Chapter 484

Siegfried’s main priority this time in the Great Jungle was to collect the remaining Green Otherworldly Essence he required to complete the quest.

The past few days he spent in the Great Jungle gave him the experience he needed to tell how many essence and Experience Points each monster would give, so he managed to plan his route around the jungle to maximize both the collection of samples and Experience Points.

Thus, he was able to collect the Green Otherworldly Essences at an incredible pace.

The next day, Siegfried collected more Green Otherworldly Essence than he initially expected.

[Alert: Your quest progress is 79.1% (791/1,000)]

“I only need 209 more,” Siegfried muttered to himself after reading the message.

“Oh? You've gathered so many already?” Gosran asked.

“Yes.”

“I guess you can collect all one thousand within the day if luck is on your side,” Gosran said.

“That is if luck is on my side. If not, then I’ll probably finish it by tomorrow morning.”

Siegfried was in no rush to complete the quest. Others would definitely accuse him of being arrogant or overconfident, but it was quite logical of him to be confident. Nobody else had close to five hundred Green Otherworldly Essences at the moment, so there was no way anyone could overtake him and complete this quest.

How were they supposed to overtake him in the first place when the monsters at the entrance of the dungeon possessed corrosive acid capable of melting their defensive gear?

Only Siegfried and his comrades knew of the Kautschuk Tree Sap, and they were the only ones who knew where to find it and how to use it. In other words, they were the only ones capable of venturing this deep into the Great Jungle.

However, there was one small problem.

“I want to go deeper...” Siegfried grumbled. He wanted to go all the way to the Ishuka Ruin, but it was impossible to do so unless and until he found a way to defeat the Mutated Great Jungle Goblins.

He pondered over and over again, but he could not think of any solution. In the end, he started to blabber anything that came to mind out of frustration.

“What if... I used this to break their barrier...?” Siegfried muttered to himself.

Gosran overheard him and her eyes shot wide open. Then, she said, “Huh? You’re right... Why didn’t we think of that?”

“Huh?”

“What you said just now.”

“What did I say?”

“You mentioned using the Green Otherworldly Essence in your hand to break the barrier protecting those goblins, right?”

“Ah, you heard that?”

“Yes, and I think that’s worth a shot. I mean, the creatures in this jungle all mutated because of some unknown energy, right?”

“Yeah.”

“And that Green Otherworldly Essence is dropped by those mutated creatures, right? So if we go with that logic, then the Green Otherworldly Essence is made of the same unknown energy, which might be the key to destroying the barriers.”

“You’re right, and there are certain dungeons that work with this exact pattern. They require you to use items only found in the dungeon to clear the dungeon.”

“Ah, are you talking about the Great Rift?”

𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

The Great Rift required the challenger to accumulate dimensional resistance to avoid getting affected by the dimensional storm brewing in it.

In other words, using the Great Otherworldly Essence to clear the Great Jungle made perfect sense. Besides, why would the top three workshops on the continent suddenly appear here and attempt to study this new material to craft artifacts out of them?

It was highly probable that the key to opening the road to the Ishuka Ruin would depend on the completion of the Sample Collection: Green Otherworldly Essence quest.

“That’s what I think, so what we have to do now is—”

“Hurry up and collect all one thousand of these.”

“Yes, so let’s hurry up,” Siegfried said and hastened his steps.

They walked for a bit when he suddenly grimaced and grumbled under his breath, “Damn it... That thing is starting to annoy me...”

“

Kyu!

I agree! Annoying! Annoying!” Hamchi chimed in, too.

“Is there something bugging you, Hyung-nim?” Seung-Gu asked.

“Hmm? What do you mean by that?” Gosran asked too.

It seemed that even Gosran failed to sense the thing that both Siegfried and Hamchi sensed.

“Ah, it’s nothing. I just noticed that something has been following up since yesterday, so it was starting to get on my nerves,” Siegfried waved his hand and dismissed it as a minor issue.

“What?! Really?!” Gosran was shocked.

“Yes,” Siegfried replied with a nod.

“Who is it? Is it another Adventurer?”

“I don’t think so? It’s definitely not human judging by how there are four footsteps, not two, and judging from its paces... I think it’s walking on all fours rather than on two legs.”

“

Kyuuu!

Hamchi thinks so too! It’s a four-legged creature! It’s probably huge judging by how heavy its footsteps are!” Hamchi added.

‘

J-Just how sensitive are his ears?!’

Gosran was amazed by how sharp Siegfried’s sense of hearing was. She could accept Hamchi having a sharp hearing, as he was a rodent—he refuses to acknowledge that he was a rodent—but Siegfried was a human being, so it was indeed quite shocking that he had such keen ears.

“I thought of catching it, but it’s maintaining quite a distance between us, so it’s not going to be that easy,” Siegfried said. Then, he muttered, “Is it something like a Great Jungle Panther...?”

“D-Do you think so?”

“I’m not sure, but it’s highly likely some four-legged predator is stalking us thinking we’re its prey.”

“Ah...”

“Anyway, let’s keep moving,” Siegfried said.

He decided to ignore the annoying footsteps of their stalker and focus instead on completing the quest.

***

Meanwhile, Descartes’ eyes shined golden for a while before dissipating.

“They’re over there,” he said while pointing in the direction where Siegfried’s party was located.

This was one of his skills called Five Senses Link, and it allowed him to share his senses with his pet, Lucky, from a distance. To put it simply, he could stalk Siegfried from nearly two kilometers away thanks to being connected to Lucky.

He also used Lucky to scout ahead for any potential dangers, which allowed his party to avoid running into any dangers.

