Conquering the Labyrinth with a Trash-Tier Trait - Chapter 40

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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 40
[Name: Go Cheol-woo]
[Race: Human]
[Level: 16]
[Stats]
Strength: 14(+3.3)
Endurance: 18(+6.7)
Agility: 14(+10)
Magic Power: 32
Physical Resistance: 3
Magic Resistance: 4
[Magic Power Skills]
Shattering Spear (Ultimate-Lv.1), Valgar Spirit Cultivation Method Stage 2 (Ultimate-Lv.1), Volante Movement Technique Stage 3 (Ultimate-Lv.1), Monster Butchering (Super Rare-Lv.1). Piercing Strike (Rare-Max), Throwing (Common-Lv.10).
[Level Up Points: 22]
[Innate Ability Slot (Full)]
Multiple Spirit Summoning.
[Traits]
-View Additional Information.
‘Perfect. Absolutely perfect.’
My level hadn’t risen, but with the boost to my Magic Power and the evolution of my cultivation method, my base stats had climbed as well.
Though it didn’t show separately on the status window, the Butchering skill’s jump to Super Rare had also granted me 1 point of Poison Resistance.
‘Small gains are still gains! Once the Butchering level increases, I might see even more growth!’
Looking at the same options as before felt completely different now. How fickle people could be.
Though there were no new items to show for it, the shift in mood was unmistakable—a surge of genuine elation.
But the most significant change came from something far more profound: perfect Consciousness Synchronization with the spirits.
‘Oh……!’
It was a strange experience.
Before, linking consciousness had felt like borrowing the spirits’ strength and harnessing their senses.
Now, the spirits themselves had become an extension of me.
What struck me most was that these fragments reflected my very nature.
-Hurry. Free Illumina and escape this tedious floor!
That blazing impulse came from Fire Cheol-woo, the fire spirit.
-I’m with you. This place is suffocating. We’ve been here too long. Let’s get out.
The hunger for freedom—an aversion to being bound anywhere—came from Wind Cheol-woo, the wind spirit.
-Don’t rush, though. If we proceed carefully, things will fall into place naturally.
A tone both detached and measured emanated from Water Cheol-woo, the water spirit.
-Either way, I’ll find a way through.
Resolute determination came from Earth Cheol-woo, the earth spirit.
It was as if segments of my own personality had been magnified to their extremes.
‘Remarkable.’
The status window worked the same way.
[Name: Wind Cheol-woo (Lowest-Tier Spirit)]
[Race: Spirit]
[Level: 10]
[Stats]
Spirit Power: 10
[Magic Power Skills]
Vacuum (Common-Lv.10), Wind Arrow (Common-Lv.10), Wind Gust (Common-Lv.10), Wind Consumption (Common……), and so on.
[Traits]
-View Additional Information.
‘……So this is possible?’
-I can think simultaneously from different perspectives too. Quite useful, isn’t it? Ha, ha.
I could now objectively list the abilities available to the spirit itself, and my traits even appeared in its status window.
They’d said a summoner’s traits were imprinted abilities on the soul itself.
I never imagined I’d verify it this way.
‘Everything works in my favor.’
Just being able to access additional information without direct contact multiplied the utility tremendously.
And so I focused on what Illumina was telling me.
The thing was—
-I’m shielding my entire body with Spirit Power to keep from being consumed by the Corrupted World Tree. You need to use the spirits to widen the gap between me and it.
—Me?
The answer could only be no.
Whoosh.
The wind spirit that carried my words now let me perceive her information as well.
Even the visible details were staggering.
[Name: Illumina]
[???? ??(7th Class) Lv.7?]
[Innate Ability 4/4]
—??. ??. ??. ??
[?? ‘Betrayed Her Race’ ?? ??? !@#!@#]
‘Seventies in Level…….’
So she truly was a Seventh-Class Job holder.
I couldn’t read her stats at all, but that alone was staggering information.
Moreover, amid the mostly corrupted information window, the phrase “Betrayed Her Race” leapt out at me.
‘As if it were being forced into view intentionally…….’
Regardless of my thoughts, Illumina continued her explanation.
—Even the most powerful ordinary spirits cannot penetrate deep into the World Tree.
—It is because the spirits’ instinct refuses to approach the World Tree, which might be called a divine spirit.
—But if a spirit achieves perfect Consciousness Synchronization, it will not be swayed by that instinct.
—Bartus will add his strength to your four spirits, and you will use that power to create an opening. It may take considerable time, but it is entirely possible.
