Chapter 150. A Lead (5)

"Damn, is this a maze-type Dungeon?"

"It seems so, since we got scattered after entering.”

"Then let's join up with Wang-Heon-nim first. If we're with him, we at least won't have to worry about our lives."

The fiends’ trust in Wang-Heon was absolute.

"If we get rid of them, we will be able to roughly see that fiend, Wang-Heon’s ability."

Seo Jun-Ho nodded at the Frost Queen's words.

But he could not kill them right now…

‘I need information.’

There was still an absolute lack of information about this dungeon. How large was the dungeon, and was it connected to other rooms outside the door? It would be a problem if Seo Jun-Ho hastily disposed of them and accidentally left a trace, so he had to handle things carefully.

Creak.

When Seo Jun-Ho opened the door without notice and left, nervous voices were heard from the back.

"That, that crazy punk!"

"Hey! Talk to us at least once before opening the door!"

"Hut, how can those big guys be so cowardly?" said the Frost Queen in derision.

"I have no idea," Seo Jun-Ho answered.

Seo Jun-Ho ignored their anger and walked out. He looked around and heard the door close behind him.

"The wall is quite high."

"Yea, it's a typical maze."

There was a small vacant clearing in front of the room, and there was only one road away from it. Up ahead, the road forked in three directions. Seo Jun-Ho walked without saying a word and touched the wall. Watchguard of Darkness silently crept up the wall. After about five minutes, Seo Jun-Ho removed his hand.

‘The maze is bigger than I thought.’

His expression had become brighter than before. Since the maze was this big, the probability that there would be another fiend nearby was very low.

Creak…

It was only after Seo Jun-Ho collected basic information that the door opened and the three fiends walked out. With their eyes rolling about, they looked around, and when they realized that they were safe, they growled at Seo Jun-Ho straight away.

"Hey!"

"Why is that punk so annoying at everything he does?”

"I didn't like him even in the past. He just followed that jerk, Kal Signer, and acted all high and mighty all the time.”

"All high and mighty…" Seo Jun-Ho pondered.

Seo Jun-Ho read Gouf's memory, but he didn’t go through everything Gouf went through. It was just a quick look as a third party. But he definitely remembered watching something regarding those guys.

'They were definitely a little bit better than Gouf in terms of skill.’

It was not a big gap, though. The difference was between 10-20% at most.

‘They looked down on Gouf and insulted him, and when they were caught by Kal Signer, they got beaten up like dogs...’

After that, they didn’t dare to pick a fight anymore even when they ran into Gouf. Maybe the reason they were picking a fight comfortably like fish in the water this time was that they knew that Kal Signer wasn’t around anymore.

"Contractor, what do you want to do?"

"Hmmm," Seo Jun-Ho thought for a moment.

He took a quick glance behind him. He could only see a dark maze without any presence of people.

"Sound likely won’t leak out either... I think it'll be okay."

Of course, the risk was not zero. There could be some fiend with them that had the ability to reveal his crime.

‘But I can't worry about everything before making a move.’

That part just had to be left to luck. The best way would be to find out the skills of every fiend who had entered the dungeon before making a move…

‘I don't have time…’

This was because he had no idea when the transformation would disappear. Whenever you made a decision, you should act boldly. Seo Jun-Ho spread his magic to block the sound around him just in case.

"What’s this punk doing?"

"…Are you trying to pick a fight right now?"

Feeling the flow of magic from Seo Jun-Ho's body, the fiends had an expression of ridiculousness. Then, Seo Jun-Ho found something on the wall behind them and motioned. "Be careful behind you."

"Crazy bastard, do you think we’d get caught in such a low-level trick…”

Slice, slice.

The sound of scissors filled the space where they stood. The fiends felt an eerie sensation, so they quickly turned around and reacted almost immediately. But one of them was rather unlucky because he was close to the wall.

"Aaaahhh!"

The two lengthy sickles had split the fiend's waist into half in an instant. Having lost their companion, the fiends became pale and quickly distanced themselves from the wall.

"Wall, wall mantis...”

"Damn it! Why is it the most annoying monster?!"

It was a wall mantis. On the wall was the upper body of a pitch black wall mantis.

Slice, slice.

The wall mantis snatched the corpse off the floor and disappeared into the wall.

“…”

“…”

The two fiends were shocked and could only remain speechless with their mouths agape. It was as if they were possessed by ghosts. They had heard of wall mantis, but this was the first time they had ever met one in person. In particular, it was a monster that reigned as a symbol of fear in maze-type Gates and Dungeons.

‘It ended up turning out for the better...’

Seo Jun-Ho passed by the two bewildered fiends and headed for the corpse of the fiend. The lower body had been taken away by the wall mantis, but the upper body remained. Seo Jun-Ho could now get information without getting blood on his hands.

"...Hey."

One of the bewildered fiends came to his senses and stared.

"What are you doing?"

"If you leave him like this, they'll smell blood and even more wall mantis will come. I'm going to bury him."

“…”

It was true. The two fiends lightly clicked their tongues, turned their backs, and remained on guard against the surrounding walls. As far as Seo Jun-Ho knew, those fiends were like the three musketeers, but when one died, the eyes of the other two seemed completely devoid of any interest. Seo Jun-Ho quickly dug the ground and secretly looked back as he buried the body in it.

"Let’s make him the leader for now…”

"If something happens...”

They lowered their voices and whispered as they made plans, but Seo Jun-Ho's advanced hearing heard everything.

"They are pathetic," sneered the Frost Queen.

"Just leave them alone," Seo Jun-Ho said nonchalantly.

