Genius Engineer in the Labyrinth - Chapter 335



Only Noblemtl

Thanks to the twilight route, the travel distance is shortened, so there is plenty of free time. Naturally, this leads to more hunting and longer hunting periods.

Nicola agreed to that point. Any expedition would do that.

“If you take a break, you won’t complain.”

Combat is an act that greatly wears down both the body and the mind. Even if magic power strengthens both, it requires time to recharge.

Shiva listened to the complaint and then laughed.

“Brother Nicola, it would be better if you gave up too.”

“I feel like I’ve been scammed. The executioner smiled as he handed me the proposal. That stiff man smiled.”

Shiva smiled and breathed divine power into Nicola’s back. He had only briefly left the battlefield to recover, but he would soon have to return.

“Exploring with Brother Allen is challenging, but rewarding. Do you know how old I am?”

“Twenty-seven. You’re the same age as me.”

“It’s a very early age to be at depth 5.”

“What about age? It’s not strange for genius explorers like me to have enlightenment at any time. Ten years for others is one year for me. Oh, it’s a great statement even when I think about it again.”

“Ahem… I’m a little different. I’m proud to say that I have a greater desire to follow my mother’s wishes than anyone else, but I think I’m lacking in talent compared to true geniuses.”

“If you say so, you are also at depth 5.”

“This is the realm where the saint’s remains are kept. The religious order had high expectations when they heard that I, a poor soul, had reached the 50th floor. I don’t want to disappoint the goodwill of these good people, so I will somehow follow Brother Allen down. Okay, it’s over.”

Shiva patted Nicola on the back. He healed his body when it was injured, and replenished his spirit when it was weak. In short, he was like a gas station.

Nicola shook her head furiously, forcing herself to shake off her fatigue.

“I’m going crazy. It’s hard, but it’s not hard. I’ll go first.”

Shiva stared blankly at Nicola’s back as she headed to the battlefield, then caught sight of Alan. He was the person who best matched the ten years and one year that had been mentioned earlier.

At first, I was surprised by his talent, but as I spent more time with him, I began to notice his efforts. The word effort is somewhat of a euphemism, and it would be more appropriate to say that he was crazy about pursuing knowledge.

The area we’re currently passing through is the outskirts of the capital. We’re pushing away any number of reptilians that come out like a bulldozer.

The most notable automaton was the buffalo. It was a secondary unit, but given its size, it was a weapon in its own right.

Boohoo!

He just happened to headbutt the reptilian that was approaching him, launching him high into the air. The destructive force of the speed and weight caused a dent in his chest.

The box that had been wedged into the platform whipped, and lightning shot out from the whip wrapped around the reptilian’s arm. The charred thing fell in front of the buffalo.

Alan walked over and stabbed the hollow staff into the reptilian’s chest. When he pulled it out again, it was filled with a magic stone.

Money didn’t matter. When the reptilians were defeated, they were all used as combat resources.

Their hearts were forcibly converted into magic stones and placed into the automaton, and their corpses were devoured by buffalo and consumed as biofuel.

It was a form of exploration that a profit-seeking company would avoid. Exploration is ultimately about making a living, so who would do it if there was nothing to gain?

Shiva was momentarily distracted by the sound of bones crunching and the scent of blood spreading, and was late in noticing Alan’s approach.

“What are you thinking?”

“Our party is really amazing.”

Alan’s presence was the pillar that kept the bizarre expedition going. Taylor would oppose Alan’s suggestions for something, but eventually he would follow through, and it was the same with Zion. Nicola was pushed aside in terms of both the right to speak and the majority.

“Will there ever be another expedition like this?”

“If growth is the only goal, wouldn’t the top-tier expedition led by Depth 7 be the most similar to us?”

There were a few groups that were at the forefront of labyrinth exploration. Their main goal was not to make money, but to advance even just a little bit further.

“Brother!”

Shiva was startled by the magical showers the reptilians were shooting out, while Alan, on the other hand, remained calm despite having his back turned.

“It’s okay. I can see it.”

The eyes are designed to look straight ahead, but Alan’s left eye was different. After coming out of unconsciousness, all directions came into view.

The magic that Alan had captured had noticeably weakened. It was as if the heavy rain had turned into a drizzle. There was a saying that a drizzle can make your clothes wet, but his colleagues were not the type to be swayed by such trivial things.

It was a spell that must have been unleashed with the last of their strength, and the reptilians’ momentum was noticeably reduced. The gray dancer, moving in shadow, danced freely among them.

The storm subsided for a moment and the whole area was covered in silence. The buffalo leisurely chewed something at the place where the battle had taken place.

“Why do we break down resources into as many pieces as possible?”

“That way, the amount of horsepower allocated to [molecular assembly] will decrease. If you chew your food thoroughly, it will be easier to digest.”

“hmm···.”

The corners of the buffalo’s mouth turned bright red. It was not a pleasant sight for a priest, let alone an explorer.

“Wouldn’t you reject it later when you acquire intelligence?”

“I’m trying to make it have a simple personality, so it’ll be fine. I said that because it looks like a bison, but in fact, herbivores eat meat too.”

After collecting all the loot, we reached the safe zone we had scouted out, the storehouse. Naturally, the inside was completely empty.

Nicola closed his eyes, filling himself with magic power, and fell to the side. This was the first time he had been on such an arduous march.

The city, which was filled to the brim all the way to the horizon, naturally had a huge number of citizens, and they were all enemies of the explorers. Fortunately, they were not hiding in each house, but gathered somewhere.

Nicola sniffed the scent of dinner and straightened his folded waist. He moved mechanically and received the bowl.

