Conquering the Labyrinth with a Trash-Tier Trait - Chapter 21

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 21
The moment I felt someone grab my shoulder and pull me away.
Flash.
The instant a different landscape came into view, I drew my spear and shoved backward.
Grunt.
“Huh? Not bad.”
A leisurely voice, and the man brushing off his hands as he stepped back a few paces.
It was Kim Hyun-sik.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“What am I doing? I told you. I was given orders. I’m not in a position to just give up on this.”
What he was hurriedly tucking into his breast looked like a Concealment Artifact.
That seemed to be what caused this whole mess.
The information my Trait gave me the moment he grabbed my shoulder confirmed it.
[Name: Kim Hyun-sik]
[Assassin Lv.15]
[Abilities 2/3]
-Covert Movement. Toxic Blade.
[Summoner of Bartus]
[Trait: Agility Enhancement]
I’d just learned that a Summoner’s Traits were visible too.
‘He looked like a warrior.’
Either way, I noted that his actual style was nothing like the equipment he displayed.
“So you followed me around like this?”
“Wow. Did you butcher all this? You seem to have learned the technique properly—so these were the items you got from it?”
A cave on Floor 4 Highland.
He was spouting nonsense as he looked over the traces of my kills.
“Just get out of here. I have no interest in running Quests with someone like you.”
“Hey, hey. You think you have a choice right now? That’s a funny one.”
Shk.
He drew his sword from his waist and walked toward me steadily.
“There’s nobody to stop you now. I just force you to Floor 5 and we go. After that, you do as I say. Got it?”
His expression was full of confidence.
An Adventurer with a Class facing a Novice—he had every right to feel that way.
‘Besides, he has two Abilities.’
But his carelessness. That was the opening I could exploit.
Thud.
Using the Volante Footwork in reverse, I created an extreme weight—a strike of perfect form.
My spear, vibrating with that full weight, descended like lightning into his chest.
“Tch!”
Clang.
His sword, drawn with a scoff, failed to push the spearpoint away and instead bounced back.
I saw his eyes widen and his body twist, but the distance was too close.
Thunk.
Tear.
My spear aimed at his chest pierced his armor and raked across his ribs.
Shallower than I’d hoped.
“Damn!?”
The moment his curse burst out, I fell back quickly.
But his body rushed forward even faster.
At the same time, his blade slashed for my throat—I barely parried it with my spear shaft.
Clang.
“Keh!?”
The recoil from the vibration in my shaft was greater than I’d expected.
In the moment he stumbled, my spear shaft whirled back and slammed into his ribs again.
Thwack.
Riding the momentum, my spearpoint thrust forward and raked his opposite side.
Tear.
‘Shallow again.’
Swallowing the frustration, I stepped back.
In that moment, Kim Hyun-sik, who had retreated several paces, hardened his face with an ominous look.
“Damn it, you bastard! Fine. That spear. Tch. So you’ve already sunk all your Level-Up Points into it? Stupid fool.”
He really was thinking foolishly.
“Well, whatever. At least there was something about you worth noting, right?”
His gaze swept across both my flanks before fixing on me with killing intent.
“I was planning to let you walk out of here intact, but you brought this on yourself. Scrap metal.”
The moment he moved, his form vanished.
Though I lost sight of him in that instant, the Spirit I’d released at the start of combat told me he’d circled around to my left blind spot.
Clang!
Ring!
I pivoted and raised the spear shaft to block his blade, or so I thought—
Slice. Slice.
In that brief span, cold steel kissed my neck and side.
‘Ugh!’
Crash!
I reflexively swept the spear shaft wide, and there he was—already some distance away.
Yet he wasn’t pressing forward; instead, he was grinning.
“If I’d wanted to, you’d be dead right now. You know that?”
My armor had been torn at the ribs, but that was all. My neck bore a shallow cut.
Bluffing, I told myself, yet a chill ran through my chest regardless.
Then my head suddenly spun.
“Ugh!?”
Hiss.
As a cooling sensation spread through my lower abdomen, washing away that dizziness—
I caught Kim Hyun-sik’s smile deepening.
“You’re getting dizzy now, aren’t you? Stomach churning. Vision swimming.”
Hm?
“I happen to be rather skilled with poison. Without my antidote, you’re going to start losing control of both ends, dragging yourself pathetically along before it’s over.”
