Chapter 331 – 325 the Spawning Pool Labyrinth
As soon as Hwanin left Krabin Village, he quickly moved towards the labyrinth along the route he had investigated.
Estimated time required to reach the labyrinth is 3 hours.
Anne, who was running in front of her, looked back at Hwanin and said, while running through the forest where trees were still sparsely populated at a speed between trotting and warning.
= Doryeong. If you’re having a hard time, tell me anytime. I’ll carry your bag.=
“There is no problem at this level.”
The luggage that Bi-sang carries is about 400kg, and the contents of the luggage are mostly everyday camping tools.
A three-person tent, a thermal sleeping bag, a cold air blocking mat, a presence blocking object, a lantern for deodorization and lighting, and a warming plate for cooking, as well as portable tools for cooking, 3 people and 15 days of labyrinth exploration Available food and drinking water for 4 people.
Here are 100 holy water cloths for cleaning, clothes to change into, Isilite and Anne’s equipment maintenance tools, and a potion storage box with 200 bottles (including holy water).
Of course, I didn’t let Bi-sang carry everything. Hwanin, Isilite, and Anne each carried a small subspace bag.
In the bags of the three, there were a set of potions in preparation for various emergencies, a dry amount that can be preserved for a long time, 7 days of drinking water, and other first aid tools and household medicine.
And most importantly, the small crystal ball labyrinth version for communication. It is a fallback in case they are scattered.
In addition, accessories with paralysis and poison resistance functions, as well as a mask made of purification cloth in consideration of the possibility of air contaminated by the moisture removal magic tool in case of emergency, can be said to be fully prepared.
If Hwanyeon accompanies you, you can reduce the weight by excluding drinking water, which takes up most of the weight and volume, but Hwanyeon must protect Yurpa and the village.
In any case, Hwanin, carrying the bag, rejected Anne’s proposal with a single stroke.
It’s not like pride as a man. If he had been an irrational person enough to raise his pride in the face of the threat of his life, Hwanin would have become Daryl’s son-in-law of the Farghist castle lord or the pillar west of the lord of Hellumen by now.
The weight of this bag is about 10kg, and dry matter and drinking water account for most of the weight. And it was because I couldn’t handle this much weight, so I thought it was natural to explore the labyrinth and travel was absurd.
Of course, he is aware that his physical abilities are poor compared to those of them, but he is a Hwanin who does not stop training.
Even if he can’t go to the special forces rank, he has the stamina and strength of a professional soldier, so he decided that this level was okay.
After running lightly for 30 minutes and walking for 10 minutes, Hwanin felt that the scenery around him gradually changed after about an hour and a half.
The forest where humus is exposed gradually changes into a jungle. The bushes are getting higher and higher, hindering running, and the distance between the trees is also getting shorter, blocking the view.
Chjakjak-, tduduk. Match-
At least I’m paying less attention thanks to Isilite, who runs ahead of me, using her dagger to hit a branch that dangles or branches that come from the side…….
“Whoop, whoop.”
Because the environment was gradually becoming unsuitable for running, Hwanin felt short of breath even though he was receiving the regenerative effect of the Blood Aspect Stone.
It’s like this even though Isilite and Anne, who are leading the way, are taking care of it.
Sensing the difference in his body from them, Hwanin summoned the lowest level spirit passing by and spread the decree on his body.
Breathing stabilizes in an instant, the body relaxes moderately, and the weight of the burden on the back is no longer felt.
The tenure of the Code is 79 minutes. Hwanin focused on running, thinking that he would reach the labyrinth when the effect of this decree was over.
An hour after that.
The gaps between the trees became very tight, and the sparse bushes became stronger, and they even wrapped around my legs, making it impossible to run anymore.
Isilite goes ahead of her, cutting down the bushes and branches blocking her path with her knight sword, followed by Annu, Hwanin, and Bisang.
Anne also muttered, thinking of the imminent human beings and emergencies that would follow her, as she broke the branches Isilitte had not been able to pluck with her hand.
=The forest has been twisted a lot.=
Duduk.
“Can you guess the reason?”
= It’s because of the labyrinth. The heterogeneous species living inside the labyrinth spread bad energy and the labyrinth over-nourished the ground, so it twisted as if it were being polluted. Originally, it is normal for trees to grow without interfering with each other for photosynthesis. But look up.=
Simplicity and honesty.
Looking up, you can see the branches of the trees interfering with each other and getting tangled.
=The leaves and branches are intertwined with each other, and the trees are twisting as if screaming. There are labyrinths that do not have this effect, but it seems that the labyrinth that occurred here is not like that.=
Thump.
“…… Right. But is it okay to break a tree like that?”
= Huh? Oh, I’m Fleur, can I treat plants so carelessly?
“Okay.”
