Genius Engineer in the Labyrinth - Chapter 113
Only Noblemtl
Allen and his party moved to the 25th floor. Because the area was so humid, even though they moved along a path with as little water as possible, it still felt like rain-soaked ground.
The group was large enough to easily be noticed by the forest creatures, but because there were so many of them, they were dealt with in an instant. The maggots were mostly moving around, and Allen and his group watched from behind.
Gary was in a weird position. Still, he was aware of it and took on the role of a spy, acting with the maggots.
Alan looked at the box containing the cylinder. Unfortunately, he didn’t get anything. If it was his, he would have used extreme methods to uncover the secret, but since it was Ethel Matap’s owner, he had to treat it with care.
Taylor noticed Alan’s gaze.
“If you feel regretful, why don’t you just stay on the 26th floor for a few days and then come up? Since you’re badly injured, you could have used the excuse of recovering and stayed in a safe place to investigate.”
“No. There is no clear solution at the moment. There are changes, so we can look into them separately later.”
Alan pressed hard around his left eye, thinking of the newly appeared star characters. It was either obscured by the fog or carved into it by this incident, but it was an interesting subject for study.
When they reached the meeting place, the maggots trembled. It was a natural reaction to meet the owner of the stolen Oparts.
Lorenzo was waiting on the highest tree as he had said. He was standing in front of the tent he had set up above and looking down.
He jumped down, his blue hair fluttering. A magic circle lit up beneath his feet, and he landed softly.
“What about Oparts?”
“Here it is.”
When Alan opened the green chest, a cylinder with a dragon engraved on it was revealed, and Lorenzo used his telekinetic magic to obtain the object.
“Bring it!”
As I shouted upward, my subordinates brought down Titanoboa, which they had already caught. The creature writhed and hissed, as if it was very angry.
Lorenzo remained calm even when he was faced with a snake thicker than a log. When he did something with the cylinder, Titanoboa’s eyes started spinning. Then, it became quiet.
Even after the restraints were removed, he continued to maintain his coiled posture. There was no sign of the hostility he usually showed toward explorers, as if he had met a mortal enemy.
“You brought it properly. Did you meet the wizard?”
I knew he was a wizard without even mentioning the enemy, so I guessed it was an internal faction fight. Alan kept his expressionless face and called out to the box.
“Show me.”
beep-
The box brought forward a headless corpse. Lorenzo’s eyes slightly rose?
“Have you seen the face?”
“As you can see, I didn’t have a chance to do that because the helmet covering my face was blown away.”
“Then that’s fine. This is how it comes out….”
As Lorenzo muttered, he snapped his fingers and the wizard’s body burst into blue fire. In the blink of an eye, it spread throughout his entire body and his body turned to ash.
It only burned magicians without causing any damage to the surrounding area. It meant that it had extreme magical power control and stealth.
Lorenzo took the pouch out of his bosom and threw it, and the box picked up the pouch that Alan had dropped.
“Now that I’m done with my business, I’ll go.”
“What about Mr. Gary?”
“Who is Gary?”
“It’s the maggot I caught first.”
“I don’t care about the tools. The rest of them are the same, so do whatever you want.”
Lorenzo climbed up the tree, and Alan and his party began to move again.
When I opened the pouch, it was full of magic stones, the best bearer bonds. They were impossible to trace and extremely versatile.
“Including the last compensation, it’s about 500 million won. If you’re a disciple of Matapju, you must be a second generation chaebol, so your hands are big.”
“There are many people who would pay billions of dollars for the dragon’s treasure. It even makes the animals of the primeval forest docile.”
“And it also means to be quiet.”
“You’re right. We don’t need to spread rumors that we’ve made a lot of money, so keep your mouths shut. Especially you.”
“Brother, why are you doing this to me?”
“I’m giving you a warning because you’re a drunkard.”
“Drunkenness? You shouldn’t criticize the hardships of meeting your mother like that.”
“Asceticism? It would be difficult if the liver becomes hard.”
“I cast a healing spell on my body before going to bed. I need to take care of my health so that I can spread my mother’s will for a long time.”
