episode_0176

After passing through the red portal, a small village came into view.

It revealed a faint outline in the darkness, using weak lighting. The sky was blocked by dark cliffs.

“This is···.”

Jeong Yu-sin couldn’t continue his words.

The 10th floor.

Ash Village.

He remembered hearing about this village when taking a class about the labyrinth from Mion.

A place within the labyrinth that is not affected by the magic of the abyss.

A place where the labyrinth’s ‘laws’ do not exist.

It was the location of Saint Ezdrass’s first seal.

It was grandly called a seal, but he heard it acted as a filter to screen out the magic of the abyss once.

Mion also did not know exactly what was sealed or filtered.

She just said it was top secret.

This floor is in the form of a narrow village. However, it was not the same as the buildings in the labyrinth city.

A place where mystery and familiarity coexist.

When he first heard it from Mion, he wondered what it was. Should he say it was a place difficult to imagine?

But after seeing it with his own eyes, he felt like he knew.

As he was looking at the village with lights on in the distance, Mic approached and sent a hand signal.

‘The atmosphere is unusual. Be careful.’

Jeong Yu-sin nodded.

Of course.

This village was a place that was not invaded by monsters.

Even during the Eldritch Wave, this place was safe.

However, according to the Explorers’ Association’s report, an unusual individual monster appeared.

That’s why the labyrinth city was in an uproar.

At that moment.

Whooong.

The red portal opened, and Sartre, Lena, and Varg came out.

Lena, on tiptoes, looked at the dark village.

“We’ve finally arrived. But the village is too dark, isn’t it? I don’t think it was this dark when I came last time.”

Varg sniffed and growled.

“I smell monsters from afar. Be careful.”

Varg took the lead, and Mic followed behind. They did not let go of their shields and swords. It was an attitude that did not allow for even an inch of carelessness.

The party members slowly walked on the uneven stone floor and arrived at the village.

There were no guards or fences at the village entrance.

When he looked closely, it was embarrassing to even call it a village.

It was just a few houses with crumbling bricks piled up. There wasn’t even any grass to be found.

The village was quiet.

He heard that a small number of clans and merchant guilds resided there, but no one was to be seen.

“Where should we go?”

Jeong Yu-sin asked.

“Let’s go to the pub first. Mic?”

Mic turned around and nodded.

The party members proceeded along the narrow village path, being careful not to make any noise.

The pub that Mic led them to was in the center of the village.

Creak.

When they opened the door and went inside, they saw an old pub scene.

When he looked around, he saw familiar faces.

The labyrinth investigation team that participated this time.

A lion beastman party with multiple beastwoman of various races.

A party made up of only dwarves.

Each sat in a corner with their arms crossed.

The lion beastman raised his head, looked at Jeong Yu-sin, and frowned slightly.

The dwarf party was whispering among themselves.

Lena approached the lion beastman party.

“Hello.”

“Lena, you’re late.”

“I had some things to do. So, what happened to the strange entity on the 10th floor?”

“We subjugated it.”

Lena’s eyes widened.

“Already?”

The lion beastman shook his head.

“Our party didn’t subjugate it. Nor did that shorty party.”

“Then…?”

The lion beastman slumped in his chair.

“It must be the Barbaroi party. I looked at the monster corpses, and they were cleanly sliced to pieces.”

“…”

“Are the monster corpses still there?”

“If you go towards the transfer stone, you’ll see them. The corpses are piled up like mountains.”

What does that mean?

He couldn’t understand.

He was sure it was an unusual entity, but wasn’t it just one?

Curiosity welled up.

“Were there many monsters?”

When Jeong Yu-sin asked, the lion beastman raised his glass and emptied it into his mouth.

“Go and see for yourself. I don’t know what’s going on at all.”

Jeong Yu-sin and the party members headed to the transfer stone together.

After passing through the center of the village and heading north, they saw the transfer stone in the distance.

And they saw mountains of corpses rising high.

It wasn’t just one or two, and they got bigger as they got closer.

The party members stopped walking and looked around.

Various monster corpses coexisted.

Mushroom men seen on the forest floor, half-rotten wild dogs, and spider monsters the size of human bodies.

Skeleton monsters seen in the corridor area.

He also saw unfamiliar monsters.

“Forest, corridors, sewers. It’s diverse. All the monsters that exist on each floor are here.”

Lena said calmly and without emotion.

The party members were silent.

“…”

They passed the mountain of corpses and got closer to the transfer stone.

There, a skeleton, about 3m tall, was lying down.

Its lower body was missing, and it was wearing a torn robe.

The skeleton wasn’t even moving, as if it was already dead.

Lena approached and examined it.

“This is…?”

After examining it for a while, Lena raised her head and fiddled with her chin. She looked like she was thinking deeply about something.

Jeong Yu-sin stepped forward.

“It looks like a skeleton mage?”

Lena shook her head.

“An individual this big doesn’t exist. There’s a possibility it’s another monster. I think I read about it in the monster compendium, but I can’t remember. Hmm. What is it?”

While Lena was contemplating.

Mic and Varg were sticking close to the party members, maintaining a defensive posture.

“I can’t remember right now. I think I need to rest for a while and think about it. Anyway, the Barbaroi are amazing. To annihilate this many monsters with just four people.”

The party members left the transfer stone and returned to the pub.

The lion beastman was left alone at the table, tilting his glass.

“Did you see it?”

At the lion beastman’s question, Lena nodded.

“Yes.”

“I think the labyrinth investigation is over with this.”

“I don’t know.”

At Lena’s answer, the lion beastman frowned.

“Is there anything more to see? It just looks like a high-level skeleton mage. The investigation is excessive.”

