Labyrinth Exploration 101 - Chapter 315

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Labyrinth Exploration 101 Episode 315

HERO(1)

Whiskey bar ‘Jackson & Jackson’. Since the owner is passionate about whiskey, this place always stocks whiskeys that are hard to find anywhere else, making it Mage Kim Se-jin’s regular spot.

The Reincarnation Gate opens…

Time remaining 334 : 17 : 19

Tae-woo watched the live broadcast while drinking a glass of whiskey.

Kang Hyeon and Yoon Hwa-rim’s party’s defense.

Tu-du-du-du-!

Mana stakes fired from the turrets Seol Ha-woon arranged pierce through the monsters.

Tu-da-da-da-!

The sound is crisp. It’s a well-made weapon.

─Kim Woo-hyeon: This is insane.

─Yoon Hwa-rim: Wow! Woo-hyeon, this is really good?!

Kim Woo-hyeon and Yoon Hwa-rim are amazed by the turret’s performance.

Tu-du-du-du-du───-!

“…Ah, somehow I find myself watching in a daze.”

Kim Se-jin in the seat next to him muttered.

This whiskey bar also has four TVs. They were deliberately placed in various spots for the customers.

“That’s right. Mage. How is Mage Seol Ha-woon doing right now?”

Tae-woo answered simply.

“He’s alive at least.”

“…Ah. Refinement?”

He quietly nodded at Kim Se-jin’s question.

Refinement using gem strings has dramatic effects. Accordingly, it’s difficult for a human body to endure under normal circumstances.

“Is it okay for you to tell me such things?”

“It’s about right now, the present.”

Tae-woo isn’t someone who can’t say anything. He can always talk about current matters.

─Kang Hyeon: Not much time left!

Kang Hyeon shouted in the live broadcast. Not only the explorers on screen but also the viewers checked the time.

[200 : 13 : 39]

“There’s still 200 minutes left though.”

─Lee Jun-ho: There’s still 200 minutes left! What do you mean not much time!

─Yoon Hwa-rim: Ah seriously Hyeon why are you like this!

─Kang Hyeon: …Sorry.

Kim Se-jin chuckled.

“I guess all explorers are the same.”

Kwa─da─da─da─!

Seol Ha-woon’s turrets spew fire without rest,

Whiiiiiii──-!

Ryu Yeon-hwa creates a whirlwind to lift the monsters on the other side into the air.

─Lee Jong-soo: Hyeon! Jun-ho! Don’t go too far forward! We need to fight leaning on the fortress! Let’s make maximum use of it!

Seol Ha-woon’s Fortress. The explorers lean on that base to efficiently deploy their defense. It’s incredibly reassuring both for the explorers and for the viewers watching.

Tang─! Tang─! Tang─!

The swordsmen and warriors who formed the defense line near the castle wall are covered by mages and artillery.

─Lee Jun-ho: …There’s damn many of them.

─Kang Hyeon: Still, it’s manageable.

Kang Hyeon’s grinning expression gets a close-up.

─Lee Jun-ho: That’s right. Je Mal-ol left us something really good.

Kim Se-jin opened the live chat.

-I’m so upset ㅠㅠ

-No but Seol Ha-woon is just doing everything for them

-Those bastards who slandered Seol Ha-woon like this should just go die

-Hahaha “Seol Ha-un is selfish” what bullshit hahaha

-Still funny how they used to say Seol Ha-woon has no broadcast appeal…

“Mage. Do you happen to know the term Seol-daddy?”

Tae-woo looked at Kim Se-jin with an incredulous expression.

“For a daddy, I think you’ve lived longer than him.”

“…Well. It’s just like that. He’s dependable. Then he could be like a big brother too.”

Kim Se-jin chuckled while smoothing down his curly hair.

The whole world is Mitamnan. On the streets, in bars, academies, households, even on all the TVs in hospitals, only Mitamnan is playing.

─Lee Jun-ho: 3 minutes!

Kang Jun-su’s party’s defense with little time remaining.

─Kang Hyeon: Block them!

─Lee Jun-ho: 2 minutes!

Kuuuuung─!

A massive monster appears and rams into the castle wall with its entire body.

“Ugh.”

“Ah, scary.”

“Wow….”

The hospital patients react realistically, and the nurses and doctors also steal glances at the live broadcast as they move through the corridor.

─Lee Jun-ho : 1 minute!

Kraaaaaaah! Kyaaaaaaah!

When some of the monsters leap over the wall and rush toward the Reincarnation Gate.

“Oh my!”

“No, no!”

Strange screams echoed through the hospital corridor.

00 : 00 : 15

Kang Hyeon and Lee Jun-ho hurriedly turn back to block the monsters. They swing their swords while blocking the claws and teeth of the monsters trying to destroy the door with their bodies.

Chwarrrrrrreuk!

The sword blade cuts through the monsters,

─Lee Jun-ho : …Ha.

Lee Jun-ho and Kang Hyeon, exhausted from fatigue, kneel on one knee.

The elders applaud in admiration at the pictorial-like scene.

“Wow.”

“Those young people are the ones protecting our country!”

