## Chapter 157 – Kobolds and the Underground Labyrinth
“Aaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”
A bizarre mass of flesh, like rotten, festering crimson meat stitched together in the shape of a heart, topped with bones and entrails, and sprinkled with what looked like animal blood! It was a creation straight out of the nightmares of boys tormented by the curse of solitude!
“Evil abomination!”
Elise rebuked it, brandishing her mace.
Yet the grotesque monstrosity remained unfazed, pulsating powerfully like a whale’s heart. Thump-thump. The beat hammered at my head like a drum, and memories of the past washed over me!
Father! Father, Father!!!! How can you eat four chicken legs all by yourself!!!! How can you be so greedy with food in front of the children!!!!
“Could that be the cause? I’ve certainly never seen anything like that before.”
“…What the hell is that? A twisted lump of flesh? Did that make Blackie go crazy?”
“Looks like it. Hmph, then I definitely can’t forgive it.”
“That’s one fucked up thing. We need to burn it.”
Claudie and Winia’s casual reactions spurred on my madness.
“Kieeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!”
At the height of my excitement, I raised my sword high and charged.
This unstoppable impulse! It was calling to me! I don’t know why it was calling me, but it would regret it! That bastard was as good as dead!
Daring to mess with my mind!
“Oh, God of Order!”
Elise’s prayer rang out. Holy Enchant! —Patzut! Claudie, wielding a shining scimitar in both hands, overtook me, sprinting forward.
—Whoosh!
Winia also chanted a spell and fired a Fire Bolt. She was also an adventurer skilled in violence. Seeing her calmly cast magic at the cursed-looking monster, I didn’t need to worry.
—Shwizz!
The scimitar, imbued with holiness, slashed at the flesh like a bonfire enjoyed with friends in the middle of the night. Shwack! Unholy blood splattered along the trajectory of the light. The splattered blood immediately hissed and evaporated, and white smoke rose like mist.
“Holy Light!”
Next, Elise, with a halo above her head, kicked off the ground. Charging in like a tank, she slammed her raised mace into an eye-like organ that protruded out. Splat! Splat, splat! The crushed eyeball flowed down like gruel!
“Thrust!”
Finally reaching it, I also thrust my sword in with all my might. Thwack! In an instant, the blade sank in all the way to the hilt. Unlike its gruesome appearance, its durability didn’t seem very high. Was its visual overwhelming, but it was actually just a cripple?
Regaining confidence, I wondered whether to activate Weakling Extermination. Was this a borderline case…? No. When I thought about it, wasn’t it a 4-on-1 situation? An individual facing a crowd, no matter how grotesque, is bound to be the weak one.
Certain of victory, I stabbed the monster with my sword like a madman.
“Everyone! We must gather the power of friendship!”
“Understood!”
And so, the four of us ganged up on it. My actions, buffed with increased attack speed in my madness, became even more intense. I even grabbed the sword in reverse and sliced through the pile of flesh.
At this moment, with the friendship of four united as one, we were invincible!
—Gush!
As we diligently sliced through the flesh, entrails flowed out.
“Good! Winia!”
I signaled to Winia. She ran over and forcefully shoved her staff into the gap where the entrails had spilled out. The light of the Light magic disappeared into the darkness of the entrails for a moment, but soon the spell she chanted illuminated the area.
“Fire Breath!”
—Whoosh!
A direct blast of flames into the monster’s insides! The grotesque monstrosity’s pulse quickened. Was it feeling pain? If this bastard could talk, I would have asked it how it felt to have its entire insides roasted in an instant.
This evil creature!
“I am your deathaaaaaaah!!!”
I immediately unleashed the final secret technique of the Illusion Sword Style, the Phantom Sword Dance, and slashed at its hide. Thwack, thwack! Elise swung her mace, shwizz! Claudie carved it up, and whoosh! Winia fired a ball of fire.
The overwhelming monstrosity merely pulsed in response to our attacks, unable to offer any resistance. It didn’t even have an organ like a mouth, so it couldn’t even scream as it died.
What kind of creature was it?
The more I swung my sword, the more the wicked throbbing sound that had been tormenting my mind faded away. This confirmed two things. One was that it had been messing with my mind, and the other was that it was dying.
Thinking that, I couldn’t stop slashing.
Eventually, the grotesque monstrosity became just a large pile of food waste.
Killing an opponent who couldn’t resist was a very simple task. Well, this was the power of friendship gathered to this extent. It would have been too much for a creature without any means of attack to withstand.
“Haa… haa…”
Only then did I catch my breath.
Claudie approached me as I slumped down.
“Katt. Are you okay now?”
“…Yeah. My head feels clear now. Thanks for worrying about me.”
“What the hell was that thing…”
The ominous sound was no longer audible. The memories of the past that had endlessly tormented me no longer surfaced. However, what I wondered was why it had called me. Unfortunately, now that I had killed it, I would never know.
“Anyway, what the fuck is this? It looks just like Blackie.”
Hey, watch your mouth.
“I… I don’t know either. I can say with certainty that this is the first time I’ve seen such a monstrosity. I’ve never learned about anything like this at the church.”
Elise’s expression was serious as she looked at the corpse.
Anyway, the battle was over.
We searched the corpse for anything useful.
We had to take anything that could be turned into money, right?
“…Now that I’ve killed it, it just looks like an ordinary pile of corpses. What the hell is this?”
It was like a monster made up of all kinds of entrails and meat. Was this also a monster? When I turned it over, there were a few organs that looked like tentacles. Other than that, there didn’t seem to be any other special features.
