Chapter 68

< Outside the Labyrinth is Dangerous! >

The labyrinth eruption 12 years ago.

Several Black Iron Armored Knights entered the Berten family estate and caused tremendous damage.

But that damage was below the Soren average.

While no corner of the city was left unscathed, there were places that suffered devastation-level attacks. A place that suffered even more damage than the Magic University.

‘Black Dog.’

After dispatching Henry, the abyssal monsters freely rampaged through the city, and the back alleys were naturally included in their targets.

In the abyss’s advance, there was no distinction between a tycoon’s mansion and a vagrant’s back alley.

‘Silver Dagger Alliance.’

The monsters that visited the back alleys had semi-transparent bodies like ghosts, with indistinct silhouettes of limbs, and each had a silver dagger deeply embedded in their chest.

Each one was powerful, and their numbers exceeded a hundred, but Soren’s main forces had no interest in such places.

Not the Security Headquarters, not the Magic University, not the Adventurer’s Guild, not the Nataniel Temple, not the Labyrinth Association.

All adventurers and military forces were busy defending the city center and the southern and eastern business districts and main streets.

Naturally, the back alleys were once again left to the vigilante group’s hands. Just as it had always been.

“Well, it’s not like this is a one or two-day thing!”

Orc Berserker Chrome shouted.

“This district is ultimately protected by our own hands!”

7th-tier wizard Lactanius, Elf Druid Elenia, Goblin warrior Bisan, fallen Paladin Rupert.

All of Black Dog’s core heroes had gathered in the back alley streets.

But even their desperate resistance couldn’t stop the abyss’s flow.

‘Death’s Cycle.’

Before those monsters who casually cast 6th-tier magic while walking around, Black Dog was outmatched.

‘Blood Citadel.’

‘Steel Lightning Storm.’

‘Abyssal Flames.’

‘Mass Necrosis.’

The monsters marched forward, catching and killing people one by one from the alley entrance and systematically trampling buildings.

Black Dog’s adventurers couldn’t even slow their advance.

‘This can’t be.’

Some realization that came too late struck Chrome’s head with a thud.

He had to abandon the concept of monsters he’d held until now.

Not the kind you hunt for magic stones, or that hunt you to devour you, or that you win or lose against in battle.

Natural disaster.

This should be classified as that kind.

If a river overflowed, would you fight the flood?

If a volcano erupted, would you fight the lava or volcanic bombs?

No.

Disasters are objects of escape, not combat. Labyrinth eruptions are like that.

This is a disaster.

But…

‘Wails of the Dead.’

It was already too late.

Death’s fangs that sprouted from the ground bit into the Orc Berserker’s legs.

‘Frozen Heart.’

And when the 7th-tier magic flew and pierced his chest.

Chrome lost consciousness.

***

When he came to his senses, two hours had passed.

The back alleys that Black Dog had cultivated for so long had regressed 100 years to become filthy ruins.

The monsters were nowhere to be seen.

Chrome couldn’t move. He was just lying in a massive pool of blood that had already cooled and hardened.

His friends were all dead too.

Crunch!

Crunch!

Strange sounds could be heard.

Chrome quietly raised his head. Something was standing among the corpse field.

Crunch!

It was a massive male lion with abundant white mane. But it walked upright like a human, crouching among the pile of corpses.

Crunch!

It was chewing and swallowing people’s corpses.

‘What is that thing.’

Chrome was an adventurer who had been to the deep layers, but he had never seen something so vicious and ominous before.

And an even more shocking fact.

“The taste is mediocre.”

That monster spoke.

It was definitely ‘speech,’ not an incantation.

“I heard adventurers were a delicacy. But they’re more ordinary than I thought.”

How can a monster speak?

Even adventurers who became exit bosses consumed by madness can’t speak.

Even counting extremely exceptional cases, at most there are only mutterings mixed with habits from their lifetime.

But how…

“Perhaps…”

A spine-chilling voice turned this way.

“Is something still alive a bit different?”

Horrified, Chrome immediately squeezed his eyes shut. He buried his face in the blood pool and held his breath.

As he prayed to heaven to save him.

He felt a faint human presence beside him.

‘Lactanius!’

That 7th-tier wizard was still alive. His body trembled like an aspen leaf.

Chrome couldn’t see it but felt it. Because…

“Ch… Chrome…”

He called out in a trembling voice filled with terror.

