Chapter 27
Chapter 27
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 27
Chapter Title: Demon's Labyrinth (1)
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1.
Louise and her party continued pressing forward through the labyrinth.
It was a maze where not a single ray of light could reach, but they advanced by illuminating the darkness with Aria's Blessing Light.
Of course, dragons had eyes sharp enough to see several kilometers away even in pitch-black darkness where no light existed.
That was why Louise moved ahead alone at the front.
"Louise! You're going too fast......! Please, slow down just a little......!"
But that was only true for Louise; the adventurers chasing after her couldn't keep up.
"Haa."
Among them, Aria, who had the weakest stamina, was utterly exhausted from walking nonstop for so long. The Blessing Light that lit up their surroundings orbited around her, so they had no choice but to match her pace.
Humans and dwarves weren't accustomed to the dark, after all.
"Let's rest here for a bit. That okay with you, human?"
"Ah....... Yeah."
She scanned the surroundings to check for any unusual presences.
Aria found it amazing that Louise showed no signs of fatigue despite having faced so many magical beasts on her own.
She certainly looked like a teenage girl similar to herself in appearance alone, yet her skills seemed to surpass even a typical Rank 4 adventurer.
Aria knew that beastkin had superior physical abilities, but the dragonkin—said to be the pinnacle among them—were far more impressive than she'd imagined.
To the point where she wondered if she might actually be a real dragon.
-Shuuuuu......
'So, what the hell is going on in this place...'
A chilling wind blew through the labyrinth, where no exit could be seen.
Rain sensed an eerie energy coming from an unknown direction and realized they couldn't keep relying solely on the Blessing Light. He fashioned a simple torch from materials found in the labyrinth.
-Fwoosh!
The flame of the freshly lit torch flickered.
Sure enough, wind was steadily blowing from somewhere.
"Looks like it's over there."
Rasi el pointed toward the labyrinth's ceiling, which was so high its height was unknown, as if she'd pinpointed the source of the wind.
More precisely, at a wall about 6 or 7 meters up.
Shining the light there revealed a massive hole.
The rocky debris here that made for a good resting spot had probably fallen when that wall collapsed.
'She might be right; it does seem to be coming from up there.'
Louise looked up after hearing the elf's words.
A huge hole about 10 meters in diameter had been punched in the wall.
It looked as if something had blasted straight through it.
'That's pretty big.'
The thought crossed her mind that something on her level—perhaps another dragon—might have made a hole that size.
It felt strangely familiar for some reason.
'And there's quite a few of those too.'
At the same time, an unpleasant presence that had been drawing closer caught her attention, and Louise glared toward one side of the labyrinth.
-Crackle!
"Huh? What's this...?"
"You okay? Isn't it because you've been using holy power too long?"
For a moment, Aria's Blessing Light flickered.
"No, Rain. This blessing doesn't consume much holy power......"
As if sensing something, Aria moved the orb of light toward the direction Louise was glaring.
Several shadows soon appeared in the light from the orb.
"People? Does that mean the missing adventurers are here too?!"
But there weren't just one or two shadows.
Dozens of human silhouettes, and though they were at some distance making it hard to see clearly, they all appeared armed.
And the weapons were mostly the kind adventurers used.
Very different from what forest bandits or imperial soldiers wielded.
"Hey! Are you okay?! We're from the adventurer's guild, here to find you!"
Rain rushed forward upon spotting them.
In truth, the commission Rain's party had accepted wasn't just to explore the dungeon—it was to search for the adventurers who had gone in to explore and then gone 'missing'.
This dungeon had been discovered just a few days ago.
Many adventurers had headed in to explore it, but strangely, a week after they set out, none had returned.
Feeling something was off, the guild had posted a separate quest to find the missing ones, and Rain's party had taken it after seeing it.
Of course, they'd been a bit scared, so they'd asked Cyan for help.
They'd luckily run into Cyan on her way back from a commission, sparing them the effort of searching for her.
Though in the end, it was the dragonkin girl Cyan had brought along who came to help, not Cyan herself.
"Hold on, Rain! Something's off!"
"What?"
But Aria stopped Rain.
"Why? Some of them look injured. We need to help them quick."
Rain argued back, urging haste. He didn't know exactly what injuries they had, but their clothes were soaked in blood, and they looked in bad shape.
On top of that, they were barely managing to stagger along.
They seemed in far worse condition than expected.
Rain thought they needed to help them fast.
"Human, do that and you'll die."
-Thud!
But Rain was grabbed by something and fell backward.
"Guh? W-What are you talking about?"
"Look at those humans closely. Or maybe I can't even call them humans anymore."
It was Louise who had grabbed Rain as he tried to charge ahead.
She held his sleeve and told him to take another close look at the adventurers.
"What are you even...... Wait, what."
"Grroooaaargh-"
Rain soon doubted his own eyes.
