Labyrinth (3)
A gloomy space where a blade-like wind blew.
As soon as Oh Hyunwoo stepped into the boss room, he looked around.
At the center of the room, a giant ogre was glaring at them with red eyes.
Around it, rotting corpses and decaying ogre soldiers were filling their hungry stomachs.
GRAAAH!
GRRRR!
The ogres’ gazes turned toward Oh Hyunwoo, Hertia, and Caligo.
The moment they saw the three of them, drool streamed from their mouths.
That was because delicious, living prey had entered.
The ogres had noticed it at a glance when the three entered.
Their bodies were covered in Overwork Spores.
They knew.
Humans covered in Overwork Spores were all unbearably weak.
The leader of the ogres, the Blood-Starved Berserker, grew excited at the thought of seeing prey whose flesh would be torn off while still alive.
How long had he waited?
For fresh blood and meat.
Until now, he had filled his belly with rotting corpses, but not anymore.
KROOOOO!
The Berserker Ogre roared.
At the expected reaction, Oh Hyunwoo slightly raised one corner of his mouth.
‘They are looking down on us. Of course they are, since we are covered in Overwork Spores.’
Oh Hyunwoo called Hertia first.
Even with Caligo as an ally, he could not have priority over her.
“Hert.”
“Yes, Master.”
“Use your newly obtained skill to blow away all the corpses and ogres before us. It is fine even if you cannot kill them.”
“If it is Master’s command!”
Without hesitation, Hertia concentrated the energy of darkness at her fingertips.
A black and dangerous power gathered, creating a giant sphere of energy.
Looking at the enemies before her, Hertia smiled coldly.
As though she were looking at useless pests.
SNAP!
Hertia snapped her fingers.
At that moment, a veil of darkness took over the boss room.
As though all light had been drained from it, the room was covered in a pitch-black veil.
Hiss. Hiss.
A strange sound echoed from within the veil.
Small threads rising from the darkness began to wriggle and dance as if they had gained life.
They were delicate like spiderwebs, yet sharp at the same time.
Then, at last, the threads of darkness found their prey, the ogres, and stretched out in straight lines.
Hiss... Hiss...!
WHISH, WHISH!
The extended threads pierced straight through the ogres’ hearts.
At first, an ogre soldier merely scratched its chest as though it found the sensation of something pricking it annoying, but—
《The 1st effect of the Reverse Side of Darkness skill activates.》
《The defense of the enemies hit is broken down by 50%!》
KROOOOO!
Blood sprayed from its softened chest, and the ogre let out a painful scream.
Along with that came the energy of death approaching from within the darkness.
Hertia’s attack was not over yet.
“Foolish things.”
SNAP!
She snapped her fingers once again.
WHOOOOOSH!
This time, a powerful wind began to blow from the veil of darkness.
That wind gradually grew fiercer.
The wind became a vortex, then a storm.
Inside the storm, the thin threads that had come from the veil were still sprouting.
《The 2nd effect of the Reverse Side of Darkness skill, ‘Vortex of Death’, activates!》
《A Vortex of Death forms around the target hit, gathering nearby enemies together.》
Those threads pierced through the bodies of the ogres that were sucked into the storm.
GRAAAARGH!
KRAAAAAH!
The screams of the ogres, filled with agony, were trapped inside the vortex that led them toward death.
The vortex swallowed the ogres and all the corpses scattered across the floor.
The vortex, filled with death, flew far from the entrance of the boss room to the edge and disappeared.
THUD, THUD, THUD.
The ogre soldiers were buried under piles of corpses.
They clutched their chests and writhed in pain.
*Vortex of Death: Concentrates the power of darkness like a vortex to destroy enemies and takes 20% of their attack power. Damage increases in proportion to maximum vitality.
The weakened enemies were gathered together by the vortex, and 20% of each enemy’s attack power was taken.
However, it was not a fatal blow.
It was probably because the stat reduction from the fatigue effect was so large.
However, there was still a card left that could turn this situation around.
Oh Hyunwoo immediately called Caligo.
“Caligo.”
“Yes! Honored Sage!”
“As you know, those ogres are creations of ‘vampires’.”
At that moment, Caligo smiled brightly.
“Creations made by vampires... No wonder. I thought the scent of their blood felt familiar!”
The boss of this dungeon. The prefix describing the Berserker Ogre, ‘Blood-Starved’.
This was a modifier attached to creations born through vampire experiments.
In that case!
《The Most Brutal Avenger skill activates!》
《Damage inflicted on Caligo’s archenemies, vampires and their creations, is ‘greatly’ increased!》
Of course, it did not end there.
