◈ Episode 132. Complaining (1)
“W-what is going on?”
An occupational disease of Nettubers.
When Park Hwigang muttered to himself, the chat window played along.
-Why, what is it what is it???
-Hwigang, fix the camera angle!!!
-I’m dying of curiosity
-Don’t tell me our Lord Hoyeol showed up?! Praise be to Ho-men“ No. It’s not that Lord Hoyeol appeared……”
With a touch, the camera angle switched.
Only then did the [Black Contractors of Teffern] appear on the viewers’ screens.
-WTF why are there so many? ㄷㄷㄷㄷ
-For real, I’d have gotten one-shot and died like a sunfish without doing anything??
-But where are they going???
It was, quite literally, a great army.
They were stunned by the sheer numbers only for a moment; the viewers, too, sensed something was off. The [Black Contractors of Teffern] were definitely monsters listed in the additional update notes.
“Why aren’t they attacking like before?”
“You think I’d know just because you ask me?”
“Brothers, I drank precious potions for nothing. How about some donations to cover the potion costs?”
Whatever was going on……
Phew—sighs of relief burst out here and there for the time being.
But Park Hwigang did not yet let down his guard.
Because he had what one might call an explorer’s intuition.
“This isn’t on the level of triggering a trap.”
Ruuuumble—!
Even at this moment, the labyrinth trembled as if it were about to collapse. Even if someone had deliberately set out to troll, there shouldn’t have been any mechanism capable of shaking the entire labyrinth in the first place.
“Something even bigger has definitely happened……”
Normally, he would have racked his brains thinking about it.
But his contemplation did not last long.
There was only one possibility that came to mind.
Because Hoyeol was in the [Teffern Labyrinth] rift.
‘……That’s right, Lord Hoyeol is in the middle of carrying out a quest!’
The incident that had taken place in the [Teffern Fence] rift.
The conversation between Hoyeol and the spirit of darkness.
Because that scene had been broadcast, all sorts of analyses of their conversation had never ceased. That the infinitely deep darkness was definitely Hoyeol’s class, and so on……
But there was only one firm conclusion.
-“Only you can unravel this labyrinth of Teffern.”
Hoyeol had received a quest related to Teffern Labyrinth.
After a chain of deductions.
Park Hwigang opened his mouth.
“It looks like this is something Lord Hoyeol caused.”
-What? Lord Hoyeol did?
-Are you saying Lord Hoyeol trolled?
-That’s blasphemy!!
“No. This isn’t trolling!”
Just by looking at the actions of the [Black Contractors of Teffern], he could tell.
As if a trap had been triggered.
The mobs had awakened, but they were not attacking.
They were simply heading somewhere.
To be exact, they were moving toward the depths of the labyrinth.
‘Could this be part of the quest Lord Hoyeol is progressing through?’
He had reached a conclusion, but Park Hwigang kept his mouth shut.
It might be excessive speculation.
And in the unlikely event that it caused trouble for Lord Hoyeol.
However, for the others to come to know that fact,
no further explanation was needed.
The [Black Contractors of Teffern], who had repeated the same line ever since their first appearance.
Their dialogue had changed.
“……
After a long wait, the chance to correct our mistake has come.”
“!!!”
It was not just one of them.
All of the Black Contractors were saying the same thing.
The players, including Park Hwigang, exchanged glances.
As if none of them needed to go first, they opened their mouths.
“This is part of the quest too!”
“What kind of quest has a scale like this……?”
“Seriously, some people can’t even get one lousy side quest!”
What kind of quest was he carrying out
that it could shake the entire labyrinth and exert this much influence?
Beyond envy, their hearts pounded as fellow players.
At that timing, someone opened their mouth.
“Should we try following them too?”
As the [Black Contractors of Teffern] awakened and moved, there was no longer a need to worry about traps.
Really, if they just followed behind them exactly as they were……
“We might be able to reach the depths of the labyrinth safely.”
The depths of the labyrinth.
