◈ 050. [Free Exploration] Hidden Back Alley (2)
I explained my short plan.
The operation is simple. If I deliberately touch the mimic and it swallows me, Damien kills the mimic and saves me.
Seeing me messed up in the process, Evangeline laughs.
Seeing the prince who made a much worse mistake than he did after stepping on oil would ease his embarrassment.
“Aha, I understand.”
Damian immediately nodded.
“Me but… .”
Right after that, Damian tilted his head.
“Why do you want to do this?”
“huh?”
I paused.
“I understand your intentions, but isn’t there any reason why the prince should be ruined?”
“… .”
Why is that?
It’s not like someone ordered me to do it, and it’s not like Evangeline will come under my command just because I’ve suffered and put on a body joke like this.
After thinking for a while, I shrugged my shoulders and answered whatever came to mind.
“Yeah… Making someone laugh while being broken is my specialty!”
My main job is a streamer.
If I can make someone else laugh after being broken and struggling during the broadcast, that’s a good thing. Maybe it’s because I’ve been thinking that way.
“… .”
Damian tilted his head as if he didn’t understand.
Laughing at each other, I tilted my head along with Damian. I don’t know man
***
My body gag operation was a great success.
As soon as I touched the treasure chest, long arms and legs protruded from both sides of the box and grabbed me.
When the box was opened, it was full of sharp teeth.
“Wow! Shivaaaar!”
A long tongue came out of the box and licked my face. I screamed for real, not acting. I hate it!
Mimic’s long tongue stretched out like a frog and tied me tightly.
I was lifted up into the air and slammed right into the Mimic’s mouth… … .
Tukan! Tukan-!
… didn’t lose
Damian pulled the trigger in succession. The first bullet fired landed on the Mimic’s tongue and the second bullet landed on the Mimic’s torso.
Kieeck!
Mimic, who gave out a desperate death, died as it was.
My fallen body was accepted by Damien. Courage!
“Quack!”
“Ahh!”
Of course, Damian is not a physicalist, but a weak sniper.
Unable to withstand the weight of my fall, I had to fall and roll on the floor.
“majesty?!”
“Oh my God! Are you okay?”
After this month, the rest of the party hurriedly came running, but everyone was speechless after seeing me.
“Aigogo, I didn’t know it was a Mimic and I was attacked while opening a treasure chest… what are you Why are you laughing?”
I gritted my teeth at the party members who couldn’t help but laugh.
But not only Jupiter, but also Evangeline and even Lucas couldn’t hold back their laughter.
In particular, unlike the two who laughed openly, Lucas was desperately putting his fists in his mouth to contain his laughter. just laugh… … .
that’s just funny
The Mimic’s tongue is tied round and round on the body, and it is soaked in Mimic’s saliva from head to toe.
It was a look that couldn’t be called the appearance of the imperial family.
Damian took a towel from his bag and handed it to him. I groaned while wiping my hair with a towel.
“What what. these children Dungeons are originally like this! It means making mistakes, being treated badly, and seeing each other’s cheeks. As long as you’re safe, damn it.”
“Yes yes. I will remember this kind of appearance of senior.”
Evangeline giggled and shook her head.
“Really, you are completely different from what I imagined.”
You too, little boy. Even if it’s different from the flawless tanker Evangeline I thought, it’s so different.
‘I’m glad you laughed though.’
As I brushed my wet hair with a towel, I let out a sigh of relief.
Evangeline, if you’re crying, it means I feel guilty. Even thinking of your father, live with a smile like that.
The situation was soon settled, and a standard advanced magic core (R) came out of the Mimic’s mouth.
We decided to take a break to finish collecting items and to reorganize the mess.
Evangeline was collecting items from the remains of the golem while humming a song.
“… .”
After wiping my body with a towel and taking out a water bottle to drink water, I felt a stare on me.
Turning around, it was Damian. I grinned.
“Why Damian? Do you still not understand me?”
“… yes. I don’t know what the prince is thinking.”
Right after that, Damian laughed bashfully.
“But I know you are a good person.”
“… .”
I shyly drank the water bottle. It’s true that I’ve heard good people say that I joked once.
***
We moved on.
The dark alleys of the city were intricately tangled. But there was only one way forward.
All the other alleyways that branched out around the main route ended at dead ends.
Lucas tried to forcibly climb over the high stone wall that blocked the alley, but he
shouted, “Kuh?! Holy shit!”
‘Darkness’ did not tolerate it.
The sticky, jelly-like darkness receded when we pushed the lights, but not when we tried to veer out of the way.
Everything beyond the stone wall was covered in this darkness.
“It looks like you can’t go out of the way. I think we should keep quiet and follow this alley.”
Lucas, who had thrust his arm into the darkness above the stone wall, hurriedly came down and said so. I asked purely out of curiosity.
“Have you ever touched that darkness? How did it feel?”
“Well, if I had to describe it… .”
Lucas described it with a pale face.
“When I was an apprentice knight, I was once swallowed whole by a giant sandworm monster. It was similar to the sensation of being trapped in a monster’s stomach then.”
Evangeline shook her head.
“I have no idea… .”
But somehow I thought I knew. Maybe it’s because it just got wrapped around the Mimic’s tongue.
“It’s sticky, stuffy, stuffy, and that’s it.”
“Exactly, Your Highness! That’s it!”
“It’s okay, let’s move…” … .”
Evangeline’s face went pale. It’s like imagining it.
There were sparsely shabby buildings along the stone wall road.
Most of them were old, rotten shacks that were different from the splendid city seen in the distance.
But I couldn’t even get into this building.
“The door… .”
Damian murmured in front of the first shack.
“The door… It’s blocked.”
All doors and windows are firmly sealed with iron plates and boards.
