Genius Engineer in the Labyrinth - Chapter 18



Only Noblemtl

Labyrinth (3)

Alan opened his eyes and looked up at the maze ceiling made of dark gray stone. Instead of the usual bugs, he heard a strange sound.

A sound like fluid gurgling or something crawling beyond the wall.

It was not a sign of danger, as it was often heard from pipes that were supposedly buried inside the stone.

Alan, who was buried in his sleeping bag, fiddled with his hands while lying down and took out the soul stone that he had kept in his pocket.

It was similar in shape to a flat, transparent memory crystal, but the difference was that there was an opaque air current floating inside.

‘Soulstone language or star script.’

It is called a star script in response to the runic script derived from Luna, but in fact there is no correlation between the two.

Instead, since the star script, like the runes, was a fairly advanced knowledge, there was no other way to search through the universe than through paid services.

Alan, who had only raised his upper body, took the soul stone out of the sleeping bag and tapped it.

Although he had some brief knowledge of the language of the soul stone, when he tried it out, he found that it was all false or superficial information, and could not satisfy Alan’s thirst for knowledge.

However, when I put magic power into the soul stone according to the pattern that was given, the language input window opened. It was a three-dimensional input window, not a flat one.

A hazy mist rose up and formed a circle in front of Alan, making him look like a ghost covered in a white blanket.

The stars were embedded in the fog like Braille, reminiscent of the Milky Way flowing across the night sky.

“You study as soon as you wake up? You’re really amazing.”

Carlson, who had completely escaped from the sleeping bags placed in a triangle near the cylindrical stove magic tool and was sitting there, pointed to the input window with his hand.

“You already know how to handle it? Have we already earned enough to buy books?”

“No. I can’t find it in Samramansang, so I’m trying to buy a book, but the price of the introductory book alone is over 500,000 coins.”

“Knowledge is precious. Graduate school textbooks are so expensive that buying a few copies would cost you an average office worker’s monthly salary.”

“That’s right. If you want to see the golden pagoda that the labyrinth explorers risked their lives to build, you have to pay a fee.”

“There may be illegal copies, but it’s hard to tell if they’re real, so if you’re going to spend money, you should buy the real thing. That’s a good decision.”

“I’m planning on heading to the bookstore right away after I finish this income settlement.”

As he spoke, Alan continued to play with the star letters. When he poked his fingers with magical power, the stars would sometimes disappear and sometimes appear.

“You don’t know the special characters?”

“I’m just experimenting with this. If I erase this line, the fox can’t move its feet, and if I erase this, its aggression goes away.”

Did you know how to use the asterisk from the beginning? Like Alan, you learned it all through trial and error.

At that moment, Aung, who was sleeping in his sleeping bag, raised his upper body. Although he was large, his hands and face naturally turned toward the stove like a puppy looking for its mother.

Then, with difficulty, he opened his eyelids and rolled his bloodshot eyes around.

“Carlson’s turn for night watch. Alan. Are you awake?”

“I woke up. It would be more correct to say, ‘Did you stay up all night?’ I just woke up early, so don’t worry.”

“Thank goodness. It’s good to sleep well.”

It’s been ten days since we’ve been together. Camping has become a daily routine now.

The darkness of the maze, which had felt unfamiliar at first, became familiar, but that didn’t make me relax.

From the 4th floor onwards, the manhole from which the automaton emerges keeps moving, so you could be surprised or surrounded in an instant.

Anyway, now that we’re in good combat sync and I’ve gotten used to my role, I feel less frustrated than I did the first day.

But Alan had to part ways with them at some point. Carlson returned to college for the fall semester, and Aung said he would only do safe explorations on levels 1-3 until he could create Manahat.

If you want to use magic with Ebi and go deeper, you need to have Manaheart. Depending on whether you have Manaheart, the number of spells and cooldown time will be improved.

Alan touched the stars floating in the input window, then returned them to their original state and put the soul stone in his pocket.

The place where Alan was currently camping was near the border between the 5th and 6th floors. The area near the downhill slope also served as a campsite, so he could hear the presence of other explorers somewhere in the dark maze.

As we were cleaning up the traces of our stay here, Carlson blurted out a word.

“Shall we go down to the 6th floor?”

“Courage. Death.”

“It’s not courage, it’s recklessness. I’m not just talking nonsense, I’m just trusting Alan’s abilities. Look over there.”

Aung’s gaze moved to follow Carlson’s finger pointing to the cart. On the cart, there was a raccoon that looked like it was about to move, rolled up like a roll cake.

“I don’t know if he has a good intuition or a clairvoyant ability, but he just shoots at the circuits near the power source and hits them.”

“Agree. Hmm… Good.”

If it was a majority vote, it would have been their turn to step down without fail, but the two looked at Alan and asked for his opinion.

Alan looked at them for a moment.

The people of Soldos I’ve met so far have mostly been kind-hearted. They’re a world apart from the rough-tempered Lankans.

Where did the difference come from? Nature? Wealth? Education? Environment?

It was a problem that could not be easily generalized.

Alan didn’t meet many people and just figured he’d been lucky so far, and answered his colleagues’ questions.

“The maze doesn’t look like it’s going to change much, but I heard that the types of automatons change from the 6th floor onwards, so let’s go check it out. Instead, let’s just explore around the stairs. Any objections?”

“I’m fine. Actually, I’m worried about going too deep, and I need to slowly go up and organize the data.”

Once the opinions were gathered, things went smoothly from then on.

Aung pulled the cart, Carlson assisted, and Alan went down while keeping a close watch.

Beep~.