“Caligo! Reverse the law! The target is the ally debuff ‘Powerlessness’!”
“I have been waiting for this! Kha!”
Caligo took out a dark green hexahedron from a subspace.
At a glance, it looked like a cube.
At the center of the cube was a small empty space.
Into that space, he placed a flask glowing with jade light that he had been holding in his other hand.
“Law Reversal—turn ‘Powerlessness’ into ‘Overwhelm’!”
Caligo placed the flask into the black cube and dripped a single drop of poison from his fingertip.
Then a giant black magic circle unfolded from the cube.
“Behold! This is the new law discovered by I, Caligo! Khahahaha!”
Small, sharp drops of jade liquid flew up from the center of the magic circle.
Then the cube began spinning wildly, as though fitting together a puzzle.
And the moment that movement stopped, black liquid spread outward.
That liquid covered Caligo, Hertia, and Oh Hyunwoo, creating a translucent barrier.
《Due to Caligo’s Law of Exchange, the Powerlessness debuff is exchanged for the Overwhelm buff!》
The 80% debuff that had been constricting Hertia and Caligo was reversed into an 80% buff, and on top of that, an ‘enhanced’ effect was added as well.
As a result—
《Due to the enhanced Overwhelm buff, the summons’ stats are strengthened by 160%!》
“Hert, Caligo.”
After taking one breath.
“Trample them.”
“Yes! Master!”
“That is exactly what I wished for, Honored Sage!”
The two of them rampaged like madmen.
Hert smiled sweetly and fed spheres of darkness into the ogres’ mouths.
“You seem to be in pain. I will soon make you comfortable.”
FLASH!
THUD, THUD, THUD.
As the spheres burst inside the ogres’ bodies, chunks of flesh rolled across the floor.
Caligo took out every poison flask hanging at his waist and scattered them in every direction.
“Khahahaha! To meet the toys of those blood clots—how delightful!”
As Caligo began a indiscriminate slaughter, Oh Hyunwoo’s passive skill automatically activated.
《The Most Brutal Avenger skill activates!》
《Damage inflicted on Caligo’s archenemies, vampires and their creations, is ‘greatly’ increased!》
The ogres were terrified by the madness of the two.
They looked completely different from how they had when they first entered the ogres’ territory.
The sight of them treating the ogres like living toys horrified them.
Especially the leader of this room, who had been inside for a long time.
The Berserker Ogre felt goosebumps rise all over his body.
Grrrk...
The Berserker Ogre collapsed onto the floor without realizing it.
At that sight, the other ogres were greatly shaken.
Until now, they had never even thought about their own deaths.
Only the appetite to fill their hungry stomachs had remained within them.
But now, for some reason, they wanted to escape this fight.
They wanted to flee from this narrow room.
But it was far too late for that.
Flowers of madness were already in full bloom in Caligo’s eyes.
At that sight, Oh Hyunwoo smiled in satisfaction.
‘This is why I like Caligo.’
Caligo had excellent versatility.
No matter which summon he was placed with, he always did the work he needed to do.
It did not matter even if his allies did not have the first turn.
As long as his turn came, Law Reversal was powerful enough to overturn the board.
“You died to a trivial poison of this level? Do vampires have no such thing as growth? Well, I suppose corpses that should have died long ago are pretending to be living beings, so their research cannot help being outdated!”
Furthermore, Caligo could feel that he was displaying even greater power than usual.
It was different from the exhilaration brought by Law Reversal.
‘This too must be Honored Sage’s blessing!’
Because the ogres had received vampire blood, the damage they suffered at Caligo’s hands was even more terrible.
Through the effect of the class skill, ‘Rebel of the Morning Star’, he inflicted greater damage on archenemies.
As a result, the ogres that had filled the room vomited blood and collapsed one after another.
KRAAAAGH!
KUOOOOOO!
GRRRRAGH!
The creatures vomited blood and tried somehow to survive.
However, what came out of their mouths was not red blood.
It was the greenish-brown poison flowing through Caligo’s body.
Looking at the ogres’ eyes, drenched with fear and resentment, Caligo sneered.
“Kha, do not look at me with those eyes. If you want to blame someone, blame the master who gave you such frail bodies.”
At last, only one remained in the boss room.
The Blood-Starved Berserker Ogre.
Step. Step.
Caligo approached the Berserker Ogre, who was terrified.
Then, before him, Caligo bit into his own index finger.
Poison flowing through his body dripped from the finger.
He grabbed the ogre’s jaw to inject that poison into him.
