Evan D. Sherden, Discovering the Witch (6)

Nearly three days had passed since then, and it was the last day of the promised period.

By the time the dawn quietly drew upon the party, Evan and the senior squad were about to conquer the last dungeon.

“… It’s pretty big.”

After spending god knows how long in the woods, without even realizing, he cried out at the cave that appeared as they came out of the tall bushes that were as tall as them.

“Well, this huge cave was hidden…”

“There’s a good reason for it.”

Belois calmly explained, “It was revealed through a special process. It was hidden by a high mana barrier that was formed naturally over many years. If we hadn’t known exactly where it was, it would have been impossible.”

“If it had been formed naturally, even the witches would not know… Which means that it was through Evan’s prediction.”

“Yes.”

“Much to be expected by Evan’s foresight ability.”

Belois nodded approvingly at the mentioning of the word ‘foresight’ by Arisha, and Serena somehow felt proud when Arisha complimented Evan.

Raihan noticed Evan’s glance and spoke up once more.

“Then, Master, this dungeon will also have a Devil Rune monster?”

“It is expected to, but…”

So far, it was okay, but what was he supposed to do when he couldn’t make use of his previous knowledge in the future? He sighed and explained.

“To cut to the chase, this dungeon will probably not have a Devil Rune monster.”

“Why?”

“Because it was hidden by a barrier, so no outsiders could have entered it, right? So, there is no possibility that a Devil Rune monster could have gone in.”

“Outsiders?” Arisha asked, tilting her head.

“You mean, even though the devil, who is well known to be the one who created these malignant dungeons, can’t intervene in this dungeon? Every other dungeon that we cleared in the western region had Devil Runes.”

“Yes, well, that’s just my prediction.”

Evan believed that clearing this dungeon, which remained unexposed to the outside for a long time due to the naturally formed barrier, would fill the remaining 0.1% of his 99.99%-sure prediction.

“I don’t really get it, but we just have to conquer this dungeon, right?”

[Slime noise]

Serena clenched both of her fists and seemed motivated as ever. Slimes who were patrolling around her enlarged their bodies and showed that they were ready for battle. It seemed that they wanted to get back at the Devil Rune monster since they were nearly defeated by it.

“There’s bound to be something special since it was hidden by a mysterious barrier.”

Evan added on while Arisha spoke while nodding her head, “Yes, the Grass of Innocence should be inside. This dungeon’s difficulty level and the degree of importance is incomparable to the others.”

“Is it similar to the Origin of Evil we got yesterday?”

“Just from the names, can’t you tell? It’s completely different.”

Yesterday, they already acquired the Origin of Evil, one of the Elixir’s key materials that they were looking for.

It was a liquid that has been concentrated for a long time by fusion of certain substances with evil energy. It could not be obtained by clearing the dungeon but rather had a nasty option, which made it only obtainable by clearing unique traps that appeared randomly.

“It seemed impossible to get it at first.”

“Without your foresight ability, it would have been.”

Now everything started and ended with the foresight ability (along with the ‘Evan the Almighty’ theory). It may be too late to shatter the idea now. But at least for this instance, Evan could deny the idea firmly.

“The reason why we could obtain the Evil Origin was that there were distinctions in the Yo-Ma Great War Series’ poisons among the random traps.”

“Were there such distinctions?”

“Is it even possible to notice the looks of the traps even before it activates?”

” Evan, do you also have what you call the ‘Dragon’s Sight’?”

Evan silenced the gossiping crowd and continued with his explanation.

“But the Grass of Innocence is completely different. Although we know for sure that it is within the dungeon, since the exact location is completely random, it’s going to be difficult to find.”

“But it’s called ‘Grass of Innocence,’ so it must be a type of grass, right? Then wouldn’t we find it if we just pick whatever grass we see?

“Oh, isn’t it okay?”

That was right, Arisha saw past the challenge.

“Right. Then, let’s move into the dungeon right now.”

“Got it…”

“Are we just going in before discussing tactics?”

“All the monsters won’t initiate their attack unless they’re attacked, so it’s okay. For now, everyone put back your weapons and follow me. Especially Belois, don’t ever use any fire magic, including Fox Fire inside here.”

“I understand…”

Everyone tilted their head and was curious about Evan’s preparations but followed him anyway.

However, they knew what Evan meant only after an hour of being inside the dungeon.

While walking along the dungeon’s long, narrow, and dark path, everything became bright all of a sudden.

Evan, who already knew what was out there through the game, led the part bravely, and the rest of the party who remembered not to hold their weapons were nervous but followed Evan carefully.

After a few moments, everything became bright, and a huge open space appeared before them at the end of the path.

Serena shouted in excitement. It was understandable as it was a huge garden that was comparable to the one in the palace!

“So, the Grass of Innocence is here?!”

Evan nodded immediately and looked around. It was a huge space that made him wonder how such a place could exist underground, and the place was full of flowers and grass!