Thud, thud.

The demon’s footsteps came over the pile of corpses.

At that moment, a cowardly and cruel thought unbefitting a warrior crossed Chrome’s mind.

‘Please eat Lactanius.’

‘Please remain unaware of me until the end.’

‘Please let Lactanius be eaten quietly.’

Contrasting with Chrome’s silent prayer within, quiet sobbing could be heard.

“Ugh… Huu…”

Lactanius was crying.

He couldn’t calm his heart.

He couldn’t control the tears bursting forth.

And when the demon’s footsteps stopped right by his head.

“Kyaaaaaak!“

A scream erupted from beside Chrome.

“Save me…! Save me! Please…!”

Chrome felt something warm dripping patter patter on his back. It was Lactanius’s blood.

“Aaaaak!“

The sound of the wizard writhing. And the sound of flesh being torn and ripped in the demon’s grasp.

“Ptui!“

The sound of the demon spitting out what it was chewing.

“*Gack! Kek!“

From Lactanius, whose breath was cut off and whose breathing went gulp gulp, came words that were unclear whether they were resentment or pleading.

“Ne, next to… Help… Alive…”

But fortunately, the White Lion didn’t hear Lactanius’s words.

Once again crunch!

With the sound of bones breaking, Lactanius’s corpse fell under Chrome’s torn left leg.

And another amazing thing happened.

‘Disguise.’

The monster cast magic on itself.

‘Human Body.’

All concepts about monsters up to now had to be discarded.

The march of some monsters isn’t battle or war but natural disaster.

And some monsters are like demons.

That demon fashioned a human body, then stripped off Lactanius’s coat and covered itself with it.

Chrome couldn’t see the demon’s human face.

Step, step, only after the footsteps had gone quite far away did he see only the back view of that monster in human form.

***

“That demon must have come out with the labyrinth eruption. And it didn’t return to the labyrinth.”

Chrome said.

“That bastard definitely used disguise magic to transform into human form. Why would it do such a thing?”

“…”

“To remain in this city. Coincidentally, after that time, a certain secret society formed at the Magic University. The Abyssal Assembly of the labyrinth that you guys are involved in.”

Chrome gritted his teeth.

“And the leader there was the White Lion! I know that bastard’s face. Not the human face, but the real face pretending to be a mask!”

“…”

“Just like you guys change only your faces when you have meetings or need to negotiate with us, that bastard changes only its body when it comes.”

“Caleb.”

Enver made an expression as if this was rather fortunate.

Because Chrome had scored multiple own goals.

“There’s no need to listen seriously to this story. Right?”

He said.

“Common sense dictates that a monster with that level of intelligence that can even speak couldn’t possibly exist…”

Caleb’s face had turned pale.

***

Such a monster can exist.

I didn’t know until now, but it’s possible.

Because the Spider Doctor is like that!

‘This can’t be.’

To confess, while investigating Black Dog and the Enver Club, I felt like I was looking for cockroaches that had crawled under the bed.

But when I stuck my head under the bed, shit, I suddenly locked eyes with a serial killer holding a kitchen knife.

‘Is it real?’

The Spider Doctor had mentioned the Dagger Raptor and Gourmet Whale to me.

Saying it was fortunate that the 3rd floor’s ruler wasn’t those two but the Spider Doctor versed in medicine.

If the 1st floor is the Dagger Raptor and 2nd floor is the Gourmet Whale, then what about the 4th floor?

The 5th floor?

Do similar monsters exist in the floors below?

If one of them is the ‘White Lion’…?

‘No, this is crazy.’

Goosebumps spread all over my body.

The Spider Doctor was freed when I activated the monument, but there’s no guarantee the others would be the same.

If the reason they haven’t been spotted in the labyrinth until now is because they’ve been living outside the labyrinth entirely?

Professor Dalstream said the labyrinth is a battlefield between otherworld possessors and the Labyrinth Master.

Just as ambitious adventurers go down to the deep layers to find and investigate the Labyrinth Master, what if the Labyrinth Master was also investigating the surface?

Speaking of Dalstream reminds me, we could go one step further.

‘Turn-Based Wizard.’

Dalstream said that was the Labyrinth Master’s counter.

If deep layer adventurers are looking for the Labyrinth Master, then what the fuck is the White Lion on the surface looking for right now?

“…”

I felt like my breathing might become rough, so I swallowed some saliva.

