No. 50 Transference Maze (3)
With the Totem of Mimicry active and the Battle Suit securely equipped, I looked every bit the part of Staff Member K.
Yet Zhuge Soso cast a peculiar, knowing glance in my direction.
"Inferno Fist."
"..."
"You're Kim Ho, aren't you?"
I had expected anyone with a sharp eye might eventually catch on, but she truly lived up to her reputation as the vice head of the Swordsmanship Club.
I would have to hear how she had pieced the clues together to reach that conclusion, but that conversation could wait.
Clank.
After we disposed of the enemy in front of us, that is.
Dang Gyu-young and Zhuge Soso seemed to share the exact same thought, both fixing their gazes straight ahead.
Standing alone in the center of the chamber was a hulking knight.
Things are starting to ramp up.
Though involuntary, we had already crossed past the mid-boss room. From this point forward, the monsters roaming the maze shifted into small, elite units. Naturally, an Oubleck that had consumed such foes would be vastly more dangerous.
This one seemed to have merged two or three knights into a single abomination, brandishing four arms in total. Its right pair of arms gripped a massive greatsword, while its left pair held a recurve longbow.
The creature twisted its torso slightly, and in the span of a heartbeat, nocked an arrow and let it fly.
Pshhh—!
I tilted my head, evading the projectile aimed dead between my eyebrows.
"I'll take the DPS role. You two pin it down."
"Understood."
"Got it."
Zhuge Soso and Dang Gyu-young readily agreed.
They undoubtedly had several B-rank offensive skills at their disposal, but compared to Inferno Fist, their raw damage paled in comparison. The heavier the penalty, the more devastating the destructive output—and being an area-of-effect flame skill, it was far more lethal against Oublecks.
Twang—!
The Oubleck knight loosed another arrow before immediately charging at us. Its speed was breathtaking, making an ogre look sluggish by comparison. In the same motion, it swept its greatsword in a broad, cleaving arc.
The instant we ducked and lightly sprang aside to evade the blade—
Thwip—!
The arms on its left flank loosed another shot, this time right at Dang Gyu-young.
"...!"
Having barely dodged the greatsword, the incoming arrow nearly threw her off balance, but she managed to slip past it with acrobatic grace.
I called out to her immediately.
"They're coming from behind!"
Swoooosh!
Sure enough, the arrows the monster had previously loosed were wheeling back around. Though shaped like arrows, they were fundamentally extensions of the Oubleck itself, each piece moving like an autonomous organism.
Fluttering shadow butterflies surged forth, knocking down the returning projectiles one by one, yet the Oubleck knight kept firing without pause, causing the swarm of arrows to multiply.
Dang Gyu-young furrowed her brow slightly. "We can't let this drag out."
"Let's wrap it up quickly," I replied, leaning away from another sweeping cleave.
Stepping back, I clenched my fist tight. Pitch-black flames began to roar over my knuckles.
Determined not to give me an opening, the Oubleck swung its greatsword once more, but Zhuge Soso slipped in front of it and thrust her blade forward. A slender, flexible sword met a colossal slab of steel thick as a man's torso. Against all logic, the massive greatsword ground to an abrupt, dead halt.
Immediately after, the shadows beneath its feet rippled. Spikes erupted from the floor like skewers, impaling the beast through and through. Against a slime-type monster, piercing attacks hardly dealt fatal damage, but Dang Gyu-young's true aim came right after: the shadow skewers linked together, weaving into a tight, constricting net.
The instant its movements were sealed, I thrust my fist forward with everything I had. A torrential firestorm surged, swallowing the creature whole.
BOOOOOOM—!
Yet I was already cocking my fist once more.
"Another one coming!"
"...!"
"...!"
Just as Dang Gyu-young and Zhuge Soso were about to ease their guard, they snapped their attention back forward. Sure enough, a dark silhouette flickered faintly amidst the roaring inferno. The creature hadn't fallen, even after taking a direct hit from Inferno Fist.
Moments later, the half-melted Oubleck knight burst out from the flames, swinging an equally distorted greatsword. Yet each time Zhuge Soso lightly parried, thrust, or grazed her blade against it, the greatsword hitched unnaturally or carved uselessly through empty air.
Dang Gyu-young wove her shadow magic into the opening, and straight into the bound monstrosity, I hammered a second Inferno Fist.
KRAAA-BOOOM—!
The Dark Oubleck was utterly consumed by the raging storm of black fire.
Peering cautiously into the dying embers, Dang Gyu-young asked, "Is it finally over?"
"Yeah, it's done."
Only then did she let out a sigh of relief. Turning her attention to Zhuge Soso, she asked, "So how did you figure it out anyway?"
Evidently, how Soso had seen through my identity had been nagging at the back of her mind.
Zhuge Soso offered a gentle smile. "Honestly, I suspected it from the start. I have quite a wide social circle, you see."
As the vice head of the Swordsmanship Club, she frequently interacted not just with the student body, but with the faculty as well. A completely unfamiliar face among the staff had drawn her scrutiny from the very beginning.
"And I figured there had to be a motive behind distributing that strategy guide."
The revised guide had been handed out with purely good intentions—to help the subjugation force clear the dungeon efficiently. Zhuge Soso understood that, but she had still deduced there must be a personal link between the guide's distributor and the team.
"On top of that, Inferno Fist was the clincher."
A forbidden skill that almost no one possessed, and among those few, the number of people capable of entirely negating its recoil penalty was virtually nonexistent.
Her smile broadened.
"Taken individually, any of those clues could be brushed aside as an odd coincidence. But when all three point to the exact same person, the conclusion becomes obvious."
"...Well, that actually makes sense."
