The Celestial Maiden’s Young Master in Another World - Chapter 25

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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 25. Explosive Talismans Are Too Strong
“Sigh… I can’t go any further.”
Already more than six Escapees had withdrawn.
I’d scraped and clawed my way here, but I still hadn’t broken through the 13th Floor barrier.
Hosana Rinu, who led Beladen, bit her lip.
‘I wanted to defeat Lionel.’
She’d worked hard at the Entrance Ceremony, but the gap between them was vast.
‘I came to Beladen to prove myself.’
She’d thought they’d naturally compete within the same dormitory.
But Lionel had headed to Zerotill instead.
‘Maybe that’s better, actually.’
Zerotill was full of dead weight anyway.
The top three ranked students from the Entrance Ceremony were there, but the lower-ranked students—including the very last—swarmed the place, didn’t they.
Though she hadn’t set a new record by pushing past the 13th Floor, the 12th Floor was more than enough to aim for first place.
With her heart racing, she stepped out through the exit and found an unexpected situation.
‘A live broadcast…?’
There’d been no broadcast before entering the Labyrinth.
It seemed a broadcaster had been assigned the moment they’d gone in.
And on the aerial panel screen that rose smoothly above—
‘What, what is this! What on earth!!’
An unbelievable sight unfolded before her eyes.
***
By the time we’d reached the end of the 19th Floor.
“Isn’t this way too easy?”
“Should fourth-rank monsters really be this simple?”
“My hands aren’t even shaking anymore!”
“That’s because it’s not a three-horned deer.”
“Right.”
“Wow! We’re the first to reach the 19th Floor! This is insane!”
My Spartan instructions and the repeated training had filled the kids with confidence, their eyes gleaming with vitality.
“And we didn’t drop a single person to get here, either.”
Lumiel muttered, sounding almost exasperated.
“They know the countermeasures perfectly.”
For the year before entering the Academy, they’d been grappling with silver-maned wolves enthusiastically.
‘It was actually easier than dealing with one-horned rabbits or three-horned deer.’
Still, I hadn’t expected us to reach the 19th Floor without a single person dropping out.
If it’d been just me, it probably would’ve been a lot rougher, but having Lionel and Biera as proper backup made it manageable.
‘Is it really okay to cruise like this?’
Subjectively speaking, it’s absolutely cushy.
Oh wait. Don’t tell me—
‘Did she intentionally train us with silver-maned wolves?’
Foreseeing this exact situation?
A chill ran down my spine.
Mother’s scheming struck me as something to be wary of.
‘Okay. I shouldn’t overthink this.’
Just then, a tap on my shoulder from the side—blue hair.
“We going down?”
“Of course we are.”
“If we wipe on the 20th Floor, we get zero points.”
It’s Lionel.
This guy—
‘His eyes show zero intention of giving up.’
“You know about Elite silver-maned wolves too?”
“Yeah. These ones use techniques.”
“Techniques?”
“Claw Slash. They channel mana into their claws and fire a sharp shockwave forward.”
What, like blade force?
“How do we handle it?”
“Layer Reinforcement and block it. When you take hits, it’s better to wrap yourself in Reinforcement than rely on Divine Judgment.”
Got it. Understood.
“What else?”
“It’s impossibly sturdy and powerful, but its speed is actually slower than a regular wolf.”
Thank you, Lionel!
With Lionel’s warnings firmly planted in my mind, I finally descended to the 20th Floor.
But then.
“What the—”
There’s more than one.
Sweat trickled down the side of my head in rivulets.
The 20th Floor… surely this is it?
***
“Hold on?? Director Marrel? Is the 20th Floor composition really like that?!!!!”
Today’s MC, Bishop Daniel, looked as though his eyes might pop clean from his skull.
The children who had just descended to the 20th Floor found themselves facing three Elite silver-maned wolves.
One was already grueling—but three?
“Ahem, the 20th Floor of the Infinite Descent Battle is originally a Special Stage.”
Marrel cleared her throat and composed her expression before continuing her explanation.
“This floor wasn’t designed with the expectation that anyone would actually descend this far.”
“What do you mean?!!!”
“It means it’s an absolutely unbreakable floor.”
Of course it is.
‘The 20th Floor isn’t supposed to be cleared!!’
“But—surely that’s allowed?!!”
