Chapter 70: Catch Them (8)
by Shini
Chapter 70: Catch Them (8)
In
an instant, my vision changed.
The
floor was damp. Instead of the stone tiles that surrounded me on all
sides of the second floor, I could feel the damp, wet earth.
Reflexively,
I tried to use my perception to check my surroundings, but a terrible
headache hit me and my entire body went limp.
I
quickly closed my eyes and stopped perceiving.
-Poof!
I
nearly fell to the floor, landing on a damp, fluffy bed.
What
the hell. It’s transparent, but the dampness feels strangely
familiar.
This
must be what it feels like to lie on a bed of pudding.
[Aldente
LV.28]
[Aldente’s
current Blessings and Curses: 2]
[◆
Curse of the Slime]
–
Your body turns to slime. It’s slimy.
–
Stamina +10 Wisdom-5 Finesse-5
“Are
you okay?”
“Ah,
yes⋯
I’m fine.”
Aldente
had transformed her slime arm into a bed.
It
was fascinating. She could transform her body freely.
Ain.
Those who were once human but were cursed to become monsters.
I
don’t know much about them, as they are far fewer in number than
humans.
I’ve
heard that some are forced to carry the curse because they can’t
afford to remove it, while others have embraced the life of an Ain
out of necessity.
Slime
Ain Aldente seemed to be the latter. Ten stamina points is a lot for
a tank to ignore.
I
looked at Aldente’s arm as it reverted from its bed form, thanked
her, and stood still, contemplating my condition.
‘Did
I push myself too hard?
My
head still aches slightly from the intense focus of the crisis, but
not to the point of collapse from exhaustion like this.
‘Perhaps
it’s magic.’
For
the first time, I felt like I hadn’t realized the extent of my power
and had just used it.
On
top of that, I wondered if I had maximized my cognition, and that’s
why my body couldn’t hold on for a moment.
“Balkan.
Is that axe⋯an
artifact?”
“Ah,
yes. I got one this time.”
“Then
you’re drained. That’s what you get for growing an axe bigger than a
streetlight. I’m more surprised that you didn’t destroy your artifact
after all that foolishness. Must be something good, huh?”
Mage
Lammel informed me that I was suffering from mana exhaustion.
She
explained that it can be accompanied by anemia-like symptoms, as well
as sudden dizziness and loss of stamina, so I knew I should refrain
from overextending myself as much as possible.
“Time
is the key to curing mana exhaustion. Get some rest. You’ve worked
hard.”
“That’s
right, Balkan. You’ve bought us a lot of time, since you took the
outlaw down to the eighth floor with you.”
After
opening my mouth and eating together a few times, Lammel and Jubeel,
who had become slightly sweeter, took care of me.
Immediately,
a white powder fell on my head. It was a priest’s miracle.
“I’ve
cast a miracle to speed up your recovery, and you’ll be well on your
way to feeling better.”
Hitolis
also gave me a miracle.
As
I began to feel my body slowly recovering from the emptiness, I
noticed someone in worse shape than I was.
“Ugh!”
I
stifled a laugh.
“Gellan!
Gellan, get a grip!”
The
cleric and wizard of Gellan’s party looked on in dismay as Gellan
rolled around on the ground, swaying from side to side.
Direct
hit⋯
by a male corruption beam from the shaman hobgoblin’s staff.
Technically,
I was hit and it was deflected by Serif’s blessing, but there was no
one here brilliant enough to see it. The situation was too urgent.
Anyway,
As
a result, Gellan became an idiot.
He
was an idiot before, but now he was an idiot beyond redemption.
“⋯⋯”
Aldente
didn’t say anything, but her expression was quite bitter.
It
couldn’t be helped, since his formerly unharmed teammate had turned
into an idiot in less than ten seconds of combat.
‘The
pink glow emitted by Shaman Hobgoblin’s staff is the magical
embodiment of the beast’s male corruption pheromone.’
Whether
you are a high level explorer or a low level explorer, if you’re hit
by a monster and exposed to its male corruption pheromones, you’ll
simply become a bio-dildo for the monster.
‘No
man has ever been able to overcome the male corruption pheromone.’
I’ve
heard that various studies are underway to try to cure them, but
nothing has worked yet, which means the odds of Gellan ever returning
to his original form are pretty much zero.
“Put
it in the bag and go.”
Still,
he was an idiot, not dead, so we decided to keep him in a bag from a
humanitarian standpoint.
If
it had been a party of subhuman trash or a party of rehabilitated
explorers, he’d have been immediately mauled, used as bait,
discarded, or rolled into a limb-amputation bio dildo.
In
Gellan’s case, he was lucky.
His
body was shoved into the lightweight enchanted backpack we carried.
His
body somehow fit, but only his head popped out.”Crrrrrr! It’s
fucking heavy, man!”
“Don’t
freak out, the lightweight magic cuts the weight in half.”
Gregor
squealed as she was forced to carry another bag, but what the hell.
She’s a porter, she’s supposed to be able to carry a load. Anyway,
that was the end of Gellan’s handling.
Now
I turned my attention to the other side.
