Chapter 176

"An archer, huh?"

Vela glanced at the Black Troll's corpse.

"Did you kill it on your own?"

I nodded.

"Long-ranged DPSers generally have very low durability, but you managed to kill a variant Troll alone." He laughed with amusement. "That has to mean you're just that fast, yeah?"

"..."

"Let me see for myself just how fast you are, then."

That moment, I felt this fighting spirit exude from the future Fight King.

'He's coming from the left.'

Vela was fast. His nimbleness was incomparable to the Black Troll.

'I can see it.'

But my eyes were faster than even those swift movements. The future-seeing eye, Future Sight, completely decoded Vela's approach.

'He'll swing his axe here.'

Whumpf!

The axe grazed my hair.

'Then, he'll withdraw his weapon.'

Vela stowed his axe in his Inventory, item switching with practiced and skillful ease.

'And after putting down his foot hard…'

Vela stepped in with force.

'He'll thrust his spear with his weight behind the attack.'

From start to finish, I read Vela like a book. I simply stood in place.

'But the thrust is just a feint.'

The second attack that came on the heels of the feint was the real attack. In other words, there was no 'bloodthirst' in the first attack.

'A stab that's fast, but powerless.'

And because there was no strength in it—

'Something like this should be possible.'

I grabbed the spear shaft, turning the feint to my advantage. Vela was taken aback for a moment.

"Huh?"

I used the spear's momentum to yank Vela forward, simultaneously putting out my foot.

Vela tripped artlessly. I instantly increased the distance between us and pulled my bowstring, aiming the bow burning with black flames precisely on Vela.

Vela got up with a flabbergasted look.

"Didn't you say you were an archer?"

"It's as you can see," I responded.

The fighting spirit coming from Vela went out entirely.

"How can there be someone so busted?" the Italian man said, dusting his butt off. "No need to keep going. I acknowledge my defeat."

He cleanly admitted defeat. It was extremely fast, a little outside of my expectations.

"I'd keep butting heads if we were a close match, but I can't even scorch a single tailfeather of yours at my current level." Vela smiled agreeably. "I'm so happy I met a human this strong."

His own defeat seemed to be of zero concern to him. Vela stowed his weapon in his Inventory before putting out his hand.

"Allow me to introduce myself formally. My name is Vela Santo—"

He was cut off by a grimacing Wilson, who had been translating. "Vela. Do I have to keep translating? This seems like a pointless conversation."

An Intermediate Administrator continuing to translate despite it being a pain wasn't a normal occurrence, either. Senia stepped forward.

"If you find it troublesome to translate, I will do it."

In the end, the translation duty fell to Senia. There wasn't anything astonishing about our conversation. To sum it up, Vela completely submitted to my strength and vowed to defeat me one day.

His 'You good at fighting?' from earlier turned into 'You're fookin' good at fighting'. There was a real sense of disparity hearing those words coming from Senia.

"Is that all?" I asked. "You want to fight me in the future, and that's it?"

Did Vela really fly all the way from Italy to come fight me? Also, I hadn't heard any messages from Guardians even after the fight was over. The Night of Shooting Stars or the White Hunter should have responded in some way, at the very least.

'That means there's something more.'

Vela gave another agreeable smile. "You're quick on the uptake. Very much like Pedro."

Vela probably meant that as a compliment. I wasn't offended by the words. The future Fight King, Vela, began to speak of the 'real matter at hand'.

* * *

The Fight King told me something interesting.

"The Gran Seoul Dungeon in your server is supposed to have opened."

A Ranker of a country far away knew about a dungeon on Korean soil? And one that hadn't yet opened, at that?

The translating Senia suddenly interrupted our conversation, bringing something out.

[Translation Marble]

An artifact enchanted with translation magic that applies to all languages on each of the servers on the dimension 'Earth'.

"This will enable uninhibited communication."

The little tree Streamer named Wilson smacked his lips. "Wow, you just pulled out something that expensive like it was nothing. Sis, are you rich?"

