Chapter 28: Fluctuations Through The Labyrinth (Part Two)
"That door is not the only difference compared to last month. Look at the dungeon boss. Its hollow eyes are glimmering red. It is at least at level ten."
Rhain Walter was a silver-haired and serious-minded young man. His attention has been mostly on screens until now, so he caught some things earlier than others.
He continued with a frown on his face. "The number of pygmy skeletons is also higher than last month, and their levels are not far from the dungeon boss."
The words of Rhain caused the other eleven guests to look at screens more intently. Before long, a commotion arose at the meeting table.
"What's going on? Something like this never happened before. Furthermore, our bets always take place in The Lower Catacombs. If something really had happened there, we would have seen it."
"If the last month's newcomer batch had failed to clear The Lower Catacombs, something like this might have happened as a result. As you all know, the monsters can also gain EXP from a participant's death. However, last time, a few newcomers survived and killed all the skeletons in there."
"Did a non-newcomer participant go there and died by himself?"
"That would explain the increased difficulty of the dungeon, but nothing comes to my mind that could explain that door's existence."
Everyone was trying to come up with an explanation for what they saw, but Magnus said nothing over these unusual developments. He just watched the screens and listened to brain-storm of the guests with a calm expression on his face.
'This is really interesting. It's worth investigating.'
Magnus has been in the labyrinth for almost a thousand years. Except for artworks and rare items, few things could catch his attention. And these unusual occurrences in The Lower Catacombs had definitely caught his interest.
Black Ink was also looking intently to the screens. Her black veil was hiding the expression on her face, but similar things were coming through her mind too.
While the discussions continued, the image of Niles dropped his sword to the ground in one of the screens. Another one was showing his pathetic and discouraged expression from up close. Honestly, he was portraying a total loser now... and at the same time, he was also portraying a good verbal attack material for Magnus.
"Mr. Gallahan, it looks like your racehorse ended up being an emotionally broken participant. I'm sure that you haven't just chosen him 'based on his leadership capabilities' alone."
Magnus threw a meaningful smile to Gallahan. "After all, five million gold coins is an enormous sum even for participants like us. I wonder if this child has another trick up his sleeve other than producing a sword out of nowhere."
Some of the gazes at the meeting table immediately turned to Gallahan after hearing such remarks from Magnus. However, they discovered that Gallahan was keeping his calm. His smile wasn't on his face anymore, but he didn't look gloomy either.
He answered like as if he hasn't felt offended by the words of Magnus. "What can I say? How could I have known that this boy was such trash?"
He threw the same meaningful smile back to Magnus. "You talked to early Mr. Magnus. Indeed, I have no hope for winning the bet now, but I also haven't lost it. I mean, if all the newcomers die, none of us can win, right?"
As soon as Gallahan finished saying these words, in one of the screens, Ulfred fell on the dungeon boss like a red hot cannonball, killing it in a few seconds.
There was silence at the meeting table. Including Magnus and Gallahan, no one was expecting something like this.
Then a big and bald man who wore a set of heavy armor abruptly stood up.
"A Skald!" He yelled involuntarily with his stentorian voice. His eyes were fixed on Ulfred's image. The shock he experienced was apparent on his face.
Magnus was preparing his next verbal attack on Gallahan. The background was perfect for it just a moment ago. He could cause the vulgar man to lose a large amount of face, but he was forced to swallow his next words.
Gallahan was also looking at Ulfred, dumbfounded.
Naturally, all of them knew what a Skald was. They recognized the class from the skill that Ulfred had used.
In a few seconds, the bald man suppressed his emotions that were about to go wild. He started to speak decisively, "I want to recruit him into my Iron Citadel. For a Skald, there can't be anywhere in The Labyrinth of The First, that is more suitable than my Iron Citadel."
"If you don't get in my way and let me have him, I, Creighton, and The Iron Citadel will owe you all a huge favor!"
It seemed as though he was ready for a bloody fight over Ulfred.
Before long, another commotion suddenly broke out in the meeting. Unexpectedly, among the twelve, there were many people who wanted to have Ulfred.
"Who would have thought that the legendary hidden class Skald would appear again?"
"Nobody gives a Skald to you before fighting over him!"
"So what if your Iron Citadel is more suitable for a Skald compared to our organizations? You can't have him just like that!"
