Chapter 105
Chapter 105
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 105
Chapter Title: Where Monsters Gather
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[3rd Floor Map]
Hwan-in, having descended to the 3rd floor, pulled out his map book and marked the stairs he'd come down from with a red "2," and the stairs leading to the 4th floor with a "4."
Then, taking a long, deep breath, he pressed onward.
The tension in the air prickled his skin like needles. It reminded him of the atmosphere in that forest-type labyrinth where he'd first fallen into this world.
Hwan-in scanned his surroundings meticulously.
In his gray field of vision, he could see a cave with an irregular hollow structure, its ceiling rising as high as 4 meters in places, riddled with branching passages.
No xenobeasts in sight. Tilting his head to listen, he heard only faint whispers: ssssss, swish swish swish...
To Reshim, Baekryeogang, or Isilite, there would be nothing but pitch-black darkness.
As a test, he deactivated Soul Vision, and sure enough, beyond the torchlight, there was absolutely nothing to see.
Perhaps because they'd reached the 3rd floor, Reshim let out a faint groan and spoke up.
=This labyrinth really lives up to its name.=
=I never imagined not being able to see ahead would create this much tension.=
Baekryeogang noticed how his echoing voice carried farther than expected and gripped his staff tightly with both hands.
So that's why Reshim flinched back at the entrance stairs. Baekryeogang chuckled inwardly, then realized he must be more on edge than he'd thought, getting sentimental over something so trivial.
And Isilite's calm demeanor, as nonchalant as ever, surprised her. Did she have a lot of experience with this? He asked.
=It's a bit uncomfortable not seeing well, but I trust Master, so it's fine.=
Trusting her master kept her composed even here. At that answer, Baekryeogang looked at Hwan-in's back leading the way with newfound respect.
To earn that much trust from someone. Enough to reform a rough thief of a girl...
Baekryeogang felt his curiosity and interest in Hwan-in growing within him, but he flinched as if caught, when a voice came from beside him.
=Lord Hwan-in, please light the glow rod.=
"It should be fine."
At Hwan-in's permission, Reshim reached into the pouch at his waist and pulled out a wooden rod about the length of his arm.
Classified as a labyrinth magic tool, the glow rod was a small gray wooden stick densely engraved with winding runes. Twisting the handle made it glow like a chemstick.
Its light radius was about four times that of a torch. It cost 2 elen per unit, had an on/off function, lasted up to 20 hours on a charge, and recharging took 1 elen—a handy magic tool.
As Reshim twisted the handle, a gray light burst from the rod's tip, illuminating about 40 meters brightly.
=It's bright.=
=Sure is.=
The light at the rod's end didn't hurt to stare at directly. No heat either. It seemed useful in many places. Amid these thoughts, a sound caught Hwan-in's sharpened ears.
Srulk... thud...
"......"
The sound came from the direction of the only passage here.
Hwan-in turned to the two, who were curiously peering into the now-clearly visible cave illuminated by the glow rod, and said,
"From now on, consider any approaching party as enemies."
=......Pardon?=
He fixed Reshim, who responded blankly, with a cold stare and repeated,
"I repeat: from now on, any approaching party is an enemy."
=F-From now on, any approaching party is an enemy.=
"Why aren't you repeating it, Baekryeogang?"
=Y-Yes? Ah... From now on, any approaching party is an enemy.=
Hwan-in addressed the two youngsters, who couldn't grasp why the sudden change, in a flat, low voice.
"You remember what the soldier at the entrance said."
—Problems in the labyrinth are fundamentally the responsibility of those involved. The leader bears the blame for not managing their party...
Baekryeogang and Reshim belatedly realized what he meant and hardened their expressions.
"My homeland has a saying: 'Good people don't come, and those who come aren't good.'"
=But... doesn't that mean not everyone approaching is necessarily bad?=
Baekryeogang asked, understanding logically but struggling emotionally. Isilite answered from behind.
=This labyrinth is a place where laborers actively hunt. That means it's relatively easy. People who get into dire straits on these low floors wouldn't enter to begin with. So, those drawn by the light are likely murderer gangs targeting rich folk wasting expensive magic tools on low floors like this.=
=.......=
Coming from a former thief like Isilite, it carried extra weight. And Hwan-in's follow-up left Baekryeogang nodding in agreement.
"If they truly need help, it'll be obvious at a glance. Major wounds or disheveled appearances, that sort of thing."
Hwan-in beckoned Isilite over, took the still-lit torch from her, and hurled it toward the dark passage ahead.
The torch spun like a boomerang, hit the wall with a thunk, bounced, and rolled into the passage.
Flames spread along the wall, casting flickering shadows of several people.
At the sight of them hiding without even lighting a fire, Reshim paled and drew his sword. Isilite drew her massive two-handed sword.
=You hiding there! Come out!=
At Reshim's shout, a beastkin hunter kicked the torch aside and stepped out from the passage.