An indescribable putrid stench assaulted his nose.
It was the smell of rotting flesh, like a slain magical beast left to fester for days until maggots swarmed it.
"They're already dead—undead... wraiths."
⚔ STATUS ⚔ ⚡ Hopeless Wraith – Lv.95 HP: 100,000 / MP: 3,500 ▶ Adventurers turned undead due to a curse. They can use their abilities from life and possess immortality, continuing to move even if their bodies are destroyed.
"......My god. Zombies?"
As he said, what approached them weren't adventurers, but zombies born from those adventurers after their deaths.
The foul stench, blackened and withered blood, rotting flesh—these were proof enough. And crawling maggots on top of it all made anyone who saw them grimace.
Moreover, their eyes, with unfocused gazes, locked onto the 'living being' right in front of them—the object to sate their desires.
"More precisely, they're undead called wraiths...... It seems like it's been quite a while since they fell."
Those turned into wraiths retained only the instincts of beasts: males raped females, then devoured their flesh alive, making them no different from monsters......
She didn't know what had happened, but they had already lost their lives and were shambling toward them.
"Damn, they've all been gotten to already? Aria!"
"Y-Yes! I-I'll purify them right...... now!"
At Rain's call, Aria stepped forward.
Encountering wraiths in a confined space like this was normally a dire crisis, but luckily, having someone who could wield holy power like a priest changed everything.
Wraiths kept moving even if their bodies were smashed and could use the magic they'd known in life, making them a huge pain.
But in the end, they were undead—vulnerable to holy power.
"......O God of Wisdom! Grant them peaceful rest!"
-Flash!
With Aria's incantation, the light shining on them massively amplified in intensity.
-Fwoosh!
The wraiths soon burned in white flames, leaving only their filthy clothes behind.
They had strong resistance to physical attacks, but even a graze from holy power made them vanish like that.
Seeing this, Louise figured there was no need for her to step in and turned her gaze elsewhere.
"?"
-Rustle
But something felt off. An odd presence.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ 2.
-Step. Step. Step.
⚙ LABYRINTH STAGE ⚙
>Demon's Labyrinth I just kept walking straight ahead.
Walking, and walking some more.
How much time had passed like that? It felt like the sun had risen and set about twice outside.
Time in the labyrinth flowed much faster than outside; a day here might only be an hour out there.
Well, that was a small mercy, but it didn't change the fact that I was wasting time.
"......Hoo."
Maybe because of that, I was getting a bit angry.
If I'd known it'd be like this, I wouldn't have flung that hero away so recklessly. It had been so long since I'd entered a labyrinth that I'd forgotten it was a true 'labyrinth'.
Without a Guiding Crystal, you couldn't find the exit, let alone the boss room.
In the game, it activated automatically once you had the crystal in your inventory, so I never thought about it. But now, I didn't even have a Guiding Crystal, much less an inventory.
My mistake for forgetting that.
Throwing the hero in first was the error.
If I'd entered holding him, we'd have spawned in the same spot, but since he went in first and I followed, our spawn points differed, leaving me alone.
"Where the hell is that boss?"
Anyway, it'd already been two days since I entered this labyrinth.
Yet I was still wandering, unable to find the boss room.
Honestly, part of me thought smashing the place would make it easy to find.
The problem was that would bury the soulstone here too.
Then there'd be no point in coming all this way.
I couldn't bear to just collapse it after all the time spent here without even washing.
Teleporting out wasn't an option either; labyrinths like this, severed from the main world, couldn't be re-entered via teleport.
'Once you enter a labyrinth, die or it vanishes.'
So the outside portal might already be closed.
"Haa, what should I do......"
With no choice, I sat down for a moment to clear my head. Wandering aimlessly wouldn't lead anywhere.
I might even be looping the same paths like last time. If I lost my temper again, I might really bring the whole labyrinth down.
I had to hold back no matter what.
Yeah, I could do it.
I'm a rational, normal person with reason.
-Flash!
"?"
Then, the labyrinth suddenly flashed.
At the same time, a slight unpleasant feeling washed over me.
......This was holy power.
Only church-blessed clerics or heroes could use holy power.
That meant the holy power just now had to be from that hero.
This was luckier than I thought.
I didn't know why he'd used an AoE holy spell, but his presence meant he had the Guiding Crystal too.
'He used it from quite a distance.'
Still, I didn't rush.
If I took a wrong turn, I might miss him entirely, so the best was to carefully follow the direction the light had come from.
'......I can use that too.'
Then, a certain spell came to mind.
-Shrrk!
I pulled a spellbook from my subspace and flipped to the page of the spell I'd seen before.
Spellbook – Auxiliary Skills II "Found it."
This was a skill I'd used early in the game.
Its main purpose was enhancing hearing to track and hunt rare monsters.
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡ Auxiliary Skill II – Rabbit's Ears ▶ Enhances the user's hearing, allowing them to hear sounds up to 5km away.
