The Last Adventurer

Chapter 146 – Cold Plains (2)

3.

What do adventurers need most?

A question that seems likely to have many answers.

However, when asked this question, the answers of veteran adventurers were similar.

“It’s the market.”

Nothing is more important than the market.

“Because adventures cost money.”

That’s understandable, because the most important thing to an adventurer is money.

Money wasn’t everything.

But without money, it was virtually impossible to have a proper adventure.

Additionally, the only way for adventurers to make money was to sell the items they acquired.

On the one hand, there was something like that.

“I need items too.”

There is also a chance to obtain items that you would not otherwise be able to obtain.

“Why else would there be adventurers who venture into the market?”

In many ways, the market is bound to be important.

“But even such an adventurer would be rejected by the Elnas market.”

However, the El Nass Market, located in the El Nass Mountains, was the market that adventurers most avoided.

That was about it.

The atmosphere at the Elnas market was equally tense.

To be exact, the names of those who settled in the Elnas market were different.

“Because there are too many people who would probably bleed if you provoke them for no reason.”

A lot of them were famous in Maple World. In a bad way.

“But even so, the Elnas market is good. It has its own rules. You don’t have to worry too much.”

Of course, the Elnas Market was a valuable stage for the outlaws who gathered in the Elnas Mountains, and many people made efforts to protect that stage.

But the law will never work on lawbreakers.

That’s how it came to be.

“As long as it’s not a back market.”

A market for outlaws, aka the back market.

“It’s a place no lawbreaker with common sense would go.”

Of course, the things traded here were different from the things usually traded in the market.

“Ralph.”

Debo immediately asked a question about this explanation.

“What on earth is being traded that makes you talk like that? Huh?”

El Palm gave the answer to that question.

“It’s life.”

“yes?”

“The life of an adventurer, that’s what I trade.”

“Life?”

Debo tilted his head at that answer, then chuckled.

“Aren’t you all risking your life on this adventure?”

It seems that he thought that life meant an adventure dangerous enough to risk his life.

Of course, if that were the case, the back market wouldn’t have been such a dangerous place.

“No, that’s not the kind of life it is. It’s a request to kill an adventurer.”

“yes?”

“They also call it the assassination market.”

“Assassination market?”

Only then was everyone surprised.

“Who would do such a crazy thing?”

On the one hand, I couldn’t understand it.

There are so many things to do in the world that you can make money from, but you make money by killing adventurers?

Of course, there were people like that.

For example, the Hassassins of the Nihal Desert.

But the assassins weren’t simply assassinating for money.

To them, assassination was merely a means to maintain power and grow the group, so it was not easy to even request an assassination from a vassal. Ordinary adventurers could not even think of doing it.

But you do it just like trading items?

“That’s where the crazy guys come in.”

But everyone understood El Palm’s explanation that followed.

That was it.

“It’s here.”

El Palm stood in front of a building.

“Here you go?”

The building that looked like that was ordinary.

It was just a building lined up in the El Nas market.

But no one questioned its ordinariness.

‘There must be something.’

If El Palm said that, there’s no way the inside of that building would be ordinary.

Of course everyone thought so.

‘It won’t be easy even to get in.’

You’ll probably need to provide a password or some secret method to get in.

Squeak!

‘huh?’

However, El Palm opened the door and went in very normally, contrary to everyone’s expectations.

Then it appeared.

“Welcome, would you like to dine or stay overnight?”

A boy who welcomes El Palm and his party with a bright smile.

“So what I’m saying is, against that Yeti guy… … .”

“A horde of Hectors are surrounding us, and I think there are at least a thousand of them. I’m not kidding. I’m serious.” And the room was filled with adventurers exchanging exaggerated adventure stories.

It was an ordinary inn that could be seen anywhere in Maple World.

It doesn’t fit the word ‘back market’ at all.

“Is this the right place?”

El Palm said to the questioning Devo.

“right.”

“No matter how I look at it, it’s just ordinary.”

In response to that question, El Palm sat down and spoke calmly.

“This is an ordinary place.”

That was the moment.

“Would you like to order or stay overnight?”

“I would like to stay overnight.”

“I’ll show you straight to your room!”

At those words, the young staff member immediately guided El Palm Party to room 304 on the third floor.

And the moment he entered the room, El Palm said:

“Push the bed.”

“A bed?”

“Because there’s an entrance underneath.”

“ah!”

At those words, I quickly pushed the bed away, and just as El Palm had said, a door appeared on the floor.

Of course, Debo tried to open the door right away.

At that moment, El Palm grabbed Divo’s shoulder and said.

“If you open it right now, you will be killed.”

“yes?”

In front of the surprised Devo, El Palm put the prepared meso into the hole in the door.

Clank clank!

As Meso passed through the door, a sound was heard, as if he had fallen down the stairs beyond.

Exactly nine times.

Only then did El Palm open its doors, and everyone could see right away.

The stairs leading to the back market.

“There’s no one here?”

Divo tilts his head at that fact.

“If there was no sound, I would have been attacked the moment I went down the stairs.”

“ah!”

Everyone nodded at the explanation that followed.

At the same time, I was surprised.

The fact that such a world exists.

But that surprise changed the moment I went down the stairs and reached the underground market at the end of the stairs.

‘oh my god.’

First of all, the underground market was much bigger than everyone thought.

‘That’s amazing.’

There are dozens of buildings underground!

‘But isn’t it just a market?’

On the one hand, other than that, it was difficult to feel any significant difference from the El Nas market on the ground.

It was an ordinary market scene where adventurers gathered to trade or eat.

