Just you wait, you sons of bitches!!—
“Damn.”
The curse I had shouted at the end echoed throughout the maze.
My voice reverberated through the passages like an echo.
I must have gotten a little too excited after obtaining Word Magic.
“It took long enough.”
Roughly two months had passed since I first entered this world.
So many things had happened that it was difficult to even explain them all.
If I were to pick out only a few of the major ones,
I had gone to the Family Head and received permission for the rematch.
I had scoured auction houses for the materials I needed for the Hidden Piece.
I had found a knight unaffiliated with the political factions to train my body and teach me how to fight.
I had diligently avoided Gilbert whenever he demanded another bare-knuckle match.
And I had checked on my young half-brother Geren, the well-behaved one without any claim to the succession.
That was about it.
It had been a long journey, but knowing that it had all been for this moment made me feel much more generous about it.
“Phew….”
The air in the labyrinth somehow felt different from before.
Was it because I had obtained Legendary Magic?
It almost seemed as though there was some mysterious fragrance in the air.
‘Okay, that’s going too far.’
In any case, I had accomplished the goal of my first expedition into the labyrinth.
I had finally obtained the Word Magic I had been waiting for over the past two months.
That left me with two choices.
I could continue exploring alone to familiarize myself with magic and the labyrinth, or I could leave for now and reorganize my equipment.
‘It feels like a bit of a waste.’
The labyrinth only opened during the new moon.
Entry was permitted for a brief period before dawn on the final day of each month.
The cycle was approximately 29.5 days.
In other words, leaving now would mean wasting almost an entire month.
‘The problem is….’
I was alone.
And I had only brought enough consumables for the return trip.
‘Let’s go back for now.’
Even when I played the game, I had never possessed this much power so early on.
I needed to restrain my greed.
If I wanted to return home, I first had to survive.
The labyrinth was a place where anything could happen.
If I died, everything would be for nothing.
“SKREEE!!”
A goblin appeared on my way back.
It was short, with green skin and long ears.
Now it was time to test the magic I had worked so hard to obtain.
The true value of Word Magic lay in its versatility.
As long as the user possessed an affinity for the relevant school, magic could be manifested in virtually any form.
I pictured a blueprint composed of points, lines, and planes in my mind.
Then I dismantled the twenty-eight-part incantation for Fireball, reconstructed it, and reduced it to a single utterance.
『Flame Arrow』
The literal meaning was exactly that, a flaming arrow, but the shorter an incantation was, the better.
I immediately recorded the Word ‘Flame Arrow.’
[1 Soul Power is consumed to record the Word.]
Word Magic operated on entirely different principles from both the eleven schools of magic and the other three Legendary Magics.
A Word was recorded directly onto the user’s soul, consuming ‘Soul Power’ according to the strength of the magic being recorded.
Soul Power was exactly what its name implied: the strength of one’s soul.
Unlike mana, it did not recover.
[Mana is consumed to access the Word.]
FWOOSH!
An arrow formed from the compressed heat and power of Fireball appeared before me.
The Flame Arrow pointed toward the enemy as though ready to launch at any moment.
The goblin recoiled in terror at the sight and turned to flee.
WHOOSH!
The flaming arrowhead first caught the clothes of the desperately fleeing goblin.
Then the arrow pierced straight through it with a THUNK!, and flames immediately engulfed the creature’s entire body.
“SKREEE!!”
The flames completely incinerated the goblin, leaving only ashes and an item behind.
Word Magic was inefficient.
If the user lacked an affinity for the school being invoked, a spell cast through Word Magic consumed more than twice the normal amount of mana.
If a Mage with an affinity for the Inferno School used Word Magic to cast Inferno spells, there would be no problem.
But if that same Mage used Word Magic to cast a Support spell, their mana would run dry in no time.
In other words, unless one possessed an ocean of mana, Word Magic was effectively limited to the schools for which the user had an affinity.
‘Recording and accessing.’
In a sense, this magic was like a library.
You created a book called ‘Flame Arrow’ by recording it, then took it from the shelf and opened it whenever you needed it.
