Chapter 110: Adaptation Complete

Peeking into the room while hiding against the wall to avoid being noticed by the heretics.

Inside, something unimaginable was wriggling.

‘No, what on earth is that?’

How should I describe it?

Yes, it was a large pinkish lump of flesh resembling a sea cucumber.

A gigantic man-eating sea cucumber, about the size of a van, was devouring Sasaro.

‘There’s still hope.’

If there’s any consolation, it’s that this sea cucumber-like creature hasn’t even fully swallowed Sasaro’s upper body yet.

It seems I can still retrieve Sasaro at this point. But if I delay too long, I might never be able to get Sasaro back.

‘Whatever that thing is. If Sasaro’s body is completely swallowed, it will be irreversible.’

This sea cucumber might be the means for the Red Apostle’s ‘ability transfer ritual’. It might be the secret of the ability transfer ritual that steals adventurers’ abilities and gives them to heretics.

Or the secret of the Black Saint’s resurrection power might lie with this creature.

In any case, it’s over if he’s completely eaten. The problem is that there are more heretics in that room than I thought.

“Hey, shouldn’t we pull that out?”

“I know. I know, but..”

There are more heretics than I expected. I hesitated to go in. If we make a wrong move, Roy and I might also be captured and become food for that sea cucumber.

‘There seem to be about twenty of them.’

Can Roy and I handle nearly twenty heretics and pull out Sasaro?

Among them, there are two types: priest-class who are weak in close combat, and assassin-class who specialize in close combat.

If there were only priest-class, I could just break through since I’m immune to curses, but even with Roy, it’s too much to handle all the assassins.

‘It’s practically impossible for the two of us to kill all those bastards and pull out Sasaro in time.’

It’s impossible. We’ll surely die. It seemed difficult to escape alive and unharmed.

Then the best method I can use now is to go back up following the path recorded in the mapping and bring my companions.

It took 10 minutes to get here, but if we run looking at the path recorded in the mapping, we can get out in 3 minutes.

‘No. That’s impossible too.’

It takes a full 6 minutes just to go back and forth. Moreover, not knowing the situation above, I don’t know if the battle has ended by now, or if they’re still fighting the trolls.

If they’re still fighting the trolls…. It might be a waste of time.

By the time I go up to seek help, Sasaro will already have been completely swallowed by that monster and be in an unrecoverable state.

If Rosie and the Saint hadn’t drawn the trolls’ aggro, we wouldn’t have even made it to this place. Going back up is a waste of time.

In the end, there’s only one option left.

“Roy.”

“Yes. Tell me.”

“I’m sorry. Please be the bait.”

We have no choice. To pull out Sasaro’s corpse, we need someone to draw the heretics’ attention.

And Roy was perfect for that role. If he can draw the attention of those heretics, I can pull out Sasaro and escape.

“Understood. You must resurrect me again.”

“I’ll definitely resurrect you. If possible, I’ll try to find an even better body.”

“Good. I’ll trust you.”

I handed Roy a torch.

He lit the torch and ran out towards where the heretics were.

Roy will draw their attention. The torch he’s holding will capture the heretics’ gaze.

“Hey, you sons of bitches!!! Does it feel good to be holed up in a room jerking off to corpses!!!! While you were rubbing your dicks on corpses, I fucked the shit out of Arha, that rotten whore you believe in! Arha is my cum dumpster!!! I used her well!!”

Roy hurled insults at the heretics, shouting so loudly it could burst eardrums.

‘That crazy bastard! How can he spout such things without even taking a breath!?’

Soon, enraged heretics rushed out of the room and shot black magic at Roy, who dodged their attacks and fled into the pitch-black maze.

Most of the heretics poured out of the mysterious room where Sasaro was.

About five remained. Those who stayed despite hearing such words seemed rather impressive.

‘Now’s the time.’

I leaped into the room like an arrow and stabbed a knife into the back of a bewildered heretic.

He couldn’t respond properly to the sudden ambush.

Shunk..!

“Kuhurk..”

The heretic, stabbed in the lung, staggered and fell without even being able to scream.

Thud.

Now there are four heretics left.

“Eeek!!! It’s you again! It’s that porter again!”

“Kuaah!! Damn it!”

They saw me and convulsed, trembling. They also fired the most powerful black magic they could use.

All sorts of curses flew towards me. Black magic entwined around my body, and I felt a slightly stinging sensation.

That was it.

I quickly leaped towards the surprised heretics.

‘Fortunately, all four of them are priest-class.’

Black magicians or sorcerers are actually easier to deal with than heretic assassins.

