'A space with walls blocking all four sides.'
Or, a place no one can ever confirm.
I mean a place you can only reach if you satisfy special conditions.
All labyrinths are connected, but there were spots where the space was uniquely walled in on all sides.
Why would they make those empty spaces?
This labyrinth was laid out for extreme efficiency. The pathways were crafted to an absurd degree of perfection.
And yet, every now and then, you'd find an empty space boxed in on all four sides.
If there's nothing inside, why make a space like that?
Crossing over the walls is impossible.
But you can pierce through them.
'Labyrinth Ticket.'
At first, I thought it was a ticket made for you to use when you got lost or needed to run away.
But what if this ticket is actually the way to find a "path"?
What if there's something inside those empty spaces?
"You have used a Labyrinth Ticket."
"For 30 seconds, walls can be pierced."
In that moment, a fairly large hole opened in the wall.
A space the hands of the wraiths could not invade.
I slipped through the wall without hesitation, and—
'Bingo.'
I found the path.
***
Stairs leading downward.
I followed those stairs down for quite some time, and another labyrinth appeared.
"You are the first among existing entrants to set foot in the underground labyrinth."
"You have obtained the achievement 'The First Challenger to Discover the Underground Labyrinth.'"
"Honor increases by 50."
"'Abyss Knight' greets the first entrant."
A knight, shrouded in black abyss, stood before my eyes.
[Lv.10]
Level 10.
But not an ordinary level 10.
The displayed level was orange.
An elite raid boss.
A monster that required at least nine level-10 characters to join forces to hunt, was welcoming us the moment we descended into the underground labyrinth.
'That emblem?'
On the armor the Abyss Knight wore, the empire's symbol, the 'Golden Pentagram,' faintly remained.
On a hunch, I took out the golden plaque I'd received from the Silver Fox Mask.
The moment the Abyss Knight saw it—
—Cursed, empire, you—!
·····it began to grow even more enraged.
***
The enraged Abyss Knight was pure ruin.
It was like a berserker.
In an instant, it broke through the solid defenses Isaac and Isabella had set up.
Then it came charging at me like a mad beast.
Anyone who saw it would have lost their minds.
Slaaash.
I drew the bowstring back as calmly as I could.
Because it had gone mad at the sight of the golden plaque, the Abyss Knight had lost its reason.
It was focused solely on killing me, the owner of the plaque, completely neglecting its defense.
In that case—
Whoosh!
Thud!
The moment the arrow struck, the Abyss Knight flinched.
Terror of Shatiros.
The absolute "fear" inflicted the instant it hits would have to work, even on a monster of the abyss.
It loses its sight, and a random stat is reduced by a whopping 10.
'It got slower.'
It felt like its agility had dropped.
Showing it the golden plaque and exciting it had actually turned into a benefit.
Whoosh!
I quickly nocked and loosed another arrow, but the Abyss Knight dodged.
Realizing that being hit by the arrows was dangerous, it dodged on sheer instinct.
The curse that stole its vision didn't seem to be having a huge effect on the Abyss Knight.
However, the fact that its agility had dropped by 10 was huge.
I quickly pulled a mirror from my coat.
A mirror that adds a random action condition to a challenger.
I had to use everything I could.
They had said the Mirror of Additional Conditions could only be used on challengers who had entered the Abyss Labyrinth, but it worked on the Abyss Knight as well.
'The imperial seal. So it was a challenger.'
The Abyss Knight, too, had once been a challenger who came here.
I had inferred it from the faint Golden Pentagram remaining on the armor, but I hadn't been certain.
Now it was clear: it was a knight who had challenged this place, failed, and sunk into the abyss.
—Annoying, tricks······!
This was enough.
Stat reduction, loss of sight, and now an action condition on top of that.
If the opponent is strong, dragging them down to my level is also an excellent strategy.
Srrrng.
Facing the charging Abyss Knight head-on, I drew two Extreme Iron Swords.
***
"You have eliminated 'Abyss Knight.'"
"You have obtained 20h of Fragment of the Broken Golden Rule."
"You have obtained 50 labyrinth points."
"Through the 'King of the Dead' skill, you have successfully dominated 'Abyss Knight.'"
