The Last Adventurer

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Chapter 34: Hell of Snow (2)

3.

Adventures, as one might expect, varied in difficulty depending on the surrounding environment.

“You never know what kind of environment you’ll find beyond the Mystic Gate.”

Even when hunting the same monsters, the difficulty of the adventure could vary greatly depending on whether the environment was a forest or a mountain.

“We might have to fight slimes in a reed forest, or ribbon pigs in a vast plain, or stumps in a wasteland.”

This was also why Mystic Gate adventures were so difficult.

“So be grateful when you encounter a reed forest or a plain. It’s better than a snow-covered forest or a sand-only desert.”

However, the worst were the snow-covered worlds and the hot deserts.

There were no exceptions.

It was no exaggeration to say that there was no stage more hellish for adventurers than those two places.

And rightfully so.

Both environments were places where it was difficult to survive, let alone hunt monsters.

In other words, they were places where it was hard even to live.

Whoosh!

It was for this reason that the expressions of the El Paume party hardened when they faced their second adventure stage, which was one of those places: a snow-covered world.

A snow-covered environment was the worst for adventurers.

“Ugh!”

For one thing, the cold itself was a problem.

“First, let’s put on our outer clothes.”

Adventurers do prepare clothes in case of emergencies, but to be honest, they couldn’t expect much in terms of warmth.

Adventurers, who had to reduce the bulk of their luggage in various ways, including food, couldn’t carry around excessively thick clothes.

Moreover, thick clothes would also hinder combat. The clothes could interfere with their movements.

“Ugh, it’s cold.”

Even with their outer clothes on, they couldn’t shake off the cold.

Kyuuu!

Mano, the snail pet in El Paume’s arms, retracted into its shell.

El Paume and the others were better off.

“How are you doing, Kiri?”

Kiri, who was wearing armor, must have been in the worst situation.

“I’m fine.”

Kiri replied calmly to his concern, and Dibo smiled wryly and said,

“I’m glad you’re fine, but why don’t you at least wear my clothes? Huh? Or you’ll freeze to death, freeze.”

Dibo offered his concern mixed with care.

“I don’t need it.”

However, Kiri rejected his concern outright.

“What?”

Dibo, who had dared to offer his concern to his comrade, was at a loss for words.

“Kiri doesn’t need it. He has the Sun Stone.”

“Huh? The Sun Stone?”

“It’s a stone that the Order of the Cygnus Knights has. If someone with the power of the sun puts their magic into it, it keeps their body warm.”

“Was there such a thing? Damn, I worried for nothing!”

Dibo finally cleared up the misunderstanding.

“Wait, so you don’t feel any cold at all right now?”

“Not just warm, but even warm enough to feel cozy.”

As soon as El Paume finished his explanation, Dibo reached out and touched Kiri’s armor.

“Wh-what!”

“It’s really warm? Wow! Then you won’t freeze to death! No, wait, you had something this good? The Sun Stone? How much does one of those cost?”

“Around 10 million mesos, I guess.”

“Oh!”

Ralph, who had been silently observing the situation until then, heard the price of the Sun Stone and his eyes lit up.

“You mean you have something that expensive?”

In a way, the tension was eased.

In a situation where they still didn’t know what kind of place this was, in a situation where they didn’t know what kind of threats there might be, they were relaxing?

However, El Paume didn’t bother to warn his party members.

There was no need.

Kkiee!

There were those who would give them a warning instead of El Paume.

“Evil Eye?”

“No, Cold Eye.”

Cold Eye was a monster with white skin, unlike Evil Eye, which had a similar appearance but yellow skin.

Of course, it wasn’t just the skin color that was different.

Their strength was different.

“Everyone be careful with your breath. If you’re exposed to his breath for too long, the area will get frostbite.”

Unlike Evil Eye, which only had strong physical abilities, Cold Eye had a special ability.

“And watch out for the blood. His blood is very cold and sticky.”

The most troublesome of all was the property of Cold Eye’s blood.

“No, are you saying we’re supposed to fight without getting exposed to the blood?”

For warriors, who couldn’t help but be exposed in the midst of fierce battles, this was a mind-boggling characteristic.

But El Paume wasn’t worried.

“Other than that, there’s no difference from Evil Eye.”

He’d been there, done that.

“We’ve been killing Evil Eyes until we’re sick of them.”

They had been killing Evil Eyes for a week until they were sick of them.

So, for the El Paume party, dealing with Cold Eye wasn’t that difficult.

Of course, this was exactly what El Paume had intended.

He knew.

‘Evil Eyes on the first stage, snow-covered mountains and Cold Eyes on the second stage.’

What came out of this place.

‘It can’t be just this for the White Gate.’

He had experienced it firsthand.

‘The boss monster, Snow Yeti, is what made this place a snow hell.’

What kind of monsters they would have to face to survive here.

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‘Monsters.’

And that monster, the Snow Yeti, was strong enough to give adventurers a hell of a time.

In the first place, the monster called Yeti was a very strong monster that only appeared in the Elnas Mountains.

‘Variant Yeti.’

Snow Yeti was a monster born with special abilities even among those Yetis.

This meant that not even many veteran adventurers knew of its existence.

‘An immortal monster.’

