Chapter 99
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 99
Chapter Title: Common Occurrence in the Labyrinth
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Labyrinth 14th floor.
"Whiiiiiine..."
Dozens of mosquitoes swarmed toward a single spot, drawn by a tantalizing scent. Each one was the size of an adult man's palm—an enormous monster mosquito.
Spotting defenseless prey standing in the middle of the forest, the mosquitoes dove in like arrows and jabbed their proboscises deep.
-Ting.
"Whiiine...?"
As their saliva bounced off simultaneously, the mosquitoes hesitated for a moment. But they soon regained their momentum, stabbing the same spot repeatedly until they finally pierced the tough hide and sank their proboscises in, sucking up blood.
-Sluuuurp...
Unlike regular mosquitoes, these were massive, draining an alarming amount of blood. And with multiple ones feeding at once, an ordinary person would collapse from excessive bleeding or anemia.
Not only that, but the toxic substances coating their proboscises were injected into the veins in place of the drawn blood—a potent poison that suppressed regeneration and kept the bleeding going until death.
The mosquitoes that successfully injected their venom eagerly thrust their proboscises back in, anticipating the gushing blood...
-Sizzle...
"Whiiiiiine...??"
White smoke rose up, the blood flow stopped instantly, and the holes where they'd plunged their proboscises sealed shut.
"Ah, even these guys' venom isn't doing much anymore."
The prey, who hadn't budged until now, finally stirred. With a swing of the iron lump in his hand, a blue mist spread out, shredding every mosquito's wings like paper.
"Having these mosquitoes tag along isn't yielding much efficiency anymore... [Physical Resistance], [Regeneration], [Poison Resistance]—none of them are growing. Did I expect too much from mosquitoes?"
I casually swept aside the falling mosquito corpses and reapplied my homemade mosquito repellent to my skin.
-Siiiizzle...
The skin where I'd applied the repellent turned bright red, blisters formed, flesh began to rot and burn away. The mosquitoes, catching the stench of rotting meat, panicked and fled from me.
"Repellent's working great."
It was less repellent and more just slathering on deadly poison. But if it worked, that was fine. A few bold mosquitoes charged back in despite the intense toxicity...
[Hallucination Magic lv.3]
Consumes a small amount of demonic energy to inflict hallucinations on the target.
"Whiiiiiine..."
Drawn to the sweet scent wafting not from my body but right beside it, they jabbed their proboscises into empty air.
"Day three today, huh?"
It had been three days since I'd entered the Labyrinth solo. Now I was on the 14th floor.
"...Easy."
The 11th floor had been a breeze solo. I'd cleared it alone back when my party betrayed me and even made it back on my own power.
The 12th floor...
'Ugh... the lake...'
I had bad memories of the lake, and that 'voice' came to mind, so I just held my breath, maintained [Stealth], avoided all combat, and slipped through. [Stealth] and [Stealth Block] both hitting level 5 must've helped me evade fights.
And on the 13th floor...
"Ants?"
"Chak. Chak. Chak."
Ants the size of a person's upper body roamed the forest in groups of five or six. Like well-trained soldiers, each patrolled a set route. Spotting an enemy, they'd release pheromones to share its location with allies.
From what I'd heard, the ants on the 13th floor were called 'Armored Ants'? Fitting name—they had shells like iron armor.
[Sensory Block]
"...Chak?"
For a test, while maintaining [Stealth], I hit one ant with [Sensory Block] on its pheromone sense. Suddenly, one of the group broke formation, lost and wandering off from the pack.
"What the?"
"Chak!"
The deviated ant released pheromones, messing up everyone's patrol routes. Soon the forest was chaos.
"Chak!"
"Chak? Chak!"
Layering on [Hallucination Magic] made it worse. Seeing hallucinations, each ant signaled what it "saw" to its kin via pheromones, but nearby ants sent conflicting info...
The result...
"Heh. Total mess."
"Chak! Chak!"
Eventually, the ants started fighting each other. I learned a fun trick...
[Hallucination Magic]. Plus [Sensory Block] and [Sensory Amplification].
I got the idea from blocking 'hallucinations' with [Sensory Block]. If blocking worked, amplifying them with [Sensory Amplification] should too.
"Chak! Chak!"
One ant in the cluster suddenly gaped its jaws wide and attacked a fellow ant ahead of it. The attacked ant, clueless, counterattacked.
Snapping out of it upon the counter, the first ant shook its head as if shaking off the hallucination, but...
[Sensory Block]. Vision block. Then [Hallucination Magic]. Generate visual hallucination.
-Chak?
At the sudden enemy apparition, the Armored Ant that had mistakenly attacked an ally tried to regain its senses, but its vision went pitch black, plunging it into panic again. Just as sight flickered back, it spotted the same enemy targeting it once more.
-Chak!
Thus, the ant that had just calmed down went berserk again. I watched it clash with others while leisurely maintaining [Stealth] and approached.
"Hyah."
-Slash!
Slipping in during their fight, I activated [Assassination] swiftly and took out the ant...
Assassinated two targets in one breath. [Assassination] skill level has risen to 5. [Assassination] kills will no longer dispel [Stealth]-type skills.
'Oh.'
I'd gotten [Assassination] to level 4 with occasional use, but hitting two tangled ants at once bumped it to 5. Plus, no more Stealth dispel on kills...
-Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash!
