Chapter 35
The person standing by the doorway was Roynel. Gilsion was there too.
They had said they were exploring the tower, but apparently they had already finished.
Roynel’s eyes widened when they saw Jeong Yushin.
“Oh! You’re awake!”
“Yes.”
Gilsion approached and patted Jeong Yushin on the shoulder.
“Thank you. I owe my life to you.”
Jeong Yushin shook his head.
“Think nothing of it. I only did what I had to do.”
Jeong Yushin turned his head and looked at Roynel.
There was something he wanted to ask.
“I heard you went upstairs. Was there anything useful?”
Roynel shook their head with a gloomy expression.
“Nothing. Anything useful was looted long ago. All we got was a magic scroll for digging through the ground. I don’t even know if it works properly.”
Jeong Yushin’s eyes widened.
“Are there scrolls in a place like this?”
Gilsion answered in their place.
“Starting from the fifth floor, various magic items begin to appear. Magical weapons, grimoires, magic scrolls, and so on. Most are inside chests or carried by monsters. Good magic items can sell for a high price, but this is still a lower floor, so there isn’t anything particularly impressive.”
“Do better items appear the deeper you go? Why do they appear in the first place?”
“The deeper you go, the higher the ‘chance’ of finding better magic items. And don’t ask me why magic items appear. I don’t know either. If you’re really curious, go learn about it at the Labyrinth Academy.”
Jeong Yushin frowned.
Darmong had told him last time. A year at the Labyrinth Academy cost ten gold coins.
‘Spend ten gold coins on an academy? Phew.’
He had no room for anything that insane.
Jeong Yushin returned to the matter at hand.
“Did you make it all the way to the roof?”
Gilsion folded their arms and shook their head.
“No. We turned back partway. It was too high. I’d estimate there are about fifteen floors.”
Jeong Yushin looked around.
Ahiman was nowhere to be seen.
“Where is Ahiman?”
Roynel raised a finger and pointed toward the wooden door on the left.
Jeong Yushin approached the wooden door and opened it.
He saw stairs leading down to the second floor. Ahiman was standing there with their back to him.
“Ahiman? How are you feeling?”
“···Yumashyom.”
Ahiman muttered in an incomprehensible language.
Jeong Yushin scratched his head once and answered.
“Understood.”
He returned to where Roynel was.
The party members sat gathered around the torch.
“I can’t see any way for us to get out alive.”
Roynel muttered bitterly.
“If we hold out a little longer, the labyrinth investigation team might come.”
Gilsion replied.
“...”
Karin was still gloomy.
Jeong Yushin silently chewed his jerky.
“We don’t even know where Captain Hans’s party is. How can we expect the investigation team on the fourth floor to come?”
“Roynel, don’t lose hope.”
“I’m just stating the facts. Damn it!!”
Despite Gilsion’s attempt to comfort them, Roynel flew into a rage and slammed the floor.
“Ahiman’s magic is at its limit now. We need to come up with a solution somehow.”
Roynel bit their lip repeatedly. Then they saw Jeong Yushin chewing his jerky.
“Barbaroi, is it tasty? You’re about to die. Can jerky even go down your throat?”
‘You don’t bother a dog while it’s eating.’
Jeong Yushin took a piece of jerky from his pocket and held it out.
“Would you like some?”
“Forget it.”
Roynel and Gilsion began arguing again.
Jeong Yushin stood up.
Roynel looked at him.
“Where are you going?”
“I need to use the bathroom for a moment.”
“···All right.”
Jeong Yushin took out a new torch and went upstairs.
It was exactly like the floor below. There was nothing but bookshelves, tables, and chairs covered in dust.
He went up another floor. Nothing was different.
Other fantasy protagonists found hidden treasures and gobbled them up like pigs, breezing through crises, but he had to groan like a puppy that needed to shit, tear at his hair, and roll around on the ground just to get through them.
But even this had its limits. This time, he couldn’t see any way to survive.
‘Shut up.’
Jeong Yushin slapped his own cheek.
Even so, the frustration in his heart did not ease.
Jeong Yushin climbed several more floors.
He climbed the stairs and reached the eighth floor.
He opened the wooden door, entered, and shone his torch around.
‘There’s really nothing here.’
All there was was an empty bookshelf thick with dust and a wooden table that had already rotted away.
“Huh?!”
Jeong Yushin’s eyes stopped on one spot.
There was a wooden chest in the corner.
Wasn’t this one of the chests Gilsion had mentioned earlier?
Gilsion had told him not to expect much, but you never knew. It might contain a magic item capable of breaking this grim situation.