There, they should be able to reunite with the players they had parted ways with upon entering the rift.
Among them, Hoyeol was surely there. Setting aside the spoils of the labyrinth, at this moment, pure curiosity could not help but surge up.
“I want to see it with my own eyes. What he’s doing!”
He wanted to witness Hoyeol’s exploits.
It was not only Park Hwigang’s party.
All the players who had entered the labyrinth.
At each starting point where they had been dropped.
“If we follow those things, we can get to the depths of the labyrinth, right?”
“And Lee Hoyeol will be there.”
“Then we’ll be able to confirm just what the hell Lee Hoyeol is doing, right?”
The moment they made their judgment.
There was no need to say who moved first.
Rumble, rumble—!
At each starting point, the players attached themselves to the procession of the [Black Contractors of Teffern].
As expected, just as they had guessed.
The traps no longer activated.
“By the way, what’s with this damn labyrinth? Why is it so deep?”
“This really isn’t a rift that appeared so people could clear it.”
“At a normal speed, we wouldn’t have reached the depths, let alone cleared it, before the rift collapsed, would we?”
Even as they clicked their tongues, they headed underground, then deeper underground.
After hurrying their steps, the players arrived.
At the depths of Teffern Labyrinth.
And they witnessed it.
“……
W-what is that?”
The labyrinth’s rock wall.
A massive “something” that filled the entire surface of the wall.
“……
Is it a jewel? But it kind of looks like it’s moving?”
“Brothers, didn’t that thing just twitch?”
“Wait. Is that, by any chance, an eye?”
“Hey, don’t say insane things. What kind of eye is that huge?!”
It was so large that they could not recognize it at a glance.
It was a size they wanted to deny.
A pupil that looked to be easily over ten meters across.
Someone stammered.
“……
If that’s the pupil, how big is the main body?”
Prickle—!
The instant they realized it, goosebumps rose all over their bodies.
For a moment, the boss mobs of Arcana flashed through their minds. Had there ever been a monster that boasted such an enormous size? Even when they searched their memories, nothing in particular came to mind.
Clamor, clamor—players who had arrived from the other starting points.
“See? I told you we were late.”
“You’re right. So the situation on the other side was the same as ours?”
“Damn. Why are there so many?”
“……
Hey, wait a second.”
They, too, came face-to-face with the enormous pupil one by one.
No abnormal status message had appeared yet.
But if they were players, they could tell at once.
“I knew something was wrong from the entrance of the labyrinth!!”
“What, appropriate level 500? What a load of crap!”
“I knew it from the moment Lee Hoyeol entered. I did!”
This was not an enemy that people of their level could deal with.
They had realized it instinctively.
So naturally, their gazes could only turn toward Hoyeol.
“……
It’s not that I’m doubting him. But is it possible?”
Lee Hoyeol.
Estimated level, at least level 900.
However, no matter how much it was Hoyeol,
could he deal with that thing?
Because they had been overwhelmed by the creature’s size the moment they faced it,
the players and those watching alike felt unease.
“Boss mobs are on a different level. Even if you have the advantage in levels, their stats themselves are on a completely different level from ordinary monsters. And it’s not like there’s any guarantee that thing’s level is lower than Lee Hoyeol’s……”
Moreover, Hoyeol’s current forces were not at one hundred percent.
Hoyeol’s individual strength might be unchanged.
But the forces that followed Hoyeol.
The Magic Tower.
The Lionheart Knights.
The Shadow Mercenaries.
Even the Paladins of the Goddess Church.
This time, those overwhelming forces were not with him.
“All that accompanied Lee Hoyeol were three explorers.”
Of course, including the legendary explorer Fabian, none of the three were ordinary explorers.
But explorers were strictly a non-combat class.
Meaning they could not expect much help from them in battle.
A few quick-witted players opened their mouths.
“Then can’t we just join him? Lord Hoyeol, I mean.”
“Yeah, of course we should join him. We’re in the same boat anyway.”