After that, it was a cakewalk.
Maintaining [Stealth], I'd rattle them with [Hallucination Magic] and [Sensory Block], then slice necks with [Assassination]. They never spotted me, never signaled my position via pheromones, and just died.
"I get why other adventurers avoid the 14th floor."
In the forest layers, the 14th was notoriously shunned. The standard was to clear up to 13 properly, then shell out for bug-repelling magic tools from the Mage Tower and piles of repellents from the Alchemy Guild just to pass through.
Apparently, even during Labyrinth mutations, the 14th always spawned bug-type monsters.
The giant ants on 13 were manageable, but facing nothing but gross bugs on 14 was vomit-inducing.
Through skill usage beyond limits and extremely dense demonic energy, [Hallucination Magic] level rises to 3.
At least spamming skills got me past-the-limit notices, leveling [Hallucination Magic] to 3. Probably thanks to Diabolo's demonic energy too.
'Beyond limits' must be from [Sensory Amplification]. Even at level 2, its power surprised me.
-Rustle. Rustle.
'People active even on a floor like this, huh.'
Amid the bugs' noises, bushes rustled, and my skills pinged. [Enemy Detection] at level 5, plus the new [Reconnaissance] from soloing.
'You lot, beat it for a bit.'
I conjured an illusion with [Hallucination Magic], and the swarming bugs chased the sweet scent and human shape away. Unlike area-effect [Hallucination Magic], [Sensory Amplification] needed targeting, so no go for this many—but repelling them briefly was easy with [Hallucination Magic] fresh at level 3.
"...Did you hear something just now?"
"Hear what... There aren't even bugs here. Don't you know bugs swarm wherever people are on the 14th floor?"
As I hid, three men in mosquito-net hats pushed through the brush.
"We weren't spotted, right?"
"Spotted my ass. No one wanders the 14th floor. Who'd roam a bug-infested hellhole like this?"
The men chattered among themselves, checked around where I'd been, found no traces, and plunged back into the bushes to finish their business.
"Heh heh... Talk about jackpot. Two women wandering here..."
"Dunno. Looks like they lost their party below and got hurt. Gear's pretty high-end too."
"Hey, don't touch the gear. Wanna get tracked? Just grab cash and consumables. Dump the bodies anywhere—the bugs'll eat 'em anyway..."
"Ugh, can't you catch 'em gently? They're all smashed! Makes pounding 'em feel shitty."
They had no clue I was stealthed right beside them. No need to worry.
-Stab!
"Fuck... These bitches resisted while we watched, and you smashed the pussy, you retard. You whacked her with the hammer and..."
"Hey, this one's teeth are all broken. Too jagged—can't use her mouth."
"........."
"Hey, who you wanna be this time? You're first this round... What?"
Two men rummaging the two female corpses ahead noticed no reply from their rear-guard buddy.
-...Drip... Drip...
"Uh... ugh? F-fuck... Jacob!"
"What the sudden... ugh?!"
Slow on the uptake too.
Turning, they saw their comrade headless, blood dripping from the stump. Freaking out, the two pressed backs together and drew weapons.
"Fuck. What is it? When'd Jacob go down?"
"Assassin? Fuck... Stealth bullshit!"
The half-curly one quickly assessed, rummaged his pocket with his free hand, pulled out a round object, and hurled it everywhere.
His buddy caught on and held his breath.
-Boom! Boom!
The spheres burst, spreading acrid, spicy fumes and clouds of black powder.
-...Cough!
"There!"
Catching a tiny cough amid the powder, he chucked a dagger and bomb toward it.
-Boom boom boom!
"........."
"........."
Tense, they waited for the smoke to clear...
-Thud.
"Gotcha!"
Seeing a black shape collapse in the smoke, they rushed to check the stealthed rat's face.
"Here it... it... what?"
Up close, the blast-blackened form shimmered like a mirage and vanished completely.
"...F-fuck. It was fake..."
-Dash!
-Slash!
One man grasped it fast, ditched his buddy, and bolted. The latecomer got his head lopped off.
'Fuck. Illusion, hallucination, clone—whatever. There's a monster here!'
The last man, having ditched his team quick, activated his lifeline skill [Sprint] and tore through the forest.
'Idiots. I'll put the party funds to good use.'
His [Sprint] was level 5, with mana-fueled acceleration. Whatever attacked them, no need to fight—just run!
"Uahahahaha!"
I looked down at the man sprawled between the two headless corpses, flailing his legs and cackling madly.
"I'm... the fastest of us..."
It worked way better than expected. Intermediate adventurers should have decent resistance, right? Duration seemed shorter though... Hard to tell. First time on humans. Wait, did it really work on Gloria at the Temple back then?
I glanced at the dead raiders. Wasn't some justice thing that made me kill them...
'No women in their party? Was gonna use [Lust Absorption] if there were.'
...That was it.
Maybe 'cause [Lust Absorption] on Mystic and Joan was so good lately? Keep getting needless greed. Gotta stay sharp. Don't wanna catch some STD.
At least not tempted to test it on the dead women adventurers' corpses. Small mercies.
'Nothing major.'
No real incidents on the 14th either.
No bug waves, no mismatched monsters, no raiders targeting me.
I looted adventurer badges from the corpses I killed, dumped the bodies, and moved on.
Worried about more bullshit, but nothing special happened. Good.
Onward. Goal's the 15th floor.