Chapter 52
Chapter 52
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 52
Chapter Title: 20. Underground Labyrinth (2)
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The reason that guy was acting like that.
Originally, the guardian had also taken mana infused with 'evil' into his body.
"But your sword. I didn't borrow it."
He said it half-jokingly.
The red glow in his eyes flickered more sharply.
"...I do not question that one."
Even with his mind corrupted, he hadn't forgotten his role as the Green Dragon's guardian. But he had no such loyalty toward Yoo Ji-tae. The guardian picked up a nearby object and pointed it at Yoo Ji-tae.
"Don't take my words lightly. Yoo Ji-tae. Where is my sword?"
Brandishing a broom in warning did nothing for his dignity.
The mental corruption would wear off on its own after a set amount of time.
The underground labyrinth was the perfect place to confine and calm someone down. He could just leave them there for a bit, wait for the corruption to fade, and pick them up later.
"Hand over my sword!"
The deranged guardian charged at Yoo Ji-tae.
Yoo Ji-tae hooked his middle finger over his thumb. Then he lightly flicked the charging guardian right on the forehead.
Kaang—!
The guardian bounced back and slammed into the wall. If Bom's subspace 「Celestial Order (S)」 hadn't been protecting the entire dorm room, the guy would've smashed through the floor and walls, waking up on the first underground level.
His helmet crumpled from a single hit. The glow in his eyes blinked erratically.
Sprawled on the floor, the guardian didn't get up for a while. A dim light flickered through the gaps in his rag-like helmet.
"Huaak... Mmph! Mmmph!"
By then, Yeoreum had fully subdued Morning Star. She'd bound his arms with the handcuffs Bom had given her before and sealed his mouth with blue tape. Only then did Morning Star calm down, shedding tears like a chicken.
"Whew. What a pain in the ass."
Yeoreum glanced back at him, her expression asking what he planned to do next.
There wouldn't be any hassle.
The 「Underground Labyrinth」 existed in the material world of reality while also being connected to the 「Abyss」.
Yoo Ji-tae gathered them together and pulled his inner subspace out into the real world.
A rift tore open in the air. Like the gaping maw of a greedy demon, it yawned wide, ready to swallow something whole.
Yoo Ji-tae tossed Morning Star and the guardian into the abyss.
That said, once the guardian was gone, one guy would be left alone. Peeking through the gap in Bom's door was Winter's tense face. She'd been startled by the commotion outside.
It wasn't a great place to bring her, but he couldn't leave her here by herself either.
"You'll come too."
Yoo Ji-tae picked up Winter and gave some kind of order to the 'hands'.
One of the 'hands' flew over and handed him a small vial.
The regressor pocketed the vial and silently stepped into the abyss.
A space filled entirely with darkness.
Morning Star and the guardian were being transported, gripped by the abyss's 'hands'.
Yoo Ji-tae and Yeoreum walked through the air.
Winter, cradled in his arms, looked around in wonder. Her gaze lingered on the gray, translucent 'hands'. She reached out her short arms to grab them, but the hands deftly dodged her grasp.
She looked disappointed.
"You were hiding a backdoor like this."
Unlike Winter, Yeoreum spoke with a hint of tension.
"Where are we headed?"
"The hideout."
"What's there? Some way to fix these nutjobs?"
"Time will sort it out. We just need to tie them up."
"Fascinating. Fine for the girl, but the janitor's pretty tough. How're we keeping him contained?"
Long ago.
It was a place created by a great archmage from another dimension to imprison a colossal monster born from the previous archmage's mistake.
A place like that could hold even a restless Red Dragon hatchling for over ten years. The labyrinth was filled with all sorts of devices to stabilize, confine, and immobilize anything.
Yeoreum's eyes sparkled at Yoo Ji-tae's brief explanation.
"If a place like that existed, you should've told me sooner."
Why?
"Perfect spot for fun."
But it couldn't be used right away.
Yoo Ji-tae had discovered the underground labyrinth in his 3rd cycle, and started imprisoning dragons there from the 5th and 6th cycles.
