Chapter 134: Cross-Dressing Girl 4
TL/Editor: Raei
Schedule: 5/Week Wed-Sun
Illustrations: Posted in discord.
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Charlotte Cavendish is of noble descent.
Born into a noble family, she's been educated with culture and knowledge.
It's only natural for her to recognize the daughter of a Duke.
As Han Se-ah listens to her viewers and tunes into Kim Seok-hyun's stream, Charlotte, with a more serious expression, leans in and begins to whisper to me.
Naturally, the topic is about Katie Wesley, the daughter of the Northern Duke and the so-called 'Sword Princess' of the North.
"There were such rumors in the Capital's social circles,"
She murmured.
"What were they?"
"The Northern Duke has two daughters. The elder one serves as a knight, but the younger one vanished after her coming-of-age ceremony. She was cursed, or her exceptionally talented elder sister, got rid of her."
"That's not the case at all."
Charlotte's gaze shifted back to Katie, who stood in front of the inactive knight golem, looking disappointed.
Fidgeting with her long silver hair, she seems distressed recalling her broken artifact.
There was a certain softness in Charlotte's eyes as she observed Katie.
Despite Katie's mature and graceful appearance, her inner self was still of a naive and innocent girl.
Perhaps Charlotte's socially honed instincts picked up on that.
"It seems so. Can you tell me what's going on?"
"When we leave the tower, I'll explain everything. With her permission of course. For now, how about checking the golem repair station? I'm not one to blabber about a noble lady's personal matters."
"Even when it's so blatantly obvious?"
"...It involves the Northern Duke too."
Charlotte frowned as if she'd imagined a grave scenario.
The truth was, the naive daughter had stolen a treasure from her family and run away.
The doting Northern Duke just wanted to see her and bring her home.
But I couldn't possibly spill that out.
For Katie's sake, or perhaps for the honor of the North.
Especially since I didn't want to sour my unexpected relationship with the newly introduced Northern Duke.
"Alright,"
Charlotte sighed,
"If you say it's that serious, there must be some reason."
"Thanks for understanding."
Although she misconstrued my reason as serious when it was merely embarrassing, Charlotte, with her maid, Mari, entered the hangar.
Their focus now was on the pipes, mana tanks, and other facilities, making Maris rogue skills quite handy.
Feeling no need to follow them into the cluttered area filled with mechanical arms, I wondered if there were other panels in the hangar.
Just then, I noticed Han Se-ah, nodding vigorously at thin air.
Seeing Grace and Irene pass by without any particular reaction, it seems that Han Se-ah is having a one-on-one chat with the streamer, Kim Seok-hyun.
"Ah, Seok-hyun, thank you so much. Uhmm, I couldn't read the updated quest window properly because the worm snuck up on you... Could you possibly show me the quest details...?"
Kim Seok-hyun was also streaming in real-time and seemed to readily share his quest details.
A glance at Han Se-ah's stream showed the camera focusing on some dark-skinned men, not Grace and Irene.
From their conversation, it appears Kim Seok-hyun isn't as lucky despite his skills.
Or maybe not, given he has acquired one more 4 ally, making it a total of four.
Kim Seok-hyun's story unfolded as follows:
Unlike Han Se-ah, he didn't have a senior adventurer like me, Roland, to guide and pace him in combat training.
Moreover, all his allies were at the 4 level, having basic adventuring experience.
Hence, without spending time getting accustomed to the caves like Han Se-ah, he just kept advancing.
He barely farmed golem mana stones in his rush to catch up to Han Se-ah, reaching the 30th floor.
Just ten minutes after entering the 30th floor, his quest window updated.
As he momentarily paused to read the updated quest window
['HamburgerSteakLoverKimSeokHyun' donated 10,000 won!]
[Stream turning dark as Kim Seok-hyun is hit by a Giant Worm.GIF]
He was ambushed by the Giant Worm while reading his quest log.
-The moment his quest updated, he died instantly. Is this a good or a bad thing?
-Considering the glitches in Han Se-ah's quest, it might be better this way.
-LOL, Han Se-ahs 500,000 won dono seems small now.
-Just from that one clip, donations surged into millions. Totally worth it, LOL.
-Even without Han Se-ah's donation, this blew up big.
Kwaang!
The charge of the giant worm, which should be blocked while riding the knight-type golem, wasn't something a tank player could handle.
A video clip played, showing Kim Seok-hyun being abruptly killed while reading the quest log, then resetting to the morning save point.
