Conquering the Labyrinth with a Trash-Tier Trait - Chapter 41

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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 41
—Illumina. That woman is mad.
—Her children were killed by humans. I understood the destruction of the bloodline that wronged her.
—But she went beyond that and sought to annihilate the entire human race.
—She feigned compliance with the Elder Council’s suggestions, withdrew into seclusion, then drew in the Greenskin and betrayed her own kind to walk the path of corruption.
—That she was betrayed by the Greenskin in turn… well, one might say she earned it.
Silvanya laid bare the truth that Illumina had only half-heartedly tried to conceal.
It was curious, perhaps, but not essential.
—If we liberate her through the Spirit Wedge as planned, what do you think will happen?
—…I don’t know.
—Pardon?
—What she does afterward, I cannot say. But one thing is certain: the two humans who freed her—you two—she will kill first.
I’d considered the possibility that Illumina might be a trap card, but hearing those words made my chest tighten with dread.
‘The only possibility…’
—It’s not the only one.
Pung Cheol-u whispered.
‘Hm?’
—Start by asking why she’s even here. Deliberately captured, she said. Intentionally snared and imprisoned. If she did something so absurd, so terrible and impossible—there has to be a reason.
I recalled the information from Silvanya that I’d glimpsed just moments before.
Specifically, the two words that were barely visible.
‘Deliberately… if that’s true. No, it has to be true. Then…’
If Illumina is a trap card, then Silvanya is the right one.
And not just for a simple escape quest—perhaps a piece that could complete a Perfect Clear.
—We should stop attempting to liberate Illumina and instead devise a way to free you.
—You trust me?
—…I trust you more than Illumina. How can we—how can I rescue you?
—So the divine providence led not to that genius human, but to you? Hmm. Then good. I accept your kindness.
—So…?
—Six shackles bind me, and each key belongs to a different keeper. One each among the guards from the first basement level to the fifth. And Akturusa, the warden of this Corrupted World Tree Prison, holds the final key.
—…Damn.
—What was that?
—Ah, nothing. This warden, Akturusa—is he perhaps a seven-star orc Blessed One? A Tracking-Type Ranger?
—…Yes.
You’re asking us to commit suicide!?
I forced myself to swallow the scream rising in my throat.
At least it wasn’t Pung Cheol-u they’d brought here. That was a mercy.
—Why do you react that way?
—…Is there perhaps an easier method?
—If it is only your survival you seek, then have her swear an oath.
—Pardon?
—Tell her to swear by the World Tree itself. That she will do no harm to you or your ally. If she does so, you may yet keep your lives even after her release.
Could it really be that simple?
At that moment, Pung Cheol-u whispered again.
—Why is she offering us an escape route so easily?
‘Suspicious?’
—At the very least, we should confirm whether this woman would actually permit it.
As I faltered at Pung Cheol-u’s words, Silvanya exhaled a weary sigh.
—The human race will gain one more calamity, then.
Though the words came through the spirit medium without inflection.
Yet in that sigh and what lay beneath it, I sensed something bitter.
A sense that she’d never truly expected we could free her in the first place.
And so I understood instinctively.
‘If we free Illumina and escape—Normal Clear.’
And.
‘If we save Silvanya and restore the World Tree—Perfect Clear?’
Though the latter path showed no glimmer of possibility.
With the clues before me, I couldn’t simply give up.
—There’s no way to free you, is there?
—Are you not seeking a path to freedom and survival? That is the easiest one for you.
—Is there another way to liberate you…?
—there isn’t.
The answer came so swiftly that my faint hope deflated just as quickly.
But then a different thought struck me.
‘Captured on purpose…….’
How had those words gotten through? How had only those words made it through the shattered information window?
Perhaps this too was a hint the labyrinth was giving me.
—Is there a way to purify the World Tree?
—What?
—Is there any way we might help with that?
In that instant, Silvanya’s green eyes rippled.
—……Are you perhaps a spy for Greenskin!?
A terrible killing intent shook through the entire Spirit Body in a heartbeat.
‘Gah!?’
The green eyes I’d thought beautiful now radiated such overwhelming pressure that I felt the Spirit Body dissolving—
And then, just as suddenly, the killing intent vanished without a trace.
—No, that can’t be. I’ve never told anyone, so how could……?
A shaky breath escaped me.
Only then did I realize I’d made a careless mistake.
‘Right. She could suspect me. Damn…….’
I’d been thinking like it was a game quest and just blurted it out—I’d nearly walked straight into a catastrophe.
‘……I almost got myself killed. Shit.’