Seo Jun-Ho used his broad back to secretly block their view and used Confession of the Dead. The fiend's memory was quickly reproduced.

"Oh?"

"...Ooh."

While watching the video, both Seo Jun-Ho and the Frost Queen couldn’t help but gasp.

"You have quite the good luck," praised the Frost Queen.

"Yea. I didn't expect them to have such a skill…”

He discovered the skills of five fiends through the memory projection. Of course, two of them were the idiots back there, one was Wang-Heon, and another was Stan, whose skill Seo Jun-Ho already knew. The last one was a magician who had always been by Wang-Heon’s side.

"The Causality of Death… That magician, he’s got a difficult skill to deal with."

"So it is a skill to know how the person you marked died when they died."

The way to mark someone was simple—touching the target was enough.

‘The number of people he can mark at once is 30.’

Seo Jun-Ho frowned because he remembered that when they were entering the Dungeon, the magician had patted the fiends on their shoulders in encouragement. Of course, the magician tapped on Seo Jun-Ho’s shoulder as well.

"Hmmm, I looked carefully at the time, and there had been no changes in the fiends’ expressions.” The Frost Queen recalled.

"There's no reason for their expressions to change. It's not a skill that’ll cause a loss to the target."

Rather, it would be welcomed since they could find the cause of their comrade’s death and get revenge.

”If I had killed him, I would have been in big trouble."

It would have been like letting the enemy know that there was an enemy inside the Dungeon. It was even more significant since Wang-Heon's ability was the 'Eye of Insight,’ which was an A-grade skill that could see through the truth in the target’s words and find the best route of attack.

"It’s a tricky situation. Contractor, what are you going to do now?" The Frost Queen was worried.

"Well, nothing big will really change."

Seo Jun-Ho roughly covered the floor with dirt and turned his head. His eyes shone as he looked at the two conspiring fiends.

"It's just that the method will become a little milder."

***

"It's a dangerous place."

"I don't like you, but we have to work together to get out of this maze."

The two fiends spoke bravely as if they had been energized. It seemed that they had cleanly forgotten about the third, who had just died.

"…Aren’t you guys too indifferent? Your friend is dead."

"Hmm? Friend?"

The two fiends truly looked like they had no idea what Seo Jun-Ho was talking about.

"He died because he was weak and lacking, so what?"

“Is there a need for us to grieve? Why are you even thinking about that? What else should we do?”

Well, fiends were normally like this.

There was a reason why Kal Signer and Gouf were treated as "mutants" by the fiends. These guys didn’t know loyalty or friendship. Most of them were psychopaths.

"…Nothing. Let's go."

When Seo Jun-Ho spoke and looked at the maze, the two fiends stared blankly at him. Seo Jun-Ho could feel the unspoken pressure from them, urging him to take the lead. As such, he shrugged and said, "I'll take the lead, so guard the rear."

"Mmhm."

"That's a good idea."

The maze’s inside was about one meter wide. It was not that big, but not that narrow.

"Contractor, if we suddenly join another group of fiends… Would you not be in trouble?"

Seo Jun-Ho smirked at the Frost Queen's worried voice. It was an unnecessary worry because that was not going to happen. There was a cry of indignation behind his back.

"Hey, aren't you walking too fast?"

"Why don't you walk carefully? Since there are wall mantises, there could be other monsters."

"Do you want to take the lead, then?"

The fiends became silent once again due to fear. Seo Jun-Ho quickly traveled around the maze. Rather than trying to escape from the maze, he seemed to be looking for something.

Slice… Slice…

Finally, Seo Jun-Ho heard the quiet sound of scissors. Looking behind him, it seemed that the fiends hadn’t noticed it yet.

‘Now…’

Seo Jun-Ho's strong instincts told him the location of the wall mantises. It was on the left. Seo Jun-Ho turned and shouted, "It's a wall mantis! Stick to the left wall!"

"What?"

"Again?!"

It was only a few minutes ago that they had ignored his words and paid a harsh price. The two fiends clung close to the left wall like it was a reflex. Naturally, Seo Jun-Ho clung to the opposite wall from them.

"Huh? Wait a minute."

"Why are you there…?”

The moment question marks popped up over the heads of two fiends, the corners of Seo Jun-Ho's mouth went up. This was because he saw the form of a giant mantis rising from the wall the two fiends were leaning on.

Slice!

It was a clean one shot, two kills.

"...Kkuk!"

"Wh-what...”

Like a top predator, the wall mantis did not make a clumsy mistake. With a single attack, it neatly sliced the waist of the two fiends. As vitality disappeared from the two fiends, their eyes became filled with nothing but emptiness. But before they died, however, there was resentment in their eyes.

“They really know how to pretend like they have been wronged when they die even though they had lived a life of eating away at others.”

The moment Seo Jun-Ho shook his head at the duality of the fiends, the wall mantis picked up the bodies after its hunt and tried to disappear into the wall.

"I don’t think so..."

Seo Jun-Ho's hands moved like lightning.

Crackle!

Snatching the ice dagger created in the air, he instantly sliced the wall mantis in half.

"I was going to pretend that I didn't see it if you attempted to take the lower bodies, but I can’t let you take the upper bodies."

Just in case, he had to get a glimpse of their memories.

"Using the wall mantis to kill the fiends… You are trying to confuse them." The Frost Queen noticed what Seo Jun-Ho was trying to do.

"Yeah, they likely won’t notice anything strange at first."

Dying from a wall mantis was a believable story for inexperienced fiends. But if more than half of them were killed by a few wall mantises? Unless they were fools, they should realize that something was wrong by then.

"But it’ll be too late by the time they realize it…"

By the time they thought it was late, it would really be too late.