Ark The Legend - Volume 10 - Chapter 7

SPACE 7. Secret Laboratory

Kaekang!

The Halrosu screamed and collapsed. Then a small crystal golem waddled up to the corpse.

-Huhuhuhu! You lowly bastard!

He placed his foot on the wolf and laughed.

–You dare mess with this body. You’re 100 years too early. Blame your ancestors for not evolving beyond dogs. Indeed, you should be honoured that you died by my hands.

“Does that mean anything?”

–How rude! I am the Elim’s Divine Artefact!

“I guess little stones don’t have that much common sense, eh? I am the Elim. And you are the tool that I can use. It’s just like how a stone was used as a hammer in the stone ages.

-I’m not a stone! Crystal!

“Crystal is also a mineral you bonehead.”

Ark declared sharply as he looked at the golem. It was the Baius golem. He had gone through a lot of trouble on Rakunka and finally found the first Divine Artefact. His first impression after finding the Divine Artefact…..well, it was a scam. He had met a huge, strong golem in the pyramid. Ark had to devise an irregular attack consisting of mixing Freezing and Flame bullets! Yet the golem that Ark obtained was different. It was half of the original size. The ability had fallen by 100 times. Ark hadn’t just played one or two games. It was like the RPG games in the 80s where a strong enemy would appear as a colleague with diminished strength. Fortunately there was room for improvement. Usually these NPCs were provided with the character’s experience to gain levels. It was the same for Baius. The effort might require him to shave the flesh from his bones but that guy could grow. The golem’s growth was also connected with improved performance of the Baius shield.

‘For the moment he isn’t useful when summoned but…..’

It was good to gain a level 1 pet when he was high levelled. The golem absorbed 50% of Ark’s experience. And the Halrosu on Impeltus were level 80. Ark was level 120 so the experience didn’t have a visible impact but it was a huge value for the golem. Since arriving on Impeltus, the golem lapped up the experience and reached level 12 in a few hours.

His golem’s stats had grown! When compared to level 1, it had increased by more than 2 times but……it was still shabby. The level wasn’t enough to attract the Halrosu’s attention even when the golem hit it. However there was no need to be disappointed. Ark recalled the days in New World when he was just raising a bat, a skull and a snake. They had steadily grown under Ark’s care until he became an aristocratic vampire, a skeleton knight and a dragon. The golem was just stone now but one day it would grow to the giant golem seen in the pyramid. No, he would grow into a stronger golem. And that wasn’t the end of its growth.

The Baius Shield grew along with the golem. The Baius shield’s rating had ascended one step when the golem reached level 10. It changed by defense +50 and shield quantity +500! The golem was still useless at level 12 but the shield showed a notable performance just be improving 1 stage. Thanks to that he was satisfied but……

‘That rude personality isn’t fixed even when his level goes up.’

The golem’s personality was the problem.

–I’m a person as well! You have to treat me with courtesy!

A stone was suddenly claiming it wasn’t a stone.

–You lowly bastards! I am the Elim’s Divine Artefact! Our standings are on a completely different level!

He didn’t care when it came to himself but he couldn’t easily ignore the personalities of other people.

–You aren’t a formal Elim yet. Your existence is sustaining me so I have to obey your commands. But you can only have my body. This doesn’t mean you have my heart!

He kept on insisting that his master could only have his body (?). He remembered the Elim’s Memories’ explanation for the golem’s behaviour.

–The golem takes after the Master’s personality!

The shocking declaration from the light sphere!

‘This personality resembles me? No way! How is he similar to me? He is arrogant and impertinent! He also has no manners!’

Of course Ark couldn’t admit it. However Ark was unaware of something. Everybody who met Ark in New World thought of him as arrogant with no manners. Anyway, the golem’s nature annoyed Ark tremendously. But he was more difficult to handle than the pets in New World. At that time Ark had used terror to deal with them! If they did something wrong then Ark would educate them by beating them up! This simple method had the best effect. But there was a problem when using this method with the golem. The golem was chunks of stone. His nerves couldn’t feel pain at all. It was inefficient so he was forced to use words.

“How do you think you’re able to grow like this? It is all due to me. I’m giving you half my experience despite you not helping out in combat. Yet where did you learn to act smugger than everyone else? You should be laying down flat on the ground to thank me!”