“As I said, it’s a Special Stage. A bonus floor, if you will.”
“So…?”
“Any team that descends to the 20th Floor won’t be marked as zero points even if they’re all eliminated midway. Performance on the 20th Floor will be converted into individual scores and distributed as Coins.”
“Wow! It really is a bonus floor! How come we didn’t know this rule until now?”
“Because no team has ever made it to the 20th Floor before.”
It had been thirty years since Osten Academy’s founding and the start of the Dormitory Competition.
The highest record in an Entrance Ceremony Subjugation was the 13th Floor—truly an unprecedented event!
“If they manage to subjugate even one of them, those children will earn an enormous amount of Coins.”
“Oh! I’m genuinely excited! Zerotill, this is a golden opportunity! I do hope they’ll charge in without hesitation!!”
***
Meanwhile, facing three silver-maned wolves, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
‘Is this difficulty really right?’
It was absolutely absurd.
The wolf’s body size had swollen to more than double—which was ridiculous enough—but.
Having just taken a Claw Slash, it made even less sense.
Clang!
“This doesn’t feel like a floor meant to be cleared.”
Lionel clicked his tongue in frustration.
He barely deflected the Claw Slash, his face twisted into a scowl as he shook out his arm.
I couldn’t agree more.
Because of these monsters, the Zerotill squad members I’d worked so hard to pump up with confidence were visibly deflating in real time.
After everything I did to build their morale!
This won’t do.
“We’re going for early dominance.”
I reached into an inner pocket and gripped a Sacred Stone in my hand.
Normally, I’d planned to save the stronger items for the end, when these floors typically featured either tougher individuals or greater numbers.
‘But at this point, there’s no reason to hold back.’
I drew out several Explosive Talismans.
‘First rule of Explosive Talismans: they can be layered for cumulative damage.’
When multiple Explosive Talismans are thrown in succession, the power increases by nearly a multiple of their quantity.
The difference between throwing one and throwing two is almost quadruple!
Even when they were just paper talismans, that was the magnitude of their power.
‘When I reinforced the Sacred Stone Explosive Talismans earlier, the power was roughly three times the original, I think?’
So if I throw two, that’s nearly twelve times the base power?
That’s impressive.
But when they were just paper talismans, I couldn’t layer them very often.
The Holy Power requirement skyrocketed.
With the Sacred Stone Explosive Talismans, I had no way of knowing exactly how much Holy Power they’d consume—or even their precise output.
I won’t know unless I try it.
Let’s just throw it!
“Bunch them up as tight as you can. All in one spot!”
Three of them in one place—that’s when the efficiency really shines.
The weaker ones fell back to guard.
Adrian, Lionel, and Biera—the sturdy ones—I sent forward.
“Screeeeeech-!”
Clang! Clang!
“Ugh! This is getting heavy!”
“My shield’s tearing apart-!”
“Haah—”
The three of them pushed forward, clever or brute-force as needed!
Thanks to that, the distance between the wolves narrowed considerably.
I gripped two Explosive Talismans tight in my hands.
‘Second use of the Explosive Talisman technique: landing it on a weak point increases critical damage!’
I learned that while training against the silver-maned wolves.
When you land a proper hit on these creatures’ weak points, you feel a much deeper impact.
‘If I hit the weak point with the Explosive Talisman, I can increase the damage even more!’
The silver-maned wolves had several weak points.
Obviously, the head counts as one of them.
If they were ordinary silver-maned wolves, I’d have hesitated about landing a throw on the head.
But these are elite silver-maned wolves. In other words? The target got absurdly bigger!
So if I stack the Explosive Talismans and hit the weak point?
‘Overkill.’
Probably.
The truth is, I’ve never tried stacking Sacred Stone Explosive Talismans before.
They were devastating even as paper talismans, so I’m just assuming these will be too.
‘Paper talismans were easy because I could layer multiple sheets and throw them together.’
But now they’re stones, so I had to aim more carefully when throwing.
Making sure the rocks didn’t veer off somewhere else entirely!
The one saving grace was that I’d already learned the Throwing Technique.
‘Making a bottle for Parma—was that a butterfly effect like this?’
Regardless.
The risk of missing dropped significantly, which was good news.
I’d figure out more effective ways to use the Explosive Talismans later.
Right now!
