Chapter 54: Yernil, Are You Asking for Trouble?
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 54: Yernil, Are You Asking for Trouble?
This was the most despair I’d felt since being possessed into this game.
I was in front of the gate to the stairs leading down to the 4th floor.
Alone.
My hands and feet trembled.
“Yernil…”
I gritted my teeth without thinking.
“Yernil, you idiot…!”
Just as I was about to be torn apart, Yernil had sacrificed herself.
She charged straight into the pack of monsters, drawing their aggro with her own body.
Then she shot a stair scroll at me.
To get me to safety!
She realized neither of us had a chance of survival there and chose to save me!
“Yernil…!”
Furious, I tore at my hair.
Did it work?
My last spell, I mean.
Did it activate?
It must have, right? I definitely finished the incantation before I was teleported to the stairs!
‘Heatwave.’
Yernil didn’t have to go that far. We had one more survival spell left.
A spell that was poison to animals living in cold climates.
It was especially fatal to creatures with hides so thick and fur so dense that they couldn’t easily dissipate body heat, or those that couldn’t sweat to lower their temperature.
The snowfield wolves fit both descriptions.
Just a few seconds of exposure would give them heatstroke and cause them to collapse.
The reason I hadn’t cast it sooner was its duration.
It was difficult to calculate how long it would take for Back Attack to arrive.
In the worst-case scenario, my plan was to endure their bites until he got there.
Of course, it would hurt like hell, and the injuries would be severe.
But as long as they weren’t fatal, a single blast of Heatwave could drive them off.
After that, I’d heal with a potion, escape with Back Attack using Shadow Leap, and Yernil would get out with Sentry Relocation. That was the plan.
“Yernil, you fool!”
Her sacrifice and grim determination were moving, but…
What were you going to do if my final incantation hadn't worked?
What can an archer do in the middle of a wolf pack with her evasion skills on cooldown?
You were just planning to die in my place!
Why do you give up on your life so easily?
“Hah.”
When I see you again, you’re getting a spanking. Just you wait, you’re in for a real scolding.
Flash!
Someone else appeared before the stairs.
“Ouch…”
It was Soyul, the Fox Spirit Shaman, with a scratch on her arm.
*
The 3rd floor periodically inflicted confusion and froze people to death with its immense cold.
Straying from Aimus’s Torch Helm was a death sentence.
But Caleb would survive somehow.
He could maintain his body temperature with magic like Heat Gale. And with his sharp mind and incredible focus, he’d manage to fight off the confusion.
If I can just get him out of here.
The moment the wolves’ fangs were about to sink into Caleb, Yernil made her decision.
She would use her own body as bait to save him.
That’s all that matters.
Besides, Caleb would be far more helpful in saving the other party members, like Aimus or Back Attack.
More than me.
But…
What’s this?
Yernil, who had squeezed her eyes shut in fear, opened them again.
It was hot.
The cold of the snowy mountain had vanished, replaced by a humid, sweltering heat reminiscent of the 2nd floor’s jungle. Sweat trickled down her neck.
“What the…?”
The wolves had retreated thirty meters away and were now just watching her.
It’s Heatwave!
Yernil finally understood.
The moment the stair scroll had activated on Caleb, she’d heard him say something. It had been an incantation!
“No way!”
It was an incredible shock.
To think that even in a situation like this, Caleb had a solution!
But then why hadn’t he used it sooner? Couldn’t they have kept the wolves at bay and attacked from a distance?
Thwip!
The moment she fired an arrow, Yernil realized why.
The wolves dodged her arrow.
When they were charging head-on like before, they moved in a straight line, making them easy to hit.
But now, they were just prowling and circling outside the range of Heatwave, wary of her attacks.
So…
He was saving the spell until our main party arrived.
To use as a last resort.
“This is terrible…!”
Yernil suddenly felt as if her desperate sacrifice and resolve had been reduced to a worthless scrap of paper.
This was a colossal mistake.
She had sent Caleb away to the stairs!
“What do I do?”
Yernil clutched her head.
How could she have made such a massive blunder?
“Phew!”
At that moment, something suddenly popped out of the snow in front of her.
“Barely made it. It’s kinda warm here! Gappapa!”
*
Well, look at this.
It might have actually turned out for the best.
Yernil won’t die under my Heatwave, and once Sentry Relocation is off cooldown, she can escape.
I’m worried about the others, but they’re better at escaping than I am.
And…
“Your name is Soyul, right?”
The Fox Spirit Shaman took a healing potion from her backpack and poured a little on her injured arm.
“Did you use a stair scroll to escape?”
“…Yeah.”
Soyul squatted down, burying her face in her knees.
A Fox Spirit from Wyndham.
She might know something about the Fox Spirit adventurer I supposedly killed.