Due to my contract with the Three Evil Goddesses, most curses can’t withstand and just dissipate.

“Damn it!!”

“Curses don’t work! Hans! Go out and report the situation!!”

The heretic named Hans tried to escape out of the room, and as I tried to stop him, the remaining heretics all rushed at me together.

“Run, Hans!!!!”

I let one escape.

‘It’s trivial. I just need to pull out Sasaro. Focus.’

Their armament is simple. Just one short ritual dagger each.

But I have a shield and dozens of types of weapons.

I have an overwhelming advantage. It’s just three guys. Let’s kill them quickly and pull Sasaro out of that man-eating sea cucumber.

“Huaaah!!!!”

“Where do you think you’re going!”

I deflected the dagger of the heretic rushing towards me with my shield.

Clang-!!

Perhaps because I deflected it so strongly, he dropped his dagger, and as his upper body was pushed back, his chest was wide open.

I slammed an axe into the chest of the staggering guy.

Crack!!!!

Along with the satisfying sound of ribs cracking, the heretic’s painful scream echoed. The axe was buried in his chest.

I kicked the groin of the heretic writhing in pain, knocking him down, then swung my shield at the jaw of another heretic coming in from the side.

The shield is reinforced with steel around the edges. It’s a kind of blunt weapon in itself.

Crunch!!!!!

The heretic who got hit in the jaw fell forward just as he was charging. He tried to get up, but perhaps due to the impact on his brain, he staggered and couldn’t stand. The heretic, whose jaw was completely shattered, couldn’t even close his mouth and was spitting out blood-mixed saliva.

“Th, this…!”

As two guys suddenly collapsed and convulsed, the remaining one swung his dagger blindly with a terrified expression. His movements were simple and awkward.

I think I can grab his arm.

“Heyah!!!!”

Got it! I grabbed his arm, twisted it in the opposite direction, then tripped him.

“Wa, wai-!!!!”

I thrust a short sword into his open mouth, finishing him off completely.

I dealt with all of them except the one who ran away. The guy with the axe buried in his chest died kneeling, and the heretic with his jawbone shattered was still writhing on the floor, unable to get up.

After stabbing a knife into the back of the surviving one to confirm the kill, I turned to Sasaro.

“Sasaro!”

Sasaro, whose upper body was almost completely sucked in.

I grabbed his legs and immediately put him into my spatial pocket.

That’s done. Now I just need to escape…

“Stop right there.”

“…You guys are….”

The adventurers who had scattered due to the giant’s appearance.

Their names were definitely…

“It’s been a while, Porter.”

“Do you remember us?”

“Ro, Roka…”

I remembered.

The bald one is Max, the middle-aged man is Hyle, and the young-looking one is Roka.

I thought they had all died, scattered by the giant’s appearance, but they were alive.

‘How?’

Wait, how did they survive in this demon’s lair?

As I wondered, Max activated his ability.

“Oh no..!”

In an instant, a rope that stretched out from Max’s arm tied up my legs.

I tried to draw my dagger to cut the rope, but before that, Hyle rushed over and pinned me down.

“So, sorry. We didn’t want to do this either.”

“…You guys…”

“We had no choice to survive.”

They betrayed us.

They chose to become heretics.

“Bu, but.. We’re not heretics.”

“What?”

“We’re.. different from those heretics… We can’t even be compared.. We’re different from those idiots…”

Roka sobbed with an expression that I couldn’t tell if he was laughing or crying.

“The master wants you. Let’s go together.”

“Wait. What do you mean by master. What on earth are you talking about!”

“You’ll know if you come along.”

Hyle carried me, who was bound, on his back. The current him was a completely different person from the one who always used to think about his family. Hyle, with dead eyes, tried to drag me away as if no further conversation was necessary.

If I’m dragged away like this, I’ll be able to meet their master.

‘Probably, that master is…’

Most likely, it’s the one called the Black Saint.

Paynel told me.

The Black Saint seems to be someone who came from outside. From the start, the Black Saint is an outside force that joined the heretics.

‘He wants me?’

Why?

Why does he want me?

I’ll know if I go along.

‘Like hell I’m going along.’

I’m not curious enough to stick my head into a tiger’s den just to satisfy my curiosity.

Now that I’ve obtained Sasaro’s corpse, it’s better to escape quickly.

‘I have two options available to me now. The teleportation scroll and the ring of etherealization.’

Should I use the scroll to quickly escape from here, or should I save the only scroll and break through to the surface in one go using the ring of etherealization?

‘There’s no guarantee I can get another teleportation scroll.’

It’s right to save the trump card. There’s no reason to use up a consumable item here when there’s a substitutable item.

