Chapter 18-30. Boy in the Labyrinth City (3)
18-30. Boy in the Labyrinth City (3)
"It\'s dark …"
The other side of the labyrinth gate was dim.
There are some lights on the wall, but it\'s different from the one before where there was outside light.
We restrained our impatience, waited for our eyes to get used to it, and then proceeded.
"There is someone here!"
"Those are soldiers from the Labyrinth Army. Sorry for the noise."
Zaki explains to Sina, who is surprised, and apologizes to the soldiers.
There were many barrettes on the zigzag stairs, and the barrettes were lined with several soldiers and a huge bow.
According to Zaki, this seems to prevent monsters from escaping from the labyrinth.
Down the stairs was a thick iron door, and beyond that was a vast room full of fort-like facilities with many soldiers.
"You can look, but do not stop. If you\'re a newcomer, I recommend the passage on the left."
A fox officer urges us.
A big fist was swung down over the fox\'s head.
"--Gehya"
"Do not tell unnecessary things. It\'s up to them to decide which path each explorer will take."
"You are terrible, captain. Say it in words."
A person like a barbarian with a strong arm seems to be a captain.
"If you can remember it by mouth alone. Also, you are the current captain."
"I just say it from habit. Rather, why is the Assistant General in such a place?"
"Sometimes I feel sick when I cannot breathe in the air on the front."
"You\'ve escaped from the paperwork again. I\'ll tell the secretary--"
The fox officer takes a sharp step to avoid the fist that was swung down again.
"Violence"
The fist of the assistant general chases after the fox officer who makes fun of him.
"Let\'s go, the drama is escalating"
Lhasa is right, so we followed the road on the left as recommended by the fox officer.
"What are you doing?"
As I wrapped the cloth around my mouth, Lhasa noticed and asked.
"My sister told me. In the labyrinth, wrap a cloth around your mouth until you get used to it."
Did my sister say to use a mask?
"Is it your sister again?"
"You don\'t think I\'m a big brother?"
"It doesn\'t suit you, right?"
I was embarrassed to be ridiculed by Gon and Keros and despised by Sina, but I keep the cloth as it was, because it always makes sense afterwards when my sister insisted.
"There is a monster!"
Gon shouts and we rush to the monster with all our might.
From the front, another party rushed toward the monster rat.
We didn\'t go there fast enough, and before Gon arrived, a party from the front threw a stone to get the attention of the rat and started fighting first.
"Damn! We found it earlier!"
Gon steps aggressively forward.
I had the same feeling, but I couldn\'t voice it because I was suffocating since I ran with the cloth wrapped around my mouth.
This is harder to breathe than I expected. Let\'s loosen it a little.
"Over there!"
Keros runs.
"Where\'s?"
"Up"
A giant moth-like monster is flying around the ceiling.
"I\'m coming over here!"
Gon yells and holds his spear.
We also lined up in Gon and waited for the moth monsters to come.
"--now!"
Gon pushes up the spear, and we also pierce with the spear so that it can be caught.
It was a little too quick and avoided the attack. The moth stopped in the air with its wings flapping just a short distance away from the spear.
Scales are scattered from the wings with a strange pattern on the stopped beat.
--That\'s bad.
I let go of the spear and pressed the cloth around my mouth.
Perhaps Gon have inhaled the scales, he was coughing and rolling on the floor.
Follow the whereabouts of the moth with a squinted eyes so that scales do not enter.
I can\'t stop tearing even with my half closed eyes.
"It\'s coming!"
Even with a cloth, the scales that enter through the gaps burn the lungs.
Swing a spear to drive away the moth that have plummeted. The spear hit the wing, but it was only lightly pushed away.
I looked around, strangely thinking that no one but me was doing anything, and I saw my friends twitching while lying on the ground. That is paralysis. I\'ve seen goats fed paralyzed licorice look like that.
By the way, it was my sister who fed the goat. She said, "To grasp the abnormal condition."
When I was thinking about that, the moth swirling near the ceiling plummeted again.
The aim of the moth seems to be a small Lhasa.
--Not this time.
I aimed and pierced the moth with all my strength.
The moth has been pierced through its body, but is not dead yet.
I put my weight on it and thrust the tip of the spear into a gap in the floor, straddling its back and holding it down, and with a dagger in my hand I cut through the thin neck of the moth.
