Survive the labyrinth with EX-grade traits

As Cresdowzer swung his fist, Paladin Yeriel quickly jumped onto his arm.

“Huh?”

There wasn’t much I could do while Paladin Yeriel was incontrol of her body and merged with her physical form.

At most…

“Ugh, I’m dizzy!”

Even though I was in a spiritual state and couldn’t feel dizziness, I still felt nauseous from the constant running and dodging, and I couldn’t help but cry out.

“Hey, look out! There’s another one coming from the left!”

All I could do was warn her about the black aura of decay rising from the monster’s body and the bone thorns shooting towards us.

I was definitely immersed in my original body, but I felt like an observer floating above, looking down on the scene, almost like a ghost.

Kwaaang!!!

The self-proclaimed holy knight, the other me, summoned a sword filled with holy power and slashed at the monster’s body.

“Its regeneration is too fast. We’ll have to keep attacking until it runs out of power.”

“Why don’t you just regenerate and blow it away like you did before? Why are you riding on its arm like this?”

“Hmph. I was just trying to show off and test its regenerative abilities earlier.”

Kwaaang!!!

“If we keep using attacks like that with just a B-rank body, we’ll be the ones to fall first.”

As she spoke, she continued to destroy Cresdowzer’s body with her relentless movements.

“From now on, try to feel everything that’s happening to your body.”

“Feel what?”

“Feel the flow of holy power, how it moves through your body, and where it passes through. Also, remember how you use your body when you run or swing a weapon.”

The sword created by the other me disappeared, and the holy power condensed again to form a pair of hammers.

“Well, since Veronica joined us much earlier, I don’t think you’ll become a holy knight. But you never know.”

“A holy knight… I’ve never even imagined going in that direction.”

‘But wasn’t Veronica a knight before she joined the party? If so, why did I change my role to the vanguard?’

But something about this didn’t add up.

I tried to recall the brief history of Veronica I had heard. She had definitely been a knight before coming to the labyrinth city.

So, regardless of when she joined the party, she would have been a vanguard.

So, was it correct that there were three vanguards in our party: a holy knight (me), a knight (Veronica), and a swordsman (Ahren)?

The answer was simpler than I thought.

Kwaaang!!

After dodging the bone thorns and leaping, the other me slammed the hammers down hard, causing Cresdowzer to regenerate again. She answered my confused question.

“Well, our Ahren was a magician. On our first expedition together, a unique item, a wand, appeared, so I asked my sister to help him enter the magic tower and learn magic.”

The other me laughed, saying that she had begged her sister to support Ahren in learning magic at the tower…

At the end of this short flashback, she realized that her feelings for Ahren had begun back then.

Kwaang!! Kwaang!!

Of course, her hands were still busy, constantly changing weapons from swords to hammers to axes as she fought.

What? I begged my sister at that age?

I blushed with embarrassment, but then I changed my mind.

‘…I would have done the same. Without connections or money, it’s difficult to even enter the magic tower, and what could Ahren and I have had on our first return?’

She stopped laughing and said,

“Anyway, try to absorb everything I show you.”

She advised me that if I could reach the middle or upper levels, I would have to protect my body myself.

Krrrr.

Perhaps Cresdowzer realized that a simple response wouldn’t work against the holy knight who was constantly trying to destroy him with holy power.

Cresdowzer swung his left arm vigorously, trying to crush my body like a small insect under his palm.

“Where do you think you’re going?!”

But the other me quickly channeled holy power throughout her body and nimbly dodged the attack.

The attack that had been aimed at his own arm became a self-destructive act, doubling his pain.

Although I was observing the battle from above, my spiritual body was actually inside the body that was fighting.

“When running fast, do it like this…”

I could see and feel how the holy power flowed through her body, at what speed, and how it naturally strengthened her body.

I could also see how to maintain balance and run efficiently on uneven terrain, as if it were being imprinted on my eyes and senses.

Kwaaaang!!!

Kwaaaa!!!

“Hehe, serves him right!”

If an ordinary human slapped their own skin, it would turn red and sting.

So, how painful would it be for a massive monster to slam its palm down on a bug trying to kill it?

Perhaps Cresdowzer had too much faith in his regenerative abilities, as he ended up half-crushing his own arm.

“Haaah!!!”

Boom!! Boom!!

Taking advantage of the monster’s regeneration-induced stiffness, the other me summoned a pair of hammers again and ran along its arm, striking it repeatedly.

The giant arm, which had the ability to regenerate, was repeatedly damaged and broken in parts.

Kwoooo!!!

Cresdowzer writhed in pain and fury, trying to shake off the other me with his arm, but it was futile.

Finally, Cresdowzer took drastic measures.

He redirected some of the power needed for super-regeneration to shoot powerful beams and projectiles from the numerous holes in his body.

Ziiiing!

The intensity of this attack was on a different level from the bone thorns and black aura.

“Be careful!”

“Don’t worry, just watch closely.”

The other me, with a confident smile, summoned a thick tower shield and a one-handed hammer with holy power.

“Shield techniques are my specialty.”

Grasping the handle of the large rectangular shield, she ran while deflecting the beams shooting up from the holes beneath her feet.

She ran past the elbow, towards the shoulder.

And then, she continued running towards the top of the shoulder.

“In giant-type monsters like this, the core is usually hidden in the head or the center of the body.”

Kwaaang! Kwaang!

The straight beam was deflected by the shield, and the oval-shaped projectile was blocked by the armor as she reached the summit.

The other me spoke softly.

