Chapter 73

Chapter 73
## Chapter: 73

## Title: Prizes, Prizes, Everlasting Prizes

An implicit agreement governed this space: because the speakers always had informants lurking, you had to be extremely careful never to utter a word that might expose your true self.

* Wait, what? If you stay logged in for a full day, there’s a survival gift?
* Total crap, no way. A prize? You think Pangeniar is some charity?
* Our goddess doesn’t even have “bonus” in her vocabulary.
* No, for real, they hand them out. Someone even snagged one from the Citizen War constellation. Isn’t the whole goal of this maze just to outlast the clock?
* I picked up the survival gift too.
* Seriously? What did you get?
* Keeping that to myself.

The mood shifted instantly, like a turning tide.

A reward for surviving.

Just for lasting twenty-four hours.

Judging by the chatter, the compensation seemed significant.

Just as a crowd of players began considering a second attempt.

* Damn it, everyone back out. I just spotted the Death King.
* The Death King? Which one? The one from the north?
* One of the major Kramdel bosses?
* That’s the one. If you value your life, clear out. This isn’t a playground for amateurs. Only Transcendents have a prayer here.
* You actually saw the Death King and walked away? You’re full of it.
* I caught him clashing with the Thunder Emperor and hauled ass.
* Thunder Emperor Dark Star versus the Death King?

Thunder Emperor Dark Star.

The pinnacle of the Seven Heroes, celebrated as the “swiftest human” in the game.

An elite ranker with virtually no rivals except for Master and Gracia.

To think he was locked in combat with the Death King.

The Death King was a legendary terror in his own right.

A top-tier raid boss.

The Monarch of Corpses.

The absolute sovereign of the deceased!

* Who’s winning the fight?
* The Death King was basically playing with his food.
* Does that mean we’re down to the Six Heroes now?
* Lmao, for real? That’s wild.

If the Death King had manifested within the labyrinth, the situation had escalated beyond measure.

His reputation was massive even among the player base.

If even Thunder Emperor Dark Star was being toyed with, lesser competitors didn’t stand a chance.

The idea of retrying was dead in the water.

* Told you those Seven Heroes were all hype. Honestly, MintChocoDelicious looks way more cracked than the Thunder Emperor.
* Here come the MintChoco stans again, get lost.
* Is Randolph going to take another shot at this?
* It’s probably too steep for him this time.
* He put up some god-tier scores earlier, but he’ll probably dodge a direct fight, right?
* He’s been laying low this whole time, so yeah, he’s staying out of the fray on purpose.
* Makes sense… His cover would be blown in a heartbeat if he stepped up.
* What if we backed him up?
* Get real. The second you leak your handle here, you’re marked for death within twelve hours.
* Six hours.
* Three for me.
* Honestly, you’d be gone in one.
* Still a bummer, though. I’d rather see Randolph take the win than some prick like Master.

The general consensus was that Randolph would sit out the Abyssal Labyrinth.

Entering the fray would unmask him instantly.

In a place crawling with countless competitors, maintaining anonymity in such an arena was a pipe dream.

—

《Defeated Golden Goblin.》

《Defeated event creature. Labyrinth tally +30 points.》

《Defeated Golden Goblin.》

《Defeated event creature. Labyrinth tally +30 points.》

《Defeated Golden Goblin.》

《Defeated event creature. Labyrinth tally +30 points.》

……

I was currently monopolizing every single Golden Goblin in the subterranean maze.

Ten of them in total.

That haul secured me 300 points.

In terms of Imperial currency alone, I was looking at 44 million gold.

Once you factored in the gilded statues and various riches, the value easily cleared 60 million gold!

On top of that, some high-tier charms and equipment dropped as well.

《Title ‘Golden Goblin Slayer’ achieved.》

《Reputation +100.》

《Slayed 10 Golden Goblins solo. Pathway to ‘Golden Abyss’ unlocked.》

A shimmering gold portal manifested on the ground right in front of me.

Descending through it would lead me straight into the ‘Golden Abyss.’

‘Golden Abyss?’

That was a new one for me.

Then again, almost nobody could take down ten Golden Goblins by themselves.

They only appeared in high-value zones, and even then, finding ten was a miracle.