“It’s your turn today, sir. Thank goodness it’s not a compressed biscuit.”

“If you leave it to other guys, they’ll give you nutrients instead of cooking. And I don’t like biscuits either.”

“I think it’s edible.”

The existing party members seemed to agree with Zion’s claim of a peculiar taste, while Nicola made a face as if she had heard something wrong.

“How about biscuits? They’re easy to eat and taste pretty good.”

“You can’t be sincere, right? The human tongue can’t taste that.”

Alan looked at Zion’s claims from a different perspective. It was clear that when Chairman Jake created Zion, he inserted reptilian genes into her. That’s why she almost became a blind saint, and the genes must have affected her sense of taste.

This time, he glanced at Nicola. There was a possibility that he, as a disciple of Lumiere Matapju, was also a result of the procedure.

“Are you burning with fighting spirit as you watch your rival?”

“···.”

His concentration was broken by the random remark. Alan stopped observing and explained the schedule for tomorrow.

“If you go further inside, there is a military base.”

The capital was not filled with buildings. Perhaps to avoid indiscriminate destruction or to achieve harmony with nature, forests and mountains were left here and there. And the military bases were located in the mountains.

Nicola was having a hard time with her tight schedule so she put down the dishes first.

“Why are you going there? Are you going to suffer by buying it?”

“I want to enter the palace.”

“Ah… the key is there. Is it information for the Breaker?”

Nicola stamped his handprint in blood on the confidentiality agreement. He would use the knowledge of the Eselma Tower for the party someday, so it was okay to tell them.

“Yes. I plan to attack because of the key. That way, I can break through the palace barrier.”

Thanks to the information from Breaker, I was able to plan my schedule efficiently. If not, I would have gotten to the royal palace and gotten lost because of the traffic.

The next day, Nicola was not able to come to her senses due to the explosion of gunfire from the military camp. Alan’s exploration was progressing too quickly.

All around was a sea of ​​fire. The automaton commanded by Alan robbed the military base warehouse, and the magic stones and magic tools that had changed hands became bombs and gave freedom to their original owners. The freedom to shed their flesh.

Kkeeek!

Kkaaa!

If there was a fiery hell, this would be it. It was not an ordinary fire, but a fire with magical powers added to it, so once it caught fire, it was hard to put out.

Like a wizard, Nicola immediately noticed.

“You gave magic a personality?”

“Yes. I used [Adhesion] and [Obsession].”

“I thought about it, and you are a wizard. The frame of a magic engineer seems too narrow to confine my rival.”

Bombing and then taking over was a very standard tactic. It also prevented major casualties, completely eliminating the fatal personnel gap in a small expedition.

Reptilians are different from regular monsters, so they would run away when the odds were against them. We didn’t bother to chase them.

Alan walked slowly through the burning military camp. The boy looked at the scene of destruction with admiration, as if he was entranced by the fire.

“You shouldn’t learn things like this.”

“What do you mean, sir?”

“Can’t you even talk to yourself?”

“Let’s lower our voices. You’re in your sixties, and you’re still so stern. You’re almost seventy, aren’t you?”

“I don’t know my age. And I have a few years left.”

Nicola tried to refute the apparent contradiction in Taylor’s words, but instead fired a beam of light at the fleeing soldier in the distance.

Red-hot soldiers would occasionally rush in through the flames, but their weakened bodies were unable to stop Zion’s sword.

As soon as the gray hair fluttered, a blood flower bloomed and then quickly withered in the heat that came from all directions.

The military base headquarters that arrived that way had only the site of a house left. It was a prime bombing target as the commander and elite soldiers stayed together.

Although Alan was good at using surprise attacks, some of them were monsters of depth 5. They survived the chaos and looked this way.

Nicola held out his hand. The ring of light on his finger spun rapidly.

“Everyone below depth 4 is dead. Only 6 enemies remain.”

Before Nicola could even fire her spell, the buffalo moved first. The armor plates on its sides opened wider than ever before, and a swarm of flies swooped out.

Nicola, who didn’t want to lose the momentum, stretched all his fingers forward. He fired bullets of light like a machine gun.

The maggot flew cleverly. When a bullet broke through a shield or armor, it went inside and exploded.

The enemies’ magic power was rapidly reduced thanks to the automaton that burned its body for the glory of its master. Even after enduring a single bombardment, their magic power reserves were low.

In the end, the enemies couldn’t hold out. Their weapons were too lethal to be considered the same level.

The Labyrinth, saddened by the merciless hunt, shed tears. The flames that covered the military camp were quickly suppressed by raindrops.

Nicola looked at the automaton collecting the loot and the party members checking their equipment, her bangs brushed back.

“There was a reason why we traveled in small groups.”

“Because it’s easy to move and you don’t have to worry about distribution issues.”

“And compared to other explorers, your skills are far superior. Is the ring the Commander was wearing the key?”

“yes.”

Alan carefully examined the ring carved from bone. The inside was densely engraved with magical circuits.

“You’re not planning on barging in through the front gate, are you?”

“That’s suicide. You’ll go down the river and end up in a sewer.”

“It’s a sewer… It won’t be dirty.”

The monsters in the labyrinth were not real creatures, so they had no physiological functions. That’s why the water flowing through the sewers was clean.

“I’m tired. Let’s go and rest quickly.”

“What are you talking about? I’m still in the middle of nowhere, so I plan on going to the sewer entrance today.”

“It’s too fast.”

Nicola gestured to his colleagues for support, but all he got in return were faces that said it would be easier to give up.

End