Minotaur's Labyrinth (2)

With his detection skill activated, Kim Jun carefully surveyed the maze around him.

Waves of blue mana rippled through the labyrinth like rolling surf. He closed his eyes and concentrated on that current.

The strongest vibration came from the passage on the left.

“That way.”

Kim Jun walked along the left corridor.

The path branched again and again, but he chose the direction where the pulse felt strongest without the slightest hesitation.

By the time he had passed the tenth fork, he reached a dead end.

There, unlike the other walls, stood a stone barrier marked by faint cracks.

Through Detection, he could see blue mana leaking out along those cracks, pulsing as if with a heartbeat.

Kim Jun’s fingers brushed the wall.

At once, blue light spread across the stone surface, then fanned outward, thinning until it became like thread.

Before long, it lifted into the air and wrapped around his wrist.

“Thread of Ariadne.”

An A-rank artifact. An item that showed the path to the destination he wanted.

Even before his regression, he had made heavy use of this item. Not just in labyrinths, but on other floors as well.

Swish—

Then the thread extended from his wrist, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠stretching farther and farther without end.

As if it were mapping every corner of the maze, every possible route.

And soon it pulled taut.

“Found it.”

The 11th floor. The Minotaur’s Labyrinth.

A new ecosystem in and of itself.

The outer reaches were barren, but the closer one moved toward the center, the more abundant water and food became.

Of course, the strong took the best places, and the weak were driven to the margins.

And the things blocking Kim Jun’s path right now were...

“Grrraaaah!”

Eyes blazing with rage and hunger.

Minotaur clones that had been pushed to the fringe and starved for days.

They were as savage as ravenous beasts descending from the mountains.

Slash—

Kim Jun cut down Minotaur after Minotaur, again and again, and pressed onward.

*

The outer edge of the labyrinth was so barren it might as well have been a desert.

The light beating down from above was impossible to tell apart from the sun.

It was probably light created by the tower’s internal dimension, but the heat felt as real as any desert sun.

Hot wind blew through the dry stone walls, so fierce that even his armor grew hot enough to sting his skin.

I have to go deeper.

Kim Jun followed the Thread of Ariadne farther inside.

An hour passed. Then two.

Little by little, the surroundings began to change. Moss grew on the arid walls, water could be heard somewhere in the distance, and the air itself grew damp.

And the clones changed, too.

Unlike the ones driven to the outside, the monsters here were well over 2.5 meters tall.

Their muscles were denser, and their movements quicker.

But to Kim Jun, there was no real difference.

Whoosh—

Flames devoured the clones. One, two, three.

Kim Jun didn’t stop. He kept following the thread inward.

Another hour passed.

Now small ponds had begun to appear around him. Vines crawled along the walls, and strange fruits hung overhead.

The clones were now over three meters tall.

About halfway, then.

Kim Jun’s gaze settled on the white shapes near one of the ponds.

Rattle—

They were bones.

Skulls and ribs that looked human were scattered along the edge of the water.

All of them old. Some perhaps decades old, perhaps even centuries.

The remains of those who had challenged the tower again and again, hoping to conquer it.

Thud.

Kim Jun sank to one knee for a moment and prayed. He didn’t believe in gods, but he still hoped that this wasn’t where their ending truly lay.

And as he did, he vowed that he would at least free their descendants.

“Rest easy.”

*

The deeper he went into the labyrinth, the tighter the Thread of Ariadne grew.

The surrounding Minotaur clones had changed dramatically as well. At first they had stood just over two meters tall, but the farther inward he went, the larger they became—until now they were nearly four meters.

“Die!!”

And they could ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠talk, too.

As Kim Jun swung his greatsword, he muttered, “If you hadn’t met me, you might’ve become king.”

Thud.

The 10th floor was fundamentally different from the others.

Its boss was not a single monster, but an ecosystem of thousands of Minotaur clones that constantly devoured one another and evolved.

Only the final victor was qualified to sit on the throne at the center of the labyrinth.

The moment that victor ascended the throne, the Crown of the Half-Man, Half-Bull would be placed upon its head, and it would be reborn from a mere clone into a true Minotaur king.

And when that king died? Another would rise immediately.

On other floors, once a boss was slain, that was the end of it.

That was why later challengers could clear them relatively easily.

But the 10th floor was an exception. Because of its eternally recurring succession system, a boss was always waiting.

Kim Jun knew all of this. And this time, he intended to cut that cycle off at the root.

A labyrinth without a king would become an easy place for hunters to level up.

*

When he passed through the final corridor, an overwhelming sight unfurled before Kim Jun’s eyes.

A massive circular arena.

The structure resembled an ancient Greek amphitheater.

Tiered white marble seating rose in a ring high into the sky, and the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sand at the center had been stained dark red with the blood of gladiators.

But the stands were filled not with spectators, but with tens of thousands of skulls.

The dead gazed down into the arena like eternal onlookers.

And at the center, atop a stepped platform, stood a black basalt throne.

Sitting on it was a being.

“Kahahaha! A new meal!”

It was the Minotaur king.

A monstrous figure over five meters tall, with a human, muscle-bound body and the massive head of a bull.

His entire body was layered with scars earned across hundreds of battles, and each one looked like a badge of victory.

Most imposing of all was the Crown of the Half-Man, Half-Bull upon his head.

Made of bronze and gold, the crown bore bull-horn ornaments stretching to either side, and at its center a red ruby gleamed like fresh blood.