Tracking and killing them all solo was a feat deemed impossible.

If I hadn’t had Hel and the Abyssal Knight’s soul assisting me, I wouldn’t have pulled it off either.

《Entering ‘Golden Abyss.’》

I didn’t waste time overthinking it.

I took the plunge.

When I laid eyes on the literal mountain of gold towering before me.

‘……Jackpot.’

I wondered if this was the rush a treasure hunter felt when stumbling upon a hidden vein of ore.

I couldn’t suppress a shout of joy at the sheer wealth spread out at my feet.

And within that pile of riches, there were items whose worth couldn’t be calculated in mere currency.

‘Golden Essence, Jar of Greed……!’

Those two items grabbed my attention immediately.

They had to.

Golden Essence and the Jar of Greed were critical components for crafting unique-tier equipment.

While the rest of the players were grinding and killing each other in the maze, I was here by myself, raking in a fortune.

*Rumble!*

Suddenly, something buried deep within the mountain of gold shifted and began to rise.

《’Greed,’ Sovereign of the Golden Abyss, has woken!》

……A colossal Golden Goblin, built like a titan.

**Rewards, Rewards, Endless Rewards**

**Abyss Within the Abyss**

These “nested” abysses—sub-layers of the main dungeon—showed up once in a blue moon, but this ‘Golden Abyss’ was a total anomaly.

Regardless, to exit such a place, you either had to slay the ‘ruler’ or receive the ‘Abyss Ruler’s’ blessing.

The latter was unheard of, meaning a fight was unavoidable.

**【Lv.12】**

The issue was the creature’s level.

This being was named ‘Greed.’

True to its name, its level was through the roof.

A head-on duel was out of the question from the jump.

However.

* It has been ages since a brazen thief stepped into my vault.

The massive Golden Goblin, Greed, spoke.

Unlike its lesser kin, this one possessed the intellect for speech.

Compared to most abyss sovereigns who simply slaughtered trespassers on sight, this one seemed to have a personality you could actually talk to.

* You may fight, or you may play. Pick.

It even gave me a choice.

Greed leaned in close, rubbing its chin as it inspected me with genuine curiosity.

It was clearly certain it would win regardless of my choice.

“I’ll play.”

* Hahaha! A wise move. Now, every possession we own shall be assigned a value. We will wager against that ‘worth.’

*Splash!*

My surroundings warped violently.

Greed had reshaped the very fabric of the room.

Before long, glowing numbers appeared over all the riches in sight.

To put it simply, a pile of 10,000 gold was worth 1 point of value.

Golden Essence and the Jar of Greed were each set at 30,000.

Adding up all the coins and artifacts in the vault, the total value was likely 200,000 at the minimum.

Meanwhile, the sum total of everything I carried amounted to a measly 7,000.

‘He’s trying to bankrupt me with pure volume?’

Greed had every reason to be arrogant.

The sheer scale of his capital was on another level.

Even if I went all-in over and over, winning would be like taking a single coin from his mountain.

It was a game designed to be impossible.

Fight or gamble.

This was the trap laid for the cocky players who managed to solo ten Golden Goblins.

* Kuhaha! Let the game begin. Round one: odd or even.

*Rumble!*

A wave of gold coins crashed upward.

Separating into piles, hundreds of thousands of coins swirled and mixed in a frantic blur.

It was overwhelming.

Just the visual of it was enough to drain one’s confidence.

Greed flashed a wide, golden-toothed smirk.

* So? What’s your guess? Odd or even?

—

Gracia clicked her tongue in frustration.

‘Finally, I found the way in.’

The surface-level maze had been a distraction from the start.

The real secret was breaking through the walls using labyrinth tickets to find the hidden lower path.

《Eighth participant to enter the underground labyrinth in the current cycle.》

《Achievement ‘Eighth to Discover the Subterranean Maze’ unlocked.》

……Eighth?

Gracia’s brow furrowed.

Someone had figured out the trick long before she had.

But that didn’t make sense.

The labyrinth merchant was supposed to be under the thumb of the other heroes—how did anyone else get their hands on tickets?

When did they even manage to slip in?

There were seven individuals ahead of her in these tunnels.

‘If it hadn’t been for that interference from the Death King, I would’ve been here much earlier.’

