Chapter 8
Thud!
The Night Troll’s head crumpled like an empty tin can as it collapsed with a heavy crash.
‘For enemies with tough hides, this is perfect.’
I dispersed the iron mace I had created with <Blood Weapon> back into blood ki and turned to look at Glenda’s party.
“…Haa, seriously.”
“Damn it, it was real… He actually took down a Night Troll by himself.”
“At this point, why are we even surprised… Considering everything he’s shown us so far, a Night Troll is nothing.”
They stared at me in open admiration.
I brushed off the subtle pressure weighing on me and changed the subject.
“So that leaves just one floor left.”
Labyrinths are typically structured in layers, and <Predator’s Labyrinth> consists of four floors in total.
With the elevator leading to the final fourth floor right in front of us, I turned to Glenda and the others.
“The dungeon keeper on the fourth floor, the Dawn Troll, is strong. Even if you’ve memorized the strategy I told you earlier.”
In 《Soden》, the bosses of each labyrinth are called “dungeon keepers.”
“With that in mind, I think it would be best to take a short rest here—check our equipment and catch our breath.”
“I’ll follow your judgment completely, Ruth.”
Glenda thumped my back with her bear-paw-like hand.
The rest of her party looked at her with expressions that basically said, ‘Since when is she like this?’
Judging by the atmosphere, it seemed Glenda’s usual personality was to rarely listen to anyone else’s opinions inside a labyrinth.
But even she had no choice but to obey me obediently now.
Who else was responsible for the fact that not a single person had fallen behind or gotten injured on the way here?
“You’ve worked hard, Ruth. Hungry? Want some jerky?”
“…I’m fine. And save the ‘you’ve worked hard’ talk until we get out of the labyrinth.”
“Haha, fair enough.”
Was this really the same woman who had mocked and insulted me to my face at the tavern just yesterday?
We sat down roughly on the damp floor to rest.
The reason I suddenly suggested a break at this timing wasn’t anything complicated.
I genuinely needed to rest.
Not because of physical fatigue, but mental.
‘I don’t need jerky. I need human blood.’
What kind of chuunibyou terminal-stage delusion is this at my age?
The problem is—it’s not a delusion. I’m being completely serious.
With my internal blood ki reserves running dangerously low, my skin had been prickling nonstop for a while now.
It felt like tiny ants were crawling all over my body—even though nothing was actually there.
“Hey, Ruth. Mind if I ask you one thing?”
The one who spoke up was Pete, sitting directly across from me.
Even though his wrist had nearly been crushed by me yesterday, he didn’t seem to hold any grudge.
Straightforward and refreshingly blunt—I actually liked the guy more now.
‘Talking might actually help distract me.’
Chatting with someone would probably be better than silently stewing in this psychological unease.
“What’s the question?”
“Just so we’re clear—no offense intended. I’m genuinely curious. How the hell do you know so much about this labyrinth?”
As expected—that question.
I would’ve been disappointed if he hadn’t asked.
I’d already prepared an answer in advance.
“<Predator’s Labyrinth> is a place my school has been researching for a very long time. Using our school’s unique reconnaissance magic, we’ve mapped out the terrain and identified the types of monsters that appear in advance.”
“No way… There’s actually magic that lets you learn all that without even going inside the labyrinth? What kind of school do you belong to…?”
“That’s a secret.”
“Uh… right. Got it.”
Pete scratched the back of his head awkwardly when I shut him down firmly.
The lie was full of holes in every direction, but what could they do when I was the one saying it?
That was when—
“No way.”
Suddenly, Glenda—who had been sitting beside me—narrowed her eyes in disbelief and stared at me.
…Wait. Is she seriously going to call me out on my excuse right here?
“You being some sheltered scholar kid from a school? That’s honestly ridiculous. The way you move—I thought you were some hardcore training camp graduate or something.”
“…I see.”
So that part was the unbelievable one.
“Actually, I’ve vaguely suspected it for a while now—that Ruth is a mage from some school.”
The one who spoke was a man named Spiro.
He’d been so quiet since yesterday that I hadn’t even realized he could talk.
“Spiro telling a lie? That’s a rare sight. Suspected what? Come on, man. Have you ever seen a mage handle a spear like Ruth does? Anyone with eyes can tell he’s a warrior.”
“No, Captain. Ruth creates weapons with his bare hands. That’s a feat only a mage can pull off.”
“…Well, yeah, that’s true.”
“But the magic Ruth uses is different from any magic I know. Unless I misread it… when he casts, it doesn’t feel like mana, it feels more like…”
Spiro’s narrowed eyes turned toward me.
“…he’s clumping together blood, right?”
“…….”
I didn’t answer. My silence could be taken as either confirmation or denial.
I had no particular intention of hiding it. If I’d wanted to keep it secret, I wouldn’t have entered the labyrinth with these people in the first place.
