Chapter 2 — E-Rank Labyrinth: Nest of the Sneaking Ghoul Pack (1)
Chapter 2 — E-Rank Labyrinth: Nest of the Sneaking Ghoul Pack (1)
《Useful Information for You 1: The claws of a Sneaking Ghoul are sharp enough to slice the pitiful human body into appetizing pieces in a single strike.》
I brushed away the worthless text that kept blocking the right side of my vision and continued running.
I could not stop for even a moment.
The drunken mercenary was unintentionally buying time for us, but he would not last long.
At most, maybe ten seconds.
Sneaking Ghouls were monsters known for their absurd speed, so neither a cultist nor two children could outrun them.
“Intrudeeers—!”
It seemed the ghouls had finished dealing with the drunken mercenary, because they soon began chasing us at terrifying speed.
The disgusting stench of decay closed in within moments.
If we had started at the same time, we would have already been caught and invited to the ghouls’ dinner table—as the meal.
I was too busy running to look back, but judging from the expressions of the tiger beastman siblings who occasionally glanced behind us, it was easy to tell how quickly the distance was shrinking.
《Useful Information for You 2: Human respiratory organs do not burst that easily, so feel free to keep running without worry!》
“Huff… right, thanks…!”
Without slowing down, I scanned the surrounding trees as I ran.
Soon.
The excessively overgrown trees were gradually returning to a more normal appearance.
It was proof we were heading in the right direction.
“…How long are we supposed to keep running!”
Marlin, the tiger beastman girl running ahead with her younger brother, turned to look at me.
“They’ve almost caught up to us!”
“Why do we have to act like cowards!”
Abel, grinding his teeth as he sprinted, shouted at his sister.
“There are only two ghouls anyway! If we all attack together, we might be able to subdue them!”
“……”
Marlin looked into my eyes.
Perhaps she thought her brother had a point, because her gaze asked for my opinion.
Can’t we just fight them?
After witnessing a muscular orc’s chest being pierced open in an instant, how could someone still argue for a frontal attack?
Truly the fighting spirit of a beastman.
《Useful Information for You 3: Accept the suggestion of those pseudo-beasts. If you wish to become a meal for the ghouls, it is not a bad choice.》
Brushing aside the text—whether mockery or advice—I shook my head.
“No. We can’t win.”
“We tiger beastmen are different from humans our age!”
“I know. Still no.”
“If we keep running like this, eventually we’ll—”
Marlin stopped mid-sentence and flinched before turning forward again.
“Kihehehe….”
“Come here—!”
The two ghouls had already closed the distance.
“Abel, run faster!”
“…….”
As the tiger beastman siblings began sprinting at full speed, the distance between them and me widened even further.
Those ungrateful brats.
I smiled faintly.
If they already knew how to survive in extreme situations at such a young age, they would not end up dying pointlessly somewhere.
“Intrudeeers—!!”
Naturally, the first target of the ghouls charging forward was the pitiful, slow cultist.
《Fatal attack incoming: A ghoul’s claws rush toward your back.》
The moment the black text warned of danger,
I rolled forward.
I tumbled awkwardly across the ground, and the ghoul’s extended arm passed just above me.
It was an extremely close call.
If I had reacted even a little later, I might have reunited tearfully with the two companions who had already become corpses.
《You don’t have to thank me ;)》
“…You dodged?”
Perhaps its pride had been wounded by its most pathetic prey evading the attack.
The ghoul twisted its ugly face in anger and raised its shoulder for a follow-up strike.
My back throbbed where it had hit the ground first.
Of course I could not avoid the next attack on my own.
But it was fine. I had calculated this when I rolled.
Crack!
A stone flying from the front smashed into the ghoul’s hideous face.
“Get lost!”
Abel’s work.
The thrown stone—backed by a tiger beastman’s natural strength—crushed the ghoul’s nasal bone, and filthy blood poured down.
The monster’s regeneration was excellent and the wound healed immediately, but healing the injury did not erase the pain.
As the two ugly undead recoiled from the successive stones, Marlin rushed over and lifted me onto her back.
“Are you okay?”
“Why did you come back? You could have died.”
“How could I leave someone to die? Even if you’re a cultist….”
Risking danger to save someone you had just met.
What a regrettable personality.
If she had simply run away without looking back, she might have grown into a much more capable person in this crazy world.
“I’ll move now. We just keep going, right?”
“No need.”
“…Are you telling me to abandon you?”
“No. We’ve already run far enough.”
I lifted my head and looked upward.
The forest casting shadows over the area had ended, and the bright moon hanging in the night sky greeted me.
“Ghouls are weak to moonlight.”
Crunch!
Abel’s stone struck the ghoul’s chest and twisted its knee.
