Chapter 454 (Side Story): End of the Labyrinth (1)

Kai’s brows furrowed the moment he stepped into the fifth basement floor.

[Horrific demonic energy is encroaching the space.]

[You have been exposed to the curse of the Betix Order.]

[All stats are reduced by 30%.]

[Decomposition begins. You receive 3,000 damage every 5 minutes.]

[You are under a Solarian blessing. All curse effects are nullified.]

“

Tsk

.”

He didn’t know about the rest, but one thing was certain.

There are no players hunting here.

This level of curse would be impossible to endure for mid-level users around 100, unless they were top-ranked players. They wouldn’t even be able to handle monsters that were normally easy prey under such heavy debuffs.

Where’s the place where the summoning ritual is being held?

He couldn’t tell. No matter where he looked, he couldn’t find any special location. It was no surprise as this fifth basement floor was vast, comparable to the size of Yeouido.

“Can’t be helped.”

He recalled something he once learned from a TV documentary. If you ever got lost in an unfamiliar place, the first thing to do was to send out an SOS signal.

If I can’t find them...

Then he would make them find him instead.

***

“Hey, why is this taking so long? Is something going wrong?”

“There’s nothing wrong with the ritual, unless you can’t keep that mouth shut.”

At the elder’s sharp retort, Gillian clenched his eyes shut. His master’s orders were to avoid trouble, so hitting this annoying high priest wasn’t an option.

Tsk. We’ve been waiting here for hours already.

His guild, the Carmelo Family, was on the verge of completing the quest to summon Demon King Betix. But since they weren’t true members of the order, they too were suffering under the effects of the curse.

“Hurry it up, will you? We’re only holding out this long because it’s us.”

“If it’s too painful for you, why don’t you join your master upstairs and wait?”

Gillian shook his head and sighed, swallowing his anger along with a potion.

If it weren’t for us helping you, you bastards would still be stuck eating moss in some cave.

And yet these fools acted like they were the ones in charge.

Just you wait until this Betix thing is summoned.

Once that happened, he wouldn’t need this annoying old man anymore, so he promised himself he would be the one to take his head. Then, just as he solidified his resolve, his face twisted.

“What the hell is that...?”

A golden beam of light pierced through the darkness, reaching up to the ceiling so high it was hard to believe they were underground.

Gillian asked, “Hey, High Priest. Is that part of the procedure for summoning Betix?”

“Insolent fool. Show some respect when you speak.”

“Yeah, yeah. Fine. Mr. Betix. Happy now?”

“I was talking about addressing me as ‘Your Holiness.’”

What the hell is this bastard saying?

Noticing the killing intent in Gillian’s eyes, Jane stepped closer and said, “This isn’t the time to bicker about petty things. What is that light beam?”

“

Hmm

. That doesn’t belong to our order.” The high priest squinted, staring at the golden beam as he continued, “Instead, I sense something disgusting and revolting from it.”

“Disgusting and revolting energy?”

“Divine power. The energy of those filthy beings who oppress and persecute our great Betix and us.”

At those words, the faces of both Gillian and Jane instantly changed.

“Damn it. Don’t tell me the Church caught wind of us and sent an expedition down here.”

“If that’s true, there’s no way we can hold them off with just our forces here.”

Jane quickly sent a message to their master, but the reply that came back was that that was impossible.

“Master says no one used the stairs from the fourth floor.”

“What? Then what, are we supposed to believe some wandering skeleton used divine power or something?”

“Impossible,” Jane shook her head and fiddled with the pouch holding her dagger. “The reports say some players took down the Ancient Gatekeeper.”

“

Hm

. Those bastards had some terribly good luck.”

Indeed, killing the Gatekeeper was the fastest way down from the fourth floor.

“Still, it would’ve been smarter to take the stairs.”

At least then, they would have run into their master and received a warning to turn back. Now that they had already descended to the fifth floor, there was no way they could be allowed to roam freely.

“Master said to hold them for a few hours and make sure they can’t post anything on the community, then kill them.”

“

Hm

... Is that so?”

Thinking about it slowly, Gillian realized it actually worked out better this way. He had been getting bored just standing guard beside the High Priest anyway.

“This is perfect. Let’s move immediately,” Gillian flashed his teeth in a grin and chuckled.

***

The holy pillar, which seemed powerful enough to wash away even the deepest impurities of the heart, gradually began to fade.

“

Phew

.”

After pouring out a surge of holy power, Kai quietly sat down on a nearby rock.

With a light pillar this large, it should be visible from anywhere on the fifth floor.

From the perspective of the Betix order, there was no way they could ignore it. Whether it was the dark priests or the knights, or even the Carmelo Family, someone was bound to come.

Maybe they’ll come all together.

He would see which direction they were coming from, take them all out, and then head in that same direction. That was the very core of his plan.

They won’t realize that my goal is to stop the ritual.

They would charge without suspicion, and once they did, there would be no turning back.

“Guess I should start preparing.”

After resting comfortably for about ten minutes, Kai stood up and began carefully scouting the surrounding area.

***

“Are we far from the destination?”

“Wait a second. The light came from this direction...”

“This is a forest, though.”

Even the monsters of the labyrinth hesitated to approach recklessly at the sight of the massive procession. Twenty rankers from the Carmelo Family and fifty dark priests and knights from the Betix order. It was a group of seventy people moving together.

