Conquering the Labyrinth with a Trash-Tier Trait - Chapter 62

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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 62
The Swamp Basilisk didn’t yield edible meat like the giant venomous toad, but its shell and sinews were excellent material for weapons and armor.
And more importantly.
‘This thing’s an Elite Monster too.’
When I butchered it perfectly, an Ability Stone would drop.
The only wound on its body was the dagger that had pierced its brain.
With that thought in mind, I set to work on the butchering with focus.
‘I need to block their view so they don’t see the Ability Stone drop.’
I angled myself to shield their line of sight.
Once I’d set aside the useful parts and finished the butchering, there it was.
Just as expected, the scattered remains clumped together and the Ability Stone emerged.
[Wide-Range Dispersal]
[Health +12, Agility +11, Mana +13, Physical Resistance +19, Magic Resistance +19]
‘Huh?’
Butchered Ability Stones usually have mediocre stats, but this one had decent resistance bonuses stacked on it.
The Innate Ability, though, was disappointing as expected.
-Disperses gas over a wide range.
-The longer the gas is exposed, the stronger the effect becomes.
‘This is supposed to be an Orange-Grade Ability Stone? Ugh.’
For a creature that had Petrification Gas, it would be quite useful, but for a human to wield it would amount to nothing more than breathing out a slightly longer breath.
‘Tch. Still, it’s an Orange-Grade Stone—it should fetch at least 10 Gold.’
As I thought that, I was struck anew by just how special Spirit-related Innate Abilities truly were.
‘The Wind Spirit could do all of this… wait—!’
A sudden flash of inspiration struck me.
‘If I mix in an Innate Ability with a high probability of appearing from combining Toxic Spore Dispersal and Weak-Point Annihilation… what if?’
The inspiration solidified into certainty.
‘I could create a predator technique to handle those things that swarm in like maggots.’
The moment the combination clicked in my mind.
I immediately placed the Ability Stones of Toxic Spore Dispersal and Weak-Point Annihilation into the Goblin Basket.
‘I’ll just compensate Max with gold.’
Since Yellow-Grade Ability Stones and above were so rare, even a Low-Grade like me would fetch several hundred Gold for them.
Speak of the devil, and he shall appear.
“Hyung!”
Max, roused from his meditation, was approaching with Ko Cheol-woo leading the way.
“Why are you here!?”
“Saving those people over there.”
“I’m sorry?”
“That lizard. Petrification Gas.”
I gave a brief explanation, and as Max nodded while observing the paralyzed adventurers and the remains of the lizard.
“Um, uh, this, this thing, uh, could you, uh……”
A Summoner called Shim Jung-soo, who seemed to be regaining mobility fastest, stammered out a question.
“Hyung?”
“Ah, let’s go. They’re weak people anyway.”
I walked over.
“I didn’t have Status Ailment Potions, so I just waited. Your paralysis wearing off?”
“Ah, n-not yet. Still…”
His speech was halting, but his words began growing clearer bit by bit.
“Y-you, who are you…?”
“Ko Cheol-woo. A Summoner like you, called here together. Though I’m not with the Royal Palace.”
“Oh. Oh. I saw you. You’re the one who was kicked out back then…!”
The rest of the question came from someone else.
A woman named Jung Shin-hye.
She and her group of adventurers soon began breaking free from the paralysis, one by one.
“Th-thank, thank you.”
“Thank you for saving us.”
They didn’t seem like bad people, but they looked incredibly fragile.
“…Surely, you were the person kicked out for having a pathetic Innate Ability Slot or Special Property…?”
“You’re serious?”
I wish they wouldn’t talk behind my back like that.
“Um, Ko Cheol-woo?”
“Pardon?”
“Would it be alright if I asked you something?”
“……Go ahead.”
“That Petrification Gas. It was a Basilisk, wasn’t it? An Elite Monster. How did you defeat it so easily? You said your trait wasn’t anything special…….”
A sigh escaped before I could stop it at Shim Jung-soo’s question, his eyes flickering toward Jung Shin-hye.
“I simply threw a dagger at its weak point and took it down.”
“……I beg your pardon?”
I offered him a partial truth and added my assessment.
“If it’s this simple to dispatch, you’d be better served pursuing a different quest. This place seems far too dangerous for your group.”
Shim Jung-soo’s face flushed slightly in that moment, but he merely lowered his head without pressing further.
‘I was hoping to see some of the Royal Palace’s techniques.’
My expectations had crumbled, but at least I had gained an excuse.
I’d already concluded there was nothing more to find here if I wanted to locate the Jungle Swamp’s monarch beetle.
“Max. We’ll need to swing back through Golden Acre to drop these people off.”
“Huh? But…….”
Max’s eyes darted nervously between the adventurers, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to voice his concerns.
And so we turned back toward Golden Acre.
* * *
“Ugh. I’m exhausted.”
