Zara was assaulted by intense pain the moment he appeared.
The thick miasma burned his eyes. He closed them immediately, but the pain did not quickly go away.
The air he instinctively breathed in stabbed the inside of his mouth, throat, and lungs.
His skin stung as if it had been ripped off. His entire body went numb and stiffened, and he fell to the floor like a log.
Kaldan’s Dagger’s blessing of removing status ailments and curing poison was very powerful. It was supposed to take effect immediately on poison, to the point that inserting it into your belt would make it feel as if you were never poisoned at all. The same could be said for status ailments.
So why was this happening even though Kaldan’s Dagger was equipped to his body?
It must have meant that the poison and status ailments he received during the minuscule amount of time it took for Kaldan’s Dagger to activate had this violent of an effect on him.
Zara was now fully aware of how dreadful a place this was.
He lay down for a period of time, unable to do anything else. Eventually, he started to gradually regain his senses and his ability to think.
He carefully inhaled while bearing the pain. Then, as he exhaled, he used a breathing technique he had learned at Jan’Majar Temple to collect himself.
After he regained his full consciousness, he activated a recovery technique he had learned at Jan’Majar Temple. A lengthy amount of time later, he regained full use of his body and mind.
Zara surveyed his surroundings. There were holes broken into the uneven floor all throughout the room. They were traces of an intense battle.
There were teleport stones next to Zara shining with blue light.
He said you move to the next floor by stepping onto the blue teleport stones.
What would the next floor be like? What kind of enemies would be there?
He might arrive in the middle of an intense battle. It would likely be full of miasma, just like this room.
Zara mentally prepared himself and stepped onto the blue teleport stones leading to the second floor.
The moment he appeared in the next location, he was attacked by a chill and a headache that forced him to the ground.
He thought he had prepared himself, but the miasma on the second floor was significantly thicker than on the first floor, and it was a different kind as well.
He couldn’t even move for a while, and just like on the last floor, it took time for him to gather himself.
He looked around the room. There were no clear traces of a battle like there had been on the first floor.
But he didn’t doubt that an even more intense battle had taken place here.
Zara sat down on the floor, pulled out some preserved food and some water, and began to eat. He ate slowly, thoroughly chewing the dried meat and dried potatoes.
It’s a blessing that I can still enjoy food.
Dried meat tasted like dried meat, and dried potato tasted like dried potato. Water also tasted like water. The water was especially delicious after eating dried meat and dried potato.
His body gladly welcomed the food as it was digested.
This was what it felt like to live. On the next floor, or the floor below that, he could die. The odds of that were high.
This was not a battleground that Zara was ever supposed to enter.
Ha-ha. It’s funny. I got a big head when I was given the title of S-rank adventurer.
In this labyrinth, I’m less capable than an F-rank adventurer challenging the Sazardon Labyrinth for the first time.
I can barely stand, let alone fight.
Is it even possible for me to fight in this place?
In the battle at Bia-Dharla, he’d fought by abandoning himself to the madness of war.
His fight in Jan’Majar Temple’s Shrine of the Four Sacred Beasts was completely different. It was said that spirits sometimes entered the bodies of elite warriors, and he wondered if that was what had happened there.
I didn’t rely on items or special skills. I simply became one with my sword technique. I was my sword, and I was my moves. I want to be a part of that kind of fight again.
Zara stood up slowly. Deciding that he wouldn’t let the next room throw him off again no matter how poisonous the air was, he stepped onto the blue teleport stones leading to the third floor.
But there turned out to not be an ounce of air in the next room. That was because it was full of poisonous water.
Bubbles burst from his mouth, and the water he ingested made him feel pain and numbness, but he somehow managed to cling to the blue teleport stones leading to the fourth floor.
The fourth floor was somewhat brighter than the earlier rooms. Zara crouched from difficulty breathing and laughed at himself.
He hadn’t come across one enemy. He had done nothing more than move through the labyrinth. And yet the simple act of going from room to room had continued to take him off guard and overwhelm him.
What could he do but laugh?
He collected himself mentally and sat down cross-legged. He lightly clasped his hands together and set them on his feet, then relaxed his muscles and gathered his breath.
The teleport stones on the fourth floor were shining with blue light as well.
That meant that the warrior who had entered before him defeated all the devas on the first four floors and was now fighting the strongest enemy on the bottom floor.
Zara was an S-rank adventurer and had Kaldan’s Dagger and Bora’s Sword equipped, but this labyrinth had him as good as dead just from moving through it. It was incredible that this warrior was able to fight their way through and reach the bottom floor.
What kind of person are they?
It might have been a swordsman with the body control and brilliance of Percival.
A mighty warrior who could take on thousands like Panzel.
A wise sorcerer who had mastered the depths of magic like Gil Linx.
A priest with healing and support abilities on the level of Gondona.
No, I don’t think that’s right. It’s probably a party with each of those roles filled by a different member.
He wanted to meet them. He wanted to see that party with his own eyes as they fought against the strongest deva.
If possible, he also wanted to do his best to put his own skills to use in that battle.
Zara himself didn’t notice this, but while advancing through this labyrinth and fighting desperately to adapt, his mind and body had been stirred, polished, and sharpened.
His training at Jan’Majar Temple, his numerous matches in Aldana, and the various fights on his travels were all bearing fruit.
His capabilities were in the process of catching up to his strength, which had been raised by the mechanisms of the gods that were level and rank.
Zara, who was reaching greater heights than he ever had as a warrior, calmly filled himself with fighting spirit without any arrogance or faltering and stepped onto the blue stones that would lead to the decisive battle.
This time, he did not end up within a room. The teleport stones were on top of a circular rock five paces across and located in the middle of a hellish sea of boiling lava.
A thin path of rock extended forward from the circular rock on which he was standing, and beyond that, there was a large rock dome. The dome was floating on the sea of lava, and Zara sensed a greater degree of repulsiveness than he had ever felt before coming from it.
The final battle is taking place inside that dome.
He could tell that an intense battle was unfolding within the dome, though he couldn’t see it from where he was.
Zara focused power into his navel and slowly gathered his breath. He made his skin adapt to the overwhelming heat.
He then performed the secret vajra fighting spirit technique of Jan’Majar Temple. This was a technique that dramatically increased muscle strength for a limited time but also lowered sensitivity to temperature and pain.
He repressed the effect so he would be able to use it continuously.
Zara would not feel pain while using this technique. For that reason, he wouldn’t even be aware of it when he took damage.
He intended to heal injuries by using the blessings of Bora’s Sword. The moment Zara’s damage or the recoil from his skills surpassed the recovery effect of Bora’s Sword, he would die.
He would be walking a tightrope during the battle. But he no longer had any hesitation.
He walked onto the road made of rock and moved forward step by step. When he reached the dome, he found blue teleport stones in front of it.
I see. Stepping onto this will take me into the battle.
And so Zara did just that.