Conquering the Labyrinth with a Trash-Tier Trait - Chapter 5

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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 5
Three days after I beat Lee Jeong-ho into the ground.
Jeorik lined Kirk and me up and spoke.
“If you take scouting and rear guard, and Kirk handles the vanguard, you should be able to manage at least up to Floor 10 without trouble.”
“Yes. Yes. I’ve heard it several times already.”
“I’ll say it several more times. Engrave it on your soul.”
“……Yes.”
“Don’t get cocky just because you took down one straggler. What’s the greatest threat in the lower-level Labyrinth?”
“Sudden traps and silent ambushes.”
“Right. And if you ignore the largest swarm of goblins on Floor 1?”
“You end up with paralysis barbs lodged across your entire body, and you get disemboweled while still alive.”
“That’s right. If it’s a man, at least he just becomes food, but if it’s a woman…….”
“Stop! There’s no woman in our group, so let’s just skip that. That kind of talk makes me want to throw up.”
“……Right.”
Jeorik went on endlessly, piling admonition upon admonition.
But the whole thing could be compressed into a single sentence.
The Labyrinth is hell.
‘I’ll keep it in mind,’ I thought.
While listening to Jeorik’s nagging, Kirk and I made our way toward the Labyrinth entrance at the heart of the city.
From the outermost Zone 9 where we lived, the path through Labyrinth Boulevard that led deeper into the great city of Bartus had eight more walls beyond it.
Zone 8, where adventurers of Floors 11–20 could gain residential status; Zone 7, where adventurers of Floors 21–30 could gain residential status; and so on.
These inner districts, where a pauper like me could walk through but could never afford to live, boasted prices that would make your head spin.
The deeper inward you went, the more ornate the streets became, yet the city’s scale gradually shrank.
‘Strange city, really,’ I mused.
When we finally reached the innermost point and came to the end of Labyrinth Boulevard.
I could see the Royal Palace knights in gleaming full-plate armor standing guard before an enormous, ornate gate.
“Halt. Your business?”
“Labyrinth entry.”
“Status Window.”
“No need to show everything. Just your name.”
Following Jeorik’s instructions, I showed the gate guards only my name from the Status Window.
“Go. Cheol. Woo?”
“Everyone calls me Char.”
“……We’ll record it as Char. But this one is already an adventurer in the 50s floors, isn’t he?”
The knight looked at Jeorik with a puzzled expression.
“If a higher-level class gets involved, the lower-level adventurer loses all their Contribution Rate and can’t grow. The higher-level class gets one Mana Stone sealed per section anyway. It must be quite unpleasant…….”
“I know. I’m only going to guide him as far as the Stele.”
“Hmm. In that case.”
After passing the identity inspection, just before the real stone wall blocking the Royal Palace visible deeper within, I could see a massive stele inscribed with strange patterns of light.
“That’s the Labyrinth Stele.”
I would have known it instantly even without Jeorik telling me.
I’d heard plenty about it, but this was my first time seeing it in person.
“The stele looks rough and uneven, but from any direction you look at it, the same patterns appear, and you see circles of light and darkness. It’s truly mystical.”
A massive stele the size of a two-story building was emitting a pitch-black circular aura around it, swallowing light itself.
It reminded me of something I’d only ever seen in images on Earth.
‘A black hole?’
I stood frozen, overwhelmed by the oppressive aura that made the space around the stele feel completely alien.
Then Jeorik tapped me on the back.
“Armor.”
My senses snapped back. I tapped the steel plate.
Clang. Clang.
“No issues.”
“Spear.”
Clang.
“No issues.”
We checked our gear over and over again with each word Jeorik spoke.
Kirk, who would handle vanguard, had equipped Half-Plate Armor befitting his size.
I, who would handle rear guard, had prepared Mercenary-Style Leather Armor with some steel plating reinforced on top.
……The truth was, I was broke.
‘Spent too much of my budget on Mana Stones. Damn it.’
Distracted by the old man’s words, I hadn’t even managed to sell the Mana Stones I’d synthesized and upgraded.
But that was fine.
[Name: Go Cheol-woo]
[Race: Human]
[Level: 1]
[Stats]
Strength: 14 (+0.03)
Endurance: 15 (+0.03)
Agility: 9 (+0.03)
Mana: 11
Physical Resistance: 3
Magical Resistance: 4
[Mana Skills]
Piercing Strike (Common—Lv.3), Bartus Hardening Technique (Common—Lv.3), Advance-Retreat Step (Common—Lv.2)
[Ability Slot (Full)]
Multiple Spirit Summoning.
[Traits]
-Additional Information Confirmation.
Just looking at the Status Window filled me with confidence.
Where was this strength coming from?
‘I’d leveled my skills quite a bit through training.’
So confidence was inevitable.
“At the Novice tier, I don’t expect you’ll face any real danger. But stay vigilant nonetheless, and since this is your first time, clear only Floor 1 and come back out.”
“Yes.”
“Yes, Master.”
“Especially you, Char—don’t waste your Level-Up Points. For a Summoner in particular, you can’t just raise skills haphazardly. With talent like yours…….”
“Yes. Yes. I understand.”
After enduring Jeorik’s final nagging,
we pressed our hands against the massive stone marker—the Labyrinth entrance—
and a flash of light engulfed us.
We tumbled into an unknowable space.
Brilliant white light blazed before my eyes in rapid succession,
and when it finally faded, a pitch-black cavern came into view.
Soft luminescence clung to the walls in places, granting some visibility, but overall the cave was shrouded in darkness.
‘So this is the Labyrinth…….’
Tension seized me as I swallowed hard.
[You have entered Labyrinth Floor 1.]
[Floor 1 Quest]
[Slay 100 Lowest-Tier Monsters & Find the Exit.]
A system window materialized before my eyes.
“Wow!”
The phenomenon unfolded just as I’d heard it would, and admiration spilled from my lips.
“Hyung.”
“Right. Got it.”
At Kirk’s prompt, I summoned a fire spirit at once.
A warm glow bloomed forth.
The darkness retreated, and my vision sharpened considerably.
Yet all I could see was a maze of caverns branching off in every direction.
“Any idea where we are?”
“None whatsoever.”
Kirk’s wry smile came as no surprise.
We’d entered together, clinging to each other, so we’d fallen in the same spot—but Floor 1 was precisely the kind of place where adventurers spawned randomly across vast cavern networks.
Despite countless explorers having mapped sections of it, vast stretches remained unmapped—a wilderness of the unknown.
As I’d feared, we’d landed far from the reference points we’d memorized.
“You got the quest too, right?”
“Yes. Slay 100 monsters and find the exit.”
“Let’s find the exit first.”
“Understood.”
The food and water we’d brought could sustain us for maybe two days at most.
We’d come in intending to clear only Floor 1 and leave, after all.
“Scout ahead.”
“Yes.”
He summoned the other spirits as well, dispatching three of them—all except the flame spirit—down different passages.
As he did, he recalled something he’d imagined before.
‘I should try this too.’
With a trace of nervous anticipation, he placed his hand against the cave wall.
[Labyrinth Floor 1 Cave Wall]
He focused, perceiving the system’s explanation as it came into view.
‘Additional Information Confirmation.’
A deep hum resonated.
[Cave wall.]
[A wall from the entrance region of the Demon Realm where lowest-tier monsters congregate in swarms.]
‘Tch.’
The mention of the Demon Realm was unexpected, but the information fell short of what he’d hoped for.
To be honest, it was utterly useless.
“Tch.”
“What is it?”
“Nothing. Just realized I was trying to cut corners.”
He’d let his expectations get away from him.
Just because they’d reached the Labyrinth didn’t mean his ability had suddenly become a treasure detector.
“What do you mean?”
“Never mind. Drop it.”
