Chapter 346: Two People, One Team (2)

Team assignments were made quickly.

“I hope we end up on the same team.”

As Lennok returned, gripping a gem, Seon-myeong, who was waiting in line, said.

“I’m very curious about what’s happening in the deepest part of the Hanghasa Labyrinth. With Evan Vylun, we might even reach the very end.”

“You seem to put too much faith in me.”

Lennok replied with a wry smile.

“I also lack information about the labyrinth. We might not be much help to each other.”

“In that sense, I’d be better.”

Another female Watcher standing nearby said in a provocative tone.

“I’ll be more useful than that spearman. If we happen to be on the same team, let’s do our best. Just letting you know upfront.”

Seon-myeong, her expression turning slightly irritated, sharply turned her gaze.

“…On what grounds are you saying such a thing?”

“Because I’m a treasure hunter.”

She grinned, shaking the rope in her hand.

“Before coming here, I was mainly exploring Guido Cult ruins.”

“Cult ruins, huh…”

“Oh, are you interested in ruins? There are quite a few well-known ancient ruins in the Northern Continent. I’d be willing to take you there after the operation.”

When Lennok appeared interested, the Watcher, not wanting to be outdone, began to recount various stories.

“In my case, I was mainly competing with the Arashakh Ruin Exploration Team, and their leader, Irina Pesfil, was quite an excellent explorer, so I had a lot of trouble.”

“…”

When Lennok fell silent, the Watcher tilted her head.

“What’s wrong? Do you know Irina?”

“No, rather than knowing her…”

How could he possibly say that the treasure she cherished was currently inside Lennok’s coat?

As Lennok trailed off, the Watcher tilted her head and continued speaking.

“I thought maybe you knew where Irina went. She was diligently exploring cult ruins and achieving successive results when she suddenly disappeared one day.”

“Hmm…”

She’s probably buried under the garden of a villa in Vulcan’s Sector 20 by now.

As Lennok, with a wry smile, fidgeted with the Compassion of the Archangel inside his coat, the Watcher sighed.

“Anyway, our exploration team ended up joining the excavation of the ruins the Arashakh Exploration Team was in charge of… And there, I roughly figured out what the cult was doing.”

The Watcher said this with a wry smile.

“At that time, I felt some doubt about what I was doing. And I roughly understood what kind of secrets high-level transcendent beings were hiding.”

“…”

She must have witnessed human experiments or similar atrocities in the cult’s ruins.

Irina Pesfil had already realized the cult’s dark side and was even using the demonic sword, one of their artifacts, but it seemed to have been a considerable shock to this Watcher.

“Well, so I was wondering what I could do and ended up here. To be honest, I still don’t know if this place will provide the answers I seek…”

She shrugged, finishing her sentence.

“If capable individuals like you are here, it probably won’t be a wasted effort. I’ll do my best too.”

“I see.”

“Even if we’re not on the same team, I think we could achieve more if we move together. I know a lot about these labyrinths, so I’d be helpful. Let’s reach the end of the labyrinth together and get a look at Jindun’s face.”

Her salesmanship, subtly praising Lennok while subtly suggesting a team-up, was quite something.

The explorer’s cunning, honed from years of surviving in ruins, was impressive.

Even Seon-myeong, who was listening to the explorer’s story right next to them, unconsciously nodded in surprise.

But instead of answering, Lennok smiled faintly and turned his gaze forward.

“I’m afraid that’ll be difficult. It seems my team has just been decided.”

“What?”

The explorer unconsciously turned her head at his words, her mouth slightly agape.

A woman with black hair and green eyes, possessing a calm demeanor.

Evelyn Marcia was holding a gem of the same color as Lennok’s, smiling triumphantly.

“Heh heh.”

“…”

Her uncharacteristically loose laugh. It was exactly the same face that had been giving Lennok a sly smile earlier.

Only then did Lennok realize why she had been glancing at him earlier, and he let out a chuckle.

Considering it was Evelyn Marcia who suggested the gem drawing to Lapis, there was probably only one answer.

Evelyn Marcia had secretly tampered with the gems to be on the same team as Lennok.

