Chapter 20
Chapter 20
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 20
Chapter Title: Chapter 2 - Floor 2
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[Chapter 2 - Floor 2]
Chapter 2 - Floor 2
In the Labyrinth World, there were five goddesses.
Aiter, the goddess of life, passion, and the sun.
Eos, the goddess of death, darkness, and dawn.
Evnail, the goddess of struggle, love, and war.
Teresia, the goddess of earth, sea, and sky.
And one more.
A goddess whose name was unknown.
&
Standing before the staircase leading to the second floor, Cheon-ho came to a halt for the moment.
“This must be the staircase down to the lower level.”
Before Cheon-ho and Lucille stood a massive pillar.
Its width alone seemed to span dozens of meters at least, but what was truly impressive was its height.
He couldn’t even see where it ended. It truly resembled a pillar holding up the sky.
‘Why wasn’t something like this visible from afar?’
From the top of the tower, there had clearly been no such pillar. No, he hadn’t seen it even while approaching the staircase.
The pillar only became visible after getting close—within about forty meters or so.
“The power of the Great Labyrinth conceals the pillar. That’s why you can’t detect it until you get this close. Even so, the Hero purified the surroundings, so we spotted it early.”
As if guessing Cheon-ho’s puzzlement, Lucille spoke in a somewhat dazed voice.
In truth, this was Lucille’s first time actually seeing one of the Great Labyrinth’s pillars.
[There are how many of these pillars just on the first floor?]
It wasn’t just the first floor. There would be pillars on the lower floors too, meaning dozens or even hundreds in total.
“Lucille, how many floors does the Great Labyrinth have?”
It dawned on him that he hadn’t asked this most crucial question yet.
At Cheon-ho’s query, Lucille replied with a hint of uncertainty.
“The exact number of floors hasn’t been revealed yet. But the current estimate is that even at most, it’s within forty floors.”
“Hmm.”
‘That’s lower than I thought.’
Dungeons like this usually had a hundred floors—that was the common wisdom in such matters.
But it wasn’t incomprehensible.
The place where Cheon-ho and Lucille now stood wasn’t outside the Great Labyrinth. It was the first floor of the Great Labyrinth.
Strictly speaking, it was indoors, yet there was a sky overhead.
Given this structure, even forty floors would mean an immense depth at the bottom.
“What about the progress of the conquest?”
“Well... the first five floors are called the upper levels. From the sixth floor, it’s the middle levels, and from the fifteenth, the deep levels.”
Lucille squatted down and drew a picture on the ground.
It was a habit of hers, like when they first met.
“The conquest headquarters is in the middle levels. Most of the subordinate divine beings of the five goddesses are there too. In the deep levels, select heroes and senior angels are carrying out the conquest.”
She pointed to near the end of the pillar picture she’d drawn on the ground.
“As far as I know, the current conquest has reached the twenty-third floor. But as the Hero probably felt, it’s not a complete clearance of every area. They’ve just secured the descent pillars and the surrounding areas.”
The ultimate goal of the five goddesses, angels, and heroes wasn’t total conquest of the Great Labyrinth but reaching the lowest floor and banishing the Demon God and the Great Labyrinth from this world.
From an efficiency standpoint, it was an understandable choice.
“As you go deeper, there are more pure Great Labyrinth fragments than pieces of our world. I’ve heard that from the deep levels on, it’s almost another world entirely.”
[So most people who originally lived in this world are in the upper or middle levels?]
When Cheon-ho relayed Mitra’s question, Lucille nodded.
“Yes, I believe most of the descendants of the empire are gathered in the middle levels.”
The power of the Demon God dominating the Great Labyrinth grew stronger the deeper you went.
Naturally occurring monsters also grew stronger closer to the deep levels, but the middle levels housed the five goddesses and this world’s powerful forces.
In some areas, the middle levels were safer than the upper ones.
“This seems to be the outskirts, then.”
He hadn’t found any significant traces of people on the way here.
No, the strongest evidence was that the Empire Guardian Sword—Holy Sword Mitra—hadn’t been found until this very day.