Perhaps it was a hidden treasure.
Maybe it was a chest that only appeared when someone came alone.
It might even be a chest that only appeared to virgins.
Jeong Yushin approached with his heart pounding and opened the chest.
Creak.
The chest swung open with a groan.
‘Huh.’
Inside the chest was a piece of parchment sealed with a green seal.
A magic scroll.
It looked just like the sealed parchment Carlton had given him.
With trembling hands, Jeong Yushin picked up the magic scroll and hurried back down to the third floor.
He wanted to climb higher and search the next floors, but Karin’s words weighed on his mind.
Hadn’t Ahiman said there wasn’t much time left before they could no longer hold them back?
Roynel’s eyes widened when they saw Jeong Yushin hurrying down.
“What is it?! Is a monster coming down from above?!”
“No.”
“Then why did you run down like that?”
“Look at this. I found a magic scroll.”
Everyone’s attention focused on it.
Roynel approached, examined the magic scroll, and frowned.
“It’s trash.”
“Pardon?”
“It’s a random teleportation scroll. This was on the eighth floor, wasn’t it?”
“Isn’t that a good thing? We can all escape from here!”
Jeong Yushin shouted excitedly.
Roynel sighed and spoke.
“What a crazy thing to say. This is a first-generation scroll. It can’t move between floors, and its transfer-coordinate system is obsolete. Let me put it simply. You open the portal and step inside, and you immediately become one with a wall or the earth. This is trash among trash. And in a city, if you get stuck in a wall with only your ass sticking out, you should consider yourself lucky.”
Jeong Yushin’s shoulders drooped. He began thinking again.
He remembered what Karin had said at the inn.
Hadn’t she said that monsters avoided portals?
Jeong Yushin suddenly raised his head.
“Couldn’t we use this to block the entrance?”
“The portal won’t last long. It won’t buy us much time.”
“Haa.”
They were at a dead end. No matter how he turned the problem over in his head, he couldn’t find a suitable solution.
‘No. There has to be a way.’
He sat down and closed his eyes.
Amid the gloomy silence, Jeong Yushin thought desperately.
He couldn’t die in a place like this.
‘Even if the sky falls, there will be a hole to escape through.’
Wait.
Jeong Yushin’s eyes flew open.
‘Falls?’
‘A hole?’
Jeong Yushin opened his mouth.
“I have one plan.”
“···Tell us.
Gilsion spoke on everyone’s behalf.
Jeong Yushin explained his plan.
The party members’ expressions grew stranger and stranger as they listened to Jeong Yushin’s plan.
“What if we do this?”
He finished explaining.
“...”
Silence filled the room.
Roynel muttered blankly.
“Are you insane?”
“...”
“Does that make any sense? You’ve completely lost your mind.”
Roynel raised their voice, looking stuffed to the brim with hysteria.
‘They’ve been objecting to everything since earlier.’
Annoyed, Jeong Yushin spoke curtly.
“Are elves naturally cowardly? Is that a trait of your species?”
A vein reddened on Roynel’s forehead.
“What did you just call me, you bastard?”
“Let’s not swear. It lowers the tone.”
Roynel let out a hollow, incredulous laugh and looked around.
The party members were seriously considering Jeong Yushin’s plan.
“It’s reckless, but doable.”
Karin spoke.
“I agree. Of course, it would be nice if everything went according to plan, but I’m a little uneasy.”
Gilsion agreed as well.
“Haa.”
Roynel shook their head over and over.
“Fine. Let’s give it a try. There really isn’t a sane person among you Barbaroi.”
Jeong Yushin went to Ahiman and explained the plan.
Ahiman listened silently, then spoke.
“Umtaku.”
“You agree?”
“Hadoppua.”
“If you agree, please nod.”
Ahiman nodded.
All preparations were complete. Jeong Yushin gathered his luggage.
He picked up the one-handed sword Roynel had lent him.
Gilsion turned around and spoke.
“We’re going.”
The party members nodded silently.
Ahiman dispelled the barrier magic.
A roar came from below.
Kuaaang!!!
Gilsion led the charge down the stairs.
Golden light poured from the letters engraved on Gilsion’s greatsword.
The stairs were narrow, leaving the human-faced centipedes nowhere to dodge.
Every swing sliced them apart.
In an instant, they broke through the second floor and descended to the first.
The first floor was crawling with human-faced centipedes.
“Hraaah!!”
Gilsion gathered their strength and swung the greatsword.
Fwaaash!!!
