Chapter 481

Chapter 481

Siegfried clicked his tongue after hearing Quandt’s request. Then, he narrowed his eyes and muttered, “Look at this money-obsessed old man...”

“Money-obsessed old man?!”

“Sigh... That’s very unsightly...”

“H-Hey! Don’t you think you’re being too harsh?!”

“How can you worry about your profits in a place like this?”

“Ahem...”

“I mean, I have to keep this a secret anyway, but don’t you think you’re too money-minded right now?”

‘This is all because of you! You’re the reason our workshop has to go this far just for money!’ Quandt wanted to scream at Siegfried, but he exerted superhuman self-control to stop himself from doing so. However, he felt his blood pressure shooting up and his vision darkening the more he tried to keep his anger in check.

“I’m just kidding,” Siegfried said.

“K-Kidding?”

“There’s no reason for us to teach others this secret we found first. It won’t be too late to reveal it after we've profited enough from it, and even my party members are not sure how to find and harvest the Kautschuk Tree, so you don’t have to worry about anything.”

“R-Really?!”

“Yes, so don’t worry about it. I’m going to go get you your samples, and I’ll make sure you’d be the first to work on them,” Siegfried said confidently before walking away.

***

This time, Siegfried decided to approach the Great Jungle from a different angle.

“You won’t achieve anything if you stubbornly choose to do the same thing that doesn’t work.”

These were the words of Deus. There was no point in doing the same thing over and over again if it wasn't working. This was the same as how starting with the wrong button would cause the other buttons to be misaligned, and it would not fix itself no matter how many buttons were pressed.

This was the Adventurers' current state. They were challenging the Great Jungle over and over again even though their defensive gear was getting corroded, and their attempt would end in failure every single time they went.

However, Siegfried could no longer be compared to them. He had found a way to prevent his items from getting corroded thanks to Monterey’s advice, and he could proudly say that he was a step ahead of the other Adventurers.

However, he was still not satisfied. He wanted to overhaul his entire party.

“I want to change our party composition,” Siegfried said.

“The party composition? But all of them are really good Adventu—”

“No, that’s not what I meant,” Siegfried shook his head. Then, he continued, “This place is teeming with monsters, just like when we partied last time, right?”

“Yes,” Gosran nodded in agreement.

They first met at the Sohoca Ruin, which was a place teeming with monsters, and Buffers and Healers received extremely good treatment from parties.

“This place is just like the Sohoca Ruin.”

“Huh? When are you proposing to recruit Healers and Buffers?”

“No.”

“Then?”

“I want people who can bind the monsters down safely.”

“Ah!” Gosran exclaimed after understanding what Siegfried’s intentions were.

Indeed, having a lot of Buffers and Healers was definitely a good thing, but it wouldn't resolve their problems. Thus, Siegfried opted to go for Adventurers with crowd control skills that could stop the fire ants from moving altogether.

“I mean, why do we have to fight them when we can just hold them down and bombard them from range, right?”

“That’s an excellent idea!”

“We will recruit people with powerful Area of Effect ranged skills and those with crowd control skills.”

“Yes!”

“Seung-Gu will be our main tank, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

Siegfried did not want to reveal their secret to others, so he focused on recruiting Adventurers that could fight from range while leaving the tanking to Seung-Gu’s Iron Golems, which were going to be fully coated with the Kautschuk Mixture. Visitt novelbin(.)co/m for the latest updates

This was the best plan he could come up with, as he would neither have to share the Kautschuk Mixture nor reveal it to others.

“Give me a while. I will go find people that match your description,” Gosran said before leaving to recruit their new party members.

“Are we finally going all the way in, hyung-nim?” Seung-Gu asked.

“Beats me. I think we could go deeper than now, but who knows what’s waiting for us in that place?”

“Yeah, I guess that makes sense.”

“We’re the first ones here, so we just have to come up with solutions on the fly.”

“Oh! Hearing that is making me feel excited!”

“Huh?”

“I mean, having to find solutions means that we’re the pioneers of this place, right?”

“Yeah?”

“Wow... I never imagined someone like me would become the pioneer of such a high-level dungeon...”

“Eh...?”

“I’ve always been chasing after others, but it feels like I’m finally ahead of them for the first time.”

“Oh, now that you mention it... So a day when we will be ahead of others is finally here,” Siegfried agreed.