The most epic thing was the enormous rock on the ceiling of the huge space. The warm brightness that filled the entire space came from the rock. It was not just light, but it was a mana-bearing light that provided better necessities than even the sun to the underground flowers and grass!

It was very impressive in the game, too, but it was just absolutely amazing and un-comparable to the CGI.

“It is absolutely the most beautiful scenery I’ve seen since we came to the West.”

When Belois saw Arisha carefully holding onto Evan’s sleeve and mumbling those words, she seemed a little threatened and held onto Evan’s other sleeve. They were both adorable.

“How is that rock emitting such light…?”

“It’s a natural artifact. If everything works out, we’ll be bringing that along too. There will be much use of it.”

That rock, ‘Fragment of the Sun’, was known as the most outstanding production support artifact in Yo-Ma Great War Series 3.

Since it not only accelerates the growth of all products but also greatly increases its performance; everyone, including alchemist, blacksmith, or seamstress, coveted it.

How could there be such a ridiculous artifact? This was possible because the DLC would be only available after buying a very expensive fanbook. The world revolves around money. Well, in this world, no DLC was necessary, and he could just come looking for it!

‘In addition, in the game, most of the artifacts here were destroyed as part of the event, and all the player could get was just a piece of it. This time, I will take it as a whole.’

It is possible because this was different from a game; this was reality. It was possible to obtain an artifact damage-free when it was to be destroyed according to the event.

When Evan was clenching his fists as if he was determined, Bellois suddenly spoke.

“But…Master Evan. Did you say that the Grass of Innocence was here?”

“Yes.”

“…Here, in this ridiculously huge garden?”

“Yes, the Grass of Innocence is here, as just a single stem.”

Belois’ face became pale as if she understood the seriousness of the situation. The other members of the party had a stern look on their faces after they heard their conversation.

“There must be a way to find it specifically.”

“No. It’s different every time.”

To be precise, he compared all the screenshots taken by the players who obtained the Grass of Innocence, but every one of them looked different.

“Innocence Grass is a material for Elixir, but it is an Epic-grade material that raises the user’s stats and even raises the skill level, so there were many players that bought the fan book and installed the DLC…” “However, all the Grass of Innocence those players obtained looked different. It is applied the same way here.”

“Ugh, without Shine, it is difficult to understand even half of what the Master is saying…!”

It’s not that they don’t understand, but they were trying to avoid reality.

“Evan, do we really need to pull them out one by one to find it? Can’t we just burn them all and see what’s left…?”

“The Grass of Innocence also burns. It’s an Epic-grade material, but it’s not durable. Oh, and moreover…”

Evan added on what he almost forgot.

“If we do that, we’d die before we found the Grass of Innocence. It would mean that we would be taunting a whole lot of monsters at the same time.”

“What do you mean… You’re saying…”

Serena was alarmed and shouted.

“Everything here is a monster?!”

“Yes, except for that one stem of Grass of Innocence, everything else is a monster!”

“Evil! Ghost! Devil! Evan!”

Serena cried out loud and hung on to Evan, demanding another answer, but there was no way to deny this.

There it was. As Belois pointed out, there was just a single stem of Grass of Innocence in the middle of this gigantic garden. In numbers, it meant there was only one stem among hundreds of millions of stems of flowers and grass.

‘At least in the game, it wasn’t this huge… It became uselessly too real. Although I kind of figured it would be the case when I saw the palace garden.’

The way to obtain the Grass of Innocence in the game was to hold a place in a narrow path and repeatedly use the skill ‘taunt,’ thereby defeating tens of monsters starting from the garden entrance.

The number of monsters was easily over several hundred thousand, and every monster was a high-level monster similar to those found in the Sherden Dungeon’s 50th floor. This process would be more strenuous than fighting a dungeon boss. A tanker that will not tire out was essential.

“And we also needed a high-level priest that could immediately resurrect the tanker…”

“Resurrection?! Magic like resurrection only exists in epic stories!”

“So, Raihan, don’t die.” [NOTE: To those who played PWI Frost Glitch.]

“I just realized that the said role of ‘tanker’ was mine!”

Raihan turned pale when he realized how important his role was in conquering this dungeon. But at that moment, Evan put on a serious face and laid his hand on Raihan’s shoulder.

“Raihan, think of the training you have done with me. You’re already strong enough to defend against a level 50 monster’s attack effortlessly. The most ridiculous monster I’ve made is not Shine or Belois, but you.”

Several months of being a part of Evan’s Skin Blade training, Raihan’s tanking ability grew exponentially compared to the past.

Evan came to that realization after seeing how devastating his Skin Blade was to the monsters; it showed how much Raihan’s defensive ability improved.

“Even so, their numbers are just too high!”

“Trust me. It’s not going to take long.”

“Killing several hundred thousand monsters…?”

Evan replied with confidence and held out what seemed to be a bottle of a deadly substance. The label on the bottle read ‘herbicide’.

“With this substance that instantly kills grass property monsters, it’s not a problem!”

“Isn’t that going to kill me as well?!”

Thus began the real conquest of the Grass of Innocence dungeon.