When the Pope Becomes Competent - Chapter 157



Only Noblemtl

157. Last skill unlock
2024.04.05.

The island I saw up close was not a normal island.

There was no way a normal island could be floating in the air like that.

The island was literally upside down.

The part that should have been submerged in the sea was up, and the dense forest part of the island was down. It

was floating in the air like that.

Since it looked unnatural to anyone, we stopped the ship for a moment.

“Is that the ‘labyrinth’ that Julian created on the island?”

Dionik nodded after hearing me.

“I think that’s right? However, it’s not like he created a labyrinth on the island… It seems like he made the island itself into a labyrinth.”

Following Dionik, Elodie spoke.

“He used his spatial distortion ability to warp all the spaces on the island. If you enter, you might never be able to come out again.”

Elodie was right.

The island seemed to have such severe spatial distortion that it felt bizarre even from the outside.

It probably wouldn’t be easy to find the exit once you entered there.

But―

“Still, we have to go. We have to go and kill Julian who is hiding inside and complete the oracle.”

As I said that, I looked back at my companions.

“If you want to stay, stay here. This is your last chance.”

As expected, my companions were quiet this time as well.

After confirming their intentions, I nodded and opened the oracle window.

I wanted to complete the surprise sub-oracle first before entering the labyrinth.

The moment I safely retrieved the mermaid breeding rock, the oracle was already complete, so all I had to do was press the complete button.

[Surprise sub-oracle – Recover the mermaid breeding rock! (Complete)]

*If you complete this sub-oracle 100%, one of the user’s locked skills will be unlocked.

*Skill to be unlocked: “Hand of Salvation (A)”

I pressed the complete button with a familiar hand.

Then, a familiar message appeared.

[Surprise sub-oracle completed! Would you like to receive the reward?]

―Yes

―No

I pressed the Yes button without hesitation and the reward was immediately paid out.

The reward was the unlocking of the new skill 「Hand of Salvation」 as stated in the oracle.

And… … .

[I obtained the 「Labyrinth Map」 as a surprise sub-oracle completion reward!]

The Labyrinth Map. I was able to obtain it as a surprise sub-oracle reward.

Since it was just what I needed, I… I briefly gave thanks to Lucid Miller for creating this system.

After that, I put the map safely in my pocket and spoke to the group.

“I just obtained a new skill and the Labyrinth Map as a reward for completing the oracle. Now that we’re almost ready, let’s go to the island.”

Cheong-gwang suddenly said after hearing me.

“But how do we get to that island? It’s floating in the air and it’s upside down… … .”

“Well. Let’s get close to the island first. If Julian created that labyrinth to trap us, it’ll be really easy to get in. “It’s because it’s hard to get out.”

After that, I moved the boat toward the island. Then—

woooooooo—

the air vibrated strangely, and space distorted and cracks appeared in the air.

We parked the boat nearby and flew together into the crack.

When I came to, I was already in an unfamiliar place.

Soon, a system message appeared, telling me where it was.

[You have entered the first labyrinth, “Confusing Ant Nest.”]

My eyes squinted when I saw the system message that appeared.

The ‘first’ labyrinth? Could it

be that Julian had created multiple labyrinths on the island?

If so, it would take a long time to find them.

I then unfolded the map I had received as a surprise sub-trust reward earlier.

A complexly shaped ant nest was drawn on the map.

Also, our location and the exit were marked with red dots, but the exit was quite far away.

‘To get out of this first labyrinth, do I just have to go to the place marked as the exit? After that, we have to keep going through the second and third mazes until we find Julian?’

My head started to hurt because it seemed like it would take longer than I thought, but anyway, what we had to do now was clear.

I told the group,

“Let’s move towards the exit. We have to get out of this ant hole safely through the exit, and then go to the second mazes.”

After saying that, I showed the map to the group.

Rubin, who was looking at the map while squeezing between the group, suddenly pointed to a spot on it.

“There’s a queen ant room in front of the exit. It looks like we have to go through the queen ant room to get to the exit.”

Dionik followed Rubin’s lead.

“There’s also a place nearby that says soldier ant room. For now, it would be better to avoid this place. I’m not sure, but if this is a labyrinth created by the enemy, it wouldn’t be a place where small ants live together.”

Dionik was right.

Just because this labyrinth was called ‘Ant Cave’, you shouldn’t think there would be real small ants there.

There could be thousands of damned strong ant monsters swarming around.

I activated my Deification skill and gestured to the group.

“Let’s go.”

After that, we started to walk slowly through the ant cave.

As expected of an ant hole, it was dark there, but fortunately, I summoned the Sword of Judgement and used it as a flashlight, so I could walk.

I moved toward the exit while looking at the map with the bright sword.

‘First of all, it would be best to avoid places where soldier ants are likely to be. There’s a food storage nearby, so it would be best to go through there.’

