The Golden Ticket's Hidden Catalog
The Player Talk boards were exploding in real time.
Then it happened.
The moment the Phase 4 announcement went up—
Word spread that Gracia had logged out and withdrawn from the labyrinth.
To be precise, the message that appeared read: Challenger Sword Saint has retreated.
Gracia, who had blazed through to Phase 4 at breakneck speed, had pulled out the instant he reached it—as if he had seen something he was never meant to see.
Barely thirty seconds after entry—
I left the Golden Abyss with Greed.
The moment we returned to the underground labyrinth where we'd started, the surroundings felt hollow and empty.
Where did Isaac and Isabella go?
No one was there. I'd fully expected them to be waiting.
Then my brow furrowed.
Bloodstains?
No people—only blood. Human blood, without a doubt.
Had Isaac and Isabella run into danger? I activated Detector just in case, but nothing registered. One thing was certain: a fight had taken place. Not a full-blown battle, judging by the stains, but the pattern looked like an ambush.
They were attacked. Then they fled.
Fortunately, the volume of blood wasn't enough to suggest an instant death. Whose blood it was, I couldn't tell—but it belonged to a single person. Attacked, then forced to abandon the position. That much was clear.
By whom?
While I'd been in the Golden Abyss, others had entered the underground labyrinth. One of them. But who?
Gracia had challenged the Sword Saint and retreated. The one called Empire's Three Swords was almost certainly the Silver Fox Mask. Beyond those two, someone else was still here.
I need to buy what I need from the labyrinth merchant.
I'd roughly determined the direction of their flight, but the blood trail didn't continue. Searching blindly would be inefficient. Better to buy a tracking tool from the labyrinth merchant than wander without a lead.
"The labyrinth merchant will appear soon. We should go ahead and wait."
"Do you know where it'll show up?"
"I have a fair idea. I've been here so long, after all......."
A relief. Then again, no one knew this labyrinth better than a Golden Goblin—and Greed, their king, least of all needed explaining.
Greed took the lead. After roughly an hour of walking, he stopped.
The Underground Labyrinth Merchant has appeared at 568.1199!
...Right in front of us, the labyrinth merchant—a vending machine—materialized.
Remarkable. He had pinpointed the location with perfect accuracy.
"Insert the Golden Ticket and the door will open. Beyond that, even I don't know."
Greed spoke as if apologizing for not being able to explain further. He'd never personally fed a Golden Ticket into the labyrinth merchant, so it was only natural. Nothing to feel sorry about.
I shrugged and slowly slid the Golden Ticket Greed had given me into the machine.
In that instant—
Greed's Golden Ticket has been used.
A Hidden Event has been triggered!
◈ The Labyrinth Merchant's inventory has changed.
◈ A Door of the Golden Rule leading to Sword Saint Ryleigh has opened.
The door opened. The merchant's inventory changed.
And the moment I checked that inventory—
......So this was the real thing.
Items that were nearly impossible to obtain through any normal means. They floated before my eyes.
A Unique-grade blueprint.
Everything the Labyrinth Merchant had shown until now had been a sample. No—compared to what stretched before me, it didn't even qualify as a sample. Fake. Nothing more than bait to conceal the real goods.
The very idea of putting a ticket into a vending machine is hard to think of.
An event. That was probably what they meant by the act of inserting a ticket into the machine labeled Labyrinth Merchant. Even on the surface floors, feeding a Labyrinth Ticket purchased from a merchant back into the machine would likely trigger something similar.
The grade changes depending on the ticket you insert.
Naturally, the catalog would shift based on which ticket you used. The one I'd just inserted—Greed's Golden Ticket—had been obtained from the ruler of the overlapping abyss itself.
It earned the name Hidden.
You had to find the underground labyrinth, monopolize all ten Golden Goblins alone, then defeat Greed. What percentage chance did that sequence even have of happening?
So this—this was the real catalog.
Four kinds of souls.
Every one of them was a type nearly impossible to acquire. Hydragon's Soul alone—aside from me, there was maybe one other person in all of Pangenia who possessed one.
You can use matching souls for Transcendence.
And that wasn't all. Souls of this caliber were typically materials for Unique-grade items. The harder they were to obtain, the higher their grade as crafting components. Not a single one was worth discarding. I was certain each held more value than its listed point cost.
But points were the problem. With what I'd earned so far, I couldn't buy any of them.
The points from beating Greed in the final duel came to a thousand.
And there were the points I'd last extorted from Greed—a full 1,000. Combined with my existing total, roughly 1,350. Enough to buy all four souls with room to spare.
But I couldn't pull the trigger just yet. This wasn't the full list.
Four brands as well.
