Chapter 111

Archmage Dalstream

The central staircase of Security Headquarters.

A human woman was making her way toward the 3rd floor with her Lizard, Dwarf, and Elf companions, breaking through the monsters.

Legal Officer Delpin.

She was heading toward the Director General’s office with her subordinate security officers.

Security Headquarters classified ranks in order from Security Officers at the bottom, then Inspectors, Legal Officers, and Magistrates, with Magistrates practically holding supreme command authority, but nominally there was a Director General at the top.

“Director General!”

The Director General position was held by a retired Magistrate. They knew the headquarters best but were too old to be active on the front lines, so they handled overall administration.

But even a rotten fish was still a fish – the experience of a former Magistrate couldn’t be underestimated, and they were still much stronger than the riffraff below Legal Officers.

Click!

So Delpin planned to escort the Director General and reorganize their battle lines.

“Damn…”

When she opened the door and entered, what spread before her eyes was the Director General’s cold, lifeless corpse.

Delpin examined the Director General’s wounds.

There were four deep stab wounds on the chest. As if a fierce beast like a bear had torn them apart with claws.

‘Was there any monster among those attacking headquarters now that could inflict wounds like this?’

She recalled the types of monsters that had been pushing into the main building lobby earlier.

Various tiers were mixed together. Like a normal distribution curve, most were mid-tier, but there were quite a few low-tier and high-tier ones too.

Fortunately, there were no monsters with the taste of Abyss’s hellish inferno.

‘…But now I can’t even be certain of that.’

No matter how far past his prime, the Director General wasn’t someone who would die to small fry.

“L-Legal Officer…”

The three Security Officers who had broken through to the Director General’s office with her looked at her nervously and stammered.

“What do we do now…?”

Their faces were full of terror.

All three were rookies. She had trained them according to Security Headquarters’ curriculum and sent them on labyrinth adventures, but their progress level was at most 1st or 2nd floor.

Their forces were far too insufficient.

“First, you.”

With the Director General dead and the Magistrate outside, Legal Officer Delpin, who had suddenly become the supreme commander, quickly gave orders.

“Run at full speed down to the underground prison and free former Inspector Ennes. Tell him if he helps defend headquarters, we’ll reduce his sentence.”

He was imprisoned on suspicion of joining Black Dog and ruining Neko’s operation.

“The rest come with me back down to the main lobby. We’ll maintain the front line there until the Magistrate returns.”

But as she ran down to the main building, worry washed over Delpin like a rising tide.

Compared to that incident 12 years ago, the current situation was just a kind of ‘disturbance’ that didn’t even qualify as a labyrinth eruption, but Security Headquarters was still far too short on forces.

‘Can we hold out until the Magistrate’s forces arrive?’

The Magistrate had taken two Legal Officers, Inspectors, and a bunch of Security Officers with him.

Neko, a wizard belonging to that team, was a particularly promising talent. Recently, a promotion decision to Inspector had come up, and Delpin had signed her approval.

‘If only we had a few more like that.’

Since most of the monsters were also mid-tier, Security Headquarters’ forces also required mid-tier and above skilled fighters.

‘Preferably frontliners.’

They were far too short on frontliners.

Not only the Security Officers currently going down the central staircase with her, but even among the forces responding in the main lobby, there weren’t many mid-tier frontliners.

Still, they had to somehow solve this with just the forces remaining at headquarters.

Several teams led by other Legal Officers had sortied outside headquarters to protect citizens. Excluding personnel who died in surprise attacks inside headquarters or were taken out with serious injuries, current remaining forces were three Inspectors and 14 Security Officers.

How should they distribute these?

Just as the weight of responsibility grew as heavy as the depth of her added worries, Delpin reached the main lobby.

What spread before her eyes was…

Kwagwang!

Something massive slamming down on the floor, sending fragments of flooring and flagstone flying.

A monster crushed beneath it spat blood like a swatted mosquito.

‘C-could it be…?’

Delpin brightened momentarily and shouted.

“Magistrate?!”

“Yes?”

It wasn’t.

What appeared as the dust settled was a Monk with a sturdy build.

“Ah, sorry. I mistook you because your build is similar.”

Screeeeech!

The monsters shot magic and arrows.

“It’s dangerous!”

Delpin tried to step in front of him, but Aimus was unfazed.

A giant steel parasol unfolded like exploding fireworks and blocked all the projectiles.

Crunch!

In that gap, a Ghoul rushed in and bit the Monk’s forearm, but surprisingly, he didn’t budge at all.

[Steel Bloodline]

The power of steel flowed through all the Monk’s blood vessels.

Thwack!

Aimus slammed the Ghoul to the floor and struck down with his iron staff.

“…”

Only then did Delpin remember. The report from Neko about a monster-like Monk on the wizard Caleb’s team who had joined as a citizen Security Officer.

“Monk!”

She hurriedly ran to Aimus’s side and shouted.

“Could you take charge of one party on this front line?”

“Let’s do that.”

“You two Security Officers there! And Inspector Topler! Reform your battle line with this Monk as the frontliner!”

