checked .
〈The Troubled Underground Waterway〉
In the underground sewers of Hadrac, chimeras suddenly began appearing in the waterways . Ian and Alex made the decision to clean up the underground waterways, but the chimeras were strong and possessed powerful poison . In the end, the expedition failed, and the most they could achieve was to prevent the chimeras from escaping . Clean the underground waterways of the chimeras and identify their source!
[Chimera Summoning Circle A: 1 / 1]
[Chimera Summoning Circle B: 1 / 1]
[Chimera Summoning Circle C: 0 / 1]
[Chimera Summoning Circle D: 1 / 1]
[Chimera Summoning Circle E: 1 / 1]
[Chimera Summoning Circle F: 1 / 1]
[Chimera: 202 / ??? ]
[Quest reward: S-Rank Promotion, ??? ]
‘Again?’
This time the Magic circle F had gone from zero to one .
“Another one has been destroyed?”
Kamian asked at the same time that Soo Hyuk was checking the quest window .
“Yes, you are right . Looks like another one has been destroyed . ”
While answering Kamian’s question, Soo Hyuk started to think .
‘It’s good, but..’
If this went on, they wouldn’t have anything to lose . Meaning, no more wasting time while moving from one destination from the other . In other words, their time would be saved .
ραndαsΝοvεl ?οm ‘If this goes on..’
Soo Hyuk might have one problem .
‘I don’t think I’ll level up to 200 . ’
That’s what he wanted to reach . He calculated by the end of the quest; his level would shoot up to 200 . But, judging from the current situation, it would be nearly impossible to reach 200 .
Now only one spot was left..
And he didn’t think just by clearing one magic circle would level him up to 200 .
Urgh!
Soo Hyuk couldn’t help but groan a little .
‘Who the hell is this?’
Who is it? Who on earth is destroying the Magic Circles?
“Which spot?”
Soo Hyuk stopped his thinking and focused on Kamian’s words .
“Looking at the speed, they didn’t destroy just one but at least two . ”
Of course, the magic circles were not anywhere near to each other . The distance between them was quite large . However, this unknown group of people destroyed two of them consequently .
Concluding that, there has to be more than one group who were destroying the circles .
“Could they be the Rime and the Drak Guild?”
It was Garan who answered Kamian’s suspicion .
“It could be . ”
Kamian nodded and said he had a point .
“What do you think, Soo Hyuk?”
Kamian asked Soo Hyuk . With the sudden question, he was pulled out from his thoughts, opened his mouth, and said .
“I don’t think it’s either of them . ”
Soo Hyuk had a different opinion altogether . It was neither the Rime Guild nor the Drak Guild .
“They’re the ones who gave me this quest . ”
Ian and Alex, the two Guild masters of the Rime and Drak Guilds were the ones who requested Soo Hyuk with such a quest . It wouldn’t make sense for them to suddenly make a move . It doesn’t make sense . Besides, if they were the ones to make a move, they would tell him in advance .
“Oh, they were the ones who commissioned this quest . ”
Hearing Soo Hyuk’s answer, Kamian concluded .
“So, they are ruled out . ”
Kamian said .
“Well, what about..”
This time Ketoto came up with an option .
“What about the mages at the entrance? I think I saw them when I was with Soo Hyuk . ”
Those mages Ketoto mentioned were the ones that belonged to the Hadrac branch of Tower of Poison . Rhino and his group of mages, Ketoto reminded them .
Just as they were all engrossed in the discussion of who could it be, K-Cross stopped walking and raised his hand to signal them . Soo Hyuk stopped in his steps, watching K-Cross .
“There’s a chimera ahead . Looks like this magic circle hasn’t been destroyed yet . ”
That was the reason why K-Cross alerted them as he saw a chimera ahead of him .
‘Thank god, I’m glad to hear that . ’
Soo Hyuk inwardly sighed at K-Cross’s confirmation thinking . He didn’t know if he should feel relieved or ashamed at such thoughts .
This seems to be the magic circle C, which has yet to be destroyed .
“Gomblin’s (1) uses sting as their form of poison . But, unlike Foblins, their poison attacks are not their main focus, rather they focus on their strength . The one who attacks is the bear . ”
Kamian said .
The chimeras summoned from the Summoning circle were the combination of Bears and Goblins .
As the summoning circle D was destroyed, the Gomblins from circle D were met with the Foblins of magic circle C .
In other words, they would have had to fight one kind at a time, but now, they had to fight both the Foblins and the Gomblins together, as they were being summoned by the same circle .
“Is there anything we need to be extra careful about?”