Normally an attack like that should not have affected it at all.
But the ghouls staggered without even counterattacking, and eventually turned and fled.
《Reference: Ghouls were originally a kind of elf, but the petty god of the moon and hunting cursed them for their betrayal.》
《Thus the unfortunate elven race fell into undeath and became vulnerable to the power of the moon. This is living proof that the so-called good gods are hypocrites, fools, and petty cowards!》
Marlin stared blankly at the ghouls’ retreating backs before gently lowering me to the ground.
“…Are we safe now?”
It was something she could only say because she did not fully understand the situation.
“Don’t relax. Get ready to move. The real threat hasn’t even started.”
This was a labyrinth.
The central feature of Nightmare Dungeon, where entering created an entirely separate world cut off from the outside.
If you lost your focus even slightly, even seasoned veterans could die meaninglessly. And unless you met the clearing conditions, no matter how strong you were, you could not escape.
Marlin’s jaw trembled.
“…You said ghouls are weak to moonlight. Then if we stay here without moving until morning, can’t we leave? The labyrinth management priest told us that.”
The official strategy for E-Rank Labyrinth — Nest of the Sneaking Ghoul Pack was to survive for eight hours without dying.
The condition itself was not difficult, but the labyrinth’s environment never favored explorers.
“Morning will come soon. The night in this labyrinth is extremely short.”
“…What?”
“Ghouls are weak only to moonlight. Sunlight doesn’t harm them at all. They even enjoy sunbathing regularly.”
“…….”
The children’s faces turned pale as they silently calmed their ragged breathing.
Even though she must have been afraid too, Marlin gently rubbed her brother’s back to comfort him.
“Mister. What do we do now?”
“What do we do?”
There was only one thing I could say.
“We survive somehow.”
No matter how difficult it was, this was still the tutorial. The difficulty would never be impossible to clear.
Just an E-Rank labyrinth.
If I couldn’t clear the lowest difficulty dungeon easily, the twenty thousand hours I spent playing the game would have been meaningless.
“You’ll help, right?”
“…I will.”
Marlin nodded, and Abel reluctantly followed his sister’s lead.
“Then what should we do first?”
There was something we had to do first.
“First, we need the corpses of dead explorers.”
The siblings, each given a different instruction, quickly began searching the plains surrounding the forest.
About five minutes remained until morning.
If we hurried, we could finish preparing before the moon completely set.
As long as I followed the usual method.
The strategy route with the siblings had already been perfected through long trial and error.
I could confidently say there was no safer method.
There were other ways to survive more reliably if I truly committed myself, but that kind of commitment was not something ordinary people could make.
《Truly crucial advice: If you sacrifice those two pseudo-beasts, conquering this labyrinth would become far easier for you.》
“Stay quiet.”
《If you do not wish to receive information, you may cover your right eye with an eyepatch. However, the Eye That Perceives Truth might feel hurt, so please consider carefully before deciding.》
The text appearing in the air was essentially a skill with its own personality.
It talked a lot and often blocked my vision, but the ability to detect danger and warn me in advance made it invaluable.
《Information for the weak-hearted you who does not wish to trample children to survive: If you stab their hearts with the dagger you possess, they will at least meet a relatively painless death.》
“Thanks for the useful information.”
While I stood there apparently talking to my right eye, footsteps approached from afar.
“Mr. Cultist.”
Marlin hurried over and placed what she had been carrying on her shoulder onto the ground.
Three decaying corpses.
《Explorers who died on the plains. They happened to discover that ghouls were weak to moonlight, but they did not realize sunlight was not a weakness, and were eventually hunted down.》
“Just like you said, there were bodies everywhere. They must be explorers who entered before us….”
“Good work.”
《Showing children rotting corpses! Your identity is unclear, but you are undoubtedly a commendable cultist.》
Perhaps because the task bordered on child labor involving corpses, Marlin looked slightly troubled.
Of course, if she had been an innocent child who knew nothing, I would never have asked her to do it.
Marlin pinched her nose as she spoke.
“I’ve done jobs where we dump bodies for money outside the city, so I know this. They’re not completely rotten yet. I guess you could say they’re halfway decomposed.”
The way she turned the corpses over and analyzed them made her look almost like a forensic examiner.
This was why early education was important.
Children absorbed knowledge quickly, and because she had learned young, she already possessed such solid analytical ability.
“What do we do now?”
“First, line them up neatly.”
The explorers’ corpses, marked with deep stab wounds in the neck, chest, and heart, were arranged on the ground.
“But what are you planning?”
“Why do you think a cultist needs corpses?”
The alpha and omega of Evil God worship.
An essential lesson any proper cultist must become familiar with.
“We’ll offer them to Lidni.”
It was time for human sacrifice.