But that thought didn’t last long.

“Boss, I don’t see anything particularly dangerous.”

In response to that question, El Palm pointed with his finger to a nearby bulletin board, visible to all.

‘crazy!’

The list of bounties that fills the bulletin board.

It was literal.

There was information and a bounty on the adventurer, like a wanted poster.

There was one difference from the wanted poster.

‘Aren’t they all famous adventurers?’

That they are not criminals, but rather adventurers of great fame.

‘That’s?’

‘The Knights of Signus?’

Even the Knights of Signus were among them.

It was a long time ago, so everyone was surprised.

That was the most surprising thing of them all.

“Ohh.”

Ralph, he said with a smile.

“Oh? Did you find anything interesting?”

“It’s over there.”

“what?”

“That’s what I’m talking about.”

“That? Huh? Huh!”

Wanted poster for El Palm Party.

“10 million mesora is not bad.”

Even the amount was quite large.

10 million mesos is more than enough for any adventurer to change their life.

“What the hell, what kind of kid is that?”

Of course, from the perspective of the parties involved, it was simply absurd.

Any adventurers who see that will definitely rush to kill El Palm Party.

Of course, El Palm was an exception.

He wasn’t surprised.

‘Still the same.’

Because I knew better than anyone else about the existence of this place.

I couldn’t not know.

‘There was a bounty on my head too.’

Because El Palm’s name was once on the wanted poster on that ceiling.

That’s how I found out.

‘Out of favor with the followers of the Black Mage.’

The one who created this back market was none other than the followers of the Black Wizard.

It was created to eliminate adventurers who interfere with their plans using adventurers.

From that perspective, it was natural that there was a wanted poster for El Palm Party in the back market.

Because it could be said that this was the adventurer party that was most capable of obstructing the Black Mage’s followers’ advances.

Anyway, thanks to that, El Palm knew the back market well.

‘This is the first time I’ve heard of the existence of a bard.’

But there was nothing about the minstrel in that memory.

That wasn’t surprising.

History has already changed enough.

Here, El Palm believed in one thing.

‘Anyone who seeks the necklace of Iphia, the wife of the Lion King, must fight against the Lion King himself.’

That this person is by no means an enemy.

‘There it is.’

“Are you a minstrel?”

That is why El Palm willingly stood before the man holding the harp, concealed in his robe.

“as you see.”

El Palm did not continue speaking after hearing the following answer.

“Please tell me a story.”

In the box placed in front of the minstrel along with the horse, I placed what I brought from the Mystic Gate, Iphia’s necklace.

Ring! Ring!

Then the minstrel immediately began to play the harp.

“There was a witch in the cold plain, beneath the endlessly falling snow. The witch made of ice spoke. Those who enter here without my permission will be cold.”

The story was about the witch of the snowy mountains, a story that all hunters in the Elnas Mountains knew.

It was a chilling story.

There was a witch in the snowy mountains, and the story goes that countless adventurers were killed by that witch.

Ring! Ring!

“To obtain the witch’s permission, you must offer your spoils at the witch’s altar.”

Actually, it wasn’t that great of a story.

In modern times, only a few hunters in the Elnas Mountains believe in the existence of the Witch of the Snowy Mountains.

Of course, there were none among the adventurers.

So the adventurers didn’t pay much attention to the story about the witch of this snowy mountain.

But El Palm’s colleagues were different.

Everyone thought.

‘I’ll give you a message.’

This isn’t just a simple story, it’s definitely information.

‘Related to Aran’s items.’

Information about Aran’s item, which is shaking up the Elnas Mountains and even Maple World right now.

That’s why El Palm’s companions focused all their senses on the bard’s story.

‘There must be something. There must be a clue.’

The minstrel stopped playing his harp and spoke to El Palm’s companions, who were waiting for the message to come out.

“It’s finished.”

‘huh?’

Everyone looked surprised at that answer.

‘What is this?’

Because the song ended without any message.

“Then that’s it.”

Even with that, the minstrel rose from his seat, took his box and harp, and disappeared.

El Palm Party looked at the sight with a dumbfounded expression.

“Look, boss.”

Finally, Divo spoke carefully and in a low voice to El Palm.

“Something seems wrong here. Have you got the wrong person?”

El Palm answered that question.

“I found it correctly.”

“Is that right?”

“Message received properly.”

“A message? No, what message?”

“In the cold plains, what we seek is there.”

Debo looked even more surprised at that answer.

It’s not that I didn’t know.

It was not strange to think of it as a cold plain. The story the bard told was about a witch from the snowy mountains who appeared in a cold plain.

The problem was that the cold plains were so vast that it would take several days just to cross them.

Are you looking for something there?

It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Of course, El Palm knew too.

It wasn’t just a cold plain, it was a clue.

“You told me exactly.”

“No, how do you know that?”

“Because the intensity of the sound was different.”

“Huh? The loudness of the sound?”

“The intensity of the sound of the harp being plucked.”

The minstrel made it clear to El Palm as he sang and played his harp.

“A robber? Is that the difference?”

Of course, it was a signal that could be noticed because it was El Palm.

“Good luck.”

In other words, if you can’t even notice that much, then you’re not qualified.

Anyway, it’s decided like this.

Next destination.

Of course, there was no reason to hesitate.

Also, there was no reason to stay in this back market for long.

Now is the time to leave.

That was the moment.

“The Mystic Gate where Aran’s items are hidden has been discovered!”

Someone shouted.

“I’m in a cold field!”

A sound that shakes the El Nas Mountains.