TM-Chapter 52

Monster Wave

“W-wait a minute!”

Soyul of the Yoho tribe came to her senses and interrupted.

“That doesn’t make sense. Do souls originally enter the urn that quickly?”

Yes.

You may not know this well, but it really is like that.

An adventurer being consumed by madness happens in an instant.

There’s an example right next to us too.

“The moment Mister Backstab jumped into the 1st floor gate to rescue Aimus, he became an exit boss and appeared behind Aimus.”

“……”

Aimus swallowed his dry saliva.

“B-but! Right! I’ve never heard of two adventurers consumed by madness existing on one floor!”

This is an appropriate point.

I haven’t seen such cases much in the game either.

But there are possible cases.

“It’s possible if one comes out as an exit boss.”

“What! Then don’t tell me……”

“Yes. Your companion Gildal is probably somewhere as an exit boss, waiting in the exit room.”

“What did you say! Gildal!?”

“Yes.”

To put it in an analogy, Gildal is like a shipped product, and Antonelli following closely behind and waiting to be shipped became the next one.

“But even if all that’s correct, do we have any reason to be scared?”

The Gatpa tribe made another sharp point.

“Antonelli is already dead, right? Then isn’t it over?”

Instead of answering, I first asked Aimus a question.

“Aimus. Did Mister Backstab originally have skills like Wall Walking, Invisibility, or Careful Steps?”

“N……No?”

Aimus shook his head.

“Even when we traveled together, he had many skills but nothing like that. Sword Throwing, Plunder, Leap Ambush were about all he had.”

That would be right.

Although Mister Backstab has a higher level than Yernil or Aimus, even considering that, he has too many skills.

Think about the skills he used when he came out as an exit boss.

Magic Sword Throwing, Leap Ambush, Shadow Leap, Plunder, Careful Steps, Wall Walking, Invisibility.

Why did a low-floor adventurer have so many skills?

Because he received tremendous power from the labyrinth when he became an exit boss.

He acquired all the skills that normally you’d have to choose between.

That remained even after his resurrection. That was also why I coveted recruiting Mister Backstab.

‘The labyrinth gives power befitting that position when it captures an adventurer to make them an exit boss.’

To a thief who wanted to cross the labyrinth’s complex maze to find Aimus, skills like Wall Walking, Shadow Leap, and Careful Steps.

And to Antonelli, who begged the seven adventurers who captured him to just spare his life, eternal life.

“Lichification.”

This is a characteristic that particularly often occurs when necromancers become exit bosses.

They have phases 1 and 2 divided like the Venomic Spider.

After dying once, they enter phase 2 while becoming a lich.

Antonelli was consumed by madness just before death, and lichification would have proceeded after his head was severed.

And by now……

“He would have gone down to 3.5 floor .”

“What did you say!”

Hijikata jumped up.

“Given that bastard’s personality, he’ll probably harvest souls from both Gildal’s urn and his own. Then a Monster Wave will occur.”

“Damn!”

“We all need to run away!”

“Gadozumi! Soyul! We’re going to 3.5 floor!”

Hijikata didn’t run away.

“I can’t let that fucking bastard get Gildal’s urn!”

“It’s already too late!”

I quickly blocked the way.

“He’s a friend who’s been with us since crossing over from the East.”

“……”

“You guys don’t know how we Eastern demi-humans live.”

How would I not know when I’ve played this game so much?

Even Hijikata, an Eastern human, must have received plenty of discrimination in this neighborhood, let alone Goblins, Gatpa, and Yoho.

“He’s like family to us. We must save him. Even if I die.”

“I’m not trying to stop you because the chances are slim. I’m saying it’s already too late.”

If his head was reattached in the morning, he would have risen in the afternoon. Antonelli, who has already become part of the labyrinth, doesn’t need to wander the labyrinth. There are stairs leading to inter-floor spaces throughout the labyrinth, and he would have already gone down using the nearest one.

And he’s probably already near the urn. In the worst case, he might have already finished harvesting souls.

“Going down now would be useless.”

“B……But then……. Then what happens to Gildal?”

The Yoho tribe asked.

What happens indeed.

If his urn was destroyed, he would have become a wandering boss.

He would have directly broken through the exit room door to find out what gutsy bastard touched his urn.

In other words, there are now two wandering bosses on the 3rd floor.

But there’s an even worse problem than that.

“We can somehow deal with wandering bosses. But the problem is the Monster Wave.”

It’s fine when the soul in the urn returns to its owner like with Mister Backstab or Aimus.

But if a third party harvests the soul, that’s stealing an important resource from the labyrinth’s perspective.

The labyrinth doesn’t tolerate such situations.

