Chapter 112: Nothing Ever Goes as Planned
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 112: Nothing Ever Goes as Planned
“I mean, I always knew you weren’t someone who belonged in the Iron Grade, but still.”
It had been barely two months since Lis and Isolde were in the same Iron Grade, entering the Labyrinth alongside him. Two months might seem like a long time, but in the Labyrinth, it was standard to spend months just trying to acquire a single skill.
Even then, after all that blood, sweat, and tears, the results were grim: twenty percent of acquired skills killed the explorer, thirty percent regressed their combat ability, and forty percent were practically useless. Only a measly ten percent were actually considered "jackpot" skills.
“What kind of skill did you get this time?!”
“I didn’t really ‘get’ anything. Well, I have one, but what I’m showing you now is something else entirely.”
Seeing my arms and legs covered in pitch-black scales and the addition of a tail—an organ I wasn’t born with—Lis made a huge fuss, claiming I’d obtained a monster transformation skill.
Isolde, who had approached me warily after the battle ended, couldn’t hide her bewilderment. The two nameless male front-liners also looked incredibly shocked.
“Sir! My name is Ito!”
“I’m Liam! It’s an honor!”
“Uh, yeah. But why are you introducing yourselves to me? We’re not in the same party.”
“Ah, right. Good point.”
Once the goblins had been reduced to piles of meat and the post-battle cleanup was underway, Theodora and Rubica carefully made their way down the steep cliff.
“Aven? Who are these people?”
“Explorers I used to party with.”
“I see. Did you owe them a debt?”
“No! We’re the ones who owe him!”
Lis, standing nearby, shook her head vigorously as she answered Rubica. I didn’t remember exactly which floor it was—maybe the 5th? Isolde and Lis had spotted an Ursus that appeared suddenly in the middle of the night while they were on watch.
Though Isolde provided support, I had done 100% of the damage and killed it.
“Whoa, it’s so smooth. Do you have to live like this now? That looks inconvenient.”
“Not really. I can change it back.”
Lis approached from behind and started fiddling with my tail. The muscular strength in the tail was immense; if I swung it wrong, the petite Lis might be sent flying into the stratosphere. I safely retracted the tail and returned my limbs to their original state.
“Hieeeek.”
“...That’s incredible.”
“Sir! That was so cool!”
“Whoa, that’s sick!”
The party marveled at my limbs returning to human form.
“Isolde, I see you’ve formed a party with Lis.”
“Yes, fortunately. Though I had to delete that skill.”
“You deleted that skill?”
I guess that meant Lis wouldn’t be tasting Isolde’s breast milk anymore. Regardless, the fact that she had the resources to delete a curse skill meant she was doing well for herself. That was good to hear.
“And the people behind you...?”
“My current party. This person just joined, so we’re heading down to the 10th floor just to get a feel for our teamwork.”
“The 10th floor... just to get a feel? Yoo Eon, you’ve really become strong.”
“Haha... Well, I guess so.”
It brought back memories of two months ago. Isolde, Lis, Garond, and I. The four of us had struggled through the Labyrinth with the 8th floor as our ultimate goal. We had fought goblins back then too, but looking back at the recent battle, the difference in my strength was night and day.
“Is your goal the 8th floor again?”
“No! Our final destination is the 7th floor! We’re a goblin cave exploration party!”
“Goblin cave exploration?”
The goblin hordes that start appearing on the 5th floor usually stabilize in size by the 7th floor, making them a suitable target for a four-person Iron-grade party.
They would roam around looking for caves, rescue any explorers captured by goblins if possible, and take whatever equipment the goblins had looted as their reward. Since they could sell high-end gear for a good price, the pay was apparently quite good relative to the difficulty.
“I see. You’re doing good work.”
“Well, it’s all for the money. The rescue part is just a bonus.”
Seeing the explorers I’d met in my early days still active and thriving gave me a lot to think about.
“Anyway, I didn’t come here for any particular reason. You looked like you were in danger, so I just stepped in to help.”
“It was so hard! It looked like two goblin hordes had merged; there were so many of them!”
“It seemed that way.”
From the looks of it, this party had retreated while killing several goblins, but the total count seemed to be around fifty. That was a large horde, rarely seen on the 5th floor.
There wasn't much for me to take, except...
“Ah, if you don’t need this, I’ll take it.”
“Huh? That’s...”
It was the corpse of the Goblin Shaman, its throat pierced by Isolde’s dagger. It was rare to see magic-using monsters on the lower floors, but it wasn't an exaggeration to say the Goblin Shaman was the first magic-user one would encounter while descending the Labyrinth.
I’d heard there was a giant Horned Rabbit that used magic on the 3rd floor, but it was an Irregular entity and incredibly rare.
“Why do you need that?”
As Lis asked curiously, Isolde gave a wry smile and asked, “You’re not... going to eat it, are you?”
Isolde had previously seen me bury my face in an Ursus’s entrails, drinking its blood while rambling about sex or whatever.
“That’s right. Well, it’s for a skill. I don’t exactly eat it with my mouth anymore, though.”
The Shaman was an elite entity, but it wasn't large like a Goblin Champion. I manifested the tail again, equipped with the Titan Toad’s stomach and the Colossal Croco’s mouth, and swallowed the Goblin Shaman’s corpse in one gulp.
“Ugh, he really is a monster...”
* * *
“Don’t take it to heart. He looks young; kids can be like that.”