Lapis, standing behind her, tilted her head.

“Oh? I’m sure I took measures to balance the teams…”

Even if teams were formed randomly, shouldn’t extreme skill differences among team members or weaker Watchers grouping together be prevented beforehand?

So, she had adjusted the gem locations to vary according to mana levels exceeding a certain standard, but Evelyn Marcia had bypassed those pre-emptive measures and picked the same gem as Lennok.

“Evelyn Marcia. Perhaps…”

“Shh.”

Evelyn Marcia, smiling brightly, stood with her back to the other Watchers and placed a finger to her lips.

“Keep it a secret.”

“…”

“Instead, I’ll make sure this mission is a complete success.”

“Ah, I understand. Secret…”

Evelyn Marcia, taking her eyes off Lapis, who was nodding with a slightly nervous expression, waved a hand at Lennok.

Originally, she hadn’t intended to go this far, but hearing about Lennok’s encounter with the Defense Force changed her mind.

“I can’t just stand by…”

Aris Richellen, the distinguished professor at Rebatenon University, was it?

She was well aware of the name of the young genius who had shaken Sinclair Magic Tower and the academic world.

She had originally planned to take her time and slowly close the distance, but with the situation changed, her stance had to change as well.

Evelyn Marcia’s green eyes, gazing at Lennok, sharpened.

Grisha stepped back, observing the scene with amusement, then looked at Lapis and said.

“You shouldn’t end up like that.”

“…Huh? What?”

Lapis merely tilted her head with a bewildered expression.

Through a process of compromise and agreement, the Eyes of Blue formed roughly 10 teams and immediately began moving towards the Hanghasa Labyrinth.

Grisha and Lapis remained behind to maintain the Floating Island. And the remaining forces were just the minimum personnel needed to protect the two of them.

Two-person teams. While their levels and abilities varied widely, it was a team assignment that the Watchers, at least, could somewhat accept.

As they were working for the organization, they would need to cooperate to some extent with other teams, but the basic goal was to form teams capable of handling any situation.

This was to ensure that the Watchers’ forces returned safely and intact as much as possible before entering the labyrinth.

[Considering the rate at which the Ascendant’s mana is fading across the entire snowy field, now is the opportune moment to enter the canyon.]

Lapis’s voice, from the Floating Island serving as their base, echoed in everyone’s ears.

Fundamentally, in the Ascendant’s snowy region, even proper communication was impossible.

Even with Lapis’s authority as a Lighthouse Keeper, she could only deliver one-way communications to each Watcher. But that was enough.

Thump-thump-thump!!!

Dozens of blurry afterimages dashed across the snowfield at incredible speed, beginning to penetrate deeper into the snowy plain.

A forced march far exceeding the forward speed of most off-road vehicles. Yet, among the Watchers gathered there, no one failed to keep up with that speed.

Even Lennok was running alongside the Watchers without difficulty, sliding over the snow beneath his feet.

[The remaining distance to the great canyon located in the deepest part of the snowy field is approximately 5 km. At this speed, it won’t be long before…]

[The Hanghasa Labyrinth will begin to appear ahead.]

Whoosh!!

With Lapis’s words, the blizzard raging from all directions cleared completely, and a dry wind began to blow through.

Between the parting blizzard. A massive canyon appeared below their wide-open view.

A magnificent fissure, almost unbelievable as a trace of geological upheaval. But one presence alone captured everyone’s attention so completely that they forgot it was a natural landscape present for thousands of years.

“I see.”

“Unbelievable…”

“That was created by a single person?”

Exclamations echoed from all around.

However, even Lennok could understand the Watchers’ reactions; the scene unfolding below the canyon was surreal.

A dazzling regular tetrahedron reflecting pure white light.

A colossal pyramid-shaped structure, its end indiscernible, not only filled the bottom of the canyon but also soared high into the sky.

Jindun’s Hanghasa Labyrinth is not merely a conceptual entity without a physical form.

It transcends the stage of merely being distinguished and defined by concepts or words; it is a physical otherworld existing in reality.

