＜ 9. The thief who stole the country (3) ＞
Unlike normal passages, the passage made of bright red bricks stretched all the way to the point where it hurt the eyes. Except for the fixed lamp right under the stairs, there was no light at all, so it felt as if I had entered the jaws of a gigantic beast.
Marco swallowed his saliva when he saw a foreign passage he had never seen before. Tricia, like Andrea, knew what room this was a sign of.
“Not good. This is the passage to the trap room.”
“right.”
Andrea, who was extremely nervous, agreed. Tricia looked at the vanishing point that ended in black darkness.
“Sir, why is the aisle so dark?”
The narration came as if answering complaints.
‘Darkness, a pitch-black embrace that swallows everything equally. The fear of not being able to ascertain what was lurking in front of you chokes your breath. Challenger, don’t take a step too hastily. Ahead of that might be the road to the far-off abyss…’
It was a narration that guided that the obstacle on this floor was ‘darkness’.
It was a blow to the stomach. Trap room and darkness, is there a combination as terrible as this? It would not be an exaggeration to say that if there are no artifacts or cards that emit light, it is a path to the underworld.
However, it was an exception for Andrea now.
‘see.’
Thanks to the Shadow God’s blessing, Andrea’s eyes were able to see through the darkness. It was a fact I realized at Adsel the other day, but I was able to feel it more clearly after entering this clear darkness.
“Mr. Marco, if you have a role to play in the trap room, I will call you, so I will reverse summon you. Tricia, take my hand and follow me.”
“uh? uh, why?”
Trisha looked at Andrea’s outstretched hand in bewilderment. Andrea added a brief explanation.
“Thanks to Shadow’s blessing, I can see everything. If you follow me and lose me, hurry up and catch me.”
Trisha rubs her palms on her clothes, as if holding hands is awkward. Andrea was just making a reasonable decision based on the situation, but it was shocking to see that other side be so conscious.
Trisha had her own reasons for hesitation.
“I told you in advance, but my hands are a bit rough.”
“Anyway, more than a rough mouth.”
“Be quiet, b*tch.”
Marco was looking at the two of them with a subtle smile behind him. Andrea opened the ax eye and fired at him.
“Don’t look at me like that.”
“What do you think I did?”
Marco put on an impudent face and shrugged. Come to think of it, I had to reverse summon it. Andrea proudly took out a card and put Marco in.
As we held hands, we soon came to the entrance to the trap room. As Andrea was about to turn the doorknob, Trisha called out.
“What, what is it… hand, are you okay?”
“…are you still talking about that?”
“No, I thought it would be uncomfortable because it was too rough…”
“It’s better than sandpaper.”
“···You little bastard!”
Trisha slapped Andrea on the back. Trisha was also a hunter whose strength exceeded 30, so her back tingled. Andrea instantly thought of the galley warden’s whip.
‘If I had been hit before entering the dungeon, my back would have been really broken.’
Andrea made up her mind that in the future, whenever she cracked a joke on Tricia, she would cover it up.
“Anyway, I’m going into the room right now, so don’t let go of my hand, and if you hear something or feel something even if you can’t see it, be sure to tell me.”
“···okay.”
Andrea raised her senses sharply and carefully opened the door.
The first thing I noticed upon entering was the damp air. The atmosphere clearly felt that it was an airtight environment with no wind blowing. Moss, like mold, grew sparsely along the red walls.
It was not an open space, but an interior that felt like an extension of the aisle. It was fortunate that the arrows didn’t fly right away and the thorns didn’t spread, but I couldn’t just be vigilant.
Andrea saw the aisle on both sides and realized where it was.
“Andrea, what happened? What trap is it?”
Trisha’s words trembled slightly, as though she was nervous about not being able to see an inch ahead. Andrea calmly answered the question.
“It’s a maze.”
If it was obvious, it would have been obvious, but it was not an ordinary maze. For the challengers who neither starve to death nor need to sleep, the maze is just a room that takes up a lot of time.
“Tricia, from now on, close your eyes and cover your mouth and nose. If possible, cover all exposed areas of the skin.”
Trisha nodded. I knew very well that I couldn’t have said such a thing without a reason. Andrea also held her breath and hurried.
As I entered the fork in the road, I began to feel a change in earnest. I felt a stinging pain like something rubbing against my skin. Andrea lifted her top and covered her mouth and nose.
‘It’s a poison mist. It’s not a poison so strong that it can be life-threatening right away, but if you continue to inhale it, you’ll definitely get a lot of damage.’
Eyes were no exception to be affected by the poison mist. Trisha closed her eyes anyway, since she couldn’t see, but Andrea had to endure the pain of burning eyes.
‘Isn’t this complete CBRN training…’
Suddenly, the bitter memories of my military service came to mind. Andrea consciously blinked and washed away the poison with tears.
‘I have to get out of it as quickly as possible, but what kind of maze will it be…’
About 10 mazes that appeared in the trap room alternated. Andrea had almost perfectly memorized the route to get out of all 10 forms with the shortest distance.
