Chapter 682 – 675 the Underground Labyrinth
Beep, beep, beep…
In silence, the Hwanin party relies on the light from Anne’s light spirit, Lumo, to advance through the dark tunnel.
It is a universal formation with Anne at the head, followed by Hwanin and Norn, Baeknyeogang and Ayeong behind him, and Isilite at the end.
In the middle of the ranks, Ah-young looked at the tunnel approaching in a psychologically frustrating way, trembling slightly and wrapped her arms around her body.
The walls of the crypt reflecting faint light. Far ahead, where no light can reach, it is so dark that even with night vision you can’t see anything.
Besides, a bad wind blowing from somewhere…
It is a very sensational and bewitching magenta that exposes nearly 90% of its skin, but Ayoung, who can protect herself with her holy power, has a fairly strong resistance to the cold. The Fleurs themselves are strong against heat and cold.
Even so, I felt a chill, and chicken meat rose all over my body.
Ayeong brushed off her bare skin and called in a small voice to Baek Ryeo-gang, who was walking with an expressionless hand holding a thunderbolt beside her.
I wanted to say something to get rid of this pounding feeling in my heart.
= Yes. I guess my brother deserves the prize of a real hero.=
=… Huh?=
= You know that accidents never stop coming to a hero, right? But my brother has been getting into trouble ever since Palatum.
= Ah…=
Ayoung poked Baekryeogang’s forearm in response to something lukewarm.
=Why?=
=The unnies told me about it when we had a dinner in Palatum.=
… Did you? Come to think of it, maybe it was… At that time, she was so drunk that her memory is fuzzy.
Baek Ryogang looked at Ayeong like a drunkard who felt sorry for her, then nodded her head slightly.
=The village or city where my older brother stayed always had a problem because of people, or because of monsters or heteromorphic species.=
Thinking about the incident she heard from her older sisters, when she tells her about the story, Ah-young’s expression changes to something to see.
= That must be… Um.=
Doesn’t it look like a plague god?
Thinking of her older sister, Isilite, who was following her, she quickly swallowed her words behind her back, but looking at her stare piercing the back of her head, she must have already noticed.
Looking back at her, Ehehe, I laughed awkwardly, so Isilite gave her a hand signal to look in front of her with a small wry smile.
No, but really, isn’t it? If there was such a background for the fall of Alsop, is it possible that the city could disappear because of one person? No matter how much Lord Alsop’s nonsense lay at the bottom…
Anyway, feeling that her turbulent mood had cleared away, Ayeong developed some of her sensory hypersensitivity and began to focus on monitoring the strata around her.
They say that nothing is going on right now, but you never know when one side of the aisle will collapse and heterogeneous species will pour out. It is said that Hwanyeon is watching the surroundings, but the more vigilance the better.
As Ah-yeong gently ran her lower abdomen with her hand in her purple half-palm silk glove, her illusion was the wall of the tunnel, and she was examining her ceiling.
To find similarities with the labyrinth of the village created by the great sage, how far the labyrinth has spread, and to find similarities and connections between the village and the labyrinth created by the great sage.
Then, Hwanin let out a small sigh.
‘As in the past and now, the thing that worries me the most is that it is directly related to the threat to life.’
That the Prophet family of Merianol collapsed and revealed what they saw as a visionary.
When I heard the news, I had a lot to think about, and I couldn’t think deeply because I was agitated by the news of Elcata’s birth, but now that I think about it, I doubt the intention of the revelation.
From the point of view of someone from Elwidris, he would look like a demon king. You may want to make them public enemies by recognizing them as dangerous molecules.
It’s not strange so far. Because that’s what happens when you’re in a grudge relationship.
But in Merianol, there is a camp for dimensional wanderers like her. It has been half a year since Merianol’s reward for the assassination order has not arrived.
The problem is this. When those two things come together, I started to have doubts about the whole of Merianol.
The people who summoned him to this world occupied the center of Merianol, and after hearing the poem, they expressed their intentions and put pressure on the Merianol royal family.
Taking issue with one’s origins, dimension wanderers are dangerous.
“…”
In addition, the more I think about the great sage who tuned the village to resemble a labyrinth, the more confused I am…
Similar to himself, the great sage seems to have peered into the secrets of the world, albeit slightly, through the veil.
If you are a normal human when you see the giant eyes of the thousand won, probably, you will probably go crazy or have a mental problem. I suspect that the great sage may have gone mad after seeing it, or that his mental state has deteriorated somewhere.
The great sage and Merianol’s change of mind.
Either way the problem is big. Big, but not the most intimidating.
