Conquering the Labyrinth with a Trash-Tier Trait - Chapter 7

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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 7
“Charge forward!”
Kirk roared.
When the Goblin warriors rushed in, the credit largely belonged to him for deploying Steel Body—with its 24-hour cooldown—on the front line to hold them back.
But right now, that wasn’t what mattered most.
“Ability Stone! Mana Stone!”
I moved the spirits to swiftly gather the Ability Stone the Hobgoblin had dropped and the three Mana Stones the Goblin warriors had spilled.
The Ability Stone, the size of a fist, and the Mana Stones, each the size of a fingernail, were all shimmering with a rich red glow.
My eyes widened as I checked their basic information.
“Kirk! This is incredible!”
First, the three Mana Stones.
Mana Stones dropped by dead monsters were usually consistent in quality.
Each one was worth at least ten Gold, and then some.
But what really made this special was the Ability Stone.
[Ruler’s Majesty]
[Strength +3, Agility +4, Stamina +5, Mana +3, Magic Resistance +6]
This was considered the finest Ability Stone an Elite Monster like a Hobgoblin could drop.
“Don’t tell me that’s Ruler’s Majesty!?”
“Yeah!”
“Wow!”
Interestingly, nobody really cared much about the stat numbers attached to this particular stone.
That was because it wasn’t Adventurers who wanted it, but the Nobility—people with Ability Slots who had no desire to engage in the kind of dangerous work Adventurers did, or rather, didn’t need to.
[An Ability Stone imbued with a Hobgoblin’s authority. It grants the power to command those of its kind.
However, the higher one’s intellect, the less effective it becomes.]
‘As expected.’
When it says the higher one’s intellect, the less effective it becomes, it doesn’t mean the smartest people.
Anyone with a human level of intelligence couldn’t even begin to fake a Hobgoblin’s absolute dominion.
And yet there was only one reason this Ability Stone sold for such a high price.
“Nobles really will pay hundreds of Gold just to look dignified. Does that even make sense?”
“Well, some people find value in that sort of thing.”
It was, quite literally, a fashion Ability Stone.
But the fact that it sold expensively was what mattered.
“It’s good for us, isn’t it?”
“That’s right.”
“We should sell it and upgrade our equipment so we take fewer wounds—wait—”
Only then did I notice my tattered Leather Armor and the wounds covering my body, and the world tilted.
“Ugh.”
“Sir!?”
Kirk caught me as I stumbled.
“Hey. Yeah, some medicine.”
“Hold on!”
Kirk pulled out Trauma Medicine from the bundle he’d brought and began applying it all over my body.
‘Well, at least there’s that.’
If I hadn’t raised my Stamina through training and Ability Stones, I probably would’ve already bled out with this many wounds.
‘I’m selling that Ruler’s Majesty, and I’m buying good armor first. Especially shoes. Damn it…’
My feet had been hurting unusually badly—my Leather Shoes’ soles had already torn away, and my feet, which I’d thought had calluses hard as bone, were nearly nothing but blood.
The wounds on my feet looked worse than the cuts from the goblins’ blades.
“Still, I’ve learned something about spear technique thanks to this. That was good combat.”
“You got even stronger from that?”
This from someone who hadn’t acquired a Class and was stuck at Level 10?
“Ah, I’m still clumsy. More than that—you’re a Summoner, so shouldn’t your Level have risen more?”
At his question, I belatedly checked my status window.
[Name: Ko Chul-woo]
[Race: Human]
[Level: 8]
[Stats]
Strength: 14 (+0.6)
Stamina: 15 (+0.6)
Agility: 9 (+0.6)
Mana: 12
Physical Resistance: 3
Magic Resistance: 4
[Mana Skills]
Thrust (Common—Lv. 10), Bartus Iron Body Technique (Common—Lv. 5), Advance-Retreat Step (Common—Lv. 10)
[Level-up Points: 7]
[Ability Slot (Full)]
Multiple Spirit Summoning.
[Traits]
—See additional information.
My level had climbed a full seven ranks to reach eight, but what truly stunned me was that two of my skills had maxed out at level ten—they’d hit their cap.
“Wow!”
On top of that, the Bartus Iron Body Technique had risen to level five, granting me a five-percent boost to Strength, Constitution, and Agility drawn from my Mana stat.