-No one ever asked.

Naturally it replied with a rude answer. But Ark wasn’t in a position to say anything. Ark had once again turned into a Myutal shortly after arriving on Impeltus. It had been some time but the side effect of Mix-up still remained. And he couldn’t grasp his sword when he was a Myutal. Therefore Ark just got free experience from his team for 1 hour. He shouldn’t be talking about topics like sharing experience. The golem was just eating the free experience that Ark obtained. He couldn’t make a fuss about the golem taking his experience. Ark hated to admit it but the golem was similar to him. Maybe that’s why Ark really disliked the golem’s character. There was a saying that the same people would hate each other.

‘I need to find some way to fix his bad manners or my head might pop.’

But right now he had no time to waste on the golem.

‘By the way……’

“Messenger-nim, everything has been taken care of.”

Ark’s forehead wrinkled as he looked around. Ellain spoke from behind him. However he maintained a certain distance.

“What? Am I a contagious person?”

“I’m sorry. I thought I might strike if I inadvertently got close to Messenger-nim……”

Ellain still hadn’t adapted to the Myutal Ark. But he had somewhat adapted to the environment on Impeltus thanks to the life support equipment. The proof was that Ellain had turned 3 Halrosu attacking Ark into mincemeat.

“What? This guy, he isn’t just someone who vomits?”

“This guy is pretty strong. Where on earth did he find all these NPCs?”

Fortunately Ellain managed to reform his impression in the team members’ eyes. He was promoted from a ‘vomit man’ to someone who could be counted on.

“Hey Ark!”

“This area is also clear.”

Slayer and the others who had been on the opposite side of the valley came back.

“Yes, there wasn’t anything strange. I didn’t see anything like a cave or a machine.”

“I checked it precisely. This is just an ordinary mountain.”

“What about you guys, Hegel and Milan?”

“Nothing apparent……”

Milan and Hegel also shook their heads. This was why Ark couldn’t afford to pay regard to the golem. Right now they were exploring the area where the optical scanner sensed the energy distortion. According to Hegel’s readings, the probability of an artificial facility being hidden here was high. But they’ve been searching and fighting the Halrosu for 3 hours and couldn’t find anything.

“I couldn’t see anything facility when looking down from the Silver Star so I thought it might be hidden……”

He thought it might be easily found in a cave. However they couldn’t find any caves within this range. But it wasn’t like Charem’s stealth capabilities. Before descending, he had switched the optical scanner to detect stealth but it didn’t find anything. So they had to run around on foot to search for it but couldn’t find any clue.

‘Slayer, Leon and Sadain are high level users with lots of experience. They wouldn’t just walk past a clue. That is also true for the Royal Guards. If Milan and Hegel worked together then they should’ve found something.’

There was a reason for him to believe that. The Royal Guards were under the influence of the agent buff. The name of this buff was joint business!

500 Adventure Points were originally needed to raise the rating of the agent. But if he paid more Adventure Points then he could select an agent profession skill. This was the reason why Ark paid 1,000 Adventure Points to raise the agent’s rating! Joint Business was a system created to compensate for the NPCs’ ability being slightly lower than users. It meant various occupational skills could be used more aggressively. All of his staff except for Kurakan were NPCs so it was an essential skill for Dark Eden!

These were the current buffs shared by the Royal Guards. Most of the NPCs in Dark Eden received a body coating so they had the basic tendencies but they didn’t have a professional career. But Milan and Hegel had professional jobs. So their shared effects had more of an effect compared to the other staff. Hegel was a Scavenger so he increased the probability that monsters would drop items by 15%. Ark could already see the effect. They had been hunting for the same time but they obtained much more loot than Slayer’s group. Well it was just japtem but…..

Anyway, Milan’s Joint Business effect increased the probability of finding hidden clues by 20%! That’s why Ark had Milan accompany them. He increased the odds of finding something hidden. There was no other skill more appropriate for an investigation mission. Nevertheless! Slayer’s group and the Royal Guards hadn’t found any clues.

‘If only this was a gentle ridge but the mountains here are dense and sharp like awls. Moreover, the range determined by the optical scanner is 5 kilometres. If won’t be any use even if Milan and I use dowsing. It would take a few days to explore and there is no guarantee we can find anything. The range needs to be narrower in order to use dowsing.’