When the greatsword swept through the human-faced centipedes all at once, a space to stand opened up on the floor.
“Ahiman!!”
Ahiman took position and immediately began chanting a spell.
Jeong Yushin stayed beside Gilsion and provided support.
Shaaak!!
He slashed and stabbed with the sword. There wasn’t much for him to do.
Gilsion stood firm, sweeping away the enemies with overwhelming force.
‘As expected of a mid-rank explorer.’
Karin also moved nimbly, swinging her dagger.
Unlike last time, she did not collapse all at once.
[Abyss Strike]
Ahiman cast the spell.
Tentacles burst out.
The tentacles looked ready to lash the human-faced centipedes, but suddenly struck the tower’s pillars instead.
It was the plan Jeong Yushin had explained.
Even if the tower collapsed, there would be a hole to escape through.
The so-called Tower-Hole Plan.
Bang!!
Bang!! Bang!!
The tower began to tremble. Stone dust fell from above.
Roynel tore open the scroll’s seal.
The digging magic they had obtained from the tower.
[Dig]
The floor of the first story caved in.
Roynel climbed in first.
Bang!! Bang!! Bang!!
The vibrations were growing more intense.
Rumble.
Larger and larger chunks of stone began falling.
Karin backed away and entered the hole.
Gilsion followed, swinging the greatsword in a wide arc before throwing themself into the hole.
At that exact moment.
Ahiman’s magic stopped.
The tentacles vanished, and the tower stopped shaking.
The prolonged spellcasting had exhausted Ahiman’s mana.
Cold sweat ran down Jeong Yushin’s back.
Roynel’s scream came from the pit.
“Hey!! Ska!! You fucking bastard!!”
Jeong Yushin quickly grabbed Ahiman by the collar and threw them into the pit.
“Puldwaaaaa!!”
Ahiman let out a strange scream and slipped into the hole.
The sounds of tumbling, curses, and groans came from inside.
Jeong Yushin clenched his teeth.
They were missing one final blow. One blow that could bring down the tower.
[Sacred Weapon]
‘If it won’t happen, I’ll make it happen.’
What he wanted was a hammer.
Mana particles gathered in his hand and formed a huge warhammer.
It was on an entirely different scale from any warhammer he had made before.
“Hraaah!!!”
Using every last ounce of strength, he struck the pillar.
Kwaaang!!!
The pillar was completely smashed, and the tower began to collapse.
Jeong Yushin rolled to avoid falling pieces of wood and stone, shook off a human-faced centipede that clung to him, and slipped into the hole.
“Squeee.”
Ahiman, who caught Jeong Yushin’s body, let out a pig-like squeal.
He pulled the random teleportation scroll from inside his clothes.
When he tore off the seal, a portal formed above Jeong Yushin’s head.
[Random Teleportation]
Whoooosh.
It was a portal that cast a yellow light.
Roynel shouted from the very bottom.
“This is definitely going to work, right?!!”
Irritation suddenly surged, and he shouted a single word.
“I don’t know!!”
“You crazy Barbaroi baastaaard!!!”
Roynel screamed.
A huge boulder fell from above.
‘Please.’
His wish came true.
The portal above Jeong Yushin swallowed the boulder.
But the portal was not large enough to cover the hole completely. Small pieces of wood and stone squeezed through the gaps and fell inside.
The party members wriggled and shifted positions in the hole like a tangled mass of caterpillars.
Then Jeong Yushin and Karin ended up pressed tightly together.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Karin did not answer and continued staring at Jeong Yushin’s face.
Many people had stood behind her. Few had stood at her side, and almost none had led from the front, showing her their backs.
As the daughter of the representative of the Beastkin Alliance, she had traveled the borders of the Eastern Alliance, leading people into battle. Perhaps it was only natural.
She had seen many people, but she had never met anyone like this man.
Despite his weakness, he had backbone.
Even in a desperate situation, he had not fled and had protected the party to the very end.
The sight of him boldly swinging his sword before countless monsters was still vivid in her mind.
What should she call this feeling?
Yes.
A man she could lean on.
Karin lowered her head and nestled against Jeong Yushin’s chest, inhaling.
The man’s heady scent pierced her heart and could not be blocked by dirt or dust.
A comforting, reassuring smell.
A sexy smell that made her belly flutter.
Was this what her father, who had died before she was born, had smelled like?
Karin’s face reddened at the absurd thought that had entered her mind without her realizing it.
Unable to lift her face, Karin lowered her head even further.
Jeong Yushin looked down at the crown of Karin’s head.
