Leveling Up With Skills - Chapter 204: 51st Floor, The Forest of Mystical Beings (1)
As Taesan looked around the city, he asked a question.
“Who made this place?”
It was too well-constructed to have been built by mere adventurers. The ghost answered.
[It wasn’t us. It was here long before I arrived, and even before that old man, Ainzhaar.]
“Then…?”
[The magician must have created it. And the reason is not too hard to figure out.]
As Taesan conversed, a figure approached him.
“A new adventurer?”
A man in shabby armor walked up to them, his face filled with weariness.
He reached out his hand toward Taesan.
“As much as I hate this… I still have to do my job. I’m Darien.”
Taesan shook his hand and observed him.
Whenever Taesan had met NPCs before, a system window would pop up, providing information about them.
But nothing appeared for Darien.
There was only one reason for that.
Noticing Taesan’s gaze, Darien shrugged.
“As you probably guessed, I’m not bound to the Labyrinth. I’m an adventurer like you.”
[You’re still here?]
The ghost said as he looked at Darien. Darien’s face brightened when he noticed the ghost.
“Hero? So, if you’re here, that means you’re dead?”
[Yeah, that’s why I’m here. Are you trying to start something?]
“No, not at all.”
Darien barely suppressed a laugh. He seemed to find it amusing that the Hero had died and reappeared as a ghost in front of him.
“Anyway, I’d rather get this over with quickly so I can rest. Follow me.”
Darien began to walk down the road. Taesan took another look around.
It didn’t seem like a place inside the Labyrinth. There were numerous buildings and roads, albeit damaged, leading to a vast space beyond the village.
This place felt more like a world in itself than a part of the Labyrinth.
“As you can probably tell, this place is different from where you came from. You’ll have to decide whether to keep going or end up stuck here like us.”
“Us?”
“Everyone here is an adventurer. Well, we used to be.”
As he said, Taesan saw many people, but none of them triggered a system window.
“They seem to have been here for a long time.”
Judging by the old, worn-out buildings and the state of the village, it was clear that these people had been here for quite some time.
Darien let out a bitter laugh.
“That’s because this place is for those whose spirits have been broken.”
He continued.
“There are three main types of adventurers in the Labyrinth. The first are those who die while trying to descend. They’re the most common and numerous.”
The difficulty of the Labyrinth was nearly insurmountable. No matter how talented or skilled a person was, a single moment of carelessness could lead to death.
For instance, on Earth, hundreds of thousands of people had chosen Solo Mode, but only Lee Taeyeon had survived. That alone showed how brutal it was.
Among them, there must have been talented and extraordinary individuals, but they didn’t survive.
“And then, there are those who make it to the end of the Labyrinth. I don’t know if that’s true or not. Even the Hero here ended up dead.”
[If I hadn’t been betrayed, it might’ve been possible, but dead is dead.]
Taesan’s curiosity was piqued.
Was there anyone, besides Lee Taeyeon, who had actually cleared the Labyrinth?
“Has anyone really cleared it?”
“I don’t know. There are rumors, but I’ve never seen it myself. If even the leaders of the Guides couldn’t make it down there, how would we know?”
Darien spoke nonchalantly.
“And the last type is us, the ones who’ve had their spirits broken.”
These were the people who gave up on the increasingly difficult descent and decided to settle within the Labyrinth.
They were similar to NPCs, but unlike them, they weren’t bound by any contracts.
The 51st floor was a gathering place for such people.
‘Just like Lee Taeyeon said.’
These were the people who had been here for a long time, long before the Guides of Sin took up residence on the 51st floor.
They were people for whom time had stood still.
And the Demon God had said that the Guides of Sin were waiting on the 51st floor.
As Taesan expanded his senses, Darien continued his tour.
“This area is residential. If you work hard and save up money, you can live here.”
The place was filled with numerous detached houses. They were still standing, but they looked like they could collapse at any moment. Even the people on the dying Earth lived in better conditions than this.