[We might have to go quite deep just with us.]
But it was too early to conclude. There was the angel who sent the rescue request this time, after all.
“Let’s hurry down.”
As Cheon-ho stood up and spoke, Lucille rose too and erased the ground drawing with her foot.
“I learned that the staircases are safe from enemy attacks, but just in case, be careful.”
“Yes, Lucille.”
After a brief reply, Cheon-ho looked at the pillar again. In its center was a massive door large enough for dozens to enter at once, filled only with darkness inside.
“I’ll take the lead, so follow behind.”
“Yes, Hero.”
Cheon-ho lit a torch and began leading the way.
He’d thought it would be a spiral staircase like the tower due to the pillar’s shape, but no.
It was a simple rectangular staircase stretching endlessly downward.
‘It feels like going down an up escalator.’
He was definitely descending, but it didn’t feel like moving forward.
Some magical force seemed to be at work.
‘Assuming we keep going down like this...’
As Lucille had said, the second floor, like the first, was a mix of various terrains.
So the second floor’s environment was unknown.
But he could make some preparations.
‘Avoid combat if possible.’
The top priority was rescuing the 7th Rank Combat Angel Saschiell.
Avoiding unnecessary fights would save time.
And for that, what was needed.
As he stepped forward, Cheon-ho slowly shifted his breathing.
He circulated his internal energy, exhaled a long breath, and sharpened his senses.
He expanded his energy sense.
Like magic, he read the presences in the surrounding area.
It wasn’t like sharpening hearing and sight to detect wild animals or poachers.
He sensed directly.
With thinly spread internal energy, he scanned the surroundings.
Cheon-ho sensed Lucille.
He heard her heartbeat and breathing.
Farther.
A wider range.
[Presence Detection has reached Lv4.]
[Acquired Internal Energy Manipulation Lv1.]
[Internal Energy Manipulation has reached Lv2.]
Cheon-ho closed his eyes and descended the stairs.
Centered on himself, he felt everything within a twenty-meter radius.
And at one point, he stopped.
“We’re almost there.”
Cheon-ho spoke, and Lucille swallowed dryly.
Sure enough, light was visible beyond Cheon-ho’s feet.
“Before we go out, let me say this. As we talked about on the way, we’ll focus on finding Saschiell first. We’ll avoid combat as much as possible.”
“Yes, Hero.”
“You remember the hand signals I taught you?”
“Yes.”
They weren’t complicated.
Five common military signals that anyone could understand at a glance.
“Good. Then we’ll stick to the plan. No talking from now on.”
At Cheon-ho’s words, Lucille nodded vigorously while covering her mouth with both hands.
It was so like her.
Thanks to that, Cheon-ho let out a small chuckle and activated the light window.
It was the hidden quest window for the rescue request, not the one from Lucille.
Just as the Rat Hole’s location had been marked, Saschiell’s position was roughly indicated.
Cheon-ho compared the mental map he’d memorized with the light window once more, then began descending the stairs.
&
[Adventure Progress]
[Main Quest: Break through the Great Labyrinth’s second floor and descend to the third.]
As soon as they exited the pillar, a new light window appeared.
Cheon-ho quickly dismissed it, crouched low, and surveyed the surroundings.
The visibility was poor.
There was thick fog, for one.
The dense fog blanketing the ground made it hard to see far, and even what little was visible was just trees.
Trees with large, broad leaves in great numbers.
The forest interior was almost entirely shrouded in dark shadow.
‘Second floor is a forest.’
Looking up, he saw the sky, but it was grayer and darker than the first floor.
It felt less like sky and more like the second floor’s ceiling covered in clouds.
Either way, the height was dozens of meters at least.
Cheon-ho looked back at the ground. It was underbrush, but it seemed possible to move quietly enough.
[Acquired Stealth Movement Lv1.]
[Stealth Movement has reached Lv5.]
Using the tricks from hide-and-seek with his father since childhood, as he stepped forward, light windows popped up in succession.