Ark scratched his head with the Myutal’s sharp legs. Sadain opened up with a pensive expression.

“Isn’t it in a cave?”

“But we didn’t see anything that looked like a cave.”

“No, to be exact we didn’t find the entrance. If the cave is underground then there is no guarantee the entrance would be here. The entrance to the cave might be somewhere else.”

This was something Ark hadn’t considered.

“Yes, that is a likely possibility. But that means the search scope has increased indefinitely. There is a time limit so searching the surrounding area is impossible.”

“Then should we look through this area again?”

“That’s the only way but……”

Kurung! Kurung! Ku kwa kwa kwa!

While Ark was muttering with a distracted expression. Lightning bolts struck over and over again from the purple clouds. The lightning had fallen from the purple clouds like a boiling cauldron while they were searching but he still hadn’t adjusted to it. Slayer spoke with an uncomfortable expression.

“This planet is really weird.”

“It keeps on making my body cower.”

“Isn’t it dangerous? Don’t you remember the scene where the Silver Star was hit by the lightning a while ago? The ship wobbled so what would happen if a person was hit by that? We might be struck by lightning.”

“It’s lucky that lightning is only falling in one place.”

Melina said as she stroked her chest to calm down. Ark felt like he had been hit by a lightning bolt.

“What was that Melina-nim? What did you say just now?”

“Well, I didn’t say anything specific. Just that it’s lucky the lightning only falls in one place…..”

“Only one place? Is that true?”

“Yes, I am very scared of lightning. My head naturally turns every time the lightning strikes.  But the lightning only strikes near the area where we first descended.”

“The place on the mountain where we descended?”

Ark turned his head at Melina’s answer. He felt a heavy pain in the back of his head the moment she confirmed his mental calculations.

“Oh my god! Why didn’t I notice until now?”

“What does that mean?”

“That…..no, I need to check it first! Everybody follow me!”

Ark who was a Myutal ran across the ground with sharp legs. After a few moments, Ark’s team arrived at the place where they first landed on Impeltus. Ark rushed to the spot he calculated and shouted.

“Shovel!”

The shovel sprang out of his backpack.

Ark grabbed the shovel from his bag and….tak! Tak! Grab…..tak! Tak! The Myutal Ark couldn’t grasp the shovel!

“Dammit! Royal Guards, dig!”

“Yes! Shovel!”

The Royal Guards cried out in unison and grabbed their shovels.

“Dig through the mountain!”

“Waaaaahhhhh!”

They shouted at Ark’s command and lowered their heads. The Royal Guards had spent one month digging in S-20! Thanks to that, all the members had Dig Lv. 2 while Milan and Ark had Dig Lv. 4! They had reached the stage of mastery. The standard of the member’s digging was like a large excavator! There was no difference between rocks and soil when digging.

Pa pa pa pa! Pa pa pa pa!

“W-what are they doing? This is?”

“It is outrageous. Even my autobots that had been modified with excavators isn’t as fast as that!”

“What the hell were they fed?”

Slayer’s group were shocked at the Royal Guards’ digging skills. Meanwhile they just continued shovelling. And!

Jjang!

Suddenly there was the sound of iron!

“We’re being blocked! There is a metal wall in front of us!”

“Metal wall?”

“It’s over here as well!”

Slayer’s eyes concentrated on Ark.

“What? Did you know there would be a metal wall here?”

“Of course. Did you think they were just shovelling crazily?”

“No, that digging….they are digging because…..eh? Why are they digging?”

Slayer tilted his head with a stupid expression. Park was locked in thought for a moment before nodding.

“Aha! So it was like that.”

“What? You know something?’

“It is a simple matter. Originally lightning strikes the highest place. But the surrounding mountains are almost the same height. Ark’s subordinates had just dug a hole in a place that is lower than the surrounding mountains. Yet lightning keeps on striking here. Then there is only one answer. Lightning is attracted to metal. That’s why the Silver Star was hit by lightning. It was lower than the mountains but it contained metal. The element attracted lightning. But lightning continued falling here even when the Silver Star disappeared. In other words, that means there is metal here. No, if there is a metal wall then it must be the facility we’re looking for……”

“A lightning rod.”

Ark mentioned.

