Moon's Labyrinths

The only place, which wasn’t protected by its fur, was its wrinkly face . The mace landed squarely on its face .

He felt a heavy sensation run up his hands . He felt something break, and it was an exhilarating feeling . He felt the sensation through the mace .

The Bigfoot let out an odd scream . It was indescribable . Blood exploded forth from the folds of its wrinkles . In order to defend against the spear, it had raised its arm up high . The other arm was propping its body up . It lost control of its arm as it buckled under the attack .

The Bigfoot looked like it had suffered a critical wound, but Sungyoon didn’t put his guard down . He once again swung the mace towards its face .

Kwah-jeek!

He heard the sound of something bursting open . The Bigfoot’s face cratered inward . The lips, which had been sneering at Sungyoon, were smashed inwards . It looked like it was crying . Its nose was completely crushed, and it looked as if its nose had disappeared without a trace . Its terrifyingly sharp teeth were shattered . Its left eye had barely avoided bursting open, but it had come out of its socket . It hung in the air .

Boom!

Its enormous body fell to the floor . Sungyoon was ready to swing his bloody mace at any moment . He quietly glared at the enormous body .

However, the Bigfoot never moved again .

Hoo-ooooohng!

Light engulfed the Bigfoot’s corpse . Sungyoon was finally able to relax when he saw this . He hadn’t been able to wipe his face in the tense battle . He wiped the blood that had been splattered all over his face .

“I wonder why its blood won’t disappear alongside its dead body . ’

He grumbled inwardly as he approached the location where the Bigfoot’s corpse used to be .

The Bigfoot had tormented Sungyoon, Tim and Emily, yet the only thing left behind was a palm sized moonstone and a bracelet .

‘It left behind a moonstone and a Device . ’

Sungyoon picked up the bracelet, and he became surprised .

It was twice as large in terms of surface area compared to Sungyoon’s bracelet . Surprisingly, there were ten slots etched into the bracelet . Moreover, one of the slots was clearly letting out a green light .

‘It is a Device that can slot a Green Gem . ’

That wasn’t all . There were two slots for Blue Gems and an additional two that could slot Indigo Gems . The rest were slots for Purple Gems .

It was a much better Device than the one Sungyoon currently possessed .

Sungoon picked up the moonstone and the Device, and he headed towards Tim and Emily . Fortunately, Emily wasn’t late in healing him . Tim was sitting on the floor as he held his torso upright . He looked fine on the outside . However, Emily remained next to Tim with worry in her eyes . She continued to tend to him .

Tim abruptly tried to get to his feet when he sensed Sungyoon’s approach . However, he immediately clutched at his chest . It was where he had been hit .

“Ah . You shouldn’t move yet!”

Emily tried to stop him, but Tim paid no attention to her advice . He stood up .

“Thank you . ”

He gave a short thanks, but his emotions were worn on his sleeve . Emily, who was worried about Tim, also expressed her thanks towards Sungyoon .

“Thank you very much . ”

Sungyoon nodded once .

“Are your wounds doing ok?”

“Ha ha . It is bearable . ”

His face was scrunched up, but he spoke in a cheerful manner . It seemed he had an affable personality .

“It seems you are still in a considerable amount of pain . ”

“I did suffer a pretty serious injury . Broken bones were the least of my problems . It was bad enough that I couldn’t recover fully even with the help of her healing magic . ”

Emily lowered her head . She felt as if this was all her fault . Tim patted her on the back .

“You shouldn’t feel any guilt . You did nothing wrong . I let my guard down . It was my fault for charging forward like that . ”

He had become excited when he realized he could kill this troublesome monster . At the very least, he should have paused long enough to check if the monster wasn’t incapable of putting up a resistance .

In hindsight, he was lucky to be alive . If he hadn’t worn his armor and if Emily wasn’t here, he would have met his end . His crumpled armor had already been unsummoned . The armor was dented so much that it had interfered with treatment of his wounds .

Sungyoon waited for both of them to stop talking . When Emily calmed down, he brought up the next order of business .

“I would like to settle the account now . ”

Sungyoon knew he looked a bit tactless, but he didn’t care . It wasn’t as if he would become friends with them . He put his life on the line to join the battle for only one reason .

“Before we do that, please take this . ”

Sungyoon took off the glove type Device, and he handed it over to her . Thanks to overclocking the Device, the two Purple Gem had turned completely gray . It would probably take a couple days for the two Gems to regain their normal color .

“I didn’t expect you to give it up so easily . I thought you would get greedy . ”

If Sungyoon had wanted to, he could have taken both Blue Gems and the Device . Tim and Emily were powerless to stop him right now, so they were prepared for that scenario . This was why Tim became a bit surprised . It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that Sungyoon had saved both their lives . It wouldn’t have been unreasonable if Sungyoon asked for all three items .

However, Sungyoon spoke in a cold manner .

“I’ll only take a Blue Gem . Full stop . That was the contract . ”

When making the deal, Emily hadn’t specified the quantity . Sungyoon was within his rights to ask for both Blue Gems . However, the Device wasn’t part of the contract .

“You are an honest person . ”

“I’m just a stickler for words . ”

That’s right . He was a stickler for how the contract was worded . He wasn’t honest, and he wasn’t kind . Those words shouldn’t be associated with him .

