160. The Labyrinth Wants You

The torn scroll awakened the vengeful spirits of the underground city one by one.

From the pitifully deceased miscellaneous ghosts.

To the evil spirits harboring hatred for the labyrinth.

The dead all opened their eyes and revealed themselves here and now.

-This place…
-Ah. Aah. I… I…

Forced awake by the magic inscribed on the scroll, they writhed in agony and began to swarm toward Shion, who had revived their consciousness.

It was the effect of Spirit Summoning. Having awakened those who were slumbering, a fitting price must be paid.

Either by offering one’s own life force. Or by presenting a sacrificial offering.

“I ain’t got shit to give, fuckers.”

Shion had no offerings to quell their wrath.

Nor was the situation leisurely enough to hold a ritual.

“Instead. I’ll bring you back to life.”

Thus, Shion promised them resurrection.

-Can you handle it?! There are far more than you think! Your soul will shatter first!

“I have to handle it. It’s not like death is the end anyway.”

The march of swarming ghosts.

The deathly ripple created by hundreds of vengeful spirits. Even the monsters dominated by the labyrinth’s malice trembled at their resentment.

Shion wasn’t afraid. Instead, he trembled with ecstatic joy.

All those souls were practically allies.

Who would hesitate in the face of resurrection? He was certain-no one.

If he could just control them, they would become the vanguard in pioneering the labyrinth.

“Over here!!! I’m the one who woke you!!!”

Confirming the adventurers’ souls approaching with his Spirit Eye, Shion spread his arms wide. He decided to offer his own body as a gateway for the ghosts to resurrect.

There was no time to bind each soul with a Soul Chain and form contracts. So, he prepared a method to automatically bind those passing through his body to the chains.

A new application of the Soul Chain, born from crisis. Though it would come at a great cost. Time was of the essence.

“Top-tier benefits guaranteed!!! Contract with me now, and everyone gets resurrected!!! What are you waiting for?! Hurry up and come back to life!!”

At Shion’s shout, the souls rushing to kill him faltered.

Fear would be the normal reaction, but here he was, scolding them to hurry up.

From their perspective, this was absurd.

-Top-tier benefits?
-What… nonsense…
-Resurrection…? But I… have no body…

Shion laughed at the bewildered responses of the naive souls.

They knew nothing. Once bound by the Soul Chain, the slave contract would be complete.

The thought of swindling these clueless fools pumped him with exhilaration.

‘Let’s push for maximum profit. I’ll make them all slaves.’

The aggressive evil spirits, seemingly impossible to persuade, remained hostile. But the weaker-willed or nearly dissipated souls began to lower their aggression at Shion’s words.

Seizing the moment, Shion drove the wedge deeper.

“Contract with me now, and I’ll make you bodies!!! If you wanna live, help me!!! Don’t you wanna see your families on the surface?! Even rolling in shit is better than the afterlife, don’t you know?! What the fuck are you hesitating for?! We’re out of time!!!”

Even using the Warrior’s Roar, Shion screamed. And the first to respond to his desperate cry was none other than Roy.

-Contract!!! Let’s contract and find the light!!!

Roy, already contracted with Shion, played the role of a hype man and leaped into Shion’s heart.

The moment Roy’s soul passed through Shion’s body, he entered one of the fallen adventurers’ corpses. The body, left in the Saintess’s Sanctuary of Resurrection, twitched back to life.

The original owner had abandoned life and left, but Roy, unwilling to die, took their place.

He refused to accept that he was truly dead. Even without a body, his soul remained-his mindset was that he wasn’t dead yet.

The will to live. Roy’s desperate desire not to die pushed back the death of the flesh.

The dead denying the death of the living.

The Sanctuary of Resurrection created by the Goddess and Shion’s Soul Chain began to synergize in an absurd way.

-It’s real!!! I’m alive!!!
-What the…?! It’s true…?!
-Me too… I wanna live too!!! Me too!!!!
-Let’s goooo!!! Resurrection!!!!

Seeing Roy successfully resurrected, the bewildered ghosts flew toward Shion.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Even if the bodies would be taken back after the battle, the sight of resurrection was worth the risk-more than enough.

Roy played his role as the hype man perfectly. For the souls gathered by Spirit Summoning, this was nothing short of a miracle, a clear demonstration of resurrection’s possibility.

-Ah… My daughter… If I can see her…
-I don’t wanna die!!! Get me out of here!!!
-Jump into that body!!! You can come back to life!!!!

Adventurers who had died in the underground city flew toward Shion. From miscellaneous ghosts to evil spirits-all yearned for resurrection without distinction.

Hundreds of spirits passed through Shion’s body.

Soon, Shion’s soul twisted under the pressure. Just before it collapsed, Helena shared the burden, but it wasn’t enough.

Shion trembled violently, his eyes half-lidded, tears and drool streaming down.

“Gaaaaah-!!!!”

-Shion!!! You’ll die at this rate!!! You need to stop now!!!

“N-no… Not yet!!! There are still so many slaves left-!!!”

Facing soul-crushing spiritual trauma, Shion gritted his teeth. His vision blurred as his eyes rolled back.

This was the second horrific shock he’d experienced since entering the underground city.

His mind cracked under the strain. Under pressure equal to or greater than when he summoned the Three Evil Witches, Shion wondered what the hell he was doing.

‘It hurts enough to die. I want to die from the pain.’

Pain was always an unfamiliar sensation.

In the unrelenting agony, Shion wanted to collapse.

But the reason he kept standing, even when he wanted to give up, was simple.

