Chapter 90 Great Labyrinth (3)

The man wasn’t alone. He had recruited others after getting rejected by Yoon-seok, standing now with a total of four colleagues. A man and a woman were likely a wizard or priest, a male elf with a bow, and a female beast-person with dual daggers around her waist. All of them were rare professions that would struggle to survive in a duel.

‘Let’s get rid of this first.’

Yoon-seok stabbed into the skeleton warrior who faithfully played the role of his practice partner.

Whoosh!

Again, the man spoke, confident that he would be slower than the average person holding a sword for the first time.

“At the level of…”

As if it was very unpleasant that a challenger like this was on the same floor as them.

Crackkk!

The moment Yoon-seok’s sword penetrated the skull warrior’s neck, the man’s face distorted beautifully. Surprisingly, the slow sword contained the power to smash bones, but there was something else he couldn’t understand.

“…Huh? What? Why did he want to get hit?”

It looked as if the skeleton warrior had put his neck out to be killed, but that didn’t make sense either. Why were the creatures made to kill the challengers risking their lives? In the end, the man gave this answer.

“You’re lucky.”

Monsters also possessed intelligence. Perhaps with the emergence of a new crowd, he was distracted while feeling impatient and couldn’t avoid it. If one of them was from Moorim and had a knack for swords, another judgment could be made.…

Sadly, there was no swordsman, as all of them were from Seheranbad.

“I thought you’d still be good at this since you rejected me, but what is this?”

Meanwhile, Yoon-seok could understand why he was behaving this way by listening to the man’s murmur. He was upset when he rejected the offer to be partners earlier, but he became arrogant after discovering that he was such a nobody. However, as if Yoon-seok wasn’t the only one who was uncomfortable with the man’s attitude, the elven archer frowned.

“Hey, aren’t you being too harsh to this stranger?”

“Even so, he won’t be able to fight with skill like that.”

The archer sighed at the man’s answer.

“No, that’s not what I mean…whoo, whatever. I don’t think we’re going to be able to communicate. Let’s just get going.”

They didn’t say anything, but his other colleagues looked extremely displeased. Did he sense that, too? The man kept his mouth shut and nodded. It was the moment when he passed by Yoon-seok and moved beyond the crossroad.

“Where are you going?”

They stopped at Yoon-seok’s sudden question. When the man turned around to say something, the elf stopped him and stepped forward.

“Do you have any business with us?”

Yoon-seok looked at him without saying a word. What do you mean what business does he have when he called him a moron? Was he that clueless? Not seeing how he sighed with his forehead furrowed.

“Whoo! It seems like one of our people was rude, so I’ll apologize on his behalf. So let’s wrap it up here.”

A forced apology. He had no intention of accepting such a thing, and they had picked the wrong guy.

“Why are you apologizing instead of him?”

Yoon-seok didn’t hide his displeasure, and the fairy was speechless. It wasn’t that he didn’t have anything to say; it was because he didn’t understand what happened between them. There were four on this side, but one on that side. But how could he say it with that attitude? The cause was over there but doing so was like suicide in the Tower.

‘There’s no way the challengers I met here wouldn’t know. What is it? Are they that confident in their skills?’

The archer narrowed his eyes and looked at Yoon-seok, but he didn’t feel anything special about him. However, because of that, it felt even more out of place.

‘Let’s better apologize and move on.’

It was safe to call it a hunch. But it was already a step too late to follow that gut feeling.

“You want me to apologize? Don’t make me laugh. What if I don’t?”

The silent man couldn’t stand it and opened his mouth. No, it wasn’t just that. He even pulled out the ax that he was wearing on his back.

“Why aren’t you talking? What are you going to do if I don’t?”

The atmosphere turned threatening in an instant.

“Hey, we did something wrong, didn’t we? I think it’s better to just apologize and move on….”

“Apologize? What did I do wrong?”

The elf tried to mediate belatedly, but the man ignored it. He finally admitted that this was out of his hands.

“All right, do as you please. However, I will not intervene.”

“Ha, did someone ask you for help? Don’t come forward. This is a one on one duel.”

A duel. At that, Yoon-seok laughed inside his mask. Did he even know who he was talking to?

“Hey, mask. If you apologize now, I’ll just let you go. So?”

Rather, they demanded an apology. The reason was simple: he thought Yoon-seok was weaker than him. Instead of answering, Yoon-seok drew his sword and pointed at him.

「You’ve encountered evil.」

When the Judgment Sword was taken out, a mark appeared above the man’s head. Thanks to that, all worries he had disappeared. The rest of the party stepped back, perhaps because they didn’t want to interfere, and the man laughed.

“Is it because you’re a crazy bastard? You’ve got some nerve….”

Maybe he didn’t know that those would be his last words.

Slash.

The man’s body was split in half. Nobody saw Yoon-seok swing his sword. It was just a flash of red, but he was already dead when they came to their senses.

“…”

His companions instinctively pulled out their weapons, but Yoon-seok showed no response. He just looked at the body of the man with an unimpressed look. The cool time of b Predation} was over, but he wasn’t worth it.