Taylor clicked his tongue and stared at the maggot openly, unable to see through Shiva’s logic.
“Are you going to take me there with difficulty?”
Some flinched at Taylor’s words. Some frowned, but they remained silent because they knew that Alan had touched the magicware and that any resistance would mean immediate death.
“It’s too easy to turn everything we’ve done so far into fertilizer for the labyrinth.”
“Brother Alan is right. My mother said that every child has to clean up his own mess.”
“It’s written like that in the scriptures?”
“That’s what they say. Don’t you think you’re starting to look like an explorer now?”
“The word choice is too cheap.”
“I remembered what Brother Taylor usually said and repeated it.”
“It’s the best choice. You should mix in some slang or vulgar language so that you don’t get ignored.”
“I’m sure Sister Alana would be happy to have so many applicants.”
Taylor frowned at the name that suddenly came out, then thought of the nun he had seen when dealing with the drug cartel. The nun who came in a black car like a grim reaper had a very strong impression.
“That… threatening-looking nun?”
“Brother···.”
“Hmm, hmm.”
“Actually, he is proud of his fierce appearance. He likes it when criminals listen to him.”
“It’s not like there’s a bomb planted in your head. Is that nun’s job headhunting?”
“Yes. We hunt, and we also provide intensive mental training before sending them to each branch.”
“Since you’ve touched the brain expansion device, you can just give it a command.”
“You need to know why you do such things. Then you can reflect on them and know how to atone for your sins.”
“Dilution?”
“The sins you commit will not disappear. You can only make them fade away through the effort of spitting out blood.”
As they went up to the ground, the soldiers guarding the fortress realized the identity of the maggots and began to emit a murderous aura. However, when Shiva came forward and spoke, they did not bother to touch them.
Alana showed up in a black van as soon as I contacted her this time. She stuffed the maggots into the truck bed, gave me a thumbs up, and disappeared.
The soldiers remained silent even after witnessing the kidnapping. In fact, some of them even laughed and clapped their hands.
“I like it when you separate the trash. The nun looks like a full-bellied lioness.”
“I thought so too.”
As he disappeared, saying that he had to stop by the Shiva Overflowing Love Hospital to report for the first time in a long while, Taylor put a hand on Alan’s back.
“I need to go check if you’re feeling okay. Let’s go quickly. I’ll pull you. Do you want to just get in the cart?”
“Where are you going in such a hurry?”
“Western Sky.”
“That’s not a hospital.”
“First of all, the air is incredibly good, and since it’s full of plants, it helps with mental and physical stability, the prescribed medicine is plant-derived, so it works well for your body, and the owner has skills that rival those of any doctor…”
“Okay. Let’s go.”
Alan nodded, thinking that if he left it like this, the conversation would never end.
He must have been well paid, so he called a large taxi favored by explorers and headed to Western Sky. As he went inside, fairies gathered around the box and the leopard.
“What is this?”
“It’s an automaton!”
“What is an automaton?”
“I don’t know! He’s hurt!”
“But move!”
As the leopard moved its head in response to the loud chattering, the fairies circled around like startled birds.
The blue butterfly-winged fairy who had asked what an automaton was sat on Alan’s shoulder.
“Are you going to eat us?”
“no.”
“Then what about him?”
As I followed the fairy’s little fingers, I saw the box swinging its pincers back and forth.
“It’s a monster! Run away!”
“stop.”
At Alan’s command, the box lowered its claws and only the camera eye moved.
“Why did you stop? It was fun!”
The fairies thought it was a game of tag and started complaining to Alan. Then they all looked to one side and flew away.
The plants opened left and right and a fairy flower appeared. Even in the garden full of colorful flowers, her black hair stood out clearly.
“I was wondering where you went while you were working···.”
“Sister, how are you?”
“You look healthy too.”
After a brief greeting with Taylor, Yohwa extended her hand to Alan.
“These are seeds I got from the back of an emperor salamander. I also brought its corpse.”
“I didn’t think it was an endangered species, but it was in the labyrinth. What are the seeds that were classified separately?”
“These are seeds harvested from my body.”
“What?! Why did you do that?”
