Chapter 203: Soon to Become the Dungeon King?

The unexpected suggestion brought the entire party of adventurers to a stunned halt.

Especially Captain Brody, who stood frozen for several heartbeats before finally snapping out of his stupor. With an awkward laugh, he tried to smooth things over.

“Haha… Surely, our lovely elf lady is only joking, right?”

Who among them hadn’t heard the legends of the Super Labyrinth—the Selm Labyrinth? It was said that somewhere on the twelfth floor, a device existed that could control the entire labyrinth. Whoever mastered it would become the true sovereign of this vast underground domain.

But it was only a rumor—no one had ever managed to prove it. And with how deadly even the tenth floor was, what hope did a party like theirs—lacking even a single Legacy-level Transcendent—have of strolling into the twelfth? Wouldn’t they be crushed before they even realized what had happened?

So why would Eileen bring this up now?

At this crucial moment, Oshu’s mind—clouded by stress—finally cleared enough to process the situation. He couldn’t help but look at his companion in confusion. He knew Eileen wasn’t one to speak nonsense.

“Mm… Of course, the rumor about a control device on the twelfth floor? That was something the elves themselves spread,” Eileen replied, as if remarking on the weather.

Her casual words detonated like a thunderclap among the group. Adventurers who’d just been feigning indifference now stared in disbelief.

Even Oshu, the Hero himself, was floored. He’d never heard anything like this.

“This… this is related to the elves?” he stammered.

Eileen rarely spoke of elven matters, and given her people’s legendary secrecy, Oshu had never pressed for details. Yet now, the first thing she revealed was an earth-shattering secret.

Should he chalk it up to “that’s just how elves are”? They always seemed to defy expectations.

“That’s right. Elves have little contact with the outside world, so humans generally don’t know. In fact, there’s probably only one elf active in human lands at the moment—so you all are privy to a true secret.”

Eileen pressed her palms together and smiled sweetly at the crowd. Her gentle voice was so enchanting it seemed to captivate every human heart present.

“Thousands of years ago, in the Age of Gods, there was an elf whose power nearly rivaled the gods themselves. That elf ventured into this labyrinth and, using the power of a fallen deity, transformed it.”

“The original plan was to relocate the entire elven race here if the war went poorly, to preserve the bloodline. But in the end, the elves won. With their territory shrunk and the outside world abandoned, they simply gave up on that plan.”

No one present had ever heard such a secret. If a human had said this, everyone would have dismissed it as idle gossip. But this was no ordinary person—this was a rumored elf, and a breathtaking one at that.

Could any human know more about elves than an elf herself? And how could someone so beautiful be lying, especially at a moment like this?

“So you’re saying the device that controls the entire dungeon is real, and it’s connected to the elves?” someone finally asked.

Eileen giggled, covering her mouth. “Well, saying it controls the entire dungeon is a bit of an exaggeration. At the very least, the monsters here don’t obey the controller’s commands…”

Then she changed tack, dangling the true temptation everyone was waiting for.

“But there is a way to change the labyrinth’s layout—to freely alter the paths to some extent, check the distribution of resources… even find a safe route out.”

A collective gasp swept through the crowd.

A safe route out of the labyrinth? If they could find this control device, they could escape at will. And what did it mean to check the distribution of resources?

“Miss Elf, these… resources…” one of the adventurers stammered, his voice trembling.

For any adventurer—whether full-time or moonlighting—the one thing they always lacked, regardless of their Level, was the right materials: rare ingredients, minerals, plants, special liquids. These were precisely what the labyrinth produced!

And this was the Selm Labyrinth—one of the world’s top ten dungeons. Whatever rare resource you needed, odds were you could find it here. Some things were so scarce that no amount of money could buy them.

They’d believed survival was the best they could hope for, but now fortune seemed to be smiling upon them.

“If there’s something you need, I can even help shape the terrain so you can harvest it—so long as you promise to keep what happens here secret. Of course, don’t get greedy. If we take too long, there’s no guarantee nothing will go wrong. Our main goal is still to escape the labyrinth.”

“Understood, understood! Thank you so much, Miss Elf!”

So all they had to do was keep quiet, and they’d get out alive? The adventurers’ terror evaporated, replaced by giddy relief. Even the clergy among them forgot, for a moment, that they were still in mortal danger.

“Only a beautiful and kind-hearted elf and a righteous hero would help us like this!”

“If our leader wasn’t the Hero, we’d probably have been silenced and fed to monsters by now—instead of being given a chance to escape.”

Someone blurted it out, only to realize too late. But nobody cared. With hope restored, no one took offense.

“Mm.” The respectful, awestruck tone lightened Oshu’s mood as well.

Since meeting Lin Wei, it had been nothing but one disaster after another. Was his luck finally turning now that Lin Wei was gone?

Watching the jubilant adventurers, Oshu couldn’t help but smile. But then a dark thought flashed through his mind.

Why not just kill them all?

He’d never heard of a control device in the Selm Labyrinth before. If word got out, the entire Hero’s Party would be in danger. Who could resist the lure of unlimited resources, ever-changing terrain, and a guaranteed escape from any predicament?

If he killed everyone here, it would all be his.

Why risk exposing the secret and sharing the spoils when there was nothing to gain?

