Chapter 183: Coming Out
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 183: Coming Out
This brings back memories.
The 1st floor of the Labyrinth, I mean.
“Keeheehee! Heeheehee!”
The goblins hopping around are so cute.
It feels completely different from my first day as a Possessor.
No, seriously. After seeing the Labyrinth Master, this looks like a children’s talent show.
Thwack!
Aimus kicked the little cutie with all his might, killing it instantly.
“Were these things always this weak?”
Even Aimus himself seemed a bit surprised.
He didn’t need his iron staff or any skills. With his bare hands, he could easily swat down all the monsters on the 1st floor like flies.
“I know, right?”
Back Attack also watched with a look of wonder.
“The 1st floor was never that hard for me, but at this rate, I could clear it with a bunch of back-alley girls.”
It suddenly reminded me of when the trio of Professors Meldini, Isilof, and Dalstream went through the lower floors to investigate the stone monument.
I wonder how terrifying the goblins must have seemed to them back then.
We might not be on the level of Deep Layer professors yet, but our party has also grown an absurd amount over the past few months.
Every time we entered the Labyrinth, we descended one floor, sometimes two. I guess we never really noticed our own growth.
“I guess we really have gotten stronger!”
Returning to the starting line made it perfectly clear.
“I never knew the 1st floor of the Labyrinth was this easy.”
Yernil, in particular, had become almost a different person in just a few months.
“Remember when Yernil first saw a goblin here and cried because she was scared?”
“Aaaah!”
Yernil hastily covered my mouth.
Was that a secret?
My bad.
“I think Yernil cried when we met the Labyrinth Master earlier, too.”
Back Attack never misses an opportunity.
“I did not cry!”
“Didn’t you fall on your butt in shock and start bawling when he showed up?”
“That was the elf from Neko’s party!”
“Are you sure?”
“She uses a crossbow and I use a bow!”
“Alright, alright, just tell me without crying.”
“Aaargh!”
“By the way, Caleb.”
Aimus asked.
“The Labyrinth Master said a lot of strange things earlier.”
Here we go.
“Caleb… have you defeated the Labyrinth Master before?”
All three of them had wide, round eyes.
They looked like children asking for a bedtime story.
*
Sohen’s Labyrinth Union had descended into pandemonium. The Gourmet Whale had crashed down on top of it.
It happened just a beat after Aimus had summoned a tidal wave and dashed for the stairs.
“Is everyone okay?”
The whale vanished the moment it hit the ground. The corpses of the sentries that were inside it, the Caretaker of Rest who had been split in two, and the Labyrinth Master all disappeared. The White Lion’s body was probably gone, too.
The horde of monsters Caleb had summoned vanished as their summon time expired.
But the troops from the Public Security Headquarters had fallen from thirty meters up along with the whale.
“Is everyone okay!”
Fortunately, there were no casualties.
The massive amount of red rain that had gathered around the whale had acted as a cushion.
“What in the world just happened?”
“What is all this blood?”
“Find the Consul!” Magistrate Krusla shouted. The Consul had led the Public Security Headquarters in, only to suddenly vanish. A gate had popped up next to him, and someone from inside had grabbed his arm and abducted him.
“Find Neko’s team, too!” Magistrate Delphin yelled. Neko’s team had infiltrated earlier to assassinate the Caretaker with the Consul’s Order Bomb. The explosion atop the Gourmet Whale’s head had clearly been an Order Bomb.
“So they must have been inside…”
“We’re over here, Magistrate!”
Consul Peterson, who had fallen earlier, shouted as he ran over. Neko’s party was visible behind him.
“Consul!”
“Caleb! Have you found Caleb?”
“Caleb was in there?”
Delphin’s eyes widened.
“Yes! And in the end, only Caleb’s party was left!”
“They went into the Labyrinth!” Isilof, who had just rushed to the scene, added.
“Right before the Gourmet Whale crashed, I saw Caleb’s party fall through the whale’s blood to the ground. They ran into the Union building! They probably went into the Labyrinth.”
“They went into the Labyrinth?”
Everyone’s eyes went wide with shock.
“The elevator shouldn’t be working right now.”
“Why the Labyrinth?”
“You mean they took the stairs? To the 1st floor?”
