Chapter 329: Vestige
Chapter 329: Vestige
Translator: Translation Nation Editor: Translation Nation
Gray.
This was the main color of the coastal area around the Pambo Sea.
Because the Pambo Sea itself bordered the gray Dead Area.
The climate here was abnormal. The sun rarely shone and most of the time, large black clouds circled the sky.
Through the long distance Teleportation Array, Marvin arrived in a small house in the ruins of a city.
"Sir Marvin, I am the leader of the Wood Elves stationed in these ruins. My name Joan."
A good-looking Elven woman greeted Marvin.
Marvin nodded.
He chatted with the Elf for a bit and found out that they were guarding this Teleportation Array. Once he found Ivan, he only needed to come back here to quickly return to Thousand Leaves Forest.
'The Wood Elves really go far for their family, and as the most powerful Elven King, Nicholas' arrangements are far-reaching.'
Marvin originally thought that there would only be traces of Wood Elves in the Thousand Leaves Forest.
He didn't think that the Elven King's hand would stretch far into the Pambo Sea to the northwest.
...
From Joan's words and Marvin's previous understanding of the Pambo Seashore, he more or less understood the situation.
The Pambo Sea was the only inland sea in Feinan's continent, but it was a lot more frightening than the other seas.
Apart from the ever present black clouds and fog, there were all kinds of frightening sea monsters roaming around. Perhaps because of the Dead Area's influence, the sea frequently had some strange phenomena.
[Ghost Ship], [Skeleton Ship] and other myths spread through the western seashore's populace.
This region actually didn't belong to the South. It was considered as part of the South-North border.
Pambo Seashore had many independent city-states, imitating the city-state system of the North. The South Wizard Alliance was very powerful, but for some unknown reasons, they didn't get involved with this place.
In short, the Pambo Sea's surroundings were a lot more chaotic than the East Coast.
Naturally, this was also a place with many opportunities.
...
The ruins were the Pambo Seashore most typical kind of city.
This city was established on countless ruins and all kinds of adventurers occupied the place, looking for rumored treasures of the Ancient Gnomes.
Many people found treasures and were able to soar from their adventurer status as they became rich.
Obviously, a lot more people ended up as skeletons and left this dreary world.
Marvin explored the Pambo Sea several times and visited many of those dungeons. The countless adventurers' corpses he met inside made even him feel cold.
How could it be so easy to explore the Gnomes' ruins? Even the brightest Thief in their ranks was easily buried alive by a Gnome's trap.
It used to be a huge Gnome Empire.
...
Marvin went in the city by himself. The streets were very lively, not inferior to Jewel Bay's Six Pearl Harbors.
A lot of ships were anchored at the docks, but these ships were mostly travelling between the various city states and didn't go toward the Dead Area across the huge Pambo Sea.
Marvin top priority was to find Ivan. and to do so, he needed to leave for the Dead Area.
While Marvin knew some tricks and shortcuts to go to the Dead Area, he still needed a ship for the first part of the trip.
"What boat is going to [Sunrise Island] soon? And any boat is okay?" On the docks, a clever-looking boy was sizing up Marvin.
Marvin slightly smiled and casually tossed him a silver coin. The boy took the coin and frowned. "Southerner?"
Marvin remained calm. "I won't cause trouble."
The boy put away the silver coin. Even if this was a silver coin from the South Wizard Alliance, it was also valuable in the Pambo Seashore's cities.
He immediately pointed to a lousy ship near them and said, "The Parrot fits. Captain Aru will set off in ten days. This is the soonest."
After Marvin thanked the boy he went to the Parrot.
He walked around casually and found that not only was the boat down, but the sailors were also not present. They must have gone ashore to enjoy themselves.
Only a navigator was on the ship, studying a sea chart conscientiously.
Marvin asked, and confirmed that this ship was really setting off ten days later toward his destination, Sunrise Island. He quickly paid for his ship expenses and scheduled a cabin before leaving the dock.
Since they would set off ten days later, Marvin didn't want to waste his time.
For the current him, every second was very important.
...
Marvin walked through the streets, looking for an inn.
But he suddenly noticed a crowd not far from there, apparently watching something exciting.
Marvin was curious and went over.
Approaching, he saw that the people were crowding around a courtyard's door. Posted on the door was a notice with [Wolf Spider] written on it.
"I heard the Wolf Spider mercenaries found the entrance of some new Gnomish ruins. They are recruiting experts of the 3rd rank and above."
"What Gnomish vestiges would force the Wolf Spiders with their powerhouse team to hire outsiders?"
"Who knows. From the rumors, it's [Saruha]...
The people on the sides were discussing spiritedly while Marvin had a heavy expression.