Like I am playing pretend. Leaving such a feeling in my palm, the dagger cut off the moth\'s neck.
I\'ve helped dismantle livestock, but I\'ve never cut so easily.
The dagger that my sister gave me seems to have been a great thing.
◇
Shortly thereafter, the paralysis of my friends wore off.
I was wary myself, and finally I felt like my shoulders relaxed, and I sighed heavily.
"Hmm, I had a terrible experience."
"Using paralysis is cowardly"
Keros and Gon are confused.
"I\'m glad that Sharon was there."
"I\'m sorry. That cloth made sense."
Zari praised me and Sina apologized.
"Sharon, do you know how to dismantle?"
"I know about livestock, but I don\'t know how to do insects."
I needed to get the monster core out of the corpse, but I didn\'t know how to dismantle it and I was waiting for everyone to move.
"Does anyone know?"
My friends shake their heads to my question.
"You should just cut it, right?"
"That\'s no good. Also, the scales are scattered and you would not be able to move."
Lhasa stops Gon from approaching with a knife.
"You guys! What\'s wrong?"
I heard a woman\'s voice from a distance.
Looking back, there was a very beautiful woman in the direction we came. Behind her are many boys and girls as old as us.
"It\'s a Labyrinth Maze Moth. Are you in trouble because you don\'t know how to disassemble? "
"Yes, that\'s right."
"Well, I\'ll tell you. Keep the neck down, so I\'ll cut it along the center of its back. It\'s that kind of thing. If you do it too hard, its wings will move and the scales will fly."
When Zaki replied, the beautiful woman taught us how to disassemble it.
"It looks like you\'ve killed it with a spear, but if you don\'t have a missile, you shouldn\'t touch the labyrinth moth. When you\'re fighting, throw a stone away. Don\'t hit your friends or other explorers. You hear"
The beauty advised that and left with a smile.
"Finally one …"
"Even so, there really aren\'t any monsters."
"Yeah, I\'m surprised"
"Well, if there were so many explorers wandering around, they would hunt all the monsters."
We go down the aisle without encountering monsters.
Small children were walking in front of us.
"Can we eat meat today?"
"Of course! If you hunt a lot of beans and potatoes, you can even buy meat skewers!"
"Fun ~"
There are about ten children carrying a large basket on their backs. There are many beastmen, including the leading dog child.
There were some children with weapons, but all of them were children around the age of ten.
"Even such a small child …"
"That is" Bounce potato Hopping potatoes and Walking beans. Isn\'t it the children who go hunting? It must have been a job worth a few bronze coins for a full basket. "
Zari answers to Sina\'s mutter.
"In other words, there aren\'t enough monsters to hang around with just those kids, right?"
Gon says something sharp.
That\'s true.
"Shall we change the route a little?"
At Zari\'s suggestion, we left the wide main corridor and rerouted to a narrow branch.
Nowadays, the explorers walking in front of and behind us were also on the branch, so I don\'t think this choice is wrong.
"I can hear the battle sound from the front"
Lhasa says.
After a while, at the three-way junction, as many explorers as we were fighting several goblins.
"that person--"
There is also a beautiful woman who taught us how to dismantle.
Only boys and girls fight goblins, and beautiful girls only watch from a distance.
"Come from the other side"
A cool woman of the same age as a beautiful woman leads boys and girls with fearless faces.
"--Iruna!"
A beautiful woman noticed a cool woman and called out to her.
"Yeah, Jenna. Training newcomers, it\'s hard work"
"It\'s not a big deal. It\'s time to go home? Isn\'t it a little early?"
"I pulled up because the labyrinth looked a little strange. Labyrinth ants Maze Ant have came out of the nest and I also saw Guardian Ant. "
"Did you see their nests? "
"Maybe. I saw the next block, so I don\'t think It\'ll come here, but be careful."
"Thank you, Jenna"
"- That time ? ? ?like, Mantis Soldier Mantis come out "
"Oh, that happened."
Beautiful women look nostalgic.
As I hesitate to pass by, a cool woman passes by us with boys and girls.
At that time, she kindly called out, "You guys should be careful too."
"What should we do?"
I\'m curious about the story I overheard, and I ask my friends-mainly Zari for their opinions.
