NOVEL SIMPLE TL/Editor: raei
Schedule: 5/week
Illustrations: Posted in discord
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I wasn't sure if the saying "An incompetent shaman kills people" was appropriate to use here, but it felt like it matched the current situation perfectly.
The squishy creatures that had likely devoured all the maids and slaves of the imperial palace had grown so large they even developed a semblance of intelligence, which ironically made them easier to deal with.
How should I put it... Like trying to input pattern A.I. into a simple, brute-force monster, only for it to turn into a scarecrow due to errors?
"Roland! These bastards are tangling with each other!"
"Cover that harpy! I'll handle these guys!"
The ones we'd encountered so far focused solely on the rocks in front of them. They'd only charge at us if they thought we were interrupting their meal.
But the massive creatures filling the hall now clearly showed signs of prioritizing. They ignored the flying nuisance of a harpy and the huge altar in the center, instead fixating on my armor, stretching their tentacles greedily.
So the monsters had perfectly aggroed on the tank without me even using a taunt. What's more, their hint of intelligence made them view their own kind as competition, leaving them tangled up with each other. It was hard to believe this result came from just a single piece of armor.
"I was nervous because they're bigger, but this is nothing!"
"Still, be careful. Those tentacles seem surprisingly elastic."
"Yes! That's right! Well done, humans, urgh!"
On the opposite side of the hall, a few tentacles still chased the unidentified harpy, but most were crawling towards me. This naturally created openings for Grace and Katie to gleefully slice through the tentacles.
Ice-tipped arrows pierced the tentacles stretching skyward after the harpy, while a pale blue aura cleanly severed the thick tentacles tangled amongst themselves.
Meanwhile, the ones crawling towards me died in clumps under my hammer.
As the monsters that had devoured all the harpies in the hall were carved up like pudding on a dinner table, the mysterious harpy once again cheered before landing near me, where it was now safe.
"Phew, excellent! As promised, I shall personally bestow rewards upon you... huh?"
"Walking right into our hands."
I grabbed the nape of the still-clueless, chattering creature. Its eyes widened, unable to process the reality of the situation.
Do humans have a custom of grabbing napes...?
As it denied reality, I grasped its nape like catching a cat and gently folded its wings to capture it. Its face turned bright red. At least it wasn't a completely clueless young lady, as it became docile.
It had just witnessed one of the large squishy creatures get pulverized by my hammer, flattened against the floor like gum on asphalt. It had no choice but to behave, even if it didn't want to.
"H-human? I know not why you've seized me, but release me. Did I not say I would personally reward you?"
"Hey, what the hell is that altar?"
"Ah, was that what you were curious about?"
Had it realized that if it sassed me, its neck would snap like a chicken caught by a countryside grandma?
The creature that had been so noisy while flying was now quiet in my grasp.
I approached the altar, passing by the mana stones scattered in the corridor. It stammered an explanation, clearly trying to gauge my mood.
Unlike typical harpies with their strange way of speaking, this one spoke normally - likely due to its high position in the imperial palace.
With the pretty older sister character now forcibly cooperating after being captured, viewers once again began chattering away.
-Is this one a harpy kiddo too? At least it seems to have some sense, quieting down like that
-If a muscular old man over 180cm tall approached me with a blood-covered tonkatsu hammer, I'm confident I'd quietly piss myself too
-Blood-covered tonkatsu hammer LOLOLOLOLOLOL
-Watching him catch it is like seeing someone catch a parrot to take it to the vet lol
"Ugh, that altar is a device created to seal away the cursed underground monsters that were just in the hall. It was made by the first emperor who founded this empire, for the sake of the people."
"Don't tell me monsters were sealed under the imperial palace?"
"How did you know!? Ah, no. I suppose you could tell just by looking at the current state of things...."
And so, the story flowed smoothly from the docile harpy caught by its nape, perfectly explaining the current situation. Without any intention to deceive or escape, it naturally updated Han Se-ah's quest log.