As soon as I organized my thoughts, I immediately activated the ring of etherealization.

‘It worked.’

This time, even the equipment I was wearing was all included in the effect range.

No unfortunate incidents like clothes being stripped off occurred.

“Whoa!”

“Oh no! He’s escaping!!!”

The rope that was binding me naturally loosened, and my body floated slightly off the ground.

I couldn’t go through the floor, but I could pass through walls in this state.

Perfect. I just need to escape.

“No!!!”

“Come here!!!”

The damn traitors tried their best to grab me, but since the etherealized body is completely immune to physical attacks, there was no chance of being caught by their hands.

I passed through the three traitors blocking my way and escaped out of the room.

‘Let’s go up quickly.’

The maximum duration of etherealization is 5 minutes.

In my current state, 3 minutes is the limit. There’s no time to waste. I need to get above the floor division within 3 minutes.

With my mapping ability, I could reach the stairs directly by passing through walls. Without needing to break through the complex maze, I could fly straight to the stairs directly, experiencing an incredibly refreshing feeling.

‘Roy…’

Judging by the fact that he hasn’t returned to me yet, he seems to be alive.

He’s been tenaciously buying time. But there’s no need to buy more time now.

‘Come back.’

I pulled the chain and extracted Roy from the heretic’s body.

This is completely over now.

We hunted the giant, and even rescued all the captured companions.

Now we just need to put the giant’s corpse in the inventory and escape.

We can meet Frogman next time we come.

Mission accomplished. After extracting massive rewards from the Order and the Guild, we can start the underground city normalization plan.

“Sion!!!”

“Rosie! Rosie!!!”

“Si, Sion?? Kyaaaaa!!!!”

As soon as I passed through the stairs numerically, I encountered Rosie.

She, who had piled up mountains of troll corpses, was soaked in blood and looking for me, and when she saw me etherealized, she screamed with her eyes wide open.

“No! I’m not dead! It’s the ring effect! I’m not dead! Calm down!”

“Ah. Aah.. Ah… Etherealization.. Aah. Right, thank goodness. I thought you were dead. Oh.. my heart..”

She seems to have mistaken me for becoming a ghost after dying.

When the etherealization wore off, Rosie finally sighed in relief, stroking her chest.

Meanwhile, the Saint, who had finished dealing with the remaining trolls, approached us.

“I heard you went to rescue Sasaro. What happened? Is Sasaro safe?”

“Ah, well. First, I succeeded in retrieving Sasaro’s body.”

“Haah. That’s really fortunate. Thank you, Porter.”

The Saint strongly patted my shoulder and ruffled my hair randomly.

I felt really uncomfortable because of the blood on her hands.

“Oh, and I also found out that the Black Saint has taken three adventurers as subordinates.”

“What? Subordinates?”

I passed on the information about Max, Hyle, and Roka whom I encountered below the floor division to the Saint.

“Those damn… But what happened to Roy? Didn’t he come up with you? I don’t see him.”

“Roy died. His body is probably still down there.”

“And you have his soul?”

“Yes.”

“….Essentially, it’s as good as everyone surviving.”

“That’s right.”

Since we can take the dead Raphael and Sasaro to the Order to resurrect them. This can be considered as everyone surviving safely.

…..Somehow, it seems like my thought patterns are becoming more similar to the Saint’s as time passes.

“To have everyone return safely from such a difficult operation. Praise the Goddess.”

“It’s all the Goddess’s will. Praise her.”

“Uh.. Praise the Goddess.”

The Saint and Rosie suddenly praised the Goddess. Given the atmosphere, I felt like I should praise her too, so I prayed along with the two.

Honestly, I think we were just lucky. No, isn’t it because I rolled around a lot that things worked out well? No, let’s not argue about it. We all worked hard together. Let’s just go with the majority and say it’s thanks to the Goddess.

Now that I have a girlfriend who’s deeply into religion, I should act accordingly.

I should act like I believe in the Goddess on the surface to make Rosie happy.

“Let’s take a rest for now since we’ve killed all the trolls.”

“Let’s do as Rosie says. Everyone worked hard.”

We moved to where Paramel and the unconscious Helena were.

Let’s collect the corpses later. Now is the time to rest a bit.

“Ah, shall we eat something light?”

“I think sandwiches would be good.”

“Yes, just a moment.”

Although Raphael, Sasaro, and Roy had fallen in battle.

We were still hungry.

We roughly washed our blood-stained hands with water and shared sandwiches.

What a truly labyrinth-like dinner, I think.

Even if companions die, we still need to eat.

It seems we’re gradually becoming completely adapted to the labyrinth.