Read Novel Full Chapter 86, King Turtle
Chapter 86, King Turtle
Translator: Barnnn
“I will be the one and only — King of the Turtles! Hahaha!”
“Yeah! You tell ’em, King!”
“Kekyooo!”
“Did we grab all the loot? All right, let’s move on.”
“”Yessir!””
“Kekyo.”
Deep in an unpopular corner of the 46th floor lay a murky, sluggish swamp.
It was a territory ruled by turtles the size of oxen.
“A swamp that drags at your feet and tanky enemies. No wonder adventurers avoid it,” Fieda muttered.
“They drop Magicite, shells… and eggs? Wait, eggs?” Hal asked, puzzled.
“They look like eggs,” Fieda clarified. “But it’s just a kind of stone. Supposedly worthless.”
“Worthless loot and high defense… Yeah, that’d drive adventurers off,” Ize said with a sigh.
“I thought it’d be easy if Hal’s magic worked on them,” Fieda said, glancing at the spellcaster.
“Before we start, I have a question,” Hal said. “If I fry them all at once with lightning… who’s going into the swamp to collect the loot?”
“Huh. Didn’t think about that,” Fieda admitted.
“Could you maybe lift the loot out with wind magic?” Ize asked.
“Like… scoop them out along with the mud?”
“Denied,” Fieda said flatly.
“Then we’ll just lure them closer to the edge of the swamp,” Ize suggested.
“That’s probably our best bet. Should be doable,” Fieda agreed with a nod.
Standing at the swamp’s edge, Hal locked onto the nearest Giant Turtle.
He conjured a dense mass of water vapor, then sent it drifting upward on a breeze. Slowly, it began to rise.
A low crackle echoed from within the forming cloud — the sound of static charging in the air.
“Uh, Hal? I think that’s plenty…” Fieda said, inching away.
“I’m dropping a metal ball right onto the turtle. Move away from the swamp — might get zapped.”
Ize and Fieda nodded quickly and ducked down behind a rise, keeping well away from the moist terrain. From their hiding spot, they watched Hal pull something from his bracelet.
A few seconds later–
BOOM! KRA-KOOM!
RRRRUMMMMBLE!
CRACK-KA-THOOM!
BAAANG! KZZZZZT — KRAKOOOOM!
A streak of light shot across the swamp, not toward the turtle Hal had aimed at, but veering sideways, almost parallel to the ground.
The thunderclaps that followed didn’t fade — instead, they multiplied, grew louder, and rolled continuously.
“Oh crap!” Hal shouted, bolting over to the others and flopping down on the ground.
Lightning was still tearing across the swamp, bright and wild.
“What happened?” Fieda asked.
“The lightning won’t stop!” Hal shouted over the noise.
“Any idea why?” Ize asked.
“No clue. Maybe it’s something in the swamp…?”
RRRRRRUMBLE… FLASH! KRA-THOOM!
“Ize! Are the Giant Turtles still alive?” Hal asked.
“They’re disappearing from the map one by one. The loot is gonna be a pain to collect…”
“Forget the deep ones,” Fieda said curtly.
CRACKLE — BOOM!
“Strange… I made sure the cloud was half as big as yesterday’s,” Hal muttered.
“Can’t you identify what caused the reaction?”
“I tried. Got nothing.”
“Hmm…”
FLASH! RUMBLE-RUMBLE…
“It’s weakening a bit,” Ize observed.
“…Word is going to spread again, isn’t it?” Fieda muttered.
“What, someone saw?”
“Few adventurers in the distance. Close enough to see the light and hear the noise.”
“Let’s definitely keep this under wraps,” Hal said quickly.
“What if we start calling you Thunder King? Think anyone will connect the dots?” Ize teased.
“Don’t you dare! I mean it!”
“Uh… I didn’t understand that reference!”
“I wasn’t referencing anything!”
Next to him, Hal buried his head in his hands. Ize gave his hair a gentle pat, then pulled Sato from her Magic Bag. Holding the little creature by its round torso, she waved it in front of Hal. He looked up with teary eyes and clutched Sato to his chest.
[…Welp, Sato’s officially our emotional support now.]
Rubbing his forehead against Sato’s belly, Hal muttered in a muffled, defeated voice,
“Maybe it’s the metal ball…?”
“Could the fragments have scattered, and lightning just targeted all of them?”
“Would lightning even chase something that small and scattered?”
“Well, what if you just slam the whole thundercloud into them instead? Skip the metal ball.”
“Huh?” Hal blinked.
“If controlling the lightning’s hard, why not use a cloud you can control instead?”
“…Huh. What do you think, Fieda?”
“Beats me,” Fieda replied. “Lightning’s the domain of Gods — or at least Sages.”
“Oh, so that’s the angle you take, huh,” Hal said, half impressed, half baffled.
While they talked, the thunder finally began to die down. A few more minutes passed before they stood up, moving carefully toward the swamp, which was still hissing with ominous steam.