Get a grip.

Calm down, calm down.

Nothing has been verified yet.

In order, checking whether the White Lion is among the inter-floor village coins would be number 1.

Finding out whether it really came up to the surface would be number 2.

Confirming whether that bastard really is the Enver Club’s leader would be number 3.

No need to get scared prematurely. Since I found out early, I can prepare from now on.

Coming to Black Dog today was really a stroke of genius.

“Caleb…?”

Enver examined my complexion.

This bastard was also damn easy until now, but suddenly I’m scared of him.

How much does Enver know?

If we assume Chrome’s words are 100% true, is Enver being used without knowing whether his boss is human or monster? Or does he know and cooperate?

“Well, I didn’t expect you to believe it anyway.”

Chrome said to me.

“Anyway, let’s move on to the main point then. What’s the reason you guys came here?”

Chrome asked.

“It’s not like you came to say hello about recruiting a good newcomer, right?”

Knock knock knock.

Right then, someone knocked on the meeting room door.

***

About 100 meters away from the casino. An abandoned building that had been destroyed long ago and left unattended because reconstruction hadn’t progressed yet.

“No really, how did this brother pull this off.”

Backstab looked into the glass bottle and exclaimed in admiration.

The glass bottle’s video screen showed Caleb, Professor Enver, and casino owner Chrome.

This was because a Wizard’s Eye in transparent state was floating in the corner of that meeting room filming.

Unbelievably, in the instant that Backstab cast invisibility, the Wizard’s Eye had poof teleported to the 2nd floor.

Then it started following and filming Caleb.

This was probably the first time since the labyrinth eruption 12 years ago that both the 1st floor watchers and 2nd floor guards’ security had been completely breached – by physically destroying and killing everything.

“If you just keep gambling, you’ll soon build the Kerten mansion next to the Berten mansion.”

While Backstab was enjoying spying on the meeting room even though no sound could be heard, it was then.

Someone quietly entered the abandoned building with muffled footsteps.

It was a feline beastman.

I know from Caleb. Her name was ‘Neko’? She’s a security officer.

“How did it go?”

“It was successful.”

To her question, Backstab proudly showed the glass bottle.

Now when the meeting in that place ends, the Wizard’s Eye will follow Chrome.

‘Check where he goes and who he meets.’

Caleb had asked Backstab to do that. The reason was that the people Chrome would meet after the meeting were likely to be possessors.

He didn’t tell Backstab and Neko that though.

“Brother will use this eyeball to check when the meeting ends, and if brother is late coming out, he told us to contact Security Headquarters and storm in immediately.”

“Yes, I understand. I absolutely won’t let Caleb fall into danger. Our forces are on standby outside.”

Neko said.

For her, this opportunity that Caleb had created was truly incredible beyond words.

Moving a Wizard’s Eye in transparent state to the 2nd floor.

“If we track Chrome, we might be able to find our agent who’s captured by Black Dog.”

Neko couldn’t miss this once-in-a-lifetime chance.

She took the glass bottle from Backstab. The Wizard’s Eye depends greatly on the user’s magic proficiency. Both its movement range and operation success rate.

Fortunately, she was a wizard.

“Track Chrome from now on.”

The Wizard’s Eye slowly moved behind Chrome. And the moment the field of view changed.

“Huh?”

An unexpected figure appeared in the meeting room.

Security Officer Neko felt dizzy.

“Wh, what…”

Black Dog is a powerful organization that controls Soren with tremendous intelligence networks.

Not only politicians in the council and business tycoons, but even.

“Inspector…”

He was a middle manager at Security Headquarters.

Neko’s superior had appeared in the meeting room.

***

After first escaping from the labyrinth, when the lie prevention magic was still active and Meldini came and danced with swords.

I thought this.

That outside the labyrinth was much more dangerous than inside the labyrinth.

I realize it anew once again.

Inside the labyrinth is mostly within the range of my knowledge, so it’s controllable. But outside isn’t like that.

A city where inter-floor village monsters might be living.

A city where Security Headquarters inspectors have been turned by gangs.

What is this, Gotham City?

This place is indeed more dangerous than the labyrinth.

“Caleb.”

Security Headquarters Lizard Inspector Ennes pulled a chair next to Chrome and sat down.

“Is the job Neko requested going well?”

I want to ask the Spider Doctor if I can get inter-floor village residency.