VOLUME 6: CHAPTER 6

VOLUME 6: CHAPTER 6

After inspecting the murals on the first floor of the labyrinth, Lark immediately descended on the second floor. 

The entire floor was your typical cavern, with glowing algae covering portions of the walls. Numerous poison wisps wandered the floor aimlessly. Those who tried latching onto Lark were immediately repelled by the small, translucent mana barrier he covered himself with. 

Lark stabbed the poison wisps’ cores with his sword, and they immediately burst like an overinflated balloon before dissipating. 

The second floor was surprisingly easy. Every now and then, traps would be activated as Lark made his way into labyrinth, but all of them were easily taken care of by the mithril cubes. 

Whenever arrows shot toward him from the walls, the mithril cubes would immediately separate into eight smaller pieces and block each of them, rendering the traps useless. 

Even the whirling blades which shot toward Lark from above the tunnels were easily blocked by the mithril cubes. Although the arrows and the whirling blades held enough strength to destroy iron shields, their power was simply not enough to penetrate an artifact made of mithril. 

It did not take much time before Lark finally arrived at the third floor of the labyrinth. 

Lark already heard form Lady Ropianna that this was the same floor where the royal knights encountered the arachnia. The moment Lark stepped foot in this floor, he immediately released a cloud of mana and forced it to expand into his immediate surroundings. A spell meant to detect hidden monsters. 

Although they said that the arachnia and its eggs had already been taken care of, Lark did not dismiss the chance of other arachnias hiding in this floor. 

With the cloud of mana probing his surroundings as he walked, Lark quickly moved through the third floor of the labyrinth. Along the way, he passed by a rotting, decapitated body of a giant spider. He also saw several broken eggs at the far corner – the webs covering it had already been burned by magic. 

“Such a waste,” said Lark. 

The egg of an arachnia was an extremely valuable ingredient in alchemy. It was one of the main ingredients in creating a pinnacle grade healing potion. 

A soft sigh leaked out of Lark’s mouth as he stared at the broken eggs sitting on the ground. These monsters were so rare that he probably wouldn’t encounter another one in this lifetime. 

Lark could only imagine the number of pinnacle grade healing potions he could have made with just a single egg of this giant spider monster. 

There was no real need for the royal knights to destroy the eggs. Without the mother arachnia, those eggs would never hatch even after several years had passed. Lark did not know the exact explanation for this, but he remembered one of the researchers in the Magic Empire telling him that the physiology of an arachnia’s body was quite unique. The researcher told him that the moment the mother arachnia died, all of its unborn offspring would eventually perish. 

It seemed that the royal knights weren’t aware of this fact as they thoroughly made sure that all of its eggs were destroyed before they descended to the lower floors of the labyrinth. 

Lark searched through the dead body of the arachnia just to be sure, but as expected, its mana stone had already been pulled out of its body. 

He cleaned his bloodied hands clean using magic, before eventually descending to the next floor of the labyrinth. 

The fourth floor of the labyrinth was exactly how it had been described to him by Lady Ropianna before he left the capital. 

The moment he stepped foot on the fourth floor of the labyrinth, it felt as though he’d entered an entirely different world. 

Gigantic trees reaching all the way to the ceiling, its colossal roots covering most of the ground, its brown and red leaves forming canopies. Innumerable particles of light, which resembled fireflies, floated in the air. Even without light magic, Lark could clearly see everything.

“Those kids… really.” 

Lark wryly smiled. 

These colossal, ancient-looking trees were definitely elven oaks – trees capable of harnessing mana from its surroundings and using it to fortify its trunk, roots, and branches. Wood from elven oaks were extremely strong and malleable; a lot of magic items could be made from them. Most notably, arrows and bows made from these trees wouldn’t break even if you applied tremendous amounts of mana into them, making it the ideal raw material for weapons for archers. 

These trees were coveted even back in the Magic Empire. 

“There’s so many of them,” said Lark as he looked around. 

By estimate, there were easily hundreds of these gargantuan trees in this floor. Untouched by humans for such a long time, these trees managed to reach adulthood and propagated over time. 