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Raei Translations
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What the viewers and our party members were most curious about - the identity of the harpy in my grasp... turned out to be an answer beyond imagination: a harpy imperial princess.
Of course, not the first in line, but the fourth, a bit removed from the line of succession.
"When the altar breaks, those creatures crawl up. I suppose the altars you humans destroyed while conquering the city became the problem." freewёbnoνel.com
"We didn't particularly destroy... did we?"
"If there were altars enshrining harpies left in the temples, I imagine our brothers would have investigated and then removed them, right?"
And so the story of the 50th floor flowed from the mouth of this fourth imperial princess harpy.
Apparently, the first empress who founded the Harpy Empire was a genius who could use attribute-imbued aura. Just as Katie could use ice-attribute magic, the first harpy empress could use lightning-attribute magic.
A lightning-attribute spear that inflicts severe stun on hit. Probably even better than ice attributes for dealing with flying harpies.
This harpy, who unified the tribes and became empress with her lightning abilities, faced a great enemy: the wigglers and squishy creatures crawling out from under the mountains. As the empire developed beyond a kingdom, they began using rare minerals imbued with mana, which lured these creatures to the surface.
"So for the peace of the empire, the first empress blocked the largest hole they were crawling out of, then established her seat there."
"And that's when the altar was made?"
"She had the stone dwarf slaves build the palace, and brought in alien race shamans from under the mountains to make the altar, they say."
Setting aside the casual mention of slavery, with the added explanation and Han Se-ah's quest log, we could now understand the mechanism of the 50th floor.
The boss the player faces changes based on how many altars they destroyed on their way to the 50th floor. The more altars destroyed, the more powerful the underground boss monster that crawls up and wreaks havoc.
If all the altars seen on the way were smashed, the harpy empress would end up caught and devoured by the tentacle monster, and the player would hunt the tentacle monster alongside the harpy remnants in the collapsed palace.
Conversely, if the altars were preserved by asking the temples, the player would arrive to hunt the harpy empress after she defeated the tentacle monster.
But here, as always, Han Se-ah's unique problem arose:
"...Did we come up too quickly again this time?"
The semi-forced speed run due to my specs.
"Looks like if all the altars are destroyed, the tentacle monster becomes the boss, and if they're not destroyed, the harpy empress is the boss? Destroying just the right amount could aim for both. The problem is we came too early, so both bosses' HP bars are likely still intact for us to play both sides."
-If they'd leisurely conquered the city, they'd be around the 47th floor by now, right?
-47th floor my ass, at the rate they were going with the 45th floor boss, they'd just now be at the mid-boss
-Without 6543★, they'd probably still be wandering around looking for altars going "What's this?"
-A gimmick where you have to wait for the boss to die naturally? Isn't that a gimmick Han Se-ah absolutely can't do?
-Wasn't the harpy's appearance timing way too fast from the start?
We don't have anything to compare it to, so who knows? Han Se-ah's game progression is too fast.
The 2nd place streamer, who can hardly be called a follower anymore - that sword talent Kim whatever - seems to have just entered the high-altitude area.
So, Han Se-ah, who has not only the hero but also the holy sword's owner in the party receiving full support from the temples, has outstanding abilities with no obstacles in conquering, and doesn't stay on the same floor for months for money-making and leveling, is an abnormal player in the tower just by breathing.
A harpy boss that flies around throwing lightning-attribute spears from afar, and a tentacle boss that relies on various attribute resistances and its massive body to push forward - in a normal progression, you'd face one of these, aiming to take advantage of their weakened state.
But the idiom about killing two birds with one stone comes from a fisherman effortlessly picking up both a clam that bit a plover's beak. Han Se-ah is the fisherman who rudely barged in while the clam and plover were just staring at each other, not biting.
"But if we back off now, the knight commander will steal the last hit... I guess we have to go in the end?"
Well then, what else can we do but roll up our sleeves and run hard to catch them both as fishermen?
Of course, I'll be the one running hard.