Conquering the Labyrinth with a Trash-Tier Trait - Chapter 24

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

Episode 24
“Croooak!!”
In Graash’s roar—commander of the Byeoldongdae—there lay a chilling fury.
That howl, unleashed after discovering the corpses of the Orc Riders sent ahead, reached us even from two hundred meters away, hidden as we were, and raised every hair on my skin.
Shhhhh.
At the same time, I felt a cool sensation spread through my chest, and watching it dissolve the trembling in my body, I could be certain.
‘Damn it. An abnormal status condition from this distance?’
We absolutely could not face him head-on.
Glancing back at the others, I saw their faces had gone pale.
“Uhhh.”
“Y-yes, sir.”
“A-ah, sir.”
The spirits that Bartus and the brothers had been quietly summoning to stave off their fear scattered completely at that single roar echoing from afar.
“Shh.”
Whoosh.
I summoned a fire spirit to add more heat.
Whirrr.
I summoned a wind spirit to seal off our scent from leaking past the Stealth Cloak.
“Listen, you—no, young masters. What did I just tell you?”
“Put this on and circle around to the edges, then start with the goblins.”
As expected, when the commander confirmed his subordinates’ deaths, his rage sent the rest of his forces scattering across the mountain to search for us.
“And?”
“No matter what, we recover the Paralysis Needles those bastards carry.”
“Right. So shall we start moving carefully now?”
“Y-yes.”
Perhaps it was the early childhood of a hero that made Bartus the first to move cautiously.
The Stealth Cloak itself wasn’t designed as an artifact for multiple people.
With Bartus and the children being smaller, moving carefully would provide at least some coverage.
‘Still, if we get much closer, they’ll spot us with high probability.’
So I had to be especially careful.
Watching the scattered forces—the Goblin Warriors in particular—I swung wide around the ones who had rushed out first.
One detachment, overflowing with enthusiasm, crested a ridge and slipped out of Graash’s line of sight.
“Karil!”
“Kucha!”
That group was moving together: one Orc Rider and nearly ten Goblin Warriors.
The Goblin Warriors rode small wolves and wore steel equipment, but they looked far weaker compared to the Orc Rider.
So then.
“Let me confirm once more. What did I say?”
“Kill the Goblin Warriors and recover the Paralysis Needles!”
“That’s not what I meant. When we fight.”
“While I take down the Orc Rider, suppress the sounds around us. If possible, bind its legs too.”
Once again, Bartus answered first.
Taking courage from his response, Baltasar and Cartus chimed in as well.
“Don’t get too close.”
“If it gets dangerous, run!”
“Good. Exactly. You must never forget this.”
“Yeah! Don’t worry, Char. And be careful.”
“…Yes.”
Listening to Bartus’s words, I slipped out of the Stealth Cloak alone and crouched in the brush.
‘It’ll be fine. It has to be fine.’
There was no other way out of this situation anyway.
‘From here on out, it’s a race against time.’
Gulp, gulp.
While crouching, I brought a bottle containing Concentrated Mana Dew (Rare) to my lips and drank roughly half of it.
Hummmmm.
Having drunk only half of a bottle that held barely eighty milliliters, my Mana filled to maximum in an instant—and then overflowed.
Hummmmmm.
‘This is Mana that will disappear soon anyway.’
Using that excess Mana, I drew on earth spirits to coat myself in soil, and wind spirits to muffle sound and contain scent.
Moving through the darkness that the forest had made, in that state,
I move the earth and wind from a direction away from the children and me, making the undergrowth shudder.
Rustle.
Whether the ruse worked or not.
“Kyarura!”
Crack-crack-crack.
Thump.
“Kuracha!!”
“Kyaruk!”
They began actively searching through the dark undergrowth.
Realizing they never looked up into the trees, I climbed up onto a thick branch.
‘Good. Very good.’
Of course, if I drag this out, there’s a risk that the children or the Bartus brothers will be discovered.
‘But if I finish before that, it doesn’t matter.’
I moved cautiously toward the rear of the approaching Orc Rider, steadying my nerves with a deep breath.
‘If the ambush fails, I’m really screwed… no, stop that. Get those thoughts out of here.’
Exhale.
I push away the anxiety and regulate my breathing, channeling my Mana.
‘One of them won’t be difficult.’
And when the distance felt close enough.
Whoom.
Tap-tap.
“Kyaruk!?”
I moved the earth on the opposite side of the Orc Rider to draw its attention.
Crash.
Then I leaped from the branch and thrust my spear straight at the fully exposed back of its neck.
‘Huh!?’
The moment I poured out my Mana with all my strength, some of the uncontrolled Mana made the spear tremble—
But instead of amplifying the vibration of the Resonance Spear, the existing Mana naturally adjusted to follow that rhythm.
And then.
Whoooosh.
‘Done!’
A sharp, tingling sensation ran through my fingertips.
I had severed the enemy’s life force perfectly, with no resistance whatsoever.
[Resonance Spear level has increased.]
[Resonance Spear level has….]
The system’s voice celebrated the exhilarating success.
But I couldn’t stop.
“Kwang!?”
The moment the Giant Wolf sensed something amiss and threw its head back.
Already having withdrawn my spear, I rolled across the ground and thrust it through the beast’s throat.
Keeeee….
The Giant Wolf too lost the light in its eyes without even managing a proper cry.
A flawless operation.
But there was no helping the fact that the Goblin Warriors nearby noticed.
Screech!
Kyaaak!
When ten Goblin Riders charged fearlessly, trusting in their numbers.
Several of their wolves became entangled in the suddenly surging undergrowth and earth, tumbling over themselves.