“Wow... That skill is really amazing no matter how many times I see it. It allows you to spy on anyone as long as Lucky is around, right?”

“Well, it’s something like that,” Descartes replied with a smirk.

“But did you obtain any useful information?”

“No, I could hear them talking about something, but Lucky was too far to eavesdrop on their conversation. Also, they weren’t talking loudly at all, so it’s impossible to hear what they were saying even if Lucky got closer,” Descartes explained.

However, the truth was far from that, as Lucky’s sense of hearing was actually not as sharp as his sense of smell, but Descartes did not feel the need to divulge this information to others.

‘But what the hell were they talking about...?’

Still, Descartes couldn't help but wonder what Siegfried and the others were talking about. He was able to track Siegfried down thanks to Lucky’s excellent sense of smell, but the same could not be said for its sense of hearing.

‘

Oh well, I guess I’ll find out if I keep stalking them.’

In the end, Descartes decided to ponder about it later and focused on stalking Siegfried.

“Let’s continue onward,” Descartes said.

***

That evening...

“I think we should hunt for just thirty more minutes and call it a day,” Siegfried said while observing the sky slowly turning dark.

“I agree. We hunted a lot today, so we can continue tomorrow,” Gosran replied in agreement.

The nights in the Great Jungle were simply too dark to do anything, as moonlight could not penetrate through the thick overgrown vegetation.

Of course, Siegfried possessed excellent senses, so not being able to see was not going to stop him. However, fighting in the dark was definitely going to be mentally draining, and he had no plans on risking things and tiring himself out.

“How many do you have now, hyung-nim?”

“I have 901. I think we can finish this tomorrow morning before noon.”

“Then, you would probably be able to finish collecting everything tomorrow morning.”

“Yeah, I think so.”

Just then, the cries of monkeys echoed.

“Woo! Woo!”

“Woo! Woo! Wookiii!”

“

Kyaaaah!”

“Kyak! Kyak!”

More than one hundred Mutated Great Jungle Baboons emerged from the treetops.

“

Yahoooo!

Alright! Excellent!

”

Siegfried cheered after seeing the Mutated Great Jungle Baboons.

This was actually nothing to cheer about, as the Great Jungle Baboons were animals feared even by the natives, and they were considered as one of the

gangsters

of this jungle.

Not only were these baboons aggressive and ruthless, but their agility allowed them to attack from all sorts of tricky angles. In fact, the baboons were the trickiest creatures to handle throughout the Great Jungle.

To make matters worse, they went around groups of at least one hundred, making them a very difficult bunch to deal with.

However, Siegfried rejoiced after seeing the more than one hundred Mutated Great Jungle Baboons. He only had ninety-nine Green Otherworldly Essence remaining, and the appearance of these one hundred monsters was like rain during drought for him.

“Come to me! Bring it on!” Siegfried shouted while massacring the Mutated Great Jungle Baboons.

Fifteen minutes later...

[Alert: You have obtained Experience Points!]

[Alert: You have obtained Experience Points!]

[Alert: You have obtained Experience Points!]

[Alert: You have obtained Experience Points!]

[Alert: You have reached Level 262!]

Siegfried obtained a ton of experience points from the Mutated Great Jungle Baboons, and he ended up reaching Level 262.

“Wow...” Siegfried smiled after seeing dozens of Green Otherworldly Essences.

“I think there are more than one hundred, Siegfried-nim!”

“It sure looks like it.”

Gosran’s calculation was about right, as each Mutated Great Jungle Baboon dropped one Green Otherworldly Essence.

“Let’s quickly pick those up and count them,” he said and was about to pick up the essences, but something caught his attention and made him come to a halt.

“

Kyu?”

Hamchi raised his head and looked around.

“Hmm...” Gosran too stopped in her tracks.

“Why are you all stopping?” Seung-Gu, who was the densest among them, asked innocently.

Siegfried ignored him and said, “I didn’t notice it because we were in battle.”

“Yes, me too,” Gosran replied with a nod.

“But I knew something was bugging me, and I guess it’s those people over there,” he said while pointing at a bush. Then, he shouted toward the bush, “Hey! Why don’t you stop hiding and come out?”

A group of Adventurers emerged from the bush, and the one standing at the front was the first to say something.

“You are quite sharp,” Descartes said.

“I guess I am?

Hehehe~”

Siegfried replied with a stupid grin while rubbing the back of his head.

“...”

Descartes was speechless by the sudden stupid display, but he tried his best to ignore it and compose himself.

“Siegfried-nim.”

“Yes?”

“Don’t you think you’re too much?”

“What did I do?”

“It’s only customary to share information with your fellow gamers if you stumble upon something, but don’t you think you were trying to monopolize the honey pot to yourself?”

“Well, a honey pot tastes the best when monopolized...

Hehe~”

Kwachik!

A vein bulged on Descartes’ forehead.

‘

This guy is fucking annoying!’

He found Siegfried’s nonchalant attitude and sheepish grin to be annoying, and he felt the urge to smack him right now. However, he could not simply start beating someone up, so he decided to calm down and try solving things diplomatically.

“That is a very selfish thing to say, Siegfried-nim. You need to know that the community exists for a—excuse me?”

Descartes was forced to stop mid-sentence and call out to Siegfried again because...

Ding!

[You have obtained Green Otherworldly Essence!]

[You have obtained Green Otherworldly Essence!]

[You have obtained Green Otherworldly Essence!]

Siegfried had completely ignored him to pick up the Green Otherworldly Essences on the ground.