= Ahaha. Doldo is also true. If that’s the case, should I only eat meat, not vegetarian? Enemy of vegetation! While doing it, I caught and ate herbivores.=
Hwanin laughed at Anne’s laughter, then cast her gaze over her shoulder into the forest.
Because the sunlight does not reach well due to the thick leaves of the trees, an aura like blue mist in the dark jungle begins to appear.
As if Isilite had also found it, she called out to Hwanin in a slightly nervous voice.
=Master, I’m starting to see something like the fog of a labyrinth.=
“You are almost here. Since we have arrived at the outer boundary, the labyrinth will begin in earnest in about 10 minutes.”
= I haven’t met a single Lee Hyeong-jong while I’ve come this far. It seems that he worked very hard to sort out the heterogeneous species.=
“Hwanyeon was a big help. Tracking down certain entities in places like the forest is ridiculously convenient.”
When Hwanin took out a mask made of purification cloth from her waist belt pouch and put it on her emergency beak, Isilite also stored her knight sword, took out her Red Rick and put on her mask. After Anne covered her mouth with her mask, she took out the Shield of the Wall and the Hammer of Punishment.
Both are large weapons that are not suitable for this kind of jungle forest, but the power of the two is not a problem because they can smash a tree like this as if breaking a millet.
Hwanin also pondered over the black spear and scale, then took out her scale and quietly followed them.
Hwanin, who had been walking towards the forest filled with bluish fog for a while, suddenly confirmed that the fog had lifted.
= Dew. It’s a labyrinth from now on.=
= Huh? Really?=
Nothing has changed. Isilite, puzzled, looked around her, and Anne stepped in front of her, adding her explanation.
= All the labyrinth clouds have disappeared. That’s a sign that you’ve entered the labyrinth. Now I’ll take the lead.=
= Ah…… Yes.=
Behind them, who were adjusting the ranks, Hwanin looked around the dark jungle forest like a witch’s forest.
(Spawning pond Labyrinth)
‘It’s similar to what I saw in the sky, but it’s different. Is this the effect of the aura and veil surrounding the labyrinth?’
Naturally, memories of other open labyrinths he has experienced come to mind and are compared.
The inside and outside of the forest-type labyrinth had a distinctly different feel to the skin.
Inside the labyrinth, there was a naturally tense atmosphere, and although the forest was close to a jungle, an ordinary natural ecosystem was built.
But it’s a bit muggy and dark here, and it’s nothing more, nothing less, than a jungle forest with grotesquely grown trees.
‘Susa said the forest labyrinth was level 6, and the tyrant dragon’s labyrinth was level 7.’
The mental pressure inside the labyrinth was much stronger in the forest labyrinth.
The tyrant dragon’s labyrinth was an extended special labyrinth, so it must have been a place with a higher risk compared to other labyrinths of the same class, but that’s…….
Did he feel that way because he was weak at the time, or was the forest type labyrinth not level 6?
‘Of course it’s the latter.’
= Doryeong. I’m leaving. =
“Okay. Be careful as there may be other types besides the heterogeneous species I told you about.”
=Yes.=
Burdock- burdock-
Hearing the cries of birds or beasts, Hwanin thought as he made his way through the dreary jungle forest.
A grade 6 forest labyrinth. And next to it is a 7th grade lake labyrinth.
The two are located near the border of the Evil Faction in northern Radsea.
Geographically, Yulkam is the closest place, but the residents of Yulkam treated it like an unexplored demonic land. Susa also talked about the place as if it were dangerous.
If you think about such a reaction, there would have been almost no adventurers or explorers coming and going.
And the area around the forest-type labyrinth was a place like a primeval forest where people couldn’t reach, and monsters, beasts, and monsters inhabited it.
People didn’t come and go, but the labyrinth might have grown quite a bit by naturally preying on the monsters that inhabit the surroundings.
Thinking about it, Hwanin felt the strong smell of stagnant water and turned his head toward it.
It is still a jungle forest, so there is nothing that looks bad.
“Anne, watch your step. If you see a strong smell of stagnant water, there is a possibility that there is a wetland or a swamp.”
= Uh They’re like frogs and toads, so there might be heteromorphic species nearby…….”
Wooddeuk, Pusssssuck-
Scary to say, a thorny toad the size of a 1-ton truck appears through the dark trees.
=It’s scary to say!=
Gureuk!
As Anne jumped out, the prickly toad flinched, backed up, and spat acidic saliva from its pointed snout. After hitting it with a shield covered in phase power, Anne quickly approached her and struck her head down with the hammer of punishment.
Perseok.
The head hit by the Giant Warhammer, which is no different from a siege weapon, is smashed with the sound of breaking watermelons.
= Huh? I think this one is a bit stronger than the ones outside.=
Gureuk.
Gurgling.
