Chapter 68 – 68. The Unsettling Catacombs

I proceeded as guided by the gate navigation compass. It wasn’t until I passed through our neighborhood and reached the area near Dongyeong High School that I could vaguely hear the distinctive humming sound of the gate.

“Haa.. Fuck..”

The problem is that the direction from which the sound is coming is a neighborhood filled with old villas and dilapidated multi-family houses. There’s a gate somewhere in this place that looks like it’s going to be full of zombies.

“Wow…”

Zombies were lying all over the streets or disguised as corpses. The road is so narrow that no matter how hard you try to hide your presence, you will be caught if you pass by. It will be difficult to hide your presence even with a recognition-impairing ring.

Once aggro is drawn, you will have to deal with all the zombies you don’t know how many.

“Fuck.. What the heck..”

I am the one who chopped up 70 gangsters and killed them all. As long as you don’t get surrounded by zombies, you will be able to survive in that zombie field.

‘The problem is keeping zombies from crowding around the gate…’

You must either remove the aggro well, or kill all the unknown number of zombies here before entering the labyrinth. I cleared the labyrinth and came out, but if it was full of zombies, I might have been bitten before I could even come to my senses.

Well, it is impossible to kill all the zombies in this neighborhood and enter the gate due to time constraints, so it would be better to first figure out the exact location of the gate. I blindly headed towards the direction from which the sound was coming.

“Wow..”

“Wow. “Khaaa.. Kaaaaa..!!”

As expected, the distance between the roads was so narrow that I was caught by zombies as soon as I got close. Zombies get more excited when they see people and cry out loud, so it was necessary to kill them as soon as they found them.

Wow!!!

He swung the machete, smashed the zombies’ heads and cut off their throats.

Due to the skill effect of the Samjae Sword Technique, I was able to almost master cutting, stabbing, and blocking, and thanks to the reinforcement of the blade and the zombie slayer’s machete, the blade became incredibly sharp, so I was able to kill zombies by cutting them like cutting tofu. .

“Haa.. Haa..”

Fortunately, there were very few of them gathered together and they were all moving around separately, so we caught and killed them one by one and easily reached the front of the house where the gate was presumed to be.

“Whoa… Um..?”

However, when I got closer, I saw that the blue gate of an old, shabby multi-family house with peeling paint was somehow ajar. Moreover, something was caught while observing the traces.

‘Footprints… Fuck… There’s a passenger.’

Bloody shoe prints. Someone went in here about 15 minutes ago. There is a high probability that he is another survivor who came here to find the gate. Maybe he saw me approaching while killing zombies and hid somewhere in this multi-family house.

Or maybe he was a murderer who specialized in targeting people who entered and exited the labyrinth, like those crazy pain lovers from yesterday.

Moreover, judging from the words of the soldiers, it was said that there were quite a lot of Awakened deserters… In many ways, I couldn’t let down my guard. This is because the survival level of those who were in the military would have risen significantly, so there was a possibility that they would be pushed out in simple physical ability.

‘Presence detected… ‘

I closed my eyes and sensed signs nearby. Soon, about a dozen signs were detected.

“Twelve…”

Due to the penalty for detecting presence, I had to reveal even the slightest presence detected. Anyway, there were as many as 12 signs around here, and a total of 3 signs were detected inside this house.

What is important is that there is only one footprint at the entrance. So, this would mean that there are a total of three zombies, including the one that was originally in this house and the one that came here now.

The guy hiding in the warehouse over there is probably a survivor. You are holding your breath and hoping that I will just pass by.

-Jerbuk.. Jerbuk…

I went through the worn-out blue gate and went inside. Judging from the sounds I hear, the gate is upstairs. If you go up the stairs immediately after entering the gate, you can head to the gate.

‘This guy first went upstairs… Then he killed all the zombies upstairs and came back down and hid in the warehouse… Why didn’t he go through the gate? Could it be that the survival level was not enough? That would be highly likely…’

The entry requirements were too high for him to enter, so he may have hid in the warehouse and waited for another survivor to come.

If you don’t get through the gate in the morning, it will be closed anyway, so check to see if there are any other visitors until then, and if you find that no one is coming, just go back on your way.〈 Br〉

‘It looks like he was checking outside through the crack in the warehouse door.. He must have noticed that I came and was quite nervous..’

A slightly opened gap in the warehouse door. He must have been observing me through that gap. How scared would I be? Wouldn’t he be quite shocked if he found out that I had already noticed him?.

Without the slightest hesitation, I approached the small warehouse. It looks like he’s still holding his breath, waiting for me to come closer.

They probably want to attack as soon as they reach a certain distance.

-Rattle.

Sure enough, as I approached the door, he came out from inside and stabbed me with a dagger dripping with green liquid.

“This bastard…”

I already knew they were going to attack, but it was still a shame. You’re just stabbing me with no intention of talking.

This can’t be helped. First, since his life he was threatened, even if he kills, it is in self-defense.

Just brushing against that dagger dripping with green liquid would be fatal. So I dodged the guy’s attack by backing away and at the same time cut off his head with a machete.

Even if the posture was disturbed, the attack was surprisingly effective due to the skill effect of Samjae Geombeom.

-Puchut..!! Puhwaaaaah!!!

Blood spurted from the wound in his neck like a burst hose, as his artery had been clearly slit. The guy seemed embarrassed and tried to stop the bleeding by grabbing his neck with his left hand, but it wasn’t enough.

