I Start with 13 Hidden Traits Chapter-69

Ch-69

—

Oliver felt the same.

Because Oliver was such a devoted fan of Phantom that he would chase after his adventures, his hardships—everything.

*Don’t get nervous. Just act the way you did as Hudson.*

Oliver steadied his breathing as much as possible.

He didn’t want to look like a sick man.

He didn’t want Phantom to worry about his health either.

If that happened, his engagement to Serengeti in Pangaenia might fall apart.

He still hadn’t told Serengeti that he didn’t know when he would die, or that he wasn’t actually a human native to Pangaenia.

There was no way he could.

Fortunately, Phantom showed no sign of having noticed his illness yet.

*As normal as possible.*

But… what did “normal” even mean?

He hadn’t interacted with outsiders for so long that he had forgotten how to behave normally.

Even so, it felt strangely good.

To meet, in real life, the very person he had fervently idolized.

No matter how hard he tried not to be nervous, he couldn’t stop trembling. His whole body shook.

It felt like a dream.

To think that Phantom was right there in front of him—it was unbelievable.

*I’ll be of help. I’ll burn everything I have if I must!*

How many years had it been since he had felt this motivated in the real world?

Until now, Oliver had only ever received help from Phantom.

It was Phantom who had broken the shell that imprisoned him.

Without him, Oliver would never have met Serengeti again. He would have died someday, forever trapped in regret.

It felt like just yesterday that he’d gained a spirit and found hope, seen Phantom’s overwhelming presence, and strengthened his resolve by watching Phantom’s refusal to give up.

An unyielding hero who never breaks, never retreats, and charges forward head-on.

He wanted to emulate that.

He wished he possessed that same indomitable will.

So now, it was his turn to help.

Determination flared in Oliver’s eyes.

*

*

 

《Bow Mastery has risen to Lv.10 (max).》

《To reach higher mastery levels, an appropriate class is required.》

《‘Rapid Growth’ has risen to Lv.2.》

《The overall stats of all ‘disciples’ have greatly increased.》

《Fame +50.》

He stayed in the castle for several days, traveling back and forth between Earth and Pangaenia.

It was all to prepare for the Labyrinth War.

He did not neglect his training with Isaac and Isabella, either.

And at last, when all preparations were complete—

《The ‘Abyssal Labyrinth’ has opened.》

《The ‘Abyssal Labyrinth’ is connected to all warps.》

《1 hour of Broken Golden Scale fragments is consumed to enter.》

Finally, the Abyssal Labyrinth had opened.

At the same time, ‘warps’ began appearing across the Earth as well.

They forcibly linked to the warps that already existed in Pangaenia.

Now, every warp led to the Abyssal Labyrinth.

Countless challengers—including myself—had finished preparing.

There was no time to waste.

《1h of Broken Golden Scale fragments consumed.》

《Remaining time: 968h 38m.》

《Entering the ‘Abyssal Labyrinth’.》

《Upon entry, a random ‘Action Condition’ has been assigned.》

《If you lower your head for more than 5 seconds, you will be forcibly ejected from the labyrinth.》

《‘Action Conditions’ change daily.》

A condition assigned to everyone entering the labyrinth!

*Tricky.*

It looked simple on the surface, but unless one consciously controlled one’s actions, getting ejected would be far too easy.

And to have one more thing to worry about in a labyrinth where anything might pop out—this alone was a massive penalty.

Besides, the fact that the conditions changed daily meant that even a trivial restriction could create an impossible situation depending on the day.

*Actually, this is good.*

But I wasn’t worried.

No—this was good.

Because I had a countermeasure.

《‘Heart of the Eternal Monarch’ removes one random condition from the Abyssal Labyrinth.》

《‘Action Condition’ removed.》

Let’s start by erasing one.

Labyrinth Merchant—

A floor soaked and sticky with rotten liquid.

A foul stench of decaying something.

Fwoosh!
I lit a torch and checked the surroundings.

“······!”

Isaac’s eyes widened in disbelief.

Isabella’s, and mine as well.

The Abyssal Labyrinth.

We had expected a difficult place, given its name, but not *this* much.

*This place… truly is the Abyss itself.*

Endless colossal walls blocked every direction.

And on those walls were countless *hands* of all species.

The hands moved as though alive, dragging anything they could grab back toward the wall.

The ground was littered with corpses torn apart as they resisted the hands.

A majestic and grotesque sight. But there was no time to waste.

“What are your action conditions?”

“You can’t clasp your hands together for more than three seconds.”

“I’m not allowed to shake my head side to side…”

Tricky, as expected.

At least neither condition restricted walking.

“What about you, Heir?”

“None.”

“It is possible to have none?”

Isaac frowned.

“But I’ll act as if I have one.”

“Ah. To cause confusion?”

I nodded.

Most action conditions were of the ‘do not ~’ type.

Mine had been deleted by the Heart, but others didn’t know that.

Meaning I could use it to mislead people.

After a moment of thought, I spoke.

“Don’t swing your right hand consecutively. Let’s go with that for today.”

A self-imposed action condition had been added.

*

Endless walls.

We slogged through the muck between them.

Swoosh—!

Thunk!

