Dungeon Breaker

Chapter 10

—–CROW—–

The Great Labyrinth consumed the world.  The world became a part of the Great Labyrinth, and its reach expanded day by day.

Half the world was devoured.

The sky, the land, and the sea; humans, animals, and gods.

All became part of the Great Labyrinth.

The Five Goddesses were all within the Great Labyrinth.  Most of the gods under their command resided within it as well.

Therefore, those outside the Great Labyrinth found it difficult to feel the blessings of the gods.

And this was also true for the angels, the hands and feet of the Five Goddesses.

A completely scorched land.  All that remained at the site of the Radiant Hall’s branch, the order of angels serving the Five Goddesses, was ash.

The Archangel commanding the branch was dead.

The hulking figure, who had gripped her slender neck as if handling a doll, closed his eyes and traced the remnants of magical power.

The angels who escaped the branch through emergency teleportation.  Ironically, they had fled into the Great Labyrinth.

The figure opened his eyes.  He singled out one of the many traces.

Kill the angels. Annihilate the Radiant Hall.

The figure took a step.

Towards the Great Labyrinth.

—–CROW—–

Cheon-ho was inwardly surprised by the sudden change in environment.

The corridor, reminiscent of a medieval underground passage, suddenly opened up to reveal the sky.

Although it was a cloudy, gray sky filled with dark clouds, it was still the sky.

But Luciel said this place was also inside the Great Labyrinth.  She said there was a ceiling beyond what looked like the sky.

A gray sky and gray land.

Ruins-like structures stood sporadically on the land.

“Some of the ruins might have springs.  I read about it in the records.”

That was good news.  Most of the ruins, even without roofs, had walls.

It seemed like a decent place to camp.

“Let’s proceed with caution.”

Cheon-ho spoke softly and started leading the way again.  His wristwatch read 5 PM.  Evening was approaching.

‘No, that’s not important right now.’

Cheon-ho turned his head, following a sound he’d picked up.  Something was approaching in the distance, creaking.

“Skeletons.”

Luciel said quickly, her voice tense.

As she said, skeletons were shambling towards them.  Judging by their size and shape, they seemed to be skeletons of goblins and Giant Rats.

‘This is really a fantasy world.’

How could they even move without muscles?

Cheon-ho sheathed his kukri and dagger and extended his hand to Luciel.

“The war hammer!”

“Yes!”

Luciel quickly retrieved the war hammer from her Inventory. She must have anticipated Cheon-ho wanting it upon encountering the skeletons, as her movements were incredibly swift.

‘Let’s make this quick.’

Gripping the war hammer, Cheon-ho adjusted his breathing. He approached the shambling skeletons and swung the war hammer mercilessly.

[Experience gained.]

[Experience gained.]

Perhaps because they were weak, he didn’t gain much experience. But they shattered with every hit, which was honestly quite satisfying.

[Acquired Hammer Combat Lv1.]

Cheon-ho, gleefully swinging the war hammer, suddenly stopped.  A tingling sensation ran down his spine.

“Hero! Be careful!”

Luciel shouted just in time.

Cheon-ho quickly turned and saw a creature charging towards him.

‘A monster?’

The description was vague, but he couldn’t think of a better word.

It was large.  Like the others, it was just bones, but its head reached a height of two meters.

“It’s a Cockatrice Skeleton!”

A monster with the head and body of a chicken and the tail of a snake!

There was a similar monster in his father’s stories.  Cheon-ho quickly lowered his gaze, looking at its legs, not its head.

“If you meet its gaze, you’ll be afflicted with a paralysis curse!”

Luciel said, squeezing her eyes shut.

This, too, was similar to his father’s stories.  Of course, as a skeleton, it didn’t have real eyeballs, but an eerie light emanated from its empty sockets.  If he met that light, he would surely be paralyzed.

So, Cheon-ho watched its feet.  The feet were connected to the body, so by watching them, he could roughly predict its movements.

*Crackle!*

The creature pecked at the ground with its beak, making a strange sound.

Unlike the other skeletons, it was incredibly agile.

Cheon-ho rolled on the ground to avoid its charge and continued rolling as the snake tail lashed out with bared fangs.

His father had said that monsters with two heads, one on the head and one on the tail, had two brains, so confusing both made them easier to defeat.

But that wasn’t an option right now.

So, Cheon-ho decided to use his own method.

“Kiaak!”