Four more beastkin hunters with the same aura followed, fully armed. All four carried bows—clearly human hunters.
But instead of drawing his spear, Hwan-in pulled four daggers from Isilite's waist.
=Heh heh. Pretty sharp, huh? Blame those quick eyes. You'll die in ~aaagony because of it.=
He threw a dagger at the sneering lead beastkin.
The dagger, hidden in Hwan-in's shadow, silently pierced the beastkin hunter's throat.
=Guh!? Grrraaah......=
The beastkin man clutched his neck, spewing bloody foam, and collapsed to his knees.
After a brief silence, the remaining four quickly nocked arrows and fired at Hwan-in, then drew more from their quivers and loosed again.
Ten arrows flew in an instant, but Hwan-in didn't dodge—instead, he roughly swatted them away with his stone axe.
Ting ting ting—the arrows scattered like deflected reeds. The human hunters' eyes widened.
Deflecting arrows flying from darkness like this?!
=D-Damn it. He's no ordinary jobless punk...! Guh?=
The cat-eared woman shouting as she nocked another arrow clutched her throat with a thud and fell back.
Reshim and Baekryeogang, just about to act against the hostility, widened their eyes in shock.
They couldn't process what was happening.
Meanwhile, Isilite subtly stepped in front of Baekryeogang, raising her massive greatsword to guard against more arrows.
"Not shooting anymore?"
The three remaining felt hairs standing on end at Hwan-in's low murmur as he approached.
Terror, like standing before an overwhelming predator.
The heart-squeezing fear from their first encounter with a rank-3 beast.
=Damn it!=
=Get him!=
Two charged Hwan-in simultaneously; one stayed back to nock another arrow.
Reshim reflexively lunged forward but was yanked back by his cloak by Isilite, choking her to a halt.
=What are you doing?! That...!=
=Reshim, just watch.=
=Pardon? But...!=
Reshim, protesting why stand by during a fight, soon gaped.
Thud! =Keh!=
Whack, slash— =Grah!=
Like flowing water, he threw a dagger piercing the archer's throat, fluidly swung the stone axe severing the first charger's longsword at the wrist and slashing his neck.
In one breath, two lay dead.
The dog-eared woman, daggers in both hands and charging, couldn't even attempt a pincer and recoiled, splattered by her comrade's spurting blood from his gaping neck.
What... what is this guy? Human?
Hwan-in, gripping daggers reverse, kicked her stomach mid-leap.
Wham!
=Guhh!=
The beastkin woman flew back several meters, tumbling, daggers dropping from the impact.
The gut-tearing pain was bad enough, but the ghostly glint in his eyes terrified her.
A monster who'd slit four throats without blinking. Charging meant that black stone axe crushing her skull. Turning meant a dagger through her neck.
Unable to advance or retreat, she soon lost the will to fight, knelt, and begged abjectly.
=P-Please spare me. I'll do anything.=
She'd thought it a windfall: a jobless leader with a small animal, wasting pricey magic tools.
But the windfall was theirs? No—they'd hit disaster?
Her thoughts ended there.
Thud.
=......!=
=.......=
Baekryeogang and Reshim swallowed groans as the woman, dagger embedded in her face, flailed briefly and collapsed.
Merciless even to one begging for life...
Conversely, Isilite inwardly sighed in relief. One misstep that day, and she'd be like them.
She'd have to thank Ssa and Brillit later. Vowing that, she spoke to Hwan-in.
=Good work, Master.=
"Don't touch the bodies. Just recover the daggers."
=Got it. Daggers only.=
A thief's instinct flickered—such a waste—but Isilite wordlessly retrieved the daggers from the human hunters' necks and faces, wiping the blood from the blades.
Then, frantic footsteps echoed from beyond the passage where the hunters had emerged.
Several sets, burdened with heavy loads. Hwan-in and Isilite glanced toward it.
But nothing emerged.
The fading sounds suggested porters fleeing.
To reach the next floor, they had to pass through that passage. Thus...
'They normally hunt xenobeasts, but switch to hunting noobs when they spot them. Human scum.'
The ill-fitting gear on the five confirmed it.
Hwan-in's first deliberate killings stirred no guilt—nothing at all.
Instead, their death throes planted a small, ominous sprout in his heart.
A pleasure-killer's bud.
"You! You killed me!" "I don't wanna die like thiiis......" "Mom! Mom!! Aaaah!" "I didn't mean to kill! Didn't mean tooo!!"
⟨ Soul Agony ⟩
Moments later, the souls emerging from the corpses writhed, unable to accept reality.
Their reactions split into two: those venting resentment at Hwan-in, and those denying their death, wailing.
"I'll curse you! Hate you forever!! Follow you eternally!!"
The cat-eared woman's soul raged hypocritically, despite striking first. Her unkempt short hair stood on end as she spewed malice, but Hwan-in stared unblinking and thought,
'Looks like you want your soul erased too.'
"......!?"
"Hiiik! What?! How...?!"
