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Chapter 216

At first glance, those words sounded meaningless, but the hidden meaning behind them was very clear: Among the Deep Floor Dukes, there was a traitor. With that certainty, Kim Jin-Woo stared into Mimir’s eyes as he fell deep into thought.

Although the Underworld was bound by absolute systems such as the Mysteries and its own laws, that was also its weakness. Even the Counts were trying to blindside the Usurper, who was no different from the King of the Underworld, in their attempt to gain the power of the Ancient Lords. In such a situation, it wasn’t surprising that there was someone among the Deep Floor Dukes who had chosen to side with Mimir.

However, one thing that Kim Jin-Woo had to make certain of was which beings were his allies and which were his enemies.

“For that matter, even if it’s a request from my Lord, I’m unable to tell you. I’ve sworn on the Mysteries of the Underworld.” Mimir seemed to have read Kim Jin-Woo’s inner thoughts, as he spoke up first. “It was only with such safety measures that they could afford to trust and deal with me,” he responded nonchalantly.

Kim Jin-Woo couldn’t help but let out a sigh. He activated the Eyes of Truth just in case, but as usual, he couldn’t read the crafty imp. However, now that he knew that the Eyes of Truth were meant for combat use thanks to his encounter with the Mystical Spear’s memories, he wasn’t too surprised.

“Let me ask you one thing,” he began.

“Please do. If it’s something I can answer, I’ll do so to the best of my abilities.” In the end, what Mimir really meant was that he would twist his words in a way that was comfortable to him.

However, Kim Jin-Woo was undeterred and asked his question. “Is the Spider Duke one of them?”

Mimir didn’t answer. As expected, the Eyes of Truth weren’t able to get through him. However, based on Mimir’s slight hesitation and his facial expression changes, Kim Jin-Woo was able to get an answer.

“So it’s not the Spider Duke.” He breathed a sigh of relief. He absolutely would have hated it if the situation turned out to be that he wouldn’t be able to get his revenge against the Spider Duke. Although his feelings had been diluted greatly through his several awakenings, his resentment toward the Hell Spiders was still deep.

“Fine, I’ll put my worries aside,” he finally said.

“Were you worried?” Mimir asked with a surprised expression.

“Well…” Instead of answering, Kim Jin-Woo vaguely trailed off mid-sentence.

Hadn’t Mimir said so himself? That nothing in the Underworld was eternal? Kim Jin-Woo had no intention of having meaningless faith in some old remnants of past loyalty.

In fact, had things gone south, Kim Jin-Woo had been ready to force Mimir to reveal where the Eternal Treasury was located, but that was only for him to know. After all, Mimir was still of use to him for now.

***

After returning to the Grand Labyrinth, Kim Jin-Woo placed Ortehaga in the depths of the labyrinth and had someone watch over him. His combat abilities were formidable, but there were many issues with him that prevented Kim Jin-Woo from making use of him immediately. The fact that the Dragon Emperor was backing the Drakan meant that making use of Ortehaga would have to be on hold for a while longer.

Kim Jin-Woo sat on his throne, silently immersed in deep thought. The Grand Labyrinth had grown by two stages, and he himself had made incomparable progress compared to before. The balance between his mind and body had been broken and he had been unable to utilize his strength, but through training in the illusionary world, he had been able to become a true Lord.

But nevertheless, the Underworld was still riddled with danger, and he couldn’t afford to underestimate the enemies of both him and his labyrinth.

“No, let’s not rush into things.” Kim Jin-Woo sighed, speaking to himself.

Only two years had passed since he had first settled down in the Underworld. The enemies around him were still a threat as he got closer and closer to the Deep Floors, but that didn’t mean he had stayed stagnant throughout his journey.

His nemesis, the Hell Spider Duke, who had once been so far away and out of reach, was now in close proximity, waiting to be captured by his hand. That was a significant enough development in his journey for revenge.

“Now there are just two floors left.”

The 10th Floor was virtually destroyed, and the 11th Floor Dukes were slowly dying out, carrying the poison vessels that were the restored Grand Labyrinths. In fact, his only real opponents were the 12th Floor Dukes, so Kim Jin-Woo made up his mind to keep moving on.

