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#57. Awakening

[The vast territory that covers the entire 9th Floor is sufficient to be called a kingdom. And you, who have risen to the rank of Highlord, are qualified to be called a king.]

[Highlord Kim Jin-Woo has become the ‘True King’ of the 9th Floor.]

[The existing labyrinth is changing.]

[No one can enter or leave the 9th Floor until the changes are complete.]

When the chain of messages ended, the world began to shake. The ceiling shook as if it was about to collapse at any moment, and the floor shook violently as well.

[Time to Completion: 359:59:54]

***

The first to feel the changes were the 11th Floor Counts.

Kaaaaargh!

A gigantic Moai, that must have been a renowned Noble once but was now a mere beast with a broken body and mind, let out an otherworldly scream. It appeared close to death, and it was just its luck that its opponent was none other than Iron-Blooded Anatolius.

However, just as Anatolius was about to strike the final blow with his iron sword, he froze for some reason.

“Lord Anatolius!” a subordinate cried. Anatolius was jolted awake, coming to his senses after the Moai’s ear-piercing scream. In front of him was the Moai’s noticeably trembling figure.

The Moai then rushed toward Anatolius like a tidal wave that seemed desperate to drown him out, as if this tactic were its last hope of staying alive. Anatolius instinctively raised his sword and deflected the wave of attacks. Despite its seemingly imposing threat, the Moai’s body was easily ripped to shreds, and its severed torso melted away hastily into the darkness.

“I’ve been had.” Anatolius laughed bitterly upon the realization that he had squandered his chance to catch the Moai chieftain, who had been harassing his estate for a long time. But just moments later, he stared into the darkness with a serious expression. “What is this…”

Just before he could destroy the giant Moai’s core, he had felt a familiar yet strange wave of power. The wave had been so wild and ferocious that he had even become blind to the presence of his enemy. He had lost a long-awaited opportunity, but that didn’t matter anymore. What concerned him more at the moment was the wave of unknown power echoing through the Underworld, rather than dealing with the enemy chieftain leading a thousand Moai.

The wave of energy spread out like an explosion from its epicenter somewhere in the darkness, before receding back to its origin. It felt too familiar to him. It was oddly similar to the burst of light emitted during the birth of a new labyrinth in the Underworld.

But that didn’t make sense. The energy he felt hadn’t originated from the 11th Floor, at the very least. It was such a powerful force that he could feel it on an entirely different floor of the Underworld. Before he knew it, he was shaking his head.

If the birth of a single labyrinth was powerful enough to affect the other floors, it would indicate that a labyrinth belonging to a Duke, at the very least, had been born. But as far as he knew, not one Noble was capable of rising to the title of Duke.

“My King!” Anatolius’ train of thought was broken by his subordinate’s cries. His subordinate’s expression seemed impatient rather than doubtful, as he asked for orders to pursue the escaped Moai.

“If we leave things as they are, we’ll lose track of the enemy!” the knight wearing an iron mask shouted repeatedly at Anatolius, who appeared as if he were wandering in a dream. “Your orders!?”

“Ah, divide the troops into three and chase the enemy’s main forces…” Anatolius got halfway through giving orders, before suddenly falling silent again as his expression stiffened. The pulsating wave of power surged for a moment and then disappeared.

“The Nagas…” At that moment, Iron-Blooded Anatolius was reminded of the King of the Nagas, who had been biding his time on the 9th Floor. For some reason, Anatolius felt that this strange phenomenon must have something to do with him.

And it wasn’t just Anatolius who had come to this conclusion. At the same time, Denarion of Nightmares and Parthenon of Despair, who both had ties to the 9th Floor, were also reminded of the King of the Nagas.

***

While the Deep Floor Counts were bewildered as they watched the situation from the fringes of the catastrophe occurring on the 9th Floor, those residing on the 9th Floor were witnessing it from the center of it all.

The labyrinths adjacent to the Fortress, including the Land of Greed, began to change first.

“Huh? Huh?” Uther exclaimed, confused by the sudden vibration; he had been sitting on his throne, watching the video feed transmitted by his Slime Masses. If not for his slimy body, he would have fallen from his throne and ended up looking rather pathetic.

“Nobody saw that, right?” Uther coughed before looking around and sitting on his throne again, when he found a lump of slime clinging onto the ceiling and staring down at him.

“Ahem.” Even the silly Uther wanted to reign like an honorable king in his labyrinth, and he had an image to uphold. He coughed at the Slime Mass, albeit in vain. Those lumps were like his own children, but it was times like this that he had no idea what was going on in their heads… Or maybe they had no capacity to think at all in the first place.

Crash!

Uther was shaken awake from his nonsensical thoughts, and his body tensed up at the repeating vibrations. “W-what is that?” Belatedly realizing that something serious was going on, he tried to grasp the situation, but before he knew it, a sudden swarm of lights engulfed him.

“K-kaaargh! Help me!” He let out one last scream before being swallowed whole by the brilliant white flash of light.

The same situation was occurring throughout the rest of the 9th Floor labyrinths. The ground shook, and the ceiling sank. But instead of dust, blinding haloes of light rose from the ground before engulfing the labyrinths one by one.

By the time Kim Jin-Woo noticed this abnormality, all the 9th Floor labyrinths had already been submerged in the light. The haloes surrounding the labyrinths denied his approach, and he was forced to return to the Fortress without meeting anyone.

And soon after, even the Naga’s Fortress was immersed in the pure white light, just like the other labyrinths. The only difference was that, unlike the other labyrinths, the halo of light engulfing the Fortress didn’t deny his approach.

In the blinding white world, he barely managed to find the master room and called out, “Dominique!”

