Chapter 175: Gourmet Whale
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 175: Gourmet Whale
The battle in front of the Public Security Headquarters was taking a turn for the worse.
“We’re starting to get pushed back,” said Krusla, the Orc Magistrate.
“They don’t get tired,” agreed Irha, the Elf Magistrate. “The longer we fight, the more we lose.”
The front line was gradually retreating.
“I’ve sent Neko. Let’s put our faith in her.”
Consul Peterson had dispatched the party of the rookie Inspector, Neko. He had instructed them to take a wide detour around the battlefield and approach the Gourmet Whale from the rear. They were on their way to take down the Caretaker of Rest.
“Consul!”
That was precisely what infuriated Magistrate Delphin.
“Did you really send Neko’s team toward the Gourmet Whale?”
“She volunteered.”
“I don’t care! Sending a bunch of rookies like them…”
In the magistrate’s eyes, Neko’s party of 5th-floor adventurers was still inexperienced.
“What if they die? Once they leave this area, they won’t be able to receive the Cardinal’s healing magic!”
“…”
The Consul turned his head, a look of shame on his face.
“You… you knew.”
Delphin frowned.
“You think Neko is going to die, too. And you sent her anyway. Didn’t you?”
“Don’t let your emotions cloud your judgment, Magistrate.”
It was a painful but necessary decision for the Consul.
As the one responsible for protecting the Public Security Headquarters, and by extension all of Sohen, Peterson had to be willing to bet the lives of his subordinates if the situation called for it.
“Boarding the Gourmet Whale will not be easy.”
The same would be true even if the Consul, the magistrates, or other high-floor adventurers were to break away and approach the whale now.
This was an unprecedented event for Sohen. No one knew what might happen while trying to board the Gourmet Whale, floating thirty meters in the air, and get to the Caretaker.
For a key figure like the Consul to personally investigate that uncertainty was far too great a risk.
They had to defend the front of the Public Security Headquarters. They couldn’t take a single step away from their post.
“You sent them on a reconnaissance mission,” Delphin said, her expression turning sorrowful.
“But we gave Neko what we could,” Irha countered.
“What did you give her?”
“I gave her a ring of mass concealment. Krusla gave her a belt of noise suppression. And the Consul…”
“Enough chatter. Focus,” the Consul said, redirecting Delphin’s attention.
“Let’s trust Neko. I didn’t send her there to die a dog’s death.”
Creeping along under the effects of mass concealment and noise suppression magic, Neko’s party was taking a wide detour around the battlefield to approach the rear of the Gourmet Whale.
The area beneath the monstrous creature, which resembled a massive galley ship floating thirty meters in the air, was swarming with sentries.
But their attention was completely fixed on the front, where they were locked in a fierce battle with the Consul’s forces.
The sentries were surprisingly simple-minded.
Hadn’t it been the same in the inter-floor villages? If you moved quietly, the sentries would rarely notice you. Caleb’s party had taken advantage of that to get what they wanted in the inter-floor villages—once when retrieving Back Attack’s ossuary, and again when seeking warmth from the 3rd floor’s cold and delirium.
“A little further,” said Menemes, the half-elf crossbow user and new addition to Neko’s party, as she gauged the distance to the Gourmet Whale.
“Up to that point.”
The spot she was pointing to was already occupied by sentries.
But there was no need to worry.
Neko was a quick learner.
“Wrap this around a bolt and shoot it.”
Neko took off her cloak and handed it to Menemes.
Thanks to the concealment magic, it would look to the sentries like the object had appeared out of thin air, like a dokkebi’s trick.
“But one won’t be enough. You, take yours off too!”
She stripped the outer coat off the priest, Mikhail.
“You too!”
“All I have is heavy armor. I can’t wrap it around a bolt,” Urgash, the Orc Fighter, refused.
“Then… just a second.”
Neko reached an arm inside her robe and, after some rustling, pulled out a piece of underwear.
“Ugh…”
“How vulgar.”
Urgash and Mikhail averted their eyes as a white bra emerged.
“Wh-what was I supposed to do? It’s an emergency.”
Neko attached the articles of clothing to Menemes’s bolts one by one.
“A three-point shot, please.”
The clothes, launched simultaneously by Menemes, were reminiscent of the raincoat strategy that had thrown Ingelam’s party into a panic during the steelworks battle.
They suddenly popped into existence outside the concealment field and flew through the air.
“Caleb did something similar. I don’t have any psychokinetic teleportation abilities, though.”
It was a crude tactic, but the enemies weren’t intelligent mages like Ingelam.
