396 - Big Mama and the Soup Gang 1

396 - Big Mama and the Soup Gang 1

TL/Editor: raei

Status: 5/Week Mon-fri

Illustrations: Posted in discord.

Join the discord! Here

Ice attributes were notorious for inflicting additional mental damage when unleashing their overpowered performance against enemy players.

Whether it was an ice arrow archer endlessly kiting a slow tank without a dash skill, or taking turns freezing the opponent in a turn-based game with a 30% chance that kept triggering, leaving them helpless as you took turn after turn - the ice element's broken nature transcended genres.

While getting blown up by fiery damage might elicit an impressed "Whoa!", being frozen in place and wasting time felt like being burned alive from the inside out.

"That sword is truly amazing! Is this the culmination of thousands of years of craftsmanship by otherworldly artisans?!"

"Damn, I thought I'd paid a hefty sum, but at this rate I should've kept it instead of selling. Say, is there anywhere to trade those enhancement stones?"

On the flip side, having such power on your side was incredibly reassuring.

Manaashi and I charged in, scattering the goblins left and right as we tumbled about. The enemy had slipped past us to our rear, so we needed to get up and reposition. But before we could right ourselves, a frost imbued with mana settled over our heads.

This wasn't just a chilly sensation that clung to metal armor and caused frostbite. Created from mana and boosted by the system, it was the embodiment of a debuff that forcibly slowed movement.

As the frigid armor chilled their bodies and stiffened their muscles, they became sluggish to the point of freezing in place. For McDonagh and Lukius following behind, the hunt that ensued was easier than shooting fish in a barrel.

And that wasn't all. The evolved 5★ Grace was now capable of sniping down the frantically flailing harpies. Even Han Se-ah, while dense in other areas, displayed her top-notch mana control by manipulating the wind to pull in the mana stones with impressive control.

"They may be numerous, but in the end they're just goblins. Still, it's convenient that they stand there stupidly, making it easy to aim for their helmet eye slits."

"If we enhance the bow like this, couldn't we shoot lightning too?!"

"When an elemental character gets an AoE skill, the game becomes a cakewalk. Roland was strong, but it felt like he had to chip away one by one. Now with dozens of goblins frozen solid, hunting has become effortless."

-You've been cruising through everything from the first floor until now, and you're saying it's even easier?

-At this point, it's not just eating sashimi, it's like a whale swallowing whole live fish.

-More importantly, I really like this attribute enhancer. When are we breaking through the 40th floor? lol

-I'm super curious about enhancement stones for other attributes too.

-If we enhance the archer's bow like the kid said, wouldn't that make alchemical arrows unnecessary?

The warriors were all smiles as they wrapped up the aftermath of the quick and easy battle. Katie was satisfied with finally being able to swing her sword to her heart's content, while the other three were clearly excited about enhancing their own weapons after seeing the magic sword in action.

Every time they picked up a goblin mana stone from the meadow, where a light frost had settled before melting into dew under the unyielding sun, their mouths twitched visibly with anticipation.

"Wow, maybe because three groups merged, we've got loads of mana stones."

"At this rate, how many gold coins? Five? Seven? Hehe, I can't wait for the day our expedition ends."

Even though they were goblins who fell easily to the broken ice attribute magic, they were still 51st floor monsters. While small in stature, their strength far surpassed that of goblins, rivaling that of adult men. Just as obviously as there was a 50th floor above the 40th, the mana they contained was naturally more abundant than the harpies'.

Of course, it wouldn't match a named monster like the Red Harpy, but they made up for it in numbers. Quality over quantity didn't apply here - ten 5,000 won bills were worth more than four 10,000 won bills. It was simple arithmetic.

"There don't seem to be any other monsters around. Still, the commotion might have attracted monsters from afar. If you're not tired or hurt, let's move locations."

"Grace is right. I'll put all the mana stones in the inventory, so let's count them in a safe zone."

The party members were grinning as they picked up mana stones and chatted, dawdling a bit. Grace quickly spoke up to keep them moving.

Sure, the detection range of archers and rogues might be limited, but they had just loudly decimated dozens of goblins while smashing up the ground.

This level of disturbance could potentially be sensed even outside normal detection ranges.

"Oh, did you grab those orc mana stones? It'd be a shame to miss the commander-level stones, even if goblin ones are plentiful."

"I picked up all three of those. They rolled right to my feet after the explosion."

'As expected of lucky Lukius, he's good at picking up items too.'

With that, Grace's logical urging and another display of the lucky totem's power brought the debut of our kid's new weapon to a neat conclusion.

---

Raei Translations

---

Exploring the tower was, in reality, an incredibly, incredibly boring affair.

That's because for 80% of your waking hours, all you did was walk. For such a long time that even admiring the endless stretches of beautiful scenery became tedious. It made sense, considering you had to walk and walk for nearly two weeks, carefully rationing your supplies.

