Genius Engineer in the Labyrinth - Chapter 388
Only Noblemtl
Catacomb (3)
Larissa’s exploration was easier than I thought. I took pictures of a few particularly noisy places and sent out a falcon, and luckily I got lucky in one of them.
A Roman explorer who was cleaning his weapon suddenly stood up and looked at a place. A black shape was moving among the burning buildings.
Zion made his way through the flames. He passed the explorers who were wary of his familiar face and entered the brick building.
“Ha, they’re here again.”
“I was just getting some rest, but I’m screwed. Let’s not show it in front of the captain.”
“Phew… That’s right.”
Inside the building, Olga sensed Zion’s presence and greeted him.
“What is it all of a sudden?”
“The maid is out. I came to see my master.”
“Master? We’re friends!”
“what’s the matter?”
Larissa emerged from inside, her hair damp and her exposed skin steaming as if she had just showered.
Zion’s eyes narrowed.
“I need to see blood.”
“I knew it. You dirty breaker’s dog.”
Taylor rushed in before Olga could react and draw her sword, pushing Zion aside and calming the tense situation.
“Wait a minute! Hey, you suddenly started running by yourself, so I was wondering what was going on, and you’re doing something strange. I’m just doing something weird by myself, so don’t misunderstand.”
“What a waste.”
As Zion clicked his tongue and stepped back, Allen entered the building.
“I want Larissa’s blood.”
“Misunderstanding… is that right?”
As Olga fiddled with the hilt of her sword with a serious expression, Larissa stepped forward, putting on her exploration outfit.
“I’ll talk. Mr. Alan, this is so sudden. Please explain what’s going on.”
As Alan continued to describe the scene he had seen in the catacombs, Larissa’s expression became mysterious. When he mentioned the altar, she closed her eyes completely.
The brick house was engulfed in silence. Only the screams of reptilians coming from somewhere reminded me that this was a burning city.
Larissa finally opened her eyes, her serious expression replaced by a playful smile.
“Mr. Allen desperately begged, ‘Sister, please help me~.’”
“Sister, please help me.”
“That’s too fast. I wanted to hear your embarrassed voice.”
“If he can just gain knowledge, he has no pride or anything.”
Larissa ignored Nicola and focused on Alan.
“So you came here to seek blood to open the Seal Altar?”
“you’re right.”
“You’re going to open it without knowing what might come out?”
Alan quietly watched Larissa’s magic. If the strong flow were to be replaced with emotions, it would be excitement and determination for something. Larissa glanced at him as if she had caught the hint.
“You look at me with deep eyes.”
“The junior’s eyes are covered by a visor, but what a mysterious look in his eyes···.”
Taylor dragged Zion out. Only then did Alan open his mouth.
“Do you know anything? If so, I would appreciate it if you could tell me.”
“I’ll go with you. This is also a debt, so don’t forget it.”
Larissa mumbled an answer and packed her gear. When Alan asked her again, she only smiled faintly.
Alan went back down into the catacombs and stood before the skeleton door of the secret passage. Larissa looked back and forth between Alan and the door with an expectant expression.
As Alan opened the skull door with the key, Larissa’s pupils dilated slightly.
“You even passed through the labyrinth wall like this. This place is practically inaccessible···.”
“Why is it impossible?”
“Only assassins know how to get in, and they never help outsiders.”
She was definitely hiding something.
“The information imbalance is serious.”
“Seriously? Our company has been around for over 70 years since we changed our name to Roman Company. But Mr. Allen, you’ve been an explorer for 6 years and you’ve caught up with us. I’d rather be the one complaining.”
Alan nodded slightly and moved forward. This time, he took a different path and cleared out all the blood pools there as well. Bloodstones, which had solidified the pools with [Compression] and [Evaporation], filled his pockets.
When we arrived at the room with the altar, the assassins had already gathered. The leopard, knowing the master’s impatience, ran out and cleaned up. The other explorers also joined in and finished cleaning up quickly.
Only Alan, Zion, and Larissa stayed near the altar, while the rest moved to the wall. Nicola tried to sneak up but was caught by Shiva.
Larissa asked, looking over Alan’s shoulder at the magic circle he was setting up.
“Would you really try it?”
“yes.”
“You are much bolder than I thought. You don’t even know what the sealed thing is.”
“There is a basis for this.”
“What is it?”
Alan stared at Larissa intently. She had been giving off the impression that she knew something when she explained about the altar, and it would have been foolish not to notice.
“You obviously knew something, but you just followed along.”
“What if Mr. Allen liked it?”
“You clearly distinguish between public and private life. If Ms. Larissa is still with you, then that means you can do it. Am I wrong?”
Larissa smiled and stood next to the right altar. Her white boots began to shine like the sun. She spoke to Zion, who was sitting on the left altar.
“Mr. Salmon, take out your sword and get ready.”
“I’m not doing it because you say so. I’m helping you because of your junior.”
Alan approached Larissa with the blood draw device. As soon as she reached for her earlobe,
“Ahh.”
He let out a strange noise.
Zion opened his eyes sharply.
“You, what are you talking about? You’re acting like a fox to your junior… Is it my turn already? Get ready for a moment… Ahhh.”
The person who was swearing at Larissa also made a strange sound. He said something about hating his own race, and even his actions were similar.
Alan dropped their blood on the altar. The engraved labyrinthine letters glowed, but they were very faint.
“Do I have to touch your ears again? This time, please be gentle…”
“There’s no need for that.”
Alan looked inside the altar with his eyes and broke the bloodstone that contained the energy of the blood pool. The more he absorbed the sticky magical energy, the brighter the labyrinth text became.