Gwug-
As soon as Anne finished speaking, parasitic tentacle toads, thorny toads, and poison arrow frogs began appearing all over her forest.
The number is 13 water mirrors.
A truck-sized amphibian crawling out from the depths of the dark and twisted forest was enough to incite disgust, but Anne raised the shield of the castle wall and smiled grimly.
= The greeting from the beginning is grandiose~.=
Then, hitting her shield with the hammer of heavenly punishment, making a metallic sound, and at the same time spreading the holy magic luminous light to create a flash, Lee Hyeong-jong’s attention is focused on Anne at once.
Isilite moved silently in the gap.
Lowering her stance, moving between the grotesquely grown trees, holding Isilite by her side, a sword of light woogh-rised and became a ray of light that lit up the dark jungle forest, piercing through her frogs and toads in an instant.
Pubababak-
It is a sword of light that can even cut through the stone skin of a 5th grade deformed species, even without receiving the Hwanin’s command. As the sword of light rotated like a boomerang, the three amphibians split in half at once and scattered.
Gureuk?!
Word of mouth!
The crowd split in half. Six dogs still attracted to Anne. And two that were near the three that were split apart.
Hwanin aimed at only four of them and threw a soul explosion orb.
A snout that has been developed to spit more accurately and quickly, sucks in soul blast orbs and explodes.
Beep!
The shock causes her eyes to fall out and her flesh to explode, and her face, which occupies 1/3 of her body, turns into a rag and instantly falls into a dying state.
‘He won’t die.’
It was a soul explosion orb that was overlapped in two so that it could explode and kill at once. The thorny toads outside the labyrinth were blown away by this attack, but the thorny toads inside the labyrinth were in a dying state, but did not die.
As Anne said, Hwanin, who judged that he was a little stronger than the outside, thought of adding one more.
‘It’s a waste of soul orbs. I’m on the verge of death, so let them take care of the rest.’
In the meantime, Isilite jumps up a tree and flies from tree to tree like her leopard, slashing mainly at the tentacles of her parasitic tentacle toads.
Anne made full use of her shield’s defensive area and struck the leaping frog with a poison arrow, literally turning her into porridge.
When she swung the shield of the castle wall, which pushed her phasic power toward the poison arrow frog’s charge, it exploded with the sound of her drum.
Even a parasitic tentacle toad jumping high is slashed down and killed with an absurdly long reach, 195cm tall and 2m long.
After jumping about 5 meters from the place where the deformed species are gathered, he slams his weapon full of phase power on the ground to create a shock wave. Four parasitic tentacles and poison arrow frogs caught up in the attack cause whole body fractures and fall out, pouring out bodily fluids.
Anne, who killed 6 of them in an instant, radiated an aura of light from her body and rushed towards the remaining heteromorphic species, making her look like a light paladin who had descended into a dark forest.
It didn’t even take time for a cup of tea to clear the 13 of them.
Huung – Anne, who swung her shield vigorously to shake off her bodily fluids and venom from her shield, looked around the dark jungle forest with her calm attitude and said,
=I made quite a fuss, but there are no heterogeneous species coming in.=
=Isn’t there a lack of sense of fellowship or cooperation?=
= She made a loud noise to come in a little bit on purpose, but it might be because she didn’t come. No, but frogs don’t have ears. Are you not hearing the sound at all?=
= Oh, really? So how do you detect enemies?=
“I have ears. The eardrum is exposed to the skin. Because of this, frogs and toads cannot hear small sounds well outside the water. On the contrary, it is very sensitive in the water.”
=Oh, really?=
=It’s amazing.=
There are objects that are too small to have ears at all, but Hwanin, who did not feel the need to explain that far, left a mark by swinging a black spear at a characteristic tree nearby, opened a notebook, and started drawing a map.
The women were fascinated by the knowledge of Hwanin and started looking for the topological stone with a topological stone detection tool.
And when she confirmed that she was broke, she clicked her tongue and talked.
= Dew. Didn’t they say they had nothing to take care of?=
= Yes. Things like eyeballs, gallbladder, tongue, and slime can make money, but considering storage and post-processing, they said that it’s only a small amount at the level of fairy tales.=
=Then let’s not take care of it. All of them are large, but they will only be burdensome.=
=Yes.=
They wiped their hands and approached Hwanin, who was still looking at his notebook.
=Doryeong, the phase stone didn’t come out. But what are you doing?=
“Make a map.”
=Can I help you?=
“None. If you need a hand, ask for it.”
The map produced by the Yeopsa Guild calculates and accumulates the distance calculated based on the gait. Accuracy is a feature, but production takes time.
However, what Hwanin is doing now is a method of roughly displaying only the characteristic parts and expanding them according to the direction of progress. It’s less accurate, but it’s easy to make.
