Chapter 120 (1/2)

Chapter 120. Result of Stage 1 (3)

“What are they doing? They're going up the stairs?” Snake Eyes' voice went up. But unlike Archers, Warriors and Priests could not see the situation clearly. The scene only appeared as a speck of light.

“Four people… Hm? They're fighting a monster?”

New information continued to pour in. What was going on? Was this Stage 2?

While Seol Jihu was postulating several hypotheses, he caught sight of Straight Face, who was looking down silently.

“There are stairs here as well.”

Just as she said, the platform they were riding on also had stairs going up the mountain.

'It's long.'

Seeing the stairs stretch all the way to the foot of the mountain, Seol Jihu's jaw dropped.

'Pillars?'

One thing that caught his attention was the pillars. There were flat platforms periodically throughout the staircase, and each platform had a single pillar standing on it.

“You,” Straight Face turned back. “You said four people were climbing up the stairs, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Where? Describe it relative to the mountain.”

“About the middle.”

“Do you see anyone else?”

“Hold on.” Snake Eyes looked around. Then, she fixedly stared in the direction Lara was looking at, and frowned.

“…You saw it?”

“I, I did.”

“It appeared suddenly, right?”

“Y-Yes.” Lara nodded her head crazily.

“It appeared suddenly? What's 'It'?”

When Straight Face asked, Snake Eyes muttered back, “There's only two over there… f.u.c.k, what's going on?”

“Just describe exactly what you're seeing.”

Snake Eyes grit her teeth in bewilderment. “Over there. They only have two people. They're near the foot of the mountain, but while they were climbing up, a monster suddenly popped out of nowhere. I'm not kidding. It really appeared out of thin air.”

“How did the two react?”

“They're fighting.” Lara replied while still watching the far off mountain in a daze. Straight Face dropped her head in response. Seol Jihu also fell into deep thought.

First, it was probably correct to a.s.sume that both the group of four and the group of two were partic.i.p.ants of the Banquet.

“…Maybe,” Straight Face spoke up. “This mountain is Stage 1.”

“What do you mean? Didn't Stage 1 end?”

“The labyrinth might have been a sample, while this is the real thing.”

“Wait, wait!” Snake Eyes pressed her temple as though her head was hurting. “I'm not following what you're saying.”

“You can't understand even after looking at them yourself?”

“Shut up. So… you're saying that those idiots left the labyrinth before us and are continuing Stage 1?”

“Exactly. It looks like they have to climb the stairs to the top. While killing the monsters that pop out, of course.”

Straight Face's a.n.a.lysis caused Snake Eyes to frown. “Fine. Let's a.s.sume you're right. Then why are we riding this?”

Just as Snake Eyes said, they were comfortably climbing the mountain with a moving platform, while partic.i.p.ants in other mountains were climbing the stairs and fighting for their lives.

Straight Face revealed her teeth with a grin. “Who knows? If my conjecture is correct, we shouldn't go all the way up to the peak of the mountain either.”

“Why?”

“We are pa.s.sing through the sixth pillar right now. We should be stopping at the seventh pillar.” Straight Face leisurely looked around at the other party members and then pointed her finger at the pillar they just pa.s.sed.

Seol Jihu nodded his head in agreement. Having heard her conjecture, he guessed how the Golden Commandment came back.

'It's not special treatment.'

Most likely, every group had left the labyrinth through the moving platform at the center. Because, that was the correct way of leaving the building. But not every group would have stopped at the same spot. The more people a group had when leaving the labyrinth, the closer to the top the platform would travel.

The pillars were there to serve as checkpoints.

What would have happened if Seol Jihu left with just Maria?

'We would have been dropped off at the second pillar….'

And forced to climb the stairs just as painfully as the others.

Seol Jihu glanced at the white-headband girl. She was making a suggestive smile.

“It's a bit of a shame but… it shouldn't take long to reach the peak from the seventh pillar.”

Straight Face stretched her neck side-to-side and prepared to hop off the platform. However, her estimate was not entirely correct. Contrary to their expectations, the platform they were riding on pa.s.sed through the seventh pillar as well.

When Seol Jihu stared at her for an explanation, she scowled and burst out, “What? What are you looking at?”

“It's not our fault that that person died.” A hollow voice rang out. When the quiet girl opened her mouth, the nearby gazes naturally fell on her. “He was nearly dead when he entered. We couldn't heal him either… so it seems the Banquet didn't count him in.”

The girl's suggestion made Lara exclaim in disbelief, “No way, that means this place knows all about our situation!”

The feeble girl shrugged as if to say that was outside of her understanding. Snake Eyes muttered in response, “You can talk? I for sure thought you were mute.”

“That's rude.”

“Das roode~.” Snake Eyes imitated the girl in a mocking tone.

“Well, we'll find out.” Then, she lied down on the platform like she had given up worrying about the matter. But she had to get up soon enough, as they were closing in on the mountaintop. As expected, the eighth pillar was standing at the end of the staircase, or, in other words, the mountaintop.

Soon, the platform stopped and descended until it touched the mountain.

“Are we first?” Snake Eyes stepped on the ground joyously. How could she be anything but happy, when she almost ended up climbing the mountain from the beginning?

But just like the saying, 'even a jade has dirty spots', there was a team that arrived at the mountaintop first. That group consisted of eight people. Clearly, everyone had survived.

“d.a.m.n, we're second.” Snake Eyes grumbled as if someone spoiled her fun, but in truth, the order of arrival didn't matter. What mattered was that they got here. The team that arrived first also noticed them and slowly shortened the distance.

Seol Jihu studied the group to see if there was anyone he knew. At that moment, he noticed someone walking toward him from the other group.

“Eh? Is that who I think it is?” Maria noticed too. It was the High-Rank Priest that Kazuki invited.

“Who the h.e.l.l is that dressed in nothing but black?”

Seol Jihu smiled bitterly at Snake Eyes' mumbling. Just like before, the Priest was hard to miss with her head covered by a hood and her body covered by a gown.

“Wow, wow! I'm jealous. One man and six women. You must have been one happy camper.” The man standing at the forefront of the group commented sarcastically.

'Happy? Happy my a.s.s.' Seol Jihu cursed inwardly, especially when he remembered how much energy was sucked out of him in the labyrinth.

“But it's interesting. You only have seven people, yet you flew all the way to the top….”

“Ah, about that….”

While the man and Lara exchanged information, Seol Jihu greeted the Priest with courtesy, “h.e.l.lo.”

“When did you get here?”

But the Priest didn't say a word no matter how many times he tried to talk to her.

'I don't think she's trying to ignore me, though.'

From the way the Priest glanced at him from top to bottom, Seol Jihu guessed she was checking to see whether he was injured.

Tap, Tap. She even straightened the wrinkles on his clothes.

“It's fine….” Seeing the Priest act like a mother duck that just found her lost duckling, Seol Jihu felt himself feeling a little strange.