Usually, she would have appeared immediately, but she was nowhere to be seen. And neither were Quantus and his other subordinates. It was as if he had been thrown into this cold Underworld to live by himself.

All of this happened after his ascension to Highlord.

[Until changes are complete: 311:38:24]

The Fortress status window was also not visible. All he could see was a number that kept counting down.

“How maddening,” Kim Jin-Woo muttered.

He couldn’t open portals, so he couldn’t retreat to the surface. If the countdown timer indicated anything, it meant that he would have to stay alone in the Underworld until the timer expired. It was a miserable thought to entertain. After all, the Underworld wasn’t the best of places for someone to stay in alone with nothing to do.

Perhaps due to the circumstances, he was moved by the appearance of Morrigan, something he would normally dislike.

Ever since Kim Jin-Woo’s ascension to Highlord, Morrigan’s attitude toward him had completely changed. She walked lightly toward him before kneeling and saying, “My Master.”

“What the hell is going on?” Kim Jin-Woo asked.

With everyone’s disappearance, he had hoped that Morrigan, the sole person to remain by his side, would have some answers as to what was going on. But his delight was short-lived. Morrigan too knew nothing of the ongoing situation, as she was bewildered herself.

“Fuck,” Kim Jin-Woo swore. In the end, this meant he had no choice but to simply wait it out.

Time passed freely. Even after a week, the world was as white as ever, and the only living things present were Morrigan and Kim Jin-Woo himself. Precious time that could have been used meaningfully if he had anticipated this situation had wasted away in vain.

As Kim Jin-Woo thought of the Deep Floor Counts who were doing their best to push the Moai out of their Underworld, he felt an even greater sense of wasted time. Thus, he immediately got to work on anything he could use to prepare for the upcoming battle.

The first thing he did was absorb the Nobles’ seals that he had obtained from the war with the 10th Floor. It wasn’t a massive change, but just by absorbing the seals, he could feel his strength slightly increasing. Kim Jin-Woo decided to spar with Morrigan to gauge his increased strength levels.

Morrigan transformed into her battle-ready crow form, exuding even greater sinister energy than before. Because the world had turned white, the black energy emanating from her body was even more prominent. She was like an undesirable stain tainting a pure white cloth.

“Put your back into it,” Kim Jin-Woo said.

Morrigan ominous aura and the scent of death began to slowly spread around her, before it exploded out in all directions.

“You didn’t have to tell me, because I was about to anyway.” Morrigan’s deep voice echoed throughout the depths of the labyrinth, and Kim Jin-Woo was startled awake. Morrigan, who had been gentle as if she had been walking through a field of flowers, suddenly turned wild as if she were facing an enemy.

“Please be careful. This Death Crow sometimes sings the song of death, even if she doesn’t desire it.” Morrigan called herself the Death Crow as she started spreading her wings.

As expected, Morrigan was now incomparable to her previous self, after regaining the name of Death Crow from her resonance with the fragment of the One-Eyed Lord.

Whoosh!

The ominous flapping of her wings resounded in all directions, and her stiff feathers sprayed out in tandem. Kim Jin-Woo casually avoided dozens of feathers just by shifting his body. But the black feathers persisted, as if they had a tracking ability.

In the end, instead of avoiding the feathers, Kim Jin-Woo drew his sword from his waist and swung it around. Dozens of black feathers bounced off with a heavy impact.

Crack!

The feathers dug into the floor and ceiling, shattering the hard stone to pieces.

“Mmm.” However, while Kim Jin-Woo was dealing with the black feathers’ attack, he lost track of Morrigan. As a result, he frowned as he saw Morrigan’s claws reaching for his heart.

“Do you know what your problem is, Master?” Morrigan whispered as she stared at Kim Jin-Woo, whose thoughts were written all over his face. “Master is definitely strong. But your strength isn’t absolute.”

There was no reason for him to not fight back, but he found it unnecessary to overextend himself when it wasn’t even a real battle. Thus, he stayed silent as he held back his discomfort.

“You lack experience, Master,” Morrigan added.

It hadn’t been easy for Kim Jin-Woo to maintain his title of Undefeated Commander. And yet, Morrigan was telling him that he lacked experience.

“Truth be told, there aren’t many out there that are more powerful than Master. At most, some of the Deep Floor Counts are on par with you in terms of pure strength. And in fact, Master had never been defeated, even against unfavorable numbers. But what if your enemy didn’t approach using numbers, but with even greater power than yours?” Morrigan asked. Only then did Kim Jin-Woo understand the point she was trying to make.

“Of all the opponents Master has ever faced, Boreas was the strongest. He’s good, but he’s only a 10th Floor Baron,” Morrigan said, and she was right. The only powerful beings Kim Jin-Woo had had to face were the 10th Floor Nobles, not the 11th Floor Counts.

Although he had demonstrated the superiority of his overwhelming power against them, it didn’t necessarily mean that he had a lot of experience dealing with truly powerful opponents. The opponents he would have to deal with in the near future were the Deep Floor Counts, and eventually, he would even have to deal with the Duke and the Usurper.

“What should I do?” Kim Jin-Woo asked as his expression turned serious. He was ready to throw away that frivolous pride of his.

“It’s more important for Master to be able to properly utilize your abilities than to develop your strength. Master’s body has an immense amount of power and potential that has yet to be fully tapped. And the fastest way to unleash that is…” Morrigan’s claws tightened over Kim Jin-Woo’s heart. As he felt the pain piercing through his flesh, Kim Jin-Woo swung his sword reflexively.

“Practice,” Morrigan finished.

Whoosh.

With a flap of her wings, she started to fly around once again.