Chapter 706
Srrng….
As if there were nothing to even look at, Mayer drew his sword.
“Since when the hell…?”
“You shouldn’t even have had a guide. You got here fast.”
The rankers of Dreadroar Guild following him also revealed their hostility.
Except for two.
Kiyov and Ivankovich.
“…”
“…”
Hesitantly, the two men actually began edging backward instead, as if they were afraid of Jinhyuk. Instinctively, they had judged which side was truly more dangerous.
“You insolent insects….”
With blades pointed at her, Alice’s brows bent sharply upward.
She intended to wipe them all out in one go.
Jinhyuk stopped her.
“Whoa, whoa, let’s calm down. If we start beating each other to death and lose sight of the original objective, there’s nothing stupider than that, right?”
To escape the Great Ramses Temple, securing the Book of Darkness came first above all else. With the other guilds also struggling on the opposite side to obtain the Book of Light, this was no time to confuse business with personal feelings.
“Mayer-nim. Wouldn’t it be better to use these bastards as meat shields to break through the traps?”
The main healer, Chloe, whispered into Mayer’s ear.
He had already looked troubled enough as it was. If there were people willing to become sacrifices in his place, his side could shed less blood.
Mayer sheathed the sword he had half-drawn.
Because Chloe’s words made sense.
“Fine. We’ll form a joint front.”
“You made the right choice.”
“Then I’ll give you your first task right away. That thing over there is the book. Go and bring it to me.”
Mayer pointed toward the altar at the very back of the room.
The Book of Darkness rested atop the palm of a black skeleton.
“I don’t really like the commanding tone, but as the bigger person, I’ll let that part slide. Still, this path is structured so that only pairs of two can safely get through.”
“Oh? You say that like you know the traps well. Do you know something about clearing labyrinths?”
A probing question.
“Mm. I’m probably the one who knows the most out of everyone here. The only reason I partied with Teresa and Adel in the first place was thanks to that talent.”
Jinhyuk scratched his chin.
At that, Mayer’s eyes immediately changed.
Indeed.
For some nobody to make it all the way here meant he had some kind of talent. If it was thanks to an explorer’s innate ability, then everything that had happened until now finally made sense.
And the more Mayer’s mind turned over the possibilities, the more the corners of Jinhyuk’s lips twitched.
Well, of course.
Did he think Jinhyuk had casually tossed out those words without any preparation?
The buildup had already been completed.
[Unique Holy Spear ‘Labyrinth Creation’ is activated!]
[The Barrier Master’s class-specific trait activates!]
[Unique Ability ‘System Manipulation’ is activated!]
A deep understanding of special zones known as labyrinths, along with the authority to interfere with and recreate them.
When the special abilities of the Operators were added on top of that, an invisible change took place inside the room.
Only Jinhyuk could notice it. They were the very foundations of the traps, yet from the outside, no one could perceive anything at all.
‘Good.’
He couldn’t openly seize the book right in front of them.
But he could rig things to his liking.
Should he crank up the difficulty first?
[Sigil of Chaos] [Sigil of Black Stone] [Sigil of Resentment] [Sigil of Hatred].
And then…
Even the [Sigil of Scales], corrupted through System Manipulation.
A total of five choices had been laid out.
Depending on which ancient rune was chosen first, the contents written in the book would change completely.
‘Normally, just obtaining the book is already a decent enough reward. If you only look at the clearing points of the Great Ramses Temple, there’s no real need to overdo it.’
But.
With conditions this favorable, taking on a little risk instead of aiming for safety wasn’t such a bad idea.
The fact that their existing combat power had increased drastically also played a major role in that decision.
‘Looks like Teresa got something from Gabriel too.’
Whether it was one of the Primordial Beings. That bastard called ‘that man.’ Or even some third force stepping in.
No matter who was playing games, he wasn’t going to let things proceed the way they wanted.
Jinhyuk casually stepped forward.
And without a shred of hesitation, he placed his foot on the floor marked with the most ominous sigil.
“Wa—”
The players reflexively shouted and squeezed their eyes shut.
They remembered all too clearly how the black powder had moved just a moment ago.
But the trap that should have activated remained still.
…It really did.
“I know about the traps.”
“No way.”
“Then the story changes.”
A strange light rose in everyone’s eyes.
If they only followed what Jinhyuk said, they could reach the book without a single sacrifice.
But none of them realized it.
What Jinhyuk had chosen was the [Sigil of Scales], something beyond the original setup. The reason the trap hadn’t activated right away was simply because there was no need for it to do so from the start.
Of course, those who didn’t know the reason merely snickered and began moving deeper toward where the book was.
And then.
It didn’t take long for the ease they had shown to vanish.
Vwoooong!
Suddenly, together with a bright light, black flames burst up from somewhere far away.
“Use a shield! Any kind is fine, but it can’t be fire-element!”
“Tch!”
At Jinhyuk’s warning, Mayer immediately signaled to the rear.
One of Dreadroar Guild’s rankers, lined up in a long single file, rushed to the front.
“Uoooooh!”
With a thunderous shout, a tank-exclusive shield spread out.
[‘Armored Castle’ is activated!]
“I’ll cover the back!”
The main healer Chloe supported the tank by casting multiple spells at once.
“Hmph. What a nuisance.”
On Jinhyuk’s side, Alice spread a curtain made of blood.
Boom boom boom boom boom boom!
In an instant, the black flames devoured the entire corridor.
When the storm that lasted over a minute finally ended, the ground sizzled and burned under the overwhelming heat.
Yet as if it were a lie, those behind the shield did not suffer even the slightest burn. Not even the shield had cracked.
But before anyone could feel relieved, the second trap activated.
Blue thorn-like blades appeared one after another.
“Divinity!”
“W-what?”