He also could have never imagined that he would one day be ahead of the others, but here he was right now. Of course, the top one percent of Adventurers were probably hunting in dungeons with much higher difficulty than this place, but it was indisputable that Siegfried was the pioneer of the Southern Great Jungle.

“But we have to keep climbing higher. We can’t be satisfied and stop here, right?”

“Yes, I agree!”

***

Siegfried was able to venture deeper into the Great Jungle thanks to the coating on his defensive gear, and this was the first deep exploration conducted in the Great Jungle after it underwent changes.

Every single party was forced to retreat after barely making ground due to their defensive gear getting corroded, but Siegfried’s party was able to make progress without much difficulty thanks to their strategy.

Unfortunately, one of their party members met an unfortunate end while admiring a flower the size of a bull, and he was forced to leave the party.

“Wow...! What’s this flower? Why is it so big—”

“Hey! Get away from that flower—!”

Siegfried tried to warn the Adventurer, but it was too late.

Chomp!

The flower suddenly devoured the Adventurer whole and—

Tsssss...!

The sound of something getting melted by powerful acid rang from within the flower.

Thud!

Then, the flower spat out the lower body of the party member.

Burp!

It did not forget to let out a satisfied burp, too.

“...”

“...”

“...”

The party members were speechless at how dangerous the Great Jungle was.

[Mutated Giant Venus Fly Trap]

[A Venus Fly Trap that had mutated into something unknown after getting infected by an unknown energy.]

[Type: Neutral Creature]

[Level: 250]

[Note: This creature possesses extremely corrosive stomach acids. It has mutated into a bizarre creature capable of almost immediately digesting a high-level individual.]

“Hey, Seung-Gu.”

“Yes, hyung-nim?”

“Try shooting at that thing.”

“Huh?”

“It’s at least going to yield some experience points, right?”

“Alright.”

Seung-Gu commanded one of the Iron Golems to shoot at the Mutated Giant Venus Fly Trap with its cannon.

Poof! Thud!

The Mutated Giant Venus Fly Trap exploded, but...

“Huh? Eeeeh?!”

Siegfried was shocked to find two Green Otherworldly Essences on the ground when the Mutated Giant Venus Fly Trap exploded.

[Alert: You have obtained Green Otherworldly Essence!]

[Alert: You have obtained Green Otherworldly Essence!]

[Alert: You have obtained +11 Ghost’s Shoulder Guards!]

Of course, the dead party member’s item ended up dropping, too.

‘Two essences were dropped from a single mob?’ Siegfried had a feeling the Mutated Great Venus Fly Trap had a higher drop rate of the Green Otherworldly Essence compared to the Mutated Great Jungle Fire Ants.

‘It’s too early to tell... I guess I should try killing every single one of these we come across and see what happens,’ Siegfried decided to test it out first.

One hour later, Siegfried’s party ran into another Mutated Great Venus Fly Trap, and the outcome was...

[Alert: You have obtained Green Otherworldly Essence!]

[Alert: You have obtained Green Otherworldly Essence!]

The Mutated Great Venus Fly Trap dropped two Green Otherworldly Essences again.

“So I was right... This guy drops two of these every time...” Siegfried muttered. He was convinced that the Mutated Great Venus Fly Trap would drop two Green Otherworldly Essences with a one hundred percent drop rate.

Then, the party members hurriedly took out their memos and started writing down the information. “Mutated Great... Venus Fly Trap... Two Green Otherworldly Essences... The drop rate is very high... Done!”

Knowledge was power!

The drop rate of Green Otherworldly Essence was unknown, so it only made sense for them to note down this valuable piece of information.

“Let’s continue killing every single one of these we come across while moving forward...” Siegfried told the party. Then, he muttered under his breath, “Hehe... It looks like this game is going to start getting really fun.”

He was dragged around by numerous NPCs, quests, and events that he was unable to enjoy the game in its purest form—hunting. However, the Southern Great Jungle gave him the opportunity to hunt once again while working on his quest, so he was able to enjoy the game after a long while.

Rustle... Rustle... Rustle...

Siegfried turned around after sensing something coming toward them from behind the bushes.

Grrrrr!

A group of large monsters suddenly emerged from the bush and surrounded Siegfried’s party in the blink of an eye.