Chapter 111: Salimaru Bandits (2)
[You have obtained information about the Salimaru Bandits’ hideout from Monte.]
“If you say ‘I’ve come to a hideout deeper than the abyss’ in front of the mountain, you can move to the Salimaru Bandits’ hideout. Moreover, since you have already registered yourself, you can come here alone and take the challenge again in the future if you fail this time. But for some reason, I think you will be successful this time.”
“Thank you for your kind encouragement. It’s a big help to me.”
“You’re welcome. I’m just so happy that a strong person like you is challenging it.”
Judging from Monte’s reaction, I figured out that Chairman Suh took me to this place directly because this was a quest that nobody could challenge without Monte’s permission. I sneakily glanced at Chairman Suh who had a gloomy expression.
After taking delight in looking at his embarrassed face, I opened my mouth.
“I’ve come to a hideout deeper than the abyss.”
Shuuuuuuung!
At the moment, I felt something pulling my body strongly.
But I wasn’t embarrassed because I knew I would be moved to the Salimaru Bandits’ hideout. And shortly afterward, a huge cave with four large tunnels in the east, west, south and north appeared before my eyes.
A message rang.
[The one who cannot enter the right way will not be able to move forward.]
“Hmm. It looks tough right from the beginning…”
I rather wished a monster came out first because I was confident of hunting any monster. But I didn’t think this was that bad because my Blink skill without any cooldown removed any limitations of distance.
Moreover, since I was alone here, no one would notice that I had Blink with zero cooldown.
So, I moved straight towards the north while consecutively using Blink.
While Asirante moved to the Salimaru Bandits’ hideout, Chairman Suh remained sullen because although he brought all the strong men from Daeyu here, Monte had never shown such a reaction before. Monte’s reaction showed that Asirante’s chance of success was high, and Chairman Suh had no choice but to worry.
If Asirante succeeded in clearing the quest in just one try, it would be the worst possible situation for Suh. In other words, it would be exactly like the saying, ‘you do all the work and somebody else gets the credit.’
Chairman Suh kept his fingers crossed that Asirante would fail by all means so he could get the chance to retract this offer when he failed.
Then he swore at Nakson Lee, Daeyu’s intelligence chief, who first suggested to the chairman about using the quest to find out Asirante’s real-life information.
“Blink. Blink. Blink.”
I used Blink consecutively to first traverse the northern tunnel.
But nothing showed up.
Although I spent less than a minute going up this tunnel, I must have traveled a considerable distance. If I had walked normally, it would have taken me almost an hour or more to move this distance.
Then a message rang as if something was wrong.
[You have entered the wrong way.]
“…”
I felt empty and disappointed at this message because I had moved quite a long distance.
Of course, honestly, I didn’t have a hard time doing so.
At that moment, another message rang as if that was not the end.
[A trap has been triggered to punish you for entering the wrong way.]
At that moment a little sound was heard, along with the message.
It was the sound of water flowing, which gradually got bigger.
Of course, I could figure out what this was.
In movies that focused on exploration or adventure, a trap that the main actor encountered at least once was a scene where a huge amount of water poured in when he was trapped in a cave. And what was happening right now was what I expected.
I saw a huge tunnel in front of me which was filled with a stream of water rushing towards me at tremendous speed.
“Uh? Do they want me to shoot a movie scene here?”
Of course, I would not be able to convey such a tense and breathless scene to the audience.
And I had no intention of doing so here because I had Blink with zero cooldown.
I escaped from that huge current that seemed to devour everything in the northern tunnel.
Of course, I didn’t suffer any damage while escaping from it.
Without the zero cooldown Blink, I would have been swept away and killed by that tremendous current.
Indeed, the current was huge and fierce enough to fill the entire tunnel. So much so that I could not do much about it even if I used a powerful Ice Shield or used Ice Field to freeze it.
So, I complained before I knew it.
“Man, this is too tough from the beginning! I might have to be killed before even doing anything by making the wrong choice.”
I had to choose the right tunnel out of the four in the beginning. In other words, I only had a one in four chance to succeed. Based on that probability, I thought it was very unfair to drown in that torrent even without struggling at all. Moreover, even if I died and tried again, I didn’t think the northern tunnel would always feature a trap like that huge current. I was convinced that the trap would change something else. And that’s why the Daeyu guys have never been successful until now.
That most likely wasn’t the end.
Obviously, even if I chose the right tunnel, something else would be waiting for me.
And if I die there, I would have to challenge the one in four chance from the beginning again.
“Man, this is really tough.’
I cleared my throat before I knew it. I had guessed that this quest would be very difficult, given the enormous rewards, but it was far more difficult than I thought.
But even so, I was happy deep down.
Was it because I was convinced I could clear the quest no matter how difficult it was? Nope.
Obviously, I could not completely rule this out, but there was another reason for me why I was really happy. In other words, if the quest had not been this difficult, Chairman Suh would not have given it to me at all. He gave it to me because he was completely convinced I would fail.
That’s why I liked this level of difficulty. If Suh had thought I had even a 1% chance of success, he would never have offered me this quest.
“Good. Then, let me go this way this time.”
I turned to the eastern tunnel in the 3 o’clock direction.
Then I moved deep into the tunnel using Blink consecutively.
About one minute after I traversed the tunnel as far as I had the northern tunnel, a message rang.
[You have entered the wrong way.]
It was a very disappointing message that my efforts until now were in vain.
“Well, it means I’m not that lucky.”
I had already failed to take the right way, and now I entered the wrong way again.
But I rather expected what would come out this time as a penalty for my failure.
Like I experienced in the northern tunnel, a sound greeted me again.
Puck! Puck!
It was the sound of something smashing and rolling down toward me.
I had guessed something after hearing the sound, and it was exactly as I expected.
Huge stones large enough to fill the whole tunnel were rolling towards me.
“Ice Spear! Multiple Ice Arrow!”
Piik! Piiiiiiiiik!
Level 4 Ice Spear and Level 3 Multiple Ice Arrow were the most powerful single-target skills I’ve ever learned. In fact, they showed an extraordinary power different from the Ice Spear and Multiple Ice Arrow used by other ice wizards.
However, they couldn’t even scratch the massive rocks that were rolling at a high speed. Perhaps the rocks were incredibly hard or they might even be real stones.
I even suspected that these rocks were designed not to be broken in the first place.
Anyway, they looked so hard at a glance.
“Blink. Blink.”
Since I didn’t have any intention of being crushed by these huge rocks, I escaped from that tunnel safely by consecutively using Blink.
Now I faced the huge tunnels again.
I was pacing up and down in front of the remaining two tunnels in the direction of the 6 o’clock and 9 o’clock respectively.
“I have a 50% chance now. If I fail again…”
Of course, it wouldn;t be much of a problem even if I failed, but my pride would be hurt.
I didn’t want to be a man with bad luck. So, I had to worry a little more this time.
I had to choose one of the two tunnels.
Finally, I made a decision before long.
“Okay. Let me go clockwise like I first decided.”
There was a reason why I initially chose to go from the12 o’clock tunnel to the 3 o’clock tunnel.
Clearly, that was clockwise.
This time, if I went straight to the tunnel in the 9 o’clock direction without going through the one in the 6 o’clock position, I felt like I would regret it very much later because I had changed my mind in the middle.
When I took a midterm or final exam in the past, I felt fine if I picked the wrong answer in the first place. But I often got the answer wrong because I changed my mind after choosing the right answer first. I really felt bitter on such occasions at the thought that I had foolishly changed my mind.
So, reflecting on my bitter experiences, I finally decided to go along with my initial decision.
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