Chapter 303: King of the Feathered Ones 2

Chapter 303: King of the Feathered Ones 2

TL/Editor: raei

Schedule: 5/Week Mon-Fri

Illustrations: Posted in discord.

Join the discord! Here

An altar depicted with a giant harpy defeating a tentacle monster.

Although it seems to have religious significance, there appear to be no magical traces, as mages have checked several times.

We also thought that our party wouldn't find anything—

[Art School Dropout Now in the Army donated 10,000 won!]

Look at the armor drawn on that harpy's torso. Could this be a new race?

"Armor? There's armor drawn on the harpy in the picture?"

-You can see that tiny detail? I can barely see the wings, lol.

-Your eyes see that over the incredible maternal instincts of the harpy? You're a 2D geek...

-But honestly, there's not much difference between our eyes and those of the wife.

-A harpy soldier? There's a kingdom, so it makes sense there would be soldiers or an army.

-If you think about it, it's odd that the kingdom is just on the 43rd floor; there might be another one.

Through Han Se-ah's camera, hundreds of thousands of people were watching, hoping to discover something.

The coarse drawing on the large stone is at a level of primitive cave paintings.

A large tentacle monster is drawn in the center, and diagonally above it, a giant harpy is depicted. The donation pointed out the small harpies nearby.

On closer inspection, some of the smaller harpies are depicted with bare chests, crudely illustrated breasts, while others have something black painted over their upper bodies.

After hearing the discussion, it's clear that there are harpies wearing armor and those that are not.

It's not a game of finding differences, yet how did someone discern fingernail-sized armor in a picture as small as a finger seen through the camera?

"But doesn't it look like the harpies are wearing armor?"

"Hmm? Yes, if you look closely, the armored harpies are charging toward the tentacles, while those without armor are turning their backs to flee."

With the hint from the viewer's donation, Han Se-ah pretends to have discovered it herself and points to the small harpies.

Harpy with dye-painted breasts and harpy with the upper body painted black.

Noticing this clear difference, we slowly examine it further, and as Grace said, the difference between the two harpies becomes apparent.

Now it looks like a great king and his soldiers, along with the civilians being rescued.

As seen with the Harpy Queen of the Harpy Kingdom, the harpies of the kingdom have a clothing culture where they wear jewelry over their exposed breasts.

Therefore, if we attribute meaning, this mural was created in a second, different, Harpy Kingdom. Not the Harpy Queen's kingdom.

"...So we need to find this?"

"Right? It seems we need to find this new Harpy Kingdom."

The harpies that suddenly disappeared.

A potential second kingdom.

Considering the Harpy Queen cleverly included a red harpy girl under her command, one conclusion emerged.

It's that another kingdom of harpies has unified all the nearby harpies.

The disappearance of the harpies suggests that the new kingdom might be higher up.

Raei Translations

---

We gather arrows, ropes, and other seldom-used but necessary consumables, and fix up lanterns and sleeping bags before filling the inventory with food.

Since the frequency of battles has decreased, Han Se-ah thinks the exploration will be a long-term effort.

She quickly organizes explosives and alchemical materials that were in a corner of her inventory and increases the amount of food more than usual.

Meanwhile, she manages to make even inventory organization and shopping part of the stream angle, which is pretty impressive.

"So, where do you plan to go now?"

"We should probably start searching the 45th floor again. After all, it's the floor where the altar was discovered, and it's also where the monster emerged from underground."

"That makes sense."

"There are areas that other adventurers have already investigated, so we don't need to check everywhere."

With all preparations complete, the party discussed the exploration.

At some point, Irene's place became fixed to my right, and Katie and Grace seemed to take turns sitting on my left—maybe it's just my imagination.

Her lovely golden eyes looked this way with a bright smile, naturally warming my heart.

Back to the 45th floor, huh? Not bad.

For me, this was a kind of reprieve.

I worried about rushing straight to the 50th floor, but if we start again from the 45th floor and look around carefully, at least we'll have time to find clues about the awakening.

Leaving aside the happy night with Irene, I still feel shackled by the quest to deal with the boss using an awakening skill.

It's not a typical game quest but one sent by a transcendent being that deals with human souls.

It would be stranger if I didn't feel burdened.

"Roland? You seem to be deep in thought. Is it about the issue of the realm you mentioned last time?"

"Um? ...Yes, I sometimes feel a bit frustrated."

"Don't be too hasty. Everything will turn out fine."

That's how the re-exploration of the 45th floor began.

Irene seemed to sense my complex feelings and held my hand tightly, comforting me... but the uneasy feeling in my heart didn't disappear.

Now, the only thing I can rely on is the hope and prayer that this hologram window, like the quest window that changes in real-time, will somehow change for me.

I grumble about suddenly finding faith as I explore the 45th floor, and then, sure enough, news comes from elsewhere.

"A harpy has kidnapped an adventurer...?"

"What's the situation now?"

"Like one of the harpies that was drawn on the altar?"

The re-exploration of the 45th floor was a bust this time too.

We only rummaged through empty caves and couldn't even properly collect mana stones.

While we may have bought some time to find clues about the awakening power, Han Se-ah's stream hit a snag with missed quests and fruitless hunts...

But back in the city of stone dwarves for supplies, adventurers were noisily gossiping.

The rumor was quite simple.

A beautiful, communicative harpy wearing clothes had come up to do some chores, and the intermediate-level adventurers who were flirting with her had gone missing.

...Damn it, like with the doppelganger situation, is it always the males causing problems?