TM-Chapter 55

Two Exit Bosses

Soyul has cold resistance magic.

She cast it on herself and me.

And Soyul is a shaman with high wisdom stats like me.

So neither of us fall into confusion.

We can resist both the cold and confusion.

When monsters appear, we subdue them with hourglass and Dust Explosion, Lightning Shock, and Soyul’s Fox Fire and holy magic.

Unless we encounter a monster wave, there’s only one thing dangerous to our duo.

‘Traps.’

That’s something neither I nor Soyul can detect.

We need a party member with keen eye abilities like Backstab or Gatpa.

But now we don’t need to worry about that either.

Because……

“This way.”

The Monster Wave has swept away all the snow.

It’s almost like a snow plow. Those monsters trampled the deep snow with their feet and made paths.

If we step on those footprints, we’ll be safe.

Following the direction the compass points on the open snowfield, we move over the footprints as much as possible.

“Then we won’t collide with the monster wave either.”

Two hours into our adventure like this.

We’ve seen many horrific sights.

“Another corpse.”

Most of the adventurers who were active on the 3rd floor couldn’t cope with the suddenly started Monster Wave.

Naturally, there were plenty of monster corpses too. However, none of those corpses had their magic stones harvested.

There wasn’t even time to spare for such things.

“That Lich. It even talked.”

Soyul said.

“I’ve never seen anything like that.”

“It’s probably because it harvested its own soul.”

Before that, it probably couldn’t do anything except magic incantations.

Adventurers caught in madness tend to act based on habits their bodies have directly internalized.

For example, Backstab was caught in madness and couldn’t distinguish right from wrong, but when an icy path was laid in front of him, he still performed Careful Steps or Wall Walking.

How can this be explained?

Was it a rational judgment that he might fall if he ran on ice while caught in madness?

No.

From what I’ve experienced in the game, in a state of madness there’s no self and no judgment ability.

There wasn’t even any foreshadowing related to that.

So Backstab’s ice path detour and such……

‘Habits the body remembers from usual times.’

That’s the right way to see it.

It’s similar to how a completely drunk person with no memory can still find their way home even while unconscious.

It’s because detouring around icy paths when they appeared was his habit as a rogue in life.

The Lich going down to the 3.5 floor to find the shrine is the same context.

Since necromancers originally need souls to use magic, it’s daily routine for them to harvest souls and put them in urns.

So they’re always searching for stronger souls.

There are even madmen who don’t care if the 3rd floor becomes chaos, thinking they just need to harvest the Soul Sanctuary.

“So it probably went to find and harvest the Soul Sanctuary, which was the strongest soul it could access. But after eating it, one was Gildal and the other was its own soul.”

“Then at that time its soul was restored and…… It regained itself like Backstab?”

Soyul asked.

“That probably isn’t the case.”

Even in the game, I’d met a Lich that self-harvested the Soul Sanctuary containing its own soul, but it was at the level of repeating almost the same words.

Or it could only do very, very simple questions and answers.

It’s a completely different case from Backstab who regained his soul.

If we compare losing a soul to someone whose leg was cut off, Backstab had reconnective surgery at the amputation site, while Antonelli ate his own leg and digested it in his stomach.

“We should consider him a different being from the former Antonelli.”

Antonelli is……

“Still in a state of madness.”

As far as I know, the only way to escape the Labyrinth Master’s grasp is to be resurrected like Backstab.

***

There was one more party that encountered the Monster Wave and hadn’t perished yet.

They were a three-person combination consisting of an orc fighter, a feline beastman ranger, and an Elf druid.

“We barely escaped.”

The orc fighter said.

“Who would have thought a Monster Wave would break out.” 

“We need to escape quickly.”

The Elf druid, who had the most experience in the party, had experienced a Monster Wave once before, and barely survived that time too.

Monster waves are a race against time.

If it takes too long, you can’t even escape.

Why?

Because monsters take control of escape key points one by one.

If there’s a Monument, the Monument is first priority. Because Monuments are threatening to the Monster Wave itself.

Next are the exit rooms.

Of course, monsters don’t attack exit bosses, but they camp in front of exit rooms and prevent adventurers from approaching.

Next are the stair gates.

It’s to prevent adventurers from escaping to other floors.

“There’s a Monument on the 3rd floor. And there are exit rooms too. They’ll probably block starting from the 2nd floor connection gate for the stair gates.”

The druid said.