“If there are electronic equipment in the facility then lightning is a risk factor. It can influence electronic equipment even when the lightning doesn’t hit directly. Therefore a lightning rod needs to be installed in the facility. It will absorb all the lightning that falls near here. That’s why the lightning only falls in this spot. This entire place is probably acting like a lightning rod.”

“Ohh! Indeed!”

The Royal Guards interjected. Then Slayer looked at them with incredulous eyes.

“What? You guys didn’t know that? You didn’t know yet you were shovelling like crazy?”

“That’s……Hyung-nim commanded us……isn’t that right?”

“That’s right.”

The rest of the members nodded at Berad’s answer. Slayer was even more astounded by their answer!

“Okay. Now let’s dig around the walls. The entrance should be somewhere here.”

Pa pa pa pa! Pa pa pa pa! Pa pa pa pa!

The digging continued for a long time at Ark’s command. They finally found the entrance of the facility buried in dirt and rocks. The entrance was blocked with a round metal plate like a bomb shelter! A message flashed once they pressed the lever type handle.

Ohu!’

Ark’s eyes shone brightly. This message meant that hacking was possible at his level!

“Milan, remove the connector from my Nymphe and link it to the lock.”

Ark had changed into a Myutal so he couldn’t even remove the connector. But there was no problem for releasing the lock.

This mini game was a rhythm action! Unfortunately Ark turned into a Myutal so he couldn’t use his fingers. However there were 4 buttons to press and Ark had 7 legs.

Kok kok kok! Kok kok kok! Kok kok kok!

His 7 legs moved like lightning on the Nymphe’s screen! Well, he had to strike a pose lying down in order to fully mobilize his 7 legs! He might look like a spider but it wasn’t a disadvantage at the moment!

Ark quickly turned his body over again. He pressed the lever down and the door slowly rotated open. A passage appeared on the other side and an information window flashed.

——————————————————————————————————————–

The outskirts of the Igracia constellation.

One spaceship was floating in orbit around a huge, grey planet. All identifiable lights were hidden so only the silhouette of the ship was visible in the shadow of the planet. In the midst of that ship, someone opened their mouth.

“Why are we waiting in a place like this?”

“For contact.”

“Contact? By who?”

“Let’s see? Who is it? Well, let’s assume they’re a friend for the moment.”

The man sitting in the captain’s seat laughed and replied. Then the man who asked the question sighed and shook his head.

“That’s a problem. We didn’t come here to relax. Did you forget the command received from our home country?”

“I didn’t forget.”

“You didn’t forget? What do you mean?”

“The reason I’m waiting here doesn’t differ that much from the mission received. No, in a sense it might be even more important.”

“That’s why I’m asking.”

“Keiko-nim!”

Then a soldier sitting down at the cockpit shouted.

“A signal is incoming.”

“Signal? Even our home country doesn’t know…..perhaps?”

“I’ve been waiting for this. Decode the signal received.”

The man sitting in the captain’s seat commanded. The communication soldier operated the dashboard and a message was shown on the monitor.

-O-5440 Impeltus

“Impeltus? That place……”

Keiko narrowed his eyes and muttered. He turned around like he was about to ask a question before closing his mouth. The man sitting in the captain’s seat seemed to have a flame aura burning around him after seeing the message. The flame aura combined with the red armour gave an illusion of a huge fireball. He said in a low voice.

“That planet is where Ark is.”

The man speaking was wearing red armour. He was given the nickname Red Slaughterer.

“Start the engine! Destination is O-5440, Impeltus!”

The voice resounded on board as the ship in the shadow of the planet woke up.

——————————————————————————————————————–

Kuwaaaaaaaah!

A shriek rang out through the hallway. At the same time a fist cut through the wind. Ark listened and raised his left arm.

“Kuk! Baius Shield!”

Jjang!

Cracks spread like a spider web on the surface of the shield. It had the form of crystals but Baius was still an energy shield. The cracks on the shield disappeared. However that indicated the amount of damage that the shield received.

‘Damn, no matter how weak the shield is to melee attacks……’

When the shield recovered, it had lost 2,300 energy! This meant that more than one third of the shield’s energy was consumed. At this point it already wasn’t a matter of resistance. The enemy was just too strong. However the power wasn’t the only outrageous thing.

