Chapter 37
Chapter 37
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 37
Chapter Title: Farewell, Encounter
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Buuuuuzzz–
The moment I regained consciousness, the world slowed to a crawl.
My thoughts kept drifting toward that [entity], but I had no time for that now.
First things first, I needed to focus on the situation right in front of me.
'Where the hell am I?'
Atop what looked like a massive fountain structure.
I was shooting up toward the labyrinth's ceiling along with the violently spraying water, only to plummet back down.
Even when the rowdy crew had approached me, I'd retained a sliver of awareness.
I remembered them coming at me amicably and tearing a scroll that led to this fountain.
'My body recovers in an instant.'
The second the fountain's water touched my skin, vitality surged through me. Even in this slowed world, I could feel my wounds healing at a blistering pace.
Strength naturally flooded my body. Fortunately, I still had a tight grip on my axe.
I scanned the ground below for a landing spot. It was a jumble of people. Strangely, they all looked familiar.
The rowdy crew... and Derucio's party.
'That fucking bitch.'
Just thinking about how she'd dropped me to the fifth floor still made my blood boil. I tightened my grip on the axe mid-fall and veered my trajectory.
My eyes locked with Derucio's as her mouth hung open in a daze.
"You motherfu–"
A filthy curse spilled out. Guess she'd realized the map was fucked.
Craaaaaack!
"Aaaaaaagh!!"
A tearing scream echoed. I'd swung my axe during the descent, carving a neat line across Derucio's neck.
Thud!
Thanks to that, I botched the landing and slammed into the ground, twisting my left hand grotesquely. But it wasn't a big deal.
I dipped it into the fountain water for a moment and pulled it out—the mangled wrist was good as new.
The water from this fountain seemed leagues better than any ordinary potion.
'Is this fountain connected to that [entity] somehow?'
Tearing the fountain teleport scroll had led me straight to it, and there were too many suspicious coincidences piling up.
'Can't figure it out right now. I'll think about it later.'
The urge to gather more knowledge and information grew stronger.
"Gurgle, hack, glurk...!"
I turned at the dying gasps.
Derucio was desperately clutching her head, on the verge of decapitation, and dunking her neck into the fountain water.
Maybe because the wound was so fatal, it was healing much slower than my wrist had.
Splash– splash–
"N-no, st-stop, glurk– stay back!!"
As I slowly approached, axe in hand and kicking up fountain water, she spat blood from her mouth and neck while screaming.
"Do something! Glurk, you bastards! Qu-quick, stop that fucker!"
Derucio clawed at her nearly severed neck with one hand, scrambling away across the fountain in a pathetic display, barking orders at her underlings.
She clearly had no intention of fighting herself. No surprise there—with her neck half-off, any real move would finish her.
But right now, no one in the area was truly listening to her.
Not the rowdy crew, nor Derucio's lackeys. They were all staring at me, entranced.
'Must be because of the light that enveloped me when I fell earlier.'
If I saw a helmeted guy suddenly appear wreathed in light and cleave someone in half with a blood-soaked axe, even I'd freeze up.
"If you're coming, then come. I'll carve up whoever steps up first nice and pretty."
I raised my axe in warning. The lackeys snapped out of it and grabbed their weapons.
But it devolved into a meaningless standoff, time ticking away with no one daring to make the first move.
"......"
I could even hear the gulps of tense swallows from here.
It made sense, really.
In their eyes now, I wasn't some third-floor scrub explorer anymore. I was an unknown entity who'd survived the fifth floor solo.
"Ah, aaa...!"
"The axe, the axe..."
Gelbin and Mercy, who'd already been terrified of me, were freaking out even more.
Their panic rippled out, amplifying the fear across the lackeys.
"Drop your weapons nice and easy and beg for your lives, and I won't kill you here."
With the right mix of threat and temptation, they finally lost the will to fight and started dropping their gear.
"Y-you bitches...! After all the shit I fed you, you fold to a threat like–"
"Shut it."
Craaack!
"Gaaahhh!"
This time, Derucio screamed as my axe buried into her collarbone.
She writhed, clutching her neck and collarbone—a truly pathetic sight.
Tears and snot streamed down her face.
"H-heek."
Seeing the brazen bitch's malice-twisted face contort in terror was satisfying.
I leaned down, locking eyes with her like she was hypnotized.
Her terror-filled pupils reflected me in my blood-drenched Great Helm.
"I've got some questions for you."
There were things I wanted to ask Derucio.
'Her backer and the marionette curse. I need to uncover at least one.'
Derucio bore a curse in the twenty-thousands range.
Far higher level and quality than Deluna in the nineties, or Gelbin and Mercy in the eighties—who didn't even realize they were puppets.