The tension was rapidly increasing in the hall. As the host of the meeting, Magnus had to do something in order to calm his guests down.
"Honored guests!" He strengthened his voice with the immense mana he had. "I will not let this continue in my house! You, the distinguished City Lords, Kings, and Guild Masters, are basically fighting over a two days old newcomer! Doing so doesn't fit with your characters and status!"
Magnus normalized his voice and added with a slight smile, "Now let's discuss who will have The Skald. There is only one rule as in our previous agreements. Equal trade."
These people were angry at Magnus now because he raised his voice to them in front of the people in the hall. However, none of them gave voice to the anger they were feeling.
Magnus was right with his words. Because of that, their pride ironically prevented them from speaking, and there was also a Skald on the line now.
Naturally, Magnus also wanted to have Ulfred. Maybe he intentionally angered these people in order to have the advantage in the negotiations. Only himself knew the truth.
Those who wanted to obtain The Skald continued to debate among themselves for a long time. However, among the twelve, there were two people who seemed uninterested in Ulfred.
Black Ink was still looking intently at one of the screens. She looked like she has caught a detail that the others had missed.
In her eyes, The Skald was listening to the words of her racehorse. No, more likely, he was taking orders from her racehorse.
A Skald was a free spirit. He couldn't be controlled or chained. Naturally, he would never take orders from others in normal circumstances. These were some of the prerequisites of becoming a Skald.
However, this skald was clearly listening to the orders of Dante. Somehow this situation piqued her interest more than the appearance of legendary hidden class Skald.
On the other hand, Gallahan was speeding toward the exit of the hall now. As he approached the exit, his face gradually became even more ugly.
He lost five million gold coins today. Thanks to Ulfred and the commotion he had caused, he managed to save some of his face value by running away from the meeting table, but it was not possible for him to feel any better just because he saved some of his face value. In a different sense, that was another source of shame for him.
Worse still, Magnus was one of the winners of the betting game!
Gallahan sent a sound transmission to the man behind him.
"I want you to go to that lowly place and kill all the surviving newcomers. As for that Skald, I want his half-dead body under my feet as soon as possible. If you come across anyone who tries to hinder you... kill them too!"
The man wore a black robe and had a pair of dead eyes. At his waist, there was a katana. It was apparent that he was a swordsman.
After Gallahan had left the hall, another unexpected thing happened. All the screens suddenly went black.
The image transmission was interrupted for an unknown reason.
'Did something happen to the eye-bats?' Magnus thought while looking at the screens. Then his gaze moved to the guests. He had a lot of work to do because another commotion was about to erupt.
This development added another layer of mystery on top of the others. Now there was more reason for these people to send men to The Lower Catacombs.
...
In a simple but spacious room. Somewhere in The Labyrinth of The First.
A grey-haired middle-aged man was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the room. His hands were on his knees while his eyes were closed.
He seemed to be doing meditation.
He was sitting there without moving, giving the feeling like he has been sitting there since time immemorial.
"Your servant Eve seeks an audience with My Lord."
At this time an emotionless and genderless voice was heard. If Dante could have heard this voice, he would have instantly recognized its owner.
It was The System's voice!
Unexpectedly enough it was calling itself as 'servant' and this man 'My Lord'.
"Come in." The man talked without opening his eyes.
A second later, a person appeared on knees in front of the man.
Like the voice this person was producing, it was not possible to identify the gender from the appearance.
That's because Eve was a machine based lifeform. In other words, an artificial being.
"I have detected an anomaly in The Lower Catacombs," Eve said.
"What kind of anomaly?"
"I don't know. A blank space appeared in my network all of a sudden."
The man opened his eyes after hearing the words of Eve. "Tell me the details."
"A Skald appeared. Then, everything went black. That's all I know. Forgive this servant for its incompetence."
"It's ok." The man wasn't angry at all.
The one who created Eve was him. Naturally, he had confidence in his skill, not Eve.
After a moment of silence, the man started to speak, "Send an Envoy to The Lower Catacombs. Have him check everything in that area. Including The Sunfell Town, its folk, all the newcomers, and The Guardian of The Elevator. Find the source of the anomaly."
"I will do as my Lord has commanded," Eve said and disappeared.
On the face of the grey-haired man, a dangerous smile appeared as he slowly stood up.
"It seems like someone has the guts to interfere with my labyrinth. Heh he he. Interesting!" He murmured.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone