Chapter 68: It’s Dangerous Outside the Labyrinth!
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 68: It’s Dangerous Outside the Labyrinth!
The Labyrinth Eruption, 12 years ago.
A few Black Iron Knights had entered the Berten estate, inflicting immense damage.
But that damage was below average for Sohen.
While no part of the city was left unscathed, some areas were hit to the point of annihilation. One place suffered even more than the Magic University.
‘Blackdog.’
After Henry was dealt with, the monsters of the Abyss roamed the city freely, and the back alleys were, of course, no exception.
The march of the Abyss made no distinction between the mansions of the wealthy and the back alleys of the vagrants.
‘The Silver Dagger Federation.’
The monsters that came to the back alleys were translucent like ghosts, their limbs indistinct silhouettes. A single silver dagger was embedded deep in each of their chests.
Every one of them was powerful, and their numbers exceeded a hundred, but Sohen's main forces had no interest in a place like this.
The Public Security Headquarters, the Magic University, the Adventurer's Guild, Nathaniel's Temple, the Labyrinth Union—all of them.
All the adventurers and soldiers were busy defending the city center and the business districts to the south and east, along with the main streets.
Naturally, the back alleys were once again left in the hands of the local vigilantes. Just as they always were.
“This is nothing new!”
Krom, the Orc Berserker, shouted.
“In the end, we’re the ones who protect this district!”
The Tier 7 wizard Ractanius, the Elf Druid Elenia, the Dokkebi warrior Bisan, and the Fallen Paladin Rupert.
All of Blackdog’s core heroes had gathered in the back alleys.
But even their desperate resistance couldn't stop the tide of the Abyss.
“Cycle of Death.”
Blackdog was no match for these monsters, who casually slung Tier 6 magic while walking.
“Blood-red Fortress.”
“Steel Thunderbolt.”
“Abyssal Flame.”
“Mass Necrosis.”
Starting from the alley entrances, the monsters advanced, grabbing people one by one, killing them, and methodically trampling the buildings.
The adventurers of Blackdog couldn't even slow them down.
This can’t be happening.
A belated realization struck Krom’s mind like a hammer.
He had to discard everything he thought he knew about monsters.
This wasn't about hunting them for magic stones, or being hunted and eaten by them. This wasn't a battle to be won or lost.
A natural disaster.
That was the right way to classify this.
If a river flooded, would you fight the flood?
If a volcano erupted, would you fight the lava or the volcanic bombs?
No.
You flee from a disaster; you don't fight it. The Labyrinth Eruption was like that.
This was a catastrophe.
But…
“Wail of the Dead.”
It was already too late.
Teeth of death erupted from the ground, tearing into the Orc Berserker’s legs.
“Frozen Heart.”
And when the Tier 7 spell flew in and struck him in the chest, Krom lost consciousness.
*
When he came to, two hours had passed.
The back alleys that Blackdog had cultivated for so long had been thrown back a hundred years, reduced to a filthy ruin.
The monsters were gone.
Krom couldn't move. He was lying in a massive pool of his own blood, which had already grown cold and congealed.
All his friends were dead.
Crunch!
Crack!
A strange sound reached his ears.
Krom silently raised his head. Something was standing amidst the field of corpses.
Crunch!
It was a massive male lion with a lush white mane. But it walked on two legs like a human and was crouched over a pile of bodies.
Crack!
It was chewing and swallowing human corpses.
What is that thing?
Krom was an adventurer who had even descended into the Deep Layers, but he had never seen anything so vile and ominous before.
And then, an even more shocking fact.
“This doesn't taste very good.”
The monster spoke.
It was clearly ‘speech,’ not an incantation.
“They said adventurers were a delicacy. More disappointing than I thought.”
How could a monster talk?
Even adventurers who went mad and became Exit Bosses couldn't speak.
Even in the most exceptional cases, the most they could manage was muttering something to themselves, a remnant of a habit from their past life.
But how…
“Perhaps…”
A chilling voice turned in his direction.
“Does a live one taste different?”
Horrified, Krom instantly squeezed his eyes shut. He buried his face in the pool of blood and held his breath.
Just as he was praying to the heavens to be saved, he felt a faint presence next to him.
Ractanius!
The Tier 7 wizard was still alive. His body was trembling like a leaf.
Krom couldn't see it, but he could feel it. Because…
“K-Krom…”
Terrified, he called out in a trembling voice.
Thud, thud.
The demon’s steps crossed over the pile of corpses.
In that moment, a cowardly and cruel thought, unbecoming of a warrior, flashed through Krom’s mind.
Please, let it eat Ractanius.
Please, let it never find out about me.
Please, let Ractanius be eaten quietly.
In contrast to Krom’s silent prayer, a low cry could be heard.
“Ugh… Hhhh…”
Ractanius was sobbing.
He couldn't calm himself.
He couldn't stop the tears from flowing.
And when the sound of the demon’s footsteps stopped right by his head…
“Aaargh!”
A scream erupted from beside Krom.
“Help me…! Help me! Please…!”
Krom felt something warm splatter across his back. Ractanius’s blood.
“Aaaaaargh!”
The sound of the wizard struggling. The sound of flesh tearing and ripping in the demon’s grasp.
“Ptooey!”
The sound of the demon spitting out what it was chewing.
“Gack! Gurgle!”
Choking, his breath catching in his throat, Ractanius uttered words that were impossible to distinguish as resentment or pleading.
“The one… n-next to me… is also… alive…”
But by a stroke of sheer luck, the White Lion didn't hear Ractanius’s words.
Once again, crunch!
With the sound of breaking bone, Ractanius’s corpse fell beside Krom’s severed left leg.
And then, something even more astonishing happened.
“Disguise.”
The monster cast a spell on itself.
“Human Body.”
He had to throw away every concept he had about monsters.
The advance of some monsters wasn't a battle or a war, but a natural disaster.
And some monsters were like demons.
The demon conjured a human body, then stripped the coat from Ractanius and draped it over itself.
Krom never saw its human face.
Only long after the footsteps, thud, thud, had faded into the distance did he see the back of the monster in its human form.
*
“That demon must have come out with the Labyrinth Eruption. And it never went back,” Krom said.
“It definitely used disguise magic to turn into a human. Why else would it do something like that?”
“…”
“To stay in this city. Coincidentally, right after that, a certain secret society was formed at the Magic University. The Abyssal Assembly of the Labyrinth, the one you're in.”
Krom gritted his teeth.
“And their leader was the White Lion! I know that bastard’s face. Not the human face, but its real face, the one it pretends is a mascot head!”
“…”
“Just like how you guys change your faces when you have a meeting or negotiate with us, that bastard just changes its body.”
“Caleb.”
Enver looked as if this was actually a good thing.
Krom had just scored a spectacular own goal.
“There’s no need to pay any attention to this story. Right?” he said.
“Logically speaking, how could a monster with that level of intelligence that can even talk possibly exi—”
Caleb’s face had gone deathly pale.
*
Such a monster could exist.
I didn't know it until now, but it's possible.
Because the Spider Doctor is just like that!
This can’t be.
I confess, while digging into Blackdog and Enver’s club, I felt like I was looking for a cockroach that had scurried under the bed.
But when I peeked under the bed, I fucking locked eyes with a serial killer holding a butcher knife.
Is it real?
The Spider Doctor had mentioned the Dagger Raptor and the Gourmet Whale to me.
He’d asked if I wasn’t lucky that the ruler of the 3rd floor was a spider skilled in medicine, and not one of those two.
If the 1st floor was the Dagger Raptor and the 2nd was the Gourmet Whale, then what about the 4th floor?
The 5th?
Do monsters similar to them exist on the floors below?
What if one of them is the ‘White Lion’…?
No, this is insane.
Goosebumps erupted all over my body.
The Spider Doctor was freed because I activated the stone monument, but there's no guarantee the others have to be freed the same way.
What if the reason they haven't been seen in the Labyrinth until now is because they've been living outside it all along?
Professor Dalstream said the Labyrinth was a battlefield between Otherworld Possessors and the Labyrinth Master.
Just as ambitious adventurers descend into the Deep Layers to find and investigate the Labyrinth Master, what if the Labyrinth Master was investigating the surface?
Speaking of Dalstream, that reminds me, I can take this one step further.
‘The Turn-Based Wizard.’
Dalstream said it was the Labyrinth Master’s counter.
If the Deep Layer adventurers are looking for the Labyrinth Master, then who the hell is the White Lion on the surface looking for?
“…”
I swallowed hard, trying to keep my breathing steady.