“Eighth
floor center. We’re in luck. If we keep going in a straight line,
we’ll reach the end of the line in one night.”
Joy
Hog, with her wounds healed by a healing potion, studied the map to
get a sense of where we were and what was happening.
“The
Outlaw’s Mark is on the western outskirts. It’s a little less
monster-infested, but the roads are rough and unruly.”
“From
the way she’s moving, she looks like she’s quite the explorer. Maybe
she knows the way?”
“I
can’t be sure⋯
but since she’s
standing right next to a 8th
Floor Transition Trap, I can’t completely rule it out. We’ll have to
be very diligent if we want to get to the end first.”
On
the second floor, it would have been a chase, but since we were on
the eighth floor, we only needed to get to the edge of the portal
first.
No
matter how good Gurmimi’s performance was, there were only two of
them.
“I
don’t know about the second floor, but the two of them can’t hold off
the eighth floor for long. If they want to survive, they’ll come to
the end of the floor where there’s a portal to the upper floors.”
“We
get to the edge first, ambush them, and when they come, we take them
out in one fell swoop. Right?”
“Exactly.
Balkan has little common sense, but a lot of brains.”
The
ending was a bit shitty, but when I thought about it, it wasn’t
strangely wrong, so I just nodded.
Gellan
was retired, but it didn’t change the game.
The
party’s overall damage dealing is slightly lowered, but the other
three members of Gellan’s party are still strong.
With
this much power, the eighth floor shouldn’t be too difficult.
We
immediately began to make progress on the eighth floor.
***
The
difficulty of the Labyrinth increases dramatically every four floors.
Just
as the goblins on the first floor, which were charging with ignorance
at the sight of a man, become hobgoblins with evolved thinking and
bodies on the fourth floor and higher.
The
eighth floor introduces monsters that are more advanced in every way
than the previous tiers.
“Still,
that rapid growth is a bit disconcerting.”
“Purrrrrrrr!”
A
huge fireball began to form in the hands of the Shaman Minotaur.
It
raised its arms to the sky, as if gathering energy, and began to
increase the size of the fireball.
In
response, the four warrior minotaurs guarding the Shaman Minotaur
snorted and charged.
-Thud!
Joy
Hog shoved one of the minotaurs with her shield to stop it while
Aldente stretched out her slime arms and grabbed two of the
minotaurs.
“One
down!”
The
minotaur that had broken through the front line of tanks lunged at
me, fists outstretched.
With
the priests and mages right behind me, I can’t dodge. I swung my axe
in time with its outstretched fist.
-Thud,
thud, thud!
The
axe sliced smoothly through the middle and index fingers of her fist
and gently bisected her forearm.
“Purrrrrrrr!”
The
minotaur didn’t even seem to feel the pain and immediately tried to
counterattack with its opposite fist.
But
what the hell, I have two weapons.
-Tsk!
“Purrrrr!”
The
minotaur let out a short howl as its other arm was equally split.
The
axe continued up the minotaur’s arm, straight for its head, and soon
dropped its neck.
“Purrrrr!”
The
Shaman Minotaur, who had just finished crafting the Primal Fireball,
shouted. The size of the fireball was unusually large.
“Lammel!
Fusilini, are you ready!”
“Alas,
I just finished.”
Just
in time, Lammel and Gellan’s mage, Fusilini, finished their response.
The
two wizards’ fireballs and the shaman minotaur’s fireball collided in
midair.
There
was a tremendous explosion and an intense heat wave.
“Purrrrrrr!”
I
bowed my head slightly and crossed my axes to block the hot air.
When
I raised my head again, a minotaur, propelled by the intense wind,
flew toward me.
I
couldn’t say, “Yeah, come here,” and hug it since it would
crush me
I
tucked the axe Idelbert had given me into my waistband, picked up
Zirnier’s axe with both hands, and started swinging.
Honestly,
I felt like a woodsman chopping firewood.
My
timing was a little quick and since it would take the minotaur about
two seconds to get in front of me, that left a gap.
If
I swing first, it’ll be a wasted swing.
The
Minotaur seems to realize this, and the corners of its mouth twitch
upward.
‘But
what if I could close the gap?’
The
hilt is about a hand’s length long and the Axe blade only slightly
larger.
“Giant.”
The
magic power is well controlled, the handle is about the length of a
one-handed sword, and the blade is a little bigger.
The
blade landed squarely on the minotaur’s head.
Zzzzzzzz!!!
I
had taken advantage of a slight lapse in defense.
Still
feeling like I had the upper hand, I left the minotaur lying on the
ground with its skull impaled, and immediately joined the tankers to
take care of the minotaurs they were holding.
It
was a quick turnaround after the priest’s miracle.
The
battle ended with a sharp axe blade to the head of the Shaman
Minotaur.
The
battle ended with no casualties, but it was trickier than expected.
“I
guess it’s not the same as a party of explorers about to be promoted
to Intermediate level after all.”
“⋯Well,
it’s nothing to
us. You guys are actually quite impressive, it’s hard to believe that
you’re explorers who usually go to the seventh floor.”
