Stagnant Water of Apocalypse

2 more chaps for this week quota.

The Great Labyrinth was dangerous in many ways. It consists of every single thing that can make people’s mind go crazy, such as the darkness that dampens people’s vision, the dampness which makes it hard for people to breathe, and the little space available inside which would greatly increase someone’s stress level. It also boasts an enormous size, so big to the point even us the stagnant waters did not know everything about the first floor of the Great Labyrinth.

The monsters inside were also another big problem that survivors had to face. They had higher levels and stronger overall power than the monsters that you can meet on the surface. There’s also a lot of monsters who are capable of using tools and equipment. Goblins, orcs, and many other bipedal monsters can be found wearing armor and wielding iron swords. There are also skeleton monsters in every nook and cranny of the labyrinth, of course, wielding the same weapon.

There’s also traps scattered all over the place, so if people weren’t careful, they would have to face monsters while having a risk of triggering traps. Of course, the ones found in the early floor were nothing but a very rudimentary trap. But the deeper they got, the more dangerous the traps would become.

However, no matter how dangerous the Great Labyrinth was, in my opinion, Seokhyun was the more dangerous one. After receiving all kinds of buffs from the fruit that Jiman had grown, as well the buff granted from the ogre gloves, one punch was all he needed to kill his opponent. So when Seokhyun just ran in blindly, even though it’s the Great Labyrinth, the monsters in his way couldn’t even do anything and just exploded here and there from his punches.

“That skeleton is wielding an iron sword.” Seokhyun said. However, that’s about it. Right after that, the skeleton shattered into bits by one punch. Seokhyun continued to punch while blocking the attacks from the incoming horde of skeletons with his body.

Bam-!! Bam-!! Bam-!!

Bone fragments scattered in all directions. Since Seokhyun did all the work, we just stared blankly at him from behind.

By the way, I wonder what level Geom-in is?

“Geom-in, what level are you now?”

“Le-level 28…”

“You need to raise your level to 30 sooner rather than later.” I said.

Da-jeong, who squatted next to the Geom-in, chimed in. “When you reach level 30, a different additional effect will be added to your unique skill. Seongho’s portal becomes available to people he permitted, I can took control of monster, and Seokhyun’s body evolved.”

“Well, I will be satisfied as long as I get one more slot for the copied unique abilities.” He said sheepishly. Currently, Geom-in has copied body strengthening, binding, and healing unique abilities. He threw away the blink ability as it wasn’t useful in the lower floors of the Great Labyrinth. By the way, it was still a mystery why he couldn’t copy our unique skills. If it’s because of the ‘trust’ requirement, it was even more confusing, since he’s definitely good on that part, considering he’s able to enter my portal, which would deny anyone with even a sliver of negative emotion for me.

“Seokhyun! Let Geom-in level up a bit.” I called Seokhyun, who was literally slaughtering the incoming skeletons.

“Good idea.” Seokhyun stopped and turned around, disregarding the attack of his opponents. He then walked towards me, took a mace from my hand and put it in Geom-in’s hand.

And he threw him into the horde skeletons.

“UAAAAAAAAHHHHH!”

“You crazy XXXXXXXX.”

Da-jeong kicked his ass in anger, but the only expression that could be seen on Seokhyun’s face was smugness.

“Isn’t this way faster?”

“It’s not about that…”

Well, considering Geom-in’s ability, the skeletons should possess little to no danger for him, so It’s okay. The reason he didn’t fight often even though he got the ability to do so was probably because he’s surrounded by people like us.

After a while, Geom-in returned while rubbing his eyes. A weak light emanated from his hand.

“Ayah, I got hit by a shield strike.”

“After a long time, you finally feel how it feels to play outside, instead of playing your build-a-shelter game everyday…”

Geom-in only laughed at Da-jeong’s words.

Is he the type of person who likes doing things the right way?

“Geom-in, here, use this.” I handed him an iron mace. Against skeletons, it’s better to use a blunt weapon to break their skull.