“It’ll take quite a while for the 4th floor gate’s turn to come. So we find Antonelli as quickly as possible and go to the 4th floor.”

They were a 4th floor party. Antonelli’s main group had come up to the 3rd floor. To directly find a colleague who hadn’t come down even though the scheduled time had long passed.

They all thought the current Monster Wave might be related to Antonelli, but no one voiced it aloud.

“We can go to the 5th floor.”

A labyrinth adventurer must always be a gambler.

In the end, it’s one of two things.

Either get digested on a specific floor of the labyrinth, or obtain important resources there and go down to the next floor.

“We’ll never be digested.”

There’s already a high possibility that Antonelli was sacrificed to the Monster Wave.

But the party members kept quiet about this possibility too.

“Antonelli!”

Suddenly the feline beastman ranger shouted. He had seen through the darkness with night vision.

“Antonelli!”

That necromancer was crouching at the foot of the snowy mountain where the Monument was located.

“Antonelli!”

The 4th floor party rushed toward him but.

“……”

Antonelli’s condition was somewhat strange.

“Hey!”

The orc fighter approached closely and bent down.

Antonelli was muttering to himself.

“Goblin soul! Goblin soul! Goblin soul! Goblin soul! Goblin soul! Goblin soul! Goblin soul! Goblin soul! Goblin soul!”

“……”

The party members’ expressions turned cold as they intuited that something was wrong.

“A, Antonelli?”

The druid shook his shoulder hard.

“Ah! It’s you guys! My comrades!”

Antonelli smiled grotesquely, his mouth splitting wide.

“Thank you! Thanks to you, I’ve reached the final stage of necromancy I was pursuing! Let’s go to the 5th floor!”

The terrified trio stepped backward.

“A, Antonelli…… What happened?”

“Your……Your face……”

Antonelli’s face had turned blue like a corpse, with no trace of blood. He looked like a frozen corpse. His purple lips were completely dried.

There was no life in his eyes. Even though it was night, his pupils were too large.

“Kik! Kikikik! Kikik!”

Antonelli covered his mouth and burst into convulsive laughter.

“Let’s go! I’ll take you there.”

With that, Antonelli held up an urn.

The urn was broken.

It’s originally an item used by necromancers. When Antonelli first died, it’s the item Caleb looted and threw over the cliff when the Monster Wave was approaching.

A Lich originally doesn’t need such things.

“Let’s go! Let’s go to the 5th floor!”

The mad Lich opened the lid of the broken urn.

“Come in here. Kids! I’ll harvest you!”

***

At the middle of a snowy mountain about 500 meters high.

There, stairs leading down to the 3.5 floor were installed. At the end, in a small room, Yernil sat scribbling letters in a notebook.

In front of her were several messages she had received from Hijikata.

[This is Hijikata. I’m with Aimus and Backstab. The cold and confusion are no problem. Is it okay there too?]

Yernil wrote about the strategy of hiding in front of the 3.5 floor and sent a reply.

Another message came from Hijikata.

[This is Hijikata. Our current position is about 200 meters south from the point where Caleb and Yernil fell. There’s a small ice cave, so we’re hiding our bodies there.]

Yernil relayed that content exactly to Caleb.

While sending a reply to Hijikata that ‘I also informed Caleb’.

[This is Hijikata. Should we wait here? Will Caleb be able to find where we are?]

Yernil grabbed her head at the note that flew again.

“Euuung……”

The center of two parties.

A tactician carrying the lives of seven adventurers on her two shoulders.

A woman who sends instructions to none other than Caleb.

‘Command Tower Yernil.’

She pondered how Caleb would move.

‘Given Caleb’s personality, he’ll absolutely never abandon me, Aimus, or Backstab.‘

This is an objective and cool analysis. Because Caleb has already risked his own life twice to save party members. Like rejecting Virtanen’s escape proposal and staying with Yernil, or jumping back into the 1.5 floor to save Aimus.

‘So he’ll definitely try to regroup our entire party, right? To escape together.’

Then can Caleb safely move from the 4th floor stairs to near the snowy mountain? Without getting caught anywhere in this hell where Monster Wave are roaming?

‘He can do it!’

Yernil believed mindlessly.

Even at the last moment when she thought there really was no way, he was the person who had a card like Heat Wave.

Caleb will somehow make it work.

Then Hijikata, Backstab, and Aimus shouldn’t move.

Because their paths might cross wrongly.

