Genius Corpse-Collecting Warrior Chapter 267

267

Implicit Lunar New Year (5)

“Wait a minute, Dallan.”

A hand carefully grabs your forearm and straightens it up.

Sienna said in a suspicious tone.

“Couldn’t it be a trap? There’s no way the cleaning monsters on the third floor of the labyrinth would leave a corpse unattended.”

“It’s definitely suspicious. Even though the armor is difficult to remove, there are no traces of the expensive weapons or backpack being tampered with.”

Lucia, who had been quietly strengthening her eyesight, also helped.

It wasn’t wrong. About twenty corpses left undisturbed in the middle of a swamp.

It could be a trace of a battle, but it is also highly likely that it is a trap.

“I heard that among the explorers, there are those who lie down pretending to be dead after taking specially prepared medicine and then ambush them.”

Come to think of it, the paladin who was Lucia’s predecessor was also stabbed in the back by his colleagues who were aiming for the holy sword while fighting a demon.

In fact, the paladin’s experience was limited, and betrayal and ambush were not uncommon words in the labyrinth.

Unlike the surface, where even the concept of security exists, the inside of the labyrinth is basically a lawless zone where force is the order.

Even if a crime occurs, punishment is difficult if there is no way to prove it, and there are many cases where the person is silenced by killing them to prevent trouble in the first place.

How could it be that the unofficial number one cause of death for explorers is not monsters, but explorers?

Therefore, when Dallen came down to the labyrinth, he was very careful about surprise attacks and traps.

“So what’s the problem?”

“…huh?”

Of course, that was a long time ago.

Sienna’s clumsy hand slid down behind Dallan, who was walking away again.

“…but. “Who cares about whom?”

Skin that doesn’t even get scratched unless there’s an attack like a dragon’s claw. The resilience that allows the internal organs to regenerate in an instant even if they are crushed.

At best, there was no way any of the explorers thrown into the third floor of the labyrinth could be Dallen’s opponent.

Dallen scattered his senses, scanned the surroundings, and approached the explorer party.

There was no problem. There was no case of being affected by the senses, and if by chance they pretended to be dead and then attacked, just kill them for real.

Moreover, if you look closely at the bodies of the corpses, which seemed fine at first glance, you could almost say they were dead.

Its body was full of tiny thread-like holes, making it look as if a long, thin bug had eaten a hard fruit.

“Tsk tsk…I met a terrible death.”

Felber, who followed, tapped the corpse with the tip of his cane and muttered.

“I’ve seen a similar picture in the ancient documents of the Magic Tower. A monster that sucks people’s souls with thin, invisible tentacles. “Is this the work of a tentacle maw?”

“That’s right.”

“This one is also known to live on the 5th floor of the labyrinth… It looks like something is really wrong deep in the labyrinth.”

Dallen put his hands in his pockets and tiptoed over the lying corpse.

Hardened fluid and blood dripped down, revealing a face distorted in pain.

Soon, other party members began to inspect the scene one by one.

The conclusion reached after a short investigation was that this was not a battle site.

“This can’t even be called a fight. “I think the expression massacre would be more appropriate.”

Lucia said.

The monster the explorers faced, the Tentacle Maw, is a high-level predator even on the 5th floor of the labyrinth.

The vitality comparable to that of a devil and the explosive movements of a half-mysterious body are such that even when facing a true dragon head-on, it will never be pushed back.

On the other hand, among the corpses that were just beginning to decompose, there was not a single explorer who went beyond the third level.

In the first place, nearly half of the party had to operate on the first floor of the labyrinth, so there was no way they could be opponents of a transcendent-level predator.

“A steel sword that only small-town guards would use. A necklace with a flimsy shield spell. All the weapons are trash. “It’s not suitable for the third floor of the labyrinth.”

“Why did you come down here? Crossing the Scorching Desert wouldn’t have been easy…”

“Because the exit was blocked.”

Hwareuk.

He creates fire in his hands and blows away the sticky body fluid. Lucia tilted her head and asked back at Dallen’s words.

“You mean the exit? …Ah, the barrier tower.”

“exactly. “I couldn’t go up, so I came down.”

News received from Inouko Tod, the bird who flies without a shadow.

As a messenger from the Geumgang Palace, he had brought news that the passage into the labyrinth had been blocked due to the collapse of the barrier tower.

And the fact that the entrance is sealed doesn’t just mean that the way in is blocked.

The story goes that the passage through which explorers who had already descended into the labyrinth would come out and the safety zone formed around the passage also disappeared.

“Rather than waiting for the barrier tower to be restored, I was planning to come out through another gap at that time. “The most well-known of these is the crack, so it must have come down to the third floor leading to the crack.”

The problem is that the monsters deep in the labyrinth have already taken over the third floor.

Both the Scorching Desert and the Bottomless Swamp were dangerous demonic realms, but the predators on the 5th floor were a nightmare even compared to the two.

Of course, questions still remained. Even if it is just a shell whose soul has been sucked out by a tentacle maw, it is still a desirable prey for the cleaning monsters on the third floor of the labyrinth.

However, the body was in very good condition, only slowly decaying.

‘If you think about it, we haven’t encountered a single monster in the past few days.’

A monster from the depths that escaped through a crack. A party of explorers died while trying to escape the labyrinth. Native monsters on the third floor whose noses were not even visible.

These are all things that have rarely been seen in hundreds of episodes. The puzzle I was vaguely putting together in my head foresaw another difficulty.

For now, if you keep going, you will find out. The group cremated the decomposing body and then moved on.

It was the fifth day in the labyrinth.

***

That day was not the only time we encountered an explorer party.