Brands were tattoos that conferred abilities—but brands themselves were extraordinarily hard to come by. Beyond the most basic ones, tattooists who had inherited the techniques for specific brands were almost nonexistent. If you found one, there was a 99.9% chance they were a fraud.
All four of the brands above were Special-grade. Enormous value as brands, with formidable abilities to match. I'd heard the names, sure—but I'd never once met a tattooist who could inscribe any of those four.
Show these to a real tattooist and they'd be drooling.
Drooling? They'd leak everything they had.
There's more.
Even more astonishing: this still wasn't the end.
Rings that were equally hard to obtain. Beyond those, there were easily twenty more varieties. Every one of them unique—but only two of them truly caught my eye.
......The Seed of Verdure. A Unique-grade blueprint.
Verdure. The name alone called a single city to mind—the great city known as the City of Verdure. A metropolis where forest-related non-human races gathered, with a colossal tree called Verdure standing at its heart. If this Seed of Verdure was the same as that tree's, it was an extraordinary resource. It might even link to rapid growth.
But I had no idea what the Unique-grade blueprint was a blueprint of.
Does it substitute for any Unique-grade blueprint?
Crafting a Unique-grade item required a blueprint. More important than the materials themselves, in fact. You could gather every material in existence and still be unable to craft without the blueprint.
If that's the case.......
I swallowed hard, steadying my breath as I scanned the list again. Then I checked the materials I already possessed. I clenched both fists, opened them, clenched them again. My palms were sweating. They had every reason to.
One...... I can make one.
A single Unique-grade piece of equipment had surfaced in my mind—because I already had every material needed to craft it.
Of the fifteen Unique-grade items confirmed to exist in Pangenia, I'd poured eight into Wilhelm, and they'd been destroyed with him. But that had been due to the Demon King's peculiar nature. Each Unique-grade item, on its own, was a Creation of Heaven and Earth. I wasn't joking—one Unique-grade item was worth as much as a star. There was a reason people obsessed over Unique-grade gear.
And to equip Unique-grade gear in my current state? When reaching Level 10 was a distant, indefinite prospect?
Collecting Unique-grade equipment is more realistic than hitting Level 10 and Transcending.
Thanks to this insane experience curve, my level was essentially locked at 6. Even after defeating Greed, I hadn't leveled up—which told me the road to Level 7 was going to be anything but ordinary. Level 10 was a pipe dream I couldn't even entertain. I'd get there eventually, but when? I had no idea.
......Damn it all.
At this rate, wrapping myself in Unique-grade gear might actually be faster. Equipping Unique-grade items would expand my limits and let me face stronger enemies. Defeat stronger enemies, and leveling would accelerate on its own. So this choice was the right one.
Golden Dragon Fang Soldier's Soul, Brand of Greed, Hollow Rusted Iron Ring, Unique-grade Blueprint. I need to buy these four.
The only obstacle was how much I needed to buy. Exactly 2,400 points. A thousand more than I currently had. On top of that, tracking tools for Isabella and Isaac would cost another 100.
Gracia failed. The Silver Fox Mask failed. So I have a little more time.
I assessed the situation coldly. Sword Saint Ryleigh's seal was still stuck at Stage 4. At Stage 5, he would become the one who was the Abyss itself—but both Gracia and the Silver Fox Mask had already retreated. They might reorganize and try again, but not immediately.
The Desert Queen was a mild concern. Still, I judged she wasn't stronger than Gracia.
First, I need to get those two back.
The golden vending machine that had appeared through the Hidden Event had unlimited duration. And opening the machine revealed a Door of the Golden Rule. Rescue Isabella and Isaac, gather the points, craft the Unique-grade equipment—then challenge him.
The moment my thoughts settled, I spoke to Greed.
"Guard the labyrinth merchant."
"I am the merch— yes. Of course. That's my job."
Isabella bit down hard on her lip. Blood beaded along the broken skin.
She and Isaac were on the run.
"I told you to retreat first!"
"......You first."
Isaac, carrying the Saintess on his back, kept urging Isabella to fall back. Labyrinth entrants who chose to retreat could return to the continent at once. But both of them were stubborn as iron. Knowing words alone wouldn't persuade her, Isaac's brow knotted tight.
"Damn it—what the hell is that monster? Why is it chasing us?"
"The Desert Queen."
"What?"
"......What's chasing us is the Desert Queen."
"The Desert Queen? The queen of Faisalmer? Your hometown?"
He dredged up the conversation they'd shared in the Demigod Trait Dungeon. If it was the Desert Queen, she was the master of Faisalmer—and Isabella had been a resident of Faisalmer.
Isabella nodded.