BXBX NOVEL Chapter 21
Chapter 21
Chapter 21: 100-Man Gate (3)
7.
The Adventurers’ Guild exists to aid adventurers in having safer and grander adventures.
In other words, the Guild’s role was that of a supporter, and therefore, it rarely took the initiative to do anything directly.
In most cases, the Guild did not directly intervene or punish adventurers who violated the rules it had set.
However, there were a few exceptions.
Trolling was a prime example.
“Adventurers who engage in trolling are deemed enemies of the Guild and will be stripped of all Guild-recognized privileges.”
The Adventurers’ Guild was highly sensitive to trolling activities and responded vehemently.
This was especially true after the emergence of the Mystic Gate.
“The Adventurers’ Guild will take action if two or more instances of repeated trolling are discovered.”
The Guild took direct action against adventurers who trolled, to the extent of imposing Guild-level sanctions.
Trolling was that dangerous to adventurers. It was a perilous act that could easily plunge a group of adventurers into despair and ruin in an instant.
That was why.
“Lucky me.”
William, an E-rank adventurer who had entered the 100-man gate, smiled at the sight that unfolded before him.
He was here to troll, after all.
‘A ribbon pig, huh?’
The appearance of the ribbon pig was a welcome sight for him.
‘Thanks to it, they’re all scattered.’
Because of the ribbon pig, the 100 adventurers had dispersed without much discussion.
Thanks to that, William could make things easy.
With ease, William was able to poison the adventurers who had entered, thinking of him as a comrade without needing to worry about their nerves.
“Ughhh…”
William listened to the groans of his dying comrades.
That’s when it happened.
“W-why, why is this happening?”
One of them, not yet dead, looked at William with questioning eyes, and William replied with a smile.
“Everything is for the resurrection of the Black Mage, my master.”
Clang!
With that, William drew the dagger he had been carrying on his belt.
8.
Boom!
As Polearm fell from the sky to the ground like lightning and pierced the ribbon pig’s skull, a splash of blood erupted with a loud noise.
“Huff, huff, huff.”
Heavy breaths came from Dibo’s mouth as he held onto the end of Polearm.
It meant he was exhausted.
“Damn it, this is no comparison to picking mushrooms.”
It couldn’t be helped. The monsters Dibo had faced so far were on a completely different level from the ribbon pig.
The mushrooms, for example, were just mushrooms, even the tough green ones.
But the ribbon pig was different. It had skin, bones, and blood vessels inside it. The toughness created by these things was more grueling than he could have imagined.
And that wasn’t all.
“The oil and blood are quickly dulling Polearm’s blade.”
The grease and blood of the ribbon pig were making the weapon’s sharpness dull much faster than he had thought.
It was thanks to his training that Dibo was able to defeat five ribbon pigs.
If it hadn’t been for his training against countless mushrooms, Dibo would have been pig feed by now.
“Wow, if hundreds of these things came at once…”
Even this was only possible because he was fighting five stragglers.
Anything more than that and the fight would have been honestly impossible.
“And even blocking them isn’t easy, is it?”
What was even more troublesome was that the ribbon pigs were harder to block than the orange mushrooms or stumps.
This was a very big problem.
The core of the El Paume Party was for Dibo to block the monsters while El Paume defeated them.
But what if Dibo couldn’t act as a shield?
That meant El Paume was in danger too.
More than anything else, the limitations Dibo felt, El Paume felt as well.
“The boss’s flaming arrows won’t be easy against the pigs either…”
By this point, the answer was clear.
“We won’t be able to do it alone unless we hunt with other adventurers.”
Combining forces with others.
“It’ll be tough because of trolling, though.”
The problem was that they couldn’t choose that option.
Trolling meant there were saboteurs within, which meant they would get hit from behind the moment they joined forces.
‘If the boss says there’s trolling, then there is.’
Dibo did not doubt El Paume’s judgment and believed that there were trolls
It wasn’t because of blind faith.
Dibo was never one to blindly trust someone or be that kind of person.
Having lived like a madman until now, the only thing he believed in was his one and only sister.
‘The boss must know something. Just like always.’
Even so, he believed El Paume’s words because of the results he had shown.
‘As long as I follow the boss’s orders, I won’t die.’
For adventurers, there was nothing more important than survival.
“So there’s only one answer, right?”
In fact, Dibo had already figured out El Paume’s intentions.
“Boss, are you thinking of doing that?”
El Paume nodded to that question, and Dibo nodded as well and said.
“Before the trolling bastards can cause trouble… we’ll escape…”
“Before the trolling bastards can cause trouble, we’ll take down the boss monster.”
“Huh?”
Dibo’s eyes widened when the words came out at the same time.
“Boss? What are you talking about?”
It was a situation where anyone would naturally blurt out something.
“The boss monster?”
But take down the boss monster?
El Paume, on the other hand, saw it differently.
“This is our chance. A chance to take down the boss monster without competition.”
When El Paume first entered the 100-man gate, when he tried to aim for the boss monster, what he had in mind more than anything else was the other adventurers.
Of course, in a normal situation where multiple parties like this entered, the situation around the boss monster was bound to get complicated.
Even if they were to kill it, they had to do it under the watchful eyes of those around them, and even the opportunity to do so was unlikely to come.
Stealing the boss monster in the middle of all this? Obviously impossible.