No point explaining in detail to Kirk, the rigid, slow-thinking fool.
The wind spirit’s field of vision flowed into his mind.
“The right passage is the longest.”
“Then let’s start there.”
“All right.”
He pushed himself to his feet.
He tried to swipe away the information window that had been blocking his view.
[Cave wall.]
It vanished.
Behind it, the original Quest Window that had been hidden came back into focus.
[Floor 1 Quest]
[Slay 100 Lowest-Tier Monsters & Find the Exit.]
“…….”
He found himself staring at it without thinking.
Then.
‘Come to think of it.’
A strange thought struck him.
Not information gleaned from his trait, but the Quest Window displayed by the system itself.
In a sense, it was something he’d never seen before.
‘What if…….’
He had no real expectations.
He was simply trying it out.
The same way he had with the cave wall.
He focused his attention on the Quest Window.
‘Additional Information Confirmation.’
In that instant.
A deep hum resonated.
[Perfect Clear Condition.]
[First Attempt: Slay 1,000 Lowest-Tier Monsters & Discover 10 Exits.]
“What!?”
His voice rose sharply despite himself.
Information he never could have anticipated.
“What happened? What did you find?”
“Wait.”
He raised a hand to silence Kirk.
His heart suddenly began racing.
‘Perfect Clear?’
He’d never heard that term before.
To Jeorik.
To Johnson.
To anyone.
But the system showed it directly.
Above the normal clear.
There was something else.
I looked at the quest window again.
[Slay 100 Lowest-Tier Monsters & Find the Exit.]
Below that.
[Perfect Clear Conditions.]
[Slay 1,000 Lowest-Tier Monsters on the First Challenge.]
[Discover 10 Exits.]
[Slay 1,000 Lowest-Tier Monsters & Discover 10 Exits on the First Challenge.]
‘First Challenge.’
My eyes froze on those words.
It meant that once I left, it was over.
Now or never.
“Brother?”
Kirk called me again.
I looked at him.
Level 10.
Jeorik’s direct disciple.
A native who’d already reached the limits of Novice before entering the Labyrinth.
His starting conditions were completely different from a Summoner’s, who couldn’t level without hunting monsters.
Of course, natives had the opposite problem—they couldn’t level from hunting.
But with a party member this capable to start, it was enough.
Laughter bubbled up in me.
“Kirk.”
“Yes?”
“We were planning to clear just Floor 1 and leave, right?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s stick to that.”
“…?”
Kirk tilted his head in confusion.
I looked at the quest window again.
“But.
[Slay 1,000.]
“Let’s.
[Discover 10 Exits.]
“Do it clean on our way out.”
“How many, exactly?”
I grinned.
“Enough that the Goblins on this floor will flee just from seeing our faces.”
Silence for a moment.
Kirk grinned back.
“That does sound pretty clean.”
“Right?”
With that in mind, there was no need to search everywhere.
“You know how to escape a maze?”
“What?”
“Never mind. Just keep right, always straight ahead. Let’s go! We follow the right wall and handle every monster we see. Got it?”
“Yes!”
I sent the Spirits to scout down one corridor while I sprinted forward fast.
‘A thousand.’
At first, it was a number that seemed absurd.
But strangely.
Now I wanted to try it.
“Let’s move.”
“Yes!”
Perfect Clear.
I don’t yet know what it offers.
But one thing was certain.
A path no one else knew.
I had just stumbled upon it by chance.
‘Then I should go!’
The moment a natural smile crossed my face.
Enemies appeared in the spirits’ field of vision.
‘Interesting.’
Lowest-tier monsters.
Per individual, their combat strength—even factoring in the creature’s murderous instinct and fighting spirit—was roughly that of an average adult man.
What required caution was the tube-shaped paralysis barb they wielded during ambushes or retreats.
If one had no resistance to their paralytic toxin, it was best to avoid goblins when they swarmed in groups.
In an instant, I swept aside the information that came to mind about the goblins and sent a hand signal.