However, it was unknown whether the maze now was one of them.
‘Just as the monsters sometimes showed patterns I hadn’t seen before, the trap room could also be a new type different from the ones I remember.’
In fact, there was a perfect solution to the one-wall maze. If you keep following the wall with one hand on the wall, you will eventually reach the exit unless the maze is infinitely wide.
The problem is that it is extremely time consuming and the time given to Andrea and Trisha is not that long.
Andrea decided that it was not a waste of time to think about it. It’s not too late to go in and judge whether it’s a maze you know or a maze you haven’t seen.
Turned left first. Of the mazes Andrea knew, 7 of them had to go through the left side to escape the shortest distance, so it was a reasonable decision. And then right. In the part divided into three branches, towards the center.
Looking at the shape of the wall, I made a rough guess. Fortunately, it was one of the mazes Andrea knew.
‘Oh sh*t. But this maze has to go to the right at the first crossroads.’
Andrea went back the way she came. I was still able to hold my breath, but it made me nervous that I had wasted my time.
Was it like that? I forgot to warn Trisha.
Andrea instinctively crossed the tile without stepping on it. However, Tricia, who held her hand and followed her, couldn’t figure out how Andrea had gone.
‘Oops.’
By the time Andrea realized her mistake and turned around, it was too late. The moment Trisha stepped on the tile, the floor collapsed.
“Hick!”
Trisha was terrified and forgot to hold her breath. Andrea squeezed the strength in the hand she was holding. Still, because I prepared for it in the end, I was able to avoid missing Tricia.
It was a fairly deep pit. The floor full of thorns made me dizzy what would have happened if I had let go of my hand.
Tricia, who was pulled up, had a pretty bad complexion. In the moment of surprise, it seemed that he had inhaled quite a bit of poison mist. Andrea decided it was better to get out of the situation than to apologize.
I looked back at my memories step by step. I gave a clear signal to Trisha to go back to the first passage, head right, and avoid the tiles that spawn arrows when stepped on.
After that, I had to avoid numerous triggers. A tile that shoots blades out of the wall when stepped on, a tile that increases the concentration of poison mist… As I passed by, I began to remember the locations as clearly as when I was playing a game.
But I couldn’t help but find it increasingly difficult to hold my breath. His physical abilities improved with his status card, and he was able to hold his breath much longer than normal people, but even that had its limitations.
On top of that, Trisha was in very bad shape because she was holding her breath. The visibly slowed gait seemed to be slowly spreading the poison through his body.
‘too slow. This condition is dangerous.’
Andrea picked Tricia up. As if the strength in her legs had gone, Trisha gave herself to Andrea without much resistance.
right, left, middle, middle, left. Andrea made her way through the maze, calmly avoiding the tiles with traps. Even though it was a little hard on my body, I felt more comfortable this way than holding Trisha’s hand and leading her.
However, the breath was consumed even faster. Andrea felt a squeezing pain in her skull. It was the first time in my life that I had held my breath for such a long time.
I didn’t know that if I continued like this, sooner or later I might collapse without even knowing.
I couldn’t help but exhale and inhale a little. The sharp energy of the poison mist flowed along the prayer. I thought the headache would get better, but there was no choice with this level of breathing.
‘Still, we’re almost there. If you just turn right here…’
The exit was finally in sight. Andrea squeezed all the strength in her muscles and sprinted. It felt like my lungs were going to dry up. My vision through the darkness was colorless, but my vision was blurred by tears.
Opening the exit as if to smash it, Andrea collapsed on the floor.
“Hee-eok, hee-eok, hee-eok.”
The air was sweet. Andrea breathed wildly, as if she were breathing for the first time in her life.
how long has it been As I regained my breathing, I blinked as if my consciousness was about to end. It was because he had held his breath too long and had inhaled some poison.
‘no. If she loses her mind like this, Trisha is in danger.’
Andrea patted both cheeks vigorously. First, the exit was closed to prevent the poison fog from escaping. Then, he took the antidote from the subspace bag and poured it into Tricia’s mouth.
It should be safe to drink while conscious, but I couldn’t afford it. Trisha coughed violently, as if the antidote had partially entered her airways. Andrea gave Trisha a little pat on the back and finished the antidote.
Trisha’s pale complexion slowly returned. The antidote seemed to work well. I couldn’t come to my senses yet, but it looked like I could wake up soon.
When I took care of the urgent work, my pulse went numb. Andrea saw the strange contortion in her eyes. It was a sign that he would soon lose his mind.
‘The antidote… there was nothing left.’
Before Andrea lost consciousness, she took out ‘Marco Summon’ from her deck. He couldn’t give orders, but he believed that if he looked critical, Marco wouldn’t let go of his hand.
Andrea lost consciousness as she pressed the surface of ‘Summon Marco’.
＜ 9. The thief who stole the country (3) ＞ End