“Yeah,
that Gellan was missing a monster every now and then and almost got
his rear end pierced, but this party has none of that.”
At
my words, the tank Aldente and mage Fusilini ⋯
Pasta
duo from Gellan’s party shook their heads.
Despite
their considerable skill, they were quite modest.
For
explorers, they were unusually unassertive. Did they get gaslighted
by Gellan?
Hope,
the priest, was about average.
If
the Joy Hog party had fallen to the eighth floor alone, the battle
would not have ended so cleanly.
“No.
Even if I hadn’t been guarding the priest and wizard, I would have
finished them all off with just one blow of my sword!”
“Jubeel.
Don’t be so cocky. Honestly, we’re not that bad.”
“Ehhh.
Joy Hog, are you going to keep doing that? Just admit it.”
“That’s
why you switched places with Balkan and the rear almost got blown up
because you couldn’t stop the monster in time.”
“Uhhhh.
Hmph. That’s because I, a swordsman, am relatively weak compared to
Balkan, a warrior.”
“Are
you proud that you’re weaker than him?”
“⋯Yes.
Suddenly, breast milk⋯”
Jubeel’s
habitual bravado soon crumbled under Joy Hog’s rebuttal. She even ran
away, spewing breast milk.
As
an aside, since Gellan became an idiot, the conversations between our
party and theirs have increased slightly.
“Still,
it’s not the same as the eighth floor I experienced last time.”
“It
would have been dangerous if we hadn’t used our power to offset the
fireballs. Even a shaman minotaur can’t make a fireball that big⋯”
The
two mages talked amongst themselves, discussing the growth of the
Shaman Minotaur.
“Did
you feel it too, Hitolis?”
“Yes,
in the Shaman Minotaur’s shadow⋯”
The
priests spoke of the hazy [darkness] that lurked in the shadow of the
shaman minotaur.
‘Is
the darkness making the monsters stronger?’
“We’ll
have more definitive information soon enough, now that the temple
investigators are out, but for now, let’s get on with our work.”
It
was a matter of personal curiosity, but there was no time to dwell on
it.
We
resumed our march up the eighth floor, fighting off the fatigue of
battle with a brief rest.
***
After
eleven hours of nonstop walking and nine battles, two glowing portals
came into view but the party’s faces were not cheerful.
“⋯All
hands, prepare for battle.”
“What
kind of battle preparations are you talking about, asshole?”
Familiar
faces stood in front of the portal.
I
didn’t need to look at the tracking map since Gurmimi, the
rabbit-headed outlaw, and the mage who went by the name of Reichem
but called herself Talian had arrived at the end of the eighth level
before our party.
They
even greeted us as if to say hello.
Joy
Hog and Jubeel gripped their shields and swords tighter at the
unexpected appearance. Jubeel had switched places with Aldente.
“Why
didn’t you just jump through the portal and run?”
Gurmimi
chuckled at Joey Hogg’s question.
“I
thought about it, but I kept thinking about how he screwed me over.”
Gurmimi
gently scratched the nape of her own neck with her sword, then
extended it and pointed it at Balkan.
The
tip of the blade swept from his forehead to his toes. The red rabbit
eyes moved in response.
-Gulp.
The sound of swallowing as if faced with a tasty prey.
It
was a gaze Balkan had grown accustomed to by now, a gaze of immense
lust and hostility.
“I’ll
kill all the others, but I’ll enslave you for the rest of your life.”
“That’s
a lot of words.”
“⋯What?”
Balkan
scratched the back of his neck roughly with his right hand, swinging
the axe in his other hand.
“You’re
a talker, as usual. I thought the stronger ones kept their mouths
shut.”
“⋯⋯”
Kududududud!
Gurmimi
suddenly shut her mouth, either in acceptance of Balkan’s words or in
defiance.
Her
grip on the hilt of her sword tightened to a crushing grip, and she
poised herself for a sword strike.
The
veins in her forehead pulsed, her face hard.
She
looked like she was about to pounce at any moment, and her fierce
aura filled the edge of the eighth layer.
The
party members stiffened accordingly, each readying themselves for the
miracles and magic they had in store.
Joy
Hog and Jubeel, at the front of the line, gripped their weapons
tightly while Balkan watched in mild admiration.
‘Illusion
magic. That’s some quality stuff.’
At
a lower level, it fooled all the explorers.
[Reichem
LV.22]
I
looked at Gurmimi’s status window, and out of nowhere, Reichem’s
status window appeared.
‘She
was using illusion magic.’
The
Gurmimi next to Reichem doesn’t have any status window, so it’s an
illusion.
The
illusion was strangely crude and didn’t say or do anything. It seemed
to be more precise when it was based on a person.
Balkan
immediately turned away from Reichem, who glared at him like she was
going to tear him to pieces and glared at the wall to his right.
[Gurmimi
LV.36]
It
was a plain, featureless wall of the Labyrinth, with nothing but a
status window.
“There
you are.”
Gurmimi
flinched.
I
raised my axe and spoke, and the illusion magic began to waver
uneasily, as if it had been pierced.
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