Kamian nodded his head, saying yes . When Soo Hyuk saw the nod, he moved towards K-Cross saying .
“I’ll take the lead from here . ”
Saying that, he took the lead and continued from the spot where they stopped walking forward .
‘Two of them . ’
He didn’t need to walk far before he saw the Foblin and the Gomblin in front . There were two of them, one of each kind .
“Flame Wall!”
Soo Hyuk was the one to first initiate the attack, and cast ‘Flame Wall’ towards them . Not being able to dodge the massive flame, both the Foblin and the Gomblin screamed in pain .
-Argh! It’s hot!
-It hurts!
-Aaoouh!
Soo Hyuk, who attacked first, heard the scream and thought .
‘So this is a Gomblin . ’
If what Kamian said was right, then the one who attacks would be the bear, not the goblin . So, he was wondering if this chimera could narrow the distance between them like the Worc .
Contrary to what he thought, however, the Gomblin, like the Foblin, didn’t have any resistance to his attacks .
Soon, the drop window appeared, making Soo Hyuk stop his attacks .
They resumed their walk with Soo Hyuk leading the way, followed by K-Cross, then by Kamian, Garan, and Ketoto . They maintained this 1:1:3 formation .
With that formation, they headed towards the Summoning circle .
[Level Up!]
A notification popped up .
Seeing the notification, Soo Hyuk couldn’t contain his smile and looked forward .
-Argh! It hurts!
-It stings!!
In front of them were the Foblins and the Gomblins who were screaming in fear as they were stung with poison .
‘There’s a lot of them . ’
Is it because two different types of chimeras came out of the same summoning circle? There were a lot more Chimeras in front than when they attacked after destroying the magic circle .
‘If I could kill them..’
Thinking Soo Hyuk smiled .
‘I don’t have to worry anymore . ’
A large number of chimeras meant there would be a lot of experience he could gain . Previously, when he learned the two magic circles were destroyed by someone else, he was quite disappointed . Now, looking at the current situation, he was no longer disappointed .
It was just then .
“W-Wait a minute!”
Ketoto, who was at the back, shouted .
“..”
With his sudden shout, not only Soo Hyuk but also the other members of the Koma Guild were startled .
“Uh..”
Ketoto, who suddenly attracted four different pairs of eyes, was slightly worried .
“I think there is someone behind us . ”
“What?”
Kamian was the first to respond .
“Behind us?”
“Yes . ”
Ketoto nodded at Kamian’s question .
“As the other magic circles were destroyed, I installed a tracking stone behind us, just in case they might come here . ”
Silence followed Ketoto’s answer .
Breaking the silence, Soo Hyuk suggested .
“Should we take a rest here for a while?”
“Okay! Let’s stay in our position and be ready . ”
Kamian agreed with Soo Hyuk . They didn’t know if the other party was their friend or foe .
What if they were an enemy? Perhaps as they continued forward, they would be caught up while dealing with the chimeras . The possibilities were endless .
Even if they had to wait, it would be better for them to figure out who was behind them and they were at a good spot to wait .
Didn’t they have enough to spare as they were destroying the magic circles?
Soo Hyuk and the Koma Guild members patiently watched the path where they might come out from .
“Oh, I can see them . ”
K-Cross updated .
“There are five of them . One of them is arriving really fast, but I don’t think he is a monster, given that I can’t observe him through my ‘Hawk’s Eye’ . ”
The skill was diverse, however, that was only when dealing with monsters . If the target wasn’t a monster, then the skill wouldn’t be capable of finding anything .
As soon as K-Cross finished his sentence, they heard hurried footsteps in front of them and after a while . historical
“Soo Hyuk!”
”..”
As soon as a familiar voice was heard, Soo Hyuk couldn’t help but be embarrassed .
“I think he knows you . ”
Kamian said . Of course, the shout wasn’t just heard by Soo Hyuk; it was heard by the Koma Guild too .
“Yes, I think so . ”
Embarrassed, Soo Hyuk wondered .
‘Who is it?’
He knew the voice sounded familiar, however, he couldn’t figure out who’s it was, he didn’t even have a guess for someone he could bet on .
No one came to his mind . Who could this person be?
Seeing the man, Soo Hyuk couldn’t help but be surprised .
‘..Pavian?’
The man was none other than Pavian, the Spiremaster of Poison .
Translator and Editor Notes:
1: Gomgoblin is a mix between a bear and a goblin . The Gom comes from the Korean translation of bear meaning, bear=Gom, it is the same thing, just sounds better than Beargoblin .