Hwanin folded her notebook and told her girlfriends.
“Let’s retrace the direction they came from.”
The purpose of entering this labyrinth is to kill the core of the labyrinth and destroy the core to get rid of the labyrinth. Since it is an open labyrinth, if you go to the center of the forest, there will most likely be cores and cores there.
In other words, it would be possible to break through in the shortest time by moving to the center of the labyrinth, but before that, he was a Hwanin who wanted to check the ecology of the labyrinth.
=Why?=
“It is to reduce any risk factors.”
Lee Hyeong-jong, who came to them, was soaked with water on the way. You can see that it was just submerged in water.
=Yes.=
Why is that? Hwanin asks Anne back.
“Do you know how amphibians reproduce?”
=Doesn’t it lay eggs in water?=
“Okay. However, they find a host and lay eggs in the body. But it was wet. I want to check whether it is simply because of the habit of amphibians, or whether spawning grounds have been created, and what percentage of water is in this forest. The easiest way to find out is to retrace the steps they came.”
It is unlikely that a strong heteromorphic species was coiled in a place where there is frequent traffic leading to and from the outside.
It would be safer to collect the information of the labyrinth near the entrance step by step than to face danger while aimlessly heading towards the center.
While helping his girlfriends understand, Hwanin, who was heading northwest in the direction the heterogeneous species had come to, saw that the trees that had grown thick and made up a forest suddenly widened and widened.
= This is…… Hyungjong Lee passed by and made the road.=
= Yes. The floor was littered with wood chips and debris. I’ll have to watch my step when fighting here. Because you might fall.
She could tell that Hwanin was talking to herself.
That will be too. Isilite and Anne are both wearing heavy armor and plate boots. If you put your weight on a piece of wood and step on it, it will all break off.
While moving through an environment that was somewhat inconvenient to walk in, Hwanin and his party soon encountered a puddle the size of a soccer field.
The women furrowed their eyebrows as they saw the scene in front of them.
= Ugh, what is this? With a wild boar…… Buffalo?=
=There are words.=
Dozens of animals were floating in the pool, some alive and some dead and decaying.
One common characteristic of them is that their stomachs are noticeably swollen.
“It’s a spawning pond.”
=You mean this is a spawning ground?=
“Okay. I can see the monster’s larva moving at the bottom of the pool.”
= Huh? Really.=
Looking at the reflection of the shadow on the water, Anne muttered, frowning her pretty face.
=I don’t think only humans are used for breeding.=
= It must be an animal living in Kravin Forest…….=
= Could it be? Wow, there’s a white tiger over there too. That divine animal…… It’s like these guys who will be punished.=
=Isn’t it that he has already been punished and became a heteromorphic species?=
= That’s what it says. Bizarre, do you think there are heterogeneous species around?=
Cooong.
= No? Then it seems that all the deformed species here came here.=
While listening to the emergency conversation with his girlfriends, Hwan-in thought about how to detect Lee Hyeong-jong’s enemy, and turned on his soul vision to look at the water puddle again.
In the water that has begun to take on a reddish brown color, a number of light gray fist-sized spots can be seen. There are tadpoles and some with hind legs.
= Master. Are you going to throw an oil bottle?=
“No. I don’t know how wide the labyrinth is, so I want to save it for now.”
And unless you’re an adult, you won’t have to deal with it.
The phenomenon that is happening in Krabin Forest is because a labyrinth has occurred and frogs have been breeding abnormally.
If the labyrinth is closed and most of the heterogeneous species are sorted out, they will grow as part of the ecosystem, be eaten by predators and perish naturally, or settle in the forest.
After he left, another mutation could occur and disaster could happen, but that was not Hwanin’s business.
‘At that time, it’s up to Praver and Krabin Village to take care of themselves.’
=By the way, Anne, is it okay if I set fire to this place? If the forest is on fire…….=
= There is an emergency. You can organize it while controlling it with the wind.=
=Ah.=
Coo? Uhhh Que~
At that time, Bi-sang cried more beautifully with a softer, finer voice than when he was an adult. However, the sound did not match the content, so Hwanin burst out laughing.
A young lady in her late teens or early 20s, with a pretty voice, speaks crudely like a man in his 30s.
“A group of heteromorphs is approaching from the east.”
If this is the case from the entrance of the labyrinth, there is a high possibility that the entire labyrinth is made up of spawning ponds like this.
“I found the core, but I don’t want to be surrounded by all the surrounding xenomorphs flocking to the sound of battle. First of all, go around the edge of the labyrinth to estimate the size of the labyrinth, and at the same time kill all heteromorphic species you find.”
=Yes.=
=Yes.=
Hwanin’s women drew their weapons again and rushed towards the amphibian monsters that were revealing their demonic appearance.
(Spawning Pond Labyrinth Map, Day 1)
