Conquering the Labyrinth with a Trash-Tier Trait - Chapter 64

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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 64
“Five of them. Just knights.”
“What!? That many?”
“Yeah. So let’s go. Now.”
“No, wait. Are we really going to be okay?”
“Yeah. But if we linger here, we won’t be.”
“Ah, um…….”
Max wore a resentful expression as he stepped into the Jungle.
I offered another word to bolster his confidence.
“……You know the general route anyway. You really think they’ll catch up?”
“But what happens after? If those kings’ knights come at us from behind while we’re trying to catch their leader?”
“I’ve thought it all through. Don’t worry.”
As I reassured Max, our stride forward held no hesitation.
I still remembered the path I’d carved (scorched) through the Jungle when we’d circled back yesterday.
And I knew it wasn’t far from there to the Central Swamp.
“But wouldn’t the enemy catch up easily if they follow us? If they have a Tracking Skill or something…….”
“Don’t worry about that either. They’d only make things harder for themselves.”
I smiled as I reassured him.
It was simple enough to lay traps in the spaces we passed through.
I’d scatter my spirits as wide as possible, stir up all the vicious monsters, and herd them onto the path we’d taken.
“……But won’t we have trouble getting back too?”
“Would you rather get caught by the knights and have real trouble?”
“……No.”
The monsters on the 11th Floor couldn’t dispatch 2nd Class knights, but they could certainly make things difficult for them.
And in that time, we’d arrive at the Central Swamp first.
Then.
‘I’d use the bait to draw them out…….’
My trait had never betrayed me, so bait made from monster byproducts would be reliable.
And if possible.
‘……I’d get the knights to fight first.’
Since I’d already planned the method, my footsteps were light with confidence.
Whirrrrr.
Shrick.
“Damn pests.”
Crackle-crackle.
Snap!
Even though I’d cleared it out yesterday, tangled vines and small monsters had quickly wormed their way back—annoying beyond measure.
‘I shouldn’t use it now…….’
I’d gone through the trouble of working on Innate Ability stones to handle these small monsters yesterday, but I held back now.
I didn’t want to leave traces of my abilities for my pursuers to follow.
After half a day of self-imposed hardship, we arrived before the vast green swamp where the air hung heavy and thick.
* * *
Kendrick Howard was a greedy man.
He always coveted positions and wealth beyond his station.
And he didn’t hesitate to use any means necessary to obtain them.
But even so, he kept certain lines.
In the age of the Great Labyrinth where might decided everything, he understood that what a 3rd Class could obtain was limited—trapped at that ceiling since he’d exhausted his potential.
But inversely, anything he thought he could obtain, he never gave up on.
He’d always walked that line carefully, or so he believed.
But not long ago, a bribery scandal caught him, and he was demoted to Golden Acre within this Labyrinth.
‘Where did it leak?’
It was a thought Kendrick turned over constantly these days.
‘Someone must have deliberately leaked it.’
He wasn’t stingy about sharing his gains with his subordinates, yet he didn’t trust them.
‘Maybe one of the men who stayed outside? Or could it be someone who snuck in here with us……?’
The wealth he offered his men was payment for cooperation and hush money—never a sign of trust.
He had reason to suspect a traitor might have followed him into Golden Acre.
‘……Who were the ones who knew I bought that Super Rare Item?’
With the wealth he’d accumulated (and saved), he’d purchased a Super Rare Item worth well over five thousand gold, which he kept carefully stored.
A possession he was too stingy to use properly.
‘There might be someone trying to play games with me.’
He wasn’t the type to suspect they’d been caught skimming bribes due to insufficient funds—that wasn’t how his mind worked.
‘Greedy bastards, every last one of them.’
So when Aslan and Targa, whom he’d sent to strip that Defective Class of his items, failed to return, he assumed they were shirking rather than suspecting foul play.
By any reasonable measure, that was the wiser assumption.
‘Thank God the idiot didn’t complete the quest and disappear on us. Stupid bastards.’
Fortunately, the Defective Class hadn’t even managed to clear the 11th Floor and had returned to Golden Acre.
There was, however, one detail that troubled him.
The summoners who’d returned with him had spoken of something strange.
“We received assistance.”
“The Swamp Basilisk fell to a single thrust.”
“How could anyone possess such power….”
Testimony that the Defective Class was anything but defective.
It was a contradiction that shattered Kendrick’s understanding of the world.
‘That can’t be right.’
One Innate Ability Slot. Worse yet, it held a useless Unranked Trait that wasn’t even combat-oriented.
It was common knowledge that summoners brought into this world as adults struggled immensely to learn Mana Combat or magic.
Barring rare exceptions, their combat relied almost entirely on skills.
And if their traits were worthless on top of that, there was nothing to be said.
And yet.
‘Could that bastard have been something special?’
He tried to recall his first impression of Ko Cheol-woo, but all he could remember was that he’d been Defective Class.
‘Nothing stood out about him, then.’
He’d judged him Defective based solely on his Innate Ability Slot and trait, dismissing him without a second thought.
Now he reframed it: he simply hadn’t noticed anything special about Ko Cheol-woo.
After all, he prided himself on being a good judge of character.
Which made the next report all the harder to swallow.
“He’s apparently caused quite a stir recently in Bartus.”
“What?”
“He’s said to have taken down several 2nd Class summoners with surprise attacks, and even fought a 3rd Class summoner and escaped unharmed.”
“That’s absurd!”
“…Which is why the order came down for you to test him, Your Grace.”
