Chapter 128: Pascal Islands (3)
The Pascal Prison had an incredibly complex structure.
At the three divided paths that appeared as soon as they snuck into the prison, Ian thought deeply for a moment before opening his mouth.
“Let’s try going through the right path.”
At those words, Paulean wore a confused expression as he asked.
“Baron, do you know the way?”
“No, of course not.”
“…?”
“If we go through each one, well, we’ll eventually find the right path.”
At Ian’s nonchalant words, the party shook their heads, but because it wasn’t like they really had a clever scheme, they moved according to Ian’s words for now.
However, soon, they were able to figure out that was the wrong choice.
“This… Isn’t even supposed to be a maze, so isn’t this a little too much?”
Ian’s mumbling spoke for everybody’s feelings.
Divided paths had continuously showed up one after another.
As there became too many possible cases, it had become a situation where it was impossible to check each and every one until they found the right path like Ian said.
“Let’s sit down for a moment and think about it a little.”
At Ian’s words, Paulean sighed deeply.
“Will something even come up if we think about it?”
“That I don’t know.”
Ian let down Bbookbbook, who was on his back.
And as soon as he saw Bbookbbook, Ian thought of something.
“Ah, if we need to find our way through with our instinct anyways, shall we try following Bbookbbook?”
This time, Celia, who had been silent, asked.
“Bbookbbook? Oh, that big-headed turtle!”
At Celia’s words, Bbookbbook, who poked his head out from his sh.e.l.l, glared at Celia.
Glare-.
However, Celia wasn’t the least bit fazed and opened her mouth again.
“But does this turtle usually find the right paths?”
“Hmm… He occasionally finds things like undiscovered dungeons unexpectedly.”
“Ah…”
Ian crouched down in front of Bbookbbook and opened his mouth.
“Bbookbbook.”
Bbook-.
“Hyung has lost his way right now.”
At the words that he was lost, Bbookbbook sneered at him.
Bboo-bbook-.
“Find me the right path, Bbookbbook. If you do a good job finding it, I’ll feed you as many meatb.a.l.l.s as you want. How about it?”
At Ian’s blank cheque for meatb.a.l.l.s, which he had never proposed before, both of Bbookbbook’s eyes rounded.
Bbookbbook-!
While seeing that form, Ian mumbled to himself.
‘If there were at least a pile of meatb.a.l.l.s where the prisoners were confined, Bbookbbook would have smelled it and found them immediately.’
Just then, Paulean, who was much smarter than Celia in comparison, made an objection.
“But, will this turtle even know what he needs to find?”
“No, of course, he probably doesn’t know.”
“Then how…?”
“I have an idea.”
Ian turned his attention back towards Bbookbbook.
“Bbookbbook, find me a place where other people are besides us. You just need to find anybody.”
Bbook-.
Ian’s intentions couldn’t be understood, but either way, for now, the party that left Bbookbbook to lead them began to move.
Had about 10 minutes pa.s.sed like that?
Whether it was through Bbookbbook’s ability or luck, a group of soldiers that were wearing armour with the Kaimon Empire’s symbol drawn on it appeared in front of them at a distance.
“He did end up finding some people, although he didn’t find the prisoners… By the looks of it, I think it will be hard to just pa.s.s by them quietly, Baron.”
At Paulean’s words, Ian nodded his head.
“It seems so.”
Ian’s purpose for having Bbookbbook find someone, of course, the most ideal scenario was if he found the prisoners.
However, he didn’t think that he would be able to find the prisoners from the start, and this was a development that Ian was predicting.
‘Alright, shall we get started then?’
The soldiers that were checked were above lv 130.
They were generally a higher level than the party, but because Paulean’s level was so high, he decided that it would be worth fighting against them.
Since it was hard to say that Ian’s fighting power was of a normal early-lv 120 player as well.
“Celia, don’t join in on directly attacking, but prioritize healing the Familiars. Understood?”
Celia grinned as she nodded her head.
“Yes, Lord!”
And Ian spoke to the two crewmembers that had been quietly following up until now.
“Once the battle starts, there will definitely be one or two people that break away in order to alert others about our trespa.s.s. You two, please follow them.”
“We just need to make sure they don’t get away, right?”
At the words of one of the crewmembers, Ian shook his head.
“No, let them run away and please follow them while you leave markings as you go.”
This was exactly the plan that Ian was aiming for.