“Tell me about it.”
Park Il-hyun, standing nearby, echoed Lee Hye-sung’s sigh with his own.
After glancing around to confirm no knights were within earshot, Hye-sung let out another weary breath.
“Seriously. How much longer do we have to keep doing this?”
“Until we reach top-tier in Unarmed Combat Mastery, remember? That’s supposed to be what lets us clear the 20th Floor quest.”
“Ugh. This is infuriating…….”
“Tell me about it.”
They’d been dragged into this bizarre world for no reason and forced into training to fight monsters.
Whether anyone could truly adapt to such bewildering circumstances remained unclear, but over two years of experience, both of them had come to understand with certainty that they were not among those who could.
Honestly, they’d been told they could go hunt on higher floors if they were confident enough, but instead they’d simply ignored the suggestion and continued complaining about how grueling the training was.
“Why don’t you ask your brother for help? Your brother’s doing pretty well.”
“No, I can’t. He says now’s not the time to draw attention. He told me to keep my head down and follow orders.”
“Doesn’t your brother have a Third-tier Class or something?”
“Even so, he says he’s still weak. He said Summoners need to reach Fourth-tier or higher before they gain any real authority……. Wait——?”
Mid-sentence, Lee Hye-sung spotted a group of black-haired figures entering Golden Acre through the south gate.
At this moment in time, the only black-haired people in Golden Acre were Summoners belonging to the Royal Palace who trained together.
“What’s up? Oh, those people who went hunting? Huh. There’s someone I don’t recognize.”
But one of them was unfamiliar.
“Who?”
“Wait. Isn’t that…… the person?”
“Huh?”
“You know. The one who got kicked out on the first day. The Low-Grade one. His skin looks different, but I think that’s him.”
“Oh……?”
Their eyes met, and simultaneously a cruel smile spread across both their faces.
“Did he make it to the 11th Floor?”
“Wow. He managed not to wash out after all.”
“Looks like Shim Jung-soo’s party must’ve helped him.”
“Probably.”
As they exchanged words, their eyes communicated what their mouths did not.
“I was getting bored anyway.”
“Same.”
A pallid complexion, a weary expression. His frame wasn’t particularly large, yet inexplicably he carried a practice spear at his back.
A crude wooden training spear, no less.
“Want to take him out for a while?”
“What about Shim Jung-soo?”
“Ah. We just tell him we offered to show him around.”
“Won’t that cause trouble?”
“Trouble? How?”
“Ah……. Right. No way it would.”
In this world, strength was everything.
Especially when Summoners ‘fought’ one another—there could be no consequences.
“It’s a bit scruffy, sure…”
“We’re bored.”
“…Yeah, fine. Let’s play with him a little.”
To them, Ko Cheol-woo—cast out so plainly—was nothing but an amusing toy. Nothing more, nothing less.
“Hey! Jung-soo!”
“Oh. You guys—what brings you here?”
Shim Jung-soo caught sight of them and hesitated.
It wasn’t as though they were on warm terms, after all.
“You just got back from a hunting quest, right? Did it go well?”
“Ah, well…”
Shim Jung-soo laughed awkwardly all of a sudden, his eyes flickering toward Ko Cheol-woo.
“Wait—did you fail the hunt trying to rescue this person?”
“No! That’s not it at all! Why would you say such a thing!”
“Come on, I can tell just by looking. But hey, I know this guy. Want me to show him around Golden Acre instead?”
“Lee Hye-sung, what are you—”
Shim Jung-soo started to speak, but—
“Never mind. This is actually interesting.”
Ko Cheol-woo suddenly raised a hand, cutting Shim Jung-soo off.
“You know me?”
At his casual reply, something nagging twisted in his chest, but he’d already committed to the performance.
“Of course, sir. You just arrived at Golden Acre recently, didn’t you?”
“Well, it’s been a few days now…”
Someone who’d taken over two years just to reach the 11th Floor.
And that doubt melted away.
“Sir, you don’t know me? But I remember you clearly?”
“Me too. Me too. Sir, I remember you?”
The moment Park Il-hyun chimed in with that mischievous grin, confidence surged through him.
“You guys…”
Jung Shin-hye was about to say something—
“Oh, yeah! You guys! Good to see you!”
Ko Cheol-woo cut her off with an idiotic laugh.
In fact—
“Come on, go inside. I’ve got to catch up with these friends here.”
The nonsense piled on so thick it was almost dizzying.
Still.
“Then… we’ll…?”
“Yes. Yes. It’s fine.”
“…Thank you for your help.”
“We’ll go on ahead, then.”
Shim Jung-soo’s party bowed to Ko Cheol-woo and left, and the nagging feeling surged back with a vengeance.
‘What the hell? Jung-soo’s party got help from Ko Cheol-woo? How the hell is that possible?’
It was impossible not to be shaken.
But then—
“So you know me? How?”
