Chapter 88
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 88
Chapter Title: Undead Wave
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Originally, since we had formed a four-person party and made it to the 12th floor the last time we entered the Labyrinth, I figured trying to reach the 12th floor with just the two of us this time would make for an even tougher expedition.
"Whoa! It's the 12th floor!"
"......"
But contrary to my expectations, getting all the way to the 12th floor wasn't all that hard.
My swordsmanship had improved, Hiss's skills turned out to be way better than I'd anticipated, and since we'd already been this way once before, we knew the route...
"....There are hardly any monsters."
"Huh? We still ran into a few, didn't we?"
The monsters were scarce. We'd bumped into an ent swarm or killer hornets once or twice on the 11th floor for some brief skirmishes, but that was it. With far fewer monsters than expected, we'd reached the 12th floor without many encounters. They said undead had appeared, but we hadn't seen hide nor hair of any.
"Isn't that a good thing?"
Hiss saw it in a positive light and grinned brightly. Sometimes luck was just on your side, letting you slip through to your target floor with minimal monster run-ins.
But I couldn't hide my uneasy expression. And for good reason...
"There's no way I'd get lucky."
"What are you talking about?"
"No, really. Outside the Labyrinth, maybe, but inside? I've never had good luck..."
If anything, the good luck made me anxious. Hiss gave me a look like I was talking nonsense, but I was dead serious. So after reaching the 12th floor, I braced myself for irregular monsters to spawn or other adventurers to ambush us. From the moment we stepped in, I kept my tension high as we moved...
"I see the lake!"
".........."
No battles broke out until we reached the lake on the 12th floor. Off in the distance, through the trees, a lake much wider than I'd remembered came into view. Up to that point, no monsters or ambushes from other adventurers.
What was this? Had my luck finally turned around?
Yeah, honestly, everything up until now had been the weird part. It'd be great to just cruise through with few fights, snag the quest target, take down the average number of monsters per floor, and call it a day.
Yeah. There was the lake. Being in a Labyrinth and all, maybe that's why it looked a bit darker than a normal blue—almost stained black. The surrounding trees were rotting, and fish corpses bobbed on the surface...
"Huh?"
We drew closer to the lake and peered in. A foul stench wafted up, and schools of fish-like creatures floated dead on the water.
"....Ian, is the 12th floor lake supposed to look like this?"
"....Not that I know of."
Something was wrong.
".....Should we count this as the quest target?"
Hiss fished out one of the bizarre, protruding-jawed fish floating on the surface. By its looks, it seemed like the bigmouth catfish we were after, but...
"...It's rotten."
A putrid smell hit us, like it'd been dead for ages. Its body was bloated with gas, flesh discolored in patches.
"Eek!"
The moment Hiss's hand—reaching for the catfish—touched the lake, she screamed and yanked it back.
"Hiss, your hand...?"
In an instant, her hand turned pitch black, but the choker she wore glowed intensely, restoring it to normal.
"Hey, don't touch that lake!"
A voice called from nearby. I whipped out my sword and eyed the direction it came from as a four-person party emerged.
"Too late for that. Better drink some holy water."
"...Who are you?"
"No need to be so on guard. We're just another party on a lake-related quest for the 12th floor. Looks like you are too, since you made it here."
As if to reassure us, the dwarf man at the front kept his distance, hands raised.
"No idea what happened, but that lake's contaminated with some nasty curse right now. One of ours stuck a hand in without thinking and nearly bought it. Lucky we have a priest in the party."
"How long has it been like this?"
"Dunno. Labyrinth Guild didn't mention anything, so probably changed yesterday or today. And whatever's happening seems ongoing... The trees around weren't rotting the last time we checked."
To be safe, I watched Hiss down some holy water while keeping my drawn sword trained on the other party.
"...No need to be that guarded, but whatever. We warned you, so we'll be off."
"See? Told you there's no need to worry about them. Ungrateful..."
".....Thanks for the heads-up."
"No biggie. We're outta here."
They left us behind and headed away from the lake. Hiss shuddered and backed off too. I squinted at the water. Watching closely, the ground around it was slowly turning black, and even trees away from the lake were starting to rot bit by bit.
And the moment the blackness crept across the ground toward where I stood—
-【Found you.】
-Blorp blorp...
The lake's center began to boil. Its waters grew murkier by the second. The flesh rotted off the floating fish until only bleached bones remained, sinking to the bottom.
".....Hiss, up you get."
I pulled Hiss to her feet as she applied holy water to her hand. She must've sensed something ominous too—her face tense as she stood.