'Kakchi was in the thousands, right?'
Kakchi was weaker than Derucio, yet her number was higher. So it probably wasn't ranked purely by current strength.
The most plausible guess right now?
'Growth potential? Something like that?'
Kakchi had squandered her years in slavery, but she was loaded with high-potential blessings.
'Even if Derucio knows nothing about her curse, I need to track down her backer.'
Derucio had gotten way too cocky for a reformed explorer. Her actions were basically outlaw territory.
Unlike Gelbin and Mercy, who'd quaked at my threat of revoking their reform status.
'She acted like her credentials were untouchable.'
It differed from Deluna's case. That bitch had at least pretended to keep things quiet.
She knew her own reform status was at risk if things leaked.
'And Deluna's backer was Vesta, an outlaw from Blaz clan.'
That proved even outlaw backers couldn't tamper with reform explorer credentials. Which narrowed it down to one option.
'Someone inside the Explorer's Union is backing Derucio.'
And possibly...
'Someone who knows about the marionette curse.'
Otherwise, why give her special treatment? It was just a hunch, but it held water.
Time to uncover the truth, bit by bit.
"Wh-what do you want to know...?"
"Yeah. Questions. Answer well, or die."
"Guh... Whatever bullshit you're planning, it's pointless. As long as I keep drinking this fountain water, you can't kill me."
Derucio must've had blood flow issues to her brain—her thinking was off.
Did she really believe my axe swings were slower than the fountain's healing?
She wasn't entirely wrong.
'Close enough.'
Smaaash!
"Kuhak!"
My fist slammed into Derucio's gut. She spewed thin saliva and doubled over.
I had no intention of killing her yet. Dead people don't talk. She'd spill everything before she went.
"Fine. Keep soaking in that water. It's your lifeline."
From time immemorial, torture was the easiest way to extract truth.
But Nam Sujin, the pure-hearted guy raised on modern ethics and morals from the orphanage, didn't know much about scary stuff like that.
He hadn't hit many people, so he might accidentally send her straight to the afterlife.
But with healing water around, that risk was mitigated.
"Choose wisely. Spill now comfortably, or beg for mercy later."
"I-I'll talk. Right now. I don't even know what you want, but I'll tell you everything I kno– kuhak!"
"What? Your lips are sealed tight. Need another."
"I-I said I'd ta–"
Derucio's mouth was heavy. Even after a dozen gut punches, she didn't flinch.
Smaaash! Thud!
Each hit melted away my stress so satisfyingly.
'Still, nothing beats Kakchi's pure punching feel.'
Having a crazy masochist around might be warping my tastes.
An hour later...
"L-let me talk... I'll tell you anything..."
I'd pried open this stubborn one's mouth.
The interrogation answers were mostly as expected.
"Marionette...? I know puppet shows in the outlaw zone, but no clue about some curse like that."
Even Derucio with her twenty-thousand-range curse was oblivious to it.
'No surprise. Kakchi with her thousands-range curse from the outlaw zone was the same.'
I'd figured it wouldn't be easy, so I just nodded.
"B-base! Base Jaban! That bitch approached me first when I was an outlaw! Told me to reform as an explorer and start a new life!"
Her presumed backer was Base Jaban. Reform process instructor at the Explorer's Union.
"She hounded me for days, saying I wasn't cut out to rot as an outlaw. Got annoying, so I went through the reform program."
The one who'd turned Derucio—a former outlaw whose life was already fucked—into a reform explorer.
"She covered for me whenever I caused trouble. Base Jaban wasn't high up, but not some grunt either—enough pull to bury stuff like that. The other bitches didn't know, but my screw-ups? She always handled them."
Base Jaban was a rotten instructor. Did the Explorer's Union know about her corruption?
"N-no way. ...Probably. That's why my head's still attached."
Right. Even if the Union was shady, they wouldn't openly ignore outright crimes.
"Gelbin, Mercy—they're party members she assigned me. Plenty others got reformed outta the outlaw zone thanks to her. Del... whatever her name was."
"Deluna?"
"Yeah. That one."
At that point, I was half-convinced.
'Base Jaban. She can detect the marionette curse.'
Incredible. How could someone without a status window spot a curse that even its victims were blind to?
'Not visually like a status window, but some intuitive sense for cursed individuals?'
I wanted to test it. Toss strategic bait, maybe.
What if I dropped Kakchi in front of Base Jaban?
Either way, I'd gotten solid intel.
'Base Jaban's profile, her scandals—this is gold.'
As I pondered how to use it...
"I-I told you everything. Please forgive me now. I-I'll live like a dead rat in the outlaw zone from now on..."
