I Became a 6? Gacha Character

Chapter 426: The Hero's Bomb Pocket 1

Even in this medieval fantasy virtual reality game - more specifically this mishmash K-fantasy with questionable historical accuracy - certain common sense rules existed.

For example: mages were either lunatics, madmen, or psychopaths; wandering monsters were craftier than expected; and you never joked about the Goddess in front of temple folk, even in jest.

Among these rules was the basic principle that "enemies get stronger as you climb the tower."

"The numbers seem low. Did they head out somewhere?" Grace asked.

"Here's what looks like centaur barracks. Something must have happened to make them leave," a knight replied.

So it made sense that a simple wooden fence and shallow moat in the middle of nowhere would be upgraded to a 5-meter earthen wall with mines that could blast armored people dozens of meters into the air.

Conversely, having fewer troops in such an enhanced camp went against common sense. No wonder the Ice Cross Knights felt something was off and searched the area thoroughly.

Like any proper explosives expert, Han Se-ah quietly went to the earthen wall and started playing in the dirt with Earth Control to find magic mines. The knights viewed this as perfectly normal, thinking "Ah, the mage is curious..."

"Hey, I think we could use this somehow."

-Baby no no don't look at things like that

-While everyone else is collecting mana stones and checking the center, you're checking bombs first you crazy bitch lol

-Possessed maybe? Must be the ghost of someone who died trying to detonate a suicide vest

-Please just complete the quest for fuck's sake lol

While Han Se-ah finally found and pocketed some well-crafted crystal landmines from the dirt, and the Ice Cross Knights discussed with Katie whether they could melt down and reuse the monsters' weapons, Irene, Grace and I examined the center of the clearing.

Sure enough, Grace's search revealed a dark purple crystal just beneath the soil. As if proving we'd leveled up from floor 55 to 56, the black magic seemed slightly more concentrated.

"Do we purify after digging out the crystal?" Irene asked.

"Actually, once we remove the crystal from the safe zone, the land will start absorbing mana. We can probably just put it in Hanna's inventory," I explained.

With the black crystal found, we just needed to decide whether to purify this land after isolating it. Irene looked ready to blast the human life-draining black crystal with holy magic right then and there, but Grace had a different reaction.

"Roland, what if we... buried it back in the ground?" she suggested.

"Hm?"

"What?!"

Irene startled at Grace's suggestion to not just delay but skip purification entirely. For the usually quiet and gentle Irene to raise her voice in shock showed just how surprised she was.

Of course, Grace didn't want to maintain a base powered by human lives. Since Katie and the knights were discussing the reduced troops and missing forces, she'd thought of setting a trap. As a hunter, she was clearly used to deception, traps, and ambushes.

"The knights are saying some monsters left this place," she said.

"True. The numbers were low so we cleared them quickly."

"Whether they left for patrol or to kidnap people, they'll come back. Why not use this camp to hunt them easily when they do?"

"Ah, cleaning up the stragglers. That makes sense."

If they maintained similar force ratios to floor 55, only some of the centaur cavalry and goblin infantry had left the camp. Add in evidence of kidnapping humans, and the conclusion was obvious.

Had the centaurs found some forcibly teleported people, with goblins moving to capture them?

Who knew what they might do finding their camp destroyed while bringing back prisoners? Plus, weren't centaurs about as capable as 5? scout archers? Better to keep the black crystal in place so they'd approach even if they sensed something wrong.

"That actually makes a lot of sense!" Han Se-ah exclaimed.

"Right, Hanna?" Grace replied.

Having finished playing in the dirt and collecting mines, Han Se-ah eagerly jumped into the conversation.

Since the black crystal's presence didn't curse or debuff humans inside the camp, it made strategic sense. Plus, from Han Se-ah's perspective, this was perfect for her stream:

Secretly taking over a monster camp, then ambushing the returning monster army!

You could already see the clickbait thumbnails: "China in tears!" "Japan jealous!" "Han Se-ah world's hope!" "European streamers in crisis!"

?

There are two phrases in the world: "different inside and out" and "same inside and out."

Roughly speaking, the first means someone whose outside doesn't match their inside, while the second means someone whose outside matches their inside.

So the former describes someone hiding their true thoughts while acting differently - someone with darkness inside. The latter means the inside and outside are one, moving as a single unit.

Han Se-ah was definitely the latter.

"Based on movement speed, the centaurs will return first. If they're not carrying prisoners themselves but have goblins dragging them, we need to throw them off balance!" she said.

"So what's your plan?"

"Let's take all the mines from the wall and plant them at the entrance!"

She truly embodied both streamer/entertainer and mage/explosives expert in perfect harmony. Saying it like this made it sound like some martial arts realm of enlightenment.

Though reaching enlightenment through such antics to become the world's top streamer was pretty accurate.

"Using their own weapons against them - excellent!" Olek exclaimed.

"If we take out the centaurs with those devices, we can exploit openings from the returning goblins," Alisa added.

"Mmm, if the goblins follow right behind the centaurs, I can protect any captured people with barriers," Irene said.

No one argued against the excellent suggestion to transplant mines and catch the unsuspecting returning forces in a minefield.

The only concern was potential prisoners, but Irene's barriers could protect them. The mines didn't instantly kill with poison gas or flames, just launched people into the air with shockwaves.

So everyone busily got to work without questioning the hero's plan. Han Se-ah restored the excavated walls with Earth Control, and they roughly reassembled the aura-sliced fence pieces like a puzzle, just enough to stand.

The fence entrance and earthen ramp were on the opposite side from our sword cuts, so a rough assembly would do.

If the plan failed, we could always jump out and kill them all. No matter how fast the centaurs were, we had Han Se-ah with Ice Storm and Katie the walking slow machine.

"Hold it steady from up there!"

"We can't catch it if you're not lifting it straight!"

If I'd hit the fence with my hammer, we'd have sawdust instead of cut logs. Maybe getting launched by the mine was actually lucky.

It was quite a sight watching the high-ranking knights fitting huge logs together like puzzle pieces, grunting with effort. Though it would probably collapse if an orc so much as knocked on it, it looked fine from a distance.

Then came the grand mine-planting operation, everyone crouching together outside the fence gate.

"What if we planted them in the middle instead of the entrance? They'd fly right after stepping on them," a knight suggested.

"Won't they come in single file anyway? Only the lead would step on it," another said.

"Then let's plant some on either side of the entrance slope. They might step on them while backing up to check the camp," a third added.

"We've got plenty since they were scattered around the fence instead of a moat."

Strange - was being explosives-crazy contagious?

Han Se-ah carefully setting down the collected mines, Ice Cross Knights gingerly receiving them worried about accidental detonation.

Giant kid Olek getting along with Katie made sense, but why did the other knights look so excited too?

Their eager little movements reminded me of middle schoolers gathering to try setting up pranks like wedging erasers in doorframes.

And the only sane one, Alisa, just sighed and watched from a step back, unable to stop them. As their external brain and inhibitor, she seemed quite used to such scenes. Maybe something like chuunibyou spread like a plague among northern nobles.

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