“It has to be blocked with Divinity of at least 6 stars. Anything else is useless.”
“Damn it. Saying Divinity out of nowhere….”
Paladins and priests were not exactly common classes. And on top of that, 6-star was far too high a requirement. Even Chloe, the main healer, specialized only in healing. She had no holy-type skills whatsoever.
Dreadroar’s only priest hastily summoned a golden sword.
Immediately afterward, two black blades flew in, drawing circles.
Rumble rumble rumble!
Each one was nearly two meters long, with both the speed and weight to create a shriek in the air that made the ears ache.
“I’ll take it.”
[Teresa activates ‘Praying Angel’!]
Centered on her shield…
…golden wings unfolded.
Kwararaaaang!
The blade that struck the dazzling Divinity was knocked away and embedded deep into the ceiling.
On the other hand—
Slash! Crunch!
“Kuaaaagh!”
The priest from Dreadroar Guild had conjured a sword, but the moment it clashed with the black blade, it was split in half. Naturally, the priest standing behind it could not escape the fate of being cut in two as well.
[A noble sacrifice has been offered.]
The moment one person died, the red liquid inside the glass bottle above the book rose slightly.
It was such a tiny amount that it was hard to tell with the naked eye.
Especially in the middle of traps activating one after another like this, it was even harder to notice.
“This time it’s the ice attribute!”
Jinhyuk’s shout was followed by the sound of yet another trap activating.
Like that, two people, then three.
The farther they advanced, the more sacrifices increased. The amount of blood filling the glass bottle also rose. Now the distance had narrowed enough that the change was plainly visible even to the naked eye.
“No way….”
“So that was it.”
No one said it outright, but they all understood at the same time what it meant.
Only if sacrifices kept coming would that glass bottle eventually fill up.
And only once the bottle was full could they finally lay hands on the book.
===
Boom boom boom boom boom boom!
The space made of hundreds of layered barriers and multiple dimensions had literally been reduced to a wasteland.
The holes gouged here and there were so deep their ends could not even be seen.
Proof that impossible powers had collided with one another.
“Still acting like a rat, I see.”
Shh shh shh shh shh!
Shub-Niggurath recalled her blades.
She had distributed every possible variable and unleashed an assault like a storm, but she still hadn’t managed to inflict a fatal wound on Nyarlathotep.
Even so.
She had definitely made sure it was worth coming here in person.
Drip….
Nyarlathotep slowly rose from the debris.
His body was covered in wounds, and half of it was rotting from burns and poison.
“This shell took quite a bit of effort to prepare, but it seems it was lacking when it came to fighting you.”
“The problem is always the arrogance of your kind, thinking you’re the ones sitting at the very top. The fact that you only prepared a single avatar like that meant you had no real preparations for us at all.”
“Let’s stop with the words that hit too close to the bone. If you mistake my current gentleness for something eternal, that would be a grave miscalculation.”
A chilling killing intent ran through Shub-Niggurath to the marrow of her bones.
No matter how limited his full strength was here, Nyarlathotep was still one of the Primordial Beings who had seen and experienced the most.
If things came to it, he must have prepared at least one move capable of flipping the entire board over.
The only reason he wasn’t using it was because the losses outweighed the gains.
Shub-Niggurath had come here only because she had accurately seen through that as well, which was why the battle of wits between them continued in a way that seemed obvious, yet wasn’t.
Finally calming his anger, Nyarlathotep let out a long sigh.
“Still, I suppose this time I have no choice but to admit defeat.”
He could not afford to lose Shuette’s body here.
All of his plans could only be realized through Shuette.
At the very least, here and now, he had no choice but to yield.
The problem was what price he would have to hand over in return if he could no longer use Shuette, humanity’s hero, in this event.
There had to be a reason Shub-Niggurath had gone this far to stop him….
Nyarlathotep sank into thought for a moment, then slowly opened his mouth.
“I see. …So you saved an ‘Apostle.’ And you came here so that Apostle could play a role in this incident.”
Each mythology could form an ‘Apostle Contract’ with a proxy who would act on its behalf. Naturally, that category included both the Outer Gods and the Elder Gods.
“Ha. To think that inside the main event, where players are all tangled together in a chaotic melee, there was an Apostle backed by the Elder Gods.”
It was like one tiger lying in wait among a pack of wild dogs at play.
“I’d like to praise you for realizing it even now, since you really are you, but you probably won’t have a next chance.”
All the plans had already meshed together like the precise teeth of gears.
All that remained was the choice.
The Elder Gods intended to deliver an ultimatum to Jinhyuk, who had taken the Necronomicon.
Would he obediently offer the book to them and become their loyal pawn?
Or would they forcibly take the book and kill him?
“…”
Nyarlathotep’s face twisted viciously.
He had not expected the Elder Gods, once they truly made up their minds, to have pulled off this much behind his back without him noticing.
Right then.
“And separate from that, I can offer you a third option that would be beneficial to both of us.”
“A third option?”
“Yes. I hear you’re being toyed with by a strange human called ‘that man,’ and frankly, I find it unpleasant that some unidentified mortal is meddling in matters that should be decided by the great rulers of the 50th Floor.”
The Primordial Beings had to be objects of reverence.
That meant they had to determine causality, issue commands to the Operators, and maintain the order of the Tower.
Nyarlathotep likely thought the same way.
“If it’s about forming a temporary alliance to eliminate him, then let me know anytime.”
Competing for supremacy over the 50th Floor was a matter for later.
Before that, there was no need for them to remain enemies when it came to cleaning up the insolent hyenas first.
“…”
Caught off guard by the unexpected proposal, Nyarlathotep paused.
As time flowed on—
Srrrk.
Shub-Niggurath’s figure turned into a wisp of smoke and disappeared.