“This is the tavern. If you want to eat, come here.”
Inside the tavern, a woman was drinking. She glanced at Taesan and Darien and spoke.
“A new adventurer?”
“Yeah.”
“Then a new resident. You’ll be stuck here like the rest of us anyway. Nice to meet you.”
“That won’t happen.”
“No, it will.”
The woman sneered at Taesan.
“All of us once thought we could go further, but we all ended up stuck here. You’re no different.”
Darien said nothing, as if he agreed with her.
Through this brief conversation, Taesan could tell.
He and these people had fundamentally different perspectives.
It was unlikely that any conversation with them would be productive.
Leaving the woman behind, Darien continued the tour.
“This is the church. If you feel like praying, you can come here.”
The exterior of the church was so dilapidated that the interior was visible from the outside.
“No one seems to be praying.”
“They’re probably asleep, hoping to meet their god in their dreams.”
Taesan chuckled.
‘Just like she said.’
Lee Taeyeon had mentioned that the 51st floor was a place where the broken-hearted lived. She had thought she could find solace here.
But the moment she fully understood the 51st floor, she realized that was a futile hope.
This was the Labyrinth.
The Labyrinth gave nothing to those who refused to descend.
And these were people who had given up on descending.
Such people wouldn’t have the resources to build a village, gather food, or repair buildings.
They could probably get items from the shopkeeper.
But earning the money to buy those items was the problem.
If they banded together to hunt monsters, they could gather some gold, but it wouldn’t be much. And given that they were broken-spirited, they wouldn’t be eager to risk their lives in battle.
That’s why the 51st floor was always short on food, and the buildings were crumbling.
And the broken-hearted often envied those who still had the will to move forward.
“Complete wrecks.”
“If you stay here for a few hundred years, you’ll end up like them.”
“I doubt it.”
Even Lee Taeyeon had quickly left this place, fearing she would lose her mind if she stayed too long.
“What do you do here?”
“Nothing.”
Darien answered flatly.
“We don’t do anything. I only guide new arrivals because the Labyrinth’s overseer asked me to, but I’m thinking of quitting that too. It’s such a hassle.”
These were people who had despaired at the difficulty of the Labyrinth. They had given up and settled down.
They were so consumed by a sense of powerlessness that they were practically buried in it.
‘They’re worse than the Guides.’
Or perhaps, these were what the Guides might become in the future.
People who had lost their way.
That was what the adventurers on the 51st floor were.
“As much as I hate it… I’ll finish guiding you.”
Darien pointed to the edge of the village.
There was a dense forest that stretched out, making it impossible to see far ahead.
“You want to keep going, right?”
Taesan nodded.
“I don’t think you’ll make it, but I’ll tell you anyway. Somewhere beyond that plain, there’s a unicorn with a blue horn. If you kill it and bring back its horn, you can leave the 51st floor.”
Lee Taeyeon had said the 51st floor was unique and that he would see something completely different from what he had seen before.
Just as she had said, this floor was peculiar. Instead of the usual Labyrinth structure, the task was to find a unicorn in a vast plain.
“Just so you know, Hero, don’t tell him.”
[I know. I won’t give away the path. The Labyrinth must be conquered with one’s own strength, without any help from others… though that rule’s already been broken.]
Lee Taeyeon had assumed Taesan was in Easy Mode and had given him all the information about Solo Mode. All of that information was now in Taesan’s mind.
“Once I tell you, you can pick any house and sleep there. If you want to eat, go back up in the Labyrinth and find something. It’ll be hard with the penalties in place, but if you work hard, you can gather a little gold. Then you can buy from the shopkeeper.”
It was as if Darien was certain that Taesan would fail and return here. Taesan shook his head.
“I have no intention of coming back.”
“No, you’ll come back.”
Darien twisted his lips.
