Chapter 38 (1/2)

Chapter 38: Let’s Charge in!

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The Flamingo Band of Mercenaries had given in to Link, and once the Archer Gildern came to, they would be on the move at once.

Jacker had previously done some investigating for the mission, and their destination was the north-western part of the Girventh forest called the Cove of Echoes.

As they journeyed, Jacker briefed Link on the situation they’d be facing from the intel he gathered.

“Dark Brotherhood members will be guarding the cove entrance, patrolling the surrounding hundred yards. There’s a cave in there, which, according to the information we gathered, is Viktor’s usual hideout spot. Several bodyguards surround him inside the cave, each of them an elite member of the Brotherhood, highly skilled in combat.”

“Do you guys know how many people we’ll be facing?” Link asked.

“There should be at least 60 patrolling the cove. I’m not certain about the bodyguards inside the cave, but there shouldn’t be less than 30 of them,” Jacker explained, “We’re only four people, so storming straight into the lion’s den might be a bad idea. Our original plan was to keep watch at the cove mouth. Viktor is the leader of the Dark Brotherhood; people like that can’t just hide in a cave forever. He must come out eventually, and when that happens, we’ll ambush and kill him.”

“Except we’ve been lying in wait for a fortnight and we haven’t seen his shadow once.” Gildern’s hands were held out, his face a picture of dejection.

Link felt he was still left in the dark about some key things, so he asked the most eloquent one out of the three, Lucy, “What exactly is the story here?”

So Lucy explained every detail from the beginning to the end, and now things started to make sense to Link.

As it turned out, the Flamingo Band of Mercenaries had originated from the North, but ever since the Dark Elfs attacked the city of Gladstone, Jacker, who was the leader, felt it wouldn’t be safe to stay there. There was a very high possibility that they would encounter the Dark Elf army, and those bloodthirsty creatures had never shown any sympathy towards humans before. They’d kill you the moment they saw you, no questions asked.

As things stood, they’d be sticking their necks out tempting fate if they stayed there, so they moved south.

Just 20 days’ prior, the three reached Girventh Forest. They then later received a mission from the River Cove Town Hall. Afterwards, they nosed around for a bit and gathered roughly enough information and decided to keep watch at the Cove of Echoes.

But in the end, the ambush was a fruitless effort. For two weeks, they hadn’t seen a single trace of Viktor.

Link tapped his forehead lightly with the tip of his wand. He thought deeply for a while, and not long after he came out with an idea. “It’s impossible for Viktor to hide in the cave all the time. Since you’ve never seen him come out, it’s possible that he’s not inside the cave in the first place. Either that, or there’s another passage out of the cave.”

“Impossible. He’s definitely in there, that’s his old lair! All of the Brotherhood members we’ve caught said so,” Jacker cried.

“That leaves the second option, then,” Link tugged at his hands, “I have heard that cunning rabbits would dig many exits from its burrow. Viktor himself is a death-fearing cunning man, I’m sure he would never trap himself in the middle of the cove. If my guess isn’t wrong, the other exit must be inside the cave.”

As a matter of fact, in the game, there was a cave in the Cove of Echoes which was a duplicate, called The Silent Mine. The passages in the cave were a complex mix of many dead ends, like a maze. There were at least three different exits. Many players who entered the duplicate for the first time would get lost, wandering in there for half a day and they would still find no trace of Viktor.

And precisely because of that, the duplicate was commonly called the Silent Maze.

Now that this is a real world, the condition of the cave could only be worse.

What Link said made a lot of sense to the mercenaries, and they were all convinced. Lucy knitted her brows and said, “Then the secret exit must be Viktor’s most important safeguard, only the most important members of the brotherhood would know about it. There’s no way we could ever find it.”

“That damned turtle, that cowardly mouse!” Gildern shook the arrows in his hands with fury. He thought of the wasted fortnight when they were waiting at the cove mouth like idiots, braving rain and cold for nothing, and that enraged him even more.

Jacker turned to Link. “Do you have any ideas?”

Jacker had gradually come to respect Link, firstly because of his power, and secondly because of his brains.

Link had long had an answer in mind, laughingly he said, “Let’s charge in.”

As he finished his words, the three mercenaries stood gaping. Jacker furrowed his brows. Gildern’s face wore a baffled expression, if he hadn’t learned his lessons earlier, he would’ve shot out a barrage of insults. But Lucy had a wry smile on her face. “Link, there are only four of us, they outnumber us thirty times over.”

Link merely laughed at this and didn’t reply. He was thinking of ways to spend his Omni Points.

He currently had 105 Omni Points.

According to the rules of Omni Point exchange, one Omni Point could be traded for 10 Maximum Mana points, but now that his magic was in a weakened state, the effect would be cut down by 90%. One Omni point exchanging with one Maximum Mana point might seem small, but he did have a decent amount of Omni Points after all.

After thinking about it, Link decided to exchange 75 Omni Points with Maximum Mana points, so now his maximum Mana limit was 99.1. He also brought along with him a bottle of low-level Mana potion that could quickly increase his Mana by 100 points. With one bottle, he could fully replenish his Mana, which meant that he had 198 expendable Mana points today.

One of his Glass Bead spells would use up one Mana point. As a result, he could cast 198 Glass Beads, plus he had three helpers, and one Glass Bead per one of the ruffians wasn’t a problem. He could also complement his attacks with other spells and combat tactics so storming into the cave was, in fact, not an impossible task.