“Right, who’s saying otherwise? I mean, I did say something, but so what? His face is so...”
“So what?”
Theodora hesitated for a moment, her lips trembling, before she snapped her head away.
“He’s... handsome...”
“True, Aven is objectively good-looking,” Rubica added.
“Is that so? I’m flattered by the praise.”
“He is! I’m telling you, he’s handsome!”
“Alright, alright, I didn’t say you were wrong.”
This reaction was expected ever since I started manifesting my consumed organs externally. Even if the inside wasn't visible, the ability to change my internal organs and muscles at will was definitely monstrous.
I felt like I should probably pay a bit more attention to my outward appearance, but surely this much was fine? Admittedly, the organ I’d tried to create when attempting to make wings was a bit grotesque, even to me.
But my arms just looked like gauntlets made of scales, and my legs were... well, the tail was decent enough, wasn't it?
“So, why did you eat that Goblin Shaman just now?” Rubica asked as we continued our steady pace through the Labyrinth.
“Ah, about that.”
“Don’t tell me... you’re planning to use the Goblin Shaman’s magic?”
“Yeah. Why?”
I had swiped the left arm bone of a Skeleton Mage, absorbed a Lich’s mana, and stolen its magic. It wasn't that goblins lacked mana, but Goblin Shamans gained the ability to discharge mana as magic through a special ritual.
I remembered seeing that ritual before—the one where they hung human skulls to create a staff. The various animal bones arranged in a circle around them had left an impression.
“Um... Aven? That’s...”
“You... you...!”
At those words, Theodora suddenly stopped, grabbed both of my shoulders, and stared intensely into my eyes. Then, she suddenly buried her nose in the crook of my neck and sniffed, her expression softening significantly as she spoke.
“Y-you really don’t know! Do you know what kind of magic Goblin Shamans use?!”
“Um... no, I don’t.”
Come to think of it, I don’t think I’d ever actually seen what skills a Goblin Shaman used. Hadn't that been my first time seeing a live one? I’d seen a half-baked ritual circle for making one before, but I hadn't seen a goblin actually cast magic.
“Well... Aven. Goblins use magic that... arouses women.”
“Wait, seriously? I had absolutely no intention of doing that. I swear.”
Even when I didn't mean to, things kept heading in this direction. Thinking about it, it made sense. Goblins had no females; they captured females of other species for reproduction.
Apparently, they could even use female Direwolves, but their favorite was, of course, human women.
“R-right! I know! I know you didn't mean it like that!”
“Is that so? Thanks for understanding. But why do you keep sniffing my neck?”
“There’s a reason! A-anyway... it’s not like Goblin Shamans only use that kind of magic!”
They were mages, after all. They supposedly used a few types of combat magic, though it varied by individual and the power wasn't much to speak of.
Still, it was worth a try. Pilfering the Lich’s mana to use the Skeleton Mage’s magic hadn't been a normal case. If I could use the magic the Goblin Shaman used...
I might have to start looking for magic-using monsters more diligently in the future.
“So you’re saying you don’t know what magic the Shaman I just ate would have used.”
“E-exactly!”
The arousal magic was a given, but it seemed that the longer a Goblin Shaman survived, the more types of magic they could use.
“The problem is how to use it.”
To use the Skeleton Mage’s magic, I just had to summon its bone inside my body. But how did the Goblin Shamans do it?
“I know a Scholar. I remember hearing about Goblin Shaman magic from them,” Rubica said.
“Really?”
“It was back when I was a rookie explorer.”
According to what Rubica had heard, a goblin selected to become a Shaman would have a magic circuit inscribed onto the arm that first held the staff.
“Then I’ll have to check if it was the left or right arm.”
That was easy enough. The problem was that the Goblin Shaman’s magic circuit was inscribed on its skin. That meant that hideous green hide would have to manifest on my body.
“I might be able to hide it under the scales.”
If I hid the Goblin Shaman’s hide under the Drake scales, it might not be visible from the outside. I layered thick Drake scales over both arms and then replaced the skin connected to the internal scales with the hide of the Goblin Shaman I’d just eaten.
‘I might be able to make this even simpler.’
The Skeleton Mage had such a unique structure that it was impossible to extract just the magic circuit. Besides, I wasn't exactly an expert in magic-related matters.
But as I used the Goblin Shaman’s hide, I felt a new circuit connecting to the one already in my body.
I felt like if I tried hard enough, I could extract just the magic circuit itself.
“How is it? Did it work?”
“Hold on.”
I focused my mind on the circuit inscribed on the Goblin Shaman’s hide. A faint image of the circuit’s shape appeared in my mind...
“Done. I’ve separated the circuit.”
“Really?!”
“Is such a thing even possible?”
“Yes. I’ve added the Goblin Shaman’s magic circuit to my arm.”
Generally, using magic involved the ‘magic circle’ method, where mana was channeled into the air. It was a method of drawing the circuit for the magic externally.
Conversely, skills obtained through the Labyrinth’s mana or magic obtained through rituals like the Goblin Shaman’s were forms where the circuit was drawn directly onto the body.
“I’ll try using it.”
“Should I try blocking it?”
According to Rubica, it would likely be a pathetic fireball or a low-level binding spell that would only stop someone’s feet for a moment. Someone of Theodora’s caliber could easily block whatever it was.
“Ugh!?”
“Wait.”
Right. There was the arousal magic too.
Does nothing ever go my way?