Both of their gazes swung toward me, and I decided there was no point in keeping up the charade any longer.
"Impressive deduction, Senior. I take it you already knew I had learned Inferno Fist?"
"I picked up on the connection while covering up the Black Snake Gang incident. Though this is my first time seeing it in person."
Zhuge Soso turned to Dang Gyu-young. "Did you know as well?"
"Huh? O-Oh, of course! Kim Ho and I met up beforehand and talked it over!"
Naturally, Dang Gyu-young hadn't deduced my identity through methodical logic—she had simply bypassed the totem through sheer intuition. But unwilling to lose face before Zhuge Soso, she glossed over the truth with bravado.
A momentary glint flashed in Zhuge Soso's eyes, suggesting she had caught on to the peculiar reaction, but she chose to let it slide for now.
Turning back to me, she asked, "What do you plan to do from here?"
"You can speak casually with me, Senior."
"Then I will."
Perhaps sensing the sudden familiarity in Zhuge Soso's tone, Dang Gyu-young pouted slightly in mild discontent. The moment Soso looked back at her, however, her face snapped instantly into a placid, neutral mask.
Feigning ignorance of their subtle dynamic, I spoke up.
"To answer your earlier question: naturally, we're pressing forward."
"Can the three of us manage on our own? It's not that I doubt your skills, but we don't know what lies ahead. We could get separated again, too."
"You don't need to worry about being scattered."
By now, the members of the subjugation squad were thoroughly dispersed. Left to their own devices, they would inevitably wear themselves down battling Oublecks, so why would the Witch of Rot bother expending effort to split them up further? From her perspective, concentrating her forces at key strategic points or the boss room made far more sense.
With the threat of sabotaged teleportation circles dramatically reduced, our only focus needed to be navigating the maze as efficiently as possible.
"If anything, moving around just got much easier."
When I released a faint pulse of mana into the surrounding space, teleportation circles of varying sizes revealed themselves across the floor in response. Back when dozens of raiders had to move together, choosing the largest circle was mandatory.
"Now, there are only three of us."
We had our pick of virtually every magic circle, excluding only single or dual-passenger ones. That meant we could dictate our path however we pleased. The only hurdle was deciphering which of the hundreds of rooms each circle led to—
Except this place is practically my living room.
If I felt like it, I could write not just a revised edition, but the definitive, unabridged guide to the Transference Maze. Naturally, I knew every single room, including the ones the Witch of Rot had no clue existed.
On top of that, we had one more decisive advantage.
"The Oublecks only attack because they spot us. There's no actual rule saying we have to fight them."
"...So we just don't get caught in the first place?"
Catching my drift, Dang Gyu-young grinned. If we could avoid detection, slipping into the next room without drawing steel was entirely viable. And for the president of the Thief Club, concealing three people was a walk in the park.
"Then let's get moving."
I picked a teleportation circle and began channeling mana into its runes.
Flash!
As brilliant light burst from the floor, Dang Gyu-young instantly enveloped the three of us in a veil of living shadows. When our vision cleared, the next room materialized before us.
Like so many we had passed before, weathered stone bricks enclosed all four walls. Looming dead center stood a massive Oubleck knight.
Clank.
The creature twitched slightly at the flare of teleportation light, but detecting no presence, it soon lowered its guard and resumed its solitary vigil.
Dang Gyu-young silently mouthed with wide, amazed eyes:
It really isn't moving?
Let's jump to the next one right away.
Yeah, let's go. Let's go.
I dispersed a thin thread of mana. The knight flinched once more, then settled back down. Selecting a circle tucked in the corner, I poured mana into it in a heavy surge.
Only when the circle blazed with brilliant luminescence did the Oubleck finally realize what was happening, charging forward with terrifying momentum.
Clank-clank-clank-clank!
"Catch you later~"
I gave a casual wave of farewell.
Before its weapon could reach us, the blinding radiance swallowed us whole.
Flash!
Stealthily leaping from room to room, our pace was astonishing without battles to slow us down.
Along the way, Dang Gyu-young tapped my shoulder and whispered:
Where are we even heading?
We're almost there.
Rather than explaining with words, showing her was faster. I channeled mana into the next circle.
Flash!
The landscape that greeted us was completely different from anything we had seen so far.
The four enclosing walls of weathered, ancient masonry remained the same, but despite the lack of torches or light fixtures, the chamber was bright as high noon. Lush, vibrant grass carpeted the ground. And right in front of us, in place of any Oubleck, stood a solitary, ancient withered tree.
Except for its twisted, gnarled boughs and barren branches stripped of leaves, it seemed utterly unremarkable at a glance.
Zhuge Soso studied it for a moment before asking, "This place wasn't in the guide, was it?"
"No. It's a secret room."
I had omitted it from the public document intending to visit later if an opportunity arose. Now that the three of us were on our own, there was no reason to pass it by.
Might as well take what's ripe for the taking.
Besides, whatever we gained here would prove immensely useful for clearing the maze.
"What kind of place is this?"
"You'll see in just a moment. For now, let's take a rest."
"Can we really afford to do that?"
"Yeah. It was designed as a rest area to begin with."
Most other rooms forced occupants to keep moving, automatically triggering their teleportation circles after a set duration. This hidden room was an exception. Here, we could rest as long as we liked before moving on.
Settling comfortably onto the grassy lawn, we passed the time with light chatter.
How long had we waited?
I rose to my feet and spoke.
"It's here."
"...?"
Dang Gyu-young and Zhuge Soso stood up after me, and together we walked toward the withered tree.
A moment later, the empty air above the gnarled branches rippled like disturbed water, and a pitch-black silhouette burst through the void.
"Caaaw—!"