"You have dominated 'Abyss Knight,' Strength permanently increases by 2."
Eliminating the Abyss Knight granted a score equal to two and a half times the fragments obtained.
On top of that, I could treat the Abyss Knight as one of the dead and dominate it.
However, the knight's body had sunk into the abyss and vanished.
Only the soul of the Abyss Knight, faintly floating like a wandering spirit, was left, pointing the way with its finger.
'Looks like I've got a guide.'
But where was it guiding me?
Now that I had successfully dominated it, it couldn't do anything that would harm me.
I kept walking along the path the Abyss Knight's soul pointed toward.
After walking for quite a while like that—
"You have discovered 'Golden Goblin.'"
Kikik?
I locked eyes with a golden goblin wearing a golden crown and carrying a bundle on its back.
Jackpot!
Golden Goblin.
Also called Treasure Goblin, the walking treasure vault.
This goblin, which occasionally appears in the abyss, is known to inhabit only the most "prime land" among the lands sunk into the abyss.
Goblins are a race that, by nature, feel intense greed toward shining treasures.
When that greed deepens within the abyss and their entire body takes on a golden hue, they start scouring and collecting all manner of treasures that have sunk there.
In other words, this Abyss Labyrinth is "prime land" to the degree that a Golden Goblin can spawn here.
Swaaash!
The moment our eyes met, my hand was already on the bowstring.
'I will get it.'
It was almost instinct.
Kikik!
The Golden Goblin panicked and opened a warp.
To sweep up treasures, the Golden Goblin can move through the abyss.
It was incredibly fast, and with its constant warping, it was a very troublesome creature to catch.
However—
Kyahaha!
Hel's entire body glowed red.
Even the warp of the Golden Goblin was denied.
Kikikik!!
When its body couldn't pass through the warp, the Golden Goblin panicked.
Thud!
In that brief instant, an arrow pierced its brow.
The Golden Goblin, its head stuck against the wall where the warp had opened, trembled and then went limp.
Soon, the hands of the abyss dragged away the Golden Goblin's corpse.
"You have eliminated Golden Goblin."
"By eliminating an event monster, you have obtained 30 labyrinth points."
The labyrinth points were a nice bonus.
So that's what they meant at the very beginning by "You can obtain or use points through various events."
It meant you could also gain points by hunting event-type monsters.
All that was left now was the crown and the bundle.
'So it can help like this too.'
I looked at Hel.
This guy was more useful than I thought.
If I hadn't survived the Silver Fox Mask and received the golden plaque from him, I wouldn't have been able to excite the Abyss Knight and land that arrow.
Not only that.
It had even blocked the Golden Goblin's warp.
If I'd been alone, I probably would have let that Golden Goblin slip away, with its outstanding survivability.
Kyahaha!
"I'll give you twice as much food today."
Kyahahaha!
Hel whirled around above my head.
I guess feeding it 30 honor every day still wasn't enough.
I slowly retrieved the crown and the bundle.
[Crown of the Golden Goblin]
– A crown personally crafted in gold by the Golden Goblin.
– Made of pure gold, it has high value.
Depending on current prices, the crown alone was worth roughly two hundred thousand gold.
That alone was considerable, but that wasn't the real treasure.
The bundle.
Every treasure the Golden Goblin had spent its entire life gathering while roaming the abyss was inside this.
[Bundle of the Golden Goblin]
– Old Empire coinage: 1,873,100 gold
– Old Empire golden eagle statues: 5
– Old Empire golden swords: 2
After checking the contents, I gave a small nod.
"Th-that's, incredible."
Realizing the value of the treasure, Isaac stammered.
'Heh.'
This was a big catch.
Old Empire coins are generally treated as having double the value.
By killing just one, I had effectively gained about four million gold.
'Each Golden Goblin has its own preferred kind of loot.'
The limited variety was because each goblin has a specific type of treasure it mainly collects.
The Golden Goblin we'd just killed had collected only gold and golden statues.
And everything was stamped with the name of the Old Empire.
'This Abyss Labyrinth used to be land of the Old Empire.'
It finally felt like the pieces of the puzzle were starting to fit.