If they did that, there was no way Longco and his companions would just stand by.
“A chance to monopolize the item even if it drops.”
Crucially, in the current situation, if they hunted the boss monster, they could hide the fact that they had done so.
‘I’ve prepared for this, but I never thought an opportunity like this would come.’
This was the ultimate opportunity.
Dibo understood too.
El Paume was certainly not wrong. In fact, this was the best-case scenario.
“But, boss.”
Just one thing.
“We can’t even handle the ribbon pigs properly, so how are we going to take down the boss monster?”
The fundamental problem remained.
To Dibo’s question, El Paume replied calmly.
“Can’t handle the ribbon pigs properly?”
“Isn’t that true? I know you’re great, boss, but it’s not easy to take down the ribbon pigs with those fire arrows.”
To this question, El Paume replied.
“That’s why I’ll use a different spell.”
A different spell!
At that moment, Dibo’s eyes changed.
“As expected, boss! You’ve prepared for everything!”
That made a difference.
“So what spell have you prepared?”
With excitement in his voice, Dibo asked, and El Paume answered.
“I’ll use Poison Breath.”
“Huh?”
“I’ll use poison.”
Dibo momentarily wore a blank expression at that answer.
“Ah.”
After regaining his composure, Dibo said with a wavering voice.
“B-boss. I know Poison Breath is a good spell, but wouldn’t it be ineffective against ribbon pigs?”
He was trying to persuade him.
“As you can see from the ribbon pigs, they never stay still. Even if I spread poison with Poison Breath, they’ll only drink a sip at best. It won’t even tickle them.”
A valid argument.
“You’re right.”
And El Paume knew he was right.
“They need to drink at least a sip.”
“Right?”
He knew that fact better than anyone.
Better than anyone in the world.
What was the drawback of the Poison Breath skill?
“So we need a way around that.”
And El Paume had lived in an era where he wouldn’t survive unless he overcame that drawback.
Until the very end.
“Poison Breath.”
And at that moment, El Paume activated the Poison Breath skill.
Dibo instinctively took a step back at that fact.
It was a natural reaction.
‘Crazy!’
Poison doesn’t discriminate between friend and foe. Only the caster who used the spell is free.
However, his reaction was not fast enough.
‘Damn it, am I poisoned?’
That’s why Dibo thought he must be poisoned.
His expression naturally contorted.
He was also angry.
“No, boss, this is really…”
At that moment, Dibo could see it.
El Paume’s body was covered in a faint mist.
And the mist gradually gathered in one place, and soon it gathered into a ball the size of a human fist on the palm of El Paume’s right hand.
It was another one of El Paume’s techniques.
“Room.”
The technique of using telekinesis to condense and gather the poison mist from Poison Breath into one place.
“It’s a technique that uses telekinesis to gather poison in one place.”
The Poison Breath gathered in this way was so thick and intense that it could be seen with the naked eye.
That wasn’t all.
The toxicity was not diminished in the slightest, just as much as it was contained in the box made of telekinesis now.
It was the true meaning of extreme poison.
Gulp!
That’s why Dibo, who was looking at it, swallowed his saliva without realizing it.
‘If I take a sip of this…’
Then, the balls of poison on El Paume’s palm began to move around.
The moment he saw that, Dibo finally understood.
‘So that’s it.’
Why El Paume was willing to suggest hunting the boss monster without any hesitation.
As long as he could move this poison freely, even if it was just ordinary poison, hunting the monster would be a breeze, as long as the monster didn’t have any resistance to poison.
And that’s why he was surprised when he got the Poison Breath item.
To him, Poison Breath could be one of the most powerful spells he had ever seen.
“Let’s start looking for the boss monster now.”
So when he said that, Dibo no longer had any doubts or suspicions.
“Of course, we need to find the boss monster.”
Full of confidence.
“We should also get our hands on the unique item.”
And he just looked like he was crazy about the smell of money.
“So how do we find it?”
“It’s not hard to find. But there’s one problem.”
To Dibo, the problem that El Paume pointed out was no longer a problem.
He said confidently,
“What could be the problem with me and the boss around?”
“The poison balls condensed by Room require a high degree of concentration. The amount of mana consumption is also considerable. So the movement speed is not fast.”
However, Dibo’s confident smile began to falter slightly as El Paume continued speaking.
He realized.
“So, then?”
“You need to buy me some time.”
“Ti, time?”
“Hold off the boss monster for a minute, just a minute.”
At those words, his confident smile was no more.
But it wasn’t gone completely.
“Heh, it’ll be tough, but what the hell, I’ll give it a shot.”
He forced a smile, even though it felt awkward.
It was because of his expectations.
‘Maybe the boss monster will be easy? Let’s not look too scared from the start.’
The expectation that was possible because he didn’t know what the boss monster was yet.
And it was an expectation that he felt he could live up to.
After all, there were cases where a boss monster was easier for a warrior to deal with, depending on the type.
In fact, El Paume was only asking for a minute. It could even be much easier than dealing with the ribbon pigs, if they played their cards right.
With that expectation in mind, El Paume and Dibo set out to track down the boss monster.
And soon they could see it.
“Huh? What’s that? It’s got a weird face.”
Human-like monsters with green skin.
The moment he saw them, El Paume said with a stern expression.
“Hobgoblins. Green Hobgoblins.”