“Cool, so cool!”

00 : 00 : 02

00 : 00 : 01

00 : 00 : 00

Defense complete.

“Nice!”

“Yaaaay!”

The moment the defense is finished, everyone cheers, whistles, hugs each other – it’s complete chaos.

Srrrrr….

The monsters scatter like dust and disappear, and the Reincarnation Gate makes a creaking sound as it slowly opens.

─Lee Jong-soo : …This is tough.

─Yoon Hwa-rim : How did Mal-ol-haem do this alone.

“How did Je Mal-ol really do that.”

“Wow.”

“This is why Seol Ha-woon needs to be first place.”

[Opening the Reincarnation Gate.]

[The Reincarnation Gate will close in 30 minutes.]

─Yoon Hwa-rim : 30 minutes… Ah. But I want to take one of these turrets. That wouldn’t work, right? It would be amazing if I attached it to my cart….

Yoon Hwa-rim looks back and forth between her cart and the turret.

─Yoon Hwa-rim : Hmmmm….

─Kim Woo-hyeon : Hwa-rim noona. This one’s broken. This much should be okay, right?

One of the six turrets. Yoon Hwa-rim covets it.

─Yoon Hwa-rim : Ummm…. Alright. Let’s take it. I’ll tell Ha-woon oppa later.

In the end, she detaches the turret and mounts it on the head of her cart.

─Yoon Hwa-rim : …I was thinking about attack functions. Everyone. Load your stuff on the cart!

Everyone loads their luggage onto Yoon Hwa-rim’s cart and tries to enter the Reincarnation Gate, but.

“What! Is that allowed?!”

“No way, does that make sense?!”

“Look at that, that thief!”

The patients suddenly went into an uproar. The waiting room and corridor were the same. The nurses smiled bitterly as they looked at them, all worked up.

“What? Why, why what happened?”

A doctor who returned after finishing surgery asked in confusion.

“Ah. Mage Yoon Hwa-rim just took Seol Ha-woon’s turret.”

“…Took the turret?”

“Yes. She detached a broken turret and loaded it on her cart.”

The doctor first checked KakaoTalk.

-Hahahaha wow this is ridiculous

-why take that isn’t it fucking expensive?

-yoon hwa-rim really

-she’s ruining her own image

-fucking stupid

-she should just get sued

-shouldn’t seol ha-woon sue yoon hwa-rim?

-you guys should get sued for personal attacks this is fucked

-No way, knowing Seolhaun’s personality, she probably wouldn’t care about that stuff at all lol

-don’t you know seol ha-woon?

-fuck seol ha-woon released the copyright out of goodwill and she immediately steals it isn’t that really crazy?

-atypical mage and typical mage….

“Wow… it’s brutal. Why is it like this?”

“Doctor Kim, isn’t your pick Yoon Hwa-rim?”

“Huh. Is this really something to get so much hate for?”

I opened social media.

│Yoon Hwa-rim is fucking ridiculous│

│That’s just straight up theft, damn│

│Crazy, this is really unbelievable│

│Seol Ha-woon isn’t even bothered, so why are you guys bitching?│

│Right, if he was annoyed he would’ve said something after the labyrinth ended lol│

│So is Seol Ha-woon gonna be all cool and say give back my turret? He’d be a corpse without his pride lol│

│Lent it to help clear the labyrinth and she just swallowed it whole lol│

“Seol Ha-woon probably doesn’t care at all, but the fans are going crazy.”

“What do you mean going crazy? It’s worth going crazy over.”

Another doctor had come over and was frowning.

“What’s worth going crazy over?”

“If people are going crazy, then it’s worth going crazy over.”

Then Teacher Kim, who was a Yoon Hwa-rim fan, crossed his arms knowingly.

“Aha~ Hey. Are you trying to check Yoon Hwa-rim?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Wow, you are checking her. You said you were an Im Hae-jun fan, right?”

“I am, but what does that have to do with anything?”

“It has everything to do with it. Yoon Hwa-rim and Im Hae-jun are competing for 6th-8th place.”

“That’s ridiculous. Im Hae-jun’s debut is basically confirmed.”

“What? Wow, wow~ Hey. What are you. No. Wow~ This is. Wow~ You’ve lost your mind. How is Im Hae-jun’s debut confirmed-“

“The one who’s lost their mind is you for defending Yoon Hwa-rim.”

“…Hey. Are you crazy?”

Watching the doctors suddenly get into a real fight over Mitamnan, the nurses shook their heads.

It was a familiar scene.

Not only hospital staff but patients had fought countless times, and many had even grabbed each other’s hair.

Never talk about politics, religion, or Mitamnan with work colleagues – this had become a famous saying in South Korea.

Some unspecified time in the past.

I had returned to the workshop. A space thick with traces of the mage named Tae-woo. I searched through the interior thoroughly, but all I could see were glass bottles filling the shelves.

Unidentifiable herbs, strangely-shaped magic liquids, things that looked like faintly glowing magic stones.

“…But does this make sense?”

Time travel. I was experiencing magic that only Tae-woo should be capable of.

