Chapter 33: I want to go to the second floor (5)

Chapter 33: I want to go to
the second floor (5)

Denshi
sank to the ground, dazed.

After
the intense yellow light that seemed to engulf the world faded,
everything in front of her disappeared, even the fifth floor
explorers who had suddenly appeared and challenged them.

“Master,
sir.”

Her
master, who had sacrificed himself to protect the party from them,
was gone.

Denshi
remembered her last moments with him.

–
Goodbye.

He
smiled faintly, swallowed up by the fiery yellow light.

He
pushed them out of the trap range. It wasn’t him who should have been
swallowed up by the transition trap, but her and Jeremy.

He
sacrificed himself to protect his party from the Fifth Floor
Explorers and the Transition Trap. But
he couldn’t protect himself, which was the most important thing.

“Ugh,
ugh.”

Her
head was dizzy, her chest felt tight and it was hard to breathe
properly.

The
vast majority of slaves regain their freedom by losing their masters.

If
Denshi was truly a slave, she should be jumping up and down with joy
right now. But Denshi
couldn’t. She had voluntarily become a slave in the first place.

Her
body felt weak. She could only stare blankly at the landscape as he
disappeared.

‘Is
this real?’

Perhaps
she was dreaming, perhaps she was having a tormenting nightmare in
the plush bed of the inn room she had earned through his favors.

But
the warmth on her back, the dagger missing from her waistband, and
the presence of another party member beside her reminded her that
this was real.

Then.
A small glow emanated from Denshi’s waist.

A
map, to be precise. The map artifact that Nam Soo-jin had handed over
to Denshi to look at.

Denshi
unfolded the map as if mesmerized. The dazzling map had stopped
glowing, and its contents were gradually changing.

In
the corner of the map that had previously contained only the
geography of the second floor, a different landscape began to be
drawn.

Separated
like a mini-map, the terrain was completely different from the second
floor.

“⋯No
way. The fifth floor?”

Denshi
realized the answer at once. One of the markers that had been
clustered in groups of three was now lined up on the strange minimap.

‘Master’s
location. Master is here.’

Denshi
realized instinctively: the map was pointing to a marker that
reflected his location.

“⋯Is
that real?”

Denshi
shared the information with Jeremy and her reaction was intense.

“Pah,
we have to go save him, it’s not anywhere else, it’s the fifth floor,
even for him, the fifth floor is too dangerous, we have to go to the
fifth floor, we have to save him.”

Jeremy
was panicking, too.

She
hadn’t been able to comprehend the sacrifice of the man who had given
her a purpose in life, who had shown her the way, who had given her
the will to live, when Anya had died.

She
didn’t realize how ridiculous what she had just said was.

Fifth
floor? With this power? If the other explorers had heard it, they
would have thought it was just another way of saying suicide.

They
don’t even have enough power to reach the fifth floor, let alone
food.

Why
was Balkan party able to reach the second floor at a similar speed to
the fifth floor explorers?

Because
of Denshi, who saw through all the traps? No. Because of Jeremy, the
spearman? No.

It
was because there was a warrior at the front, axe in hand, slaying
monsters in a flash.

Now
that he’s gone, Denshi and Jeremy are faced with a situation where
clearing the second floor is a matter of life and death.

If
they went to the fifth floor, they’d be lucky if they didn’t die as
soon as they entered the third floor.

“⋯⋯”

“⋯⋯”

There’s
no answer, and even if they go outside and call for help, it’s
unlikely that their request will be responded to.

The
Explorers’ Alliance doesn’t have that much investment in low-level
Explorers.

Anything
they say to a staff member is likely to be met with “He’s
probably dead, find someone else.”

It’s
a no-win situation. Even if they wanted to go on their own, they
wouldn’t be able to. There’s no chance of a rescue team being
organized.

Denshi
and Jeremy felt their helplessness deeply. They were of no help to
him now.

What
did he sacrifice himself for in the first place? To protect the
party, to protect us.

Denshi
and Jeremy dropped their heads and shivered. They felt nothing but
loss and helplessness.

There
was nothing they, we, could do.

[Power?]

It
was then that Denshi heard a woman’s voice in her head that she had
never heard before.

“What,
what, who is it?!”

“De,
Denshi?”

Denshi
looked around. The only person she could see was Jeremy. There was no
sign of anyone else, not even a shadow.

[I’ll
ask you again. Power, do you want it?]