It was because he was convinced by the events during the Evil Faction’s invasion of Nira that he could carry out the war with Merianol to some extent by himself.
The situation has already been calculated that if the girlfriends gather in Yeongdo and become terrorists alone and terrorize the land of Merianol with Norn, even if perfect victory is impossible, it will be at least mutually assured destruction.
What Hwanin feels most threatened at present is Cheonwon and the Spiritual Bible.
Due to the phenomenon that occurred in Palatum, it was confirmed that Chen Yuan was keeping an eye on him.
Considering that the madwoman is an ordeal, she may not be completely hostile, but I am concerned because I don’t know why she is keeping an eye on her.
It is also true that Cheonwon is a place called the garden of the gods.
Doesn’t the fact that the heavenly source is watching him mean that the gods of this world are paying attention to him?
In addition, it is rare that even a high-ranking spiritist will appear twice in a lifetime to the extent that the fact will be recorded in the Yeongdo record room, but he has already encountered it for the third time in just three to four years.
「Hwanin. This is Hyungjong. There are seven of them that roughly look like level 3. If you keep going in a straight line along the road, you will meet them in 10 minutes.”
Let’s cut off our thoughts and listen to the warnings of fantasy. … From the other side of the aisle, the sound peculiar to insects reverberates and can be heard.
Anne also grumbled a little, as if she had heard it.
= I feel bad whenever I hear this sound. =
=Originally, insects are a bit repulsive.=
=You say that is a discriminatory statement?=
= Huh?=
Ah-young, who sided with Anne and suddenly became a discriminatory person, makes an expression stained with her betrayal.
“Keep going. Since the migration of the Gifla tribe has been decided, she doesn’t have to clean up the heterogeneous species, but she won’t be able to avoid encountering them.”
Following his words, the party encountered a group of heterogeneous species that Hwan-yeon had mentioned.
A centipede with pointed legs like a spear, a yellow caterpillar that snaps and sparks, and a ball bug clad in steel armor.
Bang!!
As soon as they met, worms the size of large motorcycles were fired like cannons.
=Where!=
Kwaaaaang!!
As soon as Anne struck the shield of her castle wall, her steel plates exploded with a roar that sounded like a clash, and bounced off her transparent body fluids.
The bodily fluid, which could be the amount of a bucket, spilled onto Songchungi, who was about to discharge electricity with bright yellow sparks, and conduction occurred with the bodily fluid, destroying spear-legged centipedes and black grasshoppers to make her team kill.
Key profit…
Besides, she handles lightning, but she seems to have suffered severe damage as if she herself had low lightning resistance.
The finish was a breeze that flowed from Norn’s fingertips.
As the breeze passes by, as if caressing the heteromorphic species, the chitinous skin spreads open, spraying the inner flesh and bodily fluids before dying.
“There’s a caterpillar and a centipede with a phase stone inside.”
With the feeling that they had lightly cleared the obstacles in their way, the party retrieved the phase stone from the location indicated by fantasy and continued on their way down.
An underground point about 300m from the ground.
What appeared in front of the party going down the winding road was a long passage that changed from a cylindrical shape to an oval shape and was lined with unknown vines and leaves on every wall.
Anne gently touches the plant with the tip of her hammer of wrath, she says.
=Plants grow even underground without sunlight.=
“According to CEO Arjuang, these plants are their staple food.”
=It is definitely a plant with a high water content. Nutrient? I would like to see it from the side.=
When I lightly cut off the end of the long vine with a glove, water drips down. It is a vegetation that draws in water from the underground water flowing upward and seems to embrace it.
=Did the trees grow under the influence of the Labyrinth? Plants need sunlight, but how can they grow in a place like this…=
It was Hwanin who answered Baek Ryogang’s academic inquiry.
“It could be some kind of parasitic plant.”
= Parasitic plant? Why?=
“This is because plants that do not photosynthesize do not have chlorophyll. Because of that, they extort what they need to live from other plants and creatures…”
Hwanin, who was talking, broke through the plants on the floor with a scale. Then the poor and gaunt roots and stems are revealed.
=Oh, the roots are drying up.=
“… Arjuang must have been taking care of these plants. It has been deprived of nutrients for weeks and appears to be dying.”
At that time, Norn, who was listening to Hwanin’s explanation, took off a leaf from a plant and put it in his mouth.
“Yum.”
=Oops!=
Ah-young was taken aback by what she had done without even stopping to stop. Seeing Norn crumple her expression, she smiled and asked.
=Delicious?=
“… It tastes awful.”
Issilite gives water to Norn, who spits too much, scolds him for not eating anything, and giggles, saying that he needs to grow up to be healthy.