Whoosh.
Watching him approach like the wind itself, a thousand thoughts crashed through my mind in that moment.
The poison—the Purification Undergarment was already handling it.
But those blade strikes I couldn’t quite see properly earlier had genuinely rattled me.
Yet.
Scrape, scrape, scrape.
Bang, bang, bang!
‘Wait… what?’
I allowed a few shallow cuts more, but something felt oddly manageable.
‘Am I… getting used to it?’
With short, rapid footsteps, he swung his blade from all directions—the speed was tremendous, but there was no form to it.
If anything, it was like an ordinary person flailing wildly with a sword, except the speed was absurdly fast.
‘This isn’t even sword technique.’
Yes, it was fast, but the tells were obvious and there wasn’t even a shred of deceptive skill to it, so with my Spirit sense as backup, it was clearly defendable.
Yet.
‘He’s definitely fast though.’
His footwork was laughable, but his body moved so quickly it left afterimages.
“Are you ignoring what I’m saying? Stubborn. This is only going to wear you down more.”
Clang!
Setting victory aside, I had no confidence I could catch him if he chose to run at that speed.
‘I need to be more decisive about this.’
Bang!
I deflected his blade a few times, then deliberately allowed him several more cuts.
Scrape, scrape, scrape.
Another shallow nick at the neck, one at the exposed ribs, one across the thigh—armor pierced, the blade just barely grazing flesh.
I avoided any lethal wounds, keeping everything shallow.
He seemed to be aiming for the same, so it wasn’t difficult.
And then.
“Hnn…”
He swayed and blinked, head shaking, and I saw his smile grow even darker.
“Now, don’t resist. Just do as I say, and your older brother will help you clear Floor 5 faster and send you on your way. Of course, you’ll have to tell me about this situation and keep it quiet.”
“I… can’t… say…”
“Then I guess I’ll have to start cutting off limbs. Should I start with your fingers?”
The moment he let out a snort of laughter and pointed his blade at my hand.
“Ugh…….”
I leaned forward as if collapsing in pain, and let the spear slip from my grip.
I had no confidence in my acting, but I was gambling that his arrogance would blind him.
‘Just a moment. Just a moment is all I need.’
And then.
Foot-fall.
He stepped closer, my spear blade tilted inside his sword guard.
In that brief instant, the angle of my body feigning collapse nearly aligned with the shaft of the spear.
Crack.
My hand seized the spear shaft.
Thud.
My feet, closing the distance in one long stride, generated momentum.
And the spear trembled in my grip as I drove it forward, punching straight through his solar plexus.
Wheeze——
“Gack!?”
Damn.
‘I missed slightly.’
Even as the spear went through, he twisted his body by instinct, so I’d pierced his right lung instead.
But that was more than enough.
“You bastard!”
Even with his lung punctured, he roared and swung his blade wildly, but he was already noticeably slower than before.
Whoosh.
I stepped back to dodge the sword and yanked the spear free, then thrust again.
Squelch.
“Kgh!?”
Thud. Thud.
Edelin’s Long Spear punched through his plate armor with ease, dealing successive killing blows.
There was no way he could survive, no matter how remarkable an Adventurer’s vitality was.
“How… how is this…?”
“Well.”
My offhand answer drew a shudder across his eyes as he knelt, and then he collapsed forward without grace.
Thud.
[Combat Ended]
[Experience Obtained]
Only after the system’s hollow voice announced his death did my hands begin to tremble slightly.
‘I really did it. I killed him.’
Thump.
Looking down at his corpse, my heart began to race even faster than it had during the fight.
I’d killed countless times before, but only Labyrinth monsters and beasts.
Even Lee Jeong-ho, I’d never killed.
But now I’d suddenly killed a man—and worse, someone from my own homeland.
The psychological shock was inevitable.
But once I acknowledged that.
“You brought it on yourself, you bastard.”
The curse left my lips, and my hands and heartbeat steadied almost immediately.
If he’d won, I’d be dead or worse.
He was the one who started this, the one who threatened me.
He even used poison.
‘If I hadn’t had that Purification Undergarment, I’d be done for.’
I never imagined I’d have to test this effect—created to prepare for Floor 5 Quests—so soon because of this fool.
“You did well. You did the right thing.”
