Chapter 190: The Man Who Defeated the Labyrinth Master (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 190: The Man Who Defeated the Labyrinth Master (2)
For any adventurer of the Deep Layer, meeting the Labyrinth Master was an undeniable challenge.
Even though it came with fatal risks.
‘No one who has faced it has ever returned alive.’
At least, that was what was publicly known.
Despite this, the adventurers of the Deep Layer, as if possessed, yearned to meet the Lord of the Abyss.
Perhaps it was the destiny of those who had descended from the first floor of the Labyrinth all the way to the Abyss.
“That must be why you’ve come down here as well.”
The demon’s voice melted sweetly into the frigid air.
“All humans, whether they realize it or not, are bound to have a thirst for the truth.”
It was like a frightening old tale. A child walking alone on a haunted road at night is told never to look back, but in the end, they always turn their head. And they get eaten by the ghost.
It was that kind of story. Adventurers who reached the final stage of the Labyrinth could not refuse the stairs to the Deep Layer, and they would inevitably meet the Labyrinth Master.
“You, too, have ended up making the same mistake.”
“…”
Mugol gripped the hilt of his sword tightly.
Hyedam pulled Caleb behind her and aimed her fox bead.
The faces of the Deep Layer adventurers showed not a hint of composure.
And Bipa had something she wanted to ask before a violent clash erupted.
“It’s common sense that the Labyrinth Master isn’t someone an adventurer can meet just because they want to,” Bipa said.
“This situation… you came to meet us.”
The Lord of the Labyrinth cannot leave the Abyss. Instead, he must have coaxed Hyedam’s party along, bestowing upon them an endless, unbelievable amount of fortuitous encounters and good luck, starting from the very first floor.
All so they would band together and descend into the Deep Layer.
“Isn’t that right?”
“Of course. I was the one who invited you to the Abyss, and it is by my will that you have met me.”
“Why did you come to meet us?”
“To take the fox with the Possession Constitution.”
“…!”
Hyedam flinched and stumbled backward.
“Even the Lord of the Labyrinth, who can satisfy the greed of all mortals, has something he covets.”
The Labyrinth Master abruptly stepped closer to Hyedam.
“Join my Labyrinth army, Hyedam. In return, I will spare your lover’s life.”
“Hh…”
From her time reigning as the guardian of the Fox Spirits to her descent into the Deep Layer, Hyedam had never once been intimidated by anyone’s power. Yet even she shrank back from the Labyrinth Master’s overwhelming presence.
Everyone here couldn’t help but do the same.
However.
“I expected a fight.”
Everyone except the Tiger-folk warrior, who was a solid mass of endless pride and fighting spirit.
“I knew the odds weren’t good.”
“…”
“I also know that killing you would make the Labyrinth disappear, which would cause a lot of trouble.”
His hand gripped the handle of his massive blade.
“I came knowing all of this.”
“Most who encounter me do.”
*
There were a total of eleven Deep Layer adventurers in Wyndham.
If you were to ask who among them was the strongest, many names, including Hyedam’s, would come up.
But if you were to ask who the strongest vanguard in Wyndham was, only one name would be mentioned.
Mugol.
The reason was simple.
He had personally challenged the other vanguards of the Deep Layer to duels and crushed them all.
Like the monks of the Dalai Mountains seeking enlightenment through training, Mugol was obsessed with strength and victory.
He endlessly wandered in search of the strong.
That Tiger-folk warrior was the incarnation of martial arts itself.
The monstrous blade, which a normal human would struggle to even lift with two hands, slid from its sheath.
‘Fierce Tiger Leaving the Forest Draw.’
The well-honed blade, accompanied by a powerful gust of wind, slashed through a fan-shaped area thirty meters ahead.
“White Foxfire.”
Following the sword energy was the hottest and largest of flames.
The fire that erupted from the bead boasted a power that would rank among the top five, even including the magic of the Sohen University professors.
“He dodged it!” Bipa shouted, pointing at the shadow scattering into the air.
“It’s the Flow of Mist!”
Bipa instantly identified the magic the Labyrinth Master had used. Even the Lord of the Abyss used a composition of magic and skills that overlapped with those of high-floor monsters.
“Huuup.”
Mugol’s chest swelled to twice its size.
KRAAANG!
The thunderous roar that burst forth was a Tiger-folk skill that drove away calamity. It was used to remove curses or debuffs, or to destroy things like ethereal forms.
“Abyss.”
