Chapter 500: Labyrinth of Choice Part 3

Thanks to the map we got from the adventurers, we were able to head straight toward our destination without getting lost.

However, in some ways, the difficulty of the dungeon increased—

“Chiik, over there! Humans!”

—because monsters aiming for the golem core kept showing up constantly.

We had to fight multiple battles, and our damage slowly accumulated.

[CrossbowHo HP 5/5 MP 3/5]

[TanQyu HP 4/6 MP 3/4]

[Blink HP 2/3 MP 3/7]

[You gained experience points.]

[You gained experience points.]

Eventually, the winding corridors ended and opened into a spacious area.

At its center stood a goddess statue, glowing softly. As we approached, the light gently enveloped us.

[You have reached a Sanctuary.]

[HP restored by 1.]

[MP restored by 2.]

[CrossbowHo HP 5/5 MP 5/5]

[TanQyu HP 5/6 MP 4/4]

[HolySho HP 4/4 MP 3/6]

[Blink HP 3/3 MP 5/7]

Dang Gyu-young grinned.

“I like this way more than treasure chests.”

“Feels like an oasis in the desert.”

After all, it restores what we’ve been constantly consuming.

But each sanctuary only works once.

Now, the goddess statue in front of us was no different from an ordinary sculpture.

1. (Priest) Offer a prayer.

2. Examine more closely.

3. There’s nothing left to do. Move on.

4. Destroy it! Smash it to bits!

We exchanged glances and spoke in perfect unison.

“Destroy.”

“Destroy.”

“Can’t pass this up.”

“Destroy.”

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one whose annihilation instinct had been bubbling under the surface.

Besides, there was a chance of getting some bonus loot, so it would’ve been a waste not to do it.

Baaang!

[You have demolished the Goddess Statue.]

[Something glints among the rubble.]

[You have obtained ‘Holy Arrow x3’.]

Just from the name, it sounds like it would be really effective against monsters.

Better save this for a crucial battle.

The adventurers we were traveling with didn’t seem too bothered by our borderline blasphemous actions.

Finding the golem was probably way more important to them.

Soon, one of the people who had been scanning the floor shouted.

“F-Found it! Over here!”

“At last…!”

A surge of emotion swept across the face of the man who seemed to be their leader.

As everyone joined forces to lift the floor, a large space was revealed.

What lay there were boulders and machines, each the size of a human body.

Each one seemed to be a component that made up a golem.

Among them, the torso had a seat large enough for one person to sit in.

Seo Ye-in immediately turned to look at me.

“Pilot…!”

“I can’t say no to a robot.”

The adventurers, clearly excited, began inspecting the parts one by one.

“We’ll need to do some repairs.”

“Well, it’s been a few hundred years, at least.”

“Still in surprisingly good shape, though.”

With that, they pulled out their tools and began tinkering and repairing.

Then the leader man spoke to CrossbowHo.

“It’ll take a little time, but we can get it working again.”

“Understood. In the meantime, we’ll go recharge the core.”

“Best of luck to you.”

Wishing us well, the adventurers saw us off.

Our next destination: the altar.

We made our way through the labyrinth, following the map.

But since the map wasn’t 100% complete, we occasionally ran into blank spots. Like now, with a three-way fork in the road ahead.

1. Move forward.

2. Take the path to the right.

3. Take the path to the left.

4. Go back.

A situation where one wrong choice could lead us down a completely off course.

I decided to rely on Seo Ye-in for help.

“Lucky Charm Radar, activate.”

“Whirrr—”

“Which way should we go?”

“Right.”

“Well, it’s definitely not the right.”

It was currently functioning as a reverse Lucky Charm Radar, but its performance was still solid.

Meaning, we could use it by process of elimination.

“Try picking between left and forward this time.”

“…Left?”

“Great. Forward it is, everyone.”

As we continued forward, the broken section ended, and the path on the map resumed.

Dang Gyu-young looked back and forth between the two of us with a curious expression.

“This actually works?”

“Worth trying once or twice.”

Of course, there was no guarantee the same method would always work, so blind faith was out of the question.

The exploration continued, and some time passed.

Then, from far ahead, we heard a commotion.

The clashing of weapons and the sound of shouting.

Dang Gyu-young raised an eyebrow slightly.

“What is this, déjà vu?”

“Let’s go check it out.”

We quickly arrived at the source of the noise and found a situation very similar to the one we’d seen earlier.

Adventurers surrounded by monsters.

The difference this time was that the only survivor was a single, beautiful woman. Everyone else had been killed.

Clang, clang!

A familiar orc leader, now recognizable from previous encounters, was relentlessly attacking her.

Sensing our presence, they all turned to look at us.

“P-Please help me! Please!”

“Chiik! Humans again! Always meddling!”

Then the choices appeared.

1. Defeat the monsters.

2. Defeat the woman.

3. Leave the area.

4. Try to mediate.

5. Annihilate! Wipe them all out!

Dang Gyu-young and Jegal So-so looked at each other.

“This one’s new, isn’t it?”

“We probably didn’t come this way last time.”

“Hmm… but something feels… off?”

“Yeah, something… something’s up.”

They clearly sensed something strange, even if they couldn’t pinpoint what it was.

Then, all three spoke at once.

“Annihilation seems best.”

“Let’s go with annihilation.”

“Annihilate.”

But I slowly shook my head.

“Actually, this one has a correct answer.”

“Is it important?”

“Pretty important.”

“Haah, fine.”

“Let’s go with option one for now.”