During his 4th cycle, his superhuman ranking was 3rd in the world. And the labyrinth housed something slightly stronger than him at the time.
"There's a tough bastard there. Gotta drive him out."
"Tough?"
Yeoreum's eyes lit up at the first time she'd heard 'tough' from Yoo Ji-tae's mouth.
"Tougher than that asshole?"
Yeoreum thought of Javier, her long-time goal.
Among the humans in her mind, he was the strongest aside from Yoo Ji-tae.
The being in the underground labyrinth was even stronger than Javier.
"Crazy. This is getting me pumped. Mind if I take a shot?"
"You'd get wrecked."
"You think I don't know that?"
Yeoreum muttered with a hurt expression at his words. Then she asked,
"So. What's that guy's name?"
A stateless wanderer, one of the 30 superhumans holding the 'Free Dungeon Clearance Privilege', aka 'Dungeon Free Pass'.
One of the 'Five Transcendents', evaluated as the strongest human in Earth's history since antiquity.
World ranking 2nd.
Alias 'BM'.
"Weird name. BM. Who'd win between you and him?"
"Me."
Yeoreum let out an intrigued 'hmph' and smiled.
"Planning to kill him if you meet?"
In the 5th and 6th cycles, Yoo Ji-tae had killed BM.
To seize the underground labyrinth.
It was BM's territory, and he was a raider.
"Who knows..."
But now, having resolved to live a normal life, Yoo Ji-tae was rethinking it a bit. All he really needed was one inner chamber at the deepest part of the labyrinth.
"Guess I'll talk to him first."
"Yeah. And if he won't listen?"
The regressor didn't answer.
Soon, a small rift entrance appeared at the end of the abyss.
Stepping through the rift, they were greeted by a dark space. The ceiling was pitch black, and there weren't even lanterns on the walls. Standing still, the air felt chilly.
A wall about 3 meters high blocked their path. The two plain walls jutted out at sharp angles like a maze.
"Lower than I thought?"
Yeoreum approached the maze wall and jumped up. Then, as if by magic, the walls rose to match her eye level. "Huh? Damn it." Even trying to climb, it was the same. The walls rose higher with every reach of her hand.
Thrashing around wildly, the walls shot up hundreds of meters into the sky.
Furious, Yeoreum pulled an artifact sword from her subspace and stabbed the wall. Tiny fragments chipped off, but it wasn't nearly enough power to break it. Even the damaged parts repaired themselves instantly.
After struggling for a while.
Finally giving up, Yeoreum yelled down at Yoo Ji-tae, who looked like a speck below.
— Can I blast it with one breath?
Even that wouldn't work.
"Stop messing around and come down."
As Yeoreum descended, the walls lowered again.
With a structure like this, anyone entering or exiting had no choice but to wander the maze paths. And since the inner walls moved arbitrarily, tricks like marking a wall or following one didn't work.
But it was no issue for the regressor.
Killing intent coalesced into an invisible blade.
He carved a circular hole in the wall from bottom to top, then kicked it out. A hole opened in the wall.
Yeoreum, having experienced the wall's toughness herself, was a bit surprised. She knew it was strong, but he'd never shown off like this in front of her. Her eyes gleamed. Then her gaze met Winter's, who was peering over Yoo Ji-tae's shoulder.
Winter smiled brightly, and Yeoreum averted her eyes with a grumble.
"Nothing impressive..."
And so the group advanced straight ahead, punching through walls. Yoo Ji-tae carved paths to fit his size, leaving plenty of room for the others. The walls repaired themselves after they passed.
After breaking through about twenty walls, a plaza opened up before them. It was fairly spacious, with darkness shrouding the far side where the walls were invisible.
Krrrng...
A low growl rumbled from the floor.
Things the size of cars emerged from the darkness. There were three. They resembled lions, but with massive molars, a goat's head atop theirs, snakes for tails, and wings sprouting from their backs.
He'd come to the right place.
These were chimaeras made by BM himself.
As if to prove it, '(Made by BM)' was engraved on the goat horns.
"I'm looking for your master."