As he reappeared, the Labyrinth Master’s palm pointed toward the floor.
“Kugh!”
Mugol began to be crushed by an immense pressure, but a talisman immediately flew toward him.
“Embrace and protect!”
Bipa’s protective talisman layered a magical shield over him.
“Tail Wind Blades.”
Hyedam’s eight tails whipped forward like lashes.
Following them, Mugol began to charge, breaking free from the Abyss with his monstrous strength.
“I won’t let you have Hyedam!” Mugol roared.
“Active Volcano.”
The Labyrinth Master lightly touched the ground.
*
To borrow one of the idioms Bipa often used, it was like cheonjigae-byeok (the creation of heaven and earth) or changsangji-byeon (a sea turning into a mulberry field).
‘The ground is flipping over.’
That was the only way Mugol could describe it.
The hollow and desolate, the dim and listless atmosphere of the Deep Layer was reversed.
The ground rose. The walls and ceiling crumbled. The floor was turning upside down.
And what rose from beneath it was a crimson lava, like the tongue of a demon, hotter than even Hyedam’s foxfire.
KABOOM!
It was a near-miraculous reaction speed that allowed Bipa to activate Wall-Cling Radiance at the moment of the explosion.
Mugol was caught in the blast and sent flying. He wasn't critically injured, thanks to the protective talisman.
CRASH!
He was thrown dozens of meters away.
“Keoheok!”
Bipa, who bore the penalty of Wall-Cling Radiance, fell alongside him.
“What is that?!”
The ground had shot up and was now transforming into something that could be called a ‘mountain.’
And its slope was steep.
A cliff face stood before them.
“No!” Bipa shouted.
“It’s a Labyrinth ‘wall’!”
The walls where exit gates were generated could never be destroyed. The walls of an exit room were also absolutely indestructible.
They were indestructible objects.
The Labyrinth walls rising from the ground were creating cliffs and mountains. From the peak, lava poured down.
“Tch.”
Mugol kicked off the ground, leaped up, and began to scale the wall.
“Sage’s Cloud.”
Bipa summoned a cloud and began to ride it upward, though her speed was reduced due to the aftereffects of Wall-Cling Radiance.
“Hyedam!”
He was worried about Hyedam, who would have been left alone with the Labyrinth Master at the peak of that volcano.
*
“How foolish.”
The Tiger-folk’s cry, burning with camaraderie, was touching, but to the Labyrinth Master, it felt pathetic.
He hadn’t come here with the intention of ‘fighting’ in the first place.
The Labyrinth Master had no other goal than to take Hyedam.
Bipa and Mugol were merely tools to that end.
They would be digested in the Deep Layer.
Like the countless other Deep Layer adventurers who had vanished here.
And inside the volcano that would incinerate them like a blast furnace swallowing iron, Hyedam would come to realize it.
That this was an unwinnable fight.
That entering the Deep Layer was a fatal mistake.
And…
“Don’t you want to save your lover?”
The demon had seen Hyedam bring countless rookie adventurers along as porters.
He had waited for this situation for a long time.
For the day Hyedam would bring her lover.
“Ever since leaving Fox Ridge, you have fallen deeply for this young man. Enough to give your own life for him.”
The deeper their bond, the better.
Controlling the mind of a shaman like Hyedam was no simple task.
But the laws of the Labyrinth were always in effect.
“If I were to decide to kill Caleb here.”
The Labyrinth Master strode toward the rookie porter.
“You would have no choice but to beg me.”
She had the Possession Constitution. She must already be hearing it.
“The whisper of the Labyrinth Master.”
A chilling smile spread across the demon’s lips.
“Can’t you hear it?”
And just as he took another step toward Hyedam and Caleb.
“…”
The Labyrinth Master realized something was wrong.
*
Even now, the Labyrinth Master keenly felt the sting of that day’s defeat.
It was a mistake born from the demon’s own immense mental power.
That small, tiny man—who couldn’t even be called a Labyrinth adventurer, who had no skills or magic, no strength, wisdom, or technique.
Who seemed like just another piece of riffraff you could find rolling around on the surface of any Labyrinth city.
The situation had arisen because he had underestimated that man so completely.
‘This is…’
A torn talisman lay at Caleb’s feet.
It was originally a gift from Hyedam, meant to protect Caleb while he remained on the surface alone during her Labyrinth expeditions.
She had told him to use it if he was ever in trouble.
Hyedam had written various talismans for Caleb.