The culmination of pushing the concept of dividing boundaries to its extreme and creating something substantial from it was the labyrinth standing before their eyes.

Near the endlessly sprawling labyrinth, hundreds, even thousands, of transcendent beings were engaged in fierce battles.

The faces of the other Watchers, who quickly surveyed the bottom of the canyon, naturally contorted into frowns.

“Damn it, securing a good spot is out of the question.”

“We should secure a position before the labyrinth opens. Forcing our way into that battlefield will be a major undertaking.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

Rapperd, clutching his sawtooth greatsword, growled lowly.

“Everyone is just a competitor anyway during the process of entering the labyrinth. It wouldn’t matter if I killed them right here.”

“M-Mister Rapperd… If you could just calm down a little…”

The Watcher teamed with him, following along, was already pale with fear.

The vampire following from the very back said in a languid tone.

“If you want to charge in, go ahead. Wasn’t that why we split into teams like this?”

Seon-myeong, who was with her, tried to say something but then remained silent.

“Lapis gave us the authority to make our own judgments. It doesn’t matter how things turn out until the labyrinth’s gate opens.”

The vampire’s body instantly darted away from the group of Watchers and disappeared.

“I’ll observe the situation from outside. You all do your best.”

“…”

Seon-myeong, who was teamed with her, sweat profusely as she followed the vampire and disappeared.

The other Watchers also began exchanging opinions with their teammates and moving separately.

“First, we’ll infiltrate. We need to identify those ahead of us and gather information, as long as it’s not too dangerous.”

“I’ll share information whenever I get a chance.”

“Even so, we should definitely scout around the labyrinth. There might be other ways to infiltrate, not just the designated entrance.”

“We’ll patrol around the canyon to look for hidden individuals. Like that woman, there might be others watching the situation, waiting for the labyrinth to open.”

“It would be good to identify dangerous forces beforehand and avoid overlapping paths with them. Shall we go?”

“I’ll check for secret passages nearby. I’ll contact you if I find any hidden rooms.”

Half were moving to infiltrate the battlefield, while the other half were splitting into on-site standby and nearby patrols.

Since the objective of entering the labyrinth was the same for everyone, not many people would just sit around and wait.

As the other Watchers scattered and disappeared, Lennok and Evelyn Marcia calmly faced each other.

“What do you want to do?”

Evelyn Marcia, with a hand on her hip, cocked her head.

“We have many options. Honestly, for the two of us, anything works.”

“That’s true…”

Whenever he worked with Evelyn Marcia, he thought this, but having too capable a teammate inevitably led to more dilemmas.

The lead Agent. Known as the Divine Bow of the mega-city, she was as versatile as she was exceptional in archery.

How could he most efficiently utilize a skilled individual who excelled not only in mid to long-range combat but also held her own in close quarters?

It was certainly a difficult problem, yet compared to times when Lennok had no one to rely on but himself, it felt like time had been kind.

It was, arguably, a privileged concern.

“Y-you’re not thinking of going straight down into the canyon, are you?”

Evelyn Marcia asked, subtly watching Lennok’s expression.

Lennok turned his head at her words.

“Do you have a plan in mind?”

Given the circumstances, it seemed clear that she had manipulated things to be on the same team as Lennok.

If she was so full of anticipation that she couldn’t hide her sly expression during the process, wouldn’t Evelyn Marcia have also thought of a strategy to carry out with Lennok?

Evelyn Marcia hesitated, then glanced up at Lennok and said.

“I’d prefer if we waited outside on our own and then entered when the entrance opens.”

“…”

“It wouldn’t be difficult for the two of us to enter at any time.”

Indeed, the mere act of stating her preference first in such a moment of deliberation proved her to be an excellent teammate.

After hearing her words, Lennok also had an idea and immediately made a decision.

“There’s no real need to enter right now. It would be better to establish a base a bit further from the canyon.”

“R-really?”

“However, since other Watchers have already entered the battlefield, it would be good for us to lend a hand as well.”

Lennok grinned, looking at Evelyn Marcia, whose voice had slightly risen.

“In the way we’re best at, and the way that will annoy our opponents the most.”