Fortunately, the map was quite detailed, so if we knew where we were, we wouldn’t get lost.

I led the group to the right path at the fork in the road as indicated on the map.

As we continued on, we came to a large room, which according to the map was supposed to be a food storage.

Up to that point, it was no different from what I had expected.

However, what I hadn’t expected was that there wasn’t just food in the food storage.

“Three ant monsters at 11 o’clock!”

After hearing what I shouted, Luciana immediately used her North Wind skill to cut up one ant in the garden.

Then, Cheonggwang blasted his sword energy and killed two other ants.

After killing the monster, we took a good look at the monster’s torn body.

“As expected, there was an ant-shaped monster. It’s quite large.”

Rubin asked me with a worried tone.

“How many more of these are there in the hole?”

“Considering the habit of ants living in groups… There must be hundreds more?”

“… … .”

Luciana muttered in a serious voice after hearing our conversation.

“I think it would be best to move as quickly as possible.”

I nodded and tried to get up from my seat.

There was no way to know when other worker ants would barge in.

That’s when it happened.

Clang!

An ant hiding in a corner jumped out and sprayed something on me. I

quickly wiped it off with my sleeve, thinking it was poison, but fortunately it wasn’t.

It wasn’t a strong acidic liquid, just a stream of clear water. I couldn’t just

leave the monster alone, even though I didn’t know what it was, so I swung my sword and cut it down.

Dionysius shouted as he watched me covered in liquid.

“Brother, what did you get hit with?!”

“I don’t know either. Was it spit…? It didn’t hurt or anything.”

“Well, that’s fortunate… but I’m a bit uneasy. There’s no way a monster would just spray something so random.”

“It’ll be fine if we wipe it well.”

I wiped the liquid off my chest with my sleeve and told the group.

“Let’s keep moving. It’s still a long way to the exit.”

Up until this point, I hadn’t taken the water sprayed by the ants seriously. It

was just a colorless, odorless liquid.

It wasn’t until we walked through the ant hole for another 5 minutes that I realized how serious it was.

“Ants at 1 o’clock!”

“There are 3 more ants behind you!”

When Dionik and I shouted in succession, the group split into two groups and killed the ants.

Luciana and I killed 5 ants in the 1 o’clock direction, and Dionik and Elodie, who were standing at the back, killed the remaining 3.

Fortunately, we didn’t get surrounded by ants because we met at a narrow alley.

However, something was a little strange.

“Why don’t the ants seem to be gathering in this direction?”

The group nodded in unison after hearing me.

Even though we had already killed 9 ants on the way here, ants had been flocking to this direction since a while ago.

Feeling something was wrong, I led the group and hurried our pace.

However―

“Nike!! There are eleven ants up ahead!!”

“Hyung, there are twenty ants behind you… …!”

The ants kept increasing in number as we went.

It was easy to take care of one ant, but it was becoming more and more difficult when there were many.

The group seemed to be getting tired and their movements were becoming slower.

‘Could it be…?’

I sniffed the hem of my clothes that had been sprayed with ant liquid earlier.

There was still no smell, but something felt strange.

Rubin happened to come up to me and said,

“Nike, the liquid you got splashed with earlier… didn’t that liquid contain pheromones that attract ants?”

“Pheromones?”

“It’s a substance that ants use to communicate. The ant you encountered earlier might have sprayed pheromones because it judged you to be an intruder. These ants that are gathering now—”

Rubin continued, dodging the attack of one ant that was rushing toward me.

“These ants must have smelled the pheromones coming from you and are gathering.”

I had heard that ants used pheromones to communicate.

Right now, I couldn’t smell anything, but the ants might have smelled an intruder on me.

‘Damn, what should I do?’

I was wondering at that moment. Dionic shouted.

“New ants! But they’re bigger than before!”

After hearing that shout, I looked at the newly appeared ants.

Dionic’s words were true.

Five giant ants, each of which was bigger than the ones I had defeated so far, were approaching me.

I immediately opened the information window for the new ants.

[Ant Nest Guarding Soldier Ant (A)]

[Possessed Skill]

– Bite (A)

– Hydrochloric Acid Attack (S)

– Charge (L)

– Cluster (L)

It seemed like a monster that knew how to use attack skills.

Hydrochloric Acid Attack? As soon as I read that, I took out my Nerebloka shield and formed a defensive barrier.

As soon as I did, five soldier ants rushed in at the same time and started ramming their bodies against the defensive barrier.

Kieeeek!

Beyond the translucent shield, I could see the giant ants

howling and making strange noises. Their sharp pincer beaks began to scratch the shield, making a crackling sound. I

was helplessly surrounded .

I quickly thought about how to protect the group inside the shield.

Then, a brilliant idea suddenly came to mind.

Before putting it into action, I asked Rubin.

“Rubin, so they are doing this because they smelled the intruder pheromone on me?”