I wondered if there was anything to take, so I rummaged through the entrails with Claudie. We cut out something that looked like intestines and cleared away the bones as we continued our work. The more we explored, the deeper our questions became.
Even in this otherworld fantasy, could a monster like this exist naturally? It seemed like a rogue who didn’t even have the basics of a living creature, like a sea cucumber or a sea squirt.
The fact that something like this was in a place like this meant that there was a high possibility that someone with a purpose had moved it here… What exactly was this thing?
A failed creation of an artificially created monster?
Or a demon summoned from another dimension?
A demon’s summoning?
An artificial undead like a flesh golem?
“Winia. Do you sense any magical power or anything?”
First, I asked her, the mage.
“Not at all. More importantly, is Blackie’s head okay now?”
“It’s never been better. It seems like this bastard was the culprit. I killed it, and I don’t hear the sound anymore.”
“That’s a relief.”
Anyway, there didn’t seem to be anything to take. Just half-rotten bones, entrails, and piles of flesh, so what else could we take? Winia also said it didn’t seem useful, so it probably wasn’t worth much.
I just took a few small bone fragments as souvenirs and put them in my bag. Elise also didn’t seem to have anything special to take, so she took out one of the half-crushed eyeballs and put it in her pouch.
“…Look over there.”
At Elise’s words, the party’s gaze turned to that spot. What she was pointing at was a stone door. As expected, a strange pattern was engraved on the stone door.
Could this monstrosity have been blocking the door?
“I’m getting a little interested. How about we go in? Katt is feeling better now. This monster wasn’t particularly strong either. I think it’s okay to go further. I don’t know, I’m getting excited.”
Claudie said, stroking the stone door.
“…Well. We can’t come all the way here and go back empty-handed. I’m a little curious too. But Blackie, are you really okay?”
“If that’s what you all think, I’ll join you. I want to witness the ugly truth of this place as soon as possible.”
The party’s opinions converged on exploring.
I also thought that the real deal was beyond this door.
Even if nothing else, we had made a decent profit when we physically befriended the cultists in the waterway. This place even smelled more suspicious than that. A suspicious smell is the smell of money.
Whatever it was, the truth hidden here seemed to have immense value. This was the moment. Adventurers were already coming down from above, right? It was only a matter of time.
We were just the first to seize the opportunity.
Since we had come down so far, we might be able to find a treasure room or a queen’s chamber.
“Okay. For the sake of justice in this world, we need to explore.”
Nodding, I pushed the stone door. —Krrr… The door made its unique sound and slowly opened, and we entered the next room.
The next room, should I call it that? This dark path didn’t seem to have anything special. We just walked cautiously. A huge underground labyrinth… Considering the structure, it seemed that this labyrinth was at the bottom, and there was an underground facility made of earth above it.
Kobolds were originally monsters that lived underground, so it seemed that they had occupied both of these places.
Then when did the cultists start reaching out? It was probably quite a while ago… Could it be related to the fact that the dungeon had only been discovered now? I didn’t know anything.
And so, we walked through the labyrinth, relying only on Winia’s Light magic. The disgusting, hooded kobold warriors were no longer visible.
“How far does this go? It’s really fucking long.”
“To think there’s a place of this scale underground… I can’t believe it.”
Even though we had walked for quite a while, the end of the road was not visible. Was this really an ancient labyrinth? An ominous feeling arose, but at the same time, I began to wonder what kind of object was sleeping there.
“Wait. Be quiet.”
Then Claudie said.
“I can hear a faint sound… Is it kobolds?”
At those words, we closed our mouths and moved according to her gestures. Hearing a sound meant that we were at least at the end of this road. And so, we followed Claudie in silence.
The road was winding, and moisture had seeped in from the middle… Was there an underground stream flowing nearby?
“I think I can hear it around here…”
Claudie stopped. I also listened carefully, trying to find the sound. —…I could definitely hear something.
“Winia, can you hear it?”
“Shut up for a second.”
Winia, who spoke as if spitting, reduced the output of Light and also listened carefully. Elise was also doing something similar. Then Winia walked towards the wall.
“What are you trying to do?”
—Tap tap.
Then she started tapping the wall with her staff.
What was that? Morse code?
That bizarre behavior continued for a while.
“Is that Morse code?”
“…I told you to shut up, Blackie.”
“…”
“Is Blackie sulking?”
“No.”
“Look closely, Blackie.”
—Tap tap.
Winia tapped the wall with her staff again. She tapped the wall like that and moved to the side. Tap tap. Tap tap. Tap tap. What was she telling us to look at? It was probably the legendary emergency communication method, Morse code.
“Do you feel anything?”
“Is that Morse code?”
“I don’t know what Morse code is, but it’s just like Blackie not to notice.”
If it wasn’t Morse code, then what was it!
“The sound is different?”
“There, Blackie. Your sister said the answer.”
The sound was different?
“Could it be… there’s a secret door?”
“That’s what I think.”
A secret, a secret door!
“Secret door!”
Unbelievable!
“Then there’s a room beyond this?”
“Probably. Blackie, do you want to try pushing the door?”
“Okay!”
I put my hand on the spot that Winia had pointed out. A secret door in a place like this… I couldn’t believe it. Even though it was dark, it just looked like an ordinary wall to my eyes. I put a little force on it and pushed.
—Swoosh.
Then it really opened!
“Heok!”
I covered my mouth.
Oh my god!
We immediately entered the secret door. The place was obviously very wide and bright.
…Bright?
When I looked up, I saw all sorts of glowing minerals embedded in the ceiling, each shining with a strange color. It was a fascinating sight, like looking at the night sky.
As I was looking at the sky, Winia said quietly.
“…Kobold Queen.”
What?