‘I’ve seen it a few times but it really doesn’t fit.’

Ark looked at the monster over the clear shield. The appearance…..it looked like mutilated bodies had been stitched back together into a monster wearing rags. These monsters had appeared in a secret laboratory. The name was Blunder The only thing he could confirm with Clairvoyance was its name. And detailed information wasn’t necessary. He had dealt with a few Blunder so he knew its characteristics. The size didn’t differ significantly from an average person and it didn’t have any special skills. It only attacked by swinging its arms randomly. But it wasn’t a monster that could be easily defeated. The first reason was its level!

‘Level 200?’

Right now Ark was level 120. However the Blunder in the research centre were level 200. It was similar to Ark fighting 1 on 1 with an intermediate boss. And 3~4 of these guys rushed at once. However Ark also wasn’t alone. In fact, this was the second difficult part.

‘Sheesh, its level is high and its body isn’t big!’

The Blunder was a similar size and shape to Ark. Therefore Ark couldn’t be given proper cover fire while facing the Blunder. If they blindly shot then Ark might be hit in the back of the head! But if Ark kept a distance then the Blunder would be exposed to the attacks from the rear support.

‘At any rate I’m quite lucky. I transformed while fighting the Halrosu and now turned back. What would’ve happened if I changed into a Myutal while facing this thing?’

While Ark was busy thinking…..

Kuwaaaaaaaah!

The Blunder once again threw its body and wielded its fist. His Baius shield had already less than half of its energy left! Ark abandoned the idea of blocking and retreated. The Blunder landed and once again rushed towards him. Just as its fist was about to be driven into Ark’s chest!

“Sonic Sword!”

It was hit from the side! The Blunder stumbled and retreated. There was no need to confirm the owner of the sword. Ark raised his thumb in the direction the sword came from and smiled.

“Nice assist!”

“It is thanks to the direct teachings from Messenger-nim. The effect is almost guaranteed.”

Ellain also gave a thumbs up. Ellain had vomited while sailing on the Silver Star and had to lie down in the infirmary. That’s why he was dubbed the vomit man. He still had the motion sickness even when landing on Impeltus so his skills couldn’t be demonstrated. He also didn’t have a body coating and needed to use life support equipment. However that changed once they entered the research centre. The research centre had an oxygen supply so Ellain could take off the life support system and fight. It was to the extent that he covered for Ark while fighting the Blunder.

“Hey! Watch out!”

“Don’t worry about it! Welcome to alter ego! ”

Ellain turned at Ark’s shout and 5 Ellain’s spread all over the place. Then he swung his swords towards the Blunder’s back.

“Hot Air Sword!”

Flames shot out from the sword! The Blunder screamed as its body shook. As expected from a level 150 warrior! His skills were on a different dimension from the other NPCs. Ellain and Berad were taking care of another Blunder while giving support to Ark. Then the Blunder that had been pushed by Ellain once again approached Ark.

“I can’t look worse than my subordinates.”

Kuwaaaaaaaah!

“Welcome to the alter ego!”

The next moment Ark also split into 5 bodies. While the Blunder’s fist hit blank air, he ran behind its back.

“Of course the President has to be different from his subordinates!”

Wiing! Buuuuong! Wiing! Wiing!

The flash of light continuously hit the Blunder! Ellain had only managed to deal one blow to the Blunder before it turned around but Ark’s lightsaber trajectory continuously hit the Blunder. A complex pattern like a tattoo was created over the Blunder. And once the Blunder completely turned around!

“Ink Jet!”

Puaaaah!

A black liquid was sprayed from Ark’s head. Ink Jet was the new feature that had been added to the Charenjok’s Token through Bakum’s sacrifice!

The octopus that was stuck to his head restored his head as well as blinded the Blunder.

“Binding Sword!”

It was the onslaught of continuous attacks! A collar formed around the blinded Blunder. Once again, Binding Sword was a technique with an extremely low success rate. The success rate after increased thanks to his repetitive practice but it was still only at 50%. However Ink Jet changed the situation by 180 degrees. Ink Jet caused a state of blindness so the success probability increased by leaps and bounds. Of course this wasn’t easy but the combo had a success rate of 90%! It could be called Blinding Chain!

The Blunder was completely bound after being blinded.