His endurance and spatial control ability were at the level of a decent Inspector. Delpin had never seen this type of frontliner before.

“But Legal Officer.”

Aimus asked while maintaining the front line.

“Yes?”

“Are there no monsters in Guild Village below Adventurer’s Guild…?”

With a worried expression.

Guild Village was where Aimus’s house was located.

He wanted to drop everything immediately and run home to check on his family’s safety first, but given the situation, he couldn’t move rashly.

“The reason headquarters forces are so few right now is that we were already cut in half due to operations, and then we sent out relief forces on top of that.”

Delpin raised her crossbow and shot over Aimus’s shoulder.

“So don’t worry too much. But… If you’re concerned, you may go.”

“I’ll wait until the Magistrate’s team arrives. Also.”

Aimus stepped forward boldly.

“I need to find our party’s Elf too.”

Karmic mantras burst forth from the Steel Monk’s body.

***

Splash!

Outside Security Headquarters, on the open ground where carriages and tricycles were parked, puddles had formed on the floor.

That sapphire-colored water had the same properties as Spirit Galaxy. It pierced through dimensional veils and created phase portals to transport targets’ bodies.

“Cough!“

Yernil, who had nearly died after encountering the White Lion, emerged from the puddle. She shook off her wet hair and wrung out her clothes.

After checking once that Professor Dalstream’s unfinished thesis was still safe.

‘Caleb.’

She closed her eyes and began detecting surrounding sounds.

Right now, somewhere, Caleb would be rushing over. With Security Headquarters’ Magistrate and professors.

‘Where are you?’

But Black Dog district and Security Headquarters were quite far apart. Moreover…

‘There are monsters in the city center too?’

The monsters that came from the labyrinth were mostly mid-tier. The scale was also small to be called a labyrinth eruption. Still, Soren had been turned upside down like a stirred beehive.

‘Good heavens.‘

And a tricycle was rumbling across the ground, racing toward here like mad.

“Yernil!”

Before the tricycle even stopped, someone jumped off – a professor from Magic University.

Hailey.

Yernil had met her before. The Elf female professor who had joined Professor Meldini’s team during the message transmission game held at Bertengga mansion.

“Come this way!”

Professor Hailey took out a massive two-handed staff from the tricycle.

“Normally in such disturbances, we evacuate citizens and instruct low-tier adventurers to protect the citizens.”

She headed toward Security Headquarters’ main entrance with Yernil.

“But Yernil cleared the 4th floor last time, right? With Caleb’s team?”

Mid-tier and above adventurers weren’t citizen defense forces but attack forces.

“Can I count you as combat strength? We need to first annihilate the monsters that entered Security Headquarters.”

“H-how is the university?”

“Don’t worry about there. There are several other professors at the university, and the Dean is there too.”

Magic University’s Dean was still active, unlike the Security Director General.

“More importantly, let’s go rescue Professor Dalstream.”

“Professor Dalstream!”

Yernil shouted.

“He’s in danger right now! He’s in the Records Archive, and some lion-shaped monster came looking for him…”

“Calm down, Yernil. Professor Dalstream may have declined in stamina from his prime, but he’s an incredible person.”

Hailey rushed into the main entrance.

“He’s Magic University’s only Archmage.”

To become a professor at Magic University required at least experience clearing the 8th floor or above of the labyrinth.

Someone like Enver had practically been ‘carried’ through the clear by the White Lion.

And reaching the 10th floor granted tenure. Professor Hailey was this case.

Among these professors, some went down below the 10th floor to experience the deep layers.

These were people like Meldini and Isilof.

And among even these, an extremely small number.

Those who discovered new facts about the labyrinth, found spellbook binding methods, survived the deep layers many times, or provided great help in labyrinth eruption defense – owners of such tremendous achievements were called this.

‘Archmage.’

Hailey burst into the main building with Yernil.

***

“Is it the Magistrate?!”

Delpin practically cried as she screamed.

“Sorry. It’s Professor Hailey.”

“Professor! Thank you!”

“And one more.”

“Magistrate?!”

Delpin shouted.

“Sorry. It’s Yernil.”

“Yernil!”

Aimus shouted while smashing a Frost Wolf.

“Come this way!”

Yernil immediately activated Guard Repositioning to move behind Aimus and drew her bow.

“Since we’re short on forces, I’ll use some necromancy.”

Professor Hailey gathered her wands in front of her chest and cast magic.

“Large-Scale Raise Up Dead Body.”

The monsters collapsed on the floor rose one by one. With their ‘enemy’ changed.

Along with this, the corpses of fallen Security Officers also became zombies and rose, creating a somewhat blasphemous scene, but no one took issue with it.

“Actually, dealing with these small fry won’t take long.”

Professor Hailey had already grasped that this eruption was very small in scale.

“However, we don’t know what other enemies there might be…”

Kwagwang!

Right then, with a tremendous roar, the entire ground shook.

“It’s from the annex!”

Yernil shouted.

“Wh-what is that?”

The Security Officers looked up at the sky with shocked expressions.

***

“It’s a lake!”

Isilof shouted.