So, watching her confused eyes, I told her part of the truth.
—I have an ability related to information.
I had nothing else to say once I’d excluded what would make Silvanya feel revulsion, but—
I had no choice but to gamble at this point.
—I merely deduced it from seeing that your Ability has related powers.
I inferred from the Special Power I couldn’t read at all.
Fortunately, the gamble paid off.
—Hah……. You can read me to that degree? What kind of Ability even allows that?
In that moment, I faced a dilemma.
‘Were there no Summoners in this world-line?’
How much should I say?
Would they accept it? Or would it become an obstacle?
Just as my mind grew tangled—
—No, there’s no point in telling me anyway. If you were a spy, I’d already be executed.
Silvanya had reasoned herself into acceptance.
—Do you also wish for the World Tree to be purified?
—……Yes, if it’s possible, I want to contribute even a little strength to that path.
—It could become a dangerous task for you. As I said before, it might be better to secure an Oath from Illumina and escape?
If I claim I didn’t feel conflicted in that moment, I’d be lying.
With nearly a hundred days of this hell almost finished, the end felt within reach.
But.
I could see the possibility of a Perfect Clear, something I’d nearly given up on—and I’d turn away from that?
‘Even if I go hungry, I’m reaching the summit.’
—Recovering the World Tree is the right thing for this world, isn’t it!? I’ll stake my life on it!
—……You don’t look like you have that much spirit of sacrifice.
It stung a bit, but fortunately Silvanya didn’t press the point further.
Instead, she said something that caught me off guard entirely.
—In any case, you seem sincere enough……. Fine. I’ll abandon the idea of turning you in.
—……Excuse me?
Thinking about it, someone who called Illumina a traitor to her clan wouldn’t simply let her escape.
‘Wait, so if I’d just taken the Oath back then and escaped…….’
At that thought, cold sweat trickled down my spine.
—There, I told you.
Pung Cheol-u’s words came back to me belatedly.
‘There were never two choices. It was a dead end from the start.’
My greed for the quest had saved my life.
As I pressed a hand to my chest, Silvanya continued.
—Normally it would take much longer, but there is one method worth trying in the current situation. Though you’ll have to stake your life on it.
—Ahem. I’m ready whenever you are.
—We need to take precautions when driving in the Spirit Wedge. Very careful ones at that.
Her explanation that followed was simple, but dangerous in the most literal sense.
—If something goes wrong…
—We’ll be killed by Illumina once she’s free. Even if she’s sworn an oath.
—I see.
—Even if it goes well, one slip and we’ll be caught in the backlash and killed. So,
—…Yes.
—Have faith.
* * *
The next day.
While butchering, I continued driving in the Spirit Wedges according to Illumina’s instructions.
That alone was draining what little mental focus I had left, but we had another task to tackle simultaneously.
Silvanya’s plan—our plan—couldn’t be solved by dealing with Illumina alone.
—We’re not just watching out for Illumina.
—Akturusa. The administrator of this place and his forces are one of the greatest obstacles to our cause.
—Even if you can’t deal with the Abyssal Tracker himself, you’ll need to neutralize his troops.
—Originally, according to plan, elite elven forces would lure his men outside years from now. But time has grown short, so I’ll need your help.
—Along with the work on the Spirit Wedges, this too must be resolved as a priority.
—To accomplish that…
‘Silvanya had prepared far more than I’d realized.’
Scritch-scritch.
Bartus and I, while butchering, singled out a serpent among the carcasses—one with horns on its head and iron plating along its spine.
—We can’t kill all of them, and even if we could, we shouldn’t. If we tip off Akturusa, the entire plan could unravel.
—But there is a way. We elves have long used the gall bladder of the Deathfang Horned Snake to craft incense pills. The method is surprisingly simple—once you apply mana processing to the bile…
—…and concentrate it, even the Greenskin with their powerful vitality can be put to sleep.
The Deathfang Horned Snake.
I had to find that very serpent, the one that had first made me understand the horror of this slaughterhouse.
And to do so, I’d already coordinated preliminary work with Illumina.
—Illumina, ma’am. We might be in danger…
—Hmm. I couldn’t care less about the Greenskin rabble, but yes, Akturusa would certainly be a complication. Fortunately, I happen to know a good method for this.
As expected, Illumina explained the exact same technique for making the incense pills as Silvanya had.
So we were able to search for the Deathfang Horned Snakes while keeping watch over the orc butchers.
Fortunately, finding them among the endless tide of carcasses wasn’t difficult.
‘Found one.’
‘Found another. Send it here. Natural-like.’
