Chapter 154: Bearhim of the Fungi
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 154: Bearhim of the Fungi
Our party members had all gained about seven levels.
[Caleb Lv.27]
[Strength(0), Agility(0), Wisdom(38), Health(0), Dexterity(0)]
[Yernil Lv.27]
[Strength(0), Agility(33), Wisdom(0), Health(0), Dexterity(5)]
[Aimus Lv.27]
[Strength(32), Agility(2), Wisdom(0), Health(4), Dexterity(0)]
[Back Attack Lv.27]
[Strength(0), Agility(31), Wisdom(0), Health(0), Dexterity(5)]
Bosses certainly gave out a ton of experience.
On top of that, we’d farmed some decent equipment and eaten the mushrooms.
High risk, high return.
The danger had been insane, but the rewards were just as certain.
At this rate, we should be able to clear the 6th floor on our own without much trouble.
The iron door before the stairs leading to the 5th floor would probably still be there, just as it was before, until the Labyrinth closed and reopened.
But that didn't matter. We could just clear a 6th-floor exit room and leave.
‘Now, shall I really get some sleep?’
My body felt like it was melting into my sleeping bag. The comfortable rest was sweeter than ever.
It was at that moment.
-Wizard.
The voice made the fine hairs on my skin stand on end, waking me instantly.
-This way.
Though I had never heard it before, I knew exactly who it was.
A low, deep voice that echoed as if in a grand cathedral.
I had heard something similar once before.
When I died.
When I died for the first time and reached the white sands of the Ethereal Galaxy.
‘Wizus’s voice.’
The voice of a god resonated like this. But this time, it wasn't Wizus.
“Bearhim…?”
I sat up in my sleeping bag and looked around.
Everyone was asleep.
The campfire crackled. Yernil mumbled in her sleep.
Back Attack and Richard, who were on watch, were chatting.
‘That’s just how men from the West are.’
‘You were the most boring one among the executives.’
“Back Attack.”
I called out, but they didn't seem to notice me at all.
I felt like a ghost.
-This way.
Bearhim called to me again.
I slipped out of my sleeping bag and approached the King of Fungi lying on the throne.
-Behold.
Bearhim said.
-Behold the fate of a Transcendent being devoured by the Labyrinth.
From the eyes of the powerless god, a sapphire-blue tear, like the Ethereal Galaxy itself, trickled down.
I had met my second god, after Wizus.
He was quite different from Wizus. Because Bearhim had been devoured by the Labyrinth and had died.
“Earlier…”
I started with the first thing that came to mind.
“You saved me, didn't you? Thank you.”
When the Glutton, panicking after being hit by the disintegration beam, was flailing wildly, Bearhim had raised his arm to block me from its tentacles.
It was a strange phenomenon I'd never even seen in the game, so I was quite surprised. How had he been able to move?
-I do not know either.
I asked, but Bearhim himself didn't understand.
-Rather, I wish to ask you. It was clearly because of you that it happened. What did you do to me? How was I able to move, even for a moment?
Bearhim asked.
-Devoured by the Labyrinth, I am one who has lost time.
Huh?
-The Labyrinth Master has taken all of my time. But just now, I gained a brief moment, an instant of time.
Wait a minute.
Back then, I had been right next to Bearhim when I used the Hourglass.
The Hourglass had the ability to stop time, and if one died while it was active, they could access the Ethereal Galaxy despite their soul being preserved.
-Could it be.
I could feel the desperation in the god's voice.
-Do you possess the Hourglass?
How should I answer?
Dalstream knew about the concept of the Turn-Based Wizard from analyzing ancient texts.
But even he had never mentioned the Hourglass.
I had never met anyone who had spoken of anything resembling the Hourglass until now.
Bearhim was the first person who knew of it.
And that wasn't strange.
Think about the Fountain of Blessing. The skills an adventurer obtained from the fountain were superpowers gifted directly by a god who had been devoured by the Labyrinth.