He took the mace and swung it several times before opening his mouth. “Certainly, it was far cruder than what the scarabs make.”

Currently, the scarabs were extracting metals from ores and turning it into weapons using the blast furnaces. Just looking at the arrowheads they made, it was clear that it was far more dangerous than the arrows that the Store was selling. However, it was still a low level arrow nonetheless. If the scarabs make it with better tools in the right environment, they would surely make something even better. But that requires more materials and blueprints. Currently, Yoohyeon and Yeowool were scouting around, so results would surely come sooner rather than later.

Da-jeong placed her hand on Geom-in’s shoulder.

“How about letting him kill all the monsters we found until we arrive at the underwater cave?”

“I agree.” I said. However, in the next moment, I grabbed Seokhyun’s hand. “He’s not a ball, stop throwing him like that.”

“Why? It saves time.”

“You should just give him some support from the back.”

Seokhyun thought for a moment, and then he borrowed the Adamant Spear from my dimension slot. Then, he stabbed the spear on the ground and performed a pole dance on the spot. His body rotated around the rod, and his legs stretched out.

Should I call it sensual?

Da-jeong, who couldn’t even dare to see it, jumped and kicked him with her two legs.

“That’s not a support, that’s a disgusting assault to the eyes!”

I wholeheartedly agree.

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Without spending much time, we broke through the first floor. Of course, the main character of this breakthrough was Geom-in. With all the buffs he got from the fruits, as well as Sooyeon’s buff, his strength was more than enough to pierce through the skeleton horde by himself. Perhaps because he was surprised by his fighting power, he always clenched and unclenched his fists every time the fight was over.

“You are stronger than you think. Be a little more confident.”

“…Okay.”

As we were wandering around the first floor, we heard an unexpected sound from behind the wall. To be precise, I was the only one who heard it, thanks to my Super Sense skill.

“There are some Chinese over there.” I told the party.

“Chinese? Did you hear them?”

“They are talking to each other about their hometowns, but in a loud voice.”

“Well, it’s a well known fact that they have a very noisy voice.”

“So, are you saying that the Chinese had entered this place?”

“Probably…”

Da-jeong furrowed her eyebrows as if she didn’t like something.

“They didn’t even know what kind of place this is. Looks like they just came in without knowing the dangers in it.”

“The fact they didn’t know anything is probably why they can act this bravely.”

Everyone shook their heads at Geom-in’s words.

A large portal appeared in their territory, so they must have entered out of curiosity. Of course, Incheon and Bucheon were not truly their territory, but they were the ones who occupied those areas for the time being.

“The walls here are very hard. Your fist will break.” I said quickly when I saw Seokhyun raising his fist.

“Is there any magic embedded in it?” He cocked his eyebrows.

“I’m not sure about that.” If one has an ogre’s strength, the wall would break without a doubt. However, Seokhyun’s fists wouldn’t be able to withstand the clash of two powers.

I told the party to just focus on getting to our destination and just hunt the Chinese later. Everyone agreed and we continued our journey. After some time, we found a passage leading to the second floor while Geom-in was cleaning the group of skeletons.

We called the dark and narrow passage a ‘dog hole’. Once we went down the narrow path, we could hear the sound of dripping water. The ground in this dog hole was brittle, so when Seokhyun hit the floor with his fist, debris flew and a hole was created on the ground.

Da5jeong shined a flash onto the hole.

“Ah, it’s a lake.”

“Can you see any lizardman?”

“Not yet. Seongho, do you have a rope? I’ll go down and see.”

“Wait a minute.”

I opened the dimensional warehouse, took out a rope, tied it to a pole, and dropped it into the hole. Da-jeong went down on the rope and landed on the shore of the lake. After that, she moved the flash all over the place to illuminate the area.

“There’s nothing here. You guys can come down.”

We went down to the lakeshore. The lake in the middle of a large cavity was so dark that nothing could be seen. But, when I lifted the water with my hand, it was clear and cold water. Meanwhile, Seokhyun immediately jumped straight down to the lake while doing some acrobats while he’s in the air like some kind of gymnastic athlete

He’s really a fearless guy.