“Wait—what am I thinking?”

Oshu shuddered, horrified by his own thoughts. He was the Hero, not a demon. How could he even consider such a thing?

“You all right, Oshu?” Eileen’s gentle voice broke his reverie.

He quickly shook his head, making up an excuse. “It’s nothing. I was just thinking about our next steps.”

“Even if there’s a control device, how do we reach the twelfth floor? The monsters there will be even stronger—there might even be Legacy-level monsters waiting. Even with escape in sight, we can’t let our guard down.”

His warning brought the excited crowd back to reality. Of course—they still had to find a safe route, and that wouldn’t be easy.

“There’s a way,” Eileen chimed in cheerfully, once again saving the day.

“When the control device was built, it was designed to use the monsters as cover, to help the elves preserve their bloodline. So we left a special passage to the lower floors. Judging by the monsters, terrain, and resources here, this should be the tenth floor.”

“All we need to do is head due east. When you see a nearly frozen river, look for the teleportation gate—it will take us straight to the twelfth floor.”

So not only was there a route out, but even the monster problem was solved. What had seemed like a desperate gamble was turning into a treasure hunt. Apart from the poor souls who’d already fallen, everyone else was coming out ahead.

“Wait… Could the demons know about this route too? Is that why we spent so long chasing them and never found him?” someone asked hesitantly.

Eileen shook her head. “Of course not. Only high elves know about the safe passage. Ordinary elves don’t even know, much less demons.”

So Eileen’s status among the elves was even higher than they’d thought. She’d joined the party almost by accident, and Oshu had quickly become infatuated. But only now was he learning about her true heritage.

The novelty of Krulu had faded—now his curiosity about Eileen was stronger than ever. He was already plotting to spend some time alone with her after this ordeal. Krulu wouldn’t object, so he’d win her over and then explore together.

The thrill of a new possibility set Oshu’s blood racing. He raised his weapon and shouted, “All right, everyone, gather up! Get ready to move out!”

“Let’s go!”

◇

Ninth floor of the labyrinth.

Passage to the next level.

“Okay… we made it to the next floor.”

Standing at the border of the tenth floor, Lin Wei looked around. Iresha, proud as ever, was clinging to his arm in terror as they emerged from the dark passageway.

Lin Wei shot the haughty princess a teasing glance and poked her cheek. “Didn’t I share my vision with you? You could see the map, couldn’t you?”

“You knew there was nothing dangerous nearby, but you still clung to me like that… Isn’t that a bit much, Your Highness?”

Finding the way down was never a problem—not with Skills as broken as his. Unless the route literally didn’t exist, all he had to do was spend a little time scouting unexplored areas and he’d always find the right path.

“I… it’s just that everything looked pitch black, okay?” Iresha pouted. “The map’s handy, but crawling through the dirt, I kept thinking monsters would pop out. Anyway, just forget what happened, and don’t you dare joke about how pathetic I looked!”

Even a princess needed to maintain her dignity. She might have lost all composure in front of Lin Wei, but she still didn’t want him bringing it up again. If he did, she’d never live it down—and it might even affect her Favorability!

“Relax. I’d never blab about your secrets. Just like last time, when you were changing—I’ll keep that memory locked away forever.”

“Forget that ever happened, Lin Wei!” she shrieked, instantly forgetting her fear.

Honestly, Iresha was easy to tease. For all her pride, she was surprisingly easy to fluster.

“Fine, fine. I’ll let it go if you stop trying to hit me. Now hush for a second—the terrain here’s a little odd. Let me check it out.”

He pinched her cheek to quiet her, then stepped out onto the path and casually threw out a light spell.

The scene that appeared was ghastly. Mangled monster and human corpses littered the clearing, evidence of a brutal battle. The air was thick with lingering Mana, the ground slick with blood and viscera. Some corpses still wore shattered armor, as if they’d just landed and been torn apart by monsters.

“Are those… the adventurers who got teleported in?” Iresha’s mood instantly sobered.

She hesitated before stepping forward, clearly shaken.

“Judging by the gear, yeah—looks like them. The fight happened hours ago… probably the first wave of adventurers.”

A whole party, wiped out in one go?

Lin Wei scanned the area. Then, spotting a bloodied figure hiding inside a monster’s corpse, he waved his hand, his expression calm and unflinching.

“Come out.”

“You—”

It was a man, caked in blood, hidden in the gutted belly of a monster. His armor was shattered, his body battered—he was hanging on by a thread. Only by using Concealment Skills and the cover of the corpse had he survived this long.

As the corpse split open and cold air hit his face, he tried to muster one last burst of strength. But when he saw Lin Wei and Iresha, his courage evaporated and his nerves finally snapped.

“Humans… are you humans?”

“Yeah. We’re here on a rescue mission for the Adventurers’ Guild. And you are?”

“I’m Brody, captain of the Stonewall Squad.”

Someone had finally come—there was hope. Brody used the last of his strength to drag himself out of the monster’s remains, but collapsed after only a few steps. If not for his Transcendent-level recovery, he’d have been dead already.

“Finally… I thought I’d die here after seven hours. Are you with the Adventurers’ Guild? They must know what’s been happening in the labyrinth by now!”

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