The sentries were simple.
“…!”
Spotting the objects that had suddenly materialized and were flying through the air, they began to break formation one by one to investigate.
“Go!”
Neko led her party in a sprint.
Once they reached their target location…
Twang!
Menemes’s crossbow fired again, this time aimed at the Gourmet Whale’s mouth. A wire was attached to the bolt.
‘Magic Rappel.’
It was a method Neko’s party had originally devised as an escape plan for the sand pits on the 5th floor.
Since climbing out on their own was difficult, the idea was to fire a bolt into a nearby object and use the attached wire to pull themselves out.
Now, they were using it to assault the inside of the Gourmet Whale.
However…
“Whoa!”
The wire, which had been flying true toward the roof of the Gourmet Whale’s dark mouth, suddenly bounced off an invisible wall in mid-air.
“…”
“Let’s find another way.”
Neko began to search the area.
Mikhail quickly scribbled a message on a note.
[Physical access to the Gourmet Whale’s mouth seems impossible. Blocked by a magical barrier.]
Even if they failed, the Consul had to succeed. Relaying information was also part of their mission.
“Send message.”
“Neko! Look at this!”
Just then, Urgash shouted, having discovered something.
It was rather shocking.
It was…
“A gate.”
[Gate discovered directly beneath the Gourmet Whale. We will attempt to enter.]
Mikhail’s message was delivered to the Public Security Headquarters, then forwarded to the Magic University, and finally transmitted telepathically to all mages via Meldini’s chimes.
“They found a gate?”
Of course, I received the message as well.
At this point, all sorts of strange things were happening.
So there are three gates on the surface now?
One is the Labyrinth Union’s gate leading down to the 1st floor of the Labyrinth.
Another is the gate the Gourmet Whale is incubating like an egg.
And the last one is…
[Exit Room]
The exit gate I got from the Dagger Raptor.
“Caleb. Are you sure we should be here…?” Aimus asked.
Isilof and the other mages had all run off toward the Public Security Headquarters to back up the battle there.
But I was here to raid the White Lion’s scroll warehouse.
“Let’s just grab any useful scrolls and get to the headquarters!” Back Attack shouted.
In truth, Professor Isilof had already swept up all the ‘useful’ ones—mostly powerful offensive magic.
The reason I came here was because I had another plan in mind.
‘Things have gotten a little uncertain.’
This was a problem.
Because I couldn’t get in touch with Blackdog!
[This is Caleb. Blackdog. We’ve finished up at the university. Are you ready?]
I tried sending a note with the message transmission wand I got from Isel, but it was returned to sender.
“Send message.”
I tried again, just in case, but the result was the same.
Poof!
The message scroll bounced back and fell in front of me.
“…”
Something was definitely wrong.
A message scroll is returned for one of two reasons.
First, if the recipient has cast a message-blocking spell.
Powerful mages sometimes block incoming messages to focus on their work, much like a smartphone’s Do Not Disturb mode.
But there was no way Blackdog would have done that at a time like this.
The second possibility is that he’s behind a magic-blocking barrier.
Some of the university’s laboratories are built with such barriers, and messages can’t be received inside them. There are also natural barriers, the most common example being…
‘The Labyrinth.’
You can’t exchange messages with adventurers outside if you’re inside it.
And even within the Labyrinth, message transmission is impossible between different ‘floors.’
For example, a 3rd-floor adventurer can’t exchange messages with a 3.5th-floor adventurer. That’s why during the Yernil command tower operation, Yernil and Kappa had to take turns going in and out of the 3.5th-floor stairs.
But Blackdog isn’t crazy; he wouldn’t have gone down into the Labyrinth right now. In that case…
‘Did he get on the Gourmet Whale?’
Wait a minute.
Let me sort this out.
The entire surface has become a single floor of the Labyrinth.
It’s even gotten to the point where an Exit Room has appeared.
So where is the ‘inter-floor village’ of the surface? Isn’t the Gourmet Whale itself the inter-floor village? The Caretaker is there, the ossuary is there, and the sentries came from there.
The gate Neko found is the entrance to the interior of the Gourmet Whale, the inter-floor village.
If this place, the surface, is the Labyrinth’s 1st floor, then the Gourmet Whale is the 1.5th floor.
It aligns with Dalstream’s research.
He said the Labyrinth would build a tower when it erupted. And that he couldn’t reach the Ethereal Galaxy because the ‘10.5th floor’ stairs were missing.
‘The Labyrinth has built its tower. Up to the 1.5th floor.’
