Chapter 98: The Bottom of the Well

“That’s an enormous amount.”

The frog man Frodo looked at the corpses and handed over his items with a satisfied expression.

Three bottles of Elixir, Killer Bee’s Royal Jelly, and two Spirit Tree Hearts.

“Porter, you’re not thinking of monopolizing this all by yourself, are you?”

“Of course not. We caught these together, so I can’t monopolize them.”

The corpses I gave to Frodo were those of monsters hunted together with the inquisitors.

They can’t be called purely my possessions. So I have to share the purchased items with the inquisitors.

‘It would be nice if I could give up the three Elixir bottles and Royal Jelly and take the two Spirit Tree Hearts for myself.’

In terms of value, the most expensive item is the Killer Bee’s Royal Jelly.

This is an item that can only be farmed on the 7th floor. If eaten raw, it increases the body’s regeneration ability to troll level, and if made into medicine, it can mass-produce top-grade healing potions.

If taken to the Alchemy Guild, an auction would immediately be held. It’s hard to know how much it could fetch. Since it’s also used as research material, if you make the Magic Tower and Alchemy Guild compete on price, you could earn enough to buy a nice house in Labyrinth City, no joke.

In short, one lump of Royal Jelly is worth a house.

‘But what’s important to me right now isn’t money.’

I can continue to freeload at Yuria’s house for the time being.

What’s really important for me now is conquering the labyrinth.

I need to go beyond the underground city, dominate the 6th floor, and break through to the 7th floor.

Because the moment all the nightmares of the labyrinth are released and crawl out beyond Labyrinth City, we’ll have to watch the world’s destruction.

Before that, I needed to crawl down to the deepest part first and close the door.

“Paramel-ssi.”

“Yes?”

“You know how precious Royal Jelly is, right?”

“Well.. I do know.”

I deliberately asked Paramel, the most knowledgeable among the inquisitors.

At Paramel’s words, Raphael looked at the Royal Jelly as if it was fascinating, and Sasaro also nodded in agreement that it was an expensive item.

“The Elixir is the best item for exploring the lake district.”

“What exactly is the Elixir?”

“If you dissolve one bottle of this in water, everything, whether merfolk or whatever, just faints. Things that breathe through gills have no way to withstand this.”

“What about things that don’t breathe through gills?”

“Everything, including those, will faint the moment they absorb the Elixir dissolved in water. You can think of it as a poison specifically made for aquatic creatures in the lake district.”

The Elixir is the most important item for developing the lake district.

According to Olivia, it’s a drug that can be obtained almost certainly when meeting the Frogman.

With this, the probability of random encounters in the lake district will drop dramatically. Also, if you release the drug near a mermaid nest, you can raid their nest without any difficulty.

“So Porter, what are you trying to say?”

“I’ll hand over all the Elixir and Royal Jelly. In exchange, could you cede the Spirit Tree Hearts to me?”

“Spirit Tree Hearts. What are those used for? Are they worth giving up all of these?”

“No, not to that extent, but a druid I know asked me to bring them if I ever found them. He said he’d make some kind of talisman with it. I’m thinking of giving one Spirit Tree Heart to that friend for free and getting a talisman for myself with the remaining one.”

“So you want to give up three bottles of Elixir and Royal Jelly that can quickly conquer the lake district, and take that instead?”

“Yes. Not bad, right?”

“Hmm. To be honest, I don’t know the value of Spirit Tree Hearts well. So it’s difficult to give a definite answer.”

The Saint doesn’t properly know what can be done with Spirit Tree Hearts.

As Olivia said, this must be some kind of hidden knowledge.

‘If you give a Spirit Tree Heart to a druid, something amazing will happen.’

Of course, the talk about making a talisman is a lie. I lied right away knowing that the Saint doesn’t constantly activate her lie detection.

‘You can get something much better than any talisman.’

If I can meet the president of the Druid Club, I’ll be able to get a ‘pet’ that I can bring into the labyrinth.

‘The reason Olivia told me to get this no matter what.’

With a Spirit Tree Heart, you can summon the soul of a beast using it as a medium.

It means you can permanently get a summon that can be re-summoned even if it dies. Moreover, since I got two hearts, I should be able to summon two pets.

However, as you can see, this fact wasn’t properly known.

While druids who know might know, it’s unlikely that people from the goddess religion’s order have information about Spirit Tree Hearts.

At best, Paramel the record keeper was likely to know about Spirit Tree Hearts, but judging from his lack of reaction, Spirit Tree Hearts probably remain a story passed down only among druids.

“Alright. Let’s do that. It’s right for the person who needs it to have it. Above all, if you hadn’t stopped me, we wouldn’t have gotten it in the end.”

“Thank you, Saint.”

After thinking for a moment, the Saint willingly ceded the two Spirit Tree Hearts to me.

Perhaps because it was the Saint’s decision, the other inquisitors didn’t particularly argue about this. Rather, they were happy to have obtained the Royal Jelly.

“It’s been a while since I got a bonus.”

“Are you going to drink again?”

“It’s the maximum indulgence a priest can have. Of course I have to eat and drink.”

Raphael looked particularly pleased.

Unlike secular priests, the priests of Labyrinth City drink alcohol well and eat meat well.

However, they don’t engage in womanizing, drugs, or gambling. Although they enjoy alcohol, I’ve never seen a priest who completely crosses the line.

“Then we’ve gotten everything we can get from this. Are we leaving him like this?”

“That would be best. Mr. Frodo, let’s meet again next time.”

“Stay alive until we meet again.”

We left Frodo behind in the collapsed ruins and set off again.

He probably won’t be caught by the likes of heretics.

I heard he has excellent hiding abilities. He won’t be found easily.