And the one he had just used was…
[Fox Bewitchment]
Hyedam was now bewitched.
By the best talisman she had ever created.
Just like what had happened to her at Fox Ridge.
“…”
The Labyrinth Master realized what the dazed Hyedam was seeing.
It was…
‘A red moon.’
A moon as crimson as the volcano’s lava hung in Hyedam’s vision.
In the Abyss, hallucinations become reality.
A day with such a moon was just like the day Hyedam had left Fox Ridge.
“I’m sorry, Hyedam.”
As if he had resolved to do this long ago, the dagger moved with incredible speed, slitting the fox’s throat without a moment’s hesitation.
“This is the only way.”
Blood erupted.
Her fox bead was reacting, resonating with the pain of the Eight-Tailed Fox, the guardian of the Fox Spirits. The fox bead would open a path and summon the Nine-Tailed Fox.
“Hyedam!”
Bipa, ascending on her cloud, screamed at the sight.
Hyedam’s eyes were entranced.
‘She’s being possessed!’
The Labyrinth Master was bewitching Hyedam, trying to seize her with madness! She must be hearing his whispers!
SQUELCH!
And Caleb was stabbing Hyedam with a knife.
“What the hell!” Mugol yelled as he climbed the wall.
“How can this be?”
The Labyrinth Master let out a gasp of admiration.
“Hahaha!”
It was a laugh bordering on madness.
“To think you’d play a hand like this!”
Look at the divine move this brat had chosen in an instant.
“What in the world are you?”
The Labyrinth Master’s interest shifted from the transforming Hyedam to Caleb.
“…”
Caleb did not answer.
“Damn it! Hyedam!”
Bipa leaped toward Hyedam to save her as she collapsed, blood pouring from her neck.
“How annoying. All of you, get back.”
The active volcano erupted once more, blasting Bipa and Mugol off the summit.
“Krrrr…”
Hyedam’s eyes had already turned into the crimson glow of the Nine-Tailed Fox.
The guardian of the Fox Spirits had always possessed immense magical power, but what was pouring out of her now was on a different dimension.
That power was no longer on the level of a mortal.
Wizus, Bearhim, Nathaniel.
The Nine-Tailed Fox, a being who stood shoulder to shoulder with the transcendent beings of the mythical age, was descending into the Labyrinth’s Abyss, right before the Labyrinth Master’s eyes.
To be precise, Caleb had made it descend.
“You.”
The Labyrinth Master clicked his tongue in amazement.
“Did Wizus send you?”
“…”
Instead of answering, Caleb collected Hyedam’s fox bead.
Then he picked up his bag.
He could feel Hyedam’s soul inside it.
“So there was an ossuary in there.”
It would have been a simple matter for the Labyrinth Master to discern the contents of the bag without opening it, but he had never paid Caleb’s bag any mind.
And that was his undoing.
From the very beginning, that man had planned this situation.
Upon meeting the Labyrinth Master, he would open the illusion of the red moon, stab Hyedam to death, place her soul in the ossuary, and escape with her fox bead, a part of her body.
Leaving the Nine-Tailed Fox to descend here.
As proof.
[Stair Scroll]
He took out a scroll for his escape.
“Do you think I’ll let you go?”
A thrill shot up from the demon’s toes as he lunged toward Caleb.
KRAAANG!
Something stopped him in his tracks.
It was the pure white arm of the Nine-Tailed Fox.
“Aha.”
The Labyrinth Master’s face filled with ecstasy.
“So you’re trying to protect him.”
Hyedam had heard the whispers.
And she must have made a wish to the Labyrinth to protect Caleb.
A deal with the Labyrinth is binding.
She had gained power, and now it was time to fulfill her wish before being consumed by madness.
She would block the Labyrinth Master from killing Caleb.
‘Where did this plan even begin?’
Perhaps it started from the moment he lured Hyedam out of Fox Ridge.
Making her fall completely in love with him might have been part of his plan as well.
He had made Hyedam sacrifice her soul to madness in the Labyrinth for the sake of her lover.
He had cooked a Deep Layer adventurer to perfection with extreme control and gaslighting.
And by living with her but never adventuring in the Labyrinth, he had maintained his rookie status to the very end, staying low and hidden, far beneath the notice of the Lord of the Deep Layer.
That man had been preparing for this.
“You.”
The Labyrinth Master’s body trembled.
“Are you the Turn-Based Wizard?”
RIIIP!
Caleb tore the Stair Scroll.