According to Lady Ropianna, this should be the floor guarded by that monster. The creature which almost annihilated the royal knights. 

Lark kept walking and after half an hour, the sea of trees ended. He arrived at a grassland. 

Lark frowned. 

From where he stood, he could see an absurdly large golden statue. It was more than a hundred meters tall, thirty meters wide. Its head almost reached the ceiling. 

The most stunning thing wasn’t its size, nor was the fact that it was made entirely of gold. What surprised Lark the most was the fact that the golden statue was his spitting image, a few years before his death.

He’d already heard about this statue’s existence, but he hadn’t heard that it was made in the image of Evander Alaester. 

The way he was holding the book on his left hand and a staff on the right gave off such extreme grandeur, it felt embarrassing, almost nauseating. Lark’s stomach churned upon seeing it. 

Lark didn’t know why his disciples made the statue so imposing. 

Lark’s surprise didn’t stop with just the statue. 

According to the Seer, the monster guarding this floor was initially found sleeping inside a gigantic hole in the fourth floor of the labyrinth. But right now, he could clearly see the seven-headed monster sleeping right next to the statue, coiled around its base. 

Black, iridescent scales. Long necks. Serpentine heads bearing semblance to Dragons’. Its two pairs of bat-like wings were folded and covered more than half of its body. 

The seven-headed monster’s size was almost comparable to the golden statue’s. For a moment, Lark wondered how such a prideful creature endured living in this floor for hundreds of years. 

It must have felt so cramped and suffocating to live in this place for so long. Had this seven-headed monster been a human, it would have probably lost its sanity by now. 

Lark’s initial plan was to quietly approach the statue, enter the treasure room, and retrieve the Sword of Morpheus. 

But everything went down the drain just now. It’ll be near impossible for Lark to enter the treasure room without alerting that monster coiled around the statue. 

Lark was racking his brain for any feasible method when suddenly, one of the seven heads slowly opened its eyes and stared at Lark, who’d been standing a good distance away from the statue for quite some time now. 

“Damn it,” mumbled Lark. 

The head growled, and the remaining six heads immediately jolted out of their slumber. As though angry that another human had come to taint their sacred ground, all seven heads roared. The ground lightly trembled as the monster uncoiled itself from the statue. 

Without warning, one of the heads opened its mouth and spat out a gigantic orb of lightning toward Lark’s direction. 

Lark amplified the strength of his body with mana and moved toward the left, avoiding the colossal ball of lightning by a wide margin. The lightning magic struck the ground and exploded into numerous lightning serpents, scorching the grasses and dirt, forming a large crater capable of fitting four carriages. 

Lark’s expression turned grim. 

As expected, at his current state, it’ll be impossible for him to win against this monster. 

If this seven-headed monster went on a rampage outside this labyrinth, it could probably lay waste to a major city or two in just a single day. 

The other heads snorted after the first head missed its target. As though saying ‘you can’t even properly hit a mere human?’, one of the heads sneered, opened its mouth wide, and breathed a torrent of fire at Lark. 

His speed and strength still amplified with magic, Lark ran to the side and evaded the attack. But unlike the ball of lightning, the torrent of fire continued pouring out of the Scylla’s mouth, following him as he ran. 

The other heads didn’t stay idle, as they too, started firing their spells. The third head started summoning a gargantuan wind vortex and shot it toward Lark. The fourth head summoned several dozens of ice spears, and each of them shot toward Lark from all directions. 

No incantations. 

No magic formations. 

These strong spells had been cast almost instantaneously. 

Lark felt as though he was fighting a Dragon as several offensive spells rained down on one after another. 

With spell casting speed incomparable to other magicians, Lark summoned a small orb of wind and willed it to spin at a frightening rate, opposite the spin of the wind vortex’s. It shot toward the wind vortex and struck its center, momentarily halting the flow of mana and disrupting the direction of the wind. Lark used this opening to fire a second wind spell, which, after striking the wind vortex, shattered it completely. 