After the fifth day in the labyrinth, the party found the party wiped out at least once a day and as many as three or four times.

Explorer parties range in size from around ten to a maximum of around thirty.

Those who completed their final journey within the labyrinth all met a gruesome end.

“…Ouch.”

The party discovered on the 8th day that small insects had gnawed away and only the equipment remained.

On the 10th day, we passed a scene where the upper and lower bodies were randomly mixed together after being eaten in large bites.

We encountered more than a few cases of tentacle maws eating only the souls and discarding them, and occasionally there were corpses of not only explorer parties but also large numbers of native monsters killed.

By the time Dallen and his party had seen that eye-watering sight more than fifty times, they had come to one conclusion.

“It looks like Falcion is going to be fucked.”

“…You always have a foul mouth at odd times.”

Cracking.

Sienna said, poking the crackling campfire with a thin branch.

Dallen scratched his nose. Did I say something wrong?

“It’s not wrong. “It seems like all the monsters in the labyrinth have risen to the top.”

This was the conclusion Dallon and his party came to over the past fortnight.

The monsters that came up from the depths did not simply destroy the ecosystem of the bottomless swamp.

Rather, it was more likely that they had all the monsters from the swamp join their group and then ascended to the second floor of the labyrinth.

Otherwise, it would be impossible to explain the phenomenon in which the countless monsters that make up the food chain in the swamp area literally do not even shine a light on their noses.

Occasionally visible traces of deep-level monsters eating meals also pointed toward the entrance to the second floor.

“It’s definitely strange. According to what you said, the monsters in the labyrinth don’t move between floors at all, right?”

“yes.”

“Am I possessed by something? Do monsters of the depths have the ability to charm other monsters?”

There’s no way something like that exists. Dallen chewed his sausage and shook his head.

There were two possibilities I could think of.

One is the work of Enaxagus. The other is the appearance of variables he doesn’t know about.

The former was impossible. Because the evil god and the great demons under his command were unable to intervene in the labyrinth.

If that were possible, the Wish Stone would have fallen into the hands of a cunning evil spirit long ago. And this world would have already been destroyed.

‘Then they say it’s another variable.’

The fact that they have driven out the monsters from the depths of the labyrinth means that they are at least the level of great devils.

Moreover, if he was capable of driving them all to the lower levels of the labyrinth, it would not be strange to say that he was comparable to an evil spirit.

Was there such a being in the depths of the labyrinth? Dallen tilted his head.

The last place he explored in the first place was the 5th floor.

The 7th floor, where the wishing stone is located, and the 6th floor, called the bottomless pit, were all areas outside of experience.

“Anyway, what’s urgent right now is the Wish Stone, right? “You’re not going to go up to the labyrinth and hunt monsters, right?”

Sienna asked, taking out a fish bag and stringing it on a tree branch. Dallen nodded. This was a race against time from the beginning. There was no option to go back.

“Then there’s nothing to worry about. Since the confrontation world is fine, won’t you hold on for a while?”

“I guess so. “By this time, the Diamond Palace must have sensed something was wrong, so they will try whatever they can.”

In Dallen’s experience, the Labyrinth City’s tolerance was not easy.

It is a fortress city that can be called the last bastion of humanity, having withstood for a while even the all-out attacks of the evil gods.

Moreover, in this episode, the labyrinth city has more powerful resources than ever before.

It was said that not only the allies, the Tsar Kingdom and the High Orc tribe, but also the elf kingdom in the far east and the old Great Dragon of the Holy Knights would join forces.

‘Now that I think about it, this is the first time that Bourbon has officially formed an alliance with the Labyrinth City.’

This is a dragon that has maintained a lukewarm friendly relationship with the Witch of Feathers, but has never become a firm ally in any episode.

This time, he helped with various transactions, but didn’t he remain neutral until just before the battle with the Dragon God?

And there was no other reason why an ancient dragon that had lived for more than thousands of years broke its own iron rules.

Sienna immediately presented a new contract to Bourbon who came to save her according to the contract with her ancestors.

“So what was the deal?”

“curious?”

A smile as you tear off a small piece of fish and chew it. Dallen shrugged. I’m curious then. How did you roast and boil a dragon that was thousands of years old?

“I decided to find the remains of the ancestral witch.”

“Ancestral witch?”

“okay. “The first feathered witch who died in the underground palace of the King of Dreams.”

It’s King Mong’s underground palace. Dallen stroked his chin in silence.

It wasn’t easy. King Mong’s underground palace is a huge royal tomb built on the island of the shadow elves across the eastern sea.

When the elves were alive, it was a place that was difficult to enter for diplomatic reasons, but now that it has been conquered by Laphilem, it has become completely inaccessible.

Aside from the difficulty of conquering the underground palace, in order to retrieve the remains from the underground palace, you first had to defeat Laphilem and his army crossing the sea.

In fact, overcoming the apocalypse is a prerequisite for fulfilling the terms of the contract.

In other words, from Bourbon’s perspective, in order to receive compensation, he had to voluntarily help prevent the apocalypse.

“Are you aiming for it?”

“well.”

Sienna’s eyes drew an arc. Long eyelashes looked more attractive than usual in the presence of the flickering bonfire.

“If you sign it, it’s done. “A verbal contract is also a contract.”

“No matter how you look at it, it seems like an unfair contract?”

“Where is that?”

The smile disappeared in an instant and the expression said, “I don’t know anything.” Dallen was so dumbfounded that he let out a laugh.

Soon the sound of crackling sparks drowned out his soft laughter. After a moment of silence, Sienna opened her mouth.

“The underground palace of King Mong. “Are you going to come with me?”