Hwanin moved a little away from those girlfriends and wiped the wall with his palm.
It’s because of what I vaguely saw when I scanned the lower stem of the vine with a scale, but when the slightly dried soil falls, it reveals a faint but thin red solid line in its place.
It is the meridian of the labyrinth.
“It’s an open labyrinth.”
“Did you find the labyrinth meridian?”
“Okay.”
There were quite a few signs of an open labyrinth. It was not the heavy and dark colors that are characteristic of the heteromorphic species of the closed labyrinth, but that there were colorful primary colors such as yellow, green, and red. Making spawning grounds and trying to reproduce.
However, the possibility of a closed labyrinth was not completely ruled out, but since the meridians were discovered, it was confirmed as an open labyrinth.
With him, the destination was set right away.
This is the passage confirmed by CEO Arjuang, where Lee Hyeong-jong poured in.
Anne, who was leading her, said, as she was walking toward her destination at a quicker pace.
=It is true that the labyrinth is expanding. Arjuang said that he fought desperately against the swarming Heterogeneous, but there is no trace of the Heterogeneous corpse.=
Even if a heterogeneous species preyed on a dead congener, traces of bodily fluids or scraps of skin should be visible, but the passage is unnaturally clean.
As uncertain factors are specified, women’s shoulders become lighter little by little.
The only thing left is to check the level of the labyrinth.
“It’s here.”
The relatively smooth wall collapsed violently, and then the walls seemed to be worn by the shells of heterogeneous species that came and went. Arriving at the place where the heterogeneous species began to pour, the party entered the passage without hesitation.
= It feels different from the caves I’ve been through so far…=
It was as Isilite said.
Previously, it was a crypt, a cave that seemed to have been dug artificially. However, the place where you came over is narrow enough to be about 4m wide on the left and right, and the ceiling is so high that you cannot see the top.
The wall is dry, but the rough cross-section is exposed as if it was scraped off with something large, and dry stone dust and soil dust are piled up on the floor.
=What should I do to create a passage like this?=
“Be careful, there may be heteromorphs coming through the walls. Hwanyeon also pays attention to the surroundings.”
Hwanin, who saw the traces of fans on the wall, gave instructions to the party and released the spirit of the Argentea scout to proceed with reconnaissance.
It was difficult to understand in Palatum’s Rising Cloud Sea Labyrinth, but in the forgotten old castle labyrinth, the thicker the meridian, the closer it got to the core chamber.
After coming over here, the meridian has begun to be seen more clearly, so if you follow the red line, you will arrive at the core chamber, but it is good to make a map in case of a situation.
Hwanin, who instructed the souls to draw a map, immediately moved along the red line of the meridians.
When the blood vessels become thinner, they go back and only go to the thicker side.
Roughly, a passage close to a single road continued, and as the meridian became thicker, the frequency of attacks by heterogeneous species increased.
A dark heteromorphic species that looks like a combination of a cricket and a cockroach runs up the wall at a speed of nearly 80 km per hour, just as Hwanin said, while a multi-branch of several tens of meters in length suddenly falls from the ceiling, where only darkness can be seen, or from the wall in the form of an insectoid. Arthropod heteromorphs of protruding back.
“Hwanin, over there. Three iron wheels.”
= Brother. I can feel something moving inside the wall.=
However, since the labyrinth in the underground cave was not restricted by spirits, in addition to the activities of the fantasy land spirit and wind spirit, Ayoung also sensed the approaching heteromorphic species with sensory hypersensitivity by vibrating and captured all attacks in advance.
The result is a massacre.
As the restrictions set by Adne Villa are lifted, and after daily training that cuts her bones, Baekryeogang’s control over her phase power increases, and an arrow containing phase power is shot from Baekryeogang’s bow.
Whenever that happens, a deformed species that runs up the wall or zigzags around puts arrows in its body and falls down, trembling.
Every time Isilite, who was able to wield three multiple sword skills like limbs, raised her hand, the multi-branch that fell from the ceiling literally turned into multi/branch/ryu, and the Chungin tribe, which seemed to be a mixture of spiders and ants that were about to jump out of the wall, did not After being hit by a hammer, he is buried alive without even coming out of the wall.
Quiyiik—!!
=Hey!=
Cooong! Bang!
Anne, who tried to jump out of the wall, was shot with the shield of the wall, and her upper and lower body were separated.
= If it’s this strong, it’s almost level 4.5. Doryong, how thick are the meridians?=
“About the 5th floor of an old forgotten castle.”