"It was sponsored."

"Sp-Sponsored? You were sponsored something that expensive?"

One of the green leaves attached to Wilson's forehead fell off.

"Ah! No!"

Wilson carefully picked up the leaf on the ground and reattached it to his forehead, gently rubbing it into place.

"It's one of my few remaining hairs," he explained. Still cautiously stroking the leaf, he continued. "There's someone willing to sponsor a translation item at this time?"

"Yes."

"Can I ask who it is? Is the Korean server always like this?"

Senia paused for a moment. Goodness, she had really grown. She was intentionally drawing it out right now.

The Fight King Vela was based in the Italian server. Guardians who were primarily active in the Italian server were different from the ones primarily active in the Korean server. Currently, those Guardians from another region were all focusing on this situation, and Senia was pausing for dramatic effect.

"I was sponsored by the [Night of Shooting Stars]."

He was indeed a 2nd gen Guardian. The fact he gave the item via Senia rather than directly to me meant he really intended on savoring the attention, nouveau riche style. The Guardians' attention would gather on him, no doubt.

The little tree bent his inflexible body—he was a tree, after all—as much as he could before hopping up and down in excitement. His business acumen was far more outstanding than Senia's.

"Please drop by the Italian server as well, sir! It's overflowing with enjoyable and exciting content. I will ensure that you are properly entertained."

And then, he waved both hands, crying out 'Ting-a-ling!' Yellow bells actually appeared on both sides of Wilson's head, tinkling and producing an actual bell sound.

"Goodness, sir. Thank you kindly for the 300 Coin sponsorship. Ting-a-ling!"

Wilson seemed to be quite an exaggerated Streamer. Actually, what he was doing wasn't all that special. Senia was just so very taciturn, but Intermediate Administrators more like Wilson were more common.

In any case, we got a translation item and were able to carry on a natural conversation.

"How do you know about the Gran Seoul Dungeon?" I asked.

"It's related to the main scenario quest I'm clearing."

What was this, really?

'First the Great Explorer Jackson, and now the Fight King Vela.'

I didn't know whether Vela visited Korea in the past or not. Vela had never said anything about it to the public.

"But the Gran Seoul Dungeon hasn't opened, and a weird scenario like this was triggered. I have the feeling you know why."

"It's because the Gran Seoul Dungeon's open condition hasn't been met."

This happened because I completely stopped the Fire Giants' rampage. It was a butterfly effect I created.

'If things had gone like they did in the past…'

What if nothing had changed, and the Gran Seoul Dungeon opened at the proper time?

'The Fight King Vela would have gone into the Gran Seoul Dungeon.'

If things had gone the same as the past, there was a high chance he would have acquired something from inside of the Gran Seoul Dungeon.

'But the flow of events has been twisted because of me.'

That was why he was here with me right now. I would have to talk with him a little more to be able to match the puzzle pieces. We conversed a little longer.

"...And that's what happened."

Vela's story was pretty interesting. After listening carefully to what he had to say, I said, "To summarize, you know the method to open the Gran Seoul's hidden field, but you need an assistant?"

"Yeah."

"And the assistant's class must be a non-combat class."

"Right."

"But it's a place where only you and that other person can enter?"

Vela nodded. His quest was limited to two people.

'But he thinks I'm an archer, doesn't he?'

Did Vela mention the non-combat class requirement in order to sound me out? No, I could be sure that wasn't the case. I felt really bad saying so, but Vela was kind of in the idiot camp. To be more precise, once he was set on something, he could only see that one thing. He was the kind of person who didn't see anything else.

'Does he want to believe I'm a non-combat class?'

But… but still! Could it be that he really was that much of an idiot?

'It could be that he's… an idiotic single-celled organism, but…'

Even so, even if we assumed that Vela knew a little more about me than he let on, I had to take action. I didn't fully trust Vela yet.

'For now, the important thing is the Gran Seoul's hidden field.'