In addition, he consistently used Binding Sword so it had reached Lv. 2! Thanks to that the duration increased from 3 seconds to 4 seconds. 4 seconds was a long time in a fight. Especially when there was a bunch of people there.

“Now! Focus your fire!”

Tu tu tu tu! Tu tu tu tu!

Ark turned back and shouted. Dozens of bullets started pouring out in the narrow corridor. Milan and the Royal Guards who had been waiting behind fired their bullets. His presence had been insignificant so far but Kurakan had also accompanied them. Just like Kaya, Slayer and the other members who participated on the team, Kurakan was a name that was quite well known on Istana. So Kurakan thought. He had to properly show his skills to them! But Kurakan had terrible shooting skills. In the meantime he had been bragging about how invincible he was. No, in fact he knew. Kurakan was the type to persistently challenge a user until they got tired of dealing with him and just gave up. When fighting he just blindly fired his machine gun until the opponent died. So it was impossible for him to have any shooting skills.

Still, a machine gun dealt a lot more damage than small firearms. Its attack power and speed were high but the hit rate was only 50%. If it was a quick monster like the Halrosu then he couldn’t hit them. So Kurakan thought again. He became embarrassed at the thought of being buried among the NPCs! However that changed once they entered the research centre. The research centre had narrow passages. If there were no special obstacles in the way then he could just shoot blindly. Especially when Ark had blocked the Blunder’s movement with Binding Sword!

“Hahaha! The time has come for me to show my skills! This is the M-620 that launches special ceramic bullets with 20 shots per minute! This is a machine gun!”

Tu tu tu tu! Tu tu tu tu! Tu tu tu tu!

Kurakan held the blazing machine gun with both hands! His gun dealt reckless damage. Thanks to the research centre, Kurakan could become a powerhouse for the first time. Kalliben also aimed for the vital spots while the troopers used their firearms!

This was the effort of the Kuon rune! The Blunder lost 30% health in only 4 seconds. Ark also did a series of back attacks! And the shooting of the Royal Guards continued! Shoot! Shoot! In the end the level 200 Blunder couldn’t endure anymore. The other Blunder couldn’t last either once Ark started helping Ellain and Berad.

That message appeared once they took care of 2 Blunder.

‘Oho! Finally! It is troublesome to take care of but the experience is good.’

He might have a lot of complaints but Ark actually liked the Blunder. Beating a level 200 monster gave him huge amounts of experience. They had caught 30 monsters during the 3 levels spent in the research centre yet he already levelled up. Naturally experience wasn’t the only thing it gave.

“How about it? What did it drop?”

Ark asked into the Nymphe after taking care of the Blunder. The research centre had a small hallway that split into two big ones. The hallway divided to the left and right at the entrance. Ark guessed the difficulty of the research centre so he split the team into two so they could capture both passages at the same time. That’s because there was a time limit of 2 days in this mission. Ark and the Royal Guards were one team while Kaya and Slayer’s group were the other one. Kaya sent a communication and her voice seemed dissatisfied.

-Chet, it came out again this time.

“I’m sorry but what can I do?”

Ark’s lips went up as he spoke.

The ‘it’ that Kaya talked about was this battery pack! The reason for Ark’s smirk was because his Rama battle suit used mana. Apart from Melina and Park, the others all had federation battle suits. They recharged on mechanical energy not mana. And the current loot distribution of the party was the occupation had first priority! In other words, people who could use the item had priority. The Blunder didn’t only drop mana battery packs. The Blunder also dropped the ether battery packs for the mechanical battle suits.

The ratio was half and half. However the ether battery packs had to be divided between 5 people, including Kurakan, while Ark alone could monopolize the mana battery packs. So he had already gobbled up 4 mana battery packs! The battery pack was worth 10 gold so he had already packed 40 gold.

‘I don’t know why the Blunder only drops battery packs but……’

To Ark it was the perfect hunting ground! Of course he wasn’t just satisfied with the mana battery packs. This was a hidden laboratory on an abandoned planet so there should be more things he could obtain! These items couldn’t be everything.

‘Even if there isn’t any information on the magic camp or antimatter but there should be some special items hidden in the laboratory! I can smell the scent of a jackpot!’

Motivation gushed within him.

“Now let’s go to the next block!”

Ark grinned and walked along the passage.