“Porter, spray the Elixir.”

“You’re using it right away?”

“Yes. How long does the effect last?”

“It should last at least 5 hours. At most, the effect could continue for up to 10 hours.”

“That’s enough time to find the entrance to the floor division. What are you doing? Spray it quickly.”

“Yes.”

Following the Saint’s request, I opened one bottle of Elixir and sprayed it into the water.

Now this area is safe.

For at least 5 hours, we won’t be attacked by monsters from the water.

---

Thanks to the effect of the Elixir, we were able to move around the lake district comfortably.

There was no malice squirming in the water, and no merfolk came out to throw bone harpoons at us.

It felt like the first time we’ve wandered around the labyrinth this pleasantly.

“There, there’s something over there. It looks like a well.”

After walking for about 3 more hours deep into the lake district, we were able to discover a large hole. This is the most suspicious place.

The large hole was a structure built like a well, and thanks to the pile of stones built higher than the water surface, it seemed that water wouldn’t enter that hole.

“I wonder how deep it is.”

“It’s an enormously big hole.”

“Can’t see the bottom. Do we have to go down there?”

“It’s very dark…”

The inquisitors frowned as they looked down the hole.

Soon Raphael picked up a stone and threw it down.

“It’s very faint, but I can hear a sound. There’s a bottom.”

Seems like there is a bottom.

“Really, is this the entrance below the floor division?”

Then Paramel raised a question.

Is it really right to go down here?

“This is the most suspicious place so far. Of course, there could be other entrances.”

“Well, let’s go down for now. This is the result of wandering around the lake all day, right? We can’t waste more time.”

At the Saint’s words, the rest of the companions didn’t say anything more.

We really have to go down here. This is crazy.

‘I should take out the teleportation scroll in advance.’

If something goes wrong and we fall down, I can tear the teleportation scroll before dying from the fall and move to another place before dying from the fall.

It’s better to use the teleportation scroll as a return scroll than to die from falling.

Although movement between layers is impossible, movement within the layer is possible.

‘I can teleport right in front of the transfer stone in the plaza district and escape upwards from there.’

I inadvertently found an escape method.

If it seems really bad, since I know the location of one transfer stone, I can quickly teleport there and escape.

“Here, take this rope.”

“Sigh. Unexpected rock climbing.”

I tied the ropes I had brought in advance and distributed them to the companions.

It’s long enough to climb down about 10 floors, so this should be sufficient.

“Um, I have acrophobia…”

“What’s acrophobia for a man? You’re too scared.”

“Ugh..”

At Raphael’s words, Paramel whimpered and tied the rope around his waist.

So this is how we’re using the rope I brought just in case.

“Has everyone tied their ropes securely?”

“Yes, but Saint, aren’t you tying a rope?”

“I’m fine.”

“…?”

Everyone except the Saint tied ropes around their waists.

We’re about to climb down the wall.

If the rope is too short to reach the underground, we decided to climb back up.

“Then I’ll see you at the bottom.”

“What? Uwaaah!”

The Saint immediately jumped down.

Like someone skydiving.

“What if she dies like that?”

“It’s fine. She’s always like this.”

“What?”

“She has an ability that offsets the impact of falling. If needed, she can use the exorcism ‘Angel’s Wings’ to land gently on the ground.”

“Huh.”

This was an operation method only possible for the Saint.

Unlike the Saint who overflows with holy power, we couldn’t perform such eccentric acts, so we decided to quietly climb down the wall.

‘This is hard.’

It feels like we’ve been descending for a long time. Sweat poured from my body like rain.

I seriously felt like I was going to die from exhaustion.

But we’ve already come down too deep. We can’t give up here, so we trudged down.

If the rope is too short to go down further, we’d have to climb up this height again.

I hope such a misfortune doesn’t occur.

“Porter-ssi. We’ve arrived.”

“What? Oh! It’s true.”

Fortunately, the rope wasn’t insufficient.

We were all able to safely come down to the bottom of the gigantic well.

A bone-dry bottom. Cracked soil is visible. It was clearly different from the lake district full of moisture. It’s very dry here.

“Saint!”

“You’ve come. Here.”

“Eww.”

The Saint throws a heretic’s head at us and smiles mischievously.

‘How many did she kill?’

There were many heretics collapsed around the Saint.

It seems she had swept away all the heretics who were down here as soon as she fell to the bottom.

Judging by their lack of movement, they all seemed to be dead.

Except for just one.

“Tell me information about where the Blue Apostle is. Who’s guarding him? How many are there beside the Blue Apostle? Spit out the information you know.”

“Khaak… Kill.. Kill me.. You bitch…”

After showing us the corpses of the heretics, the Saint continued the work she had been doing.

That was asking questions while pulling out the teeth of the heretic she had kept alive.

“I’ve been pulling out teeth one by one since earlier, but he’s not talking.”

“Hmm. Saint. You’re still clumsy at torture, I see.”

“Is that so?”

“Leave it to me.”

Sasaro stepped forward.

He took out tools from his bosom and dragged the remaining heretic to a corner.

His position was that of a torturer. I don’t know what will happen to the heretic, but let’s pray for his soul.

It doesn’t seem like he’ll die comfortably.

“Porter, is map creation activated?”

“Ah, just a moment… Yes. It’s working normally.”

“That’s fortunate.”

The place we came down to was a circular space, and there were a total of 4 entrances connected to other places.

All these 4 entrances were connected to a maze. It’s the start of full-fledged pathfinding.

However, with my map creation and the Saint’s sinner tracking, we should be able to go directly to where the Blue Apostle is.

“Then let’s move after getting more detailed information from that heretic.”

We were able to take a short rest until Sasaro extracted information from the heretic.