The massive spirit lake that had been rising on the Records Archive floor erupted upward, embracing Dalstream and the White Lion.

Breaking through the Records Archive and annex, high into the sky.

Like an entire lake transported to zero gravity space, a giant sapphire-colored spherical spirit body floated in the air. Holding Dalstream and the White Lion within it.

“Wh-what the hell is that?”

Some Security Officers murmured while looking at the White Lion, and Meldini sighed.

“To have to use the lake?”

That was 8th-tier binding magic.

[Spirit Lake Tome]

That great magic was like a miniature version of the world where wizards dwelt, the ‘Spirit Galaxy‘.

Of course, 7th-tier magic like Spirit Swamp also summoned part of the galaxy, but there was a crucial difference from the 8th-tier binding magic Lake.

The former was like bringing one scene of waves from the Pacific Ocean crashing onto some land.

But the latter directly created a miniature Pacific Ocean, giving the lake’s master complete control authority over the Spirit Lake.

So that wizard could be called this without exaggeration.

‘Little Wizard.’

An Archmage who had reached the final stage of wisdom that mortals could attain.

“Professor Dalstream…”

The strongest card that elder possessed had emerged.

But Dalstream was already long past his prime. Now he was someone who spent his later years teaching students at the university and conducting research rather than rummaging through the labyrinth’s abyss.

8th-tier magic was burdensome just to cast. Because he lacked the stamina.

In fact, when traveling through Inter-floor villages, Dalstream had never brought out the lake.

“The Spirit Lake won’t last long.”

Caleb said while running.

Even witnessing such an intimidating 8th-tier magic, he didn’t bat an eye.

“We need to back him up now!”

Fortunately, there was additional force on this side.

“That damn bastard.”

Orc Berserker Chrome was heading toward Security Headquarters to repay past humiliation.

Former Inspector Ennes had once told Neko this:

What protects Soren isn’t Security Headquarters but Black Dog.

Chrome agreed.

Not because it was the organization he belonged to, but because it was actually true. Look at Magic University’s Assembly.

‘I knew that monster would eventually show its true nature.’

The Assembly and Black Dog had signed a mutual non-aggression treaty, but that didn’t matter now.

With the labyrinth erupting and monsters ravaging Soren city, was it strange for Black Dog to step forward? Black Dog could only exist if Soren existed.

Even if he killed the White Lion, Chrome wouldn’t be held accountable.

If the Assembly complained, he could just argue back asking if they were a monster organization.

“I’ll finish it in one blow.”

***

I had one troubling concern.

How far was the White Lion’s Assembly involved in this incident?

“…”

I looked intently at Izel while running.

She, realizing what I was suspecting, was startled and waved her hands frantically.

“I-I didn’t know about this! Really!”

Hmm.

That was probably true.

Because Edward Bertengga was currently outside headquarters fighting.

“Father!”

“Izel!”

A brief touching father-daughter reunion in the chaos.

“Father!”

Clarence also joined in, and the three hugged together.

Quite a few monsters were everywhere.

“The mansion is safe. I evacuated everyone to panic rooms or warp devices. We need to save Soren!”

“What about Abisson?”

Clarence asked worriedly.

“…”

Edward seemed equally concerned.

“For now, that kid is a 1st-tier wizard, Clarence.”

“…”

“He’s helping evacuate citizens. In Guild Village.”

I see. Even that rookie who looked like he could barely protect himself was doing his part there.

Probably all the countless people I’d met during my adventures too.

Virtanen and Zikal, Priestess Emma, Paladin Bernard and Halfling crossbow user Remus, Barbarian Greg, Dwarf wizard Austin, swordsman Hijikata and Gildal, Yoho tribe shaman Soyul and Kappa thief Gadozumi.

Everyone was probably struggling in their respective positions.

“Please head to Security Headquarters, Magistrate…”

Before Edward could finish speaking, the Magistrate charged off running.

His subordinate Legal Officers, Inspectors, and Security Officers too.

‘Should I go too?’

I needed to find Yernil, find Aimus, and catch the White Lion.

Should I try reforming our party first?

“Help me out a bit, Backstab.”

“Wh-what should I do, brother?”

Backstab was clearly tense from this parade of monsters he’d never seen before.

***

Kwang!

Security Headquarters’ main entrance burst open as if it would be destroyed.

“Please, be the Magistrate!”

Delpin screamed.

“Right.”

The Magistrate, with breath reaching his chin and anger to his head, entered headquarters with rough breathing.

“I’m here.”

Having rushed too much, he’d gotten separated from the Legal Officer group, but they would arrive soon too.

Deep-layer adventurer, Magistrate Peterson’s two-handed sword trembled with rage and killing intent.

Thump thump – his pounding heart. Conversely, his mind cooled.

The Magistrate analyzed the situation and calculated forces.

“Kyaaah!“

A 9th floor monster, Hell Legion Commander, rushed at him.

“Be quiet.”

The Magistrate cut down that demon in one stroke.

“All Security Headquarters personnel!”

His roar echoed thunderously throughout the main building.

“I now classify this incident as a small-scale labyrinth eruption. And we will resolve it immediately! Understood?!”