No major demerits, just the downside of growing rabbit ears while active.
It only affected the avatar's appearance—no real debuffs...
'Fine in game, but now? I'd die before using it in front of others.'
Turning into a game character was bad enough; adding rabbit ears? Showing that would make me obliterate everything from shame.
Yeah, dispel it before reaching the hero.
Just cancel when I'm close enough following the sounds.
-Twitch!
"......Whatever, no big deal."
Some weird sound effect played, but I ignored it.
Priority was finding the hero's location.
Hmm, but once I find him, what then? Knock him out and drag like before? Or, no guarantees, but sever the head, take the crystal—ignore binding options and move easier.
It's been over 24 hours by now, so killing him once more shouldn't be an issue.
'Let's see.'
(...........)
-1km: Nothing.
(...........)
-2km: Still nothing.
(...........)
-3km: Just a faint wind.
(......Uh, ......Nngh!)
-4km: Something like a human voice.
(Ah, nngh, hnn! No....)
-5km: ...???
(P-Please....... Help me- Ah!)
"......What was that?"
I doubted my ears for a second.
At around 5km, an odd sound.
And not the hero—a girl's voice.
Gasp-filled, moaning.
"What?"
And that voice felt familiar.
-Thud!
I didn't know why she was here, but something was wrong. I rushed toward the sound.
(Damn, what do we do?!)
(It won't let go! What now?!)
(Move, deal with that wraith first!)
Familiar voices continued.
Male with sword, young girl cleric, rough speech—elf.
How did these guys get in here......?
(Nngh, hnn......!)
And that moan was Louise's.
Come to think of it, wraiths? They start at Lv.80 usually, high ones up to 200s—pretty strong.
Even Louise couldn't handle an ambush from one.
Plus, by lore, wraiths target women...
-Flash!
"Louise......! What happened— what the hell is this."
Not knowing the exact spot, running was slower than teleport.
So I warped straight to Louise's position.
She was inside the labyrinth, so no worry of her escaping outside.
And I couldn't let a dragon I'd acquired be taken by a wraith. A dragon was more valuable than a soulstone anyway.
Finally arriving where Louise was—
"Lady Cyan?!"
"L-Lady Cyan- Ah! Hnngh?!"
Louise tried to rise but convulsed violently and collapsed. The others fidgeted anxiously around her.
"......What are you all doing?"
I was speechless at the scene before me.
Louise lay on the ground, breathing raggedly.
The reason—
"Th-The wraith grabbed Louise's tail....... And it won't let go no matter what."
Rain explained in a panic.
A mysterious hand from the rock debris gripped Louise's tail, keeping her from standing.
Dragons in humanoid form gained multiple weaknesses.
One was the tail: unlike the reverse scale that caused rampage if touched, grabbing the tail paralyzed them, sapping their strength.
Same for dragonkin.
They just had diluted dragon blood preventing full dragonization, but not much difference otherwise.
"L-Lady Cyan....... Help me- Ah......"
So, release or sever the hand—but the swordsman had tried that already.
"......And when the sword wouldn't work, I tried cutting the hand off. ......But the sword broke instead."
His sword lay in two pieces, discarded.
Like it'd been struck on rock.
So, that hand wouldn't release with brute force or cut with a sword—what was it......
......That's the key.
"Step back."
"Huh? Okay."
I pushed them back and approached Louise to inspect the hand gripping her tail.
A hand buried in rock debris.
Faintly visible: ornate gauntlet.
Yeah, definitely him.
I grabbed the wrist and slowly applied force.
"Gaaaaahhh......!!!"
"N-Not a wraith—a person?!"
A man's scream soon followed.
Unable to endure the pain, he released Louise's tail.
"......Hah."
I picked up the half-exhausted Louise, moved the adventurers far back, and said,
"Just stay buried alive."
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡ Giga Graviton – AoE Magic -Boom!
"Kuhak?!"
By the way, Graviton magic could be stacked.
There was a max gravity limit per cast, but multiple stacks solved that.
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡ Giga Graviton – AoE Magic ⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡ Giga Graviton – AoE Magic ⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡ Giga Graviton – AoE Magic -Crunch! Crumble......!
The debris couldn't withstand the gravity and turned to powder.
Releasing Graviton let the labyrinth wind blow all the dust away.
Finally, his form emerged.
Rare black hair, crumpled here and there but unmistakably high-end gear.
And the holy sword in his other hand.
⚔ STATUS ⚔ ⚡ Hero 'Kang Si-woo' – Lv.185 It was him, as expected.
"S-Save—"
"Get lost......!"
-Boom!
For reference, I didn't just blast the hero away.
Louise confirmed who had grabbed her tail and breathed on him, sending him flying.
Even a hero would die from a direct breath hit.
Too bad; I was curious if severing the head would let me carry the crystal.
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