Clang!?
Cough!?
As the eyes of a few more turned to their comrades’ ridiculous blunder.
They couldn’t mount a proper coordinated assault and instead rushed at me one after another.
I didn’t miss that brief gap.
Whoooosh.
Thunk.
Kwang!?
I pierced the throats of the first two Goblins to charge, then fell back.
Unlike the Giant Wolf, the wolves carrying the Goblins seemed to freeze in panic.
Even that was an opening for me.
“Kyaaak!”
Whoosh.
After dealing with another Goblin Rider leaping over those wolves to avoid them,
I charged straight toward the Goblin Warriors aiming their weapons at my back instead.
Thwick-thwick-thwick.
As if to prove they weren’t ordinary goblins, seven Goblin Warriors fired Paralysis Needles that struck my body with perfect accuracy.
Directly into the exposed skin between the cracks of my shattered armor.
Since I’d only been guarding my face and charging forward with no intention to dodge, it was perhaps inevitable.
A chill spread through me the moment the needles pierced in.
Swoosh.
But immediately, a refreshing force surged through and washed away that sinister poison completely.
And so,
“Kieeet!”
I drove my spear straight through the torso of the shrieking Goblin Warrior.
Whoosh.
At the same moment, I felt the other Goblin Warriors who’d been shrieking freeze in place.
They didn’t understand what was happening.
‘Perfect for me!’
I seized the moment to charge at another one beside them, and only then did it react, swinging a small machete at me—
‘Too late.’
Whoosh.
Using Volante Footwork to cut through the blind spot between the wolf and goblin, my sudden thrust was far too much for it to parry.
With that, I’d already eliminated half of them.
“Kyaaaagh!”
The remaining five shrieked, but their reactions diverged.
Some burned with fighting spirit, others trembled with fear. There was no unity between them,
and the Spirit’s power tripping the wolves again shattered their formation completely.
Cling!
Finishing off the remaining five wasn’t a difficult task at all.
[You have eliminated: one Orc Rider, one Giant Wolf, ten Goblin Warriors, and ten tamed wolves.]
[Contribution: 70%]
[The enemy forces were of lower strength overall.]
[Experience gained.]
“Phew.”
As the battle ended—not difficult, yet draining—a sigh escaped me unbidden.
The moment it did, Bartus and the brothers burst out from a nearby corner.
“Sir!”
“Mister!”
“Sir!”
Seeing them, a smile crossed my face.
But I hadn’t forgotten what needed to be done.
“Find the Paralysis Needles. Quickly!”
“Got it!”
I’d slipped into casual speech without thinking, but fortunately they didn’t seem to mind.
The Goblin Warriors had conveniently kept their Paralysis Needles together in a single small pouch.
[Goblin Paralysis Needle (Advanced) x 523]
-Advanced Paralysis Needles used by Goblin Warriors. Coated with paralytic poison derived from diluted Red Poison Mushroom extract.
‘Nice!’
Fortunately, one of the Goblin Warriors had been carrying over fifty of them.
“What are you planning to do with these?”
“For now, let’s move. Even with the sound dampened, they might sense something’s wrong.”
“…Alright.”
I led the children away while pouring the Paralysis Needles into the Goblin Basket.
“What is that?”
“My secret weapon.”
There was no need to hide the Goblin Basket from children I’d met through the quest.
I answered honestly and waited for the result,
and soon,
Glimmer.
[Goblin Paralysis Needle (Rare) x1]
-A lethal paralytic poison with enhanced potency from concentrated Red Poison Mushroom. An exceptionally dangerous weapon.
‘Done!’
I’d finally obtained the weapon I’d been waiting for.
After synthesizing over four hundred Paralysis Needles, I’d strengthened them by two tiers.
‘This has to work.’
The moment Graash’s face crossed my mind—the captain of the Byeoldongdae, that Orc—my skin crawled.
But still.
‘There’s no other option.’
The thought steeled me, and courage began to kindle.
“That’s… surely not synthesized?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Where on earth did you find such a treasure?”
“That’s not what matters right now, young master. We still need to take down another unit or two.”
“…Ah. Right.”
Bartus, who’d voiced the rational objection, nodded at once.
‘If we clear another unit or two like this, I can make a few more. The odds will improve too.’
I moved forward slowly, spiraling through hopeful calculations, but the situation refused to bend to my will.
“Crooktos!”
Once Graash confirmed that the Orc Riders and Goblin Warriors had been annihilated, he instead summoned his entire force together.
“Crook, Ragus!”
Then, maintaining a set distance, hundreds of units simultaneously began sweeping the area in a single direction.
The thick forest ahead happened to branch off only in one direction from where we’d hunted—unluckily for us.
The direction they were searching was precisely where we were hidden.
‘Damn it. What do I do?’
Watching Graash in the center of the formation, my chest tightened.
Then Bartus spoke up.
“If you… take down the Orc captain… there’s hope, right?”
“What?”
“If you just take him down, that’s all it takes, isn’t it?”
I couldn’t be certain, but I couldn’t turn away from those trembling, hopeful eyes.
“Yes. Probably.”
“You made that weapon for exactly that, didn’t you?”
“…Yes.”
“So all you need is for me to create a situation where you can ambush him. Right?”
What was he getting at?
I asked, watching the bright gleam in Bartus’s eyes.
“How?”
“That thing you showed me earlier. I think I can do it too.”
Me?
‘What did I show him?’
Before I could puzzle through my bewilderment, Bartus whispered his plan to me.
And I.
“…If that’s possible, let’s try it.”
I wagered everything on that slim chance.

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