The peculiar virtual reality game lacked any time acceleration features, which explained why Heroes Chronicle streams were full of vlog-style content creators. Whether it was the life of a mercenary or an innkeeper's startup story, without a speed-up function, churning out game footage like a normal game was impossible.

Viewers fond of speculation openly predicted that even if Han Se-ah maintained her current pace as the top-ranked player, it would take 3-4 years to reach the 100th floor.

"How are the monster waves, you ask? Well, they're disgusting. Absolutely disgusting. Because..."

"Life in the countryside? Well, it's nothing special. I wake up in the morning, train—"

"Shh— The Temple Knights? They were excellent."

What could be more terrifying to a streamer than boredom? Only ghosts or the plague. The only people who'd watch a boring stream were those who needed sleeping pills but didn't want to take drugs. Even then, they'd just leave it on as background noise to fall asleep to.

Han Se-ah had no choice but to deal with this issue by turning off the stream during uneventful exploration periods or when traveling by carriage.

That is, until she gained three chatty companions.

"The naga guy who settled in the temple, the guy in charge of monster waves who ran away from the Empire to be a mercenary, and the country bumpkin who just moved to the city from the countryside. Just listening to their stories makes the day fly by."

-Now she's not just cruising through battles, but freeloading off the stream too. She's really something.

-Congrats teacher, you've upgraded from one-trick pony easy mode to adding new items to your freebie menu.

-lol but Manaashi's Temple Knight stories are actually interesting. There aren't many people who've been in a temple.

-Why aren't there many streams about temples? Is holy magic harder than regular magic?

-When you become a low-rank priest, you live in a dorm and pray and train more intensely than the military. Who the fuck would want to stream that? lolololololol

The exploration was going smoothly, Katie's enhanced sword had made its debut, and as they marched across the prairie in search of a safe zone, the three began to share their stories.

Manaashi, who despite being a different race with a snake lower body and snake scales on his upper body, befriended the people of the temple like a capybara.

McDonagh, who seemed to have hit the jackpot by joining the kingdom's knighthood despite his rural origins, became the beloved youngest member.

Lukius, whose noble upbringing seemed unbelievable given his smooth-talking nature and extensive mercenary experience that had honed his chatty personality.

Irene, raised in the temple with a longing for adventure and hardship but little practical knowledge, accustomed to caring for children and listening to their stories.

Grace, a country girl who had cultivated a fascination with adventurers, trained as a ranger, and was as curious as she was at home running through the mountains.

And our Katie, who maintained her childlike innocence to the point of embodying it, for who adding explanations in these situations was closer to a waste of time.

With three people who loved to talk paired with three who were great at reacting, there was never a moment of audio silence in Han Se-ah's stream.

"Monster waves are exactly what they sound like - they come at you like waves. Have you ever been to the sea?"

"No, I've only heard stories."

"Well, imagine someone endlessly drawing water from a well that never runs dry. That's how they keep coming. You kill ten, twenty show up. You kill twenty, forty appear."

"Endlessly?"

"Yeah, endlessly. I knew a mercenary group that fought in one place for three whole weeks before they finally had to retreat because they ran out of supplies. Think about it - five or six battles a day, day and night, for three weeks. That's over a hundred battles in the same spot." freeweɓnøvel.com

"Wow... Over a hundred. That's unimaginable in our fief."

Among these stories, Lukius's tales were the most popular.

While Manaashi's gym rat stories and McDonagh's rural tales were quite popular too, they were stories of the kingdom. Lukius's monster wave stories, however, were tales from Season 2 that other streamers hadn't experienced. Naturally, viewers couldn't help but be intrigued.

"Hm? A donation asking me to throw a question at Lukius? Well, it is getting a bit dull just listening..."

-Was there really such a chat? (genuinely curious)

-Ghost! It's a ghost! A debt-collecting ghost! Ghost! It's a ghost! A debt-collecting ghost! Ghost! It's a ghost! A debt-collecting ghost! Ghost! It's a ghost! A debt-collecting ghost!

-lol This shameless woman wouldn't miss such an opportunity. She's putting her debt collection skills learned from the tower grandpa to good use right away!

-Sometimes she moves incredibly blatantly. How come her nickname isn't Scrooge? I don't understand :)

"...There are people up ahead."

"Battle ready?"

Grace's serious expression as she stopped the group mercilessly shattered her money-making plans.

Toggle New Ads

3/5 Enjoy the chappy!

Please give the book a rating and a review on NovelUpdates.

It helps the website and helps people find this novel!

If you'd like to make a one-time donation to support our translations or subscribe to read up to 15 chapters or more (depending on the novel) ahead, you can do so via Ko-fi.

Click here!

  • List Chapters
  • Settings
    Background
    Font
    Font size
    19px
    Content size
    1000px
    Line height
    200%
  • Audio Player
    Select Voice
    Speech Rate
    Progress Bar
Comments (0)