“That’s right. We have to take that thing down anyway. But……”
……Honestly, would we be of any help?
They did not know for certain, but perhaps it could not see.
The enormous pupil had no focus.
It merely had its eye open.
Even so, they could not feel certain.
The creature’s skin tissue, faintly revealed beneath the labyrinth’s rocks.
“At my level, honestly, I don’t think I could even scratch it?”
The players imagined the worst.
If the focus returned to that creature’s pupil,
and its gaze turned toward them……
“Damn it, I’m already getting scared. This.”
Was this what it felt like for the body and mind to move separately?
Beads of sweat began to form on the hands that desperately gripped their equipment.
However, the players were overlooking one thing.
The existence of the [Black Contractors of Teffern]
who had gathered here,
toward the depths of the labyrinth.
The Black Contractors, their wavering black forms, began to move.
“!”
Because of the labyrinth’s narrow passages, it had been impossible to count their numbers accurately.
Once they entered the vast depths, their numbers came into view.
No, to be precise, there were so many that they could not be taken in at a glance.
“There must be thousands—no, ten thousand of them?!”
Perhaps because of the anxiety already coiling around their bodies.
Someone muttered softly.
“……
What if those things suddenly turn on us?”
“What do you mean, what if? We all die.”
“It’s too late to run now. Get a grip, everyone.”
Gulp—the sound of dry saliva being swallowed on its own.
But their worries were needless.
“?”
Because they had poured out from different forked paths, the Black Contractors had been mixed together in confusion, but now they began to move.
They formed ranks and files, arranging themselves into a formation.
“……
What the hell, all of a sudden?”
Their actions seemed faithful to “formality” and “procedure.”
The one who realized it first was, as expected,
the quick-witted Park Hwigang, whose faith had not wavered.
‘Lord Hoyeol. Where is Lord Hoyeol?’
As expected, Hoyeol must have been the one who moved the Black Contractors!
Park Hwigang looked around the depths.
The depths of the labyrinth, crowded with Black Contractors and players.
Trying to find Hoyeol in that place
should have been no different from searching for a needle on a sandy beach.
“……
Found him.”
Park Hwigang found Hoyeol at once.
Through the power of faith?
No, it was nothing like that.
The dim depths of the labyrinth.
A figure radiating a brilliant halo there.
[Hundred-Hued Outer Wings].
The outer wings imbued with a hundred kinds of elemental magic were fluttering, radiating their presence. And there was his silver hair, reflecting that light as well.
“Lord Hoyeol!”
Hoyeol’s presence shone brilliantly even within the labyrinth submerged in despair.
His figure was like a single ray of light
shining within an infinitely deep darkness.
In order to take a closer look at that appearance of Hoyeol, Park Hwigang activated his skill, [Explorer’s Eye],
only to flinch. He even blinked, wondering if he had seen wrong.
But no matter how he looked at it, what Hoyeol was holding in his hand was……
“……
A teacup?”
Steam curled up from it—it was even a steaming teacup.
*
Clack—
The angle of neck and arm, unwavering.
A teacup tilted with restrained posture.
……Tea time out of nowhere.
How must it look to others?
Forget it, I don’t even want to think about it anymore.
Yes, I’m the only one who suffers when I think about it. Hoyeol……
[For 6 hours, mana regeneration slightly increases.]
So-called crying while drinking elixir-herb tea.
I looked at the enormous pupil.
That thing was the “existence that must not be awakened.”
Indeed, the reputation of a legendary explorer did not go anywhere.
The moment Fabian saw its pupil, he identified its true nature.
“Judging by the hide, it is either a snake or a lizard. However, at this size……”
Gulp—even Fabian, of all people, wiped away cold sweat as he continued.
“I suspect that it is, after all, something related to dragons.”
Fabian’s vast knowledge sometimes wounds me.
……A dragon!
After flailing around with everything I had and barely managing to defeat the Demon King, now I had come face-to-face with a dragon.