[Caleb will go there. Don’t worry and don’t move either. Stay still in that spot. -Yernil]

“Message transmission.”

After Yernil sent a message to Hijikata, she also wrote a message to Caleb.

[Caleb. I can’t receive replies, but I believe you’re going to Hijikata right now. I told Hijikata that. But he says they’re hiding deep in a cave. It might be hard to find.]

“Message transmission.”

***

Alright, well done.

This is almost Hedwig level.

Your tactical judgment to send notes in all directions from the middle to make me and Hijikata’s team join up, no, your tactical judgment that I ordered.

You’ve performed it very well.

‘Now then.’

After receiving the note, I waited for an opportunity and when I encountered a few Frost Hunters, I turned the hourglass.

“Dust Explosion, Dust Explosion, Dust Explosion.”

I blew them all up and sent a reply(?) to Yernil.

“Yernil. Next to me right now is a fox with tracking ability that rivals a canine beastman’s scent tracking. When we get near the mountain, we can track Hijikata with the Yoho tribe’s Soul Tracking. We can find them even if they’re hiding in a cave.”

……But if I only say that, it won’t be effective. This isn’t an ‘instruction‘.

I’m just talking to myself on my turn.

“Please explain that to Gatpa. Yernil. Reassure Gatpa that I’ll find Hijikata’s party.”

This way it becomes an instruction.

Of course, there’s no need to reassure. Since Gatpa is Soyul’s colleague, he probably already fully expected Soul Tracking.

He probably had it in mind from the moment Soyul used the stair scroll.

“Dust Explosion.”

I hit a nearby wolf with one more Dust Explosion.

[All action points have been consumed.]

[Ending turn.]

[The hourglass has been flipped again. Remaining time: 60 seconds]

***

I found the treasure room.

As expected, my prediction was right.

‘A whale sitting at a table with a fork and knife on both fins, wearing a napkin.’

A Gourmet Whale.

A coin with that picture engraved on it popped out. And I got several miscellaneous items and potions, and one hat that felt magical.

Of course, a 3rd floor coin came out too.

‘A half-human, half-beast spider person in a doctor’s gown crying alone.’

A Pitiful Spider Doctor.

Now I’ve collected all three coins. Let me put this in my pocket.

And I’d like to put the hat, potions, and miscellaneous scrolls in my bag……

‘My bag isn’t with me right now.’

Yernil has it.

Should I ask to temporarily entrust them to Soyul’s bag?

“……”

I carefully approached the Yoho tribe shaman. She was now completely devastated.

I feel sorry for asking her to hold luggage in this atmosphere.

“Soyul.”

“……”

When I called out to her, she wiped her eyes with her sleeve and looked at me. Her face was soaked in sadness.

That’s understandable.

I fully understand.

‘The exit room is open.’

That huge cave-type exit room we accidentally discovered near the treasure room had its door wide open.

The exit boss inside had come out.

And it’s obvious who that is.

‘Gildal.’

The corpses lined up in front of the exit room weren’t killed by wolves or Frost Hunters. There were no stab wounds, lacerations, or penetrating wounds visible, and they were in a state of being brutally beaten and crushed by an incredibly brutal blunt weapon.

Some corpses had their upper or lower bodies burst like they’d been pressed by a hydraulic press.

A Goblin club.

That monster who was the strongest adventurer on the 3rd floor had directly opened the exit room and came out.

Because some madman had soul-harvested his urn.

Gildal had become a wandering boss.

He’s probably roaming the 3rd floor right now to discipline that impudent bastard who dared to steal the exit boss’s urn.

‘But wow, it’s really huge.’

The footprints, I mean.

Those Goblin footprints stamped in the snow are beyond imagination in size.

To exaggerate a bit, they’re about twice the size of my footprints.

These are traces left by a monster 260cm tall and weighing 220kg.

And coincidentally……

‘They’re heading toward Monument Mountain.’

Is that natural? Antonelli would be there too.

Gildal is going in the same direction as us.

If we’re unlucky, we’ll encounter him.

“We’ll have to fight if we meet.”

If we’re lucky, we might see the amazing scene of exit bosses fighting each other, but we absolutely can’t consider Gildal an ally.

Unless it’s the same method as Backstab, there’s no way to escape from madness.

“Gildal can’t be turned back now.”

I said this to steel our resolve, but Soyul’s tears that had barely stopped started flowing again.

“Let’s go.”

Still, she gritted her teeth and stood up.

Like a skilled adventurer.