After a while, he floated to the surface with a bizarre fish in his mouth.

“What a monster-like fish.”

Da-jeong took the fish and threw it on the floor. It had no eyes and had a very large mouth, reminiscent of a deep-sea fish. Judging from how boney it was, it looked like it had nothing to eat inside the waters.

Seokhyun opened his mouth and bit into the fish. But, right after, he spat it back out.

“It tastes awful.” He grimaced.

If Seokhyun, the man who is capable of eating goblin meat raw, said it tastes disgusting, just how horrible is it, I wonder?

Anyway, that’s not what’s important.

“Wait a moment.” I tied a rope around Seokhyun’s waist, ate a winter strawberry, and equipped the scarf with the cold resistance option. By doing this, the cold resistance buff would be stacked, and I would be able to block more cold.

As I plunged into the lake, I saw that Seokhyun had also jumped in. Our goal was to swim quite deep to find the underwater cave.

The lake was terribly calm and peaceful, except for the occasional monstrous fish. I used the dimension wall as a step for me to push myself even deeper. Thanks to underwater breathing skill, I was able to dive for quite a long time.

When we finally reached the bottom of the lake, I groped the ground and found a rock at the exact same spot as the place in my memory. When I moved my sight to the side of the rock, I could see a big hole drilling into the wall. There was nothing in the hole, but I trusted my memory and entered. And after swimming through the long passage, some light began to infiltrate into the dark water.

“Pooh!” I blew the air in my lungs and took a breath as soon as I reached the surface. Once I climbed out of the water, I could see an open space beyond a narrow passageway.

“About 15 pyeong or so…” It’s not big enough to make a full-fledged shelter, but it should be good enough for a temporary stay.

(P/n 1 pyeong is about 3.3m.)

“Well, this place will just act as the gateway.” In other words, it will act as an outpost for people who wanted to attack the Great Labyrinth. I opened the second portal and summoned the members. Everyone went out one by one, but even after the last person, Jiman didn’t appear.

“Jiman said he wanted to stay and protect the shelter.”

At Yoohyeon’s words, I nodded my head. Of course, there must be one to take that role.

Sooyeon asked me as she looked around the cave.

“Seongho, are we going to turn this place into a shelter?”

“Rather than a shelter, we’ll turn this place into an outpost.”

“Aha!”

Eventually, the rope tied into my waist was loosened bit by bit. Before long, Seokhyun, Da-jeong, and Geom-in surfaced. Now there are eight people in a small space, so it was quite noisy.

I told Yoohyeon.

“Can you bring the power cord here?”

“Perhaps? But hyung, aren’t you going to close this portal?”

“I won’t close it unless I go further down.”

“Oh, then I’ll install it right away.”

After all, If we go down to the 5th floor or lower, there might be another good place we can use to make another outpost.

“You need to be able to breathe underwater to get in and out of here. By any chance, is there someone who doesn’t have the skill yet?”

Sooyeon raised her hand while looking at me.

Then, Mikyung quickly added. “The last time we went to the Black Forest, Sooyeon Unnie was going to go to kill a lizardman. But since Rapwi ahjussi did that ‘thing’ to the Elderwood…”

His behavior was really the root of all evil.

I tapped Geom-in on the shoulder. “I’ll leave it up to you to figure out how to make this place.”

At that moment, Da-jeong stepped between the two of us. “No! Geom-in have to level up first. Does it make sense that he’s still level 28? We are over level 30 and you are already level 40.”

Making shelter or leveling up? That’s the problem.

Geom-in looked at me with desperate eyes. But before I could say anything, Seokhyun grabbed his wrist.

“We won’t come back until he reaches level 30.”

“Huh? Hey, wait, wait.”

“There are plenty of things to eat out there, so we don’t need a backpack. Let’s go.”

I hope he wasn’t thinking about eating the monster fish.

“Seongho…SEONGHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

I pretended not to hear his ‘save me’ signal and just looked at the other people.