“Of course, this monster doesn’t have a separate head, but the core should be located roughly here.”

She raised the one-handed hammer high above her head.

‘I can condense holy power like this… it’s stable.’

An immense amount of holy power, which I could never dare to gather, began to glow at the back of the hammer’s head.

“But Ahren said there were two cores! What if there’s another one somewhere else?”

If they couldn’t destroy both, wouldn’t the core regenerate again?

“The regeneration power has weakened from our persistent attacks, and we’ll run out of holy power soon anyway, so we need to destroy at least one.”

“…”

“If it’s the Ahren I know, he’ll take care of the other one somehow.”

She pulled back her arm and brought the hammer down.

Baaang!!!

The tremendous force contained in the blow smashed Cresdowzer’s head and pierced the core located in the upper part of its body.

Kuuuaaaaak!!!

“Good! Once more like this—”

Just as she was about to throw the spear she had summoned, aiming at the hole in the monster’s head, which was regenerating slowly…

Kwooooooo!!!

Before the spear even hit, Cresdowzer let out a howl, going mad with pain. It raised its two arms high and slammed them onto the ground.

.

.

.

Kwooooooo!!!

[Cresdowzer casts ‘Earthquake’.]

The gimmick of the 7th floor, where dead adventurers are resurrected as undead monsters, disturbing their eternal rest.

Because of this, Christopher, who had been resurrected, was freed from the evil of the labyrinth and granted a peaceful death.

Cresdowzer, who had gone mad with pain after the death of the summoner connected to it, slammed the ground with its gigantic arms, emitting shockwaves.

Boom!

Boom Boom Boom!!!

Black shockwaves emanated from Cresdowzer’s body, and the ground began to crack and crumble into pieces.

‘It’s coming! We need to jump up!’

Feeling the tremendous vibrations from the ground and seeing the large tombstones in the central area collapsing, I judged that we needed to jump up immediately to escape the earthquake’s aftermath.

One, two, three.

I stood on the shaking ground and channeled magic power into my feet.

Now!

“Hup!”

Just as the black shockwaves from the ground reached us, I channeled the magic power downwards and blasted it out, propelling myself upwards.

Paaang!

What should I call this?

Jet propulsion? Trampoline jump?

Anyway, thanks to the crude explosion of magic power, my body soared high into the sky.

Perhaps because my insides were still unsettled from the aftermath of Arcane Everious, I felt nauseous and dizzy again.

“Huff.”

But now that we were about to defeat Cresdowzer, I couldn’t let a little pain like this stop me.

‘The light coming from the center has dimmed. Is the monster’s regeneration almost over?’

In the distance, I could see the gigantic Cresdowzer, which could be called a giant monster, and Yeriel, who had climbed onto its upper body like a mountaineer reaching the summit, adjusting her posture.

Thud!

Before the short flight ended, I managed to land by barely holding onto my consciousness.

“Ahren!”

“Veronica, you’re safe! Lumia!”

As soon as I landed, I heard Veronica and Lumia calling out to me from behind.

The faintly glowing blue wings.

Veronica’s radiant wings, which I had seen for the first time during the Trial of Wrath, fluttered from her back.

She flew towards me, holding Lumia in her arms, with her sword at her waist and her shield on her back.

‘I believed you were alive. I’m glad.’

I was worried that the monsters I didn’t catch or those that took a detour might have targeted them, but judging by their appearance, they had somehow managed to defeat them.

Veronica gently put Lumia down and said,

“You look like you’re in a lot of pain. Are you okay?”

Veronica, who had somehow noticed that I was in bad shape, tried to make eye contact with me.

“Here, take this potion.”

At the same time, Lumia, who looked worried, took out a low-grade potion from her bag and handed it to me.

Potion… thank you.

To reassure them, I took out a mid-grade potion from my backpack and drank it.

“See? Don’t worry. As you can see, I’m fine on the outside, and the internal injury will heal quickly since I drank the potion.”

I shook the empty bottle, and they finally breathed a sigh of relief.

‘In reality, there’s not much difference between internal and external injuries, but whatever. I guess it’s good that they’re relieved.’

What’s important for us now is not checking on my injuries, but…

Kwaaaaaaa!!!

Yeriel, who was struggling alone in the distance, sent a message to me.

‘Yeriel, can you hear me?’

-I can hear you. It seems like you’ve taken care of the necromancer since you have the time to send a message?

When the paladin was summoned, I was worried that the ability of the earrings I was originally wearing might be deactivated, but fortunately, two-way communication was possible.

-It’s a good thing you’re here! I think we’ve almost exhausted the monster’s regeneration power. We’ve destroyed one of the cores. But there’s a problem.

‘What’s the problem?’

-The monster’s regeneration has slowed down, and I’m reaching my limit too. Sigh… if this were my real body, this monster would have been killed in an instant.

Without beating around the bush, I got straight to the point.

‘What should I do?’

-It’s simple. Before the upper core I destroyed regenerates, you need to find the other core and destroy it.

There were two cores. The monster had such a characteristic.

-Hurry up and move! I’ll keep it distracted.

I racked my brain until my forehead became hot.

What I had left was the accumulated killing intent and the magic power in my core.

So, what technique could I use as the finishing blow?

Killing intent release. One-point concentration. Lightning Sword.

My judgment was quick, and my actions were even faster.

“Veronica, hold me.”

“…”

Before my body, which was intoxicated by magic power, went completely haywire, I needed to destroy the core with a single blow.

‘Find the core with chaos’ Eye, fly towards it, and shoot.’

The end of the battle was approaching.