There was a hidden field with such prerequisites in the Gran Seoul?

'Unpublicized info.'

I hadn't known anything about it. It could be that it was high-level intel only known by Rankers, info that wasn't told to the public.

"How come you're telling me all this like it's nothing?"

"I'm telling you I want you to be my assistant. Don't you think that would be perfect?"

"And if I don't accept?"

Vela shrugged. "Then one of us will die, I suppose. Though of course, that would probably be me."

I couldn't tell whether he was being sincere or not. I could, however, tell that it was a quest that required secrecy.

I unleashed my aura. The Fight King was definitely an impressive Player, but the current me didn't fall behind at all. No, I was actually ahead of him.

[Using the special ability Mettle.]

"Don't forget that if one of us dies, it will be you."

Vela nodded in good humor. "I know. I'm happy. It's a great thing to have a mountain I need to surmount. I'll take back what I said about one of us dying. I was just sounding you out."

I also retracted my aura. It seemed that my Mettle was an extremely pleasant thing to Vela. Apparently, him adoring people stronger than him was true.

Vela grasped my hand.

"How about it? Wanna give it a go together? I'll give you the first pick for all the rewards. In exchange, have another PVP with me later."

I thought for a moment, my hands in Vela's coarse ones.

'Explorer is a non-combat class.'

The Great Explorer Jackson was in Korea at this time. What if the Gran Seoul Dungeon had opened at the planned time?

'Vela would have tried to clear the Gran Seoul Dungeon, and it's highly likely he would have met Jackson there.'

Jackson had already gone into the Gwanghwamun Dungeon, which could be called Korea's main dungeon, like someone who had known it would open. In that case, he might even know about the Gran Seoul Dungeon.

'So it's possible that… a scenario where Vela cleared the Gran Seoul with Jackson happened in the past.'

That much was fine.

'If that really happened, then why did they not reveal that?'

The puzzle pieces of the past rattled in my mind.

* * *

For now, I accepted Vela's proposal.

'To think he would make such an offer to someone he saw for the first time today.'

He would concede first pick of all the rewards in exchange for frequent PVP. What was more astonishing was that he really meant it. He really was a battle-crazy guy.

'He simply goes and does things that could definitely be dangerous for him. Is he incapable of thinking, or does he just not care?'

The Fight King Vela was an incomprehensible creature. He should have realized that I was stronger than him, but he proposed a temporary party with zero reserve. On what basis? In a dungeon, murder could occur without anyone knowing, yet Vela was willing to stride hand in hand with a stranger in such a place. From my perspective, Vela was a difficult person to understand.

I clearly read Vela's summary.

Summary:

Coarse Fighter who Knows No Lies

Single-celled Organism who Detests Complicated Things

The current Vela was simply happy. From the start, Vela was recognized as a Player who didn't like thinking about this and that. After meeting him in person, I could see that was very much true. He was the epitome of simplemindedness.

'Could it be that he really thinks I'm a non-combat archer?'

Kind of like a transgender person, but with class? For the time being, I gave up on understanding Vela with logic. That was easier on me.

"You saw someone on the 2nd floor, right?" I asked.

"A bunch of Players were defending against Orc Warriors and Trolls. It was a bit frustrating to watch."

"Don't you think it's weird?"

"What is?"

From what I saw of the Wings earlier, they should've been more than strong enough to have perfectly cleared the 2nd floor. But this place still wasn't cleared.

"There should have been plenty of time to generate the Clear Crystal."

"Now that you mention it… you're right?" He looked at me with an expression of 'What about it?'

"We just have to find the Clear Crystal," he went on to say. "No problem!"

"From what I know, once all the 2nd floor monsters have been hunted, the Clear Crystal should automatically spawn."

"Ah, yeah." Vela scratched his nose, his attitude still wholly unconcerned.

'There should have been plenty of time to generate the Clear Crystal and clear this place.'

But it hadn't been cleared, which meant… something had happened on the 2nd floor.

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