Chapter 58 – Tahrakhan Plateau (3)

“Die! Please!”

Inquisitor swung his mace desperately.

“Baaa~”

The Mountain Goat let out a bleating cry as it fell dead. He quickly took a recovery potion out of his belt and drank it down. The wound on his side quickly closed itself.

The effects of ‘Recovery Potion’ were quite good, but it didn’t numb the pain at all. The Inquisitor pressed down on his injury as he took a look around. They had killed 3 Goats and 2 Harpies at once this time. According to the Information sheet, killing 20 mobs would automatically summon the Harpy Queen.

‘It’s so hard to kill each individual mob… at this rate, we might have difficulty summoning the boss in time…’

As he thought about the party’s progress through the raids, he checked the state of the other three hunters. All three of them bore small and medium wounds.

This was an unavoidable situation for the lot of them. Because the Goats and Harpies suddenly attacked them en masse, he had been unable to cover for all of them. It was a stroke of good luck that they had no fatalities yet.

‘Are you guys all alright?’

It was a phrase that anyone would have uttered by now, but the men were in silence. Each was too busy taking potions out of the cubes and drinking them.

After they fought the first Harpy, they had created irreconcilable differences between each other and were too busy being overly mindful of each other’s actions. The burst of anger earlier had ruined their chances of proper teamwork.

‘I don’t know when they might turn against me’

Because of their uncertainty, they couldn’t work together nor relax around each other. ‘Inquisitor’ Weiden Peller looked over to the Japanese man he had nearly started a brawl earlier.

He was skilled. Amazingly, his fists were more powerful than hunters wielding weapons.

‘But… I can no longer trust him.’

He was strong, but that became a cause for anxiety, as he didn’t know how to deal with him later if the Pugilist were to suddenly betray him.

‘For now, we’ll have to work together until we reach the boss… but…’

As he thought so, he looked over to the Treasure Hunter. He was talkative, but his actual skill was subpar.

He had a fancy looking daggers, but all he ever did was kill steal enemies at the very last second when there was no risk to himself. During fights, he was too busy running away from danger.

‘Hidden Pieces… what a joke. How can we go searching for treasure if we can’t even complete the objective?’

He then turned his attention to the Pirate last. He had somewhat good skills, but nothing about him was particularly trustworthy. Appearance wise, he would have fit right in in any one of the conflict zones in the Middle East.

‘The title could always be referring to his previous job as a Somalian Pirate…’

This chapter had nothing but people he didn’t like. He picked up his shield and Mace and turned his head. Now that he thought of it, there was another person that pissed him off.

‘Go hunt harpy or something.’

He suddenly took off without warning, that Kei man.

In some ways, he was the worst of all. The Raids were difficult enough as it is with all five hunters cooperating. But he had snuck out from the very start. The team power started at 4/5th of normal levels.

‘Damn it, did he get himself killed alone or something?’

As he insulted others in his mind, he returned his gaze forward. He could sense that the others were following him. No one wanted to speak, but they still cooperated with each other on an instinctive level.

Despite their hostility and distrust against one another, their teamwork was driven by survival instinct and necessity, despite their uneasy silence.

‘What a fucking retarded chapter.’

*

At the same time, Sungjin was riding the Magic Carpet along the outer edge of the Plateau. He was trying to see if he could spot any nest built into the sheer cliff wall.

According to the hint he obtained, the hidden element should be some form of an egg. The Operator said

‘Only those who break out of their shell and return alive’

She had said.

While he was flying along the cliff face,

‘Kei’

Besgoro called for him. He stopped the flight and replied.

“What is it? Did you find a nest with an egg in it?”

Besgoro was carefully watching the surroundings watching out for the egg. However, the words that came out of his mouth was different from what Kei had been expecting.

‘You’ve got guests.’

Sungjin raised his gaze up into the sky above. Harpies were flying towards him.

‘One, two, three… five in total.’

Once he was done counting his foes, he quickly gazed down below the Magic Carpet. The endless cliff wall continued on seemingly forever.

Trying to fight winged opponents while standing on the magic carpet with his sword did not seem like a wise decision.

‘It’s time for magic.’

Once he made up his mind, Sungjin began to try and cast the spell.

‘Murderous…’

But he was interrupted.

“Murderous thunder, Jump from foe to foe!”

Besgoro’s skull shouted out on its own.

“Chain lightning!”

Lightning gathered on the tip of Moon Specter, and Sungjin immediately pointed it towards the flying monsters.

‘Bzzzt!’

The lightning hit home with the closest Harpy and jumped to all the other harpies. The first two dropped like stones out of the air, and the other three harpies were stunned for a moment.

“Whoa”

Sungjin exclaimed.

‘This is Substitute Chanting. I’ll do the incarnation for any spell you are thinking of using.’

It didn’t seem like he could control the timing for spell activation, but that wasn’t a problem. If he timed it right, he could probably cast two spells simultaneously. Besgoro added

‘Just be aware it cost double the normal amount of mana.’

“Got it, thanks Besgoro.”

Being able to use two spells simultaneously would give Sungjin all sorts of combat advantages. While thinking of the possibilities,

“Kyah!”