Illumina’s voice flowed far more rapidly than before.
I could feel anticipation mixed with excitement emanating from her.
But having glimpsed her ominous description, her attitude struck me as unsettling.
That was likely why the question came forth.
—But how did you end up being trapped by the World Tree in the first place?
—…… I was the seventh daughter of the World Tree, a proud High Elf. Sensing a threat to the world, I thought that the prudish ways of the Elf Clan alone would not suffice to counter it, so I chose corruption and joined hands with the Green Skin. But I was betrayed by those wretches.
Illumina’s words were a blend of truth and falsehood.
Or rather, to be precise.
‘She doesn’t mention that she herself betrayed her race.’
In that moment, I could no longer trust her words.
Yet these past three months had been more than enough to teach me that this was the only way.
[Floor 10 Quest]
[Escape the Underground Prison of the Corrupted World Tree together with Bartus.]
[Perfect Clear Condition]
[Purify the Corrupted World Tree.]
‘Perfect Clear. Ha…….’
Regrettably, I still had no sense of how to approach that at all.
‘If by any chance there were a possibility…….’
Perhaps I could glean a hint through the process of freeing Illumina.
That was all I could hope for.
So much time had already passed that if not even the slightest opening appeared, I planned to be content with simply completing the regular quest.
In any case, Illumina was my only hope.
For now.
‘Damn it!’
Unsettling or not, I had no choice but to cooperate.
—What exactly should I do?
—I will show you how the Spirit Power flows; in that gap, wedge your own Spirit Power in to widen the opening. Think of it like driving a wedge into wood.
Following Illumina’s instructions, I moved my spirit, and Bartus’s spirit drew near quietly, adding its strength.
—Condense the Spirit Power of earth and water, blow it in with the force of wind, and drive the fire wedge.
—You must split your consciousness in sequence and adjust with precision.
—Don’t overextend yourself; do one at a time! Your work assisting those orc wretches must not falter. You absolutely cannot be discovered!
In the midst of hearing Illumina’s instructions, I grasped one crucial fact.
‘In sequence? Wouldn’t doing multiple things at once be easier……? Ah! Does she not know about Multiple Consciousness Division?!’
I was currently maintaining Consciousness Synchronization with four spirits simultaneously, yet Illumina was explaining as if she assumed I would struggle even with a single Consciousness Synchronization.
‘There’s no need to let her know about that.’
Given that I harbored suspicion about Illumina, I couldn’t reveal all my cards.
And,
‘Let’s do one at a time.’
Creating just a single fire wedge as Illumina requested drained my Magic Power in chunks.
I barely managed to create one, straining right up to the edge of losing the sequence needed to maintain air purification.
Hmm. Right. I should be satisfied with one per day. At this rate, it’ll take another month… but there’s no helping it.
Illumina’s excited voice had begun to settle somewhat.
“Human. Work is finished for today.”
Taru announced the end of the labor.
He and the other orc butchers seemed to have noticed nothing amiss.
‘Of course.’
My technique is flawless.
Bartus, who assisted me by sorting the meat, was executing his work perfectly as well.
Though he hadn’t achieved full Consciousness Synchronization, dividing his focus came easily enough that his movements showed no awkwardness.
He possessed an innate talent for handling spirits; his natural gift for channeling blood without a single drop spilling into the drains and transporting the carcasses had become a specialty that completely compensated for his still-developing butchering skills.
* * *
When we returned to the cell, I hesitated for a moment.
Whether to tell Bartus what Illumina had said to me about something feeling off.
If I brought it up carelessly and Bartus let suspicion show on his face, everything could unravel.
But then again, if something went wrong, it seemed better for Bartus to know rather than be blindsided. So in the end, I spoke.
However.
“…Really? Now that you mention it, I did feel something was off.”
Bartus accepted it surprisingly readily.
“Something was off?”
“…Actually, there’s something I haven’t told you.”
“Yes?”
“When I went down to the Butcher’s Workshop not long ago, an elf from Underground Floor 5 spoke to me. Using tactics similar to Illumina’s.”
In that moment, the elf wrapped in that mysterious light, trapped in the darkness of Floor 5, came back to mind.
A six-star Blessed One. An elf presumed to have reached the sixth job class.
“What did they say?”
“They praised my Spirit Magic and asked if Illumina had taught it to me. Said they had a sense about it.”
They didn’t say anything to me at all.
Hah.