A strange sensation came over Alan as he crossed the floor. He felt a sense of unease, as if a mosquito he had narrowly missed was hiding under his desk, but he had not had any particular problems so far, so he let it go.

A symptom known as ‘labyrinth tinnitus’, which occurs mainly in people with sensitive senses, completely disappeared once the slope was cleared.

The sixth floor was clearly different from the fifth floor. Even though they had only gone down one floor, there was no sign of any other explorers.

That was why they had to be even more careful. Upstairs, the explorers had outnumbered the automatons, making them look like sandbags, but now the tables were turned.

Even Carlson, who had been constantly talking to relieve his boredom, remained silent when something flickered in front of him.

Carlson, who discovered it first, raised his arm and lowered his voice.

“Enemy detected. Cavalry formation. One.”

As the distance between the automaton and the party grew closer, the enemy’s shape began to appear clearly.

The automaton, having discovered the intruder, rose up. The vehicle resembled a wolf, and its rider was a mannequin holding a spear.

The mannequin’s flat face, especially the eyes that used to emit white light, turned blood red.

Clank clank!

It immediately began to charge. The wolf’s metal paws rubbed against the maze floor, creating a harsh metallic noise and sending sparks flying in all directions.

The maze was wide enough for two men to stand with their arms outstretched, allowing the cavalry to move without any impediments.

Carlson deployed his shield’s force field and slammed it into the ground, but to Alan it didn’t seem to be enough to stop the charge.

“Ahh! Move the cart forward!”

“Ugh!”

After ten days of traveling together, there was no need for further explanation. Aung turned the cart sideways and made a barricade in front of Carlson.

But the cavalry’s speed did not slow down at all. It leaped upward as if it were a wolf trying to jump over a cart, and began to run, kicking off the wall.

Carlson tried to stop the thing with his shotgun, but it only made small holes and dents in the metal plate, and its speed did not decrease at all.

The cavalryman, who had lowered his body slightly, thrust his spear at Aung at the same speed he had been running.

Thud!

Fortunately, the ‘Wall of Wind’ blocked the attack just in time.

It wouldn’t be strange for a normal person to miss the spear or fall off their horse due to the recoil, but the automaton withstood all the impact and flew at Aung.

To be exact, they divided the roles. The cavalry jumped as if to pounce on Aung, and the wolf opened its mouth towards Alan behind him.

Alan’s eyes scanned the battlefield. Carlson was ramming the cavalrymen with his shield in front.

So he only had to deal with the wolf. Alan swung his stick as it was. In fact, it was more like holding it out as if he were bunting.

Bang!

The tip of the staff clashed with the wolf’s nose.

If it were Alan’s usual body, he would drop the weapon and roll on the floor in agony from the tingling sensation.

thud!

The sound actually came from the ceiling. The [Flight] engraved on the tip of the staff was sending the wolf’s body flying upward.

Alan, who was trying to finish by blowing magic into his eyes, realized that he couldn’t see the location of the power source properly.

‘It has weak magic resistance, but it exists.’

Still, it was easy to deal with. The wolf was still attached to the ceiling, and Alan only had to pull the trigger.

After the fight, Carlson wiped the sweat from his forehead. The amount of sweat dripping down was an indication of how tense he had been, even though the engagement had been short.

“Wow, we only went down one level and the difference is this big? Let’s go back right away like we promised.”

“That’s right. Us. The group.”

“Are you trying to tell me not to overdo it?”

“My words···.”

“That’s what I’m saying? Let’s sort it out now.”

Aung moved the cart again, and Carlson filled the empty spaces in the cart with the disassembled automatons.

“There’s no more room to carry anything. If you go up and meet an automaton, you should just grab a magic stone or soul stone.”

Alan and his party turned away without hesitation. They had experienced an exciting battle with just one, so they had a feeling that if they had two or three, the results would not be so good.

I could feel why the number of people decreased significantly from the 6th floor onwards.

As the path to the 5th floor gradually drew closer, the sense of crisis gradually faded, when heavy footsteps were heard.

Clank clank.

Alan stopped at the intersection and immediately took up a fighting stance. The only thing that made that kind of rough metal-on-metal noise was the automaton.

As expected, three red lights flashed beyond the darkness. At first, only the lights were visible, but soon the outlines became clear.

The wolf cavalry I had met earlier, three of them, were raising their weapons towards me.

“Should I run away?”

“There is a clear difference in movement speed. The moment you are captured, your only option is combat.”

“You had a hard time catching each one. Or is there a trick?”

“···.”

As Alan remained silent, worry began to creep into Carlson and Aung’s faces.

Of course, Alan spoke with his usual expressionless face.

“Could you please put me down in front?”

“It’s broken.”

“I know.”

Perhaps because Alan’s calmness had calmed her mind, Aung quickly complied with the request and prepared the magic.

Clink clink clink!

Soon the sound of them charging could be heard.

Alan felt his heart beating as usual and inserted the soul stone near the power source, restoring the broken circuit with the rune pen.

Alan, who had raised his body, pushed the curled up raccoon with the sole of his foot. He also stimulated the raccoon’s power source by blowing magic into the sole of his foot.

The cavalrymen recognized the raccoons rolling towards them as allies and tried to charge forward while stepping aside.

Crunch!

It was a mistake. The fox stretched out its body and bit the cavalryman’s neck with its sharp jaws.

Only then did they start stabbing their spears at the fox, but it wasn’t just the fox they had to worry about.

Carlson’s shotgun, Aung’s magic, and Alan’s magic bullets rained down on the gathered enemies.

────────────────────────────────────

────────────────────────────────────