But
in her head, she kept hearing a woman’s voice.

A
voice that made the offer too tempting to refuse.

Power?
I want it. Power was what Denshi craved most right now.

If
she were stronger, she wouldn’t be in this situation in the first
place.

If
she’d been stronger, she’d have torn the fifth floor explorer apart
the moment the threat came to him.

“I
want it. I want power.”

Denshi
shuddered and shouted into the air.

“Power
to save my master, no, stronger. I want power strong enough to never
lose him again!”

The
voices in her head were silent for a moment as she answered.

Then
the voice in Denshi’s head rang out once more.

[Come
to the deepest depths of Labyrinth City, and I will give you the
power you deserve.]

***

My
limbs feel like they’re going to be shattered. My whole body is
tingling.

At
the same time, my entire body feels strangely sensitive.

Blood
surged strangely in my lower body, and the peculiar sensation on my
skin felt oddly eerie to the point of discomfort.

Breathing
raggedly from the unfamiliar sensations, I opened my eyes and saw.

“Kerrrrrrr!”

None
other than a goblin.

“Holy
shit!”

I
immediately jammed my fist into the goblin’s face and stumbled back,
taking stock of the situation.

Similar
cries, similar green skin, but nothing like the goblins on the first
or second floor.

‘Hobgoblin?’

Tall
enough to be an adult woman and despite her larger size, she was much
faster.

Breasts
as hideous as an old woman’s udder and a goblin face with wrinkles to
match.

If
all the evil in the world could be gathered together, it would end up
like that.

“⋯?”

But
it’s weird. It was very, very strange.

It’s
normal to feel nauseous when you look at that horrible thing, but I
felt a strange feeling of arousal.

In
classy terms, it was blood rushing to my lower half; in crude terms,
it was my d*ck getting hard.

I
thought, ‘Fuck. I had this kind of taste? No. That can’t be right.’

I
was unconscious, so I don’t know exactly what happened, but I’m
pretty sure I was pulled a fast one.

-Uh-oh.

A
trickle of saliva dripped from my open mouth. I quickly wiped it away
and realized it was pale pink. What is this? What did I drink?

I
pushed the questions aside and quickly surveyed the situation.

Helmet?
No. No axe. No breastplate. The food in my backpack and Diana’s jerky
were gone.

All
my gear had been stripped from me during my fifth-floor fall, and I
was now wearing nothing but a pair of panties.

I
look over to where I’d supposedly been lying and see only a half-full
bottle of pink liquid.

It
was darker than the color of my own saliva I’d just seen. Maybe
that’s why I had an erection.

“Kerrrrr.”

The
goblin in front of me growled low. I couldn’t make out the creature’s
expression, but it looked like it was smirking.

“Kerrrrr.”

It
suddenly lay on the ground, legs spread wide. Shit. I shouldn’t have
seen it. My mood instantly turned to shit.

But
this is my chance. I was on my feet in a flash, ready to slit the
hobgoblin’s throat.

But
then something strange happened again.

My
body didn’t follow my will, it just walked up to the hobgoblin and
started stroking its head.

‘Fuck.
What the fuck is this?’

I
couldn’t help but swear. What the fuck is this? What the fuck have I
done to deserve this?

“Kerrrrr.
Kekeruk.”

As
she cried out once more, my hands moved of their own accord and began
to peel off the hobgoblin’s straw skirt.

No.
This is not right. This is fucking wrong. Stop. Stop it!

I
bit down on my tongue in deep embarrassment and disgust, and for a
moment, my body stood still.

At
the same time, my head began to ache like it was going to break. I’m
not kidding, it’s like a pulled pork tearing through my brain.

“Ew-!”

“Kerrrrr.
Kerrrrr.”

Every
time the Hobgoblin opened her mouth, the pain was unimaginable. As if
to tell me to shut up and obey her orders.

I
gritted my teeth and said, “Fuck you,” and held on. I’ve
never cried so much in my life, and the tears were welling up in my
eyes.

But
as I persevered, my body began to listen to me again.

It
felt like control of my body had shifted from the hobgoblin to me.

I
stopped removing my skirt, stood up straight, spread my legs wide,
and crushed the hobgoblin’s neck.

Despite
being trampled with all my might by the feet of a 2 meter, 96
kilogram man with a skeletal muscle mass of 55 and a strength stat of
15, the hobgoblin held on for a full two minutes, clawing at my feet,
clawing at me, and screaming at the top of her lungs.