I had wanted to ask when Hijikata’s party visited our camp, but there were too many ears around to bring it up discreetly.
But with just the two of us here, I could probably extract some information naturally as we moved.
But before that.
“Do you happen to know what happened to the others?”
“The last I saw, Hijikata, Aimus, and Back Attack were falling, isolated together.”
Then the three of them were fine.
Aimus’s Torch Helm would protect them from the confusion and the cold, so they wouldn’t be taken down easily.
“Our team’s Kappa… the anti-cold magic I cast on him wore off. I needed to recast it, but I was being chased and didn’t have the chance. He’s probably using invisibility magic and looking for a warm place. If he can’t find one… he’ll die.”
Then there was an extremely high chance he had joined Yernil.
Because of the Heatwave.
As a poikilotherm, he’d be sensitive to external temperature changes and would have unerringly found the location of the Heatwave.
If not, he might be dead, just as the Fox Spirit said.
Hmm.
The situation wasn’t as bad as I thought.
If we could regroup and escape successfully, we could all flee to the 2nd floor without anyone dying.
“It’s over now.”
But Soyul was completely dejected.
“No one can survive a monster wave. Our only chance was when we blocked the first wave with the avalanche.”
She continued.
“We should have run for the 2nd floor gate then, no matter what.”
Normally, to handle a monster wave, you need a party from two floors above.
For example, to stop a 1st-floor monster wave, you’d need a party on the level of Hijikata’s.
A 2nd-floor party like Birtanen’s wouldn’t be enough.
That was why, when we were waiting in front of Back Attack’s exit room, I chose to tackle the exit boss before the caterpillar died instead of waiting for Birtanen.
“We’re all dead now.”
The Fox Spirit covered her face with her hands and began to sob.
“If Gildal were here… this wouldn’t have happened.”
“Was he strong?”
“He was incredible. Like you…”
Soyul wiped her tears and gave a bitter smile.
“Even going into the 3.5th floor was fine if Gildal was with us.”
“…”
“But on our own, we can’t even get near the flag.”
Huh?
“If we were stronger, we could have retrieved Gildal’s ossuary from there.”
“Wait a minute!”
I quickly ran over to the Fox Spirit.
“There was a flag on the 3.5th floor, too?”
“…Yeah.”
“A picture of an eagle holding a dagger?”
“No?”
Soyul shook her head.
“It’s a picture of a monster that’s human on top and a spider on the bottom.”
“…”
“A spider-person in a doctor’s gown, crying alone.”
I quickly pulled the note from my pocket.
The piece of paper I had torn off after writing down the cipher from the monument.
“Can I borrow a pen?”
I got a pen from Soyul and slowly began to piece the cipher together.
Maybe. Just maybe…
“I solved it.”
*
“A mon…”
Yernil jumped in surprise.
“A monster!”
She drew her bow and aimed it at the Kappa.
“Are you crazy! I’m not a monster! I’m not a monster, I said!”
Gadozumi the Kappa jumped in panic as well.
“We were together just a moment ago! We fought together, you idiot!”
“W-we did?”
“Yes! We were together in front of the monument, too!”
“S-sorry…”
Yernil lowered her bow. The Kappa, barely over a meter tall, was much shorter than her.
Yernil bent at the waist to meet the Kappa’s gaze.
“You’re so short, I guess I didn’t see you earlier.”
“Is that supposed to be an apology? Or are you trying to pick a fight?”
“What species are you, anyway?”
“We’re called the Kappa tribe.”
Gadozumi’s gills quivered.
“Elf. Let’s escape this place together. We need to regroup with either Soyul’s group or Hijikata’s and merge our parties. Soyul probably used a scroll to bolt.”
“A stair scroll?”
“Yes.”
“Then she must be with Caleb!”
“That wizard went to the stairs, too? In that case, we don’t have to worry about them.”
The Kappa stared intently at the wolves prowling outside the Heatwave.
“It seems that wizard created a warm space here, but it’ll eventually disappear. Let’s get away from the wolves before that. We have to move quickly. I’m starting to get hot. I’m a poikilotherm.”
“How do we get out?”
“Like this.”
The Kappa grabbed Yernil’s arm and cast Shadow Leap.
They teleported to the top of a cliff about ten meters high.
“Woof! Woof!”
“Grrrr!”
The wolves, having lost their meal, barked furiously from the bottom of the cliff.
“We’ll move every time the cooldown is up and get off this mountain,” the Kappa said.
“Okay!”
“The problem is what comes next. We need a way to block the cold and the confusion.”
“…”
After a moment of thought, Yernil’s head suddenly shot up, her face a mask of astonishment at an idea she felt was on Caleb’s level.
“Let’s go to the 3.5th floor stairs!” she shouted.
“What are you talking about?”
“There’s that space right in front of the gate to the 3.5th floor, right?”