"Doesn't look good. Let's get out of—"
-【Found you.】
-Splash! Splash!
"......Geggelgel..."
The black water erupted from the lake. A bone-white arm, stripped of all flesh, rose above the surface.
"...Wha.... undead?"
-Clack. Clack.
A skeleton crawled out of the lake. Behind it, zombies, ghouls, ghosts, specters, and more began emerging one by one. And every last one stared right at us.
"Hiss."
"Yes?"
"Run."
"Wh-what the hell is this?"
The Tesca party, who had just warned Ian and Hiss about the lake before leaving, suddenly felt a sinister aura spread across the entire 12th floor and shuddered. Among them, the most perceptive—the wolfkin rogue—went pale as a ghost.
"Th-those... enemies..."
"What? Enemies? Where?"
His party drew weapons and braced for battle at his trembling words, but the wolfkin didn't even think to arm himself—he just shook uncontrollably.
"100....110...120....And it's growing..."
"Gern, snap out of it! Which way?!"
"Over a hundred! Suddenly over a hundred enemies—I can feel them!"
"What? How is that even—"
As the entire party panicked at Gern's near-screech of terror, bushes rustled behind them. A skeleton burst out, locking eyes with them.
"...A skeleton?"
-Clack.
Tesca smashed the skeleton to bits with his battle hammer and shot Gern a look.
"All that fuss over a single skeleton? We can handle those easy..."
"B-behind... behind us!"
"Behind?"
Tesca, no stranger to skeletons, turned to check the noise.
-Clack clack clack clack clack clack clack clack clack clack clack.
"..........Tick tock."
He spotted an enormous wave of undead.
Hiss and I bolted for our lives. The undead we spotted individually weren't much of a threat, but in those numbers? Deadly. Especially since...
-【Found you.】
That voice from before. I casually asked while running, and Hiss said she hadn't heard a thing. The moment it hit, it felt like my soul was being wrenched—pure shock. After that, insane dread bubbled up, sending me sprinting like mad.
'What was that? Feels kinda familiar somehow.'
I shoved the nagging sense of déjà vu aside and kept pumping my legs. Goal: the portal to the 11th floor. If we made it there, we could shake these undead.
As we ran, skeletons started popping out not just behind us, but from the forest ahead too.
-Clack?
"Get lost!"
I booted the skeleton aside mid-stride and kept going, but more undead kept spawning from the woods.
'Lately, undead have been showing up in the forest layers.'
"Damn it, we never should've heard that!"
Should've ignored it. Total foreshadowing for some disaster!
Undead coming from the forest—not the lake—suggested a connection between the forest spawns and the lake horde.
".....!"
"..!..!"
Then a racket erupted from the direction we were heading. But since it was the straight shot to the portal, we charged toward the noise.
"Whoa?! It's those guys from before! Perfect timing—lend us a hand!"
We spotted a party locked in combat with undead. Up close, it was the group from the lake.
Surrounded and struggling, they lit up at the sight of us and called for help, but...
-Clack clack clack clack clack clack.
"Wh-what?! No! Don't come this way!"
They saw the horde chasing us and paled, waving us off in horror.
Damn—the path ahead was already crawling with undead. Couldn't ignore it anymore.
"Sure, we'll help!"
"Help?! You brought that many?!"
Whether to trust them or not could wait. The undead swarm crashing down on us was priority one. So Hiss and I naturally carved through a few and joined them.
"Ngh! Keria! Blessings!"
"O... O God of Justice!"
Their priest chanted, and a burst of holy light shoved the undead back momentarily.
"Damn! Where'd you drag that many undead from?! We thought we'd pulled most of the forest ones!"
"They erupted from the lake!"
"Undead from a lake?! Don't talk nonsense!"
"It's true!"
I bellowed from the gut, pommel-smashing a zombie's eye socket. Their leader looked thrown but shook it off, eyed our weapons, and barked orders.
"Ngh.... First, Keria! Harass the ethereals!
"Got it! Light!"
Keria the priestess chanted again, holy light exploding to incinerate the hovering ghosts.
"And... you, the beastkin.."
"Hiss!"
"Right, Hiss and Gern—pick off the mages mixed in!"
"U-ugh! Damn it!"
Hiss nodded and teamed with the wolfkin Gern, daggers flashing as they bounded through the trees, striking undead mages.
"You and I guard Keria and Haster—block incoming! Haster! Chant time doesn't matter—biggest AOE spells!"
"On it!"
I cleaved a charging zombie's head clean off while shielding the brown-haired man mid-chant, biting my lip in thought.
Yeah, no way I'd get lucky.