After breaking the three bloodstones, a change finally occurred. The energy of the two altars gathered into one in the center.
Tsuzujeok
A strange sound was heard, and a hole the size of a needle’s eye appeared in the air.
Even with Alan’s eyes, he could not see inside. The darkness inside the hole sucked in the light, and even blocked the enhancement of vision through magical powers.
░░░░!!!
Perhaps resentful of the persistent observation, the darkness let out a roar that was incomprehensible but filled with anger.
The explorers watching frowned. The waves escaping from the tiny holes were giving them headaches.
“Oh my god… What just happened?”
“If the hole was the size of a coin, many people would have stumbled.”
The needle’s eye in the air spit out a black thread. The thread split into a Y shape and headed towards Larissa and Zion. The weapon glowed even more pure white, and the two instinctively struck back at the thread that was coming towards them.
Zion froze as he brought his sword down and Larissa kicked her foot up. Time between the two of them stopped as if it was a photograph.
Alan looked at them both.
‘Breathing, pupils, ···, blood flow stopped.’
Only the glowing white weapons, active brain waves, and pulsating magical power hinted at what had happened to them.
Allen’s senses picked up on the presence of many people. The Assassin’s Cult realized something had happened and sent reinforcements.
The explorers also drew their weapons. They stood in front of the passages leading into the room, building up tension. But their preparations ended in vain.
The assassins committed suicide by turning their weapons upside down and pointing them at the explorers.
thud!
At the same time, they fell down with a thud and hit their heads on the floor. Even though dozens of people fell, the sound was heard as one.
Alan finished [the puppet show] and focused again. A small sphere of magical power appeared where the string had split into a Y shape. Black and white energy swirled around.
Alan stared at the sphere that resembled the Taegeuk symbol. As he continued to look, a tingling sensation that was difficult to describe in detail began to linger between his eyebrows.
Kyuureuk?
Even though I told him to stay away, the little boy came closer and rubbed his body against Alan’s leg.
“It’s dangerous, so stay away···.”
Alan looked back and forth between the needle and the kid. The sealed being seemed to be emitting a similar aura to the kid, as if it was a dragon.
‘Senior and Larissa are doing some kind of mental activity using the white equipment as a medium, and the kid has absorbed the energy of the cloud dragon.’
Alan looked at the little boy who was patting his palm with his head, asking to be petted. When he was touched, he closed his eyes with a comforting expression.
‘If you treat a child like a connector…’
He thought and acted at the same time. He took out the key with his right hand and filled his left hand with magical power and injected it into the boy.
Hold!
The little boy who had swallowed his fill of magic burped. Alan wrapped the magic that had traces of the cloud dragon around the key. He slowly and gently stabbed the sphere.
When I opened my eyes again, the scenery had changed completely. Instead of the gloomy room with the altar, a pitch-black space appeared. A single ball of light shone like the sun, fiercely fighting against the darkness.
Alan realized that only his mind had been transported.
‘Like the Kamaishi resurrection ceremony, only the soul… No. It is close to all things in the universe.’
The moment I realized that, my mind leaped over the dark space in one breath and approached the mass of light. When I touched the light, the surface became transparent as if a curtain was lifted, and the inside was visible.
A mountain covered in so much fog and clouds that it felt like night even during the day. A female reptilian climbed the mountain.
‘The reptilian’s movements seem familiar. Could it be that Larissa has been possessed?’
She gazed down the ominous valley. The shapes of buildings appeared in the mist.
‘It’s wide. Where is that?’
As I continued to watch, a group wearing the same clothes appeared behind the reptilian, presumed to be Larissa. They took out a scroll made of dinosaur skin.
As dozens and hundreds of magic scrolls were torn together, magic screamed. But the effect was great. A strong wind blew away the fog, and a bolt of lightning from the clear sky struck the building.
Thunder rumbled dozens of times, the building’s shield broke, and the reptilians jumped down the cliff.
Kkeeek!
A high-pitched roar rose from the strong wind. A large creature hidden in the shadows of the cliff spread its wings. A herd of pterosaurs with jet-black eyes tried to pounce on the group falling from the building.
‘I think it’ll work because everything here is similar···.’
Alan rubbed the pterosaurs with his mind, as if erasing a line with an eraser. Then, they disappeared cleanly as if they had never existed.
The reptilians who landed on the wide smokescreen spread out in all directions. Only Larissa tilted her head to the sky and went back inside.
Alan’s gaze followed the reptilian. Assassins appeared from all over the place, and the reptilian dealt with the enemy with Larissa’s technique.
‘That’s right, Ms. Larissa. The valley seems to be the headquarters of the Assassin’s Cult. Where is your senior?’
As Larissa’s identity became clear, Alan also actively stepped in. He suppressed the assassin who appeared with his mental power and erased him.
Larissa, who had been cautious at first, either sensed something or gave up, and started running around actively.
Larissa ran down the hallway, her path blocked by shadowy assassins and dinosaur-grafted monsters.
Alan took a bit of the sun from the sky. He let it float over the valley, and the area of darkness shrank drastically. Naturally, the monsters also lost their power.
‘It wasn’t supposed to be this easy.’
It would be normal to solve the ordeal by being possessed like Larissa. But now, Alan was observing the ordeal from a higher level and intervening freely. The monsters of the ordeal could do nothing but suffer.
A strong assassin did appear.
‘Horns? They look the same.’
It was a labyrinth, so it could easily be. Alan fired a volley at the horn. The hit fell through the roof and flew far away over the mountain.
Larissa followed the horn’s trajectory with her eyes, then shook her head vigorously and entered inside.