“Kuh-huh-huk… The scroll… was expensive…”

The thought of recouping his losses kept him going. His rationality was already gone. The evil, tenacity, and extreme miserliness left in his heart forced him to endure.

He had already recouped his losses long ago, but his numb mind didn’t realize it.

“I can’t die!!! Why the fuck should I die?!!!”

Shion clung on through sheer malice and stubbornness.

As the adventurers’ souls, bound by the Soul Chain, entered the corpses, Shion endured the collapse of his own soul.

-There are too many adventurers’ souls and not enough bodies!!!

“Monsters…! Put them in monsters…!!!”

Eventually, the souls began entering monsters’ bodies instead.

The spectacle of a High Orc smashing a Dungeon Troll’s head with a club left the adventurers speechless.

Not only had the dead returned to life, but now monsters were killing other monsters.

“Wipe them out!!! The one who kills the most gets!!! The best body!!!!”

The ghosts danced at the promised reward.

Even if they died, Shion would resurrect them to fight again.

This was essentially the pinnacle of necromancy-soul management.

This too was only possible thanks to the Goddess’s grace, but Shion’s mental fortitude, enduring while commanding so many souls, played a crucial role.

“Wow…”

Einher, rescued by Trolls possessed by adventurers’ souls, wiped his bloodied face in awe.

A surreal scene unfolded as an army pushed back the monsters invading the central section. He had never seen such madness in his life.

Adventurers and monsters tangled together, repelling the wave of enemies.

“Hey! Are you alright?!”

Paramelle, relieved thanks to Shion, was rallying the surviving adventurers.

Einher waved off Paramelle’s concern and asked,

“Cough… I’m fine. But what about Lord Shion…?”

“Over there. He’s over there.”

Turning to where Paramelle pointed, Einher felt a chill.

“Hah. That guy’s a real monster.”

“Indeed… He’s incredible.”

Einher was stunned watching Shion in action.

Seeing him, eyes wild, barking orders at the resurrected adventurers… made him feel like he had to work harder too.

******

The regular monsters didn’t matter anymore. The revived adventurers would handle them.

But the underground city’s guardians were still alive and well-they were the real problem.

The Manticore, Chimera, and Minotaur. The resurrected adventurers were being slaughtered by them.

-Wait! That’s…!

Ignoring Helena’s protest, I took two drugs.

The two substances Rafnel had given me before entering the labyrinth.

One was Hwandan, which heightened the senses to their limits. The other was a powdered stimulant.

Chewing the bitter Hwandan, I snorted the powder.

My senses sharpened. The remnants of Shaka responded to the drug made from crushed magic stones.

The world seemed to slow as my vision expanded.

If my normal strength wasn’t enough, doping was the answer.

Wasn’t this humanity’s greatest weapon?

No way I’d stay sane while everyone else was going wild.

-Out of everyone here, you might be the craziest…

The resurrected adventurers were handling the mobs, so I’d take care of the big ones.

“Let’s go.”

Yuria was fighting the Manticore alone-I had to help her fast.

I sprinted through the labyrinth. It felt refreshing. I knew I wasn’t in my right mind.

But to face those monsters, I needed to let go of half my sanity.

“Shion!!”

“Yuria! Go save Leah and Rozie!!”

I shouted at Yuria’s shocked face, telling her to rescue Rozie.

Soon, I passed her and reached the Manticore.

The moment it spotted me, its venomous tail stabbed toward me. It was smart-prolonging the fight would only hurt me.

“Raaaah!!!”

So, I had to go all in and finish it. I charged, ready to take the sting. I had antidotes-I’d be fine.

Still too far. A little closer. Just a bit more…

‘Now!’

I raised my right arm to head height.

At the same time, I pulled out the hammer from my Dimensional Pouch.

No ordinary hammer.

A colossal war hammer forged from Black Iron, infamous for its weight.

Normally, I could never lift something this heavy overhead.

But by summoning it from the pouch directly above me, I only needed to direct its fall.

My grip tightened on the handle, and the hammer plummeted toward the Manticore’s upper body.

Schlick!

The venom-coated stinger grazed my face.

BOOM-!!!!

Simultaneously, the massive war hammer crushed the Manticore’s skull.

The sound of its bones shattering confirmed its death beneath the hammer.

Even Gon couldn’t lift this thing properly. My strength alone would never have managed it.

But by forcing it into my inventory, I took down one of the underground city’s bosses in a single strike.

Using the inventory’s summoning feature, I could drop impossibly heavy objects from above.

Of course, the recoil sent me flying forward, losing my grip on the hammer.

“Guh…!!!”

My back scraped against the labyrinth’s stone floor. Blood seeped from the wounds. My right arm bent unnaturally, and my fingers were mangled.

No time to dwell on the pain. I fired arrows at the Dungeon Trolls charging at me, blinding them.

While the trolls flailed in agony, I pulled an antidote from my inventory and chugged it.

Manticore venom was notorious. Even a graze was deadly-I had to act fast.

“Kieeeek!!!”

Downing the antidote, I drew a double-headed battle axe and shattered a troll’s knee.

“Guh-uek!!!”

I silenced its screams by driving a spear through its mouth, then tore into its flesh with my teeth before more monsters arrived.

The Dungeon Troll’s thick, bloody scent filled my nose.

My wounds healed. The Giant’s Stomach digested the monster meat, boosting my regeneration.

Half-drugged, the pain in my broken fingers barely registered. It was almost… fun. My senses were liberated from pain.

“One down.”

Two boss monsters remained.

The Chimera and the Minotaur.

How much would I get for killing them?

I needed a lot of money to cover this expedition’s costs.

The Demon King would be handled by the Saintess and the Tower Master. The rest of the monsters were mine.