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While Seongho and his group were busy building an outpost in the underwater cave on the second floor, there was a commotion on the first floor. People who entered through several entrances started to bump into each other.

Among them, the Chinese were the dominant force. There were so many of them to the point where they just threw themselves into every fight, disregarding their safety. So it was impossible to fight them.

If it had been on the surface world, they would have been taken down by the Korean side since they were superior in terms of ability. But in an unfamiliar Great Labyrinth, superior ability alone was not enough.

People couldn’t see even an inch ahead, so the only way to fight was with a glowstone in one hand. Moreover, if there’s a lot of monsters attacking from behind, the difficulty would increase even more.

Then suddenly, the existence of the base area was revealed. It was a mysterious place where monsters would not approach, and those areas could be found in several places on the first floor.

It was a very good place to get food as the animals passing by would surely stop to drink some water. Thus, the survivors couldn’t help but think about taking over the base area. The Chinese also noticed it, and quickly made a move before everyone else.

The Koreans, who were lacking in terms of numbers, struggled and tried to preserve, but eventually had to retreat. As people died day after day, the Auction House exploded.

-Those fucking bastards just keep pushing forward! I’m really annoyed!

-They have no abilities, but since the labyrinth is narrow, I can’t do anything.

-I am really impressed by the number of Chinese who entered the Great Labyrinth.

Everyone seemed to hope that the Korean Shelter would provide them with information again. However, no matter how long they waited, there was no sign of that happening. After all, the Korean Shelter was currently going through an internal chaos. A battle ensued as the personnel who had spread all over the place returned to Yeouido.

-You! You killed my brother!

-The choice is either me or him! What do you suppose I should do?

Moreover, since the number of personnel was also reduced to less than half, it couldn’t be helped that the atmosphere in the Korean Shelter was bad. Jang Won-taek, of course, had taken actions and intervened. But the raging people didn’t even pay heed to his words. So, the government decided to lock all of their warehouses and the distribution of guns halted.

Because of the undergoing situation, the Korean Shelter couldn’t cope with the series of incidents taking place in the Great Labyrinth.

Then the Hannam-dong Clan decided to come out. They actually have an official name, but everyone just decided to call them the Hannam-dong Clan. They were lucky enough to recover their shelter without taking much damage in the Battle Royale event. One of the Great Labyrinth portals had also opened near their shelter, so it was pretty easy for them to hunt inside using guns.

Even the Chinese, who boasted superior numbers, ran away when they saw them. After all, a narrow place was just the right place for a gun to shine against many. Thus, the Hannam-dong Clan quickly grew in size.

In particular, Soye, who was now called Gundol, was very popular. But she did not even look at anyone and just focused on searching for one particular person. (T/n Gundol… Gun + Idol if it’s not clear enough.)

-Has anyone seen Seongho? I heard he went into the Great Labyrinth.

-Indeed, no one saw him coming out, though.

‘Where the hell are you?’ Soye bit her lips. Back in the front of the art gallery, she had been warned by a woman who seemed to be his lover. But that alone couldn’t make her give up. No matter how much she thought about it, she had no other man who suited her except him. Firearms and supplies were not enough to get through this tough apocalypse. She decided that, in order to survive, she had to be standing next to a strong and influential man.

Or if that is not possible, then she had to do anything to bring him to her side.

The Hannam-dong Clan members, including Soye, swept through the first floor, but they couldn’t find him there.

Unbeknownst to the other survivors, Seongho was busy helping the shelter members to level up and was already breaking through the third floor. The only thing stopping him from his grind was the fact that Jiman had found two large eggs in the jungle. He said that he found it inside an owlbear’s nest.

“What kind of egg is this, why is it so big?”

“Well… I’m seeing it for the first time.”

Everyone was amazed and rolled the eggs. Then, Seokhyun suddenly said, “It looks like it’s delicious. Let’s eat it.”

Seokhyun’s fist pierced the shell without anyone managing to stopping him. Inside the shell was a strange-looking young bird with its eyes closed. It was a bird with horns on its head.