Chapter 92
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 92
Chapter Title: Floor 9 - Lv. 99 Party Leaders (3)
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The berry's explosion had clearly struck home.
Unfortunately, the warrior hadn't managed to use [Blink] in time.
The fairy leader licked her lips and glanced at her remaining party members.
Honestly, losing one party member wasn't something to regret.
Once you've racked up enough years, you stop getting attached to things like that.
But there could be issues with managing the party members who hadn't reached that level of experience.
Fortunately, none of them showed any signs of that.
This was why being a leader was such a hassle. There was just so much to worry about.
That was her thought.
Then the enemy charged in. Before the smoke from the explosion had even cleared.
She was in the middle of recovering with a cheap healing potion. The burns were still fading from her skin.
The reaction was a beat too slow. She'd assumed the enemy was coming straight for her. Which made no sense.
In that split-second lapse, the fairy leader's mage went down.
She hadn't even had time to draw a close-range weapon.
It was a moment when everyone had let their guard down.
Next, the archer fell.
They tried to catch up, but it was too late. The party's warrior had just breathed his last, leaving them without anyone to block her path.
She darted through them freely, cutting off their allies one step ahead.
It was a failure.
Her [Dash] showed no signs of limits, boasting overwhelming mobility. She should have been out of breath by now, but there wasn't a hint of fatigue.
Despite each party member possessing their own mid-tier skills, the assault had been too sudden for them to react.
She should have spread the explosion out more.
It was a total wipeout.
By the time they barely caught up, everyone around her was already down.
The twin blades' strikes pinned the girl down as she ran low to the ground for speed.
With their momentum from running, they slid across the snow for quite a distance.
A long trail of footprints stretched out like a tail.
They finally stopped after crashing into a tree.
"Phew, now it's one-on-one, sis?"
"I've never had a little sister like you."
"You're so prickly."
Bam!
A numbing impact shot through her hands. The girl's strength hadn't diminished at all from the start.
She herself was already exhausted from using [Dash] just to keep up with the girl.
A healing potion wouldn't restore stamina.
Damn. Damn it!
Excellent. She'd timed it perfectly, knowing exactly when her opponents would let their guard down.
The enemies had no clear idea of the girl's level or how optimized her mind map setup was.
Having more skills than others was a huge advantage.
The fairy leader's party members, each with their own hidden cards, ultimately couldn't do a thing.
At first, it was because the girl had stuck close to the leader.
Then, they thought it was over and relaxed.
She'd hidden well how much she could spam [Dash].
There was no need to reveal her innately unrealistic stats early on.
It was always better to make them think she was pulling it off with some gimmick or buff.
She'd hidden what needed hiding and shown what needed showing.
Perfect score.
She even dodged or blocked the fairy leader's final [Space Slash], cast after carefully angling it, as if she knew it was coming.
That meant she'd been counting the cooldowns properly.
Truth be told, the end had been a close call.
Let's keep it secret that I'd fired fatigue needles to give her an opening to block.
The fairy leader would feel so wronged.
Right as her sure-kill strike was about to land, a prick in the ankle had ruined her footing.
The needle dispersed back into blood. Perfect crime.
The girl checked if there were any more enemies around, confirmed none, and then verified that everyone was properly knocked out.
Victory confirmed, she clenched her fist in delight.
Then she looked around for the bat, and once she spotted me, she waved enthusiastically and hopped over.
She was a quick learner. At this rate, she wouldn't get beaten up anywhere.
The old timer's side seemed to be wrapping up too. Time to clean up these orcs.
I'd considered teaching her counters to guns and dangerous weapons like [Mjolnir], but it was still too early.
I stopped dodging and unleashed magic toward the ground.
Explosion after explosion.
Countless nameless explosion spells blanketed the earth.
The blasts upheaved the ground itself, sending the dwarves flying.
Physically launched away, they were out of the battlefield for the moment.
The orcs withstood it but were thrown into panic.
I could neutralize the lightning in their weapons with my magic power.
My mana was nearly depleted, and it would take a while to recover, but there were no more fights ahead.
For a human, authority was enough.
Explosion, then another.
Blasts erupted everywhere, enough to deflect even lightning.
The ground they stood on upheaved completely, vanishing from sight.
Even without targeting the orc leader directly, changing the terrain made movement awkward.
The orc leader slammed down his hammer.
Lightning shot out in all directions.
All I had to do was pull back.
Then charge in again.
The other orcs weren't much help.
I focused the explosions more on scattering them far away than raw lethality.
Realizing they were scattered, the orc leader roared in fury.
And began to retreat.
What? Did they have some follow-up plan?
Hey! Leave the hammer behind.
And they actually did.
[Mjolnir], spinning grandly before hitting the ground, unleashed lightning everywhere. It seemed to be dumping all its stored charge.
It turned into a full-on obstacle. Breaking through that lightning barrier would kill you.
Chasing around it would mean losing them anyway.
The sun was starting to rise, conveniently.
Time to hunt them slowly.
As an undead, I couldn't wield the hammer myself, so I called the old timer over first.
A shaman who handled elements should manage a lightning-infused weapon easily.
I'd give it to the kid later, but she'd need the ability to withstand its lightning element.
The old timer saw the hammer and his eyes went wide.