Now I can be certain. This is all because I didn’t invest stat points into [Luck], seriously……!
‘Dragons are endgame content.’
Dragon.
If its strength had to be explained in a single line, it was simple.
『The lesson of the Dragon-Demon War, which left behind uncontrollable damage, was clear. Even the Magic Tower could not stand against the immortal beings known as dragons…….』
It was written so in none other than a book I had read in the Magic Tower.
It likely was not an exaggeration. So I understood why Fabian was breaking out in a cold sweat.
“Sir, now I finally understand. Why the ancient city of Tetfern, which boasted such a scale, tried to seal that thing away even at the cost of sacrificing everything.”
It goes without saying, but dragons are not demons. [Natural Enemy]
would have no chance to activate.
No—even if it did, this wasn’t an opponent I could defeat.
A being the entire Magic Tower couldn’t defeat even if it attacked all at once, you know?
The Magic Tower itself, the party involved, took its defeat as a lesson.
To the point that it even left it behind in books.…
It seems we are well and truly fucked.
The me of the past might have blurted that out.
But, you see.
By now, I’d adapted enough that my blank period hardly mattered.
In other words, I’d developed a sense for things. ‘That isn’t a dragon.’ The reason I could be certain?
Because I knew that quests had ranks, too. [Top Ten Mysteries Quest: The Labyrinth of Tetfern]
One of the Arcana Continent’s top ten mysteries, Tetfern.
Unravel the Labyrinth of Tetfern.
Reveal the true nature of Tetfern to the world.
Mysteries discovered so far: 0 / 10
─Witness the Labyrinth of Tetfern. (Success)
─Reach the depths of the labyrinth. (On Hold)
─Defeat the “being that must not be awakened” sleeping in the depths. (In Progress)
If this truly were a quest related to a dragon.
It wouldn’t have been classified as one of the Top Ten Mysteries Quests.
It wouldn’t have been world-class—it would have appeared as a true World Quest. [World Quest: Seed of the World Tree]
Like the World Tree quest.
So, inwardly, I thought it was worth a try.
That was why I had made every possible preparation like this, wasn’t it?
From item equipment to doping myself with elixir herbs.
If I had my way, I would have liked to take care of Fabian and his party too.
“It is regrettable that I have no tea to offer you.”
Fortunately, Fabian gave an awkward laugh and brushed it off.
“Not at all. There is no need for concern. To be honest, even if you offered, I’m in no state of mind to consume anything.”
“The same goes for me.”
“I agree.”
Hearing them all say that made me feel a little less sorry.
Besides, Fabian’s party and I weren’t the only ones here.
As you can see, there were the players who had entered the rift with me.
And for the sake of peace on the Arcana Continent, there were the proud people of Tetfern who had sacrificed themselves. [10,890 Black Contractors of Tetfern] [Current Status: Awaiting Orders]
And I knew.
The being that must not be awakened.
Whether that thing was truly a dragon or something else, I couldn’t know, but in any case, it was not in a normal state. That was thanks to the 『Black Coffin』 maintained by the sacrifices of Tetfern’s people. ‘Its five senses have been taken away.’ [Blindness], [Silence], [Paralysis], and so on.…
In other words, it was afflicted with all kinds of status abnormalities.
The unfocused eyes blinking at this very moment were proof of that.
And I was brimming with “compatible magic power,” which could further strengthen the effects of the 『Black Coffin』. Which meant I could open my mouth boldly, as always.
“O being that must not awaken.”
At the same time, I drew up my compatible magic power.
It wouldn’t be able to hear me, its hearing stolen away.
But I continued.
“If this is merely you being cranky after sleep, I shall indulge you. Go on, thrash about to your heart’s content.” …
Honestly, that mouth of mine.
I said that, but this was no ordinary matter.
I couldn’t simply stand by and let something related to a dragon rampage…!
My desperate will appeared as a message. [“Fear” arises in the being that must not be awakened.]