Saruha?!
That was strange strange... Saruha was a high level instance that didn't open until one year after the Great Calamity!
It was on the same level as the Scarlet Monastery, but was a more troublesome challenge!
This Gnomish vestige was truly a remnant of the Ancient Gnomes' empire. The most frightening things inside weren't the traps, but the large amount of constructs and Evil Spirits!
Without proper preparations, exploring Saruha would only bring about one's own destruction.
Why was Saruha's entrance discovered earlier? Could it be because he had changed history?
Marvin frowned.
From the notice, it seemed that these [Wolf Spider] mercenaries found Saruha's entrance.
They found the way to freely enter and exit the remains, and a map of the area. But they estimated that they weren't powerful enough to clear it out themselves, so they decided to hire outside help.
The notice was very clear. The outside helpers would temporarily enjoy the same loot distribution as the internal staff.
At the same time they would be rewarded considerably.
They would hire ten 3rd rank experts.
As for the 4th rank experts, they would hire three or more, the more the better.
They didn't expect to hire any Legends of course. Legends weren't weaklings, and they weren't people that the Wolf Spider mercenaries could afford to hire.
Many of the people surrounding the door wanted to participate in this exploration.
The Wolf Spiders were a well-known and outstanding mercenary team in the ruin city. They wouldn't hire people that weren't genuine experts.
Thus, anyone who wanted to sign up to join the excursion would have to go through their test.
The test was very simple: a peak 3rd rank Barbarian was standing at the doorway. They needed to be able to fight him.
Barbarians had a lot of stamina and were perfect for testing people.
Many people had participated in the registration process and fought with the Barbarian one by one.
But most people weren't a match for the Barbarian!
It was clear for Marvin that this Barbarian was extremely powerful. He could almost hold his own against a 4th rank expert.
An ordinary adventurer simply wouldn't be able to keep blocking his axe. Although he most likely started off leniently, many adventurers were sent flying.
This scared away a group of people and those that remained were most likely the ones with real ability.
The notice said that they would set off for the remains the next day and it was estimated that they would take seven to eight days to finish exploring.
And from his understanding about Saruha, it wouldn't take that long. This vestige wasn't that big. It just had a crazy amount of monsters inside.
What he cared about most was that a majority of Saruha's monsters were constructs.
He vaguely remembered that there was a special existence among these constructs, Saruha's Big Boss, called [Chaotic Memory Killer].
This construct possessed a certain amount of intelligence and could communicate with people, yet from time to time it seemed to have an issue with its memories.
If not for coming across this by chance, Marvin wouldn't have recalled this matter.
'Chaotic Memory Killer…'
'Lost Memory Chip…'
'Could they be related?'
When this occurred to him, Marvin instantly made a decision.
Might as well register for this expedition into the historical remains!
Even if Saruha was dangerous, with Marvin's current strength, how could there be an issue?
In any case, he had ten days to waste in this ruin city, so he'd better make the most of it.
Moreover, he now had the Legend Advancement Manual, but to advance to Ruler of the Night, he needed a huge amount of battle exp!
With his current levels, he wanted to advance to Ruler of the Night by becoming a Level 8 Ranger and Level 10 Night Walker. Marvin's Night Walker was still level 6, and if he wanted to reach level 10, the amount of battle exp he needed was frighteningly high.
For this trip to the Dead Area, he was prepare to kill ruthlessly to gather battle exp.
And Saruha's monsters also gave relatively good amounts of experience. At the same time he could take a look at this Chaotic Memory Killer to check whether he had Mark 47's Memory Chip. Three birds in one stone. Marvin naturally wouldn't miss the opportunity.
Thus he also restrained himself and lined up obediently.
Others froze momentarily when they saw Marvin stepping forward, and then were startled.
The Barbarian defeated someone and casually looked at the line of people with a slight frown.
But his gaze stopped on the last man!
This was a tall middle-aged man with a face marked by the experiences he'd been through.
The Barbarian exclaimed, "Dragon Slayer, Sir Robin!"
The crowd immediately reacted to those words.
"The Robin who tore the Black Dragon apart with his bare hands?"
"He actually came to apply?"
"Hold on, he could tear apart Black Dragon Clarke with his bare hands, that's the strength of a Legend! That Wolf Spider mercenary group is lucky!"
The people were discussing spiritedly.
They had noticed Marvin's disguise but didn't dare point it out because they feared they might be wrong.
After all, the story of Rocky Mountain's Robin already spread through the Pambo Seashore, but most people only had a rough impression of his appearance.
But this Barbarian had personally seen Robin!
Thus he recognized him with a single glance.
He humbly came over and asked, "Did you come to participate in this exploration?"