The vitality of the Snow Yeti was so enormous that it made the Evil Eyes look like nothing.

Even with their limbs cut off and their bodies full of arrows like hedgehogs, they wouldn’t die, but would instead let out even more ferocious roars.

They were also exceptionally large.

‘And they have camouflage too. You could say they’re absolute in the snow.’

Decisively, the Snow Yetis that appeared here had the same characteristics as the Cold Eyes.

It was by no means easy to find those creatures with snow-white skin like snow in this snowfield.

There was one more reason for this.

‘The exit only appears if you kill it.’

The condition for finding the exit was to hunt the boss monster.

This was another one of the reasons why the difficulty of Red and Orange grade Mystic Gates was determined.

In Red grade, you could escape even if you gave up on hunting the boss monster, but in Orange grade, there were cases where that was impossible.

‘That guy won’t be a problem.’

Of course, El Paume was confident that he could kill the Snow Yeti.

In the first place, he wouldn’t have entered this Mystic Gate if he hadn’t had the confidence.

So El Paume didn’t worry about hunting the Snow Yeti.

There was only one thing he had in mind.

‘The Viper Nir, if I can just take care of him.’

4.

The Viper Nir.

It was not a famous name.

If you asked 10,000 adventurers in the port city of Lis if they knew the Viper Nir, 9,999 of them would say they didn’t.

The remaining one would say something like this:

“How do you know that name?” and then kill the person who asked the question on the spot.

That one person would probably be a follower of the Black Mage.

There were two reasons why this existence could be kept so secret.

One was that it was one of the cards that Ibok, the owner of the top floor of the Kanian Chamber, cherished more than anyone else.

Kkiee!

“Cold Eye.”

The other was simply its strength.

The Viper Nir was so strong that he had never failed to kill anyone he had ever tried to kill.

This was no exaggeration.

Kkiee!

The Viper Nir was now proving that he was no exaggeration as he faced off against the thirty or so Cold Eyes that were now swarming in.

“Really annoying.”

Even though he was facing off against these monstrous creatures alone, he didn’t show any sign of nervousness.

There was no reason for him to be nervous.

Kkiee!

“Poison Mist.”

The moment he cast the 3rd circle poison attribute magic, Poison Mist.

Kkieek!

The Cold Eyes that were exposed to the poison collapsed to the ground, trembling with a bizarre scream.

The same was true for the other Cold Eyes.

Puha!

The Cold Eyes that were even slightly exposed to the Poison Mist cast by the Viper Nir began to be paralyzed.

It was a sight that was hard to comprehend.

It was true that Poison Mist was stronger than Poison Breath, a 2nd circle magic, in many ways as a 3rd circle magic.

However, its power was not enough to paralyze the Cold Eyes in an instant.

Even if it did, it would only be in the case of a 5th circle or higher magic adventurer using the skill.

It was not something that the 3rd circle magician Viper Nir could do.

If it was possible, there was only one way.

Unique grade items always made adventurers’ common sense and standards laughable.

‘The Hydra’s Fang is always great.’

The Hydra’s Fang that the Viper Nir possessed was like that.

This unique item, which increased the power of all poison magic by 100%, doubling it just by owning it, made all of the Viper Nir’s poison magic deadly.

Of course, that wasn’t all that made the Viper Nir deadly.

“Mr. Nir, we will take care of the finishing touches.”

Nir, he had subordinates who helped him.

Subordinates who were ready to face death at any moment at his word.

“The exit?”

“We haven’t found it yet. It seems that the exit will only appear when we hunt the boss monster.”

“That’s good.”

Therefore, Nir didn’t attach any particular meaning to hunting the boss monster.

“They won’t be able to leave this place.”

The only thing that mattered was completing the order.

Of course, there was no doubt about that either.

In the first place, the adventurers who were targeted and suspected were all just laughable people.

In fact, they had already been dealt with.

The moment they arrived at the second stage, the Viper Nir pulled out the poison fang he had been hiding and dealt with all the adventurers.

“So what about the El Paume party?”

The only one left was the El Paume party.

Honestly, there was nothing to worry about.

A party of just four adventurers was nothing to worry about for the Viper Nir and his subordinates who had already dealt with over thirty adventurers. It was like a lion worrying about a rabbit.

“Haven’t they shown up yet?”

The only thing that was troubling was that there was still no sign of the El Paume party.

“Not yet.”

Of course, there was no great concern about that either.

“But if they come out, we’ll be able to locate them immediately.”

Because they had taken precautions.

“We already have traitors among them.”

Surefire precautions.

That was literally true.

Before this Mystic Gate adventure, the Kanian Chamber contacted the El Paume party.

And they bribed one of them.

“Money is scary in many ways.”

Money, and a huge amount of money at that.

That’s why they were confident.

“Because it’s more poisonous than poison.”

Money was the most deadly poison for adventurers in any sense.

A poison that you could never escape once you were addicted.

So, as long as they were addicted to that poison, the traitors had no choice but to fulfill their role as traitors perfectly.

“Mr. Nir.”

That confidence soon paid off.

“The traitor has left a trail. The El Paume party, they’ve come to the second stage.”

Upon seeing the result, the Viper Nir did not hesitate.

“Let the hunt begin.”

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