"No way. A Soul Shaman? You're a Soul Shaman?!"
"Nooo! Not oblivion!"
The souls realized their would-be victim, their killer, was a Soul Shaman. Pandemonium ensued.
Even the raging cat-eared soul froze, trembling.
"R-Run!"
"Uwaaaah...!"
Before the fleeing souls vanished from sight, Hwan-in issued a commanding order laced with compulsion.
He planned to test a few things.
'Come here.'
"Nooooo......"
"Mooooom......"
"Gaaaaah......"
The five souls wailed like banshees as they were sucked into Hwan-in's left arm, transforming into soul orbs.
Unlike xenobeast, beast, or cooperative souls, these were twice as large, tinged red instead of pale gray.
'Compulsion worked.'
He'd once tried orbing Rua's soul—it failed. Why now?
Because Rua was ascending then? Or his soul powers had grown?
He'd tested human vs. monster/beast souls before by asking some for cooperation.
No meaningful results then. He hadn't pushed, to avoid issues.
'These won't be a problem.'
=Master, all recovered.=
He nodded to Isilite, who'd retrieved the daggers and torch, and headed for the passage.
"Moving through."
The gray light from Reshim's glow rod cast long shadows of the sprawled dead.
Few xenobeasts on the 3rd floor, but occasional torchlight beyond passages showed humans were around.
=They said from the 3rd floor, they stake out and hunt. That explains those setups......=
As Reshim muttered in a subdued voice, the 3rd floor indeed had many winding tunnels and corners.
People lurked inside those corners, torches lit to signal presence. This tied to the labyrinth's ecosystem.
=What's the reason?=
Isilite, versed in theory from the institute but not field experience, asked.
=Xenobeasts emerge in three known ways. First...
1. Burrowing from ceiling or floor.
2. Tearing space from altars or statues.
3. Breeding from spawned xenobeasts.
=......However, they don't appear near human sight or presence. Scholars claim it's to avoid pointless phase force loss.=
=So they can't resist if attacked mid-emergence?=
=Yes. Thus, they hide in passage gaps or corners, emerge at xenobeast sounds to lure, kill, and retrieve corpses.=
Whispering softly, the party followed the twisting path to map point 26: the stairs to the 4th floor. They brushed past normal parties encountered by chance, keeping distant and formal.
Sticking to opposite walls, avoiding closeness.
=.......=
After several such encounters silenced conversation, the party's mood sank.
More precisely, Reshim and Baekryeogang's did.
Baekryeogang walked head down, spirit crushed, not even looking around. Reshim stared ahead blankly, glow rod in hand.
This mood had lingered since the fight.
Noticing, Isilite, clutching emergency rations, spoke up while scanning surroundings.
=Those we killed were labyrinth bandits.=
=......How can you tell?=
Baekryeogang asked lowly, but Isilite continued unfazed.
=Yes. Their mismatched, scavenged gear and ill-fitting armor scream stolen equipment. Hiding in the only passage without a torch? Points to one thing.=
=Noob hunters, huh.=
Isilite nodded at Reshim's reply.
=True to its name, this Lightless Labyrinth is pitch-black all floors. Thus, murders, robberies, ambushes happen more than elsewhere. Normal hunters turn bandit at tasty prey.=
=How do you know?=
The question felt accusatory in context, but Isilite answered calmly.
=It's under Wayford jurisdiction, so the institute taught details on it. Especially me, as a jobholder likely entering labyrinths.=
=......Sorry for snapping. Books called it dangerous but skipped this. Seeing the ugly side after romanticizing it soured my mood......=
=It's fine. And isn't it the same everywhere people live? Good with bad.=
=Heh heh... Yeah. Compared to there, this is milder. Hidden schemes vs. direct emotions.=
=Ah~ 'There' means balls and high society? Knew you were highborn. Heard they smile while insulting at balls—is it true?=
=N-Not really......=
Thanks to Isilite's interest, Baekryeogang brightened, whispering with her.
Reshim glanced, then fell back subtly, rearranging formation for their chat.
=Lord Hwan-in, I'll take rear guard.=
"Please do."
In the last alley before the stairs—barely over 3m wide—they met another group.
Eight: four jobholders, four porters.
The opponents looked deep-delved: weapons and armor bloodied, porters laden.
Their front two spotted Hwan-in, detached hands from weapons demonstratively, raising them.
Hwan-in mirrored, backing off and yielding the passage.
Hed heard the smaller group yields on such single-file paths.
They did the same, hugging the opposite wall, nodding slightly to Hwan-in.
As they passed and Hwan-in's party re-entered, Baekryeogang, who'd watched quietly, murmured softly.
=That's how you act with normal parties......=
=See? Told you those were bad guys.=
=Heh heh. Yeah.=
Isilite's cheer lifted Reshim and Baekryeogang's faces, softening the party's mood.
Hwan-in inwardly upped his evaluation of Isilite slightly and stepped onto the stairs to the 4th basement floor.