“Kekyooon…”
“I can’t see any of the loot,” Fieda muttered.
“I really don’t want to touch that swamp,” Ize added, grimacing.
“I’ll try to shift the water a little,” Hal offered.
“You can do that?”
“Not easily… but a little, maybe.”
Hal crouched, stretching out a hand just above the surface of the swamp. With a flick, like brushing away a fly, he sent out a pulse of wind.
“Oh! I can see the ground!” Ize said brightly.
But before she could celebrate further, the water suddenly began to pile up — stacking higher and higher.
“Huh?”
Hal sounded confused.
Ize glanced at him, then looked back at the swamp. The water had risen into a sheer wall, towering like a tsunami frozen in time. Then, as if someone hit rewind, it began to surge backward, sweeping away into the distance… and vanishing.
What remained was bone-dry earth, stretching far ahead of them.
“How was that ‘a little’?” Fieda asked.
“Wha–? That’s weird… I didn’t mean to do that,” Hal said, scratching his head.
“You’re not losing control of your magic, are you?” Ize asked, eyeing him with concern.
“Man, Ize, now you’re acting like when we first met,” Hal muttered.
“Hey! Rude, but… yeah, I can see why you’d say that.”
“Wait, SEE…? Hal, maybe this is because of your Appraisal skill,” Fieda asked.
Hal tilted his head thoughtfully.
“I mean, you’ve been using it constantly for a while now, haven’t you?”
“Yeah. After we learned about Ize’s case, I’ve had it up — everything I see is being appraised in the background. But to be fair, I’ve got it set up so that I don’t consciously notice unless I focus on it.”
“So that might be it?”
“But it’s only been a month…”
Hal looked skeptical, but Fieda didn’t back down.
“Yesterday’s magical energy depletion might’ve triggered something.”
Both Hal and Ize frowned at that.
Indeed, yesterday, Hal had passed out from MP depletion for the first time.
Could that event have altered his magical control somehow?
“I can’t explain it well, but it’s like… the faucet was too wide open, and draining all your MP closed it tighter,” Fieda said.
“Oh! Like when your PC forces an update after a crash?” Ize suggested.
“Yes! Exactly!” Hal exclaimed.
“You actually got that?” Fieda raised a brow.
“If Hal understands it, that’s good enough for me,” Ize said with a shrug.
While Hal nodded to himself, muttering “Makes sense, makes sense,” Ize stepped onto the dry ground and carefully picked up one of the nearby loot. She inspected it.
“Looks like they’re safe to collect.”
“From all this area…?” Fieda groaned.
“Think of it as a scenic stroll.”
“Kekyo.”
“Huh? You’ll help too, Sato?”
“Kekyo.”
“All right, but if anyone shows up, hide underground right away,” Fieda warned.
“I’ve cast Stealth on Sato, so it’ll be fine,” Ize assured.
“Huh… really?”
“Yes. We’re not letting it out during fights or while we’re moving between floors, though. Too risky.”
“Smart move.”
Sticking close enough to remain in sight of one another, the three of them began gathering the items scattered across the wide, muddy battlefield.
From time to time, Ize straightened her back and glanced over at Fieda and Hal. The sight of them stirred up a memory — an old painting she’d once seen in art class.
“Heh, this looks like that painting — Des agriculteurs…?” she asked.
“Des glaneuses, actually,” Hal corrected, without missing a beat.
“Aww, that’s sad. I thought they were full-on farming, not picking leftovers.”
“Typical you… food over art. Didn’t they explain anything about the painting in class?”
“It was one of those ‘match the title and artist with the painting’ quizzes. That was the extent of it.”
“What a soulless way to teach art,” he muttered.
“That’s education for you,” Ize replied flatly.
As they traded emotionally barren commentary, the group finished gathering the loot scattered across the area.
Counting them up, they realized — Hal had taken down nearly fifty Giant Turtles with a single blow.
“Long live the Turtle King!” Ize declared dramatically.
“You blew it, all right,” Fieda laughed.
“It’s ‘blew them,’ Fieda — ‘blew it’ means something else entirely,” Hal corrected with a wry smile.
“Sounds close enough to me. Either way, you’re the Turtle King now.”
“That name has a bad ring to it. Wouldn’t King Turtle sound better?”
“Take your pick. Go with whatever sounds best for your edgelord fantasies.”
And just like that, on that day, somewhere deep on the forty-sixth floor of the Jasted Dungeon, a legend was born: King Turtle.
No one would ever know the full truth of its origins.
◆
“Ah, I see Mister Ivern and the others up ahead… Wait, isn’t that Mister Wardon with them too?” Ize said, peering ahead with a hint of surprise.
It was the final day of their expedition. The trio had arrived on the forty-ninth floor — Sato’s birthplace.
No sooner had they descended the staircase than Ize’s Perception skill picked up familiar presences.