Ugh.But
I finally succeeded in snapping her neck.

I
flopped to the floor in a heap.

I
didn’t even look at my legs, which were torn and bleeding red from
how hard she slashed them.

‘This
is the worst.’

Doing
the goblin’s bidding was the most horrible feeling I could ever
imagine.

“What
the fuck is this?”

I
stared at the bottle of pink liquid.

Some
kind of Labyrinth aphrodisiac, I don’t know. Either way, it was
humiliating.

‘This
must be the fifth floor.’

The
transition traps also seemed to drop people randomly on that floor
like portals.

But
even so, I would have preferred to be caught by Derucio than by a
hobgoblin as soon as I woke up.

“I’m
sure Grumpy and Jeremy are ⋯
safe, right?

They
should be. I sacrificed so much for them. I wanted them to be safe,
and I wanted them to grow.

Now
was not the time to be thinking about that. Now was the time to focus
on survival.

I
left the hobgoblin’s corpse behind and surveyed the situation nearby.

If
I had the Great Helm, I could expand my perception, but for now, I
couldn’t see where it was.

‘Some
kind of structure, an anthill.’

I
was in a small cave.

I
poked my head out of the dimly lit cave and scanned my surroundings,
seeing dozens of caves around me.

Some
were large, some were small, but there seemed to be at least thirty
of them.

I
heard rumbling from below. That meant there was a lower level.

I
stuck my head out a little further to check the geography.

It
was a giant three-story anthill and I was now looking down from the
third floor.

Even
at a glance, the scale was enormous. It was the size of four or five
goblin lairs crammed into one place.

Roughly
speaking, there were dozens of hobgoblins roaming around in the
plaza-like area on the ground floor below.

“Help
me! Help me! Help me! Please! Please, anyone!”

“Kerlek!
Kerlek!”

There
were men being carried away with their arms and legs tied to long
poles like whole roasted pigs.

“Hehehe,
give me pussy, give me more pussy, give me more pussy, give me more
pussy!”

There
were at least five men being spanked by dozens of hobgoblins.

“Kekeruk.
Kekeruk.”

“Ugh,
I don’t like that! I don’t like that! Don’t do that!”

“Kerererec.”

One
of the hobgoblins held a vial of pink liquid to the man’s mouth.

The
man who was being raped regained his senses for a moment and
resisted, but just as the drug slipped a little into his mouth.

“Hic.”

With
a short scream, his eyes rolled back in his head and his body dropped
frantically like an octopus.

In
response, the goblin on the man’s back began to shake her hips more
violently.

The
man didn’t react at all, just drooled pink saliva like an idiot.

A
hobgoblin with a staff appeared among the copulating hobgoblins.

A
shaman wearing a grotesque necklace of skulls and phalluses.

The
mating hobgoblins clamped their heads down on the shaman hobgoblin.

-Kerorokekerekerekere

The
hobgoblin shaman muttered something and a pink light shot out from
her staff and touched the man.

A
pink tattoo began to form on his body.

The
tattooed man forgot all resistance and began to walk over to the
hobgoblins and offer himself up.

‘Fuck.’

It
was a horrible sight.

The
difficulty level had suddenly increased so much. I was supposed to
escape from here? Are you fucking kidding me?

It
was ridiculous, but what could I do? All I could do was accept it.

There
was no time to complain. It would be more productive to use that time
to come up with a plan to get out of here.

The
first thing I need to do is get my gear back. Specifically, the
backpack and Zirnier’s Helmet.

The
backpack contains valuable food. If I have to climb from the fifth
floor to the first floor and I don’t have food, I’ll just starve.

Not
to mention Zirnier’s helmet.

Not
only is it impossible to find another item of such value, but in this
complex terrain, the power of perception will be even more valuable.

“Kerukkeruk?!”

“Kerorok.”

Even
without Zirnier’s helm, I can still use Perception. I hear the
cries from around me and step back for a moment.

When
it passed, the sound faded again. I poked my head out once more and
saw the hobgoblin that had just passed.

I
could only see the back of their heads, but I could see that they
were dragging backpacks, clothes, and weapons behind them.

‘⋯Unfortunately,
I don’t think that’s mine.’

Still,
if I follow them closely enough, I might be able to find a cave where
they keep their stuff.

I
moved carefully.

I
will surely survive the fifth floor of the Labyrinth and make it out.