‘In 《Soden》, the Blood Mage is a class unique to Ruth Fried alone.’
There are countless swordsmen, gunners, mages, shamans, and paladins scattered across the continent outside of playable characters.
Those classes are just “fields” of expertise.
Playable characters are simply those with exceptional talent within their respective fields.
But the Blood Mage is different.
In this vast world, there is only one mage who manipulates blood.
It was only natural for Spiro to question my power.
‘Still, I can’t keep hiding my strength forever in front of others.’
I’d just brazenly push the concept that this is my own unique school of magic.
The one drawback to that concept, though…
“I actually thought you were a black mage at first. Seeing you use blood to cast spells like that—it was creepy.”
…Yes. This. It’s extremely easy to be mistaken for one.
Magic that uses neither mana nor divine power, but specifically human blood as its medium.
Even I would have assumed it was black magic.
In this world, black mages were viewed as no different from monsters that preyed on humans.
At that moment, Glenda—who had been quietly listening—scolded Spiro.
“Hey, Spiro. Watch your mouth. If Ruth were a black mage, the priests would’ve filtered him out before we even entered the labyrinth.”
“Of course I realized that too and knew it was a ridiculous misunderstanding. Sorry if I offended you, Ruth.”
“Well, to be fair… now that I think about it, it’s understandable why someone might mistake him.”
Glenda shrugged.
…She scolds him for running his mouth and then says something like that—what does that make Spiro’s apology?
“There’s this crazy black mage running rampant in the <Askan> region right now—obsessively collecting human blood.”
…Huh?
“If I’d seen Ruth fight in any other situation, I probably would’ve lumped him in with that lunatic as another black mage from the same group.”
“Wait a second.”
I had planned to keep my words to a minimum, but I couldn’t stay silent on this point.
The Askan region is infamous for being overrun with monsters and having terrible security. It was a prime grinding spot, so I’d visited it countless times during the game.
But a black mage obsessively collecting only human blood?
No matter how much I searched my memory, I couldn’t recall ever encountering such an NPC or enemy in Askan…
Unless…
There was another Blood Mage in this world besides me?
“What’s wrong, Ruth?”
“That black mage you just mentioned… does he also use blood instead of mana to cast magic?”
“I’m not sure about the exact details, but from the rumors, probably not. That bastard just kills innocent people to harvest their blood—there’s no talk of him actually doing anything with the blood itself.”
So not a Blood Mage, then.
Then what the hell is he?
Black mages usually obsess over human souls or hearts—there’s no precedent for someone fixating solely on blood.
Countless black magic factions existed in 《Stella of Dungeon》, but none of this rang a bell.
I was about to ask for more details about the rumors surrounding that black mage.
At the same time—
KRAAAAAAAAAAH—!!
A beastly scream suddenly shook the entire labyrinth.
The source was above.
The fourth floor.
“Damn it, my heart almost stopped. What the hell…?!’
“It came from upstairs?”
All of Glenda’s panicking party members turned their eyes toward me at once.
‘…No way.’
Had that ominous suspicion I’d briefly entertained before entering the labyrinth actually come true?
“It sounds like the cry of the Dawn Troll.”
“Why… why is it screaming like that?”
“We’ll find out when we go see.”
We hurriedly stood up and boarded the elevator.
When we arrived on the fourth floor, there was a single iron door at the very end of the straight corridor.
Normally, this would be the chamber where the dungeon keeper resided… but judging from the scream just now, something else entirely awaited beyond that door.
Even when I focused my heightened senses through the <Rank> stat, I couldn’t get any clear read on what lay past the iron door.
Preparing myself to respond to any possible variable, I sharpened my blood ki and slowly advanced.
And then—
Creeeeak—
The moment we pushed the iron door open, what entered our field of vision was:
A Dawn Troll with its head torn clean off, lying dead…
And—
Crunch. Crunch.
…a massive… thing voraciously chewing on the troll’s severed head.
“A… dog?”
Pete muttered.
Calling that thing a “dog” was a serious stretch.
Instead of fur, countless white arms sprouted from its back, and its eye sockets were hollow like a skull.
My vocabulary wasn’t advanced enough to neatly describe such a grotesque monster with a single word.
Crunch. Crunch…
「Kuh… ugh… ughhh…」
The creature that had been gnawing on the Dawn Troll’s skull suddenly noticed our presence and turned its head toward us.
“Um, hey… Ruth?”
Glenda nudged my arm with her shoulder. Even from that brief contact, I could clearly feel her trembling.
It was only natural.
That thing wasn’t just some “strong monster.”
It belonged to an entirely different category—like a Constellation or a Watcher.
Even if she couldn’t identify it, her instincts must have been screaming with overwhelming terror.
“Did you ever mention anything about a monster like that being in <Predator’s Labyrinth>? Because I sure don’t remember…”
“…No, I didn’t.”