So what did it mean that I could obtain the Hourglass skill from the fountain?
It meant the original owner of the Hourglass was a god devoured by the Labyrinth.
Wizus was not the owner of the Hourglass.
Could it be Bearhim? Was this guy the real owner of the Hourglass?
The thought crossed my mind for a moment, but…
-That cannot be.
Hearing Bearhim's next words, it seemed that wasn't the case.
-That person's Hourglass should be in the Ethereal Galaxy. Besides, that Hourglass is so enormous that no mortal could ever handle it.
He seemed to be talking about the Hourglass that created the white sand beach.
That one was broken, though.
-Wizard.
Bearhim said.
-There is something you must be wary of.
The warning hadn't come yet, but I had a feeling I knew what it was.
“You mean the one who gave the scroll to the Glutton?”
-You know.
That bastard was probably the culprit behind this whole incident. The demon who summoned the 7th-floor Glutton to the 6th floor, set a trap to drop me there, and gave the Glutton a scroll.
“Could it be…”
I had a vague idea of who it was.
“The Mushroom Beetle?”
In the 6th-floor treasure room, I had found a 6.5th-floor coin, and it had an image engraved on it.
A humanoid beetle with a mushroom growing on its back.
That monster was the true ruler of the 6th floor.
-He is one of the Nine Ancient Kings. He offered his kingdom to the Labyrinth and, in return, stole my power.
The Mushroom Beetle had brought the Glutton to hunt me. To be precise…
-He likely intended to capture you alive.
I remembered the iron door the Glutton had created when the fight first broke out in the garden.
That door had tried to isolate me, and only me, from the dozens of other adventurers.
He’d been trying to capture me from the start.
But the adventurers from the two parties had used their movement skills to chase after me, and in the confused Glutton's attempt to use Spatial Transference, the situation got twisted, trapping the unfortunate Kudrum and Dorothy instead.
Then why didn't the beetle show up himself? Why did he throw the Glutton at me and hide in the back?
I had been wondering about that, but maybe…
“Was the Spider Doctor also nearby?”
-Yes. While you fought so desperately, the two Inter-floor Lords were engaged in a cold war.
So that's how it was.
The moment I fell to the 6th floor, I had called the Spider Doctor.
And the two Inter-floor Lords found it too risky to clash with each other directly.
So they just watched.
Fuck.
Fucking bastards.
They used us to fight a proxy war? Like the US and the Soviet Union during the Cold War?
-The beetle covets you. Be careful.
“Why does he covet me?”
-Not all Inter-floor Lords are loyal to the Labyrinth Master. They scheme and fight amongst themselves, driven by their own greed.
The Spider Doctor, too, must have gotten on the Labyrinth Master's bad side for some reason and ended up as a stone monument.
And just as that bastard was trying to use me to get his body back, the beetle wanted something from me too?
-They will not hesitate to fight one another to get what they each desire.
Bearhim said.
-Just as not all the gods of the pantheon are united.
I'd seen hints of that plot point here and there in the game.
Bearhim, the King of Fungi, was the one who fought most fiercely against the Labyrinth during the age of myths.
But he was betrayed by a fellow god from the pantheon.
And so he was devoured by the Labyrinth.
That traitor was still in the pantheon.
Still in the Ethereal Galaxy.
Right beside Wizus.
“Caleb.”
Yernil's voice shaking my shoulder woke me up.
As if everything I had seen had been a dream, I was lying peacefully in my sleeping bag.
“What’s with you sleeping in?”
Kudrum and Aimus were cooking soup. Clorence was grilling bread in a pan with melted butter. Back Attack was packing up, and Dorothy was brewing potions.
Looks like I was the only one who slept in.
I quickly packed my bedding and gear.
After eating together, there was one last thing to do.
“Let’s pick some mushrooms before we go.”
A few members still hadn't collected their Aether Mushrooms.