The skeletal creature shrieked and turned towards Cheon-ho.  Instead of standing up, Cheon-ho lowered his stance and reached behind his back.

“Kiak!”

The creature kicked off the ground.  At the same time, Cheon-ho swung his arm like lightning.

*Whirr!*

Cheon-ho had thrown a hunting stone.  Stones tied to both ends of a wire, a primitive hunting tool used to trip opponents by wrapping the wire around their legs using centrifugal force.

The wire wrapped around the Cockatrice Skeleton’s legs.

Ideally, he should have tied both legs together to trip it, but that was too difficult.

He could only manage to halt its advance.

But that was enough.

Cheon-ho had already kicked off the ground immediately after throwing the hunting stone.  Watching its feet, he imagined the location of its head and neck and swung the war hammer at that spot.

*Crack!*

With a loud crack, the creature’s neck bones shattered.  Naturally, the connected head fell to the ground, and the creature, its legs entangled and its head gone, stumbled and collapsed.

“Luciel! Don’t look!”

As he shouted, Cheon-ho kicked the Cockatrice’s head away.

Luciel covered her eyes with her hands, and Cheon-ho swung the war hammer again, to finish off the remaining snake.

*Crunch!*

He crushed the part connecting the snake and the chicken.

The snake twitched and then went limp, ceasing all movement.

[Level Up!]

[Hammer Combat has become Lv2.]

“Huff.”

Cheon-ho finally took a breath.  He’d used internal energy to finish it in one blow, making him even more breathless.

“Hero! Are you alright?! Hero!”

Luciel shouted, still covering her face with her hands.

Finding her reaction strangely cute, Cheon-ho cleared his throat to compose himself and said, “I’m alright. You can open your eyes now.”

Luciel finally removed her hands, breathed a sigh of relief at seeing Cheon-ho unharmed, and quickly approached him.

“It’s a good thing it was weakened after becoming a skeleton. Judging by its size, it seems to have been a juvenile.”

“Hmm, I see.”

*A two-meter juvenile?*

And it was weakened after becoming a skeleton?  So it was an even stronger monster originally?

Cheon-ho hid his surprise and said, “If there’s a juvenile, there might be a parent nearby.”

“Ah, that’s unlikely. It wasn’t fully grown, but it wasn’t a hatchling either.  And it’s a skeleton.”

“I see.”

It would be strange for a skeleton to have a parent skeleton.

“Anyway, it’s among the strongest skeletons you’ll encounter in this area.”

“It seems so.”

It was the last one to appear, and after defeating it, no new skeletons emerged.  It was probably the boss of this area.

“Then let’s find a place to camp around here.”

“Yes, Hero.”

Cheon-ho collected the Cockatrice Skeleton’s bones and put them in his Inventory.  It was a shame it didn’t drop a Magical Essence or any items, but for some reason, Cheon-ho had a satisfied smile on his face.

About 30 minutes later, Cheon-ho and Luciel found ruins with a small spring and quickly began preparing camp.

Cheon-ho blocked the entrance first.  He used the ruins’ debris to build a barricade and strung wires across the entrance to prevent easy access.

Fortunately, the ruins had a roof, so blocking the entrance should be enough to ensure a relatively safe night.

“Then let’s begin the rest of the work.”

Cheon-ho said with a smile, and Luciel nodded nervously.

‘It’s 6:20 PM…’

There was a lot to do. He couldn’t waste a single second.

Cheon-ho started by modifying the helmet into a pot.

He removed the lining, bent the nose guard at a right angle, and attached it to a suitably carved piece of wood.

He used box tape for the attachment.

‘My father said you can do anything with box tape.’

That’s why he had some prepared, not just in his kitchen table, but also in his wardrobe, shoe rack, desk, and bed.

Of course, it was just a temporary measure. Both box tape and glue were weak against heat.  He intended to use it only until he found proper nails.

Luciel, staring blankly at Cheon-ho’s handiwork, asked in an equally dazed voice, “Hero?”

*What are you doing? What are you making with the previous Hero’s helmet?*

She could tell just by looking.

But she couldn’t readily accept it.

‘It’s a pot! He’s making a pot!’

But why?

Why a pot from a helmet?!

It was equipment left by the previous Hero!

As if responding to Luciel’s silent scream, Cheon-ho looked at her. And with a bright expression, he said, “Luciel, could you cast Purification Magic on this?”

