Chapter 42 : Chapter 42

Chapter 42: Sand Hell (5)

I descended slowly toward the maze, climbing down the ladder.

Unlike the desert above, the basement was damp.

It was an irrigation facility of the desert, long abandoned after years of use.

I ran my finger along the wall.

A faint trace of mana lingered alongside the moisture.

[Yer Atelier]

I picked up a sign that had fallen to the floor.

Despite the passage of time, the sign, treated with magic, gleamed cleanly.

‘…Did Adjak drop this too?’

If only the Tune had returned to a conquered maze, things might resolve quite simply.

That was just my wishful thinking, though, and I steeled myself to check the maze’s condition.

Unlike other mazes where the timing or cause of their emergence was hard to pinpoint, I knew exactly when and why this one had formed.

The black mage Yer’s magical workshop, ‘Atelier.’

Originally, it was a workshop Yer had set up for researching spirits, but after he was possessed by the powerful Illusion Inferno, the workshop itself turned into a maze.

In the past, Adjak had defeated Yer, who was controlled by Illusion Inferno, and conquered the maze once.

Since the boss, the core of the maze, was dead, an unrestored maze should be easy to clear.

With that expectation, I stepped into the ancient black mage’s fortress.

A narrow, dark corridor stretched ahead where the sign had fallen.

I flipped the sign over for no particular reason.

— Turn back if you value your life.

I ignored the faded warning carved on the back.

As I was about to enter the narrow corridor, a strange sensation hit me.

It wasn’t mana.

My heart was sending me a warning.

Heeding it, I hurled the sign into the corridor with all my strength.

Crash!

From the walls of the narrow corridor, spears, swords, arrows, and all sorts of cold weapons sprang out.

The sign was nowhere to be seen—perhaps obliterated by the onslaught.

‘…Of course, it wouldn’t be that easy.’

The maze Adjak had conquered had clearly been restored to its original state.

Back then, he had defeated the black mage and destroyed the maze’s traps, but now I stared at the corridor where the traps had activated.

What a ghostly mess… or was it truly the work of a ghost?

One possibility crossed my mind.

My racing heart soon calmed, and I cautiously stepped into the corridor.

Though the maze had been restored, its patterns hadn’t changed.

Arrows shooting from walls, traps imbued with magic, and hidden beasts lurking in unseen corners.

Relying on my memories from the game, I pressed forward steadily and I became certain of my suspicion.

‘The restoration of the maze involved a spirit. The Illusion Inferno that possessed the black mage is still alive.’

For now, I kept moving.

Even when I reached a fork in the path, it was no issue.

‘Left, right, left, left, second path.’

Progress was smooth.

Before I knew it, I stood at the end of the maze, facing the boss room.

If my guess was correct, the boss was Illusion Inferno—a formless entity spewing blue flames, tricky but familiar in its patterns.

Even Adjak had struggled against it back then.

The Atelier had turned into a maze because of the ancient power of Illusion Inferno.

Adjak had only managed to defeat the black mage, not the Inferno itself.

The reason was simple: Adjak lacked the power to slay spirits back then.

Illusion Inferno was immune to physical attacks, making it impossible to kill.

At best, Adjak had used his other mysteries to bind it.

I could use a similar method, but there was no need to fight.

I clearly remembered a ‘trick’ I had discovered while struggling to find the Tune with Adjak.

‘I planned to try it with another character, but to think I’d use it after being dragged into the game itself.’

The boss room was a vast space formed when the black mage Yer’s workshop became a maze.

It was large enough to contain the immense power of Illusion Inferno.

What set this place apart from typical dungeons was that, despite the maze transformation, the laboratory Yer used before being possessed remained intact and the Tune I sought was in that laboratory.

Though the laboratory was inside the boss room, there was a secret passage leading to it from outside.

I placed my sword against the ceiling to the left of the door leading to the boss room. [Severance] activated.

Crack.

Rubble fell.

I hadn’t cut much of the ceiling, yet the secret passage was revealed.

I leaped toward it, hooked my fingers onto the edge, and pulled myself up.

Crawling through the narrow, vent-like passage, I moved forward. It was dark, but with only one path, there was no issue.

Thud. I reached the end of the passage. A stone slab, like the one at the Atelier’s entrance, came into view. This time, I didn’t touch it. Instead, I smashed and tore apart the surrounding wall.

…Finally, I entered the black mage’s laboratory.

It was exactly as Adjak had left it, rummaged through for anything valuable.

Illusion Inferno, uninterested in the laboratory or Yer’s ambitions, hadn’t restored this place.

