Conquering the Labyrinth with a Trash-Tier Trait - Chapter 61

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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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Chapter 61
Whiiiiine.
“Brother!”
“Come here! Run forward!!”
Among Quest Monsters, the most irritating ones.
A swarm of Flesh Flies — more plainly, dealing with these scavenger flies was anything but simple.
‘Damn. They don’t even drop anything.’
Crackle-crackle.
In our current situation, my fire spirit was practically the only way to handle them.
The problem was that despite their status as Elite Monsters, they could withstand my fire spirit’s flames to a certain degree and still charge at us.
The sight of monstrous flies filling the entire field of view as they rushed forward was terror incarnate.
Even more so after experiencing firsthand how each one could strip away flesh its own size in a heartbeat.
“Damn it!”
Whiiiiine.
The only method was to raise a defensive barrier with spirits of earth, wind, and water, while incinerating them with my fire spirit.
But that had its own problems.
Tick-tick-tick-tick-tick.
Whiiiiine.
‘Ugh. These stubborn bastards.’
Even burning through a small-scale swarm of scavenger flies consumed nearly half my Mana.
“Argh! I’m sorry! I can’t help!”
“Stay quiet!”
Whiiiiine.
Crunch-crack.
Sizzle-sizzle-sizzle.
Yet with no other choice, I was forced to keep using the same method.
“Brother! Over there!”
Whiiiiine.
“……Damn!”
Two more swarms of scavenger flies were flying in from the direction Max was pointing.
Each swarm was at least three times larger than the ones I was currently burning.
‘Ah. Damn.’
There was only one way to handle this.
“When I give the signal, hit the ground!”
“What!?”
“I said get down!”
“Yes, sir!”
The moment Max threw himself flat, I did the same, then poured every ounce of my Mana into the fire spirit.
Staring at the scavenger fly swarms filling every direction, I channeled all my power into the spirit.
—Detonation!
Flash.
BOOOOOOOM!
The Detonation skill, amplified by my Innate Ability at maximum output, exploded through the fire spirit and transformed the entire area into a blazing inferno.
Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom.
Even after the initial explosion subsided, the lingering heat twisted into a spiraling vortex, sweeping across the surroundings.
‘God, it’s hot. Damn…….’
Even though I’d detonated it high enough to spare us the brunt of the damage, my skin still stung.
Feeling my Mana reduced to nearly empty, I desperately hoped the blast had cleared out all the monsters.
But as the flame vortex itself dissipated,
Whiine.
a handful of scavenger flies took flight again.
I must have detonated it too high.
“Ugh. Seriously! Just die already!”
Crackle-crackle.
I scraped together what little Mana remained and burned through the last of the swarm, and the world began to spin.
I tasted blood in my mouth.
“Cough.”
Ah. Damn. I coughed up blood.
Ah. Vertigo.
That’s the problem with Detonation.
It devoured all my Mana in a single strike.
[Defeated a large swarm of Flesh Flies.]
[Gained a small amount of Experience Points.]
Small!?
‘A pitifully small amount!?’
My frustration nearly boiled over, but I knew there was nothing I could do about it.
I’d already reached Level 20 after defeating other Elite Monsters.
“If those things show up again, grab me and run!”
Thump.
I screamed with what little strength remained, then collapsed where I stood and activated the Balgar Spirit Cultivation Method.
Hummmmm.
The Mana around me surged inward, converting to replenish my reserves, but the depleted pool refused to refill with any speed.
My body was in no better condition.
Hummmm.
I was surviving on a trickle of healing force flowing from my underclothes—the cleansing power woven into the fabric.
I’d burned through my Mana beyond its limits, and now it was gnawing away at my stamina as well.
‘I pushed too hard. I should have gathered it all first and detonated in one strike instead. Damn it. The swarm came too late.’
Hummmmm.
How much time had passed like this?
Hummmmm.
The moment my Mana felt even slightly recovered, I opened my eyes to see nothing but blackness.