“They won’t have any food, will they?”
Amid the confusion, Meldini appeared with Isel.
“Why did you two come out without Caleb?”
The Dean’s ethereal state was almost completely gone. His body flickered between a physical form of bone and flesh and his ethereal form, like a dying lightbulb.
“Caleb, you two, and the Labyrinth Master were in the whale’s mouth!”
“The Labyrinth Master!”
Isel jumped as if she’d been electrocuted.
After hearing that Caleb had gone into the Labyrinth, Meldini turned in that direction.
“I’ll have to go in and find Caleb.”
“You can’t go anywhere in your condition!”
Isilof tried to stop him. Meldini was out of stamina.
“But…”
“I’ll go check on him, so please wait here, Professor.”
“No, I’ll go.”
Isel raised her hand and stepped forward.
“I can’t leave it to an Assembly lackey.”
Blackdog was the one who objected.
“I’ll go get him.”
“I-I’m not with the Assembly anymore!”
“And I can’t leave it to the back-alley gangster king.”
The Consul blocked Blackdog’s path.
“…”
The Consul and Blackdog stared intently at each other.
All the Deep Layer adventurers who had been on the scene until the very end, before the Gourmet Whale’s jaw collapsed, were thinking the same thing.
Caleb.
That wizard would become Sohen’s most important core asset.
He had to be protected, managed, and monitored.
“Let’s search the 1st floor first,” Blackdog said.
“Consul. Have the Public Security Headquarters conduct its own search. I will unleash my hounds.”
“He’s a university student, so the university will find him,” Isilof said, not backing down.
“Then I’ll go in,” Isel added, not to be left out.
“We’ll also take volunteers from the general adventurers,” Neko said.
In her mind, and in the minds of several other key figures, there was only one question.
‘How on earth did Caleb beat the Labyrinth Master before?’
*
“I don’t know either.”
I came clean.
I was sick and tired of lying.
“Whether I beat the Labyrinth Master or not, what happened… The truth is, I don’t know anything either. Because…”
I had already confessed to Meldini, so I could tell my party as well.
Weren’t they the people I trusted most in Sohen?
“I’m a Possessor.”
It wasn’t something to brag about, but this much was fine.
“Surprised?”
“No?”
“?”
It was a pretty major coming out for me, but Aimus, Back Attack, and Yernil weren’t surprised at all.
“Oh, so you were a Possessor.”
Is this the right reaction?
“I knew you were no ordinary person, Caleb.”
“Honestly, I’m a little disappointed, boss. It’s more mundane than what I was expecting.”
“What were you expecting?”
“An Inter-floor Lord disguised as a human?”
As if!
“I…”
Yernil’s eyes sparkled, and she wore an incredibly proud expression.
“I already knew.”
She looked extremely pleased with herself.
“Because I heard you talking to that other Possessor in the scroll warehouse!”
Good for you.
“In any case, it would be best not to reveal that you’re a Possessor outside of this group if possible,” Aimus said.
“Dealing with the stigma against slaves is hard enough, but adding the stigma against Possessors on top of that…”
The thought alone was horrifying.
A hard pass for me, too.
Besides Meldini, who else would be okay to know this? Isilof and the Consul, maybe?
Let’s not bring it up first.
But let’s not lie if they ask, either.
“For now, let’s find the exit room.”
“Yes. Caleb, I’m so, so tired.”
It was true; our entire party was exhausted.
“I want to take a bath and sleep…”
“The 1st floor of the Labyrinth is large, but we’re moving fast, so we might find the exit room quickly.”
There were no threats here.
Well, actually, there was one.
Food.
We hadn’t planned on entering the Labyrinth, so we didn’t even have our backpacks. When we moved from the scroll warehouse into the whale’s stomach, I had to stuff scrolls into my coat lining and pockets.
A slightly disgusting thought came to mind.
“If we can’t find the exit room soon, we might have to eat goblins.”
You can eat them if you roast them over a fire. Even in the game, ‘Roasted Goblin Arm’ and ‘Roasted Goblin Leg’ were considered food items…
“Absolutely not!” Yernil yelped, jumping in protest.
*
The Labyrinth Eruption began at dawn, and the battle raged for a full day after that.
Thanks to that, it was late at night when we entered the Labyrinth.