“Uh, um, yes.”

Luciel’s pink Purification Magic enveloped the helmet—no, the pot.

‘I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!’

While Luciel apologized to the unknown Hero, Cheon-ho moved on to his next task.  He had a lot to do.

He gathered debris and built a makeshift stove. He gathered firewood and lit it, placed the pot on top, and filled it with purified spring water.

‘Tsk, it’s small.’

Although the helmet was quite large, it still felt a bit small to use as a proper pot.

But it couldn’t be helped.  It was all he had.

Cheon-ho then took the Cockatrice bones from his Inventory.

‘I should make bone broth.’

It was the bones and skin, not the meat, that gave chicken soup its flavor.  And a Cockatrice was still a chicken, after all.

Cheon-ho broke the Cockatrice’s wing bones with the war hammer and put them in the pot.

‘It’s a shame I don’t have any onions.’

While the bone broth simmered, Cheon-ho started his next task.

He built another stove, placed the kite shield on top, and lit it.

He still had some Giant Rat meat left over from lunch.

But there was something more important right now.

‘Since I only have one pot, let’s try using the kite shield.’

The inside of the shield was slightly concave.

Cheon-ho placed the Giant Rat fat he’d collected during butchering onto the kite shield.  Soon, a savory aroma began to waft through the air as the white fat melted into oil.

Cheon-ho poured the rendered oil into his empty cup ramen container. He added some ash water, stirred it thoroughly, covered it with cloth, and sealed it with wire.

‘I don’t know if it’ll work, but let’s try.’

He wasn’t making food.

He was making a primitive form of soap.  Some oils were suitable for soap making, and some weren’t. He intended to experiment.

And Luciel, watching all of this, thought once again, ‘What did he do before this?’

The more she saw, the more curious she became.  What kind of life had he led?

And one more thing.

‘That smells good.’

Luciel gulped involuntarily and looked at the pot—no, the helmet—no, the pot.

It was just Cockatrice bones boiling, but it smelled delicious.

Cheon-ho sprinkled salt into the broth.  He tasted it with a spoon and smiled faintly.

*Gulp.*

Luciel swallowed again.

And then, a sound captivated her.

*Sizzle…*

Giant Rat meat was placed back on the griddle—no, the kite shield—no, the griddle.

Cheon-ho seasoned the meat with salt.

And this time, he pulled out something from his Inventory.

Labyrinth Potatoes.

Among the items he’d found in the Rat Hole’s food storage, these were the only things he thought Luciel might find edible.

*Scrape, scrape.*

He peeled the potatoes.  He sliced them thinly and fried them in the oil that had pooled in the center of the griddle.

The bone broth bubbled in the pot.

The meat sizzled on the griddle, and the thinly sliced potatoes fried, giving off a savory aroma.

[Cooking has become Lv5.]

[The taste of your cooking improves.]

Even with Cheon-ho’s cooking skills, it was difficult to create flavor without proper seasonings or spices.  But the Labyrinth World’s system, the Cooking level, lent him a helping hand.

‘Phew, phew.’

Luciel gulped repeatedly.

The strangeness of eating boiled Cockatrice Skeleton bones had long since faded from her mind.

She wanted to eat.

She wanted to eat now.

And Cheon-ho, noticing her eagerness, turned to her, handed her a spoon, and delivered the final blow.

“Try the broth.”

“Okay.”

It was an irresistible temptation.

Luciel opened her mouth like a baby bird and swallowed the deeply flavorful Cockatrice Skeleton broth.

It was hot.

It was warm.

It seemed to seep into her tired body.

If she had to describe it, it was the taste of… soul-healing?

The day’s fatigue melted away like snow.

“Ah… ahhh…”

Luciel let out an involuntary moan, and Cheon-ho smiled triumphantly.

“Delicious?”

“Yes ♥”

What did it matter if it was Cockatrice Skeleton bones?  As long as it tasted good.

Luciel answered honestly with a happy face, and Cheon-ho looked at the pot.

‘Thank you. I won’t forget you.’

The previous Hero who left the helmet… pot.

Luciel felt the same. She clasped her hands together and offered a prayer for the previous Hero.

‘Thank you for leaving the pot.’

It wasn’t a helmet, it was a pot.

A pot, nonetheless.

Cheon-ho and Luciel looked at each other, smiled brightly, and began to eat.

—–CROW—–