Chapter 129: Mountain Heart Flower
Two days passed as Kayn and the others traveled through the ocean to get to the Mountain Monkey's Lair.
The Mountain Monkey's Lair is located on Monkey Mountain which is considerably far from the Sea Spring Village. Jude already mentioned it the previous time, and that was one of the main reasons why barely anyone bothered to bid on the map during the auction.
Although Monkey Mountain is far, it is fortunately located near the coastal coast. So, traveling through the ocean is the best idea.
"As if there was any better idea, to begin with," Jude mutters.
Friedrich shook his head. "The entrance to the Monkey Mountain is on top of the mountain. It basically looks like a volcano,"
"Is it not a volcano?" Gilbert felt confused as he stares at Monkey Mountain.
At the moment, they have already arrived at the shore closest to Monkey Mountain. The mountain is literally just a few hundred meters in front of them, towering over them.
"It is not," Natasha muttered.
"It seems like it to me,"
Kayn also agrees with Gilbert. The form of Monkey Mountain is like a perfect upside-down cone and with the addition of a hole on top, it now looks very identical to volcanos. Regardless, it is just a mountain, not a volcano. The reason why the entrance is on the top is simply that the Mountain Monkeys purposely made it that way so that it would be difficult for anyone preying on them to reach their nest.
The Monkey Mountain is tall and huge, so anyone that arrives in their nest would be extremely tired and exhausted to fight against them. In the end, those supposedly predators or hunters become their prey instead.
That's what they are arguing about right now.
"There's no better place to set up camp other than the inside of Monkey Mountain. It might be the most dangerous, but it can also serve as the safest choice for us," Jude explains.
"I suggest that we set up camp once we are halfway to the top," Friedrich still disagrees with Jude. What the latter is proposing is a gamble as there's no certainty whether they can really achieve it or not.
"You set up over here," Jude pointed at the halfway point of a rough sketch of the Monkey Mountain that Cedric drew. "Then we make our way up to the top to begin our raid. Naturally, we won't be able to finish the raid in a single day despite our numbers. So, will have to find a place to rest. The problem is, we have to get out of the Mountain Monkey's Lair once again and travel a few hundred meters down before we could reach our camp,"
"We are already exhausted and tired during the raid, and yet you still expect us to travel that long? We'd be completely out of energy and stamina once we get to camp, and because of that we'd most likely have to use a day to get ourselves well rested,"
"Fair enough," Friedrich agrees.
"We should probably think of a way to combine the two ideas," Chastine, a Priest and also the leader of the second squad which Natasha and Jackson are a part of, proposes.
"I agree with you boss," Carter, their squad's Guardian, nodded his head.
"How?" Cyril, their Mage, muttered with a helpless look on his face.
Chastine, Carter, Cyril, Natasha, and Jackson make up the entirety of the second squad of the Green Horn Knights.
Finally having enough of their argument, Kayn stood up between Jude and Friedrich. "We could just rest halfway to the top and continue once we are rested enough so that we won't be exhausted when we fight against them at the top. As for where we should set up our camp, we set it up exactly at where we stop,"
"In here?" Jude and Friedrich asked at the same time.
"According to the map, there are three floors in the Mountain Monkey's Lair. If we finish clearing the first floor today, then we make the camp on the first floor, and so on and so forth. You're wasting a lot of time with all these arguments. Pack all of your things, finish what you have to do, and we will start the journey!"
He chose to remain quiet all this time because he was studying the map of the Mountain Monkey's Lair. Of course, he wasn't trying to memorize everything, he simply wants to get the general layout of the inside.
With that being said, everyone quickly finished panicking everything.
Meanwhile, Jude reminded the Guardian Turtle to stay hidden and keep himself safe from any danger and harm.
Once that was all done, they immediately began the journey to reach the entrance of the Mountain Monkey's Lair.
The journey to the top of Monkey Mountain was bound with a lot of difficulties.
Even though the members of the Green Horn Knights are powerful individuals, they still face a lot of challenges in fighting against a swarm of Mountain Monkeys that found them as they make their way up to their nest.