=Then you are saying that it is a level 5 labyrinth or higher? The ground doesn’t tilt and continues straight like a maze, so it might be a single layer.=
Hwanin, who was drawing the labyrinth map while filling in the information brought by the souls, checked the time and nodded his head.
“It feels like the road is going round and round like a whirlpool, leading to the core chamber. It would be a way to make the intruder move through a one-way passage, and to kill it with a pincer attack back and forth.”
=Wow, it is a labyrinth most avoided by explorers and adventurers.=
Since it is a single road, it is impossible to avoid battle, it is a labyrinth where you have to constantly worry about pincer attacks and have to move continuously without a place to properly rest.
However, this did not apply to the Hwanin group.
“It’s lunchtime, so let’s take a break here. It’s not a good environment for cooking, so Issilite, please make the meal somewhat simpler.”
=Yes, Master.=
You can’t always cook and eat while traveling or in a labyrinth.
Inside Isilite’s storage bag, there are a lot of different types of portable food prepared for such situations.
Lightly light the fire to release the vegetable stock, add more shredded or diced vegetables, and add bread, gimbap, rice balls, etc. According to each person’s taste to the boiled soup to solve lunch.
A group of people who mix rice balls into soup and eat them (Hwanin, Isilite, Norn), tear up bread and soak it in soup (Baeknyeogang, Hwanyeon), or eat long rolls of gimbap whole while drinking the soup (Anne, Ayeong).
“It’s an enemy. There are 3 or 4 deformed species approaching from behind. Kind…」
At the warning of Hwanyeon, three multi-sword swords rise from behind Isilite’s back and fly like beams of light through one aisle, and in the other side, two high-ranking wind spirits of Hwanyeon fly away laughing.
And Ayoung’s holy power shield spread out in a circle and wrapped around the party.
Right after that, Tuk, Ti-Dik—something flew in, smeared it on the protective film, and flowed down. Body fluids and flesh crumbs, stone shards and bits of dirt.
= I don’t even touch the dog when I eat. =
Ayeong, holding a long piece of bulgogi gimbap in her hand, looked at it and muttered dissatisfiedly, and Anne replied with a giggle.
=We are not dogs.=
=Then the Labyrinth sent the Heterogeneous species because it was a dog?=
=Does the dog get angry when he hears that?=
「She looks like a noble noble lady, but her conversation is very classy. Follow the example of Baekryeogang!”
When Hwanyeon shouted in despair, Ahyeong replied with her face, “What’s wrong?”
=Bell is a real noble lady. I’m from the common people on the street. But I guess Anne should learn some of her lady manners from Belle?
=Wow, look at him slipping away by himself.=
When Anne was stunned, Ayoung laughed and stuck out her tongue.
=This is the revenge of earlier!=
“Isilite. I want more soup Give me some bread.”
Whether the two of them do it or not, Norn focuses only on eating, and Hwanin finishes his meal early and draws a map of the labyrinth according to accumulation based on the information the spirits bring.
= Norn, what kind of bread would you like? White bread? Bread?=
“I like bread.”
= I want some bread too. Dew, give me white bread.=
= Issilite sister, do you have salted bread? I thought it was delicious. =
= Yes. =
“…”
Roughly 40% of the map has been completed, but since the shape of the labyrinth is so simple, it is not difficult to infer and draw the rest with just that.
Its shape is in the form of a whirlwind of four passages centered on the core chamber.
Each passage leads to somewhere else, two of which appear to be connected to the ground.
Hwanin’s eyes deepened slightly as he looked at the map.
What should I do if I break the core of the labyrinth and the ground immediately collapses?
Even if the core is destroyed, the labyrinth does not collapse right away and gives a grace period for a certain period of time, but there is a possibility that this may not be the case…
“Hwanyeon, if the ground at the top of the labyrinth collapses, will you be able to call the earth spirit and escape with your own strength?”
It was said that it was also possible in the underground ant hole in Linden Village, but it was not a labyrinth there, and this was a labyrinth.
To his question, Hwanyeon looked up for a moment, then tore the bread apart again and dipped it in the soup to eat it.
「They say that higher level spirits are possible. But if that happens in another labyrinth that restricts the power of spirits, it might be difficult.”
“Is it. Note it.”
If that’s the case, after breaking the core, follow the guidance of the soul and retreat by destroying the wall in a straight line to the way you came in.
Now that the Labyrinth is alive, it moves along the road to avoid harsh stimulation, but after it dies, you won’t have to worry about it.
=Master, have coffee here.=
“Thanks.”
Hwanin, remembering Anne smashing her wall with light force, closed her eyes while accepting the coffee cup Isilite handed her.
