episode_0013

The Labyrinth City, Eight Dragons Fortress.

A neutral zone bordering three nations: the Bretona Empire, the Holy Kingdom, and the Germania Duchy.

“Then as now, the nauseating scenery of this place never changes.”

“……”

Aria uttered coldly as we crossed the city. I didn’t bother to reply.

In the first place, I had no memory of what the scenery of this place looked like when I saw it with my own eyes.

However, from the perspective of playing the game, it was a different story.

Regardless of the Heroic Age series, it was a place called the holy ground for leveling up and grinding for generations.

At the bottom of this city, a passage to another dimension called the has opened up, and that very place is the highest-level dungeon, recycled in every series. It’s also why this place is called the Labyrinth City in the first place.

By the way, it’s also set that Darkstrands, used as material for The Black Serpent’s uniforms, can be obtained there.

At the same time, what needed attention was that the bottom of the city wasn’t the end.

Above the city.

What soared as if to pierce the very end of the sky was a super-high-rise slum, resembling the Tower of Babel.

The high-rise slum, soaring above the sky, was so vast and tall that despite it being broad daylight, sunlight didn’t reach the ground at all.

A demon’s den where criminals from various nations and homeless wanderers flock, undergoing endless extensions and renovations, and still growing higher even now.

Due to bordering the three nations, this area can only expand upwards.

Furthermore, what exists at the very bottom is an endless underground labyrinth leading to the Abyss.

It is the continent’s foremost lawless zone, and the final destination for adventurers who dream of sudden riches, gathering like moths to a flame.

“I’m going to the Abyss alone for a while.”

That’s not to say I have business upstairs right now. Rather, my business was downstairs.

“Until I return, we’ll act separately for a while.”

“—The Abyss, you say?”

Aria blinked at the unexpected words. Indeed, it would sound sudden even to me.

Nevertheless, she nodded silently without asking anything further.

“Bring Darkstrands when you come!”

“……I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Uh-huh! You promise!”

Alice’s tone was as if she were asking me to buy her ice cream on the way back.

With that, I separated from the two and traversed the interior of the Labyrinth City alone.

As if walking through the belly of a creature that was endlessly expanding into the sky, even amidst all this, the city’s interior.

The interior of the Eight Dragons Fortress was even more horrific than the scenery seen from outside.

The dense shadows and absent sunlight, even in broad daylight, were almost preferable.

The entire area was filled with damp and dark humidity, and the walls were littered with all sorts of filth and vomit, spreading foul odors. Not to mention the swarms of rats roaming around as if it were their own home.

It was there that groups of adventurers, wearing worn-out leather armor or robes, roamed.

Their shabby and lifeless expressions revealed how much the name ‘Adventurer’s City’ was merely a good-looking apricot [a proverb about something that looks good but is worthless].

Finally, beyond that was a Great Cavern, opening its maw so wide that its size couldn’t be gauged.

Also known as the .

However, there was no need to move around by walking, as if exploring a cave.

I found a nearby ‘teleportation magic circle’ and easily channeled magic power into it.

It was an internal transportation device of the labyrinth, which mages could use freely, while physical classes without magic power had to buy magic crystals one by one with money to use it.

At that moment, places connected to the magic circle projected images, as if a three-dimensional route map was being cast into my mind.

It wasn’t an easy-to-understand system message.

As if to make one realize that this place was not a game, but literally a world.

With that, my destination was the deepest place reachable through the magic circle.

Its official name was the .

Usually, it was a place called ‘Abyss,’ stripping away all those grand and overly dramatic modifiers.

Additionally, even if one traveled to an extremely dangerous place like the Abyss via the magic circle, no one particularly cared or tried to stop them.

This city wasn’t that kind to adventurers. Not even their lives were an exception.

Whoosh!

With a whoosh of swirling magic power, the scenery of the area was reborn anew.

A purplish otherworldly realm where the concept of order did not exist, filled with endless disorder and incomprehensible chaos.

The place that consumed the most playtime throughout the Heroic Age series.

The scenery of the Abyss that greeted me felt nostalgic and familiar, as if I had returned home.

Even the aberrant monsters dwelling there were no exception.

“—.”

Abyss Reaper.

As its name suggested, it took the form of a Grim Reaper, clad in a jet-black robe and wielding a death’s scythe.

The darkness, with nothing existing beneath its hood, stared this way. After staring, it tilted its head slightly at a 45-degree angle, then adjusted its scythe and revealed its hostility.