In the past, he would have only focused on the enemies in front of him, but he had achieved much spiritual growth in the process, and was able to reflect deeply on his actions and motivations.

In his hand, he held the heart of the Sea Dragon that he had obtained from the Dragon Emperor. The moment he used the Sea Dragon’s Heart, he and his labyrinth would leap forward one step further.

But the Underworld once again made sure that nothing would go smoothly his way.

Kwoooooosh.

An inexorable vibration suddenly shook the Grand Labyrinth. The ice wall of the frozen Grand Labyrinth cracked and its ceiling collapsed.

[The outer area of the Grand Labyrinth has been destroyed.]

[The carefully installed traps and facilities have been damaged.]

[The residence of the Night-Mares[1] and the residence of the Dwarves have been destroyed.]

[The current level of damage exceeds 20% of the Grand Labyrinth’s total durability.]

[The damage will increase even further if manpower is not promptly allocated to repair the structural damage.]

Kim Jin-Woo frowned at the messages that almost seemed to be taunting him. Who the hell would be available to do repair work in the middle of such tremors?

“Dominique!” Kim Jin-Woo called loudly amid the tremors that didn’t subside no matter how long he waited.

“Master!” Dominique immediately appeared, as if she had been on standby for his orders.

“Dominique! Damage report!” Kim Jin-Woo commanded.

“Currently, the Naga Rangers and Under-Elves are busy trying to figure out the situation, but it’s not easy because additional damage is occurring!” Dominique replied.

Kim Jin-Woo cursed under his breath. “I can’t catch a break at all! Fucking Underworld!” All he could do was hope that the sudden earthquake would end as soon as possible.

The earthquake continued all night. And when the tremors that seemed as if they could collapse the entire Underworld finally ended, the situation in the Grand Labyrinth was beyond miserable.

The Grand Labyrinth that had only just been upgraded thanks to Daedalus’ hard work was quickly destroyed overnight.

[70% of the outer area of the Grand Labyrinth has been destroyed.]

[50% of the center of the Grand Labyrinth has been destroyed.]

[Most of the carefully installed traps and facilities have been damaged.]

[Most of the residents’ settlements have been destroyed, and among them, the residences of the Night-Mares and the Dwarves were almost completely destroyed.]

[The Grand Labyrinth is currently at less than 40% of its total durability.]

[You are highly encouraged to quickly restore the destroyed labyrinth. Currently, the Grand Labyrinth is more vulnerable to an invasion than ever before. Also, if the repair work on the labyrinth is delayed, the Grand Labyrinth will start devouring its inhabitants to repair the damage done.]

The Grand Labyrinth that had proudly boasted its majesty thanks to the Labyrinth Architect was almost completely destroyed. It was truly a dire situation.

However, thanks to all the effort that had gone into protecting the Labyrinth Cores, it had been prevented from completely collapsing. Still, that didn’t undermine how serious the situation was.

“Damage report!” Kim Jin-Woo commanded.

“Fortunately, the damage sustained by the troops wasn’t severe! Only a few Rangers were caught in the collapse, but most of the troops are relatively unharmed!” Dominique replied.

Although the troops hadn’t sustained much damage, Kim Jin-Woo wondered if there had ever been a time when the labyrinth was in this much of a crisis. Compared to the damage done to the labyrinth now, the damage it had suffered during the war with the Basilisk King was mere child’s play.

“How’s the situation for the resident races?” he asked.

The Nagas had been fortunate enough to escape any serious danger, but Kim Jin-Woo was concerned about the situation of the different races residing within the Grand Labyrinth, as they were stuck within their own residential compounds. After all, the residences of the Night-Mares and the Dwarves had been completely destroyed.

“We’re still assessing the situation.” Covered in minor wounds, possibly from debris fragments, Dominique replied with a pale face.

“Urgh. Dominique, take care of your wounds first. I’ll take care of the rest,” Kim Jin-Woo said.

It wasn’t difficult for Dominique to treat her wounds, thanks to her healing spells. However, knowing Dominique and her strong sense of responsibility, without his intervention, she would have ignored her own wounds and would have blindly worked on the situation in front of her instead. Thus, he gave the order to force her to rest, and left the master room.

“This is just miserable.”

Fortunately, the Labyrinth Cores had been stored in the master room, so they were hardly damaged at all. However, the moment Kim Jin-Woo left the master room, what awaited him was a totally different sight.