Derucio groveled on her knees.
The sheer audacity. This dog bitch.
Talking shit when I was down, now begging when her ass was on the line?
"All done? Nothing else?"
"Y-yes! I spilled everything I know! Anything left is stuff even the underlings–"
"Good."
Craaaaaack!
Hoo.
I wiped the filthy blood from my axe.
"Need an example. Can't let slapping my backslide go unpunished, right?"
"Y-yes..."
The reform explorers, eyes bulging in shock, trembled and nodded frantically.
I approached Gelbin and Mercy. They looked beyond terrified—hyperventilating, even.
Tap tap.
I lightly smacked their cheeks with the bloodied flat of my axe.
"Handle the kids right. Report Derucio died in an unfortunate accident. Happens all the time in the labyrinth, yeah?"
"Y-yes...!!!!"
"And if you run? You know."
They nodded like madmen.
Lately, I'd realized proper fear was an excellent control tool.
Too much could backfire without some carrot, which was a hassle—but not right now.
"...It's all over now."
I turned to see the rowdy crew, backs turned, eyes and ears covered, staring off into the distant labyrinth.
They'd been like that the whole time I interrogated Derucio—clearly no desire to get involved.
"We've got enough labyrinth experience to guess what went down. Reformed explorers are all the same."
"We know there's no way Diana's employee would start shit without reason... but we didn't wanna get dragged into the mess. Sorry about that."
A wise call on their part.
And damn convenient timing for me.
"No need to apologize. You helped us back in the hobgoblin village—I'm already at a loss on how to repay that."
I bowed deeply in thanks.
Drunken assholes at the tavern, sure—but in the labyrinth, they were ideal explorers worthy of respect.
"No need to get so serious! Labyrinth's dangerous enough without that—we explorers gotta help each other out."
"If you really wanna repay, buy us beers when we get out!"
"Don't piss milk when you're drunk. That's straight-up nasty."
"Ehh... but if I don't, I'll fade into the background."
"Ahem. As a priest, I abstain from alcohol... so juice if possible."
They bantered and laughed, then extended hands with a proposal.
"If you're not sticking with those reformed folks, how about joining us?"
"Together?"
"Yeah. You seem solo, and we've wrapped up our business here—heading topside. We'll split any gains five ways, fair and square."
No reason to refuse.
I clasped the dwarf's outstretched hand firmly.
"Sounds good. Looking forward to traveling together. Oh, and we skipped intros. Name's Balkan."
"Joey Hogg here. No need for formalities—you saved our asses from those hobgoblins."
"That scene was insane, yeah..."
"Honestly, I nearly shit myself in fear."
"Manage your lactation, little boy."
Hahaha.
We laughed, shook on it, and headed through the ascent portal to the fourth floor.
Gelbin, Mercy, and Derucio's remaining lackey reform explorers collapsed the moment the helmeted warrior left.
"Cr-crazy, that mad bastard... fucking psycho..."
"I-I'm so scared... what do we do now..."
"Fuck if I know... no choice. We follow."
Axe. Helmet. Axe. Helmet. Mad axe. Mad helmet axe-man.
Gelbin, haunted by nightmares of the man lately, barked at the reform explorers.
"You all saw what happened to Derucio, right?! Disobey that guy, and we're done for in one swing!"
No arguments. They all felt the gap in skill acutely.
Even all together, they couldn't beat the helmeted man. Instinct screamed it.
Call it broken will or thick dread—it gripped their hearts.
"...Let's live like ghosts for a while. Please."
God, don't let that psycho stir up more shit.
Two weeks passed.
Maybe because of all the bullshit I'd endured, or my levels...
The fourth floor, supposedly a difficulty spike, was easier than expected.
The rowdy crew was far more skilled than I'd thought. Their responses were on another level.
Reaffirmed the value of an experienced party.
And as we reached the third floor...
On night watch, bored, I opened my status window and noticed Kakchi's change. She'd gained five levels since we parted.
'Excellent. My safety net indeed.'
Too far for blessings or curses to show, but insane growth speed.
Who knew her potential was this high? A bit suspicious how fast, but good news. Early investments pay off.
Amazed, we passed the second floor—where this labyrinth run had truly gone off the rails—and exited via the first floor's escape portal.
"......!"
No time to marvel at the dazzling sunlight or Balerus city's sights—a thrilling current raced through my body.
'No way?'
I reflexively checked my status.
My lips curled into a grin unwittingly.
"Oho. That reaction... Balkan, you too?"
"Yeah."
"Heh. Another cause for celebration."
Hardship ends in reward, they say.
This grueling third labyrinth run...
Had netted me a new blessing.