Mithril Angel
Translations and Edits; Jzar, Enlightened End
“Within a couple of days, I think we’ll locate him.”
“That ‘couple of days’ has already been three weeks.”
“We’ve narrowed the potential areas, so this time for sure.”
Drinfeld’s tracking team, made up of high-level Thieves and Assassins, ended up desperately trying to restore confidence. Having to follow behind Weed and trying to follow the trail he left behind had also used up a lot of patience.
In spite of all that, having made it to Jigolaths the backup Assassins and Thieves had proven themselves to be very skilled users.
They had changed their search method, the eight Assassins and the four Thieves each split up to search separate areas and any information obtained through this process was noted on a single shared map.
As a result, a lot of information on the underground dungeons of Jigolaths was obtained, nearly 23% of the entire map was ruled out. 23% is nothing to scoff at as they were then able to exclude passageways and dungeon areas that they were certain Weed wouldn’t go.
This gave them real information about Weed in terms of insight of locations and likely directions, they were getting close.
“Four days, even if we hit an unusually variable it would still mean no longer than six days at the outside.”
There was a lot of talk from the Assassin’s and Thieves who believe this was their big chance since they narrowed the range of where Weed could be. Hermes Guild’s combat troops and Griffith’s pirates were hunting in a nearby dungeon, they were fully prepared to mobilize at a moments notice.
Seo Yoon was also aware of the trackers who were chasing them, including the Thieves and the Assassins.
Excluding KMC Media, the other broadcasting companies used some troop videos to look around Jigolaths via the Hermes Guild.
On the Internet, they were already looking forward to seeing the 2nd showdown between that Weed and the Hermes Guild. In the broadcast, Drinfeld didn’t even try to hide that fact that they were chasing him. He also had the entire area around Jigolaths blocked by the Hermes Navy and Griffith’s Pirate ships.
Even if Weed went deeper into hiding it was only a matter of time until they’re found. Especially since the greed for a splendid victory through combat is relentless.
Fox hunting or rabbit coursing, those are the two styles of tracking they use. In a fox hunt, they use hounds breed for tracking by scent. For rabbit coursing, they use greyhounds, breed for keen eyesight and speed. Hunting by sight or by scent.
“We seem to be finding a lot of tracks mostly because they want us to find these tracks.”
Seo Yoon, who Weed had guarding the entrance to the Helium mine, moved to a new location.
The trail left by Seo Yoon was designed to mislead the Assassins and Thieves, yet with their skills they quickly grasp the correct trail by noticing that it was now just a single track.
‘I need to reduce the enemy.’
Seo Yoon had work to do.
If it were just the Knights, she would’ve lead them into monster lairs. This method didn’t work on thieves or Assassins. Seo Yoon deliberately used her single track to lure them to her.
“She went that way.”
“I just found this…fresh prints…hurry.”
With the presence of fresh tracks the pursuit speed up. The Assassins and Knights were disbursed to the various teams to help protect them…yet it wasn’t enough.
“I’m sorry.”
Seo Yoon unsheathed her sword and waited for them.
“It’s the enemy!”
With no real armor to slow them down the Assassins got ahead of the other team members. Running into the new section of dungeon they saw a figure standing in the shadows. Without hesitation they threw daggers.
Chou! Chou! Syuk!
The thrown weapons flew cutting through the gloom!
The three Assassins never thought to see a thrown knife struck down or avoided. These Assassin weapons, coated with highly toxic paralysis poison, were very difficult to deal with.
Seo Yoon ran forwards at full power. The thrown daggers brushing by her body.
One of the strong points about Berserker’s was their high resistance to critical hits. Even when struck they won’t easily fall into confusion.
When a Berserker’s health decreases, their attack increases, becoming more powerful while mana consumption drops. Entering a Berserker state also increases their resistance to poison.
Seo Yoon just swung her sword in a wide and deadly arc.
“Keuheok!”
Backpedaling quickly, the Assassin’s still couldn’t avoid the wide ranged attack. Fast as they are, it was not enough to avoid getting hit from Seo Yoon’s head on attack.
“How dare you!”
“We’ll cut you down.”
The Naval Knights arrived and hurriedly drew their swords, Seo Yoon, facing the other way didn’t see this.
Seo Yoon continued to wield her sword at the Assassins in front of her. She wielded a continuous attack designed to neutralize the enemy’s resistance and beat down their defense.
“Is this it….?”
“What… the…!“
“Why do I always end up in fights like this…”
These were the hand picked, high level Naval Knights of the Hermes Guild.
Before the Assassins could take advantage of their appearance, heavy blows cut into their vital organs from another wide ranged attack, leaving them cut down and dying.
Occupied with her attack, Seo Yoon didn’t discover the new combatants for almost 10 seconds.
The Knights rushed forward swinging their swords in a group attack on Seo Yoon. As the armored Knights attacks struck Seo Yoon, her armor absorbed the blows but her vitality started to drop.
The longer a fight like this went on the more dangerous the dropping vitality would become for a Berserker.
Still, Seo Yoon didn’t care about hunting safely.
She had died many times while hunting monsters in her early days in Royal Road. One of the reasons her class was so rare was the fact that you couldn’t advance the Berserker class unless you were willing to die…many times.
Seo Yoon’s counter-attacks overwhelmed the Navy Knights killing two of them. The last remaining Knight began to hurl curses after seeing his comrades downed.
“What a foul and vicious bitch you are…….”
Having been called every foul name possible, Seo Yoon looked up at him. In the past Weed had given her a mask to wear, she hasn’t worn it for a really long time.
“My god!”
For as long as he had lived even the TV celebrity beauties, though he had never met them face to face, didn’t even come half way.
She was beautiful without compare.
It seemed like pure pleasure to just share the same air and be under the same sky with such beauty!
As Seo Yoon delivered her last attack the Naval Knight thought he would be able to die happy.
‘Why did he stand so still as he died?’
Seo Yoon didn’t understand, she couldn’t stay to figure it out, she had to move on to another place.
“I’m……sorry “
Another Assassin was still following her track, they would only be delayed by a few minutes.
Seo Yoon still had work to do.
*****
Klang! Klang! Klang! Klang! Klang! Klang!
Weed had slowly yet steadily been gaining more skill with the very heavy Mithril-Iron pickaxe.
Currently for each strike, his pickaxe would now unearth more material and dig a much deeper trench with each overhead swing. His skills had also been extended so he could now also use a side to side mining strike.
To preserve his strength he took off his armor and sword wearing only light and simple clothes. Mining is not a pleasant task deep underground and these light clothes soon became weighed down with black dirt and mud.
‘I’ll just change later.’
For every strike his muscles would bulge up with tension as if they would burst at any second. Every trick, idea and available skill was getting used in his all out effort to find Helium.
He even summoned Dirtman for help, but as he searched through the rock, the only result Dirtman could show was a puzzled expression on his face for his failure. He tried blinking his eyes in a cute way at Weed.
“Your completely useless.”
Helium was either buried too deep or it was protected with divine magic. Some kind of blocking had to be in place since even the earth spirit was unable to find it.
In the end , Weed made the most progress by just working his body hard.
Ting!
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