Lucas tried to tear off the iron plate, but the seal wouldn’t budge.
“It seems to have been treated magically. I can’t open the door with simple force.”
Jupiter said while peering through the closed window.
Damian tilted his head.
“Did you lock the door to protect the house from something outside? What was out there?”
“no. Damian.”
Shaking my head, I pointed my hand at the nail holding the iron plate.
“This seal was made outside.”
“… !”
“It’s blocking what’s inside the house from coming out.”
Damian swallowed his saliva and asked me in a trembling voice.
“Then, in this shack… what is there… … ?”
“well. We don’t need to know now.”
Turning from the shack, I stepped out onto the road that stretched ahead.
“Let’s move on.”
The party members followed me one by one. Damian, who had been looking inside the shack until the end, also ran after him.
***
[Area 2: Hidden Back Alley]
– Clearing progress: Normal room 3/4 Boss room 0/1
– Treasure chest obtained: 4/5
The attack after that was easy.
As soon as the narrow alleyway widened a little, steam golems came out as expected.
However, it was difficult at first, but after learning the strategy, it became an easy opponent.
Evangeline blocks it, Lucas holds it in check, Jupiter takes off his gloves, and Damian snipes.
The creaky teamwork gradually came into play, and in the third encounter four steam golems popped out, but all party members were able to destroy them all without suffering any minor injuries.
‘The obtained item is… … see.’
I opened the bag and inspected it.
Three R-rank magic cores. several magic stones. And bundles of unidentified metal gloves.
The durability of the gloves was superior to that of ordinary iron. I was about to pick up a few to entrust a research request to the forge.
‘It’s not bad, but it’s a bit disappointing.’
The R-class magic core isn’t bad, but it’s a very boring situation for me, who wanted a hotter reward.
‘Let’s look forward to the boss room reward… … .’
In front of me thinking, the alleyway suddenly widened and a small plaza appeared at the end of the alleyway.
‘It’s the next room.’
Preparing for an encounter with a monster, I was very nervous.
The rest of the party members prepared their own battles and cautiously stepped into the square.
There was a dried-up fountain in the middle of the square, and in the middle of the fountain was a statue of someone.
It was a statue of three people standing side by side.
For some reason, the heads of the two statues on the left and right were destroyed, and only the statue of the man in the middle was intact.
The man in the middle looks like the king of the lake kingdom wearing a crown on his head.
‘Why were only the left and right two statues destroyed… … ?’
I have a pointless question, but I go
“Ah!”
Suddenly Damian screamed.
Everyone was frightened and looked at Damian. Damian gestured across the plaza.
“Look over there!”
My eyes widened when I saw where Damian was pointing.
The only light in this city was our torches and lanterns.
But on the other side of the plaza Damian pointed to, another dim light shimmered. That means… … .
“It must be a four person!”
In the midst of everyone’s surprise, I didn’t let go of my tension.
“Let’s approach with caution. Prepare your weapon.”
In a city full of monsters, there is only one thing scarier than monsters.
person.
Because the people you meet in a place like this can’t be normal.
‘Is it an enemy NPC? Or a friendly NPC? Which one?’
I suddenly remembered the hostile NPC ‘Pied Piper’ that appeared in the last stage.
I heard you tried to ruin the stage in an unexpected way.
‘It’s game over in one go! You must never be careless.’
We cautiously approached the light on the other side of the plaza.
As I got closer, the view on the other side was revealed with a dim light.
“… !”
Five or six steam golems were shattered and shattered, and some of them were burning with oil leaking from their bodies.
The light we saw was this.
And a small woman was squatting in front of the fire.
“hmm?”
The woman turned around to see if she heard our approaching footsteps, recognized us and was delighted.
“Oh, aren’t they the lord of the Crossroads?”
“… !”
A hooded woman wearing a worn-out cloak, gray hair, and an old sword.
Recognizing the other person’s true identity, I muttered shyly.
“cotton?”
It was the NPC Anonymous who guided the way into the Lake Kingdom during the last exploration.
Moo-Myeong, who was looking this way, said in a slightly surprised voice.
“You seem to be taking the exploration here quite seriously, right? coming all the way here.”
“What are you doing here, unknown?”
It was a one-sided meal, but I wasn’t vigilant.
This guy is an NPC I’ve never met in the last 742 raids. There is no way to know whether they are hostile or friendly.
I don’t think I’m an enemy since he gave me directions. However, there is no guarantee that it will be on our side.
“I was resting for a while. Living here in the Lake Kingdom is tiring.”
Muttered Nameless turned to us.
“Anyway, if you’ve come this far… … Acknowledging you guys, I have to bring out ‘this’ too.”
Anonymous put his hand inside the old cloak.
My party members and I flinched at once. I was nervous that I might bring out something by heart.
Right after that, Moo-myeong took it out of his bosom and laid it on the floor, boom
!
… It was a seat.
Afterwards, Moo-myeong began to place items one by one on the stall.
The party members, including me, didn’t understand what the situation was, so they just looked at the unknown.
Soon after, Moo-myeong took out a display of items, spread his arms, and said a word indifferently.
“How about buying something while you’re here?”
“… .”
“I sell my quality products at a low price.”
I was so dumbfounded that I was staring blankly at such an unknown, and then I shouted.
“Could it be the Merchant NPC, you guys?!”
“NPC? I don’t know what that is, but the merchant is right.”
Anonymous nodded happily and added.
“One plus one event is in progress.”
“… .”
“There’s even a 30% first-time purchase bonus and double discount.”
“… .”
“What are you doing. Aren’t you going to live? Are you going to stand at a distance and just watch this super-special opportunity? There aren’t many major bleeding services like this.”
I let out a dejected laugh, squatted down in front of an anonymous seat, and lowered my voice to ask.
“So what are you selling?”