“The light pillar should’ve been set up nearby, but I don’t see anything.”

“Could it be a trap?”

“A trap?”

At Jane’s question, the guild’s Wizard said, “Yes, as in, they purposely lured us here. Otherwise, there would be no reason to shoot a light pillar toward the ceiling for no purpose.”

“

Hah

, I thought you were saying something serious, but you’re just overthinking it,” Gillian smirked and countered his words. “If what you’re saying is true, then that would mean they know our goal and deliberately did this to stop the summoning of Betix, right?”

“That’s...”

“Even if that were true, it doesn’t matter. The main force where the High Priest is has over a thousand Betix followers.”

The wizard fell silent. Even he couldn’t imagine a scenario where the main force would be put in danger.

“

Ah!

Then maybe Pegasus Corp is involved? Maybe they were monitoring us, discovered us, and quickly sent someone here?”

“Are you stupid? If Pegasus actually got involved, our accounts would’ve just been banned already.”

“

Oh

... I guess that’s true,” the wizard reluctantly nodded.

Just then, Gillian suddenly stopped mid-step and raised his hand, his serious voice commanding, “Everyone, stop.”

The group instinctively froze and watched him closely.

A moment later, Jane frowned. “You must know I hate jokes like this.”

“This isn’t a joke. Pay attention.”

Gillian narrowed his eyes and carefully advanced forward. As he pushed through the dense forest, a fairly large boulder came into view. Sitting on that boulder was a player wearing cleric robes.

“Cast detection magic.”

At Gillian’s quiet order, the Wizard activated the spell, then shook his head. “It’s just him.”

“Expand the radius and check again. Do it a few times.”

After repeating the detection spells several times, the Wizard said again. “Confirmed. It’s only him.”

Gillian became puzzled at those words.

So he’s the one who fired that light pillar?

Naturally, the next question of why he did such a thing followed.

He probably wasn’t asking to get killed, so why did he fire a light pillar visible to both monsters and raiders in a place where staying hidden isn’t enough? For what reason?

As his thoughts reached that point, Gillian’s expression hardened even more.

Wait.

Why was this guy alone? According to the master’s message, the group they were tracking had hunted the Ancient Gatekeeper.

But if he’s alone, then that means...

The player sitting right there had hunted the Ancient Gatekeeper by himself.

In that case, he must be at least level 270... no, probably closer to 280.

That would be the minimum level for a cleric to take down a level 150 field boss alone.

Gillian then said, “Remove your hood and show your face.”

He was certain the opponent was a ranked Cleric-class player. He thought he would immediately recognize the identity if he saw his face.

“That’s not difficult.”

That’s why Gillian couldn’t help but be taken aback when the man removed his hood and revealed his face,

That’s an unfamiliar face...

He knew the faces of most rankers by class, but he swore this was the first time he had seen this one. However, an exclamation suddenly burst out from beside him.

“You... You’re that damn newbie from before!”

“Jane, you know this guy?”

“He’s the one I told you about! That arrogant newbie who damaged the Heart of Butifon!”

“What? So he’s the reason we went through all that hell?”

Gillian turned back to look at the cleric, his gaze mixed with irritation. He had invested heavily in preservation magic to use the Heart of Butifon, something they wouldn’t get another chance to acquire. He had spent hours running across the continent nonstop just to gather the necessary materials in the process. Of course, there was also disappointment aside from that—disappointment that their opponent turned out to be far below his expectations.

If he couldn’t even beat Jane in a one-on-one, he probably won’t be much fun.

Perhaps the only reason this guy had come here was out of some petty desire for revenge against Jane.

Gillian uninterestedly muttered, “I thought I might get a warm-up out of this... Guess it was a wasted trip.”

“Leave it to me,” Jane stepped forward confidently.

She had already beaten him once, and this time, there wasn’t even the Heart of Butifon as a weakness.

“Prepare yourself. I’ll take my time torturing you for hours before killing you.”

Dark energy wrapped around Jane’s body several times. The Betix order’s priests had cast blessing buffs on her.

“This time, I’ll make sure you can’t pull any tricks by disabling those arms of yours first.”

As soon as Jane finished speaking, she vanished and reappeared right in front of the cleric’s face.

Watching her from behind, the Wizard let out a small gasp. “She seems faster than before. Was that eleven, no, twelve swings in that short moment?”

“Even if you’re a backline Wizard, you should at least train your eyesight.”

“Pardon?” the Wizard asked back at Gillian’s remark but received no reply.

All of Gillian’s focus was fixed entirely on the cleric before them.

Jane’s daggers were swung fifteen times.

Even though she had used a skill, attacking fifteen times in under two seconds was impossible without absurd talent and relentless training to master full-body control. Thus, the outcome was clear.

Fifteen Shields of Light formed around the Cleric's body in an instant.

Those shields rotated smoothly like interlocking gears, forcing Jane’s movements. Her body was pulled toward one side as if they had some kind of suction, and what came next was the result.

“W-what...?”

Jane’s gaze trembled violently. She couldn’t comprehend why a sword was lodged in her left chest. After all, her opponent hadn’t swung a sword even once. Her body and heart had simply impaled themselves on a stationary blade.

“

Tsk,

what a stupid coincidence is this?”

“Coincidence?” Kai smirked, then locked eyes with Gillian, who had been staring at him intently from the beginning. “Do you really think this was a coincidence too?”