As the fairy made a sharp sound, the surrounding plants trembled. Alan explained how he had no choice but to do so when he encountered a difficult opponent.
“That’s fortunate, but I don’t experiment on people.”
“You do research and clinical trials while laying them on a bed of vines.”
“I’m saying that we’re doing it according to proper procedure. And can you tell me that it’s a medical checkup, not a clinical trial?”
As the fairy clapped her hands, a vine shot out and forced Alan down. When she tried to raise her head, the vine followed the movements of the fairy’s fingers and pressed down on her forehead.
“Get tested first and go. It’ll take a while, so you can sleep.”
“Okay, sleep tight.”
Taylor also added his own comment.
The fairies that had run away came back, fluttering their butterfly wings vigorously, carrying moist-looking white mushrooms.
When he placed it on the bed of vines, the mushroom spread white spores, and strangely enough, they settled only on Alan’s body. Then his body became comfortable and his eyes closed on their own.
When Alan opened his eyes again, the sky beyond the transparent roof was dark.
The laughter died down as Alan sat up, and Taylor took on a pitiful expression.
“You’re awake? You can sleep more.”
“Stop talking nonsense and take her away quickly.”
“See you next time, Sister.”
“Okay. Take care on the way back. Oh, before that. Alan.”
“yes.”
“The seed you grew from your body needs more research, so I’ll get back to you later. Maybe we can create personalized seeds.”
I walked through the dark streets and arrived home. Vito was nowhere to be seen, but since he occasionally took care of it, there was less dust and dirt than before.
Taylor asked, half-lying on the sofa.
“You’ve made a lot of money, what are you going to do with it?”
“I need to buy books. I need to fix my power suit and upgrade my kids. It looks fine on the outside, but it’s a mess on the inside, so I need time.”
“I am···.”
“Use a little and save it.”
“why?”
“It costs a lot of money to replace MagicWare.”
As the performance of Magicware improved, its price soared squarely. It was like buying the time needed for enlightenment and training with money.
“I changed it last time, but again?”
“That way, you can go down quickly. Your body is more suited to Magic Wear than you think, so there’s no burden.”
“It’s normal for explorers to rest for a few months after an expedition ends until they run out of money…”
Shiva, who opened the door and came out, also joined the conversation.
“That’s right. The high priest asked if I was being overworked because I made a mistake in the contract.”
“I heard Shiva thinks the same thing.”
“Aside from that, I also found it strange that my skills were improving so quickly. At first, I didn’t like the strict life like a monastery, so I wanted to join a leisurely party, but I guess that’s my type.”
“Did you hear that?”
“Fuck, you too···.”
Taylor was sunk by the fire of Shiva, who he thought was on the same side.
*
Alan bought all the intermediate versions of the Star Characters. He didn’t leave the house for a month and just kept the letters in his head.
Taylor came back from her outing and saw Alan lying in bed. She glanced at her desk and saw a spider crawling on the bookshelf.
“Alan, when I say don’t just sit around, I don’t mean you should just lie down and watch. Even if you have something important to do, you should move around a bit. If you really don’t want to go out, do some light calisthenics.”
Alan, who had gotten up, started talking out of context.
“Before Catan deciphered the star script, no one knew what it meant.”
“Well… It was a completely different system. There were no similar letters or pictures, so it was hard to put it all together.”
“I thought you wouldn’t care, but you know a lot about it?”
“When I was young, Catan was alive. Whenever I was bored, I would look it up in the newspapers or on the news. So what are you trying to say?”
“What if Catan didn’t decipher it on his own, but with help from someone else?”
“That alone is amazing. Really?”
“I think I may have had help from the dragons. Not through meeting them directly, but through the things they left behind.”
“How did you know?”
“These eyes. Judging from the way they reacted to the cylinder left behind by the dragon, I’m sure that’s it.”
Alan pointed to his left eye.
“Didn’t you say that the disciple’s disciple made it?”
“It must have been made through generations or by applying learned techniques.”
“So what’s your next goal?”
“Let’s first go to the ruins on the 26th floor where they said they found Taylor’s training method.”
End