“When a Monster Wave breaks out, we can’t handle it. Get up! Mister Backstab……”

When I turned to wake him, he was already up. He seemed to have woken up because of our conversation.

But Yernil, who has much better hearing, was surprisingly still lying face down in her sleeping bag.

“Yernil! This isn’t the time to sleep……”

“Caleb!”

She wasn’t sleeping.

“Caleb……”

Seeing her face turn pale, I realized anew that we’re really screwed.

“I can hear footsteps coming from down the mountain……”

She was lying on the ground because of the faintly felt sound of an enormous number of troops marching. To gauge the source, location, and direction of that sound.

“They’re coming toward us!”

“……”

Indeed, it’s already too late.

Monster Wave.

***

Have you heard of the labyrinth intestine theory?

It’s the hypothesis that the labyrinth is the intestines of a giant demon.

And the monsters inside the labyrinth are slaves working in the demon’s belly.

Then let’s give this example. If somewhere in your intestines there was a hard-to-digest thorn stuck, or a wound, or something like a tumor developed.

Wouldn’t white blood cells gather at that location and cause an inflammatory response?

Monster Wave is no different from that.

The occurrence of some strange phenomenon in the labyrinth. An enormous number of monsters marching to resolve it.

That’s called a Monster Wave.

This situation almost occurred once on the 1st floor too. There was an unusual phenomenon where Black Hornet, a monster that acts as leader in the field, abandoned its larvae and left.

If the larva had starved to death in front of the exit room, Goblins would have swarmed there, Black Hornet would have gone crazy and rampaged, and the commotion and chaos starting from there would have slowly rolled like a snowball until a Monster Wave erupted.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

The sound of an enormous number of footsteps echoes on the ground.

Now we can hear it too, not just Yernil’s ears.

How many could there be?

At least in the thousands.

Vibrations are transmitted through the ground. The snow field at the mountain peak was popping in all directions like popcorn.

“……”

Even Hijikata’s party, known to have been active and skilled on the 3rd floor for the longest time, froze at such a situation.

Let alone Aimus, Yernil, or Mister Backstab.

The only sane person here is me alone.

“Don’t move!”

I shouted at them with all my strength.

The reason the Monster Wave is heading this way is to secure the monument first. I think I know the reason for that too.

‘Monument of Mass Evil Destruction.’

All monuments contain 10th-tier magic. Powerful magic that can never be put in a wizard’s Memory Book and volatilizes within just 1 minute even when contained in a scroll.

‘If I could activate that, I could stop the wave too.’

But I haven’t decoded it yet.

However, to eliminate that possibility, the Monster Wave is heading here first.

To occupy the area near the monument.

“We need to run……”

Hijikata muttered.

“No! Stay still!”

We’d get caught anyway if we tried to run now.

“Everyone come this way! Next to me!”

It’s better to wait for the monsters to charge right up to us.

Because monuments aren’t originally easily occupied.

Although monuments can’t be said to be on the adventurers’ side, they’re not on the labyrinth’s side either.

“Everyone gather at the monument and stick close!”

“They……They’re coming!”

Hijikata, who had run to the front of the monument, gripped his two-handed sword tightly.

“Bark! Bark! Bark!“

“Caaaw!“

The first things visible from the far end of the snowy mountain field are hundreds of wolves racing up the slope at tremendous speed.

And behind them, Frost Hunters also charge madly.

Those cunning bastards don’t ambush from hills when a wave breaks out either.

They just charge to bite and tear like a scene from a zombie movie.

“This is impossible……”

Hijikata was terrified by that completely different scale of numbers.

“We need to run!”

“Not yet!”

Hijikata and I shouted in turn. The Yoho tribe shaman, paralyzed by fear, took hesitant steps backward. But with the monument blocking behind, there was nowhere to retreat.

Yernil nocked an arrow to her bowstring but couldn’t even think of shooting. Aimus’s parasol would just be pierced through too.

But……

“Wait more!”

The moment the wolves approached within about 10 meters of the monument.

“What……”

Gatpa’s mouth fell open as he looked up at the sky.

“It’s an avalanche!”

***

Soyul, the Yoho tribe shaman, had heard many stories about Caleb.

How he escaped the Boundary Sentinels’ encirclement with Bernard’s party on 1.5 floor .

How he survived.

Perhaps, even from this worst situation called Monster Wave, Caleb might be able to devise a survival strategy.

She momentarily had such thoughts.

When Hijikata shouted to run away and Caleb shouted to stay still, the reason Soyul didn’t move was probably because of that.

‘But something like this……’

An enormous amount of snow chunks pour down from the sky.

Originally, an avalanche is when a large amount of accumulated snow on a mountain slope slides down following the incline, but what’s pouring down now wasn’t like that.

This snow falls vertically from the sky.