And this was a plan that Ian had thought of since they first infiltrated the prison.
He was planning on following the escaping soldiers and find the location where the prisoners were locked in.
As not even one NPC affiliated with Kaimon showed up until now, there was no way to use this method, which was why he told Bbookbbook to find anybody.
The two crewmembers, who immediately understood Ian’s words, nodded their head as they replied.
“Yes, Baron!”
Paulean, who finally understood Ian’s thoughts, also nodded his head.
“As expected, there was a reason why you received His Majesty’s trust. That’s a good plan.”
And shortly after, the battle began.
Ian couldn’t summon Ddukdae, who was large in size, as the s.p.a.ce in the prison was too narrow, but after summoning the rest of his Familiars, he immediately charged towards the soldiers.
“Intruder!”
And the soldiers that discovered Ian’s party attacked as well shortly after.
“Ly, Halli! Dig through them to the middle!”
Because he was certain that if the soldiers, who outnumbered them in comparison, got into formation, it would become a nuisance to face them, Ian thought that he needed to first make the battleground a dogfight.
Grr-!
As expected, amongst Ian’s Familiars, the one that showed the most outstanding presence was Ly.
• Familiar ‘Ly’ has dealt critical damage to the ‘Pascal Prison Guard’.
• The ‘Pascal Prison Guard’s Vitality has been reduced by 15,640.
Ly stirred up the guards, who were a mess because of the sudden attack, to his heart’s content.
Although Pin, who couldn’t fly around as much as he wanted at the fault of the low ceiling, wasn’t able to take such an active part as expected, but despite that, they were dominating the battle situation.
After pouring at all of his Spirit Magic towards the front, Ian’s gaze turned towards Paulean.
‘Shall we see how well a lv 170 royal guard fights?’
And the fighting power of Paulean that Ian checked was simply overwhelming.
At the greatness of the royal knight, who swung around a long lance and treated the lv 130 soldiers like he was dealing with kids, an exclamation automatically flowed out of Ian’s mouth before he even realized.
“Whoa…”
‘If I could just have one NPC like that as a retainer…’
He wasn’t enough to be compared to h.e.l.laim, but at the form of Paulean, who lived up to his level, Ian licked his lips.
However, just then.
The yellow light that was lodged in Paulean’s lance glowed largely and a large energy began to surge through.
“Hmph!”
And as Paulean smashed his lance against the ground, the golden energy flew out in all directions.
Baaang-!
A large boom followed by silence.
This was because all of the guards of Kaimon Empire that were hit by the AoE attack that spread out from the end of Paulean’s lance had turned into a grey light.
Of course, it was a situation where the battle had advanced quite a bit, so there was no soldier who had max Vitality, but to have annihilated all of them with one hit was enough of a surprising scene.
‘Isn’t… this a fraud?’
He couldn’t figure out exactly how much damage went through, but while Ian looked at a rough estimate of over 30 thousand Vitality of the soldiers being carved off, he was astonished.
And Paulean, who was the very person that made this incredible scene, approached Ian with a bashful expression.
“Uh… Baron. I killed all of them, so what should we do?”
At Paulean’s voice, Ian, who was in a daze, snapped back to reality.
And the two crewmembers that stood awkwardly caught his eyes.
“Baron, the guards that survived and ran away are gone!”
“…”
Ian, who was momentarily taken aback at the unexpected situation, turned his head towards Bbookbbook.
And he let out a deep sigh.
“Whew… Bbookbbook, let’s look again.”
Bbookbbook-.
Bbookbbook took lead with an expression overflowing with confidence, and the party began to follow Bbookbbook as they moved again.
His plan was slightly thrown off, but still, having found out that Paulean’s fighting power was more incredible than he expected, that comforted him quite a bit.
* * *
Jinsung’s house.
“Whoaa…!”
While looking at the new capsule model that came to his studio apartment, Jinsung wore an ecstatic expression.
“Are you that happy?”
Amongst the three capsules that were received as a reward for the Attack King event, the one that was delivered first obviously arrived at Jinsung’s house.
Because the size and weight of the capsule was hard to move alone, Yoohyun had come with Jinsung to his house in order to help him install it.
Harin was an addition, as she came along, saying she was curious of the new capsule model.
“Yeah, I’m happy, then should I not be? Be grateful to me, dude.”
“Of course. Thanks to you, I also get to obtain an ultra-luxurious capsule like this, Huehue.”