“Don’t be ridiculous!”
He thought it was all nonsense.
Yet the nagging doubt drove him to send five knights to confirm it.
Five 2nd Class summoners—the very rank he’d supposedly taken down in surprise attacks.
But the report that returned fell short of his expectations.
“…They couldn’t find him, so they went into the Jungle. The Central Swamp?”
“Yes, sir. That’s what I heard.”
“The target left first?”
“Yes. It’s said he rode out in a hurry this morning, as if something urgent had come up. So the knights….”
At that moment, his instincts flared.
‘Someone tipped him off.’
Why?
How?
‘So they get the Defective Class to run, then strip him clean where no one’s watching?’
That was the only explanation that made sense.
Because that Defective Class bastard had the item that allowed him to overcome Kendrick’s own Oppressive Aura.
‘It was all rumors after all. That’s why he ran.’
He was merely retrofitting the facts to fit his narrative, but his “common sense” assured him he was right.
If the rumors about facing a 3rd Class summoner were true—
‘He must’ve escaped with something better than I thought. At least Rare Grade. Probably more than one. Maybe Super Rare?’
The notion of a 1st Class summoner possessing Super Rare Grade items defied his logic, yet his blind greed cherry-picked which parts of common sense to accept.
In that instant, anxiety seized him.
Even just two usable Rare Grade items would help replenish the fortune he’d recently spent acquiring that Artifact.
“I’ll have to go myself.”
“Sir?”
“No, never mind. Withdraw.”
“…Yes, sir.”
After dismissing the nervous attendant, he retrieved the item from the hidden safe in his chamber.
‘An ancient artifact.’
[Kyle’s Leather Shoes (Super Rare)]
-Defense +40
-Movement Speed +40
-Stamina +30
-Binding Resistance +30
‘Ha. As expected.’
Shoes with four Rare Grade options attached—among Super Rare items, these were among the finest.
Moreover, the defense and movement speed were top-tier even by Super Rare standards.
Binding resistance wasn’t merely effective against spells that wound the feet or simple restraints, but could resist more comprehensive debilitations like petrification, making it an exceptional property.
“They were terribly expensive, though….”
Kendrick Howard regarded the shoes—which resembled worn leather footwear—with complicated eyes.
“…No, that’s not it. Five thousand gold is a bargain. Really. If just one more Rare Grade option were attached, they’d be Unique Grade shoes. Yes, absolutely.”
Despite his words, he exhaled a sigh and drew the shoes out.
In truth, keeping such a magnificent item locked away in a safe had reasons beyond their worn appearance.
Namely.
“Ugh. Damn it.”
They didn’t fit his feet properly.
A problem inherent to ancient artifacts—something he hadn’t considered at all when purchasing them.
Unlike modern shoe artifacts, they came with no automatic fitting function as a basic feature.
That frustration only stoked the fire of his rage.
The defective fool who gave away information and let them escape—he had to find that bastard first.
“Traitor. Just wait. I’ll find out who you are.”
Whoosh.
He left his quarters at once and bolted toward the Jungle like wind itself.
‘This is it!’
The speed and assurance that movement speed and stamina bonuses brought.
‘That traitor, that defective fool—I’ll catch and kill them both soon enough.’
The velocity despite his Innate Ability remaining unsealed made him forget the slight discomfort in his feet.
* * *
It was less than a few hours later when Kendrick Howard spotted his subordinates.
But the situation made no sense to him.
‘What are those idiots doing?’
He witnessed them slaughtering miscellaneous monsters and forcing their way through the Jungle.
‘Why are they acting like this? Ralph should have the Tracking Art, shouldn’t he?’
Why were they fighting these worthless monsters?
He was curious, but didn’t follow immediately.
The very fact that his subordinates were wasting effort like this became circumstantial evidence that confirmed his suspicion.
‘So one of you is a traitor, then?’
In any case, they were clearly being pursued, so he calmed himself and decided to follow at a distance.
His Oppressive Aura, befitting an Advanced-class knight, wouldn’t allow the dungeon’s monsters to attack him.
“Get lost.”
Scatter.
Shhhhhh.
Even 1st Class elites he simply drove away with ease.
Following the combat traces his subordinates had left, he pursued from a distance.
And added a touch of cunning to it.
‘The Concealment Artifact.’
An artifact he’d recently acquired.
Being merely an Advanced-grade artifact, it only made him resemble his surroundings—scrutiny would reveal him, but for discreetly stalking from afar, it sufficed.
The shoes still pinched his feet, and the distinctive squelch of the Jungle’s damp ground beneath him was unpleasant, but he endured it.
‘Who is it.’
After the traitor caught that defective fool, he’d punish him.
But that moment took longer than he’d anticipated.
Though he drove off monsters with his Oppressive Aura, the humidity and heat of the rainforest alone were enough to provoke his irritation even while standing still.
‘Damn. Should I just abandon this and rejoin them to pursue? No, I can’t. That won’t let me identify the traitor.’
While enduring such thoughts surfacing again and again.
He saw his subordinates’ footsteps come to a halt.
Before a vast swampland.
He’d heard of it before.
‘The Central Swamp, then?’
A fairly dangerous region on the 11th Floor of the Labyrinth.
‘Where is that Defective Class bastard……?’
From his hiding place deep in the brush, he’d been keeping watch over his subordinates.
‘Huh?’
Suddenly, his men were engulfed in mist.
And then.
“Ahhh!”
A scream tore through the air.

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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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