“Crazy……”

Hijikata let out a short breath.

A giant avalanche weighs in the tens of millions of tons.

When buried under it, even if just 1 meter of snow piles up over the body, the weight transmitted to a person is about 200 kilograms.

That giant avalanche will probably bury the monsters, but the adventurers will be the same.

‘It’s over.’

Soyul momentarily gave up on survival.

No one could survive here……

Pop!

A giant magic parasol unfolded over Aimus’s iron rod.

And……

Whoooosh!

Suddenly, intense wind shot vertically upward over the parasol.

Not simple wind. That wind, dry and hot like a desert, is a type of combat magic.

‘Heat Wind!’

Caleb was casting magic over the parasol.

Originally, stopping that avalanche with a mere 1st-grade magic Heat Wind would be nearly impossible, but that Heat Wind was tremendously intense.

‘It’s overlapping casting!’

Soyul immediately recognized what it was. Caleb is a Chantless, Ultra-high-speed caster. That Heat Wind was overlapped by Ultra-high-speed casting at least three or four times in an instant.

They created a layer of high-temperature air over the parasol.

There’s no need to block all the snow.

Just create a slanted slope.

Instead of burying Caleb’s party and Hijikata’s party, make it slide along the wind’s incline to sweep away the monsters in front.

And flow down the slope with the monsters to the middle of the mountain. That’s how to do it.

But even so, the physical mass of the avalanche is so enormous that some come straight down through the Heat Wind.

Most of them melt.

Nevertheless, some that don’t melt and fall as chunks are blocked by Aimus’s parasol.

“……!”

It’s blocking them.

Amazingly, it’s really blocking that tremendous disaster falling from overhead.

And the rear.

The snow chunks that overflowed from behind should have swept away the adventurers long ago, but they had cover.

‘The monument.’

That mysterious and massive rock mass won’t break from something like an avalanche.

The positioning was perfect.

Moreover……

“Dust Explosion!”

After Caleb exploded one wolf being swept away by the avalanche, he raised his wand again.

‘He’s casting magic again!’

This time he also did Ultra-high-speed cast. He installed two Heat Winds on the left and right sides of the party centered on the parasol.

To prevent snow from invading their position from all directions.

‘How many is he going to use!’

This wizard’s survival method is somewhat insane.

Heat Winds plastered above and to the left and right of the party act as breakwaters, and the parasol becomes the last line of defense.

***

Disasters are massive but pass in an instant.

After the mountain peak became quiet.

“Gasp……”

Hot, frightened breaths finally burst out from all directions.

“Gasp…… Gasp……”

“Is everyone…… Is everyone alive?”

Hijikata checked on his party members one by one.

The mountain peak, swept by an enormous avalanche, had changed shape considerably.

The coniferous forests and icebergs we saw while climbing up had all disappeared.

Large and small rocks too.

Monsters too.

The avalanche had washed them all away.

“Let’s go. We can’t stay here.”

I immediately started moving.

There’s no time to be sentimental. We need to hurry.

Because the Monster Wave is just beginning. More will come soon.

And one more thing.

“There’s a 3.5 floor staircase near here.”

Staircases leading down to 3.5 floor exist in several places throughout the 3rd floor, and originally there’s always one near monuments like this.

If Antonelli harvested urns on 3.5 floor and a Monster Wave broke out, what would that bastard be doing now?

‘He’s probably coming back up the stairs.’

Maybe he’ll come out through the staircase near the monument……

“Shit.”

That bastard is damn fast.

“It’s a lich.”

“It’s Antonelli.”

Mister Backstab and Aimus let out sighs.

The lich who had devoured two urns was climbing the slope. He wasn’t even walking with difficulty on foot. That monster was now floating in mid-air.

“Ah. So you’re those guys. Caleb, and those friends.”

“What…… What, that bastard can even talk?”

They were flustered.

“Thank you. Thanks to you, I feel like I’ve reached the ultimate stage of necromancy I was pursuing.”

Antonelli burst into laughter.

“With this, I can even go to the 5th floor.”

“Ah……”

And suddenly the Yoho tribe shaman burst into tears and grabbed Hijikata’s arm.

“Hijikata……”

“What…… What is it……”

Hijikata’s eyes doubled in size.

“What the fuck, no! Say it’s not true!”

The swordsman gritted his teeth and shouted, and the Yoho tribe shaman delivered the sad news.

“Gildal’s soul was devoured……”

The Yoho tribe’s racial trait Soul Tracking.

The spirit of the Goblin tribe Gildal, whom they had searched for so long, was felt not in an urn but in the lich’s belly.

In labyrinths, there are far more unfortunate tragedies than dramatic happy endings.

Not all adventurers consumed by madness can return like Mister Backstab.