Given the item's buffing nature, it was more advantageous to eat it right before heading out to find an exit room rather than before sleeping.
Looking at Bearhim's still, statue-like corpse, I was reminded of last night's dreamlike encounter.
‘The God of Flame.’
That's what Bearhim had said.
He said he didn't know the traitor's true identity.
Only that they had set a powerful fire behind his back.
The fire was incredibly hot and wouldn't go out easily. It was a fire that burned fungi.
‘Which god can use a fire like that?’
A few names came to mind, but none seemed to fit perfectly.
Does Wizus know?
I could ask him if I committed suicide with Soul Preservation and the Hourglass active.
‘…’
No. Risking my life for that is going too far.
“Caleb.”
Clorence came up beside me and spoke.
“Yes.”
“I'm going to write a report on Bearhim's garden when we get back. Would you like to work on it together?”
“Sounds good.”
“This will be the first report on a god since the one my sister wrote in Wyndham.”
“Isel wrote something like that in Wyndham?”
“Yes. About the god worshipped by the Fox Spirits…”
Clorence said.
“It’s a report on the Nine-Tailed Fox.”
Another name was added to the list forming in my head.
Fox-fire was one of the most powerful types of flame magic.
The party pushed through the 6th floor without hesitation. After half a day of searching, we found an exit room, and the exit boss was…
“Verdure!”
We met again the deer monster that had nearly wiped out our three-person party including Richard, and had also played a crucial role in taking down the Glutton.
Yernil raised her bow and shouted.
“Back Attack! Look over there!”
She pointed at a giant mushroom on one side of the exit room.
“Let’s get up there and do what we did before…!”
But Back Attack had already popped the Aether Mushroom he’d been saving into his mouth and leaped into the air.
‘Leaping Ambush!’
The dagger that had barely scratched Verdure's thick hide in the garden this time sank into its neck as if piercing tofu.
Magic flowed from his hood, inflicting necrosis on its flank.
CRACK!
Verdure raised its head to gore him with its antlers, but Back Attack dodged with ease.
Spinning in mid-air like a gymnast, the rogue threw a dagger.
‘Dagger Throw!’
The dagger pierced through the already decaying hide and lodged itself in the subcutaneous fat.
A second necrosis.
And then…
‘Shadow Leap!’
He used a skill normally meant for evasion to charge forward. Leaping into the monster's dissolving layer of fat, the rogue's blade plunged into its neck.
Then, putting his weight into it, he ripped downwards with a sickening tear.
BOOM!
Verdure kicked at the falling Back Attack with its front leg, but…
‘Mirror Image!’
He swapped places with a clone that was clinging to the ceiling using Wall Walk.
Leaping down from there, once again.
CRUNCH!
Struck four times in a row, Verdure's carotid artery finally ruptured.
Even that sturdy monster staggered as blood poured from its neck like a waterfall.
THUD!
Back Attack landed gracefully in front of the collapsing Verdure.
“That’s all for today’s show, folks. The exit is that way.”
Aimus and Yernil’s jaws dropped.
I wasn't that impressed.
It was only natural, since his stats had skyrocketed from the buffs and he’d leveled up quite a bit.
In game terms, it was probably: Critical Hit! Critical Hit! Critical Hit! Critical Hit!
“I thought Yernil got super strong when she was flying around catching the octopus with you guys, but it was just the buffs.”
“No, it wasn't!”
“If I had eaten a mushroom back there, I would've turned that octopus bastard into takoyaki.”
The party's speed was often a topic of gossip at the Labyrinth Union, but today was even more shocking.
The eyes of the staff at the Labyrinth Union counter narrowed at the unbelievable sight.
“Didn't you enter the 4th floor?”
Their elevator could only access up to the 4th floor.
“So why are you coming out from the 6th floor…?”
But there was something even more surprising.
“You killed the 7th floor’s boss?”
How could a party that had only reached the 4th floor last time kill the 7th floor's boss on the 6th?