The numbers were still modest, but they’d made a real difference when my survival was hanging by a thread.
‘That explains why my stamina felt a bit firmer partway through.’
And my mana pool seemed higher too.
—You’d be capable of mastering ordinary skills without spending points. Save them for now.
Jeor-ik’s words echoed in my mind, but even he couldn’t have foreseen that a single venture into the Dungeon would see me cap out two skills entirely.
Was I the type who thrived in real combat?
“You’ve leveled up quite a bit, haven’t you?”
“……Yeah.”
Even as I marveled at myself, temptation crept in.
The urge to spend my Level-up Points immediately clawed at me.
Since skill upgrades and evolutions delivered far greater combat gains than raw stat increases, spending points on stats was frankly little better than folly.
So my deliberation centered on skills.
‘I think I might be able to evolve the skills that hit their cap.’
Level-up Points cost one to raise a skill’s level, but two to evolve one that had already reached its limit.
I wavered for a moment.
—Level-up Points are valuable only when you save them. Especially at lower grades.
Recalling Jeor-ik’s counsel, I forced myself to hold back.
“Here—I’ll give you two of the Mana Stones.”
“No, let’s split them exactly in half.”
“Then should we sell them together with the Ability Stones and divide the profit?”
“Yes. That’d be better actually.”
Once we’d settled the distribution, we hammered out our next course of action.
“And while we’re hunting for another exit, let’s retrace our fights and check if any Mana Stones were left behind. Regular Goblins almost never drop them, but there were so many we tangled with.”
“Right. But……why look for more exits? We’ve already found six.”
That made me pause.
But just as with the Goblin Lair, the knowledge that my trait let me learn the conditions for a Perfect Clear felt far too dangerous to reveal.
‘In this savage world.’
If the Goblin Lair raised my chances of being found dead in some back alley, then this would raise my chances of being enslaved to some grand guild or royal court.
‘I can always say I heard about the Goblin slaughter from somewhere else.’
It aligned well enough with the vague notion of “heroic deeds” needed to claim a Special Class.
But exits—that felt too contrived even to me.
So I changed the subject.
“Do you remember where those exits were?”
“……Ah.”
With that deflection in place, I’d have to find four more exits by any means necessary.
From that point on, we retraced our battles and combed the ground, hoping against the odds that a Mana Stone might’ve been dropped.
Of course.
“That doesn’t seem right, does it?”
“No, maybe—we were running, so it could’ve fallen here.”
“Could be.”
I pressed forward into directions I’d never explored, searching for another exit.
Regular Goblins rarely dropped Mana Stones anyway.
And so we found three more exits.
“Let’s try over there next!”
“That’s definitely not it……”
“No, it has to be.”

“Did you get turned around? I thought you were talking about some maze escape method?”
“Let’s just keep going!”
“No, but haven’t we found enough by now……?”
“Let’s do this!”
“A terrible sense of direction and stubborn as hell too. Wow…….”
I’d suddenly become the one with no sense of direction, forced to steer Kirk in a different way.
‘Just one more. One more!’
And then.
“Shriek!”
“Dammit. Goblins again!”
“That’s why I said not here!”
After fighting several more times, we finally found the last exit.
“Alright, should we head out?”
“Now you want to leave? We lost our way ages ago!”
“Hey. But we got a lot of experience out of it. After slaughtering this many goblins, it should’ve been reflected in the class conditions, right? Probably?”
“Probably? That was just a guess too!?”
It wasn’t a guess, but it worked out that way.
And then.
[Dungeon Floor 1 Perfect Clear condition fulfilled.]
[On the first attempt: slew (1,130/1,000) monsters & discovered all (10/10) exits.]
[You have been awarded 1 Level-up Point!]
[An Achievement has been created. Bonus adjustments will apply upon Class acquisition.]
‘What!?’
I froze at the system’s notification sound about the Perfect Clear, and especially about the Level-up Point.
Kirk tilted his head.
“What? Did something go wrong?”
It seemed Kirk couldn’t hear that notification sound.
“Oh, no.”
Gaining a Level-up Point without leveling up was surprising enough.
But the Achievement was far more important.
‘A bonus upon Class acquisition?’
It was dangerous information to mention carelessly.