However, the morning reset only wiped the memories of NPCs, not the player's quest logs.
[The Blind Serpents living in the caves don't leave such traces, what could this be?]
[Adventurers say that although they were sure it passed by, it charged from a different direction.]
[Its movements seem like its desperately searching for something...?]
Combining the insights from the viewers, Han Se-ah, and Kim Seok-hyun, they arrived at a conclusion.
"Hey, are there multiple Giant Worms? Is that why there are four golems? This is driving me nuts!"
-So we're not luring and killing it but looking for its nest maybe?
-Cave + Maze + Desert setting? Seems we'll have to search the entire 30th floor. Damn it.
-I'm only on the 20th floor, but after watching the stream, I just want to build a hut in the woods and live there.
-Lol, thought I'd lose all my points, but this changes things, right?
[Chat deleted by mod]
Fortunately for the viewers who bet their points, the Giant Worm wasn't the boss monster.
And then, Charlotte approached the momentarily stunned Han Se-ah to share what she had discovered.
I think I know where the Giant Worm's body went.
"Really, Charlotte?"
"Did you notice the dense presence of magic circuits on the walls and floor?
Ah, yes... magic circuits.
Unlike Han Se-ah, who merely pretends to move mana with her staff by canceling skills, Charlotte Cavendish is one of the researchers from the Magic Tower.
Perhaps intrigued by this place, she starts explaining with sparkling eyes.
Despite Han Se-ah clearly being unfamiliar with magic circuits, Charlotte continues her explanation undeterred.
This place can be considered a kind of furnace or perhaps an incinerator. To put it another way, it's a facility for refining mana. It wasnt merely built for the operation of those massive golems."
But somehow, even after listening to the explanation, it feels complex and dizzying, doesnt it?
Not sure if it's just me being slow, but the others in our group also looked at Charlotte with eyes filled with questions.
Fortunately, there were no deserts appearing on the 30th floor.
The Giant Worms, which couldn't burrow, were initially monsters that roamed the labyrinth.
If you had to categorize them, you might call them a sub-species or a variant of the Giant Worm.
In other words, the Giant Worm was a monster that came over with the Golems, not from a desert.
Charlotte figured out where their bodies went, although the reason why the corpse stayed remained unknown.
"So, you're saying this place is a factory that converts monster corpses into liquid mana? The Giant Worm corpse we left behind was transformed and absorbed into mana?"
-Charlotte seems to be right. If you look again, it looks fuller than yesterday.
-If you check the monitor, the bar has increased slightly, from one-fifth to a quarter.
-And now, even the corpses are getting snatched up by Han Se-ah...
-So, who's the boss monster?
The antagonistic relationship between the Giant Worm and the Knight-type Golem seemed to have existed even before they came to our world.
It's possible that the Golden Golem had been fighting against such an opponent.
I now understand why, instead of attacking me, the Giant Worm recklessly charged at the Knight-type Golem.
The Golem, which used the bodies of its kin as fuel, would have been recognized by the Worm's keen senses, unique to large species.
Thanks to Charlotte's repeated and patient explanations, Han Se-ah, who finally got a grasp of the situation, lists the quest details on her fingers.
"So after arriving on the 30th floor, being chased by a Giant Worm, receiving a hint about the Worm, discovering a Knight-type Golem, hunting one Worm, and based on the previous hint, using the Worm to repair the other Golems was the sequence of events?"
-So you completed step 1 then jumped to step 4.
-There were no logs for steps 2 and 3, that's why it's confusing.
[Chat deleted by mod]
-So, are you saying we use the four Mechas to take down the boss?
-So we're hunting with just one Knight-type Golem? Feels like we still have some steps missed.
"For now, should I ask Roland to lure all the Giant Worms, to fill the mana tank? ...But how should I explain this to the girls? If I hint that I have an idea based on Charlotte's words, they'll probably understand, right?"
However, even with all this figured out, there remained an issue.
We knew that the Giant Worm was essentially battery material for the Knight-type Golem, but we still had no clue about the true boss monster.
Han Se-ah looks at me with a slightly anxious expression.
I stifle a laugh at someone making a joke about bio-energy with the Giant Worm.
As our eyes meet, she gives an awkward smile.
Since the quest got twisted, it seems the job of luring the remaining Giant Worms will fall to me.
But wait, if this facility melts things and 'absorbs' its power...
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