‘What’s with her suddenly burying her face in me?’
“Eeeek!!! I’m going to die!!!”
The tower collapsed with a deafening roar, burying Roynel’s tirade.
Rumble.
Kwaaang.
A huge tower collapsed in the northern part of the Forgotten City, Engrave.
* * *
Puuuk.
An arm suddenly thrust out from the ruins of stone and wood.
A moment later, a face emerged.
“Pwah! I thought I was... I thought I was going to die.”
The pale-faced elf crawled out of the pile of rubble. Ahiman, Gilsion, Karin, and finally Jeong Yushin emerged in turn.
As soon as Jeong Yushin came out, he took flint from his pocket and lit the torch he had prepared beforehand.
The surroundings were silent.
Most of the human-faced centipedes had been crushed to death beneath the tower’s ruins.
The few that remained had apparently fled into the distance or scattered and moved elsewhere.
The party members, covered in dirt and looking like beggars, sat huddled together on the rubble, half dazed.
“Heh heh heh.”
Roynel suddenly began to laugh.
“What’s so funny?”
Jeong Yushin asked.
Roynel stopped laughing and began to shed tears.
Large teardrops fell onto the rubble one after another.
‘What?’
“Domuta.”
Ahiman looked at Jeong Yushin and gave him a thumbs-up.
“You mean I’m the best? Thank you.”
Ahiman shook their head, but Jeong Yushin turned away and pretended not to see.
Karin was staring blankly at Jeong Yushin’s face.
Gilsion stood up.
“Let’s go. We need to get out of the labyrinth first. Staying here any longer is dangerous.”
At Gilsion’s words, all the party members stood up.
The party members proceeded through the silent streets.
There was no ambush. The group reached the transfer stone in the north without incident.
“Karin...”
Gilsion looked at Karin, signaling that they could go no farther.
Karin nodded.
“Let’s return to the labyrinth city and regroup for now.”
Gilsion placed a hand on the transfer stone.
A blue portal and a red portal opened.
Jeong Yushin and the others entered the blue portal.
They passed through the light and emerged at the labyrinth’s exit.
Warm sunlight and crisp air greeted them.
This was the first time they had emerged completely intact.
His heart pounded, and a sense of freedom shook his entire body.
He knew instinctively.
Imprint.
He had obtained an imprint.
His heart began to throb.
Jeong Yushin turned his head and examined each of the party members’ faces.
The mission had failed, but they had survived.
No one had died. Jeong Yushin was happy about that.
Maybe he could join Karin’s party now.
He was confident that together with them, they could overcome even a major crisis.
Just as Jeong Yushin was about to speak, something strange happened.
“Huh!!”
Roynel suddenly shouted. Light began to shine from their entire body.
‘Could it be an imprint?’
The light flashed.
Roynel disappeared, leaving only their clothes behind.
Jeong Yushin’s eyes bulged, and a trembling voice escaped his mouth.
“···A duck?”
A duck of all things crawled out from the pile of clothes.
“Gasp!!”
Ahiman also shouted. Then light began to shine from their entire body.
“What the fuck is going on?!”
The light flashed, and
Ahiman also disappeared, leaving only their clothes behind.
A moment later, a small lizard quietly crawled out from the pile of clothes.
“Quack quack!!”
“Chirup. Chirup.”
Jeong Yushin looked at the two of them, then quickly averted his gaze.
Gilsion was standing quietly.
“···Gilsion?”
“...”
Jeong Yushin called out to Gilsion, but there was no answer.
“Excuse me for a moment.”
Jeong Yushin approached and lifted the flap on Gilsion’s helmet.
“Heh...”
Thick drool dribbled from Gilsion’s mouth. Their pupils were unfocused.
Tap.
He closed the flap.
“Karin?”
Fortunately, Karin appeared to be fine.
Karin sighed and scratched her dust-covered head.
“Phew. What a pain. Let’s hurry back and sleep while sniffing Ska’s towel...”
Karin stopped mid-sentence and quickly covered her mouth. Her face turned as red as a ripe apple. Then she suddenly ran off somewhere.
“No. Where are you going?”
Jeong Yushin muttered in a drained voice.
“Quack quack!!”
“Chirup. Chirup.”
“Heh...”
Unable to bear the sight of his party members, Jeong Yushin’s legs gave out, and he plopped down onto the ground.
A priest and the guards were running toward them from the distance.
But Jeong Yushin only stared blankly at the ‘things’ that had once been his party members.
No wonder his luck had seemed so good.
“···I can’t do this.”
Really.