“I was like you too. I came down the Labyrinth faster than anyone. I was confident that I could make it to the end, that I could clear it. But I got stuck here. Not just me, everyone here was the same.”
Darien pointed a finger beyond the forest.
“The only ones who can cross that are those supported by the Guides or those who are of a different species, like dragons. Yeah, like that demon who passed through here before. No one else can make it.”
Darien spoke as if his belief was the ultimate truth.
“Even the Hero next to you is the same. He descended the Labyrinth but didn’t clear it and died.”
[That’s true, so I won’t argue, but it’s pathetic to hear it from you.]
Darien ignored the ghost and continued.
“So you’ll be the same. Get ready to settle in here.”
“Sorry, but I’m not like you.”
Taesan shook his head.
“I can’t wallow at the bottom like you. I’d rather die descending.”
“…You.”
Darien’s face twisted in anger. He glared at Taesan, his pride wounded.
“Fine. Go ahead and prove it.”
“I plan to.”
Taesan stepped into the forest.
A myriad of vibrant colors filled his vision.
The moment he entered the forest, he noticed something different about the air.
“Poison?”
Taesan instinctively held his breath. Assessing the texture and nature of the air, he realized.
“It’s not poison… a hallucinogen.”
[A hallucination check is in progress…]
[Check successful!]
As soon as he thought of it, the check began. He passed without any issues, but the checks continued periodically.
Taesan observed the forest.
The forest was full of vibrant, colorful foliage.
Orange, green, red, and purple—all these colors mingled together, creating a dizzying effect on the mind.
[Be careful. The creatures here love to play tricks.]
Taesan cautiously moved forward.
And then he noticed something.
“The forest is moving.”
Taesan turned around. The trees and bushes were slowly shifting, blocking the path he had just walked through.
When Taesan looked at them, they paused for a moment before continuing their work.
Taesan chuckled and kept walking.
After a while, a skeleton came into view.
It was a decayed, crumbling skeleton. It seemed to be the remains of an adventurer who had ventured forward, but Taesan clicked his tongue.
“Whoever did this has a twisted sense of humor.”
[You figured it out?]
“There’s no way a freshly decayed skeleton would just happen to appear in front of me in this Labyrinth. It doesn’t add up.”
He hadn’t seen a single corpse while descending the Labyrinth. That meant there was likely someone or something responsible for cleaning up the remains.
So, it was safe to assume that this skeleton had been deliberately placed here.
*Rattle.*
No sooner had he realized this than the skeleton stood up. It clumsily waved its arms and charged at Taesan, who responded with a punch.
*Crunch.*
The skeleton crumbled to the ground, never to move again.
At the same time, Taesan heard a faint, giggling sound.
The laughter echoed from all around.
It was a high-pitched, childlike laugh, but there was a deep malice within it.
Sensing danger, Taesan kicked off the ground.
*Zing.*
A beam of white light pierced through the trees and the spot where Taesan had just been standing. He quickly dashed toward the source of the light, but there was nothing there.
[You dodged it.]
[You dodged it.]
A small voice, tinged with amusement, echoed.
[Will you dodge this too?]
*Zing.*
More beams of light shot toward him. Two from the left, one from the right, and two from the front.
Taesan drew his sword.
[You activated the skill, *Flow.*]
*Zing.*
The beams clashed with the sword and were deflected. Taesan twisted his body, dodging the remaining beams.
*Crash.*
The beams pierced through the trees.
Taesan focused his senses.
But he felt nothing.
The voice of the being, likely a fairy, sounded surprised.
[You dodged that too.]
“Interesting.”
Taesan muttered.
If a regular adventurer from the 51st floor had faced those beams, they would have been in grave danger.
Lee Taeyeon had said that the difficulty of the Labyrinth increased sharply from the 51st floor and that the jump in difficulty was incomparable to anything before.
This was a place where mysterious beings lived, a place that sought to kill outsiders.
This was the beginning of a new tier of the Labyrinth.