“I guess I was just tired and seeing things.”
“I thought……. Anyway, let’s go. I’m really exhausted right now.”
“Hey. When we beat that Hobgoblin earlier—you didn’t hear a system notification sound?”
“You mean when the battle ended?”
“……Yeah.”
Right. He couldn’t hear the notifications right now.
“Why not?”
“……No. Just. Now that we’re heading back, all sorts of thoughts are crowding in.”
“Come on. Aren’t you tired too?”
The Level-up Point was unique to Summoners, so I let that slide, but it seemed the “Achievement” that reflected on the Class also wasn’t audible to the natives.
‘I suppose…….’
When I thought about it, it made sense.
If natives could hear notifications about Achievements, information about Special Classes would’ve already spread widely—Perfect Clear or not.
“Alright. Let’s go.”
After organizing my thoughts, I placed my hand on the exit—the blue portal.
[Return to the surface?]
[Proceed to Dungeon Floor 2?]
I chose to return from the two options.
Flash.
My first Dungeon exploration ended, having gained far more than I’d expected.
[Dungeon Floor 1 (Novice Section) cleared. Agility increased by 1.]
One random Stat gain.
As the light that flickered before my eyes vanished along with the message about the reward all Adventurers receive upon clearing a floor, I felt myself standing before that black-hole-like enormous circle.
Among the many people milling about between the Dungeon Monument and the outer City Wall, I spotted Jeor-ik’s figure.
“You’re back!”
“Yes, Master.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You were just supposed to clear Floor 1, so why are you so late? I’ve been waiting for over half a day. And why do you look like a vagrant?”
Jeor-ik suddenly wrapped his arms around Kirk with a theatrical gasp, then immediately began pointing out the state we were both in, his brow furrowing.
Jeor-ik’s voice was so loud that I noticed people around us stealing glances in our direction.
And then came the snide remarks: “Floor 1, really?”, “How weak are you guys?” and the like.
“Well, it’s…….”
“Let’s talk about it once we get back inside.”
I calmed Jeor-ik down, and after we returned to the Martial Arts Hall, I explained everything that had happened.
“What!? A Goblin Wave, and a Hobgoblin!?”
“Yes. We just got caught up slaughtering them all.”
“Why would you do something so reckless!? No matter how confident you are in your skills, that’s too far!”
“Well, Ko Chul-woo over there seduced me with talk of Special Class conditions.”
Kirk shamefully threw me under the carriage.
“What the!?”
“No, I mean, I just heard that rumor somewhere…….”
“The common knowledge is that Special Class advancement is reflected through combat against Elite Monsters or Boss Monsters. So where did you hear……!”
That’s actually not right.
Even as I thought that much, I lowered my head and offered an apology.
“I’m sorry.”
I’d already made up my mind not to tell anyone about this information.
But I still had to brag about the results.
“At least we got a Ruler’s Majesty Ability Stone from it.”
“……What?”
“We also secured three Mana Stones.”
“……Huh?”
“Kirk also said his Skill grew while overcoming that, and I reached Level 8. Originally, you said the Summoner cap on Floor 1 was Level 5.”
“……What, what?”
Only then did the anger gradually begin to fade from Jeor-ik’s expression.
“Don’t tell me you’ve spent all your Level-up Points because it was so dangerous……?”
“I haven’t spent any at all.”
“……What?”
The truth was, I simply hadn’t had the presence of mind to use them.
He examined this and that, but in the end, with only the achievements to show for it, Jeor-ik let out a dry laugh and raised both hands.
“Fine. I’ll acknowledge that you’ve achieved more than I imagined. But don’t you ever pull off something that reckless again. Understood?”
“Yes!”
“Yes!”
“Especially you, Ko Chul-woo. Don’t you dare go chasing after strange rumors and doing foolish things!”
“Yes!”
I silently gave a different answer in my heart.
Only after that did I respond out loud.
“Good. Rest now. And Ko Chul-woo, I’m telling you again—don’t even think about using your Level-up Points to evolve. Not yet.”
“Yes. I was already planning on saving them anyway…….”
“Actually, I had something I needed to tell you.”
“……Yes?”
“Just rest today for now. You’ve been fighting nonstop all day, haven’t you?”
And so our long day came to an end.

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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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