Chapter 176 Didn't You Say It Was Subjugated
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Translator: JayM
Chapter: 176
Chapter Title: Didn't You Say It Was Subjugated?
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After passing through the red portal, a small village came into view.
It seemed to only have weak lighting, as only a faint outline was visible in the darkness. The sky was blocked by a dark rock wall.
"This is..."
Jeong Yoo-shin couldn't finish his sentence.
The 10th level.
Ash Village.
He remembered hearing about this village when he was taking lessons about the labyrinth from Mion.
A place inside the labyrinth, yet unaffected by the mana of the abyss.
A place where the 'laws' of the labyrinth didn’t exist.
It was the location of Saint Ezdras' first seal.
Although it was grandly called a seal, Jeong Yoo-shin had heard that it acted as a filter that strained the mana of the abyss once.
Mion didn't know exactly what the seal or the filter was.
She had only said that it was top secret.
This level was in the form of a small village. But that didn't mean that it was the same as the buildings in Labyrinth City.
A place where mystery and familiarity coexisted.
When he first heard about it from Mion, he had wondered what it would look like. It was difficult for him to imagine.
But seeing it with his own eyes, he felt like he understood.
As he was looking at the lit-up village in the distance, Mick approached him and made a sign language message.
'The atmosphere is unusual. Be careful.'
Jeong Yoo-shin nodded.
Of course, he had to be.
This village was a place that wasn’t supposed to be invaded by monsters.
Even during the Eldritch Wave, this place had been safe.
But according to the report from the Explorer's Guild, a unique monster had appeared here.
And that was why Labyrinth City was in such an uproar.
Just then…
Whoosh.
Sarteurang, Lena, and Varg came out of the red portal.
Lena stood on her tiptoes and looked at the dark village.
"We've finally arrived. But the village is too dark, isn't it? I don't think it was this dark the last time I came."
Varg sniffed the air and growled.
"I smell a monster from a distance. Be careful."
Varg took the lead, and Mick followed behind him. He didn't let go of his shield and sword. It was an attitude that didn't allow for even a moment of carelessness.
The party members slowly walked on the uneven stone floor and arrived at the village.
There were no guards or fences at the village entrance.
Looking closely, it was embarrassing to even call it a village.
All there was were a few houses with crumbling bricks. There wasn't even any grass to be found.
The village was quiet.
He had heard that a few clans and merchant guilds resided here, but there wasn’t a single person in sight.
"Where should we go?"
Jeong Yoo-shin asked.
"Let's go to the tavern first. Mick?"
Mick looked back and nodded.
The party members carefully walked down the narrow village road while trying not to make a sound.
The tavern Mick had guided them to was in the center of the village.
Creeak.
He opened the door, and the scene of an old tavern came into view.
Looking around, he saw familiar faces.
The labyrinth investigation team that had participated this time.
The lion beast-person who led several female beast-people of various races.
The party made up of only dwarves.
Each was sitting in a corner with their arms crossed.
The lion beast-person looked up, saw Jeong Yoo-shin, and frowned slightly.
The dwarf party was whispering among themselves.
Lena approached the lion beast-person’s party.
"Hello."
"Lena, you're late."
"We had a few things to take care of. So what happened to the strange monster on the 10th floor?"
"It was subjugated."
Lena's eyes widened.
"Already?"
The lion beast-person shook his head.
"Our party didn't subjugate it. And neither did that party full of shorties."
"Then...?"
The lion beast-person slumped in his chair.
"It must have been the barbarian party. I looked at the monster's corpse, and it was cleanly sliced up."
"..."
"Is the monster's corpse still there?"
"You'll see it if you go toward the transfer stone. The corpses are piled up like a mountain."
What did that mean?
He couldn't understand.
They had definitely said it was a strange monster, but was there more than one?
Curiosity welled up inside him.
"Were there many monsters?"
When Jeong Yoo-shin asked that, the lion beast-person raised his glass and downed it.
"Go and see for yourself. I have no idea what's what."
Jeong Yoo-shin and his party members headed to the transfer stone together.
They passed through the center of the village and went straight north, and in the distance, they saw the transfer stone.