“That’s true, but…”

The lion beastman cut off Lena’s words.

“That’s enough. Anyway, the association’s request was just to investigate the monsters that appeared on the 10th floor. The Barbaroi swept everything away, so what else is there to find out? And the rest is up to the magic tower or the temple. Won’t those guys come up with another strange name for this incident after racking their brains? Like Eldritch something.”

“…”

“Anyway, we’re going back tomorrow.”

“What about the dwarf party?”

“I don’t know. They were whispering among themselves and disappeared somewhere.”

The lion beastman snorted and replied.

The party members took their seats in a corner of the pub table and gathered together.

Lena smiled bitterly.

“It ended anticlimactically.”

Sartre patted Lena on the shoulder.

“It might be a good thing. No one got hurt, right?”

Mic and Varg looked like they didn’t care.

Jeong Yu-sin slumped.

He was one step late.

He arrived on the 10th floor, but the Barbaroi party had solved all the incidents.

The tension that had been building up gradually deflated.

He felt drained.

Should he just be satisfied with reaching the 10th floor of the labyrinth?

Seeing those black-haired barbarians go out ahead of him for no reason made him feel annoyed.

Lena got up from her seat.

“Let’s rest for now. I need to think for a while about what kind of skeleton monster that is.”

There was no need to worry about where to sleep.

The old pub had accommodations on the second floor.

The harem beastman party also took rooms on the upper floor of the pub and stayed there. The chattering voices of the female beastmen chatting among themselves in the room escaped into the hallway and could be heard even in the room where Jeong Yu-sin and Mic were staying.

The dwarf party was staying somewhere else, as there was no sign of them.

Sartre was busy fixing her makeup, and Mic and Varg were lying side by side on the bed, snoring.

Jeong Yu-sin left the accommodation and walked outside the village.

Now that things had turned out this way, he was thinking of observing the monsters piled up around the transfer stone.

He slowly moved his feet and arrived around the transfer stone at the edge of the village.

He put his hands behind his back and examined the monsters one by one.

Mainly the ones that appeared in the sewer area.

Jeong Yu-sin’s expression immediately soured.

“This is going to be difficult.”

Because of the unique appearance of the monsters in the sewer area.

Most of them were like something between a pig and a monkey.

There were big ones and small ones.

The sizes varied, but there was one thing they had in common.

Their skin was all terribly twisted. Should he say they looked ugly?

In addition, a terrible stench emanated mostly from these pig-monkey-like creatures.

He had heard explanations about these monsters while studying with Mion, but he couldn’t imagine it.

But now that he saw them, he understood.

‘Tsk. I shouldn’t go to the sewer area.’

The corridor area was better. It was much cleaner to fight skeleton monsters than to wrestle with those guys in the sewer area.

In fact, the sewer area was also the area that female explorers avoided the most.

The sewer area had a complex maze-like structure, so once you were caught by those pig-monkey-like creatures, there was no answer.

Like the hobgoblins, the kidnapped female explorers were used as pregnancy pouches for these pig monkeys. It didn’t end there.

A miserable fate awaited them, where they became food when they ran out of energy and died.

They were more intelligent than hobgoblins, so he heard that the ankle muscles of the captured sex slaves were immediately cut so that they couldn’t escape.

As a side note, he heard that they tattooed one tattoo on their stomachs each time they gave birth, but he didn’t know for sure because he had never seen it.

“They’re monsters called Swinegors.”

A voice came from behind.

When he turned his head, Lena was standing there.

“What’s wrong?”

“I was curious. What is the reason why you are wandering among the monster corpses during your break time?”

Jeong Yu-sin shrugged.

“Anyway, the investigation team’s mission is over, right? I need to get something out of it too.”

“Among the monsters?”

“I think it’s not bad to look at the characteristics of the monsters in advance. In order to go deeper, and in order to survive, this kind of study is necessary.”

Lena came and stood next to him.

The two people’s gazes rested on the skeleton mage wearing a robe.

Lena suddenly opened her mouth.

“I’m about to remember it.”

Jeong Yu-sin immediately understood what Lena was talking about.

She had been thinking about that skeleton monster all along.

‘She’s a bit of a severe case too.’

It is said that those who make an effort cannot beat those who enjoy it?

In that sense, Lena was first-rate.

Wouldn’t she be the type to obsessively dig into something once she got into it?

Jeong Yu-sin and Lena spent time rummaging through the monsters they were interested in.

“No matter how much I look at it, I can’t remember. Let’s go and rest. Scar.”

“Shall we?”

Jeong Yu-sin and Lena walked towards the pub, chatting.

* * *

Jeong Yu-sin and the party members finished about 8 hours of sleep on the second floor of the pub and got up to pack their bags.

The lion beastman party had already packed their bags and were standing in the center of the village.

Jeong Yu-sin and the lion beastman made eye contact for a moment.

They headed towards the transfer stone without saying a word.

Just as they were passing the mountain of corpses.

Something rolled down from the mountain.

Thud.

A bone?

Jeong Yu-sin tilted his head and walked again.

Thud.

Once again, a bone rolled down.

What is it?

Not only the lion beastman party, but also Jeong Yu-sin’s party members stopped walking.

The transfer stone was still far away.

At that moment.

Swish.

Bones flew from the air and gathered in one place.

The sound of clattering began to be heard, and green flames began to burn in the sunken eye sockets of the skull.

“Wh…what is it?!”

The lion beastman was flustered and stepped back.

While the party members were spacing out, a giant skeleton floated in the air.

“What the fuck?!”

Jeong Yu-sin spat out swear words and gripped his weapon tightly.

You said you subjugated it?