Chapter 42
The next morning, 12 knights from West Barga Knight Order and the Sasanqua members, led by Viscount Caymon, headed into the labyrinth’s depth to conquer the Dungeon Master . The 6 knights in the remaining party also headed deep into the labyrinth, but not to the inner sanctum . They followed another route to sweep the labyrinth’s depth .
Once the Dungeon master was defeated, the Dungeon Core – a large magic stone – could be removed . The magic in the labyrinth would gradually decrease afterward until it completely disappeared within a month or so . Monsters wouldn’t appear anymore . Blank mana stones*, something that wasn’t obtainable from labyrinth monsters, would surged up instead . Then when all of its magic had disappeared, from the lowest level, the labyrinth would close up as if it was shriveling away . Finally, the entrance would close up and it would disappear completely . That was the Labyrinth’s death .
[*T/N: probably the non-attributed stones?]
[E/N: Sounds more like just empty mana stones . ]
In addition, if there were fields imitating nature inside, the trees and any minerals found there could be harvested as resources . And then, there was the Transportation Magic Circles . They existed in the innermost area of the lowest level and every 10th level like the Gatekeeper . These transportation circles were stone tiles that could be torn off and brought out of the labyrinth . Then the circles could be replicated and things could be transported from the original circle to the duplicates, no matter the distance . Not only the Kurtmelga Kingdom but other countries on the Orlando continent also used this method of transportation . At first, it had been used for cooking ingredients such as spices; now it was also used for raw materials, human resources and intelligence . These magic circles were controlled by the government as they were related to national defense, but they were opened for merchants to use for a high fee . However, when transporting large packages, land routes were still the most common method .
[T/N: The author did not specify here where a magic circle was on one title, or made from multiple titles . ]
Conquering labyrinths served two purposes: to stop it from spreading harm to any living creatures near it, and also to make use of all its resources . This was why one of the knight parties went to clean up the labyrinth instead of joining the Dungeon Master’s battle . This was also why I had been commissioned to map out the labyrinth . It was so that once the Dungeon master had been killed, they could retrieve the mana stones and such as smoothly as possible .
I left the Spring and went to map the passages we hadn’t explored yet . I had multiple fights on the way, and even now, I could hear 4 more monsters heading towards me . I threw down some light Ggrass seeds to add some light to the passages, then turned off the P90’s flashlight . In the newly-formed shadows, I crouched down while readying my gun as I waited for them to appear in my crosshairs . Before long, a goblin appeared in my night vision’s green field of view . I squeezed the trigger and a hole appeared in his head .
The first one appeared to be a normal goblin, but the following 3 were Goblin Assassins . They were agile in the labyrinth passages so it would have been a pain if this turned into a melee fight . I also got the second one as the remaining 2 spread out to rush both my sides . From my position, I did a slide-jump backward to dodge the attack coming from my right side . I shot at his torso and killed that one . The goblin on the left side had kicked at the wall and came at me from above, but I had moved back nearly 6ms with the slide-jump . So I watched him land flat-footed and shot his head, ending the battle .
Afterward, I continued my mapping while fighting more battles . When I thought of returning to the spring, I heard a wail reverberate through the labyrinth . At the same time, the air in the windless labyrinth quavered . It seemed like they had defeated the Master or removed the Core . Whichever it was, the Labyrinth’s death had begun…
The original plan was that the Sasanqua members and I would leave the labyrinth to head back to the main camp today . However, the situation changed after the Gatekeeper’s battle, so we were to stay another day . Similarly, the Rafflesia – who should have gotten back inside the labyrinth today – was now on standby . The Guild staffer who was posted in the Spring had run up to tell us about it in the middle of the night .
At the Spring, I waited for the knights and the girls . The first to come back was the knight party tha hadn’t taken part in the battle . They also returned after hearing the wail .
After a couple of hours, my headset picked up the footsteps of 10-odd people .
[E/D: Changing Earpads to headset . Not exactly the same, but makes more sense . ]
“They’re back . ”
Just as I spoke up, the other knights raised their voices . It looked like they had also noticed them . Then the 12 knights and 5 Sasanqua members came in . No one was missing, neither did anyone seem injured . They also didn’t look like they had defeated the Master, rather, they looked unhappy – as if unsatisfied with something .
“There’s no Master…?”
“No . There’s nothing beyond the Gatekeeper room . ”
“There’s no one sitting on the throne, only the Core stone there, nya . ”
“First time like this . ”
According to Frau-san and other girls, after they had opened the white gate-of-hell lookalike inside the gatekeeper room, there had only been a vast empty space behind . The Core stone had been placed on a pedestal, so they had taken it, and the Labyrinth had reached its end . The wail had been from removing the Core . Where was the Labyrinth Master?
Mitche-san had mentioned a throne with no one sitting on it . An empty throne just like the one on that gate . Maybe this labyrinth had no master since the beginning? It was Frau-san who answered my question .
“A Labyrinth could exist precisely because there is a Dungeon Master . It’s unthinkable to say that there is no Master, but this labyrinth has only one level, unlike the others . Maybe it’s not impossible to have no Master here, but we can’t conclude anything until tomorrow . after we’ve searched through the entire labyrinth to confirm it . ”
Of course, we couldn’t make a conclusion right here and now . The Emerald Demon Labyrinth itself had already reached its death after the Core’s removal . We discussed our plan for tomorrow onwards over dinner . The first thing to do was to return to the main camp in the morning . The Knights led by Viscount Caymon would remain inside the labyrinth and hunt the remaining monsters while searching for anything that could be the Labyrinth Master .
We went to sleep soon after dinner to ensure we would be in good condition for tomorrow, with the watch keeping being entrusted to the knights .
[T/N: There was a paragraph about FN P90 here . ]
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