One of the two remaining capsules went to Yoohyun, the Guild Master, while the last one went to Fiolan, who contributed a large amount while running the dungeons with Ian.
Because of that, he spoke like this.
Harin also spoke with an envious expression.
“Lucky. I wish I could at least have the older model capsule…”
At those words, Yoohyun wore a puzzled expression.
“Huh? Harin, you don’t have a capsule?”
“Yeah, I don’t.”
“Then have you always been gaming at a capsule room[1]?”
Jinsung wore quite a surprised expression as well.
This was because, considering she only played in a capsule room, it felt like Harin was an incredibly high level.
“Eh… Really? But it seemed like your login time was quite long considering you only play in a capsule room…”
At the two people’s words, Harin laughed as she shook her head.
“No, I didn’t just go to capsule rooms, but there are two capsules at my younger cousin’s place, so during the day, I usually go and use it. One of them is my aunt’s. During the day, my aunt has work, so she’s not home.”
As if they finally understood, Jinsung and Yoohyun nodded their heads.
“Then again… The rate for capsule rooms are very high. You might as well buy a capsule instead of paying that much money and using one in a capsule room. For heavy users like us, that is.”
And while looking at Harin, Jinsung opened his mouth.
“Harin, then, do you want the capsule I originally used?”
At Jinsung’s extreme offer, Harin and Yoohyun both wore slightly surprised faces.
This was because, even though it was an older model, if Jinsung sold the capsule that he had been using as second-hand, he could still receive about 2-3 million Won[2].
However, to Jinsung, who was in an extremely happy mood because of the newer model capsule that was worth tens of millions of Won, the 2-3 million Won that he could gain from selling the second-hand capsule didn’t feel like that big.
‘It will be more beneficial to hunt in the time spent snooping around to try and sell this at a second-hand marketplace.’
It was possible that the bothersome aspect of it was a bigger factor.
Meanwhile, Harin, who was momentarily fl.u.s.tered at the unexpected offer, asked back with a deeply moved expression.
“Really? Can I have this?”
For a moment, Jinsung contemplated the slightest bit, but he coolly nodded his head.
“Sure, you use it, Harin.”
As he did so, Yoohyun, who was standing next to him, made fun of Jinsung with a mischievous expression.
“Oh, Park Jinsung! Are you looking out for her because she’s your girlfriend?”
Jinsung slightly flinched at the word girlfriend, but he covered up the awkwardness with an embarra.s.sed laugh.
“Ha… Haha…”
However, just then, Harin said something unexpected.
“I’m grateful, but now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ll be able to accept this capsule.”
Jinsung and Yoohyun, who became fl.u.s.tered at that, asked at the same time.
“No, why?”
“Why?”
“Hmm, That… The reason why we don’t have a capsule in our home is because my father doesn’t like me gaming. Not because I don’t have enough money to buy one…”
“Ah…”
At Harin’s pitiful words, Jinsung and Yoohyun nodded their heads out of sympathy.
Especially Jinsung deeply related as he nodded his head.
‘I know that feeling well.’
In one perspective, the reason why Jinsung persistently studied to go to university was because he wanted to break free from his parents, who hated games, so Jinsung deeply sympathized with her.
“Then what to do… Do I need to sell this?”
Jinsung mumbled.
Just then, Harin slyly approached Jinsung’s side and pulled his arm.
“No, don’t sell it.”
“Eh… Then?”
“Let’s just leave both capsules in your room. The room is so big, so there’s enough s.p.a.ce.”
“Hmm? What do I do with two? It’s not like I can run two characters alone.”
At his question, Harin sneakily hooked her arm with Jinsung’s and responded.
“So that I can come here to game from now on instead.”
Along with that, a voice filled with shock burst out.
“Aack!”
That was Yoohyun’s voice.
“No, Harin. S, so, you’re saying you’ll come to Jinsung’s house every day and game?”
Jinsung was just as taken aback.
“Yo, if you just come like… that to a house where a guy just lives on his own…”
However, in the next moment, the two couldn’t help but become speechless.
This was because Harin stood right in front of Jinsung’s nose and pushed her face forward.
“Why, so what if I do? Then are you going to pounce on me?”
[1] Capsule room = just like PC Rooms/PC Bangs, where one goes in and pays an hourly rate to use a computer, one pays an hourly rate to use a capsule.
[2] 2-3 million Won = ~$1767.64 to ~$2651.46 USD