The mithril cubes immediately separated into smaller pieces and blocked the ice spears one after another. Those that managed to bypass the mithril cube’s defenses were immediately dealt with by the mana barrier created by Lark. 

Lark continued running, all the while avoiding the torrent of fire and blocking the ice spears raining down the sky. 

After all of the ice spears had been shattered into pieces, the torrent of fire finally stopped. The Scylla stared at Lark, clearly surprised that the human managed to block three consecutive attacks. 

What bothered the Scylla the most was the way the human dealt with its wind vortex spell. The two small orbs of wind the human used to destroy the Scylla’s magic was clearly of lower tier, but it easily disrupted the flow of mana and shattered the spell completely. 

For some reason, it reminded the Scylla of the technique used by that human. 

Silence momentarily fell. 

A deep voice was heard on the fourth floor of the labyrinth. 

The third head, the one which fired the wind vortex, spoke in human language, “Human, who are you?”

A grin slowly formed on Lark’s lips. A Scylla was a very prideful creature. Unlike Dragons, it was rare for a Scylla to initiate conversation with humans. Even when confronting an entire army, this colossal monster normally wouldn’t utter a single word and simply continue slaughtering humans mercilessly. 

The mere fact that it asked this question meant that the Scylla had taken an interest in him. 

The other heads looked at the third head in disapproval. They could not understand why the third head would stoop so low as initiate conversation with a mere mortal. 

“What are you doing?” hissed the first head. It spoke in ancient draconic language. The same language spoken by Dragons. 

“You saw it too, didn’t you?” said the third head. “That human… he read the flow of my magic and easily disrupted it.”

“But to speak with a mere human!” snorted the sixth head. “Read the flow of magic? That’s nothing special! Even us can easily do that!”

“Shut it,” snapped the third head. “You didn’t even participate in the attack just now. Even back then, when those humans invaded this sacred ground, you simply watched in amusement! You damn, useless fool!”

“What did you say?!”

Lark bewilderedly stared at the Scylla as the seven heads started bickering with each other. It was an amusing sight, since this was a legendary monster heard of only in legends. 

The heads spoke with each other using ancient draconic language, unaware that Lark could perfectly understand each of their words. 

Lark wouldn’t be surprised if the heads started biting each other moments from now. 

Judging by the conversation, it seemed that the third head wanted to converse with him, but the rest were adamantly against it. 

In the end, the bickering stopped and the third head conceded. They decided to eliminate the intruder.

All seven heads started pouring colossal amounts of mana into a single spell. A large magic formation almost instantaneously formed above Lark as all seven heads worked together to create a single spell. 

Lark’s eyes widened upon looking at the runes and layers in the magic formation. If that spell hit him, he would be reduced into pulp in an instant.

The damnable Scylla was casting Grand Scale Magic at him right now. 

A gravity spell similar to the one he used in Wizzert City, the only difference was that instead of suppressing, this one was meant to kill the target immediately. 

To the Scylla, expending this much mana was trivial. It could probably cast several more spells of the same magnitude if it wanted. This was the difference between this monster and mere humans. 

The heads roared, and the magic formation – which had been almost instantaneously created – shattered. 

The Grand Scale Magic was activated. 

Before the gravity spell descended on Lark, the mithril cubes spread out and activated the runes carved on its walls, creating a dome shaped barrier above Lark. The barrier did nothing but halt the descent of the gravity spell for a full second, but this was enough time for Lark to cast several movement spells and move out of the spell’s radius. 

The moment the barrier broke, the mithril cubes were struck by the gravity spell and contorted. The mana stored inside them burst and collided with the gravity spell, creating a shockwave. 

The ground struck by the gravity spell turned into a large, bottomless pit. The mithril cubes, no longer capable of sustaining itself, fell into the hole and vanished without a trace. 

Everything happened in an instant. With seven heads working together to perform a single spell, even casting Grand Scale Magic had become a trivial task. 

All seven heads stared at Lark for a moment.

As though saying that this was merely the start, the Scylla started casting another spell. 

Another large magic formation appeared above Lark. 

Next chapter: 2-3 days