In the end, he the dagger dripping with poison that had been threatening me dropped until the end, and fell down and died.

I checked the skills he had. Since he was killed without any chance of using his ability detect his, we were only able to confirm it now.

[Unlock (A)]

[Effect: You can open a locked door or safe just by touching it.]

[Handicap: The magical seal cannot be broken.]

[Penalty: Each time you use the unlock, your tongue will stiffen and you will be unable to speak for 1 hour. If you do not speak for more than a day, your language function declines.]

“This…”

The guy I just killed had the same skills that Seunghee had. It is truly a skill like a master key. Because it opens everything.

“If you give it to Seunghee, she will be upgraded to S class.. Awesome..”

If it is strengthened, handicaps and penalties will disappear. Maybe the skill effect will be further strengthened and then end. Anyway, it’s good to get duplicate skills. Because you can get reinforcements for free.

“For some reason, the door was open… And this guy opened it and came in. Hehe..”

I quickly searched the dead Awakened guy’s arms.

First of all, the dagger he was holding. It was probably a reward obtained after conquering the labyrinth.

[Shaman’s Ceremonial Dagger: When fed with a magic stone, paralyzing poison flows from the blade of the dagger for 1 minute.] [Durability 13/15]

It was a simple but highly effective weapon. Because it is an item that can subdue the opponent rather than just kill them.

“Oh..”

From the bag he was carrying on his back he was a leather pouch containing 12 lowest-grade magic stones, several types of labyrinth drugs, and an old fairy tale. Additionally, there were as many as three strengthening rune stones.

It looks like this guy made quite a lot of money in the labyrinth. Seeing that he carried it around so carefully in his bag, couldn’t it have been the dead man’s own treasures?

“This is my first time seeing the Rune Stone of Ganghwa.. Wow..”

[Rune Stone of Strengthening: Can strengthen identified items. The rune stone will be destroyed after one use. As the reinforcement level increases, the probability of reinforcement failure increases.]

It is said that the probability of failure increases as the level of reinforcement increases, but there did not seem to be any cases of the item breaking. And when it comes to items, they can all be strengthened, and there is no particular limit to the number of times they can be strengthened.

Wouldn’t it be possible to get to level 99 or higher if you just collect hundreds of strengthening rune stones and keep hitting them until you reach them? If possible, I think something quite interesting would happen.

“Hehe. Thank you.”

I opened my eyes, closed the dead guy’s eyes, and shook out all the things in my bag. I especially liked the strengthening rune stone.

With this, I obtained five reinforcement consumables.

“One intermediate bloodstone… One evolution rune stone, three strengthening rune stones…”

If you put them all into one item, it would be quite an incredible weapon.

‘It’s a waste of mid-level bloodstone to hit it with a machete… ‘

Since quality maintenance was already in effect, it was a bit of a waste to insert a mid-level bloodstone that had a self-repair function. Then, I thought about just doing a little strengthening with the strengthening rune stones, but right now, in this state, it’s quite usable…

For some reason, I felt like I could get a better weapon if I waited a little longer.

“Can’t one Awakened corpse be traded?”

[Trade not possible. Minimum of 2 or more possible.]

Unfortunately, it seems that spiritual and physical transactions are not possible with a single awakened corpse. If there were two people, we would have been able to get 3 stat points. The standards are strangely high.

However, I can’t take this body with me, so I have to go through the gate quickly.

“Sssssha…”

I quickly ran up the stairs and entered the house from which the sound was coming. Of course, since it was a door lock, even if he opened it once, the door was locked again after it was closed, so he opened the door by unlocking it and went in.

“Uhm…”

He said his tongue became stiff and he really couldn’t speak. The tongue movement is also slightly unnatural and a little uncomfortable. This is what Seunghee feels. Due to the trace observation, I talked to myself a lot, and it was a little difficult to bear it as my tongue became stiff.

I have to mutter to myself to reduce the number of random thoughts, but since this penalty stacks up, the number of random thoughts continues to increase. Also, if I use Presence Detection in this state, what happens to the penalty for Presence Detection? The results of the detection are revealed anyway…

As expected, I should just give this to Seunghee.

Anyway, if I had to choose between trace observation and unlocking, I think trace observation is more useful.

If you have trace observation, you can figure out what happened just by looking at the traces, as if you were the main character of a mystery novel.

-Kkii Iik…

Anyway, I carefully closed the door and went straight into the main room where the gate was created.

-Wow…

A brightly shining blue gate.

The liver is a labyrinth.

[Difficulty: Intermediate to High]

[Labyrinth Name: Disturbing Catacombs]

[Entry conditions: Survival level 8 or higher]

[Imposed goal: Kill the owner of the labyrinth and destroy the altar]

[Goal achievement reward: blue reward box (1), green reward box (1)]

[Capacity: 3/5]

“Hmm…”

Although this is an upper-middle level labyrinth, the level of difficulty seems to be quite high.

‘The owner of the labyrinth… And the destruction of the altar..’

I could see why the previous visitor had not entered. The survival level itself was high enough that you had to be level 8 to enter, and the goal required seemed quite brutal.

‘Is there anything special..’

There was no time to worry. Since I’ve come this far, I need to go in and quickly kill the guy who thinks he’s the owner of the labyrinth and come out.

I stretched out my hand toward the gate.

Soon my body was sucked into the disturbing underground tomb.