Blade Forest – Labyrinth (4)

There was a brief commotion, but it soon died down, and only admiration surrounded us. The soldiers were cheering wildly at the reversed situation. They had been wearing constipated expressions at the thought of struggling to descend with their gear, but now there were stairs! Praise for me was endless. They said it was a good thing I brought the Red Witch, that they had never seen magic like this in their lives, and they even went so far as to praise Kamier-ssi’s connections.

I wasn’t particularly moved. I didn’t come here looking for praise. I was too twisted for such things to change my mood. It was several times more rewarding to spend time tormenting Clark.

I created an orb of light the size of my fist and floated it in the air. I gestured to the soldiers with my chin and took my first step.

“W-wait, let’s go together!”

Clark hurriedly packed his things and followed me.

Even though I built stairs in the labyrinth, I couldn’t solve the steep slope. Looking down, there was still a deep, dark abyss with its mouth wide open. I warned Clark not to look down and held his hand tightly.

“Clark. From now on, we’ll only use sign language to talk. You remember the types, right?”

He waved one hand in response. I smiled slightly and nodded.

“If you happen to forget, write it down on paper and show it to me. Got it?”

Nod, nod. He put strength into my grip and stuck close to me. Normally, he would have been relentlessly questioning me about how I made the stairs, but he must have been terrified because he was just trembling with a stiff body.

I hugged Clark tightly to help him calm down. I let him bury his face in my chest, and when I hugged his back tightly, the trembling soon subsided. Clark pulled away and took a deep breath. He seemed to have calmed down.

When I released Clark, Kamier-ssi and the soldiers stared at us, but since they didn’t know the exact nature of my relationship with Clark, they just thought we were close.

“Okay, let’s be brave and go, shall we?”

He nodded again.

The total length was 120m. There were roughly 1,700 steps laid out below. A daunting number. I decided not to mention it. If I told him the depth and number of steps, he might relax. A moderate amount of tension is safer for your life than any weapon.

“It’s dark… Ugh, it’s a little cold too… Ah. Um. Sorry. I have to speak in sign language…”

“It’s okay. We’re still at the entrance.”

However, excessive tension is poison.

“―Uwaaack!”

On the seven hundredth step, someone finally lost their footing. It was a soldier carrying luggage. He stepped on a step with rainwater pooled on it and slid all the way down.

“Be careful.”

I grabbed the back of his neck with telekinesis and pulled him up. Fortunately, I managed to save his luggage, but a few water bottles fell. The soldier lowered his head with a pale face. He was scolded by Kamier-ssi and went down the stairs with slumped shoulders.

These minor issues happened constantly.

Darkness was a fear that could not be overcome with training.

“…Just going down is exhausting.”

It took several hours just to go down, and the steep slope was extremely tiring. Fortunately, no monsters were seen, perhaps because they had been buried alive in the process of creating the stairs. So, as long as we were careful, going down itself was fine.

And finally. When we stepped on all the stairs and reached the very bottom of the labyrinth, we grimaced at the smell of rotting corpses that penetrated our masks.

“…There are many corpses. I will freeze them in case there is poison.”

Those were Kamier-ssi’s last words before entering, in sign language. He stretched out his hand and emitted cold air. Jjeo-jeo-jeok!! He froze all the corpses scattered at the entrance. The stench was still there, but it was better than before.

We stepped over the corpses and moved forward.

‘…What is this?’

The first thing that caught our eyes was a horizontal cave that continued endlessly. Even when I scattered Mana to estimate the length, it suddenly stopped in the middle. It didn’t seem to be the kind that blocked Mana… Was the space separated? There was no way it could be cut off otherwise…

“…”

Kamier-ssi sent a sign.

It meant to move forward.

―Kieeeek…

As we followed him, we heard a bizarre sobbing sound from inside the wall. It was something I had seen once at the Twin Demon’s Tower. The generation of monsters. Using the power of the labyrinth core to create cursed creatures.

This was an act of invading the realm of God. The birth of life should be created without exception according to the laws of nature, according to the rules set by God.

Monsters were no exception. In order to create a life with a soul, a male and female should meet and mix their bodies. But the dungeon masters were different.

Despair and anger, jealousy and resentment, regret and resignation. All kinds of negative thoughts gathered and hardened into a labyrinth core. They used this. Because the core contained the screaming, faded souls.

God creates life with providence and destiny, but the dungeon master creates evil with perversion and chaos. That was how the labyrinth’s monsters were born.

“…!”

The two leading soldiers sent a sign and drew their swords. They swung their swords at the monster whose head was just being created, and with a chwaaak! sound, blood splattered. The monster, which had crawled out of the wall, had its head cut off and passed away as soon as it entrusted its body to the darkness.

‘…Mutant Orc.’

The monster that popped out of the wall was a subspecies of Orc. It wasn’t a monster that could live in the plains near the city. It was a C-class monster that you could only see if you went out a little further. We hadn’t even advanced 20m yet, and it was an Orc. Were they starting strong from the beginning? These monsters were coming out of the labyrinth, and that was why Pahel-nim was in such a state.

‘I just want to bury the whole cave…’

But I heard that the dungeon master would quickly restore it, so it wouldn’t be very effective. The only way to destroy the labyrinth was to destroy the core.

―Kwajik.

“Haiiik…?!”

While walking forward aimlessly, Clark stepped on something and was startled. I held Clark in my arms and lowered the orb of light. The orb illuminated the floor. What was piled up in heaps on the dark blue grass and dark soil was―

‘Bone fragments…?’

Bone fragments.

What Clark stepped on was a bone fragment.

Which part was it? The structure was different from that of a human. It was too thick to be human. I sent a sign to Kamier-ssi and picked up the bone fragment.