Tim looked a bit baffled when Sungyoon used a negative term like ‘stickler’ to describe himself . However, it was none of his business, so he let it go .

‘So, what should I give him?’

Tim thought for a moment as he reached for his Device .

“Please pick one . ”

Emily, who had received her glove from Sungyoon, pushed it towards him .

“Hey, Emily!”

She had been about to hand over her Gem, but Tim quickly grabbed her hand .

“I’ll give him mine . You should put that away . ”

However, Emily shook her head from side to side .

“I’m the one that made the deal with this person . Also, you always use all the Gems in your possession . I carry these as a backup . If we have to give him a Gem, I would prefer we give him mine . ”

Emily added another argument at the end .

“Anyways, I can’t really use them well even if I have them . ”

A deep feeling of helplessness had taken root in her voice . Even if she kept these items, she wouldn’t be able to do much with them .

However, Sungyoon didn’t care that Emily felt ineffectual . He kept his attention on the Blue Gems that she had thrust towards him .

‘I really should take this one . ’

Sungyoon pointed towards the right Gem .

“I’ll take the shield . ”

His shield had been destroyed, so he needed a new one . Moreover, he had been feeling the limitation of his previous shield . It had become damaged by attacks from the 3rd floor Slash Cats . His spear was still somewhat effective on the third floor . He had to upgrade his shield more so than his spear . In many ways, the choice was a no brainer .

After receiving the Blue Gem from Emily, Sungyoon was a bit moved as he looked at it . He had finally acquired a Blue Gem . Currently, the Blue Gem had lost all its luster, and it had turned into a gray color . Still, the fact remained that this was a Blue Gem . He finally checked one of the requirements needed to earn a Personal labyrinth .

However, Sungyoon pushed down on his excitement . There was still business to be done .

“These are the loot that dropped from the Bigfoot . ”

Sungyoon placed the Device and moonstone on the floor, so the both of them could get a good look at it .

“How will we distribute it?”

Tim and Emily looked at each other, and they nodded their heads .

“You can keep it all . ”

“... Are you sure about that?”

“It’s fine . ”

In no uncertain terms, Sungyoon had contributed the most in this battle . Even if he had already been paid for his help, he had fought a powerful opponent, and he had applied the killing blow . Tim and Emily had no qualms about giving all the loot to him .

“I won’t say no . ”

Sungyoon quickly put away the loot . The virtue of modesty can only be present in those that can afford it, and Sungyoon couldn’t afford to show it .

“May you guard us instead?”

Tim spoke .

“You want me to be your bodyguard?”

“Yes . As you can see, my body is in a rough state . Moreover, all of my Gems were overclocked, so they are sealed right now . ”

Sungyoon mulled over it . First, he assessed his current situation . The shield, which he had been using, was destroyed . His newly acquired shield was unusable for the near future . Fortunately, he hadn’t overclocked his spear for long, so he could still use it right now .

He felt uneasy about his current state of equipment, but he unexpectedly looked on the bright side .

‘The monsters on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd floor should cause no trouble to me . ’

A monster like the Bigfoot was an anomaly . It would be odd to find another one in this labyrinth . Moreover, there was another reason why he felt optimistic .

“Are you able to use more support magic?”

“Yes . Yes! I am able to cast it . I can also cast my healing magic . ”

Emily became surprised at the sudden question, but she immediately gave an affirmation .

‘If that is true . . . ’

He could keep these two safe without much problem . This might be preferable compared to exiting this place by himself .

Despite these thoughts, Sungyoon was firm in making his position known to these two . He hammered it home .

“If another monster like the Bigfoot appears again, I’m running away no matter what . ”

“If that happens, our lives will be forfeit anyways . ”

Tim shrugged his shoulders . If they ran across another monster of that caliber, he would just assume that god was out to get them . If that happened, he would give up his life, so his sister could run away . Of course, he would go down cursing the so-called god .

“Alright . Shall we go now?”

“Excuse me . Shouldn’t we let Tim rest a little bit . . . ”

“I’m fine, Emily . ”

Tim shook his head from side to side .

“Most of my wounds are healed thanks to your magic . It is painful, but I am able to walk . Moreover, we are still in a dangerous location . Even if it is painful, we have to get out of here . That’s the priority . ”

He spoke towards Sungyoon .

“Let’s go . ”

Sungyoon nodded as he summoned his spear .

Tim and Emily looked surprised as they looked at Sungyoon .

‘As expected, I wasn’t mistaken . ’

Tim watched Sungyoon summon his spear with barely a delay . It made him think .

There had been a chance that he had been mistaken, because he had been in pain from his wounds . However, he hadn’t been mistaken . Sungyoon could summon his weapons with surprising speed . When he struck the final blow against the Bigfoot, he had unsummoned his spear and instantly re-summoned the mace . Tim couldn’t replicate such a feat . He didn’t know anyone that could pull off this trick . Even the high ranked Connectors probably couldn’t do that .

The fact that Sungyoon had summoned a weapon in an instant meant that he could quickly activate the Gem . If Sungyoon used a Gem capable of casting magic, there would be no delay in casting the spells . He could fire them indiscriminately .

‘This person might become someone amazing in the future . ’

Tim quietly watched the back of Sungyoon, who had entered the tunnel first .