Thunder Emperor Dark Star.

The idiot had actually put out a distress signal.

He claimed to have stumbled upon the Death King, one of the four legendary powers of Kramdel.

He’d said he was pinned down by the Death King’s legion of the damned.

So, Gracia had cleared the way for him.

She did it grudgingly, but she wanted him to owe her a favor.

Besides, she was genuinely puzzled as to why a figure of the Death King’s stature was hanging around this specific abyss.

‘Are the northern terrors trying to push their borders?’

She hadn’t asked him for the details directly.

She hadn’t even met him face-to-face.

But she could put the pieces together.

Recent intelligence suggested that Kramdel’s influence was surging.

Powerful entities were flocking to the Kramdel banner.

The population was becoming too large for Kramdel and its four major cities to sustain.

It was highly likely they were scouting this abyssal labyrinth as new territory.

‘A place significant enough to draw the Death King’s gaze. All the more reason I have to take it.’

What kind of land could attract both the Death King and the strongest figures of Pangeniar?

It certainly wasn’t some average dungeon.

‘If the underground maze is the real stage, Sword Saint Rylly has to be down here somewhere.’

She’d give up anything else, but not that.

Sword Saint Rylly was her target.

Gracia’s gaze turned razor-sharp.

But only for a heartbeat.

“You are……?”

Catching sight of a woman strolling past, Gracia’s mouth dropped open in pure shock.

Initially, she thought her eyes were playing tricks on her, or she was seeing a phantom.

But the woman who had just walked by was unmistakable.

“Saintess Se-ah?”

*Halt!*

The woman stopped in her tracks, spun around, and gave a cheerful beam.

“Oh? You recognize me?”

—

Isaac and Isabella blurred past each other in a coordinated strike.

It was a maneuver designed to leave the enemy spinning and disoriented.

The rabbit with golden eyes surrendered its life without much of a fight.

“We’re actually getting some good rhythm down, aren’t we?”

Isaac reached out a hand for a high-five, but Isabella ignored him entirely to bag the rabbit’s remains.

Isaac cleared his throat awkwardly and pulled his hand back.

‘Still as cold as ice.’

Their training and shared battles had made them a lethal duo, but Isabella remained a difficult wall for Isaac to climb.

He figured it was better to stay busy while waiting for Randolph, who had vanished through that golden portal.

A moment later, watching Isabella pull a ticket from the rabbit’s fur, Isaac noted.

“The event monsters are dropping tickets.”

“It seems like gathering these is the key to finding the path to Sword Saint Rylly.”

“Ugh, does that mean we need to find like a thousand of them?”

Event creatures were hard to track down.

The drop rates were completely inconsistent too.

They’d likely run out of Golden Rule shards long before they ever reached a thousand tickets.

They didn’t have much of a choice, though.

As they wandered the lower levels hunting for more event targets.

They turned a corner and both Isaac and Isabella stopped dead.

“Did a whole war break out here?”

“……!”

The entire chamber was utterly trashed, looking like a fresh war zone.

The ground was torn up from violent spells, and thick smoke from magical fires filled the air.

And right in the middle of the wreckage, a woman lay face-down.

*Shing.*

Isabella unsheathed her blade.

So far, everyone they’d encountered in the maze had been hostile.

If the woman was still breathing, Isabella intended to end it.

“Wait! Don’t do that. This woman is……!”

“……?”

Moving closer to get a look at her face, Isaac gasped in disbelief.

Isabella had spent her life in the wastes, so she had an excuse for not recognizing her.

“But that’s Saintess Se-ah! Wasn’t she reported dead?”

He quickly checked for a pulse.

Luckily, she was still breathing, her heart still thumping.

She was alive.

But it was bizarre.

Saintess Se-ah had been officially declared dead during the Great Expedition.

Even in the depths of Kramdel, Isaac knew that story. The expedition had been massive news even to the monsters.

So why was Saintess Se-ah here, all alone in the subterranean labyrinth, collapsed and dying?

Who on earth had she been fighting?

“We need to get moving. This spot isn’t safe.”

Isaac slung Saintess Se-ah over his shoulder.

Whoever had beaten her might still be nearby.

Getting out of the kill zone was the priority.

**Abyss Within the Abyss**