One of the surviving Harpies came flying at Sungjin brandishing its sharp-taloned feet. Sungjin moved the Magic Carpet dexterously avoiding the Talons.

At first, just one Harpy engaged in combat against him. But due to inexperience with flying, a sharp talon grazed the top of Sungjin’s head. It didn’t hurt, but it made the hair on the back of his neck stand.

“Keeeyah!”

The second Harpy joined the fray. While dodging their attacks, Sungjin suddenly dropped his altitude rapidly, avoiding an attack in the last minute. This time, he dodged the talons by a large margin. Now that he was getting used to the enemies and flying, he figured out how to fight them.

Once he felt confident, he waited until the third one arrived to tilt the Magic Carpet and swing his sharp blades.

The swords sliced through one of the harpy’s right leg, and the other severed another harpy’s left wing.

“Keey…Ahhh!”

The harpy’s signature battle cry turned into a scream of terror as it fell out of the sky. Sungjin watched it fall and grinned.

‘Mid-air Combat isn’t so bad…’

But suddenly the Operator gave a warning.

[Please return to the hunting grounds. This area is off limits to hunters.]

[If you remain in the restricted area after 10 seconds,]

Sungjin scanned his surroundings. He had dropped his altitude too far while trying to dodge the Harpy’s attacks.

[You will die. 10…]

He could take dozens of attacks by the harpies and remain alive, but if that countdown finished, he was done for.

‘Hey, Kei.’

Besgoro must have felt threatened by the warning message.

“I know.”

Sungjin immediately raised his altitude with the Magic Carpet, sticking close to the cliff wall. The two harpies continued their pursuit.

‘So annoying…’

Sungjin raised his swords. It was difficult to exhibit 100% of his potential while riding the carpet, but as long as he grazed them, it should cause instant death.

Sungjin easy cut down one of the harpies.

‘One down.’

And then he prepared for the next one. But the last one

“Kaa!~”

Let out a long cry and turned to flee. Sungjin was about to give chase when he decided against it. The flight speed of Magic Carpet and Harpies were roughly the same.

He would be wasting precious time trying to chase the Harpy. Also

‘Harpies tend to flee when all their allies have been slain. If they manage to get away, they will return with a large number of reinforcements.’

The ‘Information sheet’ said as much. The harpy would show itself again, and with many comrades in tow.

‘Since I have to kill them anyway, it’s pretty convenient they will go gather all of them up on my behalf.’

Sungjin thought as he returned to inspecting the cliff walls. In truth, there was a time limit to the aerial inspection. The Magic Carpet could only fly for a total of 20 minutes.

Once this happens, he would have to search for the egg on foot, hanging onto the cliff wall. When he thought of it, Sungjin began to grow nervous.

‘How much time do I have left?’

But it was at this moment that he noticed something. Between the outcropping of minerals, he noticed something sparkling. Besgoro spoke up.

‘Kei’

“I saw as well.”

Sungjin moved closer to the shiny object. On it was a large nest. It was several times larger than a typical bird nest.

And within, there was an egg roughly three times the size of normal chicken eggs.

Slowing down the Magic Carpet, he carefully approached the nest. He felt a strange sense of dignity contained within the egg.

The Egg was slightly golden in color. It looked like the egg could almost double as precious gem.

‘Precious one survived and grew…’

Sungjin recalled the hint from earlier. He put away his swords and gently lifted up the egg with both his hands. The Operator gave an announcement.

[Congratulations! You have obtained the Hidden Piece]

[‘Ra – Egg of Gold’]

“He, La la~”

Singing in happiness, Sungjin checked the status window on the egg.

Ra – Egg of Gold

Rare Egg

Passive Skill

Tremor of Beginning(I) – Will Tremble once a day

Nobility is not determined by birth but by everyday conduct in life.

“Hmm?”

Sungjin tilted his head in confusion. It was a mysterious skill. In fact, it was strange to even call it a skill, or a passive.

Most of all, it would tremble once a day of its choosing. It had no utility or function for now. Sungjin decided to ask Besgoro

“Excuse me, Besgoro, do you know anything about this egg?”

‘No, it’s the first time I’ve seen one.’

Besgoro was useless just when he needed him. When Sungjin was about to reread the Status page

‘Kyah~!”

He could hear unwelcome cries in the distance. When he turned his head to check, he saw a flock of Harpies flying his way.

‘Oh my…’

Sungjin quickly stuffed the egg into the cube and counted his foes.

‘One, two, three…’

There was too many this time for an accurate count. About a dozen or more. Sungjin looked up; he followed the cliff wall up to the Plateau. Now that he found the egg, he had no more business on the edge.

No matter how strong he was, challenging dozens of winged monsters mid air with a temporary flight item would be a dumb move. Especially so close to the boundary he is not allowed to cross.

The fastest of the Harpies was almost upon him, but Sungjin ignored them and continued to climb.

And once he finally reached the ‘Tahrakhan Plateau’s’ flat land, he jumped off the Magic Carpet and spun twice in the air before landing on the Plateau ground. Behind him, countless Harpies threw themselves upon him.

Sungjin unsheathed his sword and muttered

“Come then, dumb fruit flies; come fly into the raging inferno with your own wings.”