‘Was there a monster like this?’

Looking at the structure, it was a leg bone. I collected more leg bones scattered around to deduce the approximate shape, and I was able to figure out that it was the bone of a somewhat familiar animal.

‘…Horse.’

Kamier-ssi and the soldiers dismissed it casually, but I couldn’t shake off the strangely unsettling feeling. I’ve been experiencing a lot of horse-related things today. An unusually intelligent horse and now these scattered horse leg bones…

‘…Let’s not think too deeply about it.’

It must be a coincidence.

I thought so and moved forward again.

“Ugh…?!”

And, there was one more thing besides monsters that made it impossible for us to let our guard down.

―Kang!

An arrow flying towards my head. I used telekinesis to blow it far away. Kamier-ssi thanked me and pulled out the arrow that had bounced off. Purple liquid dripped down. The tip of the arrow was coated with poison.

“Be careful.”

Traps.

The traps laid everywhere to eliminate intruders were as diverse as their numbers. The trap that Clark triggered was the most common bow trap.

Since the orb couldn’t illuminate everywhere, I naturally had to deal with the arrows flying from outside the visible range. I was the only one who could sense this range.

“Hing…”

Clark, who had triggered the trap, was drooping like dried seafood and looking at me. How cute. These crude traps were no threat at all. I moved to a blind spot and kissed Clark on the cheek. A short peck. Clark blushed in embarrassment.

Since I was the one who brought Clark, who didn’t want to come, I had a responsibility to cover up his mistakes. Also, I had to take responsibility for Clark, who was rushing towards destruction. I wasn’t irresponsible enough to easily abandon my people.

“Let’s have a lot of fun when we get back…?”

“U-ut…”

Good. I felt motivated thinking about tormenting Clark when I got back. I became more actively involved in the attack than before. Kamier-ssi tilted his head when he saw my brightened face. Still, it was good if I was being proactive. He soon turned his head and focused on the attack.

The cave was only pierced in a straight line without any bends.

It wasn’t bad for the attackers because it was easy to create a map, but I wondered why it was designed this way. For a dungeon master who had to constantly generate monsters to absorb the life force of intruders, it was more advantageous to twist the path as much as possible. If not, they could have put a curse on the intruders to drive them crazy, like the Twin Demons.

“Heup!”

―Chwaaak!!

The monster whose neck was cut off by Kamier-ssi’s sword was a fully grown Drake. It was true that it was a dangerous monster, but its danger level was not much different compared to the Orc that appeared at the beginning.

‘…The difficulty is moderate.’

Perhaps my standards had become too high from attacking the Twin Demon’s Tower. It was understandable if this was the average for labyrinths. I must have been dealing with too many ridiculous monsters.

―Short break.

Kamier-ssi, who had been attacking continuously, waved his hand after four hours and signaled for a break. The soldiers’ faces brightened. They took out water bottles and rations and devoured them.

It wasn’t much, but what could they do? The dark, dry, and corpse-smelling labyrinth would wear down your mind even if you were only there for an hour. Physical strength was important, but it was even more important to manage your mentality through proper rest.

――Huuuung…

“Hmm…?”

As I was sitting with Clark, chatting and chewing on jerky, my hair fluttered in a breeze that blew from somewhere.

It was a very faint breeze. At first, I thought it was the chill that Kamier-ssi was unconsciously emitting, but it was a different kind.

‘Is the wind coming in from outside?’

I raised my finger to measure the direction of the wind.

“….”

But.

‘It’s blowing from the front…?’

I would understand if the wind was blowing from where we entered, but ‘the front’? It was already a straight cave, so there was no space for the wind to gather and turn. Given the structure of the horizontal cave, the wind blowing from the front meant…

‘…Is there another exit on the other side?’

Was there an entrance other than this one? No, did an exit even exist in a labyrinth? I’ve read nearly twenty books related to labyrinths so far, but there was no such content. Labyrinths were always entities that devoured. You couldn’t escape unless you went back the way you came. That was the labyrinth.

“…Clark. Wait here for a moment.”

“Yes…?”

“No, let’s go together. There’s something I want to ask.”

I led Clark and approached Kamier-ssi. He was checking the soldiers’ condition and distributing food. Only dividing the exact amount needed.

“Hmm?”

“Kamier-ssi.”

I ignored the sign language and spoke out loud. Kamier-ssi frowned for a moment, but when he saw my serious face, he relaxed again.

“What’s wrong?”

“There’s something I want to ask.”

“Hmm…?”

I raised my finger and gestured with my chin. It meant for him to listen too. Kamier-ssi followed me and raised his finger, and his face hardened at the wind that brushed his fingertips.

“This is…”

“Was there an exit in the labyrinth?”

“….”

There wasn’t.

He noticed it too.

This was an anomaly異變.

He widened his eyes and stared beyond the cave. The wind was getting stronger as time passed. It was still faint, but a gentle breeze was blowing towards us, as if foreshadowing the approaching typhoon.

―Dag-dak, dag-dak…

“…!”

At that moment.

The sound of hooves, which was out of place in the labyrinth, began to ring out on the wind.

“M-Magician-nim?”

“….”

Instead of answering, I increased the size and power of the orb of light. The soldiers were in pain from the blinding light, but there was something more important than that. The light, as bright as the sun, illuminated the depths of the cave that they had never seen before.

And there.

―Dag-dak, dag-dak…

“H-Hiiik…?!”

“Do you know what that is?”

“G-Gankan. Headless, monster. Gankan…!”

The headless monster called the Sanju山主 of the Blade Forest. A headless beast that was only a rumor, treated as a legend.

“Everyone, take up your weapons―!!!”

The Gankan.

Was running towards us, kicking off with its four legs.