Then he looked at his own axe and wore an expression like he might cry.
"Oh man. Now I don't know which to pick..."
"How about dual-wielding?"
"This thing?"
Orcs could pull it off. Humans couldn't hold one in each hand.
"Did you let them get away?"
The hunter asked, looking a decade older.
The veterans with real experience seemed to have gone after the girl or me, leaving him with just the scrubs in greater numbers.
But those scrubs were still at the hunter's level of tenure.
Though the old timer had handled most of it, it must have been grueling.
Anyway, was there more? The mortar squad hadn't felt proactive. Bringing those meant other stuff wouldn't be surprising.
Back at the cabin, the little mage and the kid were captured.
"L-Let us go!"
Panicking? They hadn't grasped the situation. Did they think they'd die if they stayed?
"Bite!"
"Grrr wang!"
They charged with comical noises, but the girl was genuinely fast.
Tap tap tap, and they all collapsed unconscious.
Off to the blood bag storage. While at it, I confiscated and scattered their healing potions.
What a waste feeding them. Damn it. I was trying to be nice.
I'd been too focused.
I called the girl over, praised her, petted her head, and hugged her.
If she had a tail, it would've wagged furiously in all directions.
"So, it started to sink in, huh?"
There'd been that brief moment when she wondered if it was okay for her to kill like this.
This was actually a crucial factor.
If she were a true psychopath without any human empathy, it could spell trouble at the very end.
Once she held enough power, she might become uncontrollable.
The shift in her mindset made sense.
At first, she'd taken it lightly, but as time passed, it hit her more realistically.
Everyone went through it. At first, it hurt, then the world started looking like a game.
And after more time, it began to feel real again.
A different kind of real—twisted and unlike the outside world, but still real.
Everyone went through the process. The girl was just faster at it.
"You've seen a lot this time, right?"
"Yeah."
She said it a bit shyly. Why?
Whatever. Back to the point.
"You've seen exiles who might be stronger than you, and plenty who live pathetically as the weak."
She'd suffered one defeat and claimed one victory.
"How's it feel? A bit arrogant, right? You're no savior."
"Yeah, seems like it. So in the end, I'm just another exile struggling to survive in the labyrinth."
The law of the jungle.
Keep basic human decency, but this was the labyrinth above all.
No matter how many million times I explained it, it wouldn't beat feeling it once yourself.
Knowing with your head and knowing with your heart were different.
The lingering civilized part of the girl must now be thinking very differently.
"No need to save people from outside just because of whatever job I had there. This isn't a game or the real world. It's just the labyrinth."
"Wow, you're sharp. Took me years to get that."
"Am I better than you, Uncle?"
Yeah. I thought this was fully a game. For quite a while.
Even now, that core thought hasn't changed, but separately, I treat it as one reality.
"That's how you do it. Don't go stabbing people thoughtlessly like at first. But don't suddenly become unable to kill either."
"Okay."
"Just stay somewhere in the middle. The laws of the labyrinth aren't that complicated."
I'd explained the ways of the labyrinth before. But truly internalizing them came with time.
Whether modern human or medieval, adapting to this world's ways didn't happen overnight.
Come to think of it, the girl was the most normal one.
The kid had gone off the deep end with fanatical faith, and the hunter, for all his experience, was mentally armored with his fairy obsession.
What a crazy party.
"Good job. Good job."
I petted her head again. She rubbed it against my hand herself.
Then suddenly, [Dash].
Huh?
Smooch.
Then reverse [Dash], [Dash], [Dash], [Dash].
"Hey! That's sexual harassment!"
"Ah, we're gonna date anyway, so I don't care!"
She sped off at tremendous velocity. She must've thought I'd chase and spank her.
Too fast to catch.
She seemed thrilled.
She'd come back on her own in a bit, so let's think about what those orcs who ditched Mjolnir were planning.
The female archer handled the chores but felt at ease on one hand.
Sometimes, just doing as told was better.
She'd often acted as leader herself. Veterans were rare, and even rarer were those who accepted her.
Shedding so many veterans on floor 9 was almost unheard of.
This was more comfortable.
Still, she never stopped observing the others' every move, wondering if there was nothing to learn.
That's how she easily caught the unfamiliar term in their conversation.
It was between her new party leader and the orc party leader.
"Too strong. Being human isn't the issue. She's a martial artist."
"Martial artist? That's bad. Doesn't that class synergize too well with vampires?"
"Damn it. They left Mjolnir behind."
The dwarf leader hadn't joined the operation. He'd stayed behind with the female archer and a few others, saying there was something to protect.
The other dwarves had gone to the encirclement with guns and mortars, only to retreat with the orcs.
The dwarf leader spoke.
"We'll have to use the [Gatling Gun]. Good thing we spotted it."
"Yeah, I was an idiot thinking Mjolnir alone would do it. Should've used the special weapons from the start."
"Well, we've already burned bridges with them, so it doesn't matter who wields it now. The bus has left."
"Should've bowed our heads and joined them from the beginning."
"Then we'd have to ditch the whole party."
"Who'd want that?"
The conversation was cryptic, but the female archer memorized it carefully.
She'd heard rumors of special weapons.
Mad contraptions that maximized the labyrinth's insanity.
She didn't know the details.