Everyone didn’t seem too thrilled, but they still chose “1. Defeat the monsters” as I instructed.

CrossbowHo shouted loudly.

“We’ll save you! Just hang in there a little longer!”

“Chiik, good! Now we’ll kill the humans and steal their stuff!”

The monsters charged in with a roar.

Of course, we’d already repelled them a few times before, so the result was the same this time too.

The orc leader had no choice but to retreat again, grinding his teeth.

[You gained experience points.]

The female adventurer suddenly grabbed CrossbowHo’s hand.

“Thank you so much. If it weren’t for you all…”

“Haha, it’s only right for fellow adventurers to help each other out.”

CrossbowHo replied in the sweetest tone imaginable.

Dang Gyu-young and Jegal So-so narrowed their eyes.

“Got too into it. Don’t like either of them.”

“Same here.”

Then the woman spoke again, her voice desperate.

“Um… I’m really sorry, but would it be okay if I joined you? I just don’t think I can survive on my own…”

1. Accept her.

2. Cut the crap! Reject her.

3. Hand over everything you’ve got!

4. Die!

The noonas started applying subtle pressure.

“Aww, young monarch, look at that….three good choices.”

“Hey young monarch, you’re not seriously thinking of picking number 1, are you?”

“Yeah, that one really ain’t it.”

“Ugh, it’s like choking on a sweet potato.”

Actually, this one had a correct answer too.

Still, just for the fun of the mini-game, I threw the question back at them.

“Is there a reason you don’t like her?”

“In my experience, people like that always stab you in the back later.”

Dang Gyu-young replied, drawing on the experience of a third-year club president.

Jegal So-so nodded and added,

“The setup feels too forced. I mean, running into the same orcs over and over?”

It really did feel like the whole thing had been staged just for our arrival.

Then Seo Ye-in chimed in briefly.

“Fox in disguise.”

“And where’d you learn that phrase?”

“My godfather taught me.”

Seriously, what is the Underworld Dragon King even doing these days?

Anyway, their opinions were clear.

“We’re going with number 4.”

“Wow, that’s extreme. Honestly, I thought you’d go with 2 or 3.”

“Best to just show you.”

“Sure.”

As soon as everyone chose number 4, TanQyu suddenly drew her sword and slashed the female adventurer.

Slice!

Immediately, she leapt back with an inhuman motion and, in an instant, transformed into a lizardman in adventurer’s clothing.

Unlike regular lizardmen, this one had several thick horns sprouting from her head.

Dang Gyu-young and Jegal So-so recognized her at once.

“We saw that one near the end, didn’t we?”

“Yeah, almost like a mid-boss, right?”

She’s actually one of the trickiest enemies in the Labyrinth of Choice.

That’s why we pretended to be fooled, saved her from the monsters, and then struck first.

If we’d chosen annihilation from the start, we would’ve had to fight both her and the monsters at the same time.

Horned Lizardman asked a question.

“…How did you know?”

“Not knowing would’ve been stranger. Did you really think we’d fall for such a cheap trap?”

At CrossbowHo’s reply, the creature let out a shrill laugh.

“Kekeke, yeah, even I thought it was pretty sloppy. Still, what a shame. If you’d just kept going without suspecting anything, I could’ve let you die painlessly.”

Sreung,

Right after, blade-like claws shot out from both of its hands.

“…At this point, I’ll just kill you all and take the Core!”

The horned lizardman charged forward.

After exchanging a few blows with TanQyu, it broke through and leapt toward the backline.

Then, using the horn on its head, it rammed into Jegal So-so.

Baaanh!

HolySho was knocked out and turned gray before vanishing.

“One hit.”

“That was a clean strike.”

“Exactly.”

Jegal So-so grumbled as she inserted another token into the arcade machine.

Next, the creature turned its attention to CrossbowHo.

Just as it was about to swing its claws—

Swhiish-swiish-swiiish!

Three white-glowing arrows pierced its body.

They were the Holy Arrows we got from smashing the goddess statue.

We’d expected it to rush in and had loaded them in advance.

“Graaaaagh!”

As the lizardman stiffened for a moment, Seo Ye-in’s magic beam rained down on it.

Zzzzing—!

Right after, TanQyu closed the distance and pressed the attack.

Their teamwork was seamless.

Even so, the horned lizardman fought back with the ferocity befitting a mid-boss, taking down TanQyu once and Seo Ye-in once.

But finally, its strength gave out, and it collapsed slowly to the ground.

Dang Gyu-young and Jegal So-so each commented.

“Only three continues? That’s a bargain.”

“We used over ten last time.”

Thanks to everyone fighting well, the damage was minimal for a mid-boss fight.

[You’ve gained a huge amount of experience!]

[You feel stronger than before……]

A level-up, in effect.

A list of new skills appeared on screen.

1. Explosive Arrow

2. Hawk’s Eye

Without hesitation, I chose Hawk’s Eye.

Why?

Because it helps with finding the way.

The rest of the party also chose skills suited to their own classes.

Surprisingly, the one who still hadn’t decided by the end was Seo Ye-in.

She stared blankly at the list for a while before speaking.

“…Blink isn’t here.”

At this point, I figured it was time to tell her the truth.

“Actually, Blink was never implemented in this game at all.”

“No way…”

Seo Ye-in showed clear signs of disappointment.

She even picked her nickname to match it…only for it not to exist.

I asked her,

“But do you really need Blink?”

“…?”

“I mean, you’re gonna be riding a robot anyway.”

“…Fair.”

Seo Ye-in nodded, as if that actually made sense.