And they also saw mountains of corpses piled high.
There wasn't just one or two, and the pile grew larger as they got closer.
The party members stopped and looked around.
The corpses of various monsters were scattered around.
Mushroom people, half-rotten wild dogs, and spider monsters the size of a human body he had seen in the Forest area.
There were also skeleton monsters he had seen in the Corridor area.
There were even unfamiliar monsters.
"Forest, Corridor, Sewer. It's diverse. The monsters that exist in each area are all here."
Lena said calmly, without emotion.
The party members were silent.
"..."
They passed the mountain of corpses and got closer to the transfer stone.
There, a skeleton, about 3 meters tall, was lying there.
Its lower half was gone, and it was wearing a tattered robe.
It was already dead, as the skeleton didn't even move.
Lena approached and examined it.
"This is...?"
After examining it for a while, Lena looked up and touched her chin. She seemed to be thinking deeply about something.
Jeong Yoo-shin stepped forward.
"It looks like a Skeleton Mage."
Lena shook her head.
"A Skeleton Mage this large doesn't exist. It could be another monster. I think I've read about it in the monster encyclopedia, but I can't remember well. Hmm. What could it be?"
While Lena was thinking…
Mick and Varg stuck close to the party members and maintained their guard.
"I can't remember right now. I think I'll have to rest a bit and think about it then. Anyway, the barbarians are amazing. To think that four of them could annihilate this many monsters."
The party members left the transfer stone and returned to the tavern.
The lion beast-person was left alone at the table, sipping his drink.
"Did you see it?"
At the lion beast-person's question, Lena nodded.
"Yes."
"It seems like the labyrinth investigation is over with this."
"I wonder…"
At Lena's answer, the male lion beast-person frowned.
"Is there more to see? It's clearly just a high-level Skeleton Mage. This investigation team is overkill for it."
"That may be so, but..."
The male lion beast-person cut Lena off.
"That's enough. The guild's request was just to investigate the monster that appeared on the 10th level. The barbarian swept through everything, so we don't even know what to investigate, right? And the rest is up to the Mage Tower or the temple. They'll rack their brains and give this incident a strange name too, right? Like the Eldritch whatever."
"..."
"Anyway, we're going back tomorrow."
"What about the dwarf party?"
"I don't know. They were whispering among themselves and then disappeared somewhere."
The male lion beast-person snorted and replied.
The party members gathered at a table in the corner of the tavern and sat down.
Lena gave a bitter smile.
"It ended so anticlimactically."
Sarteurang patted Lena on the shoulder.
"It might be for the best. Like this, no one got hurt, right?"
Mick and Varg had an 'I don't care' expression.
Jeong Yoo-shin was dejected.
He was one step too late.
He had arrived on the 10th floor, but the barbarian party had already solved everything.
The tension that had been building up inside him deflated.
He was completely drained.
Should he just be satisfied with reaching the 10th level of the labyrinth?
Seeing those black-haired barbarians get ahead of him, he felt a surge of irritation for no reason.
Lena stood up from her seat.
"Let's rest for now. I need to think about what kind of skeleton monster that was for a while."
Jeong Yoo-shin didn't have to worry about where to sleep.
The old tavern had rooms on the second floor.
The harem beast-person party also took a room on the upper floor of the tavern. The sound of the female beast-people chattering in their room escaped into the corridor and reached the room where Jeong Yoo-shin and Mick were staying.
The dwarf party seemed to be staying elsewhere, as there was no sign of them.
Sarteurang was busy fixing his makeup, while Mick and Varg were lying side by side on the bed, snoring.
Jeong Yoo-shin left the room and walked outside the village.
Since it had come to this, he thought he would at least observe the monsters piled up around the transfer stone.
He slowly made his way to the transfer stone at the edge of the village.
He clasped his hands behind his back and examined the monsters one by one.
Mainly the ones that appeared in the Sewer area.
Jeong Yoo-shin's brow furrowed at once.
"This is going to be a problem."
He said this due to the strange appearance of the monsters from the Sewer area.
Most of them were creatures that looked like something between a pig and a monkey.