However, the ogre turned his jaw away and refused to open his mouth.
“Oho. You do not want to open your mouth? My goodness. A vampire creation refuses death... As expected, you are a failure.”
Smiling, Caligo let a drop of poison flowing from his finger fall not into the creature’s mouth, but into its eye.
Then—
KRAAAAGH!
GRAAAAAAAAH!
The Berserker Ogre writhed in agony, convulsed, and before long met his death.
“You died in such pain because you served the wrong master. Next time... yes, choose your side more carefully.”
Caligo laughed while looking at the melting ogre, but soon furrowed his brow.
He was grinding his teeth because vampires still remained alive.
***
《You have cleared the Nightmare Mode Labyrinth (Rare)!》
《An unbelievable record!》
《Time Taken: 3 minutes 22 seconds》
《You have broken the clear-time ranking and reached 1st place.》
《Clear Grade: ‘SSS’》
《You have broken the clear-grade record.》
《Level up! Your adventurer level becomes ‘15’.》
A level increase of five stages at once!
However, the rewards started now.
《Clear grade rewards will be provided.》
《You have received Equipment Set (Hero) Selection Box x10.》
《You have received Accessory Set (Hero) Selection Box x5.》
And then.
《You have received the artifact ‘Nightmare-Tainted Heart of Red Solidarity’.》
“!!”
When I saw the message, I nearly shouted, but barely managed to hold it back.
The reward was incredibly sweet.
The equipment sets were Hero grade, and they were selection boxes.
On top of that, an extremely delicious item appeared in the system window notification.
An artifact!
‘This is a proper jackpot!’
Among the artifacts obtainable from the Labyrinth, there were a few regarded as the best.
There was the Skull Shaman’s Head, which filled in lacking damage, and the Gnoll’s Claw Necklace, which removed the opponent’s buffs.
However, I would absolutely choose the Heart of Red Solidarity.
【Nightmare-Tainted Heart of Red Solidarity】
Description: An artifact made from the heart of a Berserker Ogre. The equipped summon designates one ally and triggers a forced joint attack. (Joint attacks are not affected by skill cooldowns.)
Modifier Additional Effect: A consecutive joint attack is possible at a 20% chance.
The answer was obvious just by looking at it.
It was an artifact where, if a tanker was placed in front, the damage dealer in the back would attack on their own.
It had even received an additional effect as a reward from Nightmare Mode.
‘At this level, I think other adventurers would recognize its value too. How much would it sell for?’
Out of curiosity, I immediately went to the marketplace and searched for it, and sure enough!
‘How many zeroes is that?!’
There were eight zeroes attached.
The number at the front was 5. A total of 500 million.
It was a proper jackpot.
In Nightmare Mode, the probability of obtaining artifacts increased, but even then, it still depended on heavenly luck.
There were even people who had played Legend Seven for a long time yet failed to obtain this artifact.
So, was I going to sell it as it was?
‘The 500 million is tempting, but...’
First, I intended to give this artifact to Hertia.
This girl would always have the first turn no matter what, so she was suited to using the Heart of Red Solidarity.
“Hert.”
“Yes, Master.”
“I shall bestow this artifact upon you.”
“You would give something this precious to me?”
“I will give you something even more precious later. I shall take this back then.”
“...I will not forget Master’s grace.”
Yes. I was truly relieved that things ended this warmly.
After every battle like this, everyone would usually make a fuss about taking something for themselves.
They would appeal to me, saying what kind of contribution they had made this time or how they were better than the others, and calming them down had been exhausting.
Fortunately, this time, there were only two of them.
Anyway, now that I had obtained an artifact from the Labyrinth...
All that remained was to start climbing the tower in earnest.
“Hert. Caligo.”
“Yes! Master.”
“Yes! Honored Sage! Did you call me?”
“The time has come.”
As though they understood the meaning behind my words, Hertia and Caligo immediately prostrated themselves and spoke.
“Congratulations!”
“Haha, finally! For the honor of Honored Sage and Pandemonium, I shall burn this body of mine to ashes!”
Climbing the tower in earnest.
Since those two were classified as ‘summons’ as well, it seemed they knew exactly what their duty was.
As for Caligo talking about honor... well, I had no intention of revealing my identity yet, but I had to keep up appearances in front of these two.
However, as I watched them rejoice...
“I shall remind the vermin of this land just how insignificant their existences are.”
“Khi! How long I have waited for this day! It has been so long since I fought under the name of the Seven Deadly Sins!”
I, too, could not control the way my heart pounded for no reason.