"Labyrinth ants are hard shelled. It may be difficult with our weapons."
"Why don\'t we go in a different direction?"
Zari replied, and Lhasa pointed to a different passage than the cool woman appeared.
"That\'s right"
"Let\'s do so"
"Yes"
Gons agreed, so we\'re heading there.
"The monument! Labyrinth Maze rats! "
Lhasa wraps around to escape the large rat that she finally encountered, and makes a stab at the place where her foot stops with everyone\'s spear.
I made an excessive attack on only one large rat and was able to defeat it in a blink of an eye.
Rather, Keros\'s sword welding was the most dangerous.
The skin is full of scratches, and even if it is peeled off, it is unlikely to be usable.
"Time to dismantle. Someone help me."
"Leave it to me"
It\'s a large rat, which is about the size of a medium-sized dog, so I asked Gon to hold its leg and dismantle it.
Unlike the labyrinth moth, it was the same as the dismantling of livestock, so it was quick.
"What about meat?"
"Do you eat rat meat?"
See Gon asking with eyes filled with accusation towards Keros.
"Why don\'t you eat it it the city?"
"Well, do you eat in the countryside!"
"I\'ll eat it normally"
At the cost of eating the grain, I had rat and his friends become my food.
By the way, I remembered that my sister stubbornly didn\'t eat mice and insects.
"-There was. It\'s a small demon core."
And it\'s white.
"I\'m sorry, but let\'s throw away the meat."
"If you put it in your backpack, other things will be covered with blood."
Come to think of it, I was ready for the trip today.
"Let\'s go next, next!"
"Gee, there are other parties"
"Two pairs-that is, there are a lot of rats here."
We go deeper and deeper while competing with other parties for the rats.
"Incoming again! This time there are two!"
"Charge!"
It was taken a while ago, so I have to take it this time.
"Wait, we have to come out soon."
Zari stops us desperately chasing the rat.
"Only four have been hunted yet."
"That\'s right. You\'ve come to a place where you can hunt monsters, right?"
Gon and Keros protest.
"I\'m already in the back. If I keep doing this, We\'ll be out of the first section."
"Yeah, lets go back to the other parties."
By the way, the other parties that were competing are gone.
"I have a bad feeling"
Lhasa\'s premonition cannot be underestimated.
I was able to avoid falling rocks and sudden rain several times on my journey to the labyrinth city.
"What should we do?"
Sina asks.
"Let\'s hunt at least the number of people"
"… That\'s right. Will I go home if I hunt only two more?"
"It\'s the last big rat"
Say that and resume tracking.
"It\'s a dead end!"
The agitated rats are approaching, but we stab them with a spear and defeat them.
Take out the demon core by hand with Gon.
"Yeah, now we have enough for the number of people!"
It will be enough for the result of the day.
It was said that the wooden certificate will expire if you do not collect five demon cores per person by the month after next, but it seems that it will be collected in less than ten days, let alone this month.
"Come on, oh oh oh"
There was a man\'s voice from behind.
A crackling sound of applause comes down.
"--Who?"
Looking back, bad-looking men are blocking the aisle.
Looking up at the surroundings, a number of men were looking down through a hole near the ceiling. Everyone here are villains.
"… Lost thieves"
Zari murmured.
" Correct. Oh yeah. Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
A thief screams.
"Let\'s kill the kids and kidnap the woman."
"Wait, wait, I\'m good if a man is a kid with a thin frame. If you want to kill him, just do that the hard way."
From behind the thief called the head, men carrying a curved sword appeared and smiled vulgarly.
…… If I do not resist, it will be worse than being killed.
My sister\'s words revived in my mind, dazzling in despair.
--Brother. Don\'t give up. Scratching as much as when I was desperate. Never die.
That\'s it. I can\'t be killed in a place like this.
I hardened my trembling heart and took a deep breath.
As I breathed more, I could see the surroundings a little.
We can only take one way.
"Break through the middle. I give a signal, run with all your might."
I tell my friends in a whisper.
It\'s a bad bet, but it\'s better than being here.
Besides, I have one ace. It\'s an unreliable ace, but it should be better than nothing.
I put a bit of hope on it, and put my strength in the hand holding the spear.
* The next update is scheduled for September 19th (Sun).