“Then… would you mind giving us some instructions right about now?”
Instructions?
There was only one order I could possibly give them.
“Run.”
Damn it.
A level 30 “Night Fiend (夜鬼)” that should never have appeared… had appeared.
***
『Five hundred years ago, during the Age of Darkness, the beings who terrified people even more than monsters were the night fiends.
However, they were sealed deep within the abyss by “Kantu,” the previous chieftain of the “Moonstone Tribe.”』
…The official setting text from the 《Soden》 homepage flashed through my mind.
According to the lore, Kantu had sealed the Night Fiend—but that wasn’t the full truth.
Kantu had indeed defeated the Night Fiend and thrown it deep into the abyss—into <Predator’s Labyrinth>—but he had failed to completely eradicate its lingering grudge.
The hidden event that allowed players to discover this secret was exclusive to the playable Shaman character, Kara.
‘If you enter <Predator’s Labyrinth> as Kara, a hidden event triggers where you fight the lingering grudge of the Night Fiend.’
The grudge reacted to Kara because she carried the same curse power as the man who had sealed it.
And the reason I—someone who wasn’t Kara—was experiencing this event now was painfully obvious.
「I smell it… on you… the same scent as the bastard who cast me into this sewer…」
It was because of the <Blood Link> skill.
Strictly speaking, the body I had possessed wasn’t truly a Blood Mage.
It was a horrific hybrid, a grotesque amalgamation that had absorbed the skills of every other class.
And among them were the skills of the Shaman character, Kara…
It seemed the lingering grudge of the Night Fiend had reacted to something within those skills.
“…….”
There wasn’t a single Shaman in Glenda’s party. No matter how much I thought about it, this was the only possible reason.
I had half-expected something like this might happen, but actually seeing it play out still left me dumbfounded.
They say the unlucky bastard breaks his nose even when he falls backward—why is nothing ever easy?
「Cold… lonely… endless time…! The pain I endured… now it’s your turn to feel it…!!」
A chilling, ghostly voice flowed from the Night Fiend’s maw like a shriek from the underworld.
Despite my earlier warning to run, Glenda’s party stubbornly held their ground.
It wasn’t bravery.
“Hah… hah…”
“Ah…”
They were simply frozen to the bone by the thick, sticky death aura radiating from the creature.
Only I—clinging to sanity with <Iron-Blood Heart>—remained calm enough to calmly assess the difference in level between us and the monster.
‘Can I win?’
It wasn’t impossible.
That was the conclusion I reached after careful thought.
Even though there was nearly a threefold level gap between us, if I mobilized every strategy I knew—
「The small fry… get out of my sight…!」
Crackle—!
The moment the Night Fiend roared, violet lightning surged toward us.
Jagged spears of electricity, sharp as thorns, rained down on Glenda and her party.
Crack—!!
Flesh and blood sprayed across my body in thick gouts.
From Glenda’s party.
They collapsed without even time to scream—some with their sides torn open, others with shoulders pierced straight through.
Their breathing was faint—they weren’t dead yet, but if left like this, they soon would be.
In the blink of an eye, only the Night Fiend and I remained.
Just as it had wanted.
“…….”
I glanced sideways at Glenda, now covered in blood and crumpled on the floor.
More precisely, my eyes fixed on the item she had received from the priests before entering the labyrinth.
<Return Scroll>
If she used it, she could escape outside and survive.
‘But once a Return Scroll is used in a labyrinth, that labyrinth can never be entered again.’
The labyrinth’s will rejects those who flee.
Those who tuck tail and run have no right to return.
What a ridiculous setting—but the point was, they could live.
‘…And the chance to obtain what I want from this place would disappear forever.’
In the end, I would be doomed to suffer this blood-ki-supply penalty for the rest of my life.
What difference was that from dying?
Grip—.
“If you’re already dead, stay quiet and pass on peacefully.”
I tightened my grip on the blood-red spear and glared at the Night Fiend.
“Even in death, you’re as filthy and pathetic as your ugly face.”
「You… what do you know?!」
Let’s do this.
I can do this.
I quickly ran through every attack pattern the Night Fiend was known to use.
I organized its behavior by phase and mentally matched each one against my current level and capabilities.
At the same time—
Ding!
<Sub Quest: The Night Fiend’s Grudge>
Objective: Defeat the Night Fiend’s lingering grudge and successfully conquer the labyrinth.
……
The moment the quest appeared, I felt an odd sense of relief despite the situation.
The system never issues quests for impossible trials.
I was about to tear my eyes away from the holographic window and focus entirely on the Night Fiend when—
‘Wait—hold on. What’s the reward?’
I looked back at the system window and swallowed hard.
…There, written plainly, was the reason I had to beat this thing even if it meant shitting blood to do it.