Chapter 499

Crossing the second section took six hours.

Even with Ludger pacing himself, even with the feeder rune taking pressure off his reserves every few battles, the grind wore on him. Not because he ran out of mana. Not because his body failed… But because he never stopped working.

Every step demanded calculation. Every engagement required adjustment. He had to keep his output balanced, his regeneration stable, his rune arrays intact, his enchantments synchronized, his surroundings mapped, and their route optimized to avoid dead ends and reinforcement loops.

He was fighting a dungeon while managing a system. That kind of sustained focus gnawed at the mind. By the time they reached the sloping passage that led downward into the third section, Ludger finally slowed and lifted a hand.

“Break,” he said.

Viola immediately dropped onto a low stone block and exhaled. Luna leaned against the wall, rolling her shoulders to ease the stiffness that had settled into her muscles.

Ludger rested one hand against the stone and closed his eyes for a moment. Not tired in the way a body got tired. Tired in the way a strategist got tired after six straight hours of uninterrupted decision-making.

Fortunately, they’d found the descent. A broad ramp carved into reinforced stone, leading deeper into the labyrinth where the mana density thickened and the air grew colder again. The third section waited below. Luna reached into her pack.

“I figured this might take longer than expected,” she said, pulling out wrapped rations. Compact, high-calorie travel food. The kind meant for long operations.

She handed one to Viola. Then one to Ludger.

Viola accepted hers gratefully. “You’re officially my favorite assassin.”

Luna ignored the comment. Ludger unwrapped the ration and took a slow bite, letting his core stabilize while his mind finally stepped back from constant optimization.

Six hours. They were still ahead of schedule. But the labyrinth had finally begun to push back… And the third section would be worse.

Viola walked to the edge of the ramp and leaned forward just enough to peer into the descent.

It went down for hundreds of meters, the stone walls narrowing as they dropped away into darkness. Her eyes couldn’t pick out anything beyond the first few bends, but her ears told her more than her sight ever could. Water. A lot of it.

Not the slow trickle of drainage channels or the steady drip of condensation. This was the deep, rolling sound of moving mass, currents shifting, pressure settling, something vast and heavy circulating far below.

She straightened and looked back at Ludger.

“The third section is probably filled to the ceiling with water,” she said. “And we haven’t found any signs of Lucius other than a wooden cup. So… what now?”

Ludger finished chewing and wiped his hand against his sleeve before answering.

“The mana cores from the first and second sections are already enough for Ironhand,” he said. “They split them between our guilds and make a fortune. That’s why they never pushed deeper.”

Viola frowned. “That doesn’t sound like them. They’re greedy.”

“They’re also practical,” Ludger replied. “The deeper sections cost more lives. More resources. More time. The return on investment drops the farther you go.”

He gestured down the ramp.

“They’re half engineers, half warriors. They build drainage systems. Reinforce corridors. Optimize kill routes. But they don’t explore for the sake of it. And they definitely don’t map flooded sections when the risks of dying are too high..”

Luna crossed her arms. “Meaning even if they wanted to, they couldn’t handle a fully submerged labyrinth.”

“Not without turning it into a construction project that would take years,” Ludger said. “And that would attract danger they don’t want.”

Viola stared into the darkness again.

“So Lucius went where Ironhand wouldn’t.”

“Yes.”

“And if he did reach the third section…”

“He went in alone,” Ludger said. “Into an area no one has fully mapped. With no support network. No extraction route. That was probably why he didn’t involve them on this, he already knew the logistics problems he would face by working with them.”

The sound of water echoed up the ramp, deep and endless. Viola swallowed.

“…That means he either found something worth risking everything for,” she said, “or he never planned on coming back.”

Ludger stood and walked toward the descent.

“We’re not turning back,” he said simply. “Not now.”

The third section waited below. And whatever Lucius had been searching for was down there with it.

Ludger stood at the edge of the descent and looked down into the darkness.

“The third section is unknown ground,” he said. “Even for me.”

Viola glanced at him, surprised. That didn’t happen often.

“I’ve never fought underwater,” Ludger continued. “Not once. No training. No field experience. No controlled environment. And you two…”

He looked back at them.

“…you have negative experience.”

Viola opened her mouth. Then closed it.

She very much wanted to ask what he meant by

negative

experience, but the tone in his voice told her that whatever story was attached to that word, it wasn’t one she wanted to hear right now. So she stayed silent.

Ludger went on.

“Underwater changes everything. Movement. Vision. Sound. Mana propagation. Enchantments behave differently. Runes behave differently. Temperature control becomes unstable. Pressure interferes with circulation. Even Seismic Sense loses resolution.”

He tapped the stone with his boot.

“And fighting for too long down there is suicide. Attrition will kill us before any monster does.”

Luna nodded slowly. She already knew most of that.

“So we don’t play Ironhand’s game,” Ludger said. “We don’t farm cores. We don’t map. We don’t clear methodically.”

He turned toward them.

“We rush.”

Viola stiffened. “Toward what?”

“The end of the third section,” Ludger replied. “Before the pressure increases. Before the density spikes. Before the patrol webs overlap.”

He exhaled once.

“Our goal isn’t profit. It’s Lucius. If he’s alive, he’ll be deeper. If he left traces, they’ll be closer to the core.”

Luna tilted her head. “And if we run into resistance?”