But to definitively say it was impossible – I too was a regressor who had once gone against time. I had already crossed the boundary of impossibility once.

“What’s this?”

First, I looked at what Tae-woo had left behind. On the table, the contents in a bowl looked like thick green juice at first glance. Next to it lay an old book.

[Life-Connecting Elixir Recipe]

I opened the book.

The life-connecting elixir that links severed connections. Its foundation lies in the ‘Red Star Grass’ that grows deep underground, receiving only the moon’s essence. This red flower contains mysterious energy that connects severed magic flows, but is highly poisonous by itself. ‘Dragon Scale Stone’ powder must be mixed to neutralize the toxicity. After that, grind together thousand-year ginseng root and moonlight grass leaves…

The book contained detailed descriptions of a medicine’s effects and recipe for recovering from severed meridians.

“Do I need to make this to get out?”

Tae-woo had said that getting out of here was my responsibility.

I carefully transferred the green juice Tae-woo had ground into a reagent bottle. I put the Life-Connecting Elixir recipe in my coat and gathered what looked like emergency rations – canned food and jerky from the shelves.

I changed the coat-form 「Black Journey」 into an inconspicuous burlap sack.

I left the creaking workshop, leaning on my walking stick.

Night had deepened, but what I saw wasn’t a pleasant sight. Somewhat shabby buildings and houses, shacks roughly built with just wood. The state of the streets wasn’t good either. I had seen this kind of scene quite often.

War.

Areas swept by war usually deteriorated like this.

“Mister, what are you doing!”

Then, a lisping voice broke the silence and called out to me.

“You shouldn’t walk around at night!”

It was some dirty child.

Perfect timing.

“Are you perhaps an herb gatherer?”

The child was holding something like a hoe in their hands.

“What’s an herb gatherer?”

“…Have you ever seen a flower like this?”

I showed them the ‘Red Star Grass’ drawn in the Life-Connecting Elixir book. The child frowned.

“I don’t know, but hurry up and come! Night is dangerous!”

The child urgently gestured. I followed the child.

I didn’t know what was dangerous, but I needed information about this era first.

The child skillfully squeezed through the alley and stopped in front of a shack that looked ready to collapse.

Going inside, the kid busily rummaged through shelves while asking.

“Have you eaten?”

Things that were embarrassing to call food tumbled out of the shelves. Unidentifiable weeds, dried bracken, sprouted potatoes and such.

Looking at their face, it seemed they kindly intended to share with me too.

“It’s okay.”

I took out a food pouch from inside my coat. It was jerky and canned food.

“…”

The child stared at it intently. Eyes clear with hunger.

“Want to eat?”

“Is that really okay?”

“Of course. Eat it all.”

I opened the can lid and handed it over. The child clumsily and hurriedly pushed the contents into their mouth. The sight of their cheeks bulging as they chewed was cute.

After the kid had eaten their fill, I casually asked.

“Are you alone?”

“…”

The child didn’t answer. I thought I knew why. Actually, I had suspected since coming here. That’s why perceptive people usually don’t ask such questions.

But I’m okay with it.

Rather, it’s my own method for getting close to people.

“I’m alone too. I’ve been alone since birth.”

This creates a much deeper kind of bond than trivial things like school or regional connections.

“…”

The child stopped chewing and looked up at me. I smiled slightly.

“Can I stay here for a while too?”

“…Yes. Since you gave me food.”

“Thanks. What’s your name?”

“Lee Jeong-soon.”

Lee Jeong-soon.

“I’m Seol Ha-woon.”

“Yes. What kind of person are you?”

Probably asking what my job is.

“A mage… you probably don’t know that. Then entertainer… explorer… you probably don’t know those either.”

Is there a word that fits this era?

“Just, someone who wanders around here and there.”

“Ah.”

“Then first….”

I was about to tidy up the interior of this shack with telekinesis when I suddenly realized something strange about my body.

Magic power wasn’t circulating within my body.

The body itself moved fine, and I could consciously draw upon magic power, but the flow of magic power that should circulate throughout my body like blood was stagnant.

In other words, my meridians were completely blocked.

“…Wait.”

I hurriedly checked my body’s condition.

The magic circuits inside me were torn to shreds due to refinement.

This much was correct. This is how the refinement process originally works.

However, the flow of magic power had completely stopped along those pathways.

Normally, a mage in this condition should already be dead. Magic power is like blood to a mage, so when circulation stops, magic power accumulates in one place, causing the dantian to go berserk and fall into qi deviation.

But I’m alive.

Beyond being alive, I’m perfectly fine.

What could be the reason? The reason I’m still alive….

No.

Come to think of it, it’s not that I’m still alive.

“Am I on the verge of death?”

Tae-woo brought me to the past.

Past magic power and present magic power are different.

Magic power changes differently as time passes, and my body and circuits adapt to magic power ‘progressively.’

In other words, past magic power doesn’t stagnate inside my body.

In this situation─ there’s only one conclusion forming in my mind.

…To save me, Tae-woo deliberately brought me to the past.

He should have said something.

I let out a hollow laugh and ran my fingers through my hair.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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