An arrow shot out and buried itself in my side.

*Ghk!*

I nearly screamed.

“Heir—”

“Shh.”

I pressed a finger to my lips to silence them.

The arrow wound burned like hell, but dealing with the trap came first.

I had heard the arrow cutting through the wind.

Fast enough to pierce my side before I could fully react.

If I hadn’t twisted my body at the last instant after hearing it, my heart would have been pierced.

*A trap.*

It wasn’t fired by a person.

A contraption.

Tracing the shot’s direction, we found a crossbow mounted on the wall.

Whoever installed a crossbow on *that* wall had guts.

Even I hadn’t expected a trap there.

“There’s a trapper ahead of us. A high-level one.”

A trapper.

This was unquestionably man-made.

It didn’t have auto-fire, but it was designed to shoot the heart of anyone who entered its range.

Ssshhh—

I yanked the arrow out and poured a pre-prepared potion.

The blood stopped, and fresh skin regrew.

“How did they get ahead of us?”

Isabella wrapped bandages around my wound as she asked.

We had entered the labyrinth as soon as it opened; we thought we’d be in the lead.

But someone had gone ahead and set traps.

Someone skilled enough to evade all our senses.

“Their entry point must’ve been slightly ahead, or they prepared mounts…”

Isaac answered.

Entry positions were random.

They wouldn’t appear deep inside the labyrinth, but slight differences were possible.

*Annoying.*

Trappers were one of the most bothersome classes to fight.

Especially in enclosed spaces like this, where they were terrifyingly powerful.

A high-level trapper could set delayed traps, not just proximity-triggered ones.

“Isabella, watch our rear. Isaac, watch the front.”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

*

*

 

There were many traps.

But once you recognized the pattern, none were fatal.

Rather than carefully designing each trap, they were trying to win by quantity.

Which meant—they knew we were catching up.

We were breaking through the traps faster than they could place them, so they were dumping traps sloppily just to slow us down.

*There.*

A group came into view in the distance.

We’d finally caught up.

Two people placing traps nonstop, and one warrior guarding them.

“They— they caught up already?!”

“What the hell!”

The two trappers shouted in panic.

Of course they would. They must have realized their traps were being dismantled.

“See what happens when you half-ass your traps? Just leave it to me.”

A dark-skinned, shirtless warrior.

Hair braided straight down, battle axe in hand—a textbook barbarian.

【Lv.9】

A high-level fighter.

Judging from his hairstyle, he was surely a desert champion.

Men who braided their hair straight down were elite guards of the Desert Queen.

They were known as Barbarians.

“······Hmm. Wait. I see a familiar face.”

The barbarian’s gaze fixed on Isabella.

Upon recognizing her, he burst into loud laughter.

“Hahaha! Snake Princess—so the runaway was here!”

“Butcher Yakumo…”

“You ran away from the desert with that so-called Star-bearer, and this is where you ended up?”

“What are you doing here?”

Isabella asked coldly.

She couldn’t understand it.

A barbarian who should be protecting the queen—here, in the Abyssal Labyrinth?

“This place will be your grave, Snake Princess. Traitor who betrayed the Queen!”

He charged like a bulldozer.

Isabella spoke without looking back.

“···I’ll take him.”

“Do so.”

Both were level 9.

Before, I would have stopped her—but she had grown.

“Snake Princess! You couldn’t beat me even in the desert, and you think the outcome will change now?!”

“I’m not the Snake Princess. Trash.”

While the two clashed, Isaac and I slipped past the barbarian.

The barbarian didn’t care about us; we weren’t his targets.

When he didn’t protect them, the two trappers panicked.

“W-what?!”

“Yakumo! We paid you good money, at least do your damn job!”

“FUCK! Logout!”

“Logout!”

They were attempting to exploit the rule that logging out triggered forced ejection.

Meaning that unlike Yakumo, these two were players.

Their forms flickered.

The appearance of Pangaenia natives and Earthlings overlapped.

And behind them, warps appeared.

The warps began pulling them in—

Kyakyak?

Hel, perched on my shoulder, tilted his head.

His smoke-like body turned red.

Crack.

The warps froze.

“Wh-what? Why can’t we log out?!”

“What— what is this! Stop screwing around!”

It was strange.

Normally, logging out triggered immediate forced exit via warp.

A warp would appear behind you and forcibly pull your body back to the real world.

But the two trappers continued crawling on the ground in their in-labyrinth forms.

*Hel can manipulate warps within his range.*

Now it was certain.

Hel didn’t only cut warps—he could *deny* and *permit* them.

But not all warps.

Through several tests earlier, I’d learned Hel could cut “ownerless warps.”

But if a warp manifested within his range, he could manipulate it.

Just like now.

He had *denied* their warp activation.

*In the Abyss, logging out doesn’t work unless the warp takes you out.*

Another piece of information.

This place was the Abyss.

Unlike the normal continent, the goddess’s influence here was faint.

Unless a warp transported your true body back to the continent, logout wouldn’t complete.

Which was why warps automatically manifested when attempting logout.

Step.

Step.

As I slowly approached, fear flooded the trappers’ eyes.

“S-spare us!”

“What the hell…!”

 

 

 

 

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