“Then I burn mana,” Ludger said calmly. “As much as necessary.”

He rolled his shoulders, feeling the weight of his guards and the rune arrays etched into them.

“I won’t conserve. I won’t hold back. I won’t optimize for sustainability. I’ll optimize for speed.”

The words carried weight.

“This section isn’t something you clear,” he continued. “It’s something you survive long enough to escape.”

The sound of rushing water echoed up the ramp again, deeper and louder now, like a living thing breathing in the dark.

Ludger stepped forward.

“Once we go down, we don’t stop unless someone is bleeding,” he said. “And even then, only long enough to make sure they can move again.”

Viola drew her sword. Luna tightened the straps on her pack.

“Let’s go get your idiot noble,” Viola muttered.

Ludger allowed himself a thin, grim smile.

After two hours, Ludger opened his eyes. His core was full again.

Not just stable,

full

. The constant hum of regeneration had finally caught up with the drain from the second section, and the pressure behind his sternum settled into that familiar, heavy density that told him he was ready to move.

He stood and rolled his shoulders once.

“You will use Wind Overdrive yourselves in the third section,” he said. “You swim. You follow behind me.”

Viola straightened immediately. Luna’s eyes narrowed.

“Swim?” Luna asked. “How are you planning to fight underwater?”

Ludger adjusted the straps on his forearm guards.

“I’ll stick to the basics,” he said.

Nothing else. No explanation. No theory. No elaboration. Luna looked like she wanted to push, but she didn’t. She knew that tone. When Ludger said

basics

, it usually meant something that would look insane to anyone watching.

Viola tilted her head. “Why not go in hidden first? With the rune you used earlier.”

Ludger shook his head.

“Too risky.”

She frowned. “Why?”

“Because if we get discovered halfway through,” he said calmly, “we’ll be surrounded by runic golems underwater.”

The image settled in. Dozens of constructs moving in three dimensions. No footing. No stable terrain. Limited visibility. Restricted movement. No room to maneuver. No retreat path. A kill zone.

“It would be disastrous,” Ludger finished.

Silence followed. The distant sound of water rolled up the ramp like a warning. Ludger stepped to the edge and looked down into the darkness again.

“Wind Overdrive keeps drag low. Keeps pressure off your lungs. Keeps your movement sharp,” he said. “But underwater, you don’t get second chances. You don’t get spacing. You don’t get tempo.”

He turned back to them.

“You stay behind me. You move when I move. You stop when I stop. If I change direction, you copy it exactly.”

Viola nodded, serious now.

Luna adjusted her knives. “And if something approached us?”

Ludger’s eyes hardened.

“Then I kill it before it finishes the thought.”

They descended in silence.

The ramp ended in a wide, arched corridor that opened into something far larger than any of the sections above. The air thinned as they moved down, humidity rising until every breath tasted like stone and water. The sound that Viola had heard from above grew louder with every step, deep, rolling currents moving through a space that refused to stay still.

Then the corridor widened. And the third section revealed itself. It was almost completely flooded.

Water stretched out in every direction, filling the labyrinth’s massive halls from floor to just a meter below the ceiling. That narrow band of air formed a long, continuous pocket that ran through the corridors like a suffocating lung. The stone above it was slick with condensation, droplets constantly falling into the dark water below.

The labyrinth didn’t feel like a dungeon anymore. It felt like a drowned city. Viola stepped forward and placed one boot onto the surface. The water rippled.

Cold crept through the leather instantly, biting at her toes and climbing her calf. The surface looked calm, but she could feel the pressure beneath it, the slow, relentless movement of something vast. This would be hard.

I should’ve trained for this,

she thought.

Then immediately dismissed the idea.

Who trained to fight underwater with a sword? It made no sense. Every stance, every strike, every footwork pattern she knew relied on friction, on leverage, on gravity working

with

her instead of against her. She exhaled slowly.

Behind her, Luna adjusted her balance, eyes tracking the shifting reflections on the water’s surface. She didn’t step in yet. She was waiting for Ludger.

Ludger stood at the edge, staring out across the flooded section.

For a moment, he looked the same as always. Focused. Controlled. Still. Then his expression tightened. Something changed.

His jaw set. His shoulders rolled back. His breath slowed into a heavy, deliberate rhythm. Muscles swelled beneath his clothes, veins rising along his arms and neck as heat flushed through his skin, turning it a shade darker.

Rage Control. The Northerner technique. Not wild. Not explosive. Controlled fury, compressed into a state of heightened output and awareness.

Mana surged. Earth answered. Earth attuned mana crawled up his boots and along his legs, wrapping around his body in layered plates of compacted energy. Earth Overdrive reinforced his frame, anchoring his mass, turning his weight into a weapon.

Using it underwater was strange. Inefficient. Awkward. But Ludger didn’t hesitate. He stepped forward. And jumped. The water swallowed him in a single, heavy splash. He sank immediately.

His weight dragged him down like an anchor, his body disappearing beneath the surface as ripples spread outward across the flooded corridor. Viola stared. Then she swore under her breath.

“…Of course he would do it like that.”

Luna exhaled slowly and stepped onto the water after him.

“Wind Overdrive,” she said.

Viola nodded, activating her own. The wind gathered. The water trembled… And they followed Ludger into the drowned heart of the labyrinth.

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