And if Blackdog went through the gate, there’s no way to exchange messages with him on the 1.5th floor.
That’s why the note was returned.
This is a problem. My original plan was to send a large number of scrolls from here to Blackdog.
“Caleb?”
“…”
Still, there is one way.
“For now, gather up all the scrolls.”
“What kind of scrolls?”
I said, searching through the shelves one by one.
“Monster summoning scrolls.”
It felt like cutting open the belly of a giant animal to clean out its innards.
That was the scene that unfolded inside the gate.
“…”
The four members of Neko’s party fell silent as if by agreement. Every nerve was on edge with tension as they scanned their surroundings.
‘This is probably the inside of the Gourmet Whale’s stomach.’
Neko held her words, aiming her wand forward. She was cautious, not knowing what might happen. She had to be ready to start chanting at any moment.
And just then.
“I didn’t think anyone else would come here.”
At the sound of a raspy voice from a distance, Neko’s party instantly aimed their weapons.
A man with a haggard complexion was sitting, leaning against a crimson wall.
But the company he kept was incredible.
Deep Layer adventurer, Orc Berserker Krom.
Deep Layer adventurer, former Sanfriel Cardinal Rococo.
Deep Layer adventurer, 7th-tier Frostian mage Nimue.
If that was the case, could that man be…
“Blackdog…?”
He was a man so ill he rarely went out.
A rookie like Neko was seeing him for the first time.
“Yeah. I’m Blackdog. Are you a constable? I don’t recognize you.”
“Inspector Neko.”
“So that’s why I don’t know you. I don’t pay attention to the small fry. What floor are you?”
“5th floor…” Neko’s voice grew a little quieter.
“Why are you here?”
“To take down the Caretaker of Rest.”
At her answer, Blackdog’s party of four let out small chuckles.
“Is the Public Security Headquarters that short on manpower? Or did you piss off Peterson? Did he tell you to come up here and die? What’s a 5th-floor nobody going to do…”
“The Consul isn’t like that! It was my decision to come here!”
“Alright, kid. Calm down. You’re going to die here either way.”
“…”
Neko’s pride was a little wounded.
“More importantly, why are you here? I didn’t hear anything about Blackdog joining the fight.”
“Kid,” Krom scoffed, as if finding the question absurd.
“That bastard, the White Lion, was one of the masterminds behind the back-alley attack 12 years ago. You think we’d let the Labyrinth take him back? We may forget a favor, but we always repay our debts.”
“Then why are you here instead of fighting down below?”
“We’re…” Blackdog took over the answer again.
“Going to shoot down the Gourmet Whale.”
Neko’s brain froze for a moment.
“This…? You’re going to shoot this down?”
“That’s right.”
“How?”
“We don’t know that yet, either. But we did work out a plan with a certain wizard.”
“What wizard?”
“The kid who blew up Krom’s casino with you.”
At Blackdog’s answer, Krom let out a groan.
“Caleb?”
“Yeah. He said he’d send us the bombs to blow this whale to bits.”
“…”
“But it looks like the plan’s gone to shit, doesn’t it?” Blackdog asked Nimue.
“Uh-huh.”
She held up a few failed message scrolls, her face crestfallen.
[This is Blackdog. Caleb. When do we start?]
“Check this.”
Blackdog pointed at Neko.
“Send message.”
When Nimue sent the message, it fell with a poof! right in front of Neko. Unlike when she’d sent it to Caleb, it wasn’t returned this time.
“Just as I thought. The inside of the Gourmet Whale is on a different floor from the surface. Messages can’t get through.”
“Do you think Caleb will figure out the situation?” Rococo asked.
“When it comes to scheming, that kid could make the Labyrinth Master himself shake his head,” Krom said.
“He’ll probably figure it out soon enough.”
“The problem is we can’t receive the goods from him,” Blackdog said, clenching his fist.
‘Open Dimensional Gate!’
It was an 8th-tier skill for a rogue who had reached the pinnacle.
It opened a wormhole between his location and a target location, connecting them with a dimensional gate through which people or objects could be moved.
“So that’s how you smuggled things!” Neko’s eyes widened.
“Whenever we tracked Blackdog’s smuggling operations, we always hit a dead end, unable to figure out the method!”
“So, should I kill you now that you know?”
“…!”
“Just kidding. Relax.”
Blackdog chuckled and closed the dimensional gate.
“Unfortunately, it won’t open to the surface,” he said.
“And Caleb was supposed to send us a ton of scrolls to shoot down this Gourmet Whale.”