‘Fifty meters ahead, six goblins confirmed. Let’s ambush.’
‘Understood.’
Kirk, taciturn but perceptive, answered with sign language instead of words.
Soon after, he closed the distance with quiet footfalls.
Then, with ten meters remaining, he began to accelerate.
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat.
The moment the goblins reacted to his footsteps.
Flash.
Boom.
The fire spirit detonated a brilliant burst of light before them.
“Shriek!?”
“Screech!”
“Yelp!?”
A direct hit—their eyes caught full-force.
“Ha!”
Kirk charged straight at the disoriented creatures, his spear tearing through the goblins in seconds.
Squelch, squelch.
Crack.
By the time Kirk’s spear was dispatching the fifth goblin, my own spear—arriving late—thrust toward the last one.
‘Piercing Strike!’
Along with the sensation of mana draining slightly from my body.
Utterly unshaken by the tension of my first live combat, my spear extended straight and true, piercing the goblin’s torso.
Splash.
The sensation transmitted from the spearhead to my hand was anything but pleasant.
Blood spraying before my eyes was no pretty sight either, and before I knew it, my body had stiffened slightly.
But that moment didn’t last long.
“It’s over, brother.”
“Yeah. Good work.”
“No problem. This is easy stuff.”
A snort of laughter escaped me.
“You don’t even know what gum is.”
“Did I mess up the phrase?”
“No, you got it right.”
“Then that’s fine, yeah?”
Kirk’s nonsense dissolved the faint unease creeping over me.
And then.
[Combat Ended]
[6 Goblins Defeated. Contribution Rate 50%]
[Experience Points Acquired.]
Along with the system’s voice notification that came a moment late, I watched my level gauge fill by thirty percent.
Rather than dread, a surge of excitement washed over me.
[Labyrinth Floor 1 Quest]
[Lowest-Tier Monsters Defeated (3/100)]
[Exit Located (0/1)]
“Hey, so three kills count toward you?”
“Huh? Yeah, looks like it.”
“Feels like you got the short end of that deal.”
“Nothing to it, really. That light made them easy to deal with.”
“Well, that works then.”
His timing with Kirk was falling into sync perfectly, just as they’d trained.
“Let’s keep moving.”
“Right!”
There was no reason to waste time.
He sent the spirits ahead to scout deeper to the right, then followed in their wake.
It wasn’t long before more shapes emerged from the darkness—seven more goblins.
‘More goblins. Thirty meters ahead. Seven of them.’
He signaled Kirk with the same hand motions as before.
The battle unfolded in the same pattern.
Flash.
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh.
Crack.
[Combat Ended]
[Goblins Defeated: 7. Contribution Rate: 50%]
[Experience Points Acquired]
“Excellent!”
“This really does seem to be goblin territory, doesn’t it?”
The most common monsters on Floor 1.
In a way, they’d hit the highest probability.
“Yeah. As long as we’re careful with the main nest, we should be fine.”
“Even the main nest—I think we could handle a few dozen, honestly?”
He couldn’t dismiss it outright. Kirk’s Level had long since transcended Novice rank.
“Still, don’t let your guard down.”
“Of course not. If I got killed by goblins after getting careless, I’d be ashamed even in death.”
Things were progressing more smoothly than expected, and a smile spread across his face. In that moment, the thought of a Perfect Clear flashed through his mind.
“Actually… if we’re going this far, maybe we should try wiping out an entire colony.”
“I’m absolutely on board with that!”
The Class one could obtain varied depending on how you cleared the ten-floor tiers.
Even those who’d obtained Special Classes didn’t know the exact conditions.
The only information that surfaced was about those who’d played crucial roles in defeating boss monsters.
Or those whose achievements were undeniably impressive enough to attract attention.
But.
‘What if I achieved a Perfect Clear on every floor from 1 to 10?’
What kind of Class would he obtain then?
That thought set his heart racing, and fatigue was the last thing he felt.
“Let’s run.”
“Yes!”

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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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