‘Got it.’
That way, as we butchered mainly the Deathfang Horned Snakes, we quietly extracted their gall bladders and hid them beneath the basket of scraps we ate from.
In the process, we stumbled upon an unexpected gain.
[Gall Bladder of Deathfang Horned Snake]
—Cleanly separated by the marvelous skill and already subjected to special mana processing, the gall bladder. Quality improved by an additional 10%.
‘Oh, the gall counts as meat too, then?’
A benefit of Butchering reaching Super Rare tier—enhancement of material quality.
It was a small thing, but nothing to complain about.
That day we extracted the bile from the Deathfang Horned Snake gall bladders, applied mana processing, added venom extracted from meat, and crafted the elven incense pills—round little tablets.
The original version is supposedly processed into long stick-like forms, but we couldn’t manage that much here.
“So burning these would put an ogre to sleep?”
“Yes. A powerful sleeping agent—thirty times the concentration of elven incense.”
What had been merely a pleasing fragrance and drowsy sensation was now reborn as a potent sleep draught.
From just one Deathfang Horned Snake gall bladder, we could make five of these incense pills.
“Then let’s test it.”
“Very well.”
We waited for Krang to return.
Then an uneasy thought struck me.
‘No matter how stupid Krang is, wouldn’t he be suspicious if he just suddenly fell asleep without warning?’
Why hadn’t I thought of this sooner?
Yet skipping the test felt wrong too.
It was hard to trust something we’d only just made.
I voiced the concern to Bartus.
“…Then what if we just made a regular incense pill and gave him that instead?”
“Huh?”
“Just give it to him outright as a gift. Not just Krang, but all the guards. They’re bound to like it, right?”
“Huh……?”
Bartus swept his gaze around the cell, and his logic was persuasive.
The inmates assigned to our Unit Two—the night-shift labor detail—were already sprawled unconscious in their cells.
Yet even so, they groaned and breathed in pained gasps.
And the Corrupted World Tree’s influence didn’t stop with us.
The gas masks on the orc butchers proved it.
“So on normal days we give them regular Incense Pills, and concentrate it only for that day?”
“Exactly. Once they feel the difference, they’ll be asking for it themselves next time.”
“……There’s certainly potential. But won’t they ask what it’s made from? Here in this cell?”
“We tell them the truth. That we tried an old method we used to know. And really—would those brutes bother making it themselves?”
“……Hmm.”
It struck me as a strategy worth attempting.
Still.
“To prepare for the worst case, let’s say the materials are something different.”
“Fine.”
Even if things went catastrophically wrong, they wouldn’t kill us—not when we were useful for the Slaughterhouse labor.
And so we decided to execute the gift operation.
Our first test subject was naturally Krang.
“Krang. What?”
“You’ll sleep well.”
“……Just from this tiny thing?”
“Yes!”
When Krang’s face twisted, I couldn’t help but tense.
Since that first day, he’d never laid a hand on us, but I’d seen him beat down drug-addled inmates raving in hysteria more than once.
Fortunately.
“Krang. If. Strange thing, you die.”
“I assure you it’s not.”
Krang took the Incense Pill—or rather, the Incense Pill—and left.
From the next day onward, he became remarkably kind to us.
“Good effect. Give more.”
The shameless way he demanded what we’d left him took my breath away, but for us it was perfect.
Perfect, too, was the fact that Krang couldn’t keep secrets.
“You make that sleep-bringing scent? Give me some.”
The guards began approaching us of their own accord.
Even more.
“None of them ask where you made it?”
“……Well. If these idiots can’t figure it out, that works for us.”
“It does.”
Within days, the Incense Pills had become a fairly popular commodity among the guards.
It had gone better than expected.
Which was exactly why.
We’d forgotten the most important thing.
‘Rational’ monsters wouldn’t all be stupid.
Clang.
“H-here, sir.”
The moment Krang stammered and led an orc a head shorter than him before us, I knew something had gone wrong.
“You’re saying this prisoner made it?”
Muscle lined his frame, powerful as befitted someone over two meters tall, yet lean rather than bulky—sharp-looking.
An orc bearing distinctive equipment—short blades and small bows thrust through the folds of mana-wreathed leather armor that gleamed with power—had come asking about the Incense Pill.
[Name: Akturusa]
[### ### Lv.7?]
[Ability 3/3]
-??. ??. ??.
[#### ### #### ###. ##### ####.]
[뇌물# ##, ### #### ### 좌천 #.]
A truly formidable presence asked.
“Tell me exactly where and how you made it.”
……Damn.

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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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