The ‘paper’ required to create the book was Soul Power.
The resource needed to open it was mana.
‘...The problem is that I don’t have much paper.’
Every human possessed exactly 100 Soul Power, without exception.
Considering how extremely limited the methods of increasing Soul Power were, that was by no means a generous amount.
I would have to choose the magic I recorded very carefully.
With that in mind, I recorded one more spell.
『Dye』
You might wonder what kind of ridiculous spell ‘Dye’ was supposed to be, but for me, it was essential.
Platinum-blond hair was practically a symbol of the Kalsburg family.
If I wandered around like this, I would attract far too much attention.
I continued toward the exit while testing my magic along the way.
I had lost count of how many goblin ears I had collected.
About two hours after setting out, I encountered a four-person party with a single woman among them.
“Lady Claire. Please have some water before we continue.”
“Benedict. Isn’t that the one you were drinking from?”
“Oh dear. In that case, why not have some of the black tea I brought instead!”
All four wore armor and moved with light, effortless steps.
The fact that they were making that much noise inside the labyrinth alone suggested that they were no ordinary adventurers.
The most noticeable thing about the group was that the sole woman was exceptionally beautiful.
She had red hair and delicately arranged features.
Anyone would have called her a beauty at first glance.
‘Good.’
That, however, was of little importance to me.
I had a feeling.
A feeling that if I traveled with them, I would reach the exit without any trouble.
I cleared my throat once and quickly headed toward them.
Seo Jin-woo was an obscure game streamer.
It had already been two months since he disappeared.
The public interest that had initially surrounded the incident was nowhere to be found anymore.
She found it so absurd that a bitter laugh escaped her.
“What the hell? So I was the only one who actually took this seriously?”
At first, the entire country of South Korea had been in an uproar.
The incident had been both inexplicable and bizarre.
A person had completely vanished in the middle of a livestream.
There were no signs that the footage had been manipulated.
「Game Streamer Seo Jin-woo Vanishes During Livestream—」
「Deep Dungeon Distributor Timble Games: ‘We Do Not Know Who the Developer Is... We Merely Distributed a Game Submitted Anonymously’—」
The viewers reported the incident, and the police immediately began an investigation.
The case had already exploded across the media, and with public attention focused on them, the police had approached the investigation with unusual enthusiasm.
She had been watching Seo Jin-woo’s stream when he disappeared, so she had also been summoned as a witness.
She had repeated her statement several times and waited, but the investigation made no progress.
Public interest gradually faded, and even the police seemed prepared to close it as an ordinary missing-person case.
“This can’t continue.”
The public had already forgotten the person named Seo Jin-woo.
But three people, including her, had not.
They began making a plan.
A plan to find the missing Seo Jin-woo.
They would clear Deep Dungeon themselves.
They believed that if they recreated the same circumstances, they might at least uncover a clue.
[Snowflake : We’ve finished analyzing the streams and learning the patterns. Now it’s time for the real thing. Everyone ready?]
[Laika : I think we’ll get there faster than expected. We already have all the material Jin-woo hyung analyzed for us. Wow, though. This guy really is a pathological perfectionist. How did he organize all of this by himself? Wasn’t streaming just a side gig for him?]
[Eclipse : Enough chatter. Let’s begin.]
Once Seo Jin-woo’s disappearance became a major topic of discussion, many people began attempting to clear the game themselves.
Naturally, almost none of them were serious about it.
For most, it was nothing more than a momentary impulse fueled by curiosity and attention.
Except for her.
[Snowflake : Was anyone here a fan of Seo Jin-woo? I’m going to analyze the material and videos he made and try to clear the game. Anyone interested?]
More than a hundred people gathered at first.
Once those who were merely curious dropped out, fifty remained.
Then people complained that it was a waste of time, and only ten were left.
Finally, after deciding that the game was simply impossible, all but three gave up.
Each of the three had a different reason for wanting to clear it.
[Laika : Me? Obviously because it sounds fun!]
