Chapter 262
Chapter 262
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 262
Chapter Title: 6-2. Labyrinth
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A sudden burst of applause that didn't fit the situation was enough to draw the party's attention. Under the pouring gazes, Arhil stopped clapping, widened her eyes roundly, then let out a loose laugh and stuck out her tongue.
"Hehe."
Seeing her innocent expression eased the tension. I let out a small chuckle as I descended the stairs, but the moment I passed the hole-riddled corpse, a revolting stench made me grimace involuntarily. Judah was about to enter the wide-open door first, but Iris tapped his shoulder from behind to stop him.
"What's wrong…?"
Before he could finish speaking, she held out her notebook. In that brief moment, as she scribbled hurriedly, her usually neat handwriting was a bit messy.
-Shouldn't I take the lead from here?
She was worried about traps. Judah pondered for a moment before extending his hand to her. Taking the notebook and pencil, he wrote down the information to share.
-This labyrinth: whenever you hit a fork, always turn left. No exceptions. Even if it looks like a thorny path or a dead end, go left.
It was an absurdly simple strategy. Iris tilted her head, clearly puzzled by the note, then scribbled something more with the pencil.
-How on earth did you know this? Does prophecy reveal even this?
Of course I knew—I'm the one who designed this labyrinth.
When creating the game, I'd experimented with all sorts of things to make it fit the maze concept. Things like alternating left and right at forks, or activating gimmicks, or solving quizzes. None of it was as fun as I'd hoped, and long mazes felt downright boring. Simply wandering to find the path was one thing, but with vicious traps that sent you back to the start or dropped you into unknown pits, even I—the creator—got lost.
The other labyrinths, excluding this one called the Iron Labyrinth, were products of those experiments. By the time I made the Iron Labyrinth, I'd run out of ideas and was mentally exhausted, so I slapped it together.
This four-floor labyrinth: at every fork, just keep turning left—traps or no traps—and you'll reach the exit.
The monsters here can be dealt with relatively easily if you have decent fire resistance and can attack with ice attributes.
-Some things it tells me, some it doesn't. It gets annoyingly wrong a lot, though.
-It gets things wrong? So this info could be wrong too?
-Human fates and such aren't reliable, but building layouts like this? You can trust those.
-Really?
He nodded at her skeptical side-eye. That wrapped up the note-passing. Iris pocketed the notebook and pencil, then took the lead into the open labyrinth.
"Ugh!"
The moment they entered, Judah groaned at the stench. Since the labyrinth had gone berserk, some of the monsters that had surged out had been trampled to death, leaving sticky fluids and rotting corpses everywhere. That was the source of the foul smell. Pinching their noses, they pressed on inside.
The labyrinth was darker than expected—pitch black, with nothing visible. No intruders allowed, so no expensive magic stones embedded for light. In the distance, black flames crackled along the walls, providing some illumination.
But relying on that light to navigate would be reckless. Just as Judah reached into his <Bag> for torch materials, Arhil swiftly used holy magic to create orbs of light and floated them in the air.
The cozy, sacred glow banished the surrounding darkness. She generously made six orbs: two in front, two behind, and one each farther out to secure their field of vision.
"Your holy power's okay?"
"This is nothing. It's actually recovering faster than I'm using it."
Since becoming a saintess, her holy power recovery had apparently increased a lot; she wore a relaxed expression.
"Good. Let's go, then. Iris, if you would."
Even Judah was entering this labyrinth for the first time, so the dim, damp, musty atmosphere had him on edge. He readied Artemia for instant throws at any rustling sounds, positioned the wraith knight in the rear to guard against ambushes, and prepared thoroughly.
But the labyrinth was far more mundane than expected. The monsters still wandering, unable to escape, had triggered all the traps—arrows and spears shooting from walls, pit floors revealing beds of spikes—all that elaborate handiwork rendered useless.
Considering the lore that building this labyrinth cost many lives, it was almost tragic.
"Judah, this is way beyond what I imagined."