The jet-black shadow, already adjusting its death’s scythe, surged forward.

It took less than 0.1 seconds for the distance to close.

A divine speed that far surpassed the realm detectable by an ordinary person’s dynamic visual acuity.

It was fast. But not fast enough to deceive my eyes, Rain Grey’s eyes.

As if the video playback speed was lowered, the Abyss Reaper’s movements felt slow, like watching a slow-motion video. As if the world was flowing slowly.

And I hadn’t even used .

In that state, I silently extended my arm.

As I extended my arm, I quickly recalled all sorts of magic from Heroic Age stored in my mind.

Then, swirling magic power took the form of a sphere around my fingertips and was shot towards the surging Abyss Reaper.

It was an ordinary Fireball, once again.

It was different from the black flame I had used when I previously dealt with the Imperial Intelligence rat.

In the first place, the Warlock class’s unique trait wasn’t just “Black Flame,” which mixed curse attributes with fire.

It was the act of mixing attributes itself.

In Heroic Age, there were six attributes of magic that mages could use.

Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Curse, and finally, Divine—.

Because “Six-Color Artifice,” which allowed these six attributes to be freely combined, was the true identity of the trait.

A sphere of white flame, with the divine attribute added to the blazing fire, directly hit the Abyss Reaper. Just as I was about to activate an additional spell without stopping there.

“—.”

At the unexpected result, I silently gulped.

‘Wait, it died?’

There was no need to cast the next spell. It had just died from that.

Even if it was a Warlock’s Fireball, the opponent was, by name, a monster inhabiting the highest-level hunting ground in Heroic Age. A level 120 one at that.

Did a bug occur?

No way.

After some thought, I let out a hollow laugh. There was no way a bug would occur. I was no longer playing a game.

‘And the experience points didn’t go up either.’

Likewise, even after defeating a level 120 Abyss Reaper, there was no sign of experience points increasing.

To say that my level was too high for it to show any increase, there was no way there would be absolutely no feeling like this.

‘Or perhaps there’s no more level to rise.’

Another possibility that could be predicted in this situation. It wasn’t entirely impossible.

After some thought, I soon shook my head.

─There is no maximum level in Heroic Age.

Even though the amount of experience points required increased exponentially with each rise, it never completely stopped increasing.

I still had so much I didn’t know about this world.

Even setting aside things like The Black Serpent’s objective or how I suddenly came to possess Rain Grey’s body.

This was not a game. At the same time, it was also a ‘game world.’

The Abyss was the perfect testing ground to discern that difference.

Here, I could act freely without needing to be particularly conscious of my surroundings.

More than anything, that I could test my powers without reservation.

‘It’s here.’

─Before I knew it, another monster, wandering the Abyss, appeared before me.

“H-H-Human.”

There was no other way to describe it than as a ‘monster.’

It was as if, before the Creator molded humans, it had haphazardly clumped together the materials for a body into a lump.

A mass of flesh swollen as large as a ball, with hundreds of arms and legs clumped together, walked upon it.

“A-A-As you know, Snark was the deputy manager.”

“Yes, yes, L-Long, long ago, m-my father gave me advice.”

Furthermore, on top of its arms and legs, eyes, noses, and mouths were haphazardly stuck, staring this way or randomly muttering incomprehensible nonsense.

The . Level 150.

Before it, I once again extended my arm. However, what I intended to use was no longer a mere Fireball.

“Cocytus.”

I activated the spell, speaking its name.

The frozen lake of hell, and the highest-tier area-of-effect magic that boasted extreme destructive power among water-attribute spells.

By adding the lightning attribute with the Warlock’s “Six-Color Artifice” trait, a vortex of lightning and frost raged.

“—.”

Within the widespread raging lightning and ice, before I knew it, the Abomination could not even be found in form.

Only then did a faint sense of exhaustion encroach deep within my chest.

‘So I have to use something of this caliber to feel the mana drain.’

Once I understood the nature of that sensation, I was so dumbfounded that I couldn’t even laugh.

I only barely felt anything after using an area-of-effect spell that boasted the worst mana consumption efficiency throughout the Heroic Age series.

The remaining MP wasn’t visible as a numerical value. Nevertheless, I could tell.

Just how absurd of a mana pool this character, Rain Grey, possessed.

Fortunately, there was a mountain of things to test with this overflowing mana pool.

‘The next spell I’ll try is……’

It was at that very moment.

「When you look into the Abyss─.」

Without even a presence, a voice was heard.

「The Abyss also looks into you.」

Right behind my back.