As I was comforting myself that way and reaching for the portal, I suddenly remembered something I’d forgotten.
‘His sword and boots—those look like Artifacts. Hell, even the armor’s expensive.’
Only then did I truly calm down in the proper sense.
So I immediately began stripping his equipment.
“Heave.”
The regular armor I just shoved into my Goblin Pouch without even checking it.
But when my fingers brushed a leather wrapping in his chest pocket that was large enough to cover his whole body, I had to pause.
The texture and pattern of that leather were not unfamiliar to me.
[Cloak of Concealment (High-Grade)]
-Blends with surroundings.
The system’s description was remarkably simple.
‘Checking additional details.’
Whoosh.
-A concealment cloak fashioned from Elite Spine Viper hide.
-A premium piece that perfectly mimics the color and texture of its surroundings. Recently crafted.
The information revealed through my Trait made me laugh despite myself.
“Are you serious? The materials I dug up? It can’t be.”
Was this what you’d call fate? With a sense of bemused resignation, I pocketed the cloak anyway.
It was legitimately an Artifact, after all.
And next came what appeared to be a single blade.
[Brutal Assassin’s Dagger (High-Grade)]
-Attack Power +5
-Spatial Distortion Effect.
“Hmm.”
So that’s why I got cut even when I could clearly see it coming.
It was well-suited to his poison-wielding ability, but I felt no real desire to keep it.
‘Won’t fit in the pouch anyway. I’ll sell it later when things quiet down.’
Slip.
But his footwear was another matter entirely.
Not integrated boots extending to the shin—just leather shoes.
[Alderune’s Shoes (High-Grade)]
-Movement Speed +10
-Reduced Presence.
“Interesting.”
This might actually work if I tried merging it with my current boots.
That thought crossed my mind.
Just one thing gave me pause.
‘Mine are full boots, and these are just shoes.’
There was a risk that if I synthesized them, the shin portion of the boots might disappear, effectively removing one of my armor components.
But that hesitation didn’t last long.
‘No, typically the form adapts to the larger piece, so it should be fine.’
I crumpled my old boots into the Goblin Pouch and stuffed his shoes inside.
Fortunately, the synthesis worked.
Shimmer.
[Cheol-woo’s High-Grade Boots (High-Grade)]
-Auto-Fit.
-Self-Repair.
-Foot Fatigue Recovery.
-Movement Speed +10
-Reduced Presence.
“Excellent!”
A piece of footwear had been born with far too many options to simply be called a high-grade item.
The name was a bit awkward, though.
-Boots synthesized by Cheol-woo through the Goblin Pouch.
The additional information would only be visible if I used my Trait, so it didn’t bother me.
‘I wasn’t planning to sell them anyway.’
I wasn’t about to give up the convenience features of my old boots, so I suspected I’d continue synthesizing items this way going forward.
After stripping all the armor and artifacts from the corpse, only undergarments remained on the body.
Unlike the blood-drenched upper garment, the underwear was intact. And it had a familiar shape I’d seen countless times just yesterday.
‘Right. You’re also a modern person. There’s no helping that.’
Even in this situation, a hollow laugh escaped me.
Everything else was just ten gold or so in cash and miscellaneous junk.
‘Clear it away. It’s unsettling.’
I dragged the body out, hurled it down the cliff face at the base of the Highland, and by the time I made my way back inside, I no longer harbored a single stray thought about him.
“Floor 5. Floor 5.”
I muttered the words aloud, steadying my breath.
‘I have to do this perfectly. A Perfect Clear.’
Because of the Perfect Clear, I knew that Floors 5 and 10 were far from everything.
But he was well aware that Floor 5 and Floor 10 were special layers.
‘The Quest with the highest probability of appearing on Floor 5 is…….’
He shook off the aftereffects of his unexpected battle with Kim Hyun-sik, ran through mental rehearsals of what he already knew, and then placed his hand on the portal.
[Return]
[Floor 3]
[Floor 5]
‘To Floor 5!’
A flash of light.
The moment his vision flooded white again.
A voice unlike anything before rang out.
[Perfect Clear records confirmed for Floors 1~4]
[Floor 5 Quest difficulty has been adjusted.]
[Causality fluctuation. The Adventurer’s connection to the deepest Transcendent Being has been established.]
[The lingering attachment of Ascended Being Bartus takes effect.]
‘What?’

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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