[Eclipse : I know him personally. That’s all.]
[Snowflake : Me? Well... just because.]
It was a lie.
No one there was more desperate than she was.
To her, Seo Jin-woo had been both an idol and a source of hope.
Four years earlier, when she had only just entered the workforce,
when life had become so painful that she wanted to die,
she had stumbled across his stream by chance.
[Ah, this is driving me insane! Everyone saw me use the ultimate, right? Why did it activate 0.5 seconds late? Is there some kind of map effect?]
At first, it had been nothing more than curiosity.
Someone was challenging something no one had ever succeeded at before.
She had even laughed at him inwardly for being foolish.
He was stubbornly trying to climb an impregnable fortress that could never be conquered.
[Everyone saw what happened when I got wiped out here before, right? See? I was right. I told you there’s nothing you can’t accomplish if you keep working at it.]
She had not wanted to accept his words.
Life was full of things that effort alone could never accomplish.
She thought he simply did not understand how the world worked.
In the end, she had wanted to see him give up in humiliation.
[We finally made it to the seventh floor! Just wait, everyone. I’ll be up there in no time.]
But the moment she had been waiting for never came.
After a year, she finally became fed up.
She could not understand him.
Why would he not give up?
How could he continue challenging the same thing with the same expression every time?
‘Why…?’
At some point, she realized that her feelings had changed.
If someone could refuse to give up this stubbornly, perhaps he really would succeed one day.
Perhaps, at the very end, all of his effort would finally be rewarded.
She found herself wanting to see that moment with her own eyes.
[Snowflake : Keep going. I’m rooting for you.]
He was foolish, but he was not stupid.
He faced everything as a challenge and never hesitated once he had made a decision.
He clung to his goal with relentless persistence until, at last, he made the impossible possible.
[I beat iiiiiit!!]
She could hardly believe it even as she watched.
Something swelled inside her chest.
She wanted to type something into the chat, but tears blurred her vision.
After all, she too had overcome many things during those same two years.
[Seriously, thank you, everyone. Honestly, I thought this would take another year... I only managed to keep myself together and make it this far because of you.]
For some reason, she even felt liberated.
He had walked his long road all the way to its end.
Now she thought she could continue walking her own path as well.
She could do it.
Just as he had.
But then... something went wrong.
[…!]
THUD!
A moment later, she heard a groan followed by desperate, ragged breathing.
[Haa... Haa….]
Then silence fell, leaving only an empty screen.
That was the last anyone saw of Seo Jin-woo before he vanished from the world.
Two months passed after that.
She continued walking her own path.
And at last, she arrived at the beginning of her journey to save Seo Jin-woo.
“Finally... I beat it.”
She had cleared the game.
The other two, Laika and Eclipse, had stopped showing up a few days earlier.
They had probably already grown tired of it.
Neither of them had been as serious about this as she was from the beginning.
「GO TO HELL」
At last, she saw those words herself.
The same words she had seen through Seo Jin-woo two months earlier.
CLICK.
She pressed the start button.
「Entering the deepest labyrinth….」
She was nervous.
For two different reasons.
There was the fear that she might truly be transported into the game.
And there was the fear that nothing at all might happen.
「This may have an adverse effect on reality. Do you agree?」
The ominous message appeared.
Her finger trembled for a moment.
Then she pressed ‘Yes.’
「Beginning Soul Transplantation.」
“…….”
「Soul Transplantation in progress... 17%….」
As she waited, she wondered.
Where was Seo Jin-woo now?
「Soul Transplantation in progress... 52%….」
If her hypothesis was correct, was he even still alive?
「Soul Transplantation in progress... 73%….」
She did not know.
She could not be certain of anything.
Only after facing whatever awaited her would she finally learn the truth.
「Soul Transplantation complete.」
A moment later, pain like an awl piercing her chest tore through her.
“Aaaagh…!”
She toppled over along with the chair.
Her vision had already fallen into darkness.
Then, just as suddenly, the pain vanished without a trace.
When she slowly opened her eyes,
“…….”
A different world lay before her.