“Huaaagh-!”
I threw with all my strength, as hard as I could!
Whoosh—
The target was the space between the middle wolf’s eyes.
The two bundled Sacred Stone Explosive Talismans traced a crimson arc through the air.
Boom! Burururaboom-! Kwaaaaaang!!
The two Explosive Talismans struck the middle wolf’s brow perfectly.
Kwaboom-!
The first talisman detonated on impact, and the explosion triggered the one right behind it—a chain reaction.
Caught in the blast, the other two wolves slammed into the wall!
Drip-drip— Splurge!
Struck by the explosion infused with Divine Judgment, they melted away, leaking black fluid.
“…….”
“…….”
‘The efficiency was absolutely insane, wasn’t it?’
Grrrr—
The Explosive Talisman is the best, no contest!
While I stood there thrilled,
“Ughh….”
“Th-they all melted. They just… melted away!”
“W-wow….”
The three of them frozen in shock!
Well, the power was certainly staggering. I’m not sure if it was exactly twelve times over, but.
‘Since I have Spirit Vision, I caught the moment the Explosive Talisman detonated.’
To the other kids, it probably looked like the wolves simply exploded the moment she threw them.
‘The power is enough, but I don’t have enough Explosive Talismans.’
Only five remained.
If we wanted to clear this, it was time to take a gamble.
“Herd them all together and finish this.”
“What?”
“Huh?”
“Every wolf on this floor. Let’s pull them all in at once and take them down together.”
“….”
Silence fell again.
“I think if we unleash everything at once, we can sweep them all away.”
When I held up the Explosive Talismans in my hand, they shuffled back hesitantly.
Come on, you guys. I’ve been carrying you through this whole thing—don’t tell me you’re going to back out now.
“There aren’t many left. This is all of them.”
Five Sacred Stones glowed in my palm.
If I threw them all at once, it looked like it would generate a genuinely massive explosion.
And yet the kids still hesitated!
Why are they like this? This is a razor-sharp wipe-out angle, guys.
No helping it then.
“Go, Adrian!”
“Y-yes!”
I shoved Adrian forward—by now he reacted almost like a spinal reflex.
Lionel and Biera followed along with a sigh and a reluctant nod.
“Korin, Lumiel! Once we drive them here, hit them just enough to keep their attention on you!”
I kicked off the ground and joined the charge.
“How are we supposed to herd them?”
“Just charge straight!”
This was a straight corridor.
We had to reach the end first and pull the final boss back with us.
The aggro would keep building as we moved forward—we just had to dart back quickly once we had them all.
The Elite Silver-Maned Wolf was slower than regular enemies, which made herding them easier.
At least there was that.
“Screech!”
“Adrian! Don’t hug the wall—keep to the center!”
Whoosh—Boom!
The situation remained perilously close the whole time, but the herding went surprisingly smoothly.
“Man, when you combine them all like that, it’s gotta be around twenty or so.”
Three of them were already impossibly brutal earlier, and now twenty?
‘They clearly didn’t design this to be fought head-on.’
But?
‘We still have to clear it, don’t we?’
We’d herded them this far. There was no backing out now.
When I returned to where Lumiel was waiting, all the children who could use Holy Magic were standing ready with their Staves.
“Just hold their feet in place for me!”
“Got it!”
At my signal, Holy Magic poured down on the lead wolves all at once.
The three of us who’d been herding them scattered back quickly.
“Hah—!”
There was no time to hesitate.
I sucked in one long, deep breath and hurled all five Explosive Talismans at once.
And then.
Roooaaarrrrr—!!
Boom!
The labyrinth erupted.
***
“W-what… what is that.”
A boy with brown hair and brown eyes, watching the broadcast feed with his soul sucked clean out.
He was from Delucel’s group—the one who’d mocked Zerotill just moments ago.
The broadcast screen was now obscured by dust and smoke billowing from the explosion.
After a moment, the smoke began to clear.
“Gasp!”
The child had no choice but to hold his breath.
The corridor shattered completely, exposing the labyrinth beyond the arena!
“Damn… damn it….”
Zerotill, whom he’d written off as last place, had not only caught the three-horned deer that he himself had struggled with and abandoned.
Now she was setting a new record—the first ascent to the 20th Floor in the Entrance Ceremony Dormitory Competition.

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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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