“What should we do?” Hal asked.
“Better not cross paths with them today,” Fieda said, glancing forward with narrowed eyes. “They’re probably in the middle of their important test.”
“Well, if Mister Wardon’s there, they’ll be fine. And I mean, even without him, Mister Ivern’s team is strong too, being B-rank and all,” Ize added.
“Still, when you’re guarding a healer, the flow of battle changes. Wardon can manage that and keep things stable,” Fieda replied.
“I see… So the way you move shifts depending on whether you’re defending someone,” Hal said thoughtfully.
“Words of wisdom from a former guard,” Ize nodded.
“Right, you should remember that. If you stay in this line of work long enough, someday you’ll get a few escort missions too.”
Ize watched him ramble on with an amused smirk. She didn’t bother hiding her grin. Behind her, Hal gave her a light chop to the back of the head and turned to Fieda.
“So? Are we pulling back for now?”
“Yeah. But first, we should let Sato know. It might be disappointed if it saw the inn the next time you bring it out of the ring.”
“Haha… you’re surprisingly sentimental, Fieda.” Ize gave a sigh as she reached for her ring. “Anddd… here we go!”
With a pop, Sato leaped into her arms. She held it up and looked directly into its large eyes.
“Sato,” she said gently, “there are people here to see your friends. We shouldn’t get in their way, so we’re going to head back now. Is that okay?”
“Kyo?” Sato tilted its leafy head, blinking in confusion. Then suddenly, its gaze locked onto something deep in the forest.
“…?” Hal looked in the same direction. “Oh, is that where Ivern and the others are?”
“Oh? You sense them too, Sato?”
“Kye-kye-kyo! Kekekekyo!” Sato cried out, its voice suddenly sharp and loud.
“Wait — what?”
“Kye-kye-kyo! Kekekekyo! Kye-kye-kyo! Kekekekyo!”
“Sato!? What’s gotten into you!?”
Its leaves trembled violently as it writhed in Ize’s arms. Unable to hold on any longer, she gently set it down.
No sooner had its feet touched the ground than it bolted into the forest without hesitation.
“Damn it! I knew this would happen!” Fieda cursed.
“We’re going after it!” Hal shouted.
“Right!”
Sato zipped through the underbrush and weaved between trees with surprising speed for something so round.
The three of them followed, unable to match its exact route and forced to take a broader path.
Still, Sato’s white body and the signature leaf on its head were just visible through the trees.
“He’ll reach them in twenty seconds!” Fieda called out. He had been using Overview to track Ivern’s team up ahead.
“If they mistake Sato for a threat–!”
Then, a cry tore through the forest.
“KEKYO–!!”
And from deep within the woods, voices answered in kind.
“Kupyo!”
“Gegegegegege!”
“JAAAAA!”
“Kokyokokyo, kokkyo!”
“Durudurudu!”
“Kekyo! Kekyo!”
The forest rang with chaotic, high-pitched cries — until Sato’s voice returned one last time, joyful and bright.
Sato had made it. It’d found its kin.
Fieda raised a hand, signaling the others to slow down.
They stepped out into a small clearing. Ahead stood the familiar figure of Wardon, a handful of human silhouettes, and — gathered around Sato — five Sugar Mandragoras, chirping excitedly.
“Kekyo? Kekke?”
“Cuuuii, pyo!”
“Gegege! Guguge!”
“Jandijan, dyo!”
“Kokyo! Kyontakyo!”
“Duru, peppon, peppeh!”
“Hey! You lot! Keep it down already!” Wardon bellowed, clearly at his wit’s end.
“Oh hush, Wardon,” a woman said, unfazed. She knelt beside the Mandragoras with a delighted smile. “They’re adorable, every one of them!”
The woman spoke without a hint of hesitation, despite Wardon’s tone. She looked to be around the same age as Ivern and the others — perhaps mid-forties.
A step more, and the trio would’ve fully emerged from the trees… when a new voice called out from another direction.
“Hey, look who it is! Ize! You look even smaller coming out of the woods!”
“Shut up, Poe!” Ize shot back, her body already launching toward him with surprising force. “Focus on your damn job!”
Fieda sighed, rubbing his temples.
“Unbelievable…”
“Hey there, Fieda,” Ivern called out, walking over. “That Mandragora — yours?”
“Yeah. Ize’s decided she’d keep it.”
“Knew it. That over there is Sharoella — Duris’s wife. The Mandragoras took a real liking to her, and now she’s practically their queen. Been fighting all morning over which ones she’s taking along.”
“Hey, you should’ve expected this would happen,” Hal said with a shrug. “We did say they LOVE healing magic.”
“Yeah, that info you gave us…” Ivern said with a tired sigh. “Didn’t believe it at first. But… it works. WAY too well.”
He didn’t look even remotely happy about it.
It seemed this supposedly top-secret mission had turned out to be more chaotic than expected — made worse by their healer’s apparent personality quirks.