Moon's Labyrinth

The only place, which wasn’t protected by its fur, was its wrinkly face. The mace landed squarely on its face.

He felt a heavy sensation run up his hands. He felt something break, and it was an exhilarating feeling. He felt the sensation through the mace.

The Bigfoot let out an odd scream. It was indescribable. Blood exploded forth from the folds of its wrinkles. In order to defend against the spear, it had raised its arm up high. The other arm was propping its body up. It lost control of its arm as it buckled under the attack.

The Bigfoot looked like it had suffered a critical wound, but Sungyoon didn’t put his guard down. He once again swung the mace towards its face.

Kwah-jeek!

He heard the sound of something bursting open. The Bigfoot’s face cratered inward. The lips, which had been sneering at Sungyoon, were smashed inwards. It looked like it was crying. Its nose was completely crushed, and it looked as if its nose had disappeared without a trace. Its terrifyingly sharp teeth were shattered. Its left eye had barely avoided bursting open, but it had come out of its socket. It hung in the air.

Boom!

Its enormous body fell to the floor. Sungyoon was ready to swing his bloody mace at any moment. He quietly glared at the enormous body.

However, the Bigfoot never moved again.

Hoo-ooooohng!

Light engulfed the Bigfoot’s corpse. Sungyoon was finally able to relax when he saw this. He hadn’t been able to wipe his face in the tense battle. He wiped the blood that had been splattered all over his face.

“I wonder why its blood won’t disappear alongside its dead body.’

He grumbled inwardly as he approached the location where the Bigfoot's corpse used to be.

The Bigfoot had tormented Sungyoon, Tim and Emily, yet the only thing left behind was a palm sized moonstone and a bracelet.

‘It left behind a moonstone and a Device.’

Sungyoon picked up the bracelet, and he became surprised. 

It was twice as large in terms of surface area compared to Sungyoon’s bracelet. Surprisingly, there were ten slots etched into the bracelet. Moreover, one of the slots was clearly letting out a green light.

‘It is a Device that can slot a Green Gem.’

That wasn’t all. There were two slots for Blue Gems and an additional two that could slot Indigo Gems. The rest were slots for Purple Gems.

It was a much better Device than the one Sungyoon currently possessed.

Sungoon picked up the moonstone and the Device, and he headed towards Tim and Emily. Fortunately, Emily wasn’t late in healing him. Tim was sitting on the floor as he held his torso upright. He looked fine on the outside. However, Emily remained next to Tim with worry in her eyes. She continued to tend to him.

Tim abruptly tried to get to his feet when he sensed Sungyoon’s approach. However, he immediately clutched at his chest. It was where he had been hit.

“Ah. You shouldn’t move yet!”

Emily tried to stop him, but Tim paid no attention to her advice. He stood up.

“Thank you.”

He gave a short thanks, but his emotions were worn on his sleeve. Emily, who was worried about Tim, also expressed her thanks towards Sungyoon.

“Thank you very much.”

Sungyoon nodded once.

“Are your wounds doing ok?”

“Ha ha. It is bearable.”

His face was scrunched up, but he spoke in a cheerful manner. It seemed he had an affable personality.

“It seems you are still in a considerable amount of pain.”

“I did suffer a pretty serious injury. Broken bones were the least of my problems. It was bad enough that I couldn’t recover fully even with the help of her healing magic.”

Emily lowered her head. She felt as if this was all her fault. Tim patted her on the back.

“You shouldn’t feel any guilt. You did nothing wrong. I let my guard down. It was my fault for charging forward like that.”

He had become excited when he realized he could kill this troublesome monster. At the very least, he should have paused long enough to check if the monster wasn’t incapable of putting up a resistance.

In hindsight, he was lucky to be alive. If he hadn’t worn his armor and if Emily wasn’t here, he would have met his end. His crumpled armor had already been unsummoned. The armor was dented so much that it had interfered with treatment of his wounds.

Sungyoon waited for both of them to stop talking. When Emily calmed down, he brought up the next order of business.

“I would like to settle the account now.”

Sungyoon knew he looked a bit tactless, but he didn’t care. It wasn’t as if he would become friends with them. He put his life on the line to join the battle for only one reason.

“Before we do that, please take this.”

Sungyoon took off the glove type Device, and he handed it over to her. Thanks to overclocking the Device, the two Purple Gem had turned completely gray. It would probably take a couple days for the two Gems to regain their normal color.

“I didn’t expect you to give it up so easily. I thought you would get greedy.”

If Sungyoon had wanted to, he could have taken both Blue Gems and the Device. Tim and Emily were powerless to stop him right now, so they were prepared for that scenario. This was why Tim became a bit surprised. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that Sungyoon had saved both their lives. It wouldn’t have been unreasonable if Sungyoon asked for all three items.

However, Sungyoon spoke in a cold manner.

“I’ll only take a Blue Gem. Full stop. That was the contract.”

When making the deal, Emily hadn’t specified the quantity. Sungyoon was within his rights to ask for both Blue Gems. However, the Device wasn’t part of the contract.

“You are an honest person.”

“I’m just a stickler for words.”

That’s right. He was a stickler for how the contract was worded. He wasn’t honest, and he wasn’t kind. Those words shouldn’t be associated with him.