By the time we got out, it was dawn again.
“Several search parties went into the Labyrinth.”
As we emerged from the exit room, the staff cleaning and repairing the Labyrinth Union stared at us in surprise.
“I know.”
A flood of messages had come in. From Professor Isilof, Isel, Krom, and many others.
Thanks to them, we found the exit room quickly. Yernil had tracked the changes in the Labyrinth’s structure after one of them cleared a room.
“The others will probably come out one by one.”
We even ran into Birtanen’s party on our way. They said they had joined the search party as 1st-floor specialists (?).
We got a message-sending wand from them and sent out a message to everyone: ‘We’re heading out first.’
“I see. In that case, please head to your lodgings and get some rest!”
I felt a little guilty seeing the staff greet us while wiping up the pools of blood on the floor.
But it couldn’t be helped.
When we went outside, we saw that Sohen had managed to get quite a lot cleaned up in just a few hours.
“Should we disband the party for now?”
“Yes. Good work, everyone. I’ll go see my family first.”
Aimus hurried off to find Mrs. Renick and the children.
“I’m heading out too, boss.”
Back Attack said his goodbyes and left.
“Let’s go back to our place, too.”
The Berten estate, that is.
*
We ate.
Just something simple, since it was late.
Then I went into the bathroom and sank into the hot water.
“Now this is living.”
Even before I was possessed, I had a small habit of lying in the tub at the end of the day, blankly replaying the day’s events.
It was the same now.
First, this Labyrinth Eruption.
Taking down the Dagger Raptor and wiping out the Assembly was a huge gain.
But it seemed the Gourmet Whale had escaped alive. Still, it was critically injured, so it probably wouldn’t be able to move for a while.
The Labyrinth Master took the White Lion, so there’s a chance it could be revived.
It was a great stroke of luck that there were almost no casualties among the Public Security Headquarters or the university.
From what I overheard the Labyrinth Union members saying, some were evaluating this defense against the Labyrinth Eruption as a ‘victory.’
I don’t know about that.
I don’t really agree.
Let’s also think about revealing my identity.
I was grateful that so many search parties came in to find me, but honestly, it wasn’t a normal situation.
It was right after a Labyrinth Eruption.
At such a critical time, having high-floor adventurers rush into the 1st floor to rummage around looking for one team was a waste of manpower.
It was probably because of me.
The Consul, Blackdog, maybe even Isilof, Meldini, and Cardinal Servan.
It was highly likely they all had a significant interest in me.
Because the Labyrinth Master had blabbed that I’d beaten him before.
How frustrating.
I don’t know a single thing about that incident.
There’s no more time to be indecisive and weigh my options. I need to visit Hyedam or meet the Spider Doctor soon and put an end to my past.
To be honest, I’m dying to know how I beat the Labyrinth Master in the past.
That bastard.
He was beyond Turn-Based Master difficulty.
Putting aside the final battle, that silver tongue he used to manipulate the Consul and Blackdog…
My mind truly went blank back then.
Just thinking about it makes me angry again.
Is there anyone else who heard Dalstream’s last words?
Has anyone read Dalstream’s thesis?
Has anyone confirmed it through a conversation with the dead or psychometry?
Agh. That bastard.
Splash!
I slammed my fist into the bathwater.
Bang!
The bathroom door flew open.
“Caleb!”
“Are you crazy, Yernil!”
I yelped, hiding my body under the water.
“Ah… I’m sorry.”
Yernil quickly shut the door and left.
“I thought something had happened.”
I could hear her voice from outside the door.
“…It’s fine. Thanks for worrying.”
“The Labyrinth Master is after you, Caleb.”
It seemed she was worried and had been listening in on the bathroom. A little embarrassing.
“But, Caleb.”
“Yes.”
“Isel said she was going to kill the Labyrinth Master, right?”
“She did.”
“And you said you would help Isel, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then…”
Yernil asked.
“Are you going to go back to the place you originally came from?”
My head was already starting to ache.
I could just picture the Labyrinth Master licking his lips and saying, Yernil! Do you want Caleb to go back? Don’t you dare point that bow at me with such half-assed resolve! I could see him pulling that crap so clearly.
This is why…
I should have left before I got attached.
It was too late.