For an instant, I thought I was dead.
[Your Mana has increased by 1.]
With the system’s voice, the shapes around me began to sort themselves out from the darkness.
“Ah…….”
Night had simply fallen.
“Are you all right, sir!?”
I turned at the urgent voice and saw Max tending to a roasting fire.
All around him lay the scattered remains of snakes, swamp rats, and toads the size of human torsos.
“……You’ve done well.”
“Not at all, sir.”
He smiled with a pallid face, but even being polite about it, he didn’t look well.
“Rest now. I’ll keep watch this time.”
“Yes. That was my plan anyway—to eat this and rest. Please, you should eat too, sir.”
[Giant Poison Toad Hind Leg Roast]
-Restores Stamina rapidly upon consumption. Stamina Recovery Speed +20
“Ah…….”
Without declining, I took the meat and stood watch beside Max as he sat in meditation.
Crunch, crunch.
While eating, I checked the system window again.
[Hidden Tip!]
Ten pairs of eyes from the Swamp Basilisk and the corpses of 1,000 Flesh Flies, when mixed with the venom of the Giant Poison Toad, create an excellent lure for attracting the Jungle Swamp’s Great Horned Centipede.
I’d already gathered all the materials and stored them in Kyle’s Belt.
Yet the hint text remained unchanged.
‘Damn it. I was too naive about this.’
Hunting Basilisks and Giant Poison Toads with Max had been straightforward enough.
The Flesh Fly swarms were harrowing, but I’d managed to get the required numbers.
The real problem was what I didn’t know.
‘I have all the materials, but the question is—where am I supposed to scatter this lure?’
I couldn’t just spread bait across the entire jungle and wait.
‘I need to know something—its habitat, signs of its presence, anything.’
Where was this Great Horned Centipede, whatever it was?
I couldn’t locate a single specimen.
‘Maybe a boss monster with only one instance has specific conditions or a lair? Can’t be found just by wandering around?’
Max was cooperating with me while having no idea why I was looking for the Jungle Swamp’s Great Horned Centipede.
He only thought I was trying to gather more Orange Magical Stones and Ability Stones by hunting other creatures.
‘True enough—I have collected a lot of Orange Magical Stones.’
The Flesh Flies couldn’t be Butchered in any meaningful way, but I’d done my best to Butcher the Basilisks and Giant Poison Toads as perfectly as possible.
Through that process, I’d learned one rule of Essence Butchering.
‘The corpse must be at least 90% intact to Butcher perfectly. Even then, the odds of getting an Ability Stone are only about 70%.’
It’s a condition I can’t use against strong opponents, but given the cost, it’s more than sufficient.
I’ve already taken down eleven Basilisks and fifteen Giant Poison Toads, netting seventeen Orange Ability Stones in the process.
Though.
[Weak-Slayer]
-Strength +11, Vitality +13, Agility +12, Physical Resistance +5
-Poison deals greater effect against enemies with weak life force.
-Poison deals greater effect the smaller the enemy’s size.
All of it useless ability stones, in other words.
‘The swarms of blood flies make scouting inefficient anyway. Maybe I should head back to Golden Acre and look into things there?’
I was turning these thoughts over while keeping watch over Max.
The Wind Spirit I’d sent out to scout reported the presence of a large lizard fifty meters away.
‘So close?’
I must have been lost in thought for too long.
[Swamp Basilisk]
[Lv.15 (First Evolution)]
[Skills]
-Petrification Gas, Hard Shell, Tail Whip, Burrowing.
[Innate Ability 1/1]
-Wide-range Diffusion
[Hungry.]
A troublesome creature—if you get close, it sprays Petrification Gas in all directions from the pores in its skin while giving off light, and if the fight turns against it, it digs into the ground to escape.
‘Where… huh?’
Looking again, the creature wasn’t approaching us.
Instead, it was moving away in the opposite direction.
And over there—
‘Another adventurer? Wait. That hair color is…?’