Tim looked a bit baffled when Sungyoon used a negative term like ‘stickler’ to describe himself. However, it was none of his business, so he let it go.

‘So, what should I give him?’

Tim thought for a moment as he reached for his Device.

“Please pick one.”

Emily, who had received her glove from Sungyoon, pushed it towards him.

“Hey, Emily!”

She had been about to hand over her Gem, but Tim quickly grabbed her hand.

“I’ll give him mine. You should put that away.”

However, Emily shook her head from side to side.

“I’m the one that made the deal with this person. Also, you always use all the Gems in your possession. I carry these as a backup. If we have to give him a Gem, I would prefer we give him mine.”

Emily added another argument at the end.

“Anyways, I can’t really use them well even if I have them.”

A deep feeling of helplessness had taken root in her voice. Even if she kept these items, she wouldn’t be able to do much with them.

However, Sungyoon didn’t care that Emily felt ineffectual. He kept his attention on the Blue Gems that she had thrust towards him.

‘I really should take this one.’

Sungyoon pointed towards the right Gem.

“I’ll take the shield.”

His shield had been destroyed, so he needed a new one. Moreover, he had been feeling the limitation of his previous shield. It had become damaged by attacks from the 3rd floor Slash Cats. His spear was still somewhat effective on the third floor. He had to upgrade his shield more so than his spear. In many ways, the choice was a no brainer.

After receiving the Blue Gem from Emily, Sungyoon was a bit moved as he looked at it. He had finally acquired a Blue Gem. Currently, the Blue Gem had lost all its luster, and it had turned into a gray color. Still, the fact remained that this was a Blue Gem. He finally checked one of the requirements needed to earn a Personal labyrinth.

However, Sungyoon pushed down on his excitement. There was still business to be done.

“These are the loot that dropped from the Bigfoot.”

Sungyoon placed the Device and moonstone on the floor, so the both of them could get a good look at it.

“How will we distribute it?”

Tim and Emily looked at each other, and they nodded their heads.

“You can keep it all.”

“… Are you sure about that?”

“It’s fine.”

In no uncertain terms, Sungyoon had contributed the most in this battle. Even if he had already been paid for his help, he had fought a powerful opponent, and he had applied the killing blow. Tim and Emily had no qualms about giving all the loot to him.

“I won’t say no.”

Sungyoon quickly put away the loot. The virtue of modesty can only be present in those that can afford it, and Sungyoon couldn’t afford to show it.

“May you guard us instead?”

Tim spoke.

“You want me to be your bodyguard?”

“Yes. As you can see, my body is in a rough state. Moreover, all of my Gems were overclocked, so they are sealed right now.”

Sungyoon mulled over it. First, he assessed his current situation. The shield, which he had been using, was destroyed. His newly acquired shield was unusable for the near future. Fortunately, he hadn’t overclocked his spear for long, so he could still use it right now.

He felt uneasy about his current state of equipment, but he unexpectedly looked on the bright side.

‘The monsters on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd floor should cause no trouble to me.’

A monster like the Bigfoot was an anomaly. It would be odd to find another one in this labyrinth. Moreover, there was another reason why he felt optimistic.

“Are you able to use more support magic?”

“Yes. Yes! I am able to cast it. I can also cast my healing magic.”

Emily became surprised at the sudden question, but she immediately gave an affirmation.

‘If that is true...’

He could keep these two safe without much problem. This might be preferable compared to exiting this place by himself.

Despite these thoughts, Sungyoon was firm in making his position known to these two. He hammered it home.

“If another monster like the Bigfoot appears again, I’m running away no matter what.”

“If that happens, our lives will be forfeit anyways.”

Tim shrugged his shoulders. If they ran across another monster of that caliber, he would just assume that god was out to get them. If that happened, he would give up his life, so his sister could run away. Of course, he would go down cursing the so-called god.

“Alright. Shall we go now?”

“Excuse me. Shouldn’t we let Tim rest a little bit...”

“I’m fine, Emily.”

Tim shook his head from side to side.

“Most of my wounds are healed thanks to your magic. It is painful, but I am able to walk. Moreover, we are still in a dangerous location. Even if it is painful, we have to get out of here. That’s the priority.”

He spoke towards Sungyoon.

“Let’s go.”

Sungyoon nodded as he summoned his spear.

Tim and Emily looked surprised as they looked at Sungyoon.

‘As expected, I wasn’t mistaken.’

Tim watched Sungyoon summon his spear with barely a delay. It made him think.

There had been a chance that he had been mistaken, because he had been in pain from his wounds. However, he hadn’t been mistaken. Sungyoon could summon his weapons with surprising speed. When he struck the final blow against the Bigfoot, he had unsummoned his spear and instantly re-summoned the mace. Tim couldn’t replicate such a feat. He didn’t know anyone that could pull off this trick. Even the high ranked Connectors probably couldn’t do that.

The fact that Sungyoon had summoned a weapon in an instant meant that he could quickly activate the Gem. If Sungyoon used a Gem capable of casting magic, there would be no delay in casting the spells. He could fire them indiscriminately.

‘This person might become someone amazing in the future.’

Tim quietly watched the back of Sungyoon, who had entered the tunnel first.

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