It was impossible for Lucille, so she crouched and hovered low, flying without touching the ground—like hovering, so no sound.
Cheon-ho drew a map in his mind.
He matched it with the scene before him and soon read the path ahead. This way.
Cheon-ho gestured with his hand, and Lucille followed behind, still covering her mouth.
&
[Truly impressive. I’d believe it if you said he was a veteran Imperial Ranger.]
Mitra’s admiration was justified.
Cheon-ho wasn’t just walking silently.
With his widely spread energy sense, he detected the surroundings.
He read every trace he passed, grasping the movement patterns of whatever traversed the area, preemptively blocking potential encounters.
He’d thought the guy was just good at cooking, exceptionally handy, and decent in a fight, but this was beyond imagination.
[No, even those alone put him beyond ordinary.]
Lucille was amazed once again.
Cheon-ho was advancing toward Saschiell slowly but surely.
‘So cool, Hero.’
Look at the reliable aura from that trustworthy back.
Now, Lucille even thought he looked cool slicing meat.
And receiving the gazes of that holy sword and angel alike, Cheon-ho thought.
‘I wonder what kind of angel she is.’
7th Rank Combat Angel Saschiell.
It wasn’t anything like ulterior motives.
She was just someone he had to rescue ahead. Someone he’d likely travel with for a while.
‘Yeah, fine.’
Having convinced himself, Cheon-ho kept thinking.
The only angel Cheon-ho knew was the truly angelic Lucille.
Since Saschiell was an angel too, maybe she was similar to Lucille?
But she was a combat angel.
More mature than Lucille, tougher, physically superior.
If Lucille was a girl, maybe something like a mythical Valkyrie, an older woman...
‘Hmm.’
Lucille had pink hair, so Saschiell probably had blonde.
Blonde anyway.
After roughly sketching her in his mind, Cheon-ho nodded in satisfaction.
Then he raised his left hand to signal Lucille to stop.
They were almost there.
In the low-lying fog, Cheon-ho twitched his nose. Faintly, the air carried the scent of blood.
Likely Saschiell’s blood.
‘No other presences nearby.’
[Found her?]
It wouldn’t reach anyone but Cheon-ho anyway, but matching the mood, Mitra asked in a very small voice.
Cheon-ho just nodded and gripped the heat dagger in reverse grip. In the darkness of the tree shadows, he stepped forward very slowly.
It was dark.
The shadow-born darkness was so thick it felt like dipping into a black sea.
But Cheon-ho didn’t recklessly light a torch.
Instead, he opened the light window, using its faint glow to push back the surrounding dark.
And after walking a bit farther.
Cheon-ho signaled Lucille to stop again.
He read the presence just ahead and steadied his breath.
Monster or beast.
Likely the reason Saschiell couldn’t move.
To deliver a preemptive strike, Cheon-ho even dismissed the light window and melted into the darkness.
But right then.
“Hero, I think we found her.”
Lucille whispered very softly, then lit up the surrounding darkness in a flash of pink light.
Cheon-ho startled and tried to stop her, but it was too late.
The darkness lifted, revealing what was there. A massive beast crouched near tree roots.
A lion with a golden mane.
Cheon-ho didn’t relax, tightening his grip on the heat dagger. Then Lucille spoke.
“Are you Saschiell? It’s you, right, Saschiell?”
‘Huh?’
Cheon-ho blinked, and the lion, hearing Lucille’s voice, slowly opened its eyes.
Lucille beamed brightly and said again.
“We’ve come to help! This is Hero Park Cheon-ho.”
Instead of replying, the lion let out a relieved breath with a weary face.
It seemed she really was Saschiell.
“Hmm.”
A male lion with wings.
Now he noticed the halo of light above her head.
Moreover, just as expected, she seemed more mature than Lucille, tougher, and physically superior.
Even the mane was golden.
“Hmm.”
[My child, is something wrong? Strength is draining from your body.]
“Hmm.”
Cheon-ho didn’t answer Mitra’s question.
He simply stared into the distance with a sullen expression.
&
[Chapter 2 - Floor 2] End