The Silver Fox Mask, who called it a mission and tried to kill the Sword of Stars Riley.
The Abyss Knight, who reacted with disgust at the golden plaque.
The Sword of Stars Riley was not only a promising swordmaster of Pangaenia, but also a hero of the Old Empire.
If this labyrinth had once been land of the Old Empire, their connection became even clearer.
Land that had held the most gold and treasure in abundance, the Old Empire's territory······.
'There could be more Golden Goblins.'
The realization jolted me awake.
There might be more than I thought.
However, Golden Goblins were always beings that summoned bloodshed.
'Whenever a single Golden Goblin was caught, what followed was pandemonium.'
Because Golden Goblins can only be hunted through abyss exploration.
Unless someone with overwhelming leadership brought a massive force of soldiers inside to hunt the "Abyss Ruler," the Golden Goblin was always a target of strife.
'So most abyss raids fail because of infighting.'
Gamers pretending to be soldiers, treasure hunters trying to make a big score, countless leeches trying to stick a straw in somehow.
Once deserters and internal disputes break out because of them, abyss raids almost always fail and end in total party wipes.
That tendency was especially severe in lands where Golden Goblins appear.
So the moment this fact leaks out, chaos is guaranteed.
Golden Goblins appear in the labyrinth!
The Abyss Labyrinth is former land of the Old Empire!
The moment even a small rumor slips out—
'······It's horrifying just imagining it.'
The instant the rumor spreads outside the labyrinth, an enormous amount of manpower will be poured into this labyrinth.
Because the warp leading to the Abyss Labyrinth is connected to all other warps.
As long as you have Fragment of the Broken Golden Rule, there's practically no entry restriction.
'Do Golden Goblins only appear in the underground labyrinth?'
There was no way to know whether Golden Goblins also appeared in the upper floors.
But if Golden Goblins only spawned in the underground labyrinth, this could be an opportunity.
A chance to monopolize as much as possible!
The problem was that finding Golden Goblins was anything but easy.
"Successor. The spirit is pointing somewhere else. Don't tell me this is······."
"That 'don't tell me' is correct."
Just as Isaac said, the Abyss Knight suddenly started pointing in another direction.
Most likely, to the place where another Golden Goblin was.
A smile naturally tugged at my lips.
'This is insane.'
And not just a little insane.
This was, quite literally, a crazy jackpot.
***
If the "Interdimensional Community," where ordinary people and Dimension Warriors gather to chat, was wildly popular, then the opposite, "Player Talk," a site that gathered only Dimension Warriors, was just as popular among them.
You could join by entering the correct answer to a question that only people who had played Pangaenia could solve, and it was a dark-web site where they anonymously shared bits of information.
Membership: three thousand.
Among players, it was known as the biggest community, and right now, the place was buzzing with talk of the labyrinth.
—Is this labyrinth actually meant to be cleared?
—How many hours of Fragment of the Broken Golden Rule do we even need?
—There's some crazy bitch wandering around in here who looks just like Saintess Seah. Watch out.
—Watch out for the Silver Fox Mask too. Everyone died, only I survived.
—Logged out and, yeah, my location really did reset. Freaking hell.
—Why are there so many barbarians in here? Who hired them all?
—Is it for real that the Seven Heroes are monopolizing all the labyrinth merchants?
The main topic was complaints about the labyrinth.
Because it was a place where there seemed to be no end in sight.
The time of the Broken Golden Rule they had was severely lacking, yet for all they had spent, there was little to show for it.
It was dangerous, and even the labyrinth merchants were being monopolized by the Seven Heroes.
—Wow, these bastards are really going too far.
—Guess they don't need to do image-making in Pangaenia lol
—Phantom-nim! No, Randolph-nim! Please, once again, properly discipline those fake heroes!
Most of them were players with grudges against the Seven Heroes.
But there was nowhere they could speak freely except here, in "Player Talk."
Because only here, in "Player Talk," could they avoid the tracking of powerful speakers like the Master.
The owner of Player Talk was of unknown identity.
It was famous for never exposing the players' identities to the outside.
The logs were periodically deleted, the servers relocated, and it had been running for three years now.