Arhil, following behind, spoke in a disappointed tone. Even Lime, who hadn't expected it to be this easy, nodded in agreement.
Following Judah's directions—always left at forks—they encountered no dead ends. They were startled occasionally by spirits emerging from walls, but the wraith knight dispatched them with a sword swing before Judah even needed to act; they vanished screaming without a trace.
"That's a good thing. Imagine if all those traps were intact."
If a comrade suddenly vanished into a wall or plummeted through the floor to a gruesome death, that would be horrific.
In the game, traps just deducted HP, but in this world, they were lethal. Fall through a sudden pit onto spikes below, and no amount of agility would save you without special talents or skills—you'd be skewered.
The traps were the classic sorts from modern novels, movies, and comics, but seeing them in person made them seem utterly diabolical.
Some traps remained intact, but Iris disarmed them effortlessly. Still, the maze's intricate design meant it dragged on endlessly despite their progress.
They passed corpses of monsters impaled on spears and arrows, with only bones left; hopped over rusted spike pits while carrying Arhil; created safe zones severing inside from outside via magic to leisurely cook and eat during breaks.
About two days after entering, they spotted something unusual.
"Someone smashed through the wall. In a straight line, too…"
Lime said in disbelief. What could be beyond to warrant such destruction? It wasn't like a massive beast had raged through the complex structure—the hole's direction was consistent, and its size surprisingly small.
"Did someone else enter besides us?"
"Who knows."
Judah scratched his nose, feeling troubled. The labyrinth overflowing with monsters due to its rampage deviated from game lore but was understandable. But holes punched through walls? Unexpected. Someone had definitely entered—and grown impatient with the paths, blasting straight through thick walls.
"…We can't call that the right path, so let's stick to our route."
Yet the gaping hole precisely followed the exit direction—every left turn at forks led right to it. At this point, it tempted them to just hop through.
-Shall we?
Even the usually silent Iris seemed intrigued. After a moment's thought, Judah nodded. With Lime and Arhil agreeing, they followed the tunnel-like hole. Less than a day later, they reached the exit.
"My god."
Judah let out a hollow laugh at the sight. The exit loomed blatantly ahead.
Of course, it was a valid method. Walls weren't indestructible like in the game; with enough power, you could smash through. But he'd never imagined anyone actually doing it.
'Was I too caught up in preconceptions?'
Judah tested it, channeling mana into his sword for a slash. The walls had weakened over time—even without much mana, it crumbled in a heap. Wide enough for a person to pass easily.
'But without knowing the exit's direction, who would attempt something so reckless?'
Someone had passed through. That much was certain.
"Has the labyrinth already been cleared?"
"If so, no monsters would appear, and the Empire's Blue Lance Knights wouldn't be searching nearby."
Clearing the labyrinth meant destroying its mana core. No core, no gate to the demon realm, no monsters.
Yet the gate remained open, and the Empire hadn't even located it. Alerting them would bring massive rewards—possibly even an honorary noble title. No greedy adventurer or mercenary would pass that up, especially since money couldn't buy nobility.
"Well…"
Lime, having said it himself, rubbed his chin, realizing he'd jumped ahead.
"Or maybe they failed?"
"Or they're ahead of us."
Hmm.
Who could have entered this labyrinth?
Kain, who could find it, was dead. No one had the adventure spirit to stumble in by chance. Even if they did, without preparation, floors 2 and 3 were impassable.
And even reaching floor 4—the lowest—without a fragment, the saint king's blessing, or equivalent treasure, no one could withstand Asmodeus's eons of highly concentrated demonic mana.
"Let's head to floor 2 for now."
-What's to watch out for on 2?
Iris promptly held out her notebook. Floor 2, floor 2.
"Nothing much. Flames gushing from the ground?"
-That's plenty terrifying.
"That's why we prepared thoroughly. Lime, you'll have your work cut out. But it's shorter than floor 1—we can clear it in a day."
Seeing the ordeal ahead, Lime gave a wry smile.
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