I ignored the door connected to the boss room and the magical formulas covering the walls.

I wasn’t interested in Yer’s lifelong, failed ambition.

What I sought was a byproduct he had created by chance.

A shriveled dragon corpse.

A dragon that hadn’t even hatched, subjected to countless experiments by the black mage before dying.

I carefully lifted the egg and released my mana, enveloping the dragon.

It looked like a baby wrapped in cloth.

As my mana fully surrounded it, a radiant green light burst forth. I could feel it—a new power had settled into my soul.

[Tune, ‘Fear Lv.1’ acquired.]

[You can instill the ‘Fear’ status effect on a target.]

As a half-human, half-dragon, Adjak couldn’t use Fear, one of the dragon’s innate traits.

Instead, I had acquired the very Tune he had favored.

There was so much I could do with this…

As my thoughts continued, something unusual happened.

Rumble!

The boss room trembled, and the laboratory door flung open.

Only a fierce wind poured out, with nothing visible.

But just because nothing was seen didn’t mean nothing was there.

What stood there was likely a spirit that had grown stronger over 300 years.

Quickly assessing the situation and my next steps, I shouted into the void.

“Be afraid.”

[Fear] activated.

Only then did the form of Illusion Inferno, wreathed in blue flames, appear.

Despite its imposing presence, it couldn’t even look at me properly. [Fear] had taken full effect.

Illusion Inferno tried to overcome its fear, intensifying the blue flames around it, but nothing changed.

To say it felt fear was a bit inaccurate—it was a spirit without a face, after all.

Yet, I could read its gaze and expression.

Beasts and spirits in this world were no longer mere data.

Step, step.

I advanced slowly.

Channeling mana from the pulsing Dragon Heart into my sword, I slashed diagonally.

[Severance] activated.

Though spirits were hard to cut with physical force, [Severance] infused with dragon mana ignored that limitation.

Shrieeek!

A wail echoed through the laboratory.

Neither Illusion Inferno’s blue flames nor its varied attack patterns or phase shifts appeared.

Consumed by [Fear], it could only watch as death approached.

‘What an effect…’

It was especially effective against a spirit.

It may have mentally tormented intruders, but it had likely never been attacked like this.

As a result, I easily defeated Illusion Inferno, which Adjak had only managed to seal.

And then, something astonishing happened.

[You have defeated Illusion Inferno, a being two ranks higher, in a single blow.]

“A Tune…?”

Something new was etched into my soul.

[Tune, ‘Flame of the Spirit Lv.1’ acquired.]

[You can emit ‘Flame of the Spirit,’ a combination of fire and dark-spirit attributes.]

Information about the Tune flooded in instantly.

It was a condition I had never obtained or even heard of—no one in the community had shared such information.

Clenching my fists, I savored the joy.

The thrill of discovering a hidden piece was etched into my soul even before I came to this world.

The conditions for acquiring mysteries in this world were indeed complex.

Even clearing the same maze could yield different Tunes depending on how it was done.

For instance, Adjak and I had obtained [Fear] by infusing dragon mana from the Dragon Heart into the dragon corpse.

A black mage might have used a different method, yielding a Tune like [Necro Dragon].

I’d need to tweak Adjak’s build slightly, but the thrill was worth the effort.

With a flicker of intent, whoosh! Blue flames erupted from my hand.

“Ha, hahaha!”

[Flame of the Spirit] burned the laboratory walls, melting not just the surface but the massive magical circle as well.

It seemed to be one of the flame’s properties.

I’d need to learn more about what magic it could burn.

Elated, I surveyed the burning laboratory.

Nothing looked valuable enough to sell—no gold nuggets, just research texts and experimental corpses.

A black mage build might have found something useful, but I had no need for them.

I pocketed a few items that seemed valuable into my subspace pouch.

Having unexpectedly gained two Tunes, I needed nothing more.

I picked up the stone slab from the floor—the one at the secret passage’s end before I entered the laboratory.

As I touched it, a faint energy rose, followed by a hiss of smoke.

Boom!

A distant explosion echoed, and vibrations shook the ground, sending rubble falling.

It was the self-destruct mechanism triggered when an unauthorized person reached the laboratory entrance.

As the vibrations and explosions grew closer, I spread [Wings of Ainsitel].

Crash!

The ceiling began to collapse amid scorching heat.

I flapped my wings and soared upward.

The blazing sun shone brightly above.

Looking down, the rock no longer resembled cat ears or a unicorn’s horn.

Just then, the Crows’ dedicated radio crackled.

It was the device Blaze had given me, promising to report any anomalies near the Dome.

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