They continuously fought their way to reach the halfway mark to the top before finally having the chance to rest.
Roughly an hour later, they continued with their journey to reach the top.
Finally, after a long-fought battle, they reached the entrance of the Mountain Monkey's Lair.
Kayn sat in a corner and started cleaning his sword and daggers as the others started talking about all the events that took place along the way.
Jude sighs. "That was so tiring!"
"Are we also going to face something like that inside?" Gilbert cried out.
Cedric replied. "Definitely,"
Cyril added. "Even worst,"
"Come on, cheer up everyone! At least some of you have earned plenty of experiences from all of that, right?" Friedrich tried to liven up the atmosphere.
Friedrich's plan seems to have worked as everyone soon started talking about their status window and other topics related to such matters.
Seeing that, Friedrich and Chastine approach Kayn.
"What's the next plan?" Friedrich asked.
"We'll follow your lead from now on… at least temporarily," Chastine added.
"My plan is to actually just let the two of your take charge of the entire raid. So —" Kayn stood up and immediately patted both Friedrich and Chastine's shoulders, "Good luck!"
Friedrich and Chastine were rendered surprised and disbelieving at Kayn's response. They both turn to look at the latter, but his back simply got farther and farther away.
It's quite evident now that Kayn is not interested in leading the raid. Honestly, it is better this way.
Friedrich and Chastine stares at each other and nodded as they made a tacit understanding of what to do next.
The assumption of the duo was on point. Kayn truly wasn't interested in becoming the raid leader of this raid.
His mind is currently preoccupied with something else, the next item he needed to get — the Mountain Heart Flower.
The name Mountain Heart Flower doesn't literally mean the heart of the mountain. It's just a term used to describe a flower that pumps out earth element mana which enriches the soil, rock, and other earth-related elements nearby. Its form though is a flower with a shape of a heart, and its entire body seems to be a rocky and soil flower that has been petrified by Medusa's eyes.
According to the map of the Mountain Monkey's Lair, the Mountain Heart Flower is most likely located on the third floor, which is the bottom floor.
He already expected it though because that's always has been the case with almost every single Monster Lairs; the best and most important item is found on the last floor. It's very similar to the logic and rules behind computer games.
In that case, the Mountain Heart Flower should most probably be protected by the boss monster of the Mountain Monkey's Lair, the Mountain Gorilla.
The Mountain Gorilla is just like the Flame Gorilla he had fought against in the past. Instead of fire, its Gift is related to earth. Hence, he is expecting it to be a defensive monster.
However, defeating the Mountain Gorilla isn't his goal. As long as he could steal the Mountain Heart Flower, they could immediately leave the Mountain Monkey's Lair.
That's the main reason why he doesn't want to be the raid leader, it's so that he can focus on sneaking past the Mountain Gorilla and get the Mountain Heart Flower. If he is the raid leader, he'd have to constantly monitor the fight, suggest battle strategies, and make sure that they can defeat the Mountain Gorilla.
However, the name Mountain Gorilla is leagues above the Flame Gorilla. Just the title 'Mountain' and 'Flame' alone already have nothing comparable with each other. The word 'Flame' only describes what element the Gorilla is, while the word 'Mountain' implies the Gorilla's toughness, resilience, and strength. In other words, the Mountain Gorilla is a very powerful boss.
Unlike the last time at the Hanging Vines Cave, Kayn entered the Mountain Monkey's Lair first to scout out the area personally and find out if ever something has changed from the map.
Meanwhile, Friedrich and Chastine are currently discussing and coming up with numerous battle strategies with Jude, Charles, Gilbert, Cedric, Roshan, Kimberly, Natasha, Jackson, Cyril, and Carter on how they should deal with the first floor of the Mountain Monkey's Lair.
They are already expecting the battle to turn out exactly like what they have just experienced along the way — a zerg attack. So, they are putting more emphasis on AOE and defense.
This content is taken from (f)reewe(b)novel.𝗰𝗼𝐦