“I have guarded this throne for four hundred years. Thousands of sacrifices have become my nourishment.”

The Minotaur king slowly lifted his head.

“Sorry, but you’re going to be my experience points.”

“Kuhuhuhuhu! That arrogance is rather pleasing!”

The Minotaur king rose from the throne.

Thud!

With every step he took, the entire arena trembled. The skulls ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in the stands rattled and shifted, as though cheering.

“A new challenger! Dance your final dance on this glorious stage!”

The Minotaur king threw both arms into the air.

“King’s Authority!”

Rumble—

In that instant, the floor of the arena began to tremble. Something writhed beneath the sand, and then—

Thrust, thrust, thrust—

Massive hands began to burst up all across the arena.

One by one, the forms of Minotaurs clawed their way out of the earth.

The Minotaurs that had died in this labyrinth until now.

From two-meter cannon fodder to elite soldiers over four meters tall, hundreds of monsters rose all at once.

“I shall grant eternal resurrection to the one who brings me his head!”

“Grrraaaah!”

“Kill him! Tear him apart!”

But to Kim Jun, hundreds of Minotaurs were nothing more than moving experience points.

The first Slash cleaved the air.

Slash—

The greatsword cloaked in red flames swept in a straight line across the Minotaurs in front, severing their necks.

The second strike covered an even wider area.

Crash—!

A crescent of fire exploded, cutting dozens of bodies clean in half.

Kim Jun did not stop. The third and fourth strikes followed in rapid succession.

With a single cut, dozens fell; with a single spin, hundreds turned to ash and scattered.

The Minotaurs’ screams filled the arena, but Kim Jun’s expression remained calm.

Then it happened.

Rumble-rumble—

From one side of the arena came a vibration unlike the others. It was the same resurrection tremor, but this time the energy behind it was much stronger.

When Kim Jun looked that way, massive shadows began to emerge one by one.

Huge Minotaurs wearing the Crown of the Half-Man, Half-Bull. Monsters over five meters tall, their entire bodies covered in scars.

They were the Minotaur kings of ages past.

“Fifteen kings sat on this throne over the last thousand years. They’re all weaker than I am, of course, but a king is still a king.”

The monsters surrounded Kim Jun in a ring.

Each held the weapon they had once used in life: a massive battle axe, a double-edged spear, a war mace, a curved blade...

But Kim Jun’s expression remained easy.

Rather, he even smiled faintly as he stared straight at the Minotaur king seated on the throne.

“I’ve got an interesting question.”

“And what is it?”

“Are you really stronger than all the Minotaurs put together?”

The Minotaur king’s eyes flashed.

“You ask an obvious question. I am the absolute ruler.”

“Then prove it.”

Kim Jun slung his greatsword over his shoulder and said provocatively, “From the throne, the one watching this arena from now on won’t be you.”

In an instant, silence swallowed the arena.

The Minotaur king’s face twisted. An insult he had never heard before.

“How arrogant.”

It was the moment before his fury exploded.

Thump.

Kim Jun’s heart began to pound violently.

No—more precisely, the dragon’s heart implanted in his chest.

Red mana surged through Kim Jun’s veins and spread throughout his body.

Then Kim Jun opened his mouth and spoke, not in human language, but in the ancient tongue of the dragonkin.

『Answer my summons.』

Dragon Tongue swept across the entire arena.

“Gwooooh!”

“K, khuuuhhh...”

Their bodies slowly began to turn.

Not toward Kim Jun, but toward the throne.

“W-what? Kill that bastard already!”

The Minotaur king on the throne shouted in confusion.

But the former kings were moving under Kim Jun’s command. In the presence of dragon blood, they too were nothing more than a lower race.

And the ordinary Minotaurs scattered throughout the arena were no different.

One and all, they turned toward the throne.

“Grrraaah!”

The first former king charged at the current king with a battle axe in hand.

“Kuhhh...”

The second and third former kings followed.

“Th-this is impossible!”

The Minotaur king rose from the throne in panic.

“I’ll watch. Let’s see whether you really are the strongest.”

*

“Huff... huff...”

The Minotaur king was breathing heavily.

His entire body was covered in wounds, the result of being collectively beaten down by the former kings and thousands of his subordinates.

The crown had already fallen to the ground and cracked, and the muscles he had once been so proud of were torn apart and soaked in blood.

“Impressive.”

Kim Jun approached slowly, clapping as he went.

Clap— clap— clap—

“To think you’d really go and kill every last bull.”

“Kghhh... damn human...”

The Minotaur king tried to force himself back up with his last remaining strength, but he had already reached his limit.

“I...”

“Rest.”

Thud.

The red greatsword slowly pierced the Minotaur king’s heart.

“Kraaah...”

The massive body toppled forward.

Kim Jun picked up the Crown of the Half-Man, Half-Bull that had fallen to the floor. Though cracked, it still hummed with magical power.

“That’s the end of it.”

Bang!

.

.

.

Kim Jun’s eyes gleamed.

Authority of the Fallen Royal House?

This... is more useful than I expected.

In a tower where relationships with NPCs mattered, it was a highly valuable skill.

Especially on the higher floors, where information became difficult to obtain without their help, this would make things much easier.

On top of that, the crown shards could be used as premium crafting materials, and twenty skill points was enough to greatly strengthen his existing skills.

Kim Jun murmured in satisfaction and returned to Thebes.

“Return—Thebes.”

Swish—!

12