Get a grip.
Calm down, calm down.
Nothing has been verified yet.
Step one would be to check if a White Lion is among the coins of the Labyrinth's floor villages.
Step two would be to find out if it really came up to the surface.
Step three would be to confirm if it's truly the leader of Enver's club.
There's no need to panic prematurely. Knowing early means I can start preparing now.
Coming to Blackdog today was a truly brilliant move.
“Caleb…?”
Enver studied my expression.
This bastard, who seemed so manageable until now, suddenly seemed terrifying.
How much does Enver know?
Assuming Krom's story is 100% true, is Enver being used, unaware that his boss is a monster and not a human? Or is he knowingly cooperating?
“Well, it’s not like I expected you to believe me,” Krom said to me.
“Anyway, let’s get to the main point. Why are you here?” Krom asked.
“You didn't come all this way just to say hello after recruiting a good new member, did you?”
Knock, knock, knock.
Just then, someone knocked on the meeting room door.
*
About 100 meters from the casino, in an abandoned building left to rot since its destruction, yet to be rebuilt.
“Seriously, how did he even do this?”
Back Attack marveled, peering into a glass bottle.
The image in the bottle showed Caleb, Professor Enver, and the casino owner, Krom.
It was being filmed by an invisible Wizard's Eye, floating in a corner of the meeting room.
Unbelievably, in the brief moment Back Attack had cast invisibility on it, the Wizard's Eye had blinked up to the second floor.
Then it had started following Caleb and filming.
This was probably the first time the security of both the 1st-floor Watcher and the 2nd-floor guard had been breached since the Labyrinth Eruption 12 years ago, when everything was physically smashed and killed.
“If he just stuck to gambling, he’d be building a Kerten mansion next to the Berten estate in no time.”
Though he couldn't hear the audio, Back Attack was enjoying his spying on the meeting room when it happened.
Someone entered the abandoned building, their footsteps silent and stealthy.
It was a feline beastman.
Caleb had told him about her. Her name was Neko, right? A constable.
“How did it go?”
“Success,” Back Attack replied, proudly showing her the bottle.
Now, when the meeting in there ends, the Wizard's Eye will follow Krom.
‘Check where he goes and who he meets.’
That's what Caleb had asked of Back Attack. The reason was that the people Krom would meet after the meeting were likely Possessors.
Though he hadn't told Back Attack and Neko that.
“The boss said to use this eye to check when the meeting ends. If he’s late coming out, I’m to tell the Public Security Headquarters to raid the place immediately.”
“Yes, I know. I will not let any harm come to Caleb. Our forces are on standby outside,” Neko said.
For her, the opportunity Caleb had created was unbelievably huge.
To move an invisible Wizard's Eye to the second floor…
“By tracking Krom, we might be able to find our agent being held by Blackdog.”
Neko couldn't miss this once-in-a-lifetime chance.
She took the bottle from Back Attack. The effectiveness of a Wizard's Eye depended heavily on the user's magical proficiency—its range of movement, its success rate of control.
Fortunately, she was a wizard.
“From now on, track Krom.”
The Wizard's Eye slowly moved behind Krom. And in the moment the view shifted…
“Huh?”
An unexpected person appeared in the meeting room.
Constable Neko’s mind went blank.
“W-What the…”
Blackdog was a powerful organization that controlled Sohen with its vast information network.
They had connections to politicians in the council, giants of the business world, and even…
“Inspector…?”
He was a middle manager at the Public Security Headquarters.
Neko’s superior had just appeared in the meeting room.
*
Right after I first escaped the Labyrinth, when Meldini showed up and went on a rampage while the lie detection magic was still active.
That's what I thought back then.
That the world outside the Labyrinth was far more dangerous than the world inside.
I'm realizing it all over again.
Inside the Labyrinth, most things are within the scope of my knowledge and can be controlled. But the outside is not like that.
A city where a monster from a floor village might be living.
A city where an inspector from the Public Security Headquarters has been bought by a gang.
Is this Gotham City or something?
This place is definitely more dangerous than the Labyrinth.
“Caleb.”
Inspector Ennes of the Public Security Headquarters, a Lizard, pulled up a chair and sat down next to Krom.
“How’s that task Neko asked you to handle going?”
I feel like asking the Spider Doctor if I can move into the floor village.