The well-polished ice walls, which had shone like mirrors, had completely crumbled. The hidden foundations of the labyrinth had been revealed, and the floor was filled with cracks and pits everywhere.

Sssh!

The Nagas were working hard to open up the damaged passageway, but they had barely managed to restore it to half its usual size. The damage was so severe that it was almost hard to believe that this was indeed the mighty Grand Labyrinth of Greed.

“We’ve barely made it out alive,” Kim Jin-Woo remarked.

It seemed that even for the mighty Underworld beings, there was nothing scarier than a powerful, unexpected earthquake. Frightened members of different races from all across the Underworld gathered to raise their grievances.

“Assess the situation and report back to me,” Kim Jin-Woo ordered.

Unlike the Nagas who were free to roam the labyrinth, these members of the different races were unable to leave their respective residences, and it was overwhelming just to take care of each individual race.

However, if Kim Jin-Woo were to ignore them and let them be, he felt that it would only add to the casualty count, and thus he took the initiative to organize the situation. He muttered to himself, “I’ll go crazy because of this.”

The damage done was unfathomable. Despite the fact that there had been a large number of different migrant races residing in the labyrinth just before the earthquake, the number of surviving races now was lower than the initial number that had existed when they first arrived at the Grand Labyrinth. It was clear just how many had died from the disaster.

The only solace was that the residence of the Dwarves, which had been completely destroyed, was a relatively small one.

“I just happened to pass by when the earthquake suddenly struck, and I couldn’t help but be worried for the Dwarves,” Uther said as he spread his body thin and supported the ceiling to prevent it from collapsing.

Below Uther, Malaxus and the other dwarves gathered, and it was obvious as to whom the Dwarves were indebted to for surviving the disaster.

Unlike the Dwarves, who were able to safely escape from the disaster thanks to Uther’s quick thinking, the Night-Mares had all been completely annihilated.

However, their deaths were not simply because of the earthquake, as their pale corpses lay all across their living quarters, completely drained of blood. Unidentifiable characters and figures were written all across their residence, and their frozen corpses lay scattered around, not having decayed due to the Frost. It was truly a terrifying sight.

“This is crazy,” Kim Jin-Woo muttered. But he wasn’t talking about the horror of the devastation. He was referring to the madness of the Queen.

He realized that it was Ariane herself who had killed her Night-Mares. It was obvious that she had sacrificed the entire race of Night-Mares in order to defeat her formidable enemy, Denarion.

However, despite her ambitious sacrifice of her own Night-Mares, her fight with Denarion had yet to come to a conclusion, as she was still in a deep sleep without waking up from the terrible earthquake.

“Urgh, put some Nagas over here to watch over her, and report back to me when she wakes up. Restoration of the Night-Mares’ residences takes last priority,” Kim Jin-Woo ordered.

With no residents to reside in, there was no need for immediate restoration of the Night-Mares’ living quarters. It was possible that Ariane’s fight would only result in her losing all her Night-Mares. If that happens, the residence of the Night-Mares would become even more useless.

After looking around the Grand Labyrinth for himself and seeing how much more serious the situation was than the message windows had implied, Kim Jin-Woo wasted no effort in making use of his down gems to quickly restore the labyrinth.

The Grand Labyrinth, which had been moaning gloomily until that moment, was starting to growl violently. If the damage was left unattended, the survivors of the earthquake would end up in the stomach of the Grand Labyrinth.

It seemed that using the Sea Dragon’s Heart to upgrade the labyrinth would have to be put on hold. Kim Jin-Woo had to avoid allowing the Grand Labyrinth to consume the Sea Dragon’s Heart for its restoration rather than its upgrade at all costs.

While they were busy with the repair work, a guest arrived.

“Master would like to pass on the message that the first stage of restoration will begin soon, and you should make the necessary preparations.” The messenger sent by Catherine the Wailing Lord smiled bitterly at the devastation of the labyrinth. “However, it looks as if it’s already happened, so this is now awkward for me.”

1. Previously called Nightmares as an amalgamation of ‘Nightmare’ and ‘Mare’, they’ll now be called ‘Night-Mares’ to distinguish from the normal ‘Nightmares’. ☜