“Ah, yes, sir. Let’s not stand around here. Let’s go over there in the shade and talk.”
The moment Ko Cheol-woo asked, Park Il-hyun laughed easily and pointed down a shaded alley.
“Yeah, that works. It’s getting hot anyway. Let’s go.”
The instant Ko Cheol-woo agreed cheerfully, sweat began to bead on Lee Hye-sung’s back.
“Hyung?”
A short figure tailing along behind Ko Cheol-woo hardly registered at all.
“So what did you want to talk about?”
Ko Cheol-woo chuckled and asked.
Two thugs in their early twenties with beat-up faces were serving him some transparent excuse, and he was genuinely curious what they’d come up with.
‘They look like Summoners around here.’
He could guess at their station, but he didn’t know them.
“Well, it’s nothing much. Just some fellow countrymen we haven’t seen in a while, and we’d like to do some charity work.”
“Char… ity?”
As Ko Cheol-woo watched the pockmarked one spout nonsense, that square jaw from earlier started pressing in again.
“Hey, charity? You’re joking, right? It’s called a donation. A donation.”
“Right, right. Sir, a donation for our growing youth. You have any money?”
Hmm.
I’d half expected it, but seeing it actually happen felt absurd.
“What, playing some kind of street punk game?”
“Come on, mister! You think we’re that stupid?”
“You’re a funny guy. Look, we’re just saying countrymen should help each other out. Ah, is that short kid next to you a Low-Grade reject like you? Then let’s count him as one of us too and get him some charity while we’re at it, yeah?”
“Brother…….”
“Ah, forget it. Let’s hear what he has to say first.”
I stopped Max, who was starting to frown.
Watching this bastard snicker and poke at me with his running mouth, I found myself thinking of those thugs who used to harass and bully Ha Eun.
‘Nothing special about their traits or abilities.’
What the hell did they think they had, pulling this garbage in a world this savage?
I was curious.
“What are you going on about, old man? Can’t you understand plain speech?”
The pockmarked one kept running his mouth.
The spade-jawed one suddenly stepped back a pace.
“Hey. Cut it out.”
“What? You’re the one who said to do this!?”
“No, something feels a bit strong…….”
So he had some instinct after all.
“Shit. You getting cold feet?”
“……Damn it! What are you saying!?”
The punk had already hit the accelerator.
Bang.
“Mister, while I’m still being nice……. Huh!?”
Crunch-crunch-crunch.
“Aaahhh! My, my hand!”
I grabbed his hand as he thrust it carelessly at my face and simply crushed it, and only then did a scream come out that matched the situation.
“Fuck, what the hell!”
Clang.
“Oh? A weapon?”
Smack.
Crack-crack-crack.
I shattered the wrist of the one who’d pulled a blade, and for good measure crushed his jaw.
“Guh…….”
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Crunch-crunch-crunch.
“Aaaahhhhh!”
I grabbed the shoulder of the one trying to scramble away and stood him up, snapping his collarbone at the same time.
“No matter how loud you scream, nobody outside will hear it properly.”
Whoooosh.
I even let him know that I was dampening the sound with the Wind Spirit (though it wasn’t blocking it completely).
But the one who really should have been listening already had foam at his mouth.
“Guh. Guh…….”
Looking back at the one who’d thrown the first punch, I saw sweat pouring down his face like rain.
“I’m, I’m sorry. Now that I think about it, I must have mistaken who you are.”
“I doubt that.”
“I, I’m really serious! I thought you were a Low-Grade reject who got kicked out of the Royal Palace! I was wrong!”
“Well, that’s actually me.”
“……Excuse me?”
Looking at his blank face, irritation surged up even more.
‘Even if they are street thugs.’
They really thought it was okay to do this to someone who’s actually Low-Grade?
The faces of these trash overlaid with the memory of when I dealt with those bastards who bullied Ha Eun.
“I know your type pretty well.”
Crunch-crunch-crunch.
“Ugh!?”
“Beat you guys moderately and there’s always blowback.”
Their parents had filed a lawsuit against me.
So I’d spent three years in a legal battle using things like messages saved on Ha Eun’s phone as evidence.
How many times had I regretted not beating them half to death back then.
“What the hell are you doing, you maniac!”
Clang!
The thug with the underbite cursed under his breath and yanked out his blade.
Ko Cheol-woo simply grabbed that arm—the one holding the knife—and snapped it.
Crack-crack-crunch.
“Aaaagh!?”
“There, there. I told you we’d talk this out quietly. I’ve still got plenty more to say.”
Whistle.
“Come on, smile. Pretend we’re friends. Just pretend.”
Crack-crack-crunch.
“Aaaagh! You—my brother won’t let you get away with this—!”
Threats, now? How quaint.
Ko Cheol-woo took special care with the ones who tried to threaten him.
Crack-crack-crack-crunch.
“Aaaaaagh!”

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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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