No sooner had Yoo Ji-tae finished speaking than the chimaeras lunged at him. They were the guardians here, with fierce hostility toward uninvited guests.
Up to that point, he'd been holding Winter in one arm. To shield her view, he placed his hand on her small head and gently pressed it to his shoulder. By the time Winter buried her face in his chest, the chimaeras' massive fangs were aimed at his face.
Yoo Ji-tae extended his right hand and caught the molars. The lion-sized body halted as if slamming into a steel wall. At the same time, its head twisted.
Twisting his wrist, the teeth that could bite and tear steel snapped helplessly.
Meanwhile, the other chimaeras targeted him. Thwack— Kicking away the frontal one, Yoo Ji-tae slowly raised his hand.
Sharp wouldn't do. It would render the chimaeras unusable.
So he blunted the killing intent into a lump. Standing still like a statue, he swung the formless sword at the charging monsters. An upward diagonal slash, and the 'formless club' shattered one chimaera's jaw. The jaw crumbled, fangs piercing into its own mouth.
On the other side, a downward strike. Splat—! Above the lion's head, the goat's skull crumbled like wet clay.
Even with heads shattered one by one, they could still move. But even a brief clash was enough to realize this opponent was beyond them.
Krrrng—!
One bellowed loudly. The staggering two blocked Yoo Ji-tae's left and right. They gaped their massive maws impossibly wide. The lions' cheeks tore open 180 degrees. The next moment, they slammed their teeth into the maze floor. Their bodies began turning ash-gray. Something akin to petrification. At the same time, thousands of silver threads burst from between their wing feathers like waves, blanketing the space between the maze walls. Razor-sharp wires. Charging into them would slice skin and bone clean off. The intent was to pin him here.
Up to then, Yeoreum stared blankly at Yoo Ji-tae before speaking.
"Uh... should I burn those with fire?"
"No. Quietly stay behind me."
Yoo Ji-tae swept the silver threads aside like clearing cobwebs. Snap. Snap snap. They broke helplessly. But at one point, they were thick enough to look like a white wall.
Annihilation (S)
Burns the origin
The authority that incinerates origins. Like burning corpses, black flames erupted, consuming all the silver threads.
By then, the small head trembling against his chest cautiously looked up at Yoo Ji-tae.
"Scared?"
Winter nodded slowly.
He stroked her head.
"Sorry. We're almost there."
He pressed on without hesitation.
Before the labyrinth's 'inner chamber'.
This place was the 'workshop'.
Dozens of massive glass tubes lined up. Some were incubators, others creation vats. Inside were monster bodies and organic matter.
Liquids flowing along hundreds of tubes. Bubbling solutions. Shapeless skin tissues hanging in the air.
A chimaera creator buried in paperwork looked up.
"A guest..."
Tall stature, skinny build. Scruffy beard. Hollow eyes hidden behind perfectly fitted sunglasses.
His name was BM.
BM yawned lazily and reached out. The table was littered with dozens of empty vodka bottles. All over 50 proof.
He cracked open a fresh bottle of vodka and chugged it straight. "Kuh." As he yawned again and turned somewhere,
"Already made it this far. Quite the hasty one..."
Someone was approaching from deep in the labyrinth passages.
Broad shoulders and massive build. Murky gaze. Even with neatly cropped short hair, meeting his eyes brought an ominous vibe. He was walking while gripping something's head.
He was alone, but his presence suggested a few others outside the workshop.
"What's the occasion? Who might you be?"
BM eyed the intruder with a slouch, then took another swig.
The man tossed the head at his feet. Thud, thud... It was the head of his finest guardian, an 'ogre-type chimaera'.
"Clean cut. You can reattach it."
"...For real. Quite considerate. But you know who I am to come here?"
"Of course."
BM's lips curled. Amused. After several 「Usurpations」, his appearance, voice, and identity had all changed from his original self. And not a single acquaintance knew about this 'labyrinth'.
"So, who am I?"
But the next moment,
"BM."
BM's eyes twitched.
"Or Jeong Bong-man."
His expression filled with bewilderment.