That was why Yoon-seok couldn’t understand. How come so many audacious people still exist?

‘They won’t come forward cause it’s not their business.’

Yoon-seok turned his eyes to those who took out their weapons. A red light flashed from the wizard’s staff, ready for a fight. It was a little ridiculous. They just sat on the sidelines when the man was making a mess and went to that when it concerned themselves.

“We have nothing to do with him.”

Did they want to avoid a losing battle? It wasn’t like he couldn’t understand. However, a question popped into his mind. If they were sure they did nothing wrong, why did they take out their weapons as soon as he died?

“Do you think you did nothing wrong?”

Yoon-seok looked into their eyes and asked. The Eye of the Executor effect flashed a faint light in his pupils, but no one lied.

“Yes, if I had known he was that type of person, I wouldn’t have partnered with him. Besides, I was trying to stop him.”

Only the man was wrong, but they replied that they were not.

“I see.”

Yoon-seok smiled bitterly behind the mask. He couldn’t blame them for that, but…

Maybe that was what everyone thought, and that was why they came to be who they were now.

“Go ahead.”

When he offered to let them go, they turned without looking back. They were probably thinking of filling in the vacancy at the starting point.

“…”

Yoon-seok looked at the man’s body piled into a lump. Like the Shin Sang-hyun incident, light shone on the body, and soon it became particles that vanished. Of course, this time, it included not only the equipment but also the body. About a minute later, the man disappeared without a trace.

‘I didn’t come here to do this….’

Yoon-seok sighed. He didn’t regret killing the man. He just got caught up in the moment as they were happening.

‘Whatever, let’s finish this.’

Soon, Yoon-seok approached the spot where the monster died and bent down. There was a small bead the size of a fingernail left there.

‘I guess this is the essence.’

Yoon-seok picked up the beads and put them in his backpack. It was said that the more beads gathered in an exploration trial, the more rewards could be obtained once the trial was over. So, there were people who would steal beads from other challengers.

‘If you’re weak, you’ll always be bullied.’

Perhaps that was why Yoon-seok was so obsessed with power and risked his life to ascend the Tower. A world dominated by the weak becoming prey of the strong; he didn’t want to go back to his underdog days. And if he could, he wanted to change the world.

‘Let’s train later and do this properly.’

The exploration trial cost 500LP. Even if he didn’t get the item he wanted, he would obtain more if he spent the remaining fifteen days well.

Thump, thump, thump, thump!

Soon Yoon-seok ran through the maze without hesitation. When he encountered a crossroad, he just headed to the place where the road was leading. The first goal, for now, was to map out the entire area, destroying as many monsters as he can.

“Huh?”

“I thought something had just passed….”

“Was it a rare monster?”

The maze was so wide that it was difficult to meet other challengers unless it was near the starting point. Nevertheless, Yoon-seok encountered a group of challengers once or twice an hour. Unlike them, who progressed slowly step by step in destroying monsters, Yoon-seok was digging through the labyrinth by killing monsters as soon as he saw them.

‘Is it possible to figure out the whole place in fifteen days?’

For about half a day, Yoon-seok only ran in one direction. Nevertheless, the end of the labyrinth had yet to appear. He didn’t have any problems fighting a few monsters, but he suddenly thought he might not explore all areas within the deadline.

‘But now that I’ve come so far, I can’t even see any challengers.’

As he headed outward, the chances of meeting challengers decreased. It was inevitable as the monsters grew stronger and increased in number. Most people wanted to go easily in trials, and the condition of the exploration trial was surviving 15 days.

‘If they hunt moderately near the starting point or Safe Zone, they won’t die.’

He’d been on a mission and exploration, so now he knew how difficult the duel trial was. It was difficult compared to here, where partners could work together and cooperate. When the trial began, it didn’t end until one person died and one person survived.

Whooooosh!

Yoon-seok used Bloodseeker Energy to carry all the essence scattered on the floor and into his bag, sprinting through the labyrinth once more. How long had it been since then?

Thud.

Yoon-seok, who had been running for a long time, suddenly stopped.

‘Finally, there’s a dead-end.’

Half a day of running in the same direction. Finally, he reached the outer walls of the labyrinth.

‘But is this the secret space Ashton mentioned?’

A wide space like the starting point. At the end of it, there was a large stone gate. The rim shone in gold, and the door was filled with heavily engraved, bizarre pictographs, creating a strange atmosphere.

‘I think the exterior looks similar.’

It was unclear how many more doors were there in the Great Labyrinth. Yoon-seok approached the door, and he could see that this wasn’t what Ashton said.

「You have found an ancient cemetery.」

「Prove your qualifications.」

It wasn’t a place that needed keys, as he said.

“Prove my qualifications?”

First, Yoon-seok took out his sword. All he could think of was that this was a test. But then, on top of the stone gate, something similar to a human face popped out and opened his mouth.

“Challenger, the guardian of the cemetery, Arepton, asks.”

Something unknown, identified as Arepton, continued in a grave and great voice.

“Answer: What has four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening?”

“…?”

…Seriously?