No, that’s not the important part.
“And?”
“…Illumina wouldn’t show goodwill to a human without reason. They warned me to be careful. I found that so unsettling, but I didn’t want to say anything in case you flew off the handle.”
Hah.
‘So…?’
Bartus had actually been withholding information because he was worried about me.
“You were?”
“I’ve seen cases where you’d calm me down and then I’d get angry myself and cause a scene. I was worried about that….”
“Huh?”
I pride myself on being a very rational and composed person.
What kind of life must I have lived in this world to earn such a reputation?
“You’d make that expression all the time and then explode….”
He looked aggrieved, but I felt even more wronged—though in this place, my past conduct hardly mattered.
“In any case, this elf was being favorable toward you?”
“Not so much favorable to me as hostile to Illumina, I’d say….”
“It might be worth trying to make contact.”
“Contact? How?”
“It seems possible now. Just keep the sound from leaking out.”
“…Alright.”
After asking Bartus for that, I summoned a wind spirit while lying still in the posture of sleep.
‘Let’s go.’
Whoosh.
-Okay.
The wind spirit passed quietly through the World Tree’s prison and descended into the level below.
‘Just as I thought—overcoming the resistance through synchronization makes it possible.’
Before, all I could manage was to scout the surroundings through a barely open door, but now that I’d achieved full synchronization, I could force my way through the World Tree itself.
And even though it was Underground Floor 5, that was only four floors down—in distance, barely fifty meters.
A distance where my spirit’s body could maintain sufficient presence.
In that way, I succeeded in pushing my spirit through four levels and into the prison of Underground Floor 5.
* * *
‘Is this an ill omen, or a sign of hope?’
Silvania, the next chieftain of the Elf Clan and current prisoner of Underground Floor 5 of the World Tree’s dungeon, pondered as she recalled the humans she’d encountered recently.
One human in particular possessed a talent that bordered on the extraordinary.
‘She’s definitely studying Spirit Magic under Illumina. And her progress is fast.’
Honestly, what became of the two humans mattered little, but Illumina was the problem.
‘She’s planning to use the humans as a wedge of spirits to escape her punishment.’
The reason she’d gone so far as to equip herself with the Innate Ability of Sacrifice and deliberately become a captive was not only to purify the World Tree, but also to execute the traitor of her clan.
There was still much preparatory work ahead, and time was needed.
‘If there’s any possibility the prisoner will be released before then, I must prevent it by any means.’
In the worst case, though it went against her inclinations, she would inform the guards herself.
As she was settling on this resolve,
‘Hmm?’
A faint stirring of spirits was sensed from above.
‘It worked.’
On Floor 5, where not a single torch burned, there was still only one thing visible.
The elf wreathed in that pale luminescence.
Looking more closely, she was bound not only by shackles on her limbs like theirs, but was wrapped layer upon layer in iron chains jutting from the walls and iron bars on all sides. Yet the elf, who sat in meditation without moving even slightly, appeared almost otherworldly in her stillness.
‘Hmm.’
—Beautiful.
Whisper.
Wind Cheol-woo moved its body to create sound, conveying intent to her ear.
—I wish to know more about Illumina.
At that moment, the elf who had been meditating with closed eyes opened those mysterious green eyes.
[Name: Silvania]
[???? ???(?th) Lv.6?]
[Innate Abilities 5/5]
—??, ??, ??, ??, ??
[???? ???? ??? ???]
[???? ???? ???? ??? ‘Deliberately Captured’ ?????]
‘Oh!?’
The moment he grasped the information revealed, he nearly cried out in his mind.
—Who are you? That human from before?
An emotionless voice vibrated through the spirit’s form.
The same way Illumina conveyed intent—by vibrating the spirit’s body.
‘No, it’s slightly different, isn’t it?’
He couldn’t be certain, but the emotions don’t come through as directly as they do with Illumina.
It sounds as if someone else is relaying her voice, and there’s no emotion whatsoever in the speech.
—Yes, that is correct. I’ve been studying Spirit Magic under her, and today I’ve begun the work of liberating Illumina. It will take considerable time, of course. But during the process, something has troubled me, and I came to inquire about her.
—A low-rank spirit. The human beside that genius human, then. Illumina’s Spirit Magic must be a Heretical Path that induces mental fragmentation. Yet you don’t give off that impression at all. Your tale is worth hearing.
Fortunately, she proved highly cooperative.
Separate, though, from the unsettling words woven into it.

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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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