A hundred meters off, glimpses of several heads visible between the jungle trees—all of them dark-haired.
Black hair.
Not a common sight among the natives.
Unless they were mixed-race like Max.
‘Hmm.’
For a moment, I felt conflicted.
‘Should I pretend I didn’t see them?’
But then the sight of the approaching lizard nagged at me.
Whoosh.
The lizard was closing the distance rapidly, apparently thinking they hadn’t noticed it.
Well, it’s not so much that I wanted to help them—
‘That’s a resource too, after all.’
Might as well claim it for myself.
With that thought, I glanced back at Max, still in meditation.
I left one Spirit behind.
‘Keep an eye on Max for me.’
-Understood.
Watching Earth Cheol-woo rise slightly beside meditating Max and nod, I pushed forward into the forest.
My Mana had recovered only about a third, but that was plenty.
One lizard—I had an easy way to handle it.
“Huh.”
Crack.
I circled around the advancing creature and leaped ahead onto a massive tree branch.
‘Coming now.’
Hard to see due to its camouflage, but Wind Cheol-woo had already pinpointed its location.
The creature, which had been moving continuously, suddenly slowed its pace near a small clearing in the forest where a group of adventurers had lit a campfire.
Perfect prey positioning, really.
‘Hmm. Though I’m curious.’
How would these five ‘black-haired’ adventurers huddled around that campfire actually handle this lizard?
Whoosh.
[Name: Kim Jeong-min]
[Lower-rank Knight (1st) Lv.12]
[Innate Ability 1/2]
-Swordsmanship.
[Bartus’s Summoner.]
The adventurers were indeed Summoners, just as I’d predicted. Their stats were all roughly comparable.
‘How different is what they learned in the royal palace from what I was taught?’
That damp curiosity, contrary to my initial intent, made me hesitate before acting first.
Then.
Screeeee!
The moment that lizard unleashed Petrification Gas in a grey haze across a wide range.
The adventurers reacted.
“Monster!!”
“Battle stations……!”
“Outside the gas radius!”
It was pathetic that they hadn’t noticed until it was this close, but their reaction speed wasn’t bad.
The way they formed ranks around their front line in an instant was decent enough.
But.
“Ugh! Why is the range so wi——!”
Apparently they hadn’t anticipated that the Petrification Gas contained the Wide-range Diffusion Innate Ability.
Watching them all harden in an instant—from the front line to what looked like a ranged damage dealer archer—I exhaled heavily.
‘This isn’t… just for show.’
I had no interest in the hobby of becoming half-stone, getting dragged to a lizard’s nest, and watching my body—and my companions’—slowly torn apart.
‘Is that really all there is to them?’
Was the gap this wide?
It was absurd, but I had no taste for watching people get eaten alive.
“Breath!”
Whip.
The moment I decided, I hurled the Crystal Shuriken across thirty meters of space in a streak.
My consciousness-infused Wind Spirit heightened the shuriken’s velocity and made fine adjustments to its path.
The shuriken, casually ignoring the limits of ordinary throwing techniques, pierced straight through the lizard’s skull.
Screaaaagh!
Hhk……!?
It began to tremble and glow, but the luminescence didn’t last long.
I already knew well from hunting it many times before that the breathing hole above its head was its weak point.
Soon enough.
Thud.
[Swamp Basilisk neutralized.]
[You have gained a small amount of Experience Points.]
‘Retrieve it.’
Whip.
‘Hm?’
The moment I retrieved the shuriken, a numbness spread from my fingertips and my senses dulled.
‘Did the petrification dust cling to it?’
No problem.
Hum.
The purification ability of my inner garments wiped away that faint toxin instantly.
After that, I walked directly into the clearing where the Summoners were.
Tap.
Watching the completely petrified adventurers with only their eyes darting about as they stared at me, I sighed anew.
“You have basic Mana in you, so you’ll recover once enough time passes. I’ll wait until then.”
With only those words left to say, I entered the grass where the dead lizard lay and began to butcher 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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