In front of the 3.5th floor gate was a small, dead-end space like a boiler room. From there, a spiral staircase led up a few meters to the 3rd floor.
“We’ll hide in that space! Then, when the cold gets worse and we feel the confusion coming on, we can just slip inside the gate for a bit to warm up and clear our heads!”
“It’s true the 3.5th floor has no confusion or cold. And if we just stay near the gate and keep quiet, we probably won’t get caught by the sentries.”
The Kappa agreed with that part.
“But the problem is, if we hole up in that space beneath the 3.5th floor stairs, we won’t be able to meet up with our main party.”
From that boiler-room-like space, the view upwards was completely blocked.
“Won’t we just end up starving to death there, unable to meet the main party?”
“We can contact the main party! Because…”
Yernil held up a bag. It was Caleb’s.
She had picked it up when he dropped it falling on the mountain. The stair scroll had also been in this bag. And inside this bag…
“There’s a Message-Sending Wand and a notebook!”
They could use this to send messages.
To everyone else.
And Yernil and the Kappa could take turns, one at a time, warming up and clearing their heads on the 3.5th floor.
Not only would they survive the cold and confusion…
“We can also gather our scattered party in one place! Hijikata has a Message-Sending Wand too, so we can communicate and cooperate from inside and out! When one of us is resting in the inter-floor space, the other can receive messages outside!”
“What a plan!”
Even the Kappa was impressed.
Yernil’s shoulders puffed out with pride.
This was a tactic she had learned from watching Caleb.
She was impressed with herself.
To think she came up with such a clever method!
She could even give this operation a name.
Operation: Yernil’s Command Tower!
*
“…try that. Send a message, then take turns with the Kappa going into the 3.5th floor to rest. To get rid of the cold and confusion. Until I get there. You just wait, you little troublemaker.”
[End Turn.]
[The hourglass has been flipped again. Time remaining: 60 seconds]
“Hoo.”
I let out a breath. During my hourglass turn, I had given Yernil her orders.
To send a distress signal with the wand and then hide on the 3.5th floor.
Since the spot where we fell was on the mountainside, the stairs should be nearby.
I just hope the message gets through.
The Labyrinth’s terrain changes every time. So I had no idea what the distance was between my current location at the 4th-floor stairs and the place where the monument stood.
If it was too far, the orders from the hourglass might not be processed.
Please, Yernil.
Just stay alive.
I was also worried the command was too complex to be delivered properly.
Pop!
A note materialized before my eyes.
[It’s Yernil! Caleb. I’ll be hiding in front of the 3.5th floor. It’s the stairs on the mountainside where the monument is.]
It worked.
“Let’s go. We’ll activate the monument and wipe them all out.”
I’d gotten a hint while talking to the Fox Spirit and had finally solved that goddamn cipher.
The order of the characters wasn’t vertical or diagonal. It wasn’t every second character or every third character either.
The answer was ‘prime numbers.’
Now I knew what to put in those three boxes.
{PIC:}
Reading vertically produced a nonsensical phrase like ‘eun-geum-sik-rae-yak-han-geo-ui-jil,’ but reading only the characters in the prime number positions yielded three distinct words.
1. Dagger Raptor.
2. Gourmet Whale.
3. Pitiful Spider Doctor.
The coin I had picked up in the 1st-floor treasure room was a Dagger Eagle. I guess the Labyrinth calls it a Dagger Raptor?
After hearing Soyul’s story, I traced it back to the 1st-floor picture and matched it with Dagger Raptor, which revealed the rule.
Prime numbers.
The flag Soyul saw on the 3.5th floor was a crying Spider Doctor.
That matched number 3.
I just needed to confirm number 2. It was probably correct, given the consistency of the pattern.
Maybe the phrase ‘resolving the grudge’ didn’t mean killing the Labyrinth Master after all.
It was about the inter-floor villages devoured by the Labyrinth.
Since it was called the ‘grudge of the Abyss,’ it was likely related to an inter-floor village located in the Deep Layer.
Coincidentally, the 3rd-floor monument was right next to the stairs leading down to the 3.5th floor.
Could the monuments have been made by the natives of the inter-floor villages?
I’d have to tell Dalstream about this once the cipher was fully solved and we got back.
The three boxes likely required the coins from each floor to be thrown in, in order.
Of course, right now we only had one coin: the Dagger Raptor from the 1st floor.
But…
I have the compass.
Beep! Beep!
“This way.”
If I requested the 2nd-floor coin from a treasure room, the treasure chest would give me the 3rd-floor coin as well, amidst the other junk.
There was no need to run anymore. I was completely revising my original plan to escape to the 2nd floor with no casualties.
You son of a bitch Lich.
Just you wait. I’m going to kill you twice.
And we’re leaving through the exit room.