There were big ones and small ones.
Their sizes varied, but they had one thing in common.
Their skin was all horribly twisted. Should he say that they were hideous?
On top of that, a terrible stench also emanated from most of these pig-monkey-like creatures.
He had heard about these monsters while studying with Mion, but he couldn't create a proper image of them in his head.
Now that he saw them with his own eyes, he understood.
'Tsk. I should avoid the Sewer area.'
The Corridor area was better. The skeleton monsters were much cleaner than fighting these creatures in the Sewer area.
In fact, the Sewer area was also the area that female explorers were most reluctant to enter.
It was a complex maze, so if you were caught by such pig-monkey-like creatures, you’d have no way out.
Just like goblins, female explorers captured by these pig-monkeys were used as incubators. And it didn't end there.
A miserable fate of becoming food after their stamina was depleted awaited them afterwards.
He had heard that since they were more intelligent than goblins, the captured sex slaves had their ankle muscles immediately cut so that they couldn't escape.
As an aside, he had heard that they carved a tattoo on the captured female explorers’ stomachs every time they gave birth, but he didn't know for sure because he had never seen it.
"They're monsters called Swinegores."
A voice came from behind Jeong Yoo-shin.
He turned his head and saw Lena standing behind him.
"What is it?"
"I was curious. Why would you wander among monster corpses during a break?"
Jeong Yoo-shin shrugged.
"The investigation team's mission is over, right? I should get something out of this too."
"Among the monster corpses?"
"I don't think it's a bad idea to get a look at the monsters' characteristics in advance. In order to go deeper, and in order to survive, this kind of study is necessary."
Lena walked and stood next to him.
Both of their gazes rested on the robed skeleton mage.
Lena suddenly spoke.
"I'm on the verge of remembering it."
Jeong Yoo-shin immediately understood what Lena was saying.
She had been thinking about this skeleton monster all this time.
'She's also a bit of a fanatic.'
Was it said that those who merely try cannot beat those who enjoy?
In that sense, Lena was first-class.
Wasn't she the type to dig into something obsessively once she got into it?
Jeong Yoo-shin and Lena spent their time rummaging through the monsters they were interested in.
"No matter how much I look, I can't remember it. Let's just go and rest, Skar-ssi."
"Should we?"
Jeong Yoo-shin and Lena chatted as they walked toward the tavern.
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Jeong Yoo-shin and his party members finished sleeping for about 8 hours on the second floor of the tavern, got up, and packed their belongings.
The lion beast-person’s party had already packed their belongings and were standing in the center of the village.
Jeong Yoo-shin and the lion beast-person briefly made eye contact.
They walked silently toward the transfer stone.
Just as they were about to pass the mountain of corpses…
Something rolled down from the mountain.
Thud, thud.
A bone?
Jeong Yoo-shin tilted his head and started walking again.
Thud, thud.
A bone rolled down again.
What?
Not only the lion beast-person party, but also Jeong Yoo-shin's party members stopped walking.
The transfer stone was still far away.
At that moment…
Ssssss.
Bones flew into the air and gathered in one place.
They then heard a clattering sound, and a green flame began to burn in the hollow eye sockets of a skull.
"Wh-What?!"
The lion beast-person stepped back, flustered.
While everyone was dazed, a huge skeleton rose into the air.
"What the fuck is this?!"
Jeong Yoo-shin cursed and tightened his grip on his weapon.
Didn't they say it was already subjugated?
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T/N - Of course. It can’t be that easy for the MC. And how would he earn money if the target of the investigation is already dead?
Also, a bit of lore building in this chapter. I did think that it would be quite exhausting for high ranking explorers to go to the deeper floors from the 1st floor then back without respite every time they entered the labyrinth. But if there were ‘checkpoints’ like this 10th floor village in the labyrinth, then I can somewhat understand how they can go to the deeper floors. I just wonder what happened to the people who lived in this village.
Lastly, I completely forgot to take note of the Saint’s name. I also can’t remember it anymore. I’m not even sure if the Saint’s name was ever mentioned in earlier chapters. If the name Ezdras is wrong, do let me know.